I Think We Are Ready!

Like all of this is not stressful enough, I hate it that 2 of my credit cards and our bank are making me call in with our travel plans. Their online forms are only set up for a maximum of 30 days. Beyond that, calling them is all you can do. There is nothing worse than thinking you can use an ATM somewhere and have your bank deny the transaction. Bank of America has charged us for failed attempts in the past. This is still on my “To Do” list, because they are only open limited hours on weekends and the time zone difference besides, makes it unruly.

Our suitcases are packed. We each have one; Ron’s is a carry-on size, but he will check it allowing him to also have a backpack. Mine is slightly larger than a carry-on, but is within the overall 158 centimeters combined allowance by TAP Portugal. My suitcase is 11.5 kilos, but up to 23 kilos is allowed, while my backpack with all tech stuff is 7.8 kilos just

under the 8 kilo limit. I hate having to worry about luggage sizes for different airlines. Ron will take the tablet and cord. I will have a book, my phone and laptop cord in my travel coat.

The backpack really needs a Sherpa cart it for me. I bought a USB hub as my laptop only has 2 ports; one is used for the mouse. Sometimes movies have lesser than optimal volume; there are two compact external speakers tucked in there. Then there are the cords for my phone, 2 cords for the laptop (one each European and US), camera lens, 2 adapters, a compact external disk drive with dozens of movies and projects for my downtime and lens cleaners. Last year, I bought 2 sets of packing cubes, one for each of us. They really are fantastic. The middle sized one holds all things electronic that I generally take along. It then fits really nicely into the second section of my backpack. Being nylon, it glides right in there.

The suitcase will be about 4 pounds lighter when we return. In the smallest packing cube of the set, I have 6 bottles of Vitamin D, 2 bottles of Vitamin C, one large bottle of Calcium-Magnesium-Zinc tablets, my diabetic pills, aspirin, sleeping pills, medicated soap, eye drops, and lip moisturizer. I am not packing bottles of shampoo and all that other stuff. It can be bought on the ground. Hopefully, the one night stay in Quito upon arrival will have things in the bathroom to get us by. Toothpaste and toothbrushes travel in my carry-on; the only thing I have to show security for liquid control.

I bought TSA approved locks, set it from the default 0000 to another set of 4 digits. Later, I thought I had better reset it to a number we are likely to remember easily, but different from our usual. Somehow I screwed up the lock and now it will not work at all. Thankfully, I have 3 others. This is my first time using them.

The taxi has been ordered. They will be here at 1:50 am Monday to drive us to the airport. We have a four hour layover in Lisbon. Diners Club lounge here we come. Our routing is:
Budapest > Lisbon TAP Airlines
Lisbon > Miami  TAP Airlines or American, both show on different documents as the scheduled airline
Miami > Quito LAN Ecuador




I tried both TAP and American Airlines, but was not able to get our boarding passes beyond Lisbon. I know in Miami, we have to go through Passport Control and security again. One would think that if you are a transfer client, they could keep you in a secured area to change plans without all the commotion. We only have 2 hours in Miami to get our luggage, recheck it and make our way through.
 
The following morning, Tuesday at 7 am we have another flight from Quito > Cuenca on LAN Ecuador. We will be in Cuenca until March 1st getting a lay of the land before exploring other parts of the country. Our return date is April 9th. We have lots of territory to cover.

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How Big is Your Hard Drive? Talk Dirty Computer to Me

After picking up my dysfunctional laptop from the computer store for the third time since it was purchased, I realized that I need one that is more reliable. This was a store brand, which at the time was economical. I needed it for the university as the shared computer in my office not only has a Hungarian keyboard, but Windows and MS Office are all in Hungarian too. Sometimes, I need to take a breath, look at the sign outside my office door and repeat to myself, "Yes, you really do teach in the American Studies Department regardless of the signs and signals trying to confuse you." Two of the three of us in the office are Americans. They have all of the software in English, they just refuse to put it on our computer. Regardless, I need a laptop to cart around from classroom to classroom, then to connect to my projector for showing presentations on the wall, watching videos, keeping track of grades, attendance, and all of the other mundane things that instructors do in the course of a teaching day. 

