Just arrived home, and my kitty Cleo was VERY happy that I was back. David said that she was crying and moping whie I was gone. She isn't leaving my side right now. And she is so talkative (This is a kitty that normally only makes brief sounds)!


My kitty, Cleo

Well, I made here to Las Vegas. Weather here is nice (hey, when ISN'T IT?), although the flight was quite "bumpy" (Summer monsoon season makes for thunderstorms). It was 102 yesterday, only going to be 95 today. I got in a little gambling, but not really too much. Maybe tonight. :-)

I should see my brother Danny today. I haven't seen him in a few years, so this will be really nice.

Going on vacation for a few days

I'll try to update here, but my focus is *ME* for the next few days. Just a little micro vacation. :-)

For those of you in emergency medicine, how many of you have had the same patient two days in a row with the same issue? That is exactly what happened yesterday at work. No specifics, but I am really worried about this patient. Hope she gets the medical help she needs... Yeah, I know I am supposed to stay detached. But it still happens. It happens to all of us.

You just can't trust anyone...

Two weeks ago, my Compaq n800c began to misbehave. The screen would flash constantly, sound died, and then, one morning, the fan went into hyperdrive, and the system would shut off after a few moments. OK... I have a warranty. I sent the unit in.

A few days after I sent it in, I got it back. They replaced the system board. And for some unknown (and undocumented) reason, they wiped my hard drive. Since the system board was the problem, there was no reason to wipe the drive. But, I had pulled the drive right before sending the laptop in, and backed up my important data. No horrendous damage done, but reinstalling everything takes a lot of time.

The *REAL* problem: They DAMAGED my laptop, physically. There was a crack in the plastic around the screen that wasn't there when I sent it in, and a chunk of plastic missing from the battery. And the back panel covering the ports didn't close anymore. I take damn good care of my laptops, and this really peeved me. I called HP/Compaq immediately. Their first response: "Is the box damaged?"... OK... "No." In fact, the plastic piece that was missing from the battery wasn't in the box at all (and the unit was wrapped in plastic inside the box). So... That means THE DAMAGE HAPPENED AT THE REPAIR DEPOT. So, the problem got escalated to Customer Relations. And the unit got shipped back to HP/Compaq again.

I got it back yesterday morning. Pulled it out of the box. Plastic piece replaced, and the screen replaced completely. And the back panel now closes. Nice. Looks good. Power on the unit... Screen looks good. Windows comes up... and there is CRAP SOFTWARE loaded on my system. "Free Bose Stereo", "Gambling Board", "Kill Spyware", and "Sexy Ringtones". It didn't go there with this software. But these URL's and software (Including spyware and software that looks for a network automatically - it isn't connected right now, so it won't work). It gets better. Whoever had my laptop at the repair depot also went and visited some um, adult websites (checking the history in Internet Explorer shows this, and nicely documents it happening on Thursday, when it was at the repair depot, which is possibly the source of much of the crap on my system. And decided to check the stats from the NBA. As I said, you can't trust anyone nowadays.

I called HP/Compaq AGAIN. I ask for (3 times) Customer Relations, who was dealing with the damage issue already. I finally get a rep, who basically tells me that she has to send a message to the repair depot, and someone "might" call me back. "MIGHT"? EXCUSE ME: They have someone at the repair depot adding crap software and spyware to computers and they "MIGHT" call me back? I told her that I expect a call back by the end of the day.

Did I get a call? Nope! I have been a loyal Compaq customer since 1986. I have brought Compaq sales in excess of $500,000 over the years. And to thank me, I get someone loading this crap on my system, and no one to call me back. How nice. I have seen service go downhill since HP bought and merged Compaq. I recently bought an HP TC4200. While I love the unit (I am typing on it now), this may very well be the last unit I ever buy from HP/Compaq. I can't take the risk that someone is going to corrupt my data with spyware and other crap software that I did not give them permission to load. And with the size of drives nowadays, it is harder and harder to back up data in anticipation of them wiping my data indiscriminately. Will I ever recommend their hardware again? It depends. It depends on what they do to correct this problem.

