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Category: No Logo

Corporate deeds, misdeeds and everything else.

PCs and Crap Ware

Not too long ago, I remember supporting Windows-based machines was really a pain in the butt for various reasons. But mostly I thought because Windows operating systems in general just sucked. But I’d forgotten how they also came with crappy software, especially with computers from companies like Dell and Sony. So I ended up having to wipe all the SPANKING NEW machines we’d just bought and reinstall Windows from scratch on every machine… What a good way to spend valueable IT support time, huh?

So in essence, when a company thought they paid for a cheap machine, they are actually getting ripped off because of the extra time spent reinstalling the OS and supporting its inferior hardware/software. This drives home a point — Windows (and by extension, Microsoft) still sucks three years after I’d abandoned it from my home.

Take, for example, many people I know blindly think Windows Live Messenger is like the SH*T. So they’d use all those weird features on me not knowing they are not supported on the Mac version (a blessing, I must say). So one day, I decided I’d take a look into it by installing it on my PC emulation software. Five minutes after playing with it, I was ready to get a ticket to Redmond and strangle Steve Ballmer for the worst instant messenger app ever written!

I continue to wonder, how can such crappy software, bundled with crappy hardware, keep such dominance in most homes and businesses? Do people NOT see they are just wasting time and money on such crap? Or am I just having a chip on my shoulder being such a Mac snob? Hah!

Nonetheless, simplicity rules — in design, computing or otherwise.

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Author shunPosted on 04/26/200704/27/2007Categories Geek Stuff, Mac + OSX, No Logo, Rant, Windows4 Comments on PCs and Crap Ware

Terrible Academy of Art University Ads

One of SCAD’s “competitors” in the mid-size art school category has been Academy of Art University. They areliterally all over the place like mushrooms after a spring rain. But one of the things that will make me absolutely advise AGAINST anyone to attend that school is its pathetic quality of commercials on TV.

At first I thought the piss-poorly produced ads were a local problem — you know, your typical variation of locally produced bad-taste TV commercials. But then when I saw a similar ad from AAU’s Las Vegas campus, I knew they did it to corner a specific segment of the art and design education market — the idiotic segment.

This begs the question though — how can an ART and DESIGN school be of any high quality when its commercials, the very representation about what the school is, are produced with such poor, anti-artistic and anti-design in quality? Sure, SCAD also welcomes anyone with pockets full of cash to attend it. But, for god’s sake, at least SCAD works for that cash — It prints high quality brochures, fliers and follow-up postcards. SCADtv is no high-budget production either, but there’s no half-assing when it comes to self-promotion and anything that has to do with cosmetically improving the image of the college. And that’s a lesson AAU should take to heart.

How can anyone serious about art and design go to that school having seen their commercials? Seriously.

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Author shunPosted on 03/20/200703/20/2007Categories Arts, No LogoLeave a comment on Terrible Academy of Art University Ads

Remote Nation

Bryan’s pediatrician recommended a warm mist humidifier to help reduce his coughs at night. That got me searching for a cost-effective unit all over the place. At the end, I settled for an Air-O-Swiss Ultrasonic unit. But I was amazed how many manufacturers sold models that come with remote controls.

Out of all the remotes that’s come standard with what we use on a daily basis, we use maybe just TWO of them all the time. Some people have eight or nine remotes collected in a basket or in a drawer in their homes. And I think that’s just crazy that it seems like there’s a remote for everything nowadays:

TV
DVD Player
Fan
Humidifier
MP3 Player
Computer (almost all Macs now come with a remote)
Air conditioning unit
Stereo system (both in the living room and in the car)
Garage door
.
.
.

This reminds me of Adam Sandler’s movie, “Click.”

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Author shunPosted on 03/03/2007Categories No LogoLeave a comment on Remote Nation

Growth of Apple’s Stock

I was reading The Codist blog when I saw an interesting stock chart. But instead of stealing his, I decided to make my own (bless Google Finance).

