Crayon Writer

We sing a variation of the alphabet song with my daughter. I can’t describe the tune, but it goes, “A A A A A A A A, A A A. B B B B B B B B, B B B. You get the rest. For each letter there’s a series of 8 fast repeats, then 3 long ones.

The other day, when we got to the W’s, my 3-year-old chimed in, “W W W Dot.”

I just had to share that hilarious story. I asked her where she got that from, expecting her to say television or mommy, but she said, “From the computer.” Go figure.

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Someone I know just found out she/he would be without the Internet at home for about 10 days!

Here are some signs, exhibited by my “friend”, that may indicate an Internet addiction.

1. You cry like your dog died upon hearing the news that you won’t have access for 10 days.
2. You are willing to sit on the floor of your old apartment, where the internet isn’t yet shut off, just like a junkie squatting in an abandoned building.
3. You find yourself trying to guess your neighbor’s password so you can “borrow” their Internet.
4. You find yourself telling the Internet company that having a connection is a “life or death” situation, and you really mean it.
5. You are unable to imagine the 10 days will ever end, and you feel like the world has come to a virtual end.
6. You find yourself checking old email just to get a fix.

As for the identity of my “friend,” I have to plead the fifth. LOL!

Can you think of any other Internet addiction signs you’ve “witnessed?”

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If you’re a regular reader here on Crayon Writer, you know all about my luck with computers. Well, things are finally looking up, and I’m super excited!

After I sent in my new HP Pavilion dv6226 for repair, it came back running hotter than I remembered it and they didn’t fix the strange high-pitched squeal it sometimes had.

So I called Hewlett Packard’s customer support immediately. For about an hour I talked with some guy in another country who couldn’t talk to me outside of the script he was following.

After yelling at him, I talked to another agent who told me the laptop needed to be replaced. She sent me to their case management group, who shuffled me back and forth from manager to manager, with the story changing each time about the fix for my problem.

Finally I got a new manager who apologized for my weeks of torture with the staff, and he took care of everything. In a HUGE way. Granted, he saw how much I had been through and was ready to bend over backward to please me. And I was quite perturbed. I even asked him if they would give me stock options for my troubles. No, I didn’t get that request.

Instead, I got a brand-spanking-new awesome laptop and lots of perks that make me ready to sing HP’s praises from the highest mountain top (okay, maybe not the top of a mountain, but you get the idea).

Now let me tell you what HP did for me.

1. I got a free 3-year extended accidental damage warranty.

2. They included a 300GB personal media drive. Backups are a breeze now.

3. HP sent me a Belkin easy transfer cable so I could transfer all of my settings and files from the old laptop to the new. It worked like a dream. I didn’t even have to configure my 3 or 4 email accounts again.

4. The new laptop they sent was a just-released model. 17-inch screen. Built-in webcam. And did they give me just the basic settings? No. I got beefed up everything. Memory, speed, extra battery…everything!

So now I get to play with my HP Pavilion DV9700t, and the computer drama is finally over (knock on wood).

The moral of the story? If it’s justified, make your complaint heard. And ask for compensation for your troubles and wasted time. You may not get stock options, but you never know if you don’t ask.

The real point of this post? I love my new computer and everything that’s included with it! HP outdid themselves in taking care of the problem. I’m probably a customer for life (though they really need to work on their first line of customer support representatives).

Curious about the specifications of my new notebook? Let me know!

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I’m either extremely unlucky or lucky, depending on how you look at it.

Last year my desktop’s fan broke. But I had a laptop that I’d been using, so no problem. Later, probably last February or March, the laptop died. No problem. I had just bought a new laptop a couple of days before, and they were able to recover the data.

Then, just last month, the new laptop died. I couldn’t get the data recovered, but I didn’t have a ton of things to worry about anyway (I had emailed a lot of things, and saved some in the website’s files). So no problem, really.

So now, just after I got the repaired laptop, my desktop crashed! But I did backup the data before the crash (finally learning my lesson). So no problem, right?

Finally, at the (hopeful) end of this computer saga, my newly repaired laptop is running way too hot, so I have to get HP to replace it.

Lucky? Unlucky? I don’t know, but I sure hope the drama ends soon. As a lesson to us all, backup, backup, backup! If you don’t know how, find someone who does. It’s no fun starting over all of the time.

