Monday, June 27, 2005

ALIVE!

Hallelujah! It's alive! I always knew my computer was some sort of sentient silicon life form, despite all refutations by science. How else can you explain the will full slow down in processing power when I needed it the most? How about the 'DATA NOT FOUND' exceptions, the 'Blue screen of Death' (some form of NDE - Near Death Experience for the computer). Finally my paranoia (or at least what others call paranoia) has been confirmed by none other than the U.S. Customs and Border Protection service (they should know, after all they are part of our government).

How did this breakthrough come about? I have been waiting patiently (no that is a lie, I have been bloody impatient) for my T43 to come home. In this day and age of instant gratification, it is unseemly to have to wait more than a week for an internet purchase. Unfortunately, with the T43 proving to be as popular with the masses, as Paris Hilton's home video, a two week wait time was mandatory. Imagine my joyous surprise when I received an email a couple of days ago, informing me that the laptop had finally shipped out. The only bit of consternation was that the laptop was shipped out of Hong Kong as compared to somewhere stateside. Don't get me wrong, I have no problems paying less for a good product, but I had assumed that Lenovo mass produces the laptops and then ships them to the US for distribution, something akin to Toyota. The way it really works is that Lenovo, directly ships out the machine from their factory to the customer.

This brings us to the ‘Live’ computer bit. As I was checking the status of the UPS shipment, I found out that the machine had made its way to Anchorage, Alaska via Osaka Japan in under 48 hours but was held up by the US customs as being a 'live entry'. :) At first I thought there was some mistake with the tracking, that UPS had confused my tracking number with that of a rancher importing a genuine 'Mad Cow' heifer.

But after 24 hours with no change in status, I had to investigate the issue further. I found the source of the confusion on the UPS FAQ site describing it as:
Live Entry: A type of U.S. Customs and Border Protection entry that typically requires a visa license from the export country, when mandated by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (such as textiles). These shipments usually require a formal entry and an additional day of customs clearance.


With the confusion cleared, I am now eagerly waiting to get home to finally set my grubby fingers on the laptop.

3 Comments:

Blogger Forrest Gump said...

Before you explained, I was wondering on what the US Customs might equate a live entry package to ?

hope you get it soon.

June 27, 2005 5:38 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Should be there by now, right? :)

I should have warned you about the customs delay -- it happened to me too. I guess it's just one of those things that nobody talks about.

June 28, 2005 10:03 PM  
Blogger Duke said...

Still waiting on my T43

/An ex-Bay Area guy going to NYU next fall.

June 29, 2005 8:53 PM  

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