so FRIGGIN' mad

i just designed and implemented a great experiment. i used up the majority of my DNase enzyme, and i thought "god, i hope this turns out well, since that's almost the last of my DNase". stupid me, i think i jinxed myself.

4 hours later, i'm ready to read my plate on our snazzy plate reader which analyzes the data for you INSTANTANEOUSLY, which is a huge advantage over our old plate reader. i program the data software in 5 minutes - that's all the time i have to spend to set up the "automatic analysis". i read the plate. the numbers are WACKY. i think "WTF, i ran identical samples yesterday, and i didn't get counts like these". i check the parameters. all is well. i reread the plate. the screen then reads:

FATAL ERROR #405. Contact Technical Support

looking in the manual, #405 means "error caused by motor motion failure." i reboot the instrument 3 times. no luck.

so i run to the old instrument to read my plate before my samples go bad. it reads, but it's ancient, so i have to save my data to a disk, transfer the raw numbers into excel, open up GraphPad (a piece of shit statistical program), and manually copy the data into the program so i can extrapolate the values i need. this all takes about 1.5 - 3 hours. as i am copying the data using the computer that is operating the ancient plate reader, i get microshit's dreaded blue screen of death. i can't save my data to the disk, the computer isn't networked, and does not have excel or GraphPad on it for analysis. ergo, NO DATA TODAY.

to vent my anger, i called molecular devices and left a nasty message as to why i spent $70,000 on an instrument that has required service and repairs 4 TIMES since june 2005. we got a lemon, and i want a new instrument.

fuckin' waaaaah.