I ordered it in 2006 at the same time as my Gateway computer. I’m a tough shopper, and love to do research and understand everything. One thing I knew I wanted was a very quiet computer – and 3 years later, this is the quietest computer I’ve ever heard, even with a 500g hard drive and 2 gig of RAM (did I say that right?) Although it gets a little noisy, when the fans start going when I use Photoshop… I’m still not sure if a better video card or more memory would help me out there.

I also wanted a widescreen super-sharp dealie monitor, and  if you got a monitor with the Gateway computer you got a good deal. The FPD 2185W was the best or 2nd best monitor at the time, and it cost $600, and $100 less with the computer so I happily chose that one.  I loved that monitor – -crisp and sharp, with never a problem. I told everyone how great it was!

But what kind of crap monitor just blows like that?! No warning, nothing at all. The reviews here at Amazon Gateway FPD 2185W Widescreen High-Definition – LCD display – TFT – 21 say it all:

DO NOT BUY THIS MONITOR!

As has happened to many others, my monitor went dead (blank screen / can’t turn it off) a little after the warranty expired (after a year and a half). This was a very expensive monitor and Gateway knows that this model is defective, yet they refuse to admit this or do anything about it. Also, like many others, this is definitely the last Gateway product of any type that I will ever buy. I hope others follow suit.

He’s right on that. I’m not even looking at Gateway for my next one. (Turns out Gateway is now owned by Acer anyway.)

Of course, once it breaks, you’re dead if you don’t have another monitor just lying around the house. There was no warning, just black. I couldn’t get online to even find anything out. Used a neighbor’s computer and right away found this blog on Gateway Monitors (which should have been called Gateway Monitors Suck.) Anyway, turns out it is 8 cheapie capacitors that go bad, pfft. Easy to fix, IF YOU KNOW HOW TO SOLDER. Oh, yeah, just get my solder iron out from under my drawing table here…I’m so screwed!

These guys also figured out it was the 8 capacitors which needed to be fixed. Gah, cannot believe how many people Gateway hurt by saving 50 cents on these parts!!! HATE. Clever computer technicians also noted that this Gateway monitor really has a Samsung screen inside. Well, that was a great screen. Too bad Gateway couldn’t go the extra mile and spend the extra $2 to make the monitor WORK properly and not shock people.

OMG!!! They also suggest the blown out capacitors in monitors could have been industrial espionage, and Wiki has a whole page dedicated to these crappy capacitors!! Wiki.

Here’s a fellow who took pictures of inside the monitor, replaced the capacitors, and made it work! If only I had taken soldering classes instead of pre-college…

I tried turning it on and off many times, unplugging, etc. Nothing. But when I plugged it in the last time, it made my lights dim, made a pop sound, and gave me a little shock. That’s the last time I touched it.

Of course I called Gateway to complain about this, expired warranty be damned. I couldn’t even get through to support, because they won’t sell a warranty after 3 years, so I had to call corporate Gateway, which is Acer, which is right here in Irvine, CA. But they sent me to Texas (ugh) so the executive team could toss me around like a football. They said I could return the monitor, if I boxed it up and paid for shipping, and they would LOOK at it, to see why it shocked me. But if they didn’t find a problem like what I describedthey wouldn’t fix it if they couldn’t duplicate it!!!

I told them I had found another comment online who had also been shocked, and they said, “We don’t believe anything we read on the internet.” Nice going, COMPUTER COMPANY.

Long story short, I won’t say I hate Gateway for everything – they did give me a super-quiet computer, and replaced little things, like the mouse and keyboard when they got fugly, but I am furious at them for crapping out on this monitor, which should have lasted a few more years at least, so GATEWAY FAIL on their monitors.

Executive Office Phone Number for Gateway and Acer: 800-845-2237

Gateway phone in Irvine: 949-471-7000

Cartoon caption: You may be more interested in some of our more user-friendly models.

More cartoons:

1. I miss my computer. Backup, you peeps!!
2. Google is a prude and hates chocolate chip cookies.

Quick, go to this post about the power of chocolate chip cookies. It’s one of my most popular pages, because it has a cartoon about Freudian Slips. (It’s my 5th most popular page this month. Even more popular is my post on Glee, because every one in the universe wants to know if it’s a gay show! ) Now, you tell me, would anyone reading that post think it was some kind of “pron” site? Yet I just discovered tonight, while checking out something else on the blog, that there are no adsense ads there! It’s totally blank!

Now, it originally had a couple of different words there. I’ll hyphenate them here, just to be safe. The title was, She needs therapy, or good s-ex, take your pick. Who in their right mind would say that is suggestive?!

Also, instead of asshat, I had A##h… and a couple more symbols. Does Google think that is swearing?! Has it never read cartoons before?

I am not changing any more words until I see what happens next on that page. The word s-ex is still in the title on the headline of the title bar, if you’ll notice. I might have to change the permalink to take the se-x word out. Can you believe this?!

This proves that Google is really Big Brother, condemning the most innocent ideas as trash. It really is a horrible monopoly, stealing the copyright of images everywhere, orphan books, out of print books, and anything else it thinks it can get away with.

More cartoons:

1. Google is a harsh taskmaster.
2. Sarah Palin is a five-letter word.

I’ve known Marty ever since I started cartooning. I was in some of Sam Gross’s books and Sam emailed me asking if I knew Marty and Fred Lucky, two great cartoonists out here. At that time, I knew NO other cartoonists, anywhere! Alone, all alone, in a wide wide sea. (There was a cartoon group, that had meetings, CAPS, but I didn’t find them for years because they didn’t advertise or have notices anywhere. They FINALLY have a website, nicely done, but no info about what happens at the meetings, to insure that they don’t get any new members, or any ex-members (like me) interested in coming back.)

