THE COMBINATION OF SUSTAINED WINDS OF 25 TO 35 MPH AND LOW TEMPERATURES FALLING INTO THE MIDDLE TEENS WILL HAVE WIND CHILLS RUNNING ZERO TO FIVE DEGREES BELOW ZERO THROUGH EARLY SUNDAY MORNING.

To convert that to °C, we're looking at windchill just shy of -21°C ..yup, 21 degrees below freezing ..and it comes complete with snow showers. Certainly don't see that kind of cold back in NZ - at least not in the North Island. Apparently it's nice and warm and hitting mid 20's °C back there (summer in the Southern Hemisphere). Oh, Happy New Year by the way!

**Update Sunday** : Weather.com updated their alert. It's even colder.

A WIND ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM EST THIS EVENING. NORTHWEST WINDS 25 TO 35 MPH WITH GUSTS UP TO 50 MPH WILL CONTINUE TODAY. WHERE SNOW IS FALLING OR HAS FALLEN, REDUCTIONS IN VISIBILITY CAN BE EXPECTED DUE TO BLOWING SNOW. WIND CHILLS OF ZERO DEGREES TO TEN DEGREES BELOW ZERO CAN ALSO BE EXPECTED THROUGH THIS MORNING.

Ten degrees below zero ..and that's Fahrenheit. -10°F = -23.33°C. Nice.

An El Niño in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean is expected to be a dominant climate factor that will influence US weather from now through to February, according to the 2009 winter outlook from NOAA's Climate Prediction Center. What struck me as particularly funny is what they had to say for the Northeast (where NYC is) :

Northeast : Equal chances for above-, near-, or below-normal temperatures and precipitation.

Wut? Just a wee bit non-committal isn't it? I mean what else can it be besides above, near, or below normal temperatures and precipitation? Fortunately they went on to clarify this somewhat :

Winter weather in this region is often driven not by El Niño but by weather patterns over the northern Atlantic Ocean and Arctic, such as the North Atlantic Oscillation. These patterns are often more short-term, and are generally predictable only a week or so in advance.

Still, why not just say so right from the word go, instead of this "above, near, or below normal" bollox - it's a little bit redundant, don't ya think? I've seen better from the National Weather Service though (or worse, depending how you look at it) :

Unusually hot weather has entered the region for December as the Earth has left its orbit and is hurtling towards the sun. Unusually hot weather will occur for at least the next several days as the Earth draws ever nearer to the sun. Therefore, an excessive heat watch has been posted.

Apparently a trainee at the National Weather Service wrote the above as a test message, but it somehow managed to get published as an urgent weather advisory warning!

Amber, I tried calling you a bunch of times and eventually got Angela on her cellphone - she advised you were all down in Nelson with her mother who is seriously ill, and Angela said you've been fantastic with her, so thank you Amber, and I really wish you an awesome year - you deserve it. I'll talk to you in a few days. Miss you, as always.

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I had heard some of the shows in Vegas were spectacular, so we went to the ticket office on Saturday and booked tickets to a number of different shows - it was fortunate that we booked when we did, as many of them were already near fully booked for the entire week.

The first show we went to was in the Hollywood Theater at the MGM Grand on Saturday night - world famous magician David Copperfield. We had excellent 'seats' which was actually at a table with another couple right in the center and only three tables back from the stage - one of the best views in the house imho. From what I had seen on tv in the past, David Copperfield was usually pretty reserved and mysterious when performing, but as it turned out he was actually outgoing and talkative in the live show, as well as being a bit of a comedian. He did some amazing illusions, and occasionally got people from the audience to assist by throwing things into the audience and whoever got the item came up on stage. At one point he threw a couple of gherkins - one of them he threw directly to IceQueen, so suddenly IceQueen was up on stage performing with David Copperfield! Yay - my weasel is famous! Ice had to write down a playing card value (three of diamonds) on a big piece of cardboard and he eventually did some involved trick where a sonogram of a baby still in the womb picked out the correct card. Very kewl. Unfortunately we were not permitted to take photos at any of the shows, but David Copperfield gave Ice a signed photo of himself as she left the stage.

