Here’s a few books that are getting added to my reading list. Hopefully they will be available at the library, but I think a few of them I’m going to plunk down some cash for.
I’m always amazed how many people, who are otherwise very intelligent, are willing to completely ignore hard facts and scientific evidence in favor of myth, superstition, and hearsay.
Thanks to Pharyngula for the list.
Continue reading
As I mentioned before … even though I’m participating in Yahoo’s Email Complaint Feedback Loop, I’m still getting deferrals when trying to deliver mail to Yahoo’s mail servers. I’ve gotten a few complaints, but not nearly enough to really justify having mail delivery deferred.
I think I’ve figured out a bit more about why Yahoo’s mail servers are deferring some of the mail my servers try to deliver to them.
While doing a little searching, I found some information on email feedback loops for other major ISP’s.
A few months ago I commented on how much I liked the Yahoo Complaint Feedback Loop.
Well, I think I’m going to revise that statement slightly.
In general, I’ve been quite pleased with the technical support I get from Dell’s Small & Medium sized Business division.
They usually adapt quickly to my level of technical expertise and take my word for it when I report a problem. Once the failing component has been identified, they quickly setup the appropriate dispatch to get the problem corrected.
Yesterday, however, was an exception.
Since both Ginny and I are trying to get to the health club more often now … we were thinking about how being a computer geek could be leveraged into a more healthy lifestyle.
Here’s a short list of geeky actions that could be transformed into something healthy …
After dealing with Ginny’s older computer, I took stock of the various bits & pieces of computer hardware that I have lying around.
I noticed that there were a fair number of unused hard drives. Some were defective and out of warranty others were so small as to be next to useless.
A few days ago Ginny’s desktop machine (a home built system cobbled together from various parts I had on hand) finally gave up it’s ghost. It wouldn’t book up, just gave one long beep, waited a few seconds, gave another long beep, over and over.
Well, her laptop (Dell Inspiron 8600) is almost out of warranty … and she’s not going to be getting my Dell Latitude D630 (due to the Latitude E6400 being returned), so I figured it wouldn’t be a bad idea to get her a new computer.
So we went over to CompUSA (formerly Tiger Direct) and looked at the small form factor desktop systems. We chose a Gateway SX2800-01 system (Core 2 Quad, 4gb RAM, 640gb SATA disk, 64bit Vista Home). The only problem was that it had on-board Intel video and no DVI output (although it does have HDMI output). Cost about $500. FWIW: This is Ginny’s first new computer in quite a while. Most of her other computers were hand-me-downs (from me).
This will probably be the last post I write with the Dell Latitude E6400 I purchased recently.
Next week I’m going to call Dell and arrange to return the laptop for a refund.
This is the first Dell computer that I’m really dissatisfied with and, frankly, I’m surprised that Dell dropped the ball so badly. The E6400 is (at least in my opinion) a major step backwards from the D630.
There is apparently going to be a bit more getting used to this new laptop.
The other day, before I went to bed, I put my new Dell Latitude E6400 into standby mode … I’m 99% sure I did this.
The next morning, however, when I went down stairs I found my laptop powered on.
That evening, before I went to bed I hibernated the laptop.
Once again, the next morning, I found the laptop powered on.
Obviously this is pretty odd.
So last night I tried an experiment … I put the laptop into standby mode and, within seconds, it resumed from standby. I then put the laptop into hibernate mode … and 30 minutes later, it powered itself back up.