Marv\'s Blog
Windows Migration pt13/ Apple Migration pt1/House Migration pt1
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My dealings with Novatech are now complete.
The refund has been received. I won’t be shopping with them again.
Information from sources.
My sources tell me 3 Novatech laptops went up for sale recently on eBay. They said that the laptops possibly were (the previous 2 fault ones, plus the final one i sent back) mine, and that they’ll be looking into it. I don’t think there’s anything dodgy going on, it’s just an interesting thing to find. Apparently not many people want to keep their Novatech laptops once they’re done with them, but Novatech will try to take yours off you before you are.
Apple Migration: I am now using an Apple iBook for the first time.
A friend of mine sourced me an iBook. Tweaked to the core. This baby will last a full days’ study on a single charge, and a whole day if I do bugger all. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it Novatech, laptop batteries do last more than two hours on a single charge when they’re used for things as simple as recording audio and word processing.
I’ll be keeping it till I get a new one next term.
I’ll be moving into my own place.
So I’ll be moving into my own place soon. Yay for me. I sign for the keys on Monday, assuming the guy from the Uni did what I asked him and he emailed the people.
Annoyed at the thing I have to get taught at University.
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Aside from restructuring into semantic (X)HTML, this post appears as it does in the post I made on the Uni message board. Damn WebCT sucks.
obsolete/incorrect info in session 10 power point presentation
I am annoyed and frustrated about being taught obsolete and semantically incorrect techniques.
- Frames generally create accessibility, as well as usability problems; they should be avoided, and if scrolling content is needed, div tags with the overflow specified in CSS will fix that problem.
- Styles should be applied to tables with CSS, not (X)HTML attributes.
- Internet Explorer uses an invalid DOM.
- div and span tags aren’t so much layers as blank elements intended to be styled by the designer or end user. span tags can be made into block level elements and div tags can be made into inline elements, as can pretty much every other (X)HTML element.
- Since IE uses an invalid DOM, code should be written for everything else (the stuff thats standard based) first, and IE second. Or just Firefox, as IE is a big obsolete waste of time.
- Layers and Tables do not reduce the accesibility of web pages to visualy impaired users. It is the incompetent implementation of layers and tables that makes them inaccessible.
- Tables should not be used to control layout of a document. That’s a waste of code and creates accessibility problems, unless you know what you’re doing. Then it’s just a waste of code.
- Nested layers are good, nested tables are really, really bad.
- CSS permits user defined formating of any XML object.
- CSS can be applied to ANY (X)HTML object
- CSS files do not have to be stored with a .CSS extension. Web browsers couldn’t care less what it’s called as long as it is written in CSS. Preferably valid. Preferably without IE’s invalid bloat.
- Fixed pixel fonts should never be used. They are inaccesible, and should only ever ever be used if the design of a page requires it, in which case, alternate stylesheets should be provided. Many websites do this out of courtesy for their users. IE’s text zoom facilities suck. That is a syntacticalyl correct statement.
- CSS is not a dynamic language, it does not update all pages it is associated with, the changes are only reflected once the relevant pages have been refreshed in the browser.
- Most of Macromedia’s DHTML implementations create invalid javascript code.
Windows Migration pt11
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Third laptop.
So now I’m onto the third laptop. This one doesn’t have dead pixels.
Now the reason I’ve got a third laptop is because I found out on Thursday that the wireless card was faulty. All the stress built up from having to wait a month to get what I wanted got to me and I just became too ill to attend my last lecture on Thursday- and missed Friday’s, mostly due to illness and partly due to having to wait in for UPS to pick up the laptop. DHL already came round to collect it earlier in the morning, but I didn’t request them to do so as I hadn’t finished sorting things out with Novatech.
I can’t check if this has a working ethernet/wireless card yet, as the battery hasn’t finished charging, and I don’t have a wireless access point at home. So I’ll be having to wait till Monday. Annoying thing is, at Uni, it was someone’s brilliant idea not to allow the students to have a secure wireless connection (there are two secured connections, and one unsecured one- just for the students). I might see if me and Anth can figure something out to fix that problem.
Windows Migration pt10
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New Replacement laptop arrived.
XP Pro is installing on the laptop right now, but there is now a totally new problem. Dead Pixels. Right in the middle of the screen (off center, but in main viewing area). I could stand it if it was off to the edge etc, but this is just annoying. The laptop with the broken DVD drive didn’t have DP, and the working laptop has a damaged monitor.
I don’t care what manufacturers say about their acceptable fault limits, it’s the equivalent of getting a glass coffee table with a scratch in it, or a CD with a small scratch in the middle of a track. Bloody annoying. ^Has requested a copy of Novatech’s DP policy.
Windows Migration pt9
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Nearly there.
So I’m on XP now, some things are still a little shakey- like my calendars didn’t migrate fully, so I’m going to be trying some things using the ghost image i made of my old C drive soon.
Windows Migration pt8
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Firefox has been migrated.
I’ve managed to import the important stuff out of the disk image: bookmarks, history & saved passwords. Had a little hassle with the saved passwords but a quick google fixed that.
Windows Migration pt7
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XP installed!
So they still haven’t fixed that annoying thing where windows defaults to being in Tijuana, but the install went fine. The only problem I’ve had so far appears to have been caused by that damn annoying 256MB module. It’d have been nice to have the full 768MB, but not at the cost of stability.
Now all I have to do is get into the Norton Ghost file I made of the C drive so I can get all my files back.
Windows Migration pt6
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XP arrived.
I’ll be spending the next few hours fiddling with a nice clean install of XP Pro. Aside from the slight screwup over payment/shipping, GenStar have been helpful in correcting their error.
See you in a few hours.
PS:upgrade details.
I’m currently running win98SE, but the install is slightly buggy, what with it being win98 and all. There’s the fact that myself and other software has screwed around with the install so much it’d just be easier to wipe it.
Windows Migration pt5
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Pissed off even more.
First Novatech screwed up (although only slightly, but still by far the most inconvinient screwup so far), now GenStar screwed up.
I am formally revoking any positive opinion of the GenStar company.
Once I have recieved my copy of XP, or in the event they read this, take a hissy fit and decide to cancel the order on me, I will be posting the emails (censored of personal info of course). If I forget to do so, someone post a comment on here and I’ll get round to it.
Windows Migration pt4
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Delays in replacement.
- The Cat 5 cable delayed the delivery.
- The useless email system delayed Tech support response (they didn’t get the email sent from their website, I had to ring up).
- The delay in teach support response put a delay on courier pick-up (they use one for deliveries and another for pick-ups).
Refunds and charges.
- The missing DVD/CD-R software (Nero apparently) is being sent out today.
- Their useless billing system overcharged to the amount of £0.01. The penny is being mailed by registered post- apparently it’s too difficult to put the penny in with Nero.
Compensation.
The compensation I am receiving for all of their delays amounts to this: £8.99 + VAT– a refund of the delivery costs plus free delivery on the replacement.
Conclusions.
- I will not be buying anything from them ever again- they’ve just lost about £600+ in parts I was going to be buying for my network storage server next term.
- I will be making the courier wait till I’ve checked the laptop works before I sign for it. It’s within my statutory rights as a consumer- you’re not supposed to sign for anything before checking it anyway, I’m just going to exercise it correctly this time. This’ll mean I’ll have to miss Uni for it like, but I’ve got no other choice.
- Always shop around for the best deal. Doesn’t matter if you trust the place through past experience, they’ll beep up eventually.
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