What's more time consuming than installing Gentoo? Installing Gentoo over dialup. Ugh.

No, I haven't forgotten about posting anything here, I've just not had a free night in several weeks. Yay for the buzy holiday season. So, Merry Christmas to the lot of you, Happy New Year, and all that jazz.

I hope you all get what you're wishing for this year, be it nifty gadgets, a little peace, some needed time off with loved ones, or whatever else you may desire. Me, I'll be spending time with people I care about, hoping people enjoy what I got them, enjoying what I get, eating turducken, taking pictures, and then cruising around the carribean after New Year's.

Everybody stay warm and safe now!

Late this afternoon I got a call, rather unexpectedly, from Best Buy. It's one week before their expected date of repair for my monitor, so I was wondering what was going on. Well, I'll tell you.

As it turns out, apparently they did find something wrong with the monitor, but seeing as the monitor is 2.5 years old, a size no longer made, and so on, did not have the parts required to actually fix it. I guess they're better able to put the thing through tests than just hooking it up to a random machine. At any rate, I was informed it could not be fixed, so come on in and it was time to do the replacement thing.

Naturally, I was kind of excited, as the replacement plan states the new item has to be at least equal in features, and there just aren't 18" LCD monitors anymore, so it would have to bump to a 19". And after working on a CRT for a while, I've been itching to get back to an LCD. I figured they'd just bump me up to a 19" of the same manufacturer. That'd give me an extra inch, the same VGA input options, and take away the integrated speakers, which were nice for saving space but terrible speakers really only used for IM alerts and such. I was fine with the idea, I mean, an extra inch is nice and who really cares about the speakers. What's not to like?

Instead, I get to the store and go to the service desk, then the Geek Squad desk, wait a few minutes, and explain why I'm there. The guy said that they normally do things by feature, but since they carry no 18" LCDs and very few LCDs with integrated speakers, they'd just let me pick whatever monitor, and that if it cost more I could pay the difference. Hey, did you know that 2.5 years ago an 18" analog only LCD cost $450 on sale? That's a lot to play with in today's world of LCDs. Wow, totally different experience this time around and I didn't even have to ask.

I picked out a nice LG which cost about $20 more. We've already got one of the same model in the apartment, so I know the quality and quite like it. Nice and bright, has both DVI and VGA inputs, good color, and crisp text. It really is a superior monitor in all ways compared to the one I had prior.

The icing on the cake, though, is this. The monitor had a $40 mail in rebate this week. The girl at the customer service desk that I had to go to for the final swap printed me out a rebate receipt and the rebate form. $20 down right now for the new monitor and I'll get $40 later. I couldn't believe it.

So, now I have to write a letter off to the corporate offices, but at least it isn't all bad. They need to know there was a problem with how the initial return was handled, but once things were in motion I can't say I've been treated poorly in the least. Quite the opposite. Who'd have thought?

Oh god, we can all see where this is going, can't we? Gather round kids, and I'll tell you the beginning of a tale which I'm willing to bet is going to get a whole lot worse. Make sure you've got a bit of time on your hands though, this gets nice and long.

So, back in May of 2003, dead sun went and bought himself a nice, shiny new LCD monitor at his local Best Buy. Dead sun's desk space is a little tight, and I find LCDs are a bit easier on the eyes, so I figured what the heck. So, dead sun spills $450 on an 18" LCD monitor, which was reasonable at the time. There was a $50 rebate, so I figured what the heck, I'll get the warranty on it, because while the monitor wasn't cheap, it wasn't exactly the highest quality product I've ever purchased. As luck would have it, the next week added a second $50 rebate, so one paper exchange later I had an 18" LCD and a 3 year warranty for $400. Unheard of at the time. And part of the reason I bothered getting it at Best Buy and not online somewhere was that I wanted to have somewhere I didn't have to ship things if something went wrong. Oh, what I didn't know.

Now, the monitor was VGA only, but back then you didn't see too many DVI monitors, and certainly none that big for that little. It didn't matter at the time anyway, because I didn't have DVI on my graphics card. Both graphics cards I've had in my machine since I got the monitor have driven it cleanly though. Nice and sharp. No complaints.

