And I'm not accusing you of this, Channard, but holy shit! There are a lot of whiny people on here! "I refuse to do tech support for family". I don't know what kind of relationship you have with YOUR family, but most of mine is pretty cool, and they do a lot for me.
I'm reminded of Dilbert's mom's response in one f the cartoons.. 'Oh, about the gift of life I gave you - you're welcome.'
I did. So does my free puppy arrive by post, or do I have to compile it? I'd imagine that latter could be quite messy, so I'd better move my PC into the bathroom if that's the case.
Of course, if the person doing the favour asking is a hot little Asian friend, I absolutely do my best to fix up her problem and then get her into the sack, where I then fuck the living shit out of her and spooge my spunk all over her face.
Is this before after you discovered 'her' aim username was 'Ladyboy22'?
Regular Support usually says.. "Have you rebooted your computer?.. Well Reboot it... Its doing the same thing? Reboot it again.. Still doing that Eh? Are you sure you rebooted? Well Try Turning the power completely off for 5 mins then call back."
Been there, done that. Not because I didn't know anything about computers, but because I worked as tech support for a computer company that sold computers to home users and the company didn't give a crap if problems were fixed. The managers of the call centre division in fact encouraged us to take as many calls as possible. You got whinged at if you didn't hit a certain number of calls taken, though in actual fact it was such a rubbish job I didn't care at all if they sacked me, which was strangely liberating, so the daily 'please hit these call stats' mails were only vaguely irritating. There was absolutely no incentive at all to fix problems at all.
And then there was the joy of getting PCs recalled. If it did seems to us that a PC needed recalling, we had to convince once of a group of people who were just as pissed off as we were, only it was in their interests not to accept returns. We actually had a substitute for the infamous 'reboot' which was 'rebuild'. The users had to run the rebuild disc to completely reload their HD before a return would be considered, even if you'd just bought the PC. And the catch is that unless you bought the extended warranty, you didn't get one and had to pay about 40 to get the disc! We also took calls from both the normal and extended warrantee lines, the only difference being that calls cost up to one pound a minute on the normal line and that customers were therefore more pissed off. Often it's not that the techs can't help, it's just that if they get managment coming down on them if they do anything other than get the caller off the phone as quick as they can, problem solved or not.
It doesn't matter how thankful they are, once you demonstrate some skill they'll come to you for every little thing rather than try to figure it out themselves. if you're not so lucky, they'll reccomend you to their friends, and then you'll end up fixing computers of people you've never heard of before.
Definitely seconded. Most people who don't or haven't worked in tech support don't get this. I've actually had only mild aquaintances actually ring up for computer help - the moment I got in from work. I've even had one person ring up with a problem with getting pictures from a mobile phone they bought that day. Hello? Try calling the people you bought it from, dammit!
Would you ring up a solicitor out of the blue, only knowing someone who knows them, expecting free legal advice? I think not. And don't even get me started on people not even reading what's on the damn screen on front of them. Once word gets out that you know about PCs, people will start ringing, or trying to collar you to talk about PCs etc. People may label you mean for putting your foot down, but it's your free time they're wasting. (rant mode off).
That's Transport for London, not the "London Council" (I think you mean Greater London Authority)
I stand corrected. I'm not implying some grand pan governmental conspirary, just that it seems odd that the cameras were off exactly when the protest were gathering that those locations (I checked out a few myself) and again when the protests were there when Bush was there.
Question: Why is it that many people in the UK are get so upset about the idea of national ID cards, when nobody seems to mind (or notice) other even more "big brother" things that go on in the UK, such as the national grid of video cameras on every street corner and road?
Or more curiously, why did none of the national press seize upon the fact that the London Council's webcams were mysteriously out of action wherever a war protest was taking place, either when the president visted recently or when the whole Iraq war thing started? And no, I'm not wearing a foil hat - check out http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/34062.html
or http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/archive/29883.html
Employee: (checks) AHH! MMH! OOHH! YESSS!... nope, just spam.
Scene 2: Employee sitting smoking cigarette... 'Well, that certainly put inches on me.. now, what's this email from a Reverend Obogdu of Nigeria all about?'
