In the ongoing saga of My Compaq nw9440 laptop, the DC power cable coming from my power supply developed a break and subsequently caused the repeated full draining of my battery, which will now not charge above 49%. So I decided to try the online chat system and see if it works on Firefox/Linux - which, amazingly, it does. I tried to use it less than a year ago and was rebuffed, so I took this to be an encouraging sign. You'd think that by this point in my life, I would know better...
In the world of computers there are innumerable small devices which cost practically nothing to make and which typically cost a ton of cash when you buy them retail, especially adapters and cables. The internet has driven down the price of such devices by making them more readily available, and you can get widgets to adapt all kinds of signals into all kinds of other signals. Still, there are low prices, and there are really low prices, and there are really low prices with no shipping charges, which brought me to DealExtreme. The story, unfortunately, is not entirely a happy one.
The following is an alternate version (a bit more wordy) of a review I wrote for travelpost about a visit to Comfort Inn at 5370 Clayton road in Concord, CA.
My lady stayed in this place and said she hated it, but we tried to get a place up the road and all the rooms were booked. It must have been because everyone else knew about this place, because it's Feb. 20th and nothing special is going on here. This is by far the LOUDEST hotel I've stayed in, which includes venues in Santa Cruz and Las Vegas. Outside noise is absolutely intolerable, and because of the neighborhood this place is in you can expect to hear loud engines, tires screeching, and horns honking all night (I did.)
This is not, repeat not an ad for any particular auto parts website. This is a condemnation of Kragen, Napa, and other such auto parts stores. Especially Napa because I extra-special hate them, but really, they all have to pay.
These days it seems like there's an infinite number of laptop brands to choose from - perhaps staffed by an infinitude of monkeys. Actually, based on my experiences with laptops and the lack of quality of their hardware, this seems like a fairly generous estimate - I would actually place the average engineer somewhere down around slime molds. Having now owned and worked on laptops from most major vendors (and a number of minor ones) I have a few observations to offer - especially in light of today's labor.
Today while trying to figure out how to use two graphics packages, I discovered that people without internet connections apparently don't deserve documentation. I am still ignorant of how to rotate shapes in both Inkscape and Xara LX (two programs that will never ever challenge any real vector graphics software) assuming it's even possible, because the documentation is provided as a web link.
Today, parallel gasoline-hybrids are often touted as a cleaner, greener alternative despite the simple fact that avoiding purchasing a new car and sticking with your old one saves more energy and environmental impact in almost all cases. Rather than using the new technology to simplify the vehicle, hybrids are more complicated than their predecessors, and the results are not positive. The added weight of the electrical system means that the vehicle is either unusually heavy, or unusually expensive due to the necessity of balancing weight and crash safety. And the hybrid power system, most especially the batteries, comes at a substantial cost premium as well as substantially increasing environmental impact.
Yes friends, it is time for another tedious rant on the subject of sport utility vehicles. Those who are interested, read on. Everyone else will please step along smartly, thankyou.
In the continued saga of my 1993 Impreza LS, the fuel pump crapped out for real this morning (cycling the key on and off repeatedly did nothing) so I ended up having to swap it. I haven't fastened down the carpet since the last time I looked at it, so it was a fifteen minute job or so. The replacement is from a 1995 (IIRC) Legacy, but pretty much all Subarus use the little JECS canister pump also used by Nissans and such and only earlier, FWD Subarus have less displacement (and thus presumably less fuel delivery) than my '93 LS. This swap is even easier than on (for example) the 240SX because Subaru uses a slick connector for the fuel pump and sender. This connector, which is male on the outside, also has two male connectors on the inside, into which the sender and pump plug separately.