under another sun

Dell sucks After waiting for Windows 7 from Dell for three weeks, I received a delivery today. I had reloaded all my old software earlier this week, and got the guys in India to help me install the drivers, which the initial guy had left unloaded. Dell's website had informed me the software wouldn't be delivered till the end of the month. But here it was. In a large box. Opened the box to find a smallish DVD sized case inside. This contained nothing other than a bit of smug copy and a key number. Puzzled by this, and the fact the instructions made no sense I called Dell again. Turns out they'd sent me the wrong thing entirely. An upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 7 ultimate. I had wasted the best part of yet another day on bloody computer stuff. Unbelievable. Many apologies from the Dell folks in India, and I am getting a refund, and will make do with what I have now, seeing as at last I have a working desktop again. And hopefully drawing a line under three weeks of compute...

Cometh the hour, cometh the Manvinder Decided to try to maintain equilibrium today. Did what work I could on my laptop, and in the afternoon Sam came by and tried a few fixes on my computer. He zips between windows and makes lightening fast decisions on things, incredibly quickly. Had a nice chat in between various strategies. I ended up calling the Dell software helpline and actually got a rather efficient and helpful guy called Manvinder, who has reinstalled vista. I have decided to upgrade to Microsoft Windows 7, which supersedes the universally despised Vista. I noticed today on the Dell website that there were downgrades available - to change your Vista back to XP (the preceding system, which shows just how much it sucked). Meanwhile, Manvinder rather amazed when I asked him if he were Sikh. Always seems to surprise the helpline guys in India when you know anything about their country. And on an even more positive note, I've got another call from my old agency to do some wor...