How To Suck

Step 1.

Be N-trig.

Step 2.

See Step 1.

…

Okay, I suppose I should clarify things.

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, my laptop is a “Tablet PC” device.  Specifically, the HP TouchSmart Tx2 Notebook, a small laptop with a rotating screen that can transform from the standard “clamshell” design into a slate form factor.  Said screen is “touch-enabled,” meaning that I can take advantage of the “touch” features built into Windows 7 and directly interact with the operating system and applications by pressing on the screen.

The device that makes this – theoretically – possible is a “Duo Sense” digitizer, a thin, clear sheet laid over the display that’s able – again, theoretically – to interpret presses and gestures made either with the included stylus or with your fingers.

I say “theoretically” because the device has never worked as advertised, or rather, it’s never worked well.  In the past I had issues with the digitizer falsely detecting touches and responding accordingly.  I’ve seen the “phantom clicks” in action, and they’re actually kind of eerie, with the screen displaying the little “ripple” effect that’s designed to give you visual feedback of your touches.  The ripples jump all around the screen at random, opening whatever folder or application they happen to click on.

This is, of course, bad news, as the random clicking could eventually start doing things like uninstalling programs and features, or deleting essential files.

The only “fix” for this was to turn off the option of using your finger as an input device.  This would still allow for touch input via the stylus, but the whole point of “Duo Sense” is that you can use both.  Hence the “duo” part of it. The “sense” part is that, when finger input is enabled, it can sense whether you’re touching with your finger or with the stylus.  This comes in handy (that wasn’t a deliberate pun) when you’re using the stylus and your hand brushes against the screen.  It knows you’re using the stylus, and disables the finger input while the stylus is touching the screen, preventing you from doing something unintended.

Again, theoretically.

As detailed in other posts, I recently reinstalled Windows on the laptop and when through considerable troubles attempting to install the latest driver software and firmware for the Duo Sense.

Eventually I did get the drivers – the ones posted on HP’s site – installed, and it appeared to be stable, with no “phantom click” issues.

But then the “phantom clicks” started up again.  According to N-trig, this issue was addressed in the latest driver release. 

Sure it was.

Beyond that, after a random period of use – it could be minutes, it could be hours – the screen would stop responding to finger touches, though the stylus still worked, for a while, though eventually that, too, would stop working.

At times when I went into the N-trig control panel, I would see that it listed the firmware version as all zeroes. 

This was another issue that N-trig said was addressed in the latest driver release.

For a little while, I could temporarily fix this by disabling and then re-enabling finger input.  Then that stopped working, and at times the firmware version would be entirely blank, and neither finger not stylus input would register.  Sometimes a restart would fix it – temporarily – as would a full power cycle, or putting the laptop into sleep mode and then waking it up.

Now?  Not so much.

When I run into issues, I can’t even try reinstalling the driver – which is actually bundled with the firmware, by the way – because when it stops working, it becomes unrecognizable to Windows, which lists the digitizer as “Unknown Device,” and because Windows doesn’t see the N-trig hardware installed, the N-trig diver/firmware software doesn’t see it either, and refuses to run.

So, yeah.

Looking online, I’m clearly not the only one having these kinds of problems.

I’ve sent a blunt and unfriendly message to N-trig, which I’m sure will be ignored.  I’ll also be sending a similar message to HP.  I don’t expect any sort of response from N-trig, because, well, they’re terrible, nor do I expect any sort of assistance or support from HP, given that my warranty has expired.

But my complaint to HP is not about HP itself – beyond the miserable touch screen experience, the laptop is a solid machine and I have no real issues with it –I simply want to let them know that in the future they may want to consider working with another company besides N-trig.

And I’m posting this for the same purpose as my posts from three years ago complaining about DirecPath, the terrible, terrible, absolutely shitty company that was my cable provider at the time:  I need to complain, and I also want to give others who have had a similar experience an area where they can complain as well. 

So if you’ve had issues like mine – or, god forbid, even worse – with N-trig, let the world know in the Comments.  I can’t promise you that it will change anything, or even make you feel better, but at least it’ll be out there.

