December 1st, 2001

kyrielle: painterly drawing of a white woman with large dark-blue-framed glasses, hazel eyes, brown hair, and a suspicious lack of blemishes (Default)
Saturday, December 1st, 2001 09:22 am
Ahem.

It said it wouldn't be redelivered until Monday.

But IBM apparently stickered it for Saturday delivery if needed (even though the original delivery date was Saturday).

So it arrived, just now. I have my laptop.

And I can't do a bloody thing about it right now, because I have less than a half hour to my contacts appointment. But it's here!
kyrielle: painterly drawing of a white woman with large dark-blue-framed glasses, hazel eyes, brown hair, and a suspicious lack of blemishes (Default)
Saturday, December 1st, 2001 12:58 pm
Man. I'm at work now. Though still eating my McDonald's lunch, not yet working.

Wow is the weather impressive. Rain and wind like crazy. I had to chase my umbrella across the parking lot. It inverted and pulled out of my hand. Of course, so much for keeping my purse and (old) laptop case dry...yipes. Everything was soaked. But I did catch the umbrella.

I have my new laptop along, to configure, but I couldn't carry it that trip. It's still in my trunk and it can STAY there. Aie, this weather.

I'm concerned about the laptop, actually; 128 of the memory was shipped separate. I hope there's a spot for it. If not, I'll have to call back and complain about the salesthing, because I was told it would have 512 inside it when I got it. (Well, unless there's 512 inside plus spare memory.)

Still, it's here. That's good.

I'm actually typing this with my contacts in. Got both of them in on my own, adjusted to them within about half an hour. Have to take them out anywhere from an hour from now to three hours, since this is the first day--

--crap, just got paged. Later.
kyrielle: painterly drawing of a white woman with large dark-blue-framed glasses, hazel eyes, brown hair, and a suspicious lack of blemishes (Default)
Saturday, December 1st, 2001 01:19 pm
Hehehe. At least it was an easy page. Server at (site) losing system-connection every 15 minutes.

I was almost sure before I went in. That's too like clockwork.

Yep, the screensaver's back, and slucking down all the resources we need. They have no idea who put it on, but it's coming off, and now one more supervisor knows that seeing a screensaver on that machine means Bad News.

Gah. My fries are cold. :P
kyrielle: painterly drawing of a white woman with large dark-blue-framed glasses, hazel eyes, brown hair, and a suspicious lack of blemishes (Default)
Saturday, December 1st, 2001 01:57 pm
Robert Tools received a self-contained artificial heart in a clinical trial; he was the first recipient. He had not very long to live, probably; and they said at the time they believed the trial would be a success if he lived 60 days, instead of the expected time. He lived almost six months, dying today.

And the person/people who wrote the article about it got their statements mixed up pathetically.

For example:

Robert Tools, the world's first recipient of a self-contained artificial heart,...

Then, near the bottom of the article, they add:

Tools was the sixth person to receive the artificial heart.

Geesh. I know there were six trials approved, but he was the first, guys. The story fascinated me at the time, so at least I know which one of these sentences is right.

And this sentence should be taken out and shot, for fairly obvious reasons:

Tools was first introduced to the media back in July, more than a month after receiving the transplant in August.
kyrielle: painterly drawing of a white woman with large dark-blue-framed glasses, hazel eyes, brown hair, and a suspicious lack of blemishes (Default)
Saturday, December 1st, 2001 03:05 pm
I am home. I will work from home. I forgot.

There is no heat in the office, on weekends, unless we ask for it in advance and pay for it.

I was so cold I was sitting on my feet, and sometimes my hands.

I came home. Enough is enough; I have a laptop (two, right now, but only one useful to work), and I will work here.

At least I should be warm again soon.
kyrielle: painterly drawing of a white woman with large dark-blue-framed glasses, hazel eyes, brown hair, and a suspicious lack of blemishes (Default)
Saturday, December 1st, 2001 06:07 pm
Or at least their salespeople. Tech support (the only ones available on a weekend, apparently) seemed reasonably competent.

See, I said I wanted to end up with 512 meg of memory in the machine, and was going to use the free 128 upgrade. (Start w/128, 128 more, see? Halfway there?) So the guy sold it that way, with a 256 upgrade as well. Assured me it had three slots.

It has two. And the configuration people never wondered why they were shipping a laptop with both slots filled and a spare 128?

*sighs* I won't type out what I think of them, it's not worth the effort. But tech support told me I could go ahead with setting it up, and the memory thing could be solved by swapping both 128's for a 256. The question is how much I'll have to pay or fight to do this.

It had better not be much.

I have long since wished I'd bucked the company's desires and gotten a Vaio. At this point, I'd rather never deal with IBM again. I hate them. I hate their sales people, mostly. And I still haven't found out the final answer to the XP upgrade thingy (since I haven't turned the laptop on).

I'm not sure I want to. I wish I'd never heard of IBM fucking thinkpads. It's light. It's sleek. It's made by a company whose salesforce is screamingly incompetent.
kyrielle: painterly drawing of a white woman with large dark-blue-framed glasses, hazel eyes, brown hair, and a suspicious lack of blemishes (Default)
Saturday, December 1st, 2001 06:52 pm
What's in my purse? Short form: way too much.

Have a look )
kyrielle: painterly drawing of a white woman with large dark-blue-framed glasses, hazel eyes, brown hair, and a suspicious lack of blemishes (Default)
Saturday, December 1st, 2001 09:18 pm
Guess I had bad luck on the servers there.

So which cookies are valid? Are the fudge ones valid? Chocolate chip? Peanut butter? What about oatmeal-raisin?

Inquiring minds want to know.