blogging it real

My laptop’s hard drive shit its pants today exactly three weeks after the warranty expired. I’d hate to use the word coincidence, but hey. I’ve been on the phone with Dell all day, or rather their off-shore call centers in India and elsewhere. I eventually ran diagnostics and found error code 0F00:0244. This means that the hard drive decided to fuck itself as hard as possible. Did the computer fall on the floor? Nope. Did a virus take it down? Nope. Did I spill my cocktail on the thing? Nope. Like many other Dell suckers the 0F00:0244 message is common. Part of the Dell quarterly strategy I reckon, and a great reason to sell you another hard drive. Corporate responsibility to quality and costumer satisfaction? I’ve seen pick-pockets in Mexico City give better warranties on their services.

I wonder how coincidental it is that Dell makes every PC to order after the purchase order is issued and if the warranty is accepted or not. Didn’t accept the warranty? Here have a drive from the piece o shit pile. Or to filter out the conspiracy theory just for a minute, lets just come to grips with the fact that Dell makes shitty hard drives, and offers even shittier customer service.

If a pharmaceutical company or an automobile company released faulty products on the market then they would be put up on charges, and the public would hang them high. But not the computer companies. No no, they have a blessed impunity that allows them to sell third rate faulty trash at bargain basement prices. Crashes, worms, viruses, the blue screen of death, it’s all come to be expected on the information super-highway, much like we come to expect the odd car-wreck, dead dog and injured pedestrian on the roads. Back up your drive? You should do it out of common sense, like wearing your seatbelt. The only difference is that you actually stand a fighting chance of never actually needing your seatbelt. We’ll all be reaching for the back-up disks at some point.