I was driving by Best Buy the other day and wondered what it would be like to work there and actually have customers with 'fixed' computers.
Then I came to my senses and laughed at myself uncomfortably and had an awkward silence afterwards.
Been a slow few weeks in the onsite IT scene, I must be delirious.
Coincidentally, I've had at least 5 incidents in the past year where I was paid to fix something a 'Geek Squad' tech screwed up. The best was on one of my existing business clients' home computer, that taught him not to call me first.
Has anyone else experienced the opinion that getting it fixed by the 'Geek Squad' has reached the lunacy of the 'Cup Holder CD tray' id10t legends?
Take a look around the internet and various high volume user posted news sites these days, we are getting HAMMERED by right wing and pro business commentators, likely under the guise of fake 'grassroots' orgs trying to push their agenda without revealing themselves.
Because noone in the right mind would pay for that crap. And some of those same people will sit and watch any terrible made for tv Richard Greico vs. Giant Spiders movie that might be on.
Technically the First Amendment trumps the 'Fire' scenario, its just acceptable to the (voting) public in general to impose punishment for inciting mayhem without cause. Its along the same lines of Chicago/NYC banning guns despite the Second Amendment, its not simply a 'greater good' argument, its an 'acceptable to the People' decision.
Vonage gives you built in voicemail to email functionality, remote web based voicemail checking, the ability to use 'regular' phones with your sevice, WORKING call forwarding, and isn't dependent on a full, working linux/mac/windows system to accept incoming phone calls. Call quality is light years better than Skype.
At home I have Vonage AND Skype Incoming/Outgoing on a Comcast 6mb down/512k up connection. Vonage so far has acheived all around higher quality than Skype.
AOL does/did most of their cancellation service(internally the dept. is called 'SAVES') inhouse. $4-$7.00 bonus to reps that got a member to stay for longer than 90 days (thus the free 3 months deal, then you will forget to check your cc statement and blammo, billing continues).
If Vonage uses the same principle for their cancellation svcs, I may just cancel my Vonage acct tomorrow. (not really, SBC/ATT is the phone service here, and they can go to hell if they think I'll ever go back)
If they had let me write the script, Doom would've been the best goddamn movie in history. That is until Duke Nukem comes out with mouselook, jumping, pipebombs, and a JETPACK!...Now if I can find a way to translate that into cinema excellence I'll be rich...
I use Kubuntu but I'd like to offer the protesting 'developers' a nice big cup of SHUT THE FUCK UP.
Ubuntu is a GNOME based distro. Kubuntu is an offshoot KDE version.
Ubuntu with its default Gnome interface is polished and very 'usable'. My son learned to navigate it at 3 years old. KDE is no where near as simple to navigate, its a whored up MS Windows start menu + pretty OS X-ified effects. And I use KDE.
Actually I accidentally learned about it reading a Woz bio on teh internets just a few days ago and though it was pertinent in a humorous way to mention it. You don't have to be so wound up about random slashdot blabberings. Nub.
ALWAYS use Synaptic, its loads stabler than Adept (and its interface is more traditional and not so 'search filter' lamed). Also don't use 'Kubuntu' iso installs, install Ubuntu then apt-get the kubuntu-desktop package.
Coincidentally, if you are doing development from within linux, you should use a distro you are comfortable with and actually know how its configured. Did you spend any time on ubuntuforums.org or (especially) on the irc channel asking for help? I've never come across a more nub friendly free support experience.
You should seriously install Ubuntu (and then 'sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop', dont use Kubuntu installer, tends to be flaky). It's light years past Xandros in terms of reliability and speed. I run a workstation at home like this and have rebooted 3 times since early February, mostly due to my own kludging around with my bluetooth toys.
I'm glad I'm not alone in my frustration with Xandros. The knowledgable end user support just isnt there on their forums and paying for support for simple.conf reconfiguration issue is completely out of sync with the whole linux experience. I can pop on irc and get an answer immediately for ubuntu or hit their forums and get a response typically within an hour... all free, all volunteer, and _always_ more knowledgable folks on the ubuntu forums.
Let me preface this by saying I'm an IT support guy and try to keep my hands in everything, but tend to be Windows oriented due to the nature of the business.
Xandros is among the worst desktop distributions I've been exposed to. A client, prior to my introduction to them, migrated 20 workstations to Xandros from Windows, but kept a Windows server with ADS and Terminal Svcs for their property management app. Xandros is (now 'was') a bloated, slow, obnoxious distribution. KDE apps were renamed 'Xandros "AppFunction"', which while only a nusiance, seems unethical and makes Xandros feel like a scam of a distro. The ONLY useful part of Xandros is the lazy, easy, and super convenient active directory authentication. Thats it. Every single machine, after 2-3 weeks of use, slowed to a crawl. Opening Konqueror (renamed 'Xandros File Manager') would take 30-40 seconds. On every machine. This was on the latest and greatest Xandros Pro 3.x. Take a look at the Xandros App installer and its a handful of 'free' tools, and a handful of 'free but registration required' toys (eg. Unreal Tournament DEMO for linux) were things included in 99% of the big distros' package management tools and/or default installation packages. The inclusion of Crossover Office was a nice addition, but Wine, commercialized or not, does not work with their management app (or with the majority of office management tools I've come across, especially those requiring MSDE/SQL).
