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User Journal

Journal Journal: Washing machine shopping. boring. 5

Journal by Red Warrior

My washing machine had been performing ...suboptimally for a while. It decided to be flat-out broke the night before I left for my training.

Today, I putzed around with it for about an hour before giving it up as a hopeless[1] case. So, I decided at 3:30 to get a new machine. 3:45, armed with some printed-out consumer reports reviews, I headed out to the store.
PlayStation (Games)

Submission + - Sony to be Billed for Crowd Control

Submitted by
WildTangent
WildTangent writes: "Boston's mayor, Thomas Menino, plans to bill Sony for the chaos caused at Copley Place yesterday. According to WHDH it took 12 police officers to clear the "crazed gamers" and the city blames the Sony Style store. Unlike the Landmark Center Best Buy, which prevented a bad situation from occuring, the Sony Style store provoked it by withholding launch numbers, not allowing pre-orders and having a laissez-faire system in place for launch. Billing for police time could happen across the country with stores that withheld launch details causing a preventable situation to turn ugly."
PlayStation (Games)

Submission + - eBay may be ripping off PS3 and Wii sellers

Submitted by PrairieNinja
PrairieNinja writes: I was one of the lucky ones able to get a PS3 on launch day. I did what all but one other person my line did, I put it up on eBay.

However when I posted the auction I noticed that it wasn't getting any bids. Every other unit I looked at was getting bids within seconds of getting posted on eBay.

I decided to search for my auction. It wasn't listed. I was able to get to it through My eBay but no search I did turned up any results.

I thought it might be because I wasn't paying to have it promoted and it was getting lost on the page. I payed the $20 to promote it to the top and it still wasn't there.

After 4 hours of no bids and no watchers I decided to pull the auction and relist.

The second time it showed up immediately in the listings and I had bidders within seconds and about six watchers in the first hour. My first auction was for sure lost in the depths of eBay.

I dismissed it and submitted a complaint to eBay assuming it was a technical glitch.

Today my Brother came over with a Nintendo Wii and we put it upon eBay, or so we thought. After building the auction and posting it we discovered that the Wii never made it up on the listing. No matter how we post it, it never shows up.

I pulled the auction and relisted it and it still isn't showing up.

I have met all of the special eBay rules for each of these items. Two of the auctions went up immediately (I had a deadbeat bidder the second time I listed the PS3 so now it is in its third attempt).

My eBalance was at zero when I started all of this, now it's at $70+ just in listing fees and I haven't sold a thing yet.

I know how to use eBay and I know that the problem is not on my end. I really feel that eBay is skimming extra fees from users by hiding its auctions.

I have tried to submit complaints to eBay but their policy is to reply within 24-48 hours. Most PS3 and Wii auctions are 24 hours. It seems more than convenient that this problem is occurring on 24 hour auctions.

I hope it is just a technical glitch, but intentional or not, eBay is making extra off of listing feels for items that aren't showing up in the auction listings.
User Journal

Journal Journal: Sun's Big Gamble

Journal by chill

[Posted on Technocrat.net]

Sun only has three real product lines: hardware, Java and Solaris.
PlayStation (Games)

Submission + - Boston Mayor wants to bill Sony for Riot

Submitted by
jayintune
jayintune writes: "2old2play is reporting on Boston Mayor, Thomas Menino, who is looking to bill Sony after customers at it's Sony Store in Copley Plaza required police assistance in order to keep the peace. From the article, "During Fridays PlayStation 3 release at Copley Plaza the city was forced to call in twelve police cruisers when a frantic crowd of 500 rushed the doors of Sony store at 5 a.m. Menino is now calling that Sony pay for the extra security that they failed to provide.""
PlayStation (Games)

Submission + - Chicago gamers create Utopia on Best Buy sidewalk

Submitted by
bflora
bflora writes: "Led by a tough railroad engineer named 'Angel,' fed by an investment banker who bought his spot in line, and brought together by touch football and pirated DVD's, one PS3 campout succeeded where others in Chicago failed.

Pictures and words from Chicago's weirdest PS3 release campout:
http://www.methodsreporter.com/2006/11/19/playstat ion-best-buy-ps3-release/"
Input Devices

Submission + - Best way to learn touch typing?

