Chris Kirby's Inner Monolog : Personal

Alienware, The Suckers OEM

Chris Kirby — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 22:33:00 GMT

Want to pay top dollar for a brand new partially working gaming pc with a voided warranty? Or better yet, would you like to pay $4,000 do get kicked in the balls? oh yes please!!! Then Alienware is the company for you!

Some background...I've been building my own PC's for some time now until about two years ago when I decided to go with a fully pimped out Alienware gaming PC. I was at the point where I could afford to pay a boutique shop (at the time) to do it all for me with a warranty and the whole nine. My initial experience with them was average at best. My order took longer than expected and when it finally did arrive, it was missing the software disc containing all the drivers and the radiator for the liquid cooling system was mounted improperly. For the disc, which I absolutely needed since it contained the retail apps for my x-fi sound card, it took several support chats, a 6 dollar shipping fee, and 2 weeks to arrive at my door. As for the radiator, I was able to rig it properly using my past experiences in building my own over the years. Needless to say, a pretty rocky start. However, given all that, the machine itself has preformed decently for me over the past 2 years...enough so that I recommended them to a friend. Which brings me to today.

My friend ordered his $4,000+ rig just a few months ago online. The estimated delivery time was roughly 4 weeks, but it took over 6 weeks to arrive. And that was after server phone calls, getting a separate excuse each time to explain the delay....and no, their online order status system has not improved one bit over the two years, it literally stayed at the initial payment received phase for over a month. Now to the guts of the story. The computer arrived and my friend did a clean install of Vista Ultimate followed by all the accompanying drivers and applications that came on the Alienware system CD. During the first days of operation things just weren't working right, the sound wasn't working, the Alienware configured Nforce raid 0 array was notifying him of read and write errors, and the computer was randomly rebooting and/or blue screening. Now, given that I've been a windows user since 95, the very first thing you do in a case like this is to check and update all your drivers. And, as usual, nearly all of the drivers provided on the included cd had a new update available from their respective manufactures web sites. Including Nforce chipset drivers, Nvidia graphics drivers, new x-fi drivers, and even motherboard bios updates. Now, none of this is new to you if your a PC owner...to keep windows and especially games running in peak condition, we have to do the update rounds quite often. Ok...so all of that was done, and there still seemed to be something wrong. At that point, he was still receiving some read/write errors from the raid array and getting the less frequent random reboot. Now, given that all the software was as current as it could be, he turned to hardware as the possible culprit...specifically a memory module (4x1gb) or a bad hard drive (2x150gb raptor's) given the symptoms. As of this point in the story, my friend was about 45 days in and beyond the 30 day money back guarantee, but he really had nothing to worry about since he paid for the upgraded 3 year full boat warranty which would cover any hardware problem over the duration. So, he finally had no choice but to call up Alienware support, which was where it all went horribly, and almost criminally wrong. He proceeded to tell the support tech about all the trouble he had been having and what he had been doing in attempts to resolve the issue...then he gets to the part where he said that he upgraded the bios to the latest version, and the tech completely shuts down. "Sir, there is nothing I can do since you've upgraded your bios. You warranty is now void and we have you recorded saying that you did it" ... let me repeat that, His warranty was now VOID, his $300 cash upgraded 3 year warranty, is VOID, because he update the bios to the latest version!! Un-fucking believable to say the least...what gamer or pc enthusiast on the planet would not update his/her bios to get the latest fixes and features out of THE main component of the PC? To make things even worse, the tech even refused to help or provide support in any way after that...meaning that not only are they out to screw you out of your warranty, but they have no interest in even supporting their products or their customers, in or out of warranty. Not to mention that MY Alienware, that sits below me as I type this, was in fact never under warranty, since the very first thing I did when I got it was to update the chipset drivers and the motherboard bios. Thanks for nothing!

I'll tell you this Alienware, you've made a very motivated and relentless enemy here, since I've now made it my mission to tell as many people as I can about this outrageous and shocking experience. And I think it goes without saying, that neither I, my friend, or anyone we know, meet, speak to, wave at, point towards, or write about will not even consider buying an Alienware PC, Server, Notebook, Media Center, Monitor, Mouse Pad, Mug, T-Shirt, Sticker, Talking Yogurt Doll, or Flamethrower!

