Matt's Blog

Back in October, I told you about how there would be a fourth book in the Inheritance Trilogy, making it the Inheritance Cycle.

Book One and Two were called Eragon and Eldest respectively. Before it was announced that there would be a fourth book, people speculated that Book Three would be called Empire, to follow the pattern of a six letter word, starting with an “E”. Well, three days ago, Christopher Paolini announced that Book Three would be called… Brisingr!

From the announcement:

I am pleased to tell you that the title of Book Three in the Inheritance cycle is Brisingr. Sometimes one’s first thought is best, and so it was with naming this book. After many months of trying to sum up a complex story in a single word, it struck me that I had had the name all along. For reasons that will become clear when you read Brisingr, this title is perfect.

Brisingr is an Old Norse word meaning “fire”, that is used throughout the Inheritance Cycle as part of the Ancient Language. Christopher Paolini explains:

Brisingr is an Old Norse word for “fire.” As you may remember, in Eragon, Brom uses the word brisingr to start a fire. This is the first time Eragon hears an ancient language word, a word of magic. Later, when Eragon is cornered by Urgals in Yazuac, he shouts “Brisingr!” to great effect (see Eragon—chapters “Revelation at Yazuac” and “Admonishments”).

Brisingr is still scheduled for release on September 20, 2008, and it can already be pre-ordered from the Random House store and Amazon.

The cover (top-left) is pretty sweet looking. That’s a nice looking gold dragon. You can see a larger version of the cover here.

You can visit the Inheritance Cycle website at alagaesia.com.

Last week (on December 12, 2007), the latest build of Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) successfully passed the Acid2 Browser Test, says the official IEBlog. If you’re unfamiliar with the Acid2 Test, basically it’s a test for browsers, that uses some valid and invalid CSS (and some (X)HTML, of course) to make a smiley face. It’s meant to test browsers for their support for handling valid and invalid code. Here’s how the Acid2 test is supposed to be rendered:

Here’s how the latest build of IE8 renders it:

For reference, here’s how IE7 renders it (click for larger view):

Here’s how FireFox 2.0.11 renders it (click for larger view):

…And here’s how FireFox 3 Beta 2 Renders it:

Hopefully this is just the beginning of great changes coming in IE8.

Update [December 18, 2007 at 10:43 PM]: Apparently, the Acid2 test is broken since about today (so, IE8 did actually pass the working Acid2, as that screenshot was taken on December 12, 2007). So here’s how FireFox 3 Beta 2 renders the working copy of Acid2. (thanks Asa Dotzler for letting me know about this!)

HP announced today that there may be hardware issues with some (not all) with their HP Pavilion dv6000 and dv9000, and their Compaq v6000 series notebooks. The symptoms that may occur are these:

• The notebook does not detect wireless networks and the wireless adapter is not detected in the Device Manager.
• The notebook has no power and no active LEDs.
• The notebook does not start.
• The battery charge indicator light does not turn on when the battery is installed and the AC adapter is connected.
• The notebook issues a single beep during boot indicating no power.
• There is no video on the computer LCD panel or external monitor.
• The external monitor functions but there is no image on the notebook LCD panel.

If your Notebook is affected by any of these issues, and qualifies, HP will fix it for free (including shipping charges to and from them). If your warranty is over, they’ll still fix it if it’s within 1 year of the end of your warranty, they’ll also give you a 90-day warranty on the repair. If you warranty is still in effect, it will remain unchanged.

Full details, instructions for checking your BIOS version and updating it (if needed) and an FAQ can be found here. Please note, that this problem does not affect all notebooks within the model and serial number range.

I think it’s pretty cool of HP to fix affected notebooks even if they’re out of warranty.

There’s also a critical BIOS update that you should do (regardless of if your notebook is affected by these problems or not). Also, before sending your notebook into HP, be sure to backup all your data, as they’ll probably reset your laptop to the factory state (ie. all your data and programs gone, Vista fresh, and bloated with bloat-ware).

This actually happened to my sister’s laptop (Compaq Presario v6317ca), on either Friday or Saturday last week, the Wireless Adaptor stopped working. Windows could not find any networks, and the Wireless Adaptor was not showing up in the Device Manager. So, I tried reinstalling the Device Driver, but that didn’t fix it. So, I tried updating the BIOS to the latest version, and that failed to work too. I even opened up the HP Wireless Assistant, and even that didn’t see the Adaptor. I had determined that the Wireless Adaptor was not working because of hardware problems. So, I shot an email to HP, and they told me to do what I had done already (except, they also wanted me to recover the laptop to factory state, I didn’t want to do that), and said that if the problem persisted after trying those steps, to phone HP Technical Support and explain the problem to them. I decided to try Live Chat first. I explained the problem, and what I did to troubleshoot and attempt to fix it. They were ready to setup the warranty service, but then they realize that the model in question was a Canadian model, and that I would have to phone HP Technical Support.

So, yesterday I phoned them up, and got through to somebody in about 5 minutes. I explained the problem to the guy who answered (who actually spoke English!!!) and what I did to troubleshoot it and attempt to fix it. He had me hard reset the notebook, which didn’t fix it. So, he had me plug an Ethernet cable into the notebook, to check if that worked (which I had done when the problem started, but forgot to mention it to the guy). Then, he had me power cycle my Internet Modem (apparently, I also forgot to mention that the problem wasn’t with my Wireless Network, as my notebook connects to it fine). Then, he put me on hold for 5 minutes, and came back on the phone and told me that it’ll need to be sent into HP for warranty service. He explained to me that HP will send me a box through FedEx, which contains instructions, and that I should pack the notebook into the box (duh), and either get FedEx to pick it up, or to drop it off to FedEx. He said the box should arrive on Saturday (tomorrow), and that it usually takes 7-10 business days for you to get your notebook back (article on HP’s site says 10-14…). But, since Christmas is coming up soon, it might take longer. And… well, that was it, the warranty service was arranged, and all I need to do is put it in the box, and hand it over to FedEx. Pretty simple.

I was quite surprised when I received an email regarding the exact same issue today, actually.