Submitted by Stringfellow
Stringfellow writes: I've been working with computers forever but never learned touch-typing. I'm reasonably quick on the keyboard using two or three fingers but I'm getting really tired of having to look down while I type and then look up to see how it came out. I've done some searching for touch-typing software but haven't found much (I won't touch that Mavis Beacon stuff as I've heard nothing but horror stories about what it does to XP). I remember once hearing about some new "revolutionary" software that supposedly took a completely different tack from the usual touch-typing programs, but I have forgotten the name and my searches have turned up nothing. Has anyone out there successfully made the transition from being a "hunt'n'pecker" to touch-typist? How did you do it? Any suggestions for good software?
Nintendo

Submission + - FYE pulls a Wii bait-and-switch

Submitted by eaolson
eaolson writes: A gamer pre-ordered a Wii back in June from FYE. (5 months prior? that's thinking ahead) When he went to pick it up November 16th, he discovered he would be required to buy it as a bundle, consisting of two extra games and a discount card, none of which he actually wanted. He's now calling for a boycott of FYE.
Nintendo

Submission + - Wii Launches in North America

Submitted by ArtDent
ArtDent writes: Wii launched in North America on Sunday!

With about 10 times as many units available as there were for the PS3 launch, no one was expecting the riots, shootings, or overly inflated resales that accompanied Sony's Friday launch. Still, hundreds of people lined up in numerous locations, and sell-outs were experienced in some stores.

Popular Science tried to carefully disassemble a Wii, but ended up breaking the optical drive in the process. They took some great photos, nonetheless. Meanwhile, the folks at SmashMyWii.com took a more direct approach.
Programming

Submission + - Finding an Entry-Level Job in the IT Industry

Submitted by
Cruxus
Cruxus writes: "I am a soon-to-be college graduate with a bachelor's in computer science, and I have been looking for a computer programming or related job for some months now. I live in a medium-sized metropolitan area, and although I have found many IT jobs, few are entry level, and I have had only one interview so far. My résumé isn't bad in terms of programming languages known and classroom experience, but I do not have that crucial on-the-job experience every company seems to want.

My current strategy has been to search national and local job sites as well as the websites of local companies and other institutions themselves. This typically results in pages of results, each with an exhaustive list of "requirements" and desired skills. I have found a few entry-level positions in all my searching and applied for them; when I find a job I am a fairly close match for, I still apply. I can't imagine many people would meet all these so-called requirements listed on these job postings anyway.

So, Slashdot, what does a guy do to break into this industry?"
Google

Submission + - Eco Groups Use Online Maps in Mine Fight

Submitted by
mikesd81
mikesd81 writes: "The Associated Press is running an article about an Eco group using the Google Earth database to enable people to see aerial reconnaissance photos of the scarred countryside on their web site. Their Web site was launched in mid-September with a link to the campaign's "National Memorial of the Mountains," which shows a Google Earth map of Appalachia. The map pinpoints areas of mountaintop removal with graphics of flags at half-staff, and a 3-d tour reveals clear views of sludge ponds, blasting holes and mountains scraped of their peaks. Basically Google Earth is used on this web site to compare how much of the land is being used to mine and they overlay it on another city. There's also a neat 3D rendition in a YouTube video for each city."
United States

Submission + - Halliburton charges $45 for 6pk Soda

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Halliburton charges $45.00 for a six-pack of Coco-Cola for our troops in Iraq according to a new documentary "Iraq for Sale".
User Journal

Submission + - Dvd cd converter in video formats?

Submitted by linaa
linaa writes: Dvd cd converter in video formats?

http://www.dvdcdconverter.com/wma-converter/midi -to-wma/

Dvd cd converter any video you watch on PC can be put on iPod. It converts almost all formats of video files that are already on your computer (AVI, MPG, MPEG, ASF, WMV, MOV, 3GP, AMR, FLV, FLIC, SWF, RM, RMVB etc.) and DVD movies into a format that's compatible with iPod video, that is, iPod mp4 format.

cd convertert, cd to wav, dvd movies, dvd to xvid, dvd converter
Music

Submission + - Big labels are f*cked, and DRM is dead

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Peter Jenner, former manager of bands like Pink Floyd, T.Rex and the Clash, states in an interview with the Register that music label executives have lost faith in DRM and dollar-per-track online music selling isn't working too well as a model. He predicts that in two to three years time, many countries will have moved to a blanket licensing regime.
NASA

Submission + - NASA's Rollercoaster for Moon Rocket Escape

Submitted by
simonbp
simonbp writes: "Eat your heart out Disneyworld! NASA's Constellation Project has approved the Rollercoaster Escape System to be used as the Emergency Egress Systems (EES) for astronauts and pad crew to race away from the Ares I pad, should an emergency be called. The Ares I is the first of NASA's new moon/Mars rockets and is scheduled for a first manned flight in 2014."

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