Rants

Since rejoining Netflix on New Years’ weekend I have viewed and returned 6 discs. Every time I have mailed one back it has been received the very next day. The same day they have received a returned disc they have mailed one back to me. Four of the six have arrived in my mail box the very next day. The other 2 spanned a weekend, one of which was a 3-day holiday, which made the disc’s arrival a little late.

Movie #7 is another story, the sixth disc got back them the next day, a Wednesday, but the email informing me my next selection was shipped didn’t come until the next day, Thursday. The email informed me that I should expect my movie on or about Monday, not the expected Friday. So has Netflix started throttling me already?

In my quick research tonight on the subject, it seems that most people are experiencing this “smoothing” in relation to New Releases. That is definitely not the case with my next selection, Written on the Wind from 1956. But I also read that Netflix was aiming at keeping it’s subscribers cost to rent at around $2 a disc. The throttling is well documented, with the internet publishing of a customer service rep’s reply to a subscriber and the class action suit settlement. The $2 limit is hearsay for now, but seeing as I’m on the $10 a month plan, it appears that this slowdown for disc#7 is about right to keep me at that magic number.

First we added bread sticks. Then it was stuffed crust pizza. Then two crusts with one on top. We’ve had Thin, thick and deep dish. Square shapes. Four separate pizzas in the same box. Two for Two. Three for three. Five for five. They keep inventing new gimmicks to get you to keep ordering their pizzas. The latest, unveiled using a Super Bowl commercial is break free cheese stuffed bits of bread around the edge.

They just don’t get it, make a good tasting pizza and people will come back without having to resort to trickery.

Regular readers will know that I’m struggling with my fledgling home network. Setting up the Linksys WRT54G wireless router was no snap, but I did manage to get both to wired desktop and wireless laptop to share an internet connection in short order. Sharing files and printers has been another story.

Last night after reading on the Linksysinfo.org forums and thanks to this one post with a nice little checklist, I finally managed to get the 2 PCs to talk to each other. I had most of the items taken care of already, but the thing I did that turned the tide was turn off DHCP and give the two computers there own IP address. After rebooting everything I was in business, woohoo.

One small problem, neither PC could access the internet!

To quote my favorite British Prime Minister:

Margaret Thatcher: “It’s a funny old world.”

Even when it happens for a totally different reason than usual.

I love to read and I usually have at least one book going at a time. My current source is a used book store in town which we visit every other weekend. My usual MO for picking a book to read is to open it up about a third of the way and read a page. This lets me know A) if I like the style of witting and B) hopefully will tip me off that I might have read it before. It always works for A, but sometimes it will fail the B criteria. I have been known to take up to 1/4 of the way through a book before I realize that I have read it before. Because I usually don’t remember how it all finishes up, I’ll just reread it. Hey. people watch a movie they like more than once don’t they?

The past batch of books included one called “Tell No One” by Harlan Cobern that I really enjoyed, so on this past weekend’s trip I told myself that I’d get another one of his books to see if it was as good. There were three on the shelf, so I grabbed on called, “Gone For Good.” Didn’t even read any of it because I knew I liked his writing style.

Well sure enough, by page 10 I knew I had read it already, so I reread it. Good book, not as good as “Tell No One” though. My next trip back to the bookstore, I’ll get one of the other two that I (hopefully) haven’t read already.

My new replacement fan from Dell arrived this evening. I cracked open the case and felt the fan force when it was running, not much air movement. Popped out the assembly and pulled the fan off its rubber mounting posts. Installed the new fan and snapped it back into the case. Leaving the case open I hit the power button.

Fan started running, so far so good. I felt for air movement and it didn’t seem any better. As the computer finished booting up I just listened. It seems like the new fan has a tick to it that the other didn’t. Sigh, but at least it isn’t making the horrible vibrating sound. I scissor the case halves together and stand it upright. Just as I reach vertical….brrraaattttttttttttt. The sound is back.

I carefully laid the case back down horizontal….brrraaattttttttttttt. Opened up the case again and unplugged the new fan and….brrraaattttttttttttt, the noise is still there. Put my ear up to the power supply and that is where the racket sounds like it is coming from. Rap on the power supply grating hard with my knuckle and the noise stopped.

Damn! I was so sure. While trouble shooting it was making the noise and I unplugged the CPU cooling fan and the noise stopped, how could this be? The only thing I can think of is the first time I unplugged the fan it jostled the computer enough that the power supply fan quieted down.

Back to the Dell website to see about ordering a power supply. If you remember I complained about struggling to find the parts ordering section on the Dell site, I couldn’t see the forest for the trees. All you have to do is click on the pertinent system type on the blue menu bar along the top and right there second from the bottom is Dell Parts & Supplies. But you didn’t think it would easy though did you? Nope, drill down through the hierarchy and sure enough you are told that these items can not be purchased on line, please dial 1-800-Phillipines.

Well, I’m not going there. I’m going to go to Centrix International. It might even be a used power supply, but I’ll be darned if I’m going to have to deal with the refusing to buy a book or putting it on my Dell account madness again. Let alone how much they will want for that sucker. Centrix-Intl has four numbers listed as fitting my box, Guess I’ll be cracking open the case again to check the part number of the P/S.