Waste of Space

UPDATE #2 (1/26/2009):

Not to leave this topic unattended, but it seems that a few months after I got the Dell 1535, someone found a way to “somewhat” fix the speaker issue themselves. Figures. (my wife is still 1000% satisfied with her MacBook though and wouldn’t trade it back)

The problem with the speakers appears to be with the Dell sound drivers… the key is to completely remove those drivers and let Vista replace them with its own.

Here is a link to the article I just found regarding this “fix”: LINK
Here is a link to the forum I found the above link on: FORUM

Some of the people say that while it drastically improves the sound, it still kinda sucks…. so if you are keeping this laptop, you may want to give it a try.

============ END OF UPDATE #2============

UPDATE (11/19):

Well, I worked with Dell to get a replacement laptop sent out to me and to return the “broken” one. The problem was that the NEW laptop sounded just as bad as the other one!

After a few days, my wife and I checked the local Best Buy and saw that they had the Studio 1535 model in stock. I played some music on the store model and it too sounded the same.

We ended up returning both laptops and Dell issued me a full credit so I didn’t have to pay a thing.

Rather than try another Dell or Windows-based laptop, I converted my wife to a Mac. I bought her the new Macbook…. and she is LOVING it! The speakers sound a LOT better than the Dell, but then again, it did cost more. However, having been using Mac’s for a few years now, I stand by them and say they are well worth the price for our purposes.

============ END OF UPDATE ============

Last month, as a graduation present, I bought my wife a new Dell Studio 1535 laptop computer. This was to replace an older Dell Inspiron 8500 laptop that I handed down to her. The old laptop was clunky, large, loud, and a bit on the heavy side.

I had good experiences with Dell systems in the past (when it comes to Windows), so I thought I give them more money.

Well, turns out that there is a problem with the speakers…. at least.. I think there is a problem. The rub is that we can’t find another Dell Studio 1535 to compare this with to see if we indeed have a problem.

Here are the steps I have taken and the problem I am having:

• Audio from the laptop speakers is very poor in quality. This problem has existed since first unpacking the laptop and starting it up for the first time in July. The audio from the main speakers sound as if there may be a short in the wiring somewhere inside the laptop… as they sound very “tinny” as if there was a poor or partial connection. When compared to a cell phone on speakerphone, the cell phone sounds MUCH better. I have updated both the BIOS to “A05″ and audio drivers with “6.10.0.6017, A05″, but still sounds bad. The sound from the headphones is fine.

• In addition to installing the latest drivers/BIOS, I have also run the Diagnostic CD that came with the laptop as suggested. As I suspected (since the speakers ³physically² work), there was no problem detected by the Diagnostic CD. I suspected that the speakers may be faulty or sub-standard.

I only wish a store around here carried the Dell Studio so that I can see if they are supposed to sound this way. I really doubt it though… I¹ve had many Dells in the past and not even my old Toshiba laptop from 1993 sounded this bad.
I’ve attached an MP3 to demonstrate to you the suxx0r factor of the speakers… hope it plays

Cheers!
Mark

So… today I turn 34…. joy. Perhaps it may have been better if I wasn’t the “on-call” Windows Server admin this week…. because we lost a server in New York and I’m having to rebuild it from scratch.

It’s no big whoop to build a server, but when the server is 1,100+ miles away… it tends to put a damper on things.

This week has been pretty quiet overall with me not getting paged for too many large issues, it’s just so aggravating when it cuts right into the weekend you’ve been looking forward to. (

So, as of today, I will have put in at least 18 hours of overtime…. tomorrow, who knows what may come up for me to get paged on at 1:00am in the morning.

Anywho…. sorry for the rant. I just felt like bitchin’ while the array config disk loads up for this NY box.

Hope your weekend is better than mine!

Cheers.

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There have been a few UFO oriented shows on some of the educational channels lately…. and, as always, reminded me of conversations people have regarding such things as aliens visiting Earth and such.

First, a few things science has found out:

• The Universe is around 13.5 billion years old.
• Our solar system is about 4.5 billion years old.
• Humans have been around about 200,000 years.
• Humans started making large technological advances in the past 100 years.

This is for those people out there that think other civilizations are too far away to make contact: How do you know what a race that is merely 200 years more advanced than us can do?

Let’s see… 200 years ago, the year would have been 1808. The modern light bulb wouldn’t even be invented for another 50 years! If we brought someone from that era to today’s world, they would be shocked to think of the miracles we could perform… like simply clicking a little button and people magically appear in a little box to tell us the news for the day.

