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Bestbuy video card: Unknown
Apple's video card: ATI Mobility Radeon 7500, 32MB

Bestbuy video out: S-Video-out
Apple's video out: DVI/VGA/S-video

Bestbuy video card: nVidia GeForce4 420 Go, 32MB
Apple's video card: ATI Mobility Radeon 7500, 32MB

Bestbuy video out: VGA/S-Video
Apple's video out: DVI/VGA/S-video

Best Buy?

Nor does it support most of the techologies which have enriched the internet: . . . Flash . . . Animation . . .

I don't know too many people who would agree that Flash and animation have enriched the internet. I prefer substance myself. But then again I'm an old geezer who buys a stereo based on the quality of sound, not on the animated LCD displays, flashing LEDs, and sci-fi styling.

ATI Radeon 7500 64MB DDR PCI Graphics Card

Dual display (DVI, S-Video, analog), DirectX 8.0 and OpenGL supported, etc.

Write ONCE media.
If cameras and PDA's were the target, this was the first fatal flaw.
(multisession sure, but that just eats up even more precious space)

EXPENSIVE MEDIA
($11.66 each, $0.46/MB. Compare that to MD- DATA2 650MB discs at $2.00 (And they're rewritable)

Digital Rights Managment, included FREE! for those who can't govern themselves.

Trying to fill a niche that the might of Sony couldn't for 10 years

Proprietary transport. With no S/PDIF digital out. In other words, NO FAIR USE.

UGLY and EXPENSIVE players.

Media -begging- to be lost.
How long do you think you could keep from losing this $11 gem??

I could add many more reasons but I have to get to work! ;)

Maybe we could keep this list growing and send it to the (out of work) CEO...but then again, I'm sure they already knew what a horrible format it was before unit 1 shipped. This is a blatant attempt to copy Minidisc's design and burden it down with DRM (as well as package and market it to kids) ---NEXT!

-=Chud-Wretch

Write ONCE media.
If cameras and PDA's were the target, this was the first fatal flaw.
(multisession sure, but that just eats up even more precious space)

EXPENSIVE MEDIA
($11.66 each, $0.46/MB. Compare that to MD- DATA2 650MB discs at $2.00 (And they're rewritable)

Digital Rights Managment, included FREE! for those who can't govern themselves.

Trying to fill a niche that the might of Sony couldn't for 10 years

Proprietary transport. With no S/PDIF digital out. In other words, NO FAIR USE.

UGLY and EXPENSIVE players.

Media -begging- to be lost.
How long do you think you could keep from losing this $11 gem??

I could add many more reasons but I have to get to work! ;)

Maybe we could keep this list growing and send it to the (out of work) CEO...but then again, I'm sure they already knew what a horrible format it was before unit 1 shipped. This is a blatant attempt to copy Minidisc's design and burden it down with DRM (as well as package and market it to kids) ---NEXT!

-=Chud-Wretch

If you look at the list of PDAs on the Best Buy site, doesn't the thumbnail of the Zire look really ugly compared to the rest of them? I probably would be less inclined to buy that PDA based soley on that picture...

If you look at the list of PDAs on the Best Buy site, doesn't the thumbnail of the Zire look really ugly compared to the rest of them? I probably would be less inclined to buy that PDA based soley on that picture...

Another problem is that the disks are write once media. I'm usually an early adopter, but I just couldn't justify spending over $10 a disk for a 500 MB write once disk, no matter how physically small it is.

I know if there were more devices using the prices would come down but these things cost more than 10000% the cost of a cd-r.

My bad. It was a Compaq not a Dell. It is a single XP 2100+. You can deffinately go cheaper. You probably can get the same result for half that. Cheaper still if you built dedicated hardware.

is here.

Like I have the cash for a freakin digital wire? Hardly, those things are evil expensive even for short little chunks. And besides any movies I watch are likely in, err, uh hum, MP4 format any ways.

That's what I thought till I went to Best Buy:
6 foot digital coax - $13. I actually remember paying $8 or $9 at the store but that was a while ago. Sure beats Circuit City, where the mofo tried to sell me a $40 digital cable. Ha!

