Death of a Laptop: 4 Warning Signs I Chose to Ignore

Yes. It's true. After 4 great years, my aptly named "Behemoth" has kicked the technological bucket. For my well-read readers, the title of my blog was indeed inspired by the play "Death of a Salesman", by Arthur Miller - a tragic story about an unsuccessful salesman who ends up killing himself in a car crash so his family can cash in a life insurance policy.

What does that have to do with my laptop? Not much, I guess. I'm not saying my slowly aging laptop intentionally failed to boot up so that I could run out and buy a shiny new one. Although, that's pretty much exactly what I did. *queue shifty eyes* <_<  >_>

"Don`t cry for me...I'm already dead."

Despite being 4 years old, that machine was still a well performing piece of technology. I'm not saying there weren't warning signs. Quite the contrary, as I will outline below:

(1) Finicky LED Lights and Buttons


One of the first things that started happening over a year ago was the gradual failure of the little lit up buttons at the top of the laptop that let me raise, lower, and mute the volume, open up programs I never used, and more! Sometimes the volume button lights would be out, but still work when I pressed them. Sometimes they would be out and completely unresponsive. It didn't seem to be a big deal - just normal wear and tear, right? Possibly, but there's no way for me to know for sure.

There's nothing interesting about failed LED lights, so instead I present you with this tasty little nugget - another failure in lights - a clever failure, however.

(2) Possessed DVD Drive


Sometimes I thought I'd better call up an old priest and a young priest and start screaming, "the power of Microsoft compels you!", because my DVD drive would sometimes pop open on its own, without anyone pushing the button. I admit, the reason was that the mechanism had become extremely sensitive, and would react when the desk was bumped or the laptop was moved, but sometimes it was just creepy. I recall one instance when Farah (my lovely wife, for those of you who don't know) simply reclined the couch and the DVD drive's gears made a sound and popped open from a whole 15 feet away. It was quite odd.

Fortunately, it never had to come to this.

(3) Random Blue Screens of Death


Oh, the coveted blue screen of death. The dark face of Windows. While not alarming, I did see this happen more than I would have liked, and looking back, it seems it was linked to the main reason why my laptop died - the component that linked the motherboard to the display was slowly failing day by day.

No matter how bad it gets, I will continue to be a slave to Microsoft.

(4) A Previous Failure


All of these warning signs actually led up to the ultimate demise of my laptop a year ago, but the machine was still under extended warranty, so I was able to get it repaired for free. Naively, upon receiving my laptop back from repair, I thought everything was hunky dory Little did I know that the repair would only buy me another few months of time. Hunky dory? Really? Well, too bad. I'm leaving it in.

The laptop functioned fine for a while, until only recently when all of the above warning signs started to reoccur leading up to a few days before this post, when I realized my laptop had finally decided to quit on me. I could have gotten it repaired again, but the cost to fix it outweighed the cost of buying a new one, which by the way is happily purring away to my numerous key strokes at this very moment.

So, while I patiently wait for necessary programs to download so I can pick up my professional life once again, I implore you to be aware of the warning signs that your computer may be presenting to you, and take appropriate action. And remember: a backed up file is a happy file.

I apologize for posting this image. Wait...you laughed, didn't you? Didn't you?!

Working From Home and You: 4 Tips to Keep in Mind

With the complete and undeniable death grip the Internet has on our everyday lives, working from home is no longer just bait that scam artists use to entice people to "make $5000 in one week." Yes, those types of scams still exist, but people have hopefully become more weary of the ability to make a fortune by putting together random products that come to your door in a million broken pieces.

As an independent game developer/freelancer, I am part of a growing trend of people who work from home, and while it does sound like a dream, it definitely isn't for everyone. I present to you a short list of reasons why working from home has its advantages and...well...not-so-advantages.

(1) The One Calorie Commute

The distance of your commute to work is directly proportional with how many steps it takes to get to your designated workspace. Yes, this is both a good thing and a bad thing. The advantage is that you don't have to deal with the hypothetical jackass in the car behind you who is drinking a huge cup of coffee with one hand, texting with the other hand, and trying to signal with his elbow while tailgating you so he can cut you off even though the light down the street is red and the lane he is entering ends in 50 feet. *gasp* Yes, that had to be said all in one sentence.

Now that takes skill! Or stupidity...one or the other.

What could possibly be a convincing negative compared to the above hilarious but terrifyingly possible scenario? You probably burned more calories snoring the night before than you did walking to your workspace, especially if you live in a condo and have no stairs like I do. While this "disadvantage" pales in comparison to the vehicular nightmare scenario, it isn't a good thing.

Tip: If you work from home, try to make time for physical activity.


(2) Being Productive

Anyone who has spent time working from home has had someone say this to them: "Oh, you're home during the day, you can *insert random favor/chore/miscellaneous activity here*, right?"

