rsd

Squished

2010-07-22T14:56:00.001+02:00

Close call

2009-04-15T13:22:00.001+02:00

Steve Wyndham Racing SWR ST190

2009-04-05T10:26:00.002+02:00

Not a photo post, but close enough. I took this on the track, see the link for more details:

SWR ST190

And here's the video if you're too lazy to click the link:

Vodka

2009-02-06T15:01:00.001+02:00

Mish would rather not see again

Yikes

2009-02-06T15:00:00.001+02:00

Car!

2009-02-06T14:59:00.001+02:00

Primi

2008-11-27T22:05:00.001+02:00

Supper

2008-10-28T18:57:00.001+02:00

Working late

Early mist

2008-08-07T13:36:00.001+02:00

Muddy

2008-08-07T13:35:00.001+02:00

Lentelus

2008-08-07T13:31:00.001+02:00

The room

2008-08-07T13:02:00.005+02:00

More of the same :)

2008-08-07T13:02:00.003+02:00

Rosendal

2008-08-07T13:02:00.001+02:00

Rosendal

2008-08-03T17:05:00.001+02:00

Jamaica

2008-07-28T15:32:00.001+02:00

Another from church haven

2008-07-27T16:57:00.001+02:00

Church haven

2008-07-27T13:43:00.001+02:00

Marc with his paint balling stuff

2008-07-19T12:58:00.001+02:00

Whisky tasting

2008-07-18T18:16:00.001+02:00

An unusually early morning

2008-07-17T08:48:00.001+02:00

2008-07-12T23:20:00.001+02:00

Justin's birthday at oblivion

2008-07-12T22:12:00.001+02:00

Shopping

2008-07-09T10:48:00.001+02:00

Testing my phone

2008-07-01T17:23:00.001+02:00

Had some wierd problem with the phone saying insert sim. Maybe fixed now

Seether

2008-06-15T21:40:00.001+02:00

Something old

A king

2008-06-15T20:38:00.001+02:00

Not so thrilling. Somehow they're not getting the crowd moving at all which is pretty tough with so many people

Grand west arena

2008-06-15T20:22:00.001+02:00

It's a duck!

2008-06-12T17:10:00.001+02:00

At forries

Doomed ants

2008-06-09T16:16:00.001+02:00

They attacked my laptop again

Cute reptile

2008-06-06T14:12:00.001+02:00

Forries

2008-06-05T16:51:00.001+02:00

Electronic jam

2008-06-03T09:06:00.001+02:00

Another shot from the music video

2008-05-30T09:57:00.001+02:00

Homeless marc

2008-05-24T15:17:00.001+02:00

More angry people

2008-05-24T14:39:00.001+02:00

Music video shoot

2008-05-24T14:23:00.001+02:00

Cutting off the enemy supply lines

2008-05-19T15:35:00.001+02:00

The first victims of the war on ants

2008-05-19T15:33:00.002+02:00

After a kamikaze attack on my laptop the ants will be shown no mercy.

Alba

2008-05-16T22:56:00.001+02:00

A couch!

2008-05-16T11:57:00.001+02:00

View from dieu donne

2008-05-11T16:04:00.001+02:00

Shiny new tv and xbox 360

2008-05-11T10:16:00.001+02:00

+ gta iv

Barrister's

2008-05-09T21:42:00.001+02:00

Pudding!

2008-05-04T15:07:00.001+02:00

Apparently a name change is in order

Beach!

2008-05-02T14:50:00.001+02:00

Squeak?

2008-05-02T13:54:00.001+02:00

Ou kaapse weg

2008-05-02T12:58:00.001+02:00

Knorhoek. Apparently...

