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From: Arfa Daily on 12 Mar 2010 05:05

"Jeff Liebermann" <jeffl(a)cruzio.com> wrote in message
news:qfejp5p4n60fgvk56479js454ps8pcsr9s(a)4ax.com...
> On Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:17:48 -0500, mm <NOPSAMmm2005(a)bigfoot.com>
> wrote:
>
>>I have the image of the evil explorer falling into a pond full of
>>pirhania.
>
> Not this customers. However, I do have an occasional customer that
> drops his laptops off when he visits the area. However, he's not
> evil. He's a doctor that travels to some of the strangest parts of
> the planet, lives there for up to about 3 years, tries to leave the
> locals in better shape than when he arrived, and returns to
> civilization every few years. The laptops have come back full of
> fungus, green slime, mud, corrosion, and insect remains. I have to
> disinfect and deodorize the laptop before tearing it apart for a more
> thorough cleanup. A few years ago, it came back smelling of rotten
> Durian fruit:
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durian>
> I stock replacement keyboards in anticipation of his arrival. Also
> spare HD drives in case something dies. Most of the LCD's have the
> bottom part of the screen trashed, where capillary action sucks water
> into the LCD panel. Fixing his machines is like equipping an
> expedition.
>
> I got him to buy a 3 year warranty extension from Dell on the last
> laptop (Dell Precision M4400). I haven't tried it yet, but I wonder
> what Dell would think if I mailed them the smelly fungus farm laptop
> for repair?


If Dell U.S. is anything like Dell U.K. , they would just reject it. Friend
of ours sent his daughter's notebook back with a broken DC socket. They
rejected it under warranty, claiming that damage to DC sockets was a
user-caused problem, and not covered. They quoted him silly money to repair
it. He could have gone to the local supermarket and bought something similar
for less money than they wanted. It ended up at my colleague's repair shop,
where it was repaired for the cost of a socket from a fleabay store, and an
hour's labour. Companies like Dell do themselves no favours by having an
attitude like this. Up until this point, the friend used all Dell computers
both at home and at his (considerable sized) business, but he has now said
that he will never buy from them again ...

Arfa


>
>>That makes sense. The odds are that half the time he'll put it in
>>right-side-right.
>
> He has disk envelopes for most of his CD's. About half of them are
> inserted with the data side facing the window, where he can't tell
> what's inside the envelope. My guess(tm) is that the definition of
> "right side up" depends on which way the disk is inserted in the
> envelope.
>
> --
> # Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
> # 831-336-2558
> # http://802.11junk.com jeffl(a)cruzio.com
> # http://www.LearnByDestroying.com AE6KS


From: Jeff Liebermann on 12 Mar 2010 13:13
On Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:33:33 -0800 (PST), "William R. Walsh"
<wm_walsh(a)hotmail.com> wrote:

>> The real fun was when CD's arrived, and people were cramming
>> them into the 5.25" floppy slot.
>
>But that shouldn't cause any *lasting* harm that turning the machine
>off and tipping it forward to let the disc slide out...at least with
>common 5.25" drive types. BTDT when my younger brothers stuffed a CD
>into the 5.25" drive of my then-fairly-new 386SX.

I don't recall the machine involved but it was in the days of
monstrous tower cases and space eating desktops. I vaguely recall
paying about $700 for the 1x drive and $100 for CD. I didn't think of
tipping the case and I suspect it wouldn't have done any good. I
carry a hemostat for moving jumpers around. I covered the jaws with
tissue paper and gently extracted the CD.

Despite my success at this repair job, I lost the customer. The
owners wife was the one that stuffed in the CD. I got the call on my
pager and returned her call on a pay phone. When she told me the
problem, I couldn't help laughing a little. That was all it took. She
assumed that I was laughing at her lack of computer talent (which was
true) and took it personally. Apologies were futile.

>I would agree otherwise, because there are some drives that could do
>Bad Things to a disc and/or require extraction. I've got some drives
>that have oddly-designed slimline mechanisms or electronic insert/
>eject features.

Those are really where you insert the credit card or dollar bills.
I've fished credit cards out of those CD/DVD drives (the one's without
a tray). Incidentally, I found a box of CD caddies buried in the
office. I've often suspected they were invented solely to prevent
users from shoving 5.25" floppy disks into the CD/DVD slot. Once
5.25" were safely obsolete, it was considered safe to release CD/DVD
drives without a tray or caddy. (Yet another conspiracy theory).

