My laptop is back, up and running!  I truly cannot explain just how happy I am that I have it back.

Scotty
Scotty

As I mentioned earlier, my laptop stopped working on the Sunday night before last.  The next day I stopped by a local Fry’s Electronics and picked up a hard drive enclosure for my laptop’s hard drive.  This solved my initial problem, being cut off from my data, by allowing me to schlep my laptop’s hard drive with me.  Even though I had my data with me, I didn’t have my laptop with me.  I constantly felt as if I had lost my wallet or cell phone.  A disconcerting feeling, to say the least.

On Friday afternoon I took my laptop to a local repair shop, Paramount Technology, and, after talking with the proprietor for a few minutes, left my laptop with them at about 12:30pm.  He estimated they might have it ready on Tuesday; Monday at the earliest.

They called my cell less than three hours later to tell me my laptop was fixed.

Everyone knows how Captain Kirk would ask the impossible of Scotty.  Like clockwork, Scotty would bitch and moan about how he could not perform the impossible.  And, yet, when crunch time came, the polarity was reversed, dilithium crystals realigned, and they had warp engines back on line.

They did a great job, warranting their work for 90 days, had my laptop repaired in record time, and didn’t scratch my baby.  (FYI, Dell offers a whopping 30 day warranty on their work.  In the words of Govenor Palin, “Thanks, but no thanks.”)

I don’t care if they were practicing “under promise and over deliver.”  Paramount Technology has earned my business and my recommendation.

A friend sent me an e-mail letting me know their Verizon LG 9400 phone works with the calculator test. (Thanks Patty!) According to Verizon’s site this phone is out of stock.

FYI, when I need to research a phone, I use PhoneScoop.com. I find it a handy way to search/compare features. My own phone… has seen better days. I’m thinking the LG Dare, but we’ll see.

If your phone does not already work with PDRater.com, have you tried using a different web browser on your phone? Everyone knows Internet Explorer (sorry, no link :P ), most people know about FireFox (my own browser of choice), but there’s also Opera and OperaMini. OperaMini can be installed on some phones as an alternative to the factor web browser. From playing around with the OperaMini demo page, it looks like OperaMini will work with my calculators.

Almost completely off topic, have you seen the iPhone simulator? Sure, it doesn’t play music or make phone calls, but if you need a fix or want to test out some calculators (ahem), it’s a pretty cool website. ((Do people even use iPhones for telephone calls anymore? That’s sooo analog. . . .))