Book Review: Cyberdreams (edited by Gardner Dozois and Sheila Williams)

I don't think this is even a book review, strictly speaking, as Cyberdreams is just a compilation of short stories from the 80's and early 90's (it was published in 1994) that were all originally published in Asimov's Science Fiction magazine (which I totally wish I could say that I read all the time, but I don't think I've ever actually seen an issue of it in real life) and all fit into the "cyberdreams" theme. So basically, stories have have to do with either virtual reality or dreams. Preferably both? I don't know.

As anthologies go...

...Wait. Is this even an anthology? What's the proper term for this sort of thing? Compilation? Collection? I have no idea.

Anyway, as these sorts of books go, this one isn't too impressive. Maybe my perspective is skewed because much of the science fiction I'd read prior to this one was so good (and it had actually been a while since I'd read any, so perhaps I was looking forward to it more than I should have been). I was surprised at how quickly it went by though. Around 200 pages, but I finished it in a week or so, even though I only read it in breaks while at school and work.

Because these stories are all by different authors and all, I'll just comment on them individually, rather than lumping them all together as one decent, but disappointing (to me, anyway) volume.


-Nearly Departed, by Pat Cadigan. I was amused that the main character in this is named Deadpan Allie (and is apparently a recurring character that this author uses in other stories). Her profession, as described by the introductory text the editors wrote is a "sort of high-tech psychoanalyst of the future, who can hook directly into another person's mind to seek out the root causes of their psychological troubles." But this time, it's a dead person (and an artist, whose manager is paying for any artistic fragments remaining in the brain to be recovered). Ooh, spooky. But seriously, mediocre story.

-A Hand in the Mirror, by Sonia Orin Lyris. Grad student comes to her advisor with proposal for a project on creating a new kind of virtual reality that simulates everything perfectly. Advisor tears her idea apart, explaining that it's unoriginal, prohibitively expensive, makes a number of unwarranted assumptions, etc. He tries to convince her to work on find something else to work on. Turns out that he and his team are on the verge of finishing exactly the sort of project the student had in mind. The team completes their new virtual reality, publishes, and enjoy the fruits of their labor. Backlash against him when people find out how mean he was to the poor grad student who had the same idea as him, only years later and missing all the important details. It's actually quite well-written and rather clever.

-Computer Friendly, by Eileen Gunn. A dystopian story in which children are tested for desirable traits and euthanized if they are deemed unacceptable. Not bad. The previous story was better, but this one is actually kind of fun and interesting.

Chip Runner, by Robert Silverburg. Eh, it's about anorexia. It's the only story in the book with a psychiatrist sort of main character who doesn't use some mystery technology to hook into someone's mind and walk around in a simulated landscape that is analogous to the patient's mental landscape or whatever. It's not even, strictly speaking, a science fiction story. The boy in this story believes that he can journey at the nanoscale through computer chips and such. His ability/delusion is linked to starving himself and he hopes to disappear completely so that he can visit things on the subatomic scale. Bland.

-A Coney Island of the Mind, by Maureen F. McHugh. This is exactly the sort of story that I had in mind when I bought this book, and not because it's good. It's of middling quality. It has a sort of blast-from-the-past quality. It was published in 1993 and one might say that it hasn't aged well. I love reading that kind of stuff. It's one of my favorite things about science fiction. This story is, by today's standards, very silly (and unintentionally so).

-Dreamwood, by Cherry Wilder. Crap. And way too long.

-Realm of the Senses, by Geoffrey A. Landis. Something I don't like about science fiction is when authors try to write about superhuman entities that, somehow or another, experience humanity (usually something painful and in this case it's a Nazi concentration camp but I'm pretty sure this isn't even the only story to do this exact idea) and marvel at the strangeness of it. I can't recall ever being impressed by a story that focused on this concept. And no, Stranger in a Strange Land doesn't count.

-Night Win, by Nancy Kress. Yet another story in this book with characters who have a profession that involves going inside other people's minds. This time, it's to keep dying people in hospitals alive. And of course, this is done by having the characters manifest as themselves in some sort of landscape, with the features of the world around them somehow corresponding to the person's mind that they are in. It seems very Jungian to me, but I also infer from this a lack of imagination on the part of the authors that do this. Can't they think of some other way to represent poking around in someone else's mind? Whatever the experience would be like, it almost certainly wouldn't be like walking around all normal-like with fields and rocks and trees and rivers or whatever. Boring.

