Earth: Mostly Harmless

Continuing MacBook saga

Apple and TNT are complete knobs. Really. They are.

As I posted before, my MacBook went bananas. And I’ve had a hell of a time trying to arrange a replacement. Originally, they agreed to do a straight-out swap, and DOA MacBook #1 (which will henceforth be known as Hiroshima) was promptly returned via the ever-useless TNT:

Apple are going to replace it - they say it’ll take a week but I’m sceptical given that it’s a configure-to-order machine, and the new one will need to be shipped out from China.

Oh capitalism. How you mock me.

So, in the best spirit of tempting fate, more mocking was to come. The one-week shipping time for MacBook #2 turned into an indefinite malaise - I received notification that it had been built and dispatched, but the TNT package tracker showed no movement whatsover after the first two days, as you can see here. TNT aren’t sure (which amazes me), but think it’s still in China. Apple don’t know. TNT are investigating with Apple. Apple are waiting on a response from their investigation with TNT.

A woman at TNT kindly explained to me that there is a time zone difference between China and the U.K., which is why the Chinese warehouse’s investigations had taken so long. I pointed out that while this was perfectly reasonable, the time difference was in fact in the region of eight hours, and not five days. Harumph.

I called Apple this morning, and was ready to either get angry at them or demand a refund. To my surprise I actually got a straight answer: that MacBook #2 is now considered MIA somewhere in Asia. It shall henceforth be known as Colonel Walter E. Kurtz.

The other upshot of that call is the appearance of MacBook #3, which is (hopefully) being frantically assembled at this very moment. I’m also getting a ‘goodwill’ payment for my troubles.

I’ll believe it when I see it.

Stay tuned for updates on the Lazarus MacBook…

Sudo

I can’t even begin to explain this joke, so I’ll have to let Wikipedia attempt it. But it’s brilliant.

Click the cartoon to see it on Randall Munroe’s site.

Phone lust

I am very happy with my current mobile phone (the Nokia E61, a.k.a. the BlackBerry killer). It does everying, and very well. It does all my email; I can blog from it; it’s a great calendar/to-do system; it has a GameBoy emulator; it has WiFi; it runs Google Maps Mobile; it has an SSH client; it’s built very sturdily; and apparently it’ll even make phone calls.

The one thing that I would improve about it is that it doesn’t have any kind of camera. I suppose the rationale for this is that it’s aimed at business/government, where trade secrets and suchlike may be an issue. And omitting a camera allows the phone to be a bit slimmer.

Apparently I’m not the only one who thinks that the E61 suffers from this oversight. I hear that there’s an E61i in the works, the main difference being a camera. Tempting, so tempting…

Nokia E65 and E61i details:

Nokia have added a number of user agent profile files to their website including ones for the as yet unannounced Nokia E61i and Nokia E65 models. Careful reading of the user agent profiles reveals that both devices run on S60 3rd Edition on Symbian OS 9.1. The E61i appears to be a tweaked version of the E61. Changes from the E61 include the addition of a camera and a change to the MicroSD memory card format. Read on for more.

(Via All About Symbian - News).

WordPress 2.0.5

I just upgraded this site to WordPress 2.0.5. Let me notice if anything works/looks screwy.

Cheers all.

New blog: Woman with an Opinion

Congrats to my good friend Laura, who has just (half an hour ago) started a new blog to replace her LiveJournal: Woman with an Opinion. She wanted to call it “The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women”, which would have been awesome…

Why I’m doing this:

I have a Livejournal and have done since I was 16. However, I have found I have wanted to broadcast my opinions further than my Livejournal friends list and to other friends who do not have access to Livejournal.

Does this mean I have a manifesto?

(Via Laura - Woman with an Opinion).