I threw a single Ubuntu+KDE box in the network and it was rock solid, despite the manual configuration of ADS. Needless to say, they have since migrated back to Windows 2k/XP pro and now smb browsing 'works' and local file browsing, well, its windows, its retarded, and it just _works_. One big killer was the Terminal Server licensing, over $10,000 in licensing costs, but with Windows on the workstations such costs wouldn't have been required.
I love linux, I run it on my server and my home workstation, but Xandros is not worth wasting your time on. (Btw, yes, they did have an XDMS server setup and working, and no, it wasn't worth the expense. A handful of shell scripts with a unpolished, unreliable GUI on top does not make a management server.
Make 10 million dollars dealing drugs, spend 6 years in prison, retire. Most illegal professions could potentially end up worth a few years in prison. Its all a matter of being a.) willing and able to defend your precious virgin ass in prison and b.) just being a self centered p-o-s in general and not caring what effect your illegal actions could have on others, innocent or not.
Instead of blabbing more bullshit alluding to justification of patents on the 'its just how its been done' mark, why not explain how this particular patent is at all an original concept and worthy of its protected status? Or did you not read the article or patent itself?
Slashdot Mirror
I was driving by Best Buy the other day and wondered what it would be like to work there and actually have customers with 'fixed' computers.
Then I came to my senses and laughed at myself uncomfortably and had an awkward silence afterwards.
Been a slow few weeks in the onsite IT scene, I must be delirious.
Coincidentally, I've had at least 5 incidents in the past year where I was paid to fix something a 'Geek Squad' tech screwed up. The best was on one of my existing business clients' home computer, that taught him not to call me first.
Has anyone else experienced the opinion that getting it fixed by the 'Geek Squad' has reached the lunacy of the 'Cup Holder CD tray' id10t legends?
Cheers.
In Soviet America, we stick ONE finger up to the game developer.
Cheers.
somebody isnt listening. SHHHHHH. Zip it. Silencio por favor.
Cheers.
Everyone SHUT THE HELL UP and let them believe it is contained. SHHHHH. Seriously.
Cheers.
Why don't elves have stairs in their homes?
Cuz faries can fly!
Yes, I actually used that during a D&D campaign. Then I killed the elves. And yes, I actually just admitted to that.
Cheers.
oh oh you forgot the 'Wireless Zero Configuration' service! ;)
Cheers.
Take a look around the internet and various high volume user posted news sites these days, we are getting HAMMERED by right wing and pro business commentators, likely under the guise of fake 'grassroots' orgs trying to push their agenda without revealing themselves.
Cheers.
You skipped the part where they kill you anyway.
Because noone in the right mind would pay for that crap. And some of those same people will sit and watch any terrible made for tv Richard Greico vs. Giant Spiders movie that might be on.
Cheers.
Technically the First Amendment trumps the 'Fire' scenario, its just acceptable to the (voting) public in general to impose punishment for inciting mayhem without cause. Its along the same lines of Chicago/NYC banning guns despite the Second Amendment, its not simply a 'greater good' argument, its an 'acceptable to the People' decision.
;)
Oh and yeah, you're naive.
Cheers.
Vonage gives you built in voicemail to email functionality, remote web based voicemail checking, the ability to use 'regular' phones with your sevice, WORKING call forwarding, and isn't dependent on a full, working linux/mac/windows system to accept incoming phone calls. Call quality is light years better than Skype.
At home I have Vonage AND Skype Incoming/Outgoing on a Comcast 6mb down/512k up connection. Vonage so far has acheived all around higher quality than Skype.
Cheers.
AOL does/did most of their cancellation service(internally the dept. is called 'SAVES') inhouse. $4-$7.00 bonus to reps that got a member to stay for longer than 90 days (thus the free 3 months deal, then you will forget to check your cc statement and blammo, billing continues).
If Vonage uses the same principle for their cancellation svcs, I may just cancel my Vonage acct tomorrow. (not really, SBC/ATT is the phone service here, and they can go to hell if they think I'll ever go back)
cheers.
If they had let me write the script, Doom would've been the best goddamn movie in history. That is until Duke Nukem comes out with mouselook, jumping, pipebombs, and a JETPACK! ...Now if I can find a way to translate that into cinema excellence I'll be rich...
my 3-pair-of-$20-jeans-per-year.