Apple's Stock Growth

Michael Dell of Dell Computer once advised Steve Jobs to close the company and give the money back to the shareholders back in 1996…

Squint hard, you might be able to see Dell on the chart somewhere. See whose investors are laughing all the way to the bank now?

This gives me the more reason to believe that Murdza is really a mega-gabillionaire. He still goes to work just to hide his true wealth as an Apple stock shareholder like before the original iMac was even born.

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Author shunPosted on 02/24/200702/24/2007Categories Apple, No Logo1 Comment on Growth of Apple’s Stock

FedEx Headaches

WARNING: Endless ranting ahead.

I am not sure if any body’s noticed the deterioration in service from providers like FedEx and UPS in recent years. Ironically the USPS has become more and more reliable in comparison. I remember the days when it was just so easy to blame the USPS for everything…

But now, almost every other package I send and receive through those “premium carriers” is in danger of being lost. Not too long ago, drivers used to ring the bell and wait for someone to answer before leaving a notice on the door. And they almost never left anything of value by default unless explicitly asked to. However, it seems like both FedEx and UPS “conveniently” altered their policies, at about the same time, and decided that waiting for customers to answer the door takes too damn long. So now everything is assumed “signature not required” and can be left by the door. Some drivers don’t even bother to knock on the door or ring the bell to at least acknowledge the recipient that a package has arrived.

Technology is supposed to improve things, but as a customer, sometimes it seems to only make things more stressful when working with FedEx or UPS on package tracking. By far, in my experience, FedEx has been the absolute worst nightmare. To date, my record with them is: one lost package, one lost-scare and one missing package (as of today, they have NO idea where it is). Everybody just assumes that if something is not in “the system”, it doesn’t exist (much like if you can’t Google it, it’s not there).

I printed a shipping label using FedEx’s own online software (which is buggy; what kind of stupid email notification system assumes no dash exists in domain names?), and I dropped the package off at a local FedEx sorting center myself. But soon it became suspicious to me that the tracking number that FedEx had generated doesn’t seem to be valid for tracking. So I called customer service, whose system showed no record of such package (even though it is showing under my tracking history under my FedEx account on FedEx’s own freaking website). Then customer service transferred me to Internet department where they were supposed to know more about web-based tracking: Nothing there either. Then Internet services transferred me again to Billing, whose system, clearly pulling data from the same source, was also not showing the package being available. He then transferred me, guess where…., BACK TO customer service.

Again, no luck. So now I have a package that part of FedEx’s giant computer system knows about but is unable to find its whereabouts. Can they still be held responsible if the package was lost under such circumstance? Unlikely. Now, I haven’t read the fine prints in those long-ass end user agreements; but I have a feeling it’s written against me, the customer who’s paying for their very existence.

Then there are all kinds of different surcharges they add on to maximize their profits. For example, what the hell is a “fuel surcharge”? I mean, the freaking premium I am paying them to delivery my packages, isn’t that, in part, paying for their labor, time, expertise, and, oh, FUEL? And then they charge small businesses for using their website to print labels — HELLO? Isn’t that making everyone’s lives easier if their ground personnel don’t need to manually process each package? Shouldn’t all this be SAVING them money? So why are small businesses charged $11.50 for every week (or was it month?) that the online shipping label system is used? It’s just insane!

Now coming back to USPS, its website is not as fancy, and tracking information sometimes takes days to appear. But as soon as one gets used to those facts, the site is easy to use, reliable and has never failed me (yet). On top of that, USPS gets it — if I print a shipping label and ship via its online system, I actually get a small discount! Considering how much mail USPS processes, how much lower its fees are, and how much nicer its employees are (they always knock, ring and wait), it’s amazing UPS and FedEx are still making so much profit every year as much as they abuse and mistreat their customers.

