Dell Latitude E6400 Sales & Support

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Note: Although my sales & support experience with the machine were generally positive, my experiences with the machine itself were not.  I have since sent it back to Dell.

I just had some really good customer support experiences with Dell.  I know, some of you are going to think this is impossible, but it really happened.

Ginny’s laptop is getting kind of old … it’s an Inspiron 8600, almost out of warranty, and the screen hinge is pretty loose.  Plus she needs another computer, with more video capability, to play with Second Life.

I figured it was time for an upgrade.  I was also thinking it was time for my laptop to upgrade also.

So I ordered a new Dell Latitude E6400 laptop for myself, from Dell’s Small Business division, and will give Ginny my Latitude D630 (which has more CPU power, memory, and better video than her Inspiron 8600).

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S.M.A.R.T. (or not so smart)

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Computer Hard DriveI really get frustrated when it comes to hard drive diagnostics.   Specifically: S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology).

The theory behind S.M.A.R.T. technology is that the hard drive is supposed to provide predictive failure information for hard drives.

The problem is, I’ve never had a S.M.A.R.T. technology accurately report a failure.

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Roomba

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Roomba 530Thanks to a hint given to me by a twitter friend, we purchased a refurbished Roomba 530 from Woot last week.

The unit arrived on Thursday … and I plugged it in to get it charging as soon as I got home.   I positioned the charging base in the corner of the dining room which is pretty much out of the way.

So Friday morning it had a green light, indicating it was all charged up and ready to go.   So, being the good geek that I am, I pressed the button and let it go about it’s business cleaning the dining room, living room, & kitchen areas.

It dutifully started up and was vacuuming up the dust & bits of cat hair.   It went from room to room, cleaning the floors up, as I thought it should.

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Yahoo Abuse Feedback Loop

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A few days ago I discovered that Yahoo had created a email abuse feedback loop system.

Based on my experiences with AOL’s feedback system, I really didn’t have high hopes for Yahoo’s efforts … but decided to give it a shot anyways.

I signed up to get abuse reports for midrange.com messages.   It took a bit of time to get it all processed, but it’s now in place.

The next day I got my first report of abuse.

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Star Trek

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Ginny, Steve, and I went to see the new Star Trek movie last night.

If you are a fan of the original series, next generation, or any of the follow on shows … you are going to be in for a major disappointment.

If you’re into flashy visuals and 90210 characters, you’re going to love it.

This “Star Trek” movie is not ‘based’ on the original Star Trek … it’s more like “Inspired by” the original.   Possibly even ‘general concept inspired by’ the original Trek.

It rips so many of the established ideas to shreds it’s not even funny.

Yeah, the major characters are there … Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, Sulu, Chekov, and Uhura … and of course the Enterprise … but the major themes that back up the concept of Star Trek are tossed out the window.

(warning, spoilers ahead)

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Author Bio Plugin

Last night I wrote another wordpress plug-in … It’s called “Author Bio” and will add the authors biographical information (from their wordpress profile) to the bottom of the a post (only when the post is on a single page, not on the main page).

More information can be found on the plug-in page.