Does Technology Really Hate Me, and Other Funstuffs!
So... I think in two weeks I have "lost" two laptops... My main machine (which is a laptop) decided to completely die... toast... I was responding to some stupid work email (from home) and then pooof... it stopped working... done ka put... tried to start it up... nada... took out the battery, and it started ALMOST to a splash screen... then dead... I noticed the charging indicator wasn't lit up... Nope... it wasn't... it was completely dead! Being the nerd that I am, what do you think I did? I got out my trusty set of screwdrivers, and started to disassemble... about 40 minutes later, I had a stripped down laptop... and probably about 30 screws on my desk... lovely... quick visual check and nothing seemed to be bad... I was super convinced it was power distribution related, so I used a meter to trace from the DC input past the lovely bulk caps, and through as much of the power related circuitry that I could figure out... Long story put short, for the discrete ICs that I could find data sheets for... their Vcc/GND potential was next to nothing... lovely... and because of the non-modular nature of this lovely design... I'm near certain that my system board will be replaced... I used to work in the warranty division for a company that had no where NEAR the turn out of HP, and most of the repairs were done at a system level to ensure speed of return to the customer... The old equipment was kept around for refurbished units once it had gone through trouble shooting and regression... I'll have no clue what they did, but really... I don't care that much... It's in their hands, and they already took my money... I just want it to work so I don't have to shell out the cash for a new machine.
Second casualty... IBM laptop... my first real laptop that I could actually use for productivity sakes... it always had a problem (since I got it) where the backlight would sometimes decide that it got tired, and turn off (not in a controlled fashion)... to get it to come back, I'd basically close and open the lid... I never payed much attention to this since well... I knew how to get it to work again... So since the HP lappy broke, I've been using the IBM in addition to the desktop machine I'm currently writing here from... I got home from a friend's place and turned the IBM on... everything came up... the screen was quite dark... so I did my old close/open trick... nope that didn't work... did that a bunch of times... nope... nothing... so... like a good engineering nerd that had been completely fed up with technology, I ripped IBM apart (a much MUCH better serviceable design than the aforementioned HP)... poked at the inverter and boy... when you get 0.0 volts across what I assumed to be Vcc/GND (the thickest flex traces)... that tells you something! I pulled out the cable there, and there is a beautiful clean crack down the center of the stinkin' flex cable! I've always felt flex cables to be quite reliable (believe it or not)... They are great materials for many different tasks... I just wonder if they ever did a failure analysis on this particular component. No big deal... ebay has everything anyone would ever want... I got one... when it arrives I'll probably have the HP laptop back... either way, it was only a few bucks and probably about 20 minutes worth of putzin' around...
So... what's been good lately? I think that lots have been good... I might work in reverse, starting with the earliest news and going to the oldest... Just today I went the the GCCIS commencement. It was alright... I didn't particularly care for the college delegate this year as I have in previous years... but whatever, it's his legacy that he'll have to live with. I saw many good friends that deserve to go across the stage finally do it. It feels good when you know that you now have more of your friends able to start a new life. Of all of them, only a handful of them are stickin' around for more education... it's their choice though... In some ways I'd have liked to earn my PhD, and HP did discuss it with me a good deal... I just decided that I wanted to be exposed to what I can learn from the industry. I'll go back to school, no doubt about it... I doubt it will be for a PhD... I'm industry oriented... I went to RIT for a reason... That reason was to get a job! THAT is why people should go to RIT. If you're considering RIT (and I really don't know who that reads this would be) and open yourself up and say, for example "I might want to do advanced research in..." you might want to rethink your choice in schools... Right now RIT is trying ever so hard to create a strong research program, but this just blows me away... It's a total divergence from the CORE of what made RIT the place to be when they started in a shack in downtown Rochester like 180 years ago (so maybe all that is an exaggeration, you get the point). Don't fix what's not broken!!! So that was my little divergence from the fact that I attended the really long ceremony...
The night before that, Good Dave (I'm Bad Dave), Joe, and myself met up with some Work/FIRST friends, and caught Pirates 3... I liked it... some good plot... some good humor... good effects... I really enjoyed it! So now I'm wondering if a 4th one is in the future... Maybe after I'm done ranting here, I'll ask Google. After Pirates, we went to building 0 (the affectionate name that I as well as many friends call a local bar really named Mac Greggor's) to meet up with a friend of mine, Kim. She was one of the people that walked across the stage today. Sure she's been working for about a year, none the less, this is a bit more closure for her, although she does still have to take two more classes and finish/defend her Master's project... in my opinion that's a bit much... but she's a big girl... she can do what she wants... I was really glad to get a chance to hang out with her. It was also really cool. When we were both in school we talked every now and then, but last night it was really cool. While we were at the bar, I saw Julie as well... I miss her lot... Sure she has a boyfriend... It's not really my call but at least he's much cooler/nicer than her last boyfriend Ali... Thank God... We all did a round of shots, and ended up closing out the bar! Enough of that... let's keep rewinding!
I've been trying to get my car registered in NYS... that hasn't been going too well... lovely eh? At least I got my license and insurance all taken care of though!
Recently I saw Rob Veiders at building 0... I'm glad that I saw him... He's another face that I was glad to see graduating... he deserves it... On a thursday night we had a great time filled with much alcohol... Dave told me not to have any more that evening before he left... I actually pretty much for the most part listened cause he was right... Though Rob and I did play a game of pool that these kids bet a pitcher on... We won, so I just HAD to have my victory drink/toast!
