Patience fail: one very smashed laptop (mine)
Ok, you might have noticed my Twitter updates (1st, 2nd, 3rd) a few days ago where I mentioned a broken laptop. Well, I the end result has left me so impressed with the engineering of my little HP Mini laptop that I’m going to ‘fess up to being a little bit crazy just so I can tell you about it.
This could be will be embarrassing…
To cut a long and very boring story short, I was having a bit of a rubbish day – I’d come home to find that two iPhone’s I’d bought off eBay as having “a slight fault” had turned out to be registered stolen.
Then, I turn on the Media Center PC – which is excellent at recording Eastenders and Road Wars when it’s behaving itself – to find that it had eaten its hard disk, along with 500GB of movies (that’s about five years’ worth of collecting). Of course, I don’t have backups – who has a 500GB hard disk lying around spare?
So, with two broken iPhones (which cost me a lot more than I have cash to burn), and one probably dead computer, all I wanted to do was sit down with a nice cuppa tea and look up the cost of a new hard disk.
Cue massive fail number three: I open up the laptop, an HP Mini – which is a very nicely-built Apple Macbook-like 10 inch netbook – and wait for it to wake up.
And wait. And wait a bit more.
After a minute of sitting watching the Media Center saying “fail”, and the laptop saying, well, nothing at all, I take a deep breath and go make a cup of tea.
Five minutes later, I get back. The Media Center still hasn’t repaired itself (ok, I guess that’s probably expecting too much), and the laptop has managed to display its mouse cursor, and nothing else.
At this point, my logical brain disengaged itself and walked off into a far corner of my brain.
Meanwhile, forgoing thousands of years of civilised development, I reverted to caveman mode and, without thinking, threw the laptop across the room at a fair rate of knots, only vaguely remembering not to aim at anything breakable which didn’t belong to me.
I may also have done the whole slamming-the-fist-down-on-the-keyboard thing so beloved of angry stereotypical American business execs when a business deal goes bad (or their partner walks out. Or their cat dies. Or something…).
The resulting explosion of plastic parts, battery bits, computer innards and – hey, where did the skin go from my knuckles?! – left a debris trail across the living room.
Still, I have to admit, I felt better – technology and eBay might have beaten me four times that day, but I’d managed to get one over on Microsoft. Oh yes. I felt very good about that.
A microsecond later, it occurred to me that throwing a laptop – which had cost me £400 more than I owned right at that moment in time – across a room, probably wasn’t the brightest idea.
I collected a plastic Sainsburys bag from the kitchen, scooped my very broken laptop up, and tried to figure out how I was going to live without Facebook and Google Reader.
Three days later, armed with a bottle of superglue and some electrical tape, I set about putting the laptop back together. Three hours and a superglue headache later, here’s the sum total of the damage:
- The base was twisted from the initial impact (it’s aluminium), but it was easy enough to realign it once I’d removed the motherboard,
- Battery superglued back together. Works fine – only slight marks where the superglue ran,
- Keyboard straightened out as best I can – it’s still rather wavy, but all the keys work fine,
- The clear plastic cover over the screen has a tiny chip broken off the corner,
- And the hard disk – the only moving part – didn’t survive.
So, not a single dent. In all fairness, the battery took the full force of the impact, but still – not a dent, and only the wavy keyboard to show that anything had gone wrong.
All in all: the HP Mini 2140 – an excellent piece of rugged and very attractive engineering. Well done HP :o)
I’m now thinking about treating my laptop to a nice fast SSD instead of a hard disk, which should pretty much make it bomb-proof ;o)
(p.s. if you’re looking for one, I bought mine from Misco, but they double-charged me and lied to me, saying delivery would take two days when it took almost three weeks, and made no effort to apologise even when I demanded to know what the heck they were playing at, so I’d recommend avoiding them like the plague. Maybe try Oyyy or Kikatek instead? :o).
Posted by Alex on Sun 7th June 2009
Pugwash, monkeys, brass monkeys, stupidity, bitchin’, geekery, and guilt-free holiday
Apologies for the 50-in-1 update, but I've got loads of equally important (or, if you're a normal human being, equally boring) things to ramble on about…
Posted by Alex on Wed 26th March 2008
[Blatant advert!] Time for an eBay clear-out
Right, it's that time of month again where I'm broke, so I'm having a bit of an eBay clearout of some of my goodies. Up for sale from tomorrow evening (starting at 99p each) are…
- A Sony DAB Walkman,
- An 80GB 2.5″ Apple Macbook Pro SATA hard disk,
- A 120GB 2.5″ Seagate SATA hard disk,
- 512MB Macbook Pro RAM,
- … aaaand a Freeview USB stick.