Thats what you get for buying jeans at target.
I have a pair of $49 jeans thats ~5 years old and holding on.
Cheers.
Probably not.
This is the USPTO we're talkin about here.
Cheers.
I use Kubuntu but I'd like to offer the protesting 'developers' a nice big cup of SHUT THE FUCK UP.
Ubuntu is a GNOME based distro. Kubuntu is an offshoot KDE version.
Ubuntu with its default Gnome interface is polished and very 'usable'. My son learned to navigate it at 3 years old. KDE is no where near as simple to navigate, its a whored up MS Windows start menu + pretty OS X-ified effects. And I use KDE.
Cheers.
Actually I accidentally learned about it reading a Woz bio on teh internets just a few days ago and though it was pertinent in a humorous way to mention it. You don't have to be so wound up about random slashdot blabberings. Nub.
Cheers.
I think your looking for Woz's Cloud 9, created back in the 80s...
ALWAYS use Synaptic, its loads stabler than Adept (and its interface is more traditional and not so 'search filter' lamed). Also don't use 'Kubuntu' iso installs, install Ubuntu then apt-get the kubuntu-desktop package.
Coincidentally, if you are doing development from within linux, you should use a distro you are comfortable with and actually know how its configured. Did you spend any time on ubuntuforums.org or (especially) on the irc channel asking for help? I've never come across a more nub friendly free support experience.
You should seriously install Ubuntu (and then 'sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop', dont use Kubuntu installer, tends to be flaky). It's light years past Xandros in terms of reliability and speed. I run a workstation at home like this and have rebooted 3 times since early February, mostly due to my own kludging around with my bluetooth toys.
.conf reconfiguration issue is completely out of sync with the whole linux experience. I can pop on irc and get an answer immediately for ubuntu or hit their forums and get a response typically within an hour... all free, all volunteer, and _always_ more knowledgable folks on the ubuntu forums.
I'm glad I'm not alone in my frustration with Xandros. The knowledgable end user support just isnt there on their forums and paying for support for simple
Cheers.
Let me preface this by saying I'm an IT support guy and try to keep my hands in everything, but tend to be Windows oriented due to the nature of the business.
Xandros is among the worst desktop distributions I've been exposed to. A client, prior to my introduction to them, migrated 20 workstations to Xandros from Windows, but kept a Windows server with ADS and Terminal Svcs for their property management app. Xandros is (now 'was') a bloated, slow, obnoxious distribution. KDE apps were renamed 'Xandros "AppFunction"', which while only a nusiance, seems unethical and makes Xandros feel like a scam of a distro. The ONLY useful part of Xandros is the lazy, easy, and super convenient active directory authentication. Thats it. Every single machine, after 2-3 weeks of use, slowed to a crawl. Opening Konqueror (renamed 'Xandros File Manager') would take 30-40 seconds. On every machine. This was on the latest and greatest Xandros Pro 3.x. Take a look at the Xandros App installer and its a handful of 'free' tools, and a handful of 'free but registration required' toys (eg. Unreal Tournament DEMO for linux) were things included in 99% of the big distros' package management tools and/or default installation packages. The inclusion of Crossover Office was a nice addition, but Wine, commercialized or not, does not work with their management app (or with the majority of office management tools I've come across, especially those requiring MSDE/SQL).
I threw a single Ubuntu+KDE box in the network and it was rock solid, despite the manual configuration of ADS. Needless to say, they have since migrated back to Windows 2k/XP pro and now smb browsing 'works' and local file browsing, well, its windows, its retarded, and it just _works_. One big killer was the Terminal Server licensing, over $10,000 in licensing costs, but with Windows on the workstations such costs wouldn't have been required.
I love linux, I run it on my server and my home workstation, but Xandros is not worth wasting your time on. (Btw, yes, they did have an XDMS server setup and working, and no, it wasn't worth the expense. A handful of shell scripts with a unpolished, unreliable GUI on top does not make a management server.
Cheers.
Make 10 million dollars dealing drugs, spend 6 years in prison, retire. Most illegal professions could potentially end up worth a few years in prison. Its all a matter of being a.) willing and able to defend your precious virgin ass in prison and b.) just being a self centered p-o-s in general and not caring what effect your illegal actions could have on others, innocent or not.
Cheers!
You're just mad because they unpimped your 10 foot spoiler adorned ford focus ride.
Cheers.
There's a GIGANTIC DIFFERENCE. Copyright is a *LAW*. CC is a license attempting to apply on top of that law. Apples vs oranges.
Instead of blabbing more bullshit alluding to justification of patents on the 'its just how its been done' mark, why not explain how this particular patent is at all an original concept and worthy of its protected status? Or did you not read the article or patent itself?
Cheers.