Posted 07/16/2009 at 09:17:54am

Although us computer types don't mind watching a movie on our PC, the MAJORITY of people do NOT.  Most people have a 5.1 surround sound system connected to their TV (and see no need for 7.1, HTITB are as popular as ever) and watch cable and their Netflix\Blockbuster movies.  The first comment most people give is why watch a movie on my 15, 17, or 19 in PC monitor when I have a 42 in or better flat screen TV?  Second most peoples PC's are somewhere where they cannot get comfortable and watch a movie.  The majority use their PC to surf the web, check e-mail and do a paper.  Oh also social sites like Facebook, twitter and some trips to you tube or maybe some music here and there. 

Secondly not too many peolpe are willing to pay $200+ for speakers for their PC.  I know I wouldn't as tempting as it sounds theres no way I'm watching a whole movie on my PC monitor, but I have a PC connected to my Plasma TV, but when most people hear that they think I have some super futuristic stuff going on at home.  I mean most homes only have 1 HD set.  I'd prob spend $50 maybe even a $100 for some nice speakers for the PC but $100 is really pushing it and if I see $110 no chance of buying them.  Thats the mentality of most people about speakers for their PC.  Go look in bestbuy, frys, etc. and look at the quanity of cheapo speakers and th quanity of speakers that are $100+ more than likely the cheapo's will look like the stock has just been restocked while the 5.1/7.1 systems are collecting dust.

Posted 03/21/2009 at 10:24:53am

Office depot does not have any real incentive to change, not when all these corporations have contracts and catalogs to buy all their office supplies from them. I mean there are so many fortune 500 companies that supply office buildings from Office Depot. To me Office Depot is a retarded store, I go to the store one day after seeing an item at OD online for $13, in the store the price on the shelf says $17 then when they ring it up it is $19.  I was like WTF, I told the manager that I just saw it at OD online for $13 and i get 2 different prices in the store, and she said it's cheaper onlne cause I have to wait for it to be delivered and pay shiping, etc., etc. I then told her well that's how BestBuy got a class action suit againt them and ended up changing the policy to honor the online price cause that's BAIT and SWITCH. She looked at me and was like oh well. So I got on the internet on my phone and read their "LOW PRICE GUARANTEE" (no i did not notice it posted in the store until later cause I was mad about this lady telling me no) it says that it will pricematch if the item was in stock in all channels. I tried to order it to the store online and guess what it was $13 online until i put in my zip code the the price changed to $19 and the online store went from in-stock to out of stock, store pickup only.  I said screw it I will buy this from somewhere else so I goto Walmart.com and I see it for $9 Online only. I was about to order from Walmart then I caught myself, WAIT PRICEMATCH GUARANTEE, I went back to the manager and SHE PRICEMATCHED WALMART for the $9, I ask why does OD pricematch WalMart with no hassle but will not pricematch themselves unless it meets some wierd requirement? She flat out said I don't know.  I said that is stupid and left, burning at least a $4 hole on OD pockets. NOW I WILL NOT SHOP AT OD UNLESS IT IS A SITUATION LIKE THAT, WHERE I CAN MAKE THEM PRICEMATCH AND LOSE MONEY AND I ENCOURAGE OTHERS TO DO THE SAME, HIT THEM WHERE IT HURTS, THE POCKETBOOK. FATWALLET.COM AND SLICKDEALS.COM KEEP UP WITH OPPORTUNE TIMES AND ITEMS BETTER THAN I DO.  Also if you want the laptop from OD take a page from their book and LIE, it doesn't matter what you say until they ring it up and you pay for it. Tell them "I'LL TAKE 10 EXTENDED WARRANTIES" and when they start to check you out be like "OH I CHANGED MY MIND I ONLY WANT TO BUY THE LAPTOP, SORRY" and buy just your laptop.  It's not like after you say yes you are gonna be held at gunpoint to purchase the warrantyit once you get to the register.  Come on people you have to learn to con the con man. Nothing you do in any store is final until you pay for it.  And don't let them check you out before you see your item cause honestly they could bring out this laptop in a box that has been punctured or even thrown around, don't ever fall for the you just pay while we go fetch it for you. Let them know you are not aying until you SEE you ITEM and the CONDITION OF AT LEAST THE BOX IS OK.  Cause honestly I never buy the one the item that is in front, not from anywhere. Example icecream, ever buy a pint and it tasted like it had ice in it, that's because normally someone bought it and either waited in line too long and it melted or decided they didn't want it at it sat at the register too long and it melted some, well they put it back in the freezer right in front and tada you buy it. Normally boxed items ont the shelf in the front, printers, etc are accidentally knockd on the floor by customer or whoever, then put back on the shelf like nothing happened. THen you buy it and immediatly have problems.  BUYER BEWARE, LETS COME TOGETHER AND CON THE CON MEN AT THESE BIG BOX RETAILERS.