Scratching The Surface

Shortly after I bought my Surface Pro 2, Microsoft announced that they were having a “small” event during which there would be some type of announcement relating to the Surface line.
The immediate speculation was that they were going to announce an 8” Surface Min, and a lot of user-generated renders of what such a device might look like began to, er, surface.
Though I don’t have any particular need for such a device, I was somewhat interested, and decided that, if it hit the right price point, I might consider picking one up as a companion device.
Coincidentally, the day of the event fell on a day that I had taken off from work, so, while I sat drawing (or more to the point, failing to draw) on Odin, my desktop PC, I fired up the webcast of the event on my Surface.
The rumored Surface Mini was nowhere to be seen, however, and it turned out that MS was actually announcing the launch of the Surface Pro 3.



Despite the rumors, I had considered this possibility beforehand and had already worked through my annoyance at the launch of a new and improved Surface Pro so soon after my purchase of the 2, but even so, the announcement did cause me to sigh and shake my head.
While many of the specs represent only incremental improvements, there were some significant changes that I found appealing, such as a higher resolution and a different aspect ratio, which makes the device like a traditional piece of paper in terms of overall size and shape, and an overall decrease in thickness and weight.
They also demonstrated some cool new features of the pen, particularly with regards to One Note.
As an aside, I use One Note a lot, but I feel like there’s more I should be doing with it given its capabilities, but I just can’t seem to find the appropriate use case.
Of particular interest to me was that they managed to all but eliminate the parallax when using the pen.  That is to say that there is virtually no offset between the physical tip of the pen and where it appears on the screen.
However, there was one thing in the announcement that struck me as odd:  a reference to the pen having 256 levels of pressure sensitivity.
Why did this strike me as odd?  Well, my older-model Cintiq has 1,025 levels.  Current-model Cintiqs – including Wacom’s own Cintiq-branded Tablet PC – have 2.048.
My Surface Pro has 1,024 levels, just like the Surface Pro 1.
So why the downgrade?
In reading some of the more in-depth coverage, particularly around the new pen, I found the answer, and even more than the reduction in pressure sensitivity, it gave me pause.
Unlike the previous generations, the SP3 does not come with a Wacom active digitizer, opting instead for a product from N-Trig.
…
Some of you may recall my experiences with an N-Trig device.
Suffice to say that they were not positive experiences.
Many people online expressed concern about the drop down to 256 levels.  While I did find that troubling, I know from experience that 256 levels still works pretty well – on a Wacom device.
Gabe from Penny Arcade did a post addressing the 256 levels issue (TL; DR is it’s not really an issue).
However, I still have little or no confidence in N-Trig.
A lot of Microsoft-related sites – run mostly by non-artists, for what it’s worth – bundled the concerns about the pressure sensitivity reduction and the shift away from Wacom together and simply dismissed the misgivings expressed by the commentariat as the ravings of neckbeards who are resistant to change.
That’s not it.  At all.  Again, I’m not terribly concerned about the 256 levels thing, though I will say that perception counts, and regardless of how well it works, this looks like a step backwards, and while more knowledgeable users might recognize that it’s not a dealbreaker, the average consumer – regardless of whether or not he or she even understands what it means – might see that change in specs and immediately assume that it’s bad.
But the real issue, for me, is that name:  N-Trig.  And this isn’t because I’m a Wacom fanboy; I would very much like to see Wacom forced to square off against some real competition, as they pretty much own that space (and their prices reflect that fact).
I have no doubt that N-Trig has improved since I last used one of their devices.  That would pretty much have to be the case, otherwise I don’t see how they could still be in business.  I also have no doubt that MS has made absolutely certain that their new flagship device works properly.  Well, I have some doubt, given that hey released the first generation of the Surface Pro without a driver that supported pressure sensitivity in Photoshop, so it’s not like it’s unheard of for them to drop the ball on something like this.
(Speaking of Photoshop, the one piece of good news for me during that event came when a representative from Adobe came out to show off an upcoming update to Photoshop that is more touch-centric.  That is, of course, great for the SP3, but the update will also find its way to everyone with a Creative Cloud subscription, so at some point I’ll benefit from that as well.)
In any case, despite my misgivings about N-Trig, I do understand the reasons for selecting them as a vendor, particularly given that their digitizers are slightly thinner and lighter than Wacom’s, and I do hope that N-Trig can prove to be the competitive force that’s so desperately needed in that market.
But I’m still rather wary.
That said, it’s still not a dealbreaker for me; the fact that I just bought the Surface Pro 2 is what’s keeping me from shelling out the cash to pick up the SP3.
If I were in a position to shell out the money for a Surface Pro 3, I would most likely do so happily, despite my misgivings, as it does provide a lot of compelling advantages over its older sibling.  Still, while considerable progress has been made, MS hasn’t quite nailed the formula yet and it’s not quite perfect.  The typing experience, by most accounts, still needs some improvements, particularly if you are one of those people who takes – or has to take – the term “laptop” literally (I personally tend not to be one, as an extended period of typing with a keyboard, any keyboard, placed in my lap is unworkable), and even setting aside the physical issues of typing via the Touch or Type Cover, there’s the issue of the cost; Type Covers need to be included in the base purchase price.  Period.  No debate.
I understand the position MS has taken; people like being able to choose different colors for their Type Covers, so they don’t want to bundle them with the Surface.
I also think that position is bullshit.  They’re no reason that they can’t bundle them together and still have different color choices. 
But even if they can’t, they still need to drop that cost down to $0.  You have money to spare, Microsoft…eat the cost.
Because what you don’t have is mindshare, and as long as the keyboard is a pricey add-on, you’re not going to get it.
Yes, I know; iPads and Android tablets don’t include keyboards, but, per your own marketing, that’s not the segment of the market you’re trying to compete with.  The Macbook Air got mentioned a lot in the Surface event.  And guess what?  The keyboard for that isn’t optional.
Again, eat the cost.  There are plenty of avenues for making up the cost via accessories, such as replacement pens, docking stations, power covers, and so on.  Whatever happened to that whole Blades concept?
You also need to figure out a better method for storing the pen.  The loop included for it on the – optional – keyboard cover isn’t a solution, nor is the simple magnetism that holds it in place in various locations on the Surface itself.
Start addressing these concerns – and develop a good marketing strategy – and you’ll definitely have a winner on your hands, one that has the potential to redefine computing for years to come.
And you’ll also have a basis for expanding the Surface family of products.  What about a Surface All-In-One?  How about a Surface-branded Windows Phone?
In fact, if you were to say to me that you would be releasing a 5” Surface Phone with a high-resolution screen, active digitizer with pen (with integrated storage), and VaporMg casing, I would say to you, “Yes, please.”
With all of that said, while I won’t be picking up a Surface Pro 3, I hope it does well enough for me to have the option of picking up a Surface Pro 4 when the time comes.
And, you know, if some wealthy reader were feeling generous, or if Microsoft said, “Here, Jon, have a Surface Pro 3 on us,” I certainly wouldn’t object…