-"Forever," Said the Duck, by Jonathan Lethem. This one's cool. It's a big virtual reality party where the guests are downloaded copies of people, existing only in cyberspace, but aware that they are copies and that their real-world cognates might be years older and completely different or maybe even dead. The hosts of the party are the two real people who decided to do this. The guests are copies of all the people the hosts have had sex with. Some of the guests are content to enjoy themselves while others are unhappy about their situation and want to rebel against the hosts, which is difficult to do because the hosts programmed the world of the party to behave in certain ways and know all the tricks to it. Unfortunately, an otherwise great story is spoiled by an abrupt and nonsensical ending. Still a good read, but it's as though the author cut things short to meet a deadline or a space requirement.

-Synthesis, by Mary Rosenblum. This one seems to be a lot longer than the others, and it's possibly the best of the bunch. Save the best for last, I guess. Unlike some of the others, this one doesn't even seem dated, really. It could as easily have been written now, rather than in 1992. In a way, it might be more impressive for that. The whole plot revolves around biotech companies, which were only barely even a thing back when this story was written and actually are powerful forces in the world now. And this story even seems to have a version of the world wide web, but with virtual reality (web 4.0?) and lots of it. The notion of people getting in-utero operations to give their children subdural nets that can manipulate cyberspace stuff seems a bit farfetched though. I mean, I think by the time we're doing that sort of thing, it won't be as clumsy as a giant, full-body net (that has to be installed before you're even born). Anyway, this is a very good story.

So yeah, that was Cyberdreams.

For a minute there I thought I actually had a working computer...

Are you surprised that this crap isn't over? I sure am. Yes, indeed, I am shocked. I am absolutely taken aback. Didn't expect this at all. In keeping with the tradition, I can still continue to make posts here about how my "new" computer (the one that I bought more than two months ago) is still not working properly. We wouldn't want me actually able to use modern technology, after all.

So about a minute after I my last post, FedEx showed up with my computer. I opened the box, read the form that had been placed in there, plugged in the battery and AC adapter, then started using the computer. According to the form, HP had re-imaged the hard drive and either repaired or replaced the SDRAM.

I had to install some updates, so I did that. I installed Firefox and Skype, then talked to Fesler on Skype for over two hours. No sign of any problems. The computer was fixed. I continued to use it a bit, then determined that there were two things that I still needed to do as soon as I could. First, I wanted to put Windows 7 on the computer. It takes a few hours or so, and since I was going to do it anyway, I wanted to get it out of the way. I also wanted to copy many of my files from my old computer to the new one. And I wasn't sure what the fastest way to do that might be.

So I upgraded to Windows 7 and recreated my old profile that HP's re-imaging had erased (as well as deleting the "Test" profile they'd created). That was all last night. This morning, I opened the computer up, used it to check a few things online, and went to judo practice. I came back, remembered something else I wanted to do, and started using the computer again. It crashed, of course. Same old story, same old song and dance. The problem wasn't fixed at all. I had just happened not to experience it again until I'd upgraded to Windows 7 and even then not right away.

I called HP again. The guy had me open up a panel and take my memory cards out. Well, I took one of them out. We ran a diagnostic and it passed. When I took that card out and put the other one back in, I couldn't get any display to come up. I tried for a while to make sure that I'd properly inserted the memory and everything. No luck. The computer comes on, but the screen doesn't. So they are taking it back for repairs...

...again.

So cool...

I came across this link somewhere: http://www.bigear.org/CSMO/HTML/CS09/cs09p05.htm

Of course it's way out of date, but it's still pretty awesome. Anyway, I am tired and I am waiting for FedEx to deliver my computer, which probably isn't going to happen because the company has a rule that if a signature is required, they can only attempt to make the delivery when you are not home. That is all for now.

Double book review: A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway and Teach Yourself Go by Charles Matthews

This is quite late, since I read both books a while ago. But better late than never.

