Journal mcgrew's Journal: A ten year old prophesy (and other nonsense) 5
A little further down the page is absolute proof that I'm no prophet.
Brain cells forgot to breathe
Some dufus has finally created a virus that causes not computer damage, but human brain damage.
Earlier this week some nitwit emailed "links" to "mypartypics.com" with a note something like "sorry you couldn't attend my party, here are some pictures" to all the people in their address books (kinda).
I didn't see the actual virus; most of the people in my address book know how to not get a virus by now. However, this virus doesn't have to even affect your computer to do damage.
I saw news of this virus in the tech publications this week- the "My Party" virus. Immediately, the old, horrible tune with its screechy, nails on a blackboard, bitch voices that can barely hold the trite tune starts playing in my head...
"It's my party and I'll cry if I want to..."
Oops, I just infected you. Sorry! My cure is to grab a few beers and kill a few brain cells... 2/1/2002 Springfield Fragfest
Microsoft security was squished
More computer fairy tales
(I'm getting behind in posting these...)
Last month, B.Gates sent a memo "to microsoft employees" that was "leaked" to the press about how Microsoft needed to start taking security seriously. Reactions were mixed, ranging from "about damned time!" to "Microsoft security? That's an oxymoron!" (to the famous "BWAHAHA! HA HA HA HA! STOP IT YER KILLIN' ME!")
Well, we finally found out how serious they are about security-
They appointed a lawyer as "security czar". What's even funnier is they expect nobody will notice.
Whats funniest is that nobody will!
In other dumbassed legal moves, Napster is dead (long live Morpheus) and its killers are dying. C|NET reports that the judge in the case, Marilyn Patel "was about to open a process examining whether the big record labels had misused their copyrights."
One day later they asked for a month to settle out of court!
"I'm really confused as to why the plaintiffs came upon this way of getting together in a joint venture," C|NET quotes Judge Patel as saying last October. "Even if it passes antitrust analysis, it looks bad, sounds bad, smells bad."
Cary Sherman, an RIAA scumbag lawyer lied, "Our companies are not worried about these claims, they are worried that time is running out on Napster's ability to pay damages." Knowing full well that we are all morons, he said this with a straight face. Napster offered the labels billions before being bought out by one of them. 2/2/2002 Springfield Fragfest
eBay should have used a smaller gun
H&R Block tripped on her own grenade
Best Buy forgot to breathe
It appears that eBay has trademarked the word "bay."
ZD News reports "Lego-trading site Brickbay.com has changed its name to BrickLink.com after a request from eBay. eBay warned site owner Dan Jezek last month that his site's name infringed on eBay's trademark. The online auction giant threatened legal action against Jezek if he didn't change the name. Jezek's site, unaffiliated with Lego, hosts dozens of online stores where enthusiasts can buy Lego parts and sets".
The article (actually, that one paragraph was the whole article) didn't mention that eBay is suing Tampa Bay for using the word "bay" in its name. They are not suing PC case makers for installing drive bays, and reports are that they are not suing the very late Stephen Foster for the lyrics to Camptown Races "Somebody bet on the bay".
The last suithappy dotcom was pets.com, suing Conan O'Brien for the sock puppet that existed before pets.com did. I hope this is an indication of how things go for these damned (yes, DAMNED, literally) companies. The suit against Brickbay was stupid, and businesses run by stupid people usually don't last.
Like Pets.com.
Some time last spring (sorry, can't find the link) I ranted about K-Mart and advised everyone with stock in it to sell. It appears that nobody took my advice that time, your loss! Here are a couple of other "non-performing stocks" that are in danger of extinction.
I have been using H&R Block's tax service for over ten years. After two bad years in a row, this year was the last. Their sin? The same as K-Mart, lack of customer service, arrogance, and downright incompetance. No company that neglects its customers to the point of not writing down an appointment is doomed. So is a company whose employees aren't trained in the use of their computer equipment and software.
To be fair, they were very polite. However, I'll take a surly professional over a pleasant but incompetant moron any day.
I'll say something nice about Best Buy too- it's not crowded any more.
My wife Becky decided (after we got a big tax refund this year) that she needed a laptop PC for school. Actually, I suspect that now that she needs a computer she doesn't want to go down to the cold basement to use it like I and the kids do. But any way, we went shoppping for a laptop. I hit a few web sites (not eBay), and we decided to look locally ( JDR seems to only carry Toshiba and I don't like Japanese design). First stop was Best Buy. It had been a while since i had been in there. Well, actually we went in for some compressed air but since we were shopping for a laptop... she fell in love with a Hewlett Packard model, really nice one with a big hard drive, nice big clear screen, lots of memory, DVD CD burner, modem, network card... and most importantly to her, pretty blue lights above the keyboard.
Best Buy staff were puttering around doing... actually I'm clueless, they didn't look to me like they were doing more than trying to look busy and avoid customers. We grabbed a salesman, who told us he'd be right back... this happened three times. We finally got some pimple faced kid who informed us that he had a Gateway and it was crap. "Just a minute and I'll get this ready"... this a half hour after deciding on what to buy.
They were offering free internet access through MSN. Now, if I didn't already have an ISP (and likely DSL) would I be buying a computer with a LAN card and modem? They were also offering zero percent financing, which I also didn't want; I had cash in the bank.
Never mind that I didn't want it, it "will take about five minutes to set up the computer, he can do it while we're filling out paperwork." WTF, was I buying a house, or an antiaircraft missle? Paperwork???
We stood there in line a full half hour before the girl was ready to check us out. As we waited, Becky whipped out her phone and called the bank to make sure we had enough cash to pay for all the crap, over $2000.00 worth. The computer sat there, unopened and un-checked out.
Best Buy wouldn't take our check. After a two and a half hour ordeal of mostly waiting, we walked away from over two thousand dollars in merchandise and won't be back. The sales girl tried to blame some other company!
H&R Block tried to blame a different company, too. I guess business are all taking lessons from Microsoft. Here's a clue for all of them- you can't stay in business like that without a monopoly.
My guess is Best Buy treats everybody like this. If so, I'll give them two more years, maybe with Enron accounting they can survive three or four. I'll give H&R Block five to ten (and they should be glad I'm not a judge!)
Becky bought her HP laptop the next day at Circut City, where they had pleasant salespeople (unlike Best Buy), it took fifteen minutes to buy, and they gratefully took her check without any bullshit.
Do you have stock in H&R Block, Best Buy, or the companies that own them? If so and if I were you, I'd sell it before they go the way of Kmart/Enron. 2/6/2002 Springfield Fragfest
Player joined the game
AAAAGH I HATE learning new operating systems.
No, I'm not talking about Linux, I'm talking about Windows XP, on my wife's new laptop. Took me all afternoon just to get the network working when it should have taken ten minutes- but they changed it completly around, as expected. Once again I'm ignorant. 2/7/2002 Springfield Fragfest
Am I in a time/space trip here? (Score:2)
This journal is dated 2012 but just look at the stuff posted --- all the things mentioned were dated 2002 !
I mean, whisky tango foxtrot ???
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, it is indeed a time warp. Reruns from ten years ago on my old, now defunct site.
Re: (Score:2)
Whooosh!
Predictions (Score:2)
H&R block's still in business, but you really messed up betting on Best Buy going out before CompUSA. They were all the worst things about Best Buy, made 3 times worse.
Re: (Score:2)
Indeed I did. Best Buy is still there, Circuit City has been gone for years. I guess treating your customers like shit is the new normal.