Anyway, I had lunch with Marty and Fred, who were best buddies, and that was the beginning! Of course, they were very sweet and appreciative of my work – very kind of them!- but I was a little intimidated. They used to get together with all the successful guys, like Sergio Aragones, and with the animation guys, (animation was still going well then), etc  at extremely expensive meals that I couldn’t afford. There was always a handful of wannabes at these gatherings, and afterwards Marty and Fred would happily flame them and warn me that these were the guys who followed cartoonists, wanted to be them, and yet…never were. I never saw Marty be rude to anyone, but he always avoided sitting next to them!

Marty was the best mentor anyone could ask for, and he taught me more about cartoons than anyone or any book. Sure, he was grumpy a lot – especially after Fred Lucky passed away a couple years after I met him. I think he never quite got over that. But he was very positive about a lot of things I tried: greeting cards, syndication, my books, and even my political cartoons, which very sadly, he never saw, since they are mostly online. He was curious and supersmart, and we talked for hours about art and even more, what was going on in the rest of our lives. I would like to say he was like a second father to me, but my own father might be hurt. In any case, he was like an older brother, giving me advice about my car, editors, how to go into the outside world (we were both loners!), parties, his Chicago background, just about anything. It brings tears to my eyes to remember all that we shared.  

I rarely saw him. He liked his gatherings, but hated one on one. He was very private, and somewhat embarrassed about his great old rambling messy house in Hancock Park, surrounded by apartment buildings on each side.  The last time I saw him in person was written up by another very talented and successful cartoonist who was there, Roy Delgado, when we all got together with Bob Weber for a great meal and conversation. But we talked several times a month, and I considered him one of my best friends. I was so proud when he came to one of my book signings, white flowing mane and all!

I don’t know how or when he passed away. I just found out an hour ago from a post Nelson Dewey made on Facebook. Nelson’s own site here.  He attaches some of Marty’s cartoons in the CAR-toon magazine, which I am borrowing for this. (I think I only have one of Marty’s books, and it’s not handy to get a scan. Of course, Marty is most famous for his Playboy cartoons, but excuse me for not subscribing to that. I don’t think they’re sexist in concept, but when they don’t use cartoons by any women?? Fail. Marty said they did  keep demanding color cartoons from the old-timers like him, however, just to stash, not to print, so they have TONS of back cartoons from the older cartoonists. Playboy is a death dealer.)

One of the things we truly shared was a love of animals, often more than people. I can never forgive the hateful neighbor – not sure who, but if I ever find out, will publicize her or his name – who reported his dogs barking when he was in the hospital a couple of years ago. The handy dandy animal services, run by the bad Ed Bok, took his 3 dogs, that he had cared for and had for YEARS,  WHILE he was in the hospital, and I guess destroyed them or offered them for adoption. Which means 7 more days to live, right? So he came back from the hospital, his first big illness, weak, to find his dogs gone forever. HATE. Last year he found one little girl dog that he thought was adorable – I could hear her annoying barking every time we talked – so I hope someone is taking care of her.

One thing that I feel bad about is that I could never get him into a computer. He had a slow antiquated one, 7 years old, that another loser neighbor talked him into buying, that I think he used 2 or 3 times.  Obviously, a lot of my cartoon news – and even social things – was from online. He understood some of what I was talking about, but mostly from watching TV a lot. I even did research for him this spring, to find a cheap yet fast computer to get him into the whole world that he was missing, but he got cranky and snapped at me. I truly believe he would still be here if he had more ties to the present – and the future – that are here for everyone on the internet.

Sad, sad news. Marty, I love you.

More cartoons:

1. Marty Murphy Memorial (and books.)
2. It’s Sergio!

Here you go – and she’s off:

Aug 15, 2009 @ 8:27 pm

Closing the thread temporarily, because people aren’t really using it to discuss media, anyhow.

Word to the wise, if you see yourself as a contestant’s defense attorney or prosecutor, you should probably post elsewhere. I’ll clean things up and open the thread tomorrow or Monday — as time allows. Everyone go have a weekend or something.

Aug 24, 2009 @ 12:42 pm

The nagging me just makes me contrary, in case you didn’t notice. And to be clear, one request isn’t nagging; it’s the pile on that’s the problem.

Aug 27, 2009 @ 10:30 pm

Thread closed. Again.

19 posts deleted. 1 person banned.

Look, this isn’t the Ed thread. Reality Steve isn’t media. If he’s reporting on a contestant, take it to that contestant’s thread.

When there’s actual news about this show, please send me a PM and let me know. The thread is closed until then.

Is she a freaking control freak, or what?!!! I can see why being a mod attracts copy editor types, but how about little people like this?

And don’t you love that Reality Steve isn’t the media?! Ummm – (they don’t allow this word in TWOP, so I’m glad I don’t comment there -:)) – it’s called a BLOG. Is she going to claim USW, ET, and all the other blogs aren’t media, too? I don’t read him – not interested in someone who apparently delights in ruining the surprise in a show- but I think he does his research, and I did hear part of his Deanna interview, and he is a pro.

More later on my view of the latest news.

More cartoons:

1. The trouble with Television without Pity is Barnes.
2. Predictions for Jillian Harris and The Bachelorette Finale!