What do you want them to say, "$199 without monitor, up to $13,198.99 with monitor"?

If you think the next year is going to bring some really cheap, big storage, ogg compatible players (I do) then you may want to just get the cheapest thing now and plan to upgrade.

Something like the Audiophase player costs $50 at BestBuy, plays mp3 CDs (and CD-RWs) comes with a car kit, runs for hours on two AAs (I use rechargables), and has decent skip protection. 650MB CDs aren't as nice as a big hard drive but it's still holds a lot of music and swapping them is easy.

Best Buy does sell them. Still too expensive for most people though. Really is it a surprise that the Best Buy drones had no idea what you were talking about?

Yea, check out these prices...

http://www.bestbuy.com/detail.asp?e=11080437&m=488 &cat=540&scat=1578

I have a Geforce 4 MX card. It's $150 and works great. :) (tho not as powerful as the Ti series...)

Here is the Best Buy ad.

I can personally recomend the card if you need a dual monitor setup with decent 3D accelleration. I play Quake 3 just fine, plus it works great with LW. Plus, it has two VGA connectors instead of a VGA and a DVI connector. (This is a plus for me, but it may be a turnoff for LCD users...)$150 was very reasonable.

It is an MX version and has only 64 meg of RAM, so I'm not sure a hardcore gamer would go for it. But for $150 plus really good dual monitor support, who can complain?

The driver has some neat things for controlling the dual displays, like it adds an extra maximize button that 'maximizes to display' instead of acros both screens. It's none too shabby! :)

The best way to print 'cheaply' for a DIY setup is probably an Epson 8xx series (870 if you can find it) with a bulk continuous ink system, such as the one at www.missupply.com (there are others).

You forgot to factor in the cost of a new printer every few months when the print heads in that piece of sh*t clog up...unless you can wait the couple or three weeks it'll spend at service getting fixed. You'd have to be nuts to recommend an Epson inkjet to anybody. (Back when I was working for The Man, we'd usually have to replace the demo Epsons once every month or two in order to have working demos. With HP, Lexmark, or Canon, OTOH, a particular demo printer would usually last at least until it was discontinued.)

Yeah, you can't buy Tivos at Best Buy any more. You have to settle for a Tivo Series Two link. Thanks for the morning helping of FUD.

We have several small shops that sell components cheap, usually about the same as pricewatch after you figure in sales tax, shipping, and all the other extras. I like buying from them because there is someone I can talk face-to-face with and return parts to. I can ask questions like "hey, how often do you get people returning brand X hard drives that are DOA".

Also, by taking my money to those shops I help make sure they stay in business, so as to not help those big shops that seem to get articles on slashdot a lot for various questionable business practices, as well as making sure the little shops are still around when I need a part "right now" not "in a few days, when we feel like sticking it in the mail".

Aren't these the same clowns who were in on DIVX, which failed?

I'm a former Best Buy employee, so maybe I'm biased. Personally, I just don't like shopping anywhere with salespeople who work on commission.

Wow! The DVD should be out by now, right? Damnit, and I just got back from Best Buy :P

Dude. Don't worry. It can still work out for you.

I was in same boat - go to school as engineer, fail because it's so fucking hard, and i had so much freedom to... not go...

I look back now and realize several things:

1.) the time i spent hanging out with the girl, ensuring that the girl stayed with me, i should have spent studying, and as a result, i would have done better, stayed in school, and still been with her. I realize now, had I not failed out, we'd still be together. (read on)

2.) The time that i took off of school, i thought at first was permanant. I was workin 40 a week for the man and i hated my life. I finally realized that in order to do something i was going to have to go to college. So i went back.

3.) Also in the time i took off, i realized something: I would rather do something that i love with my life than something that everyone thinks i should do because i'm "the computer nerd". I switched from engineering to history, and i'm going to be a high school history teacher. For right now i'm a network admin, but it's not what i want to do for the rest of my life.

