Spam and being turned on by Chrome OS on a USB stick

Subject: Hello!

Is this the email of the incredibly HOT Darren Kitchen from Hak5? My friend and I were watching you boot Chrome OS from a USB and we weren't sure what turned us on more - you or the USB Boot.

LOVE FROM AZ! Love your show and your sexy smile :o)

Enjoy Toronto for XMAS! :o)

-- Keple

UPS Can Go To Hell!

So it's a Monday and I still haven't gotten my bundle of $100 worth of business books I've been excited for, and I wonder when it will arrive! I decide I should go check Amazon's site and see what the hold up is, and to my surprise, my books have already been shipped and delivered!

Apparently I am reminded on the Amazon page that I ordered the books on Nov 12th (has it really been that long already?) and they were delivered on the 16th (the Monday after the Thursday of ordering)! It's 9:31am on a foggy November 23rd and I know that no one has come to the door yet. I'm furious because apparently my books were delivered a week ago and nobody was informed of this. Had my books been stolen? Delivered to the wrong address? Maybe my GF signed for them and hid them from me for some sort of surprise.

I start looking around and didn't see a box anywhere, and considering I've asked several times last week upon returning from work, I doubt my GF would have hid them. I then recall something I saw several days ago when coming in the side door, a small box that appeared to have fallen off the top of the recycle bin and in between the cement stair and bin. It was about the same size as a box someone sent me for my birthday on November 4th, and I recalled it having an Amazon logo, but I don't remember ordering or receiving an Amazon gift. As I was on my way in the house, I didn't give it much thought, maybe Sarah ordered something and already recycled the box which blew off the top of our overflowing recycle bin I thought, and then forgot about it.

This morning as I go outside to look, I notice it's grubby as hell, dirty looking, but actually un-opened! Could this box hold all 5 of my books??

I bring it inside, cut it open (most of the papertape was still in tact), and there are my precious new books. They don't appear to be water-damaged or growing mold, some of the books are slightly wavy, but I'm not sure if it's because of the moisture or not yet, it's the only non-hardcover. Eithery way they are damp and I am pissed off ot the max!

So I guess it's now protocol for UPS to deliver a package and if it doesn't fit in the front door where the mailbox is, they won't take it back and leave a slip, they'll go around to the side door and wedge the box nice and hidden like between a giant cement step and a blue box full of cardboard, and lets also push it back towards where the window alcove is, next to other fallen recyclables, that should help hide it even more! And to make this even better, let's not leave a note, a delivery slip, or even send an email telling me my package has been delivered!

I can't even find where to complain on either of Amazon's or UPS's websites, which just pisses me off even more. Big companies love to make people mad, but what they love even more is when people are forced to bottle that rage because they are given no outlet into which we can complain!

I can't fault Amazon too much as they shipped fast and for free, but I wish they wouldn't have picked shitty ass UPS to do the job wrong, and they are the ones who should be reimbursing me!

3 simple words to end this post: Fuck You UPS

#heweb09 Disaster Fun!

I was lucky enough to be following someone on Twitter who was actually attending #heweb09, and consequently putting out some of the best tweets too!

I first noticed a bunch of snarky tweets, which are always intriguing, and then I noticed the hashtag and decided to check it out. I was very amused to find, in real time, a conversation going on about a really shitty ass keynote speaker! The comments painted a picture of him in my mind, despite the fact I couldn't see him, but then someone streamed it live! I got a few chuckles and was amazed at how this new phenomenon was happening. It wasn't just people tweeting about live shit on TV, or some lame crap like that, nor a stadium of tweeters, it was a conference type room with a bunch of intelligent people meeting to learn, and a majority of them were all feeling the same things and the ability to share it quietly with others there.

Akin to passing notes in class, people would discuss how they'd love to leave, but opposed to notes, anyone in the world could read them! The talk started to pick up more and more, and then the bigwigs noticed, showed up and left comments about lynch mobs and how social media doesn't give us the right to heckle others, blah blah, but all in all if someone wants to put themselves out there, they have to be prepared for the consequences, if it wasn't on twitter, it would have been on everyone's blogs the next day anyways!

I did find a follow up blog here, and it actually mentions something I did to have fun after seeing the following tweet:
I saw this and thought damn, wouldn't this be a fun real time social experiment! I rushed to the nearest website I could remember, cafepress.com, made a store, and booted up paint.NET and make a picture, uploaded it onto a shirt, and put it on sale!


The ability to add to a real time joke from thousands of miles away intrigued me! I was watching the fun anyways, so why not try and participate and see what happens?

I was initially scared people would think I'm some sort of scammer/spammer/opportunist, but I wasn't doing this trying to sell shirts, I just wanted to see some people laugh, and show the power of how quickly some joke of a Keynote at a Higher Education Web conference can turn into a global joke where people can already buy merchandise world wide!

I shared the link with bitly, and you can actually see the stats by going here.
The stats are as follows:
187 Total clicks (at time of writing, 170 were on first day)
8 Tweets (2 were from me, and no one actually retweeted me, but made their own tweets linking to the shirt)
and about 150 of those tweets were in the first hour, and 75ish in the first 5 minutes form what I remember!

Anyways, it was pretty fun to add to something from miles away with only about 5 minutes of input, and it's also pretty cool to see quickly rising click counts in seconds and minutes!

The blog I linked to above had a lot of good points and things learned from the conference. I also like that the comments were all pretty smart, well read, and not the general crap you usually see. I lol at the anonymous comment saying how it was bad, and people were mean and idiots and he's glad to be home, I wonder who wrote that? haha!

Why do large retailers actively try and avoid helping those who want to give them business?

They just never do learn do they? These big companies that try as hard as fucking hell to make it impossible for you to ever complain or get justice done for you? They make it their business to make sure they cannot get your business, and they do it with style.

Who am I talking about today? I'm talking about Dell!
I've originally hated Dell with a passion for years, ever since they sold us a 10lb pile of crap laptop that I have to fix every time I come home and visit my parents. A system so crappy and made with such garbage components, it's mind boggling!

Throughout my entire 5 years at University, people would always ask me for their opinions on computers and laptops, like which to buy, and without a doubt the first thing I'd rant about is how to NEVER EVER buy a Dell computer! They are the bane of families, they sit there, going slower and slower and slower, even after clean installs, which now you can't even do because they don't give you cds and they hide the partitions. I can't even get into how much I despised Dell, as I've tried to wipe them from my memory.

Recently, since I've started my current job, I've grown a bit more of a liking for Dell, due to my boss's love for them, and for the fact that they sell almost every electronic device for cheap with free shipping! I agreed this seemed great, low prices, free shipping, I even bought a number of items from them!

So here I am sitting somewhat happy with Dell, perhaps not their computers, which I still don't trust, and their superscam patented 500 step "milk-you-for-all-you-got" buy a computer online process, not to mention the uberscam Dell Swarm, where they reduce the price of an item to the same price it would be on sale anyways, but only after 1200+ people legally agree to pay for it. The twitter deals were cool when they came out, but after the first month, they were the exact same deals every day and week, it wasn't a deal anymore, it was the normal price, and it wasn't even that great! Dell is great at doing this, and while the Dell Days of Deals has some good stuff, much of it is the leftovers of yesteryear, or the products that actually had horrible reviews and were already overpriced on their site.

So what prodded me to write all this? Well somehow I ended up signing up for paper mail from Dell, brilliant I know, but a few weeks ago I got a coupon with the flyer that said "Save 25% *", and it was valid from September 25 to October 8th 2009. So I checked the site every day and there was a lot I could buy with it, despite the fact that it said small & medium business electronics when clearly half the items there didn't seem business at all (Video Games). I was waiting for them to finally get the camera I want on their site, which they never did, so I decided 25% off is pretty good, I'll find something to buy today, even though there is nothing I really want to buy. I hate to say that, but 25% off with free shipping is a good enough deal that I'd spend money when I don't even immediately need to! Yet good ol' Dell still managed to fuck it up!

