Guys & Gals, My laptop computer (with the 20 inch monitor that gives the nice big pictures) had a hiccup yesterday and the monitor is gone. I don't know if the video card blew up or what happened. Dell wants me to go through some diagnostic tests and I did not have time to do them yesterday afternoon so I will be doing that tomorrow morning. As soon as that issue is resolved, the contests will resume. Until then, just relax with a cold one. Charlie
While we're on Hiatus - I've got a question out there for the sleuths... On one of the contests I was scanning across the desert between Texas and New Mexico and came across patches of land that looked like circuit boards: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=...03.751106&spn=0.070255,0.159645&t=h&z=13&om=1 No apparent structures, just carefully laid out circuits and solder mounts. Anyone know what this is? -Mike
That's the ticket - drilling platforms. I had no idea how expansive those operations were. Here's another link near the last of an even bigger complex. http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=...103.230972&spn=0.140089,0.31929&t=k&z=12&om=1 Very interesting! -Mike
Oil Fields Near Hobbs, New Mexico, USA http://www.lpi.usra.edu/publications/slidesets/humanimprints/slide_7.html
you should re-think your business continuity plan ... ;-) better get yourself a second laptop buy dell go hell... they have the worst customer service i ever contacted. once had an issue with my dell laptop. they needed longer to reply to my call than it took for me to search the web for spare parts and order and receive them from the states (express shipping to europe is 5 days). also dell wanted to charge $1200 with no warranty to fix the problem ! spare part costs were below $200. i'd never buy a dell again. my current favourite : hp tc-4400
this might be true for the states. i assume you don't have to call some under-skilled but cheap people in bulgaria for support.
The guy I talked to said, "The repairman will contact you in aboot 2 days as the pro-cess is fairly short. He will call you there, eh." I would say he was in Canada. Charlie
The technician just called for directions. He wanted to know where to "pahk his cahh when he got heyah." I would say he's a Downeast native. Now that's kind of scary. The guy's probably more handy with a chainsaw that a screwdriver and he's going to work on my computer. Charlie
I would not bother calling tech support if the warranty has expired because their first question will be; what is your credit card number?" with no guarantee of a proper diagnosis or any helpful suggestions. And you'll swear it's the same guy that just called you 15 minutes ago to offer you a lower rate on your mortgage.
