A step forward? It feels scary, so it must be.

It’s time for more change. I wake up in the morning and the sun is no longer burning at the horizon to greet me. The hot air balloons start their ascent from Sedona later and later in the day, and the temps are no longer what I would call searing. In short, the summer is drawing to an end. And with that end comes another – my adventure here in the Verde Valley.

 

I have a week and a half of working in the vineyard remaining. The harvest should be done, or close to it, by then which is the time I told myself that I should be moving on. And so I enjoy the remaining days, the picking of fruit which seems so easy compared to so many of the other tasks we’ve been given over the past five months. I joke with my co-workers about all the nonsense that we have done since I showed up, all the other people who have come and gone, and we joke about where we are all going next.

 

I joke that I will probably be back a week after I leave, out of money and begging to get a few hours a week to cover bills. And in all jokes there exists a nugget of truth. I don’t have anything lined up for the next chapter. I know I am moving to Prescott, moving in with my gal Courtney and her current roommate. I am excited about this, but at the same time terrified at the situation I am forcing on myself. No work, and no idea what is available out there. The day I move over we leave for a few days to go do some sight-seeing in southern Utah/northern Arizona. I hope that my photography mojo comes back to me up there, and that I can come back recharged and ready to rock the world. I hope that the ‘universe’ sends work my way in a timely matter. I hope that I don’t have to resort to doing computer work to make my living, although I’m not entirely against doing it if that’s what it takes to stay alive.

 

I’m scared, and I’m loving it.

It’s not often that I pray

but with all the problems I’ve had at the office today, I’m praying for 5:00.

Dancing with the stars

Of star wars. I only wish darth vader would have moon-walked.

(via)

Dell once again screws the pooch.

So remember how my laptop needed a replacement motherboard? Well on Friday I received the motherboard, and went through the process of replacing the son of a gun.

 

During this process I found out what had caused my old motherboard to die. Before I get to that though, a little information on how laptop cooling works:

You generally have 2 or 3 major sources of heat in your laptop; the CPU (Central Processing Unit) is the biggest source of heat, since it is doing all of the major processing for the computer.

 

On many computers (including my laptop) you also get a decent amount of heat from your GPU (Graphics Processing Unit). This is the guy that makes video games look good, and considerably helps take some load off of the processor when running graphics intensive applications.

 

To cool these items you have a heat sink that sits on top of them. This heat sink conducts heat very well, and is constructed so that the heat gets funneled into a set of thin fins, which have a fan blowing on them, pushing the hot air out of the computer.

 

To further assist in getting the heat from the processing units to the heat sink, you have a thin layer of thermal grease, which makes sure that there is as much contact as possible between the chip and the heat sink.

 

It looks something like this (that square at the top would sit on top of one of the processing units, and the fan blows on the fins to the left):

PHOTO CREDIT: kprogram

 

So, what was the cause of all my woes, that caused my $500 motherboard to go on the fritz?

 

Whoever assembled my laptop at Dell, failed to remove the plastic that covers the thermal grease on the GPU. So instead of conducting its heat through grease and heatsink, it was just melting a bit of plastic and overheating.

 

SERIOUSLY DELL? Again I ask; Where is the quality control? The stupid things they do never cease to amaze me. The best part was that on the replacement motherboard they sent me the GPU had a bunch of hardened junk on it when it arrived. So I had to spend 20 minutes cleaning that off before I could even re-construct the stupid thing.

 

This is the exact reason why buying the warranty on laptops is a great idea. If it weren't for the warranty, the average user would have to take this to a private shop to diagnose the problem, and pay for that labor (generally $70-100/hr) before Dell would consider sending a replacement board. And you know they would take their sweet time doing it too.

No blogging

No real blogging until next week probably. The motherboard is looking like it is bad on the work laptop, so it is not currently operational, parts should be here tomorrow.

 

Doing side work for a client, and ended up having to do a hard-as-hell data recovery (MBR Records destroyed, and the File Table got f*cked up, so many hours spent recovering files), which I need to deliver tonight. This means I need to get windows installed, and up to date so that they can start installing their programs over again.

 

Getting packed and ready to head out to California tomorrow for a Matt's Graduation from SDSU with a Masters in Accounting. Crazy bastard, but congratulations regardless!

 

We will be in Cali until Monday, at which point we come back, and then I turn around and take my Mom down to Phoenix Monday night, for her flight early the next day. Then I drive back to P-Town tuesday before work, and hopefully get my clutch squared away on wednesday.

 

Busy busy busy. :) See you all next week!

Pesky DNS lock-outs

Today I get the supreme pleasure of working out of our Chino Valley Branch office. This is nice because it is only a few short gas-guzzling miles from home.

 

It is also nice because it is quiet out here, and my phone isn't ringing much. Maybe people think I am dead?

 

One downside to working out here though, is that I don't have my very own dedicated internet connection. So now I have to go through all the same web-blockers and DNS blocker as the other employees here. The web-blockers isn't such a big deal, because hey! I'm the IT guy and I have the password to that.

