So what’s up with Sony? I did a Google search for “VAIO VGC-V517G” open case

There were no direct links to anything, and I did find the Sony Support page and decided to go to the live chat session to see how well they would score in supporting a simple question. (There is a PDF and it’s located here: http://www.docs.sony.com/release/VGCV517_V520G.pdf but for my test I was curious to see how long it would take them to give it to me.).

I’m assuming the free sessions begins once someone actually talks to me.

10:13 PM Connecting…
10:13 PM Connected. A support representative will be with you shortly.
10:16 PM Support session established with Laura.
10:16 PM Laura:
Welcome to Sony Online Support. I see by your model number that your Computer is out of warranty. Sony phone support cannot provide you with any free technical support, but Sony has provided a way for you to obtain 15 minutes of free chat support. We’ve been solving more than 50% of the issues during these free periods. If your particular issue is more complex and can’t be fully resolved by the end of the free 15 minutes, then you will have the option of paying to continue the Support session.
10:16 PM Laura:
Hi. I’m Laura. Please allow me a moment to review your concern.
10:17 PM Laura:
Thanks for waiting. I’ll be glad to assist you with the information on cleaning the computer case and service.
10:18 PM Customer:
No. How do I open the case was the question.
10:18 PM Customer:
Open it to clean the INSIDE and upgrade the RAM
10:19 PM Customer:
Mostly just one question only: How do I open the case.
10:19 PM Customer:
I run a computer business I only need a link to the spec manual in PDF
10:20 PM Transferring session to another technician…
10:22 PM Support session established with Hazel – (C4EB).
10:22 PM Hazel – (C4EB):
Hi. I’m Hazel. Please allow me a moment to review your concern.
10:23 PM Customer:
actually I need a service manual to open the case.
10:23 PM Hazel – (C4EB):
Thank you for waiting. I will be glad to assist you with the information regarding the service manual.
10:23 PM Hazel – (C4EB):
Please let me know your full name and telephone # for our internal database records.
10:23 PM Customer:
David Curtis 352 232 1678
10:24 PM Customer:
Owner, Brooksville Computer
10:24 PM Customer:
Servicing a VAIO to add more RAM
10:24 PM Customer:
A+, Network Plus, CCNA certified
10:25 PM Customer:
The client wants to go with a DELL, I told her let me upgrade the RAM, the Sony is good enough.
10:25 PM Hazel – (C4EB):
Thanks for the information, David.
10:26 PM Hazel – (C4EB):
I understand that the model # of the computer is VGCV517G; is that correct?
10:26 PM Customer:
yes
10:27 PM Hazel – (C4EB):
Thanks for the confirmation.
10:28 PM Hazel – (C4EB):
Sony doesn’t recommend its end user to open the case.
10:28 PM Customer:
I’m not the end user, but thanks. I’m a certified pro with 12 years experience.
10:29 PM Customer:
in NYC worked on LANs with 3000 computers.
10:29 PM Hazel – (C4EB):
I am sorry that you felt way.
10:29 PM Customer:
Felt what way?
10:29 PM Customer:
I’m a technician hired to do a job.
10:29 PM Customer:
Just like you.
10:30 PM Customer:
The end user is the owner.
10:30 PM Hazel – (C4EB):
Thanks fro the information, David.
10:30 PM Customer:
Link to the manual or not?
10:31 PM Customer:
It shouldn’t take 15 minutes to get that link.
10:32 PM Hazel – (C4EB):
In that case, I suggest taht you contact our service repair team.

I had decided to test whether eSony’s “FREE 15 MINUTES” was for real or just a scam, so I kept it down to one single question that could be answered within two or three minutes by any professional using a simple Google search and I found that Sony was in no way interested in providing the necessary information even though the page where the Free 15 Minute eSony help link was located was directly to the right and slightly below the PDF I was looking for. – Take a look at the page: http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/model-home.pl?mdl=VGCV517G&LOC=3#/manualsTab

Sony eSupport – Start your 15 Minutes FREE RUNAROUND session! is a post from: David Curtis

Dealing with Chronic Pain

“Chronic” pain can sometimes be a misnomer. I’m sure there are kinds of pain that truly are forever no matter what someone does to try to lessen it over the years, but in my experience there’s a warming up period which makes the pain suddenly disappear (for the workout period) or turn into just an ache.

I won’t bore you with any stories about how I had my left arm injured to the point where the nerves in my left hand would simply stop working and I couldn’t hold anything heavier than a few pounds, or how it took me almost ten years of working out to make my left arm my strong arm because of it. I will tell you that once not too long ago I injured my right elbow (head of the radius, capitullem and lateral epicondyle) are now all sensitive.

