(1) Clean, clean, clean the prematurely (less than 2 years) dead X360 so it looks new. (2) Buy new one from microsoft.com. (3) Put old unit in new box. (4) Return for refund because "it doesn't turn on". Get refund. (5) If MS refuses, then provide tracking to credit card. They will Force a refund per the contract MS signed with the credit company.
Done.
I just did this with a USB drive that went "click click click" before finally spinning up. i.e. It was almost dead before I ever used it! Even though I had just opened the drive, my receipt was a month old, so the store refused the return. Next I bought a new one, put broken drive in new box, and returned it a few days later saying, "This doesn't work." Done.
I do this everytime a corporation tries to screw me. They almost-never succeed.
>>>When a weak F1 passed through Amerin-served Cahokia across the river from St Louis, my friend Jeff was without power for over a month. >>>
In my state this Electricity Monopoly would be required to restore electricity to all customers within 2 days, or else be fined 1 million a day. Your situation is a case of government not doing its job to *regulate* the natural monopoly.
>>>Some of it is about the customer and some of it is about profit... and that's it. Pesky ideals and ethics have no place in corporate America. >>>
Which is why I hate corporations. They take-away that human element that exists in a Proprietorship or Partnership-based company. The morality disappears and is replaced with penny-pinching.
I saw this at my old company JCPenney. While it was run by the originator, James Cash Penney, it was run to serve the customer. Profit was secondary and often Mr. Penney would criticize his store managers if they earned too much money. ----- Now 25 years later the store has turned into a money-grubbing business. I tried to exchange my size 9.0 shoes for 8.5 shoes. Never worn.
I was blocked because my receipt had "expired". Ridiculous. It's not as if the store loses anything by exchanging one brand-new box for another brand-new box, but they'd rather piss off a customer than treat said customer like a person.
Corporations are almost as evil as the Government Monopoly.
"We will no longer be loaning either the US or EU any more money. Furthermore we've decided it's time to collect our 5 trillion in loans. If you don't have the money, we'll be happy to take Alaska and Spain as payment instead."
Yeah. Who cares about China? Don't affect us at all! (rolls eyes)
You read my mind. "Do no evil" is a good mantra for Google, but it also means they will lose business in China, and somebody else will gain a virtually monopoly as the "default" search engine - namely Microsoft. So come 2020 we'll have a divided world where Google is the #1 search engine in America/Europe and MS Bing will be #1 in China and its protectorates.
It's like reading a prequel to Firefly.
IMHO Google would be better off to enter the Chinese market and gain dominance, and then *gradually* bring more freedoms to the Chinese citizens, by using their economic muscle to buyoff Chinese citizens. If China won't allow Gmail to be private, then put a big banner on every page: "Your government is watching everything you type," rather than completely withdraw from this 1,100 million person market..
>>>Odds are that one company owns the cable and everyone else is leasing from them.
That's not possible with TV cable, because a single provider already fills-up the entire spectrum from 50 to 1500 megahertz (or higher). There's no room to carry both Comcast and Cox television service, which means Cox would have have to run a separate dedicated line.
>>>So just because someone can tap in and listen, doesn't mean that the government can do so to gather evidence...
They can ever since the Republican-Democrats passed the Patriot Act. The government routinely wiretaps phone lines without warrants, and this new decision is merely an extention of that Act to the internet.
The government also has the power, thanks to this stupid Act, to stop your car and search it without a warrant. If we had a SANE political system this Act would already be nullified (by the States), but instead we have to sit around 20-30 years until the U.S. Government's Court gets round to hearing a case and nullifying the Patriot Act. What a broken system.
"What's this 'constitution' of which you speak?" - typical president, congressman, court justice, or other U.S. government employee
State leaders also forget they have a state constitution they are supposed to obey. For example in Massachusetts I can find no part of the MA Constitution which grants government power to pass a mandatory "buy insurance or be fined $1500" law. What's next? Buy a Prius or other hybrid, or else be fined by the MA Legislature?
