soapbox

I don’t feel like quoting the whole article, but some guy’s Dell laptop recently exploded into flames. Things were rapidly taken care of by the fire department with basically no significant damage to anything except the computer.

The man said that he then called up Dell and talked to one very helpful representative who transfered him to someone less helpful.

The Helpful Rep: I’m sorry your computer caught fire, that’s terrible to hear.
Man: Well, what is Dell going to do about damage to my computer and my house?
Helpful Rep: I don’t know, let me transfer you to someone who can help you.
Unhelpful Rep: Hello, I’m the supervisor, what can I do for you?
Man: My Dell laptop just caught fire and damaged my carpet. Who’s going to pay for all this?
Unhelpful Rep: Well, do you have homeowner’s insurance?

I tell ya’, that’s the perfect answer

link

I’m filing this under “bitching” because that’s purely what it is.  I had to move out of my nice cozy office with [mostly] matching furniture and become the fourth person in a four-person office.  Of course, this means that I’ve had to take the desk square in the middle of the room with no privacy where anyone can walk by and take a look at what I’m doing.    I’d be happier in a nice cube.

The good news is that it’s going to become an office of three in about two months and then I’m going to annex one side of the room for my own use.  Move some furniture around, make a fort out of extra desks…  then things will be ok.

Until then, I just have to always look like I’m busy.

Finally, a POTW that isn’t a macro of a small animal. This photo shows the UCC church across the street from Wilder. Briefly, this scene had a very wide dynamic range, but the dynamic range that can be captured in a single jpeg is low. To retain detail in highlights and shadows, I took 3 exposures (left, click to view larger), all the same aperture (f/8) but different shutterspeeds (1/100, 1/25, 1/6 sec) and merged them into a single image. (more…)