You see, I could never actually find where they explained the *, it said nowhere on the tear away coupon where to go to find the information on it. The rest of the flyer looked bare as well. I went to the site they listed for where I could use the coupon, and I could not find mention of it there either. I think it was actually just a vanityURL. So today I try to use the coupon, it's on the last day, or what I assume would be based on every other coupon I've used, and BAM! It doesn't work! So I say, shit, and try it on a few products that have no deals on them just in case. Still get the same answer! So I go to buy a laptop, because unless I'm spending a lot of money on something common, I can't find the instant chat option. I write the long description in of what happened to me to try and initiate the chat, but they must not have liked it and just refreshed the page and cleared the fields. Ok WTF is that? So I write something shorter, and then I get in. I tell them what happened, they ask for my coupon code, I give, they check and say sorry, it expired today at 4am.

Well Shit, that would have been good to know before I waited until the last day to use it. Why didn't that * help me?! I say I was going to spend money, but I won't now without the coupon code, can you give me a new one, or I will spend my money elsewhere. I get a crappy response with no help, and so I give them feedback and leave.

If anyone from Dell ever reads this, here is the conversation trail info:
2:36:09 PM Agent CA Sales Sastry 1286
Session ID: 30975226

----

So what is the bigger point apart from me wanting to spend money and getting denied because they hid the info from me?

It seems that all too many companies make it so goddamn hard for a customer to complain about shitty service, or little things that just went wrong and that prevented us from giving them money that we WANTED to give them! When you try to complain, and cannot find an avenue, you get twice as mad. When you finally find a pseudo way of submitting via a web form, and then when you hit submit and it says, sorry, you didn't fill in all the required fields, when clearly you did, it makes you 10 times as mad! I have a feeling I wrote too long a rant, but it never gave me a message saying shorten my message.

Companies should really post a big red button saying: "If you are mad and want justice, click here to email us!". Yes I know it makes sense to capture the right error into the right email box, but it doesn't mean you are catching everything and usually it means you are turning off a lot of frustrated consumers. What the hell is the point of a coupon if not to attract business, and then for a rep to say sorry, we don't want your business any more?

That's MOTHER-FUCKING-LUDICROUS!

Thank god there are sites like GetSatisfaction who want to help people easily complain, and a lot of smaller companies and web 2.0 sites use it! But the big ones who really need it are the ones who actively avoid it. Victory to them through obfuscation.

And to those who noticed that if you try to get sales support, it only gives you the telephone option, that doesn't work for everyone, I hate using phones when I can use email, and why the fuck would I want to speak with some sleazy sales person with no power, or some ass fuck from the other side of the world who doesn't really give a shit (no offense to the people on the other side of the world)? I want to write out in text form how I'm feeling and what was done wrong, so there is no confusion, there is no disputing or games, and the beauty of an email is that it can be passed up in it's purest form to upper management who can fix things. You cannot do this with a conversation, you cannot properly capture the passion of the person speaking, and what they truly wanted to say.

If they believe or truly have people on the other end of the phone who can help me then they made the mistake of not telling me, because in all my experience, there is NEVER anyone on the other end of the phone who can really help you without a ton of complaining, cajoling, and calling back until you get someone helpful or unless you continue to ask for management. Or you have to ask to be sent to the cancellations department. They should know better in today's world.

Anyways, to end this rant, I really hope that companies will start opening up to their customers and actually give an attempt to listen to them, instead of blindly losing business, left, right and center!

New UW Logos

I guess this new logo is starting to grow on me for it's specific purposes, and I just don't really care any more as the fires have calmed. As long as we still have official seal, this could help differentiate us, and it is definitely risk taking, which I do believe is in the spirit of Waterloo, so whatever, go for it! The whole fiasco is worth its weight in gold to draw attention to our university to increase our brand presence!

They have however started looking for feedback on even newer logos!

Here are the 2 new UW Logos which I saved from the survey I took here. I'd suggest taking the survey to help them out.



I like to think this one makes me think of robots and fast scenes of electronics, motherboards, processors and chips: ie. incredibly nerdy and engineering like. I'm not sure I like the fact that it's hard to make out the E, so I don't immediately see it as Waterloo, but as WAT + RLOO, oh that's an E too.


This one just makes me laugh!

Waterloo: A Sinking Ship!

I think they were probably going for tip of the iceberg, more than meets the eye thing, but I think it can be easily taken the wrong way, as noted above. Or it's a whale beaching!

Zappos DOES NOT EQUAL A Good Example of Customer Service in Social Media

You know, I'm sick and tired of constantly seeing posts about how Zappos is equivalent to great customer service! It seems like it's the only example out there for social media, but I know it's not!

Zappos sure as hell wasn't great for me in terms of Customer Experience; in fact, I do believe that my experience was far much worse than it would have been if I had never know that they were supposed to be synonymous with customer service!

Several months back I was looking for new shoes and I said hey what the hell, the local FootLocker sucks and seems to be staffed by inept kids that leave you waiting for 25 minutes listening to the worst goddamn mutherfucking music ever made while they try to find if your shoes are at another store or when they'll be in stock. It was so aggravating I said to myself, there has to be an easier way to get my shoes, I know exactly what I want, I get the same pair over and over because they are great!

I check out this Zappos thing people are wild about, although I have no idea how online shoes can be that exciting, at least if you are a guy. I check their site, it seemed nice enough, finding my shoes wasn't tough, and hey they were a good price with free shipping and free returns! Wow, these guys are good I thought, so I go to try to buy, but sorry I live in that far off mystical land of Canada that doesn't exist in the same universe as America, let alone the same continent. I'm pissed and yell FAIL. So I look for an alternative, perhaps they have a Canadian site? If they are so great they must!

Lo and Behold! They do! But hey, is this even the same company? The site looks completely different, like it's made from crap and aimed at people who aren't as important or who don't care about looks for functionality like Americans do. Funny how most sites seem to think that when they expand to Canada...

So I look for my shoes, and boy was that fun. 10 minutes later and after looking through every pair of shoes, I couldn't find my basic pair of New Balance running shoes! And WTF is this? $10 to ship on more expensive shoes then they'd be in the states? and $15 return? It even says they are shipping them from the US!!! If that is the case, why don't they just let me use their beautiful site that is fully stocked and pay for the shipping? Why do I have to pick from a lesser more expensive group and still have to pay for shipping? What kind of Bullshit are they running?!

So Anyways, I complain over Twitter making sure to mention Zappos and showing that I was unhappy (I even used a frowny!), and of course I've heard that over 200 of their employees are monitoring twitter. I expected someone to swoop down to my rescue any minute, or to at least appologize for lack of international service.

Several months later I still haven't heard a peep from them. Good customer service my fucking ass! Maybe if I was born under the American Flag I would have gotten some reception, but for a company that is synonymous with social media and great customer service, at least one fucking person could have said "Sorry, we're still working on our Canadian store", or "how can I help you pay us?". Seriously, WTF, high expectations, incredibly low results, seems pretty sad to me, and not even a reply from a Canadian Zappos employee, if they actually have any, or anyone in Canada. Perhaps I only had one tweet, but with the tools available at the time and 200 employees, someone must have saw my tweet.

I'll never use them as an example of Good customer service, just as one that is bad. Are they good because they offer free shipping and returns? Maybe that's it? Well so does well.ca and I know they are nice people who respond to you on twitter! Perhaps it's their culture? What fucking good does their culture do me if they don't help me (200 employees not helping me)? I really hate to say it, but at this point I believe Rogers (...shudder) does a better job of customer service using Social Media. Take that!

Anyways, I've been meaning to get this rant out for a long time, but seeing a recent tweet about zappos = customer service just got me riled up again.

RSS is not dead! It works great with Twitter!