Buy my stuff so I can afford to MOT my car!! :o)
/al – broke (again) ;o)
Update: sold the camera – wehay! :o)
Posted by Alex on Wed 16th May 2007
A night at the movies (no popcorn, though…)
It's about half nine on Saturday 5th May. Portsmouth Guildhall is packed full of scrubbed, polished and groomed sports bods. Sports Sabb Jodie Austin is in charge of the mic, and up on stage, a little bald Spanish chap by the name of Fraggy is looking like he's about to have a heart attack as he prays – and prays, and prays, and prays – that the AU Dinner video, the result of two weeks' solid work* from him and Mike Cooter, works first time when he hits “play”…
This year's event was a first for many reasons: it was held in the (very plush) Portsmouth Guildhall, it sold out faster than ever before (and I think more people attended than ever before), I was there for the first time (ok ok, nobody cares about that), and instead of having a guest speaker we were treated to a video of the Union's sporting achievements this year, seasoned with a sprinkling of words by a few sporting bods.
For many people attending, the video was definitely the highlight of the evening's entertainment. As they appeared on the big screen, each club raised a deafening cheer, and the round of applause at the end of the video was testimony to the video's popularity.
I think this could be a really good sign of things to come – bigging-up the efforts put in by clubs and societies doesn't just have to happen through awards – everyone likes a bit of publicity, and if we can improve clubs' and societies' numbers and confidence by getting (good) videos of them played all over the place, and put online, then I'm all for it.
Of course, everyone at the dinner looked Fabulous, Darling, with only a couple of people getting blatantly wrecked (lightweights ;o), and the occasional evil glare between girls who'd worn the same dress. I don't understand that mentality, I'll be honest, but I'm sure someone will explain – with diagrams – why it's such a Bad Thing (TM).
A big well done to Fraggy and Mike for their efforts over the last couple of weeks (and a well done to everyone else who helped organise and run the night so well), and also a thankyou to Fraggy and Mike for opening up a new area of UPSU Media for me to play with/break/push forward. Apparently, I'll have to learn to do this next year: oh dear…
Randomly, during the evening I was once again asked – this time by Sam Wilson (one of my opposition candidates in the elections) – whether I was going to cancel Purple Wednesdays. In hindsight, I think I was lucky to escape with my legs intact when I thought it would be a good idea to wind him up for a bit, saying it was definitely being cancelled (it's not!) – the look on his face was, err, priceless. Sorry Sam!
p.s. The video was great. The Apple Mac it was playing on worked fine, and everyone lived happily ever after. Or something like that, anyway… :o)
* Yes, apparently, Fraggy actually does work. Shocking, but true… ;o)
Posted by Alex on Sun 6th May 2007
Google Desktop for Mac – like Spotlight, only better
(Boring geeky ramblings below…)
Up until recently, I was a Windows user, and made a lot of use of Google's desktop search toy. Secretly though, I wanted a Mac so I could use the wonderful Spotlight search system.
Fast-forward a year or so and I barely ever use Spotlight because it's horribly, painfully slow. Quicksilver has deserted me – it crashes within a few minutes of opening it – and I miss my trusty Google desktop search.
Now Google have released a Mac desktop search toy, and I'm about to give it a go. You can find out more and download it from their free Mac software page, and read more about it on the Hawk Wings blog. If you haven't already installed this free wonder of technology, you really should give it a go :o)
Google might be trying to take over the world, but until I figure out what's so evil about their great free software, I'm happy to keep telling everyone I know how good I think it is. Sad but true… /al
Posted by Alex on Wed 11th April 2007
Apple’s “smug little twit” fired
While wandering around Digg dot com, I noticed this story about the guy who (used to) play the part of the Mac user in the Mac vs. Windows adverts Apple have been running (although they were more likely to be found on US rather than UK TV sets).
What makes me laugh is the description of the Mac guy – Justin Long – as a “smug little twit” by a reviewer, and – even better – how he's “just the sort of unshaven, hoodie-wearing, hands-in-pockets hipster ["hipster" - their word, not mine] we've always imagined when picturing a Mac enthusiast”.
As I read that, a quick glance down confirmed my status: Macbook Pro on lap – check. Hoodie worn? Check (and a rather nice Gul one too, I might add…). Hands in pockets? Check. Smug little twit? A subjective response to this one, granted, but “Check” anyway…
I guess I've begun to turn into the stereotypical arty-type of person I've always felt a bit scared of. Mind you, I lack the associated talent and cashflow, so I'm sure I'll be ok for the time being… ;o)
Posted by Alex on Fri 10th November 2006
Eurgh, I feel dirty…
I've just paid for software. Admittedly, I've spent the last three days trying to find a way around having to pay for a program to transfer all my information from Outlook to Entourage (the Mac version of Outlook… Or so it seems) with no luck, so I've trusted Some Random American Company (TM) with my card details and have splashed out $10 on a serial number – a string of letters and numbers any self-respecting obsessive-compulsive could probably memorise in a couple of minutes – to let me use this program that so far looks most likely to save my sanity.