Sunday was of course Christmas Day, but there really wasn't anything special done to honor the occasion there - pretty much another day in SIn City it seemed. The buffet had a bit of Christmas decoration on one of the desserts I had, but that was about it to be honest. We hung out and walked around some of the nearby hotels and played on the slot machines a bit and just relaxed and enjoyed each others company. I think it was this day that we went for a ride on one of the monorails too.

On Tuesday night we went to 'Zumanity' at New York New York. I'm not sure how to describe this show - it was like a cross between the circus and the Moulin Rouge. The show bills itself as a celebration of all forms of human sexuality, and it certainly was - men with women, women with women, men with men, masochism, orgies, dildos, dwarfs (or midgets or little people or whatever the current politically correct term to use is) and elaborate costumes (when they weren't naked) were just some of the features in the show. The show was made up of a series of different acts - mostly a combination of dance and acrobatics - introduced by a drag queen hostess. Some of the acts were quite stunning - the two nearly naked and extremely flexible girls in a large fish bowl and the aerialist act with a topless woman and a little person were among the highlights. There was also a contortionist who, although being kind of out of place in the theme of the show, was freaky to watch - it was almost like the dude was made of rubber. It was an experience. Fortunately we were seated up on the balcony so were not in danger of being dragged on stage at any point.

On Wednesday night we went to see Cirque du Soleil's performance KÀ, and omigod what an absolutely amazing show it was - it was worth going to Vegas just to see that show alone, it was seriously that good. The stage set was beyond description - you'd have to see it to believe it - one of the main parts of the stage was able to rotate into almost any angle - including completely vertical. For a bit of video, you can click here to watch a KÀ TV clip for the production.

I found a review of the show at reviewplays.com which covers parts of the show quite well, so I'll quote a bit from there, along with a few images from that site.

It's almost an understatement to say Cirque du Soleil has reinvented Las Vegas. Surely it has, but it has also reinvented entertainment as it will be known in the 21st-century. In his LA Times review of KÀ, the Cirque's fourth permanent Vegas attraction which just opened at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino earlier this month at a cost of US$165million, Mark Swed said that it "may well be the most lavish production in the history of Western theater."

It's hard to know where to begin to describe KÀ, so let me start with the ending. On the 149-foot high stage of the new $105 million KÀ theatre - or the place where a stage would be if there was one - the show culminates with a majestic fireworks display. On the stage. Inside the hotel.

Where the stage should be in the KÀ Theatre is the place the members of the crew and the company call The Void, a huge smoke-belching gaping hole that descends into the depths of the Vegas desert sands 51 feet below the level of the audience. Two enormous hydraulic steel decks, the Sand Cliff Deck (25 x 50 feet and weighing 80,000 lbs.) and the Tatami Deck (30 x 30 and weighing almost 100,000 lbs.) move at speeds up to 60 feet a second - and often with people executing some outlandish stunt on them. Not only do the decks slide into place over The Void, they then have the capability to rotate 360 degrees and tilt from horizontal into a completely vertical position. This is nowhere more unbelievable than in one massive battle scene, where two entire companies of performers square off to fight, but find themselves slowly becoming perpendicular to the audience.

There are journeys through the icy land of the Yeti-like Mountain Tribe, complete with a snowstorm and a huge tent that transforms into an enormous flying apparatus resembling a prehistoric bird, which then takes off over the audience with the entire tribe onboard when one of the royal kids must flee another attack.

KÀ is also the first Cirque du Soleil production to feature a storyline, following adolescent twins who are separated in a warlike attack upon their idyllic kingdom, sending them fleeing for their lives in opposite directions and through opposite but equally perilous journeys.

In this first image the sister's sailing ship is thrashing through a massive storm, in which the huge, careening vessel (completely manipulated by the artists themselves) is hurtled across the front of the stage while acrobats twirl from the mast and are thrown off with breathtaking leaps into The Void on either side.

After all the characters are lost over the side, the twin sister and her nanny (for lack of a better term) suddenly appear slowly floating down from the highest 149 foot point of the stage, their progress downward accentuated by video projections of bubbles which appear behind them on a curtain of some transparent material - the effect is totally realistic and had us sitting there amazed wondering how the hell they did it. Soon they are rediscovered on the Sand Cliff Deck, buried in 350 cubic feet of granulated cork. Emerging from below the 'sand' are two playful crabs (among other creatures), manned by contortionists bent over backward and walking on their hands:

The following image is one of the many characters in the play - even the characters not wearing elaborate and technical costumes were still made up in painstaking detail.