I think it’s a combination of striking the Makiwara full force (and breaking cinder-block) with the Palm Heel strike AND not using a wrist strap while doing bent over rowing at the gym with 450 pounds on the bar. Either way, my right elbow now needs to be kept out of a draft or it bothers me. So I keep it in this neoprene elbow brace or wear a long sleeved shirt whenever there’s a draft (which is all the time) when I’m on my computer.

Ok, so that said, IF you do injure yourself somehow – RELAX! Don’t worry – go slow, very slow, and MAKE it feel pain gently. The way I got my left arm (the one with the grip that used to fail after a workout?) to eventually get better was to squeeze hand springs, a pinkie hand ball, and a sponge grip exerciser 2,000 times a day for years. Both hands. It got better. Now I’ve got to start doing the same for the right. Bummer, but that’s how it’s done.

ANYWAY – so that was a long time ago and it still hurts but I’m dealing with it and thought I’d warn you – EGO is deadly, even if it’s only to “show off” for yourself to see what you can do all out. If it doesn’t set you back it will at the very least whisper in your ear “dummy – ease up – you’re only human!”

Elbow and Shoulder Pain is a post from: David Curtis

Shower Workout

Strength training or endurance – a synergistic regimen of calisthenics for the shower is always a good thing!

Shower exercises are my name for a set of exercises that can be done without equipment of any kind except for a towel. Any piece of fabric will work in place of a towel however – a pant leg, even a broom stick will work.

There’s another extremely good triceps exercise I’m not showing in this video which I’ll include in a later video showing how to strengthen the triceps and biceps in a most unexpected (but ingenious, if I do say so myself) manner.

These are perfect for when you’re in a hurry (or your wife is, and you don’t want her to know you’re being so selfish as to actually get a bit of a workout before taking her somewhere in the car).

PS – My workouts aren’t about getting ripped or washboard abs etc, though you can aim for that if you restrict your diet and don’t drink beer very much. My workouts are about strength and and / or endurance and being able to perform better. If you follow my workouts your muscles will grow bigger, you will get more cut up (defined), and you can sculpt with discretion. All you need to do is apply more force for bulk, more reps for definition, add more sets (up to 5 sets of each) and more types of exercise for each isolated body part you’re working on (again, 5 variations – thus a total of 25 sets!!), and do daily split routines (work out a.m. and p.m.). But that takes a ton of time that most people who want to be strong but don’t work construction simply don’t have.

Shower Workout is a post from: David Curtis

Today went well. It always goes well in the beginning after getting out of condition. Workouts are short and careful so as not to injure or strain too much, so a half an hour or so does it.

That’s me from the other day explaining heart rate running/exercising but it’s also me holding myself upside down against a wall NOT doing handstand pushups (but while I was there I did several full extension flexes (since I weigh 240 pounds right now [Doc says "obese"] that’s enough to begin with) just to give my joints and muscles a shot of heavy strain.

The handstand position is also something you’ll feel in your head as all the blood rushes up – not a good feeling so if you have any stroke issues DEFINITELY talk to your doctor. I’m 55 years old and crazy, so you definitely don’t want to say “If he can do it, so can I” unless you’re almost as nuts as I am.

So today I ran with the ten pound weights for about 7 minutes (a mile or less) with my heart rate up there at 140 plus beats per minute for at least half of it. Then I came back and hit the Chinese wall bag I made using kitty litter.

The above video shows my first day with the wall bag. I’ll shoot another next week to replace it with more types of punches and info on making a fist.

Then I used the surgical tubing to re-develop my punching power/speed:

I think for tomorrow or Saturday I’ll do a video on situps and crunches (I’m fat remember but that doesn’t mean I don’t know how) and also something one of Doc Savage‘s men liked to refer to as “an arduous regimen of synergistic calisthenics”. I’ll also go into the technique known as negative failure, which goes beyond simply using a spotter to help someone get in the last few repetitions lifting a weight.

Day 12 – The New Years Workout is a post from: David Curtis

That’s a love song that ranks right up there with this one:

Edie Brickell – Good Times. And the woman who will do it to us is almost always like this one. So this song belongs here because it is kind of a “before” picture, what goes on before the video’s above – of the best and most beautiful at the beginning – the perfect relationship that somehow invariably, for so, so many of us, just somehow goes wrong and that we never forget:

You’re Beautiful – Somebody That I used to Know is a post from: David Curtis

It’s quite plain. The founding fathers made it clear these rights are ours not because they were granted but because there is armed struggle by us to secure them. Take them and we will arm ourselves again and struggle again and take them back, and those who try to stop us will fare the same and suffer the same fate as the British before.

