You'll often see stuff from Phil Plait in the Friday Links collections. Phil is an astronomer who used to work on the the Hubble Telescope. He's the blogger behind the Bad Astronomy site. He's the goto guy if you're holding a discussion about Moon landing related conspiracy theories. Late last year he also released a book called "Death from the Skies: These Are the Ways the World Will End".
This is a topic that interests Yummy. She gets creeped out by images of peopleless cities but is fascinated by stories of extermination events. So when Phil's book came out I wanted to get her a copy. But Phil offered signed copies early on through the James Randi Educational Foundation [randi.org] and I wanted to get her one of those. But I had ordering issues. They insisted on certain credit card information but had no field for enter this vital info. Before I could get it working they were all cleaned out. Same with the second batch he signed. But I wanted a signed copy. I tried to get friends to take a book to a talk he was giving at an observatory in New York to no avail. He was actually in DC to give a talk at a conference. While the conference was free you had to RSVP well in advance of when I knew he'd be here. I did get him to send me an autographed sticker to slap in the book. So Yummy finally got her autographed book last Friday on our 10 month anniversary.
Let me tell you about the book. Each chapter covers a different way that all life on Earth, and in some cases the whole Earth, could be wiped out. They start with a narrative that presents the disaster as it might be seen in a movie. Then he switches gears and tells the hard science in a way that is easy to read and easier to understand. Oh, sure, when he gets to black holes all sense and reason goes out the window, but I did finally understand why so many shows present them with a swirling ring of dust coming in along the equatorial plane and jets of matter spewing out at the poles.
As a blogger on an astronomy site he's had plenty of opportunity over the years to present this same data in different formats and receive questions from commentors. He knows what you're not going to understand and addresses it accordingly.1 Some things, like the behavior of superdense globs of neutrinos, cause him to explain the same idea over and over in multiple chapters so that it's fresh in your mind. He doesn't just reference the technical term and tell you to look back at chapter 2.
He talks about asteroid strikes both past and future (alas, when 99942 Apophis passes within the Moon's orbit in 2029 we North Americans will be turned away from the close pass). He talks about rogue planets and stars, talks about different ways that a star will die and what they'd do to our atmosphere if it happened close to us, meandering black holes, alien invasion as he predicts it would happen, passing through nebulas, and ways to move the planet or an asteroid if necessary.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who is a strong enough reader to make it though a Harry Potter book.
If you pick up your copy at the James Randi Education Foundation it will be cheaper than in the stores and the JREF will get some money from the sale. [link]
--
1I should say that he knows what you don't understand if you're a reasonable but only modestly educated person. Young Earth Creationists are beyond his understanding.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Friday, July 10, 2009
Friday links: July 10
Great looking trailer for a pending Star Wars game. [link]
More images from the ISS. My favorite is 12. [link]
HP Lovecraft Tracts [link]
A proposed Star Trek themed restaurant run by a Picard and a Sisco lookalike. [link]
Richard Feynman talks about the real reason trains stay on the tracks.
A video about a guy who draws on beach sand.
Demo of a game where your phone makes a 2D image 3D for the playing environment. Just watch it.
Conservative Democrats try to make sure that abortions aren't covered as part of the new health insurance program. [link]
Be sure to vote against the names at the bottom. Of the names on that list I recognize most are stretching pretty hard to be called Democrats.
A game show where 10 Atheists are hassled by leaders from 4 different faiths. The winner is the one who accepts one of the faiths. The prize is a trip to the religious capitol of your choice. [link]
What do I win if I convert one of the religious leaders?
Lynx families in Colorado are reproducing. Click to see pics of Lynx kittens. [link]
Congratulations on surviving the zombie apocalypse.
Dramatic wipeouts at the Tour De France. And remember, dogs love bike races. A friendly reminder from the Skin Transplant Institute.
Game: Starcom - fly around. Arm your self. Kill stuff. link
Kirsten Dunst reads Carl Sagan. [link]
Richard Dawkins' "Purpose of Purpose" talk.
7 manmade freaks of physics. [link]
The story that takes 1000 years to read. [link]
Footage of a volcano eruption as seen from the ISS.
