extended ranting about anything
Note: Above title is supposed to be “…last week month”, but RSS feeds mess up such formatting.
It’s only been about a month since I last posted, and it became abundantly clear to me that I’m falling back into old habits. For a bit there, it seemed I had gotten over writer’s block. The ideas were flowing, the keys were tapping, and the posts were publishing.
Not for that long apparently.
But then…
I have a gift!
Admittedly, one should not expect Schindler’s List from G.I.Joe: Rise of the Cobra. Is it too much to ask for just a modicum of sense though?
Step 1: Get notified that Adobe Flash Player must be updated on PC to overcome (one if its many) significant security flaws.
Step 2: Be shown page to download and install latest version of Flash player on computer.
Step 3: Click ‘Allow’ in Firefox.
Step 4: Sudden pop-up of ‘Adobe Download Manager’, which distinctly shows that Mc-f*ckin’-Afee f*ckin’ virus scan is installing for no apparent reason.
Step 5: Open Firefox to see getPlusPlus something installed as a (1) plug-in, (2) extension. Yes. Both.
Step 5.5: Find link on update page that shows that McAfee is installed by default now. NO mention of f*ckin’ getPlusPlus BTW.
Step 6: Curse and wonder why Adobe Flash is used by the planet at all while uninstalling all the crapware because of upgrading Adobe f*ckin’ Flash f*ckin’ Player.
Step 6.5: Find entry for Adobe Download Manager (aka getPlusPlus) in ‘Add/Remove Programs’. So that I can easily install Flash. F*ckin’ Flash. A <1MB download.
Yes, Adobe f*ckin’ sucks.
Don’t even get me started on Adobe f*ckin’ Reader. That’s just bloated crapware – way too many ‘f**ks’ needed.
Update: Thanks to Wraith, there are links to get the damn thing without cursing.
Update 2: Thanks to baddra, a solution to never use Flash again (at least on YT) as well.
Update 3: Check a comment by Tim (below) to remove ‘getPlusPlus for Adobe’.
Update 4: My current method for updating Flash is to :
(1) uninstall it, (2) restart Firefox just to be safe [though you shouldn’t need to as of v3.6.4], (3) check Firefox plugins menu to make sure no Flash exists, (4) go to youtube.com, (5) get prompted to install Flash, (6) allow Firefox’s automated plugin installer to install Flash, which should then be the latest version available.
This circumvents any attempt by Adobe to put crapware on the computer via their installers. Even the file(s) provided by this page do not necessarily update Flash to the latest version properly.
No matter how many times I say it, it bears repeating: Moving SUCKS. Yes, all caps.
The only cool thing so far is that I’m driving a 10′ UHAUL truck. Heh.
Once upon a time I bought a laptop.
[I know that start is not as great as ‘Many many years ago, on a galaxy far far away..‘ but you can pretend those words appear on the line above if they mean that much to you.]
Anyway. A laptop. An HP dv2500t. Yes, the very same laptop that died on me a few days after my warranty expired.
We are getting ahead of ourselves. Let us return to the beginning of time when the laptop landed in my hands a second time. Yes, I know it is counter-intuitive to think of a ‘beginning of time’ and a ‘second time’ simultaneously, but still. In short, HP screwed up the order the first time it shipped to me. So begins the tale of them screwing up. With a screw up.
Flashback to last year. A year of heating problems and over-heating…and my graphics card is shot. I am in the middle of a conference. I need it fixed ASAP. HP charges me $300 (which I now realize I could have invested in a nice efficient little netbook), and ships it back to me pretty quickly. Everything seems fine. A month later, the edge of the panel facing me comes loose from its fastening. Repeat call to HP. They blame it on me. I think it may be possible. I don’t want to spend on it. I live with it. Over-heating still exists. Oh well. Jinxed laptop and all that.
On this trip to India, I find another good laptop engineer. Who is cheap. Amazing how everything in the US costs 10 times as much compared to India. Said engineer tries his best to open the laptop, because I think a cleaning of my laptop is overdue due to the overheating problem yada yada yada. Eventually he decides to try it in his lab. Back at the lab, and an hour later, I get a call.
[E] “Boss, they’ve applied super-glue.”
[Me] “What? HP Support? No..no..not possible. International organization, quality standards, etc etc.”
[E] “Boss, these panels are welded shut to the base. Super-glue. I’ve put in a solvent. Its coming unstuck. I’m telling you. Super-glue.”
[Me] “Ok.. great.. whatever. Open it up, clean and get it back to me. I’ll take care of it.”
So, let me get this straight. HP did not respond to my complaints (apparently, “high-end graphics cards can get pretty hot, sir”) when I said my laptop was over-heating until… my warranty expired and my video card blew. Then they replaced the entire f*cking motherboard (‘coz of their god-awesome architecture), couldn’t fix the panels back on correctly, and so used SUPERGLUE to fix it? (My engineer managed to do it just fine without superglue, btw). When it went back to overheating and the panel came loose.. somehow I am to blame. Now, why did the panel really come loose? Well, sometimes superglue doesn’t hold everything in place. Why does it still overheat? Lets see:
Putting (2) & (3) results in a crapload of heat. Adding (1) to the mix means very little is being cooled down. Adding (4) to the mix means the heat goes nowhere. Bravo for neglecting every single rule about computer architecture and heat dissipation, HP. Now for the rhetoric. Why does HP suck so? Don’t get me started.
Never buy an HP laptop ever again. That’s what I tell everyone. Even the random guy in the store who I see taking a slight interest in HP products. Every salesman I meet at an electronics store in any country. Please don’t buy HP. For the love of manufacturers that make products that actually work.
Please.
Sample crappy HP laptops: Link 1.Link 2
Update (11 Dec 2009): The damn thing has pretty much died. Information gleaned from various sources tells me (1) this nVidia chipset sucks ass, (2) HP does not know shit about heat design for high-end laptops. Having ripped mine apart, I can tell you that the GPU has some kind of rubber between it and the heatsink – instead of thermal paste. I’m just shocked it didn’t die on me earlier. Since this post is hit up a lot:
I will attempt to find out more about the copper-mod, and see what I can do. Keep updating as and when I know more.
Moving sucks. SUCKS. Period.
And that series of long titles has been in honor of Dinosaur Comics. Bloody frickin’ awesome:
How he manages to get something pretty rockin’ everyday from the same 6 sets of images.. and not make it completely random is beyond me.
On a side note, and going back to the moving thing, I have way too much stuff for a person who’s lived here for less than 3 years. Seriously.
staying.cool 