8/17/08 Captain Jack's Repossession Repo Cruise to PC thru TPC Part 14

[LITTLEKID58]

GM

Presently 73 going up to 95 here in Sunny Central Florida with 30% chance or rain



aboard to all the newbies

and prayers to everyone who is going to need it today

Have a awesome Friday

 

[castoff]

Hello All
Hope everyone has a great day. Only couple of pages to ketchup on. Tomorrow Brooke & I are going to Museum of Science Industry. Thry have a special exhibit called CSI, you know the show? Well she is excited because you get to use DNA and forensic anthropology ect, ect to try and solve the case.

I got the tickets and needed a specific time so it's at 10:45. Between the Metra and bus route we have to be at station at 7:45 AM. Oh did I mention shhhh Brooke isn't exactly a morning person.

It will still be nice to spend the day with her.
I just hope she isn't grumpy for Sunday's meet.

 

[castoff]

Today I got a new notebook computer - a Toshiba A135-s4467... my otherwise regular computer DIED a couple of days ago right after I got it back from being reloaded / repaired by a friend. He warned me that it looked as though the hard drive was failing - and sure enough it did. Fortunately all my files are backed up - and now I'm having a great time with my new computer.

It's got an Intel Core 2 Duo processor - the mid line T series T5200, 1025 MB SDRAM, a 160 GB HD (only 5400 RPM) and a DVD RW +/- wit 15.4" WXGA (1200x800) screen. On the weak side it has an intergrated video processor as opposed to a stand alone card - so it is unsuitable for 3D games. That's probably just as well I figure.

So - I guess this qualifies as my "cheapie" computer - as I got it for .... are you ready?.... I got it for only $350 net after adjusting for the $350 gift card that was included from Best Buy (clearance priced at $699). Then on top of that I bought it using old Best Buy gift cards amounting to about $440 ... so my net out of pocket expense was only $315! My old notebook lasted a long time and cost me about 2500 - so I am sort of off-setting that purchase with this cheapie one. And as cheap as it is - it DOES have a true dual processor CPU - and 160G HD + 1MB of RAM. So how can I complain at the cofiguration and price ... so long as it works for a year or so??? Plus the reviews on the new Toshiba say it was introduced brand new in the product line in January of 2007! And now it's being clearanced out already!!!! WOW...this does not mke any sense except to say that the truly HOT notebook configurations are almost never seen in the clearance area! So this is about as good as I can get without paying a LOT more for a marginal gain in processing power among those thast were on sale or being clearanced.

This is a similar tactic to that which I'm employing with my DSLRs. I alternate spending a lot on one camera - then the next one is a cheapie stop gap of some sort - then alternate back to a pricey model. I am satisfied with this approach - as I save a little and then I satisfy my itch for the latest and greatest - so to speak.

As for my old computer - I'm gonna give it one last shot at renewal - as I'll buy a replacement hard drive (for a pitttance) and try installing it. With any luck the thing will soldier on for another year or more of service. Or maybe not....

OK - I have a lot of catching up to do on the DIS and off...

TTFN!

I don't know much about computers but that sure does look pretty.
The only thing I know about mine is ..............it is a HP 2 Duo processor with a 64-bit processing , windows Vista. I know this because it's written on the lap top. I also have a big screen, i like that.

 

[captaincrash]

Yes, Cheryl, I would allow an upgrade of my cat 6 for a cat 3!!!! With how packed this ship seems to be, it seems unlikely that there will be any upgrades at all; the only surprises might be from those who have lower category GTY cabins (wishing all of you good luck!).

Julie -

- out of the 15 or 16 cruises my spouse and I have taken - we've only tried a guarantee aqssignment once - last year on the 11 niter with Disney - and we knew they had to at least give us a catagory 11 since there were no cat 12 quads. SO this represented a 700-1000 savings considering we had a 10% rebooking discount (IE would have saved 1000 without the rebooking discount). And - as such if anyone got a guarantee assignment PRICE on thier cabin - and got assigned the lowest possible cabin catagory - then I recall that on the 11 niter we still would have saved about $250-550 IF we were assigned a catagory 12. So the folks on our cruise would still save something similar IF there were guarantee rates on our sailing. I figure everyone paid regular rates given thier tiers - and not discounted guarantee rates.

