I’ve been working the night shift at my job recently, and when I say night I mean when most of the East Coast is sleeping I’m wide awake.. or at least awake.

On this particular night of nights I’ve been watching Spiderman, the first one I believe. Without a doubt a great movie, but more importantly it captures a man in transition doing exactly what he needs to do. In my opinion it captured exactly what most people want to think of as the perfect man. If you haven’t seen it, well first move to a populated area as chances are you’ve been living by yourself in a wooded area with a coyote for the past few years, but then go do it! You’ll see what I mean.

I pondered that for a little bit and was sufficiently amused with my thought I decided to write this… Then Married with Children came on. Now many of you may not be familiar with this show but it really was great. A brief summary goes something like this:

“Al Bundy is a misanthropic women’s shoe salesman with a miserable life. He hates his job, his wife is lazy, his son is dysfunctional (especially with women), and his daughter is dimwitted and promiscuous.”

from IMDB.com and the link I gave you above.

Why can’t this be the image that everyone thinks of when they think of a man doing exactly what he needs to do. Sure he may not be rich, intelligent, social, successful, sexy, or anything else we like to think of when we think of a good man or perfect man but he is. When push comes to shove, his family is taken care of.

Isn’t that what it should be about?

Obviously the two can’t really be compared, but still I think you get the point. The image needs a reworking and some tweaking.

Once again I come to you with another rousing story of failure in business. In particular, customer service. It seems many businesses still don’t get they survive off of a customers money and continued business. In this global community word travels fast and one success story can spread exponentially. Conversely, and perhaps most importantly, one failure can ripple through the internet. To a large corporation a single instance of failure is nothing, it’s to be expected. When one instance of failure is combined with many others it provides interesting insight into a company, and for many people, weighs heavily on their decision to either purchase a product or service or go with a competitor.

Buying something is not just a one time thing where the company and customer can meet each other and then forget, it’s much more than that single, meaningless, one night stand. Consumers invest considerable time into their decisions and will ultimately have the choice to keep on coming back for some more great service or look elsewhere. With competition so fierce and prices so close, customer service is often the one thing standing between a sale or a failure.

So today, I bring to you Dells Failure. This particular company has been the subject of intense criticism in the past about their customer service tactics and unfortunately it appears things haven’t changed.For other stories I recommend www.consumeraffairs.com, a great website looking out for consumers and featuring other stories of Dell’s failings and www.theinquirer.com, in particular one persons story and the following comments. There are plenty more out there though, so do a quick google search like I did and take your pick.

Of course Dell would say other companies have the same problem and while this may be true it doesn’t exonerate Dell for their failures. In any case, here’s my latest story of failure.

Dave: “Hi, I’m having a problem with blue tooth on my dell vostro 1500″

Agent (SMB_Agustin_177838): “Ok, what exactly is the issue with the blue tooth?”

Dave: “Laptop says I don’t have one”

Agent (SMB_Agustin_177838): “Ok, Based on the information you’ve given me, your system qualifies for a Dell Connect session. During this session, I will be able to troubleshoot your system using special software that will allow me to see what you have on your desktop. At no time will we access any personal information on your system or open folder which will contain that information without your explicit permission. Would you like to do a Dell Connect session?

Dave: “Yes. Before we begin I’d like to tell you that I’ve tried the switch”

Dave: “I’ve already downloaded and installed packs R159805 and R161378 from Dell website.”

Dave: “It still asks me to turn it on when I’ve tried every possible way to do it.”

Agent (SMB_Agustin_177838): “Does the system have xp now?”

Dave: “yes”

Dave: “I saw there was a problem with some XP systems while downgrading but I followed the steps to fix it”

Agent (SMB_Agustin_177838): “Ok, here is the thing.”

Agent (SMB_Agustin_177838): “This system was sent with vista, and unfortunately, windows xp was not a downgrade option you purchased.”

Dave: “No but I purchased it myself when I saw Vista wouldn’t work for me.”

Agent (SMB_Agustin_177838): “We are unable to support OS that are not originally sent, unless you purchased the downgrade option with the system”

Dave: “I didn’t buy the system myself. I bought it from someone else.”

Dave: “When I saw all the crap he had on his computer and the fact that Vista wouldn’t work for me I needed to do something”

Dave: “So I installed the best option for myself.”

Dave: “Are you now telling me that Dell is refusing to support their own systems?”

Agent (SMB_Agustin_177838): “I am telling you that the system was sent compatible with vista components”

Agent (SMB_Agustin_177838): “Since it does not have a downgrade option..”