Muppets do Sousa acapella.
WWIII propaganda posters. [link]
Yet another example of why we separate Church and State.
Ultimate disaster movie trailer.
Wanted: Witch. Pays £50,000 plus lodging [link]
I tried to catch up. Now it's late and you have a healthy lump of links.
More images from the ISS. My favorite is 12. [link]
HP Lovecraft Tracts [link]
A proposed Star Trek themed restaurant run by a Picard and a Sisco lookalike. [link]
Richard Feynman talks about the real reason trains stay on the tracks.
A video about a guy who draws on beach sand.
Demo of a game where your phone makes a 2D image 3D for the playing environment. Just watch it.
Conservative Democrats try to make sure that abortions aren't covered as part of the new health insurance program. [link]
Be sure to vote against the names at the bottom. Of the names on that list I recognize most are stretching pretty hard to be called Democrats.
A game show where 10 Atheists are hassled by leaders from 4 different faiths. The winner is the one who accepts one of the faiths. The prize is a trip to the religious capitol of your choice. [link]
What do I win if I convert one of the religious leaders?
Lynx families in Colorado are reproducing. Click to see pics of Lynx kittens. [link]
Congratulations on surviving the zombie apocalypse.
WGMX 4 - Zombocalypse from Rob Moffett (VDA) on Vimeo.
Dramatic wipeouts at the Tour De France. And remember, dogs love bike races. A friendly reminder from the Skin Transplant Institute.
Game: Starcom - fly around. Arm your self. Kill stuff. link
Kirsten Dunst reads Carl Sagan. [link]
Richard Dawkins' "Purpose of Purpose" talk.
7 manmade freaks of physics. [link]
The story that takes 1000 years to read. [link]
Footage of a volcano eruption as seen from the ISS.
Muppets do Sousa acapella.
WWIII propaganda posters. [link]
Yet another example of why we separate Church and State.
Ultimate disaster movie trailer.
Wanted: Witch. Pays £50,000 plus lodging [link]
I tried to catch up. Now it's late and you have a healthy lump of links.
Thursday, July 09, 2009
Enough with the freak already
Can we stop talking about Michael Jackson already? I've tried to be tolerant. I've tried to be forgiving. When I was a kid the man was a great musician and performer. But when was the last time he was anything but a weirdo?1 The last album of any note came out when I was in high school.2
The first time I remember hearing his name was in gym class back in grade school. A couple of kids drug me into their debate about whether Michael Jackson or Culture Club was better. In retrospect it seems funny that there was even a debate.
Getting back to my original point, I don't care what drugs Jackson was into, who his doctor was, where CPR was performed, who was called first, or how Jon Benet Ramsey was involved. I am mildly curious why Al Sharpton thinks he's someone who should be eulogizing Mike but I don't want to hear the speech. I have less than no desire to attend the funeral let alone watch it on TV. I certainly don't want to watch news stories about people who won tickets to his funeral (or whatever the tickets were for).
Just a week before the man was a pariah. He was that freak who sleeps in an oxygen tent, whose skin pigment has turned against him, who sleeps with little boys and dangles his own kids off of balconies. His death has not changed any of that.
Now, you can call me a hypocrite if you like. I've mourned for famous people in my life. I felt the loss of Douglas Adams and Jim Henson. I got choked up writing about Arthur C Clarke. And I am sorry that Michael Jackson died. Just, please, stop with the non-stop coverage. Let us just sit at home with an old copy of "Bad" and a 20 year old tape player and remember him without all the crap.
1answer: when he released Invincible in 2001. Yeah, not exactly a big winner was it?
2Dangerous (1991)
The first time I remember hearing his name was in gym class back in grade school. A couple of kids drug me into their debate about whether Michael Jackson or Culture Club was better. In retrospect it seems funny that there was even a debate.
Getting back to my original point, I don't care what drugs Jackson was into, who his doctor was, where CPR was performed, who was called first, or how Jon Benet Ramsey was involved. I am mildly curious why Al Sharpton thinks he's someone who should be eulogizing Mike but I don't want to hear the speech. I have less than no desire to attend the funeral let alone watch it on TV. I certainly don't want to watch news stories about people who won tickets to his funeral (or whatever the tickets were for).
