I called GeekAvailable.com this morning at about 10:00 PDT; I was told that they expected receipt of a part to-day, and to have my note-book computer fixed about half an hour after that; and that they would call me as soon as it was ready.

I surely hope that I'll have it back to-day.

On Wednesday, while waiting at IAH between flights, I spoke with a representative from GeekAvailable.com about repair of my note-book computer. The rep said that turn-around time would typically be about 72 hours, allowing for order and receipt of parts.

I took my computer to them on Thursday morning. On Saturday after-noon, a technician (the same fellow with whom I had spoken on Wednesday) told me that he believed that a voltage inverter had failed, and that he had ordered a replacement on Thursday or on Friday. (My computer has a large screen with an odd aspect ratio — 1920×1200 — so it's no surprise that this part would require a special order.)

(It's not good policy for them to order such a part without my clearance to actually effect the repair, but in this case I would have given my okay.)

I'm hoping, then, to have my note-book computer back to-morrow or on Tuesday.

While I await the return of that computer, I am using Bessie, a desktop computer that I maintain as a Win9x legacy machine.

As such, Bessie has only 512MB of RAM — Win9x actually becomes more dysfunctional if there is more RAM than that installed, though Win9x can handle GBs of virtual memory. But, with that memory constraint and with Windows' otherwise poor memory management, applications frequently hang or crash or otherwise do intensely annoying things. I really need to clean-up Bessie's file system and free-up a drive so that I can alternately boot Linux on it.

And Bessie connects to the 'Net at noticeably lower speed, probably because of crummy telephone wiring to the computer room.

So I am not doing nearly as much on-line as I otherwise would.

(The Woman of Interest has been kind enough to manage my principal character in the Kingdom of Loathing since my return to San Diego.)

I am visiting the Woman of Interest, my having left home to do so on Thursday morning. On Wednesday night, the display of my notebook computer apparently fried, so I've not brought it.

I'm very uncomfortable with the general feel of her keyboard; and her computer, being a Mac, uses different meta-key combinations from those now familiar to me. (I used to use Macs a lot, because one of my employers insisted on such, but that was long ago.) So I won't be on-line much before I get home, on Wednesday.

When I do get home, I will have to use my cranky old desk-top computer or rental machines, until I get the notebook computer fixed. So my on-line presence will still be more limited for a while.

The fix for the Windows Bluetooth set-up problem was to select Cancel during the portion of the installation that was failing. The set-up routine would then ask for permission to reboot the system. After the system were rebooted, any attempt to use the applications from that package would cause the set-up routine to resume, and it would be able to complete successfully.

So the program was trying to do something that it couldn't do without the computer first being rebooted. It plainly should have at least suggested that much, instead of plaguing me with requests to activate the Bluetooth unit.

Anyway, I will now be more concerned to get Linux to interact usefully with the phone set by way of Bluetooth.

The 'Net is awash with pages that claim to be about how to do this-or-that in Linux, but are really only about how to do it with some peculiar flavor of Linux.

The Dell Bluetooth module arrived yester-day. Physical installation seemed to go off without a hitch, the little Bluetooth light on the case now lights-up, and my Linux installation sees the device (when it is activated).

However, the Windows program for setting-up a protocol stack isn't working. It will run for a while, doing no more than showing a little bit of disk activity, then tell me to activate the unit (by pressing Fn+F2). It doesn't seem to much matter what I do at that point, whether it be to turn the device off and back on, or just turn it off; the program repeats its unhelpful behavior.

The Windows package in which that set-up program was included is obnoxious in other ways. Although it promises otherwise, its only function after a failed or damaged installation is to remove all of the installation. And when one seeks a reïnstallation, it insists upon re-writing the firmware of the unit, which takes a fair amount of time. Partly, this is dat Ol' Debbil, software that assumes that the user is more stupid than the code.

Since I now have another Bluetooth device (my cellphone), I am retrofitting my principal computer for Bluetooth capability. I could have got a USB Bluetooth 2.0 dongle for about US$25, but there's a compartment in the case for a Dell-specific Bluetooth 2.0 module, and Dell sells refurbished modules for about US$20 (counting tax and shipping). The module, like a dongle, connects by way of the USB host interface, albeït not with a standard USB connector.

What I'd like to do is get something installed so that the phone would see the computer as a head-set, and the computer would alert me when the phone were ringing and so forth.

Another virtue of installing the Dell module is that the already present, built-in Bluetooth light will actually do something.