When HP fails to fix a laptop properly

This excerpt is from a letter that I once wrote, complaining about my HP laptop that required multiple repairs.

The fellow that I spoke to on HP’s tech support line instructed me to include a note with this computer, explaining what’s wrong with my computer. I explained the nature of this problem on the telephone, but just to be thorough:


• The computer does not power on. It is simply dead. Nothing I do causes it to turn on.

• This is the fourth time that this problem has occurred within the past year. The first time it happened, I took it back to CompUSA and the problem mysteriously disappeared. The second time, it took about two weeks to fix it. The third time around, it tooks 2½ months to effect repairs.

I am very deeply concerned about this situation. In effect, I have only been able to use it for about 75% of the past year, due to all the problems this thing has given me. Please, please get it back to me soon. This item cost me a huge amount of money, and if this continues to be a problem, then I will have to look to other companies for my future needs.

Joan Rivers needs to hear this

One Mary Kreutz posted this on Annie Duke's blog. I think that it's worth repeating.

To Joan Rivers,

I respected you before, but was so disappointed by your remarks equating or making an analogy about Annie Duke and Hitler. Those remarks are unforgivable in my view. Your remarks about Melissa being a “Wharton” grad and inferring that somehow it made her better than Annie showed even more your lack of class. I don’t really know the personal issues that caused you to show your hatred for Annie so much, but your remarks about Adolf Hitler (said over and over and even made worse by the implication that Annie was worse than Hitler), and the Wharton remark showed a real lack of class, self control and an even greater lack of caring for other people’s feelings. I know that you’ll say, “To hell with other people’s feelings,” but making money and being in the right place with the “right” people shouldn’t take away your compassion and humanity. I’m proud to say that I don’t and never desire to fit into your group. It’s a mean group. That type of group has brought America to its knees financially. You must be friends with the bankers that sit in their mansions and could care less about those that have lost their homes. Their personal greed and lack of morality seems to be your style. I’m sure you’ll continue to be their friends because they still have their mansions and money, and since ethics and morality don’t seem to be very important, they are your “peers”. Fortunately, most people that are wealthy are also ethical and moral. I’ve known many and I know that most do care and teach their children to remain responsible, caring and polite when challenged with things that don’t go their way. Few have celebrated rude, spoiled and bratty children. Their children have grown up showing those values-even those that have gone to Wharton. I teach first grade. You’re right, my students don’t fit into your group, and you may consider these 20 seven year olds not worthy. Their parents work hard, but they are just middle class, working poor and some at my school are homeless. I’ll try to continue teaching them that the words that come out of their mouths do matter, that sticks and stone hurt, but words hurt more. Sometimes, holding hurtful words is the hardest thing to do. The easiest thing is to blurt them out with no care or concern for what damage those words can cause. My kids said that being a hero means doing the right thing, when the right thing is the hardest thing to do and the wrong thing would be the easiest. My second graders gave that definition. They may never be “Wharton” grads, but I am happy to be in their world. They make me proud. They care about others and don’t judge others by how much money they make, who they know, what they wear or how pretty or thin they are. The best part is that when they do something nice for someone, it’s not done to promote themselves. I hope that you learn that before it’s too late. Your grandchildren need to know that. It’s never to late to learn. I know that I will be learning long after I am 75, God willing. The only good thing out of this show this year is that good causes will get money. Your group will get a lot of laughs and I cringe at what the young people will learn from what they’ve heard. The one thing that I know, and this is for QVC- I’ve spent thousands and thousands of dollars with QVC, but that has changed this month. I will never buy another thing from Joan or Melissa’s. It won’t mean much in the long run, but at least I’ll be able to sleep at night.

Trump and Respect

I just watched a season two episode of "The Apprentice" (episode four, in fact) in which Trump said, "People have to respect you or you cannot be a leader."

Well, after turning his TV show into a parody of its former self, after making all sorts of capricious firings, after repeatedly ignoring his own rules for evaluating his TV show candidates, and after hiring Joan Rivers in defiance of all logic -- not to mention his behavior with regard to Rosie O'Donnell -- I don't see how he can expect people to respect him.

Really.

A documentation sample

Here is the introduction to some documentation that I once wrote. The formatting is awry because I cut and paste this from the original Word file, and some of the formatting (the table, in particular) was lost.