No complaints until today, that is. I turn on my monitor and what do I see? Hideous amounts of ghosting. Any vertical line, when there was anything but pure white or black to the right of it, would show up no fewer than 4 times. It was unusable. I absolutely could not stand looking at it. Look here and here.

But let's not jump to conclusions, right? I mean, it could be my graphics card or something else and not the monitor. Let's be scientific about it. I dig out the CRT and hook it up to the machine. Sharp as a knife. Hook up another LCD to the machine, still sharp. Hook up the problem LCD to my laptop. Hey look, ghost lines, just not as pronounced. Good, it's down to something about the monitor.

Well, lucky me, right? I've got this 3 year warranty that's only 2 years and 6 months old. Well, first I have to find it. When I do, I see the bottom of the receipt is hanging out of their little warranty brochure. Nasty brown register paper that is close to unreadable. Thankfully, the receipt inside was at least readable, though not exactly pleasant looking. Archival quality documents those. Anyway, I had it in hand and indeed it was still under extended warranty. Maybe I didn't waste that $50 back then.

Warranty in hand, I go get the box for it out of storage, in pristine condition, and pack it up. Good. Now I'll just call up Best Buy, make sure I can just bring it in like it is with the receipt, and get hooked up with fixing it or a new monitor like promised. So I call, get a phone prompt system, navigate to customer service, wait 18 rings, and get disconnected. Huh? Oh well, I'll just bring it in.

So in it goes. I walk over to customer service, wait 10 minutes in line to find out where I need to bring it. The nice lady at the counter says to go over to the Geek Squad section of the store. I do so, and wait in line for 30 minutes there. This is getting to be fun.

After 30 minutes of waiting, I'm waved up to their counter. The waving is done by a Geek Squad guy who was helping somebody else but had looked right at me several times during the wait. What does the guy say? That monitors are handled at the Best Buy service desk which is not 10 feet from the customer service desk. Yeah, I was told to go to the wrong place and then looked at for half an hour without being told I was in the wrong place. That'd have taken what, 5 seconds from explaining to the young couple that their box was completely covered in spyware and trojans? Thanks a lot.

So off I go to the magical other counter where I should have been the entire time. 15 minutes worth of waiting and I'm talking with somebody who actually, for the first time in my visit, seems somewhat sympathetic towards my trouble. I explain the problem, pull out my camera and show him the problem, and he seems to understand the problem. Wow, this might have been worth it. No, it can't be that easy.

Somebody else wanders up to the counter where I'm actually holding civil conversation and demands to know what the issue is. I explain I'm seeing ghosting effects. I'm told that LCD monitors do that, it's normal. I say no, it didn't do it yesterday, it isn't normal. I explain it isn't when I move things around on the monitor, it's when everything is static. "Oh, well that'll still happen sometimes." is the response I get. Dick.

I explain it didn't happen before today, it didn't happen on another CRT or LCD, and it did happen on another machine. It isn't normal. I show him the pictures too. I'm told that it's probably just my camera picking up interference from the LCD. Okay, right, I just decided to waste time in Best Buy for an imaginary problem because I saw something odd through my camera. But let's blame the customer, right?

So it comes down to testing the monitor, which I can't blame them for. Lo, they can't reproduce the problem. I'm given a glance at it, let behind the counter even, but I don't see it either. Of course, I have no idea if the resolution, refresh, color depth, or any of that is the same. But the lack of reproduction there is enough for the one jerk to come just a hair short of calling me a liar. Nice customer service. They box it up and hand it back to me.

I ask what my next course of action is, since I had problems with it and they can't reproduce it. The jerk of the two is basically telling me I have none, while the nicer of the two tries to say I can try it again at home and call up customer service if I still have problems and proceed from there. Well, I'm short on proof apart from the photos, so maybe the car ride in the cold did some good for the monitor. I take it home, defeated.

I get home and, you guessed it, same lines exist. Damn, who'd have thought. So I call up the store. Same 18 rings to customer service and disconnection. Great. I ring the computer department and ask for a transfer. 10 rings later they pick up. How nice. They in turn transfer me to who they thought I needed to speak with. One hour of the most obnoxious hold music later, I hang up in disgust. Time to load it up, again, and take it in, again.

