Goodbye Amazon. It was nice doing business with you while it lasted.

If you have not read my previous post: Amazon is Holding my Kindle Hostage! it will help with understanding this post.

It took a week for me to get the charges cleared up between Amazon and my credit card company and then another few days that went by before I felt the need to make a call to Amazon to get them to release the hold on my account. During that period of time we had no access to any of the books, movies, apps or other digital content that we had purchased over the course of 14 years as pretty faithful Amazon users nor did we have access to any of the devices associated with our Amazon account. Our Kindles, Fire TV, Echos, etc. were all unusable.

The time we spent as loyal customers meant nothing to Amazon. Other than a half-hearted apology from the supervisor that I ended up forcing on the phone to get our account reinstated there was no other real response from Amazon at all about the situation we found ourselves in. While that is one of the things I should probably expect because of their size I guess I still have that desire to be considered a valued customer with the respect and courtesy that deserves.

In my previous post I mentioned that you no longer have access to any of the devices that you had associated with your Amazon account. It is actually a bit worse than that. Essentially what Amazon does when they lock out your account is to remove all of the registrations for the devices that you have purchased over the years. What this really means is this; not only will you no longer have access to anything you purchased you will also no longer have access tot he devices at all until you reregister them. Also, if you expected to login to your Kindle afterward and pick up where you left off in a book, you are sadly mistaken. None of your books will automatically download and your device no longer has any information about which book you were reading most recently or which page you were on. On a semi bright-side Amazon does keep track of the latest page read...at least up to the point where you were last able to sync.

Expect that anything associated with your Amazon account will require a considerable amount of time to get registered and configured again. What's your time worth? This is their additional tax on messing with their payments in any way regardless of the situation.

Taking a look at the financial aspect of this I would have to say that Amazon did me a favor. I have always been one of those old fashioned guys that believes that your customers are what makes you a success. As large as Amazon has gotten it is unlikely that the loss of my personal and business purchases will result in much of an impact to them. However, I believe it is a fundamental responsibility of all consumers to put their foot down and hold firm if they are not treated with the respect and consideration they deserve as paying customers. In these times it is really easy for a large technical company to have automated processes that don't take the customer's feelings into consideration. I wholeheartedly believe this is the case for Amazon. Unfortunately for them I'm a sensitive and emotional being that feels a need for a bit more of a tender touch (really, I am... Just don't ask my wife or kids...) at least if you want to keep my business.

Bottom line is; I will keep my account open with Amazon because I am required to in order to keep my devices running. I will likely still make some purchases with them but those purchases will be rare and I will do my best to find an alternate and, preferably, local resource to make those purchases. Gone are the days of looking at lightning deals and making purchases I did not always need just because it was so easy.

I have already taken the steps to backup all our Kindle books and will continue to do that as my way of keeping my purchases regardless of my Amazon account status. I love technology and feel that home automations are a wonderful thing but I think there needs to be limits on the ability for a company to be able to compromise your legitimately purchased products from years ago just because they don't like what you are doing today.

Bring on stricter anti-trust laws baby!

Amazon is Holding my Kindle Hostage!

My wife and I recently returned from a vacation out of the country. After we returned we did what I would hope any responsible couple would do and started going through our credit card statement to be sure all our charges were, in fact, our charges. Imagine our surprise when we saw several charges on our statement that did not match the amounts listed in Amazon's Order summary pages. Totals did not match, dates of orders did not match charge dates, etc. So we did what any rational and responsible couple should do and contacted our credit card company because we thought there was a possibility that someone had gotten access to our credit card information. At first it was just a couple of charges that were recent and seemed potentially fraudulent but then we went through all of our charges for the past several months to be sure. We found additional charge amounts that did not match directly to orders made in our Amazon account so we added those to the case as well.

Had those been actual fraudulent transactions we would never have heard from Amazon at all and we would not be in this situation. However, we did hear from Amazon. NOTE: When I say that we did hear from Amazon that is being generous. There was never an attempt by Amazon to call or initiate a conversation about the situation. I received emails from Amazon stating that my account was on hold until payment was received and then additional emails regarding each of the disputed amounts.

For anyone that is unaware of what the impact of their Amazon account being placed on hold can be let me outline that a little:

• Anything you use your Amazon account for is no longer available in any way including
• Kindle devices (including no longer being able to read any books that you purchased and had downloaded to the devices you supposedly owned.)
• Echo Devices (Internet access is essentially disabled so the device can no longer be used for anything at all and can't be reconfigured until your Amazon account is back in good standing.)
• Fire TV devices (Same as the two previous, the device is no longer useable at all for any applications)
• Account information (This includes Order History that might be slightly useful when attempting to resolve a dispute...)

All we were attempting to do was protect ourselves by having our credit card issuer dispute potential fraudulent charges. The amount of charges in dispute were just over $600. The cost of the devices we lost access to and continue to no longer have access to and the books, movies, applications, etc. that we purchased and no longer had access to because of a little lack of communication and attempt to work with us was well in excess of $1500. That does nothing to include the inconvenience and irritation this situation was also costing us.

After we reviewed the emails that were sent and attempted to match those orders to the charges that were in dispute it because apparent that several things were happening and, while I understand now what the underlying issue is, I find this to be Amazon's biggest flaw in how they handle their order management and processing.

First; If you collect several items into your cart with an expectation that you want to order it all together be aware that the order you place will likely not coincide with the charges on your credit card. 

The reason for that is that Amazon submits the charges to the credit card company based on the packaging and delivery time/date rather than on the order itself. If the items are all available within the same distribution center and can be packaged together then you get it all in one charge. However, if the products are all at different distribution centers and have different time zones, employee availability, etc. you could be looking at your charges for that same order being split up multiple times and could be several days between the actual transactions if you are ordering from external vendors and they are not selling under the Amazon Prime agreement.

Second; What you see as the charge in your order history does not always include the coupon discounts, taxes, shipping, or additional fees and/or discounts that may have been applied at the cart during purchase.