Or also exagurate the usefulness of the items predicted - not this list specifically, but in general. Take flying cars, for example. The first person - or the first few early adoptors - to get a flying car would have fun for a while, then they'd end up being regulated, traffic lanes would be created, and it'd be like The Fifth Element.
.. crash of the Borg's OS after applying the latest MS patch, crippling the collective. The borg themselves are quickly 'rescued' by the Weyland-McDonalds corporation and put to worth behind fast food counters across the solar system. Meanwhile, the Borg Queen, deprived of her power base, becomes a cam-whore, running her own pay-per-view website.. slogan.. 'Come and watch me assimilate barely legal teens.'
You're just bitter because I won't give you a lift in my flying car after you drunk too much synthi-hol and puked up your food pills all over the back seat.
Well, I did notice their lawyer seemed to be a bit scaly. And I'm sure I saw wisps of smoke coming from their nostrils. Oh, wait, not *that* kind of draconian evidence..
Yes you could. Austin Powers 3: Goldmember has everyone beat hands down for shameless product placement. It got to the point where I was wondering if they were doing it on purpose, as a running gag. Sadly not it seems. I lost count of the products in the film.
I can't actually remember the product placement - though I did think the film pretty much stunk so that could be why. What struck me as more shameful about the T3 placing was that it wasn't someone drinking a pepsi or whatever, it was a sodding great blue truck with the 'xanax' or whatever logo and slogan on it, occupying the whole screen nearly.
The answer is simple: Produce commercials buyers want to watch, like those 25 minute Pokemon commercials. What? That's a TV series? Fooled me.
It gets worse. I used to watch Transformers as a kid, and while it clearly was tied into the toy line, it was still a decent well written TV series, with only one annoying kid in it. I caught Transformers: Armada the other day and I was stunned. What the hell? It's Pokemon, for crying out loud! There are kids in it that get more air time than the robots, and even Optimus Prime is going on about catching 'minicons'. Talk about an obvious ad. Jesus..
Or presumably Terminator 4 will have a shoot-out in a Pizza Hut, with a huge Pepsi truck slamming through the wall, the enemy terminator stepping out wearing Gap Jeans and Nike trainers. Lets face it, you couldn't get more shameful than the 'Xanax' or whatever truck in Terminator 3.
Or maybe advertisers will just make ads that fool Tivo - ramping up informercials, perhaps?
What possible fucking problem could the movie industry have with that?
Well, apart from the fact that screeners do violate copyright, it also takes away control over a movie from the hands of the industry. Movie studios like to have complete control over the distribution of their movie - hence region coding on DVDs.
Slashdot Mirror
Surely that'd be the job of one William Gates?
I'm reminded of Dilbert's mom's response in one f the cartoons.. 'Oh, about the gift of life I gave you - you're welcome.'
I did. So does my free puppy arrive by post, or do I have to compile it? I'd imagine that latter could be quite messy, so I'd better move my PC into the bathroom if that's the case.
Most likely because some companies - my old one included - take that as a training issue. Not a tech support issue - there's no actual fault involved.
.. you insensitive clod!
Is this before after you discovered 'her' aim username was 'Ladyboy22'?
Been there, done that. Not because I didn't know anything about computers, but because I worked as tech support for a computer company that sold computers to home users and the company didn't give a crap if problems were fixed. The managers of the call centre division in fact encouraged us to take as many calls as possible. You got whinged at if you didn't hit a certain number of calls taken, though in actual fact it was such a rubbish job I didn't care at all if they sacked me, which was strangely liberating, so the daily 'please hit these call stats' mails were only vaguely irritating. There was absolutely no incentive at all to fix problems at all.
