From the moment you get redirected from Slingbox.com to SlingMedia your screen is filled by a standup comic in front of a whiteboard with a specialized message.
Based on a simple cookie, after you have looked at the product of your choice, when you're returned to the main page you are greeted by name. If your name is Gregg.
The 7" stand-up guy (depending on your screen size) is then informed off-camera that their company's identity-recognition software is not yet finely tuned for their teleprompter cues.
The whole scenario was brought to my attention by a guy in the office (named Gregg) who was worried about his security settings and has yet to learn the time-honored tech trick of duplicating an event from the machine next to him.
Try buying the "combo" deals at Best Buy where they match a 1680x1050+ monitor with integrated Gateway video that cannot properly drive the native resolution unless you then purchase a separate PCIe card. The phone 'support' you get by being a 3rd class enduser (ie., a mass retail consumer via the non-tollfree number) is hideous.
Maybe they think such godawful customer service will convince you to buy directly from them next time, but they are going to find out there won't be any next time. Worst part is that the 5 wavy vertical lines across the $500 Gateway monitor with the $700 Gateway computer doesn't happen if you pair the Gateway monitor with a non-Gateway machine or vice versa.
The retail support group for Gateway is apparently keenly aware of the exact retail stores' return policy -- since they know your exact date of purchase, it seems fishy that their callback period to attempt a solution falls 1 day past the point of no return (literally no return).
Confirming the issue with chain's internal Geek Squad support is of little use; worse still is my own workaround (having had multiple monitors and multiple models with the problem) never ended up changing the pairing of mismatched equipment on the sales floor. Imagine when a problem is NOT easily reproduceable and not so obviously visible to a cursory visual inspection as in this case.
A combination of poor design, poor training, poor support equals defective product that doesn't have a case according to lawyers, but will do just fine in front of a jury of regular citizens who understand companies hiding behind "iron clad" EULAs.
Maybe Google's demise will come from 80% of them getting long-term Mercury contamination in their spicy tuna rolls, with the piece de resistance being poison blowfish structure wiping out everyone overnight, who had not yet succumbed to brain damage from the heavy metal.
It seems to be people listening to Howard Stern on Sirius Satellite Radio...
Oddly enough, I've never managed to identify the car doing the transmission.
It's probably the 1997 Crown Victoria being driven by a female in the 35-54 age group demographic who's winking at you behind the limo-tint windows.
So that's why just about every American house had a vacuum tube radio or three before they were obsoleted by transistors? Vacuum tubes were not expensive.
I remember seeing people run down to the drug store and stick their tubes into the little machine that told them whether it was good. It was the end of the consumer era of do-it-yourself.
Company buys major vendor's security product for workstations and then learns that useability is almost zero unless all users given admin rights. The end result: Path of least resistance, and less secure than before, after blowing the budget on questionable mass-market software.
straining the gold out of seawater and reclaiming the platinum out of old catalytic converters
You probably smelt bad.
Ebay has a guy who regularly starts no-reserve auctions at $99,999.99 for a hundred thousand catalytic converters that he has already stripped. I don't remember about shipping charges.
On Friday's CBS Evening News, there was a "story" at the end of the program about how to go online and vote for which of 3 topics you want them to do as a "story" next week.
In less time than it takes to find the poll, you can Google the topic of your choice instead and have better information from the blogs than that "story" will yield next week.
CBS News picked up those 3 topics from blogs, they will further 'research' the winning topic from blogs, and then ask viewers to discuss the topic further on their own blog.
A couple of years ago, $59 blue Linksys routers began showing up with Cisco firmware and $49 price tags. Just running a Windows tracert.exe from the XP command line instantly rebooted ALL these questionable routers.
Wal-Mart customers aren't too good at upgrading their firmware, it seems, and you still run into some unencrypted hotspots where non-admins without physical access eat these blue-box-specials lunch.
AMD needs to be more cool -- something like Intel and Apple do with tv commercials.
Of course Intel will always be more cool since their television spots always end with
"SFX Intel bong" if you watch with closed captioning turned on for that little chime.
That is why a different RFUD system is needed: Darts.
Give everyone there a one-time-use marker paint that they can throw at the biggest jerk they see.
Once someone accumulates 5 hits of "invisible" paint, they will undergo further airport scrutiny.
This program can be extended to cars, where rude and awful drivers get tagged by the community.
In other news, MSIMN.EXE -- aka Windows Mail, nee Outlook Express --
"no longer supports the HTTP servers used by Hotmail" under Vista
as of June 19, 2006 according to
Knowledge Base.
Is anybody remotely surprised Apple wants to up their environmental profile?
You could go to any big box retailer 15 years ago, and the 'current style' was to package stuff in clean white cardboard.
In the early 90s Apple didn't put boxes through extraneous bleaching. You could instantly spot all their brown box product.
--
Dispose of your old plastic iPOD
and get a new green-friendly one.
good luck proving that the virus wasn't fully removed
Computer Associates doesn't need techs -- since this is really just an insurance plan (read, profit margin)
they should hire people with HMO experience and a list of excuses like "it was a pre-existing condition."
Parent buys a Microsoft/Sony title for their kid, grumbling how expensive it is.
The expensive XP-Plus/GranTurismo has lost the kid's attention after 3 days.
Kid tells parent they must buy more fish/cars for $100 total or it is all a waste.