2008-04-30T15:01:00.001+02:00

Still wine tasting

2008-04-30T13:48:00.001+02:00

Waterford

2008-04-30T12:53:00.001+02:00

Waterford

2008-04-30T12:52:00.001+02:00

Peddlars

2008-04-29T22:06:00.001+02:00

Best not to ask

2008-04-23T19:03:00.001+02:00

And with ADSL comes tf2

2008-04-23T13:24:00.001+02:00

Adsl again at last

2008-04-23T13:21:00.001+02:00

Although it feels slow after HSDPA

My brother's engaged!

2008-04-23T13:14:00.001+02:00

Couches take 2

2008-04-18T17:01:00.000+02:00

Great westerford executive suite

2008-04-17T09:17:00.001+02:00

Or thats what the little sign says

Still no laptop

2008-04-14T15:17:00.002+02:00

Unsurprisingly, no change on the laptop front.

I have, however, registered http://dontletmerepair.co.za, so that if they mess me around any further I can create a never-buy-an-hp-because-let-me-repair-are-morons site.

For now the domain just forwards to my previous post on the subject.

Don't let me repair

2008-04-09T11:37:00.001+02:00

The saga of my broken laptop continues.

I thought I'd document the crap I've had to deal with from HP's repair contractors LetMeRepair. Maybe someone else having problems will find this post through google and find the info / email addresses useful.

My laptop started locking up randomly a few months ago. Initially I thought it was the operating system I was running (Ubuntu Linux), so I reinstalled Windows XP. The problem continued and eventually I figured out that disabling the Wireless LAN card in the BIOS solved the problem. That was good, I knew it was a hardware fault and my laptop was/is still under warranty.

That's where the fun started. I contacted HP's new repair service provider and logged a repair call (a phone call which cost me 50 bucks to start with). They sent DHL out to pick it up and then I waited. A week later I still hadn't heard anything so I decided to give them a call to confirm that it had actually arrived. I spent the next 4 weeks fighting with them to get them to tell me how long it would take, which they never did. They were waiting on parts and in their words had no idea how long they would take to get from Cape Town to George.

After a lot of irate emails and phone calls they eventually told me it was done, 6 weeks after sending it in. All they did in this time was replace the mainboard, CPU and Wireless LAN chip. These are common components that they should really have in stock - it should have taken 1 week max even if they had to order the parts.

Anyway, I was just happy it was over. I do freelance IT work so not having a laptop really makes life difficult. When I eventually received my laptop I turned it on and it looked good. Then I tried to connect to a wireless network only to find that there was no Wireless LAN according to windows. Odd. I rebooted to check if it was disabled in the BIOS and no... it wasn't even detected by the BIOS. I opened up the laptop and there was no WLAN chip in sight.

After a few phone calls to LetMeRepair I established they had installed it under the keyboard, not behind the back panel of the laptop. I removed the keyboard and there it was, as they said. It seemed strange that it was installed but still not detected by the BIOS, so I downloaded the service and repair manual for my laptop. The service manual clearly indicates the WLAN chip should be installed behind the back panel, not under they keyboard. Hmmm. This leads me to believe their technicians are completely incompetent. The service manual is explicit to the point of showing pictures of where it must go. I don't understand how someone could get it wrong.

I removed the WLAN chip and placed it behind the back panel instead of under the keyboard. I turned the machine back on and the WLAN was detected. Now the problem was the antenna cables that come from the antenna hidden behind the screen had been carefully rerouted to under the keyboard. There was no way for me to move them back to the back panel because most of the laptop internals are secured with special screws that only hp service contractors have.

This meant another cross country trip for my poor abused laptop, more fighting with incompetence and the very real possibility of more shoddy workmanship from LetMeRepair technicians.

DHL decided to shaft me this time by taking over a week to pick my laptop up. Eventually I phoned and shouted at people and they got to my place in record time. I'm not sure why it always has to come down to shouting at people.

My laptop is still with let me repair and after being ignored I sent them an irate email last night. It seems it had the desired effect as I got a call this morning telling me half the parts had arrived (mainboard and hard drive) and the WLAN would arrive tomorrows. Apparently it will all be assembled, tested and sent back on Friday. I won't hold my breath.