Just a week before the man was a pariah. He was that freak who sleeps in an oxygen tent, whose skin pigment has turned against him, who sleeps with little boys and dangles his own kids off of balconies. His death has not changed any of that.
Now, you can call me a hypocrite if you like. I've mourned for famous people in my life. I felt the loss of Douglas Adams and Jim Henson. I got choked up writing about Arthur C Clarke. And I am sorry that Michael Jackson died. Just, please, stop with the non-stop coverage. Let us just sit at home with an old copy of "Bad" and a 20 year old tape player and remember him without all the crap.
1answer: when he released Invincible in 2001. Yeah, not exactly a big winner was it?
2Dangerous (1991)
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Movie Review: Steam Boy
I watched "Steam Boy" [back in April 2006]. It's supposedly anime by one of Japan's biggest names in that field. Having seen it I kind of doubt that it's real anime.
First of all, the characters didn't look like they were inspired by black velvet paintings of mexican kids. I could excuse that by saying that the characters were English and American instead of Japanese so their eyes are smaller. It's best if you don't think about that statement too much.
Second, the story made complete sense. No animals were slowly turning into a mass of worms. No strange ending that makes it appear that the hero was trying to destroy the world. Nothing that really makes the viewer say "what the fuck was that?"
Third, none of the kids were throwing decks of cards at people.
Fourth, the animation has advanced beyond 3 frames per second. This doesn't really count because they've apparently had this full speed animation technology for 4 or 5 years now and have started using it in many of their cartoons.
Fifth, the english translation meshed up with the mouth movements reasonably well.
So having established that Steam Boy isn't anime I can safely recommend it.
First of all, the characters didn't look like they were inspired by black velvet paintings of mexican kids. I could excuse that by saying that the characters were English and American instead of Japanese so their eyes are smaller. It's best if you don't think about that statement too much.
Second, the story made complete sense. No animals were slowly turning into a mass of worms. No strange ending that makes it appear that the hero was trying to destroy the world. Nothing that really makes the viewer say "what the fuck was that?"
Third, none of the kids were throwing decks of cards at people.
Fourth, the animation has advanced beyond 3 frames per second. This doesn't really count because they've apparently had this full speed animation technology for 4 or 5 years now and have started using it in many of their cartoons.
Fifth, the english translation meshed up with the mouth movements reasonably well.
So having established that Steam Boy isn't anime I can safely recommend it.
Monday, July 06, 2009
I declare success!
This was probably the most complicated bit of computer repair that I've attempted. My replacement laptop was delivered yesterday. It fired up and worked fine. So, obviously, the thing to do was reduce it to it's component parts and put it back together again.
I believe I said before that in order to get it to work in the office it needs to have the same MAC Address/Ethernet ID as my old laptop. Otherwise the network port shuts down. All I needed to move was the Ethernet Card, but that's built into the motherboard so the whole motherboard had to go.
That involved finding all 20 screws holding the bottom on and wiggling the case off, removing 3 more screws and a cable to get the DVD drive out, disconnecting another 10 teeny cables, pulling another dozen screws from the motherboard, shimmying that out, figuring out what saint needed praying to in order to get the new one in place, making sure the cables that go on top are on top and those that go on bottom are on bottom, figuring out which of those tiny ports that are almost indistinguishable from chips they all go to, making sure all the motherboard screws are back and in the right places, case back on, hunt down and get all those back in the right places, reseat the RAM, the DVD drive went back in long ago, batteries in, turn it on, turn it off, reseat the RAM again so things don't beep at me, close it up, and fire it up once more.
All in all much fewer scraped knuckles than with a big computer, but a lot more teeny fiddly bits than a big computer, too. Everything has to fit just so.
Now I have to make sure that it still works in the office.
Today: I hooked it up at work and it hopped right online. I'm posting this from my laptop in my office.
Now I need to put my fully populated hard drive in here.
I believe I said before that in order to get it to work in the office it needs to have the same MAC Address/Ethernet ID as my old laptop. Otherwise the network port shuts down. All I needed to move was the Ethernet Card, but that's built into the motherboard so the whole motherboard had to go.