Dave: “Hold on one second.”

Agent (SMB_Agustin_177838): “Sure.”

Dave: “Are you aware that Dell provides XP drivers for this system?”

Dave: “For this model of computer”

Dave: “This means that the system is compatible with XP components also.”

Dave: “Heck, Dell provides a FIX for this problem for people like me who downgraded on their own.”

Dave: “How can you refuse to support that which you provide a fix for?”

Agent (SMB_Agustin_177838): “Yes, because a downgrade option may be purchased.”

Agent (SMB_Agustin_177838): “But unfortunately this system was not purchased with that option.”

Dave: “So you’re telling me Dell will not provide support for the systems they sell?”

Dave: “I just want to make sure before I make this public.”

Dave: “This is the 3rd negative experience I’ve had with Dell techs in just a few months.”

Dave: “Are you also aware, sir, that another tech did help me when he knew I had XP on my system?”

Dave: “I’m sure this is not a new policy”

Agent (SMB_Agustin_177838): “No it is not a new policy, if you wish to purchase the downgrade option, then you may contact customer care, and they can provide you with options, as well as the warranty coverage agreed to when purchase if you wish.”

Agent (SMB_Agustin_177838): “Their number is 1-800-456-3355.”

Dave: “No”

Dave: “I’m not purchasing anything else from Dell”

Agent (SMB_Agustin_177838): “Ok, is there anything else I can help you with today?”

Dave: “I require a phone number of a supervisor”

Dave: “Or an email of a supervisor”

Dave: “Or something which will actually get me satisfactory service.”

Dave: “And yes, you can help me still.”

Dave: “Explain why someone else helped me but you are refusing to?”

Dave: “I recommend that before Dell tries to screw customers they get their story straight.”

Agent (SMB_Agustin_177838): “I am not that someone else so unfortunately I would not be able to speak for them.”

Dave: “Surely then you can provide me with the phone number of someone else who can answer that question then.”

Agent (SMB_Agustin_177838): “The system may be sent with xp, or vista with downgrade option as I told you before, but this system was not purchased with that option.”

Agent (SMB_Agustin_177838): “Customer care might be able to provide you with options for that.”

Dave: “You are customer care.”

Agent (SMB_Agustin_177838): “No, I am “hardware” technical support.”

Agent (SMB_Agustin_177838): “Customer Care can be reached at 1-800-456-3355.”

Dave: “Awesome, thanks for being useless.”

Dave: “Have a great day.”

Agent (SMB_Agustin_177838): “Very welcome. We do appreciate your business. Thank you for choosing Dell. Have a great day!”

In the interest of brevity I edited out the beginning of the chat which began like any standard chat with a customer service tech. I also took out parts of the middle where he explained how we would go about setting up a remote connection. Other than that everything is left in there, including the parts where I became angry. Kudos do go to the tech for not responding.

Failure on everything else.

In this particular case there were 9 songs off an unreleased album that Guns N’ Roses had been working for since the mid nineties. Releasing unreleased songs is a no no in my book, but did this guy get what he deserved? Absolutely not. Federal charges for releasing music? Come on, it’s a joke. I always thought the FBI had better things to do with their time, but I was clearly wrong. Who knows if this album will ever get released? Guns N’ Roses will probably die of natural causes before they get around to finishing it. Take into account the fact that any rips that were possible of that site would have been of such low quality that they would have been essentially useless. Any fan who would have normally bought the album would still go out and buy it. Let’s face it, no true fan wants to listen to the quality of music this rip would have given them. In my opinion, the amount of money Guns N’ Roses lost from this release is negligible compared to the publicity that they received from it.

Now don’t get me wrong, I think artists deserve to get paid for their work. Some of them are quite talented, however the business model in use today is clearly outdated. If the recording industry wants to continue to profit they will need to find a way to work with the public, not put them in jail.

If you want to read more about the story, head over here.

In my last post here I presented a post by my2buck$ that interested me (and it should have done the same for you as well) about Ms. Palin and her interesting ways. Today, I stumbled upon another superb post by this same author presenting a letter written by an Alaskan citizen who knows Ms. Palin and family personally.

I encourage every reader to take a look at this letter, read it thoroughly, and then learn more about who you might be voting for. Knowledge is power people, and without it we are as ignorant as the politicians we vote for. Nothing against politicians of course, it’s just the nature of the beast.

