Customer what representative?

Sony Style is fail.

I emailed, and they sent me a form letter back almost immediately, saying their products are too complex for them to be able to answer by email. (Seriously? I just want to know if you, like another online retailer, will sell me a configuration of a CW with 1600×900 resolution instead of just 1366×768.)

So I used their chat feature on the site, and asked the lady that responded. She was away for a few minutes, then said that she “could not find that option.” I’m pretty sure she just looked up the product and ran through the customization process that any site visitor can do. The one that I had already tried about six times. I already know it’s not there, lady, that’s why I asked you!

Good grief.

Pining for a greasy-fast computer

And now for something completely different: Wow, hat-wearing cacti are rather popular of late.

And now for something completely different: I am in love with this computer (almost):

Sony CW Series [insert long serial code: VPCCW27FX/B]

14″ screen
1600×900 resolution
NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M graphics card with 512MB dedicated vram
Windows 7
Intel Core i5 520M 2.4GHz dual-core cpu
500GB 5400rpm hard drive
4GB DDR3 1066 ram
Blueray/DVD-RW optical drive
5.3 lbs
and some other stuff
$1120 Newegg, $845 open box

Now, there are drawbacks here, hence the “almost.” My true customization would swap the Blueray for a 7200rpm hdd and a slightly faster (2.53GHz dual-core) processor. There’s an ASUS that does Sony one up on that count (with a 1.6GHz quad-core and a 500GB 7200rpm hdd … plus full HD – 1920x1080p and 1 gig of dedicated vram); but it costs $150 more, lacks Blueray, is 15.6″ and 2 lbs heavier, and has the worst battery life since my old, old Dell, which can’t get through start-up before the battery dies.

But the CW – I could get this thing for $850, now. Oh man oh man oh man.

I should email Sony Style and ask if they’ll let me customize it even more (their own customization options don’t seem to include 1600×900 resolution for the CW series, just the typical measly 1366×768). If I could, then I could really have the computer I want, and not feel like I ought to throw down so much money for something that’s only almost what I want. Clearly, they do all the customizations I would choose, they just don’t put them all together the right way.

Oh, how I want a new computer. Sammy does ok for what it is (NC10), and the battery lasts for ages, and it’s charmingly small and light and beautiful; but I can’t play games so well without an optical drive, and I can’t edit photos so well on a 1024×600 screen, and I can’t render fractals and landscapes so well on a 1.6GHz single-core processor (with a 5400rpm hard drive, at that). Ah…

Magic carrot and Balamb-Hogwarts parallels

But the servants did know, and they applauded loudly in the kitchen. [pauses, frowning at the text] And they said unto the Lord, “How the hell did you do that?!” and inquired of Him, “do you do children’s parties?”

And the Lord said, “No.”

But the servants did press Him, saying, “Go on, give us another one.”

And so He brought forth a carrot, and said, “Behold this, for it is a carrot.”

And all about Him knew that it was so, for it was orange, with a green top.

*Wiping tears* I am never getting over that sketch. For it was or-ange.

Okay. … I finished Goblet of Fire this evening. This series feels oddly familiar…like…when there were these students at this “Garden” and they thought they were just training to be elite magic-wielding fighting-squads-cum-mercenaries, and it turns out that all along they were really there in case the Super Evil Sorceress came back, which of course she does, in various ways before she finally pretty much takes over the world by destroying the fabric of spacetime. And your little clique of three fighters in their late teens unwittingly become the leaders of the “Garden” and of the fight against the Super Evil Sorceress, who they eventually kill personally, because everyone else was about as helpful as a Raggedy Ann doll. And along the way you never fight someone you have no chance of defeating (unless someone stronger is hiding offscreen to revive you), and you always find what you need before you need it, and you never find things that seem important but prove to be completely useless.

I guess there was that Gum Pod in Dragon Warrior IV, but that never seemed useful…it was just that it took extra effort to get. And there are differences, sure, but it really reads like an rpg. It’s like if you made a book out of Final Fantasy VIII. Sure, I need a lot more pages to get it to book length, but I think the above is a decent summary. Oh, hey, and there’s even a minor parallel between good guys who fall under mind control by the enemy, OOH and it’s even because they tried to use a magical object and the enemy used it against them instead!

(Ok, I’ll stop.) But that said, I do like rpgs.

Also, I’m not saying either one is more or less original than the other or that either one took material from the other. Just pointing out parallels where I see them.

Comic favorites: Dinosaur Comics #1627

Snow and wizards

So, we did not go to work on Wednesday … there had been nine or ten inches of snow. But when I looked out at my street (a one-way, smallish but decently travelled), it just looked wet. Plenty of snow on the curbs and what passes for lawns, but we could have gone, I’m sure. It’s not my car, though, and others had decided that the office was “closed.” So we didn’t go. I had a few emails to answer after that, on Thursday, just a ‘few.’ And Thursday afternoon the printer decided it didn’t want to work. Most of my job comprises printing. Oi.

One more day, and then the coworker will be back. I don’t think there are too many profiles to ship Monday. (I hope not; I have a ton of new groups to make folders for.)

In other news, I’m almost 200 pages into Goblet of Fire. Is it me, or did the film director skip 90% of the first part of the book and just pick up with Hogwarts Express? I may have spoken too soon about the Harry Potter books being quick reads; while the pages are still flying by, the book itself is more than twice as thick as its predecessor, and dangerously close to three times the length of the first. So instead of taking most of a Saturday, it’ll take half a Saturday, much of a Sunday, and probably a few hours scattered over the following days. Goodness. Nice, though, it does seem a bit more complex than the others. (But maybe that’s just because it’s taken 200 pages to get on with the story, already.)