Stacerella

An old-time customer dropped off a load of computer equipment for us to recycle (read: send to the big industrial scrap chipper that will mulch anything into pellets), and in the load as a laptop the customer had for years before giving it to her daughter. He said he had it for five or six years and it was in mint condition. She had it four months and it looks like it took back-to-back tours of Iraq. The poor laptop looks worse for wear on the outside, but when Joe popped the lid, he started to laugh. This is what he found so funny:

Apt, no? Teen angst. Whatcha gonna do, right? The little shits are so irreverant today. :-\

I want to talk a bit about new printers that are out there on the market today. The vast majority of consumers are unaware that new printers aren’t sold or don’t ship with the USB cable to attach it to their computers.

The vast majority of new printers also come with two USB ports. One port the back (B) that will take a USB cable end that looks like a small house, and one port (A) on the front which looks like the USB ports on the sides, fronts and backs of computers and laptops.  The thing people don’t get or miss in the finer details is that front (A) USB port is for memory keys only, not the printer cable (B). The port to attach a printer cable running back to a computer will always be located in the back of the printer, not the front.

We just had a customer come in, argue with us that the USB cable needed to be indentical on both ends to go from the front of the printer to the back of the computer. That’s not how it works. Typically the USB port on the back of printers in hidden under the power cable on the back of the printer. I tried to explain that to him as Joe pointed out the front USB ports was a pictbridge port for quick photo printing from memory keys, but he wasn’t not having any of it.

He abruptly cut us off, refused to listen to our sound knowledge, and then yelled at us as he left the store, “You’re wrong!” Um, no. No we’re not. Do you go into a golf store and ask for a 5 Wood and argue that the club they are showing you is actually a putter? I didn’t think so. We sell this cable all day, every day. We also sell printers. Trust us on this one!

I assume this customer will go home, call Dell to get the overpriced cable, and when it arrives he will be pissed at them, too. Or, he will instantly realise his mistake and feel like the jackass that he is for his outburst in our store and for paying seven times what he needed to for a simple printer cable.

I would love to be a fly on his wall when it finally sinks in.

1. I’m going to just put this out there so we can get it off the table straightaway. Christian Bale and his mother… *sigh* I have a manipulative and controlling mother, too. Not to his extent, but I’m sure if I were as big in my industry as he is in his, and my mother was trying to get her way with me on my biggest night and she won’t take no for an answer, I might lose my temper as well. And, in fact I have, out of frustration at the constant bullshit. Long-time readers will remember the time I told my mother she wasn’t allowed to talk about my weight in front of me ever again after I lost it. And she hasn’t, to her credit. Also to my mother’s credit, I know for a fact that she would NOT call the cops on me for the sole purpose of embarrassing me publicly. She would be tempted, but ultimately, she would back down from that idea. And I won’t even go into the reasons I don’t talk to my own manipulative, bitchy sister, or why I don’t travel home anymore. Anyway…

2. I had the yummiest of lunches today. I made a fast and dirty guacamole made from a perfectly ripened avocado, diced tomato and S&P, and then scooped it out of the bowl with chuncks of whole wheat pita bread. Yum!! Even though I’m full, I still want to go into the back kitchen and eat the rest I put away because I’m in a piggish mood today. Hee.

3. ASUS, the motherboard manufacturer, has sent out a mass email announcing their launch of a new product called Express Gate. Check out their commerical over at YouTube.com. And there are other, longer videos decribing how it works in more detail if you are geeky enough and have time at work to burn to learn more. I think it’s an interesting idea, but the one drawback for consumers will be they won’t have the right motherboard to support it and will have to spend gobs of money to get a new board. But, hey, if we had to money to blow, I’m sure Joe would be the first one in line. He HATES to wait for anything — especially anything to do with computers!

4. The Globe & Mail has a great article about how to make a marriage work. Check it out. I love all of these tips. There is one in there about asking your spouse how their day was that shouldn’t need to apply to Joe and me since we work together, but it’s because we do that we make the time to ask each other at some point during the day. It’s a lovely list. Read it, keep it, use it.

5. Estelle Getty died today. She was 84. She will be missed. Period.

After the recent bout of thunder storms and rolling browns calmed down, we decided it was time to install our air conditioner for the summer. When we plugged it in the other day, we noticed this scorch mark from last summer that neither of us remember seeing before. Ouch. This one looks like it would hurt the appliance plugged into it, but for the life of us, we can’t recall what we plugged into it last year but we’re fairly certain it our air conditioner. Hee.

Since we figured plugging the a/c into that same outlet power splitter would be anti-good this summer after from last summer’s damage to the old one, we bought a different one on Sunday where you have to take the faceplate off of the wall so you can screw the power splitter directly into the socket. It’s been sitting on the kitchen table since because I didn’t want to unplug the plugs to all of our computer network equipment that’s buried behind my desk, and all we really wanted was to cool down the apartment when we got back from shopping, so we said it was a project for another day. We’re lazy like that.

I finally got around to installing it last night while the power was already off after I blew a fuse running the microwave, our mini bar fridge, my computer and the air conditioner at the same time. I keep forgetting that trips a power surge.

“Whoops. Did I do that?” *snort*

This is a stack of small 2.5″ hard drives, the kind you would find in a laptop. I had to call a couple this afternoon to tell them theirs was unreadable. The new bride started to cry over the phone. And then she started to sob. And then she started to wail. And then she was inaudible for the most part. Why, you ask?

It turns out she and her husband got back from their honeymoon recently and had stored not only their wedding photos on their laptop, but also their honeymoon photos, too. Those photos aren’t gone par se, but nor are they readable.

The husband mentioned when he dropped the drive off that they were talking about buying memory sticks and DVDs just last week, too, so I playfully asked him what happened to that plan like the smart-ass that I am. He chuckled the drive was in fine condition back then so they didn’t think they needed to spend the money.

People, when your hard drives are in perfect working condition, THAT’S the time to back up your precious files, information and photos!!!! I cannot stress this point enough. Don’t wait. Do it now! It doesn’t take that much time anymore, and with today’s technology, it’s easier than ever, so don’t make excuses. If you don’t know how, someone who owns a computer store will be more than happy to help you find out how to do it. Seriously. And in this day and age of information at your fingertips, there simply isn’t any excuse.

But, more importantly, please stop putting all of your faith in technology as well as all of your information and photos into your hard drives without back up copies. You’re only begging for trouble when you go that route.

Trust me on this!