People keep saying that RSS is dead, but I don't believe it, in fact I've never used RSS more than I do now! I found that I started using RSS after I started getting into Twitter. Perhaps that has to do with me having a job in Social Media and using that as an excuse to start using these tools, but suffice to say, I believe that I would miss a lot of information if I didn't use my RSS reader in conjunction with Twitter.

I would consider myself a Twitter power user, with the exception of having it mobile (I'm too cheap, and I'm never far from a computer). I follow a lot of people I deem important who are constantly shooting out valuable blog posts, and it gets to the point where my Firefox grows to 26 tabs open to catch up with all the links I missed before opening Twitter at work. I'm constantly opening bit.lys to get to new blog posts, links, articles, but I do know that if it's something they thought was important enough to write their own blog post about, I won't miss it. I can sometime skip over posts and just check my RSS reader later to catch up on what was said on my own time, without chancing either losing the tab, or forgetting about the link posted in real time.

My RSS is like a backup net, it lets me take some of the real time out of twitter and focus on the things that aren't as potentially important, like the interesting links and articles, as well as conversations. As I start to learn about more interesting people on Twitter, I can keep adding them to my feed reader. Thanks to PostRank I can also filter the crap!

Realtime is only good if you are there all the time, and while I try to be, sometimes I'm just too busy and when I do try to catch up, I get a million links to read at once. I usually try to leave the tabs on FF open to read later, but eventually it starts to slow everything down on my computer.

RSS is a great way to store articles for reading later, especially when some people blog about the important articles I may have missed!

Disney to buy Marvel?!

I can't believe the news I read this morning, Mickey might just join the X-men!

This is huge news, a huge dollar value, and has huge implications for both comic fans and Disney's competitors! Think about Universal Studios and their heavy use of the Marvel universe? How do you stop a competing theme park? Buy the rights to all the characters that some of their current success is based on! What a smooth move!

I really hope they don't dumb down or family orient our favourite comics and characters, and I don't want to see any plush wolverine Mickeys either! The teen and adult oriented universes of some comics don't seem to fit in with Disney in my opinion, but perhaps they want to capture a whole different market as well?

What do you think? Blasphemy?

Gmail Webclips makes me laugh

For some reason I got this in my Gmail Webclips this morning, as I occasionally get the most random, stupid or funny things in there:

Miley Cyrus' IQ Is 75 - MileyCyrus.quiz4iq.com - Take An IQ Test And Find Out If You Are Smarter Than Miley Cyrus.

I laugh, that seems pretty low, and I know it could be complete BS, but I'll look it up anyways, here is what wiki says:

70–84 Borderline Mental Disability

HA, it's probably true

The Follow Friday Legacy and Will Smith

Follow Friday, or #FF, is a curious thing I've come to discover. It's a ritual, well, it's almost a responsibility we have. A responsibility to our favourite people, or to those that we respect. We do it each Friday, over and over, usually the same messages, and all the same people RT you, then some spambots RT them. My #FF list keeps growing, I have about 12 tweets worth of people now, and recently I started hearing negativity that I was spamming the airways, dumping everyone I follow out there. Well I follow about 1333 people, and don't tweet that many, just those who've made the effort to interact with me, or who are very interesting.

I've told everyone that I will space out my #FF tweets from now on, to not spam out any users who still use the website or who don't have that many friends. It got me thinking today, as the same pattern repeats, that this is just like out of the Will Smith movie I Am Legend.

Every day he would go out to the docks and broadcast his pleas, his hopes, his offerings, like a lighthouse to ships sailing nearby. It's like a radio broadcast that never shuts down, but just repeats. We don't have to keep doing it, those who follow us already know, in fact most of the community already knows, they've been seeing it for some time now, so why do we continue?

Because like those beacons that repeat, we stand as a sign to newcomers, a direction that they can follow...Literally. Those who sail into our waters will not get lost, they will not crash on the rocks, they will find safe port and the shelter of a community. Twitter is built in such a way that these beacons are necessary as the stream keeps flowing, and if we don't retransmit, our messages will be carried off with the tide and into obscurity. We can never predict when new people will come and join us, so we carry on in a tried tradition, a right of passage to grant opportunity to those looking to join the tribe, knowing that one day they can pass this legacy onto those who were just like them, lost in this new turbulent ocean.

This just Blows My Mind!

I don't know what the fuck this guy is doing here (at about 0:38), but it just blows my mind!He's plugging the handset from an old school telephone into some sort of device with handset shaped grooves! it's like seeing someone patch a cable in some old movie with operators, or in something you'd see in a hacker movie. I have no idea how this works, is it based on tones that come through and there is a mic that interprets those tones into bytes of code? Is this just maybe for the dude to remember not to hang up the phone and lose his internet connection?

Either way, it seems surreal and as a computer scientist I'm curious to know how the hell that thing works or what the purpose is, because it seems awfully inefficient!

I originally saw this on Jeff Pulver's blog post here.

How UW Logogate makes me feel as a recent Grad

I posted a rant in the facebook group a week or two ago, and instead of re-pasting it here, I thought I'd start anew, as new facts have come to light.

I still don't like the new logo, and it's getting justified by the upper levels (and with some of the comments it really feels like it's only coming out of academia land, which we all know generally has no real world experience) and while I do agree UW is all about innovation and risk taking, I guess this is just one of those things you wouldn't expect nor possibly want Waterloo to take a risk on.

Perhaps I'm wrong, but it seems these days that youth want nothing to do with old, well established, prestigious brands, the kinds of brands our parents and even grandparents grew up loving, respecting and vying to be a part of. Youth like to turn away from what their elders like, they like to have something newer, something their own, something fresh and up to date, that excludes the "dinosaurs". Many youth want to rebel, which is pretty natural, and how do you do that best? By finding your own way, a way that isn't that of your parents. I know that when I was younger, many of my friends wouldn't want to be caught dead associating with their parent's brands (unless it was the alcohol they stole, and grew a strong affection for!).

Despite all that I did just say above though, there are exceptions to the rule. Education. You aren't just buying knowledge and experience, you are buying into a brand, a level of prestige and respect that comes with your decision. This is something that you will probably associate with for the rest of your life. Imagine you are or were that (perhaps only somewhat) rebellious teen. You start to grow a little out of that rebellious stage now, you are graduating high school, on the cusp of becoming a legal adult, and you are ready to start acting like one...well at least you are willing to start looking at those dinosaur brands again, because now you are more concerned with looking good and showing off (and being able to make maximum moola), and this is the only way you know how. You start browsing the education index for your best combination of education, culture, prestige, and opportunity. Many a youngster decide to follow in their parents' footsteps and go to their schools.

Many of the students I met while going through UW went to the university specifically for the reputation and prestige they'd receive upon graduating, of course they knew it was one of the best schools, co-op is great, but they wanted the backing of that recognized symbol, that symbol that perhaps their parents, or other adults they respect or admire associated with. These youths wanted the prestige that came with the dignified UW logo. I know it may sound bad, but going through the hell of UW, spending the $40,000+ on tuition and books, it gives you a sense of entitlement, which I've heard isn't uncommon in Generation Y. I know that after what I've been through, I feel accomplished, I feel that I worked hard for my reputation, and while I shouldn't be entitled to things for free, I should be treated with a greater level of respect as someone who got a degree in a school requiring a 95+ average to get into than the guy who went to a school requiring a 70+ to get in; I also feel like I can scoff at those institutions that offer educations advertised in cheesy commercials (which may or may not include tv/vcr repair). So how am I to feel when suddenly the logo that represents my feelings, my reward for my hardships, my educational legacy, and the level of respect I deserve, is transformed into something that would fit on the library shelf between DeVry and ITT Tech? I don't want to sound like an asshole who doesn't respect other people who took different paths than I did, or who didn't have high enough grades, because we all know that it doesn't really matter, but I do want to be associated with the brand I spent blood, sweat, tears and 5 years for and the perks that come with it.

