new cables
Jul. 12th, 2022 10:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
totientA couple of weeks ago I decided to upgrade my work laptop to the latest-supported-by-work OS. This went OK but the machine started running kind of hot, and the new OS's battery monitoring function said the batteries were dying, so I asked for a hardware refresh1. In the followup conversation about what adapters I'd need to use my old peripherals with the new laptop, this was proposed to be delivered to my office in Cambridge for me to pick up in person a week later.
Then I went on vacation for a week.
I came back to find that while I was on vacation, someone had reached out to me to see if I really wanted to pick it up in person, or have it mailed to me. Lacking a reply, they proceeded not to set up the machine. It was still in California and not ready to go. So I suggested they ship it to me after all, which they did a few hours later (having installed various software on it in the meantime), and it arrived late the next morning, with one of the promised adapters but not the other, and with a box for me to eventually put the old machine in to ship back to California for secure disposal.
Shortly after the new machine arrived, I noticed that the old one's batteries were bulging. So I wound up moving things over to the new machine in more of a hurry than I had planned. And I went in to the pickup site after all to drop off the old machine, so that shipping it back to California couldn't set a Fedex cargo jet on fire.
I also2 got them to give me the other adapter, and attempted to drop off some other ewaste. Apparently we no longer accept personal ewaste for disposal so I had to do that elsewhere. Fortunately Staples will take ewaste and also had several different kinds of power bugs that would work with the new laptop. Or more precisely, would work with the adapters that I had, both of which have power pass-through.
Conveniently, I don't need these two adapters at the same time: one is so that I can use multiple monitors, and one is so that I can use multiple USB-A devices, and I do one of those things on my portable desk and the other on a standing desk. So now I have power bugs that live with both desks and the one that came with the machine for when I am sitting on the couch or something. It's lovely.
Once I got on a roll setting up the desks, though, there was one thing bothering me: the video cable runs to the other side of this laptop than it does with the old one. I like having the laptop on my left like it is in that picture, so that means running a video cable the short distance across the top of the portable desk to my monitor instead of coiling it up on the underside like the old video cable. But the only video cables I had were way too long and flopped all over the place and made the desk messy and harder to pack up. What I really wanted was a 3' cable.
3' video cables are cheap and plentiful and Micro Center is still doing curbside pickup, so I ordered one. While I was on their site I ordered a bunch of other stuff too. 20 minutes later I had email from them saying my order was ready -- except for the cable. Whoops! I ordered a different color of cable and that one turned out to be in stock.
So now I have a tidy desk again, and also the makings for a project or two. And an extra laptop shipping box.
1: we can have hardware refreshes every three years, and it has been six. But moving laptops is a pain.
2: this was actually on an earlier trip, but the story is better told in this order.
Then I went on vacation for a week.
I came back to find that while I was on vacation, someone had reached out to me to see if I really wanted to pick it up in person, or have it mailed to me. Lacking a reply, they proceeded not to set up the machine. It was still in California and not ready to go. So I suggested they ship it to me after all, which they did a few hours later (having installed various software on it in the meantime), and it arrived late the next morning, with one of the promised adapters but not the other, and with a box for me to eventually put the old machine in to ship back to California for secure disposal.
Shortly after the new machine arrived, I noticed that the old one's batteries were bulging. So I wound up moving things over to the new machine in more of a hurry than I had planned. And I went in to the pickup site after all to drop off the old machine, so that shipping it back to California couldn't set a Fedex cargo jet on fire.
I also2 got them to give me the other adapter, and attempted to drop off some other ewaste. Apparently we no longer accept personal ewaste for disposal so I had to do that elsewhere. Fortunately Staples will take ewaste and also had several different kinds of power bugs that would work with the new laptop. Or more precisely, would work with the adapters that I had, both of which have power pass-through.
Conveniently, I don't need these two adapters at the same time: one is so that I can use multiple monitors, and one is so that I can use multiple USB-A devices, and I do one of those things on my portable desk and the other on a standing desk. So now I have power bugs that live with both desks and the one that came with the machine for when I am sitting on the couch or something. It's lovely.
Once I got on a roll setting up the desks, though, there was one thing bothering me: the video cable runs to the other side of this laptop than it does with the old one. I like having the laptop on my left like it is in that picture, so that means running a video cable the short distance across the top of the portable desk to my monitor instead of coiling it up on the underside like the old video cable. But the only video cables I had were way too long and flopped all over the place and made the desk messy and harder to pack up. What I really wanted was a 3' cable.
3' video cables are cheap and plentiful and Micro Center is still doing curbside pickup, so I ordered one. While I was on their site I ordered a bunch of other stuff too. 20 minutes later I had email from them saying my order was ready -- except for the cable. Whoops! I ordered a different color of cable and that one turned out to be in stock.
So now I have a tidy desk again, and also the makings for a project or two. And an extra laptop shipping box.
1: we can have hardware refreshes every three years, and it has been six. But moving laptops is a pain.
2: this was actually on an earlier trip, but the story is better told in this order.