So, when you are attempting to be a good, financially responsible, member of society and check all of your charges against orders be extra careful to open every single invoice to see the details because it is very likely that your orders and your credit card charges will not match up.

Over the course of the entire time we have been faithful customers of Amazon we have spent many thousands of dollars on products and convenience including being a faithful Amazon Prime member during all that time.

Because of this situation and the lack of communication from Amazon we have reconsidered our shopping medium quite a bit. I expect we will still shop periodically from Amazon due to the convenience but I also expect we will be discontinuing the Amazon Prime annual membership and we will be seriously reducing any future purchases with Amazon. Included in this will be a review of our continued desire to keep and maintain the Amazon Echo devices we have purchased but no longer reliably expect to be able to use.

Finally, while I can understand that Amazon wants to play hardball and protect their marketplace, I find that the inability to access any of our purchased devices any longer has soured my desire to continue the relationship with the company in the future and I will speak with my legal counsel about options for how best to deal with this situation not just for us but for all Amazon customers that may be similarly diligent in protecting their finances and ending up on the wrong side of Amazon's ill-considered policies.

A little trauma can go a long way

October 6, 2015 I was, ironically, the lucky recipient of a Ford F250 Harley-Davidson Edition. Well, lucky may not be exactly the right word. When I say I was a recipient I mean that the driver delivered it to me while I was riding my 2003 Road King Classic 100 Year Anniversary Edition. He delivered it directly to the lane I was riding in. I was going somewhere around 65 MPH. He was going much slower I am assuming. I certainly cannot complain about the speed of delivery. All I saw was a flash of orange truck in front of me.

That's the preamble. Setting the stage for this posting, so to speak.

So, yes, I did, in fact, hit the truck. I will also agree with anyone that states that I was lucky...to have survived. Actually, I didn't really survive so much as a kind soul brought me back to life. No heartbeat, no breathing and, before you ask, no tunnels and no light.

I have had friends that survived terrible accidents and some that didn't and have passed so I can tell you that every single situation is different. I was resuscitated by a young lady that also happens to work at the hospital with the trauma ward/ICU I was delivered to. She also happens to be in school studying to be a Registered Nurse (RN).

I would consider this my miracle moment. Pretty impressive for someone without a particular belief system other than "common decency, morality, and some integrity should be much more common that it seems to be".

I'm going to turn on my cynicism for a moment here:

If everyone had a true sense of decency as well as a moral compass that points in the right direction all the time and a sense of honor and/or integrity our society would be a utopia. Unfortunately, there are very few individuals that would fit all the above all the time and an underwhelming number of people that could actually fit even two of them at any given time. Most people in highly populated areas are lucky to extend their observational skills beyond their immediate focus (monitoring their "smart" phones, getting to work, catching the bus, avoiding traffic, meeting friends, etc) to even notice when someone around them is in a state of distress they might be able to help with. In a lot of cases the self-absorbed individual is likely the cause of the distress because they are not willing or able to realize the impact they are having on others.

I have always enjoyed listening to people to experience tragedy and come out of it with a completely changed perspective on life but I don't think I ever really connected well with them. I could tell you that I had an epiphany and this was my come-to-God moment but that just isn't the case. Did I change? Certainly, but not in a religious way. I just realized that I really enjoy life and want to keep living it.

I have been lucky to live as long as I have regardless of this accident. I have never feared doing anything that looked like it might be fun or produce a thrill. I proudly served in the US Marine Corps, spent time doing extreme skiing and snowboarding, kayaked raging rivers (up to class 4), skydived, mountain climbed, and more. I never worried about the possibility of death and it never found me.

During more than 30 years of riding motorcycles on the streets of the U.S. I have been involved in three accidents. The two prior to this one could have been a lot worse than they were. I walked away from both of them although my first left the bike completely totaled and the second caused thousands of dollars of damage. Not to say that I didn't sustain some injury from both of them but I walked away.

When asked if I would still ride I honestly tell people "yes, I would and I may still sometime in the future". Let me state it like this: While it is true that riding a motorcycle is a dangerous mode of travel it is also one of the most satisfying ways of getting around quickly and still feeling like you are part of the world around you. It is satisfying to be able to look to the side and see the natural landscape around you without windows and doors separating me from it. It is also nice to disconnect from most everything (except music...never disconnect from music!).

Not so poetic but revealing

Once I was whole

Riding and playing

Mind and body on the move

Carelessly loving and living

Aching for more in every way

Then I was broken on impact

Mending and healing

Body and soul

Heart and mind

Still alive and breathing

Slowly moving forward

Embracing life and love

Overcoming and recovering

Pushing up and ahead

To ride and play once again

Brief update on the two oldest

It's been a while since I last wrote about my family. I never mentioned it before but I have three boys and one girl. The two oldest boys are from a previous marriage (aka youthful, impetuous mistake). The two youngest are my step-children from my current marriage. I am assuming that I've managed to not make another of those foolish youthful mistakes. :)

I'll use this post as a review of the past year or so...

Poorly Made Decisions

One of the things we love about youth is the fact that sometimes you can't just take an adult's word on anything. The more children you have the more mistakes you're likely to see over the course of seeing them grow old enough for you to boot them out of the house for good... Assuming they live through those mistakes. In my case, most of mine don't do anything terribly life threatening or extreme so I have a few less worries on that front. Unfortunately, while they save me from the heart palpitations associated with watching them do risky sports they make up for it in their poorly made decisions about school and school work.

Example One: The Oldest Not The Wisest

First, I should clarify that my two oldest boys and I don't have a close relationship. I still love them dearly and, like any parent, wish nothing but the very best for them. However, since I was not instrumental in their upbringing they ended up not receiving the same disciplined approach to their school work that the two youngest have had the pleasure of receiving. Not that that works all the time either as you'll see in the next section...