We'll see whether that's true in a couple of hours – it looks like it's going to take some time for this Shiny New Program (also TM) to finish slinging all my precious information out of Outlook.
Oh, and my Macbook Pro can understand voice commands. I didn't have to train it, beat it, or even coax and bribe it – apparently it just needed to be turned on. Now I can tell my laptop to do “stuff”… Exactly what stuff that might be, I have no idea – I think it means I can play hands-free chess with my computer or something…
Right, I'm off to bed. If anyone needs me, I'll be having a small panic attack in the corner of the room again… ;o)
Posted by Alex on Sun 15th October 2006
My Macbook Pro photos on Flickr
Yup, I'm that sad, I took some photos of my Macbook Pro. Click here to see them, or here for something completely different.
Posted by Alex on Mon 9th October 2006
24 hours later with the MacBook (Pro) and…
… it's great. Sorry, boring to hear though it may be, I still haven't decided that it's a waste of money.
(This post is very much a rambling stream of consciousness. Don't bother reading it. No, seriously…)
I mentioned yesterday that I'd found a problem with the construction that left a small gap between the lower case and the front edge of the wrist rest. I boxed the whole lot up today and went back up to the Apple store at Bluewater. Since I tend to dress like a tramp at the best of times, I noticed a few looks from people glancing first at my trampish look, and then at the box with the picture of the very shiny, 'spensive-looking laptop on it… And then back at me again, as if to say, “Ok, who did you rob?” (Truthful answer – the Student Loans Company, or at least that's how it feels).
The Apple Store were happy to replace the MacBook for an identical one, but the new one also has a (much smaller) ripple in the same place, as did almost every other MBP on display and in use at the store, so I suspect I won't get away from having this little bit of “personality” as part of the whole Mac experience.
So far, I've learnt…
- that illuminated keyboards are great
- it's thinner than it looks
- it looks really thin
- … and it looks really pretty
Ok, so I might just be focusing on the aesthetics a little too much here…
I've found loads of helpful pages for life-long PC users, installed a load of helpful toys, including Quicksilver (wow… no, really – Wow) and MenuMeters, managed to get iSync to synchronise with my Razr. And iCal's so damned pretty, but I think I might find out if Outlook's bundled with my copy of Office 2004 since I use it so much.
I still haven't found out if there's an equivalent to NetDrive that works on OS X, so I can edit PHP scripts on UPSU.net directly (I tend to write a line, save, then go to the browser and F5 to see if it worked or not. Slow, but usually effective), and until I can do that I'm going to have to stick with the Vaio (not that that's such a bad thing, but… y'know… New toys and all that – I wanna play!).
Front Row is really very Gucci, and the remote is a lovely little touch. Shame the slim pocket on the front of my laptop bag doesn't have a velcro flap to stop things falling out when I do loop-the-loops 'cos it would be perfect for the remote.
The speakers sound great – really crisp top notes, and a reasonable level of mid-range. There's even an appreciable bit of mid-bass, although I still prefer using my Sennheiser earbuds. It's another nice touch, and the stereo positioning of the speakers makes for some very well-defined lefts and rights.
I have to sign off to drive back to Pompey – I'm back on Helldesk tomorrow, so I need to start making a dent in the several hundred support e-mails I have to reply to. If you're in getting an NUS card this week, do come and say hi – I'll be the sleep-deprived, dribbling wreck in the corner of the room, holding an animated conversation with a chair about how cool Apple Macs are. Or something…
Next object of lust on my list: a silver 8Gb iPod Nano.
Next thing to do: get on eBay and sell everything I own.
Next thing I *should* be doing: my induction week project.
… and when it'll probably be completed: graduation week.
Posted by Alex on Mon 9th October 2006
I’m a very, very bad boy indeed…
No, not in that way. Honestly, if your initial reaction to the title of this entry was something related to smut, go take a quick look through the archives of my blog to see that there's less hope of me getting up to anything kinky than there is of my Mum's goldfishes winning Celeb Big Brother (they're way too talented, y'see…).
Anyway, I've gone to the dark side – today, mainly thanks to the generous contributions of the Student Loans Company and Her Maj's Courts Service (jury service payday), I dropped in to the Apple store in Bluewater and picked up a beeeyoooteefool Macbook Pro – the cheapest one, naturally, since my Northern heritage prevents me from spending a penny more than I absolutely have to, but even then it's a helluva toy. The Apple Higher Education discount gets me 15%ish off the price, so the laptop “only” cost
Posted by Alex on Sun 8th October 2006