Category: General

PowerBook woes

My 15″ Powerbook G4 died in various interesting ways yesterday.

It’s been making a scary buzzing noise for months, but yesterday the hard drive gave up the ghost. While doing some diagnostics in its death throes, I also noticed that I seem to be suffering from the logic board failure that causes half your memory to go AWOL. Not sure which of those was responsible for the buzzing noise (if either)– will find out when I replace the disk in the next day or two, I guess.

Of course, Apple being Apple, they’ll only admit that the logic board was faulty on a certain range of PB G4s, with serial numbers from W8503xxxxxx to W8518xxxxxx… and three guesses whose is a W8502. So no free repair for me.

I guess that leaves me three possibilities (four if you count “do nothing and hope it doesn’t get any worse”)… sell my 2x512Mb memory sticks and replace them with a 1xGb stick in the ‘good’ slot (and hope none of the more serious symptoms of the failure appear); purchase AppleCare now for €450, even though I’ll only get a year out of it now rather than three, and have it repaired under that; or pay the somewhat ludicrous €690+ that my local Apple authorised repair shop quoted me. Hrmm.

Edit: D’oh, just realised you can only buy AppleCare within a year of purchase, of course. Just have to cross my fingers for a while then, I think 🙂

Shaun of the Slightly Dreadful

Got around to watching Shaun of the Dead this Hallowe’en… had the DVD kicking around since this time last year. Turned out to be a bit of an over-hyped duffer, really… but should have expected that, I’ve yet to see anything with Simon Pegg in it that’s particularly amusing. (He seems to be one of those people whose coolness reputation has been built more on appearing in cult TV shows than from actually being hugely funny.)

Phishing ingenuity

Have seen it all now… got this phishing email today that actually includes a snail mail address to send your money to, just in case you’re too “clever” to click on the link.

 

Account On-hold: Please pay
your eBay fees today

Dear member:

You are late in paying your eBay fees of $718.28 and
your account for user kahlocjd is past due. These
fees result from listing items on eBay or using
related services (ID verify, Stores, etc).

This account has been
restricted and you will not be able to bid or list on eBay. To avoid further collections please pay your fees today by
following these steps:

1. Log on to [dodgy phishing link deleted]
2. Click ‘Site Map’ at the
top of the page
3. In the ‘My Selling Account’ section, click ‘Make a Single
Payment’. Sign in if requested
4. Select a
method to pay your eBay fees and follow the online instructions on page

If you do not have
access to your account or prefer not to pay online, please mail your payment
with your payment coupon and clearly state your account ID E286455801001 on the
check with a copy of this notice to:

eBay, Inc.
P.O. Box 2179
Carol Stream, IL 60132-2179
United
States

If we do not receive your payment, your account may be suspended and
additional collections remedies may be used to bring this account to current.
All current listings will be ended and you will no longer be part of the eBay
community.

If this past due balance is the only reason for restricting your account, it
will be reopened for bidding and listing when your full payment is received.
Your account will continue to be charged a late payment finance charge of up to
1.5% of your past due amount.

Thank you,
eBay Global Collections



All set… ish

So, here starteth my last week’s work as a single bloke. The next time I sit at my desk on a Monday (the first one in October), it’ll be with a resized-but-still-doesn’t-really-quite-fit ring on my wedding finger, if I haven’t managed to lose it on a South African beach by then.

The arrangements have been far from smooth, and I’m secretly regretting not having a stag night1, but otherwise (largely thanks to Julie) things are about as organised as they’re going to be before Saturday week. Speaking as someone who generally hates weddings2, churches and being the centre of attention, I’d be lying if I said I was completely psyched up for the occasion just yet, but I’m sure the end will justify the means!

Now, back to all that work stuff I need to finish before I disappear for a month…

1A choice I made partly because most of the people I’d want to invite are scattered too thinly and widely around the planet to have any chance of attracting a critical mass, partly because stag nights in Dublin aren’t quite so appealing when you live here and have to wade through scores of them any night you go into town, and partly because the majority of frat house stag night antics have never held much allure for me anyway. As many pints as I could squeeze in at GUADEC was the closest I managed instead, but I’d have been having those anyway, and there wasn’t exactly much chance of a final fling there now, was there? :o)

2Don’t ask me why, I’ve just always had a strange aversion to them– I won’t even watch them in films or on the telly, if I can avoid it!

