What's Wang This Week

My laptop is acting up. Before the battery runs out and it can go to sleep, it makes a little whirring noise (like the hard drive spinning down) and then it just turns off, unable to revive. Then I plug it in and turn it back on, and the clock has been reset. I'm not a hardware expert, but I'm guessing the doohickey and the Go-a-lator are out of tandem.

This is also causing my battery life to suffer badly. A little test shows that my battery's capacity is under 50% of its original capacity, when at this point in its life cycle it should be at about 85-90%. Even as recently as December, I could get 3 and a half hours out of it normally; now, it's down to under 2.

I blame this on my officemate's Powerbook. I hadn't had any troubles until he brought in his brand-new Powerbook that kept on kernel panicking for no reason. Like SARS, his computer's ailments were so virulent they spread to mine. He sent his computer to Apple, but they were unable to recreate the problems, so they sent it back unfixed, along with a letter saying "We are pleased that we were able to fix your computer problems!" I think he probably then laid a very un-Canadian verbal hurting on an AppleCare rep. I hope it doesn't come to that for me.

Regan has left for Princeton and now I'm all alone in my apartment again. I'm all lonely now, but on the plus side, I have my living room back. Fair trade? You be the judge.

We did see some cool stuff in San Francisco before she left:

I can imagine this sign on the Death Star, I guess.
or...
Good luck persecuting the Emperor!

Vince has a histogram of the number of Golden Gate Bridge-jumping fatalities by position on the bridge. I wonder if the density is actually lower near these things.

As I look at this sign, I can't help but think of Jowen's electronic Braille reader.

An iPod vending machine. It sells iPods shuffle, nano, and video, as well as accessories. It also sells PSPs. They were out of Maltesers.

Current Music: Cuff the Duke - Ballad Of A Construction Worker
Current music I wish I had with me: Blur - To The End
Current CD I wish I had with me: Blur - Parklife
Current non-music CD I wish I had with me: Mac OS X Panther Installation and Diagnostic disc
Current current: 1094
Current capacity: 1768mAh (ouch)