A Farewell to Arms was, well, not what I had been expecting. I've usually heard Hemingway associated with short, descriptive sentences. Straightforward. To the point. Terse. As soon as I started this book, I noticed that his writing, at least here, was the exact opposite of that. I found long, run-on sentences that consisted of seemingly disparate ideas. And because the narrator is an American in Italy, many of the characters early on are speaking in pidgin Italian, which Hemingway conveys by having the dialogue be in pidgin English. And it's just awkward.

But somehow I got into it. I can't comment too much on what makes the book good or how good it really is. I remember a lot of things happening, but none of the events stand out as that much more important than the others. There are parts that show the horrors of World War I and parts where the war might as well not be going on at all. But none of it really stands out as being impressive. Still, when the book was over, I could definitely say that I enjoyed it. So for me at least, this was a strange book.

But if there's one thing that A Farewell to Arms has going for it, that would be the characters. They're superbly written and make up for some of the other deficiencies. Overall, it's not a great book, but it's a good one.

I'm not completely positive as to how I should write the title for the other book. It seems to be Teach Yourself Go. The library had it in the system as just Go. The cover indicated that it's part of a series of "teach yourself" books, but I can't recall actually seeing any other books from the series. I picked it up because I found it on the shelf at work and it was the only book on the subject we had other than the one I'd already read. Unfortunately, the book was damaged and I almost brought it back for evaluation instead of checking it out. Once I got partway through, it became apparent that the damage was worse than I thought, so I did end up having it put on evaluation (and I'm guessing that it was weeded).

As for the content of the book though, I am disappointed. I wasn't expecting anything particularly awesome, but the only other go book I'd read was over a hundred years old and written by someone who wasn't actually good at the game. But this book ended up falling short for two reasons. Firstly, Arthur Smith was actually a good writer. I don't claim to be proficient enough in go or the history of the game to know how skilled of a player he was or how out-of-date his gameplay examples were, but he had a classy writing style of the sort rarely seen anymore. Secondly, Charles Matthews, while not a particularly bad writer, seems to prefer lots of pictures, but in a format that I find confusing. That was really the defining characteristic of this book when I read it: confusion. Following the examples, and there are lots of them, was very hit-and-miss. I think I did glean some useful information and maybe the book has made me a slightly better player. But I wouldn't want to use this to teach myself go if I were starting from scratch and if the lessons here are useful for people who already know how to play, they are probably already more skilled than I am (or just think differently).

One thing that might have helped and that I didn't do was playing out the scenarios and problems in the book using my board. I think I'd have comprehended almost all of them then. I might have even believed that this was a good book for improving at the game of go. But I had nowhere near the kind of time this would take. That's one reason I should probably try buying books on go instead of checking them out at the library. I don't know.

Also, I find it amusing that everyone has a different explanation of why the Occidental alphanumeric coordinate system for the go board is missing the letter "I." In this book, the explanation is seriously that Korschelt was German. This makes no sense, as the German alphabet does have "I" (they just pronounce it the way "E" is pronounced in the English alphabet).

So yeah, those are the last two books I finished. Still on the Cyberdreams anthology, which I may or may not review.

I call it Stephen's principle (also, it is not the only thing I call by that name)

Fiction is not only stranger than truth, it is also more awesome. A demonstration: my father parked his car in the driveway with the driver's side door unlocked, but the other three doors locked.

Fictitious explanation
He did it on purpose. He envisions a scenario in which four drugged up psychopaths descend our long, pothole-ridden driveway, their speech betraying that they are up to no good. One of them opens the driver's side door and sits down, hotwiring the car so as to steal it. He instructs his comrades to get in. They bicker about who gets to ride shotgun. One of them tries the handle. The door is locked. They try to tell their friend in the driver's seat, but he doesn't hear them. They try the rear door. Also locked. Their compatriot on the other side of the car tries the other rear door. It's locked too! He informs the miscreant in the driver's seat, who nods and fumbles for the switch that unlocks all of the doors. In his drug-induced haze, he flips the wrong switch a few times, but after several seconds he succeeds. His three friends open the other doors to get in, but the trap has been sprung. My father's one-door-unlocked-with-all-of-the-others-locked ploy bought the time he needed to ready his arsenal. Just as the criminals are opening the doors to his car, he arrives on the scene, guns blazing.