Welcome to the jungle

Chris Kirby — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 17:13:11 GMT

Been a pretty crazy weekend...on Thursday night around 8:20pm a Tornado plowed through my Grandmother and Dad's property in northern Michigan. Creating a path of destruction 14 miles long and 1/2 mile wide. My grandmother's and our property were quite fortunate, considering no one was hurt and the main house had no major damage. My dad and I arrived to the following scene Friday evening, almost 24 hours later.

I apologize for sub par quality but I had to take them with my blackjack camera phone...I wish I would have had a real camera, but I think you can get a good idea. As you can see, we had a LOT of trees to cut and clear, but thankfully, we had help from friends and neighbors.

Welcome to chriskirby.net!

Chris Kirby — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 15:00:00 GMT

I'm back up and running with a shiny new site and a new domain name to go with it! Telligent has really done a nice job with their 2007 release...I look forward to discovering more about its new features and customizing it even further.

Stay tuned for a new steady stream of useless, and sometimes downright ridiculous garble that are my interests and life as I know it. I definitely have some shiny new gadgets to talk about...iPod fever anyone? Not to mention the impending release of visual studio 2008 and c# 3.0; going to be an exciting q4 for us developers, cant wait.

Snowmobilepalooza

Chris Kirby — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 18:36:00 GMT

The story begins at 8 am last Saturday morning with smiling hung over faces and hopes of a fun and snow filled ride. Our ultimate destination for the day was Paradise, which is roughly a half days ride from our base camp in St. Ignace. Little did we know that the powers that be had already smited our little trip across the UP, not only preventing us from reaching our destination, but only allowing 50% of our snowmobiles to return whole. Let the adventure begin:

8:30 am: All is well as we are unloading our sleds at the drop off in town and begin to head out on the trail. Though, as i would find out a few hours later, both my wife and my dad heard a strange and loud noise coming my sled as it was unloaded from the trailer.

9:15 am: We are 10-12 miles out when i hear a loud crack directly below me as a approach a stop sign on the trail. As i proceed forward from the stop sign, assuming that I had hit a rock, the entire sled begins vibrating forcing me to stop and pull of the trail. As we were diagnosing the problem we discovered that my rear shock was torn from its housing and appeared to be snapped in half! Essentially putting me out of commission for the day.

9:45 am: I attempt to salvage the day by trying to locate a rental sled while on the side of the trail. In the mean time, both my dad and my friend Steve are heading back to get Steve's pickup, so that we can haul my busted sled back to base camp, when tragedy struck again. I got a call from Steve saying that his engine has seized on his brand new Renegade and that he was now stranded 5 miles from our location towards town! So, that's 2 sleds down in less than 2 hours and we've only traveled 10 miles from our starting point.

10 am: I get another call from Steve saying that he was able to get his sled started and moving VERY slowing toward base camp, and that he would meet us there.

10:30 am: We load up my sled to the back of the pickup and send the rest of the group on to Trout Lake (20 miles north) where they will hold up and wait for me and my dad to meet them with his sled an my new rental. We estimate that we can meet them if roughly 45 mins if we trailer to their location.

10:45 am: Steve calls it a weekend. We load up his sled and he starts his 3.5 hour trip home.

11 am: Before we can trailer anywhere, we have to create a harness adapter that will allow the trailers lights (brake, blinkers, etc) to work with my pathfinder.

11:45 am: After 3 trips to the auto parts store and 10 trys later, we finally get all the lights working properly and are ready to go pick up the rental and head to Trout Lake.

12:30 pm: We arrive in Trout Lake just as the rest of the group was about to leave after their 2 hour wait fest in the restaurant.

1 pm: We're finally off towards our destination, with 1 man down and me on my rental.

2:15 pm: We arrive in a small town called Hulbert to gas up and grab some lunch after some fun riding. The gas line takes about 45 mins to get through.

3:30 pm: We're fed with full gas tanks and decide as a group that it's too late in the day to continue farther out. So, it was time to start our 3 hour trip back to base.

3:40 pm: All the sleds start up except the brand spanking new 1000cc Ski-Doo. We proceed to try just about anything over the next 2.5 hours to try and get this thing started including plugs, fuses, even kicking the damn thing. But unfortunately, all end in failure. The worst part is, that sled was carrying not one but 2 people (Jerad and Elizabeth) who are now stranded.

5 pm: A snow storm begins as the temperature drops and daylight begins to fade.