You forgot option 3 - do it yourself. In my city there are mostly-empty metal pipes running under the streets, so I'd start my own ISP and run the fiber through those pipes, thereby providing 100 Mbit/s service to any customer who wanted it (about 10 times faster than Comcast or Verzion).
Of course that assumes I care enough to create a corporation.
I don't.
I look around the world and I see that the U.S. average speed is about 1 Mbit/s behind the Russian Federation, but 1 Mbit/s ahead of the EU, 2 Mbit/s ahead of Australia or Canada, and 4 Mbit/s ahead of China. I think we're doing all right. If we were dead last then I'd worry, but compared to other continent-sized federations we are actually in second place. So I don't worry.
The European Union has this: "Article 8 -Protection of personal data. 1. Everyone has the right to the protection of personal data concerning him or her. 2. Such data must be processed fairly for specified purposes and on the basis of the consent of the person concerned or some other legitimate basis laid down by law. Everyone has the right of access to data which has been collected concerning him or her, and the right to have it rectified. 3. Compliance with these rules shall be subject to control by an independent authority."
That's what we need to add to the US Constitution. We should be secure in our persons, papers, and effects even when those "papers" are held by a third-party ISP.
>>>Where could I get a job like that? I'd go to work, do the little real work, then work on things in my free time. There are plenty of open source apps I want to fix up. >>>
Yes Anonymous this would be productive, but the taxpayers should not be forced to pay for it. If you want to develop open source apps, then apply for a job with Mozilla or other open-source company, not a Taypayer-funded organization like the FAA, FCC, et cetera.
Well right now it's a battle between the folks who wants to use TV/FM spectrum for wireless internet (MS, Google, Apple, etc) and the folks who want to keep the spectrum (National Association of Broadcasters, NBC Universal, etc).
I'm not sure who will win. It may end as a tie, so that ultimately it will be letter-writing campaigns that decide. I know which side I'm choosing (free TV). Without free TV I'd be forced to pay ~$65 a month for Comcast Cable which is an inferior choice IMHO.
>>>One, many of the people who do not have broadband connections to the Internet do not have them because they do not see them as being valuable enough to be worth the price. >>>
There are a lot of people like that.
Such as my friend's dad who could get highspeed internet through his cable provider, but he says he doesn't need to pay $60/month just to "read email and livejournal". He's happy with his $10/month dialup plan.
And there's nothing wrong with that. It's HIS money and HIS choice. No point trying to ram highspeed down his throat (either directly or via higher taxes).
>>>The same argument was used when the US Interstate highway system was built decades ago.
False.
Virtually all 1950s-era Americans agreed that we needed better paths for our automobiles, because they could see what limited-access highways such as the State Turnpikes did for long distance travel (fast, safe, smooth). It is only in recent times that some have said the interstate system should be dismantled because it encouraged sprawl (bad for the earth, don't ya know) but that certainly wasn't the case during Eisenhower's term as president.
>>>I now have a 10000kbs/2000kbs Internet connection - not blazingly fast by any means
Not fast? Not fast??? I only have 750/128 you insensitive clod!
;-)
But seriously I wouldn't know what to do with myself with that kind of speed. I already watch free TV shows and download movies (shhh) off the net with my "slow" 750k connection. What on earth would I do with a 10,000 line? Feels like overkill, and while you say "not that fast" it feels VERY fast to my mind.
"It is only to protect our rights that we resort to government." - Thomas Jefferson. You have the right to not have your property stolen, or your life taken, and that's why the courts exist - to enforce those rights.
You don't have a right to internet, or a car, or a house. Those are *luxuries* not necessities, and therefore I don't want to buy them for you. I might be wiling to loan you money *voluntarily*, but that's it. I don't want to be forced by Congress.
My internet is only $15. BTW my first car was only $1000. My housing is an apartment for $300/month. There are deals to be had if you look for them.
Where I live electricity is not a monopoly. I have the choice of about 10 different companies, and it works great. We have the cheapest electricity in the U.S. at only 8.9 cents per KWH.