What's really worrying is that they feel the need to waste my time by ordering and replacing perfectly functioning parts when all they needed to do was move the WLAN card to the correct place. At this point I don't care too much though... I just want it back and working.

Here are all the email addresses I gathered for LetMeRepair and have been sending irate emails to (which appears to pay off):

LMRcustomerservice@letmerepair.co.za - I think this is the primary customer facing email address for LetMeRepair

ivolschenk@letmerepair.co.za - No clue who this is, but CCing everyone imaginable is usually effective

hpcustomerservice@letmerepair.co.za

info@letmerepair.co.za

lnxumalo@letmerepair.co.za - Lungile - from what I can tell he works in the HP spares department. He called today to tell me how long it would take for my spares to arrive and all of my spares ETA related queries have been forwarded to him. He tends to ignore emails

wimmelman@letmerepair.co.za - Willie Immelman - no clue, but someone else CCed him in a response to one of my many irate emails.

nmeiring@letmerepair.co.za - Norman Meiring - Norman's name has been used in conjunction with the phrase "HP escalation", which presumably means he's a good person to shout at. My last irate email, which resulted in a (completely unheard of) phone call from Lungile was sent to Norman and Lungile.

hpspares@letmerepair.co.za - Again, no clue, but just add it to the list

JC 120

2008-04-08T17:44:00.001+02:00

And my trusty les paul

Time capsule

2008-04-08T14:50:00.001+02:00

This is my ancient laptop from 1999. It has some cool old stuff on it like a recording of my previous band, dp.

The new pc i'm not getting

2008-04-08T14:44:00.001+02:00

My pc died tragically and this is the shopping list for a new one. At R11000 i'll pass for now.

Odd

2008-04-06T18:54:00.001+02:00

Another sound check

2008-04-04T17:43:00.001+02:00

Prime circle's sound check

2008-04-03T18:00:00.001+02:00

At springbok pub

My dead pc

2008-04-03T17:18:00.001+02:00

Bytes

2008-04-03T09:05:00.001+02:00

Testing a panorama

2008-04-02T20:22:00.001+02:00

Greg. Don't ask

2008-03-31T21:34:00.000+02:00

A table!

2008-03-30T14:17:00.001+02:00

Ugly, ugly windows

2008-03-29T19:33:00.001+02:00

And the mess of moving

Moving

2008-03-28T18:54:00.001+02:00

Tools of the trade

2007-05-29T10:52:00.001+02:00

Tools of the trade, originally uploaded by rsd.co.za.

Just got myself an ex demo model laptop. Good condition, very well priced and a great machine.

A happy slug

2007-05-28T23:03:00.001+02:00

A happy slug, originally uploaded by rsd.co.za.

Nermal likes bags

2007-05-20T23:08:00.001+02:00

Nermal likes bags, originally uploaded by rsd.co.za.

Corner bar

2007-05-06T00:40:00.001+02:00

Corner bar, originally uploaded by rsd.co.za.

Marc, Nic, Me, Justin, Rob

Coke fest 2007

2007-05-03T00:04:00.001+02:00

Coke fest 2007, originally uploaded by rsd.co.za.

Furball

2007-04-24T10:22:00.001+02:00

Furball, originally uploaded by rsd.co.za.

She likes corners for some reason. Odd.

Swellendam

2007-04-24T10:20:00.001+02:00

Swellendam, originally uploaded by rsd.co.za.

Michele organised an amazing weekend away for my birthday. It was great, really relaxing and a good break.

Jenga

2007-04-24T10:15:00.001+02:00

Jenga, originally uploaded by rsd.co.za.

Michele attempting a karate chop on the defenseless tower

Catching up

2007-04-24T10:12:00.001+02:00

Catching up, originally uploaded by rsd.co.za.

I've been slack lately, as pointed out by Michele. This is a photo of ominous clouds over vredehoek shortly before going to Pringle. I forgot the key. I blame the clouds.