Wafer transfers are done through the use of stations – that is, user-specified locations at which the wafers are to be picked or placed. These stations can be wafer cassettes, prealigner chucks, or any other location where a wafer might normally reside. Each station is identified by the following set of parameters which determine where and how the wafer is to be picked up or set down, and how the robot should scan for their presence.


Station Parameters
Radial (mm) The radial position (i.e. the R-axis position) at which the robot would pick up the wafer or set it down.
Theta (deg) The rotational angle (i.e. the -axis position) at which the robot would pick up the wafer or set it down.
Z (mm) The height (i.e. the Z-axis position) at which the robot would enter the station to set down the bottommost wafer. Equivalently, this is also the height at which it would retract from the station when picking up the bottommost wafer.
Z offset (mm) A parameter used by the pick/place routines for certain end-effectors. When using the ROB310 vacuum gripper, its value should be set to zero.
Pitch (mm) The vertical distance between consecutive wafers in a multi-slot station. This distance is measured between the bottom surfaces of each wafer.
Stroke (mm) The vertical distance that the robot moves when the arm is extended and picking or placing the wafer. Its value should be less than that of the pitch.
Retract (mm) The R-axis position to which the robot should retract after grasping a wafer. This is also the position to which the R-axis would retract before rotating to the station for a pick or place move.
End-effector option An integer designating the end-effector to be used (typically 0 or 1).
Slots The number of slots at the station in question.
Pick/Place Vel (mm/s) The maximum velocity to be used during the vertical stroke, when picking or placing a wafer.
Pick/Place Accel (mm/s2) The maximum acceleration to be used during the vertical stroke, when picking or placing a wafer.
Radial per Slot (mm) A parameter for compensating for stations that are tilted from the vertical axis. In most situations, this should be set to zero.
Scan Radial (mm) The R-axis position to be used for scanning the wafers. This value should be selected so as to place the wafer mapping sensor at an optimal distance from the wafers.
Scan Z (mm) The height at which the robot begins its upward scan movement
Scan Velocity (mm/s) The maximum vertical velocity to be used when scanning a station.
Scan Acceleration (mm/s2) The vertical acceleration limit to be used when scanning a station.
Scan Radial Offset (mm) A parameter which allows the robot to use two different radial positions for the upward and downward scans. This value should typically be set to zero.
Scan Theta Offset (deg) A parameter which permits two different rotational positions to be used for the upward and downward scans. This should typically be non-zero.
Scan Above (% of pitch) One of the parameters used for identifying cross-slotted wafers
Scan Below (% of pitch) One of the parameters used for identifying cross-slotted wafers
Scan Thick (% of pitch) A parameter used for identifying double- and cross-slotted wafers

Joan Rivers is wacko

Joan Rivers has conducted herself very poorly on "The Celebrity Apprentice." Frankly, she is giving us plenty of reasons not to respect her conduct as a businesswoman. She has competence and business savvy, but she does a poor job of dealing with people.

I like the following comment that someone on TWOP made about the elder Ms. Rivers:

Whether I like her or not, I have to respect her business sense. She's also a contradiction, because she often seems stuck in a different decade ("poker players are trash"...she's probably recalling her performing days in the 50s and 60s), and yet she's always been known for her crudeness & brash humor, even back when that was frowned upon for anyone, male or female. She tries desparately to be 'current' and yet she isn't.

Also the following:

The Brande arc really bothered me. Joan said that if Brande looked like Joan, she wouldn't still be sitting there... but the truth is, that if Brande didn't look like Brande, no one would have been calling her "dumb." The stereotype that a blonde woman with big boobs is dumb is offensive and unacceptable. Brande was no stupider than anyone else there! In fact, she defended herself very effectively and articulately several times. Jesse sat there like a post half the time, and no one called him dumb. Dennis Rodman needed friggin' captions to know what the hell he was talking about, and no one would have dared to call him dumb. But it's perfectly fine to throw around the word "dumb blonde" for Brande, to the point where Piers thought it would be an embarrassment for her to win? Really? On this show, THAT would be the embarrassment?

Abs

Gotta work on my abs. I am so disappointed in how weak my abs can be... and I'm in pretty darned good shape. Yikes.

Incidentally, I'm sick and tired of people saying, "Oh, take it easy with those workouts! You don't want to look like Arnold." These people have NO IDEA how difficult it is to reach bodybuilder levels. It's very difficult to do without being a full-time gym rat and without using steroids.