My oldest recently turned 22. He moved out of his mother's house some time ago and has been living with roommates most of the time since then. It is hard to know for certain but I think he's actually on his 5th or 6th set of roommates. All my dreams of well educated and well read children with active involvement in sports and social activities apparently never got communicated to this one. While he is an avid reader it is primarily of fantasy that's as far as he's gotten with regards to any of the aforementioned dreams... He is amazingly close to being a clone of my brother with two exceptions. First, my brother made some attempts at playing sports although I think I had some influence in that area (not always a good influence I'm told...). Second, he showed that he had some desire to work and improve upon himself when he joined the Army and since with the job he has held for some 10+ years.

On the education side, he "decided" he didn't really need a high school diploma so he decided that he would not turn in his last several assignments and move out early since he was already 18. Since he was never into sports and has never been very social he never had either of those become motivators for him to do well in school. Since he spends most of his free time playing video games and reading his fantasy books over and over I'm convinced he's hoping for some escape from reality or living in some fantasy that everything will turn out just fine.

On the bright side, he made a big change in his life by his own choice and moved to Virginia to get what he calls a "fresh start"  He has since found a job he enjoys and found that he doesn't like the location so he wants to move back once he knows he can transfer. On the down side, all the things he wanted to get away from, with the exception of his brother, are still here waiting for him and I'm afraid he'll fall back into a similar routine.

Example Two: A Sporting Chance

My second son is more like me than any of the others. I think this fact scares me more than it does any of the rest of the parents in the mix. He is social to the nth degree. He more than makes up for his older brother's reclusive nature. He is also into sports which I find to be a good thing.

He started making some general mistakes with regards to study habits and staying focused but turned that around by going to college and taking the courses he needed in order to graduate from High School a year early and then promptly went into the Army where he is a Ranger and has served a tour of duty in Afghanistan.  He was injured and received a Purple Heart and is now looking into transferring to a medial profession.

Other than his tendency to party hard I see nothing bad about most of his decisions thus far.  Most...  Unfortunately, he has inherited his mother's attention span when it comes to driving.  It is my fervent hope that he will reevaluate his typical driving habits and make some changes.  No mobile phone, no texting, no distractions.  Difficult to manage for many of our youth these days.

The above was mostly written three years ago and I just now realized it was still sitting there.  I updated it to match the current information but didn't add too much more.  Enjoy.  I might even get back to writing soon.  Cheers!

Alienware, I declare WAR!

I may not have mentioned that I work for a VERY large technology company. I provide consulting services around enterprise deployment of software development tools and processes. I am also blessed with the opportunity to speak at large events and provide training to end users at various levels within large public and private sector organizations.

As such I am able to come into contact with several thousand different people on a fairly regular basis. I have already been taking advantage of my position to pass on some of my personal views regarding Alienware and I am proud to say that I have been instrumental in turning at a large number of potential customers away from any thought of purchasing a system from them.

My continuing mission will be to shut out a significant amount of revenue and, over time, hurt their bottom line enough make the financial loss I felt with the purchase of my Aurora m9700 and their loss of revenue equivalent.

Alienware, I declare war! Prepare yourself! You won't know where I am or how I'll pass the word but it will be spread to the masses. This I swear!

Alienware Customer Service: You are better off servicing yourself!

Hopefully you have already seen from my previous two posts how I feel about Alienware and the Alienware Customer Support folks. I had the continuing miss-pleasure of dealing with them once again on the topic of the Aurora m9700 I made the mistake of purchasing and the additional mistake of not returning and taking the outrageous restocking fee against.

On this instance I was trying to find out what I would need to do to get a valid copy of Windows XP Pro-64 to re-image the laptop to something that might actually be considered workable. I even offered up the possibility of shipping the system back to them at my personal cost so they could load the OS for me. Hell, I would've even paid to have it shipped back after all was said and done if I could've had a machine even semi-resembling a "desktop replacement system" let alone a "gaming system". My current setup can't even be closely compared to either... I can check email, and perform some basic MS Office work but I can't run a single game without some hiccup in the graphics or OS.

Microsoft, in it's play to try to win over customers that, rightly, felt that Windows Vista was one of the most discusting examples of a product to hit the market since the Windows Millenium Edition debacle, at least began offering Windows Vista Ultimate customers the option to roll back to Windows XP Pro without a charge. While Vista should never have been released at least Microsoft realized that the early hardware would not be able to sustain the OS in any of it's iterations.

Alienware flat out refused to accept that Microsoft made the offer and, once I got to a supervisor, stated that I would have to go to Microsoft to get that offer realized. That's great except for the fact that the OEM version of the OS that Alienware maintains comes with all of the drivers and setup for the custom configuration for the laptop. Once again, Alienware Customer Service does absolutely zero service of their customer.

Don't buy from this bunch. They are bloody unlikely to ever provide you with the support you need unless that support request falls within very specific parameters. Anything major, like my issues, are never going to be addressed by anyone within their organization.

I'll reiterate: Don't buy from Alienware! Their Customer Service is unable to service you, the customer!

Alienware hardware? I don't think so! You are better off going with a Mac

As seen in my previous post, I don't think much of the Alienware Aurora m9700 (supposed) gaming laptop I purchased. As a matter of fact, I despise it. Here it is a year later and all I can say for it is that it has a pretty case with a cool looking alien head that has eyes that glow when it's turned on. Sad...

I can honestly say that this experience put me out so much that two things happened this year:

1. First, my wife was due for a new laptop (she was having some hardware issues with her out-of-warranty IBM ThinkPad). I was so fed-up with Alienware and Windows Vista that I absolutely refused to purchase a Windows system for her. Being the loving wife she is, she agreed to be the first person in our home to receive a MacBook.
   
2. Second, I finally made the decision to purchase a MacBook Pro...much to my wife's dismay. Now here's a system worth talking about.
   

Let's take a moment to break it down to the basics...

