Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Usual oatmeal breakfast. Prepped for Joel's new computer setup. Lucia, Scott, Carol, and I helped Alyssa celebrate her birthday with a slice of cake (from the cafeteria), a birthday card, a sign, and the happy birthday song. Helped Jamie with logo approval. Helped student GL with web development on a Mac. I called for an office fridge defrost. Unpacked one of the second batch of computers. Late lunch: salad from the cafeteria. Took away Joel's old computer. Took away James's/Steaven's old computer. Took down James's/Steaven's old monitor. Tidied Joel's new office space somewhat. Set up Joel's new computer and his old monitor. Computer administration. Yesterday Aaron's replacement hard drive arrived. I had ordered from upgradebay.com. Not long after I had placed my order, I received a call from them asking if they could substitute a different product than the one I had ordered—they insisted it would be the same specs. I had had some difficulty finding the right hard drive and the right place from which to order it, so as long as it was a new drive and the same specs I didn't much care. One recent pricegrabber review of upgradebay indicated similar behavior, and the reviewer gave them a bad rating because of it. I agree vendors shouldn't be making substitutions like this, but if they must at least this one called in advance to get an approval first. One problem I did find with upgradebay (aka Upgrade Bay) was that they failed to use the address I provided. They used a truncated version of my address, perhaps because endicia.com wouldn't accept it, and my order was not delivered as accurately as it could have been. When I received the hard drive, it turned out to be 50% larger than what I had ordered, and indeed otherwise the same specs. I can't be certain that it was new (the date on it was 2005, so I doubt it), but we'll see how it tests out. Home late. Dinner at home with Patrick: Chinese chicken salad, pizza. Replaced the hard drive in Aaron's computer. Began reinstalling Windows XP on it. Proofread the first 2 chapters of Patrick's new manuscript, a fictional martial arts story beginning in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana.