2nd request for book recommendations
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I bought an expensive laptop from them in OZ 4 or 5 years ago and a month later they closed the business here. Support has been abysmal at best since then and in the end I payed an electrical engineer to fix the keyboard. I think they should have stopped selling their product here and maintained the support infrastructure untill all support contacts had ended.
Stan, I just want you to know that I still hate Kyle more than you. - Cartman in 'Trapped in the Closet'
Josh Gray wrote:
I bought an expensive laptop from them in OZ 4 or 5 years ago and a month later they closed the business here.
Yeah that was annoying. I had just bought a desktop from them when that happened. The motherboard died a few months later, but they wouldn't fix it, so we were forced to replace it with an off-the-shelf one. The problem was, we then needed to reinstall Windows, and the CDs that came with the computer were locked to a Gateway motherboard, so we had to buy a new copy of Windows as well :mad:
Ryan
"Punctuality is only a virtue for those who aren't smart enough to think of good excuses for being late" John Nichol "Point Of Impact"
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Josh Gray wrote:
I bought an expensive laptop from them in OZ 4 or 5 years ago and a month later they closed the business here.
Yeah that was annoying. I had just bought a desktop from them when that happened. The motherboard died a few months later, but they wouldn't fix it, so we were forced to replace it with an off-the-shelf one. The problem was, we then needed to reinstall Windows, and the CDs that came with the computer were locked to a Gateway motherboard, so we had to buy a new copy of Windows as well :mad:
Ryan
"Punctuality is only a virtue for those who aren't smart enough to think of good excuses for being late" John Nichol "Point Of Impact"
Ryan Binns wrote:
The motherboard died a few months later, but they wouldn't fix it, so we were forced to replace it with an off-the-shelf one. The problem was, we then needed to reinstall Windows, and the CDs that came with the computer were locked to a Gateway motherboard, so we had to buy a new copy of Windows as well
Sounds like it would have been about cheaper to just replace the entire laptop. X|
I'd love to help, but unfortunatley I have prior commitments monitoring the length of my grass. :Andrew Bleakley:
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I bought an expensive laptop from them in OZ 4 or 5 years ago and a month later they closed the business here. Support has been abysmal at best since then and in the end I payed an electrical engineer to fix the keyboard. I think they should have stopped selling their product here and maintained the support infrastructure untill all support contacts had ended.
Stan, I just want you to know that I still hate Kyle more than you. - Cartman in 'Trapped in the Closet'
Josh Gray wrote:
I payed an electrical engineer to fix the keyboard
I had / have an old Gateway laptop, its only problem was the keyboard died. Where did you find the replacement? It would be nice to have something to set up next to the sterio for playing music. :)
I'd love to help, but unfortunatley I have prior commitments monitoring the length of my grass. :Andrew Bleakley:
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Sorry for the repost, but only one person gave me actual book titles. I'm looking for some good references (books, other sites, etc) for the following topics: 1. Active X stuff (or COM that deals with Active X) 2. Drivers to talk to hardware. Thanks all! Have my interview with Gateway tomorrow, but I am still thinking of accepting the offer with company 1 (which I need the above info). THANKS ALL! :badger:
This[^] is a good one (yes, I've got it), as is this[^] (it's probably better, in fact). ActiveX is really all about knowing which COM interfaces to implement - I've generally gone by MS docs and examples, as most of the books just take a 'Here's a list of the steps to follow to make an ActiveX control'. Don't know much about drivers - but I signed up for the OSR Online[^] newsletter, which does have interesting driver related info.
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Josh Gray wrote:
I payed an electrical engineer to fix the keyboard
I had / have an old Gateway laptop, its only problem was the keyboard died. Where did you find the replacement? It would be nice to have something to set up next to the sterio for playing music. :)
I'd love to help, but unfortunatley I have prior commitments monitoring the length of my grass. :Andrew Bleakley:
S Douglas wrote:
I had / have an old Gateway laptop, its only problem was the keyboard died. Where did you find the replacement? It would be nice to have something to set up next to the sterio for playing music.