At any rate - I tend to agree - our boat is sold out and I would be very surprised if they gave ANYONE an upgrade.

On the other hand I would only be mildly surprised if they "bought out" some folks just before sailing to quit the voyage and give up thier cabin.

 

[castoff]

Awww.....

Don't let Andrew and Esteri fool you... they're goin' on account of those racy European beaches where the swimsuit rules are more .... shall we say ... liberal?

Wow didn't know............don't need to know anything more or less about it.

... glad to see you're feelin' better....

I can certainly understand how it is when a day just goes out the door!​

Yup that was me and it's fine now. It's called life and when it hands you a lemon just make lemonade out of it and I did.

I didn't post pics of DS and his birthday Crocs....

This is one of the only photos of him standing still in them:

Once they were on, he was off like a shot!

I pretty much had to pry them off him because he wanted to sleep in them! Luckily the easy way to get him out of these things is to show him his Keen shoes...he'll gladly swap because he's a shoe hoe!

Just too cute !

 

[castoff]

Meeting Bar Im there

I am surprised your about this.

Yes, Cheryl, I would allow an upgrade of my cat 6 for a cat 3!!!! With how packed this ship seems to be, it seems unlikely that there will be any upgrades at all; the only surprises might be from those who have lower category GTY cabins (wishing all of you good luck!).

Oh I remember my 7 min. ? wait time turned into well over an hour and got the last room for a cat. 5. I was on the computer, trying to figure out where the cabin was and yelled what am I doing, only I cabin left, I will take it. Yes you could hear CM in background laughing.

The funny thing is the night before I actually spent time looking at decks ect, made a list of 11 different Cat. 6 cabins that I wanted to choose.

 

[captaincrash]

I don't know much about computers but that sure does look pretty.
The only thing I know about mine is ..............it is a HP 2 Duo processor with a 64-bit processing , windows Vista. I know this because it's written on the lap top. I also have a big screen, i like that.

I like my PRICE the most - the net $315 out of pocket - but actually the deal was for $350 + tax (on $699 = $45). And - of course - the most important thing to like about ANY computer is that it works with some degree of reliability and stability. My other one is DEAD and worth nothing to me. Whereas the new TOsh is PRICELESS so long as it works.

It still amazes me how much computers and the web has changed MY lifestyle and habits. TO think about 17 years ago my 1st LAPTOP computer was a refurbished TOSHIBA T-1600 with - what I vaguely recall was ... a 12mhz 286 processor plus a 10 or 20 GB hard drive. The screen was a monochrome VGA one. I think we paid $1200 for it. I recall that we loaned it to a subordinate and she claims it was "lost" ..... while we privately thought she pawned it. This girl was shifty - and far too good looking, manipulative and materialistic to be assumed honest if ya know what I mean.

At any rate, this was my first laptop computer - a whopping 12 pounder excluding the 2 pound power BRICK and fitted Toshiba carry case. And now we do so much with sub 6 pound computers that have 10x the resolution with processors that are vastly faster with near unimaginable processing bandwidth differences to the old T-1600 - and the 160 GB hard drive versus the 20 MB hard drive... and I think memory was 640K + extended memory of 384 compared to the 1024 of DDR RAM! - It's like a portable in the house super library terminal and more!

I sometimes can't help but wonder how technology advances will change things for our kids when they grow up. Well... in my case our kids are 3 and 6... and there's still 15 years to go before our youngest reahes "maturity" in age.

IE - the model notebook I bought was intorduced NEW in January - and already it's being given a final clearance boot off the store shelves!!!!! I still shake my head in mock wide eyed amazement.

