03/31/2007

closed out March with 150 miles... not too bad. I still have no idea what Im shooting for this year.



03/27/2007

Success!... a few months back my friend over at To The Metal pointed me to a post about Dell laptops having a ground voltage issue. My laptop, as well as his girlfriends were in the list of models found to be affected by this issue. another buddy of mine also has one that has the issue. its this problem where if you take a volt meter and check a ground point on the bottom of the laptop to a true ground, you can find anywhere between 40 to 100 volts AC flying off the chasis of the laptop. it doesnt take an electronics major to understand this is not an optimal setup. in some cases this has been known to damage RAM and Video Cards in the laptops. it was discovered by regular users and brought to Dells attention, but for the most part, Dell has been telling us its a NORMAL THING. hmm.. no. while theres not much current and it cannt really hurt someone, its still a lot of voltage to be passing through whats supposed to be a ground. it was found that if you get one of the newer dell AC Adapters that has the 3rd prong, that the problem goes away. about 5% of the people who call and ask for this replacement actually got it. I followed the forums hoping to see that the main poster was actually getting someplace in having this become an official recall on the part, but it didnt seem it was going to happen. I was about to just buy one, but I decided I should try Dell myself first. I called yesterday and didnt get too far. They were willing to swap out my AC adaptor but only with one that was the same style. I tried to explain that another 2 prong adapter wasnt going to solve anything and to not bother. I called again today and made a little bigger stink, this time telling that that it has been found that the voltage is also flowing through USB devices attached to the system. I explained that it makes me a little nervous putting my 4GB flash disks in there when the thing is plugged in, and that I have been using the laptop very little and only on battery until the issue is resolved. I was then put through to a supervisor who then finally agreed to send me the correct part. I shoud have it in about a week. I later read on the forums that Dell is no longer shipping these units without a 3 pronged adapter... I guess its not such a normal thing after all. I hope everyone can get their replacement and avoid damage to their laptops.. especially those who are no longer out of warranty.



03/18/2007

saw these outside today and just through it looked really cool.



03/14/2007

Went to the listening party tonight for the new Nine Inch Nails album, Year Zero, and the entire thing was amazing. this may be the most original compilation of work since The Downward Spiral... and oddly enough, I heard many sounds in it that almost sounded like they could be from old souce tracks of that CD. Im really loking forward to getting this album on April 17th. theres a lot of tracks in there that are going to sound amazing in the car. if youve heard the 5 tracks that have been "leaked" or played on the radio so far, while they are great, they are nothing on their own compared to the album as a whole. the lineup and flow of the whole thing is really nice and I really cant wait to go see some more live shows for this albums tour.



03/05/2007

Got my new Spiral Package from the NIN Fanclub today. new shirt, patch, and some flats. sweet stuff. when I first saw the box I was a bit confused cause it looked exactly like the boxes that come when I order new 12" vinyl, but I havnt ordered anything new in some time.. once I opened it ans saw the shirt I realized it was the spiral package, and of course, it looked like a record box because of the flats. (cardboard squares of album covers). it came with 6 of them. all new prints of old covers. couple of them are slightly raised in areas to give it a cool look. it was a nice surprise to find waiting for me when I got home.