Or in this case, that would be five-hundred phone calls.
I've been trying to redeem a rebate from Apple for their “Major in Mac” rebate: buy a Mac and get an iPod free (up to $179 off). Well, Apple has been having trouble processing my claim for quite some time now.
First, they didn't want to accept my claim since the MacBook didn't ship until September 21, a few days after the end of the promotion (September 16, I believe)... However, I ordered the MacBook (and iPod) on the same day, September 14.
After talking to an Apple technician, I was able to get that cleared up by her saying, “Just submit it by the hand-written form or set the MacBook's shipping date prior to the end of the promotion.”
~sigh... I felt like I was being told to lie or something. Well, Apple should have all of that information on file anyway.
I ended up submitting the rebate the first week of October, getting closer and closer to the end of my submission window. I still was able to get it in on time, thankfully!
However, on October 28 (late at night), I happened to check Apple.com/promo again to see what the status of the rebate was. “Rejected” was at the top of my browser window. I was so frustrated that as soon as I saw that there was a phone number to call for questions, I immediately dialed it up. I was only slightly relieved when the automated system informed me that I needed to “submit additional information” for my rebate to be processed. Since the promo center was closed by the time I got that message, I called the following day and talked to a tech.
When I talked to the tech, she supplied me with the necessary information about what I needed to submit (the invoice for the iPod seems to have been missing) along with all the required claim numbers and fax numbers. Hopefully, with this additional information, I'll be able to get that rebate check back to me here a little sooner.
The odd thing about this is that the iPod invoice was on the same sheet as the MacBook invoice... It was once invoice for both products. Well, at least I've still got a chance to get that rebate... Fortunately, I was able to reprint the invoices (this time separately) from the Apple website, and the technician I talked to informed me that I can fax in the invoice or wait for the letter to come in the mail and submit the rebate the old fashioned way (envelope-and-stamp method). I'll see if I can fax in the information tomorrow at work though, hopefully that'll get things done faster.
But, I must say, that all these issues I've been having with Apple Promo have been rather infuriating. The last thing I want is for my rebate to be rejected, but I can't wait for all of this dancing around to be done... whatever the outcome.
10/22/06
Screenshots of the Week
I’ve found some really interesting screenshots in the past week at work, and I thought I’d share them…
A CD-R designed to look legit? And I actually think it is!
It seems the system is a refurbished one… but who knows.
Oh, and that same system came with this,
“Operating System NOT Installed On Your System”
Annoying, since it says you can install it, but they
Don’t provide you with a key!!
712 Viruses! And the system was only connected to
the network for 5 minutes, unprotected, after an
Operating System Realod! Also, you can see
where Automatic Updates has crashed! Sadly,
the system didn’t survive the OSR. :(
And what’s even better: 8,675 viruses deleted
from a computer that Joel was working on at the same time!
Note to self: turn off that “Beep for each detection” seeting
In AntiVir
And best of all…
And finally, this week’s AntiVir Notifier… Shockingly insane!
A CD-R designed to look legit? And I actually think it is!
It seems the system is a refurbished one… but who knows.
Oh, and that same system came with this,
“Operating System NOT Installed On Your System”
Annoying, since it says you can install it, but they
Don’t provide you with a key!!
712 Viruses! And the system was only connected to
the network for 5 minutes, unprotected, after an
Operating System Realod! Also, you can see
where Automatic Updates has crashed! Sadly,
the system didn’t survive the OSR. :(
And what’s even better: 8,675 viruses deleted
from a computer that Joel was working on at the same time!
Note to self: turn off that “Beep for each detection” seeting
In AntiVir
And best of all…
And finally, this week’s AntiVir Notifier… Shockingly insane!
10/20/06
Firefox Frustration
Firefox 1.5 has been annoying me recently. The browser will stop responding if left running for an excessive amount of time (days to weeks) or if there is a lot of tabs running. I'm not sure why the browser does this, but it's quite infuriating, especially when I lose web sites that took me hours to find.
I was presented with a few options for a solution:
1 – Use a different web browers (Opera)
2 – Attempt to find a solution to this issue by searching google
3 – Upgrade to Firefox 2.0 RC3.
In this case, I was lazy and chose the latter...
I've been running F'Fox 2.0 RC3 in Mac OS for a while now, but Mac OS X is easy to manage installation and uninstallation of programs, allowing me to have two copies of firefox installed at the same time with out a single problem. Linux is a little different, but still easier than Windows (which has to use registry files and “shared” system files), but I was still worried about loosing my bookmarks, and worse yet would be the possibility that it may just screw Firefox over.
