staying.cool

i’m not exactly sure why i’m not working right now.. my guess is, i’m a tad afraid of burnout. the last 2 weeks have been pretty mental from the POV of work.. and its only getting crazier from here on in.

ironically, i was planning to write about something here.. but can’t remember what it was for the life of me.
dammit, i hate it when that happens.

its all a bit of a blur to me right now. there was a point where living in the lab seemed a better option than home. a lot more work would get done, anyway. one would think that time management is the issue.. which it isn’t so much. its more a question of the time in hand being enough for the work in question.

the list of movies to be watched only grows, they are being stored now at any rate. the chances of me having the 2-odd hours for them in the near future seems remote.. even if i did spend nearly 2 hours watching the ‘justice league’ today. the last movie i watched afresh was ‘guru’, which was pretty damn good. the bachchan baby finally establishes his own footprint, in a totally different way from his fathers’. mani ratnam remains one of the best storytellers around.. if only he’d leave the masala he seems to need to cater to nowadays out of his movies. hearken back to ‘roja’.. the passion glows. unafraid to pull the punches at any point. sheer brilliance. why have a ms. sherawat in the movie ? to show us she is unafraid to belly dance ?
any one of a multitude of things could be talked about now. not one of them being the item of interest i had for this post.

a pointless post. i think i’ll end here. its already superfluous, with these words…

in other news, free coffee, and free OSes. interesting how you end up paying anyway.

gizmocall is allowing upto 10 free minutes of calling anywhere in the world. i believe gizmo project is required to be used by the person you are calling.. but check it out !

oh, and thats from within the web browser. i think the web OS is well on its way..

for all my work on my lab computer; as much as a core 2 duo desktop processor runs, as great as 2-odd gig of ram makes the computer run, the tft screen… and so on and on and on.. at the end of it all working on my own laptop, is a feeling that just can’t be beat.

awesome.

and the next one… any suggestions for the best laptop around today ?

update: and due to my ridiculously ambivalent wording.. here it is in full: adapter here, alienware back, me happy.

irony has never sounded so sweet.

my alienware was on my lap, humming along merrily, having 1.25 gig of RAM felt good.. very good. charging was on, i was not against draining its battery to the very limit of its ability. eventually, the plugpoint was needed for more mundane usage, and so i yielded.

over the next few hours, i continued intermittent usage, mindful of the fact that i was using the poor thing after more than 2 days.. lab work has led me to be increasingly reliant on my desktop there. working on the alienware was a whole different story though.. this was a machine i had customized from the build up.

eventually, the battery showed signs of weakening.. i casually connected the charger and continued work. a cursory glance a little while later told me that it was not charging. damned loose connection. everything tested… still no go. yeagh. everything pulled out this time, the charger inspected very carefully.. reconnected.. and the LED on the damned thing doesn’t turn on. funny, the plugpoint seemed to be working fine a couple of minutes ago. a different plugpoint - same result. damnation.

it was now very apparent to me that the adapter was on the blink. repeated efforts didn’t have any effect, and so i whipped out the phone to call 1-800-ALIENWARE. 4th call in a year. it was a year ?! hmm.. vague remembrances of service/warranty contracts come to the mind. i should be safe, though.

eventually, self-identification done, the alienware rep confirms that the adapter, is indeed, at fault. no problem, replacements can be ordered. umm.. warranty.. has apparently expired 20 days ago. excellent. (renewal is impossible, and anyway, waaaay overpriced.) hmm.. model number: m5500. out of production. brilliant. parts aren’t as available anymore. what of a faulty part then ? an external supplier should be able to give me what i need. price check on adapter - one hundred fucking dollars. superb. you’ve got to be kidding me.

so my adapter apparently conked on me within 20 days of my not renewing the service contract, my model is out of production, and hence a simple AC adapter was going to cost me a $100 dollars.

also known as the answer to ‘define: ironic’.

[luckily, the very helpful rep found an adapter he could supply to me, which should work with my system.. and its to cost me $20.]