 

[bellelinus]

Julie -

- out of the 15 or 16 cruises my spouse and I have taken - we've only tried a guarantee aqssignment once - last year on the 11 niter with Disney - and we knew they had to at least give us a catagory 11 since there were no cat 12 quads. SO this represented a 700-1000 savings considering we had a 10% rebooking discount (IE would have saved 1000 without the rebooking discount). And - as such if anyone got a guarantee assignment PRICE on thier cabin - and got assigned the lowest possible cabin catagory - then I recall that on the 11 niter we still would have saved about $250-550 IF we were assigned a catagory 12. So the folks on our cruise would still save something similar IF there were guarantee rates on our sailing. I figure everyone paid regular rates given thier tiers - and not discounted guarantee rates.

At any rate - I tend to agree - our boat is sold out and I would be very surprised if they gave ANYONE an upgrade.

On the other hand I would only be mildly surprised if they "bought out" some folks just before sailing to quit the voyage and give up thier cabin.

You bring up an interesting question -- how much, if any, did they oversell the different categories? Quite often they do far oversell the cat 12s, for instance, leading to many upgrades to at least 11s, but I wonder how many they sold for this one? It's hard to believe that anyone would allow themselves to be "bought out" for this cruise -- it's not like you can get on the next one as you could if you were bought out for a 7 night Western or something.

I know that many people book a cruise and end up having to cancel for all kinds of reasons, but it seems less likely that there will be many on this cruise other than more serious reasons (health, job loss, etc.) I hope DCL kept the overbooking to a minimum for this reason.

 

[mousehouseman]

John--I like your countdown timer in your siggie, I have one like it on my desktop!!!

I wish I could put it on my wall at work, but I don't want to give the company any ideas to make it sooner. You know health, age, and salary, if you get my meaning.

John

 

[kap158]

Happy Friday Everyone!!!!

What a week this has been!!! HOT!HOT!HOT Last night we had winds up to 50 mph and there are abount 20,000 people still without power. We needed the rain.

Have been reading but not writing I have had a bad week health wise. Spent all day Monday in the Dr's office and he spend over well over an hour with me. He is a very caring Dr. Being in the medical field this is really rare when all the higher ups are looking for volume. I have worked in Labor and D elivery and in medical offices for over 25 yrs. and you don't see this too often. I have to go back on Monday am and hopefully see what is going on. Sorry for going off subject.


to all who celebrate this week. I also have to send out a special to my baby sister Reenieny a fellow diser. She hasn't been in awhile but I have kept her posted on what has been going on.

to all newcomers!!! You have joined a special group of disers!!


Is there chat going on tonite?



Have a great day!



Karen

 

[captaincrash]

You bring up an interesting question -- how much, if any, did they oversell the different categories? Quite often they do far oversell the cat 12s, for instance, leading to many upgrades to at least 11s, but I wonder how many they sold for this one? It's hard to believe that anyone would allow themselves to be "bought out" for this cruise -- it's not like you can get on the next one as you could if you were bought out for a 7 night Western or something.

I know that many people book a cruise and end up having to cancel for all kinds of reasons, but it seems less likely that there will be many on this cruise other than more serious reasons (health, job loss, etc.) I hope DCL kept the overbooking to a minimum for this reason.

Well Julie,

I'd say they must have overbooked a lot considering it's sold out and we had in excess of a year before embrkation. They already know from past experience how many folks AVERAGE in cancelling. And as time goes by they will validate thier cancellation model.

I think they are satisfied to offer incentives to have folks cancel. Thier loss for having any unpaid cabins at embarkation is 100% loss - and compared to the highest cost of the last few cabins sold for a given catagory - they could offer an "incentive" that costs LESS then the last cabin sold and the difference would be thier gain on the last cabins sold. IE - offer an INCENTIVE to cancel of say 50% refund plus free sailing on another cruise (too bad they don't have another 15 day PC voyage to offer) and take the difference in cost for the last cabin - which might sold for say DOUBLE the other cabins' cost! Shoot- at that rate they could afford to offer the cancelling vounteers a free cruise with NO cash refund - and they would still make money!

 

[captaincrash]

OK....

I've been running the new Tosh an hour and 25 minutes and the battery is only at 42%. So I estimageI have about an hour of power left.