This show is one of the more amazing things I've witnessed in my life, and if you are ever anywhere near Las Vegas, you must experience this stunning production - I honestly can't state nearly enough just how extraordinarily breathtaking it is. KÀ plays permanently - and probably forever - at the MGM Grand Hotel, Las Vegas.

On Thursday we took a guided tour to the Hoover Dam. It is huge (I don't think they know how to do things any other way in Vegas). One of the major highways out of Vegas travels over the dam - you can just see the cars on top of the dam in this image. They are currently building a 1,000 foot high bridge as an alternative route because the dam is such a prime target for terrorism.

Our tour included a trip deep into the innards of the dam to where the massive generators are. Those turbines generate electricity for a good part of three different states.

The was a weasel there too.

It's a long way down to the 'shallow' side of the Hoover Dam and the Colorado River.

On the way back we stopped in to sample the wares at the Ethel M. Chocolate Factory. Along with the nice hand-made chocolates, they had a groovy garden area outside with paths winding through it and lots of different plants and cactuses or cacti or whatever.

We left Vegas late Friday night and flew back via Washington DC, finally arriving back in New York at about 9:30am on New Years Eve. You're probably wondering about the gambling side of our vacation, considering that's what Vegas is primarily about. We didn't play on the blackjack or poker tables at all - neither of us were willing to throw money away that rapidly. When we did gamble, we spent our time on the slots. At the MGM Grand the slots range from 1¢ per spin (only a few of those) right up to US$500 per spin. Imagine spending $500 per spin - you could easily go through $100,000 in an hour at that rate. Actually, with most of the slots you choose multiple lines to play with each spin, so the 1¢ - $500 is per line, not per spin.. which means some of those top machines could be guzzling $10,000 per spin! Wow.. that's like millions per hour on just one slot machine.. that's just sick. Needless to say we spent most of our time on the less expensive slots - the 1, 2 and 5¢ ones. Believe it or not, we actually came out a couple of hundred dollars on top. We had been down a little during most of the week, although I spent a couple of days running off one $20 note before finally losing it, then we both won comparatively substantial amounts in the last day or two, which covered what we had spent and then some, so that was a bonus.

So that was basically our holiday. It was a great week and we never left each other's side and loved every minute of it. Awesome. Thank you to my sweetness and light Ice for a wonderful trip.

You may comment on this story anywhere here, or at the Las Vegas Vacation weblog entry if you wish.

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As I mentioned, we were right on the strip at a major intersection with some of the most well-known hotels in Vegas on each of the four corners - the MGM Grand (our hotel):

New York New York, and yes, that's a full-on roller coaster behind the statue of liberty:

The Excalibur, which obviously has a medieval theme - apparently they were planning to knock it down sometime in 2006 and rebuild it because it's sinking into the ground. Seriously.

and finally Tropicana - probably the least impressive of the four. This photo was taken down the road a bit - the big green monster in the far background is the MGM Grand, and Tropicana is closer on the right. Running overhead in this shot is one of the monorails that provide an alternative form of transport to some of the major hotels.

Here's a shot of me with the MGM Grand in the background:

A huge gold lion dominates the corner the MGM Grand stands on..

..and behind the lion are gigantic video screens.

Next to Excalibur is the Luxor, which is the big pyramid that has become an icon of Vegas:

In front of the pyramid is a massive sphinx - this shot is taken from behind it:

..and you can't have a pyramid and a sphinx without having hieroplyphs everywhere too..

Just beyond the Luxor is The Mandalay Bay hotel. The gold windows of the Mandalay are tinted using actual 18-carat gold leaf, I kid you not. Some of the hotels going up in Vegas are hitting the US$2billion price tag - yes, billion. Amazing huh.

Las Vegas is famous for it's flamboyant use of bright flashing neon lighting, digital billboards and general excess which, if the city were a person, would be the equivalent of the worlds most extreme attention whore. Here's one of the signs outside the MGM Grand - not too excessive, but I like how the picture came out.