Of course people will probably still realize that UW is one of the best, that it is an incredibly hard school and it's grads are war vets ready for taking on the world, but I don't think that message is clear, I think the signals get mixed with they see a capital W full of Lasers. UW shouldn't need to instill that kind of imagery with their logo, it should be doing it already, and if it's not, that I don't think the logo is the issue, I think it's something a bit deeper. Who tends to use the most trendy and imagery instilling of logos in the education field? Probably those who are trying to catch attention and attract people who like cool fast looking laser beams, thinking, holy crap, it's gotta be good if looks somehow futuristic! (They'll be disappointed when they realize it's just the cover art for the Math137 textbook).

Lasers, like robots, aren't the first thing that make me think of the future, especially when they've been talked about for longer than my parents have been alive and actually exist today.

What about all those people who have already graduated and are living off their reputations? Do they really want that changed on them? I sure as hell don't, and I only graduated last year! Suffice to say, I don't know if I'll be giving any donations when they decide to start calling me each year.

Perhaps kids are different now, and they want that flashy logo to attract them. Perhaps this is why Pepsi changed their branding and style? I can't stand the new Pepsi branding and I'm a Pepsi guy.

Some end notes:
Here's a hilarious video about UW Logogate.
If you do watch that video on Facebook from the administration explaining their process, be prepared for something incredibly dry, boring and slow. For a potentially exciting process, the speaker seems not excited at all and she sounds like she is reading out of a text book. I like to associate UW with passion, but there doesn't feel to be any in this process.
I also agree with the tweet from Jesse Rodgers here

Woot - They've got awesome style and writing!

I enjoy this line in a posting for one of their jobs:

Potential hazards: Poison bees. With hammers. Made of knives. Dipped in poison. But a different poison than the first poison so you can’t ever be immune.

Lose XBOX Live? MS only considers you half a man!

So I got the 1 month of XBOX Live for $1 and I called to have it expire so I wouldn't have to pay big to renew. I bought a 12 month card to get it on the cheap, but wasn't ready to enter it yet. So the next day I sign in and get a message saying that I've been demoted to Silver! Ok, that is what I expected, but then I look at my profile and BAM! some how I sunk to the depths of despair for losing out on Gold! Is this convenient bug the way that Microsoft tells me I'm not as valuable? That I shouldn't stand as tall?

When the Robot Revolution Comes...They'll be more energy efficient!

Apps like this (Nike+ Running) make me laugh, but they make me kind of scared. If you think about the possibilities, you are broadcasting your physical limits to all potential enemies! If you had any fat stalkers, they know just how hard they'd have to train to take you down! And what about the robots?



Picture this, the future, robots hunt us, and now thanks to twitter they can calculate the speed and distance that can be covered by tech savvy nike+ running twitter enthusiasts. They can use their advanced AIs to hunt us down and project more accurate trajectories for their spear guns, nets, and lasers/bullets. They can become more fuel efficient understanding our limits and knowing when to strike, versus when to wear us down. They can accurately predict where we will be based on our smartphone GPS systems and understand where we will be before we even get there! At least these efficiencies will preserve fuels and make our Earth a healthier place?

I'm not sure why, but it reminds me of a quote from HK-47, the assassin droid in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (a great game by the way):

"Definition: 'Love' is making a shot to the knees of a target 120 kilometers away using an Aratech sniper rifle with a tri-light scope. Statement: This definition, I am told, is subject to interpretation. Obviously, love is a matter of odds. Not many meatbags could make such a shot, and fewer would derive love from it. Yet for me, love is knowing your target, putting them in your targeting reticle, and together, achieving a singular purpose, against statistically long odds."

The Cheapest Laptop stand so far!

I've been searching for cheap ways to come up with an effective laptop stand, versus buying one for $50+, which is even hard to do as they hardly exist around town! I've seen a number of LifeHacker articles talking about all the different ways you can build your own, and one in particular seemed good, it was some cheap Ikea CD rack that you cut a few pieces off and it would fit perfectly, although it didn't exist on the website anymore, so goodluck with that one.

Anyways, on to the actual stand! Total cost? $2 + tax.
While cruising the Dollarama with my girlfriend, I noticed these little wireframe picture/decorative plate/item stands, for a dollar each, and they came in black and silver.

I purchased 3, only needed to use 2, and despite how flimsy they look, they actually are quite sturdy, gives a slight bounce, and are almost already at the perfect angle! No need to bend them for me, although it probably wouldn't be hard to do so!

I will upload pictures soon and next time I'm at the Dollarama I'll look for the labels again as I already recycled the packaging.

I'm glad I didn't waste my money on that wireless dinovo laptop stand on the dell deals! I just use Synergy as a KVM for my laptop.

Privacy Fears from my Bank? Maybe not...

Originally I wrote this as a comment on Larry Borsato's blog here.

I feel a bit better now that despite how much information my bank should know about me, TD, in my latest bill I got a brochure for a TEAC All-In-One Stereo and Recorder. It’s a black and white ad for a device that looks like a record player surrounded by records of the Glenn Miller Concert and some random Jazz, and it will apparently let me convert my favourite music from Vinyl, CD and (get this!) RADIO to Digital!

Wowee! I need one of these! And I have to fill out the back of the pamphlet to order it, I can’t do it online! Just 4 easy payments of $49.99!

I can’t even begin on how wrong on so many levels this is for me! It’s virtually insulting at how stupid they are to waste paper, ink, and my time with this garbage! It’s funny though, in a shock and awe kind of way.

Old but Fun post from Facebook: Kijiji housing adventure, possible Nigerian scam?!

The following is a post about an experience my GF and I had last year while looking for a house. It involves Nigerian Scammers!

My girlfriend and I are looking for a place to live in September and as such I've been sending emails to people on kijiji looking for more info on places that have no picture and poor details...Honestly, do these people not understand how to market their places? this isn't the newspaper where you pay per letter, write me a fucking book and give me a virtual tour!

Anyways, here is a great response I got and the following chain and conclusion:
I send an email asking for an address and pictures, in response I get:

Hello,

Thanks for your email and it is my gladness to hearing from you.I am MR TERRY ADENIJI,the owner of the house you are making enquiry of.Actually I resided in the house with my family,such as my wife and my only daugther before and presently we had packed due to my transfer from my working place and now situated in BLOOMFIELD NEW JERSEY USA and presently my house is still available for rent for $1000 per month including the utilities like hydro,washer and security,it is furnised.Moreso Now, i went for a Crusade in the WEST AFRICA (NIGERIA) and i will like you to get in touch with my wife in the state for more discussion as She is with the keys and the document to the house.Pls i want you to note that,i am a kind and honest man and also i spent alot on my property that i want to give you for rent,so i will solicit for your absolute mentenance of this house and want you to treat it as your own,is that taken,it is not the money the main problem but want you

to keep it tidy all the time so that i will be glad to see it neat when i came for a check up.i do that once in a while.I also want you to let me have trust in you as i always stand on my word.

Email my wife Christina on favour.willsterry@hotmail.com and she will attends to you better. and also you can also call me aswell on my phone always so that i can attaend to you because my wife phone is faulty at this time and here is my phone # +2347033440517.



Thanks and you are welcome
Thanks

Wow...none of my questions answered, and now this confusing poorly written and spelled email! first off, why does he caps and bold his name and places?! is it furnished, why wouldn't he say that in the ad? This guy is on a fucking CRUSADE?! WHO GOES ON CRUSADES! I thought that is what happened when christians tried to take over the world! Maybe he meant cruise, that is what he must have meant, I look up Nigeria and see it's on the ocean...Wait, Nigeria?! Isn't that where the scams are from? oy, anyways, what is this about me having to pay for maintenance? that is not my duty, that is landlord's duty, and if money is not an issue, then pay someone to do it for you! what the hell? So now this guy is also going to come and check up on the place from New Jersey and Nigeria? for what? and is he going to just come into the place while I live there?! What does it mean to stand ON your word?

