PowerBook Woes

Have you heard the news.... laptop batteries currently have a bad reputation of, well, catching on fire. Now this isn't "End of the World" type stuff, but if you happen to say have your laptop in say your "lap" catching on fire could be a rather bad thing to happen. Laptops, formally referred to as notebooks, have always had a reputation for being rather warm to actually rest on your lap but catching fire puts a whole new "spark" into the issue. Sorry, just couldn't help myself.

Why do I care? Well, this weekend I determined that my PowerBook is one of the apple laptops that is affected by thy sony battery issue. I also need to verify if the Dell I gave Tracy is also affected by Sony's little battery cell problem. It seems likely that both notebooks may have to get their batteries replaced. The process is simple enough, but time consuming. The site for Apple says it will take 4 to 6 weeks, possibly longer and Dell is saying 20 days; but for some models it may take much longer.

I am actually not too worried. From what I have read Apple has only had two reported issues with their laptops and Dell isn't reporting too many more than that; it is simply the possibilty that the batteries could catch on fire. Apparently small, very small, pieces of metal made their way into the cells of the batteries during the manufacturing process and under the right conditions affected cells could catch fire.

Wanting to be safe, I have already placed an order for my notebook and will check Tracy's tomorrow and if her's is also affected place an order for her battery. While I am happy it won't cost me anything, I feel sorry for Apple, Dell and Sony. I read that this will cost Sony some $170 million dollars and they are only paying a portion of the replacement costs. I haven't seen what the total cost of this program will be or if any other laptops are affected.

I did read that at lease one Airline, Quantas, has restricted the new use of Dell laptops on their aircraft and are considering doing the same thing with Apple laptops. Does the phrase, "over reacting" come to anyone else's mind?

Computer Issues

There are times I pay a heavy price for playing with the latest and greatest software, because sometimes it just isn't that great. I'm not sure what was causing the constant slow-downs on my notebook the past few days, but with each passing hour it was seemingly getting worse. To try and gain back some control I decided to start uninstalling software and running the registry cleaner I have on the computer. Uninstall, run cleaner; then uninstall next app and run the cleaner. Now that I have uninstalled a bunch of apps they system is running with a great deal of pep.

The question I now have is, how much of the software I had before can I run again before the old "slow-down" monster rears its ugly head. Video was playing horribly, the windows on my computer would freeze from time to time, and in general my computer acted as though its processor was stuck in the mud. If I am lucky it was more about software not being fully installed properly or two programs mixing it up in the wrong way.

So, learn from me. If you get the urge to install a bunch of new programs, think twice and ask yourself..... do I really need that software?

Credit........ The Unfolding Drama

I can't say as I know for certain that I have determined why I got shot down ealier this week when I tried to buy an Apple, but I have a pretty good idea. The credit bureau that was used to check my credit has a big booboo (yes, very technical term) on my credit report. For some reason they seem to think I have not one but two home loans for an amount basically double of reality. I have a basic idea how it happened, although it is pretty stupid and will probably be a small nightmare to fix.

Seem that when the mortgage company changed my payment recently, escrow changed, the credit bureaus saw it as a new loan. This of course doesn't play well with my current income. Regardless of whether this affects my computer purchasing power or not, it is something I have to fix ASAP.

Blew a Fuse

No, I didn't blow a fuse, my car did. More specifically my cigarette lighter blew a fuse. I don't use it for lighting cigarettes, who actually does, I use it for powering my various gadgets. My two hours of drive time per day allow for an excellent chance to "charge" my gadgets. Course, they don't charge well when the juice stops flowing.

I don't know how long the fuse was blown, but a few days ago I noticed that the power light on my adapters weren't "lighting up" at all. At first I thought my $10 adapter was just that, a $10 adapter. But I plugged in a few others and none of them worked.

So I racked my wee little brain to try and figure out what the problem was with my power outlets. I quickly came to the conclusion that it had to be one of the fuses. The trick is figuring out which one.

Like most men I didn't bother with a manual, I just jumped right into solving this problem. I opened up the fuse panel on the inside of the car and couldn't find any of them labeled for the lighters. I then did the next best thing, I started pulling and replacing those suckers hoping I would get lucky. When that failed, I moved to the other panel but none of them seemed to be the right one either. I knew it would be a 20 or 30 amp fuse and none of them were.

I must say that in the meantime I did attempt to find the manual, but to no avail. So I started again, like the pure genius I am. Pulling the same fuses. I mean, if it didn't work the first time it might work the second time, right? I then began to hunt for the manual again and wouldn't you know it was right where it was supposed to be... I just hadn't dug deep enough. Thank God it wasn't a rattle snake.