 

The OpenDNS system though, is a bit more of a pain in the butt. I don't want to turn it off, since I still want the other employees to be blocked, but I also want access to my stuff without interruption.

 

The Answer? Well after 20 minutes of searching around it turns out to be totally easy. See the way that the OpenDNS system works is this:

 

1. When my computer turns on and asks for an address from the server it is provided with that address as well as a DNS Server address, which is an OpenDNS server.

 

2. Now every time I type in an address (e.g. www.tombocheck.blogspot.com) my request is re-directed through OpenDNS, where they check to see if it matches any of their qualifications for rejected sites.

 

3. That particular site is categorized as 'Blogs' and so the nice OpenDNS people re-route me to a page tell me that I am blocked.

 

So the way to get around all this is just to find a Public DNS server, and manually give my computer that address.

 

Battabing, I'm in! Now onto the cool - unfiltered internet. :)

Computer - Done

Ahh the joys of the modern internet age.

 

You wait to hook up your freshly built computer to the internet until you have installed your antivirus software.

 

Finally, antivirus software firmly planted, you connect to the wireless network at the coffee shop so that you can download the newest virus definitions right out of the box, and enjoy your latte while you do it.

 

In the fifteen minutes it takes to download those definitions, you get 2 viruses.

 

No, I'm not even freakin kidding. That's what I get for not waiting until I get to work to connect to the net this morning.

 

Oh well, I got it all cleared up, and now appear to be entirely up and running. And with the exception of lightroom (which I forgot at home) all my programs are working flawlessly now.

 

SWEET!

Windows installed

Another hour gone, but I've got XP with all the security updates and IE7 installed.

 

Now to start installing all the hardware drivers and then I can start the apps.

 

W00T!

Two hours

and 50GB of data copied to the desktop computer.

Let the re-installation of windows begin.

 

I did find an image that sums up my thoughts to an extent (just replace automatic update with microsoft in general):

Pic of the day, and god-forsaken windows

Well I did manage to get out on my lunch hour to take a few snaps. The only one that really turned out was an old Ford Ranch Wagon that was in a salvage yard. Had to work around the fencing, but I think it turned out allright:

 

On another note: My partial rebuild that I did on my laptop earlier apparently did not resolve all my problems. I am now having some serious performance issues. So tonight while DaNece is out with friends the laptop will be getting a nice reformatting and re-installing of all necessary programs. The only downside is that installing Adobe software takes FOREVER.

*SIGH*

I guess that is what I get for going the half-assed approach fixing it on monday. :)

Microsoft Woes

Well the work laptop wouldn't boot this morning. This, after loading Service Pack 3 (windows XP Pro) less than a week ago. Coincidence? I think not.

So now begins the process of trying to recover everything once again... Hooray for wasting part of my work day!

Thanks Microsoft!

A Dell rant.

Dell has some issues. I have never said that they are a perfect company, but for businesses they do offer some things that are nice.

 

Like Gold technical support. When I have a problem, I talk to somebody in America, who has no accent. I talk to people who know a lot about computers, instead of just reading the script from a diagnostic program. And when I tell them what is wrong with a machine, the just say 'Okay, I will get a new part on the way.' No beating around the bush, not quadruple checking to make sure that this is indeed the problem, and no un-necessary time spent on the phone. I would say my average service call takes 10 minutes for most basic problems.

 

These are all good things! I also have to choice of whether I want a Dell technician to install new parts, or just have the part itself shipped to install myself. This is also nice, since most Dell technicians in my area are one small evolutionary step above baboons, and aren't qualified to work a microwave, let alone replace computer components.

 

But possibly the best part of Gold tech support, is the shipping. I get my parts the next day. No matter what. They do whatever they can to make me happy. One time, they shipped me the wrong part for a server that had gone down. When I informed them of this they had a courier in go to Phoenix, wait for the correct part at the Dell warehouse, and then DRIVE it up to Prescott for me. At 10:00PM! Yes, way.

 

One thing I do not like about Dell though, is their parts. We use Optiplex systems almost exclusively for our workstations here, and Dell ended up putting faulty capacitors in many Optiplex systems. What this means is that every time a machine won't boot up, I have to strip it down to the motherboard, look for leaking capacitors, and then call dell to get a replacement motherboard.

 

Now this isn't such a big deal. Matter of fact, I'm getting really good at replacing these things (I'm up to about 40 now).  I can take one of these (bare motherboard):

 

and, in just a tick over 5 minutes, turn it into one of these (a functioning machine):

 

What IS a big deal is that many of the motherboards that they ship me have issues when they arrive. The one picture above had a bent back-plane, so the side lid wouldn't stay in place, because all the tabs that hold it there were bent out of whack. 20 minutes of bending metal later and I finally got it to stay.

 

They sent me one motherboard that had bent processor socket pins. So not only did the machine not work, but it fried a perfectly good processor when I did try to turn it on. Thanks Dell!

 

I've had them arrive with thermal grease smeared all over the board.