Ok, that's probably more than enough about the hotels.

There are a heap of different restaurants within the MGM Grand, including establishments by world-renown chefs Wolfgang Puck, not one but two Joël Robuchon restaurants, an Italian trattoria named Fiamma, sushi at Shibuya, Craftsteak, Nobhill, Pearl, Seablue and many more. Our regular ended up being The Grand Buffet - they had a huge selection of foods including things like king crab legs, rack of lamb, juicy steak, lots of vegetables, blueberry blintzes, an extensive salad bar and much much more, plus a wide assortment of mouth-watering desserts. For breakfast (or brunch as it turned out for us most often) they also had pancakes and belgian waffles, canadian bacon, omelets and many other choices. The great thing about it was the variety - we could try all sorts of different things, and the only limit on how much you ate was your own stomach - needless to say we absolutely stuffed ourselves.

..continue reading "the Las Vegas trip 2005" »

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This is the account of our trip to Las Vegas during Christmas / New Year 2005. We flew to Vegas on the Friday morning before Christmas Day to stay at the MGM Grand, which is right on the strip in Vegas. The flight there took about 5½ hours direct from NYC, but since we crossed a time line in the process, we gained a few hours - the local time of arrival was only 2½ hours after we left - we were winning already!

The flight afforded us amazing views of the canyons and desert as we approached Las Vegas..

..as well as magnificent views of Lake Mead (the lake that sits behind the massive Hoover Dam).

The next two shots look almost like satellite images or topographic maps..

The different layers of land color near the edge of the lake on this shot are actually the result of the rise and fall of the lake water levels..

Once we landed in Vegas, a shuttle took us to our hotel. The MGM Grand is apparently the third largest hotel in the world, and I'd believe it - the place is huge - the corridors in the part where we stayed seemed a mile long. We checked out a number of the hotels around us during our stay - Tropicana, New York New York, Excalibur, Luxor, Mandalay Bay - and the MGM seemed to be the nicest of them all. We stayed in the brand new West Wing of the hotel which was very comfortable - the bathroom mirror even had a flat screen television set seamlessly into it so you could watch the news while drying off.

This is the main lobby of the MGM Grand - it simply oozed gold, marble, and opulence..

The hotel included a large swimming pool area consisting of many different pools separated by paved walkways edged with shrubs and large palm trees. One of the 'pools' (pictured) snaked around and between other smaller and bigger pools like a river, and it even had a current flowing in it. There were also several jacuzzi (spa pools) scattered around, and of course all the pools were heated in winter.

The paved walkways were spotless and immaculately manicured..

Here's a few of the palm trees that were scattered liberally around the pool complex. The white line in the sky is a vapor trail from a passing jet.

Sitting in the shade of the palms: a weasel.

There were multiple restaurants, bars, clubs and theatres (for live shows) in the hotel, as well as shopping, food halls, a lion habitat (yes, lions), and of course the casino. The following photo is part of 'Centrifuge', one of the bars inside the MGM Grand.

The next shot is of a warm comfortable and somewhat secluded lounge bar in the West Wing of the MGM Grand - it was usually pretty quiet and proved to be a great place for us to sit and chill and take a break from the bright lights and crowds elsewhere.

..continue reading "the Las Vegas trip 2005" »

Me and a few mates piled into a couple of cars and headed north up the east coast (I was living in Auckland at the time). After checking out a few spots along the way that were just totally out of control, we were heading up the coast road towards Pakiri and had stopped at Leigh for a quick feed. We decided we'd stop in and check out Goat Island Bay on the way past, I mean, the place is a marine reserve that's normally flat as a pancake even when Pakiri is hitting 5 foot, but maybe some of the swell was making it in there... maybe.

That turned out to be one damn good move. We pulled up above the bay on the 'cliff' and freaked.. this huge swell was wrapping right around the island and big clean waves were peeling across the bay, and NOBODY WAS OUT! There was a massive peak sucking up off a shelf off Goat Island itself that was downright evil. It's not so clear on these photos, but the trough of those waves off the island was sucking several feet below sea level as the wave broke. Scary.