When I picked up the laptop, I asked if they could order one with an English keyboard. The only brand was Dell where this was possible and only one model. Though the price was good, it would be another 25,000 Huf for a switcheroo of the keyboards. Come to think of it, Dell has kind of lost its excellent reputation, so I was not ready to jump on it. 

I went around the corner where I ordered the desktop computer. They don't have laptops with English keyboards and cannot order them. Nincs! 

One of  my students sent me the names of 2 other stores where they supposedly were able to do the ordering. When I went to Extreme Digital, the only brand they could get in English was a MAC Powerbook. Sorry, not in this lifetime. 

In store number 4 at first, the salesperson looked at me like we were in Ottumwa, Iowa and was asking for a Swahili keyboard. After a number of sighs, he exasperatedly explained that they could only order certain brands, but he kept trying to convince me there was no difference between an English and Hungarian keyboard except for a few extra letters. We have a Hungarian keyboard on our kitchen computer and it is a psycho trap. I cannot even type as fast and I don't look at my fingers when I type. My sense of touch just knows that I hit a key with diacritic marks sending crazy signals to my brain which causes the synapses to misfire causing all hell to break loose. They want an extra 25,000 Huf too for the change. I would have an easier time having a sex change for crying out loud.

Finally at store number 5, they wanted 200,000 Huf for an HP laptop with an English keyboard and English Windows already installed. That is only 92,000 Huf more than I had originally thought of spending. 

So, I wrote to Ron after checking out Best Buy in the Denver area. There are a number of them. I found a few makes and models that meet my needs, each running under $400. I suggested he buy one and bring it home with him. However, he has already been huffing and puffing about the 10 books I have ordered, the two bottles of sleeping aids, the four shirts, 100 photos of our kitchen mural to give out to guests, and a box of business cards. What are my chances he will lug another 5.8 pounds too?

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I Had a Dream

Seriously, I am not trying to do a bad Martin Luther King impression; last night or early this morning, I had a dream. All that I remember of the dream was that there were three disks, like DVDs twirling in concentric circles while partially overlapping each other. The left disk was a blueberry blue, the middle was the pear green, and the right one was rhubarb red.

When I woke, I knew this dream could only mean one of two things. Either there was some message here relating to the sound card problem with the laptop or my unconscious mind was telling me I needed to add more fruit to my diet.


By way of process of elimination, while drinking the first cup of coffee, I booted up the laptop, had a bowl of blackberries for breakfast, and then proceeded to download the drivers once again. 


The nVidia driver showed a message that said "Damn fool, how many times do we have to tell you that you have the latest driver your butt is going to get? Now stop wasting our time with this nonsense."


However, the Realtek took pity on me, downloaded, but when I went to install it, something new and different happened. It installed. After a reboot, I had sound. I could hear, I could hear! It was a miracle. I could hear.

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Geek Needed

I need some HELP!!!! One of my students was kind enough to go with me to where I bought my school laptop to have more RAM and drive space added. Since I bought it there, the service was free. I  have Windows 7 Professional and wanted to put it on the laptop, which I intended to install myself.

Windows 7 Professional installed without a hitch, but the  immediate problem with the WiFi connection continued. With XP before this, it had stopped recognizing any wireless connections even if it was sitting on a router. After some critical thinking and downloading drivers that would not work, I did a Windows Update by plugging the laptop directly into the Internet cable. Viola! One of the updates was for the WiFi connection. It now works fine.

My second problem now is the sound. There is none at all.
1.) I went through the Windows Updates, nothing there for the sound card.
2.) I checked the troubleshooter, but is states it cannot diagnose the problem.
3.) All speakers are at 100%, not muted.
4.) I tried hooking it up to external speakers, but no sound.
5.) I tried earphones, but nothing.