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl(a)cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
From: Jeff Liebermann on 12 Mar 2010 13:31
On Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:39:59 -0800, dplatt(a)radagast.org (Dave Platt)
wrote:
>> I have to
>>disinfect and deodorize the laptop before tearing it apart for a more
>>thorough cleanup. A few years ago, it came back smelling of rotten
>>Durian fruit:
>><http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durian>
>
>Out of curiosity - does rotten Durian fruit smell any different/worse
>than fresh ripe Durian fruit?

I've never tasted or smelled the real thing, so I have no way to
compare. The rotted version smelled like a restaurant dumpster. It
also lingered in my office for several days and required washing the
workbench and laptop bag with alcohol. I eventually gave the entire
laptop an alcohol bath, which was a big help. I think the rotten
fruit was mostly in the keyboard. I also had to throw away the carpet
on the bench and a plastic trash can. I became somewhat accustomed to
the smell after a few days, but visitors to my office were far less
tolerant. How he made it through an international airplane flight,
with this stench bag as presumably carry on luggage will remain a
mystery. I forgot to ask.

There are some colorful descriptions of the smell at:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durian#Flavour_and_odour>

Deodorized Durian, which is most likely an oxymoron:
<http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Thai_scientist_has_deodorized_the_stinky_%27king_of_fruits%27>

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl(a)cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
From: Michael A. Terrell on 12 Mar 2010 21:48

Jeff Liebermann wrote:
>
> On Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:33:33 -0800 (PST), "William R. Walsh"
> <wm_walsh(a)hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> >> The real fun was when CD's arrived, and people were cramming
> >> them into the 5.25" floppy slot.
> >
> >But that shouldn't cause any *lasting* harm that turning the machine
> >off and tipping it forward to let the disc slide out...at least with
> >common 5.25" drive types. BTDT when my younger brothers stuffed a CD
> >into the 5.25" drive of my then-fairly-new 386SX.
>
> I don't recall the machine involved but it was in the days of
> monstrous tower cases and space eating desktops. I vaguely recall
> paying about $700 for the 1x drive and $100 for CD. I didn't think of
> tipping the case and I suspect it wouldn't have done any good. I
> carry a hemostat for moving jumpers around. I covered the jaws with
> tissue paper and gently extracted the CD.
>
> Despite my success at this repair job, I lost the customer. The
> owners wife was the one that stuffed in the CD. I got the call on my
> pager and returned her call on a pay phone. When she told me the
> problem, I couldn't help laughing a little. That was all it took. She
> assumed that I was laughing at her lack of computer talent (which was
> true) and took it personally. Apologies were futile.
>
> >I would agree otherwise, because there are some drives that could do
> >Bad Things to a disc and/or require extraction. I've got some drives
> >that have oddly-designed slimline mechanisms or electronic insert/
> >eject features.
>
> Those are really where you insert the credit card or dollar bills.
> I've fished credit cards out of those CD/DVD drives (the one's without
> a tray). Incidentally, I found a box of CD caddies buried in the
> office. I've often suspected they were invented solely to prevent
> users from shoving 5.25" floppy disks into the CD/DVD slot. Once
> 5.25" were safely obsolete, it was considered safe to release CD/DVD
> drives without a tray or caddy. (Yet another conspiracy theory).


I've seen hundreds of PCs with a caddyless CD-ROM drive and a 5.25"
floppy drive.

Some data services continued to use caddies to ship & protect their
data. A friend used them at a garage where he worked to find service
data and replacement parts. He got one or two new caddies with disk
every month, and had to return the disks & caddies they replaced.

--
Lead free solder is Belgium's version of 'Hold my beer and watch this!'
From: David on 15 Mar 2010 21:38
In article <te8hp5p5tl7a6dlsvb4t49lfvqo5bumkbe(a)4ax.com>,
Jeff Liebermann <jeffl(a)cruzio.com> wrote:

..... > He's not a dummy. He just doesn't care about
> computers and uses one only when there's no effective alternative. I
> have other customers with the same mentality. They don't want to
> waste any time dealing with the technology or doing battle with the
> machines. They pay me to do that. For example, if they need to burn
> a CD with a few files, I get the phone call and walk them through it.
> When done, they immediately forget everything I tried to teach them as
> they probably won't need to do it again for several months. One
> customer suggested that it was futile learning how to do anything
> because it all changes every few years.

Customers can be strange - back in the stone age when I was running a
HiFi store one customer would call me out about every month or so to
balance the tone arm on his turntable.

Always gave an 'explanation' (the wife or the kids, or the cat etc) of
how it became unbalanced.

I showed him over and over again how he could do it himself, but no - I
would get a call a month or so later to come and rebalance it again.

A real dummy hey? No. He was a doctor!

Anyway, it was a nice little earner I guess - $30 a time was good money
back then

David
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