Graphical User Interface:
My wife's needs:
She has some basic needs that I had to be sure were met. I'm still running a little short on some of them. :) She needed the following capabilities:

• An office product that included a word processor and a spreadsheet application. This was easy since there are so many open source office packages out there these days. She has mentioned to me (at least a few times now) that she liked Microsoft Excel better than the OpenOffice equivalent but she's a trooper and has stuck with it...
• Internet access, of course. I downloaded and installed Mozilla Firefox although I really like Safari. It's just not as well supported in most cases. NOTE: This was for working from home as well as general email and fun. It turns out we're finding several banks and institutions out there are not currently supporting anything other than Microsoft Internet Explorer so she is still needing to use one of the PCs periodically when trying to complete her work.
• A few simple games. Turns out Apple has a very easy to navigate website that is organized in a fashion that is intuitive enough for technology-challenged to find freeware games to download...
  

My Needs:
Since I have spent quite a few years working with Unix and Linux servers on the back-end of the products I help customers implement I initially thought I would spend most of my time in a terminal working with the command line. OK, to be honest, I do still spend quite a bit of time in a term session but I find the Mac OS-X Leopard to be fast, smooth and efficient for a GUI with all the extra wiz-bang features that make the interface pretty while not interfering with it's basic functionality. Apple has done a bang-up job.

Considering that I had not spent hands-on time with an Apple machine since the Apple 2e I thought I would have a lot of catching up and/or re-learning to do. As it turns out, switching to a Mac is only difficult if you let it be. Apple is right on top of helping out with the transition if you have always been a Windoze user. If you have worked on various OS platforms over the years it's a no-brainer to get going.

Don't try this on a Windows platform:
I basically needed the continued ability to run Windows, Linux and Unix (Solaris x86) for my job. VMware Fusion performs extremely well for this use and I've even put together several demos showing interaction between a virtual Windows XP, virtual RedHat Linux Enterprise Server, virtual Solaris 10 for x86, virtual Ubuntu 8.0.5 client and my local Mac OS-X 10.5.3 all interacting with the RedHat server acting as the back-end for my products and all the others (yes, all of them running at the same time...try that on a Windows box) running local clients without a hitch. As a matter of fact, the Windows XP image with 512 MB allocated was the slowest of the whole setup.

On top of all of that I was also running:

• an AT&T Network Client out of the Ubuntu image and connecting my Mac to that over a PPTP tunnel so I could piggy-back off AT&T to access my work network. (AT&T is still an incredibly lazy company and won't write a Mac version of it's VPN client). Yes, I'll bash on any organization that flat-out tells its single largest paying customer (for this particular product at least...) that it refuses to create a version for it's (rapidly growing...) Mac sub-culture.
  
• Lotus Notes 8.5 Beta
• SameTime 8.5 Beta, (although I ended up switching to Adium to reduce my overall headache dealing with SameTime configuration issues)
• Mozilla Firefox
• Lotus Symphony
• Apple iWorks (Pages and Numbers)
• Rational Team Concert (RTC) (local on all except Ubuntu and Solaris)
• Rational Web Platform (for CQWeb local on RedHat LES)
  
• Rational ClearCase (local on RedHat LES as the server)
• Rational ClearCase Remote Client (CCRC) (local on all except Ubuntu and Mac)
  
• Rational ClearCase Web (CCWeb) (local on RedHat LES for CCRC access)
• Rational Team Server (RTS) with the ClearCase Connectors (local on RedHat LES)
  
• DB2 Enterprise (running on the Solaris 10 image)
  
• Rational ClearQuest (local to all except Ubuntu and Mac)
• Some other applications I can't recall at the moment I'm sure...
  

All without what I would consider to be major performance issues.

Performance:
Apple comes in with a hands-down overall performance edge over any of the Windows XP/Vista/Server products. Not only is the interface much faster and more elegant than the Microsoft products the basic configuration of the MacBook (my wife's machine) comes with a 2GB DDR2 base RAM configuration and a 250 GB hard disk and a 256 MB Nvidia video card. Not too bad for the lower end machine.

Mine weighs in at a slightly heftier 4 GB RAM, 512 MB Nvidia video card, 200 GB 7,200 RPM drive and add on top of that the eSATA ExpressCard I purchased to plugin my two 160 GB 7,200 RPM external drives and I'm packing around 1/2 TB of disk space.

I should point out that most of that is full of VMware images, product ISO files and work documents and not nearly as much music, videos or games as you might think...unfortunately.

All that said, this system screams.

Configuration Issues:
Unfortunately, no matter how much I wish to be rid of the Microsoft platforms, there are just too many products that run on Windows. There are still three things I need to continue using Windows for:

1. Microsoft Project (yeah, I'm cringing when I say it as well...)
2. Microsoft Visio (There is a great equivalent for the Mac but I don't have a license for OmniGraffle Pro...yet)
3. Games...Age of Conan, Dungeons and Dragons Online, etc...only come on Windows. :(
   

For Project and Visio I could easily just run an VMware image and access those anytime I need them but for the games that becomes more problematic. VMware has made great strides in it's video drivers but still lacks full 3D support for DirectX 9c or 10. As most of us know, Windows is just about the best portable gaming platform out there for the high-end MMORPG type games. Yes, I admit, they have a claim to fame. I like gaming too much not to.

I should point out that I did attempt to get AoC running in a virtual image first though. Yes, I'm that much of a geek. When that didn't work I decided to put Apple's BootCamp to work. That was a serious diamond in the rough as far as the Mac is concerned. Once I got Windows XP SP3 installed and all of the drivers configured I was able to run AoC without issue. MUCH better than I could on that Alienware piece of crap.

In Closing:
I don't know if I got a lemon from Alienware or what but that system has been a serious thorn in my side since I wasted the $3,500+ on it. I should have taken the hit with the restocking fee back then but my pride and foolish stubbornness prevented me from admitting defeat. I have learned a serious lesson and now I own a Mac.

In the meantime I will just continue to provide some serious bad press for Alienware. I have already cost them business (at least 16 people to date that were ready to order from them before I caught their ear) and I know I will continue to do so. They should have just offered to fix the problem back when I originally asked... Now they won't even return my support emails and that's WITH the 3-year 24/7 support contract. Gotta love that.