To ease my mind, I made a simple backup of both my bookmarks (export to .htm file) and my
Also, I have upgraded my Thunderbird from 1.5.0.6 to 1.5.0.7 – that installer was managed by YaST, so it was nice and easy, and it was a change from 1.5.0.6 to 1.5.0.7, so there isn't much different, at least not that I could tell.
One last thing... I have also tried out SeaMonkey (also from Mozilla), and once again on my MacBook... I was none-too-pleased with it. The interface uses the old “Mozilla” web browser interface (pre-Firefox years) which turned me away from it right from the start. I'm not sure if they just used the old Mozilla skin or if they actually used the old Moz core... I've got a feeling it's the latter, and I haven't been able to really warm up to the program after that.
Maybe one day I'll start to really use it, but not until they get it set up using Firefox.
I was presented with a few options for a solution:
1 – Use a different web browers (Opera)
2 – Attempt to find a solution to this issue by searching google
3 – Upgrade to Firefox 2.0 RC3.
In this case, I was lazy and chose the latter...
I've been running F'Fox 2.0 RC3 in Mac OS for a while now, but Mac OS X is easy to manage installation and uninstallation of programs, allowing me to have two copies of firefox installed at the same time with out a single problem. Linux is a little different, but still easier than Windows (which has to use registry files and “shared” system files), but I was still worried about loosing my bookmarks, and worse yet would be the possibility that it may just screw Firefox over.
To ease my mind, I made a simple backup of both my bookmarks (export to .htm file) and my
/opt/MozillaFirefox/lib directory, one for Firefox 1.5 (a second lib file now exists, called lib 1.5) and installing F'Fox 2.0 RC3 to lib, over-writing the old 1.5 files. Things went swimmingly, and I'm quite pleased with it so far. Hopefully, it'll keep going this way as I start to use it as my primary browser on more and more of my computers. --Hey, at least it loads faster now!Also, I have upgraded my Thunderbird from 1.5.0.6 to 1.5.0.7 – that installer was managed by YaST, so it was nice and easy, and it was a change from 1.5.0.6 to 1.5.0.7, so there isn't much different, at least not that I could tell.
One last thing... I have also tried out SeaMonkey (also from Mozilla), and once again on my MacBook... I was none-too-pleased with it. The interface uses the old “Mozilla” web browser interface (pre-Firefox years) which turned me away from it right from the start. I'm not sure if they just used the old Mozilla skin or if they actually used the old Moz core... I've got a feeling it's the latter, and I haven't been able to really warm up to the program after that.
Maybe one day I'll start to really use it, but not until they get it set up using Firefox.
10/7/06
So Much Has Changed…
Since my last post, there have been a lot of changes in my IT life.
Lets start at the beginning, shall we?
Hardware
My laptop, a Dell Inspiron 2650, dubbed “Miki-ni” was damaged on vacation. The laptop had been showing it’s age for a long time and was in dire need of some upgrades, and after the damage to the system (and since it was getting closer to needing a total system overhaul) I decided that it would just be a better move to replace the entire unit.
After shopping around, I decided that I wanted to go with a Mac. Apple was going to accept my student discount (Dell wouldn’t) and I have had very little opportunity to work with Macs, even at CyberMedics. So, the decision wasn’t all that difficult. I even got a free iPod out of the deal! (assuming that they will accept my rebate!)
Around that time, my Windows machines began to fall apart… Shortly before I ordered the MacBook, my Windows 2000 fileserver (which spends most of it’s day powered off now – damn energy bill) lost it’s primary storage drive: the E drive, at 250 GB! Fortunatly, it was just a damaged MFT index table that was easily repaired, although a few folders lost their names. Although, things could have gone much worse!
The same thing happened to my Inspiron shortly after I got my MacBook… Both were repaired by doing a check disk on the drive. Thankfully, I was able to use my CyberMedics resources for both computers when I needed them. My bosses even offered to assist me if it was something more serious.
Software
Needless to say, I’ve been experimenting with software of all types now that I’ve got the MacBook. I’ve been tinkering a little with Microsoft Office:mac 2004 and Front Row. I love Front Row, although I have yet to figure out how to start the application without using the Apple remote!