Forget it… enough rant for today. The lesson here is: Multi-national corporations are inherently evil given enough market share, cash and power. Which is why publicly mandated systems that deliver services to the public under the law should always have a place in humanity — education, postal services, health care… etc. Anyone who’s trying to privatize them just aren’t thinking long term. Remember, corporations answer to investors and maximize profits, not to do what’s good for the general public, and certainly not to do what’s good for humanity.

Aw, damn it… I’ve got to end this here….

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Author shunPosted on 02/23/200702/23/2007Categories No Logo, RantLeave a comment on FedEx Headaches

Pushing Vista

In a move to push sales, the Devil Microsoft apparently is using an interesting tactic to dump Windows Vista on consumers…

Though I have no way of verifying this report, I am sure that in the coming weeks, I can expect to see systems, no matter how low end and ill equipped, are going to be shipped with Vista despite analysts’ warning on how little value it brings to the PC computing platform. On the other hand, I think this is also a matter of economics for most PC manufacturers. The more computers they sell with Vista pre-installed, the cheaper they can get Vista for in bulk. An since Vista is such a buzz word now, it helps to slap that OS on all shipping PCs to qualify for a cheaper volume rate from Microsoft.

I suppose this is another reason why Linux, by the virtue of economics, is doomed. It gives no incentive for PC manufacturers to ship systems with Linux when they can put on another copy of Vista to get better overall rates from Microsoft! Oh, the irony.

Where’s that cat from Apple again? I am ready for it…

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Author shunPosted on 02/22/2007Categories Linux/Unix, No Logo, WindowsLeave a comment on Pushing Vista

Citigroup Sucks?

Looks like Citigroup, parent of Citibank, sucks big time. I can’t imagine a progammer’s site with ONE entry on his personal problems with CitiMortgage would fetch so a long reply from people suffering EXACT same problem from the same company!

I wonder if that’s CitiMortgage’s hidden strategy to intentionally let these problems happen and conveniently ignore fixing them. It’s capitalism — anything’s possible.

Note to self: Not to use CitiMortgage if and when I can afford to take out a mortgage.

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Author shunPosted on 01/10/200701/10/2007Categories No Logo, RantLeave a comment on Citigroup Sucks?

Car Hunting

We have had some concerns having Bryan in the loaner car from Michelle. One of the reasons is that the car is old enough that there’s no center seatbelt to strap Bryan’s car seat in. So we’ve had to put his booster seat right behind the driver side, right next to the window — one of the danger zones in today’s child safety standards in cars.

Originally I was thinking about getting a car in Canada when we finally make the move. That way, it’d save us the hassle of having to deal with customs and import taxes. But it turns out that Canadian cars, in our unscientific preliminary research are quite a bit more expensive than their counterparts here in the U.S. (that’s including the 6% import tax and all). So the decision has been made to resume looking for a decent used car here in California.

One of the nice things about the United States is that “things”, in general, are relatively cheap in comparison to other places though “cheap” in no way equates to quality. The downside, of course, is that capitalism looks out for investors, not the good of the general public at large. For example, Consumer Reports accuses child car seat manufacturers making inferior car seats that meet minimum standards (a jokingly low 30mph impact) in comparison to similar models in Europe. Though the news wasn’t a surprise to me, it was still sad that my skeptism was proven true. But that’s a different topic for a totally different post altogether.

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Author shunPosted on 01/09/200701/09/2007Categories Baby stuff, Day to day life, No LogoLeave a comment on Car Hunting

Apple Shareholders

After years of not owning any stocks, it took me long enough to finally get back in the market starting with some sweet AAPL shares though at a fairly expensive price. The last time I held AAPL was years ago when it was in its 20’s… OUCH! Long story. So I opened a joint account with Grace via Scottrade (which is pretty cool because it has local branches where I can walk in, make a deposit and start trading the next day).

Most stock analysis predict 2007 to be a very good year for Apple with new products on the horizon as well as extremely healthy sales of its existing hardware lineups. So I feel pretty good about that.