In case you're not getting the rambling message:

DON'T BUY FROM ALIENWARE!!

Review: Alienware Aurora m9700

Review: Alienware Aurora m9700
Configuration:

Processor: AMD Turion™ 64 Mobile ML40 2.2GHz 800MHz FSB 1MB L2 Cache
Operating System (Office software not included): Genuine Windows® Vista Ultimate - Without Remote Control or TV Tuner
Chassis: 17" WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 LCD with Clearview Technology - Conspiracy Blue
Motherboard: Alienware® NVIDIA® Mobile SLi Chipset
Memory: 2GB Dual Channel DDR SO-DIMM at 400MHz - 2 x 1024MB
System Drive: Extreme Performance (RAID 0) - 200GB (100GB x 2) Serial ATA 1.5Gb/s 7,200 RPM w/ NCQ & 8MB Cache
Optical Drive: 8x Dual Layer CD-RW/DVD±RW w/ Nero Software
Video/Graphics Card: Dual 256MB NVidia® GeForce™ Go 7900 GS - SLI Enabled
Sound Card: High-Definition Audio with surround sound
Wireless Network Card: MIMO Wireless Bundle
Includes Airgo Wireless Card and Netgear WPN824 RangeMaxTM Wireless MIMO Router
Communications: Integrated 10/1000Mb Gigabit Ethernet & 56K V.92 Modem
Bluetooth: Integrated Bluetooth® Device
Primary Battery: Alienware® m9700 12-cell Lithium-Ion Smart Battery Pack

Setting the stage:

I used to be a pretty heavy duty gamer. Especially all of the latest RPG, RTS and MMO's. One of the things I prided myself on is never having to run any of those games in some degraded graphics mode. Or at least not too degraded and certainly not for too long. I became a fan of Alienware back in 1999 and, after several reviews and some consideration I finally decided I would stop building my own PCs for the very first time. I worked with one of Alienware's sales reps to ensure that I would get the latest and greatest (for that time). And let me tell you, that system was a knockout. I had two issues with that system...ever. One was trying to find reasonably priced RAMBUS memory which is still outrageously priced. The other was to replace the 15,000 RPM SCSI drives which seem to die after a period of time. Most likely from overheating which could be my fault for not providing as much ventilation as I should have. :)

After I outgrew that machine and started dealing with quite a bit more work related travel I decided to purchase a desktop replacement system. Basically a notebook with all of the power of a desktop so I could take it on the road with me. That led me to a direct comparison between Alienware and Hypersonic-PC. Hypersonic-PC won out due to a significant price difference (a few $100) and the fact that it was providing DDR2 memory. That was back in January of 2005 and that system, while heavy and extremely hot while it was running, proved to be a good running machine until a few months ago. Unfortunately, I did not purchase the extended warranty with that system and was ready to upgrade anyway. With that in mind I was also looking for onsite support rather than having to lose my system (and all of my personal data) for any period of time. In the end it was my past experience with the Alienware desktop system and their onsite support option finally swayed my decision to purchase this system.

Fantasy vs. Reality:

This system has had several reviews over the past 8 months or so and most of them have been very positive. According to the specs above and those previous reviews you should expect this system to offer some high end gaming experiences. I expected smooth 1920 X 1200 full screen graphics and full anti-aliasing capability. That was the fantasy.

Unfortunately the reality of the hardware information above doesn't meet well with the reality of the Windows Vista OS or with Alienware's lack of aggression in recent years to stay at the cutting edge of technology without nearly doubling the sticker price (see the Alienware Aurora mALX). I suppose that should be an understandable situation considering they were acquired by Dell this past year. Unfortunately, even Dell's XPS series are showing some more rapid improvement in hardware components and capabilities although Dell still steers clear of offering up truly customizable solutions.

Pros and Cons:

The Pros of this system:

• Chassis and LCD display offer quite an artistic and vibrant setting for gaming, watching movies or doing word processing.
• The keyboard layout and size are easy to work with.
• The display is crystal clear and offers a brilliant visual experience
• The Alienware logo "alien head" on the cover will have anyone in the know coming up to comment on your system.
• One of the configurations that Alienware has been known for is it's RAID 0 arrays in it's desktop replacement systems.
• You really can't beat the possibilities offered by NVidia's SLI Enabled video configuration. With two 256MB GeForce Go 7900 GS video cards (certainly not the max capacity cards available but more within budget...) this system should be expected to scream right through any game on the market at the moment.
• The weight comes in at just a little over 10 pounds. That's light compared to the 15+ pounds some comparably configured systems are weighing in at.
• Onsite support (the beauty of being acquired by Dell I suppose)...
  

The Cons:

• The Turion 64 processor is only a single core processor unlike most current offerings from most other manufacturers that offer the dual-core processors.
• The 2GB of memory is only DDR while most comparably equipped systems are now offering DDR2.
• The Synaptics touch pad interferes with normal typing.Interestingly enough, the system itself should still have been plenty for most gaming and day-to-day needs. Unfortunately, I felt the need to make the leap to Windows Vista. Here are the results of that bad decision:
• Alienware never disclosed to me that they would be providing Windows Vista Ultimate 32bit instead of 64bit. Regardless of the fact that they haven't certified the product yet or that they "want to provide end users with the best experience possible according to their testing and configurations" I am a knowledgeable end user and expected to receive this system with the 64bit OS. At least then I would've known that the OS and the hardware were on the same playing field and I could've expected better performance even if I would've had to deal with additional compatability issues with games and peripherals.
• NVidia has still not provided drivers for Windows Vista to be able to make use of the SLI configuration. To Alienware's credit they did mention that this was the case during the final purchasing pages. Also to their credit is the fact that they added me to a mailing list to ensure that I would be kept up-to-date on the latest news coming from NVidia regarding drivers and upcoming products, of course. So, the long and short of it is; I'm stuck with a 256 MB video card until NVidia and Microsoft figure things out.
• Windows Vista is still not being as readily accepted by the gaming community or corporate IT which is delaying adoption by the general user community as well.
• Vista seems to get very "clippy" periodically. Not sure if that's due to some of the new security coding Microsoft built in or what but the only task that is running CPU cycles is taskmgr.