… click HERE for more »

Last year, 13 year old Megan hung herself after being harassed on MySpace by a guy she had been flirting with for about a month. Turns out the “guy” was a fake account made up by adults down her street. They intentionally destroyed her fragile emotional shell which caused her death… but they aren’t being charged with a crime?!??! WTF people??

Digg It

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Well… it is here… Black Friday.

… and our apartment complex is right across the street from a 24-hour, SUPER Wal-Mart.

I really…. REALLY hope that I don’t need to run out for anything tomorrow.

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…whirrrr… CLICK… whirrrr… CLICK… whirrr… //silence\\

That was the noise coming from my external hard drive…. the drive with EVERYTHING of mine in digital format on it. That is the hard drive that is no longer recognized by my computer (or any other computer in the house) as a drive with data on it.500 GB of documents, images, my music compositions/recordings, my music library, applications, every-fookin-thing!!!

AAAARRRRRRGH!!!!

… the dreaded “Click of Death”

Ironic part is that this is not my first failed external drive. I’ve had others that I’ve used data recovery software on to retrieve the data… and put it on THIS drive for storage.

So… to anyone that I’ve been creating websites for, music/compositions for, or images for… sorry, but that data is either irrecoverable or may take a few weeks for me to try and retrieve it.

I think I’m going to give up on external drives and just replace my Mac G5 with a new Mac Pro with a Terabyte of storage with a RAID backup.

….eh, I can dream, can’t I? That system would only set me back $5,000. \

Now I have to take all my spare hard drives out and build a Windows box just to be able to recover the data off this stupid external drive…..stupid computers.Who knows… maybe I’ll wake up tomorrow and it’ll work fine.

Signing off for a while….
Mark

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We got a notice from our Apartment mgmnt yesterday saying that they were going to have a Fire Inspector going throughout the complex over the next two days. So I decided to check out our sprinklers and found that we had a leak right above MY computer desk!!!

…. son of a…. I had to move my entire desk over to another wall.

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This a major cock-punch to any pre-UAV pilot who actually risked their LIFE during missions… Under the new policy, approved last month, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) system operators may be awarded the DFC (Distinguished Flying Cross). The DFC is a prestigious decoration awarded for heroism or extraordinary achievement.

read more | digg story

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5:30 am – Alarm clock goes off…. it’s Miranda’s…. oh bullock’s! I forgot to set MY alarm! Good thing for hers.

5:53 am – Taking my shower and starting to think about what today will bring me at work.

6:10 am – Miranda’s alarm clock goes off again. This time, she turns it off herself. I continue to get ready… pack my laptop bag up… make sure I have my wallet, Blackberry, keys…

6:23 am – Go into the bedroom, tell my wife “goodbye” and give her a little peck.

6:34 am – Notice that the roads seem dead today for a Monday morning. Oh well… no need to listen to NPR, I’ll leave Jason Mraz in the CD player and head to Starbuck’s for some breakfast.

6:45 am – Approaching Starbuck’s….I think to myself, “Man, it’s dead on the roads today, what’s going on?” I decide to turn on NPR to get my morning news…. nothing…. just classical music. WTF??

6:56 am – Got my coffee (Cinnamon Dolce Latte) and a slice of marble-loaf and start on my way to the office. I’m still bothered by the lack of traffic and News on NPR. I look at my Blackberry…. I can’t believe this!!! It’s SUNDAY, not Monday!!!

GAAAAAAH!!!!!

Oh well…. I’m up now, might as well do something constructive. I tossed together a server from spare computer parts I had laying around Friday afternoon, so I figure I will play with configuring/testing out the MS Office SharePoint 2007 Server I installed yesterday on it. I use the previous version of SharePoint at work, but want to test out the new version before we swing over the stuff there…. a nice perk to my job is having free access to all things Microsoft.

…. as Carlos Mencia would say… “DE DE DEEEE!!!!”

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wow…guess I can do whatevah I want!

Here was the HCSO’s one-line response to my e-mail regarding their stance on the use of “radar drones” in Tampa:

I am not familiar with FCC regulations regarding radar drone equipment. Perhaps, you should contact the FCC.

Since the FCC doesn’t forbid it, I guess I can move forward with my 1-mile sweeping radar drone project!

woo-hoo!!! I’ll be lighting up radar detectors ALL over the road now! oh, happy day for me!

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