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Author shunPosted on 01/04/2007Categories Apple, Geek Stuff, No LogoLeave a comment on Apple Shareholders

Microsoft and Innovation — Oxymoron?

I have had countless arguments with people who whole-heartedly believe Microsoft is an innovative company. While most people simply don’t care about where the technologies they use came from, I don’t understand how people can make ANY argument on behalf of Microsoft in terms of innovation.

This list has a bunch of “proposed” inventions/innovations supposedly led by Microsft (or so Microsoft claims) over the years. But the truth is, even withough doing research, I was able to mentally cross out a few simply because I have followed the OS and related software industry for long enough…

The best example why I think Microsoft is not an innovator though, is Microsoft Internet Explorer. When IE was competing fiercely with Netscape in the mid-90’s, the heat was on for both companies to come up with better iterations of their browsers. But when it became apparent that IE was dominating the browser war, that was when new features stopped showing up in subsequent releases of IE. New releases from IE 5.0 and on were all about bug fixes and security patches. Essential support for standards like CSS is still broken even with IE 6. It wasn’t until Firefox started making some dents in IE’s market share that Microsoft started talking about including tabbed browsing, better support for CSS 2.x and other nifty “modern” features worthy of the new millennium (which IE 7 now has — released in 2006!).

But it’s easy for me to be critical of Microsoft. Let’s see what it’s got now the resurgence for innovation is happening again on, seemingly, all fronts where Microsoft has businesses interests in — search engine, web mail, Microsoft Office suites, game development, browsers… etc.

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Author shunPosted on 12/02/2006Categories Apple, Geek Stuff, No Logo, WindowsLeave a comment on Microsoft and Innovation — Oxymoron?

Businesses and Opportunities

Every business venture has its risks. With these risks, sometimes opportunities for great wealth can also occur. I always frown upon entering into businesses that deal with inventories for the simple fact that these inventories can become financial liabilities if they are not properly handled — the usual headaches of having to have the money up front* to acquire the inventories and the need for a place to store them and of course have a good service for it from the uk Landlord insurance cover for properties and liability protection.. And that’s on top of insurance, transporation, competition… etc.

But the “wealth” part of the business I just can’t ignore… Case in point: An old friend approached me a couple of weeks ago asking me to acquire some parts for the company he’s working at. Even though there were only around 300 parts I had to acquire for him, the markups were exceptionally good given his fixed budget I had to work with. Within two days of Googling and a few phone calls for prices, I was able to net enough money for two whole month’s worth of rent + all expenses! And that’s just ONE small deal! I can only enviously imagine how much BIG deals would bring for people who do it for a living… All of a sudden, I understood why virtually all of my and my parents’ import/export friends are sitting pretty with their huge flat screen TVs and huge houses.

On the other hand, my inventories had somewhere to go immediately upon me receiving them. It’d be a different story if I had to find places to offload them or worry about everything I mentioned above.

*If you have good enough credit, you don’t always have to pay up front. You can apply for “Net 30” or even “Net 60” payment terms. That is, you get to pay your supplier after 30 or 60 days after you’ve purchased the inventories. Then again, your bigger buyers are going to demand the same thing from you… In conclusion, you need enough money to burn when inventories are waiting to be “turned over”.

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Author shunPosted on 11/29/200608/17/2022Categories Day to day life, No LogoLeave a comment on Businesses and Opportunities

Truth Be Told

I have been looking forward to seeing Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” ever since the documentary was announced. Finally I got a chance to see it, albeit it took three days to watch the entire film section by section because of my schedule.

Powerful and jolting facts. A MUST SEE.

If you plan on seeing only one movie till the end of the year, this should be on the top of your list.

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Author shunPosted on 11/05/200611/05/2006Categories Entertainment, No Logo, Politics, Society + Environment1 Comment on Truth Be Told

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