Another sort of early morning

2007-04-03T09:25:00.001+02:00

Another sort of early morning, originally uploaded by rsd.co.za.

Sleepy...

Another from De Waal drive

2007-04-01T10:27:00.000+02:00

Another from De Waal drive, originally uploaded by rsd.co.za.

This was taken the same morning as my previously posted photo, while driving. I didn't feel like writing a post with no image so it will have to do, since I took zero photos this weekend (damn). I need a new phone that's better suited to taking photos, like a K800i or, preferably, a Samsung equivalent.

Michele had her family and I around to her place for dinner on Friday night. Just an excuse to show off her newly discovered cooking skills really ;) It was the usual infallible combination of good food, good wine and good company. Michele and I spent the rest of the night polishing off the wine on her balcony.

Saturday night was Gemma's birthday celebration and farewell (sniff) at Opium beach bar in Camps Bay. It was a cool night, despite me being buggered from a string of late nights for the whole of last week.

...and I've just run out of momentum, so I'll hit publish.

Early morning

2007-03-28T13:27:00.001+02:00

Early morning, originally uploaded by rsd.co.za.

Well, early for me :) Taken on my way home today.

Grrr

2007-03-26T09:24:00.001+02:00

Grrr, originally uploaded by rsd.co.za.

On Friday night, while I was at the gig, some tool ripped the glass out of my side mirror. Not only that, they also pulled out part of the mounting. Not good since they're electric mirrors.

Another weekend gone

2007-03-25T11:30:00.000+02:00

Friday night was our Zula gig with Tonight We Die. I arrived in a shit mood and Rob and I headed down the road to fetch his amp. In the time he'd taken his guitar and pedals up stairs it had been stolen out of his boot. Quite impressive considering how bulky and heavy it is. Not a great start to the evening. Somehow I was still in a worse mood than Rob though.

Sound check was seriously annoying. The sound engineer kept telling me my bass was buzzing (when I re-soldered and fixed it myself last Friday). Eventually I lost my temper with him, which put me in an even worse mood. Shortly after that he put the bass through a DI, instead of the other bassist's amp, and... no more buzz. Grrr. Anyway, that's the bitching done. Michele came through and made me feel a lot better, as she tends to do.

Saturday night was quiet, spent at home watching a film (Night at the museum, which didn't totally suck, against all odds). Today was spent working. Tomorrow is Monday. -sob-

Murderer of mice

2007-03-23T17:11:00.001+02:00

Murderer of mice, originally uploaded by rsd.co.za.

And socks.

More from the exhibition

2007-03-22T09:51:00.003+02:00

More from the exhibition, originally uploaded by the sholto.

And a test to see what happens to one email from my phone that contains multiple images.

More from the exhibition

2007-03-22T09:51:00.001+02:00

More from the exhibition, originally uploaded by the sholto.

And a test to see what happens to one email from my phone that contains multiple images.

2007-03-21T20:14:00.001+02:00

More, originally uploaded by the sholto.

Still more

2007-03-21T20:13:00.001+02:00

Still more, originally uploaded by the sholto.

Exhibition

2007-03-21T19:53:00.001+02:00

Exhibition, originally uploaded by the sholto.

hmmm. i'll write a post later

Happeningses

2007-03-21T01:01:00.000+02:00

Just dragged myself home, totally exhausted, from Cool Runnings in Obs, where I spent most of the night with Rob, Marc and Justin (mmm so many commas). Band practice was good, had some interesting discussions with Sarah, Sarah and Omega. We discussed stage performance and apparently my performance is insane in a funny way...or something. Whatever, I enjoy myself.

I had a good Sunday afternoon/evening/night with Michele, Gemma, Nats and Mark at Kirstenbosch. Wandered around with Michele for a bit which was cool - I haven't been there in far too long.

