Duh!! Of course it will take twice the bandwidth to support what you *want* to do on the internet, things you are doing today, as the amount it would when they throttle back everything that they can't charge you for.
It seems that the providers that are against a free, unfettered internet are just trying to mimic the model that the music industry started in the '80s: pump out a limited amount of mediocre crap at minimal cost, and fleece the public, for whatever they'll bear, to see it.
I was a geek squad "agent" for around 14 months, and did a short stint at one of Best Buy's regional service centers.
From the way I understand things, I assume that Zenitram works with one of Best Buy's third-party, outside repair vendors. They use them for various reasons: overflow of work, warranty arrangements with the OEMs, and simple efficiency. Laptop computers, for example, were almost always sent out, even for a bad hard drive, because it is obviously not feasible to train and equip a repair tech in every store.
BTW, I hope your employer is not DEX. We had computers come back from them with the wrong power supply, no power supply, no battery, the *wrong* battery, time and time again. I'd have to ask you the same thing!
In the squad's defense, sometimes just the bumpy ride to service makes a machine behave differently, so you might not be seeing what they saw in the store.
Have no doubt about it, though; there are some really, r e a l l y dumb shits that work in the geek squad (sic).
One of the "techs" I worked with sent a laptop to the service center for a hard drive replacement because of a "Non system-disk or disk error" message. Yep, it came back, "Non-bootable floppy in disk drive." I had a machine come into the service center because it would "hang when the (PS2) keyboard plug was pulled out and reinserted."
In fairness, I also have to say that there are some really excellent techs that work there, and I learned a lot from those guys.
Best Buy's purchase of the Geek Squad name was probably the best marketing moves ever made, because the organization had an excellent reputation and brand name recognition through some brilliant marketing of their own. But from what I saw, it is going to be heavily watered down as Best Buy exploits it in big retail fashion. They don't, and realize they don't, understand the service business, and try to run it like the rest of their big box sales organization: you hire the cheapest unskilled labor you can find.
It's pretty hard to find good techs that will work for $10/hr, so many of them are high school kids who think they understand computers because they put together their own gaming system and used lots of wire ties. They vary widely in their systems, electrical, and mechanical aptitudes, so you are undoubtedly seeing the product of those who are practically morons on all three fronts.
To directly answer your question, the in-store folks primarily do drive and memory replacements, spyware removal, software installations, and the occasional upgraded video card or even power supply replacement. On laptops we only did software and memory--we usually didn't have notebook hard drives in stock.
There could be many plausible reasons for what you are seeing, Zenitram, but from what I saw, I'm not surprised you're asking. Geek Squad doesn't stand for much any more.
Assuming that the user knows how to "use" a computer (power on, use a mouse, type a document, browse the internet), File Management 101 should be the first lesson taught. It is easy to grasp because it is easy to see. It is also a great analogy for what happens in the rest of the computer, both hardware and software. The concepts of hierarchy and modularity extend throughout computing in general.
Users are constantly faced with options for opening or saving files. With just a little bit of insight, the big foreboding directory structure becomes remarkably tame. The user feels empowered.
With this knowledge, users will instantly become much more efficient in their computing experiences. More importantly, though, they are much more likely to protect their data by backing it up if they understand how it's housed.
"Looking at the options - coal, natural gas, wind, water, solar, and nuclear - . . . "
Well, you left out a biggie that's so simple, it's beautiful: biomass conversion.
We can be 100% energy self-sufficient by farming 6% of continental USA--and that's by 1930's estimates of production!
Minimal changes of technology and infrastructure are needed. Wouldn't be any more painful than the conversion to unleaded fuels in the '70s.
Instead of selling our souls to the barbarians in the Middle East, we save a dying family profession: farming.
Ancient stores of CO2 stay in the ground where they belong.
*****No additional reliance on dangerous nuclear power needs to take place*****
With the exception of nuclear, ALL THE ENERGY WE HAVE, CAME FROM THE SUN.
Plants are the most efficient converters of the sun's energy we will ever know. They take its light, combine it with CO2 from the air, and nutrients in the soil and stores it in its mass. It releases oxygen as a waste product, something we really need.
By burning fossil fuels, we are simply releasing the energy harnessed by plants millions of years ago. Well, it doesn't take a genius to figure that we don't have a million years to make another batch, so eventually it will run out.
In our lifetimes, and probably a dozen generations behind us, there will never be a more efficient converter of the sun's energy than a plant does by photosynthesis.
Biomass conversion: A closed-loop renewable energy source that makes excellent sense economically, environmentally, politically, and practically.
Slashdot Mirror
Test it on your wife
I'd like to see a dDOS in action with this
a six-inch "curb" at 193 would probably only shear off the axles
"Twice the bandwidth."
