Brews you can Use

So, the laptop is back, with a good screen now, and I'm up and running after a little bit of a scare. When I first booted it up, it quickly said

Operating system not found

At first I thought the manufacturer had just wiped the disk, but after a couple unsuccessful attempts at installing a new OS, I finally noticed that the hard drive was MIA.

Oh, bother. Did they remove the hard drive? Nah, it could have died on its own, or more likely, a connection shook loose. I hate taking apart laptops. The last one I took apart never really recovered.... Luckily, there's a guy at work who lives for taking apart small electronic devices and, the important part, can actually get them back together again. I brought the laptop over to his cube, he took it mostly apart, explored a bit, re-seated the hard drive cable, put it back together, and it worked. He thanked me for the disassembly opportunity, I thanked him for fixing my laptop, and I went away happy.

As an added bonus, the manufacturer did not wipe the hard disk, so my existing FreeBSD installation was still intact.

I just finished mixing up a keg of root beer for Jess's cousin's wedding this weekend. The guests are staying in a state park, so no real beer. That's OK, because I'm starting to get "low", with only 10 gallons on deck and probably 10-15 gallons on tap. I'm starting to ponder when and what I'll brew next.

The replacement/fixed laptop (don't know which yet) is finally on its way back. The vendor worked with the manufacturer, and arranged for me to ship the bugger directly back to the manufacturer. In Taiwan. At their expense, at least (the bill was about $100). I shipped it out Monday of last week, it arrived there on Thursday, and they shipped the replacement on Friday.

And then it hit Anchorage, AK, and got held up waiting for an FCC form. Form 740, specifically. Pretty straightforward, except for a few of the blanks. After a few phone calls to Sub300 and FedEx, I was pointed to part II, option #2: basically a box you check to say "I don't need to fill out this form". I wish all forms had that. It would make life so much easier.