I’ve also started to go a little Mozilla crazy. I’ve got two versions of Firefox installed (versions 1.5 and 2.0rc), as well as SeaMonkey – I’m not much of a SeaMonkey fan though, it seems to be based on the old Mozilla Browser engine, and acts a lot like the old Mozilla browser, the pre-Firefox years. So, I haven’t been able to really warm up to it, but maybe one day I will.
Firefox 2.0 has been doing wonderful on my Mac so far. I haven’t tried it out on Windows (don’t have any Windows machines running), nor have I tried it out in Linux yet –Mac has the easiest software management!
Skills and Education
Other than that, my IT hardware support skills have been going up and up and up. CyberMedics usually gets mostly hardware support issues that I have to find solutions for, and after working there for five months now, two of which have been 25 to 50 hours per week, I have had a lot of time to spend figuring out things that I just have never ran across before.
This is a good place for me to be right now, since my classes are coming to an end and I really need to start getting that work experience going. I was really concerned about what kind of IT job I would be able to get after all those years of college, and having next to zero IT job skills, not to mention nearly having no work experience in general!
Well, aside from that, I think there isn’t much really to say about technical life in general. I’m still a big fan of Open Source Software and plan to stick with it for a long time, just because I have a Mac doesn’t mean that I’ll be using it for everything, also I do have a lot of things to experiment with at work for Linux solutions! I’m even trying to get the bosses to start pushing OSS a little more at work. We’ll have to see how that turns out in the end!
Lets start at the beginning, shall we?
Hardware
My laptop, a Dell Inspiron 2650, dubbed “Miki-ni” was damaged on vacation. The laptop had been showing it’s age for a long time and was in dire need of some upgrades, and after the damage to the system (and since it was getting closer to needing a total system overhaul) I decided that it would just be a better move to replace the entire unit.
After shopping around, I decided that I wanted to go with a Mac. Apple was going to accept my student discount (Dell wouldn’t) and I have had very little opportunity to work with Macs, even at CyberMedics. So, the decision wasn’t all that difficult. I even got a free iPod out of the deal! (assuming that they will accept my rebate!)
Around that time, my Windows machines began to fall apart… Shortly before I ordered the MacBook, my Windows 2000 fileserver (which spends most of it’s day powered off now – damn energy bill) lost it’s primary storage drive: the E drive, at 250 GB! Fortunatly, it was just a damaged MFT index table that was easily repaired, although a few folders lost their names. Although, things could have gone much worse!
The same thing happened to my Inspiron shortly after I got my MacBook… Both were repaired by doing a check disk on the drive. Thankfully, I was able to use my CyberMedics resources for both computers when I needed them. My bosses even offered to assist me if it was something more serious.
Software
Needless to say, I’ve been experimenting with software of all types now that I’ve got the MacBook. I’ve been tinkering a little with Microsoft Office:mac 2004 and Front Row. I love Front Row, although I have yet to figure out how to start the application without using the Apple remote!
I’ve also started to go a little Mozilla crazy. I’ve got two versions of Firefox installed (versions 1.5 and 2.0rc), as well as SeaMonkey – I’m not much of a SeaMonkey fan though, it seems to be based on the old Mozilla Browser engine, and acts a lot like the old Mozilla browser, the pre-Firefox years. So, I haven’t been able to really warm up to it, but maybe one day I will.
Firefox 2.0 has been doing wonderful on my Mac so far. I haven’t tried it out on Windows (don’t have any Windows machines running), nor have I tried it out in Linux yet –Mac has the easiest software management!
Skills and Education
Other than that, my IT hardware support skills have been going up and up and up. CyberMedics usually gets mostly hardware support issues that I have to find solutions for, and after working there for five months now, two of which have been 25 to 50 hours per week, I have had a lot of time to spend figuring out things that I just have never ran across before.
This is a good place for me to be right now, since my classes are coming to an end and I really need to start getting that work experience going. I was really concerned about what kind of IT job I would be able to get after all those years of college, and having next to zero IT job skills, not to mention nearly having no work experience in general!
Well, aside from that, I think there isn’t much really to say about technical life in general. I’m still a big fan of Open Source Software and plan to stick with it for a long time, just because I have a Mac doesn’t mean that I’ll be using it for everything, also I do have a lot of things to experiment with at work for Linux solutions! I’m even trying to get the bosses to start pushing OSS a little more at work. We’ll have to see how that turns out in the end!
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