While it's true that working from home allows you to have more time to focus on work, it also opens the door for procrastination and other distractions that one would normally be able to avoid at the office. That isn't to say that working at an office doesn't have its own share of distractions; just that working from home has more of them.

As long as you are aware of potential distractions, working from home can be a ton more productive that working away from home. If it's right for you, you'll know it.

Oh dear God, not again!!

Tip: When working from home, take yourself, your time and your work seriously and others will, too.


(3) Saving Cashola

Probably one of the biggest advantages that working from home brings is the amount of money you save. You don't use gas and you can eat meals at home. Just make sure you don't get your social fix everyday by walking down to McDonald's to chat up the awkward pimply-faced manager about how much of the meat is actually meat, all while scarfing down value menu cheeseburgers.

"I told you sir, I'm not allowed to give out nutritional information!"

Tip: Take advantage of the money saving opportunities that are presented to you in your home office situation.

(4) Interfacing With Someone Other Than the Family Pet

Lets face it. Water cooler conversation isn't quite the same when the water cooler is your kitchen sink and your fellow conversationalist is Fluffy the cat waiting for you to fill up her kibble dish. Once she gets her food, she's not going to stand around and listen to you complain about how your client wanted to bump a graphic up by 2 pixels for the fifth time earlier this morning, only to tell you to bump it down by 10 pixels later in the afternoon.

When even the cat wants space, you know you've got problems.

Tip: Make face time, or get some sunlight to break up your day (something I'm guilty of not doing as often as I should be).


These are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg, but if you ever find yourself in this situation or are currently situated as such, chances are you will deal with (or are dealing with) most, if not all of the above points. The most important thing to remember is that you are your own boss and employee, so find a balance between this dual-role and you'll be working from home like a pro in no time!

An inspiration to us all.

Gaming by Obligation - Case Study: Farmville

Lets get one thing out right off the bat. I am a self-hating Farmville player. There. I said it. I honestly don't know how it happened. I was one of those people over a year ago that used to hate seeing those Facebook posts from my friend who, for some reason or another, kept finding lost cows on their farm that were looking for homes on my non-existent farm.

Awww. It may look cute and sad, but it has an agenda. An evil agenda.

As I started paying more attention to social media gaming trends, I decided I had better bite the bullet and see what this "Farmville" game was all about. It was supposed to be for research. Well, over a year later, I'm still "researching" it. Granted, I don't play it as much as I did at the beginning - I maybe spend 20 minutes a day tending to my fake, pointless crops and my peculiarly pixelated livestock. But for those 20 minutes, I am filled with a sense of determination - nay, a sense of calm determination. I feel like I am really accomplishing something, when in fact I'm accomplishing absolutely nothing when I could actually be accomplishing...well...something.

A Farmville player's worst nightmare - withered crops. (AKA, how the game forces you back)
Harvest on time. You don't want this on your conscience, do you??

Truth be told, while I don't consider Farmville to be an actual "game" (as do a lot of other people) it is a very interesting look at how the social media space has taken over our every day lives.

"Honey, you were supposed to take the dog out an hour ago!"
"Get off my back! I'm trying to teach my Farmville dog to roll over!"

While mindless clicking may seem pointless, it is strangely soothing, and it helps feed my closet obsessive-compulsive behavior. Similar to how kids love collecting things, I find myself with the desire to master every crop in the game, and collect every mastery sign. For those who don't know, mastering a crop requires you to plant and harvest a certain number of that crop, and when you are done, you get a sign to proudly display on your farm, showing your "accomplishment" to your fellow Farmville neighbors. Some can take you a week of constant planting and harvesting. Others, a few weeks. It all depends on your level of obsession.

Look ma! I've 'dun mastered 'sum crops, I did!

This is where the sense of obligation comes in to play. Since I've already invested so much time mastering these crops, I feel that if I stop now, I will somehow be failing myself. Silly, I know, but this is how they get you. And while you are toiling away trying to master crops, they release new crops, and despite the profanities that stream from my mouth from knowing that this will never end, the rage somehow converts itself to even more determination.

And so, this is the state of social gaming today. Some people have speculated that it will all come crashing down soon, and only quality games will remain. Gone will be the days where a social game will be a repurposed, repackaged marketing and metrics machine. Zynga, the maker of Farmville and other top Facebook games, has built their business model on numbers and hooks, and other companies like PopCap, makers of quality games such as Bejeweled and Peggle, have started calling Zynga out on their evil ways. I, for one, am all for a shift in social gaming where quality wins out over metrics.

If Farmville disappeared forever tomorrow, I would be free of its evil clutches, but unfortunately I would be back looking for that next pointless fix. Luckily, I'm working on a project of my own that will hopefully be that next pointless fix for other people in my predicament, but will do so with quality and charm rather than hooks and market research.

Yes, you've been properly warned.