Yesterday was Michele and my four month... what? anniversary implies that it's annual. Anyway, we went out to dinner to celebrate being together for four months. Michele picked the restaurant, Hildebrand. I was a bit disappointed the last time I went there, but it turned out to be really good. Good food, good champagne, and (a given really) good company.

No clue what the plan is for tomorrow. Lots of work to do, but it's reliant on getting some stuff from Duncan and there's no sign of him. I'll just have to sleep until twelve and hope he's home by then. What a hardship. In theory the evening will involve an either an art exhibition in Stellenbosch or cocktails and ice cream in Camps Bay. I'm leaning towards the latter at the moment.

Gig cancelled

2007-03-17T00:00:00.000+02:00

Hmmm. Remind me not to hold my breath next time we have a gig booked at UCT. Tonight's gig for the float building (which I was pretty skeptical about to begin with) was cancelled, after having been postponed last week.

It sounded like a long story and I couldn't be bothered to listen to the voicemail again and work out why it was cancelled. Meh.

Next gig is Zula next Friday.

Zula with Tait

2007-03-14T10:53:00.000+02:00

Last night's gig was a good one. Nic didn't have the best night on vocals, as a result of his weekend of debauchery. He spent two days solid smoking and drinking, so not a huge surprise his voice suffered. The rest of us didn't fare much better sadly. I screwed up a lot more than I have in any other gig recently, and I think the same can be said of Justin, Rob and Marc.

Despite the screw ups, we were well received. There was a big crowd (which seemed to be made up of largely Justin's fan club) - far bigger than we anticipated considering it was a week night.

A lot of people hung around after the gig and chatted to us, which was really cool. I can't think of another gig, aside from our cd launch, where we've had so many people spending time with us afterwards. The positive feedback (har har) is really encouraging. It was a perfect night out in all regards.

As Rob alluded to in his post about the gig, we sometimes spend too much time concentrating on where we want the band to be. Where we are right now is actually pretty cool.

My new new toy

2007-03-14T09:53:00.001+02:00

My new new toy, originally uploaded by the sholto.

Well, I got carried away. Hardly unusual when it comes to musical toys I know. As mentioned below, the Roland Cube 100 was just too under powered. This is a Fender Bassman 250. A 250 watt head with two 10 inch speakers. Sounds amazing and is far lighter than my Trace Elliot. It also has the volume needed for gigs.

I took my bass in last week to have some work done. It had a seriously evil buzz. The most evil buzz was resolved, but something else crept in. There was always a buzz around that disappeared when I earthed the bass by touching the strings, but now it doesn't disappear. Running out of ideas, but I need to get it sorted soon. It's quite a problem in quiet parts of songs. I might hunt down the sound engineer from Zula, as he claimed to have a solution. He seems pretty knowledgeable.

I got my watch back for the second time yesterday. It's still broken. Somehow I thought buying an expensive(ish) watch (a Fossil) would mean if something went wrong they'd actually be competent and sort it out. Wrong. I'll take it back later today.

Bah!!!

2007-03-12T23:16:00.000+02:00

That tiny amp over there (points at amp in corner, cowering in shame) is not loud enough. Shit. I really had no idea we practiced so stupidly loud. Back to goes tomorrow. Unfortunately I'll get credit, not a refund, so no clue what the hell I'm going to do. They didn't have anything more suitable which is why I bought the amp I did.

Shit.

The week...

2007-03-11T22:19:00.000+02:00

It's starting soon. Nooooo!

I'm sort of looking forward to it. I'm not allowed to sleep on weekends... or so the mosquitos tell me.

Our gig on Friday night was postponed for a week. The entire UCT float thing was postponed - something about too few traffic cops to go round. Michele and I had planned to escape to Pringle bay for some much needed relaxation on Saturday morning. With the lack of gig we decided to head through late on Friday night rather and arrived there a little after 11.

It was a good weekend all round. Great company is a given. The weather and wine were excellent too :).

I even managed to get some work done today. Soon I'll get some sample data and start putting my code to the test.