4.) If i hadn't failed out, i would have never lost the girl and found THE GIRL. THE GIRL (for she deserves all caps status) is awesome. She likes beer, sex, football, computer games, and dinner. She's 6 feet tall, so i don't have to bend over to kiss her. She's pretty much perfect, and she loves me. Don't count on the fact that you missed THE GIRL, you could have only missed the girl.

It still can work out.

~Will

Here?

I just bought a new DVD Player/Reciever and television. Now I know what game system I'm getting.

Anyone have any advice for decent games to get with this thing?

I just bought a new DVD Player/Reciever and television. Now I know what game system I'm getting.

Anyone have any advice for decent games to get with this thing?

I'm not disagreeing with you, but I thought this might be helpful for you, just in case you have other old albums lying around. It's not worth what they're asking ($130 -- about $75 too much), but it's far short of a small fortune. Not that I would advise buying anything from "Worst Buy" these days....

But *advertising*, which is probably what the poster had in mind, often is about making a demand, or at the very least trying to increase the magnitude of minor demand into a major one.

OK, wrong word.

Also see a child of the original post, where someone observes the word halitosis was created by Listerine.

Advertising does indeed mean to "create demand". "Amplification" is the easiest way to do that, since it's easier to amplify then start from scratch, but there's not a single advertiser who wouldn't shirk from trying to create a new demand from scratch, sometimes with success.

The "need for cool" shoes, shirts, skirts, whatever, is a function of the continuing success of advertisers creating demand for "Gap" clothing or "Nike" shoes where there was none before. The need for shoes is ancient; the need for "Nike" is new and totally created. (Whether something is creation or amplification may depend on your point of view.)

The RIAA and/or the MPAA is on the beginning of a marketing drive to create a "need" for DRM... look on the box covers of MP3 players next time you are in your local retailers and look what's advertised as a feature. SDMI complaint? Supports WMA? Both translate to "DRM-ready". Obviously, you don't pitch it as "Makes Sure You Can't Do Anything You Really Want To Do"... that's where advertisers (and marketers) come in.

Creating needs in an entire culture has not met with much success, with the possible exception of hygine products, but need-creation in sub-cultures happens all the time.

Tech support should be an option that people have to pay for - either the screwdriver guy in the neighborhood, a local third-party, or as an add-on from the company that sold you the gear in the first place.

Trust me, I TOTALLY understand where you're comming from.
I used to sell computers for The man and I can tell you first hand that people don't want to pay upfront. They want the computer from the company that has a 30 day parts, 90 day labor warranty and the cheapest parts (caugh eMachine power supply caugh).
The problem is that no one wants to pay for the service after the initial sale, either.

The reason for this is that extended warranties are the only way to get extended tech support, and extended warranties are a rip off.

Let me say that again. RIP OFF. We were constantly pushed to sell the 3 year in home service plan for a computer, which comes with 24 hour tech support, because it wsa 80% profit. Problem was that it was two hundred freaking dollars.

If that's the cost of tech support - an 80% waste of money - what's the point?

The attitude of computer retailers, and retailers in genereal, is that people in general don't want to pay for tech support, ever, and the ones that do are suckers.

~will

order the AT&T Broadband unit. $299 for 40 hours

Not that I don't believe you ;), but where on the site does it say that it's a 40-hour unit? (I just want to confirm that it's 40 hours, and also that it has USB).

For what it's worth, the "white market" TiVO (with 60 hours) is actually cheaper than the AT&T Broadband-branded one on a per-hour basis. Proportionally, if the TiVO-branded TiVO were available in a 40-hour version, it'd cost just $267 :-/.

order the AT&T Broadband unit. $299 for 40 hours

Not that I don't believe you ;), but where on the site does it say that it's a 40-hour unit? (I just want to confirm that it's 40 hours, and also that it has USB).

For what it's worth, the "white market" TiVO (with 60 hours) is actually cheaper than the AT&T Broadband-branded one on a per-hour basis. Proportionally, if the TiVO-branded TiVO were available in a 40-hour version, it'd cost just $267 :-/.

