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Your recent litigation with Apple has made the decision of choosing your competitors over you very easy.

One last thing: I have to apologize to the unexpecting guy who has to read all the comments and suggestions... his workload will go from 20-30 emails to 2000-3000. ...but wait-a-minute... he'll have to put in overtime and get paid extra!!! Apology retracted. Your welcome.

"butthead vendor" is kinda funny though... I like it.

Taking the initiative I want to google bomb Tiger direct by linking it to the name Butthead Vendor to Tiger Direct.

ANd here I'm linking Apple to Tiger and to Tiger Direct.

I urge you to join me in adding links. Put these in your sig for the next month so they are all over slashdot!

Perhaps the ironic point of the Tiger-Cats team's offer is that a football team owned by a FLOSS operating-systems [mb]illionaire is just as much in the same business as a designer operating system, no more no less, tha a retailer of hardware systems and vanilla operating systems. Any court with a broad enough reading of Trademarks to consider granting relief to Tiger-Direct (TD) here would have to consider the Tiger-Cats (TC) license to Tiger-Apple (TA) as plausible. Which is just funny.

The above referenced USPTO webservice reports

Word Mark TIGER
Goods and Services IC 035. US 100 101 102. G & S: Mail order catalog services featuring computers and computer related products; and Retail store services featuring computers and computer related products. FIRST USE: 1987 1020. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 1987 1020

The hopless litigant's TITLE tag says

TigerDirect.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Desktop Computers, Laptops, Notebooks

IANAL but that Claim sure looks like they're claiming the Mark in the Mailorder and reatail business they're in (trading in computers etc), not in Computers etc. Since Tiger OS is only usable on PPC Macs, and Mac users wouldn't shop at a Wintel only outlet like TigerDirect, what's the possibility for brand confusion again?

If Apple opened "Tiger Express" stores adjacent to their AppleDirect stores in the malls, that would be a direct conflict with the claim (IANAL).

IANAL but I did a bit of Pre-Law ... so I'm anxiously waiting to see what PJ has to say on this one.

Butt head vendor

TigerDirect

The Tiger Direct vs. Apple Computer lawsuit is an almost completely baseless suit designed for one purpose: advertising. Tiger Direct is attempting to catch a ride on the back of Apple's Tiger marketing campaign. They don't have any intention to stop Apple from using the Tiger name.

If Apple were renaming all of their Apple Stores to Tiger Stores, they might have some grounds. As it is, Tiger Direct is a computer hardware reseller, and Mac OSX 10.4 Tiger is an operating system. It's only slightly more related than the US Census Bureau's registered trademark on TIGER for its GIS data.

Also, Tiger Direct is complaining about search rankings, but a quick google for "tiger" shows Apple at a distant 4th to Tiger Direct's 2nd place ranking (behind a page on, surprise, actual tigers).

Well I did a search for "Tiger" on Google, and the Tiger Information Center comes up first, then Tiger Direct, then another tiger sanctuary, AND THEN Apple. So, my point here is that Tiger Direct should sue various Tiger Sanctuaries instead of Apple.

It makes me a bit curious why TigerDirect doesn't clearly state that the term/name "Tiger" is trademarked on their legal notice page....

Here's the "contact us" link at Tiger Direct

Here's one, a custom AMD configuration with Windows XP and more...

And there's the fact that TigerDirect does sell iPod Minis and iPod Shuffles, so tying in the Tiger name with Apple's promo special is definitely galling to the higher-ups at Tiger Direct. I mean, after all, if they were simply XDirect(TM) or just Direct(TM) no one would know the name.

Here's one, a custom AMD configuration with Windows XP and more...

And there's the fact that TigerDirect does sell iPod Minis and iPod Shuffles, so tying in the Tiger name with Apple's promo special is definitely galling to the higher-ups at Tiger Direct. I mean, after all, if they were simply XDirect(TM) or just Direct(TM) no one would know the name.

Acronym n.
A word formed from the initial letters of a name, such as WAC for Women's Army Corps, or by combining initial letters or parts of a series of words, such as radar for radio detecting and ranging.