After Googling, I found that in laptops, the sound card is usually integrated into the motherboard, not separate, so if this is true, I will not be able to change out the sound card.

I did find that the sound card has two associations nVidia MCP51 and Realtek ALC883, so I Googled drivers for these with Windows 7 and tried installing them. The nVidia after each attempt at installing, it said there was a problem installing it.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated as this laptop often gets hooked up to speakers and the projector for watching movies. 

As some would say if I just had an APPLE, I would not have these problems because the APPLE/MAC just works. Well read this. This Leopard needs to change its spots. As for security, it is now taking a bite from the APPLE as BBC reports.

PCs have tremendously improved my thinking keeping my brain from turning into APPLE sauce.

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First Week of the University

Well the title of this post is a misnomer. Last week was 'registration week, where all staff is supposed to show up, but now that students are able to register via the Internet, they don't need to. However, I was there, after carting a suitcase on wheels with CDs for students, books for academic purposes and many for give-aways, self-esteem posters I printed in color and then laminated to cover some bare spots on the walls, and my school laptop. I found plenty to do to keep me busy and three of my thesis advisees came in for advice, filling the empty moments. As of Thursday, the computer room, which I had secured a grant to create, was still a room with tables and chairs, but not computers. I was dreading what I would find today, but there was a pleasant shock when I unlocked the door and found ten Dell computers with ten IBM monitors set up and ready to go. This was the typical 'we will keep you guessing whether or not the work will be done on time', last minute Hungarian planning. Six of the computers were supposed to be hooked up to the Internet and though they had the cables, the Internet was not working. Minor problem. The greater problem now is that the entire minor program that I developed for the BA students that was supposedly approved, was not coded properly. Ten of them managed to get in, but 35 MA students were at the door wanting to join the Intro to Journalism course. Keeping them out was like stopping a stampede of gerbils. This problem seems to be in the resolution stage, but may not be resolved before the students are dropped and then have to register yet again. There is always something to bring out the black cloud regardless how much preparing one does. However, I do learn from each semester. Today, I used the laptop and projector. Projecting the syllabus on the wall, we could review it together. Student copies are on their CD rom. Three of my classes will be responsible for blogging, but each class will blog for different reasons. With the computer and projector going, I was able to display the journalism blog, explain what they were to do, and show them the goodies I have added to the sidebar. Besides academic sources, I included an online game, and a fortune telling cookie add-on. The thinking is that these may entice them to return to the blog other than when they are required to be writing on it. An experient for this semester. Today was also the beginning of my new tutor and advising program. I have three tutors who will have two students each. The tutors are tops in their writing abilities and I created MLA booklets for each of them. They met their charges today and I will supervise them in the Writing Center. I am charged, hoping this is a success story. Live and learn, teach and learn.

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The Generic Customer Service Line

A friend of mine sent me this link. He obviously doesn't know I am without my main computer. Good thing I have a laptop or I may not have received the laugh for days. I am sure this is the Bank of America customer service training video.
http://automatedphonehell.com

Perhaps all corporations are getting on the bandwagon and using the same thing. It really makes me laugh when my students come back from a short stay in the US and say they are so impressed with how efficiently everything works there as opposed to here. Sure if you live in a dorm or with a host family, you are insulated from most of the daily issues the rest of the population has to negotiate.

Again, I am fighting with Bank of America for a $6.50 service charge for our checking account when our balance fell below their standards, yet it is was significantly above. What this brought to mind were the fees that those less fortunate have to pay because they are low income. It is not just banking, but the rewards for those who have more and get more run across the spectrum. I really don't care about $6.50, I just don't want B of A to have it. I would rather make the decision myself of how it is spent.

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P.S. Turkey

Of course, I will blog on Turkey. Have laptop will lug along the dusty roads and byways, we go, hoping for WiFi connections along the way. The last time we were there, there was only one Internet place, but that was eight years ago. Hopefully, it has changed. I will also have student theses to read too. They are due the 27th, but my darlings are the last minute types.