I managed to snap these few photos from the top of the cliff before joining my mates out in the waves, but I'm telling ya, it was all time out there. It was bigger than what it looks in these pics; I guess it's because of the angle I took the photos from that makes it look a little smaller. The pitching lips were pretty heavy and tended to drag you all the way in if you got caught inside, but the faces were big, open and amazingly clean and were peeling off perfectly, just lined up and waiting for us to carve. Considering the churning mess that we had seen everywhere else, we couldn't believe how good it was here. Stoke.

We had a hell session out there that day, certainly one that I'll never forget. The boys went home at days end with bloodshot eyes, surfed out bodies, and great big stoked grins on our faces. Ever since, I always make sure to stop in to check out Goat Island when I'm up that way, just in case...

Quick System Specs :

• i7-920 CPU @ 3.8GHz
• EVGA X58 SLI motherboard
• 2-way SLI : EVGA GTX 285 SSC
• OCZ Platinum RAM (3 x 2GB) DDR3 1600MHz
• Prolimatech Mega Shadow CPU cooler + M12-P NoiseBlocker PWM fan
• 300GB Velociraptor SATA HD (system)
• 640GB Caviar Black SATA HD (data)
• SoundBlaster X-Fi XtremeGamer
• Corsair 850TX PSU
• CoolerMaster Storm Sniper SGC case
• Vista Home Premium 64-bit o/s
• SyncMaster 2043BWX flat panel
• 3DMarkVantage score 28,503

System Photos :

Final Build :

Build and System Details :

The case is from the CoolerMaster Storm Series; a Sniper SGC with the black mesh side panel - a roomy case with awesome cable management, which I think is ideal for a first build (click the image to the left for a larger view). For some reason CoolerMaster left the inside of both side panels and the case unpainted, so I painted mine black to match the outside (note: CoolerMaster have recently started manufacturing the Sniper case with the insides painted black as well). If anyone was wondering, I used Rust-oleum 7220830 textured 12-ounce black spray paint to get a similar finish to the existing case.

The case includes a built-in fan and LED controller which is very handy, however I was a little confused at first with the wiring, and from online searches I quickly found I wasn't alone there. I figured it out soon enough and created a schematic in photoshop which should make it easier for others to follow in future (I have posted this diagram in CoolerMaster help forums as well):

The case comes with two 200mm fans with blue LEDs (one intake at the front, one exhaust on top) and a standard 120x25mm exhaust at the rear of the case, plus support for additional fans to be mounted on the side panel and on the bottom of the case. I replaced the fans with quieter Scythe S-Flex 120mm fans (model SFF21F) which have the fluid dynamic bearings, and they still move a decent amount of air at 1600RPM / 63.7CFM - the only fan I didn't replace was the CM 200mm intake fan in the front. I've also added another S-Flex 120mm intake fan on the bottom of the case, and another is mounted inside the case specifically for additional cooling on the graphics cards. All fans are fitted with anti-vibration kits, and most of the time they run around 40% power.

The CPU is an i7-920 (C0 batch # 3836B215) which I run clocked at an extremely stable 3.8GHz. It can go higher, but I don't want to over-stress it outside of bench-testing. Would have been nice to have a D0 stepping version as they can clock higher generally speaking, but I'm happy with the C0.

There is 6GB of RAM installed in the form of OCZ Platinum (3 x 2GB) DDR3 1600MHz sticks, and have Corsair CMXAF2 fans on them for additional cooling. I keep the RAM fans powered low enough (around 40%) that it's next to silent as well. There is not much noise from the case at all other than the 'whoosh' of air most of the time.

The motherboard is an EVGA x58 SLI (model 132-BL-E758-A1, rev1.1) and I'm very happy with it. The clocking ability is great, as is the SmartFan function, and EVGA support is second-to-none in my experience. For my own reference as much as anything else, the BIOS settings are on auto / default other than the following:

• CPU Host Frequency : 200Mhz
• CPU Clock Ratio : 19x
• CPU VCore : 1.35V
• CPU VTT Voltage : +220mV
• DIMM Voltage : 1.65V
• Memory Frequency : 2:8 (1600Mhz)
• Memory Timing : 7-7-7-24
• EVGA VDroop control : with VDroop
• Turbo Mode Function : disabled
• Intel HT Technology : enabled
• SmartFan (CPU) : >70°C = 100%, <30°C = 40%
• PnP / PCI : init display PCIE
• Onboard Data : JMB362/3 disabled (I don't use them)

