My Life With IT

I am totally stumped. My Asus A8J has stopped being able to use the Bluetooth totally. I am not sure when it stopped working. The hardware devices shows the following.

The driver seems perfectly fine.

Attempts to set the Bluetooth to be discovered led to the following error.

Apparently, the discoverability and connection settings were not saved since the bluetooth seems to be unplugged. Now, the thing is that in Bluetooth Devices, the hardare isn’t even there.

Seriously, I don’t know what happened to the hardware. How can there be a missing bluetooth hardware when it’s all in the devices? Attempts to reinstall the driver has failed due to the system being unable to detect any bluetooth being plugged in. It’s a built-in device, so I am not sure how it can get loose from the system itself.

When recovery doesn’t work, how can this problem to resolved? Anyone has this problem before?

Having sent in two different brands of laptops for repair, I must admit that I am rather surprised at the different ways the repairs are being handled. My experience with Asus and Lenovo has a vast difference. I’m not even sure where to begin.

Let me start off with Asus, I had to send in the laptop for repair as the screen showed only half of what it supposed to show. I had to travel to The Adelphi in order to send in for servicing as there isn’t a collection by the service centre itself.

For Lenovo, I had to call the service centre and wait for them to arrange a collection. They were supposed to give me a case number so that I would be able to collect it later. A call on Monday ended without any reply from them. Thus, I had to call on Tuesday to check. Apparently, my call didn’t seem to be registered with them since the pick up department or section didn’t even receive my request.

Therefore, I’m wondering if the guy even acknowledge the issues for the IdeaPad Y430 at all. Does that mean that the intermitant sounds and USB problem weren’t that major enough to warrant a service? Fortunately, the guy in charge of the pick up was very helpful and helped me arrange a pick up on Wednesday. I must say that I am rather shocked at the difference in the service attitude between two employees in the same company.

Although individuals have different temperaments, it would serve to know that they are working in the same company and representing the reputation and image of Lenovo. If one keeps one’s individual image of self instead of remembering that one is working for a company and representing the company’s image instead of self, one isn’t fit to work anywhere at all.

I have known the following shortcut keys for all the Windows version.

• ALT + F4
• CTRL + A
• CTRL + C
• CTRL + V
• PRT SCR
• NUM LOCK
• CAPS LOCK

Hang on, the last two aren’t exactly shortcut keys. However, Windows has much more shortcut keys to offer than those that I have used frequently.

• Press Shift key 5 times to turn on or off the Sticky keys. No wonder I had this strange prompt the other time I accidentally pressed five times while contemplating the words that I was trying to type.
• ALT + ESC to cycle through the items in the order that they were opened. Wow.
• CTRL + SHIFT + ESC to show the task bar. No wonder I had to go through one more click when I use CTRL + ALT + DEL.

After looking through the MS Help, I realise how little of the shortcut keys I use. Now I know why my mouse died after a year plus, too much clicking.

Sometimes, it’s a good thing to have more family members. That way, you get help for lugging huge boxes home. It’s also a good thing that I bought the trolley home the other time. Money spent at that time was like cutting a piece of myself but it was money well-spent as it was in use for lugging the huge box home for the Sony DVD Home Theatre set.

Helped by my mother, we went to redeem the set and waited for my father to pick us up after the collection. Upon arrival, I setup the connections with my father’s help and arguing with him about the placement of the speakers and large sub woofer.

After so many years, sub woofers are still huge except that the speakers have changed in sizes. Apparently, sizes matter if you want to hear good sound. The TV was switched off and when the power socket was plugged, I was wondering why the standby light was still off.

After some ten minutes of playing with the sockets and ensuring the cable was secure, I decided to switch on the button at the TV itself and magic happened. Standby light came to life. Next was the testing of the SCV and the DVD player. DVD player took some time to continue playing the DVD. Patience is the key.

Again, the father wasn’t satisfied at the overall purchase as the colour wasn’t right and the sound wasn’t powerful. Frankly speaking, it was a pure miracle that spending $1,999 on this set even produced some decent images and sounds.

Why are things so expensive and can’t even produce the best yet? I don’t even know why we had to go through so much trouble for a TV either. I’m still mising my voucher from Best Denki. Did I throw away something accidentally that day while the TV had completed its setup?

I’m not sure if being a female will make you lose out in the IT industry. Perhaps when you are in the server administration role or helpdesk support. This, I agree with Kriscell. I have a friend who is in this role and has to move the servers. However, once she is pregnant, she will need help.

It isn’t easy to stay long in this role as there isn’t much prospects to go on if you are the type who is aiming for the position of the CIO. For a female to stay on in the IT industry, one has to continue learning new things like programming languages that are upcoming, getting certified for new software, and more.

Females tend to be thought of as the soft types, programming has better prospects due to the pay. With the knowledge of BW, BI, Oracle, SAP, PHP, AJAX, and many more languages, it helps to stay on in this game. The technology changes almost every 3 months and the new ones are trying to be better than the old ones.

However, in truth, how long do we stay updated? How fast can we upgrade ourselves? The question about females being suitable of IT is a relevant one but there is something that is missed out. The person who was asking it has a diploma. Despite her experience, she is losing out in terms of pay. Unfortunately, the scope that she has, doesn’t pay that well in the long run. She could be comparing herself to her male counterparts.

It is true that gender plays a part when it comes to any jobs, not just IT. When accounting comes to mind, females tend to come into mind. When it comes to moving the heavy servers around, males are needed when there is no way to move that server rack.

As females continue working in the IT industry, they aren’t really losing out but when it comes to pay, one is no longer sure.

I have vowed not to go to any Sitex, IT Show, Comex as the crowd is horrifying. However, I had no choice but to attend the first day of Comex on 28 Aug 2008 because my old D Link was throwing tantrums with constant disconnections.

D Link was having a discount for the 1st 30 customers who buy DIR 655. It was available at $159 only at 6.30pm. The horrors! Thus, I had no choice but to go down. I changed my initial queue time from 6pm to 5.30pm and it was definitely a good idea as I was queue number 13 when they doled out the cards for validity of purchase at the special price.

2 men older than be cut in from behind when we went to the cashier as if they were still afraid that they couldn’t buy the router. Now, I introduce my new router, Xtreme X Gigabit N Router. I stood for an hour for it and wonder how long the first 12 stood. Amazing.

This router is an award winning router. So, I had to buy it. Actually, I was more attracted to the 3 antennas instead of 2 as my old one had only 1. The setup took me 5 minutes and I was connected. I wanted better and stronger wireless connectivity then I realised that my Wifi connection is only up to 100Mbps. This is able to transfer speeds up to 1000Mbps.

February is a month for love. Valentine’s Day falls on 14th every year and contests usually revolve around love. However, Business Blogger has a contest for a $500 Grand Prize. Woot! Runner up will win a brand new BFG NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT OC 512MB PCIe with ThermoIntelligence Graphics Card (shipped via USPS). This card allows connection to two LCD displays for all multi-tasking users and comes with a HDTV adapter and HDCP capability for high definition video.Wow.

For this contest, Business+Directory is offering free reviews for the month of February. In addition, you can list your blog and get more exposure for your blog or business. Joining the contest is easy.

• Link to the contest page.
• Link to Business+Directory.
• Blog about the contest in your own words about 250 words.

I told you it was easy. Winners will be selected via a randomiser software in March.

I’m going to spend part of the $500 for a new theme, Cornerstone theme. I like it very much. The rest of the money will go into my bank account for more money growing.

Do note that a Paypal account has to be setup for the payout. I have one, do you?

[via My Blog Contest]