Posted 11/11/2008 at 09:06:45am

The consumer has the right to know what he/she is purchasing. The vendor should disclose the effect of its products (this will include the effect of DRM schemes on your computer). If they are not disclosed the vendor practices are deemed unfair and the vendor is subject to lawsuits. By the way, who in his/her right mind will buy a product saying the following:

"By installing this product, you acknowledge that after installing our product, your computer might no longer operate as it does right now. You also acknowledge that your understand that your computer might no longer read and/or write any other multimedia files or any other file you may have on any other medium. As a matter of fact, with time, your computer might not even read and write the specific product you just purchased from us. You agreed to hold us harmless from any or all problems the installation of our product creates. Good Luck"

Who knows? maybe you will.

DePat

Posted 11/06/2008 at 10:59:52am

For a fraction of a second cold sweat went down my spine, then I remember I was no longer a comcast internet customer. Few!!

DePat

Posted 11/06/2008 at 10:06:02am

They better stick to "it will lower shipping costs" line and not the "user can fold it for transport" one. I do not know what they have been drinking, but did they realized that in order to fold it for transportation your have to remove all the compents?

Either they have been drinking something "exotic" or they take us for fools. The first one is a better thought.

DePat

Posted 10/23/2008 at 03:49:20pm

Thank you for the article on tweaking the bios. I however think that before asking the public to "tweak" the bios, it will be a good thing to understand what all the "stuff" in the bios is. There is an article titled Understanding the bios on your website but when I click on it I get only the title, nothing else. I understand that your readers are "more knowledgeable" than the average consumer, but at the same time, if you do not provide basic information how will the rest of us catch up? Although I do not consider myself as a novice when it comes to computer (I might be just a short step above), I am a novice when it comes to "bios settings" and I do not have the time to research all that  information. I will appreciate, and my guess is that I will not be the only one, if you could locate one of the most extensive or complete or detailed bios that you can find and explain what the acronyms mean and their purpose, line by line, page by page, with corresponding pictures and figures. That article can become the basic document that will be updated and modified based on the next completed or detailled bios you find during your testing.  This article can then be permanently posted on your website.

If such an article is done and regularly updated, I am sure that you site will become a destination for computer "newbies" and veterans alike in the search for "basic knowledge" and understanding. In turns, this increased traffic will give a boost to your subscription base and will free you from "EVER AGAIN" considering advertising like the "enlargement" advertising a while back.

Keep up the good work

DePat

Posted 09/18/2008 at 12:33:30pm

Completly agree!!

If they want us to rent the game in lieu of owning them they should just say. Instead,  they implement schemes that in reality make us renters rather than owners.

We should vote with our wallets and purchase only games without drm schemes or games that are so well done that the company or creator  diserve the FULL price and then some. Company of heroes and opposing front for me are examples. I read most of the reviews, played the demos then bought both games for me and my broter at full price, this from someone who buys games only when they hit the discount bin

DePat

Posted 09/18/2008 at 12:16:01pm

How long will this work? What if I purchase the game and 4 years later I want to play it again? Should I have to worry about the company not maintaining the online authentication system? What if they go out of business? Should I not be able to play because I purchased a game from a company that went under? If they want us just to rent the game then they should come out and say so instead of using schemes that in reality make it so.

We all know that after a couple of years, the majority of games are "disgarded". I am one of the few that purchase games when they hit the discount bin (Company of heroes is the exception, they diserved the full price of the game).  Should I worry that a few months after I purchased the game I will not be albe to play because the game was not longer "supported"? Talk about introducing Microsoft schemes for more money into games.

Just a few thoughts

DePat

Posted 08/20/2008 at 01:47:25pm

I learned my lesson. Just ask those early HD DVD adopters how they feel now. Until the technology becomes main stream I am not "longer" putting a dime in it.

 I learned it the hard way. Remember those Kenwood TrueX Optical Drives? How about those Voodo graphic cards? How about the prices on the early IPhones (I was not dumb enough to pay those prices and will probably not buy one). By the way it works great for games. I you are ok being about 6-8 months behind the curve, you spend less money as a result. All games make it to the discount bin and sometimes the discount are "unbelievable" but true.

 Ps. Thank you for the IPOD Touch.

For once I received an e-mail from somebody not trying to sell me something or convince me that my manhood needed enhancement. Wonderfull upgrade from a shuffle. Would I have paid the $300+ for it? NO

Thanks

 DePat

Posted 08/20/2008 at 01:22:36pm

I Still have the scars of Kenwood TrueX optical drive on my back and in my wallet.  What a bunch a @#$%@ that stuff was.  But I am off course. I want to point out something to you got "wrong". I am qualifying the wrong because it was not a really a review but part of the article on how to build an HTPC. I am talking about Beyond Media.  In your "review of beyond Media" (BM) you mentionned all the niceties it can do.

 You forgot to note that BM is extremly slow when it comes to finding or playing music across a home network (Microsoft Window Home Server), that when playing videos with multiple language tracks, it will read all tracks at the same time (imagine watching a movie with the spanish, english and french tracks playing a the same time! yes, exactly), the dvd palyer of BM not playing at all (I had "challenges" from the first day a purchase BM and - Tech support has still not figure it out - we are talking about more than 9 months now) Other softwares play my dvds with no problem, the limited setting options of BM, you can select on their player or software or "windows default" window media player eventhough the world abound with more capable player and I can go on.  I do not intend the above to sound as a baching of snapstream. Their tech people are very customer friendly and I will gladly purchase another working software from them. BM as just not met my expectation

 However, you got Beyond TV right and that is a step forward out of the cave as spouse start to realized the "goodness" of an HTPC.

 I also think that you are neglecting the Home Theather PC. Apart from the article in last year magazine you have not updated this segment on how to construct or what are the best part for an htpc. Computers are bound to get out the "cave", i.e which ever room of the house we sequested ourselves in, for the family room. So take the lead, show us the way as you did in so many other areas by testing the heck out of the offerings and separating hype from reality.

 I am looking forward to the next 10

 Happy birthday KickAss

Posted 07/30/2008 at 09:51:47am

I am playing Company of Heroes (CoH). Usually, I do not pay attention to the developper and so on. But in these cases, the games is so well done that I realized that people and companies that produce such games have to be encouraged and helped. To that end, I recommended the games (CoH) to my brother and purchased both games for him. I ask him to do the same for somebody else if he like them and of course he did like them.

Before I spend the time to play a game, I read reviews about it. Usually, I ussually read comments from other players. Reviewers some time confuse "the tree from the forest"  while the players give you an honest assessment. They bought the game for entertainment and they were dissapointed or happy with the purchase.

I usually buy games a year after they are published. It is cheaper and the companies had time to issue all the updates to allow the game to be play the way it was intended. In the case of CoH (opposing fronts) I purchased the game as soon as it came out based on my experience with the first one. My rationale was that even if they messed up, the game will be better than most of the game out there. As long as they continue to develop first class games, I will purchase the game as soon as it is published as a way to support them. The minute they messed up, they are back to the 1 year plan or whenever the game is discounted by the big box store. It is my time, it is my money.

DePat

Posted 07/18/2008 at 10:46:34am

Is Maximumpc ever going to take a look at Microsoft Window Home Server?

DePat