Scratching The Surface

As mentioned in a footnote in my last post, a while back I bit the bullet and picked up a Surface Pro 3.
I did so despite the fact that earlier in the year I had picked up the 2, had been annoyed at how close on the heels of that purchase Microsoft announced the 3, and being wary of switching from a device with a Wacom digitizer to one with an N-Trig digitizer (I had a really negative experience with N-Trig on an old Tablet PC) and its lower levels of pressure sensitivity.
Mostly because it was a good deal.  Or rather, a couple of good deals.
The first deal that caught my attention was for a 28” 4K monitor bundled with a Surface Pro 3 Docking Station.
I wanted that monitor – especially for that price – but the Docking Station wouldn’t do me any good without an SP3 to dock in it, as, due to the size difference and the different connectors, the SP2 wouldn’t fit in the SP3 dock.
Once they offered $150 the cost of the SP3, I decided to just go for it.  After all, the SP3 was bigger, while being lighter and thinner, had a higher resolution, a better battery life, and by most accounts the N-Trig digitizer worked just fine.  Plus there were some cool additional functions that ne Surface Pen could perform.
As for the lower pressure sensitivity – 256 levels as opposed to the 1,024 of the SP2 – well, as I mentioned in my last post, I’m not really physically capable of utilizing that many levels anyway.
So I ponied up the cash for the monitor/docking station bundle, a Type Cover, and a Core i7 model SP3.
I didn’t go top of the line, as the only differentiator between the two Core i7 models is the amount of storage.  Between cloud services, microSD cards, external drives, and my NAS, I’m not really hurting for storage*, so the penultimate model, with a 256 GB SSD as opposed to the 512 GB of the ultimate version, was the best value proposition.
In due course, my order arrived, I got everything set up, and I was very happy with it.  Happier – owing to the many improvements in form, such as the vastly-improved kickstand – than I was with the SP2.
However, about two or three weeks later I got an e-mail from Adobe.  As a subscriber to their Creative Cloud service, the message informed me, I could take advantage of a special offer:  $479 off the the price of a new Surface Pro 3.
”SON OF A BITCH!” I would have yelled, if I hadn’t been at work when I read the e-mail.  With that much of a discount I could have gotten the 512 GB version and still paid less than what I paid for the 256 GB model and the accessories.
*Sigh*
Still, I remained happy with the SP3 itself, though I did consider returning it, then using the Adobe discount, but ultimately laziness won out over parsimony.
Despite that annoyance, everything was going along smoothly until a couple of weeks ago when I brought my car in to the dealership for its regularly-scheduled maintenance.  The only time I could get in for an appointment was during the workday, so I brought my SP3 along with the intention of using the free Wi-Fi to get work done while I waited.
I fired up the SP3 and was presented with a message informing me that no wireless networks were available.
”That can’t be right,” I thought, and confirmed my suspicion by connecting to the available network with my phone.
So I spent most of the time there troubleshooting the network connectivity issue without success.
As a result, I noticed a couple of things that were odd beyond the SP3’s inability to see available networks.

