dell laptop repair

Yesterday, the graphics card on my laptop went again for the second time. I bought it in September 2007 and I got 1 year next day on site repair and 2 years complete collect and return repair.

Last June I had a similar problem and it was fixed the next day by an engineer who came around to the house and replaced the motherboard. Great stuff!

This time around I’m not covered by the on site repair. So I rang support and went along with the various checks they did over the phone. He then said he would send an engineer out to repair it. Great stuff again I thought! So he booked me an engineer for Tuesday.

Photo owned by refeia (cc)

Today I got a phone call from Dell and the conversation went something like this:

Me: Hello
Dell: Hello Mr. Crowley. This is [Subject Name Here] from Dell.
Me: Hi. How’s it going?
Dell: Good. I’m wondering if you are willing to have your laptop sent to us for repair?
Me: Didn’t you organise an Engineer to come tomorrow and fix it at my home tomorrow?
Dell: Yes we did. But it looks like your warranty doesn’t cover the next day on site call.
Me: How long would it take to get my laptop repaired if I sent it to you?
Dell: About 5 working days.
Me: So I could have it fixed tomorrow or wait 5 more days?
Dell: Yes. We would prefer if you sent it to us.
Me: Right. I prefer the engineer to come tomorrow.
Dell: Ok. You are aware in future you are only covered by our collect and return service.
Me: I know. That’s why I was surprised you were sending someone tomorrow.
Dell: Ok. Thank you Mr. Crowley.
Me: Thank you, bye now!

Score one me not Dell :-)

history of my blog

History of my Blog
Originally uploaded by Mr Darran

True Story! But who can blame us... Twitter is still the buzz word!

http://twitter.com/darran

darran in the simpsons

Ever wonder what you might look like as a Simpsons chatater?
This is how I see myself!

With the new Simpsons movie coming out this summer, only a matter of weeks from now, everyone is jumping on the bandwaggon! 7-Eleven Stores are even being turned into Kwik-E-Marts selling "Squishees", "Buzz Cola", and "Krusty-O's" Cereal!

News Link

Go here and click on "Create Your Simpsons Avatar"

kenya

From Weebls Stuff, this is classic Internet! Reminded to me by Seb.

Click Play to Watch!

emigrating to canada

November 1st
Moved to Canada. I am so excited. It's so beautiful here. The scenery is great, the trees are so tall. Can't hardly wait to see them with snow covering them.

November 5th
Canada. It is the most beautiful place on earth. The leaves have turned all colours and shades of red and orange. Went for a ride through the beautiful countryside and saw some deer. They are so graceful. Certainly they are the most wonderful animals on earth. This must be paradise. I love it here.

November 211th
Deer season starts soon. I can't imagine anyone wanting to kill such a gorgeous creature. Hope it snows soon. I love it here.

December 2nd
It snowed last night. Woke up to find everything blanketed with white. It looks like a postcard. We went outside and cleaned the snow off the steps and shovelled the driveway. We had a snowball fight (I won). When the snow plow came by, we had to shovel the driveway again. What a beautiful place. I love Canada.

December 12th
More snow last night. The snow plow did his trick again to the driveway. I love it here.

December 19th
More snow last night. Couldn't get out of the driveway to get to work. It's beautiful here but I'm exhausted from shovelling. That fucking snow plow.

December 22th
More of that white shit fell last night. I've got blisters on my hands and a sore back from shovelling. I think the snow plow hides around the corner until I'm done shovelling the driveway. That freakin idiot!

December 25th
Merry freakin Christmas! More freakin snow! If I ever get my hands on the freakin idiot who drives the snow plow I swear I'll kill the idiot. Don't know why they don't use more salt on the roads to melt the freaking ice.

December 27th
More freakin white shit last night. Been inside for three days now except for shovelling out the driveway after that snow plow goes through every time. Can't go anywhere, the car's stuck in a mountain of white crap and it's so freaking cold. The weatherman says to expect another 25 centimetres of snow again tonight. Do you know how many shovels full of snow 25 centimetres is?