So he asks me to talk to his wife Christina, who I hope has better english skills, but apparently a faulty phone? how much are phones? so he gives me his number, which I almost died laughing when I saw it, thinking, WTF IS THIS?! Is this a real number? Looks like way too many digits, but I look up the area code for Nigeria, and sure enough it's a proper length number. Wow I don't feel like calling that long distance.

This all seemed pretty weird and sketchy, so I said fuck it, but then decided later to email back just for fun to the wife. I wrote:

Hey,
I didn't quite get the questions I was looking for answered.
Where is this house located, like the exact address. Also do you have pictures of those house, and utilities are included? Does the house already have furniture? Would you get billed for any maintenance and problems as you would be out of the country and unable to fix? What is a bonus room?

Yes I forgot to mention that this house had a "bonus room". What is that anyways? like an extra bedroom, an extra office, a room I win for taking the house? can't they just say 2bedroom + office or something?

So anyways here is the wife's response:

Hello ,

Thanks for the email and also Yes,my husband in respect of MR TERRY ADENIJI owned the house and i also want you to know that it was due to my husband transfer that makes us to leave the house and also want to give it out for rent and looking for a resposible person that can take very good care of it as we are not after the money for the rent but want it to be clean at the time and the person that will rent it to take it as if it were its own.So for now,Am here in the State in BLOOMFIELD NEW JERSEY USA our new house and also with the keys of the house,we try to look for an agent that we can give this document before we left but could not see and we are as well as dont want our house to be used any how in our present that is why we took it along to us here and as you know that,my husband over in the WEST AFRICA for a mission of God,so i hope you will promise us to take very good care of the house.So get back to me on how you could take care of our house or perhaps experience you have in renting home.Hope you are okay with the price and its included the ultilities with hydro,heat laundry facilities,air condition and so on. and also the rent is $1000
FEATURES

Our House is very clean and includes all the ultilities and well maintained and the features a excercise facilities in the House i have also
attached the pictures for you to see..
Living Room: 13.2 x 18.6
Dining Room: 11 x 11.6
Kitchen: 9.10 x 7.7
Master Bedroom: 14.11 x 10.2
Bedroom: 12 x 10.2
Rec Room: 28 x 9.10
*marble fireplace/stove,
*internet access
*hardwood foyer,
*stove, fridge, dishwasher,
*washer/dryer connections.
*Private parking for 3 cars,
*Laundry
*Patio / Porch
*Parking, off-street(private)
*Fireplace
*Hardwoods
NEIGHBORHOOD AMENITIES

the House is close to schools, shopping. It is within walking distance of Extra Foods, restaurants, A major road nearby.

GENERAL INFORMATION

Heat, water , internet access and one outside energized parking stall is included in the rent. Dog and Cats are permitted with pending approval of
pet application.

TERM OF PAYMENT

You can rent my house for as long as you want, but as for a start for rent fee , you will deposited 1 TO 3 Months rent charges for your move
IN Start that is if you which, and the payment method is through Western Union Money Transfer by the tenants .

I look forward to hearing from you ASAP so that i can forward you an application to fill out and discuss on how to get the house for
rent,also are you ready to rent it now or when?
I have attached the pics of the house for you to view.
Thanks,
Await your reply.
MRS CHRISTANA ADENIJI

allllrighty then, not much better for writing...it's almost as if they both went to the same writing school. And MY GOD HE IS ON CRUSADE!!! WTF?! When I hear someone leaves North America to go to an african country to kill innocent people because god told them to, I'm a little worried about this person being my landlord...So none of my questions were answered except for utilities, and wait, if he is on crusade, why did he not have time to just sell house when transferred? Hey guess what everybody? A MAJOR ROAD IS NEARBY! WOO! wtf does that shit mean? you can't tell me even what street it is on? So I google for Extra Foods locations in Kitchener, and the website doesn't list anything near the region, and google didn't turn up anything, so that sure didn't help me figure out which major road. So now I have to pay up to 3 months rent on moving in? I'm pretty sure that is illegal and makes no sense and western union is always sketchy. So it's almost as if they didn't really read what I wrote. You'll notice it says they attached pictures, but the 9 links were of this format:

http://bl133w.blu133.mail.live.com/mail/ReadMessageLight.aspx?Action=ScanAttachment&AllowUnsafeContentOverride=False&AttachmentIndex=0&AttachmentDepth=0&FolderID=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000003&InboxSortAscending=False&InboxSortBy=Date&IsMessageSafe=True&MessageCodePage=1252&ReadMessageId=c36e3b4f-8511-4537-af7b-0a19ba7d0553&n=338743599

which tried to sign me into their friggin hotmail, like what is that? did they try to attach the webpage that attaches pictures? This is seriously retarded, so I send one more email to see what is going on:

Hi,
can you give me an address or street and intersection of where the house is? I can't decide if I don't know where the place is located. Also, the pictures didn't attach properly, can you try and resend or upload to a site and send me the link?

Response:

Hello

Thanks for your response, we are very Glad to see your mail and to here that you are an honest clean person and its great . me and my husband have been doing good in the home before we get moved and we need someone that will take it clean and nice always. i have attached the application form for you to fill and every thing can moved on and also i want you to forward a copy of the application to me and my husband as soon as you fill it out via email. and the pictures are attached again and here is the location is 4 Copper Leaf St,Kitchener ON Canada



APPLICATION TO RENT

(Please list above all proposed rental properties you âre interested in applying for)

Occupancy Date Desired:

** PLEASE NOTE THAT INCOMPLETE APPLICATIONS WILL NOT BE PROCESSED! WE REQUIRE A SEPARATE APPLICATION FOR EACH ADULT ** PERSONAL INFORMATION:

Last Name: First Name: Middle Initial:


Date of Birth:

Social Insurance Number:



(optional)


Drivers License or BCID #:


Telephone Number:


Alt. Telephone Number:












The total number of proposed occupants including yourself (please circle one) 1 2 3 4 5 6+

RENTAL HISTORY:

CURRENT Address:


City:


Province:

Move-In Date:


Move-Out Date:


Owner/Manager Name:


Owner/Manager Contact #:

Reason for moving:

PAST Address:


City:


Province:

Move-In Date:


Move-Out Date:


Owner/Manager Name:


Owner/Manager Contact #:

Reason for moving:

PAST Address;


City:


Province:

Move-In Date:


Move-Out Date:


Owner/Manager Name:


Owner/Manager Contact #:

Reason for moving:



EMPLOYMENT INFORMATION:

Job Title: Company Name:

Length of Employment: Supervisor/Mgr. Name:

Employer Address & Contact Information:



PREVIOUS EMPLOYMENT INFORMATION:

GENERAL INFORMATION:

Please check off the following:

Do you have water-filled furniture/aquariums? YES_____ NO_____

Do you own a vacuum cleaner? YES _____ NO _____

Do any household members smoke? YES _____ NO _____

Do you own a lawnmower? YES _____ NO _____

Do you have any pets? YES _____ NO _____

If you checked off 'yes' for pets - please list size(s), breed(s), and name(s):



REFERENCES:

?? Name: Phone Number:

Address: Relationship:



?? Name: Phone Number:

Address: Relationship:



?? Name: Phone Number:

Address: Relationship:



I hereby represent that all of the above information is true, accurate and complete, and hereby of the abauthorize verification over items, including but not limited to the obtaining of a credit report/and or recovery of monetary claims, and agree to furnish additional credit references on request.



DATE: .......................... APPLICANT SIGNATURE: .............................

Wow, wtf, I didn't say anything but I guess I proved I was honest and clean. I didn't even bother reading the rest of that form, but lots of spelling mistakes and weird stuff at the end. Seriously f'd up. So after writing about this I just did a google search for MR. TERRY ADENIJI and found this:
http://kingston.kijiji.ca/c-housing-house-rental-FRAUDULENT-AD-from-TERRY-ADENIJI-TERRY-JULIET-CHRISTINA-W0QQAdIdZ56036647
which basically states this guy is a scam and this was from kingston! just wow, and I saw that damn 4 copper leaf place in kitchener almost everyday updated on kijiji and craigslist and was like, stop friggin reposting!
He is on facebook, and check out his one friend that is listed:
it's a picture of some spam housing website!!!
Other sites detailing in wayyy more detail about the scam and phone numbers:
http://chicaneryconsscams.blogspot.com/2008/01/scammers-in-your-neighbourhood-from-cdn.html

What a douche.