1.  The Surface Pen wouldn’t launch OneNote upon having the top button clicked, which is one of the cool features of the SP3 and its pen
2.  There was no listing for Bluetooth in the Device Manager
3.  There was an “Unknown USB Device” listed in Device Manager with an exclamation point

I was unable to resolve any of these issues – which all appeared to be related – or find much help online.  (The Internet being useless when it comes to finding a solution to a problem?  What are the odds, he asked, sarcastically.)
The couple of forum posts I found for similar issues all pointed to one conclusion:  a hardware problem.  Specifically, a problem with the Wireless Network Adapter.
Even though Device Manager reporting it working fine, this made sense, as the same hardware controls Bluetooth – which is how the Surface Pen communicates with the SP3 – and the “Unknown USB Device” was most likely the Bluetooth component, which probably (I guessed) had an impact on the Adapter’s ability to “discover” available signals, whether Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.
After contacting Microsoft support and, eventually, leading them to the conclusion that I had already reached, it was determined that I had faulty equipment and needed to exchange it for a new one.  I could take my chances and drive to a brick-and-mortar Microsoft Store and hope that they had one in stock to replace mine, but the safer option was to ship it to the exchange center and wait.
In the meantime, I’ve busted out the SP2, which has been sitting around waiting for me to figure out what I’m going to do with it.  I have to say that, despite being less than a year old, and having only gone unused for a couple of months, it feels positively archaic in comparison.  And it’s so heavy!
While I’m using it I decided to install the Technical Preview of Windows 10 on it.  I’ll talk more about that in a future post.
In any case, the one thing I want to do is mention this for anyone – and hopefully it’s not a widespread issue – dealing with same problem with the SP3 that I had in a bold, TL; DR version that will hopefully show up in search results.

Surface Pro 3 – Unable to find available networks, no Bluetooth, Unknown USB Device in Device manager = hardware failure and requires a replacement.

I repeat:  If your Surface Pro 3 has no Bluetooth and can’t see available wireless networks, you need to exchange it for a new one.

*Well, I did have some storage issues on my desktop PC, due to having a relatively small C: drive.  I’ve since replaced it with a 256 GB SSD, which is sufficient to house the OS and my applications and a bit more besides.

My Message To The HP CEO

Last year I purchased an HP TouchSmart Tx2-1020us Notebook PC, as I'm a fan of the convertible Tablet PC form factor. As someone with a strong interest in digital imaging, I found the touch-screen capabilities intriguring.
"Intriguing." It's a suitable word choice, considering the reason I'm sending this message.
To be blunt, the "Duo Sense" digitizer from N-trig that, theoretically, makes the touch experience possible, is absolutely terrible.
From the start, I've been plagued with issues such as "phantom clicks," or a failure to differentiate between finger and pen touches, to the point that finger input had to be disabled.
Recently, I performed a fresh install of Windows, for a variety of reasons, and afterwards I upgraded to the latest drivers in the vain hope that this would address the issues.
In short, it did not. If anything, this exacerbated the issue.
None of the "fixes" promised in the new drivers were delivered, and just getting them to install was a Herculean - or perhaps Sisyphean would be more apt - task.
The touch features will periodically stop working, Windows will fail to recognize the device, and the firmware for the digitizer will disappear entirely.
In looking online I've found that I'm hardly the only person facing this problem.
As my warranty has expired, I do not expect any sort of technical support for this issue, and I don't want you to view this as a complaint against HP. Touch issues aside, I'm very pleased with the notebook's performance. I've purchased other HP products in the past - indeed, my secondary desktop is a Slimline Pavilion - and will likely do so again.
I simply wanted to state my extreme displeasure with N-trig, and to encourage you to seriously reconsider partnering with them in the future.
And, indeed, touch is clearly the way of the future, and I would hate for HP to get left behind due to the shoddy quality of N-trig products.