That involved finding all 20 screws holding the bottom on and wiggling the case off, removing 3 more screws and a cable to get the DVD drive out, disconnecting another 10 teeny cables, pulling another dozen screws from the motherboard, shimmying that out, figuring out what saint needed praying to in order to get the new one in place, making sure the cables that go on top are on top and those that go on bottom are on bottom, figuring out which of those tiny ports that are almost indistinguishable from chips they all go to, making sure all the motherboard screws are back and in the right places, case back on, hunt down and get all those back in the right places, reseat the RAM, the DVD drive went back in long ago, batteries in, turn it on, turn it off, reseat the RAM again so things don't beep at me, close it up, and fire it up once more.
All in all much fewer scraped knuckles than with a big computer, but a lot more teeny fiddly bits than a big computer, too. Everything has to fit just so.
Now I have to make sure that it still works in the office.
Today: I hooked it up at work and it hopped right online. I'm posting this from my laptop in my office.
Now I need to put my fully populated hard drive in here.
WTF?
Excerpts from old conversations with friends:
It's well known that the Black Plague was spread primarily through children. Gypsies would kidnap them and take infected children from town to town where they'd suck on the local rats infecting them so they weren't safe to eat. Of course, the superstitious locals made the problem worse by killing off the child's natural predator, the Dingo, who they thought were agents of communist nations trying to put flourine in the water supply.
How does one clean French Toast? I know Aaron sandblasts his, but I prefer 20 minutes in an autoclave.
he: What is it about searching for "single layer dvd+r" on Amazon that returns The Ultimate Guide to Cunnilingus: How to Go Down on a Woman and Give Her Exquisite Pleasure (Ultimate Everything!!!) (Paperback)
me: Oooh, subtle. You know your girlfriend is a true geek when she alters all your computer and internet settings so that random websites gives you hints about your performance. What's your spam look like these days?
I've already got the bodies of about a dozen children stuffed under the neighbor's house. I'm already practicing my lines for when they find the bodies and the police lead him away. Which do you like better? "He always seemed like such a nice, normal man." or "He had some pretty extreme religious views. It really not a surprise that he started pulling an Abraham on the area children."?
Following a tale of strange computer behavior:
he: The front application is useful to know, but it's more helpful to know if the acid had worn off or if it was still in effect.
me: I don't have to take that from any plaid lemming. I'll shave my name in your liver with my mind.
he: My liver gave up after this weekend, it actually pulled itself out of my body and got out of the vehicle, and started walking down the road. No amount of pleading or reasoning would work to get it to come to its senses.
me: "Naw, baby. I'm sorry. I didn't mean it. You know I only drink cause I love you. Come on back. I love ya, baby. FINE BITCH! I didn't need ya anyway. By this time next week you'll be living down by the docks helping sailors pass their piss tests for a dollar. Ain't nobody else gonna want ya! Aw, that ain't me talkin'. It's the beer. Now why don't you come back and fix me a martini. You know how I like it. Ain't nobody mix drinks like you."
MZ:Around 0900 boredom sets in and him and his co-workers begin sending badly formatted pictures back and forth of various fictional animals created by adding cigarettes to existing animals (such as the Tyrannismokus-Rex, or the Evergreen Smokealope).
JC: Duck-Billed Pipeapus. Kosmokomodo Dragon. Eleblunt.
me: Puffin.
JC: Aargh! I hate you.
Their manuals suck, the techies blow, the hardware is a tornado hitting the sewage lake of an industrial swine farm.
I'm not saying I'm well hung, but I lost a leg in Iraq and nobody noticed.
It's well known that the Black Plague was spread primarily through children. Gypsies would kidnap them and take infected children from town to town where they'd suck on the local rats infecting them so they weren't safe to eat. Of course, the superstitious locals made the problem worse by killing off the child's natural predator, the Dingo, who they thought were agents of communist nations trying to put flourine in the water supply.