While you’re there, read some of the other posts written by this author. Very enlightening, I guess you could say.

On August 1st, Mac was hospitalized for pneumonia and was in critical condition, according to some sources. His publicist reported that he should pull through, unfortunately, this was not to be so. Mac died August 9, 2008. He is survived by his wife, daughter, and a grandchild. However, he also helped to raise his own niece and nephew in real life which inspired his show.

Mac starred in films such as Transformers and Ocean 11, 12, and 13. In addition to these roles he also starred in his own tv show, “The Bernie Mac Show” in which two professionals raise their niece and nephew with comedic results.

*Edit* After conflicting stories from the news and other sources it is worth mentioning that some feel this was not a result of his battle with sarcoidosis. I’m sure more details will come out later.

What do you do when you feel your life is derailed? On hold? Do you just spring into action and change it? Do you brood on it and do nothing? What is there to do when you can’t do either one of those? When brooding is no longer an option but springing into action isn’t the best idea.

I guess you wait. It’s what I’m doing. I’ll wait until I must do something and then I’ll do it whether it’s the best or the worst action. I guess that’s how the best decisions in life are made. On a whim, on the flip of a coin.

There’s gotta be something out there worth doing, worth springing on. Something that’ll jump start monotony! Of course we’re all so used to waiting for things to fall into our laps and scream opportunity many of us never find anything. We become so used to waiting it becomes normal.

Go find your opportunity. I’ve got to be close to mine.

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That’s right! Yet again PC’s are being intentionally crippled. The first time I heard about this it had to do with Creative’s soundcards being intentionally crippled in Vista. Apparently it was a part of a business deal. Of course someone found out about this and being an intelligent consumer and tech. savvy individual proceeded to modify them. Suffice it to say Creative didn’t like this very much and proceeded to send him the equivalent of a cease and desist letter. There was a multiple page thread in their forums about this very issue but either I can’t find it now or it was deleted. Neither would surprise me very much, especially the latter idea. You can go here for more information on it.

Recently though, I found out Lenovo has been doing the same thing. The original thread regarding this appears to be here but additional information can also be found here. Without getting into too much detail (because it’s too much and I don’t know enough to explain it correctly) it appears that Lenovo and their buddies over at SoundMax have limited sound input and recording to the microphone only. Basically, the only way to record sound on these laptops is through the microphone. Now while there are plenty of legal uses for this ability, the primary one everyone thinks of is sure to be the ability to record streaming music from several internet sites.

It appears this has also crippled the ability to receive audio from external tv  tuners. So, congrats Lenovo users! You can now watch your favorite shows in silence. No more worrying about missing spoken words because there are none!

Now at first glance it appears that this would be the work of the RIAA and at some level it probably is, but they didn’t make the cards in the laptops nor do they sell the laptops.

Of course this is the smaller issue here. The real issue revolves around the freedom to do what you want with your property. For a minute, let’s ignore piracy. Lenovo has crippled users ability to perform legal acitivities with the computer they paid a high price for. It’s ridiculous and deplorable that this is allowed to happen without, of course, even an official word from the company.

Now I’m sure this happened a while back. I just found out about it today and thought it worthy of a mention.

For the sake of time and not making this a mile long post I’m going to stay away from the topic of piracy, the RIAA, and anyone else that proceeds to limit the freedoms of computer users.

*Edit* Apparently an admin at the Lenovo Forums has confirmed it’s a hardware issue:

All,

Thanks for you patience as this was investigated through engineering.  The official answer provided is as follows:

“The ’61 series systems do not have any way to provide the same loopback function or

“Stereo Mix” that previous systems have provided. This is by design of the hardware.

There cannot be any driver update to enable this function as the hardware layer does

not support it.”

I do not have any more information as to why this feature was not carried forward as a requirement in the development of the ’61 series ThinkPads, as many members have noted the capability on prior systems in the forum discussion around this issue.   I am not aware of any specific reason for the omission.

~Chico

Cool Jesus T!

I don’t write often, but when I do I try to make it something worthy of my time. That’s my mistake. Everything is worthy of my time.

Today I want to talk to you all about a little thing I’m calling the stitched on Jesus. I don’t know who popularized it or when it became so, but the stitched on Jesus is the new craze for you crazy Christians out there. It’s the hip, cool thing to do to scream to the world Jesus is your savior. Hey, look, that’s cool with me. Scream all you like. For all I care the local coven could be your God. Have at it.