This struggle for these rights we call freedoms, this ongoing and continued toughness and refusal to give them up, this pride in victory or death attitude against oppression IS WHAT DEFINED THEN and IS WHAT DEFINES RIGHT NOW AGAIN IN THIS MOMENT IN HISTORY the INDOMINITABLE AMERICAN SPIRIT of noble defiance burried in the heart of EVERY man because we are all created equal and no man or small group of men shall lord over us and the nation made so great by our roar of defiance heard round the world! The time is now here upon us to roar again and make them tremble and take back our destinies as free men! Stand with us! And if you be cowards or cringers or lick spittle boot licking toadies and grovelers we have no use for you. Get out of the way.

Occupy Wall Street – American Freedoms – The Constitution and the Bill of Rights is a post from: David Curtis

Gay Apparel

Here’s another example. Queer. When I was 16, back in 1973, I visited England and Ireland for a few months. One of the people I got to know while I was there referred to someone he knew as queer. It’s meaning in the English language is odd, strange. The British and Irish didn’t use it any other way. The meaning has shifted entirely to mean homosexual, and it is usually used as a pejorative. It is absurd that gay apparel should now be seriously considered to mean homosexual clothing or style (as if there were such a thing). Insanity! But it makes a very good point – what are a people’s right to bear arms?

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. The attitude of Americans toward the military was much different in the 1790′s than it is today. Standing armies were mistrusted, as they had been used as tools of oppression by the monarchs of Europe for centuries. America HAD NO STANDING ARMY until World War II.

Today we have militarized police and standing armies.

Disagree? http://www.businessinsider.com/program-1033-military-equipment-police-2011-12

The facts people – The government is working to change the meaning of words, working on taking away our right to bear arms, and then building a standing army and militarizing the police – taking away our rights and plundering our nation’s wealth siphoning off trillions and trillions of dollars.

Of course if you’d rather come home after work, stick your head in a newspaper and watch the ball game on television and not think about it, well, keep sleeping.

Parents Outraged Over Teacher Removing Word ‘Gay’ from ‘Deck the Halls’ is a post from: David Curtis

Ho Ho Ho! This year, more than any other, brings to mind homeland security, the TSA, cops with probable cause (or no cause) and military Home Battlefield concerns of Senators throughout America – once care-free land of the free and home of the brave.

Santa is now a security threat. Wearing a well padded and rounded red costume several to a dozen sizes too big, face covered by a white beard, hair covered by a fur trimmed hat, white gloves and big black boots and belt, carrying an oversized angular heavy red sack – Santa is a potential terrorist just waiting to happen, wrapped from head to toe with high explosives ready to blow any mall or heavily populated area with lots of unsuspecting shoppers sky high! Your friendly jolly Santa of yesteryear has now been replaced by a sinister man of evil dedicated to destroying your holiday and your life.

Picture this scenario – Santa is publicized to appear in a location which is guaranteed to draw hundreds if not thousands. The real Santa is abducted and replaced by a terrorist wrapped in explosives, or by someone who applies for the job who is actually the terrorist! The terrorist can also wait until lunch break for the Santa to leave momentarily when the crowd is already swelled with adoring children – and while on break he either subdues the store Santa and replaces him, or simply walks over to the empty Santa seat and sits down… with nobody the wiser or suspecting a thing.

Christmas is coming. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

As ridiculous as this scenario may seem, it is precisely where America is heading. For some reason the US Government is purposely spreading paranoia just as surely as the government of Salem once spread paranoia when it began the witch hunts due to ergotism in 1692. Occupy Wall Street is a sane nation’s 99% populace coming out in recognition of the 1%’s insanity.

Santa – Coming to a Crowded Mall Near You! is a post from: David Curtis

Police, unlike Sheriff’s, are not elected and need to be supervised by citizens since their own paramilitary power structure corrupts them absolutely http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorialsopinion/2016857517_pitts27.html

Court says public has right to video police in public places

The First Amendment issue here is, as the parties frame it, fairly narrow: is there a constitutionally protected right to videotape police carrying out their duties in public? Basic First Amendment principles, along with case law from this and other circuits, answer that question unambiguously in the affirmative. It is firmly established that the First Amendment’s aegis extends further than the text’s proscription on laws “abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press,” and encompasses a range of conduct related to the gathering and dissemination of information. As the Supreme Court has observed, “the First Amendment goes beyond protection of the press and the self-expression of individuals to prohibit government from limiting the stock of information from which members of the public may draw.” …

Gathering information about government officials in a form that can readily be disseminated to others serves a cardinal First Amendment interest in protecting and promoting “the free discussion of governmental affairs.”

Live blogged from my Droid.

Police Need Citizen Oversight is a post from: David Curtis

http://pubrecord.org/nation/8622/pentagon-papers-wall-street/

Live blogged from my Droid.

Unimaginable Magnitude of Federal Reserve’s Crimes is a post from: David Curtis