Henry Louis Gates, Jr, and the Law

Who's telling the truth?

"Professor Gates, who has taught at Harvard for nearly two decades, arrived home on Thursday from a trip to China to find his front door jammed, said Charles J. Ogletree, a law professor at Harvard who is representing him.

"He forced the door open with the help of his cab driver, Professor Ogletree said, and had been inside for a few minutes when Sgt. James Crowley of the Cambridge Police Department appeared at his door and asked him to step outside.

"Professor Gates, 58, refused to do so, Professor Ogletree said. From that point, the account of the professor and the police began to differ.

"According to his lawyer, Professor Gates told the sergeant that he lived there and showed his Massachusetts driver’s license and his Harvard identification card, but Sergeant Crowley still did not seem to believe that Professor Gates lived in the home, a few blocks from Harvard Square. At that point, his lawyer said, Professor Gates grew frustrated and asked for the officer’s name and badge number.

"According to the police report, Professor Gates initially refused to show identification.

"In the report, Sergeant Crowley said a white female caller had notified the police around 12:45 p.m. of seeing two black men on the porch of the home, at 17 Ware Street. The caller, who met the police at the house, was suspicious after seeing one of the men 'wedging his shoulder into the door as if he was trying to force entry,' according to the report.

"Sergeant Crowley said that as he told Professor Gates he was investigating a possible break-in, Professor Gates exclaimed, 'Why, because I’m a black man in America?' and accused the sergeant of racism."

Given that Professor Gates was confrontational, I believe the cop -- that Gates refused to show ID.

I certainly hope that if a neighbor of mine saw two people -- any people!! -- apparently forcing entry into my house, they would call the cops. And I also hope that the cops would ask for ID.

And I'm sorry to say that if someone sees two black men forcing their way into a private home, there is a chance that they are up to no good. That's not "profiling"; that's statistics!!

Never Buy A Gateway Computer!! OOPS!!

I bought a Gateway DX42000UB001A from Dealtree.com )a BestBuy company) via eBay at the end of April this year and got it on May 5th.

It began emitting random beeps -- random in frequency of occurrence and random in the number of beeps per occurrence.

After a number of emails and telephone calls to Gateway's Technical support (both levels 1 and 2) for troubleshooting, I was permitted to return the unit to Gateway's Repair Center in Texas (on my dime!) They got it on 6/27 and shipped it back on 6/30. I plugged it in and the beeping problem was still there.

I went through the same process as before and sent it back, this time on Gateway's dime. They got it on 7/11 and shipped it back on 7/15. It still beeps.

I called tech support again and eventually got to a level 2 person who told me that Gateway has a "repair-only" policy and that I could not get a replacement computer!!! So today I'm sending it back again. I guess I will continue to do this until they get tired of me.

Oh, yes. The first time they returned it to me, one of the feet on the bottom of the computer as missing. The level 2 person told me that they do not stock feet and I would have to PURCHASE MY OWN REPLACEMENT!!!

Here is the last suggestion they sent me on June 8:

Please restart your computer and press F8. Advanced Boot option will appear. Please get into safe mode and check out whether the same problem occur. If the problem still persists, lick on Start Menu-->Right click on My computer-->Go to properties-->Select Hardware-->Device Manager-->click on View Menu-->click on Show Hidden devices-->click on Non-plug and play drivers-->right click on Beep-->DISABLE IT. Really!

I checked the warranties for Dell, Micro Express, eMachines, Lenovo, Acer, Sony and Toshiba and they ALL have "repair or replace"!! Polywell does not.

Update: I just checked Gateway's warranty and they DO have "repair or replace"!! That guy LIED to me!!!

I have learned my lesson.

AUGUST 4th UPDATE...

Problem solved!!! During its third visit to Gateway Repair, my computer met a tech who called me and asked if I had had it plugged in to a UPS and when I said "Yes", she asked, "Along with how many other computers?" Gulp!!

I have a 550VA UPS and never thought that a Dell with a 350W PS and a Gateway with a 300W PS could overload it, but when I got the Gateway back today, I connected it to a Kill-A-Watt and then directly to the wall socket. At idle, it drew about 200 VA. When PRIME95 was running, the reading shot up to about 300VA!! And there's no beeping.

So I owe Gateway Repair an apology.

In retrospect, the ironic thing here is that had I disabled the on-board beeper as was suggested in desperation by a level 1 person, I would have realized that the beeps were not coming from the computer!!!

Live and learn.