my thinkpad beefs

[mykle hansen <mykle@Vinton.COM>]

hi.  i feel strangely compelled this morning to vent my spleen over
a couple of annoying Thinkpad problems, just to see whether anybody
else's experience is similar.

the first problem i have is really a sales problem.  when i ordered
the machine -- a 760EL -- i asked for a second drive to fit in the
UltraBay(tm).  when i got the system unpacked, i did indeed have
a second drive, but i couldn't fit it in the UltraBay without an
adapter device, which wasn't included and which i haven't seen any
reference to in any of the IBM sales literature.  i felt somewhat
ripped-off, but i may have been unclear when i ordered the second
disk drive that i wanted it for the Ultrabay specifically.

(do any of you use this adapter, or know what it costs?  i am going
to have to bite the bullet and get one ...)

the second problem i have is with the process of switching items in
the UltraBay.  this really couldn't be much more awkward.  in order
to install or remove the floppy, you have to insert a little plastic
bracket that fills up the top half of the front access hole for the
bay.  to install this bit of plastic you have to remove the battery,
at which point the screen weighs more than the bottom and the whole
thing flopps over.  the instructions say that you should open the screen
180 degrees before lifting the keyboard flap, but it only opens about
160 degrees, so even on a flat & level surface it cranes the base
unit up into the air if the battery is removed.  then, you have to
seat the thing just right and slide-lock it in place.  it is possible
to lock it in place while it's in a slightly wrong position that just
barely prevents you from installing the floppy, but it's the sort of
thing where a grumpy person would be tempeted to grab a hammer and
make it fit.  why, oh why, couldn't IBM just give the floppy a full-face
front panel of the same shape as the CD-ROM's?  it would just plop right in.

furthermore, the panel on the bottom of the system is held shut by the
same latch that holds the keyboard flap closed.  this is so they can be
attached to the same security device, but the practical upshoot is that
the moment that the Thinkpad flops backwards, the plastic memory cover
falls off.  plop.  i don't like exposing my RAM to the elements in this way!
in fact, the only thing that keeps the memory from also falling out is
the friction of its pin connectors.

so: i am just about ready to lay a piece of duct tape across the nice
sleek bottom of my Thinkpad, and i have given up any hope of
swapping between the floppy and the CD without shutting down first.
too bad, because Linux supports it even if Windows 95 doesn't.
i still think that the 701 model is a brilliant hardware design,
but this one is really getting on my nerves.  

caveat: i will never, ever, complain about my nice job where they
buy me these fun toys.  i just am griping because i dislike bad
computer designs on principle -- as a sysadmin, i am usually the 
one who suffers because of them.  =)  thanks for listening to me
gripe.

-mykle-