I get googled fairly regularly on the topic of the Dell Inspiron Wandering Touchpad Cursor, which I wrote about last spring, so I thought I'd add an update. This seems to be something that happens fairly regularly with this model of laptop - the cursor starts migrating across the screen by itself, and often heads off into a corner and you can't coax it back.
Turns out this is a hardware flaw and is fixed by having a circuit board replaced under the wrist rests. Dell support will have you reinstall drivers and do all kinds of software calisthenics, but in the end you need a visit from a tech.
I bring this up because I just had to have mine replaced again. I had it fixed in the spring and it was fine for a few months, but the little bugger started its peregrinations again in September. I only have 40 or so days left on my 3-year warranty (ALWAYS purchase these warranties from Dell. I've had this cursor thing fixed twice, and had my screen replaced once, too). I'm not really that rough on my laptop, but I do carry it with me everywhere, and I guess that's just a hazard of laptop ownership.
The Electric Rosary album of the Seattle jazz/funk trio The Living Daylights. They're comprised of a drummer, bass and saxophone. We heard them last Saturday night at the Tractor Tavern in Ballard, where they played two high-energy sets. We first encountered them about 4 years ago, and seldom miss a chance to see them. We first saw their sax player, Jessica Lurie, as a member of the Billy Tipton Memorial Saxophone Quartet at Bumbershoot. Later, my wife heard a cut from Living Daylights' 500-pound Cat album on KCMU (now KEXP) and remembered her. We bought the CD and got to see them live a bit later at the Break Room (now Chop Suey), and were hooked. Jessica probably weighs 110 pounds soaking wet, but plays alto and tenor sax with a huge sound. The drummer appears to be borderline ADD, and bears striking resemblance to the Muppets' drummer "Animal".
They toured pretty hard for a couple years trying to break into the next level, including teaming with Bill Frisell on Rosary (not a particularly good match - he doesn't have their energy, and basically just couldn't keep up), but it seems they've given up on it now, and only appear together every couple months or so. Catch them if you can - they're a real treat.
I've been blog-blocked this week, daunted by a fixation that the next post would have to be a detailed recounting of my Baja trip, a task that I have not had the energy to mount as yet. While in Baja, I was completely out of contact, either by cell phone or computer, with work, the first vacation I believe I've had where I've not done at least some work. So, I've been paying for that this week. I took some notes on my Palm in Baja just to keep the chronology straight, so I will tell some tales as I wind down the next two weeks - maybe I can figure out how to use the "stories" feature of the Abuserland software.
Perils of Caffeine in the Evening
