mth·ology : a weblog by Matt Hamer
Feb 10, 2009
Matt Hamer

After just a few months, the SSD in Adrienne’s Dell Mini 9 failed. Annoyed, but thankful it was still covered by warranty, I called the Dell small business customer support number. After a short hold, I was talking to a competent tech to whom I described the problem: “I’m fairly sure the SSD in my Mini 9 died.” After a brief conversation about the error message, he agreed to send me a replacement with an OS image pre-installed . The following morning, less than 12 hours after my call, it arrived along with an empty box to send the whole thing back if the drive didn’t fix the problem. I’ve dealt with Dell’s customer service four or five times. Each time, I’ve been completely satisfied. I suspect it is because I order and deal with them only through the small business division, never the consumer side. In addition to having access to better service, your system won’t arrive pre-loaded with the trial-ware and “special offers” that plague consumer systems. I happen to own a small business, but if you don’t, their only requirement seems to be that you specify a “business name” with the order. Fred’s Bank?

About

I'm Matt Hamer. Mth·ology started as a "home page" and became my personal weblog in 1999. I've been a sporadic blogger, but made a career working with blog-related ventures that include Pyra Labs, the creator of Blogger, Kinja and Gawker Media. I've just started a new company, Attribyte. You can contact me by sending mail to or by AIM at If you are a long-lost friend or relative, I'm the Matt Hamer on Facebook. For whimsy, like my 140 character synopsis of La Traviata, follow me on Twitter.

Attribyte

Attribyte's software continuously scans, analyzes and indexes thousands of blogs and news sites. From this stream of content, topic-specific, searchable digests are published with editorial input that ranges from (almost) zero for the flagship site, Attribyte, to quaint human-powered blogs like this one.

Blogroll

These are the sites I follow with Attribyte's feed-reader. As I add sites, Attribyte analyzes their links to discover the most popular entries.

Subscribe · Copyright © Matt Hamer · Hosted by Attribyte, LLC