Windows

Office Of The Future

Posted by on Jan 17, 2007 | 7 Comments

Just when I thought my home office saga was behind me, it seems to have only begun. Here’s what’s pretty much forcing me to pull an all-nighter tonight:

  • The dufus at Office Depot who helped me with my order wound up ordering the wrong pieces – which was a blessing and a curse. Some of the pieces were wholly incorrect, and some of the pieces wouldn’t have fit anyway. I wound up refusing a couple of pieces before they could be assembled, but the delivery guys had assembled two large pieces that I didn’t order in the first place. To make matters worse, they should’ve been assembled offsite – as that’s the “premium” package I paid for. Let the Office Depot buyer beware! I’m expecting a call from them tomorrow.
  • As I noted yesterday, I spilled coffee on my computer. Damage seemed to have been skin deep, but today one of the video cards started acting wonky. This spurred me to take another look at the AMD QuadCore system sitting in the corner – which is on its way to becoming my primary desktop right now (files are transferring over the network as I write this).
  • I blew a fuse by plugging in a simple, empty surge protector (with its switch in the “off” position, mind you). Seems I’ll have to call an electrician sooner rather than later. I’m terrified to plug anything more into the wall – as I’m seemingly tapped out on that circuit. It’s workable, although I’m probably going to use floor and desk lamps instead of the embedded ceiling lights. Guess I just like electronics too much?

I just want my “Office of the Future” to be done already!

What’ll keep me up is the computer data transfer and setup. I’m also leaping into the world of Windows Vista (officially), though I’ll be able to tri-boot into Vista x64 and Windows XP Professional. Despite my complaints, I’m not expecting Vista to get in the way of my day-to-day tasks. I’m still not sure if I’ll switch to Outlook 2007 though. We’ll see.

Oh, and I’ve also got to do the dishes – Ponzi’s reminded me fifteen times in the past two minutes. It’s nothing but work, work, work, work, work, work, work, and work. It’s going to be an all-nighter, indeed.

[tags]work, home office, office, office furniture, workload, working[/tags]

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  • http://www.penguinsix.com/ Andrew

    If you are going to call an electrician, you should consider not just fixing a few broken fuses but rewiring your super office to handle an increased load. I’d look at a get quad plug boxes (allowing four things to be plugged in) and have them run directly into the fuse box on their own line.

    And while he is slicing holes in your drywall, you could have him stick in some conduit so you can run Cat5 (or Cat6, or whatever the next new new cable is in the world) from the super office to a central area, like your fusebox cabinet. This will let you, in the future, pull new wire through to meet the demands of the future.

    My wife outlawed cables though it is pretty much an impossiblity. I managed to soothe her a bit by throwing all the printers and the house’s central server in a backroom with the cables running through a conduit in the wall.

  • http://julesschroom.com Jules

    After suffering through a similar problem last week, (it’s a circuit, not a fuse, dorky-pants, I know your house isn’t that old) I am with Andrew on that one, you probably should have an electrician out there, to give you some extra juice, because the overloaded circuit problem will happen again, and you might have a real pain in the ass on your hands.

  • http://julesschroom.com Jules

    P.S. That was an awesome example of run-on-sentencing, I just posted! I didn’t even hit *submit*, it just posted automatically. Weird…

  • G. Goodyear

    All I can say for “Office Cheapo” (Cheap serivce, attitude, but not price) is that I ordered a laptop through them. I upgraded to “2 day shipping”. Well needless to say three weeks and nada! Zilch! Nothing! I canceled my order, but was told that I would not get credit for the cancellation until I recieved my order and returned it to the store! Though I had not recieved my order, it was in que and there was no way to offically cancel the order according to them. I had to wait and return it. Then the day I tried to return it, I was told the manager was not there and I would have to come back the next day. I will not do buisness with them again.

  • http://www.don-quitar.com Lisa Miller

    Welcome to matrimony, Chris!

    I swear to Pete, geeks are such whiners. Here you are running all over the house, tearing your hair out in frustration doing ummm…exactly what you really love to do and someone, yes that certain special someone wants you to do something as ordinary and mundane as washing the dishes. Awwww…….

    My hubby, Don Crowder is a certified (certifiable?) geek as well as an excellent guitarist and on very, very rare occasions doesn’t understand why a star such as himself has to do some chores. Ahem…lemme ‘splain someting to jou…

    Maybe later she’ll kiss you and make it all better. Hope so.

  • Unclebob

    Hi Chris, by now you probably had your electrician out. Here’s some fun items I discovered on my condo in Calif. Thirteen plugs or appliances can and will be installed on the same circuit. That includes ceiling fans and hopefully not microwaves. If your home is old enought you probably have the old fat circuit breakers. Your electrician can remove one and replace with two thinner ones. I added two new circuits on my computer room and I know you have far more stuff than I do. Forget using the installed plugs for any computer equipment, unless you like the smell of burning transformers and sudden crashes. Run everything thru a battery backup, it adds power when the line voltage sags and believe me it will.

    I’d install a seperate ground for those new circuits as most installed grounds are terrible on existing housing. Not to mention the poor workmanship that exist’s today in construction. Pray you have copper wiring and not aluminum or you’ll need to rewire the whole house.

    Drop me an email if you have any questions.
    Yes I know I can’t spell or type very well.
    ub