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Comment They're Seller-Hostile (Score 3, Insightful) 102

by mnslinky (#56973286) Attached to: eBay Is Conducting a 'Mass Layoff' In the Bay Area

In the past several years, eBay has become hostile to sellers. I don't have a lot of volume on that site, but I cringe every time someone buys something from my business. Only buyers can leave negative feedback for a seller, and the "eBay Buyer Protection" is a mislabeled "eBay Fraud Enabler" feature.

Case in point, I recently sold a security panel main circuit board replacement. I realized I had one more for sale than I had in inventory, so this particular one ended up being drop-shipped from one of my distributors. This wasn't a used part, or one that was sitting on my shelf for a long time, this was brand-new, recent stock.

The buyer received the item and immediately requested a return claiming the board was defective. Their comment was that, "upon power-up the board makes several loud clicking noises." The is a DSC circuit board, and those loud clicks are an indicator that the panel has been "dealer locked". Not even the manufacturer can unlock a panel in this condition. It's not possible the panel would have been dealer locked from the manufacturer.

I asked the buyer to provide me the serial number of the board he was going to return so I could compare it to the one my distributor had shipped. The buyer responded with, "I'm not putting up with your hassle, I'll appeal to eBay."

Now, I had listed the item as "No returns", but apparently eBay Fraud Enabler simply overrides this setting and they lock your funds and force you to accept the return or simply refund the buyer's money. This is crap.

This case is still open with eBay, but the buyer was supposed to return the faulty circuit board to me by July 16. It never arrived, so I suspect this will resolve in my favor. It hasn't stopped the buyer from leaving me my first ever negative feedback since I joined the site in 1999 (really!): "Worst seller broken part tried to scam and refund." That sentence doesn't even make sense.

I've never really "needed" eBay. Paypal's recent issues, as well, I'm thinking I'll just close both accounts and walk the other way.

Comment New users are lazy. (Score 1) 477

by mnslinky (#53805367) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: How Do You Deal With Aggressive Forum Users?

Here's what I think happens:

I user starts using project X, and seeks help. They see a deficiency in support, so start helping people on the project X forum/IRC/mailing list. This user spends all kinds of time, researching answers, analyzing XYZ "how to article" the other users claimed to follow.

The user seeking help says, "well, I followed XYZ how-to to the letter, it's obviously something wrong with project X"

Helpful user points out the man page indicates different from what the how-to claims.

The user refuses to read the man page, just wants Helpful to tell them what to do.

Rinse. Repeat.

--

The problem is two-fold: there are lazy users, and burned out helpful folks. The latter gets jagged, but the new users stay lazy, because they're always new. Once they move beyond new, they fit the middle ground.

Unfortunately, I don't know of a solution other than paid support. These guys get paid to stay nice, but the users stay lazy.

Comment Bad firmware update. (Score 1) 228

by mnslinky (#51495929) Attached to: Debating a Ban On Autonomous Weapons

Dear Umbrella Corp Customer,

We rolled out an automatic firmware update last night that seems to have a few bugs. If your AutoGunner 3000 killed your entire village, please follow these steps to restore it to factory mode:

        1) Using a paper clip, press the small reset button (located on the front of your AutoGunner 3000's turret, directly below the .308 barrel).
        2) Continue depressing the button for approximately 5 seconds. If the turret begins to move, release and start the procedure over.
        3) If you survived^H^H^H^H^H^Hhear a slight beep, your AutoGunner 3000 should begin a warm boot process. Any remaining shells or cartridges in the hopper or magazine will be emptied. DO NOT STAND IN FRONT OF YOUR AutoGunner 3000 DURING WARM BOOT.
        4) Re-apply the firmware update (available on our website).

Comment finger off the button... (Score 1) 138

by mnslinky (#50658907) Attached to: Office 2016 Proving Unstable With Apple's El Capitan

Downloaded El Capitan last night, haven't pushed the button yet. Manage to use my Macbook Pro in place of the shitty Dell laptop corporate IT pushes on me. This makes Outlook fairly mandatory, but I can use RDP to a Windows machine to resolve it. Better I know now.

Surprisingly, I've been a fan of MS Office, and have been tickled that Microsoft has offered such great support on the Mac platform. I feel they've (finally) adopted the, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!" crowd. This is great, and I use MS product on my Macs and pay for valid licenses on Windows VMs for when it's needed (Required Windows to write a book (shameless plug here: https://www.packtpub.com/netwo...). Please, Microsoft, keep up the cross-OS/platform support.

Comment Re:Don't forget filesystem efficiency! (Score 1) 92

Not only is the underlying physical technology getting better, but the software (aka filesystem) utilizing that hardware is also becoming more efficient. The likes of ZFS and ext4 are far better than predecessors (UFS or ext2/3). No troll-o, but I think NTFS and FATx are static in performance across hardware revisions.

Gah, forgot to log in.

Submission + - GAO discovers another out-of-control NASA project 2

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: A new GAO report has found that NASA's effort to upgrade the ground-based portion of its satellite communications system, used by both military satellites and manned spacecraft, is more than 30 percent over budget, with its completion now delayed two years to 2019.

Worse, the GAO found that this problem program was actually one of three that have had budget problems. And that doesn't include the disastrously overbudget James Webb Space Telescope.

In its latest assessment of NASA's biggest programs, the U.S. Government Accountability Office identified the Space Network Ground Segment Sustainment (SGSS) as one of three — not counting the notoriously overbudget James Webb Space Telescope — that account for most of the projected cumulative cost growth this year. The others are the Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission, which launched March 12, and the Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite-2, or ICESat-2, mission, the congressional watchdog agency said.

The last two projects are part of the climate focus that Obama imposed on NASA.

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