Diary: March 2008

Happy Birthday To Me!

I've just realised it's 10 years to the day that I first heard the dulcet tones of my 56k modem dialing in to Force 9, so it's my 10th internet birthday today, and my 25th real life birthday on Saturday (thanks for all the comments!)

I had an awesome real-life birthday over the weekend - Leela took me to London, we stayed in a fancy hotel, saw Chicago, went on the London Eye and to the natural history, science and imperial war museums, visited the Tate modern, wandered along Oxford street (although couldn't find anything to buy ...

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Monitor Sadness

As I mentioned at the start of the year, my shiny monitor has a broken power button, which - as all monitor aficionados will know - is the most important button. However, I have a 3 year monitor replacement contract, so I rang up Dell and the new one should be arriving today.

Excellent news, in theory. A bit overkill if you ask me, replacing the whole thing for a broken bit of plastic, but you know me - I'm not one to complain.

The only thing is, my replacement is probably going to be a dirty stinkin' refurb. That makes me ...

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Monitor Joy

So my replacement screen arrived yesterday. I boxed up my old screen first thing in the morning before I started work, and spent most of the day on my laptop - but more on that later.

The guy rolled up at about 4pm, but the return label was on the new box, so we had to unpack my old screen and put it in the box the new one came in. Bit ridiculous, but I can see the sense in it. It all happened so fast - he had it packed and in his van before I'd barely had a chance ...

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Are Laptop Batteries Supposed To Squeak?

My Vaio Z1XMP is approaching its fourth birthday, but sadly it doesn't look like it'll make it.

Over those four years it has picked up its fair share of minor blemishes - the plastic wrist rest area has come away, the screen has been pressed too hard at some point, so isn't a consistent brightness. Little things, like the broken space bar spring. Then there were the inherent problems, like lack of CPU power or lack of screen brightness when on battery. Or that it gets so hot it actually burns my legs if I don't put ...

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