And then there was the joy of getting PCs recalled. If it did seems to us that a PC needed recalling, we had to convince once of a group of people who were just as pissed off as we were, only it was in their interests not to accept returns. We actually had a substitute for the infamous 'reboot' which was 'rebuild'. The users had to run the rebuild disc to completely reload their HD before a return would be considered, even if you'd just bought the PC. And the catch is that unless you bought the extended warranty, you didn't get one and had to pay about 40 to get the disc! We also took calls from both the normal and extended warrantee lines, the only difference being that calls cost up to one pound a minute on the normal line and that customers were therefore more pissed off. Often it's not that the techs can't help, it's just that if they get managment coming down on them if they do anything other than get the caller off the phone as quick as they can, problem solved or not.
Definitely seconded. Most people who don't or haven't worked in tech support don't get this. I've actually had only mild aquaintances actually ring up for computer help - the moment I got in from work. I've even had one person ring up with a problem with getting pictures from a mobile phone they bought that day. Hello? Try calling the people you bought it from, dammit!
Would you ring up a solicitor out of the blue, only knowing someone who knows them, expecting free legal advice? I think not. And don't even get me started on people not even reading what's on the damn screen on front of them. Once word gets out that you know about PCs, people will start ringing, or trying to collar you to talk about PCs etc. People may label you mean for putting your foot down, but it's your free time they're wasting. (rant mode off).
I stand corrected. I'm not implying some grand pan governmental conspirary, just that it seems odd that the cameras were off exactly when the protest were gathering that those locations (I checked out a few myself) and again when the protests were there when Bush was there.
And yes.. I know it's not a 'meeting' meeting. I'm quite surprised that MS hasn't managed to copyright the word 'Meeting' yet.
1. Gnome. 2. ?????. 3. Profit.
Or more curiously, why did none of the national press seize upon the fact that the London Council's webcams were mysteriously out of action wherever a war protest was taking place, either when the president visted recently or when the whole Iraq war thing started? And no, I'm not wearing a foil hat - check out http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/34062.html or http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/archive/29883 .html
Scene 2: Employee sitting smoking cigarette... 'Well, that certainly put inches on me.. now, what's this email from a Reverend Obogdu of Nigeria all about?'
Or also exagurate the usefulness of the items predicted - not this list specifically, but in general. Take flying cars, for example. The first person - or the first few early adoptors - to get a flying car would have fun for a while, then they'd end up being regulated, traffic lanes would be created, and it'd be like The Fifth Element.
.. crash of the Borg's OS after applying the latest MS patch, crippling the collective. The borg themselves are quickly 'rescued' by the Weyland-McDonalds corporation and put to worth behind fast food counters across the solar system. Meanwhile, the Borg Queen, deprived of her power base, becomes a cam-whore, running her own pay-per-view website.. slogan.. 'Come and watch me assimilate barely legal teens.'
You're just bitter because I won't give you a lift in my flying car after you drunk too much synthi-hol and puked up your food pills all over the back seat.
Well, I did notice their lawyer seemed to be a bit scaly. And I'm sure I saw wisps of smoke coming from their nostrils. Oh, wait, not *that* kind of draconian evidence..
.. is for some bright spark to add a recorder function/add-on-box to this that will negate the bit that sets HD programs as non recordable.
Biting off Frodo's finger?
I can't actually remember the product placement - though I did think the film pretty much stunk so that could be why. What struck me as more shameful about the T3 placing was that it wasn't someone drinking a pepsi or whatever, it was a sodding great blue truck with the 'xanax' or whatever logo and slogan on it, occupying the whole screen nearly.
It gets worse. I used to watch Transformers as a kid, and while it clearly was tied into the toy line, it was still a decent well written TV series, with only one annoying kid in it. I caught Transformers: Armada the other day and I was stunned. What the hell? It's Pokemon, for crying out loud! There are kids in it that get more air time than the robots, and even Optimus Prime is going on about catching 'minicons'. Talk about an obvious ad. Jesus..
Though the fact I don't know for sure what the drug name was, shows the placement didn't affect me that much.
Or maybe advertisers will just make ads that fool Tivo - ramping up informercials, perhaps?
Well, apart from the fact that screeners do violate copyright, it also takes away control over a movie from the hands of the industry. Movie studios like to have complete control over the distribution of their movie - hence region coding on DVDs.
No, nor is it peppermint fresh. But it does have 'property of Lucasfilm props dept' written on the bottom.