Feeling : Pissed@HP!

Yesterday, my iPaq returned from HP after the second repair attempt. Guess what, its still got the same bloody fault as I sent it away to have fixed 3 weeks ago!

Talk about shit service!

At least this time they tried to effect a repair, they even got as far as replacing the battery and the mainboard. Now maybe I'm being a bit simplistic here, but if the problem your having is with screen alignment, wouldn't you first start by trying a new screen?

So, off it went back to HP for the third time now and by the time its back here I will have been without it for a month! Hopefully this time it'll be useable when it comes back....I'm not holding my breath though.

Feeling : Annoyed

Copy protected audio CDs

I was out shopping yesterday, predominatly for a couple of books I wanted to read, but I ended up wandering into a record store. I've been meaning to pick up Dido's lates album (Life for rent) for a couple of weeks now. I keep hearing White Flag, the single thats in the chart at the moment on the radio and I really like it. So I decide to buy the album.

I get the ablum home, and as always the first thing I do is make a copy of the original to stick in the car. I don't like putting the originals in the car, I had mine broken in to a couple of years back and I lost a lot of original music. Anyways, I drop the CD in the laptop and it tells me it wants to modify some files so the CD will play on the laptop. Call me paranoid, but anytime I see things like this I immediately think virus! I cancell out of the update and load up Nero. Nero tells me it can't copy the CD, the data is invalid. So I try to rip it to MP3 using media player and Nero....still no go. At this point I start looking on the net for some info. Guess what, this CD comes complete with BMG's new copy protection. It won't play on PCs, DVD players, it won't even play the original disc on my car stereo!

I have no problem with copy protection, if its going to happen then its going to happen. I have a major problem when the copy protection starts giving me problems when I just want to listen to the bloody CD. What's the point in paying ten quid for a CD if you can't listen to it!

My advice, DO NOT BUY THIS ALBUM! Better still, write to BMG and tell them why you're not buying the album. NMore advice, check the CD sleeve before you buy it to make sure the disc isn't copy protected, if it is, I suggest finding another album to buy.

Contact BMG at help.arista@bmg.com, or just pay a visit to their website at http://www.bmg.com

Went to the cinema tonight to see Bad Boys II

All I can say is that if you liked the first one, you're gonna love this one. I can't remember a time when I laughed so much at a movie. From start to finish, there wasn't five minutes went by where I didn't at least chuckle. The only downside was the woman in the seat behind me that has such an annoying laugh that I wanted to slap her after 10 minutes of the movie!

If you get bored on a evening, go see it. It's well worth it. Definitely one I'll be buying when its released on DVD!

Feeling : Relieved

Finally, the noise from the car that has been worrying me for a while is finally gone!

The noise, a sort of low pitched drone has been there a couple of months. I figured if it was serious then it would be picked up when the car went in for its MoT test last month. I figured it was a wheel bearing or a CV joint. When the car went in for its test, my mechanic told me that one of the CV gators had come off and was halfway up the driveshaft. I figured that was making the noise and after he put it back on, the noise would be gone. Unfortunately not, a couple of trips on the motorway and I soon heard the noise again.

The droning only seemed to occur between 80mph and 85mph (yeah, I know...I shouldn't be goin that fast), anything above or below and the noise was gone. It also seemed to get worse when changing lanes to the left. Call me paranoid, but the last thing I want is for a wheel bearing or CV joint to go on me at that kind of speed, so I decided to drop the car back to the mechanic seeing as I can't be arsed with getting dirty anymore.

Anyway, after a couple of test drives and some hunting around, it was identified as bad rear wheel bearing. It would seem that one of the seals had gone and water had been getting into the bearing, it was rusty as hell.

Anyways, its all fixed now. The mechanic did me the work at a really good price (thanks Les), even if the Renault parts are a little expensive. Guess it serves me right for havin a French car, but its so much fun to drive....

Feeling : Frustrated!

Just got my iPaq 3870 back from HP, supposedly fixed. Is it fixed, NO! Still has the same problem as I sent it away with.

The problem, and if you've got an iPaq you've probably had this problem yourself and if not, then you probably will. It seems to be a common problem with them after a year or so. The screen seems to go out of alignment. You can hard reset it, re-align the screen and its fine for about 10 minutes, switch it off and come back to it and the pointer registers on the screen about 1.5cm away from where you touch. Makes working with it bloody dificult!

Anyway, I decide to find out how much its gonna cost to have it repaired seeing as its outside its 12 month warranty. The good news is that it has 24 months warranty so the repair is free. I box it up and send it back to HP, only to have it returned 4 days later. What does the service report say.....Re-Flash, system update! Having told the call agent I'd already done this and it made no difference, I was somewhat disappointed.

So, I call HP and try to get this thing sent back again to be repaired properly only to find that their computers are down! Doesn't bode well now, does it...wonder if its a hardware problem, and with who's servers!

I'll let you know how the story turns out next time it comes back from HP....

Feeling : I hate Microsoft!

After spending a few hours trying to figure out why I couldn't get to google, altavista and other search engines, I finally figured out I had the bloody q.hosts virus. I guess I must've neglected to read that particular warning that came from Sophos. Unusual for me, I normally read the details of any new viri that are found, but this one slipped through.

I wasn't the only one that this virus managed to slip past. It would seem that Inoculan doesn't detect it, even with the latest definitions, and the so called "patch" that MS released to fix this vulnerability (read, another gaping security hole in their beta software!) also doesn't fix it! The sooner I get linux up to a workable level here, the happier I'll be!

So, be warned folks...just cos you got AV protection, doesn't mean you're 100% safe!

Feeling : Indifferent

Sobered up a bit since that last entry, still feel much the same way though. I guess I just need a holiday. Maybe its time to head off back to Madrid! :-)

I decided to try a bit of retail therapy today, I upgraded my mobile phone. I've been looking around at some new ones for a while and my existing one (Ericsson T68) has been out of contract for about 6 months, not that there is anything wrong with it...I just wanted a new one. I'd decided to go for another Ericsson, this time the T610, but it seems to be out of stock most places....that is unless you want to pay £270 for it. I've also been trying to upgrade online through Orange, but they have been out of stock. So this morning I decide to visit my local Orange shop and see if they have any, and they did. Although I'm still convinced they got the price wrong, its been on the Orange website at £79.99 for a while, but the store only wanted to charge me £29.99. Who am I to argue! You can check out the phone here :- http://www.clubsonyericsson.com/en/products_t610.htm

Well, this afternoons project is installing Red Hat 9 and having a play with the new Novell Ximian desktop and installing open office. Yep folks, time to consider linux as a real alternative for windows on the desktop. That's gotta be good news for anyone, except probably Billy G

Feeling : Depressed

Sometimes, you meet someone and you don't realise what a profound effect they will have on your life until its too late.

Sometimes, you meet someone and don't realise how empty you life will be without them.

Sometimes, you just have to get drunk....sounds like a plan to me....