Parent remembers quite well to never, ever buy anything from Microsoft/Sony.
Slashdot Mirror
"The ants will soon be here. And I for one welcome our new insect overlords." 1F13 96 - 515 (Deep Space Homer)
You would really need to be a Bomar Brain to do such work.
Based on a simple cookie, after you have looked at the product of your choice, when you're returned to the main page you are greeted by name. If your name is Gregg.
The 7" stand-up guy (depending on your screen size) is then informed off-camera that their company's identity-recognition software is not yet finely tuned for their teleprompter cues.
The whole scenario was brought to my attention by a guy in the office (named Gregg) who was worried about his security settings and has yet to learn the time-honored tech trick of duplicating an event from the machine next to him.
All you have to do to prove it is a REAL computer, is take it out of stand-by mode and show them it can load Internet Explorer!
Maybe they think such godawful customer service will convince you to buy directly from them next time, but they are going to find out there won't be any next time. Worst part is that the 5 wavy vertical lines across the $500 Gateway monitor with the $700 Gateway computer doesn't happen if you pair the Gateway monitor with a non-Gateway machine or vice versa.
The retail support group for Gateway is apparently keenly aware of the exact retail stores' return policy -- since they know your exact date of purchase, it seems fishy that their callback period to attempt a solution falls 1 day past the point of no return (literally no return).
Confirming the issue with chain's internal Geek Squad support is of little use; worse still is my own workaround (having had multiple monitors and multiple models with the problem) never ended up changing the pairing of mismatched equipment on the sales floor. Imagine when a problem is NOT easily reproduceable and not so obviously visible to a cursory visual inspection as in this case.
A combination of poor design, poor training, poor support equals defective product that doesn't have a case according to lawyers, but will do just fine in front of a jury of regular citizens who understand companies hiding behind "iron clad" EULAs.
Maybe Google's demise will come from 80% of them getting long-term Mercury contamination in their spicy tuna rolls, with the piece de resistance being poison blowfish structure wiping out everyone overnight, who had not yet succumbed to brain damage from the heavy metal.
Oddly enough, I've never managed to identify the car doing the transmission.
It's probably the 1997 Crown Victoria being driven by a female in the 35-54 age group demographic who's winking at you behind the limo-tint windows.
I remember seeing people run down to the drug store and stick their tubes into the little machine
that told them whether it was good. It was the end of the consumer era of do-it-yourself.
Company buys major vendor's security product for workstations and then learns that useability is almost zero unless all users given admin rights. The end result: Path of least resistance, and less secure than before, after blowing the budget on questionable mass-market software.
Go over to Google News, create an alert, submit/confirm your email address and then consider this:
"Google will not sell or share your email address"
Does that mean a class action suit against them every time they comply with a government request?
They don't distinguish between Time-Warner customers in Chicago versus New York, so you get a lot of DC-area longitude and lattitude URLs.
You probably smelt bad.
Ebay has a guy who regularly starts no-reserve auctions at $99,999.99 for a hundred thousand catalytic converters that he has already stripped. I don't remember about shipping charges.
Free Speech now doesn't mean that you can yell "Fire" to a crowd when there is a fire.
Is that plutonium in your pocket, Marie, or are you just happy to see me?
In less time than it takes to find the poll, you can Google the topic of your choice instead and have better information from the blogs than that "story" will yield next week.
CBS News picked up those 3 topics from blogs, they will further 'research' the winning topic from blogs, and then ask viewers to discuss the topic further on their own blog.
Going to toxic areas is deserving of bomb squad status, "Move outta the way people; make way for the Heavy Metal Removal Unit!"
Wal-Mart customers aren't too good at upgrading their firmware, it seems, and you still run into some unencrypted hotspots where non-admins without physical access eat these blue-box-specials lunch.
Or you can just target your product toward all those Asperger's geeks?
Of course Intel will always be more cool since their television spots always end with
"SFX Intel bong" if you watch with closed captioning turned on for that little chime.
That is why a different RFUD system is needed: Darts.
Give everyone there a one-time-use marker paint that they can throw at the biggest jerk they see.
Once someone accumulates 5 hits of "invisible" paint, they will undergo further airport scrutiny.
This program can be extended to cars, where rude and awful drivers get tagged by the community.
"no longer supports the HTTP servers used by Hotmail" under Vista
as of June 19, 2006 according to Knowledge Base.
For further information you are advised to join here.
Microsoft's Hotmail employees are downright LIVE about Vista.
You could go to any big box retailer 15 years ago, and the 'current style' was to package stuff in clean white cardboard.
In the early 90s Apple didn't put boxes through extraneous bleaching. You could instantly spot all their brown box product.
--
Dispose of your old plastic iPOD
and get a new green-friendly one.
Whenever I post on an Apple story, that TBBPA stuff could come in handy --
neutralizing both the flames and the 'tards.
Computer Associates doesn't need techs -- since this is really just an insurance plan (read, profit margin)
they should hire people with HMO experience and a list of excuses like "it was a pre-existing condition."
Parent buys a Microsoft/Sony title for their kid, grumbling how expensive it is.
The expensive XP-Plus/GranTurismo has lost the kid's attention after 3 days.
Kid tells parent they must buy more fish/cars for $100 total or it is all a waste.
Parent remembers quite well to never, ever buy anything from Microsoft/Sony.