Microsoft must be stopped!

Cringely’s latest on Microsoft’s attempt to replace TCP/IP with a proprietary MS protocol, which was announced this week. Bill Gates is (a) megalomaniacally insane and (b) the Devil hisself. Can anything stop them?

Rat bastards

Apparently, I will sleep before the floor is done. It’s 12:12am, and I’ve got four rows of planks left to install, but I’m five boards short of that. Did I waste a bunch of boards, you ask? No, I ended up with only maybe three boards total of unusable scrap due to having to cut around things. We’re supposed to have enough boards to cover the square footage plus one box (8 boards). But, the incompetent salesperson we dealt with at Ozark Floors in Fayetteville, Arkansas didn’t order enough or didn’t measure the space correctly. This is just the latest example of his incompetence. He also failed to order enough moulding, didn’t order any of the mounting track for the moulding, didn’t tell us we needed an expansion joint (which facilitated ordering even more moulding), and I can’t remember what else, but there’s at lease one more thing. And in return, he offers apologies. Great. I don’t want apologies, I WANT SHIT DONE RIGHT THE FIRST FUCKING TIME!

We chose to use Ozark Floors instead of Lowe’s or Home Depot because they had done such a good job installing one of our friends’ floors. We thought, sure, we’ll pay a little more, but we’ll get knowledgable help and great service. Yeah, right.

So, instead of having our new floor look great when my in-laws arrive Sunday, we’ll have a three-foot-wide strip of subfloor running along the front of our front room. In fact, we’ll have that for the next week, while more flooring planks are ordered.

A..l..m..o..s..t…..f..i..n..i..s..h..e..d….

It’s now 9:09pm, and I have about seven or so 26 feet-long rows to do, including one half row against the wall. I will not sleep until the entire floor is done.

floor update

I’ve got the dining room finished (trimmed out, etc.), and we’re starting the living room tonight. The problem is that our fireplace is rock and very rough. Our final solution is that we’re going to lay granite tile around the fireplace, then install the flooring up to that granite. That’s about Plan J. We probably won’t have the rock around the fireplace finished until later, though, as we’re going to have someone professionally install that. But, we should be able to have everything (other than the tile around the fireplace) done in time for the in-laws’ arrival on Sunday.

Oy, my back…

We’re deep in the midst of the flooring installation, now into day 2. Day 1 and some of today were mostly spent cursing the dealer we bought the materials from (more on this later) yet who failed to provide even the most meagre support and advice. Next time, we’ll just go to Lowe’s, where don’t expect help. Last night we ripped out the carpet and started getting nails and tacks and things out. Today, we finished that, made two trips to Lowe’s for accessories, and actually laid about 70 sq. ft. or so of flooring.
[Read more »]