Pride

My eldest daughter had her first school ballet recital today. They did an interpretation of Alice In Wonderland. Here's the little sweetheart in action:



Enjoy!

Stories from South Carolina

For those that don't know, I live in the greatest state of the union. There were two stories that came across the news tonight that proved once again just how great my state is.

First up is this little gem. For those that don't want to click the link, it shows our law-makers superior rational abilities in action. First, the background: a few weeks back, they busted up an illegal gambling operation using a law that makes "any game with cards or dice" subject to prosecution. The sponsor of the bill was concerned that similar rules would prohibit such items as Chuck-E-Cheese. However, this bill won't be making it into law due to the fact someone somewhere in our great state could instantiate a scenario that could bring back the most evil of all evils, video poker.

The second story discussed in this entry didn't earn a posting on wcbd's website, and I have to wonder why. It concerned a bill being discussed that would prevent commercial ads from being display on the insides of school buses. Regardless of how you feel about this, here's the point that I would like to make. First off, I ride CARTA to/from work and have for about two years. My employer pays the fare and today's gas prices motivate me to take advantage of this opportunity.

Now, CARTA does allow commercial ads on their buses, and I have no problem them doing this to make a buck. However, their ads only appear on the outside of the bus. True, there are some CARTA materials (including the outdated free-vet-ride one), and a few drug study recruitment posters; but there isn't anything from the .com side. I have often found this funny, because I know CARTA could (finally) make some good money allowing them on the inside.

This feeling has now been further amplified by this non-webpage worthy news, simply because I have to ask the question: Why is it when these ads can't get in front of adults, are we discussing having them in front of our children? What does this really tell us about my state's marketing priorities?

Come on down, move in today.

Hardy Hardly

Looks like Hardy won't boot on my HTPC either. I'd log a bug, but I can't seem to login to launchpad.

Things a fluttering...

The package from NewEgg arrived today. It was ordered three days ago. So far I've been happy with their service :-). They've even got a UPS Order tracker feature. What's nice about that is that you can use it for other UPS packages. The weirdest part is that it reports things *better* than the UPS one (IMO). It actually knows where the package is going while the UPS one only says where it departed from.

There's a lot of things going on for me right now. Work, School -- ending one, starting another. The daily should I do this, that, something else entirely. Home, family, all that good stuff.

But it is the fluttering in my chest that I'm focusing on the most...

I help make magic happen

I am honored to have been a part of this:

http://xark.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/04/magic-doing-wha.html


Hmmmm, I need to figure out tracebacks...

Bbbbbrrrrraaaaaiiiiinnnnnssssss

A friend of a friend is putting together a short independent movie called "Brunch of the Living Dead." He was filming the "brunch" scene today and needed extra zombies. Me and the eldest daughter decided to join and fill in some parts. Basically, it was us dragging up to the restaurant, sitting down, eating, attacking the waitresses, etc. It was a lot of fun. I'll have a post to the movie when it gets out of post-production.

Seagate Update

Got a response from Seagate a few days back. Here it is...

Response (Pranab TS200) 04/09/2008 02:25
Thank you for contacting Seagate Warranty Support.

With regards to your query, as you have mentioned that two more drive failed, we would request you to contact our online technical support team at 1-800-732-4283 from 7:00 AM - 9:00 PM (CST) Monday to Friday with option number 1 & 2 and initiate a discussion with them and if they say that the replacement drive sent from Seagate is faulty, kindly get back to us with the activity number so that we can assist you further.

However, if you are looking for the Advanced Replacement Option, we would like to inform you that you will be charged a non refundable fee of $19.99 per unit plus applicable taxes. The fee includes two days delivery service to your address depending on the availability from the time of allocation which will take approximately 24 to 48 hours, a prepaid return label to Seagate along with the appropriate packing for the return of your product.

To obtain this option kindly call us at 1-800-732-4283 Option 1, 3 & 1 (7:00 AM - 9:00 PM CST) Monday- Friday with the Visa or Master card details so that we can assist you further. Please do not provide the credit card details through email for security purpose.

We apologize for the inconvenience caused to you. Awaiting your response. For further assistance email us, we will be glad to help you.

Regards,
Justin
Seagate Warranty Support.

Of course, that justified this response:

First off, in regards to the need to contact tech support, I should inform you that I have an MS in Electrical Engineering. This means that when it comes to computers, you can trust my judgment. Both drives make a Kur-DUNK...click...click...Kur-DUNK (repeat) noise. Both of them fail the SHORT test from the "SeaTools for DOS" application. Both of them hang my system when I try to run that utility's LONG test. I feel these three items gave me enough evidence to correctly diagnosis the problem. If you really think there is something in the tech support script that I haven't already done, please let me know. However, I think I've already gone far enough in this process to know 100% that these drives have failed and need to be replaced while under warrantee.

Also, in regards to the Advance Replacement Option, I would like to inform you that I feel given my miserable experience with your company's products that Seagate should provide this service to me FREE-OF-CHARGE. Kindly write up the work order to allow this. If this is not an option that your company will utilize to keep a customer satisfied, just generate an RMA #, send me a prepaid shipping label, so I can get these drives back to you and have replacements sent out. Please know that the latter option will result in a terribly unhappy and very vocal customer.

"Justin" then coughed up a pre-paid shipping label. I guess this means Seagate is happy having terribly unhappy and vocal customers. Keep this in mind when you purchase your next hard drive.

8 out of 5 Hard Drive Failures

Well, I finally got around to mailing Seagate a letter asking for my 7th and 8th replacements. This is out of the original 5 they've sent me.

Hello, it's me again. Two (2) more drives of yours have failed on me. I've been through this process several times, but it seems the only thing your company is able to do is send me drives that fail. If you'd like to try again and send me something that will last longer than a few months, please do so.

Usually, you'll send me a pre-paid shipping label to get this process rolling. Considering the history we've had, it would be really nice if you would throw in one of those advanced processing items.

The drives that have failed this time are:

ST3500630AS 9QG225BX
ST3750640AS 3QD132TE