The only other thing that's particularly new is that I now have upgraded from my twin bed, to this queen sized thing that's amazing to sleep on! What can I say? It was about time... the old be is in my "office" type room, and if you ever come and visit, I at least have a bed for ya!
Anyways... I think it's time to head off... I'll post more often as I get angrier, and happier, and well just whenever!
Second casualty... IBM laptop... my first real laptop that I could actually use for productivity sakes... it always had a problem (since I got it) where the backlight would sometimes decide that it got tired, and turn off (not in a controlled fashion)... to get it to come back, I'd basically close and open the lid... I never payed much attention to this since well... I knew how to get it to work again... So since the HP lappy broke, I've been using the IBM in addition to the desktop machine I'm currently writing here from... I got home from a friend's place and turned the IBM on... everything came up... the screen was quite dark... so I did my old close/open trick... nope that didn't work... did that a bunch of times... nope... nothing... so... like a good engineering nerd that had been completely fed up with technology, I ripped IBM apart (a much MUCH better serviceable design than the aforementioned HP)... poked at the inverter and boy... when you get 0.0 volts across what I assumed to be Vcc/GND (the thickest flex traces)... that tells you something! I pulled out the cable there, and there is a beautiful clean crack down the center of the stinkin' flex cable! I've always felt flex cables to be quite reliable (believe it or not)... They are great materials for many different tasks... I just wonder if they ever did a failure analysis on this particular component. No big deal... ebay has everything anyone would ever want... I got one... when it arrives I'll probably have the HP laptop back... either way, it was only a few bucks and probably about 20 minutes worth of putzin' around...
So... what's been good lately? I think that lots have been good... I might work in reverse, starting with the earliest news and going to the oldest... Just today I went the the GCCIS commencement. It was alright... I didn't particularly care for the college delegate this year as I have in previous years... but whatever, it's his legacy that he'll have to live with. I saw many good friends that deserve to go across the stage finally do it. It feels good when you know that you now have more of your friends able to start a new life. Of all of them, only a handful of them are stickin' around for more education... it's their choice though... In some ways I'd have liked to earn my PhD, and HP did discuss it with me a good deal... I just decided that I wanted to be exposed to what I can learn from the industry. I'll go back to school, no doubt about it... I doubt it will be for a PhD... I'm industry oriented... I went to RIT for a reason... That reason was to get a job! THAT is why people should go to RIT. If you're considering RIT (and I really don't know who that reads this would be) and open yourself up and say, for example "I might want to do advanced research in..." you might want to rethink your choice in schools... Right now RIT is trying ever so hard to create a strong research program, but this just blows me away... It's a total divergence from the CORE of what made RIT the place to be when they started in a shack in downtown Rochester like 180 years ago (so maybe all that is an exaggeration, you get the point). Don't fix what's not broken!!! So that was my little divergence from the fact that I attended the really long ceremony...
The night before that, Good Dave (I'm Bad Dave), Joe, and myself met up with some Work/FIRST friends, and caught Pirates 3... I liked it... some good plot... some good humor... good effects... I really enjoyed it! So now I'm wondering if a 4th one is in the future... Maybe after I'm done ranting here, I'll ask Google. After Pirates, we went to building 0 (the affectionate name that I as well as many friends call a local bar really named Mac Greggor's) to meet up with a friend of mine, Kim. She was one of the people that walked across the stage today. Sure she's been working for about a year, none the less, this is a bit more closure for her, although she does still have to take two more classes and finish/defend her Master's project... in my opinion that's a bit much... but she's a big girl... she can do what she wants... I was really glad to get a chance to hang out with her. It was also really cool. When we were both in school we talked every now and then, but last night it was really cool. While we were at the bar, I saw Julie as well... I miss her lot... Sure she has a boyfriend... It's not really my call but at least he's much cooler/nicer than her last boyfriend Ali... Thank God... We all did a round of shots, and ended up closing out the bar! Enough of that... let's keep rewinding!
I've been trying to get my car registered in NYS... that hasn't been going too well... lovely eh? At least I got my license and insurance all taken care of though!
Recently I saw Rob Veiders at building 0... I'm glad that I saw him... He's another face that I was glad to see graduating... he deserves it... On a thursday night we had a great time filled with much alcohol... Dave told me not to have any more that evening before he left... I actually pretty much for the most part listened cause he was right... Though Rob and I did play a game of pool that these kids bet a pitcher on... We won, so I just HAD to have my victory drink/toast!
The only other thing that's particularly new is that I now have upgraded from my twin bed, to this queen sized thing that's amazing to sleep on! What can I say? It was about time... the old be is in my "office" type room, and if you ever come and visit, I at least have a bed for ya!
Anyways... I think it's time to head off... I'll post more often as I get angrier, and happier, and well just whenever!
posted by Dave at 9:22 PM
1 Comments:
Daaaavvveeee Burlone! You nerd! I can't believe that you took apart two laptops and found dismal failures in both of them. That's why I'm holding onto my trusty multi-meter even post graduation.
It sounds like things are going well in your life and you're meeting some interesting people. I'm glad! You deserve to be surrounded with awesomeness.
Post a Comment
<< Home