I want the same non-monopoly situation for my internet and cable TV. I want to able to choose from ~10 different providers.
>>>Broadband is not a free market by any means so its pointless to pretend that it is.
No it isn't but that could be easily fixed by allowing other companies access to the government-owned metal pipes under the street. Why should Comcast and Verizon be the only ones to run lines??? I say let other companies such as Cox, Cablevision, ATT, AppleTV, and so on run lines also.
Then each customer will have a choice of ~10 companies and there will be true competition instead of duopoly.
Yes let's Prohibit gun ownership. It ought to work as well as the Prohibition of marijuana and alcohol worked.
I think you've forgotten the prime reason to own guns is to scare politicians into submission. Imagine how Tiannemen Square might have ended differently if the Chinese citizens were armed and therefore had the power to topple the government. Read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Ghetto_Uprising - You might say "They weren't successful" but I disagree. They killed a lot of valuable German soldiers.
While the government might have tanks, it cannot stand against millions of armed citizens.
>>>if the electric company suddenly tripled their rates, what would you do besides complain and pay it?
I'd turn off the heat in every room except my main living room and supplement it with portable heaters in the bath or bedroom that can be turned on/off as needed. - As a customer I have the power to control my spending and reduce costs. As a taxpayer that power is in the hands of the 535 men in D.C., and effectively makes me a serf to their whims.
Slashdot Mirror
No but I might steal one. Like so:
(1) Clean, clean, clean the prematurely (less than 2 years) dead X360 so it looks new.
(2) Buy new one from microsoft.com.
(3) Put old unit in new box.
(4) Return for refund because "it doesn't turn on". Get refund.
(5) If MS refuses, then provide tracking to credit card. They will Force a refund per the contract MS signed with the credit company.
Done.
I just did this with a USB drive that went "click click click" before finally spinning up. i.e. It was almost dead before I ever used it! Even though I had just opened the drive, my receipt was a month old, so the store refused the return. Next I bought a new one, put broken drive in new box, and returned it a few days later saying, "This doesn't work." Done.
I do this everytime a corporation tries to screw me. They almost-never succeed.
>>>When a weak F1 passed through Amerin-served Cahokia across the river from St Louis, my friend Jeff was without power for over a month.
>>>
In my state this Electricity Monopoly would be required to restore electricity to all customers within 2 days, or else be fined 1 million a day. Your situation is a case of government not doing its job to *regulate* the natural monopoly.
Alaska has real wealth (oil, coal, uranium).
It's also easy to reach from China, and separate from the U.S. mainland.
>>>Some of it is about the customer and some of it is about profit ... and that's it. Pesky ideals and ethics have no place in corporate America.
>>>
Which is why I hate corporations. They take-away that human element that exists in a Proprietorship or Partnership-based company. The morality disappears and is replaced with penny-pinching.
I saw this at my old company JCPenney. While it was run by the originator, James Cash Penney, it was run to serve the customer. Profit was secondary and often Mr. Penney would criticize his store managers if they earned too much money. ----- Now 25 years later the store has turned into a money-grubbing business. I tried to exchange my size 9.0 shoes for 8.5 shoes. Never worn.
I was blocked because my receipt had "expired". Ridiculous. It's not as if the store loses anything by exchanging one brand-new box for another brand-new box, but they'd rather piss off a customer than treat said customer like a person.
Corporations are almost as evil as the Government Monopoly.
Buying products from China benefits the poor farmers - helps them earn extra cash.
Of course as oil shoots above $200 a barrel next decade, that market will eventually be closed to us (too far away/expensive to ship).
>>>Who cares about China. Seriously.
"We will no longer be loaning either the US or EU any more money. Furthermore we've decided it's time to collect our 5 trillion in loans. If you don't have the money, we'll be happy to take Alaska and Spain as payment instead."
Yeah. Who cares about China?
Don't affect us at all!
(rolls eyes)
Correction: "...by using their economic muscle to buyoff Chinese [politicians] in the government..."
