Adventures in PC Repair

A few months ago, my faithful (six year-old) Sony VAIO TR3AP laptop started behaving badly. At first, it just shutdown without warning, and after a restart, it was just fine.


The problem progressed until the PC would stay up and running for only an hour, before shutting down. So, I ran through all the usual troubleshooting tricks:

• chkdsk
• defrag
• update MS Windows
• antivirus/spam/malware scan
• full backup
• reinstall MS Windows XP OS

Still no joy. Then, I noticed something. It was quiet. Too quiet. The fan wasn't running, and the base was toasty.

Ok, I thought, this is a problem I can fix. I opened the laptop, and 47 miniature phillips-head screws later, removed the culprit - the heatsink fan. With a model number in hand, I found a (refurbished) replacement part online. I could tell it was refurbished because, when it arrived, it was dusty and cobwebby. But, no matter, I was assured by the vendor that this was a functioning fan.

So, another hour and something less than 47 miniature phillips-head screws later, I had reassembled the laptop enough that I could plug it in and test the fan, but without the pesky cover, keyboard and bezel in place  (I needed to see that it worked). 

It didn't. The fan, I mean. But the laptop happily booted up. Then shut down. 

A scientist by training, I propose a theory, test it, refine, rinse and repeat until a solution is found. That said, the problem could only be heat-related.
What to do? Move the test lab to the kitchen, where I had access to a butter knife and two packages of frozen peas.



I placed the butter knife under the fan (under the printed circuit board) and against the metal heat sink, while balancing the handle between the bags of frozen peas.

Voila! The laptop happily booted up, I was able to connect to the wireless network and I had a functioning laptop again. The PC continues to work, so long as I keep the peas and butter knife configuration - without that, it's more of an art piece than anything else.

Upcoming posts

• Adventures in PC repair
• "I don't want to die in a car with you"
• Thoughtful articles:
  -  NY Times: Understanding the Anxious Mind
  -  Caring for Your Introvert
• Applications I can't live without:
  -  Gimp (open source photo capture/editor)
  -  threadsy
  -  twitter
  -  facebook
  -  hulu

This is What Technical Writers Do

I spent the better part of the afternoon converting engineering specs into a concise guide. See the Before and After: 

Before, wordy and unclear:

After, clear and concise with art and whitespace:

Everything is a Project

If there's one lesson to learn early in your career, it's that everything is a project.

Don't believe me? Consider something you need to do:

• Bake a cake
• Buy a computer
• Build a website, marketing program, API, CMS, HRIS, UX, SOA, etc.

Everything is a project, because to accomplish any of these things, we follow these steps:

1. Break it down into manageable parts
2. Do each bit in a reasonable time
3. Ask for help if you get stuck

These easy steps are the foundation of Project Management. Couple that with the Project Triangle (time, resources and work), and you know that:

• Time marches on
• Resources are people [, tools or $$$]
• Work hard, play hard

It's important to remember is that while Work and Resources may grow or shrink, Time, once spent, is gone forever. So, make it work!

Book Review: Julie & Julia

Julie Powell takes on Julia Child, cooking every recipe in the now infamous 1961 cookbook: "Mastering the Art of French Cooking", and blogging it all at The Julie/Julia Project.

You should read Julie & Julia because it has all the best things:

- four basic food groups *

- is set in NYC

- Buffy

* sugar, fat, alcohol and chocolate

Just finished the book, the movie is coming out August 7, and I'm looking forward to seeing it (http://www.julieandjulia.com/).

Living vicariously through others' Twitter lives...

It started innocently enough, surfing the App Store for free tools that seemed interesting or worth my time; Stanza has free books (classic sci-fi I never had the chance to read in high school), and the Amazon Kindle for books I buy; Facebook on the iPhone is ok, good as a reader, and I like staying in touch with friends and relatives. Sad, I won't write a note or pick up the phone, but I'll check relatives' FB page every day. I'm a reader - I don't stand in line or wait for appointments without something to read, and the iPhone is significantly smaller, lighter than any paperback, and holds so much more.

And then I downloaded Twitter, and started following business and technology gurus, expanded to follow writers and musicians I like, TV/Movie folks (MythBusters, Whedonverse and BBCA shows) and other tech writers in the STC.

Twitterific has a "Nearby" feature, to see tweets from people in my neighborhood - mostly sad tweens or angry people venting - we have such small lives, some of us...

And then there are the exceptional tweets - wise, inspirational, joyful, insightful. So worth it to sift through the mundane for the gems.

Speak Truth to Power

I don't know who said it, but it's something everyone should do. Speak up, be heard, stand by your principles. Don't be content to stay in an environment (work, home, school, whatever) where you don't have a voice, aren't heard, can't make a difference - you'll get grumpy, resentful, and will take out your frustrations on the wrong people.

Most of the time, the person causing your distress isn't even aware how you feel. The powerful among us (typically folks in supervisory positions) are just doing their thing, trying to meet deadlines and coordinate the effort of a group of disparate staffers, each with different workstyles and motiviations. Your frustrations are probably not even on the radar.

So, have the conversation. A calm, thoughtful, fierce conversation. Be honest with yourself. Use this format:

"When you {grevious action here}, I feel {hurt, disrespected, betrayed}, and it affects {my morale, ability to work effectively, the quality of my work product}. 


Then take a breath, and wait. As long as it takes, just wait, calmly and unemotionally, wait for your feedback to sink in. What *should* happen is that the person hears you, your feedback, and is open to making adjustments going forward. You might be pleasantly surprised, and motivated to have these kinds of open discussions with other people in your life.


That said, be prepared for a verbal blow up...if it goes badly, you really need to move on - this is a toxic environment and cannot be saved...run away!