The indisputable leader

Cool, there’s a Top Cat cartoon on TV just now without the canned laughter. God Bless the BBC1! I wonder if they’ll get the same backlash when they revert that they did when they accidentally showed a chortle-augmented episode of M*A*S*H?

1 When I was a lad, they wouldn’t even call it “Top Cat” in the listings, because there was a cat food on the market at the time with the same name…

"Don’t you just love being in control?"

I don’t know who designed the heating system in our house, but they could do with attending a usability course or two.

We have a gas combi boiler, which has three controls. One is a master on/off switch, with two settings– “off” and “radiators” (according to the icons). The second is a thermostat, with no numerical legend, just another “radiator” icon. The third is a 24-hour timer with those annoying tiny pins you have to pop in and out, which also has its own three-setting on/off switch (on, off and timed).

On top of that, there’s a thermostat in the hall with temperature markings on it, and a lever beside the hot tank to switch between “radiators and water” and “water only”. Add to that the variable controls on the radiators themselves, and it certainly becomes quite a challenge to decide what to adjust when you’re feeling a bit chilly.

Anyway, right now we have it set to “water only”, and all the radiators are off, as it’s 25C+ outside most days at the moment. This morning, I went for a shower (which takes the water from the hot tank), and there was no hot water…. the combi boiler hadn’t come on in the early hours like it was supposed to. Went downstairs, checked the gas supply on the cooker… fine. Switched the timer switch from ‘timed’ to ‘on’, which should light the gas immediately… nothing. Tried switching the boiler off and back on again… nothing. Pressed the Reset button… nothing. The boiler doesn’t have a pilot light, so I knew that wasn’t the problem. And the front is screwed on, which suggested I shouldn’t really try poking around in it.

Was on the verge of calling a heating engineer when I decided that the only control I hadn’t played with was the thermostat in the hall, which was set to a reasonable enough 24C (if you disregard the fact that the radiators are turned off anyway). Turned it down… nothing. Turned it up, and… click, the boiler lit up. That’s right, in our house you can’t have hot water unless the radiator-controlling thermostat is set to something above room temperature, even when the radiators have been turned off for months. Marvellous.

What a beautiful, er… horizon

Now that Kathy’s said it, I hope I can say it myself without sounding like an MCP: there was, indeed, an infeasibly high proportion of gorgeous young women in and around Barcelona… I fear that’s one battle that Brummy GUADEC has already lost 🙂 <flamesuit action=”on” />

Unlike Kathy, though, to my eyes an equally-unusual proportion of Mediterranean women (and men) seem to look old before their time, and I didn’t really see much to change my mind in Catalonia… maybe it’s the wrinkles from all that squinting into the sun, which, to be fair, I’d happily accept as a side-effect myself if I lived somewhere that sunny. (But preferably not quite so hot.)

Busy few days

… starting last Wednesday really, when I parted company with my old Fiat barchetta (sic), and exchanged it for a newer and shinier but equally-yellow one. I’m not one to get sentimental about cars, but that one certainly accompanied me on its fair share of interesting trips both here and back in the UK where I originally bought it. I’ve even completed one entire (and two partial) house moves with it– only thing that just wouldn’t fit was my widescreen TV 🙂

Saturday afternoon saw Dublin’s decision to allow a loyalist parade march down O’Connell Street go predictably wrong, with the place “resembling Bahghdad” afterwards according to Julie, who’d gone shopping in town regardless and somehow managed to avoid the violence and bomb scares.

The evening saw Scotland’s rugby union revival continuing, this time beating England at their own game: rock-solid defence and accurate kicking. (Unfortunately Ireland won as well, so they’ll have the triple crown up for grabs when we visit Lansdowne Road in the next game, so they’ll probably be trying a bit harder.)

After that we wandered round the corner to the local pub for dinner, and who should wander in but an Taoiseach Bertie and his fancy-woman for a quiet pint. Which is just what they should be able to do, of course, but it’s hard to imagine Dubya or Tony B being afforded the same privilege.

And finally, this evening I’m off to this Apple Guitar Seminar in Dublin, which sounds kind of cool… I really haven’t made much use of GarageBand or Logic Express since I got my PowerBook last year, maybe this will give me some inspiration. If it’s successful, it might also inspire Apple to open one of their amazing Apple Stores in Dublin, too… it’s kind of sucky that they have no less than six in Britain, but none at all in Ireland (or indeed the rest of Europe, although Paris and Rome at least are scheduled to get one soon).