19 October 2001
Last year: "Slow turns," I repeated. "Gotcha."
Wow, I feel much better today. It's amazing what a good night's sleep can do for a person.
I went to bed at about 9:30 last night, and to sleep around ten. And when the alarm went off this morning, I can't say I was happy about it, but at least I didn't feel like a zombie shuffling around the house. I have every intention of getting some extra sleep this weekend, too.
Well... Despite having spent forty-five minutes on the phone with Apple's tech support on Tuesday night, and another forty-five minutes re-loading all my software, my DVD-ROM drive started acting goofy on me again yesterday.
So I called tech support again yesterday evening when I got home. I liked this technician much better, if only because he didn't insist on trying to sell me a new operating system. He listened patiently to my description of the problem, and then suggested that they should send me a new DVD-ROM drive.
"We've already tried that," I told him. Luckily, I had the case number with me of the first time I'd called Apple's tech support, so I gave it to him.
"Hmm... Well, from everything you've told me," he mused, "it looks like we've tried just about everything we can try. We're going to need to get you to send your computer back to us for repair."
They're sending me a box, shipping pre-paid. I'll have up to thirty days to back up my data, load the computer in the box, and ship it. Once it's shipped, the technician told me, there's usually about a five day turnaround. So I'll be without my computer for a little less than a week.
I'm already dreading it. What? Having to listen to regular audio CDs instead of my nice MP3 library at work? Not being able to sit on the couch and surf or chat at home? The horror... And since I'll have to use the old Windows box to get online, it'll be dialing in using the house phone line (as opposed to the phone line we got strictly for data) so I won't really be able to get online and just stay there for the whole evening.
On the other hand, I'm almost relieved to be sending my system in for repairs. It didn't take me very long to come to the conclusion that this was not a software problem, and once replacing the drive didn't work, I knew I was going to have to send the computer in eventually.
What I'm really dreading is that they'll get the system, fidget with it, test loading a CD four or five times, and send it back with the real problem unfixed. This particular problem has a habit of clearing up for a short while, after I've done something to try to fix it, and then slowly coming back.
If that happens - if I get the computer back from them, and the problem comes back - what do they do then? They aren't making this model of the computer any more; they can't just offer to replace it. And although I certainly wouldn't complain if they replaced it with the new model, I very much doubt they'll do that.
But hopefully it will be fixed. Matt doesn't have this problem with his Powerbook. Braz doesn't have this problem with his Powerbook. I haven't been able to find any documentation on the web of a problem like this - and that says to me that it's an obscure hardware glitch that's either going to go away when they replace the motherboard (which is what I expect the repair shop will do), or it's an obscure hardware glitch that I'll have to live with forever until I get another computer.
Those of you not in the corporate community may not have been aware of the fact that October has been designated "Quality Month." (The reason for this, I suspect, has to do with the fact that the government and most large corporations start their fiscal/financial year in October.)
So yesterday our HR person, Suzanne, unveiled the company's Quality program: She passed out to everyone in the office a pad of sticky-notes and a letter explaining what they were for.
A good half of the surface of the sticky-notes is covered with the text: Thank Q... (at the top) for supporting the quality of
Also, if we receive a sticky-note, we can fax it in to the home office, and they'll publish the best ones.
So let me get this straight... I'm supposed to be motivated to work harder and provide quality assistance to my co-workers because I might get a sticky-note thank you letter???
I don't know about anyone else, but when I get invaluable assistance from my co-workers on a project, I thank them. Depending on the amount of trouble they went to, it might be verbal thanks; it might be a commendation to that person's manager (whoops - I've already exceeded the value of the sticky-note right there); and/or it might be an offer to take that person out to lunch (another thing in excess of the value of the sticky-note).
At this point, getting one of these "Thank-Q" notes would feel like a slap in the face. It would say to me, "You're not worth the effort of an e-mail to your manager."
This has got to be the lamest, stupidest, most pathetic morale and motivation scheme I've ever seen. Naturally, I couldn't wait to share it with you.
Word of the Day:
jitney - a small bus that serves a regular route on a flexible schedule
Currently Reading:
- Dragon by Steven Brust
- archives at Infinity Plus
Current Projects:
- drawing
- Kris' afghan
- Hall stuff