You know what? You're right. Over the past several hours, I've thought it over. My time is valuable. And, even if I have to pay $400 + $250, maybe it's worth it.

Series 2 Tivo's don't have SVIDEO out?

Be sure to go visit the Best Buy web site and do a search for terms like "arrest" and "consumer terrorism". Since their practice is to scare consumers into not asking for their rights (even when the manager could just say "no"), I'd classify it as a form of terrorism. I coined "consumer terroism" to distinguish it from a more serious form of lethal terrorism (which to my knowledge Best Buy has not done).

1. Go here to send a note to Best Buy .com.

   Go here to send a note to Best Buy stores.

Adding a link or a sample of the stories told here might not be a bad idea.

1. Go here to send a note to Best Buy .com.

   Go here to send a note to Best Buy stores.

Adding a link or a sample of the stories told here might not be a bad idea.

Contact Best Buy NOW


and let them know what you think of them. Tell them you read it on /. Tell them you'll never buy from them ever again!

Years ago, I sent 10 letters to every address I could find at Intuit to complain about their crappy software and customer service, 6 months later I received a handwritten letter of apology and a free copy of the software. I bet many people got their ass whipped for not giving a shit before it got the the Prez of Customer Service...

Here is the text:

Errors on Our Site
Prices and availability are subject to change without notice. Errors will be corrected where discovered, and Best Buy reserves the right to revoke any stated offer and to correct any errors, inaccuracies or omissions including after an order has been submitted and whether or not the order has been confirmed and your credit card charged. If your credit card has already been charged for the purchase and your order is cancelled, BestBuy.com will issue a credit to your credit card account in the amount of the charge. Individual bank policies will dictate when this amount is credited to your account.

While Best Buy takes steps to ensure the accuracy and completeness of product and third-party services provided, please refer to the originator of information for details, for example the manufacturer for complete product details.


I find it a bit embarrassing that every time a corporation makes an honest mistake, many Slashdot readers begin to chant "BOYCOTT!" Just because they didn't get some goody at an exceptional loss for the company. You can ALWAYS get your money back if you order with a credit card.

As far as inkjet printers go, you can't go wrong with Epson.

...as long as you don't mind the stupid POS clogging its nozzles after a few months. :-P (This was a constant problem with the demo printers back when I worked for The Man.)

Others have noted that Lexmark provides halfway-decent Linux support for its printers. I have an Optra Color 40; while it doesn't need Ghostscript as a print processor (it groks PostScript all by itself), Lexmark provides source code for a command-line utility to swap cartridges and do other maintenance tasks. (Others have made WIMP tools that do the same.) As for the other models (the ones that don't even do PCL, let alone PostScript), others have said various models work as well. I don't have any experience with them, though. It's also worth noting that if the nozzles get clogged beyond hope of unclogging, you don't have to send the printer in for repair...you buy a new cartridge for $25, pop it in, and get back to work.

Complain directly to Best Buy here.

Here's what I just sent them.

---

I just read this on Yahoo:

http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/020409/retail_bestbuy_2. ht ml

On the whole, I support the RIAA's right to defend its copyrights, but when retailers begin assisting them in crippling the products to suit *their* needs instead of the customer's needs, I take it as a sign that I am not valued. I have spent quite a lot of money at my local Best Buy store. Until you announce a change in this plan, I will not step foot in your stores or your affiliates (which are outlined in the above article.) I do not support these kinds of draconian, corporate measures in response to a fallacious assumption that consumers are stealing and that sales are slumping as a result. Consider the possibility that the recording industry is offering NOTHING compelling worth buying lately. This same thing happened in 1991. Were the consumers to blame for that as well?

I plan two major electronics purchases in the near future. These sales would have possibly gone to Best Buy. I'm not even considering your store now. I am now an EX-customer.

--Rick

Perhaps a polite notice that what they're doing is very, very wrong would be appropriate. The EFF has already asked its member to mail a thank you note to Gateway. Best Buy has an address to send "general comments" to. I believe I'll be sending them a piece of my mind on this issue quite soon.