True explanation
He had all four doors locked when he came home, but in opening the driver's side door from the inside so as to leave the car and enter the house automatically unlocked that one door. The other three doors simply remained locked.

Magic tournament (first one since 2004 or 2005)

So last night I played in a Magic tournament for the first time in years. Nick, Jared, and I went down to Tacoma. Nick played a sort of MUD Stax deck that he designed. I played the latest incarnation of Burn (very different from when I last left it with Nick, as he's managed to get just about all the cards it needs to be optimal). Jared played a Counter-Top deck with Progenitus.

First round I played against Jared. I would have won the first game, but I wasn't paying attention and I let him get away with using Counterbalance on my Rift Bolts even though they cost three mana and not one mana. I realized it when he was finishing me off, but it was also true that he would have played differently had he known that he'd have taken 6 damage earlier. We agreed to scrap the game and start over. I had no luck the rest of that match and he won easily. I proceeded to have no luck in my next two matches, but the decks I was facing were so bad that I still pulled off wins. First was a deck relying on Scute Mob and getting out five basic lands (it worked once, because I drew 16 lands over the course of the game). And then a vampire deck that had been built for Standard (although Jared, who faced it before I did, pointed out that it was a bad deck even in that format).

In the last round, I got paired up against Nick, but I got lucky. Or rather, he got unlucky. I didn't have a really awesome opening hand throughout the tournament. But he easily beat me the first game, got incredibly unlucky the second game, and I won the third (if he'd ever gotten a Smokestack I wouldn't have). Nick lost to another Counter-Top deck (I forget how many there were, but it seemed to be the most popular archetype at the tournament) and easily smashed his other opponents. When he finishes his deck, it will be even better.

Overall, it was pretty fun. I thought I'd place well because I only lost to Jared, who ended up going undefeated. But the rating system they used was screwed up: because there were two other people who had also won three matches and lost one, but who defeated higher ranking opponents than I did, they took second and third, leaving me in fourth place. I got $5 in store credit, which I used to buy Silence because Nick told me to (it's for ANT, which I might be playing in tournaments soon). Still, I went 3-1 and only lost to a teammate. And all that with Burn. Pretty cool.

Wherein I explain just what the deal has been with this new computer thing...

I've mentioned my new computer, usually in the context of problems with it, multiple times here, but haven't provided much in the way of details. Four of my posts in this new blog and ten (I think) posts back when I was using LJ. But nothing comprehensive even though the "saga" has been ongoing. To be honest, I kept thinking that soon I would have it resolved and could tell the whole story in retrospect. But it keeps dragging on. So here we go...

I expressed my intention to not get anyone a damn thing for Christmas because I was going to spend a bunch of money on a new computer for myself: probably a laptop. Despite that, some people insisted on getting me Christmas presents. I am that loved. Well, my dad set aside a newspaper with deals from Fry's. I didn't really know how much I was going to spend. I figured maybe $1,000. Maybe more. Maybe less. One of the computers advertised looked pretty nice. When I went with my mother to Costco we found the same model of computer for more money, so that evening (December 18th), my parents and I went to Fry's. One thing that became apparent was that even though I wanted a nice laptop, I wouldn't really even have to pay as much as $1,000 for one if I didn't want to. I was used to my old computer (still am). And it's been so long that even the cheap laptops are superior in every way to my old desktop.

Well, maybe not every way. How long do the new laptops last? Five years? This computer has been going strong for a decade or so. Sure, it doesn't do streaming of video content very well and the right speaker sometimes stops working, I'm on my third keyboard, and I've had to replace the power supply once and a hard drive cable once. But you know what? It works.

Anyway, at the store there was some frustration with my dad trying to take over everything, but eventually I ditched him long enough to get some help on my own. Pretty soon, I was introduced to what looked like a good deal. It was on a "manager's special" shelf or something. Basically, it was the last one of this particular model (Pavilion dv6) that the store had, so they were selling it at a discount. Because of that, it was available for the same amount of money as other computers that weren't as good. That was the idea anyway.