How does one clean French Toast? I know Aaron sandblasts his, but I prefer 20 minutes in an autoclave.
he: What is it about searching for "single layer dvd+r" on Amazon that returns The Ultimate Guide to Cunnilingus: How to Go Down on a Woman and Give Her Exquisite Pleasure (Ultimate Everything!!!) (Paperback)
me: Oooh, subtle. You know your girlfriend is a true geek when she alters all your computer and internet settings so that random websites gives you hints about your performance. What's your spam look like these days?
I've already got the bodies of about a dozen children stuffed under the neighbor's house. I'm already practicing my lines for when they find the bodies and the police lead him away. Which do you like better? "He always seemed like such a nice, normal man." or "He had some pretty extreme religious views. It really not a surprise that he started pulling an Abraham on the area children."?
Following a tale of strange computer behavior:
he: The front application is useful to know, but it's more helpful to know if the acid had worn off or if it was still in effect.
me: I don't have to take that from any plaid lemming. I'll shave my name in your liver with my mind.
he: My liver gave up after this weekend, it actually pulled itself out of my body and got out of the vehicle, and started walking down the road. No amount of pleading or reasoning would work to get it to come to its senses.
me: "Naw, baby. I'm sorry. I didn't mean it. You know I only drink cause I love you. Come on back. I love ya, baby. FINE BITCH! I didn't need ya anyway. By this time next week you'll be living down by the docks helping sailors pass their piss tests for a dollar. Ain't nobody else gonna want ya! Aw, that ain't me talkin'. It's the beer. Now why don't you come back and fix me a martini. You know how I like it. Ain't nobody mix drinks like you."
MZ:
JC: Duck-Billed Pipeapus. Kosmokomodo Dragon. Eleblunt.
me: Puffin.
JC: Aargh! I hate you.
Their manuals suck, the techies blow, the hardware is a tornado hitting the sewage lake of an industrial swine farm.
I'm not saying I'm well hung, but I lost a leg in Iraq and nobody noticed.
Friday, July 03, 2009
Mentoes dropper
Tomorrow is the 4th of July. Rather than risk your fingers with explosives you can cause much safer dramatic reactions by dropping Mentoses into Diet Coke. You're probably familiar with the videos. Three Mentoses dropped simultaneously into a 2-liter bottle of Diet Coke causes all the carbonation to be released as close to simultaneously as makes no nevermind.
The problem I've had with this in the past is getting all three through the narrow hole in one quick shot. What I've done this year is take a sheet of paper and tear it in thirds parallel to the short edge. The first piece gets wrapped around the mouth of an empty 2-liter bottle to make a cylinder. Glue the edges so that the diameter of the cylinder maintains it's diameter. Use something sharp to cut holes on opposite ends about an inch above where the top of the 2-liter bottle would sit. You'll want to be able to fit a match through both holes.
Alas, this is too wide for our needs so a second must be made. Take a second third of the paper and wrap it around the Mentos tube. This is a bit snug so let out just a bit of slack. Glue that cylinder some glue to hold it's diameter as well.
Drop this cylinder inside the first one. It should be wide enough that it won't fit in the mouth of the 2-liter bottle and that Mentoses fall through without getting wedged against the sides. Using a pen or pencil reach through the holes of the original cylinder to mark points on the new one. Take it out and cut holes at those points. Drop the second cylinder back in the first. Jam a match through all four holes. You should be able to stick 3 Mentoses in the inner tube and get stopped by the match.
When it comes time you want to put this assembly on the top of an opened 2-liter of Diet Coke. When you yank the match you'll want to jump clear in a hurry. Things are gonna get foamy.
The problem I've had with this in the past is getting all three through the narrow hole in one quick shot. What I've done this year is take a sheet of paper and tear it in thirds parallel to the short edge. The first piece gets wrapped around the mouth of an empty 2-liter bottle to make a cylinder. Glue the edges so that the diameter of the cylinder maintains it's diameter. Use something sharp to cut holes on opposite ends about an inch above where the top of the 2-liter bottle would sit. You'll want to be able to fit a match through both holes.
Alas, this is too wide for our needs so a second must be made. Take a second third of the paper and wrap it around the Mentos tube. This is a bit snug so let out just a bit of slack. Glue that cylinder some glue to hold it's diameter as well.
