HP is dead to me...

Some time ago—I might even say years ago—I received a rebate check from HP (a rebate for what, exactly, I no longer remember, but I suspect it was for the laptop with the defective space key, a marvelous little tech support nightmare in which it was suggested by HP support that the hardware was perfectly okay, and that the problem lay with my typing technique, but I digress...).

Unfortunately, the check arrived while I was out of the country, and by the time it surfaced on my desk, the check was no longer valid (it had some kind of notation on it, to the effect that it was "void after xx days," where I think xx was 60). I sent HP a request for them to reissue the check, but never heard back from them.

Then late last year, I get mail from HP, to the effect that the company was holding "unclaimed property" of mine, to wit: a rebate check for $50. I filled in a form, scanned the result, and submitted the scan by email, per instructions. The response took the form of an automated email that assumed I had not done anything more than get in touch with HP.

Today, I sent a follow-up email, asking about the status of my first email. The response? That same automated email.

Amazing.

Cheers...

Deniable plausibility?

A potential renter for the house in New York came by a while back with a gaussmeter, to see if there were any potentially high magnetic fields lurking in the house. When we went into the basement, one of the things that we found that caught my attention was the presence of a magnetic field near the ground wire that runs from the breaker cabinet to the traditional ground point in most houses: the point where water service comes into the house from the street. Such a magnetic field implies the presence of an alternating current in the ground wire, which is not what I think of when I think of "grounding."

I am not an electrician, so I called one to find out if what I had noticed was worth a trip out to the house to check to make sure the new wiring installed a few years ago was okay. Before doing that, answered the electrician, why not have the power company come out to make sure everything was okay at the point where power is attached to the house?

When I tried to call the power company yesterday, a mechanical voice told me I could expect to speak with someone some time in 2013 (at least, I think that's what the voice said), so I hung up and sent an email from the power company's web site describing what was going on and requesting that someone look into the matter.

A tech from the power company was on our doorstep this morning.

And while the tech kept reassuring me that everything was okay, he did do a little double-take when he looked at his meter after I turned on some load, and he did put up a ladder to redo the connections between the power company's wires and those of the house.

And he would have climbed up the telephone pole that stands between the house and the power lines on the street (because there is another splice in the lines at that pole), except the pole has been there for a good number of years, the wood near the base is easily penetrated by a probing screwdriver, and thus, the pole is not safe to climb and needs to be replaced. Along with the whole getup from the street to the house, according to the tech.

I don't know if the guy was just being conscientious, or maybe it was something else?

Hmmm.

Cheers...