Thursday, October 18, 2007
A New Laptop
Well, I spent most of Wednesday on the phone with various people, trying to take care of all the little after-breakin details. The officer who responded to my call said it would be nice if I could provide them with the serial number of the laptop. Naturally, I couldn't. Not many people keep up with that sort of stuff, it seems (as a side note, I think that it would be a good idea to take the time to copy serial numbers down and put them in a safe place for future reference, just in case). So I spent the morning on the phone with Dell, trying to get in touch with someone who could possibly help me. Amazingly, it only took two phone calls, although I had to navigate all these voice menus. No more pushing buttons, now you get to speak your choices.
The first phone call ended up taking me to a guy named Ethan. He was apparently here in the US, but couldn't help me with my problem. He tried to transfer me to someone, but after a moment or two, the line went dead, and I was disconnected. But at least he had told me where he was routing my call (Customer Care, which is buried down in one of the submenu you get when dialing in). I was eventually able to find the Customer Care option and selected it. I was connected with a women whose name I couldn't quite make out, but she spoke with a definite accent. However, it wasn't too difficult to understand her, so it wasn't so bad.
She wasn't able to provide me with much help though. No matter what I told her (name, address, phone number, whatever) she said she couldn't find any record of my purchase (which did occur in Feburary of 2003, in all fairness). While talking to her, I stood up and wandered over to a drawer with lots of papers in it. I started just randomly looking through the papers, and lo and behold, I found the invoice slip for my computer! I was definitely amazed. I gave her the info from the slip and she was able to find the necessary information for me. Great!
I called to police department and gave them the numbers provided by Dell (they have two: the Service Tag number, which is essentially the serial number, and an Express Service Code number). This number will go out to all the pawn shops in the area, so they can be on the lookout for my laptop. I can't imagine anyone stupid enough to take a hot laptop to a pawnshop, but who knows, if you're stupid enough to break into a house in broad daylight, maybe you're stupid enough to try to pawn the items you stole.
I then called my insurance agent and started that process going. I don't know exactly what's going on at this point, because I haven't heard anything from anyone, but eventually someone from the insurance company should get in touch. Hopefully with a check.
Because I couldn't wait for the check (which I know is coming, I just don't know when or for how much) I decided to go ahead and order a new laptop. I decided to go with Dell, not because they're such a great company or anything like that, but because I get a 10% corporate discount with them, and they offer a laptop with LInux installed. That means that I don't have to buy a machine with XP or Vista installed, which means I don't have to pay the so-called "Microsoft tax."
They only offer one machine (Inspiron 1420) with Ubuntu installed (I'd prefer Kubuntu if I had a choice). So that's the machine I'm getting. I don't know anything about it, or why they only offer the 1420 and not any other models, but so be it. I made a few changes in the base system (more memory, upgrade to the CD/DVD writer, and I forget what else), but in the end it sounds like a decent machine. I'm hoping that everything will work ok with this install of linux. I'm assuming that it's been pretty well tweaked to work on this particular hardware, but I think I had read of some problems. Hopefully there weill be a foroum somewhere for Dell usere with Ubuntu.
I had been using Mepis, which, like Ubuntu, is Debian based, but has some differences. One major difference for me will be that I have been using KDE desktop manager for most of the time I've used Linux (which is why I'd prefer Kubuntu, since it's KDE based). I have used Gnome (which is what Ubuntu uses). I guess if I don't like it or can't tweak it to my satisfaction, I can install KDE. But, just for the hell of it, I'll give Gnome a try and see what it can do (in fairness, it's been four years or so since I last used Gnome).
So now, I'm just waiting for my new laptop to come in. I don't have a delivery date yet from Dell, but from everybody I talk to, they're usually pretty fast. Hopefully in the next week I'll have it. They have a factory only about 20 miles away, so shipping should be a breeze (assuming I get it from that factory). When it comes in, I'll start writing about that experience.
The first phone call ended up taking me to a guy named Ethan. He was apparently here in the US, but couldn't help me with my problem. He tried to transfer me to someone, but after a moment or two, the line went dead, and I was disconnected. But at least he had told me where he was routing my call (Customer Care, which is buried down in one of the submenu you get when dialing in). I was eventually able to find the Customer Care option and selected it. I was connected with a women whose name I couldn't quite make out, but she spoke with a definite accent. However, it wasn't too difficult to understand her, so it wasn't so bad.
She wasn't able to provide me with much help though. No matter what I told her (name, address, phone number, whatever) she said she couldn't find any record of my purchase (which did occur in Feburary of 2003, in all fairness). While talking to her, I stood up and wandered over to a drawer with lots of papers in it. I started just randomly looking through the papers, and lo and behold, I found the invoice slip for my computer! I was definitely amazed. I gave her the info from the slip and she was able to find the necessary information for me. Great!
I called to police department and gave them the numbers provided by Dell (they have two: the Service Tag number, which is essentially the serial number, and an Express Service Code number). This number will go out to all the pawn shops in the area, so they can be on the lookout for my laptop. I can't imagine anyone stupid enough to take a hot laptop to a pawnshop, but who knows, if you're stupid enough to break into a house in broad daylight, maybe you're stupid enough to try to pawn the items you stole.
I then called my insurance agent and started that process going. I don't know exactly what's going on at this point, because I haven't heard anything from anyone, but eventually someone from the insurance company should get in touch. Hopefully with a check.
Because I couldn't wait for the check (which I know is coming, I just don't know when or for how much) I decided to go ahead and order a new laptop. I decided to go with Dell, not because they're such a great company or anything like that, but because I get a 10% corporate discount with them, and they offer a laptop with LInux installed. That means that I don't have to buy a machine with XP or Vista installed, which means I don't have to pay the so-called "Microsoft tax."
They only offer one machine (Inspiron 1420) with Ubuntu installed (I'd prefer Kubuntu if I had a choice). So that's the machine I'm getting. I don't know anything about it, or why they only offer the 1420 and not any other models, but so be it. I made a few changes in the base system (more memory, upgrade to the CD/DVD writer, and I forget what else), but in the end it sounds like a decent machine. I'm hoping that everything will work ok with this install of linux. I'm assuming that it's been pretty well tweaked to work on this particular hardware, but I think I had read of some problems. Hopefully there weill be a foroum somewhere for Dell usere with Ubuntu.
I had been using Mepis, which, like Ubuntu, is Debian based, but has some differences. One major difference for me will be that I have been using KDE desktop manager for most of the time I've used Linux (which is why I'd prefer Kubuntu, since it's KDE based). I have used Gnome (which is what Ubuntu uses). I guess if I don't like it or can't tweak it to my satisfaction, I can install KDE. But, just for the hell of it, I'll give Gnome a try and see what it can do (in fairness, it's been four years or so since I last used Gnome).
So now, I'm just waiting for my new laptop to come in. I don't have a delivery date yet from Dell, but from everybody I talk to, they're usually pretty fast. Hopefully in the next week I'll have it. They have a factory only about 20 miles away, so shipping should be a breeze (assuming I get it from that factory). When it comes in, I'll start writing about that experience.
Labels: Dell, Gnome, KDE, Kubuntu, laptop, linux. robbery, Ubuntu
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