At the store the second time, and the nicer of the two guys is still there. I explain I'm still having the same problem. He takes me at my word and gets a customer service manager. They authorize a repair on it. Fortunately it has written on the service sheet being sent in and that I have a copy of that the problems exist, not just that the customer says they exist. That could help and maybe I'll have some recouse if they can't reproduce it at the repair center. The downside is they're shipping it to some repair place and won't have it back until at least the 11th of December.

Lucky for me, I have a CRT which wasn't in use, but that could have been a real problem for me. It still isn't ideal. I'm wondering what will happen should they be unable to produce the problem at the repair facility. Ship it back, call it fixed, and leave me with a problem after a few weeks of waiting? Sounds plausible.

My theory on the problem, not that it'll make a lick of a difference: large amounts of interference in my apartment. The cheap speakers that were plugged in were making crackly noise and the line out to them travelled the same path as the monitor's VGA cable. However, the other monitors' cables were run the same way in the test, yet they didn't show any problems. So maybe the shielding on the problem LCD is just crap and every other monitor in my possession is just that much better. It could happen. Regardless, the problem exists and having paid for the silly warranty I should at least be treated with a modicum of respect and competence. Since it's under warranty, I expect the problem to be solved, not just to be turned away because it wasn't reproducable on a single machine. There will be words if it comes back and does the same thing. I suspect a nasty letter is going to be written regardless of outcome, merely due to the gross incompetence and inconvenience I've been made to suffer today. Like it'll do anything though.

Anyway, lesson learned. No purchases of any non-consumable item are to be made at retailers. They're useless, and it's easier to just save some 20% and shell out online and then shop for a new item in the event of breakage outside of manufacturer's warranty. And while I've never had reason to return anything through NewEgg or the likes, I've generally heard better stories than about the brick and mortar stores, except shipping sucks.

Whew, well that was long. Anybody make it this far? Post a comment and I'll personally thank you for reading the whole rant and congratulate you on an admirable attention span.

Mmm, my second Owise prize in two periods of prize giving. I'm up $40 on just filling in some guesses about a variety of events now. Not bad, not bad at all. Of course, I've been displaced from #1 for some time now, but it's still fun. I was in the top 15 which I needed to be for this prize.

Also, congrats to Artifex who won a prize this time around for topping a category, after nearly winning something last time.

Another Farktography contest that I entered. Again, posted as Aranach. The theme, as indicated in the entry title is Halloween.

I have one image that's doing alright, fairly middle of the pack. To be honest, I'm not thrilled with any of the images I entered, though the first two are pretty funny. All three were taken about three years ago with a crappy digital camera. There's no sharpness to them really. The first couple are candid, so the composition isn't even that great. Just good material. The last one, the tiki mask, is pretty cool I think, nice dark lighting. The fact there's little detail doesn't help though, and it's not my greatest shot by far. But if you like 'em, vote if you would.

Sadly, those are about the best images I have from Halloween. I'm always at one party, which is cool, but the photo ops just aren't really there too much. Should get around to bringing my SLR along at some point and actually pose people.

Mix together in your favorite mixing implement:

1 oz. Amaretto
1 oz. Kaluha
1 oz. Irish Creme

Put two ice cubes in a glass, pour the above over the ice cubes, sit back, relax, and drink. Yum. Won't kick you around too much, unless you have a few of them... I'm on my fourth in about two hours, and perfectly coherent, though in no shape to drive.

Okay, so I'm no professional photographer, but I enjoy the art. Of course, neither are most of the people entering the Farktography contests either, so it doesn't much matter now, does it? Anyway, there's a theme of the week that you take pictures for, submit up to three of them, and the unwashed masses at Fark vote for the ones they like best. This is my third week entering, and it's kinda fun. Nice feeling watching the votes climb.

The thread is here. I'm Aranach on Fark. If you've got an account, go cast a vote. Or cast a vote for everybody's but mine. I don't care. It's fun. Enter next week, post the name you're entering under.