The last thing we need is a Microsoft-Chinese government collusion. Two monopolies acting as one..... it's like a Bill Gates' wet dream.
You read my mind. "Do no evil" is a good mantra for Google, but it also means they will lose business in China, and somebody else will gain a virtually monopoly as the "default" search engine - namely Microsoft. So come 2020 we'll have a divided world where Google is the #1 search engine in America/Europe and MS Bing will be #1 in China and its protectorates.
It's like reading a prequel to Firefly.
IMHO Google would be better off to enter the Chinese market and gain dominance, and then *gradually* bring more freedoms to the Chinese citizens, by using their economic muscle to buyoff Chinese citizens. If China won't allow Gmail to be private, then put a big banner on every page: "Your government is watching everything you type," rather than completely withdraw from this 1,100 million person market..
>>>Odds are that one company owns the cable and everyone else is leasing from them.
That's not possible with TV cable, because a single provider already fills-up the entire spectrum from 50 to 1500 megahertz (or higher). There's no room to carry both Comcast and Cox television service, which means Cox would have have to run a separate dedicated line.
>>>So just because someone can tap in and listen, doesn't mean that the government can do so to gather evidence...
They can ever since the Republican-Democrats passed the Patriot Act. The government routinely wiretaps phone lines without warrants, and this new decision is merely an extention of that Act to the internet.
The government also has the power, thanks to this stupid Act, to stop your car and search it without a warrant. If we had a SANE political system this Act would already be nullified (by the States), but instead we have to sit around 20-30 years until the U.S. Government's Court gets round to hearing a case and nullifying the Patriot Act. What a broken system.
"What's this 'constitution' of which you speak?" - typical president, congressman, court justice, or other U.S. government employee
State leaders also forget they have a state constitution they are supposed to obey. For example in Massachusetts I can find no part of the MA Constitution which grants government power to pass a mandatory "buy insurance or be fined $1500" law. What's next? Buy a Prius or other hybrid, or else be fined by the MA Legislature?
You forgot option 3 - do it yourself. In my city there are mostly-empty metal pipes running under the streets, so I'd start my own ISP and run the fiber through those pipes, thereby providing 100 Mbit/s service to any customer who wanted it (about 10 times faster than Comcast or Verzion).
Of course that assumes I care enough to create a corporation.
I don't.
I look around the world and I see that the U.S. average speed is about 1 Mbit/s behind the Russian Federation, but 1 Mbit/s ahead of the EU, 2 Mbit/s ahead of Australia or Canada, and 4 Mbit/s ahead of China. I think we're doing all right. If we were dead last then I'd worry, but compared to other continent-sized federations we are actually in second place. So I don't worry.
(source: speedtest.net)
The European Union has this: "Article 8 -Protection of personal data. 1. Everyone has the right to the protection of personal data concerning him or her. 2. Such data must be processed fairly for specified purposes and on the basis of the consent of the person concerned or some other legitimate basis laid down by law. Everyone has the right of access to data which has been collected concerning him or her, and the right to have it rectified. 3. Compliance with these rules shall be subject to control by an independent authority."
That's what we need to add to the US Constitution.
We should be secure in our persons, papers, and effects
even when those "papers" are held by a third-party ISP.
>>>Where could I get a job like that? I'd go to work, do the little real work, then work on things in my free time. There are plenty of open source apps I want to fix up.
>>>
Yes Anonymous this would be productive, but the taxpayers should not be forced to pay for it. If you want to develop open source apps, then apply for a job with Mozilla or other open-source company, not a Taypayer-funded organization like the FAA, FCC, et cetera.
Well right now it's a battle between the folks who wants to use TV/FM spectrum for wireless internet (MS, Google, Apple, etc) and the folks who want to keep the spectrum (National Association of Broadcasters, NBC Universal, etc).
I'm not sure who will win. It may end as a tie, so that ultimately it will be letter-writing campaigns that decide. I know which side I'm choosing (free TV). Without free TV I'd be forced to pay ~$65 a month for Comcast Cable which is an inferior choice IMHO.