Let me guess....the keyboard works about half the time, sometimes some keys work and sometimes none work? I took it to a friend of a friend of a friend, gave him a case of beer and two days later it was working. The guy had just finished his electrical engineering degree.
Stan, I just want you to know that I still hate Kyle more than you. - Cartman in 'Trapped in the Closet'
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Ryan Binns wrote:
The motherboard died a few months later, but they wouldn't fix it, so we were forced to replace it with an off-the-shelf one. The problem was, we then needed to reinstall Windows, and the CDs that came with the computer were locked to a Gateway motherboard, so we had to buy a new copy of Windows as well
Sounds like it would have been about cheaper to just replace the entire laptop. X|
I'd love to help, but unfortunatley I have prior commitments monitoring the length of my grass. :Andrew Bleakley:
S Douglas wrote:
Sounds like it would have been about cheaper to just replace the entire laptop.
Except it was a desktop ;) Actually, since it was still really new, the cost of a replacement montherboard and a copy of Windows was much less than replacing the whole machine.
Ryan
"Punctuality is only a virtue for those who aren't smart enough to think of good excuses for being late" John Nichol "Point Of Impact"
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S Douglas wrote:
I had / have an old Gateway laptop, its only problem was the keyboard died. Where did you find the replacement? It would be nice to have something to set up next to the sterio for playing music.
Let me guess....the keyboard works about half the time, sometimes some keys work and sometimes none work? I took it to a friend of a friend of a friend, gave him a case of beer and two days later it was working. The guy had just finished his electrical engineering degree.
Stan, I just want you to know that I still hate Kyle more than you. - Cartman in 'Trapped in the Closet'
Josh Gray wrote:
Let me guess....the keyboard works about half the time, sometimes some keys work and sometimes none work?
Add one of the keys sticks down, which makes logging in difficult.
Josh Gray wrote:
I took it to a friend of a friend of a friend, gave him a case of beer and two days later it was working. The guy had just finished his electrical engineering degree.
Ah, yea got lucky. I have thought about taking the drive out and tossing it in an external drive case. I would rather turn it into sometype of music play thoough.
I'd love to help, but unfortunatley I have prior commitments monitoring the length of my grass. :Andrew Bleakley:
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S Douglas wrote:
Sounds like it would have been about cheaper to just replace the entire laptop.
Except it was a desktop ;) Actually, since it was still really new, the cost of a replacement montherboard and a copy of Windows was much less than replacing the whole machine.
Ryan
"Punctuality is only a virtue for those who aren't smart enough to think of good excuses for being late" John Nichol "Point Of Impact"
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Sorry for the repost, but only one person gave me actual book titles. I'm looking for some good references (books, other sites, etc) for the following topics: 1. Active X stuff (or COM that deals with Active X) 2. Drivers to talk to hardware. Thanks all! Have my interview with Gateway tomorrow, but I am still thinking of accepting the offer with company 1 (which I need the above info). THANKS ALL! :badger:
For COM development, the essential book is "Inside COM" by Rogerson. Unfortunately, it will leave you with very little that you can put to serious practical use, but it will ease you into the concepts of what it means to be COM component. Many developers fail at trying to write COM components that don't understand the fundamentals. I personally use ATL, which I highly recommend. For ATL development, "ATL Internals" by Sells and Rector, and "ATL COM Programming" by Richard Grimes are both masterpieces. Good luck!
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For COM development, the essential book is "Inside COM" by Rogerson. Unfortunately, it will leave you with very little that you can put to serious practical use, but it will ease you into the concepts of what it means to be COM component. Many developers fail at trying to write COM components that don't understand the fundamentals. I personally use ATL, which I highly recommend. For ATL development, "ATL Internals" by Sells and Rector, and "ATL COM Programming" by Richard Grimes are both masterpieces. Good luck!
scott_hackett wrote:
"ATL Internals" by Sells and Rector
Especially now there's a 2nd edition that covers up to ATL 8[^]...