Summary:

Nothing above is specifically geared at discrediting Alienware or their system. Honestly, I'm sure it would've been a much better system had I not opted for the Windows Vista Ultimate package. However, the truth of the matter is that this system doesn't even perform as well as my P4 3.0GHz HT Hypersonic-PC laptop for all that the AMD Turion 64 is touted as a superior chip.

The video of the NVidia 256MB PCI-Express video card (only listing one since that's all I get for now) doesn't perform as well as the ATI Radeon 6800 Go I am running in my Hypersonic-PC laptop. The graphics are very choppy and I get a lot of intermittent lag when moving fast or making quick transitions within games.

The memory isn't really worth mentioning but it would be nice of Alienware to take a little time to start upgrading their memory options and capabilities. Let's face the facts, DDR3 just hit the market and there really isn't a valid reason why any "cutting edge" computer manufacturer should be providing technology that's more than three years old.

Add on top of that the fact that the Windows Vista operating system is not ready for Prime Time and this system is a real let down. I made a purchasing decision based on a support agreement when I really should have looked at the package being offered. Even if that package did not disclose all of the relevant facts.

Recommendation:

My recommendation would be to steer clear of purchasing an Aurora m9700. There are plenty of other companies out there that are offering similar products and most are offering superior configurations if not superior support options. There is nothing wrong with keeping an eye out for new product offerings from Alienware but, for the price ranges and capabilities, the Aurora m9700 is not the system you want to spend your money on.

Disclaimer:

To help solidify this recommendation as well as to offer up the reasoning behind this review let me tell you what the results of discussions with Alienware were regarding the cons listed above. With regard to the Turion 64 vs a Turion 64 dual I was given the following email result:

Dear Mr. Reed,

Thank you for corresponding with Alienware Sales.

Even though the Turion X2 is the latest in mobile processors from AMD, it has not been offered yet on our systems due to design, marketing, development and testing reasons.

We always analyze from every point the options that will guarantee that we will be offering cutting edge technology but also stability.

We regret this fact that we are not offering the Turion X2 processor disappoints you. You can always keep an eye on the website and you might be surprised with the upcoming products we develop.

If there is anything that we may be able to assist you with, just let us know and we will be more than glad to help you.

Best regards,

XXXXXXXXXXX
Electronic Support - Sales Department

Alienware Corporation
Phone: 1.800.494.3382
Fax: 786-388-5720
www.alienware.com

With regards to the Windows Vista Ultimate 32bit vs the Windows Vista Ultimate 64bit I was verbally told by the customer support representative that they are aware that their website does not include any reference to the fact that you will be receiving the 32bit version of the OS. I also received this from their support team:

Dear Mr. Reed,

Thank you for contacting Alienware Technical Support.

Let us inform you that the reason why Alienware has chose not to support Microsoft Windows Vista 64bit edition is the great amount of incompatible games, software and drivers. Our commitment is to provide every customer with a fully functional high-end system. As much as we would have liked to provide this feature considering the advantage running a 64bit system would mean, we are certain it is still not the right moment to take that step.

Please accept our most sincere apologies if at any moment we made you believe Alienware was supporting this version of the operating system. Please be advised that currently no drivers are available for the Aurora m9700, so it would not be wise to do the upgrade at all. Your kind understanding in this regard is really appreciated.

We hope this information is of assistance. Please do not hesitate to contact us back if you have any questions.

Best regards,

XXXXXXXXXXXX
Electronic Support Department – Technical Support

Alienware Corporation
Phone: 866.287.6727
Fax: 786.388.5700
www.alienware.com

Final Word

Alienware, like most hardware companies these days, is at odds with itself regarding the return of merchandise. First, they tell you that customer satisfaction is the primary goal. Then they tell you that a 15% restocking fee may apply to returned merchandise. Of course, what this means is: Unless you have an ongoing issue with the hardware or electronics you will be charged a 15% restocking feel since we feel that your dissatisfaction with the product you received is not a valid enough reason to return the product.

Please read the fine print and be sure what the return policy is. I didn't do this so now I'll be out $500 or so when I return this product. I did attempt to offer up an alternative to returning the product right away but they flatly refused to consider that alternative. I also provided them with the above review (without the Final Word section) in an attempt to coerce them into removing the penalty. Neither worked. As a matter of fact neither the Sales Department nor the Customer Service Department at Alienware bothered to respond to my blatant attempt at coercion. :)

In response to Alienware's lack of response I will tell my readers to look at other alternatives if you are looking for cutting edge desktop replacement system. Here are a few options to consider:

** http://www.hypersonic-pc.com ** (Having experience with Hypersonic-PC in the past, I would highly recommend them from the hardware perspective. I was disappointed with their lack of response regarding driver updates as well as the driver page layout but the machine was rock solid for 2.5 years of use. I need to mention that their support numbers seem to be either busy or broken. They still respond via email but even their in-house support is going to voice-mail.)
http://www.xtremenotebooks.com (A little more expensive than Alienware or Hypersonic-PC but offering all of the options a gamer could want and not too much higher)
http://www.targacomputers.com (This is one I ran across recently. It offers comparable configurations to the Alienware, Hypersonic-PC and Xtreme Notebooks but the prices are a little better.)
http://www.pcmicroworks.com (Pretty site and some really cool options make this a contender. Prices are not outrageous...or at least not any more than the rest of these systems. :))
http://pro-star.com (Yet another alternative and comparable in price although not offering a RAID configuration that I could find.)
http://www.vigorgaming.com (A touch more expensive and only offering a 2 year warranty. That always bothers me when the industry standard is up to 3 years.)
http://www.widowpc.com (Decent systems but not offering RAID configurations and a bit pricey)
http://www.voodoopc.com (Very visually appealing in similar fashion to Alienware but extremely pricey)

Those are just some of the more known builders of custom PCs and laptops. It seems as though there are new ones being added all the time so be sure to do your searches. Not just on Google. Use Ask.com, Microsoft's Live Search, Yahoo, etc. It seems that each provides a slightly different list depending on how the keywords are structured.