I just don’t get it though, at least not from what I’ve seen. I get you want to express your religion. Cool. I get Jesus is your savior and you love Him. Even better.

What I don’t get is when you scream Jesus but aren’t Jesus.

What it seems like to me is some people get all wrapped up in consumerism Christianity, instead of Christianity. They get too wrapped up in looking like a Christian than being a Christian. What’s up with that? When we start buying t-shirts with Jesus on the Cross and words like “I Surrender” with a picture of the cross and stop going to church there’s a problem.

Now once upon a time Jesus didn’t need his name screamed out. As a matter of fact (and I could be wrong) but I swear one of my classes taught me He preferred people show people Jesus rather than explain it and shout it out to them. I don’t see this happening. People today show Jesus. They wear Jesus like a fashion statement from 1,000 years ago. And sure, they may believe in Jesus but they sure as heck aren’t.

If, like the bible says, we are made in Gods image then lets act like it. Instead of spending $15 on a shirt give it to someone who truly needs it (the money or the shirt) Instead of spending $115 on that sweet Gold chain save your money, buy a plane ticket and go chill out with some lepers in Calcutta.
Jesus never wanted us to wear His name like some over popularized tattoo. Wearing a shirt does not make you a Christian (unless it says it does. By the power vested in me by the consumer association of these here americas, I here by make you a Christian)

The only way to be a Christian is to be a Christian. Put down the Bible, give church a day off, and make a break for it. Your soul may depend on it.

Disclaimer: Obviously I think too many peopre are choosing to go the route of the stitched on Jesus rather than the one He actually suggested we take, including some close friends. Obviously this is their choice and it’s not necessarily a bad one for them, just not the one for me. I think we need consumer driven Jesus fans just as much as anyone.

Also, parts of this post (if not all of it) was inspired by The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne. Shane is one of the founders of the Simple Way community up in Philadelphia, people who truly get it.

It’s the sound of democracy crumbling and it’s the static of the government listening in on the other end. It’s finally happened dear people, or rather, it’s finally been legalized. As has been publicized before our wonderful government has been listening in on us for a while now.

The first story I remember happened a few years ago in a lawsuit, I was so young and ignorant I didn’t even pay attention to that outcome. Today though, our dear President Bush signed a bill into law that makes it completely legal for the government to listen in on communications of suspected terrorists. The newscaster who was kind enough to give us this 1 minute segment made a specific point of including that last italicized part.

What’s so important about that you ask? Well in my mind it’s simple. Don’t worry dear citizen, for your rights are protected, we’re only listening to suspected terrorists. We’re only tracking their movements.

Where’s the problem there? Well, for those of you who err on the side of caution, and I like to think I do, where has it ever been specified what constitues a suspected terrorist? I don’t ever recall being taught that in history class, nor do I remember hearing about it on the news. Were there ever criteria? If so please point me to them, yes, I mean you public. I’m talking to you society.

Therein lies the error in my eyes. It is our job as society to keep tabs on a government that does not keep tabs on itself. If we don’t know what constitutes a suspected terrorist we can’t confront the government when they stop going after suspected terrorists and start going after us. It may seem a little bit far fetched right now, 1984 esque for those who read the book, but think about it? It makes me wonder, does the government even know what it’s guidelines are? Do they know how to classify a suspected terrorist. My point is, they could expand the rules increasingly since it appears no one is there to stop them. One day, my fear is one day soon, a comment criticizing our government or sympathizing with the way suspected terrorists are or are not being treated (that’s quite a different post though) will land us in the same category as them.

Assuming they do, let’s just assume that Georgies and his pals sitting in their castle on the hill do know, where does it stop? If we (meaning people, not we the peons) will pass laws allowing us to listen in on others what other laws will we pass?

Unlike the above scenario in which we were unable to keep track of the government and its eavesdropping ways because we don’t know what a suspected terrorist is, this is different. Here we know and are unable to do anything about it. If our government is willing to (and we, the people, did allow it to happen. Make no mistake of that) eavesdrop upon its citizens what else will they do under the guise of defense of our homeland.

Don’t make this out to be a defense of terrorists, it is certainly not. The bastards should rot in a place below hell. I agree, the same as everyone ( I should hope) that something needs to be done. Something clearly was done in the past. I’m not sure if this is the right step, though clearly it is the logical one. I don’t have ideas either, but I do know that hearing what I heard on the news today frightens the hell out of me. You should be to. At the very least, we should question. It’s our right. Isn’t it?

Sincerely,

Petrified

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