How much is that doggie in the window (arf, arf)

- Who let the dogs out?! (woof, woof, woof, woof)

The one with the waggelly tai--l

- Who let the dogs out?! (woof, woof, woof,  woof)

Wow. Here we are.

I've been at my new job for over a week now, and we've "settled into" our temporary housing apartment in Newcastle (as long as you define "settling in" as getting the high-speed internet connected).

Speaking of high-speed, I have good and bad news about Comcast. On the one hand, their automated set up totally blows, and never did complete correctly. It also tries (unnecessarily) to muck with browser and internet settings. Oh the other hand, the young-sounding guy at 1-800-COMCAST was personable, friendly, knowledgable, and reasonably fast. He made it all work from their end and confirmed that the "add-ons" weren't all that necessary.

It's really weird not having our stuff around. Like the card reader so I can transfer and blog some of our pictures. Oh well, maybe tomorrow.

A couple of people actually commented at Tech-Ed that they were surprised that I was using my tablet. Yes, HP did get it back to me before I left the country. I got it back at 3 pm on Thursday, which meant they had a whole 2 hours to spare.

Elapsed time: 1 day short of three weeks.

In the mean time, we actually bought a spare laptop to use during the "empty-house" phase and moving. Guess what... it wasn't an HP. So, do I still "like" my tablet? Well, yes. Would I buy it again from HP? Probably not.

At the Security Track party earlier tonight, HP had disposable martini glasses (plastic) with the HP logo on them. I wonder if they needed a special box to ship those to Orlando.

What does the treaty of 1846 have to do with us today? Well, thanks to that treaty (http://www.ccrh.org/comm/river/docs/ortreaty.htm), there is a convenient imaginary line between the USA and Canada that I got to cross three times last weekend. (Bonus trivia fact: Did you know that the border is not actually the 49th parallel? It's technically defined as the lines between a set of border markers each of which was individually surveyed.) Had this treaty not been signed, Britain might still own the area on which Microsoft's main campus now sits. (http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1029.html)

On Friday, we crossed the border by air into Seattle, pre-clearing Customs and Immigration in Edmonton, and getting shiny new I-94 cards. My wife's new passport had never been used before, and she wonders why they picked page 12 for the stamp. On Saturday, we drove back from Seattle to Chilliwack for a family visit. I wasn't sure how to answer the "where do you live?" question. The nice man at the border told me I "kind of have to pick a country, sir". Then, on Sunday, I flew to Orlando (pre-clearing in Toronto) for Tech-Ed.

The pictures are of the Canada-US border just southeast of Vancouver (the border is between the province of British Columbia and Washington State). In the picture with two roads, the picture is taken facing east, the road on the left is in Canada, the road on the right is in the US. Guess we couldn't share. Although patrolled, and covered by some cameras, there is no fence.

I have accepted an offer with Microsoft and will be joining the Windows Server UA team as a technical writer in Redmond. I start around June 13.

My family and I are surrounded by boxes as we get ready to move from Yellowknife, Canada, to Washington state. So, no more "northern-most MCT", no more "independent", no more "valued external speaker". On the other hand, a friend told me on Sunday to "pack a raincoat", to which I could only reply "but I get to leave the parka behind".

I will still be at both Tech-Ed US (as an external) and Tech-Ed EMEA (as staff).

I am so frustrated with HP.

I own an HP (formerly Compaq) tablet PC, a TC1100. It is the most expensive computer I have ever bought. Counting the extra memory, docking station, and other bits, it came in at about $6,000.

I like the unit. I have for years now, recommended HP over other brands. That's changing because of the way they are treating me now.

The computer is broke. When powering up, video doesn't initialize right. HP is refusing to swap the unit or cross-ship it, insisting that that it be returned to them first. Not to the "authorized dealer" from whom it was bought. Not to the "authorized repair center", but to HP. Well, if that's not bad enough, it has to be in a special box.

Now, boxes, we've got. We're moving. We have boxes everywhere. The movers have boxes for mirrors, and paintings, and clothes, and books, and stereos, and even boxes that the OTHER computers are going in to go on the truck. But not those boxes. No problem. I *saved* the original packaging for the tablet. No, not that box. That's right, not the box it was shipped in from the factory - that's not a good enough box.

It has to be in a special box "co-developped with Purolator" (the courier). [Hint: spend the engineering time designing the damn computer so it doesn't need a "special" box.]