Thank you for your time,

Jon Maki

N-trig Responds

Hello Jon

Did you try to uninstall and reinstall the N-trig bundle from your computer?

Usually this error (the blank FW issue) is related to unsuccessful installation. Please uninstall our bundle via control panel -> programs and features and then reinstall the latest bundle (2.239).

Regards

N-trig Customer Support

Jon Responds:

Yes, I have done the uninstall/reinstall multiple times.
It usually takes multiple attempts just to do that, since the drivers/firmware WILL NOT install unless Windows actually recognizes the digitizer. The installer fails with a "fatal error" because it's not able to detect the hardware.
It usually takes several power cycles to get it to a point at which Windows/the installer actually see that the hardware is there and recognize it as a digitizer rather than "unknown device."
And even after it's installed, there's still the issue of phantom clicks if touch input is enabled.
But sure, I'll try it again, since I'm sure the 50th time will be the charm...

I Don’t Understand Anything

As I mentioned, I reinstalled Windows on my laptop last weekend. It went okay, for the most part, though it naturally took a while to reinstall all of the programs I wanted back on it – plus some new ones – and to get back all of my customizations (even after doing the Windows Easy Transfer thing, which lets you transfer over your OS and application preferences).

One area where I had some trouble, though, was in reinstalling some of the applications from HP. My laptop is a Tablet PC, with a dual-mode touch-screen that lets you use either a stylus or your fingers, and HP pre-loaded it with some applications designed to take advantage of the touch capabilities.

I didn’t use them often, but I figured I should have them anyway. However, with the exception of the Wireless Assistant and the DVD software, I couldn’t get anything to install. It would act like it was installing, but after finishing, the programs weren’t actually there. Basically, the installer would create a folder with nothing but icons in it. And I mean that literally – actual icons, as in .ico files, the little pieces of artwork that the actual icons themselves consist of. No executables, no .dll files. Just icons.

As I said, I don’t use those apps often, but I wanted them installed, especially since one of them is necessary for accessing the webcam. Which, again, I don’t use often, but…I have it, therefore I want it to work. I’ve since learned that other programs – Windows Live Movie Maker, OneNote, Skype – are able to access the webcam and use it, but I don’t have the handy little program that would let me quickly take pictures and videos and apply different effects to them.

Oh well.

One problem I had before the reinstall, which I’d hoped would go away, involved the touch screen. If I left “touch” – as in, using your finger – turned on, it would engage in “ghost clicks.” Just randomly clicking on the desktop as if it were being touched. This could be a problem, as it frequently would launch things like the control panel, and a series of ghost clicks could start uninstalling important programs and OS components. In the past, I dealt with that by simply turning off touch, and simply using the stylus as my input device.

But, as with my webcam, if I have it, I want it to work. So, having reinstalled Windows and installed a new driver, I’d hoped the problem had gone away. Alas, it hadn’t. I decided to try downloading the driver directly from the touch-screen manufacturer. While there, I noticed that they’d apparently added all sorts of multi-touch enhancements, letting you do all kinds of interesting things by pressing one, two, three, or four fingers on the screen at a time.

Neat.

So I downloaded their driver, and, per the instructions, uninstalled the HP driver. This necessitated a reboot. Once that was done, I launched the setup for the N-Trig driver…which promptly failed, saying it couldn’t detect any N-Trig hardware.

Annoyed, I checked Device Manager, and, sure enough, there was an exclamation point on something called “Unknown Device.”

Several reboots, a System Restore, another System Restore, and a lot of Googling later, I completely powered down the computer, took out the battery, let it sit for a while, then started back up.

This time Device Manager showed “DuoSense HID” under the “Digitizers” category. Yay! So I launched the driver setup, which actually started to install without saying it couldn’t detect the hardware, which looked promising. So I wandered off and let it do its thing, only to come back some time later to find that the installation had failed.

