Hello everybody!
My computer here died late last week. It's a Dell (dude!). The cooling fans keep increasing rpm when it boots up - sounds like a jet airplane on take-off. It's the cooling fans within the power supply itself that are having problems, so I ordered a replacement p.s. over the weekend. It came yesterday, and I hooked it in - crossing my fingers that would solve the problem. No such luck. Maybe a fried processor chip or a capacitor went south on the motherboard. Either case, that's why there's an extended warranty on it...
I just have to brave the 2+ hour Support Desk call to India (or Pakistan), while they run through all their diagnostics procedures that they're required to do.
Indian/Pakistani Dell Dude: "Have you tried option 1?"
Me: "Yes."
I/P DD: "Have you tried option 2?"
Me: "Yes."
...conversation continues - 2 1/2 hours later...
I/P DD: "Have you tried option 493?"
Me: "Yes."
I/P DD: "OK. It appears based on our diagnostics that your system may be experiencing a problem (d'oh). Extended warranty includes coverage of blah, blah, blah. A local technician will call you in the next X hours to arrange a pickup time. Your support request claim number is XXXYYYZZZ."
So in the meantime...
I have to design an ice cream parlor / catering kitchen (sandwiches & salads mostly). Most of my time so far this week has been farting around with my dead computer. I have my laptop, which is doing fine - just not the best thing to work on CAD with. So anyway... Lots of equipment (freezers, sinks, prep tables, etc.) to fit in an itty-bitty kitchen space. The client gave us a hand-drawn arrangement that 'works' for him. In architect-speak that means that NOTHING is drawn even remotely to scale. The client's belief system is this: If your little sketch shows a piece of equipment as being 2 feet long it'll fit (barely) in that 2 foot wide available space... The problem is that the specific piece of equipment in question is actually more than 5 foot wide... He's given us equipment information for everything he needs in there (those are called 'cut sheets' - they list equipment sizes, capacity, electrical requirements, etc.). I have about 50 pieces of equipment to arrange into a layout with some semblance of usefulness BY TOMORROW MORNING. Preferably two or three different workable layouts so that the client can pick 'n' choose what he likes best from each.
I have a bad headache. My sinuses are screwed today. It feels like my left eye is about an inch lower than my right eye. My depth perception is off. My head hurts.
We have freezing rain / sleet / snow forecast for tonight. Maybe a snow day (or two) is in the picture for us... I hope.