So fine. they have to ship this "special" box. And wouldn't you know -- a week later, no box. I argued for an hour with some idiot guy named "Joy" who claimed to be a manager at HP (funny how the guy today who claims to be the manager of the repair center, "Mark", has never heard of this other "manager"). I objected strenuously to being without my laptop for a month. He didn't believe me that it would be a month. Once he actually said "couple of days". [Hint #2, HP: Don't hire people who try to BS the customer instead of fixing customer problems.]

This conversation was last Tuesday, which was after waiting a week to try the part (well, the motherboard, actually) they thought would fix it but didn't, and that was after a week of fighting with their phone system to troubleshoot by phone: [Hint #3, HP: Having to say "connect" to get a person, especially when it's not in the menu, instead of pressing 0, is just plain stupid.] And that was after a week or two of checking for loose connections, blowing out with canned air, and otherwise verifying it really was hardware.

So, back to the box. A week later, I call to check on the status of my unit. Hasn't left the local repair dealer. Why not? "No Box". Why not? Nobody knows. They are sending a second box. [Hint #4, HP Idiots: This would have been a good time to salvage the customer relationship by getting a working unit to me, not just a box.]

So, here we are, in the midst of moving, with desktop computers and such going into boxes, living in hotels -- AND traveling to MEDC and two Teched's without my very expensive laptops [Hint #5: Why would you want people standing in front of others at major industry events with a broken computer, or telling their colleagues they have to borrow one ?]

Chances are my employer will have to equip me with a new unit. And even if there happens to be one for me to inherit, I'm sure it will be replaced within the foreseeable future [Hint #6: People who buy $6,000 laptops buy more than one over time and often more than one AT a time.] There's lots of buzz right now about the new Motion tablets. Oh, and unlike HP, Motion has invited me to try one out.

I feel a little better now.

Not sure what to write about? Take a look at other spaces on the Updated Spaces page, and then write about some of the great content you find there.

Here is a heartfelt and public thank you to the gang at Yellowknife's City Cabs (873-4444)!

I got off the plane from the MEDC trip (Las Vegas/Seattle) and hopped in a cab home. Didn't take any special notice of the car number, or anything else. I did remember taking my last $20 out of my wallet to pay for the ride.

A few hours later, I went to get something from my wallet and it was nowhere to be found. I knew instantly that the last place I had it was in that taxi, and that I hadn't been anywhere or done anything since I'd been home. I was sure that's where it was.

So, thanks to the dispatchers who tracked down the right driver (who still didn't leave his name) and the second driver who ran it over to our house since the first one wasn't able to... and for everyone's honesty and helpfulness.

Thanks!

As my wife pointed out, today has been a good day. Let's see:

• UPS found a box of my stuff they had been, um, "delivering" for 3 1/2 weeks
• My draft presentation slides for MEDC were submitted on time!
• Found out we're due for a much larger tax refund than expected
• Meetings for a new project are being scheduled and going extremely well...

And, I got my MVP Confirmation letter! 

I was thrilled when my Microsoft contacts nominated me and went to bat for me, and I'm just as thrilled to receive the official notice! Thanks to Ali (especially), and Becky, and Steve, and anyone else who put in a good word. I hope I can keep up to the standard.

Well, my latest in my ever growing collection of cell phones arrived yesterday. This one is an i-mate (aka HTC) SP3i powered by Windows Mobile 2003. It joins my Motorola 550, 300 (GSM), my V60 and 2 Nokia's (CDMA) and my old Vader (analog). I've heard there are people with only one cell phone. Weird.

Yellowknife is still in the neanderthal age with no GSM coverage, so my SP3i won't be on the network at home, just while travelling, but I'm already carrying it with me most of the time. The contacts, calendar and other Windows-based features are so much easier to use than the, ahem, "equivalents", in the Motorola v60. (I know the v60 isn't a very recent example of Motorola technology, but I'm just refusing on principle to buy another CDMA phone.)

My first impression was that the unit is much smaller than I was expecting. Its both smaller and lighter than the Motorolas. Since it's not a flip phone, I do have to fiddle with locking the keypad. I don't know why phone manufacturers haven't gotten the idea of a really simple slide switch or some other one-step tactile method to lock the keypad. The idea of having to go into a menu to turn on the keylock just seems really odd to me.

Then again, I can't figure out why no one has put a cell phone in a dress shoe, just for kicks.

Apparently this sort of thing can be quite relevant to recruiters:

• According to Gone 2 the Dogs, I am most like a Spanish Mastiff, a handsome animal, don't you think?
• According to http://www.wxplotter.com/ft_nq.php, I am nerdier than 89% of the population. You last 11 percent must be very strange indeed.

Update: new URL for the nerd test: http://www.nerdtests.com/ft_nq.php