httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10xvuoJU7Ac

I am so getting one of these for the office.

Computer repair fraud, yeah its out there. Although I think a lot of it is just incompetence.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbR4wSAE7NY

A loose ide cable should be an easy fix that is for a honest tech that knows what he is doing. At 1:33 in the video there is a shot of the screen with a voice saying keyboard failure. The keyboard failure had nothing to do with the ide cable, but if does show the primary hard disk not found which would point to the problem. For the ‘broken’ computers they are using Dell OptiPlex 110’s, computers we have at work although we use towers and theirs were desktop models.

In the news report there seemed to be this tone that $59.99 was too much to pay for such a simple fix. I don’t agree with that. How much does a plumber or electrician cost for 5 minutes of work. It can easily be $75 if not more since it is usually an hourly charge. (more…)

Just for Tom.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b75xcDdvi94

Back in October I wrote about being stuck in Comcast Purgatory. About a month or two ago that all changed. I was flipping thru the channels one day and noticed that I landed on Comcast Sports Net twice. I spent time watching both and it was evident after a few days that I picked up CSN out of Philly while at the same time keeping CSN MidAtlantic. If I remember correctly CSN Philly replaced ESPN Classics on the analog end of the channels. I currently do not subscribe to the HD package so I dont know if CSN Philly is available in my area.

So thank you Comcast. I can watch Flyers hockey now. I still have to chuckle a bit about CSN Philly being taken away from Shawn a neighbor behind me. If Comcast does consolidate the feed here in Littlestown to the formerly Suscom head-end from the formely Adelphia/GS Communications network he will at somepoint be able to pick CSN Philly back up.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tO2jcwgIi8o

Looks interesting, a movie I might have to see.

I came across an interesting website today http://www.dontvote.org.

Its basically a little test to see how informed you are as a voter by showing you pictures of people and having you identify them. I scored a B at 83.43% There were a few I didn’t know. I had forgot there was a new guy in charge of the UN, missed a couple House of Representatives leaders and the guy currently running Israel.

It made me think about the thing Leno does from time to time, going out on the street with a picture of someone high up in government and asking people who that person was. I guess that makes good entertainment, the audience laugh but really it is sad. This also gets me thinking of the get out the vote, rock the vote or any other pro-voting movement. I wonder how many of the people these organizations reach are informed on the issues. How many are voting for the sex or race of the candidate, how many are voting just for ‘change’ without change really ever being explained.

There was a time in the US where you had to a white landowner to vote. I wonder though, back then without TV and the rest of the current media how informed were these white guys on the issues and the candidates. Did people pay attention and how? Newspapers I guess. There really wasn’t a way to watch cspan. Nowadays just about anyone can vote unless you are in prison or felon who served your time, depending on the state. I’m not sure I agree with that, especially with the continuously expanding ‘non very serious’ crimes that could get you a felony, but thats a whole another post.

McDonalds use to be about fast food fast. Now apparently it is about fast food with slow and annoying service. While I worked at McDonalds for 6 plus years and always enjoyed the food, I am now done with McDonalds. I am annoyed with the service and the change in procedures, no more McDonalds for me, at least from the restaurant in Littlestown, PA.

Back when I was in high school I worked at McDonalds, flipping burgers. Back when cooking burgers were actually flipped. A few months into my stint at grill the clamshells were introduced. The small burgers cooked in roughly 40 seconds. I remember cooking and having assembled 12 ‘regs’ or regular hamburgers in a little over a minute.

There was a point where I was looking at McDonalds as a career. Working with one of the shift managers I learned many of the policies and procedures. I could tell you how many small fries in a case of French Fries. Also temperatures and cook times of various food products. I was pretty gung-ho about the whole thing. But it didn’t happen, upper management (I worked at a franchise store) didn’t think that I was right for it. They thought I was going to be doing bigger and better things. I ended up in the IT field which probably worked out better for me.

When I started working at McDonalds I was flipping burgers and making McDLTs, remember them? When I left I was doing staging and making fajitas, along with the rest of the menu. Staging was basically precooking the meat, it was kept warm and moist in staging cabinets. The grill procedures had really changed in those years.

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So another day light savings time day comes. My blackberry which automatically updates DST woke me up this morning essentially an hour too early. Currently my computer says it is 11:18am when it is really 10:18am. I would not go as far as saying DST is evil since well, DST has not tried to exterminate a race of people.
I would say DST is at the very least annoying just like I wrote about it back when Congress decided to increase the length of DST.

Actually it isn’t DST itself, but the change. Tricking people to get up an hour early is fine, but if it thats important lets just stay on DST permanently. People wont lose sleep and us people that work in IT wont have to worry about software that gets screwy with DST.

Some research (PDF) is starting to show that DST does not save energy.
Any politicians out there want to get on the get rid of DST change bandwagon?
Even if I don’t agree with anything else they stand for, I just might just have to vote for them, to get rid of something that is so useless and annoying.

A PBS special by Frontline - Secret History of the Credit Card
Its almost an hour in length but a good watch.
I am also a ‘dead beat’ like Ben Stein paying off the one credit card I use, weekly.
What most people don’t know is that credit card companies make money even off us deadbeats, from merchant fees.
Stores that accept credit cards pay fees to the banks for credit card transactions.

An example…
Lets say you buy that new 1TB drive from NewEgg for $239.99.
You pay Newegg the $239.99. Now NewEgg might owe $5.70 for the credit card transaction, 2.25% + $0.30 (transactions fees vary). American Express or Discover would probably add a bit more, maybe another 30 cents.
Might also be a monthly service fee, maybe $10. Depending on the bank and gateway there could be some other nickel and dime fees stores have to pay.
So essentially Newegg is getting $234.29 from you. Merchant fees definitely cut into business’s profit margin and also increases prices.

My biggest beef with the credit card companies, the large ones is the interest rate change. No matter what interest rate a card starts out with, even if it is a ‘for life’ rate, within a year it will go up. I have seen it go up for absolutely no reason. The large companies have it built in after x amount of months the interest rate goes up by y. Its a given.

My suggestion is if you want/need to carry a card get one from your bank or credit union. From my experience my local bank and credit union dont play the interest rate game with their customers.