So I read the manual and within a few minutes I had discovered that the fuse box under the hood held the answer to my mystery. I quickly located the offending fuse (diagrams are so helpful) and remembering that the fuse panel in the car had some extras I pulled one of them. Replacing the dead 20 amp fuse with a fresh 20 amp fuse the lighters lit up and I once again had power.

So after an hour of cursing under my breath and stomping around the garage and nearly blowing one of my own fuses, I fixed the problem in five minutes. Oh, Gracy was watching this whole event the entire time from the passenger seat of the car. The only thing missing for her was a bowl of popcorn. If she could talk I know what she would have said, "READ THE MANUAL." She is a "she" after all.

Anyone Found That Pot Of Gold?

So, tonight I was on-line checking my accounts and paying bills (did you expect anything less from me, e-banking and such) and this incredible wave of disillusionment swept across my bow like toropon torpedoes from the Star Ship Enterprise. The system I am working allows me to see where I am quickly after I pay all my bills, as well as enter any transactions that haven't cleared the bank; basically your traditional ledger, just e-based. It is great to know that I will have so many dollars in the bank come a particular date next week after my bills have all posted; but horribly painful when I start to extrapulate out and realize that my mortgage payment for August will eat up anything I have saved up and won't live any room for things like my car, gas, electricity, groceries and dog biscuits for Princess Gracy.

What do you do when you realize you are less than 30 days from singing "Trouble, oh we got trouble, right here in River City..." Don't know!! Cutting costs anywhere I feel I can and getting ready to start cutting costs anywhere I fell I can't. Not fun decisions.

It is interesting to note that I have been in financially deprived situations before. I spent five years in college and not one of those years went by where I felt "liquid." The difference between those days and now, and even my time in Korea and now; RESPONSIBILITIES. Yes, yes, my parents warned me of that nasty business adults have to deal with; but like all youths.... I ignored them. In all seriousness though, in the past I could move funds around or pass on a bill for a time... but now I don't have that luxury. Late on the mortgage and a steep fine is accessed, late on the car same issue and so on and so on. Being late isn't so much the issue either since my income doesn't come close to matching my expenses. Just sucks.

The good news is that my 4 1/2 years at Fujitsu and my extreamly conservative use of vacation while I was there netted me a very possitive result. I walked away with a nice pocket of change. Add to that I started working part-time (full time whenever I can) and I delayed the effects of that horrible state of affairs known as being "broke."

If I am lucky one of those jobs described below will do more than show promise, they will show actual fruition. Let's hope so, or I will be asking everyone I meet if they have found the infamous Irish Pot of Gold.

The Tale Of A Tire Gone Bad

I would love to embelish this story and give it more "umph," but to be honest this is a very simple story. I was on my way to work traveling out of Wylie when I came to a railroad track I have crossed hundreds of times already. Today was different for some reason. I am not fully sure what happened, but I believe I rode a little too far to the right and caught the edge of the street and slid right over the deep tracks. The whole area on both sides of the streets is jagged, very jagged. More than likely the edge caught the inside of my tire and tore two holes, as if they had been slashed, right through the tire. Instantly I lost all tire pressure in the tire and new immediately that I had a serious problem. I pulled over to check the tire finding it as flat as I thought and trying to figure out what to do next. I knew I had a spare and one of those crazy tiny jacks, but I had never attempted to use either with this car. I dug out the tire, the jack and the tire wrench and began the labrous task of changing a tire on the side of a busy highway in the middle of the afternoon on a hot June day. A particuraly messy and sweaty task. By the time I was done, I had successfully changed my tire, sweated a small river and changed the color of my hands. All in all a wonderful and exciting experience that I hope not to have to deal with again. Luckily, it is only the third time I have ever had to change a tire.

Internet Gods Dislike Me Today

Okay, today is the day I am supposed to get an offer letter from the company I interviewed with in Virginia. It has taken them a little longer to put together the offer than they had first anticipated. I am assured it will arrive today. That being the case, of course, my DSL service has gone completely "dead." Been that way since at least 7:30 this morning when I woke up and tried to check e-mail. I have contacted my service provider, Verizon, and they assure me that it should be working in at least 24 hours and if not to call back. Ah, who says customer service is daead.
Luckily I was able to revive my MSN account that I keep lurking in the background for just such an occassion. It is slower than maple syurp in January, but it works. So as long as the Internet Gods don't get further irriatated with me today, I should be okay for now. Please note I am knocking on the large piece of wood I can find.