GIP: A Waffles for Christmas, and etc

...because I am a dork, GIP of my rabbit Waffles, in his Christmas finery.

By the beauteous and talented and omg awesome belletrist, who immortalized my bunny and his feelings for me.



From this entry.

*hugs belletrist. Thank you very, very much.

Okay, quickly, I have a few Christmas icons I uploaed that I haven't used in a few years and I need to add credit. They are below cut--if you made them for me, please tell me so I can add the credit?









Thanks!



And part 3 of this entry. AKA, why I love Dell.



Last night, I finally sat down and did a system check to make sure I was reading the system information correctly. I'd ordered a 128 video card, because, well, not gamer, one, and two, basically, I took the two cards I was close to consolidating and paying off and basically limited them getting the new laptop. But all the scans came up with a 256. Hmm, I said.

(Which I think above all things prove I'm both a geek and a fangirl; I can deal with tears in my workclothes, shoes that hurt, or even taking the bus and eating Ramen at lunch to save money, but I cannot deal with the universe without a computer.)

Granted, school requires me to have one, because honestly, I have no idea how anyone could major in CS and not have one at home. I admire those who can, but I need six hours flat to work on programming at a stretch and I cannot do that in a lab comfortably.

Okay, anyway.

Finally last night I had a low-grade freakout with svmadelyn and eleveninches and called Dell tech support to tell them there'd been a mistake and they accidentally gave me the wrong card and to please scan my system to see if it was just displaying bad info, which would also be a problem.

The chick scanned and then paused, significantly.

Her: Yes, it seems you have the 256. Are you having problems?

Me: No, none, it works fantastic. I'm happy. I just want to pay the difference.

Long silence.

Before I get weird looks--okay, one. I worked retail and etc. While not all the time, salespeople etc are sometimes held responsible if there's an error and since the upgrade isn't like, five thousand dollar difference, and I was getting paid the next day, I would happily pay the difference. Two--hmm. It bothers me. Above is the big reason, but the other is the feeling that getting something I didn't earn (or buy, or is not mine, etc) screws with my balance with the universe, especially if I get it and have the means to earn it/pay for it/etc. It sounds vaguely insane, but I want to keep at least the illusion that I'm doing more harm than good, or at very least, balancing what harm I do with good. (I blame this on Star Trek pro novels read during my formative years and Spock's views on entropy. Seriously. Who knew I'd absorb *that* kind of thing? It's creepy.)

Third, I will one day likely need tech support. It's better they know now what my system is than find out in eight months when a crash occurs and it's because I had a card that was bad and giving wrong readings/system had errors, etc.

Anyway, intriguing explanation from her, when she finally understood hte problem: apparently if they run out of 128s, they just do an automatic upgrade.

I will say this: I did add up how much money Dell has gotten out of me since I started buying from them with Schindler back in 2000 and especially after 2003, when I started working regularly. Three destkops (two mine), three laptops (two mine), one external, one camera, one camera dock, many RAM sticks, and miscellaneous, and that doesn't include the people I pimped over to them over the years.

I do think that the upgrade is a nice balance.

Also? Makes John II run quickly. I need to put up his specs and benchmarks one day, because honestly, I cannot recommend this computer highly enough, especially for the fact that I could opt out of so much miscellaneous software this time around and it runs like a fantasy.

So all in all, happy.

Comments

[buggery.livejournal.com]

BUNNEH!

Adorable bunneh!

(I am totally going to enlist you to help convince Te we should *also* have a rabbit, once we have a place where we can have a dog and also some other critters -- I really want at least one laying bird, possibly a duck rather than a free-range-type hen, and maybe a goat if we have a big enough yard and an amenable landlord -- rabbits are awesome and will happily share a litterbox with a cat, though the cat may not be as happy about it.)

You feel product loyalty towards Dell? Really? I had one Dell laptop, which nearly set my apartment on fire when the cord frayed inside its housing, and then even after I replaced the cord -- and reinforced the replacement with electrical tape to compensate for the manufacturing defects Dell knew about but still haven't bothered to correct even in subsequent models -- the guts of the laptop overheated and fried the motherboard. And Dell's hard drives are so ridiculously proprietary that I still, over a year later, haven't found a way to retrieve the data from the hard drive. My feelings about Dell computers can be summed up thusly: Never again!