6:15 pm: A bartender at the bar where we were held up offered to take the 3rd broken down sled of the day back to Trout Lake in her pickup, along with anyone who was stranded. At this point, this appeared to be our best option, especially considering the weather and the 3 + inches it had already dropped down on us since it started. So, we load up the sled and send Hayley and Elizabeth off with our friendly bartender to Trout Lake.

6:20 pm: We head out on the remainder of the snowmobiles to rendezvous with the girls in Trout Lake.

6:30 pm: We slow to a crawl on the trail due to the worst visibility any of us have encountered in our many years of riding. We could literally only see a few feet in front of us with low beams and even less with high. This, on top of the trails being in extremely rough condition after a day full of traffic and the constant stream of fresh powder snowing down on us.

7:45 pm: We arrive in Trout Lake with our nerves shot from 1.5 hours of near death experiences.

8 pm: We off load the ski doo from the pickup and manually push it on to the trailer. We also load up my dad's sled so that he can tow the trailer back to St. Ignace in the snow storm, being that he is the most experienced tower in the group.

8:15 pm: My dad, the girls, and the trailer head back to base on the road and Mark, Jerad, and I head back on the sleds. At this point, the snow is still coming down very heavily make both road and trail travel extremely treacherous. However, the 3 of us have pretty much had all that we can take...so, the shittier the trail, the harder the snow, the faster we went! If I'm going to die, it might as well be going 90mph in to a tree on a rental sled... without the insurance!

9 pm: Still alive.

9:30 pm: We arrive in St. Ignace and load up the sleds. We also discovered a few minutes later that we arrived in town at roughly the same time as my Dad and the girls. It turns out that the roads were barely passable and it took them over an hour to go 20 miles.

10 pm: Reflect on one of craziest days any of us had ever had on the trails...while eating pizza and getting hammered.

Burning Crusade In Hand!

Chris Kirby — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 08:08:20 GMT

I never knew a tiny EB Games store could be so packed at 12:01 am...there must have been over 100 people nut-to-butt in there. Nevertheless, I was out of there by 12:30 and installing by 12:45... I can't wait to see 2,000 lvl 1 Draenei Shaman when I log in ;)

First day with the Zune

Chris Kirby — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 17:08:00 GMT

I was planning on getting a Zune sometime next year, once they beefed up the software/firmware a bit, but to my surprise, Santa decided hook me up with one on Christmas morning! I guess those cookies and Jager I left for him paid off...

My first impression of the Zune and the companion software was very reminiscent of hooking up the 360 or more recently, the Wii for the first time. In that, that hardware seemed solid and full of potential, but the software was nowhere close. I believe that this is both a good and a bad thing. The good being that you now have a device which is capable of achieving a countless number of additional features, given its unique hardware features. Specifically the onboard wireless and the windows live integration. The bad being that this potentially great device is quite limited for the time being, and may not be up to the standards of the veteran Creative players or even the iPod. Which, unfortunately, has become common place in this 'beta' software age we now live in.

With that said, I think there are some specific things Microsoft will need to do to in order for the Zune to be successful. First, it needs to ride on the coat tails of the Xbox 360. Meaning that it should have wirelessly integrated with my 360 out of the box...giving all 6+ million 360 owners an immediate need to ditch their iPod and pick up a Zune. Second, clean up the DRM mess. Do i use Urge or Zune marketplace? Why doesn't my Zune work with Windows Media Player 11? What do i do with my PlaysForSure tracks? Will it DRM uninfected tracks share via wireless? Finally, get me the features that will bring the Zune up to par and eventually set it apart. We need podcasting support, games, and a video marketplace just to catch up to the competition...and real wireless functionality with tighter live integration to surpass it.

So, buy one or not? Well, for me, the potential and the quality of existing features was enough...but i'm not conviced that its ready for the masses just yet. Afterall, its the hardware that sells it, and the software that keeps it.

It's A Boy!

Chris Kirby — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 00:00:00 GMT

My son Aidan Christopher Kirby was born at 10pm on October 2nd 2006, weighing in at 8lbs 9oz!

Its been an interesting ride these past 2 weeks as we settle in to our new routine of sleeping in 3 hour increments and getting used crying as the new quiet ;) But I'm sure its all up hill from here, right?

To see the little guy in all his glory, you can check out his first photo album in the Gallery.