Good luck with the search for a decently priced and fully functional desktop replacement/gaming mobile system. One last thing to add before I finish this is to look at the weight if you plan on lugging that thing around.

Cheers,

M Reed
Part time gamer, full time geek.

My Fellow Parents (or Who taught these creeps to drive?)

Ok, this has been sitting in the queue for a bit now. Rather than continue to edit it I'm just going to go ahead and post it. My apologies for the delay.

I'm really on a roll today it seems. Let me spend a few moments enlightening you on the highlights of my day. I hadn't mentioned this before but I am playing Mr. Mom for two weeks since my wife started her new job and the kids still had two weeks left of school. Coming into it I was feeling pretty good. I figured I would get to spend a few hours extra with the kids each day at the very least.

Little did I know that being Mr. or Mrs. Mom is a royal pain in the posterior. The whole day is one argument or fit or complaint about one thing or the other. If there truly are living saints it would have to be those patient souls that can deal with all that without flinching and come out of the whole experience with a smile still on their faces and nary a bad word to be spoken. I am not one of these people but I do try to bite my tongue on a regular basis so they won't hear the rather expertly phrased and joined curses I have thrown together (in my mind...) for those other parents who will never make it to the Hall of Fame for parenting greats.

This particular rant is for those lovely individuals who really fuel the fire for my hate and discontent with people in general. I can understand being in a hurry and driving faster and a little more erratic than normal but I can't bring myself to understand, or forgive, those ruthless souls that will completely ignore the basic principles of queuing up to drop off and pick up your children.

Granted the school designs are generally flawed so people are really only taking advantage of the flaws they see. However, this is where common courtesy for your fellow parents would be a great idea. I know as well as most of us that there will always be these types of individuals that will take advantage of any perceived opportunity they can get. I've been known to do that as well. I'm not really talking about the person with the right sized vehicle moving past the line to slide into a space that was left along the walk. I actually don't even blame them as much as the stupid ass that couldn't scoot up just a little further to make better use of the curbside pickup system.

The parents that really will continue to receive my glares and a cautiously shown single digit value I believe they have in society. Sometimes not so cautiously...


The event that prompted this post was the blatant disregard for every other person that was shown by a mother today. There we were, all lined up as we do pretty much every day and what happens? This little sporty car with an overly tan midlife crisis victim driving, cell phone to her ear. (A little aside: To make matters worse, she's got to be in her late 30's or early 40's but she's wearing clothing more suitable to a 20's young single college student. All the power in the world to you if you have the body to pull it off. Time for a reality check in a major way if you don't. She didn't.) To continue the story, she proceeded to pass everyone, loop around the corner, double park and hold up several parents that had just gotten their children the officially acceptable method in order to wait for her little scantily clad 6th or 7th grader to run through the waiting cars to jump into her mother's vehicle. Without a word of apology or even the barely veiled attempt at such a thing she proceeded to pass up other vehicles that were attempting to pull away from the curb without the courtesy of acknowledging their turn signals or even their attempts to angle into her path.

Princess Gab (or Oh, my God am I in trouble...)

I promised to talk a bit about Gab. She is the most adorable little demon spawn you have ever seen. Aside from your own daughters, of course... I know I am not the most patient person in the world (OK, I'm not the most patient person in my own house) but I have an excuse. I'm sure we all do but take a moment to listen to mine before you judge.

I lived as a bachelor for almost 10 years before I moved my wife and her children into my house. During that time I didn't date and I didn't have house guests unless it was pretty unavoidable. I prefer going to other people's homes rather than having people come to mine. In other words, I lived in a nice, quiet life of solitude. I played my radio when I wanted to hear other people's voices, I rarely watched television unless it was to watch a movie and I never had to hear anything above the mellow sounds of Jazz or Blues mixed with some Classic Rock. None of which ever sounded like the constant droning of a little 6 year old girl that obviously loves to hear herself speak.

So, now that you know a little about me, you might understand why I feel the necessity for purging feelings to this blog once in a while. Some days, like today, might be more of a rambling bit of information but eventually you will develop a deeper understanding of me and a greater appreciation for my reasons for publishing this information in this fashion.

Back to Princess Gab. I call her that because, true to most of the parents of young ladies growing up in these times, she has everything her little heart could desire. Cute little princess outfits and tiaras to top it all off. If this isn't a recipe for disaster I don't know what is. She will sit in front of a mirror and practice her Princess Wave copied directly from Princess Di and all the gobs of pageant primadonnas the Western world has produced.

I'm not entirely sure where she came from to be perfectly honest. I'm pretty sure she came riding in on a wave of her own vocal sounds like a demoness triumphantly taking ownership of her domain. If you were to ever see her in public you would understand what I mean. She captivates even the most stodgy and irritable old codgers as easily as she rings in her classmates and friends. But be prepared for her wrath if you don't do things the way she wants. I've looked into those dark storm cloud eyes when she hasn't gotten her way and felt the crashing waves of discontent broiling against my bastion of self righteousness. One thing I learned from the Marine Corps was to never show fear in the face of the enemy. I keep hoping I won't falter from that in the presence of this little royal package of pain in the ass.

I mention all of the scary aspects of Gab but I should also mention that she can be the sweetest little angel in the world. I'm pretty sure there's a split personality issue here and I certainly wish I could figure out the trigger for bringing out the little angel. For those glimpses into the angelic side of her personality I would climb mountains and fight battles. So, I'm sure that is the siren's call that keeps me from tanning her hide on a regular basis and positive that is what keeps her in new outfits and trinkets from my wife and mother-in-law.

Oh, well. The life of a daddy can be quite an adventure.

Children Are A Blessing (or What the hell happened?)