[deadlychameleon.livejournal.com]

Ah, there is a plastic converter strip attached to the end of the HD housing, you need to remove it, after that it should be able to connect to any IDE connector (this is an older drive, so it's probably ATA, right) In other words, the proprietary part comes off.

Was this an Inspiron from the 1501/1550 line, by any chance?

[buggery.livejournal.com]

WUT

I *paid* a computer-repair guy -- who came highly recommended, though he also does work on the local school system's computer, which perhaps I should have taken for an anti-recommendation -- to figure out how to get the data off the drive, and he measured the drive and told me what size enclosure I needed, and then when I got the enclosure and he came back to get the drive out so it could go in the enclosure, he was completely stymied by the proprietary bit.

I will have to see if I can't get the plastic thingy off. Motherfuckers.

[deadlychameleon.livejournal.com]

*sigh* He *measured* the drive? There's only one size that goes in standard laptops, 2.5 inch. I apparently take my tech savvy friends and previous tech job too much for granted. The actual Dell certified guys who do warranty work are pretty decent, the test isn't that hard, but it's a competitive job.
But anyway, yeah. The external enclosure is a good idea, they're very handy.

Make sure to apply pressure evenly to both sides of the strip as you slide it away from the HD. I bent the pins on mine once, which is to be avoided, if possible, same goes for inserting the drive into the external enclosure. Apply pressure evenly as you insert the pins.

[buggery.livejournal.com]

Well, I presumed he had measured it. I had already tried pricing enclosures, and so I knew there were two sizes of drive. The fact that he was so stymied by the proprietary plastic doodad might, now that I think on it, mean that he never looked at the innards at all prior to when he came to install the drive in the enclosure. (There's something to be said for a computer repair expert who will come to you, though it's hardly worth it if said computer repair 'expert' lacks the actual expertise.)

Needless to say I will find a different expert in future. Meanwhile, thank you for *your* help!

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Bunnies are the awesome. But seriously--I was told it was like a bdsm relationship and honestly, it is. No whips, but lots of slow psychological master/slave. It's disconcerting when one realizes one's dom weighs less than six pounds and is covered in soft, soft fur. Sure, you get used to it, but it takes a bit.

Rabbits are *excellent* with litter, but vindictive. If they are angry, they will not only turn their back on you, but do their business where it will make you wince the most. I have never felt more like dirt than when Waffles looks at me and turns his back. God.

Delll--God. The first real problem I've ever had was with John I and that, I admit, was me using it hard and not paying enuogh attention. *winces* I'm so sorry--that has to suck a *lot*.

In our area, there's a great company that specializes in Dell laptop repairs--not affiliated with Dell at all--who are amazing and, if I remember correctly, pretty reasonably priced. I can get the website if you're interested.

And nice to see you again! *hugs*

[ratcreature]

I know what you mean about weird looks. Once I had a USB stick I bought replaced because it stopped working within the warranty, and the exchange was complicated and somewhat confusing due to the technology having changed in the meantime, so they didn't have the same product for that price, but a better new one, thus I had to get a new receipt to reflect that product rather than just them switching the product, and had to go to the checkout again.

For some reason the employee there was very confused by what sould have been simple (i.e. me showing my old receipt and the note from their customer service, then getting my new USB stick without paying anything) and somehow subtracted the price of the USB stick from the full old receipt (which had other products on it too), and wanted to give me the money too, which was like €50 or so that I could have used to get as nice windfall, but instead I spend like fifteen minutes trying to explain to her that this was wrong, that the original receipt had items on it I hadn't returned, that I wasn't supposed to get money, that that was not what the paper slip from the customer service meant, etc etc, and unfortunately her German wasn't very good.

But I could just imagine the hassle she'd have if suddenly the balance of her cash register was €50 short in way that wouldn't match at all with what the records of transactions. I got really weird looks from the line of people behind me, who watched me trying to explain three times that it was wrong to give me that money.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*facepalm* People are so weird.

[bluemeridian]

I just ordered a laptop from Dell last night (*quivers*) and the opting out of some of the miscellaneous software was very nice, and there was even less to opt out of with the new business class Vostro. I'll just go back to obsessively staring at my own laptop specs now.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

OOH! Tell me how the Vostro is! That was my other choice. Did you do the partitioning they offered? *Wildly curious* Post when you get it! And give me a link!

[bluemeridian]

Will do! I didn't go for the partitioning; too easy to do myself to spend $10 on it, but I could definitely see an application if you had a large order for a company.