Download From The Wrong Java Site
The title of this blog implies that caffeine is less threatening at other times of the day. I’m here to tell you that you shouldn’t let your guard down completely. This morning, I had just pulled a quad espresso and put it into a travel mug for an imminent departure to a client’s, and was hurriedly answering some emails when I smacked the cup onto my laptop’s keyboard. I apparently had not secured the lid, and most of those 4 shots drenched the keyboard and the top of my desk.
I quickly turned the laptop upside down and toweled it off as best I could, but when I unpacked it at my client’s, it made funny beeps booting up, (but it did boot) and started laying out some amusing text strings onscreen at odd moments. Fortunately, I had purchased one of those no-fault warranties from Dell, so I called them and started the excruciating support process. The guy I talked to seemed sort of simple at first, and I was starting to get irritated with his seemingly rote line of questioning when I realized that he actually knew what he was doing, and remembered that I was the idiot that had made laptop au lait that morning.
Through some diagnostics, he suspected that more than the keyboard was harmed, and, instead of dispatching a technician, he’s having me send the whole laptop in for bench testing. It’ll be gone for 5 - 8 days, and that’ll mean some serious withdrawal and alteration to my behavior.
It’s fortunate that I migrated from the Radio software last weekend, because that software is resident on the blogger’s computer instead of server-based like Wordpress or Blogspot, so I can continue to torture the internet from other workstations.
I’m using the laptop right now, actually, with an external keyboard that my client lent to me. It seems to be stabilized, but I’ve dumped tons of files onto a spare hard disk in anticipation of disaster.
I suppose the thing’ll want to stay up all night. Maybe I’ll disable the speakers so that its partying will be relatively quiet.
Do you have an external hard drive that you use to back up your files? Perhaps now would be a good time to invest…
I got one of those warranties too when I got my laptop–with 3 dogs and 2 cats running around, I figured something was bound to happen. I’ve been lucky so far although we’ve also only had the laptop for about 2 months…there’s still time.
Oh, the dreaded coffee spill! Sounds like you’re doing all the right things and may be so fortunate as to emerge relatively unscathed. Good luck with the 5-8 days thing though. Time to take up knitting?
Naw, he can use the newish computer that I am on. I’ll be forced to do something like clean the basement! ;0)
Lucky you don’t use sugar in your brew, that would have been worse. I had, once, knock a whole can of diet coke onto an IBM keyboard. Hung it up to dry like an old bedsheet and it worked perfectly. Probably, it cleaned the contacts as well!
Yikes…..what a way to lose 4 shots of Espresso ; (
Do you go to Vivace for your coffee that you use?
Hi Phil! Let me be the tardiest to welcome you to the Radio ex-pat community. Nice new digs! It looks great.
Anyone else feeling like commenting on this piece is sort of inviting the coffee mug to take a flying leap at your keyboards? Because I’m staring mine down right now. It looks like it wants to.
It would, too. It’s like that.
Liz, I have a 160gb external drive that I’m pumping stuff onto. The wearisome thing will be re-installing all the programs I have on here, for work and for play (hope the IRS doesn’t read this), going to their websites for the latest upgrades, etc. I’m starting to think I’m too old to do this one more time. You’ve given me a great idea. I blame the damn cat.
Carroll, the only thing you’ll find me knitting is my brow.
Brian, unfortunately there are things below the keyboard in a laptop for which such a purging is not as beneficial.
C-M, I know - for the briefest half-second, it was the coffee I wanted to save. I stop in at Vivace when I’m on the Hill, usually to visit Group Health, sadly. We live a few blocks from Zoka, and that’s where we get our beans. For a long time, I mail-ordered from Mauro at Caffe D’Arte.
Hey there ..nice to see you over at Watergate Summer..so sorry about the Spill- everyone’s WORST nightmare for sure..I hope it all works out and that recovery is smooth….your question Sylvia Beach Hotel in Oregon ( Nye Beach or Newport) is so wonderful- a great place to go….When Willie the Whale ( or keiko ) was leaving Oregon back in 1998 or 99 I took my son to say goodbye- he was just 7 or 8 at the time- and it was magical…we stayed in the Oscar Wilde room and the DrSeuss Room….Jamie threw the link up…it is such a cool spot..a great spot for writers to hang out…and I bet Bloggers go now…Still love your blog ( you have been on my Blogroll for monthes…)
Looking forward to seeing the evolution of your blog…I’m still impressed with the import of old files. I am almost ready to try Wordpress, but not quite there yet.
Eric - thanks! And don’t fret about a coffee/keyboard accident - my bungle has the salutory effect of inoculating any and all of my commenters. Which still leaves Dell a plethora of revenue opportunities.
Enigma, I’m sure I had you blogrolled on my old site, and hope your move goes smoothly.
John, are you unhappy with blogspot? I went to Wordpress because I already had my own webspace and wanted to host it myself rather than being on someone else’s server. If I hadn’t already had webspace, I’d be on blogspot, as Mrs. Perils is.
New site looks GREAT, Phil!!!
I have never spilled coffee on this ancient keyboard (circa 2000), but I did spill milk, a bloody mary, a couple of margaritas and goddess knows what else here!
I’m amazed, too, just John, that you could import all your old stuff. I am still trying to do that!
Phil, I’m not terribly unhappy with blogspot, but would like to have more control of appearance than blogspot gives (or, at least, that I can figure out). By the way, I think you’re posting is having an effect on my coffee mug…this morning as I was fumbling to put my coffee mug down onto the coaster near my notebook, I missed the center of the coaster by a wide margin, causing the mug to tilt and attempt to lunge at my keyboard…pure dumb luck saved me.
At least you didn’t do it with tomato juice (okay, fine, it was a Bloody Mary) like I did in 2005. There was no coming back from that. I probably should have stuck some celery in it and let it relax, but alas, I ended up tossing it.
Now I have my iBook, and I am freaky about what goes near it. Partly because it’s gleamingly white, and partly because, well… I’m a klutz.
Here’s to the fix. And here’s to not being on Radio. I’m a happy Wordpresser.
Ok, ok, there’s no use having such a pretty new site if you DON’T UPDATE IT!!!! Get with the program, man!!!!
Where in the heck have I been that I didn’t know you moved???
I always wondered what would happen if we spilled something on the keybord. Thanks for being an object lesson for us, Phil. I’m moving my mug of tea away from the computer as I type this.
Looks like the votes are in, and I should switch from coffee to bloody maries.
Birdie, sorry, I’m a lifelong slacker.
Nancy, is that tantamount to saying, “how can I miss you if you never leave?”. Good luck with your own move.
Robin, if your number’s up, the liquid in question will defy all rules of gravity and fluid dynamics to find your keyboard.
Ooooh, now I get it–the Perils of Caffeine
(a little slow here this AM)
Hi, Marci! The behavior modeled the blog name, not vice-versa.
See Eric, you’re not the tardiest by a long shot! Nice new place, Phil! I wish I were geekier, so I could do something even fancier than my new Blogger site, but it’s the best I cn manage by myself.