December 28th
That freakin weatherman was wrong. We got 75 centimetres of snow this time. At this rate it won't melt before summer. The snow plow got stuck up in the road and that idiot came to my door and asked to borrow my shovel. After I told him that I had already broken six shovels shovelling out all the snow he had pushed into my driveway, I darn near broke my last one over his freaking head.

January 4th
Finally got out of the house today. Went to the store to get food and on my way back a damned deer ran in front of the car. Did about $3,000 damage to the car. Those freaking beasts should be killed. They are everywhere. Wish the hunters had exterminated them all last November.

May 3rd
Took the car to the garage in town. Would you believe the thing is rusted out from all that salt they put all over the roads?

May 29th
I am going back to Ireland. I can't imagine why anyone in their right mind would ever want to live in such a God forsaken place as Canada!

towel day

Don't forget today is Towel Day!

It is the Tip of the hat to Douglas Adams Day! I must get thru the rest of the The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy over the summer.

Today is also the first Universal Day of the Jedi.

Some online suggestions have including dressing as a Jedi to work and attacking colleagues with Force FX Lightsabers; or stating "May the Force be with you" to everyone one passes by.

Anyone going to dress like a Jedi with a Towel? Now that would be confusing...

mr tayto

I'm sure this is all over the news and everyone knows about it at home. I heard about this a couple of weeks ago, there have been a few "Vote for Mister Tayto" election posters up. I just found their party political broadcast!

Press Play.

UPDATE: I just found this one too:

start of telus

It is the start of the Telus World Ski & Snowboard Festival here in Whistler. This comic was in the Question this week, and it sums up the feeling of nearly everyone here. We did get 22cm on Saturday tho!

This is also my first Post via Flickr...

turning canadian

You know you’re turning ‘Canadian’ when...

• You understand the phrase "Could you pass me a serviette, I just dropped my poutine, on the chesterfield."
• You eat chocolate bars, not candy bars.
• You drink Pop, not Soda.
• You know that a Mickey and 2-4's mean, "party at the camp, eh!!!"
• You know that a pike is a type of fish, not part of a highway.
• You drive on a highway, not a freeway.
• You have Canadian Tire money in your kitchen drawers.
• You know that Casey and Finnegan were not part of a Celtic musical group.
• You get excited whenever an American television show mentions Canada.
• You brag to Americans that: Shania Twain, Jim Carrey, Celine Dion, Michael J. Fox, John Candy, William Shatner, Tom Green, Matthew Perry, Mike Myers, Neve Campbell, Pamela Anderson Lee & many more are Canadians.
• You know that the CEO of American Airlines is a Canadian.
• You design your Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit.
• You know that the last letter of the English alphabet is always pronounced "Zed".
• Your local newspaper covers national news on 2 pages, but requires 6 pages for hockey.
• You know that the four seasons mean: almost winter, winter, still winter, and road work.
• You know that when it's 25 °F (-4°C) outside, it's a warm day.
• You understand the Labatt Blue commercials.
• You know how to pronounce and spell "Saskatchewan".
• You perk up when you hear the theme song from 'Hockey Night in Canada'.
• You are in grade 12, not the 12th grade.
• "Eh?" is a very important part of your vocabulary, and is more polite than, "Huh?"
• You say "aboot" instead of "about"
• Your Beer Case handles Are Big Enough To Fit Your Mitts
• You froze your tongue to something metal and survived to tell about it.
• You know that we don't all live in igloos and ride polar bears to work

via the SWAP E-Bulletin 2 April 2007

shamrock or graffiti?

UPDATE: More Photos here!

Yesterday was St. Patrick's Day in Whistler and we needed to show off our Irishness. (Especially considering everyone seemed to be Irish yesterday)

So we came up with a plan! Armed with 6L of water, a couple of bottles of green food dye we headed up the slopes to a location where we thought would be good to mark out a giant shamrock. The location, which could be seen from 2 lifts, as well as the Roundhouse (the biggest Mountain Restaurant in North America [the world?])


The final result can be seen above (original photo slightly edited to you can clearly make out the Shamrock!). We needed to go on a mission half way through for another 6L of water! There was also a lot of cheers from people on the Peak Chair lift wishing us Happy St. Patrick's Day.