My parents decided to get my a carrying case for Christmas. While Dad and I were with the sales clerk getting everything ready for my purchase, Mom was looking at every single carrying case. We finished up and she was still there. Dad went through a couple and for some reason found one that he decided to make a pitch for. Opening it up and showing us the nice features that it had and explaining why it was better than the other ones. We were sold by his pitch, and then for some reason he wanted to look at other ones. Eventually, they bought it. And it turned out to be the last one of that particular model of carrying case that the store had. But so far the carrying case has worked out great. The computer, on the other hand...

It didn't come with a box. Apparently the box had been destroyed. I did get a big manilla envelope with the battery, AC adaptor, papers, etc. Also included was the UPC sticker from the original box, which I could use to get my mail-in rebate. And there was a printout for me to order the upgrade to Windows 7 through a program called HP Upgrade or something.

When I got home, the first thing I did was get on my new computer and attempt to order the upgrade. It was then that I ran into my first problem: the website had a tool to automatically detect the eligibility of my computer. I got a message that my serial number had already been redeemed. What the hell? So I sent the company an email about it.

Either later that night or sometime the next day, the computer crashed on me. I disregarded it as some fluke. I might have gotten the blue screen that time, which came with some text about, "If this is your first time getting this message, just reboot your computer" or something. But then it didn't stop crashing. Two or three times it crashed while I was playing chess, so I thought it might because of the chess program.

I never got a response to my email, so I called Fry's to ask them about the situation. The guy there didn't ask for any further information once I told him that it was about the upgrade. That was HP's deal. I'd have to pursue it with them (or return the computer). I called the number from the website where I was getting the message about my serial number being redeemed. Even though the site and the automated message when I called the phone number both prominently used the term HP Upgrade, this company was not actually a subsidiary of HP. They were a subsidiary of Bertelsmann actually.

The first time I called, after being on hold for a long time and then providing a bunch of information, I was directed to call HP, as my information didn't match what they had for my serial number. The person acted like HP had given out the same serial number for two different computers or something. I called HP. I was put on hold for a long time. The guy there took down a bunch of information. He advised me that HP didn't even have the discs for the upgrades and wasn't actually handling that program. He offered to give me the phone number of Arvato, the company that was actually doing the upgrades. I told him that Arvato were the ones who directed me call HP in the first place. He gave me a service ticket number in case there were further problems with the issue and said that next time I called Arvato, if they directed me back to HP, I should ask to speak to a supervisor immediately.

I called Arvato back, was on hold for a while, had to provide my information again, and then got a completely different answer about the problem: my case would have to go into escalation. This would take 10 business days or something. And because of the holidays (this was on the 22nd or 23rd), this meant even longer than it normally would. Eventually, I got a response to my original email, which was pretty useless.

In the meantime, it became apparent that my computer would crash intermittently. I looked up the display driver that was named on the blue screen, but my brief searches on Google didn't return anything conclusive. What I did notice was that this display driver (atikmdag) seemed to be specific to Windows Vista. So I reasoned that once I got my upgrade, I would sidestep whatever the problem was. Different display driver would mean no more display driver error.

I got my rebate check from HP long before I got another response from Arvato. This gave me a more favorable impression of the one company than the other, but don't worry, I would have issues with them later too. Anyway, Arvato required that I send them a scan of my receipt (easy, as I was going to school by this time and GRCC has scanners in the library) and a picture of the sticker on the bottom of my computer (or the UPC from the box, but I'd sent that in for the rebate). My dad turned out to be a total flake about getting one stupid picture, and then when he did send me one, it came out poorly, which was because of the glossy plastic over the sticker. Arvato responded to this by whining in broken English (apparently no one in the company has much proficiency with the language) that the serial number was illegible in the photograph I'd sent them. It wasn't, but it was rather blurry. Fortunately, my mom got a clear picture. Arvato sent me my discs.

Both of the emails I got confirming my order addressed me as Grant Smith. The rest of the information was all mine. But the name was "Grant Smith." My name is not Grant Smith. Grant Smith is not my name. I called them about it. I was told to disregard those emails. Fine. Just some oddity. Well, not exactly. I'd have just assumed that Arvato was incompetent (since they seemed to be), but this was not the first time in my life that I'd seen the name. Grant Smith was familiar. I'd actually mentioned this, although not the name, on LJ. In the manilla envelope, not all of the papers seemed to be mine. In addition to my stuff, I had a rebate receipt and a "personal merchandise tag." Both had the name "Grant Smith" on them. The plot thickens. There was also the instruction manual, which had been marked up in pencil and highlighter, possibly by this same person. But both documents bearing the name also listed the model of computer as being a completely different one from mine (hdx16). It seemed like too much to be a coincidence, though.

Arvato never actually got my name right in those emails, but the "track your order" information did use my name, so I dismissed that issue. I got my discs, upgraded my operating system, and...

...proceeded to write a post here chronicling these events, but didn't get very far before the computer crashed. This time, there was no blue screen. Instead, the screen would go black, then it would go back to normal, but with a message near the task bar that the display driver "ATI Radeon Family" had timed out but successfully recovered. And then the screen would go black again, and then I'd get the message again. And this loop continued until I manually shut the computer down.

So I'd been blaming Windows Vista the whole time, but really this seemed to be a hardware issue. I called HP tech support. They had me run a "primary hard disk self test" in the BIOS. That took a while, but eventually came up with "hard disk test fail." I called back and told them my result. Predictably, they concluded that the hard drive was defective and that the display drivers were just indicating that. They shipped me a new hard drive, with prepaid postage for me to send the old one back. I installed the new one and shipped the old one back. But the new hard drive was blank. I put Windows 7 on it. Of course, the copy of Windows 7 I had was intended to be an upgrade. So it worked, but it was bare bones. No software. And the computer didn't come with any CD's containing software. So when the computer did crash once during my examination of this situation, I, in what now seems an incredible display of sheer stupidity, disregarded it. After all, this was a new hard drive, so surely the old problem was no more. I didn't try to use the computer after that anyway, because it had no software. I had already called HP and they placed an order for me to receive Windows Vista System Recovery discs.

I had to call tech support again when Windows 7 wouldn't seem to let me uninstall it or wipe the hard drive so that I could use my new discs. I got help with that, and had Windows Vista once more. My computer was back to the way it had been when I first got it. Well, Microsoft Office seemed to be gone. All of the other programs I'd actually bothered to use were still there, though. I made a mental note to ask about the Microsoft Office thing. And then the computer crashed, of course. Blue screen, blah blah blah, atikmdag.sys, blah, blah, blah. So I called back again. This time, the guy helping me had me upgrade to Windows Vista Service Pack 2. I was skeptical that this would work, because I'd already upgraded to Windows 7 and still gotten the error, but he assured me that there was also a service pack upgrade for Windows 7. Whatever. Of course, once that upgrade was done, and it took quite some time, the problem was still there.

I called back. I should not have done that. It was already past 11:00 and I was behind on schoolwork. But I did it anyway. Now, I want to note here that although I was frustrated with the fact that the problem was still there, I had been quite patient and cordial throughout this whole thing and every time I called, the person on the other end of the line was polite and clearly made an effort to work with me. And then along came this fucker. He had me use HP's website to give him access to my system. I thought this was a good sign, because it was something new, but what he did was check the display drivers. What? How could that be it. I'd already told him that I'd had this problem in two operating systems on two different hard drives. And so when the display drivers turned out to be up to date, he became somewhat rude and kept insisting that they were fine. "So what, then, is the problem." The computer crashes. "The display drivers are fine!" Yes, I know that. But when the computer crashes, the blue screen says that atikmdag.sys timed out. "That's a display driver. The display drivers are fine!" I don't know if he had poor Enlgish communication skills, was being obstinate, or was just plain dumb. Somehow, the computer never crashed during the four hours or so that he was accessing it. I became very tired. And he kept trying to sell me Norton Antivirus 2010. Had I been more awake, I would have quickly become irritated by these attempts, but instead I just kept politely declining, which seemed to invite more attempts to sell me the damn thing.

Of course, the problem wasn't solved by anything he did. It was still there, the same as always. He had offered to schedule a follow-up call, though. Instead, I called back in the evening, and this time immediately ran through what steps had already been taken, hoping that this new person would either have a solution or have HP take the computer in for repairs, as I was getting sick of spending hours on the phone not having my problem fixed. He ran some diagnostic stuff, but nothing came up. One new thing we tried was using safe mode and diagnostic mode and seeing if the computer would crash while in those modes, but it never did. Of course, that didn't mean that it wouldn't. Such is the problem with an intermittent error like mine.

