…and then again, sometimes it's wonderful

All that I could remember for sure was that there was a judge, that verdicts were handed down, and that the words “Messire” and “Guilty” appeared in the story. So I tried the obvious Google search and the sixth hit gave me the full text of the story (The Executioner, by Algis Budris).

And of course, there are other wonderful secrets on the Web, too, such as the secret of desktop fusion, as discovered at my Alma Mater. Let’s Go Red!

Google is too limited

I wasn’t going to buy a phone from Staples no matter how good a deal it was, so instead, I visited the local Office Depot and found the VTech 2931, which met my needs, on the display. But they didn’t have one in stock — so they called around to the other nearby stores and found me one. If I’d been willing to wait a day, I could have had it delivered, but I wanted it for tomorrow, so I drove up to Santa Clara, brought it home, and hooked it up; assuming the battery charges overnight, I’ll be all set.

The phone comes with everything but a headset, but that shouldn’t have been a problem — it uses a standard 2.5mm mono jack, as did my old Sprint PCS phone. But I’d made the mistake of putting the old headset away when I stopped using the Sprint phone.

So I started searching. That was two hours ago. I still haven’t found the old headset. Life would be so much easier if I could use Google to search my house!

Star Trekkin'

This morning, I had a very strange dream indeed; all that I can still remember about it was that I was talking with Tim Berners-Lee, who was wearing a Borg uniform.

I’m sure this means something, but I’m not at all sure that I want to know what.

The fun side of frustration

I spent two hours this afternoon trying to make a contact with a friend from work via ham radio, with no success. We spent the entire time on the phone trying to figure out what was going on — but neither of us could hear the other one on the radio, whether we used voice (SSB) or digital (PSK31). It’s a good thing the nation wasn’t relying on us for emergency communications today!

And I guess it’s also a clue that I need a better antenna.

But at least I got the radio back into action for the first time in months! Some day, I’ll actually work someone….

Why I'm not likely to be a Staples customer again

Today, I stopped by the local Staples, which is going out of business, to pick up a bunch of miscellaneous supplies (labels, Rolodex cards, and the like). They happened to have a pile of Tensor booklights, too, and I needed one, so I bought it. When I got home, I found that the light didn’t work; foolishly, I thought that they might make an exception to “All Sales Final” for merchandise that was instantly defective.

So I went back to the store and asked the cashier, who called the manager, who told me that “Staples doesn’t own the merchandise in the store any more, the liquidator does, and they say no returns”, and went on to say that I should have tested the booklight before buying it (which would have required opening the blister pack and having had the foresight to have brought batteries along).

I could have tolerated being told “no refunds”. But I was angered by the manager’s “blame the customer” attitude, hence this posting (and the letter I’ve just mailed to Staples’ CEO), and my plan to avoid Staples from now on.