 

But my all-time favorite thing wrong with a motherboard shipped? Gore. Yep, Dell shipped me a nicely-packaged motherboard that was smeared with blood. Not just on some capacitors or on the mounting plate. No, there was blood INSIDE the CPU socket, memory sockets, fan connector, and spattered throughout the rest of the entire thing. No, I am not even kidding.

 

Seriously? What technician cuts himself, shakes the resulting carnage all over an electronic device, then packages it up and calls it good-to-go for a customer? I opened that puppy up, took one look at it, and sent it right back to dell with a note that said "Abortion should be the customer's choice."  Okay, I didn't send the note, but I totally should have.

 

I would say that out of the 40 or so motherboards I have replaced, 10 have had a problem of some sort. 25% problem rate? Come on Dell, look at the freakin things before you ship them to me!! Otherwise you are wasting your postage money, and more importantly, MY TIME!

Great Commercial

The folks at Dove made this commercial a while back (most of you have probably seen it):

 

 

Well, Fosters Farms have outdone themselves with this parody ad:

I enjoy the weirdest things...

*Warning* - Geekiness ahead. Ye be warned.

I will admit that my job is not very hard. I'm still wondering why they haven't replaced me with a trained monkey that knows how to replace a toner cartridge and restart computers. That would cover about 90% of what I do.

 

Every now and then though, I am presented with a bit of a challenge. Like a printer that is making noises that it shouldn't. Now, when your home inkjet printer makes a weird noise, generally you don't worry about it until it stops printing right? Well it's a little different with the laser printers at the office. When the printer costs $2,500, you want to make sure to nip weird noises in the bud as early as possible.

 

The thing I like about working on printers is that sometimes you have to play detective. Turn it on, and put your ear all over like a doctor with a stethoscope. Try it with the paper trays in and out. Try it with no toner cartridge. Start taking off panels and see if you can find out where the noise is coming from.

 

So, on the particular unit that brings this post about, one of the items that often causes noise and is easy to replace is the fuser. Pop the old one out, put a new one in: 10 minutes and you are done. However in this case the noise persisted.

 

After tearing off as many panels and items as I could while still allowing the printer to function, I decided that it was the main drive assembly causing the high pitched squeal. But of course this part of the machine is behind all the electronics, drive motors, and fans, so I was just taking my best guess that this was the problem:

 

So I email my suspicions to my boss, who approves the purchase of $50 (thank goodness, a cheap part for once!!!) for the part. A few days later and it is time to install.

 

*An Important Note* - I am not an HP certified technician, and do not have any real experience of repairing printer. It is kind of like working on my truck - I just figure it out as I go. My boss seems to like this, since it saves us the $150/hr bill that an HP certified technician would charge for the same work.

 

So I start the tear-down, and I come upon this, the real challenge; the control board with about 30 plugs on it.

 

Of course some of these wires are soldered to both the printer and the control board, so I can't completely remove it from the printer, and it is forced to hang in my way for the rest of the install. Then I start wrangling all the wiring out of my way so I can get another layer deeper.

 

About 1/2 hour later and it looks like this:

 

At this point I stopped taking pictures and just dug in. Out with the old drive assembly, in with the new. And start the hour long process of putting it all back together (and cleaning some other items as I go).

 

So after 2 hours (saving the company $325 in repair labor that HP quoted for the work) it looks just like this one, which is to say that it looks like a whole printer again:

 

Then the best part: turning it on. I will admit: often times I don't even care if it is still noisy, so long as it works AT LEAST AS GOOD AS IT DID WHEN I STARTED. There is nothing worse than breaking additional parts and having to make un-necessary purchases to fix my fuck-ups.

In this case, she fired right up AND  the noise was gone!!! Hoooraaay!!!

 

So is it sick that this is probably going to be the highlight of my month at work? I had a lot of fun tearing this thing down!

E-Mail Nazi

Here at work, I'm in charge of making sure that the employees don't send out too much junk mail. Junk mail includes funny jokes, stupid chain letters, and those adorable picture emails that you just can't help but open and forward to everybody in the contacts list.

 

One that invariably comes through multiple times a month is the Painted Cats E-Mail. It includes such darling images as this:

These images are pulled from the book: Why Paint Cats: The Ethics of Feline Aesthetics.

 

What I fail to understand, is why people just blindly believe that people spend $3k to paint a cat. Isn't it just a little more believable that somebody photoshopped a bunch of cats, and made a spoof book about painting your cat? I mean seriously.... anybody consider this?

 

I understand that it is cute and cuddly and might make warm fuzzy feelings in your stomach to think of this as real:

 

But it isn't real. Now stop clogging up your work's email server with this junk. Or if it doesn't go through to your 20 best friends, don't call the IT guy to ask what is wrong with the server. Otherwise he might just disable your account...

No blogging for a few days

I will be moving an office at work for the next few days, so probably no new posts until next week. Have a great weekend everybody!

Well my work laptop took a Crap today. So six hours later and i almost have it all rebuilt, and should soon be able to Blog from it again.