Well, that was Wednesday. Thursday I was too busy to do anything about the computer. But this afternoon, after getting home from school, I called HP again...

So, you've been having problems with display drivers.
No, that is not what I have been having problems with.
Oh, then what's the problem?
Well, the story keeps getting longer every time I tell it, but here we go...
Wait, I found a shit ton of notes on your case and I guess you've called us a whole lot of times without your problem actually being solved.
Yes, I sure have.
Let's check if the BIOS is up-to-date. Hard to get anything done if it isn't.
Hm, I can't. I'm still in diagnostic mode from last time.
Okay, well here's how you go back into normal mode...
Alright, here's what it says about the BIOS
Yeah, that's up-to-date. Well, this is definitely a hardware problem.
I thought so.
We'll have to take it in. Standard free shipping or expedited that you pay some money for?
Free.
Alright. Remember to back up your files.
LOL I don't have any, as this computer hasn't been working.
Oh, right.

Alright, so it wasn't exactly like that, but close enough. She also gave me the idea of running the test on the hard drive again to see if it was a coincidence that I had both this problem and a bad hard drive or if this problem is some sort that might have messed up the test on the hard drive (i.e. the motherboard is screwed up and it caused a false positive on the test). I actually did that just now and it turned out that it was a coincidence: I got a hard disk test pass this time.

Also, I noticed that in the marked up manual I got, which may or may not have once been in the hands of Grant Smith, bits about problems with display and the computer not responding are rather ominously noted, but then a lot of stuff is marked up. Still, I wonder about that...

Sleep vs. Homework vs. Neither

I should not be awake right now. I should really, really not be awake right now. The issues with this computer might finally be resolved. I'm not positive yet. Man, was this morning annoying. And I have school stuff I'm supposed to be ready for. Still, if this worked it will have been worth it. If not, well, I'll be whining about it all here soon enough...

Inexplicable Slump

So this computer thing still isn't over. But I'll talk about that later. I received my new hard drive and installed it. And I shipped the defective hard drive back to them, but I'm still waiting on my recovery disk, as the new hard drive is blank.

Anyway, I'm feeling rather crappy right now. Not sick or anything. It's just that mentally I feel sluggish. Like anything cognitive at all is some overwhelming effort. I didn't really do any schoolwork over the weekend and I even missed one of my homework assignments apparently. I say "apparently" because I didn't forget to do it so much as I somehow thought I'd done it already. I was sure of it, really. But I must have been mistaken. This isn't the first time I've felt this way, but it's really annoying now. I'm determined not to let it get to me. Everything feels like such a chore, but that's just too bad. I'll have to toughen up and get shit done, no matter how stupid I feel.

So I'm going to go make a new update on the chemistry blog. I have no idea if it will help, but I figure it's a sort of eyes on the prize thing. These other classes, my job, everything I'm doing right now is all preparation for the future.

New computer saga continued

I did some troubleshooting and at this time I have no idea if my computer will crash again. I would like for it not to. I want to be done with this crap. I've been using the computer since I got out of class and so far it's been fine. But last night it performed properly for quite some time before crashing, so I don't know. I've tried one last batch of troubleshooting in Windows 7 and if the display driver ever crashes again, I'll contact HP or someone for help, because this is just too much for me. Anyway, as with the last post, I'm liable to cut myself off and end with, "Argh! It crashed again."

Now where was I? Well, I suppose I should point out that I initially suspected that Fry's was responsible for my problems. You see, I bought this computer off a shelf that had "manager's specials" or some such thing. It was there because it was the last of its exact model the store had. It looked like a pretty good deal. I didn't get the box, but I did get the UPC from the box, which I sent in for my rebate. Unlike everything else associated with this mess, that rebate worked quite smoothly by the way. I used to think of rebates as being all, "mail the blue form to this address in an envelope with your 50-digit code written on the inside of it, attach the red form to an albatross and release the bird to deliver it to our secret fortress, bring the green form to a crossroads and perform the ritual of the ancients, after which the rebate demon will appear and engage you in mortal combat..." but this was rather straightforward.