Duh!! Of course it will take twice the bandwidth to support
what you *want* to do on the internet, things you are doing today,
as the amount it would when they throttle back everything that
they can't charge you for.
It seems that the providers that are against
a free, unfettered internet are just trying to mimic the
model that the music industry started in the '80s:
pump out a limited amount of mediocre crap at minimal cost,
and fleece the public, for whatever they'll bear, to see it.
And look at the state of the music industry.
You are grossly misinformed
I was a geek squad "agent" for around 14 months, and did a short stint at
one of Best Buy's regional service centers.
From the way I understand things, I assume that Zenitram works with one
of Best Buy's third-party, outside repair vendors. They use them for various
reasons: overflow of work, warranty arrangements with the OEMs,
and simple efficiency. Laptop computers, for example, were almost always
sent out, even for a bad hard drive, because it is obviously not feasible
to train and equip a repair tech in every store.
BTW, I hope your employer is not DEX. We had computers come back from them
with the wrong power supply, no power supply, no battery, the *wrong* battery,
time and time again. I'd have to ask you the same thing!
In the squad's defense, sometimes just the bumpy ride to service makes a machine
behave differently, so you might not be seeing what they saw in the store.
Have no doubt about it, though; there are some really, r e a l l y dumb
shits that work in the geek squad (sic).
One of the "techs" I worked with sent a laptop to the service center for a hard
drive replacement because of a "Non system-disk or disk error" message. Yep,
it came back, "Non-bootable floppy in disk drive." I had a machine come into the
service center because it would "hang when the (PS2) keyboard plug was pulled out
and reinserted."
In fairness, I also have to say that there are some really excellent techs that
work there, and I learned a lot from those guys.
Best Buy's purchase of the Geek Squad name was probably the best marketing moves
ever made, because the organization had an excellent reputation and brand name
recognition through some brilliant marketing of their own. But from what I saw,
it is going to be heavily watered down as Best Buy exploits it in big retail
fashion. They don't, and realize they don't, understand the service business,
and try to run it like the rest of their big box sales organization: you hire
the cheapest unskilled labor you can find.
It's pretty hard to find good techs that will work for $10/hr, so many of them
are high school kids who think they understand computers because they put
together their own gaming system and used lots of wire ties. They vary widely
in their systems, electrical, and mechanical aptitudes, so you are undoubtedly
seeing the product of those who are practically morons on all three fronts.
To directly answer your question, the in-store folks primarily do drive and
memory replacements, spyware removal, software installations, and the occasional
upgraded video card or even power supply replacement. On laptops we only did
software and memory--we usually didn't have notebook hard drives in stock.
There could be many plausible reasons for what you are seeing, Zenitram, but
from what I saw, I'm not surprised you're asking. Geek Squad doesn't stand
for much any more.
Yes.
Assuming that the user knows how to "use" a computer (power on, use a mouse,
type a document, browse the internet), File Management 101 should be the
first lesson taught. It is easy to grasp because it is easy to see. It is
also a great analogy for what happens in the rest of the computer, both
hardware and software. The concepts of hierarchy and modularity extend
throughout computing in general.
Users are constantly faced with options for opening or saving files. With just
a little bit of insight, the big foreboding directory structure becomes remarkably
tame. The user feels empowered.
With this knowledge, users will instantly become much more efficient in their
computing experiences. More importantly, though, they are much more likely to
protect their data by backing it up if they understand how it's housed.
"Looking at the options - coal, natural gas, wind, water, solar, and nuclear - . . . "
Well, you left out a biggie that's so simple, it's beautiful: biomass conversion.
We can be 100% energy self-sufficient by farming 6% of continental USA--and that's by 1930's estimates of production!
Minimal changes of technology and infrastructure are needed. Wouldn't be any more painful than the conversion to unleaded fuels in the '70s.
Instead of selling our souls to the barbarians in the Middle East, we save a dying family profession: farming.
Ancient stores of CO2 stay in the ground where they belong.
*****No additional reliance on dangerous nuclear power needs to take place*****
With the exception of nuclear, ALL THE ENERGY WE HAVE, CAME FROM THE SUN.
Plants are the most efficient converters of the sun's energy we will ever know. They take its light, combine it with CO2 from the air, and nutrients in the soil and stores it in its mass. It releases oxygen as a waste product, something we really need.
By burning fossil fuels, we are simply releasing the energy harnessed by plants millions of years ago. Well, it doesn't take a genius to figure that we don't have a million years to make another batch, so eventually it will run out.
In our lifetimes, and probably a dozen generations behind us, there will never be a more efficient converter of the sun's energy than a plant does by photosynthesis.
Biomass conversion: A closed-loop renewable energy source that makes excellent sense economically, environmentally, politically, and practically.