Hope you had a good one?

first post

Well I managed my first guest post on the Geared Up Blog!!
Posting will be a bit quiet here for a while till I get into a rhythm and find my feet. You know, build confidence and getting the hang of it all. It is kinda strange blogging for a blog I'm so used to reading!
Anyhow, this is how that post turned out:

Cartwheels In A Swimsuit At The South Pole


WHISTLER, BRITISH COLUMBIA (Geared Up Blog) - Boing Boing has this photo of one crazy girl who decided to strip off on a trip to the south pole.

Sandwichgirl is stationed at McMurdo, in Antarctica. She took a trip from there to the South Pole, and in this photo she is doing cartwheels in a bathing suit at that site: - 25.5° F (-31.9° C), -44.7° F (-42.6° C) windchill, 9.4 knots. This chick's got some major cojones.

Link: Sandwichgirls Blog!

day of the ninja

Today is the Annual Day of the Ninja.

On this day, people are encouraged to dress as ninja, engage in ninja-related activities, and spread information on ninja via the Internet.

Not to be confused with Talk like a Pirate Day, this is totally different. The last thing we want is a Ninja-Pirate blood fest. Altho it would make a great movie!

Other names for today include:

• International Creep Like a Ninja Day
• Stalk Like a Ninja Day
• Sneak Like a Ninja Day
• Move Like a Ninja Day
• or simply Ninja Day

toblerone

If you have ever had a Toblerone bar, you will notice the picture of the Matterhorn on it. Linking into its Swiss history eh?! What else do you notice on it?

Well it was only last week that my eyes were opened to something that has been in front of me for several years and I never noticed it before!! There is a hidden image on the mountain linking into their Bern History. Its so well hidden that no Swiss person I have asked knows about!

This, I believe, is an unbelievable discovery!!
Tell the world!

how strange

This is the Garfield strip for today... the day I get my licence... humm...

liquids

So with all this new security and lack of fluids on planes I think that the terrorist have won another battle in the war in terror! Good for them, at least they are getting on with what they have to do. As for the people fighting them, well good job catching that "plot" this week. Nicely handled with all the airports. I wonder who's idea it was to ban EVERYTHING from going onto an airplane.

I hope its not going to last longer, as then all the Shops and Duty Free after security will have to stop selling a lot of their stock. It is basically an inconvenience to everyone.

I was thinking of flying through Gatwick in September but it looks like I may have to find another way around... to avoid the UK. Well it's their loss!

Gawd I'm bloody annoyed about all this!

hoff 2 no 1

Need i say more?

road trip

Just home from our Road Trip. Last week we decided we had nothing to do for the weekend and beyond, so the most logical thing to do is go on a Road Trip!

You can download see the Route with Google Earth with this file: File [right click, save as]

We started here in Cork, went to towards Sligo, The Giant's Causeway next and then back to Kerry and then home! Over the 4 days, according to the GPS which i had on when traveling, we covered 1444km, just under 24hours moving and nearly 8 hours stopped. Max speed was 140km/h and average moving speed of 61.7km/h!!

Here are some of the Photos!

Bunratty Castle!Gayest Pose EVER!!!!

Welcome to Lovely Leitrim!I don't like Conor!!

The Giant's Causeway!

Welcome to Muff!!!!

Bow Chicka Bow Wow!

towel day

Today is Towel Day: A Tribute to Douglas Adams!

"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has a few things to say on the subject of towels. A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value—you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you—daft as a brush, but very, very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.
More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag [non-hitch hiker] discovers that a hitchhiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitchhiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitchhiker might accidentally have 'lost'. What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with."
(The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Chapter Three)

So today, in honour of Douglas Adams, everyone should always have a towel on them! Any kind of towel will do i guess. A beach towel, a bath towel, a hand towel or a tea towel!

help win this bet

This guy bet his girlfriend that any old website could get 2million hits. If he wins he gets a threesome with another girl and if he looses, he is just called an idiot. Win Win situation!

Check it out and tell everyone else you know!!

www.HelpWinThisBet.com

UPDATE: I just noticed that the website has already gotten 28million hits. Ha!

burn

Conor parked in Leisureworld because there was no room in CIT. And he got Clamped! Ha!