A quick search turned up this.

And what is this new.net thing?

It's an alternate DNS that works by installing a DLL that hijacks all name-resolution requests. If some software needs to know the address of foobar.com, the DLL checks first to see what address info new.net has on hand. If new.net can resolve foobar.com, it returns the address. If it can't, it passes the request on to whatever was previously configured for DNS. Removing it is a pain in the ass; the procedure involves fairly involved registry editing (let's just say it's more involved than getting your Windows box to talk to your Samba server).

Theoretically, there's no reason why they couldn't make it so that what looks like a link to Best Buy takes you to Circuit City's website instead. I had to tweak the Best Buy URL so that it became a username fed to Circuit City's server (which presumably ignored it). With new.net, you could do the same by linking your IP address to your competitor's domain name. A 404 handler on your webserver that knows the general layout of your competitor's website would redirect people to the appropriate page on your site, so that just trying to go to one site's homepage takes you to something completely different, no matter what you do.

(Dammit...looks like /. filters out anything between "http://" and "@". The first link is supposed to be http://www.bestbuy.com%2fHomeAudioVideo%2fDVDPlaye rs%2findex.asp%3fm=1%26cat=32@www.circuitcity.com/ ewebIMa/frame1.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0243569614.101 6223317@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccedadcejfdehhhcfngcfkmdff hdffg.0&upper=head.jsp&lower=frame2.jsp&left=leftc hildcat.jsp&department=TV+Video+and+Camcorders&cat egory=DVD&right=productsearch.jsp. Must've been too many idiots tacking on goatse.cx to the end of CNET URLs or something.)

Hooptie

Okay, how about $900?

Agreed.

I'm working for a small web hosting company as a Unix network admin, 2 days a week, for $8/hr, while I go to school and work on my degree the other 3 days a week.

For a network admin, that sucks. However, I love my job. There are only 5 employees, including the owner, and he's the oldest, being 27. We're all in college. I go to work wearing jeans, sandals, and a doors shirt. I answer the phone, fix people's stupid stuff (how does a .aliasmap file work? can you create a MySQL database for me?) and while it's silent, we work on improving our site's image (notice i'm not linking to it... this isn't because i'm trying to be noble and not shamelessly plug my company, i am, but i'm embarrassed by the current homepage).

Anyway, before i got lost, my point was working for a small company is the way to go, even if it's less money. The relationship you have with your peers and the lack of red tape is worth it in terms of saving your sanity. Trust me, i used to work for the man.

~z

Dear Best Buy Customer,

Thank you for your recent graphics card order.

A recent systems error on our web site allowed you to purchase the VisionTek GeForce4 Ti 4600 Graphics Card at $129.99. The actual price for this item is $399.99. Due to the nature of this error, we have canceled your order for this item. We apologize for any disappointment this cancellation may cause.

We would like to inform you that the error has been fixed, and if you are still interested in ordering this product, please visit http://www.bestbuy.com/ComputersPeripherals/detail s.asp?e=11099619&m=488&ca
t=521&scat=522 to place your order again. This card is available as a special pre-order. It will begin shipping on 3/4/2002.

Thank you for your understanding. Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions or concerns.

Best wishes from Best Buy,
The Customer Care Team

---

Darn, they finally caught the orders. I guess we have no recourse, since their posted policy allows them to cancel orders. I read a post on here about them not being able to reserve such a right, since they technically never had it in the first place. Can someone give some more insight into this?

Um... this has to be a mistake, but apparently Best Buy is letting you Pre-Order these little slices of heaven for $129.00
Check it out.

Some numbnut in my family gave me a $25 gift card to BEST BUY.
What should I buy?

They'll stop accepting returns on all copy-protected CDs. If you don't like it, go pound sand. Sony stopped accepting returns on opened CDs ~.

If they try that, then it will be back to the ways 37ee7 hax0r k!dd!e5 do it:

1. Buy the CD,
2. Rip it,
3. Shrink wrap it back, then
4. Return the bitch.