A Republic with Laws to protect individual rights is superior to a Tyranny of the majority (democracy).
>>>One, many of the people who do not have broadband connections to the Internet do not have them because they do not see them as being valuable enough to be worth the price.
>>>
There are a lot of people like that.
Such as my friend's dad who could get highspeed internet through his cable provider, but he says he doesn't need to pay $60/month just to "read email and livejournal". He's happy with his $10/month dialup plan.
And there's nothing wrong with that. It's HIS money and HIS choice. No point trying to ram highspeed down his throat (either directly or via higher taxes).
>>>The same argument was used when the US Interstate highway system was built decades ago.
False.
Virtually all 1950s-era Americans agreed that we needed better paths for our automobiles, because they could see what limited-access highways such as the State Turnpikes did for long distance travel (fast, safe, smooth). It is only in recent times that some have said the interstate system should be dismantled because it encouraged sprawl (bad for the earth, don't ya know) but that certainly wasn't the case during Eisenhower's term as president.
>>>I now have a 10000kbs/2000kbs Internet connection - not blazingly fast by any means
Not fast? Not fast??? I only have 750/128 you insensitive clod!
;-)
But seriously I wouldn't know what to do with myself with that kind of speed. I already watch free TV shows and download movies (shhh) off the net with my "slow" 750k connection. What on earth would I do with a 10,000 line? Feels like overkill, and while you say "not that fast" it feels VERY fast to my mind.
"It is only to protect our rights that we resort to government." - Thomas Jefferson. You have the right to not have your property stolen, or your life taken, and that's why the courts exist - to enforce those rights.
You don't have a right to internet, or a car, or a house. Those are *luxuries* not necessities, and therefore I don't want to buy them for you. I might be wiling to loan you money *voluntarily*, but that's it. I don't want to be forced by Congress.
My internet is only $15.
BTW my first car was only $1000.
My housing is an apartment for $300/month.
There are deals to be had if you look for them.
>>>So why should telecom be any different?
Where I live electricity is not a monopoly. I have the choice of about 10 different companies, and it works great. We have the cheapest electricity in the U.S. at only 8.9 cents per KWH.
I want the same non-monopoly situation for my internet and cable TV. I want to able to choose from ~10 different providers.
>>>Broadband is not a free market by any means so its pointless to pretend that it is.
No it isn't but that could be easily fixed by allowing other companies access to the government-owned metal pipes under the street. Why should Comcast and Verizon be the only ones to run lines??? I say let other companies such as Cox, Cablevision, ATT, AppleTV, and so on run lines also.
Then each customer will have a choice of ~10 companies and there will be true competition instead of duopoly.
Yes let's Prohibit gun ownership.
It ought to work as well as the Prohibition
of marijuana and alcohol worked.
I think you've forgotten the prime reason to own guns is to scare politicians into submission. Imagine how Tiannemen Square might have ended differently if the Chinese citizens were armed and therefore had the power to topple the government. Read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Ghetto_Uprising - You might say "They weren't successful" but I disagree. They killed a lot of valuable German soldiers.
While the government might have tanks, it cannot stand against millions of armed citizens.
The 1996 Telecommunications Act nullified all housing contracts that ban antennas or satellite dishs. So you can erect either of those on your roof. More info can be found here: http://www.highdefforum.com/local-hdtv-info-reception/2922-discussion-hdtv-ota-reception.html
.
>>>if the electric company suddenly tripled their rates, what would you do besides complain and pay it?
I'd turn off the heat in every room except my main living room and supplement it with portable heaters in the bath or bedroom that can be turned on/off as needed. - As a customer I have the power to control my spending and reduce costs. As a taxpayer that power is in the hands of the 535 men in D.C., and effectively makes me a serf to their whims.
BTW here's the antenna I use. Nothing big or bulky. In fact it fits inside my apartment behind my TV and receives stations 60 miles away: http://www.electronichouse.com/images/slideshow/AN4228.jpg