The CPU cooler I initially used was a CoolerMaster V8, although I replaced the stock interior 120mm fan as it developed a fairly loud noise at higher RPM. The replacement I dropped in was a Delta AFB1212SH-PWM 120mm fan with fluid bearing and significantly higher airflow at 3400RPM / 113CFM on full power, although it was a bit noisy on full load. I have since replaced the V8 with a Prolimatech Mega Shadow CPU cooler, and use a single NoiseBlocker M12-P PWM fan in push setup, and it is far more quiet on full load than the Delta, and the Mega Shadow cools better than the V8, particularly under load. The PWM fan is directly controlled by the motherboard SmartFan controller. I used top quality Shin-Etsu X23-7783D thermal compound for mounting the CPU cooler. At 3.8GHz, the CPU runs in the low 40's°C on idle, and peaks at 70°C under full load on Prime95 for hours (ambient room temp around high 70's to 80°F) - that was on core #1, which is the hottest; core #4 peaked at 66°C on the same tests.

The graphics are powered by a two EVGA Geforce GTX 285 SSC cards run in SLI (model 01G-P3-1287-AR). I only had one originally, but got another one later second-hand. These cards come with a stock core clock at 702Mhz, shader clock at 1584MHz, and memory clock at 1323MHz, which is what I run them at most of the time, although they can comfortably clock quite a lot higher than that. I replaced the thermal paste and padding in both graphics cards, which made a significant difference to the temperatures both at idle and under load. I used Artic Cooling MX-3 thermal compound on the GPU's, and replaced the stock thermal padding with 1mm EK thermal padding cut from a 160mm x 150mm sheet from FrozenCPU.com. Since then, the cards both run around 41°C idle and max at 79°C after 30 minutes under full load using the FurMark benching utility, with an average FPS of 60. Ambient room temps were around high 70's to 80°F at the time. Stoked. I use MSI's AfterBurner utility specifically because of the fan speed controls - I currently have the GPU fans set to run at 50% power at any temp up to 50°C, and then have the curve set in a straight-line ramp to hit 100% power at 80°C or above. As mentioned at the start of this post, other parts in my build are as follows:

• 300GB Veliciraptor SATA HD (operating system and most software)
• 640GB Caviar Black SATA HD (data)
• Creative X-Fi XtremeGamer sound card
• Corsair 850TX PSU
• SyncMaster 2043BMW wide-screen flat panel at 1680x1050 res
• Vista Home Premium 64-bit o/s
• BIOS version E758SZ2R
• NVidia driver 186.18

I also threw in a couple of blue cold-cathode lights for effect since they were so cheap. I have tested the system on 3DMarkVantage (benchmarking utility) at performance level and scored 28,503 (GPU 24,741, CPU 52685). That was at 3.8GHz clock CPU, and the graphics running at 710/1602/1341 clocks.

Note in the last couple of photos that the added cooling fan blowing on the graphics cards looks like two 120mm fans screwed together (or one really fat single fan). What happened is that the airflow from the 120mm fan by itself seemed to blow on a wide angle, so it was not all directed at the graphics cards as I intended. The solution was to add a fan shroud to focus all the airflow towards the cards. Rather than pay for a shroud, I just ripped the guts out of an old 120mm fan so all that was left was the outer frame, and there ya go - instant shroud, and much cheaper than buying one! On the very last photo with the Mega Shadow CPU cooler, I moved the lower GTX 285 down to a lower PCIE slot for improved airflow and cooling.

Most of the parts were purchased through Newegg.com, although a few parts came from FrozenCPU.com and one of the graphics cards I got second-hand through the EVGA forums. In most cases I purchased items on sale or with good mail-in rebates, and in some situations was able to get additional combo discounts as well, although I did not buy any refurbished or open-box items (other than the second-hand graphics card).

