I just wrote a long post and tried to use the WYSIWYG editor in Firefox and it just crashed. Thanks a lot, TV.com.

Here's what I wrote -- more or less:

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No, I haven't fallen off the face of the planet.

I ordered a new computer back in early April and it arrived about a week ago. Pretty soon I discovered that not all was in order. The guys at the computer store had made some pretty serious mistakes. Warning, tech speak ahead.

• They'd installed a wrong motherboard on my computer. Basically the same model comes in two versions, one a regular one and the other a "premium" model. Naturally they'd installed the regular one and charged me for the more expensive premium model.


• They'd forgotten to install the fan speed adjuster for the CPU cooler. Not a big deal but since the cooler came with one and I'd paid for it, I expected them to put it in.


• The cordless desktop keyboard+mouse combo sucked through a straw. The Bluetooth connection was unbelievably weak. The mouse was erratic and laggy. Sometimes when I'd boot up, the computer didn't recognize the keyboard. One time the keyboard asked me for a Bluetooth passkey -- which of course I didn't have. The desktop was fairly pricey so naturally I expected it to perform perfectly. Hindsight 20/20 -- if I'd taken the time to read some reviews, I would've known better to avoid the product.


• The harddrive I bought had a faulty temperature sensor. Apparently, the manufacturer had made a faux-pas and calibrated the sensors so that they show significantly higher temperatures than they should. Again, not a really big deal but I'd like to know when the drive is in a real danger or overheating. They call it "a factory calibration routine anomaly". Ha!

I complained to the store and they ordered replacement parts, which arrived on Friday. Everything else is running smoothly now expect the replacement harddrive has the exact same temperature sensor mistake! And the guys at the store hadn't even tested it since -- they claim -- they don't have a testing set-up for it. *Sigh* It would have saved both them and me a lot of trouble. I'll keep sending in the harddrive until they find me a 100% faultless model.

And what's really gnawing me is that with all these other problems I haven't even had time to test the graphics card which was the reason the delivery took so bloody long in the first place.

OK, enough venting. Happy Mother's Day to everyone who's a mom!