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I was having some technical issues, but somehow I figured out that a certain code decided to make things act up. I deleted a script for feedburner, and all of a sudden everything worked fine.

After much research, I finally found out from a co-founder of Feedburner that there was a glitch in their new Adsense program, which I’d recently activated.

I was quite pleased at how quickly Feedburner replied to the question, and at how fast they fixed it.

All systems ready to go!

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It happened again. My computer crashed (at less than 1-year-old), but I never felt the need to backup my data.

If you’ve been reading Crayon Writer for a while, you know that my last laptop’s hard drive crashed earlier this year.

So what am I going to do to avoid this in the future?

Hopefully my ideas will help any other lazy backer-uppers too.

I will cc myself on any important emails I send. Perhaps I’ll cc them to my “free” email account. This way I won’t lose important emails.

I will also email myself important documents I’m working on (or have finished), like my resume or a client’s project.

I will turn off my laptop or computer more often, or at least put it in “standby” mode. I think my hard drives burned out from overheating.

Finally, though I’m a bit lazy, I will backup my files at least every two months. I found a computer store in town that charges just $40 for this service.

And while we’re working on prevention, buy renter’s or homeowner’s insurance. If you get burglarized or your neighbors aren’t handy with an oven, you may not lose everything you own (monetarily speaking). I just signed up a month ago.

I sure wish insurance could magically recover my documents. Here’s hoping the computer fixers can get something from my fried hard-drive.

 Any other advice for avoiding computer catastrophes?

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The computer doctor saved the day! Sorta.

I got most of my files retrieved, but the computer itself isn’t up and running yet. No matter for now. I got what I needed. Unfortunately, my daughter won’t have her own laptop yet, but she’s content (for now) to play with it even though it doesn’t do anything.

This past week has been a busy one. Besides working on writing projects, I’ve had to clean up my backed up material. I had thousands of old email messages to wade through. I’m a bit of a packrat when it comes to the computer. I had to actually delete a lot!

Couple all of this computer work with dealing with a very spirited 20-month-old, and things are very hectic. But that’s the life I’ve chosen.

And I’m loving it!

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Lately I’ve been working into the wee hours of the night, because that’s when my daughter is sleeping. But I’m exhausted! Going to bed at 2 or 3 in the morning and getting awakened around 8 just isn’t cutting it anymore.

Everyday I plan to put my daughter in bed by 9, so I can get just 2 or 3 hours of work done before going to sleep at a reasonable time. Tonight I’ve been successful (at the price of her not getting a nap all day). It’s almost midnight and I am going to bed!

Today I worked on learning about the Microsoft Outlook Business Contact Manager program. This will hopefully keep my business on track.

Tomorrow is computer doctor time, along with a Mommy-Daughter field trip. I have another project to complete as well, and I’ve set aside nap-time for this task. And of course, as I said yesterday, I must get another email campaign underway. And a press release.

So much to do! Not enough hours in the week.

Housework? I’ll get to it. One of the perks of being the sole adult is that no one expects dinner at 6 or a spic and span house.

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Getting a new computer and a new operating system is quite a chore!

I actually like Vista so far, though it had some compatibility issues with my printer. Here’s the story.

I plugged in the USB cable for my Minolta printer, and things seemed fine. I tried to print, but it wanted to print to file! No problem. I just changed the port to USB.

It didn’t work.

So I went to the Minolta website, read their instructions for working with Vista, and tried their first ‘fix.’ No luck. I took a nap.

Waking up a little more clear headed, I re-read the Minolta website’s instructions, tried their first and second fixes, and maybe a third. I had a big project, so I really needed to print!

Still no luck.

Finally, at the end of the instructions, it said something like, “If nothing has worked and your printer still won’t print, uncheck the UAC box in the Users Panel.” Something like that. Something that simple.

And it worked.

I was livid! I had spent hours trying their long, drawn out ‘fixes.’ I uninstalled and reinstalled drivers and USB hubs. I restarted the computer and printer numerous times. I even shed a tear or two. All of this between the hours of midnight and 5 a.m. (when my toddler was asleep).

And all I had to do was uncheck a simple little box???!! They really should have put that ‘fix’ at the top of the list.

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