First off, let me tell you that I was an embarrassment to parenthood in my youth. I got married too early to someone that was a good lay but not much else. The greater crime in that relationship was that we procreated. Now, I love my children. My two older boys (14 and almost 16) from that previous marriage are good boys. While not the most studious they aren't mean spirited and don't seem to be headed to prison or such. I made a lot of mistakes in my youth so I won't even begin to ponder the difficulties surrounding them or their upbringing. I just know that I wasn't there for them during most of their formative years and, now that I have the ability to be around, they aren't as inclined to spend any time with me. It's a price I'll be paying for quite some time I'm sure.

Now, quite a few years later, I am remarried and have two younger (12 and almost 7) step children. I have quite a bit more to add about these two. They are getting a bit more direct attention than the older two. It makes sense since they live with me all year except the summer when they are with their father. I've been in their lives for almost five years and during that time my step son (the 12 year old) has helped me replace the majority of my dark brown hair with a startling amount of gray hairs. My step daughter, at 6, has attributed to a fair share herself and I fully expect her to complete the job as she approaches her teenage years.

A little note about me: I'm afraid that I have the opinion that a child should start to adventure away from the skirt at some point around their 10th birthday. Let's face it, there are way too many children in the US today that don't have a clue as to how to take care of themselves primarily because we give them everything and they don't learn how to earn it. I know that the old adage is "I want to give my children more than I had growing up". Well that is all well and good except for the one thing you are missing from your sorry excuse for an upbringing...it made you appreciate the things you earned as you stepped up the rungs of the economic and social ladders. What makes you think that your children are going to have any appreciation of the things they've been given if you don't do something to make them at least feel like they've earned it?

Having said all that let's talk a moment about my step son. We'll call him Slouch for the purposes of the blog. Slouch is still somewhat of a mamma's boy. At the age of 12 he still expects mommy to do pretty much everything for him. Thank goodness that doesn't include wiping his ass or giving him a bath. He did start choosing his own clothes for school and church this past year so I suppose that is somewhat of an improvement.

I've been trying to educate him a little on taking care of his own messes. Nothing too strenuous. Just picking up his mess from the dinner table, rinsing his dishes and putting them in the dishwasher. I figure that even a little bit was better than nothing. Unfortunately the boy has the coordination of Siamese twins with missing digits and doesn't seem to be very capable of actually scrubbing his dishes very well. Maybe it should be a lesson for me rather than him...

I should also point out that Slouch is about the most stubborn kid you could ever meet. I thought I could out-stubborn just about anyone. I've pretty much met my match in this one. For those of you that have children that refuse to eat their vegetables you should count yourselves lucky if that's the only type of food they won't eat. This kid will pretty much only eat chicken nuggets, chicken sandwiches, pizza, cheeseburgers and a very few other fast food type meals. He will sit there at the dinner table for hours refusing to eat the food placed in front of him and will even go without dinner rather than try something new. One night, really wanting to push the issue, I made him sit at the table into the wee hours of the night until he would finally eat a grilled cheese sandwich. Now you might think that's a little extreme but wait until you hear the rest of the story. The problem wasn't with the grilled cheese sandwich so much as the fact that I had made it instead of his mother. The situation got so bad that he actually forced himself to puke while eating the sandwich.

That's just one of my favorite stories about Slouch. By the way, he's called Slouch because that's how he sits in every chair and that's what he does whenever anyone raises a voice to him or holds him accountable for anything.

Enough about Slouch for now. In an upcoming post I'll spend a few moment talking about Gab. At 6 years old she has the same innate ability of most girls her age. She has a major case of diarrhea of the mouth from the timer her eyes open in the morning until a few hours after they close at night. I'll leave you with that for now.

Cheers.

Anger Management (or My Personal Dislike of People)

It's true. I have anger issues. Most people that know me would say that I'm laid back and easy going but the truth of the matter is...I'm a time bomb ticking away.

"Irritated with what?" you might ask. The fact of the matter is, I'm irritated with people in general. It's difficult to narrow the reasons down so here's a general list:

The way you drive or do any of the following while driving:

• talk on your mobile phone,
• put on make-up,
• read a newspaper,
• read a book,
• look at a map,
  
• drive too slow
• Especially in the fast lane!!
  
• There is a posted speed limit. If you don't add 5 to 10 MPH to that then, for the love of God, at least drive the posted speed and stay the hell out of the friggin fast lane!!
• don't pass the other pathetic bastards that are holding you, me and the other road rage victimizers up in senseless traffic
  

The disdain with which you treat others

• Especially when you sport a religious symbol or bumper sticker on your vehicle or around your neck...

The complete lack of respect or concern for others around you

• Once again, especially when sporting a religious symbol

Questions

• I don't mean questions from individuals or children that shouldn't know the answer. I mean questions from you supposedly educated and knowledgeable that, for some reason, are unable to remember how to research your own answers. Hello Google!!
  

Lines

• I spent almost six years in the Marine Corps standing in lines for anything from getting food from the mess hall to needing to squat over a rank smelling hole in the ground. I despise the fact that I will have to stand in lines the rest of my life but especially when I'm behind you while:
• You are in the 12 Items or Less line with 30 friggin items
• You are in the Cash Only line with your credit or debit card in hand
• You are in the Self Service line without a friggin clue as to how to use anything vaguely electronic, let alone computerized
• This one gets me every time...You stand in line with your friends and chat it up without paying the least bit of attention to the progress of the line or the other poor schmucks in the line behind you
  

Noise

• Has anyone ever heard of stepping out to take a call?
• How about controlling the volume of your voice when you are in a public area?
• My personal favorite: Are you people incapable of CHEWING WITH YOUR BLOODY MOUTHS CLOSED!

I'll add more when I have a few moments more. Until then try to remember this: If any of the above lists of items apply to you in any way, shape or malformed sentence then you are number one with me:

New to blogging

I've read plenty of blogs over the past several years but I really haven't taken the time to organize my thoughts and actions into the words necessary to post on a dedicated basis. I expect that my blog attempts will be short and somewhat sporadic for a time until I get the hang of it...so please bear with me.

-michael