Google's Job Application Process Boils My Blood!

Read my response to Jim Murphy's blog here

Hours of Mind-Boggling Deal Digging Leads to a Surprise Purchase!

So I've been doing lots of research lately looking into big TVs, and at the advice of someone I trust, I've been looking at RedFlagDeals.ca many times a day. I started out looking for a 52" TV for under $2000, then I decided, whatever, lets get a bigscreen, but cheaper 720p for around $1000, then I went back up to 50" 1080p for under $1800. I was then considering getting a bigger TV to keep up with the common size increases expected to come over the years so suddenly I was looking at $3000 54" and $4000 58" models. I've been mostly looking at the Panasonic Viera G series and up, and there haven't been too many deals, although a 54" G series for 3K wasn't too bad I thought, but then I saw a 60" LG for $2000! Everyone said LG was crap, and I've noticed they are cheap as hell compared to top tier brands, but I thought perhaps after all those issues they've really picked it up.

Of course this was off a forum topic on RFD, and the online price was put up to $2500. Still, a 60" for $2500 is not bad, and a new model, and my GF reminded me that within 2 or 3 years much better 60" TVs will probably be a lot cheaper, so it doesn't really have to last that long, and we'll be making real money so that won't be a big deal. I thought, shit, fuck all the crazy awesome features now, I'm not a TV tweaker, so I don't need the super specs, and justify the little differences in picture isn't easy, not unless you work around or with those TVs every day. I figure if we get something very big and still half decent, like 1080p, and not a bottom level tier TV, we can make it. So This RFD thread posted a pic of the $2000 price at BB and his receipt of the price match from FS. I was prepared to print and bring into the nearest FS, but I thought I'd call first, and they don't actually stock them in stores. BUT, he said that the TV was already now price matched at the $2000, so that was a very sweet unadvertised deal! But even better, he mentioned that they had a 65" on for $2500 and with that he'd throw in a free wallmount and delivery/install/hookup/tweak! I thought holy crap, that seems like a good deal for a huge TV, and a Sharp Aquos from last year to boot! It was a floor model, we found out it had only been out since February, and they were selling them before this at 3-4000 just to get rid of them. We got them to switch out the mount that would make it impossible to plug stuff into for a nice stand, which we comped the rest of the price, and we got a discounted rogers HD box, so after all the discounts we got it for a solid $3300 after tax.

Not bad for a 65" Sharp Aquos 1080p system, a nice $500 stand, and a new Rogers HD box. It'll be delivered next weekend, so we have lots of time to rearrange the room and figure out which furniture we might want to get or replace!

Note: I would have seriously considered getting a Samsung LCD TV, but after all the shit they've put me through, I don't want to get disappointed and throw more of my money away into a brand that betrayed me.

Samsung is the new Sony (and that's bad)

Introducing the story
The following is an account of how my favourite Brand shot me in the back. I imagine what I am feeling is akin to having your hero betray you, and rip away from you all that passion and love you had. What Samsung has done is turned me from a fiercely loyal customer and evangelist into an embittered and disappointed lost soul.

Imagine your favourite brand and how proud you are to own it's products and services. Now imagine that brand betraying you, and how you would feel, how foolish you would think you seemed for spending so much time promoting them to your friends and colleagues; think how you'd feel after spending the extra money to get their offerings over another company's. Think about how you would feel for not even considering an alternative product?

I'm sure we've all dealt with something similar, but it's not often that it's your favourite brand that kicks you in the nuts and tells you they don't care, so that's why I think this foray is only the beginning into my campaign for justice.

The following covers how I built up brand loyalty with Samsung, followed by how my recent interactions with the company brought me to this point. Samsung used social media to try and help me and ended up making things much worse than they already were. I started off having an issue with their products and their false advertising, but what was more troubling was their customer service and lack of care for their loyal customers. I've detailed each communication between myself and their company below for you to understand the hypocritical nature of their actions.



Quick preamble on how I got into Samsung
I used to love Sony, think they were the best and sexiest, they were the peak of cool and good quality electronics, well that is what I thought up until about 9 years ago. I scraped up all my hard earned money to buy a clie, quite an expensive yet nifty little tool that I thought was going to change my life! It would get me organized and moving at a faster pace to be more effective, and at such an early age! But nope, the second day I had it, it broke. In my pocket. With the cover on. While I was just sitting.

That caused the screen to have a giant crack in it, it stopped working right, and boy was I upset! I called out the deathknell to Sony, they would never ever ever have my business again. And for the most part they haven't, apart from a $20 pair of ear buds. Of course, Customer Support didn't help, after a maze of different call lines, and transfers, they said they could send me a box, and I can ship it to them to fix, but it would cost about $275, which was just under the price to replace the whole unit altogether! I told them that it broke with the case on in my pocket, how is that my fault, replace it for free, and they said "No, you probably dropped it and you won't tell us the truth, do you want the box or not".

I wish I could remember more of what happened, but it was long ago now, although I still probably have the letter somewhere that they sent me. I think it was along the lines of, if you don't want it fixed, you can pay us $110 and we'll dispose of it for you. Yes, it was that ridiculous.

Anyways, I don't want to pull up those old scars, but when I went to the tech fair at the University shop, I tore the Sony Booth's representative a new asshole, and my friends were just dying laughing.

Anyways, on to Samsung!
Ever since that day I looked for new cool brands and I found Samsung, had another sexy S name, good looking electronics, high quality and price; it seemed to be the brand to aspire to buy. If you had Samsung, you had the best high quality stuff.

My first flatscreen monitor was my first real Samsung purchase (I think my old cell was a nicel little Samsung flip, but I won it). It was a 19", great stats, more expensive than the rest, but it seemed worth it. I got that probably 5 years ago. I still have that monitor and up until yesterday it was my 2nd monitor. It served me well, although recently I've discovered a few dead pixels and it definitely has suffered some burn-in. I'm hoping that will go away as it is an LCD and I was hoping it shouldn't have that problem, I might have to try a program to try and flash it away or something.

Since then I've bought a Samsung laser printer. A sexy box that was under $100, less than ink cartridges, and it lasted so goddamn long on it's starter toner; I'm still amazed to this day! I just recently bought a replacement toner, which was still cheaper than ink which barely lasted 3 months. And I went through printing out every sample midterm and final (10-20 pages each) for most of my courses for at least SIX University terms! Plus all the other printing for reports and assignments I'd normally do. I'd usually run out of inkjet ink by end of one term after printing samples.

Since then I bought a 22" widescreen Samsung flatscreen, it was great, slim, and sexy; my first black coloured Samsung device. It worked great and I only replaced it this last Christmas when I found that the Samsung 2443BW was on sale and could pivot. My dream was a pivoting monitor so I could code or read long documents. Of course that's when it all started. We got my girlfriend's dad to buy it for us for Xmas, and it was cheap at Future Shop. I fucking HATE Future Shop, they sold me the clie in the first place and wouldn't take it back under the extended warranty crap they sold me. I try to shop there as little as possible, but that's more of another story.

Of course, we get the monitor for Christmas, I open it up and I'm happy, but I'm scared. The box seems too small. I've moved enough times to remember how big my other monitor boxes are, and this one didn't seem like it could hold a Height Adjustable Stand (HAS). We get home, I open it up, and bam, it has the shittiest little tilt stand and that's it!!! The internet told me there was a HAS so you can actually Pivot it, and where are the USB ports?? So I go deep into the Internets to find that there are actually 4 models!! You can only tell the difference by looking at the tiny product code and seeing the last 2 letters. Of course Future Shop sells the shittiest possible model, and Canada Computers just so happens to sell the best one. The other 2 models were one with HAS and USB and one without HAS and with USB. So I search around at other popular big computer stores like NCIX, etc. None of them carry the shitty model at all! It's so hard to find I realize that's why I didn't know it even existed! But leave it to Future Shop to sell you garbage! And then put that garbage back on sale the week after you buy it!