Newegg.com sent me a couple of large items in open-box condition by mistake (the original motherboard and graphics card and a couple of smaller items that came in one shipment). After the hell I went through with Dell, I just thought, "oh no, not again!" when these open-box items arrived, but Newegg were awesome about it; they were very apologetic, replaced the items at no additional cost to me and put them on overnight delivery, and gave me a surprising $200 total credit for my troubles. That is great service, and because of it, they have assured my custom in future, as well as my strong recommendations to others.

Here's the kicker; after discounts and rebates etc, the total cost of this system was just under $2,000. The system I was going to buy from Dell originally was far inferior, and cost just over $2,000. When I went to Dell and configured a PC on their system similar to what I ended up with, the price was nearly $4,000. Amazing huh? All that, and their service sucks too.

The artist's name is Kurt Wenner, and I urge you to check out his website at www.kurtwenner.com showcasing some of his work as well as his biography etc. Make sure to check out his fine art portfolio and street painting portfolio in particular. A truly gifted artist.

Pictures published here with the express written permission of Karen Schmidt for Kurt Wenner.

About 2 years ago, the original Dell XPS that Ice used finally died and was replaced with a new Dell E520 - nice deal with a decent 3GHz dual core processor with Vista o/s, then-current NVidia graphics card, and I added RAM to bring it up to max for the system. Ran great, and still does.

All was good, until eventually my 4600 could not handle some of the newer software on the market that I needed to use, and was very slow on the newer software that it was able to run. After increasing frustration with it, I managed to convince Ice that an upgrade was in order since the PC was about 6 years old, with the provision the the new PC should not need replacing for about another 5 years. Considering we had enjoyed a good history with Dell, I ordered a new Dell XPS 630i which, although pretty expensive, would likely be as future-proof as I could get for quite a few years into the future without buying some monster $4,000+ beast ..plus the 630i was on special.

Things went downhill very fast from that point. I found out before the PC had even been assembled that the expensive single graphics card they were selling it with was not compatible with the motherboard - it would work, but it would be significantly bottle-necked. I could instead have ordered two of a different model graphics card running in SLI for several hundred dollars less than the single one alone, and it would have given much better performance! I was not impressed.

I called Dell to change the order to the cheaper cards in SLI, and did not expect much problem as they had clearly sold me a system that could not function to their advertised specifications. Quick online research confirmed Dell had already returned the same system to earlier customers for full refunds. Unfortunately for me, Dell had recently outsourced their 'help' desk to India, and the one thing that Dell really had above all the other PC retailers - top customer service - was instantly destroyed in the process, as I soon found out.

The 'help' desk was anything but helpful. When I said I wanted to change the order, they at first flat-out refused, and said I had to cancel and order new. Ok fine, so I said cancel the order. The guy became extremely argumentative and reluctant to cancel, and said if they canceled it I would have to pay a substantial restocking fee - despite me being able to provide a website written by their own XPS PR guy confirming exactly the problem I had with the existing order, and that Dell had already issued full refunds on it to other customers. The guy then said I had to contact their tech guys in USA, get them to note on my file that the issue was valid, then for me to call back to the help desk and they would cancel the order with no restocking fee.

It was a mission to get through to the tech guys in the USA, and although they seemed surprised at the request coming from a customer, they were happy to confirm the issue and note it on my file accordingly - as soon as I mentioned it they knew exactly what I was talking about. So from there I rang back to the unhelpful desk (and I will mention that wait times on the phone were at least half an hour every time I rang, sometimes much longer). The guy I spoke to confirmed that the previous rep had noted on the file there would be no restocking fee with tech confirmation, then confirmed the tech guys had confirmed the issue was valid, then proceeded to tell me that they could not cancel the order and that I had to wait for it to be assembled and delivered, and then call back for a return. What the.. It didn't matter what I said from this point, he flat out refused to cancel and said the order had to go through the system. Ok whatever, if they want to pay all that shipping because their return/cancellation process sucked, then so be it (turns out that was a lie, made so they could get credit for the sale and keeping the return rate down).

In the following days while waiting delivery, I contacted the head of PR for the XPS in USA by email (name slips my mind now) and he replied that I was correct and that they had been giving refunds in the past and that if I had any problems all I had to do ask for a manager and mention his name and it would be fine. Great.