World Wrestling Federation -> WWF
World Wildlife Foundation -> WWF
World Wrestling Entertainment -> WWE
Anonymous Coward - AC

Looks like an acronym to me.

http://www.answers.com/acronym
http://www.answers.com/abbreviation

The GP has a point about the direct commonality of the cases, but the USPTO FAQ supports my uninformed suspicion that "common words" are legal trademarks.

As a final caveat, a search of USPTO did not turn up TigerDirect's registration of 'Tiger'. For that matter, TigerDirect's page mentions 'TigerDirect', but not 'Tiger'.

Its 21:15 EST. I've just gone on their site and looked up Tiger as a keyword in their search. Sure enough, they are selling PowerMac G5 (notice the newest 2700 is on the list) which is shipping with OS X Tiger.

TigerDirect .... you're busted! If OS X Tiger is devaluating your trademark, then why are you selling it?

Right here:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTool s/search.asp?keywords=tiger&image1.x=0&image1.y=0

Click to view: POWERMAC G5/2000 DP 512MB-160GB SD ATI9600 TIGER!
YYT1-93030A
6.POWERMAC G5/2000 DP 512MB-160GB SD ATI9600 TIGER

Manufacturer: Tech Data
$2,112.99
Ships in 10 - 30 Days
Click to view: POWERMAC G5/2300 DP 512MB-250GB SD ATI9600 TIGER!
YYT1-93031A

7. POWERMAC G5/2300 DP 512MB-250GB SD ATI9600 TIGER
No information available at this time.

Manufacturer: Tech Data
$2,640.99

Ships in 10 - 30 Days

Click to view: POWERMAC G5/2700 DP 512MB-250GB SD ATI9650 TIGER!
YYT1-93032A
8.POWERMAC G5/2700 DP 512MB-250GB SD ATI9650 TIGER
No information available at this time.

Manufacturer: Tech Data
$3,168.99

Ships in 10 - 30 Days

Offtopic? Hello? How is me claiming that I will never buy anything from these litigitious bastards off-fucking-topic?

What a bunch of maroons.... http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTool s/search.asp?keywords=POWERMAC+G5%2F

The 20" iMac screen is widescreen at 100dpi, and it is absolutely gorgeous.

That "weak 64MB video card" is perfectly adequate for most people

I'd really like to see the system you can build for so cheap that takes up zero space beyond the display. That's one of the things people are paying for.

They're also paying for the ability to run Mac OSX.

Is this what I think it is????? Scroll down a bit. Power PC and the word Tiger....

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTool s/search.asp?keywords=tiger&image1.x=0&image1.y=0

First I would like to say that my experience purchasing items from tigerdirect was terrible. I thought they were a large reputable company (and one of a few which I have found that actually accepts purchase orders from Universities and has competitive prices). I work at a university so I have to go through my purchasing department. They write up a purchase order based on my requisition form. The purchase order is then faxed to tigerdirect. The purchase order form also has printed on it the exact delivery location at the university.

The idiots at tigerdirect simply addressed in a general format to the university (no department name or anything). Well my university has hundreds of departments, is stretched across like 100 acres, and employees 15000+ people.

So the package was lost for a month. Then we ordered it again and they couldn't find the purchase order that was faxed to them. Finally after two months when I did get my CPU fan and CPU grease, they shipped me some generic Silver compound because I they ran out of stock of the Arctic Silver 5!!!!! I HATE COMPANIES THAT DO THIS. It's like purchasing a pair of NIKES and getting AVIA's.

If you haven't noticed TigerDirect is a direct shipper meaning that they don't have railroad crates or warehouses full of merchandise. They aren't even a reseller but are simply a "middleman comapny" that sends the order out to the large reseller who then sends you the item.

If you know what's good for stay away from any company with this sort of business model because their employees are very much clueless about their own products so you won't get support (if any at all).

As far as this case vs. Apple is concerned I don't see how Apple's Tiger Operating System has anything to do with a company named Shit ..oops TigerDirect that has a very different business model and sells in general everything under the sun (from cell phones to office furniture) related to consumer grade products. I hope the judge finds that TigerDirect is indeed full of shit. I hope everyone on /. can boycott purchasing items from TigerDirect. There are lots of better options out there.