Multiple power cycles later I tried again, and this time it came up and complained that the old software was still installed and that if I clicked “Yes” it would remove the old software and shut down the computer, and that it would resume setup once I turned the computer back on.

Daring to hope once more, I proceeded.

Success!

Except…

I don’t have all of that multi-touch coolness that I’m supposed to have. Putting multiple fingers on the screen – except when doing the standard “pinching” to zoom out/in thing – doesn’t do jack.

I found another driver on HP’s site that says that it adds the multi-touch capability, but I’m wary of trying this again. I even downloaded and installed some “wintab” API that’s supposed to make the “N-act Hands-On Gestures Vocabulary” work, but no dice.

So I don’t understand. Is there something I’m missing? Presumably the drivers I (finally) installed were what was given to HP, who customized them in some fashion, but I’m pretty sure those were the drivers I had installed back when this whole mess started.

I don’t understand anything.

In any case, despite wanting to be able to do cool stuff like what you see below, I’m going to leave well enough alone for now. After all, it was bad enough when I thought that maybe I’d somehow fried the actual hardware. Most of my Googling on the subject had talked about the only resolution being to return it to HP and have them put on an entirely new screen. Which is fine, if, unlike me, your warranty didn’t expire a month and a half ago…

Edit: Ahhh...okay, maybe I understand something. Looked at the N-Trig page again and found something that says that a trial download of N-act Hands-On Gestures Vocabulary will be available in the “summer months of 2010.”

Pain In The Ass(amundo)

For a while now my laptop has been misbehaving - I place the blame for that squarely on the N-Trig touch screen and its shitty drivers; it's not content to just not work itself, it has to keep other things from working as well - so I decided to do a clean install of Windows 7.
I'm actually going to be buying a diffeent tablet to replace it come bonus time, but I'd like to get it to work in the meantime, and given that it's not that old and, theoretically, at least, could be a decent laptop, I'm inclined to try to sell it. In order to do that with a moderately clear conscience, it would be good to know that it can actually be made to work.
(So far, so good, as I have avoided even attempting to install the N-Trig drivers)
As anyone who's ever done a reinstall knows, the post-install process involves downloading lots and lots of updates, which can take a lot of time - and which require a lot of reboots - even with a really fast Internet connection.
Sometime late yesterday afternoon I was standing around wating for the latest round of updates - that's the other thing: installing one update often necessitates installing an additional update - and, bored, I picked up the "Clipper Magazine" - a coupon book - that was sitting on my table.
I saw a coupon for a place called Johnny Rockets, which is a 1950s-themed diner. I've eaten there a few times, as there's one near a theater that Scott and I like.
I realized that it was probably a bad idea to go to a restaurant near a theater on a Saturday night, but I was hungry, nothing I had at home appealed to me, so I found myself considering going, even though it was against my better judgment.
Eventually I decided to give in, and so I put on some proper clothes (as opposed to my lazing about the house clothes). As I usually do when venturing out into the world, I'd spiked my hair in the morning when I'd ventured out to run my usual Saturday errands, but as the day wore on, the spikiness had abated ant it just kind of sad. So I wetted it and reshaped it a bit. Then I put on my Chuck Taylor's, and moved to grab my jacket. It was a very windy day - gusts up to 60 MPH - so I opted for my heavier, biker jacket, which is impervious to wind.
I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror, and realized that, with my slicked hair, tight black T-shirt, leather jacket, jeans, and "classic" Chuck Taylor's, I looked like some sort of sad "Fonzie" wannabe.
And I was going to a place with a 50s theme.
"You are," I said to myself, "fucking ridiculous. Why don't you roll up a pack of smokes in your shirt sleeve while you're at it?"
Still, I didn't feel like changing, and this wasn't about going out to be social. I was just hungry.
"Fuck it."
So I headed out - ignoring the voice in my head that kept asking me if I was going to start saying "Ayyyyyyyy!"and pointing out that I'm actually less cool than Potsy and Ralph - and, eventually - traffic was moving slowly because "ZOMG it's WINDY!" - I arrived. As is my wont, I just picked the first random parking space I could find, since I'd rather walk a long distance - even in the wind - than drive around obsessively looking for the perfect parking space.
I certainly wasn't going to try the parking garages located on either side of the theater, as I could see that they were pretty well packed, so it made sense to go the more sparingly-used parking lot.
This put me a fair distance away, but oh well.
In any case, I approached the restaurant and found that I should have heeded my instincts. The place was actually overflowing.