Anyway, in the envelope the stuff came in, aside from my power cord, rebate materials, receipt, remote control (I didn't even know computers had remote controls), battery, and whatever else, I also had some mysterious paperwork for some guy named Grant Smith. Initially, I thought this meant he had purchased my computer and returned it to the store. But there was a rebate receipt for him and it clearly showed that it was an entirely different model of computer he'd bought. I figured Fry's had accidentally put some stuff from this guy in the same package for my computer. No problem.

Well, after I finally got a clear picture of the sticker on the bottom of my computer (I don't have a camera and it has a glossy plastic protective sheet over the actual sticker that makes photographing the numbers difficult) and sent it to Arvato, someone there placed my order and I received a confirmation email. In the confirmation email, I found out that my upgrade would be sent to me. Well, my address anyway. And my phone number was there too. But my name? "Grant Smith." That's not my name! And then I remembered the junk in the envelope from Fry's. The plot thickens. I received a second email, again calling me "Grant." I checked the "track your order" feature and found my name there instead of this mystery person's name. So I called Arvato to ask about it, and ended up being on hold until I had to leave the house. I tried again the next day and, after explaining this oddity, was told to disregard the emails. Um, whatever.

And then I got a third email, again calling me "Grant." But when the discs finally arrived, the package did have my name on it. I still have no idea what happened and I don't really feel like contacting Fry's over this one, but it's definitely weird. I thought, "Whatever. I got my rebate and I got my upgrade and life is good." But there was still that one last problem...

Early on, I began to notice that sometimes the computer would crash for no reason. It was due to a display driver called "atikmdag." Sometimes I would get a blue screen and sometimes it would "recover" and after a minute or so everything would be back to normal. A couple of times I had to manually shut the computer down and turn it back on. But this was a Windows Vista issue. Soon I would have Windows 7. So I waited. I would have done a clean installation rather than the "upgrade" version that was recommended by the materials in my kit, but there was an error the first time around (easily corrected) and when I restarted and proceeded I just went with the recommended version of the installation. A few hours later, I was on my computer, everything seemed fine, and then...

That's right, the display driver crashed. A different display driver. This time it was "ATI Radeon Family." But the error was pretty similar. Worse, actually, because it would keep giving me a message that it had stopped responding and recovered over and over until I manually shut the computer down. After I installed some Windows updates, it seemed to go away, but then while typing the previous entry in this blog, the problem returned. This morning, it happened twice. But I did some troubleshooting thing and now I've been on the computer for over an hour with no sign of the problem. I seriously expected it to recur while I was typing this, just because (almost certainly by coincidence) it has happened a lot while I was using Blogger.

Man, this is too good to be true. I wish I had more time today to get this figured out, but I have work and then judo and then once I get home I have some homework that takes priority over this. Still, it would be nice to know for sure so that I could know whether or not to continue pursuing the issue. I guess if it's all better now, I'll know by the fact that nothing is happening. So, the computer saga is over?

The saga continues...

This post has two distinctions: it is the first time I am doing two things. The first one is something I've been wanting to do for a long time. That's right: I am blogging from in bed. Yes, bed. That's why I invented the laptop computer. Now I have one less reason to ever get out of bed. The second distinction is that this is the first time I am blogging in GLORIOUS SIXTY-FOUR BIT. Oh yeah, I got my upgrade. Finally. This new computer issues saga has been a long and annoying one, but it looks like it's finally over, ignoring the fact that I still need a mouse and probably headphones too.

On December 18th, I bought this computer. I was supposed to be able to follow a simple link to order my upgrade. No such luck. I received a message that someone else had already redeemed my serial number. I immediately sent an email to address listed under "contact us." No response. I figured it was because of the weekend, so I'd give them time. I called Fry's and got a non-answer from them. I called the number associated with the upgrade site. The company (Arvato, which is some subsidiary of Bertelsmann) put me on hold and asked for a bunch of information and eventually directed me to HP, where I was put on hold, recited a bunch of information, and was directed back to Arvato. Then I was put on hold asked for a bunch of information, and finally told that my case would be sent into escalation.

I had to scan my receipt and photograph the sticker on the bottom of my computer and send those images to them...and damn, the display driver crashed my computer again. I was going to tell the rest of this story first because I thought I'd finally gotten it to stop. But no. So my computer is still not functioning properly. Awesome. I guess my next update will be from the old computer then...