Dell Delayed

Today I got an email stating that my purchase of the expensive Dell laptop has been delayed but they can deliver a new one with a different (cheaper) part with the cost reflected to me.

I originally purchased my laptop with a GeForce 7800 GTX which is top of the line from nVidia only the 7800 GTX Go is a higher end model which wasn't offered in my configuration.

However my Dell sales rep told me that tell ran out of inventory of the 7800 Go and they could give me my laptop within the next few days if I agree to the ATI x1400 (with a $200 discount).

I've been reading reviews and the ATI x1400 is ATI's new series of mid-range or budget cards. And seeing how I got premium or top of the line parts for every other component I wasn't about to go budget. The ATI x1400 apparently has less number crunching power than even the older X700 so I was in no way impressed by that offering. Don't get me wrong I love ATI I mean ATI headquarters is only 5 blocks away from where I work, but if the options were x1800 or even x1900 I would place an order in a heartbeat.

So it looks like provided they allow me to take a final look at my configuration once the 7800 is back in stock, and modify CPU / RAM / HDD if need be I'll be waiting for the 7800 Go which Dell says will be back in stock by May 1st. I'm still trying to see if they can give me a GeForce 7800 GTX go as it's found in their higher end gaming laptops, and I have their highest end multimedia laptop. I'd totally be willing to pay the difference if they offered.

I feel like I'm trying to purchase a ferrari labourghini or something. In the computer industry waiting a month IS waiting a year in any other industry. My only hope is that the nVidia does get here by May 1st and Dell will offset any price hikes.

Seems even if you are buying premium products you can't expect everyone else to not do the same.

Just when I thought it couldn't get worse...

It always does doesn't it. Sometimes my dad does these immaculate feats of incompetance that even I can't fantom how he manages to accomplish it.

Here I am with my Mazda3 2006 backing into the halfway under the garage door he presses the door close button with me and my car under it! I was seriously in a state of WTF?! who close their garage door on their own car with their children in it?!

The worst part? He was staring at me in his car while doing it and he didn't see me?! You gotta be shitting me!

So tomorrow and the day after I won't be driving anymore, my car is in the body shop for repairs. He's paying well he'd better be paying. My car was stopped engine was on and I was in it. He saw me so I don't know WTF he was thinking when he close the motorized garage door flattening my C pillar on the car. Jeez it's not even an old clunker either the damn car is only 3 months old manufactured in Nov 2005, and kept in prestene condition.

I'm just peeved right now seems nothing is going my way.

All Look Same Even To Cops

Apparently even cops can't tell the difference between asians. My proof? I was at Sheppard and Midland today going to help my parents fix the suvallence computer and I was pulled over by a cop. He went thur the usual drill being quite rude, I was polite dispite that and provided him with everything, they he wanted to keep me in the car for a couple of minutes while he checked on stuff. That was fine with me because I knew I wasn't in any kind of trouble.

Anyways 20 min later after falling asleep in my car he wakes me up and tells me I'm he would like to see my ownership, no sweat I thought it's in the glove I hand him the paper, he looks at me and says it's the recipt from mazda. Since my parents took the car home for me they told me all the stuff was in the car I simply thought that the reciept or proof of purchase was the ownership. Luckily my parents arrived at the scene and they tried their best to explain they didn't know it should be in the car so I never got it. He sends me a ticket and says as long as I show up in court with the ownership in hand (green paper) he'd drop the charges.

He then goes to explain that apparently some asian dude swiped a ATM machine in a nearby scotia bank and he thought that was me (which I interpretted as he chased after the first asian he seen). I'm sure he thought for sure it was me but I guess he just wanted to see if I acted like I wanted to get away at the same time he took my wallet so I guess all the cards were checked. (and traced to my accounts).

Anyways I drove away giggling at the fact that all asians look same.

But also it goes to prove the age old adage, no good deed goes unpunished now I have to set some court date which if the name change serves me as a lesson could take up to a year, at which time. I won't be driving the car anymore.

Suffice to say this hasn't been my week, I won't even bore you with the stuff I had to deal with yesterday. Funny part is the more crap that gets loaded on, the less bad it seems. Guess the law of diminishing returns works for negative things as well that should be somewhat comforting.

(time of incident 8:30pm)

CS GAMES!

On march 3rd at 8:00am we boarded the first coach bus on our way to Montreal to compete in CSGAMES 2006



On the bus brian and me try frantically to contact Torum which isn't on the bus that is departing in 2 minutes. It seems it's become a McMaster team tradition to have one memeber cut it close. I am glad to say however this time we didn't lose a member that was originally on the team.





When we got off it was time to navigate the subway system but unlike last time we downloaded subway and bus route information and were well off even from the start. On top of that I had my palm with preloaded maps of Montreal which proved very handy along with the satalite photos to guide us on landmarks.







This didn't do anything about the brisk winds but as Jay here points out in this picture we were definetly much happier knowing exactly where we were going.







We arrived at the hotel earily this time, so there was not much left to do but relax. Until the opening ceremonies.








Then while we were all getting our team "Blue Screen Of Death" shirts on we realized that one member didn't have one fully ironed on yet. So Alan sans shirt went into sweat-shop mode and furiously worked the hotel iron so we would all come in team colours.








Lesson from the wise, when the manufacturer says wait for side A to cool before ironing on side B that's because they want you to avoid doing this :-)








McMaster finally hits the Opening ceremonies, we learn there are 33 different teams we were up against some stiff competition and we all knew it.




As with any skills based competition at the end of the night you can find us all in bars... I apologize for not having any in competition pics but were were far to busy competing.













Team Blue Screen of Death from McMaster University were the underdogs of this competition some teams like McGill brought 3 sub teams. Team Blue Screen of death however consisted of (from left to right): FanFan, Alan, Kevin, Jason, Emery, Torum, Bob, Brian, and Jeff.






Team Blue Screen of Death soon was known as "One of the teams to beat" ranking 1st in several events including the coveted #1 spot for the "TEAM SOFTWARE ENGINEERING" competition. Proving that McMaster engineers really aren't something you can laugh at (as many other students from Waterloo and UofT seem to think).

BSOD also ran away with several high ranking scores and hardly failed any of the challanges they where put up to proving that we are a resourceful bunch. The result? We ran away with 2nd place overall and beat all other Canadian universites making us the #1 university at the competiton in Canada, and that is something to be proud of!

So I end this fun article with a video of our team because if a picture is worth a thousand words then surely this video is worth a thousand laughs.



Feel free to check out all the other teams too!