HP/Compaq: The ball is in your court now. Make this right. Send someone from your company to take a look at this unit. I will show you everything that was added (Beyond the picture to the left). Find the person who did this and make sure they NEVER do it again. And as I said, make it right. Don't just put off a good customer and pretend that this didn't happen.

Update: All I have received from HP/Compaq is the following email:

"On behalf of Hewlett-Packard we apologize for the delay and difficulties you are experiencing. Your message has been forwarded to someone who will help you review your case."

I finally did get contacted by a gentleman from the "Office of the President" (name withheld by me intentionally). I honestly don't know if they are going to do anything to rectify the problem. I still have to reinstall my OS myself. What happened to satisfying customers? Oh well.

Well, I am now down more than 20 pounds again! That was really good news to hear. I was having a bit of a bummer day before I weighed in. :-)

I don't know if I ever shared these pics, but Click Here to view some pics taken while I was on deployment in Florida last year (I have a lot more, but this was a start).

A recent blog post by my friend Mike Rohde (see his link above) regarding his finding free Wi-Fi in an older hotel made me think about a trip I took two years ago to Las Vegas. I was driving, and got too tired to make it all the way to Las Vegas, so I stopped in Beatty, NV. I stayed at a Motel 6, and out there, in the middle of the desert, I had free Wi-Fi! I thought it was a fantastic idea, and even let the Motel 6 folk (Accor Hotels) know that I thought so. They let me know that it was a "prototype hotel", for future hotel design presumably.

So, why bring this up? If Motel 6, and other low-priced hotels and motels can provide free Wi-Fi, why in the heck don't the higher priced hotels do so? It comes down to money. The people staying there can afford to *pay* for an added service, like Wi-Fi, so they charge them. The only reason we had free Wi-Fi at the PalmSource DevCon recently was that PalmSource underwrote it. As soon as the conference was over, poof! Free Wi-Fi was gone.

So, this means I will be seeking out the free Wi-Fi hotels in the future... I guess that makes me a cheapskate... I like bang for my buck.

Last Friday, I was over at a local CompUSA, mostly out of boredom. I was looking through their Clearance and Open Box items, and I found a PalmOne Cradle Kit for Tungsten T5 and E2 models. This is THE SAME Cradle Kit for the PalmOne LifeDrive. Why am I mentioning it? Well, it was only $20, instead of the $39.99 it normally sells for. So, I suggest that if you own one of these units, go to your local CompUSA and check out their Clearance area! $20 is a nice price for this kit!

Today is Father's Day... and I was working (covering a shift for a fellow EMT). After the game, they allowed people down on the field to play catch (and let the kids run the bases). I didn't have my regular camera with me, so I took shots with my Treo 650. EVERY SHOT I TAKE is grainy and blurred. Cleaning the lens doesn't help. Here is the shot I took:



This is the same problem that many other people have with the 650's. I wish PalmOne would make a fix for it.

Wow... I am just... in awe.

Last night, I attended our yearly Girl Scout Leader Appreciation dinner. I was sitting there, listening while awards were being given out, and suddenly heard my name... for Outstanding Leader of the year!

It seems I was nominated by the leader of another troop, and the girls in my troop wrote an incredible letter. They see things in me that I don't see in myself. It turns out my daughter wrote the letter that all the girls signed. My co-leader Cathy also wrote a letter of recommendation.

As I said, I am just... in awe. And so very, very thankful.

Thanks everyone!

Went to my WI (Weigh-In), back down to 260.1... :-) (Another 3.4 lbs down!)

By next week, I hope to be back to 20 lbs down... just got to get my back to behave better, so I can be exercising. Either way, I am back to the gym tomorrow (maybe just spending more time in the pool and/or jacuzzi than on the cycles!)

I don't know if I ever shared these pics before, but here are a few views from my work:


Just outside the park


During the game... night games are beautiful


A tiny view from the concourse just outside the EMS Office

Went back to WW this evening. Thought I had gained a lot of weight, but I haven't, really. Yes, I am up 4.3 lbs, but I honestly thought I had gained more (And that was in my jeans, not my lightweight pants). We'll see what happens next Wed. :-)