As soon as the PC was delivered, I called them. I couldn't believe what happened next. The guy I spoke to this time (yet another Indian guy called 'Dave' or something like that) confirmed everything I said was noted on my file and said he would process the return, but then said I would be charged a restocking fee of 15%. I said, "What?? You just confirmed not 2 minutes ago that my file said there would be a full refund if the tech guys confirmed the issue!" At this point the guy became very aggressive and proceeded to yell at me (seriously) and threatened to hang up if I couldn't take no for an answer. I was stunned for a few seconds, then I let rip. I'm sure half our apartment building heard the string of expletives I used at this point, but I didn't care - this guy was an asshole and he deserved every bit of it. Surprisingly the guy didn't hang up, so I told him to put me through to his manager. I was furious.

The manager was a piece of work - yet another guy with a thick Indian accent and a very English name, and clearly didn't care what was written on the file or my claims of what the bigwig PR guy said, he was backing his team member and that was that. After some ridiculously obtuse comments from this guy, I once again mentioned the PR guy and that I had an email to prove it. He called me a liar (I'm not kidding) so I called him a worse name and said, "give me your email address and I'll forward you a copy right now while we are on the phone". When he received the email a few minutes later he went very quiet for about a minute, and then said he needed to confirm it. I said go ahead, but I would wait on hold while he did it. About 20 minutes later he comes back sounding a little shaken and saying, "well this changes everything - you should have told me about this earlier." Had I been in the same room I would have punched him right in the face at that point.

In the end I got my full refund back and will never deal with Dell again. Idiots - had they not been such complete and utter assholes, I would have bought a differently configured PC from them and they'd still have a sale plus a satisfied customer! As a result of their crap, they have lost a couple of once-loyal customers. In addition, this story has been repeated to a number of people online and off, and I know for a fact of several individuals that were about to buy a Dell and have been dissuaded as a direct result of this story, and have purchased another brand instead.

But what about replacing the 4600 PC? Well that's another story - I ended up building my own PC, and literally saved thousands of dollars doing it. What I ended up building cost about half of what Dell were asking for a similar configuration. I'll post about it soon.

Check out this similar story titled, "Trapped in Dell Hell" from another Dell victim - certainly some similarities. No surprise to see Dell stock is currently down about 50% from what it was 2 years ago.

Gisborne, New Zealand. I spent a year or so living and surfing here off and on while working for Hot Buttered surfboards in Auckland in the late 1980's. I had countless epic sessions surfing Gizzy and the coastline north and south of here with a bunch local Gisborne boys - Brett, Eddie and Clint Daly, Cody, Rhys and a few others. This is just a few pics of some of the perfection we scored. Most of these were taken at Wainui (stock route, pines. empty section etc.). Added a few pics of the boys.

So I'm taking Spanish - or attempting to at least. I would have preferred Russian since my other half is a native Russian speaker, however the university only offers advanced Russian literature classes, so that was out of the question. Since I have absolutely zero prior experience in Spanish, it has meant spending an additional 6 hours or so at the library every day (and some in the weekends too) to try to get up to speed, as almost everyone else in the class already has at least 2 years of Spanish from high school prior to attending university.

I completed the final exam for Spanish 1 last week and somehow managed to pull off an A grade for the semester, which surprised the hell out of me. I'm now one week into Spanish 2 and feeling completely clueless, as it seems about 90% of the class are already reasonably fluent in Spanish. As a result the professor seems comfortable speaking very rapid Spanish while teaching, with the occasional bit of English to clarify some points, so I really have little idea what's going on - I catch maybe one in every five or six words he says. We have our first exam for it on Monday morning. Joy.

I attempted to take Spanish 1 last year during a normal semester, however was forced to drop out as the professor refused to speak a single word of English whatsoever, so sitting in the classes was a complete waste of time for me as it was just gibberish. I tried to teach myself, but it started dragging all my other classes down, so I just dropped it. It is for this reason that I have taken the summer classes instead of working, as it is the only way I'm going to get through this language requirement - by working on it 24/7 without having other classes to worry about. Fortunately the Spanish 1 professor I had for the first summer semester spoke English as well, so I could actually ask if I had a question. I still will have to do Spanish 3 next semester along with all my other classes, so that will be fun.. assuming I don't fail Spanish 2. That's all.