So we had to fork out an extra $100 bucks to cover the extra cost for the real model, which of course also wasn't even in stock for like 2 or 3 weeks. I get it home, set it up, and then later I try to do the pivot. There is when the fun really started.

I started to get dizzy, my eyes went googly, and I started getting a headache. Something was wrong. One side of the screen seemed lighter than the other, and it appears like I was looking at the monitor from the wrong angle, where it gets all dark and sheerish. I'm looking at it exactly straight on too. If I turn it on a huge angle, it appears a bit nicer, but still off, and why would I want it on a huge angle? I tried it for about 20 minutes, but I just felt too sick, I had a headache for the rest of the day, and boy was I pissed! I finally get a Pivoting monitor after 3 years of wanting one, and it doesn't work worth shit. The vertical viewing angle is so bad, that you cannot see the monitor properly looking straight on. I started reading more reviews and yes the bezel bleeds light like nuts, and you see these spots or lines where its just too bright. The monitor just doesn't seem that high quality. I expect quality from Samsung. I expect a product that WORKS.

The little apps were pretty sketchy too, not very updated, and not very well written. So I stick with just using the monitor normally width wise, with my mostly reliable, but now burned in 19" as second monitor.

Now we get to the newest chapter. My dream has been for awhile to have dual 24" monitors like Google has, It would be even greater if I could pivot both of them! I see a newer 24" Samsung from Canada Computers for $300! I was amazed at how they are getting so cheap now, so I think this is a lot newer of a model, it should be able to pivot fine, that's what I want for my second monitor, as they would both be really wide. I can't find many reviews of the monitor, but I wanted it so I just went out and bought it, how bad could it be? It's Samsung!

I take it home, unpack it, it almost seems like it was opened before, no cables in bags except for power cable. Very easy to pull out and setup. It's got a bit of an ugly built in speaker on the bottom, and what appears to be a thicker rim. I line them up and one was set a centimeter higher so I thought they are probably the same, just need to readjust the height. Then my girlfriend comes in and says, I think this monitor is a lot smaller, look at how the screens don't even line up! I look down to see that WTF, this monitor is like 1 inch shorter than my other 24". How the hell did I buy two 24" Samsung screens and get 2 different sized viewing areas? I thought they might put like 23.6 or something like other companies, but even on the websites in the detailed specs, it's hard to tell that the screen sizes are different the way it's worded. The different resolutions was the real giveaway I guess. This monitor is only 1920x1080, which I think is the same as new TVs, and it also has HDMI and 1080P, so I guess that makes sense, but my old 24" does 1920x1280. So great, now I have 2 different sized 24"ers. Oh well, I'm going to Pivot this one anyways!

So I try to install the drivers, and I put the CD in. My drive sounds like it's going to fall apart and crumble, WTF? Did I break it somehow? I pull out the cd, and it looks incredibly warped! WTF IS THAT? I ask my girlfriend to try it in her computer, same deal, horrible sounds. So now I can't install the drivers or apps, luckily I can go to the website to download them though! So I go to the site, and I can only get the drivers, but not the apps, nor could I find any mention or links to these apps! I can't even find a website explaining what MagicScreen is! The icon makes it look like MaxTo, which lets me define areas of the screen to maximize to, but I don't know for sure if that is what it is. I can find the other 3 classic apps by hard googling, or by right clicking on my old magicrotate install and saying open website.

I wonder if I can pivot both monitors using the one install, so I decide to open up the Nvidia control panel, and nicely enough for me, it asks which monitor I want to pivot, so I pick the second one and try to pivot it, but I get an error telling me I'm running a 3D game or program and can't rotate while doing this. So I close everything try again, same error, wtf! So I restart, then close all my startup items and try again...STILL get the error! Can't find the error on Google either! Wonderful!

So anyways, I'm getting ahead of myself, before I even try to rotate it using software, I tried physically Pivoting the monitor, as I want to see how it looks, I mean they must have fixed the problem!....FUCKING HELL! Of course it's EXACTLY THE SAME! Still a horrible view looking straight on, with one side dark. I have to rotate the screen like 45 degrees just to get a mostly clear view of the screen, but it still hurts by eyes and head. Just wonderful. Samsung is great at selling pivoting monitors that aren't actually viewable when pivoted. And I'm not some sort of troll with one side of my face sticking out more than the other, I have nearly perfect vision.

Anyways, I've just turned it normalwise and might try using it for a few days and seeing if I can take it back, but I doubt I can, as Canada Computers isn't too friendly with that sort of thing, but I could argue a warped cd or the pivot doesn't work, but they might try to replace or upgrade me, or just charge me 15% restocking fee. I guess we'll see soon enough.

Either way, I don't know what happened to Samsung, but they went from Sexy and something I would aspire to buy, to disappointing liers who hide information, part numbers, sizes, and don't actually work.

I wouldn't even consider buying any other brand of monitor until now, and I would tell all my friends "go Samsung!" Now those days are over and I need to find a new brand to look up to, or just lower my expectations on all brands.

I was also in the market for a new 50"+ TV, and I was considering Samsung, people even told me just yesterday that they make great LCD TVs. I don't think I agree anymore, and will definitely not be sinking several thousand dollars into them.

Samsung, you lost my loyalty, my recommendations to others, and my respect. Enjoy hanging with Sony and Future Shop in the Pit of Shit Brands.

FULL Update: I've received a response from the US Samsung Twitter account saying they'd like to help, so they will pass my contact info to Canada, but I haven't heard a peep yet from them, so lets see if they really give a shit about losing a very loyal customer.

Well I got a horribly confusing email from an Ahmed that seems to lack full comprehension of english and didn't really seem to sound too concerned. After posting this blog again I then got an email from Sahil, who seemed genuinely concerned and wanted me to call him. I did manage to finally get a hold of him at the end of last week and he agreed to give me 2 brand new better model monitors in exchange, and said he would have Ahmed call me on Monday with several new models I can research to pick out the ones I want. I was satisfied with this, and even a bit excited. I asked to know when Ahmed would call as I would be working and Sahil assured me that he would call between 830 and 1130 Monday morning. Unfortunately for me Sahil was on vacation the next week (which is now when I'm writing this). I clear my schedule, and of course no call comes in.

Naturally I get the call at 3pm while I'm in a meeting, which I found out after reading an email:

Hello Mr. Ivan,

Would you please send me the serial number of the below Monitor along with the bill of sale as soon as possible for the exchange process.

We need also your address.

Best Regards

Ahmed

So I reply saying where the hell was my call, and what information do you need? Also where are my new models so I can start researching??

Hello Ivan,

I did call you twice this afternoon @ (xxx)xxx.xxxx but couldn’t get hold of you.

The Models are:

- 2443BWHAS

- 2494HM

Per our warranty policy, it is mandatory to produce a proper evidence of purchase for any warranty claim.

Thank you

Ahmed

Now here is where I get really pissed off, because I was not only promised a call when I could take one, he fucking gives me the exact same models of monitors I already have! This isn't a goddamn warranty exchange, this is a call for satisfaction where promises were made, and I wish that Sahil would have left someone with a stronger sense of customer satisfaction in charge! I'm also not sure why Ahmed's email is at partner.samsung.com vs samsung.com, but that sounds to me that he isn't even in Samsung Proper and doesn't truly give a shit, which I think is obvious. At least his English is improving a bit in every email. The first email I got from his was horrible, and I honestly didn't know he was even connected with Sahil.

