Man vänjer sig.

When going through all my books to enter them on LibraryThing, I found a little volume I bought at a sale many years ago, had a quick look at and promptly forgot. Now I remember why.

( Bo Carlsson: Bonnier Icons ordbok i sajbersvenska )

Today one of Dell's repairmen visited me to replace the motherboard in my Inspiron 640m (still under the extended warranty). It took about 20 minutes, and now I have a working computer again. Wheeeeee! \O/

Because, honestly, the Fujitsu Siemens is a sub-standard machine that's really only useful for simple surfing, and I am getting sick of using it as my main machine. The keyboard is awful, the trackpad is shown as a mouse in Vista, and hence the checkbox for "tap-to-click", which I hate bitterly, cannot be unchecked, I have to reinstall the WLAN drivers under Linux every time I update the kernel, and 1GB RAM is woefully inadequate for Vista. The advantage is that I can experiment with it and not be afraid to break it, as long as I don't keep anything irreplaceable on it.

When I got to the office and unpacked my laptop, it wouldn't start at all. Nothing happens when I press the power button: no LEDs, no fans, nothing spinning up. There's something seriously wrong with it, but I don't have the time to investigate it right now. It's at times like these that I'm happy I got another laptop in March, and that this one is still under the extended warranty. If it can't be saved, at least I'm fairly certain that the hard drive is intact, so I can get all my stuff off it. (And just to tempt me, as if they were waiting for the right moment, Apple chose yesterday to release their new MacBook.)

All the same: BUGGERY.

UPDATE:
And the battery in my iPod seems to be failing too. Double damn.

Today I noticed that there is a little laser printer (an HP LaserJet 6L) lying around on a shelf in a co-worker's room, along with an external HP CD-R drive (parallel, not USB, with no power adapter). She's never used it, no one has asked for it or even touched it since she moved into that room over a year ago, and it seems it's just taking up space.

I'm thinking of asking our IT expert Ioannis if he thinks anyone will ever need it again, or if I can take it. The thing is that my current printer (an Apple LaserWriter 16/600PS) is a humongous network printer; with the LJ 6L and an external printer server (about the size of a remote control and costs about 500 SEK) I can have the same functionality but with a third of the current weight and space.

So, if this works out: anyone in Stockholm or Uppsala need an Apple network laser?

Today, with the launch of the new iPod shuffle, the last Apple hardware device where I was directly involved in the translation (i.e. the old shuffle, where I translated and DTP:d the Swedish manual and parts of the packaging) has been retired. Of course my translations (like those by jophan, tuwr, sunjan and kjn, some of which I based mine on) will be recycled, paraphrased and reused for as long as Apple keep localising their stuff. I suppose it counts as immortality, after a fashion.

EDIT: Nice thoughts to my old co-workers, who must have had (and probably are still having) a hellish day today. When I talked to thette this morning, she said it is quite obvious that I am happy to be out of there, even a year and a half after I quit...

I have now added pictures of the junk I tested to the relevant entries. Isn't it incredible how much fun you can have?

( Cut for those who get bored by lists of hardware — EDIT: Now with pictures! )

In other news, it takes me 27 minutes to bike to Tumba. I expect to shave this down with a few minutes once I find the best paths. Possibly more once I get into something even remotely resembling shape.

I spent a couple of hours yesterday going through a box of old Apple manuals that I took from LocalEyes for cataloging. I don't even remember how it got here; whether I brought it home while I was still working there or took it when we took the spare furniture during the move, two weeks after I quit.

I am making a list of what's in there: title, how many copies of each manual, serial number, year of printing. I'm then going to send the list to LE to let them decide what they want me to return (because I didn't intend to keep the stuff permanently, but just brought it home as a favour to them to get everything out of the way). I might keep the manuals where I own the actual hardware, but whatever else they don't want I have offered to Dr J, who is a Mac fanatic extraordinaire, and if there's anything he doesn't want I will probably put on eBay or Tradera over the summer.

However, this takes time. Lots of time. It will probably take months. I've talked about this before, I know, but my plans are getting clearer all the time.

EDIT:
I just called my old boss at home and asked him about the manuals. I got the answer I suspected: that there is simply no room for them at their no-longer-so-new and much smaller office, and that I'm free to do whatever I like with the manuals I don't want to keep. So I will probably keep the ones I have been involved in myself, and those where I own the actual hardware or software — probably no more than a dozen, some of which are really thin.

My Tungsten T3 is not well. This morning on the tube, after having had it in the charge/sync cradle all night, I was met by the tap calibration screen, meaning it's been wiped back to factory preset state, and a low battery warning. The battery is obviously on its last legs; it's only good for about 20-30 minutes use now. When I have the time I'm going to investigate whether I can get a replacement battery for a reasonable price and find good instructions for taking the thing apart. There's no way in hell I'm going in there without a good map.

*sigh* And we got on so well. I like my T3, but if I can't save it somehow I may have to look into getting a newer model, probably a T|X. I rather like the thought of non-volatile RAM, and Wi-Fi seems like a useful thing too.

On a brighter note, I got my laptop back yesterday. Not only have they fixed the keyboard, but they've also replaced the screen (which I didn't ask them to, but which was a good idea seeing how the keys wear on it).