Posted 11/10/2008 at 05:26:07pm

They are just doing this to push you to purchasing their digital TV service both AT&T and COMCAST.  I remember when movies went to PPV first then to the video store.  But the video stores wised up and said wait no one is coming to rent movies cause they get them PPV.  Not with netflix and others like the you can see the movie via internet, which means i no longer care about on demand, or any premium channels, then TV show episodes available online, people ditching their home phone service for cell phones(IP phone included). So they are trying to think up ways to keep digging in your pocket.  With online movies and TV shows guess what I don't need Uverse or Comcrap, I mean Comcast, and they are realizing that, so now we pay a penalty because no one is using their other sevices.  The real solution is they need to upgrade their equipment (someone please give them the number to Cisco, where is a CCIE/CCDE professional when you need one?), thats just how technology works, it's a FORWARD moving beast (8 tracks and cassetts are not coming back) so you should always be prepard to upgrade if you provide a technology service....duhhhh.  But they want to be cheap and squeeze more money out of you the 2 years from now guess what they'll do,,,,,,,,,,,,UPGRADE and make it seem like they though of it first.  And for those who say just switch, please think outside the box, the same options are not available everywhere.  I wish I could get Verizon

Posted 09/05/2008 at 12:20:11am

I say think outside the box cause people keep posting how they THINK 1 single person would use the internet, but the reality is MOST households consist of more than 1 person using the internet, and if you are a gamer or have them in your household this cap can hurt.  Also BANDWITH IS NOT ONLY MOVIE AND MUSIC DOWNLOADS, it also includes every page you browse to, thoses pop up ads you hate so much, the news stories and hurricane updates you jump online to get, all eatup bandwith.  It would seem like a small number but multiply it by 2 or 3 then times 30 or 31 days it is a big chunk.  So as for the cap on the residential customers I say to Comcast 4 q's QQQQ

Now let me also explain that I use Comcast and the cap does not appy to me because I switched to the Business plan.  Yes you can do this for internet service at your home (they will not let you get business Cable TV at your home though), and if you are paying $60 a month then you should switch, cause I pay $80 a month and I get a static IP and 16MB down and 2MB up (no it is not speedboosted it is constant), I also get a different support number that is answered by a LIVE PERSON 24/7, no voice prompts, no recorded lady, straight to a person, even if I call at 2:30am.  How am I paying $80 I wheeled and dealed.  You should notice that when you goto the Business site they do not show prices for internet services, that is because the price is negotiable, you have to talk to a sales rep, who basically gets a comission for signing you up, but you can ask for a lower rate, with me they started at $90, I asked how much more could you take off that price.  If you and your neighbor called at the same time and talked to two different people, it is very likely you will be paying different prices for the same package. Say you called and talked to Joe and he gave you a price and got you setup, if you call sales back and ask about a price, when they see you called before and talked to someone, they will not give you a price they will say you need to talk to Joe he is your sales rep.

Do not get me wrong I am not a Comcast Advocate but it's all we have in my lovely new sub-division, we could get ATT but they only let so many people have it then everyone else has to go cable.  But I do say give them a call and do not go with the first price out of their mouths, ask them for a better price, tell them you know someone paying $80 for the same thing, hell say $75.  One thing to know is companys do not like to play games with their business accounts.  So for all those who do not care and/or have other options do what you like.  But for my fellow people who use the internet to the fullest and/or have no choice but to stay with Comcast, here is a way around their BS, and gaining a static IP and a live support person whenevr you have trouble instead of waiting on hold and going through voice prompts thatask you the same question the person answering the phone is just going to ask you again.  The static IP is optional you don't have to get it but I like it.  Oh did I also mention they give you a comcast 4 port gateway to use FREE, while they CHARGE residential customers to use the comcast modem.

Beat them at their own game, cause you know if the ever try to cap the business side, business accounts will drop left and right, and we all know that's the side the bread is buttered on.

And for those who think we are greedy or abusing the internet, or saying the caps are good cause we are slowing them down, I'll say this "most of the e-mail you say we slow you down in getting, YOU DO NOT READ ANYWAY, for the ones you do read (jokes, chain letters, 20MB baby photos, etc.) you are slowing us down with those useless e-mails, pick up the cell-phone you have all those minutes on and call the person you are talking to and straighten the matter out instead of 5000 e-mails back and forth just to find out they meant the green with white stripes and not the white with green stripes.

Posted 07/29/2008 at 11:17:56am

My views on vista are like this, i agree with the first sentence of mjjordan001 post.  From my experience and observations, correct most people don't like it cause a friend of a freind said it sucks.  But the biggest problem is Vista causes people to THINK.  Yes the changes in Vista make people have to think about task they used to not have to think about.  For instance right click onthe desktop and choose properties, that menu with all those choices scares people cause now they have to read, click START and RUN is not there by default, people have not had to install a printer since XP was installed in 2003 and they hated it then, what is this UAC thing that keep poping up asking me to choose YES or NO, and oh i can't find drivers.  Allof these scare users.  Now you cannot blame Vista or Microsoft because some manufacture decided they were not going to create drivers for Vista.  I waited almost 8 months for HP to make a Vista driver for my scanner and I completely blame HP. The other problem with Vista I find from most users is they upgrade which sounds like a good idea, but nothing beats a clean install.  Secondly you don't need 4 different toolbars with IE, which leads me to spyware, yeah alot of people have it and don'e know it so after you upgrade from XP to Vista, you now do a clean install back to XP and everything works great even better than before, after 2 hours of patches :).  Are there problems with Vista? Yes, just like any other OS. The biggest problem with Vista is the network speed, not being able to find drivers is a MANUFACTURE problem.  As for our responsibiliy as techs, the most IMPORTANT thing is we EDUCATE OUR USERS, REGUARDLESS OF PERSONAL OPINION.  Remember Technology moves FORWARDS not BACKWARDS (8-tracks are not coming back), so I agree with preparing our users for the future.