Drop this cylinder inside the first one. It should be wide enough that it won't fit in the mouth of the 2-liter bottle and that Mentoses fall through without getting wedged against the sides. Using a pen or pencil reach through the holes of the original cylinder to mark points on the new one. Take it out and cut holes at those points. Drop the second cylinder back in the first. Jam a match through all four holes. You should be able to stick 3 Mentoses in the inner tube and get stopped by the match.
When it comes time you want to put this assembly on the top of an opened 2-liter of Diet Coke. When you yank the match you'll want to jump clear in a hurry. Things are gonna get foamy.
Thursday, July 02, 2009
laptop
You won't be getting a Friday Links tomorrow. See, last Thursday I was home sick and my laptop died. The screen went black and it was done. It will chime when I start it but won't boot beyond that.
The case needed replacing already. It had taken a good smack or two and the back liked to open up when I'd close it. A couple of days before I had finally ordered what I thought was a replacement case. Then the computer died and I was hoping that just moving it to a new body would do the trick.
What happened was that when I tried to order the case online I couldn't check out. You probably know I work on a military base. This means my address isn't short.
My name
Base name
Department name
Building number, room number
Street address
City, State, Zip Code
You find creative ways to make all that fit in the address forms of websites. Apple was unusually restrictive. I couldn't make it fit. So I called Apple and ordered that way. The person on that end also had a restricted form. But she assured me that the name of the base and department were unnecessary. She assured me that FedEx would still get it here.
FedEx is like six different but cooperating shipping companies. My package, had it borne the name of the base or the department, would have gone to one of these FedExes. It would have gone to the FedEx that brings me lots of other stuff. Not having that information meant they assumed it was a home delivery and gave it to a different FedEx. This FedEx doesn't like security gates. This FedEx has, in the past, hit that security gate three times and returned my package to the sender rather than call me. This FedEx also doesn't work on Mondays.
So they try to deliver once and give up. I see what's going on and call them and explain the situation. They say call back because it's Monday and that particular FedEx division is closed. I call back Tuesday. They say they can add the company name and move it to a FedEx that does it's job but that will slow things by a week or so. Or they can hold the package and I can come pick it up. I opt for that second one. Then the whole office packs up and we go to check out where we think we'll move to.
When I return I check the tracking info. The package has been delivered and was signed for by the person who had been driving during our road trip. Noooooo, that's a lie.
Being severely chastised got them to put up with base security. Instead of bringing the package to the person whose name and address is on it they claim they took it to the guy at the main desk. Since he wasn't there they took it to people across the hall from me and had them sign for it but put the name of the guy at our main desk instead of the name of the person who signed.
So I get the package, open it up, and it's the wrong thing.
Instead of a replacement case it's a clear plastic shell that goes around a case.
I go looking at cases again. I should have known better. I find replacement cases at a non-Apple source and see that to replace all five parts of the case will run just short of $1,000.
So I go out to SmallDog.com and look at what they have as far as laptops. They have a 17" refurbished MacBook Pro laptop for $1,600. I can either move my hard drive over and call it good OR I can get creative. See, I use my laptop at work a lot. I bought it so I could telecommute from Florida fourteen months ago. It handled most of the files for one of our books. But the network ports at work are now restricted to one MAC Address/Ethernet ID. Not only that, but for reasons related to a whole different long story, we can't get new Macs on the network. So a new laptop wouldn't work at work. What I need is to be able to keep the Ethernet card and thus my MAC Address. The Ethernet card on the laptop is built into the motherboard. So I need to keep the motherboard.
You probably see what I mean by "creative". For $1,600 I'm buying a full laptop which will be stripped for parts. I'll move the insides of my computer to the new case. I'll keep the new DVD burner since mine has been acting flakey. I could have bought all that and the price would have been close to what this whole new laptop cost. Plus I have extra RAM and a second hard drive.
I get home after ordering the new laptop and have a message waiting for me from SmallDog. They tried to confirm my shipping address with my credit card company and couldn't. Well, of course not! Why in the world would my credit card company have my work address? In fact, that's pretty much what the person at the credit card company said when I called them. But they made a note in the comments section of my account. I called SmallDog back and told them to check again.