First I would like to say that my experience purchasing items from tigerdirect was terrible. I thought they were a large reputable company (and one of a few which I have found that actually accepts purchase orders from Universities and has competitive prices). I work at a university so I have to go through my purchasing department. They write up a purchase order based on my requisition form. The purchase order is then faxed to tigerdirect. The purchase order form also has printed on it the exact delivery location at the university.

The idiots at tigerdirect simply addressed in a general format to the university (no department name or anything). Well my university has hundreds of departments, is stretched across like 100 acres, and employees 15000+ people.

So the package was lost for a month. Then we ordered it again and they couldn't find the purchase order that was faxed to them. Finally after two months when I did get my CPU fan and CPU grease, they shipped me some generic Silver compound because I they ran out of stock of the Arctic Silver 5!!!!! I HATE COMPANIES THAT DO THIS. It's like purchasing a pair of NIKES and getting AVIA's.

If you haven't noticed TigerDirect is a direct shipper meaning that they don't have railroad crates or warehouses full of merchandise. They aren't even a reseller but are simply a "middleman comapny" that sends the order out to the large reseller who then sends you the item.

If you know what's good for stay away from any company with this sort of business model because their employees are very much clueless about their own products so you won't get support (if any at all).

As far as this case vs. Apple is concerned I don't see how Apple's Tiger Operating System has anything to do with a company named Shit ..oops TigerDirect that has a very different business model and sells in general everything under the sun (from cell phones to office furniture) related to consumer grade products. I hope the judge finds that TigerDirect is indeed full of shit. I hope everyone on /. can boycott purchasing items from TigerDirect. There are lots of better options out there.

Okay, let's just say I am looking for the company that sells computer hardware and software and I know the name of the company is "Tiger something or other". So I search for "Tiger".

Now your hits may varry, but what I got was:
(0) Google "News results for tiger" - linking to three Apple OS X Tiger related articles but this doesn't really count since Tiger Direct wouldn't show up in News anyway.
(1) A link to 5 Tigers information center that is about live tigers
(2) Well what have we here? Tiger Direct - the #2 result after a website about real Tigers!!??!!
(3) Tiger Haven with more stuff about real tigers
(4) Finally, Apple's OS X Tiger website - in at number 4

In the top ten are also sites on Tiger Woods and - huh? Tiger Airways!!! Did someone's lawyers miss something here?

So let's try the search again, but this time with "Tiger Software"
(0) Google News links to two stories, both on Apple OS X Tiger
Oh here it is! This must be what has Tiger Direct's lawyers in a fuss:
(1) Tiger Direct!!!! Number one on the results!
(2) The Paper Tiger - SOFTWARE to organize something or other
(3) Somesite talking about TIGER software - but it isn't Apple's OS X Tiger - huh?
(4) Finally Zeropaid with a news bit about Apple OS X Tiger.

Well I must be out to lunch because the two most obviously offensive Google searches (to me anyway) came up empty.

Even searches like "buy tiger" come up with Tiger Woods, Tiger tables, some UK site not about Apple, and even an Amazon link in the top 5 but it is for selling Tiger Woods stuff, not OS X.

This lawsuit is stupid - has erased any hope of me ever buying from Tiger Direct, and is intended to drive traffic to TigerDirect.com so I suggest you don't go there unless you are going to complain.

TigerDirect apparently has a free catalog. Perhaps we could protest this wrongdoing by all ordering one (and of course, not purchasing anything from it). If we can get 1 million people to download Opera, perhaps we could get a large number of people to order a catalog? Even if it doesn't cost them much, it at least might serve as a message to them that their potential customers aren't too happy with their latest decision.

Maybe because there has never been a product called "Mac". Try another product like ipod.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/sectors/help/contactus. asp
feel free to give them feed back, you know they deserve it ;)

TigerDirect sells iPods...

At the root of the issue appears to internet search results. Tiger Direct contends that Apple's use of the name has adversely affected its ranking amongst the Internet's largest search engines....