Understanding the debate of Evolution vs Intelligent Design

Chris Kirby — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 00:44:00 GMT

I've been very interested in this topic since President Bush publicly offered his opinion that the, so called theory of intelligent design, is a viable and acceptable scientific alternative to the Theory of Evolution. And, if that wasn't odd enough, he wen't on to state that each topic should receive equal time in the science classes of our public schools. The affect of statements like these as well as pressure from Christian religious groups, have led to a much heated debate, primarily dominated by the idea of religion vs science. The debate went so far in Dover, Pennsylvania that it let to a federal court ruling blocking the unconstitutional attempts of the Dover school board to integrate intelligent design (a religious based idea) in to their classrooms.

The reason I bring this up now is that I've come across an excellent lecture by professor Ken Miller of Brown University in which he discusses this debate in depth. I believe that anyone who has ever considered this topic and its recent effect on our society, regardless of their views/opinions/beliefs, will find it quite informative.

[YouTube:JVRsWAjvQSg]

If you have trouble viewing the video, please visit the original post on youtube.

The death of Sci-Fi

Chris Kirby — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 18:35:00 GMT

Are the executives as the Sci-Fi channel taking crazy pills??? Not only are they cancelling one of the greatest and longest running sci-fi shows of all time, Stargate SG1, but they are going to be changing the name of the channel to SurgeTV? They say the change is due to the popularity of ECW wrestling and the fact that the channel demographic is changing... well, hmm... maybe its because you put a badly acted wrestling soap opera on a sci-fi channel! First they destroy TechTV, now their taking down Sci-Fi channel... I say death to all network tv! Viva la Podcast!!!

My dell widescreens go vertical

Chris Kirby — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 18:35:02 GMT

I may be marginally insane, but once i saw this stand, I had to have it.

Sometimes these 20" widescreens can take up a little too much horizontal real estate...So, what better solution then to stack em' high ;) Now I guess its time to add that 24" widescreen in portrait mode to the right!

Finally moved in

Chris Kirby — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 17:18:23 GMT

Well, we are finally moved in to our new place..meaning that I now live amongst many boxes with no labels and with no hopes of finding any clothes but the ones on my back for some time. I did manage to at least get the essentials done, like hookup up the tv/home theatre and making sure the internet worked though ;) I'll be sure to post some new pics of the basement and the other rooms as we get them finished.

FedSux strikes again!

Chris Kirby — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 07:18:00 GMT

Its been 4 years and their still pulling this ***!! FedEx Home Delivery is by far the worst offender, they won't call or even try to find the address, they just sent it right back to the shipper. Unfortunately for me and many others, FedEx just can't get their *** together...even after years of calls and emails, they're still unable to deliver a package to my house. Not only is the service in my area exceptionally bad, but their whole operation is basically a joke. Just do a google search for 'fedex sucks' and you get the picture loud and clear.

Jun 14, 2006

8:54 PM

Delivery exception

STERLING HEIGHTS, MI

Unable to locate address

I've even come up with my very own diagnosis for me and my fellow victims called FRS (Fedex Rage Syndrome). Common symptoms are, writing long and pointless blog entries, dialing 0 to talk to a representative, and urinating on white, purple, and gray delivery trucks. If you or a loved one is suffering from FRS, you needn't take a pill, simply dial 1-800-PICK-UPS.

Getting closer...

Chris Kirby — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 18:47:01 GMT

I just posted a bunch of new photos to my gallery and 1 new video to my folder in the files section. As of now, the move is set for the 27th, so were almost there. Theres still a lot more to do, but I think 2 weeks is enough time to get it done. Having 2 places and driving back and forth between Mount Clemens and Grosse Pointe is getting old fast... So, I'm sticking to the 27th dammit!

The remodel/updating begins

Chris Kirby — Fri, 26 May 2006 22:44:00 GMT

I just posted several new photos and videos of some of the demo and cleanup we started doing at the new house. To my surprise, we actually gutted enough stuff to completely fill up a 30 yard construction dumpster! Check em' out

Twig and Berries

Chris Kirby — Tue, 23 May 2006 19:40:00 GMT

We just recently found out that Hayley and I will be having a boy. I was fine either way, but I know Hayley was relieved because she believes a boy will be easier to handle. I'm not so sure on that one, but I'll go with that theory until I find out otherwise firsthand. The baby is still due the first week of October as of the last update, so I only have 4 months left to squeeze in the rest of my life's ambitions...no sweat ;)