There are instructors and there are instructors

The troubleshooting XP class I'm taking is incredibly boring. It wouldn't be so bad if the Installing XP class was a prerequisite, but they didn't. So we spend most of class time explaining how to set up Windows XP and very little on troubleshooting. You can't troubleshoot if you don't know how it works. I verified after class last night that Installing XP isn't a prerequisite. My instructor wishes it were, too. I assured him that while I already know most of what he's covered so far, there have been new things I've picked up along the way. There's always something new to learn. I told him I was trying to behave myself and not be disruptive. ;)

I suspect the real meat of the course will be in the second part of it next quarter. We have more students than computers, so I'm sharing my computer with another student who also knows how to install and configure XP. We spend the lecture doing the lab and when we're done we amuse ourselves by surfing online.

Last night I learned a new British term from an article he showed me in the Guardian: Kettle lead. That's another term for a power cord for an electric kettle. Apparently you can use one to power a PC, but you can't use a PC power cord to power a kettle because of heat tolerance requirements. They've managed to make a PC cord not work for kettles.

I showed him the website created by Dr. Michael Brown of Caltech whose team discovered The 10th Planet and who gave a stimulating talk a couple of weeks ago about it. His website has most of the material he used in his lecture including the animation of three photos used to discover "Xena" (temporary nickname).

Anyway, our instructor asked us last week if we'd attend the next class if it was given on Friday nights. Two people said "No" outright and most of the rest of us groaned and said we guessed we'd take it. Friday night is the offical start of the weekend, after all. Plus as Eric said when I told him aobut the possibility, "Oh man! That's burrito night!" LOL

Last night he told us they were talking about scheduling it for Wednesday night instead. At first I was relieved until I remembered, Wednesday night is Astronomy Lecture Series night! Oh no! I told him about that after class and told him of the three I've attended so far and how cool they were. I told him they were seminar points for my internship. You know what he said? He understood and wouldn't have a problem with me skipping part of his class to attend the lecture. WHOA! Can you imagine that? I told him with my luck he'd be covering something I really needed to hear. He joked and said I could probably get Sean to share his audio tape with me. That didn't go over well with Sean. Sean is one of the guys who doesn't or maybe can't read his book and doesn't seem to understand things without detailed explanations. He probably resents me because I understand things so easily. But it does give me a great idea. I'll find one of our tape recorders to leave on my desk to record what I miss. My friend Bill or my new friend Stejpan (pronounced Stefan) would probably be willing to watch it for me and flip the tape if it needed it.

Either that, or I can befriend Sean by trying to help him. lol

My plan to dig into the course by helping my classmates didn't pan out. The lecture lasts the entire time, simply because we have to learn all about installation stuff. *sigh*

What gets me is that this instructor seems to be great friends with the instructor from Hell. Since all the other instructors seem to like me, it helps me to accept that the problem I have with IFH is all about his own problems. Poor guy. He must be very unhappy to be the way he is.

M key is still broken

Geek Squad doesn't fix keytops anymore. They had people complaining when they popped back off and since they give a 90 day guarantee with every repair, they now replace the entire keyboard. That costs between $80-$100. My key isn't broken. It just popped off. I'm not replacing the keyboard for that. Besides, if I do end up replacing the keyboard, Eric already has experience doing that. I told the guy my husband works at HP Labs and he said, "Coool!"

Happily, I'd called them on the phone to find out how much it would cost and got that information. Their website has $69 as the lowest price for anything. I told him it would be ridiculous to replace a keyboard when there was nothing broken on the keytop. He agreed and was very apologetic about not fixing them anymore. He told me there is a tool to do it but they never had it. I asked him, since they don't fix them anymore, if he'd kindly share with me how they did manage to pop them back on. I told him how we'd tried to snap the keytop onto the white plastic pieces while they were in place on the keyboard and how we'd tried connecting the white plastic pieces onto the keytop and tried to hook it onto the keyboard that way. Which way did they do it with success and how? I told him I was a bit geeky myself. He liked that. :)

He was happy to tell me. They snap the white plastic pieces onto the keytop then used two small screwdrivers to pull the plastic pieces over the metal hooks. One screwdriver to hold the left side, the other to pull the right side over. I asked if they used jeweler's screwdrivers. He said, no, they used small craftsman screwdrivers. 3/16 and 5/16 sizes. I mentioned I'd thought about using a crochet hook. He wasn't sure about that. I think it would work. I'll get one on the way home tonight if I can't find one in my sewing basket. I used to have one. I'm not sure I still do. It will be much easier to grab something with a gap in it and pull if I have a small hook to do it with.

He again apologized for not being able to fix it for me. I told him I understood. They need to protect their reputation and if they've had problems with this kind of thing in the past I didn't blame them for stopping it.

Oh, I have to tell you I really enjoyed their phone system. It's so heroic sounding. Their website is a crackup, too. They make jokes about not being able to find dates and accepting dating advice in several places on their site.

I didn't actually laugh when I called 1-800-geek-squad (1 800 433 5778) but that was only because I was battling a killer headache. I realized later, a person shouldn't stop drinking coffee cold turkey when they've got a four to five cup a day addiction, especially when they're a peri-menopausal woman having to take lower doses of meds because the prescription is running out too fast. It's ordered. PLEASE SHOW UP! I just took the last pill.

Geek Squad. Hmmmm!