So does that mean they plan on taking on some non-profit who appears above them on google, because hey everyone knows I might get confused while searching for "tiger" instead of "tigerdirect" (which shows them ranked first btw).

http://www.google.com/search?q=tiger:

1. http://www.5tigers.org/ -- group dedicated to the animal
2. http://www.tigerdirect.com/ -- company suing over trademark due to loss of rank on search engines
3. http://www.tigerhaven.org/ -- more animal people
4. http://www.apple.com/macosx/ -- Apple's new version of OS X
5. http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger -- Apple's new version of OS X

What are they complaining about, again? And why did they wait so late to file this complaint? We've known the name of this version of OS X for how long now?

...while the suit may have some merit

The number of phones depends on a number called the Ringer Equivalency Number. (see also here for a quick definition.)

Basically each phone will "use up" one REN to make it ring. Newer phones actually only use 0.5 REN or something like that. A typical hardware box can supply REN of 4 or 5 or something (for example this Linksys box has REN 5). This is more than enough to run most modest domestic setups. If you load the box too much, none of the phones will ring. Then you just turn the ringer off one phone at a time, until the system is able to ring. You can have lots of phones, but only so many will ring when a call comes (the box can only supply so much power). In most homes, this is fine... you can still hear the phone ring if only 4 of the 8 phones are ringing.

The short answer: a decent box should work for a normal home setup (with 4-6 phones). If in doubt, check what the REN number is.

At less than 50 cents per gigabyte, you can store a lot of stuff on hard drives quite inexpensively, and storage prices are only going to drop.

I rip CDs, both audio and data, and store the ISOs on hard drives. For $90 you can get a 200GB drive, that's enough room to store 285 full CD images, uncompressed. In practice, most CDs aren't full, and most of them can be compressed quite a bit, so in reality one 200GB drive can hold around a thousand CDs.

For audio, I rip and Vorbis-encode them to roughly 256 kbps, which mashes a typical album down to about 90MB without losing any quality I'm ever going to have equipment to hear. At that rate, even a *huge* audio collection will fit on one 200GB drive. I actually do keep the originals of audio CDs, but storing them is much easier if you expect never to have to find them. I recommend using a relative's basement. (Plug: If you run Linux or a BSD, check into madman; it's an awesome music manager).

For data, I rip the ISOs using 'dd' and then loop mount them when I need them. On Windows you can use any of various rippers and mount them on a virtual CD-ROM drive with Daemon Tools.

If I need to take CDs with me, I usually either keep the ISOs on my laptop hard drive, or if drive space is getting tight I burn them to a DVD. For example, although I run Linux/*BSD exclusively, I occasionally need Windows or Windows apps (under VMWare), so I have a DVD labeled "Microsoft Stuff" that contains CD ISOs for Win2K, Office, Visio, MS Project, Visual C++, etc.

For those few times when it's more convenient to have an actual CD, rather than just an image, my laptop has a CD burner, my desktop has a DVD burner, my wife's laptop has a CD burner, my kids' desktop has a CD burner... you get the idea. I usually carry a small number of CD-Rs with me so I can just burn what I need when I need it. When I'm done, I label the CD (with a Sharpie marker) and hold onto it for a while on the theory that I might need it again soon, but as soon as they start to pile up I just trash the whole pile. I don't worry about the cost of the CD-Rs because I've got several hundred disks that I got for "free" (mail-in rebate >= sale price). It does sometimes seem wasteful to treat CDs as disposable, but mostly I manage to avoid needing them at all, so it's not so bad.

I've even begun moving a large part of my movie collection to hard disks. I use mythtv's transcoding daemon to automagically rip and recompress DVD movies and I'm working on using my Mini-DV camera to convert VHS movies to DV and then transcoding them to MPEG-4. I really only do this with the kids' movies, because I notice the compression artifacts, slight as they are. Each movie compresses to between 1 and 2 GB, so I can store around 120 of them on one 200GB drive. That's a lot cheaper than re-buying DVDs that my three year-old has trashed. This way the kids have a nice menu of movies to pick from without ever touching a disk.

As storage sizes continue to increase, I plan to eventually put all of our VHS and DVD collection on my server. I'll probably have to keep disks around for a while when we start getting real HD content on Blu-Ray or HD-DVD, but I imagine storage sizes will eventually increase to where ripping those is economical as well.