Hopefully, it comes in next week and I can get online and next Friday I can have a respectable set of links for you.
update: Dingus at the credit card company changed my billing address to my shipping address rather than adding a shipping address. In theory it's fixed now.
update 2: The credit card company saw that my address had been changed twice in three days and a large order to the strange address and denied the order. In theory, it's fixed now.
The case needed replacing already. It had taken a good smack or two and the back liked to open up when I'd close it. A couple of days before I had finally ordered what I thought was a replacement case. Then the computer died and I was hoping that just moving it to a new body would do the trick.
What happened was that when I tried to order the case online I couldn't check out. You probably know I work on a military base. This means my address isn't short.
My name
Base name
Department name
Building number, room number
Street address
City, State, Zip Code
You find creative ways to make all that fit in the address forms of websites. Apple was unusually restrictive. I couldn't make it fit. So I called Apple and ordered that way. The person on that end also had a restricted form. But she assured me that the name of the base and department were unnecessary. She assured me that FedEx would still get it here.
FedEx is like six different but cooperating shipping companies. My package, had it borne the name of the base or the department, would have gone to one of these FedExes. It would have gone to the FedEx that brings me lots of other stuff. Not having that information meant they assumed it was a home delivery and gave it to a different FedEx. This FedEx doesn't like security gates. This FedEx has, in the past, hit that security gate three times and returned my package to the sender rather than call me. This FedEx also doesn't work on Mondays.
So they try to deliver once and give up. I see what's going on and call them and explain the situation. They say call back because it's Monday and that particular FedEx division is closed. I call back Tuesday. They say they can add the company name and move it to a FedEx that does it's job but that will slow things by a week or so. Or they can hold the package and I can come pick it up. I opt for that second one. Then the whole office packs up and we go to check out where we think we'll move to.
When I return I check the tracking info. The package has been delivered and was signed for by the person who had been driving during our road trip. Noooooo, that's a lie.
Being severely chastised got them to put up with base security. Instead of bringing the package to the person whose name and address is on it they claim they took it to the guy at the main desk. Since he wasn't there they took it to people across the hall from me and had them sign for it but put the name of the guy at our main desk instead of the name of the person who signed.
So I get the package, open it up, and it's the wrong thing.
Instead of a replacement case it's a clear plastic shell that goes around a case.
I go looking at cases again. I should have known better. I find replacement cases at a non-Apple source and see that to replace all five parts of the case will run just short of $1,000.
So I go out to SmallDog.com and look at what they have as far as laptops. They have a 17" refurbished MacBook Pro laptop for $1,600. I can either move my hard drive over and call it good OR I can get creative. See, I use my laptop at work a lot. I bought it so I could telecommute from Florida fourteen months ago. It handled most of the files for one of our books. But the network ports at work are now restricted to one MAC Address/Ethernet ID. Not only that, but for reasons related to a whole different long story, we can't get new Macs on the network. So a new laptop wouldn't work at work. What I need is to be able to keep the Ethernet card and thus my MAC Address. The Ethernet card on the laptop is built into the motherboard. So I need to keep the motherboard.
You probably see what I mean by "creative". For $1,600 I'm buying a full laptop which will be stripped for parts. I'll move the insides of my computer to the new case. I'll keep the new DVD burner since mine has been acting flakey. I could have bought all that and the price would have been close to what this whole new laptop cost. Plus I have extra RAM and a second hard drive.
I get home after ordering the new laptop and have a message waiting for me from SmallDog. They tried to confirm my shipping address with my credit card company and couldn't. Well, of course not! Why in the world would my credit card company have my work address? In fact, that's pretty much what the person at the credit card company said when I called them. But they made a note in the comments section of my account. I called SmallDog back and told them to check again.
Hopefully, it comes in next week and I can get online and next Friday I can have a respectable set of links for you.
update: Dingus at the credit card company changed my billing address to my shipping address rather than adding a shipping address. In theory it's fixed now.
update 2: The credit card company saw that my address had been changed twice in three days and a large order to the strange address and denied the order. In theory, it's fixed now.
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