Which reminds me of a more recent story. A different friend of mine, who like me only builds his own computers, was going to purchase a stick of RAM from Best Buy because it was on sale at half price (marked down from $80 to $40). When he tried to purchase the RAM, however, he was informed that the discount is only valid if he let the Geek Squad install the RAM for him. The cost of such a procedure was, as you stated above, around $50, which essentially means that the discount would have ended up costing him more money than paying full price and installing it himself.
Needless to say, he raised some serious hell about it. In the end the store manager let him have the discount without any interaction with the Geek Squad.
More times than I care to think about. And I wouldn't have been so flabbergasted about it if the elderly couple had actually asked the guy what "hyperthreading" meant. They didn't. At the time I was milling around the computer displays, looking at the outrageous prices they wanted for video cards. I overheard them flag the guy down; they simply wanted to know how good a certain computer on the shelf was. The Geek Squad guy launched into a tirade of technical babble that they didn't ask for, and he got it all wrong to boot. That is inexcusable.
Had they asked me what "hyperthreading" meant, I would have simply told them that it allows the processor to make more efficient use of its time, which is both true and simple.
They don't do a damn thing. I had a friend ask me to diagnose his laptop one time. Symptoms included spontaneous powerdowns (mostly during gaming), inordinate amounts of heat, and occasional buzzing noises. Anyone with a little computer expertise would recognize this as a faulty fan and/or heatsink. I told him as such. I was wary of opening the laptop myself, as it was brand new. So he took it back to Best Buy to let their Geek Squad deal with it. When he submitted it for repair, he told them about the symptoms. When he got it back a couple of weeks later, it appeared that they hadn't even bothered to check that their "repairs" had worked. They replaced the damn battery. Of all the stupid things I've ever seen, it took them two weeks to replace a battery that didn't need to be replaced in the first place.
At that point I convinced my friend never to purchase from Best Buy again, at least, nothing that will require tech support. When I finally opened the laptop myself, the processor's heatsink was being held on by 1 screw, and even it was loose.
My diagnosis: the Geek Squad does nothing. It was a publicity stunt to make consumers think that Best Buy employees knowledgable technicians, when in reality these so-called "experts" probably spend all day sitting around thinking they're "1337 h@x0rs" because they downloaded TweakXP.
On another occasion I heard a Geek Squad guy tell an elderly couple that hyperthreading was "like having 2 processors in 1." I nearly flipped my lid, but that's a different story for a different day.
WANTED: Somebody to go forward in time with me. This is not a joke. P.O. Box @#!%, Oakview, CA 93022. You'll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own document formats. Safety not guaranteed. I have only done this once before.
Company Execs: "Hello, hello, can you hear me? Hello? Hey, dudes, thanks for the information, very helpful. After analyzing the data you provided, we have calculated a fool-proof plan for winning the war. Here are your orders: eliminate the enemy. Good luck. Also, try to do better and please win. See ya."
Is it bad that that map reminds me of the last mission of Starcraft: Brood War? I mean, you play as the Zerg and start in the middle completely surrounded, and have to wipe out all of your opponents. Does that make Microsoft the Zerg? Bill Gates would be Kerrigan?!!?!
Well....the Zerg infest, assimilate, overpower, and outnumber their opponents, and are led by a single all-powerful Overmind bent on galactic domination. That sounds like Microsoft to me.
That is kinda the point I was trying to get across. Sure, if they asked him to leave and he didn't, fine, call the police. If he was uploading kiddie porn, hell yes, throw him in the slammer for the rest of his natural life. Hell, I'd even agree with a "paying customers only" policy for their wireless AP. That's reasonable. But the article didn't say a word about them having any such policy, and their excuse for whining was that he was "stealing" wi-fi from them. To me, that's just ignorant.
Most coffee shops want an open wireless AP so people will wander in to use it and, hopefully, buy something. What would be the point of them locking it down? That wouldn't be useful to their customers at all. I'm willing to bet that at no point did they post a notice that their wireless AP was for paying customers only.
When deputies told Smith to knock it off, he came back and is now charged with theft of services.
This article is pure FUD. Okay, the guy was a sex offender. The article only mentions this once, and it clearly says they have no idea if he actually did anything wrong. It just says that to discredit him.
I can't help but wonder if during those 3 months anyone working at the coffee shop bothered to ask him if he wanted a drink, or informed him that he would have to make a purchase if he wanted to continue using their wireless AP.
A computer expert told KATU News there is no way to know if someone is using your wireless connection without permission.