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Showing off

I had great pride in showing the new laptop to my class today. They were so excited for all of us. Our rooms at the university have cable Internet access, so I just need to get the Information Systems office to turn on the outlet in my classroom. With an Ethernet cable plugged in we can use the Internet in class with a projector we already have. It will be perfect; for some classes, we blog as a class and for others I am using the Writing Lab at Colorado State University. Now when there are questions or concerns about how to navigate or do something, I demonstrate it right in class and project it on the wall. On the home front, we still don't have electricity in the kitchen. Balazs called the building management's electrician, but said the man told him he was too busy to be bothered with such a small job. Later he called the manager again was given another name for another electrician. This one was more gracious and came over tonight at 5:00. He will be back tomorrow at the same time to fix everything. Fingers crossed! In another vein, I was contacted by another editor from Frommer's, this one the editor for the Eastern Europe book. She asked if I would be interested in updating the Hungary chapter for that book, knowing that I just finished the full book and the Hungary chapter of the rail guide. The deadline is July 15th, giving me plenty of time. Of course I accepted it.

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The New Laptop

The laptop I ordered for my use at school was supposed to be ready today, but I was not venturing there until Balazs was out of classes and could call for me. He called me at 3:30 to say his class was canceled and he would go with me to pick it up. They called him at 9:00 am to say it was ready. They had it hooked up when we arrived to show me that not only had my Windows installed, but also had it updated. The most important part was that the keyboard was an English one, which is why I had to special order it in the first place. I was charged. The B-man came home with me to reinstall Windows on the new desktop that was corrupted when the electric went out. I had to set him up in the hallway; we still don't have the electric fixed in the kitchen. I started loading programs on the laptop. We were like computer central. It was a good thing he was here. I installed programs that I had on disk and the strangest thing happened. When they installed, they showed up in Hungarian. The programs are English programs, so Balazs had to help me change the language setting back to English. If something can go wrong with anything electrical, it will happen to me.

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Computer Store Shopping

Balazs called the computer store today to see if the computer was ready. They said it was ready, but he said they sounded dubious about it. We decided to try an outing there anyway. Across the street from the store, they have another store that only handles laptops. I had made the decision that since the university was not going to supply my office with a computer to use in the classrooms, I was going to do it myself and went to look at what was on offer. The first issue was getting an English keyboard. This narrowed the selection quite a bit and when we came to some decision of what would be the best options, they had to call and see if it could be fitted with an English keyboard. The salesman called, but they would have to call him back. We went across the street to pick up the desktop and returned. Still no answer. We went for coffee and returned an hour later to learn we had success. The model I wanted was available with an English keyboard; they could have it by Monday. However, it Windows is extra and only in Hungarian. I handed him my disk and code that I had just retrieved from across the street and we were set. Balazs mentioned earlier that he had a bad feeling that they had forgotten to return my disks or to install the WiFi card or both. Neither bit of his premonitions were were welcomed thoughts, but when we did find the disks in the box, at least he would have been 50% wrong in his predicting skills thus far. He carted the computer home for me so I did not hurt my back again. We set it up, found the WiFi card and all was going swimmingly when the electric went out. One minute later it is on again and we start again, but after three minutes of configuring, boom, no electricity. A minute later, let there be light and there was light and we said this is good. Turn the computer on, work away for a short time when darkness yet again. Primal scream number 48,475. We changed the outlet that the computer was plugged into. Started it up. Windows was corrupted. It would not start in normal mode, it would not start in Safe mode. To fix this problem, install the original Windows disk and press R for repair, was the message on the screen. But you don't understand, my disk is at the other computer store to be put on the laptop. I don't have it. The screen flashed "Your tough luck buddy boy". Personally, I think computers are getting to damn smart for their own good. Balazs was off the mark with his premonitions of the reasons for disaster, but he must have sensed something was going to happen and it did. So the new computer is sitting there as useless as its predecessor did until Monday at the earliest. Rainy days and Mondays always get me down.

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