GMail getting slower and sloowweerr

There could literally be thousands of reasons for why GMail seems to be running slower and slower for me:

• FireFox Extensions?
• I use FireBug (which Google has told me to switch off)
• I use GreaseMonkey
• I use the Web Developer AddOn
• Network connection?
• The firewall behaves funnily at work
• Too many processes running?
• Doesn't explain why other websites run fine though.
• FireFox default caching mode?

The thing is, it really shouldn't be "my problem" to work out what's wrong with GMail.  As far as I'm concerned, other websites continue to work fine, and if I switch to the basic GMail view, it works fine too.  So there must be something wrong with the standard version of GMail.

Which really got me to think about the whole connection between web and PC.

I use GMail because:

• Lots of space - but that's hardly new now - everybody is out there throwing hard-drive spaces at you
• Can use everywhere, simple and fast - again I'm not so sure about the speed anymore
• Easy to get my centralized data out - this turned out to be a bit of a false impression.  It is difficult to get data out of Google.  May be there will be new Google API eventually, I can only hope.

I use an offline mail program (like Windows Live Mail) because:

• Offline reading, if mail server is down I don't lose access to my mail
• Composing experience offline is better, GMail with its auto-save and FireFox's build-in dictionary comes pretty close though
• Stripping advertising
• Combines blog reader, podcast and videocast facilities - which I can then synchronize to a portable player
• Speed of browsing emails, waiting for an webpage to load is silly

You would think Microsoft should theoretically have an advantage with their desktop/web integration strategy, I'm just not sure why it hasn't been executed (or received favourably) yet.

Laptop has three vertical lines now

Looks like my Dell Inspiron is really heading for the trash can.

Dell customer care has got back to me with some model numbers that the out of warranty replacement covers, unfortunately the bad news for me, my LCD isn't one of those part numbers.

Not sure where to go now:

• Get the parts and replace the LCD screen myself
• Purchase extended Dell warranty (feels a bit like getting blackmailed?)
• Throw the laptop off my level 14 building (I'm sure this would be illegal in most places)
• Purchase a new laptop
• Dell again?
• Or another brand...

Debugging a baby

Ok, baby won't sleep, keeps waking up every 15 minutes when we put him to bed.  He screams so we do the usual checks:

• Is he comfortable? 
• Diapers ok
• The cot wasn't too cold or warm
• Must be hungry then

So we feed him some more, and because he's so tired, he sucks a bit and then falls asleep again (probably fainted from exhaustion).  We poke him to wake him up, he feeds some more.  Finally after about half an hour of feeding, we figure he has enough.  So we put him back into the cot and he sleeps.

Then he wakes up in 15mins and starts screaming again.

Rinse, lather, repeat.

Couple of things we noticed:

• His diapers are heavy, so we had to change it very frequently
• He is very tired, cause he doesn't have enough rest
• This continues into the day and night
• Honestly, we know he can't possibly be hungry.  We just don't know what's wrong to calm him down, aside from feeding him some more

Lina and I were at a lost as to what we're doing wrong.

A baby at this age (10 days old) is very simple.  There have simple needs - warmth, food, diapers, and only one output signal (scream).

They are not old enough to be over-tired and scream because they are tired.  At this age, when they are over-tired they basically faints.

They can be distracted somewhat from screaming, but they can't focus on something for long enough to make a difference - they will return to the screaming state.

I have to credit Lina with finding out what was wrong with our baby.

She found out that a normal feed is about 15 minutes.  Of course, with shorter feeds, they tend to wake up more often.

What was happening was that we were over feeding our baby.  He happily eats and eats some more, and he doesn't know to stop.  He faints from tiredness, and when we lie him down, inevitably he has reflux, and a lot of reflux, because he's so full.  So he wakes up screaming after lying down.  He isn't comfortable.

We feed him some more, poor little guy.  He continues to have reflux and wakes up screaming for the entire night.

Anyway, last night, we timed his feeds to 15 minutes max.  And he's given us 3 hour blocks of sleep.  It was much better than the day before.

There is a similar level of joy when you finally worked out what was wrong with your baby.  I'd say the experience is on par as fixing a particularly hard to find software bug.

;-)

Dell Support Australia called me back but sounded suspicious

I was talking initially to Murali - the first person that I chatted with regarding my defective Dell Inspiron laptop.

When he could not authorize someone to come fix my laptop I had it escalated to customer-care, I'm guessing that is the level two support.

I spoke with Itsenin and I think he told me a lie to get rid of me.  He told me Dell has already issued a recall of these laptops and my laptop wasn't on the list.

I think this is a poop excuse - my defect isn't as serious as an exploding battery and there would be no need for a general recall unless a customer reports that they indeed have a defective machine.

Today, Murali called me back and was asking me what did customer-care tell me.

I find this phone call extremely puzzling.  Eh, don't you guys work in the same company?  Shouldn't you just ask him?

Extremely suspicious.  I think they still haven't got it in their minds that I'm expecting this to be fixed at Dell's expense.

Which brings me to ponder a question:

What is the role of technical support?

• Keep customers happy so they are recurring customers

or

• Save the company money by making up crap and refusing to honour an agreed replacement

Doesn't it just cost them more to have me refusing to have the issue resolved?

Anyway, things aren't smooth, but I hope it gets better soon.

Avoiding my Dell laptop like the plague

I've had my Dell Inspiron laptop for over 2 years now.  And I've always thought it was a pretty good machine and I'm pleased to have used Dell.  I've pretty much upgraded it as far as it could go, and I was considering to shell out for a new Dell laptop when this one hits three years old.

Until recently.

There are now two ugly line down the middle of my Dell laptop (see my previous rant Oh noes!  Dell Dead Line), and until Dell agree to fix it, I just get upset whenever I look at my laptop.

I turn the laptop on, see the vertical dead pixels line, then I get frustrated and I turn my laptop back off.

• Forget about the Internet
• Who cares about my emails
• Never mind all the blogging!
• Nor worry about the gaming
• Stuff writing my applications

I had no idea that the laptop was so integral of my evenings, but currently my urge to use that laptop is next to zero.

Just like if you have an ulcer on your mouth and it's painful to eat, then all the food becomes tasteless.

Likewise, when there is a freaking defect on your LCD monitor, then anything I do on the laptop becomes tasteless.

I can't enjoy working on my broken Dell.  Thus I don't want to use it.  Honestly, I just want my machine to work properly again.