Also Me: Now what, Fonz?
Me: STFU.

I considered my options and remembered that there was this pizza place that was okayish nearby - the area is full of shops and restaurants - and decided to check that out.
Just as packed.
Even though I wasn't in the mood for Chinese, I checked that place out. No dice.
Ultimately, I only had two options that weren't filled to overflowing with families, teens, and young couples. One was California Tortilla, which, just, no.
The other was Subway.
On principle, I wasn't about to go to Subway, because if I'd wanted Subway I could have picked something up earlier in the day from the one right next to the comic shop, or I could have walked to the one near my house. I wasn't about to drive for 20 minutes and then walk the same distance to get Subway as I would have walked if I'd stayed in Leesburg.
Defeated, I kept walking and made my way to the Harris Teeter, thinking that maybe I could find some decent pre-made meal in their deli or something. I grabbed something that looked like it could be good (Note: It wasn't), then picked up a few other little things that I needed. All the while there was the piercing sound of a wailing baby who had been crying the whole time I was there. The sound actually seemed to get louder and more nerve-fraying the farther away I got from the baby.
Then I made the long trek back to my car, past giggling teens and happy families and couples enjoying their evening out, and I thought about how much of a hassle it had all been just to go out to get a quick bite to eat a restaurant, and how much more of a hassle it all had been when you consider that I didn't even manage to do that.

Black Friday Randomness

On Tuesday before I left work I employed the "hovering" tactic on my boss before I left, which entails just kind of hanging out until she tells me what I want to hear.  In this case it was, "You might as well just take tomorrow off."
So far, with both this boss and my former boss, I believe the "hovering" approach has had a 100% success rate in either getting me what I want, whether it's permission to leave early or to not come in to work on the day before a holiday.
So, having Wednesday off, and knowing that, while it would still be bad - the zombie hordes already began descending on any and all retail outlets last weekend - going out into the world would be less bothersome on Wednesday than it would be on Saturday, I went out to do my grocery and comic shopping.
At the comic shop one of the customers asked about Black Friday deals, and the guy working there told him that the shop would be e-mailing special Friday offers to customers that evening.
When it came time for me to pay for my stack, he said, "We have your e-mail on file, right?"  I said, "Probably, but it doesn't matter - I don't go anywhere on Black Friday."
In the alternative, I considered saying, "E...mail?" and looking completely bewildered.

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While I don't - and didn't - go anywhere on Black Friday, I did look at some of the online deals.  For the most part I wasn't impressed.
I did, however, very briefly toy with the notion of buying the Acer Iconia from the Microsoft Store, which was selling it at a steep - $400 off - discount.
I have to admit that I was tempted, not because I really need it, or even want it all that much, but simply because, well, as a concept, at least, it's pretty cool.
Mostly it reminds me of the late, lamented Courier concept that Microsoft so cruelly and unwisely killed before it even got out of the gate.  Seriously, Microsoft, I would have thrown money at you if you'd actually made the thing:




Anyway, I soon decided against buying it, despite the coolness, because, as mentioned, I don't have any particular need for it, it's far too bulky, its battery life is pathetic, and it doesn't have an active digitizer, which means that I wouldn't be able to use it like a portable Cintiq, which is the main thing I want in a tablet.
My current Tablet PC can, in theory, behave in that fashion, but in practice, setting aside the fact that the N-Trig digitizer seldom works at all, it never offered pressure-sensitivity (even it claims to do so).
At some point in the new year, I will most likely pick up a Samsung Series 7 Slate, which has a Wacom digitizer (same company that makes the Cintiq), and Samsung has stated that they intend to make it upgradeable to Windows 8.  In fact, it's been used as the reference machine for the Developer Preview of the next version of Windows.

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I probably really ought to be working on my novel if I want to achieve my goal of actually finishing the thing - as opposed to simply achieving the 50,000 word challenge, which I've already done - before NaNoWriMo draws to a close, but...ehh.
I also ought to be finishing up the Heroic Portraits order that my boss placed (it's essentially done; I'm making some decisions about whether or not I want to make some additions before sending her the proof), or working on the standing, "no rush, just in time for one of the holidays" order I have from someone else.
And today I just got a challenging request from my friend Jamie which I should probably start on, but...again, ehh.