I always wonder about things like this. Example: Printers no longer come with USB cables. USB cables displayed right next to the printers cost at least $20.00 and sometimes more than $30.00. This seems like a tacit agreement between an "HP" and a "Best Buy" to let "Best Buy" (put in quotes to merely make examples of printer manufacturers and retailers) make their profit on the printer CABLE rather than the traditionally extremely low margin printer (Notice I did not say printer CARTRIDGES which they make a HUUUUGE margin on).

One of the things that has kept me from buying an iPod is the ridiculous price of its accessories. An Apple iPod mini Armband costs *29.00*. Yesterday my dad bought a little armband mounted FM radio from Best Buy for $21.00. Do the math.

My suggestion would be something like These . ATX form-factor Desktop style cases. All the dimension benefits of a tower on its side, with all the drive bays oriented the right way up.

Thanks. Yeah, I looked at some of those. For better or for worse, I just bought this. We'll see how it works out.

Where is the 20lb ceiling-mount livingroom projector for $1000, that does 1024x768 @2000lm? Maybe this Mitsubishi projector will help compete them into existence.

Not quite $1K, but it does exceed your lumens requirement:

Optoma 749 2300 lumens, 1024x768 @ $1300.

Note: I do not in any way endorse tigerdirect - their customer is service is atrocious and they appear to have been astroturfing bizrate for quite some time. BUT, if they can manage to ship you a new and undamaged unit, you'll never have to deal with their customer disservice, and the odds on that are relatively good.

Just make sure you give them a throw-away email address, they are merciless spammers and spam-list renters.

For $150 you can add a 7200RPM 2.5" Hitachi TravelStar drive. Surprisingly, these drives run cooler than many 5400RPM 2.5" drives while providing the performance of a typical 7200RPM desktop drive. Best of all, you won't have to hack up your Mini (thereby violating the warranty) to install it.

I have a similar setup at my house, one thing that is useful is just to have a Network Attached Storage drive http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/c ategory_slc.asp?CatId=207 and just store all your music on there. Then connect all your computers to that (over 802.11a preferably), and you can install winamp or a similar program on the laptops, and access the drive, that way you have full control on each computer. You could also buy one of these http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1081512 624434&skuId=6584779&productCategoryId=pcmcat25300 050005&type=product and you would get the same effect (but without those laptops)

I asked myself the same question when I started looking at the mini. Here is one I found, I think it fills the bill for PC owners getting a Mac mini. Not an endorsement nor a test, just a guess! This appears to work with one PS/2 and one USB computer. TRENDnet TK-209i 2-Port USB & PS/2 KVM Switch with Audio

right here

Tigerdirect has been fabulous since i started using them 4 years ago. They have rebates...yuck..but their prices are pretty cheap anyways, their return policy is a little better than average, and I cant say anything about their support, cuz ive never had a problem! You kindof have to hunt for the great deals...ie once i found a gig of high performance brand new ram (actually 2 512 sticks bundled) for 170 some dollars, and that was almost a year ago!

my blog

Buy an LT02 tape drive. IBM LT02 tapes hold 400 GB of data each. So to back up 500GB will take 2 tapes.

now if the usb device also has a CF/MMC/SD/etc. reader and it can offload it directly....

Anyways, I thought there was a portable CDRW drive with that ability...

oo...found one that has a hard drive.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTool s/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1056270&CatId=1203

my canon pixma ip4000 (170 euro) can print on Specially coated cd's/dvd's just fine in full color.

The Primera Signature Z1 looks like an option that is not limited to printable discs and not subject to the issues of the ink disapearing under your fingertips.

Why invent something new for something that already exists?

Inkjet printing on CDs can be sloppy to say the least.

Would a regular smart card reader work?

If not, I found this from a quick search on Google

I think it's ugly and overpriced. Doesn't match anything else in the living room, might as well put a beige box in there since it'd match just as well. With the vents on top you couldn't even put anything on top of it for risk of over-heating.

