Barefoot Shoemaker

The keyboard on my laptop is fucked. Up and Left arrow keys simply do not work. I figured it might have been a software glitch, but they do not work at the bootloader either. It is annoying as hell, but if I hit down at the GRUB screen, I cannot go back up at all...

My solution? I figured I xmodmap some other, rarely used keys to up and left. I use an external kyboard and monitor most of the time anyway. This is my problem - they pay me for fixing other people's computers, but my own laptop is a pile of junk.

I have a broken pointer knob that sometimes short-circuits and sends signals without being touched (causing wandering mouse movements on the screen). I have a bad display that sometimes cuts off, or blooms out into multi colored jumble. And now two dead keys... But this does not bother me that much, because I know how to route around these problems. An average technophobe on the other hand, has a shit-fit every time their screen as much as blinks the wrong way :P

I should get this fixed though. It's really annoying. I just don't have fucking time to sit on the phone with Dell for 3 hours explaining to them that I just need a new keyboard. I can't figure out why don't they sell laptop keyboards on their website. The only way you can get a new keyboard is to call their parts department. And you better have a valid part number, or an open service call...

Tags: hardware, computers, technology, laptop, dell, keyboard