Some computer expert.....did I mention this was all FUD?
I say we use jet engines to put our servers into low orbit. They won't have any problems dispelling heat up there. Which necessitates running many miles of CAT5 cable from low orbit to the surface (with staggered relays to boost signal strength). What does this result in? BAM, instant space elevator! I am a genius!
I agree completely. Giving someone a simple problem to solve and saying "solve it as fast as you can" isn't a good measure of ability at all. It promotes too many bad habits into what might be considered good programming.
The parent poster's name is SpeedBump, and that's exactly what a real programming competition should have: speed bumps, hurdles, obstacles. Here's how I envision it: give the teams a medium difficulty problem to solve. The judges act as clients. The teams have a given period of time in which to solve the problem (probably longer than 10 minutes), but it's okay if they go over, it'll just cost them points. During the competition, the judges introduce small changes to the problem (i.e. requirements changes). It's okay for the teams to get up and talk to the judges, that just costs time. They might even convince the judges that certain requirements aren't feasible in the given timespan, and get them dropped. In the end documentation, usability, scalability, and maintainability count just as much as realization of the goal.
If there are competitions like this, then huzzah for them. Really, speed programming proves nothing.
This is one thing I still don't quite understand. Why must the concepts of "creationism" and "evolution" be mutually exclusive? Who's to say that life wasn't created by some greater power, then that greater power sat back and said, "Okay, let's see what happens now."
You know, kinda like the Xel'Naga did for the Protoss. Except in the end, the Protoss screwed up. And a bunch of bugs assimilated the Xel'Naga. Hmm, yeah, bad example, I suppose.....
Slashdot Mirror
Now all we need are wrist communicators, an evil witch thing on the moon, and a big floating head in a jar.
Which reminds me of a more recent story. A different friend of mine, who like me only builds his own computers, was going to purchase a stick of RAM from Best Buy because it was on sale at half price (marked down from $80 to $40). When he tried to purchase the RAM, however, he was informed that the discount is only valid if he let the Geek Squad install the RAM for him. The cost of such a procedure was, as you stated above, around $50, which essentially means that the discount would have ended up costing him more money than paying full price and installing it himself.
Needless to say, he raised some serious hell about it. In the end the store manager let him have the discount without any interaction with the Geek Squad.
More times than I care to think about. And I wouldn't have been so flabbergasted about it if the elderly couple had actually asked the guy what "hyperthreading" meant. They didn't. At the time I was milling around the computer displays, looking at the outrageous prices they wanted for video cards. I overheard them flag the guy down; they simply wanted to know how good a certain computer on the shelf was. The Geek Squad guy launched into a tirade of technical babble that they didn't ask for, and he got it all wrong to boot. That is inexcusable.
Had they asked me what "hyperthreading" meant, I would have simply told them that it allows the processor to make more efficient use of its time, which is both true and simple.
But whose eyes?
They don't do a damn thing. I had a friend ask me to diagnose his laptop one time. Symptoms included spontaneous powerdowns (mostly during gaming), inordinate amounts of heat, and occasional buzzing noises. Anyone with a little computer expertise would recognize this as a faulty fan and/or heatsink. I told him as such. I was wary of opening the laptop myself, as it was brand new. So he took it back to Best Buy to let their Geek Squad deal with it. When he submitted it for repair, he told them about the symptoms. When he got it back a couple of weeks later, it appeared that they hadn't even bothered to check that their "repairs" had worked. They replaced the damn battery. Of all the stupid things I've ever seen, it took them two weeks to replace a battery that didn't need to be replaced in the first place.
At that point I convinced my friend never to purchase from Best Buy again, at least, nothing that will require tech support. When I finally opened the laptop myself, the processor's heatsink was being held on by 1 screw, and even it was loose.
My diagnosis: the Geek Squad does nothing. It was a publicity stunt to make consumers think that Best Buy employees knowledgable technicians, when in reality these so-called "experts" probably spend all day sitting around thinking they're "1337 h@x0rs" because they downloaded TweakXP.
On another occasion I heard a Geek Squad guy tell an elderly couple that hyperthreading was "like having 2 processors in 1." I nearly flipped my lid, but that's a different story for a different day.
Belgian Gov't requires ODF From 09/2008
WANTED: Somebody to go forward in time with me. This is not a joke. P.O. Box @#!%, Oakview, CA 93022. You'll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own document formats. Safety not guaranteed. I have only done this once before.