The other thing that seemed to be implied or at least not mentioned is the fact that they will want me to ship back both of my monitors, to leave me high and dry with no way of using my computer for what could be weeks, which would be completely unacceptable, causing me to lose time, money and my sanity.

I was calmed down for a bit and looking forward to rebuilding my loyalty thanks to Sahil, but this just pushed me back over the line. I'm more pissed than before!

Newest Update!
It's been 9 days since I've heard anything from Samsung. After my last angry email this is what I got back:

Dear Mr. Ivan,

We apologize for the inconvenience. Please send me the invoice of both monitors for further reviewing your claim.

You can send it by e-mail or by Fax to my attention @ 1.866.436.4617.

Best Regards

Ahmed

Of course I'm still not addressed in the standard Canadian format, I'm Mr. Ivan.

So I get a call this morning while walking between my car and work, it's Ahmed who rambles something along the lines of calling after horrible email, like it was a joke or something, I tell him I'm busy trying to go to work, he says he'll call back in 30 minutes, I said I might be busy I'm just going into work. I'm going to send you those receipts and in that email I'll tell you when you can call me. So I take a bit of time to check out monitors on their website, and let me tell you the Canadian website is unforunately a lot crappier than it's American counterpart, which has more models and lets you choose types, e.g. standard, professional, business. I found that the "profesionnal" models had the 245T, which seemed like a newer better 24" monitor. It had a much better viewing angle rating and also didn't have the mysterious CR > 10 next to vertical viewing angle, which has no definition. I asked both Ahmed and Sahil in the emails what that meant and got no response. Probably means that it doesn't actually work in vertical viewing mode or something to fake the numbers larger. I also give the option of trading both my monitors for a 30" if it was easier.

I told Ahmed and Sahil they could call me back between 1:30 and 5pm. I get the call at 3:30pm from Ahmed. Note that up to this point Sahil still hasn't said anything to me and I know he's been back from vacation for a week now and I know he's seen my nasty reply, and as he was so helpful on the phone I found it incredibly disappointing that he was not fixing the apparent issues.

At the 3:30pm call Ahmed says to me sorry, but we don't have any 245T's available and we have no other replacement units to give you. I'm thinking, What the Fuck buddy? You are goddamn Samsung head office of Canada, you have every friggin monitor, especially since you do warranty exchanges. He says the only thing he can offer me is the two monitors I already have! (Also my 2494HM isn't even on their website, so what the hell) Sahil said to me over the phone that he would get me a list of DIFFERENT monitors that I could choose from! So I tell this to Ahmed, inquisitively and tersely questioning him on all the facts and story, and he says that right before Sahil went on vacation he forwarded him the email and those two models I already own are the only things he can offer me, WTF? He insists that is what Sahil said to him, so what a fucking hypocrite!

Ahmed says the only other option they will offer me is a full refund. I ask him what that means. He says he'll pay me back the amount I paid on the receipt I spent hours searching for, plus taxes. I ask him if he sends me boxes to ship the monitors back in? He says "You don't have boxes??" I say yes, but I'm not paying $50 to ship my monitors back to Mississauga. He eventually says that he will send me labels and I can take to UPS to ship, so it's paid for.

I ask him how long it will take to get my money back, he says that after they receive the monitors they will start the refund process. No shit Sherlock, I ask him how long will it take to get my money back again, he says oh 3 to 5 weeks...worst case worst case, it shouldn't be that long. Yeah like I'm going to go 2 months with no monitors and possibly not even get my money back or have the monitors lost along the way. I'm very annoyed that I have to keep asking him every question over and over to get more details, it's like he can't actually answer any questions!

Now HERE is where it gets even more interesting! I ask him to send me an email with these details so I can think the deal over. He says "Send what?" like he honestly has no idea what I'm talking about. I say "The refund deal you just offered me, send me an email with the details in writing so I can think about it". He says, no I can't do that. I say "Why the hell not?" how am I to know about this if you won't send it to me, I want it in writing. So Ahmed says to me that he was advised by his legal team not to send any emails or anything in writing, verbal only. WTF?! Great legal team! Make sure nothing is documented so you can't get sued or in shit, and also so I can send back $750 worth of equipment and have no guarantee that I will get any money back in return and no record of this happening? This is just fucking wonderful. I say send me the labels and I'll think about using them, since you won't offer me anything else and have already lied to me. He tries to stutter out that he wants me to send him something, I tell him I'll send him my address, I obviously know he needs that. What a crock of fucking bullshit! He tries to tell me to have a very good weekend, I hang up on him.

Serious motherfucking bullshit. Straight out lied to over the phone by Sahil who for a moment made me feel better about Samsung, then he won't communicate back and I totally get screwed!

I send an email back with my address and this one line:

"I do not appreciate being lied to about what will be offered and having only a refund offered, but I will take your shipping stickers and consider your verbal-only offer."

And so later that night I finally hear a peep from Sahil, here is what he has to say, the nerve of him too:

Without Prejudice

Hello Ivan,

Thank you for your reply. We regret that our multiple attempts to rectify this issue have not been satisfactory. Unfortunately the replacement units offered do not fit you requirements and there are no other models available at this time. Therefore as a final attempt to satisfy this issue, we would like to offer a refund out of courtesy so that you may purchase something which suits your needs. Please note that we have gone above and beyond and warranty policies to help satisfy you up to and including our refund offer. We regret that you feel we would lie to you when we have diligently tried to help you. At this point in time our courtesy offer for refund will remain valid until July 17^th, 2009 after which will expire. As per the limited warranty statement, manufacturing defects are covered during the warranty period. If your unit does require service, standard warranty procedures will apply.

Regards,

Sahil Mistry

"Without Prejudice"? WTF is that supposed to mean? Multiple attempts my ass, you said you'd do something once, and then went back on it without telling me or replying to me. What replacement units? The ones you didn't offer? The ones I suggested? You were supposed to offer me several models to choose from, but you gave me the exact same ones back. Sorry I guess Samsung Canada only has 2 models of monitors in stock in their plant and head office and they won't suit my needs. My needs being something that isn't garbage and works as advertised. Above and beyond your warranty policies eh? They must be shit, because you didn't really try to help me, and not once did you tell me that this would be strictly going through the warranty process, if I wanted that I would have just sent them back and used the fucking website to figure it out, I'm not calling for a goddamn warranty, I'm calling so I can get what was advertised to work, I'm calling so I can get back my love for your now shitstained brand! Regret my ass about you believing that I think you lied to me, when you blatently did, but oh it was only over the phone so it didn't really happen. I kept asking all the time to get emails but I never did, I wondered why, but I guess that's the real reason. So now they decide to revoke their offer in a week, in which time I probably won't even get the lables in the mail yet, so they are just trying to screw me by stealing my monitors and giving nothing back. Enter final statement probably straight from website about warranty policy, blah blah we don't actually want to help you nor ever did, so this just proves it right here.

Well I almost had hope for returning to a semi-stable relationship with the brand I once so adored, but this is just insulting. Unfortunately their mission statement has nothing about being nice to customers in it, but they are supposed to be a trusted, responsible company, whatever the fuck that means!

False advertising and no service, that is what Samsung is. I probably would have spent another $25,000 -$50,000 on their products in my lifetime, not to mention buy their products for my businesses. They've lost a loyal and ravenous customer. It actually does hurt to have a brand you've loved so much be torn away from you like this, as I still see the logo everywhere, on TV, in live events, and I just think, "Ugh, I used to love these guys and be like YES, Samsung! Now it's just, well there is a fucking lying pile of shit brand parading around". It sucks that I have to find a replacement after I spent so much time not caring what others provided and not liking their brands. It seems to be a common theme amoung big companies, horrible service and not caring for their customers. Well actually that's a theme amoung most companies unfortunately.

I'm pissed that it's come to this, and even more pissed that I was fed false hope by hypocritical employees who don't really give a shit.

Don't buy Samsung, don't trust Samsung, and don't expect any true service, caring, or customer retention from Samsung.