Want to see what a beautiful media PC case looks like? Try the Overture Quiet Media Desktop Case, or perhaps the Silverstone Aluminum Home Entertainment Computer Case in Black or maybe the SilverStone LC10M Home Theater PC Case /w front VFD (Black). If you're on a budget the Antec MINUET Piano Black Slimline PC Case looks really nice for only $60 with Antec quality but you'll need a Micro ATX board.

Tiger direct sells lots of them. This is whare I get all of mine.

I found this in my research but I cant find any real specs about the thing: Pyro A/V Link

It looks like the 3500 lumens is part of the projector spec -- but they are still missing something major. LCDs use polarized light, so, at most, they'll transmit half of incoming (unpolarized) light. I'd rate this projector at 1750 lumens, max. That number puts it in the company of a lot of other projectors.

I gave up on inkjets a couple years ago. You can get a personal laser printer for $100 or less nowadays. I cant say I miss color at all and if I really needed a color printer I could get one free with rebates/purchase of a new computer.

In the near future I'd like to be able to print high-quality photos, so I'll just spring for a cheap little dye sub photo printer and let the laser printer do all the printing work. This "all in one" color solution is silly. Even if ink was a little cheaper you'd still be wasting tons of it compared to how much toner a laser printer uses.

I still get a kick out of hearing people say "Im out of ink!" Hehe, its like hearing "We're gonna run out of coal" during the steam engine period.

>when will a manufacturer stand up and sell good quality printers

Never. I mean, think about it. How many $200 printers are they going to sell when they can get a crappy/ink subsidized one for free or next to free. This is market failure. When more people shift to laser, perhaps the inkjet people will wake up and smell the coffee.

Here's a brand new PC fro a mere 29.99 after rebates.

1) Go to budget barebone PC manufacturer like

www.ikonpc.com

or

www.tigerdirect.com

among many others

2) price lowest barebones case that comes *with* mobo, power supply, CPU

3) add hdd and one memory stick (as well as CD player if needed), do not add MS operating system, aftermarket software, video card, sound card, or other overpriced extras

4) pay between $120 and $150 with free shipping

5) recieve components and assemble your ultra low price computer (~2 year out of date)

6) ????

7) profit or something similar

Not quite at that $100 price point, but pretty close these days, and even closer if you are willing to pick slightly less recent CPU, mobo, and memory. And no, i am not an employee or in any way affiliated with these or other barebone PC manufacturers. ;-)

That's why you subscribe to a speedy internet provider so you can store all your files via some gmail/ms passport type service online. Screw the harddrive, that's whats driving up the costs. For basic document storage and information processing a harddrive is not necessary.

Have a very optimized Linux distro booted via Flash ROM. It automatically mounts your internet storage space on boot up. Let's say the data is stored remotely using an encrypted file system to satisfy the requirements of all those crypto geeks.

Here's some flash memory prices at TigerDirect.

Note: 256MB CompactFlash memory by Kingston, $23.99 before rebate ($10 mail in rebate).

Install the 50MB Damn Small Linux distro? 200MB for basic file storage. All your music could be listened to streaming...

Yeah - I'm just giving out some ideas ....

An AMD AthlonXP 2800+, 512MB DDR, 120 GB 7,200 ATA 133, 4x DVD+-/RW, USB 2.0, SATA raid, case, etc.

The $1,500 iMac comes with a very high-quality 17" LCD monitor

Did you a purchase a 17 inch flat screen monitor to go with that? Oh no you didn't... Ahh I see you forgot to add that

I just built my own home system for about $700. An AMD AthlonXP 2800+, 512MB DDR, 120 GB 7,200 ATA 133, 4x DVD+-/RW, case, etc. What NEW system does Apple have for under $800 that is not a crappy G4? I used G4's for sometime and they blow. Apple's bottom of the line is a $1,000 slow 1.25GHz G4 eMac that you cannot expand.

Alienware is one of the more expensive PC makers out there because of nice quality. There are tons of others where you can get fast P4 and AMD systems for under $1,000. Apple cannot touch that price range. You can also do like I did an BUILD YOUR OWN. Apple doesn't allow that.

But lets not forgot to look at the cinema displays as well.