You scheming bastard... :P
Wow...that is just awful and not right! You are a bad, bad person! How do you sleep at night?
:D
proc DetectPoison()
{
global $NeuralActivity;
return $NeuralActivity == 0;
}
There, that's better.
Company Execs: "Hello, hello, can you hear me? Hello? Hey, dudes, thanks for the information, very helpful. After analyzing the data you provided, we have calculated a fool-proof plan for winning the war. Here are your orders: eliminate the enemy. Good luck. Also, try to do better and please win. See ya."
Is it bad that that map reminds me of the last mission of Starcraft: Brood War? I mean, you play as the Zerg and start in the middle completely surrounded, and have to wipe out all of your opponents. Does that make Microsoft the Zerg? Bill Gates would be Kerrigan?!!?!
Well....the Zerg infest, assimilate, overpower, and outnumber their opponents, and are led by a single all-powerful Overmind bent on galactic domination. That sounds like Microsoft to me.
That is kinda the point I was trying to get across. Sure, if they asked him to leave and he didn't, fine, call the police. If he was uploading kiddie porn, hell yes, throw him in the slammer for the rest of his natural life. Hell, I'd even agree with a "paying customers only" policy for their wireless AP. That's reasonable. But the article didn't say a word about them having any such policy, and their excuse for whining was that he was "stealing" wi-fi from them. To me, that's just ignorant.
From my own quote: anyone working at the coffee shop bothered to ask him
Most coffee shops want an open wireless AP so people will wander in to use it and, hopefully, buy something. What would be the point of them locking it down? That wouldn't be useful to their customers at all. I'm willing to bet that at no point did they post a notice that their wireless AP was for paying customers only.
using their open wireless AP
When deputies told Smith to knock it off, he came back and is now charged with theft of services.
This article is pure FUD. Okay, the guy was a sex offender. The article only mentions this once, and it clearly says they have no idea if he actually did anything wrong. It just says that to discredit him.
I can't help but wonder if during those 3 months anyone working at the coffee shop bothered to ask him if he wanted a drink, or informed him that he would have to make a purchase if he wanted to continue using their wireless AP.
A computer expert told KATU News there is no way to know if someone is using your wireless connection without permission.
Some computer expert.....did I mention this was all FUD?
I say we use jet engines to put our servers into low orbit. They won't have any problems dispelling heat up there. Which necessitates running many miles of CAT5 cable from low orbit to the surface (with staggered relays to boost signal strength). What does this result in? BAM, instant space elevator! I am a genius!
I agree completely. Giving someone a simple problem to solve and saying "solve it as fast as you can" isn't a good measure of ability at all. It promotes too many bad habits into what might be considered good programming.
The parent poster's name is SpeedBump, and that's exactly what a real programming competition should have: speed bumps, hurdles, obstacles. Here's how I envision it: give the teams a medium difficulty problem to solve. The judges act as clients. The teams have a given period of time in which to solve the problem (probably longer than 10 minutes), but it's okay if they go over, it'll just cost them points. During the competition, the judges introduce small changes to the problem (i.e. requirements changes). It's okay for the teams to get up and talk to the judges, that just costs time. They might even convince the judges that certain requirements aren't feasible in the given timespan, and get them dropped. In the end documentation, usability, scalability, and maintainability count just as much as realization of the goal.
If there are competitions like this, then huzzah for them. Really, speed programming proves nothing.
Baleeted! Delteated! Dacheated!
Really? I thought the last one was 3. Well, they were all so bad after 1 that I stopped keeping track.
New Worm Starts Munching MSN Users
In other news, Hollywood announces the production of Tremors 4: Attack of the Microsoft Munchers.
You mean like Ali? And Ali's sister?
God is not a monkey
;)
Some people would say that's debatable.
Wow, modded troll for trying to put forth an opinion that doesn't fall within the "black and white" view of the universe. Welcome to /., I suppose.
What are you talking about? Sir Isaac Newton didn't discover gravity. Al Gore did.
This is one thing I still don't quite understand. Why must the concepts of "creationism" and "evolution" be mutually exclusive? Who's to say that life wasn't created by some greater power, then that greater power sat back and said, "Okay, let's see what happens now."
You know, kinda like the Xel'Naga did for the Protoss. Except in the end, the Protoss screwed up. And a bunch of bugs assimilated the Xel'Naga. Hmm, yeah, bad example, I suppose.....
Oh, I never said it would last. And I'm well aware of Oblivion's requirements, I just haven't played it at all.