Ick. So, Bri's computer's CD burner has been acting up for some time. Quite some time. At least a year now. She's managed by using my external burner or moving stuff over the network to a different burner, but it's nice to just have one internal, you know? So, I got her a DVD burner, since mine is slow and moving stuff over the network to it is even worse. Figured I'd replace the bad drive and things would be great.

Well, what do you know, I put it in and it does the same thing. Spins up, gives a CD title sometimes, and keeps spinning like crazy, unable to read. First it was an oh great, the drive I just got was bad. Then I figure I'll poke around inside, not that I think there's much that can cause the problem. And I put the stuff in there, so I think I'd have noticed something.

Well, as it turns out, when I built the machine we moved an ancient Zip drive into it, since the University still used those things and she didn't have the external hard drive yet. Thing is, there are two hard drives in there. They sit at the bottom of the case, where there are spots for them. The Zip drive is a little 3.5" thing, so it sits in the middle, and the burner was at the top. This was a problem, because of the vast distances. Heat was the problem in the tiny case without distance problems that made me get the new, bigger case.

So, what do I find connecting them? None other than the 3 foot IDE ribbon that I managed to find somewhere in the junk I keep around. Now, IDE spec says no more than half that length. So, after a little puzzling, I disconnect the Zip, and replace the IDE cable. (Which, I'll note was not included in the Retail package, jerks.) Guess what, it works. Hook up the old drive as slave. It works. Grumbling abounds.

What I want to know though, is how we didn't notice the drive not working immediately after the switch in cases which led to the huge cable being used.

Anybody have a Flickr pro account? Is it worth the $25 a year? Anything that will permanently store photos, let me set public/private, group them and host them for me available for free? I have some 3GB of photos now and need some effective storage and backup beyond a single machine with a cable modem I think.

Walls, small spaces, too many people, blah. I'm not actually claustrophobic, I never have been. I'm just an introvert who likes his space. I may convey that poorly online, and it seems I convey that poorly in the really real world, but it's true. Crowds, too many people, and restricted personal space wear me down. I have social skills, I can interact, but apart from my closest friends, it isn't something I enjoy doing for prolonged periods of time.

I like working where I work, but it's a big company. There are a ton of people whose names I do not know in the building, and I pass any number of them daily. I have a small fuzzy cube, but thankfully work in a lab most of the time. Fortunately I like my coworkers, but there's no escape from them on a daily basis.

It seems odd, also, that I live in a city, doesn't it? I can walk to the middle of downtown in under half an hour. There's a three lane, one way road which is constantly carrying traffic in front of my apartment. I live on the same block as a coffee shop, which is busy from open to close. Always with the people.

Meh, I should set aside some time to go camping or just take a long hike in a state park or something soon. My days are packed with activities that consume rather than provide energy. I've gotta unwind with some open space, lack of people, and quiet.

Woo, I've been gainfully employed and plugging away at my career for a full year as of today. Time flies.

There was a nice little chunk of rainbow along my route into work this morning. Also, there was the sun cresting the horizon slowly behind me. And traffic was moving at the speed limit. What a nice start to the day.

Yeah, you. Think you know what you're talking about? Think you have a grip on what is going to happen in the future? Want to win stuff if you're right? Sure you do.

So Artifex wrote about it first. Owise.com. It's a little prediction community that could use help growing. Somehow I'm currently #1 on the thing, and you know that you know more than I do. Sure you do. Uh huh. Right. So go prove it.

There is stuff given away just for being right. Just three days ago they gave me and 13 other well predicting people $20 at Amazon, just for being more right than the massed and averaged prediction of the entire board. The next prizes aren't announced yet, but you need to build some history folks. You have to have a minimum level of events completed to get stuff. So what are you waiting for?

So, I'm visiting the folks this fine, long weekend. Left alone with dad for a bit of time, and somehow managed to stray to the topic of firearms. Once on the topic, we decided to go take a look at the guns the family has.

Looking through, one of mine needed a little cleaning, so we took it downstairs to perform a little routine mainenence. It's an Armi Beretta 20 Guage, double barrel, over under. It's a very nice gun, feels good in the hands, beautiful stock. Just a little dust in the barrels it seems, but best to take care of these things.

Kinda want to go shooting now. It'd be a great day for it.