At any rate - I am turning in now while I have a chance left for a couple of REM full cycles. Is THAT how it's referred to?

Good nite and morning folks - one in the same. See ya all later friday or possibly in chat!

And in case anyone wants to know how to enter chat since the link is gone from the 1st posting - may I suggest you look up at the RED line - with the tiny word "CHAT" at the uppper left? Click that near 6PM and you're automatically put into the chat window if you're already signed in on the forum.

 

[captaincrash]

Oh welll...


I guess I'll be missing the sprint today too - All I can say is gonna have to be ....

TAKE WHAT YA CAN !!!

 

[kap158]

Today I got a new notebook computer - a Toshiba A135-s4467... my otherwise regular computer DIED a couple of days ago right after I got it back from being reloaded / repaired by a friend. He warned me that it looked as though the hard drive was failing - and sure enough it did. Fortunately all my files are backed up - and now I'm having a great time with my new computer.

It's got an Intel Core 2 Duo processor - the mid line T series T5200, 1025 MB SDRAM, a 160 GB HD (only 5400 RPM) and a DVD RW +/- wit 15.4" WXGA (1200x800) screen. On the weak side it has an intergrated video processor as opposed to a stand alone card - so it is unsuitable for 3D games. That's probably just as well I figure.

So - I guess this qualifies as my "cheapie" computer - as I got it for .... are you ready?.... I got it for only $350 net after adjusting for the $350 gift card that was included from Best Buy (clearance priced at $699). Then on top of that I bought it using old Best Buy gift cards amounting to about $440 ... so my net out of pocket expense was only $315! My old notebook lasted a long time and cost me about 2500 - so I am sort of off-setting that purchase with this cheapie one. And as cheap as it is - it DOES have a true dual processor CPU - and 160G HD + 1MB of RAM. So how can I complain at the cofiguration and price ... so long as it works for a year or so??? Plus the reviews on the new Toshiba say it was introduced brand new in the product line in January of 2007! And now it's being clearanced out already!!!! WOW...this does not mke any sense except to say that the truly HOT notebook configurations are almost never seen in the clearance area! So this is about as good as I can get without paying a LOT more for a marginal gain in processing power among those thast were on sale or being clearanced.

This is a similar tactic to that which I'm employing with my DSLRs. I alternate spending a lot on one camera - then the next one is a cheapie stop gap of some sort - then alternate back to a pricey model. I am satisfied with this approach - as I save a little and then I satisfy my itch for the latest and greatest - so to speak.

As for my old computer - I'm gonna give it one last shot at renewal - as I'll buy a replacement hard drive (for a pitttance) and try installing it. With any luck the thing will soldier on for another year or more of service. Or maybe not....

OK - I have a lot of catching up to do on the DIS and off...

TTFN!

Crash - congrats on the new computer!!! You are my kind of shopper!!!!


Karen

 

[kap158]

Awww.....

Don't let Andrew and Esteri fool you... they're goin' on account of those racy European beaches where the swimsuit rules are more .... shall we say ... liberal?

I laughed so hard I choked on my



Cute!

 

[captaincrash]

I got 20% power on the computer and 1% energy on my staying awake - and as such heres' a last "distraction" for the wenches gathered -and for supporting the swabbies who hope to swipe another one!

Now ladies... are not these guys above just the hottest naked dolls???

<chuckles!>

 

[captaincrash]

OK.... I'm at 17% power and 0.75% personal energy left - and here's another interesting "FULL MONTY" routine for the Wenches entertainment ...

who on EARTH would ever have IMAGINED THIS would come to pass, eh???

 

[captaincrash]

And now for something COMPLETELY DIFFERENT...

Some Clowns doing thier version of the FULL MONTY....

What is the World coming too...????​

 

[Verandah Man]

I wish I could put it on my wall at work, but I don't want to give the company any ideas to make it sooner. You know health, age, and salary, if you get my meaning.

John

I understand completely John!!!

 

[captaincrash]

Just when I thought I had seen it all....

I found this...

​