Posted on 08/29/2007 12:28:17 PM PDT by holymoly
Edited on 08/30/2007 1:03:32 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
It’s disgusting how some companies take advantage of their customer’s ignorance of computers to get money out of them. I do some computer work on the side, and once I was working for a doctor’s office. The doctor told me that he went to a Best Buy to buy all of his equipment, and the sales rep told him everything that he needed to buy to accomplish what he was wanting to do. When I went to his office to set everything up, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. They sold him about $550 worth of stuff that he didn’t even need.... AT ALL.
I ended up using only a couple of things out of the that he bought to get everything working and he took the rest back to Best Buy. From now on when he wants something done, he consults me first, then has me locate it for him(usually newegg.com), and he buys it.
If you really want to see them go blank, ask about RS232 ability. I had a Howard Computer rep ask me what I meant by RS232
LOL - yes that would give them quite a scare!
Thanks for the laugh.
Actually, I think that's a real drawback to 90% of the computer techs that come out of school nowadays (I've been interviewing some for a entry-level position, lately, but that's a whole other thread, and a nightmare to boot). Windows does so much automatically, now, that techs don't have an understanding of how everything works together. "It just works" is what I commonly hear.
And sure...it usually just works. But, people rarely call the help desk to say that they're tremendously satisfied with their PC setup, and everything is working fine, thanks.
I cannot remember when I bought anything at Best Buy or Circuit City, its’ been so long ago. Who needs ‘em when, with a bit of knowledge and perseverance, one can save loads of money buying online.
I worked for a bank from late 1999 to late 2003. When I left in 2003 they were still using DOS for thier core system!
Thats was my plan with my new computer purchase. But with the tax free shopping a few weeks ago, the way it worked with online purchases was that since the systems were set up to charge sales tax you were charged sales tax and then they would later credit you back the sales tax. To avoid not getting it back or having to work to get it back I decided to just buy it from the B&M to make life simple.
Outside of food,gas, cigarettes, and some clothes, I am hard pressed to think of what I purchase that I don't buy online.
In fact, I built a home theater with 100% internet purchases. I didn't buy one single bit of the theater in a retail location.
I decided to give Linux a try after lurking on the Linux vs Windows threads here on FR. I’m not a geek by any stretch of the imagination but I managed the install, dual boot with XP.
I just don’t boot to XP anymore and I’ll delete XP when I need more space. Linux wins even with this inept old man.
I despise the salesmen AND saleswomen who do the BS sales.
They push useless warrenties, and duplicate support which vanishes when you try and use it. (or worse it is outsourced to another country where “John Smith” can’t speak english)
Someone gave me one of those years ago, and I didn't know what it was, just that it was a really exotic looking Pentium something or other. Recently I re-discovered the relic and went on line to look up the part numbers on it. I found out it was a first generation Pentium 60, with a massive heat sink stuck on it, and a history of overheating due to running on 5 volts instead of the later 3.3 volts and lower.
So, my exotic looking mystery device turned out to be a museum piece and a little toaster over.
Dunno how secure it'd be. Not too many backdoors/viruses/trojans/etc in a DOS system. So long as the hacker isn't sitting in front of the terminal, and the database itself is protected, I'd guess it would be OK.
I think that, as far as manufacturing is concerned, there will always be a need for DOS, or DOS-based OS's. Simply for the fact that they allow direct hardware calls. One of the last projects I was on was eval'ing 98 vs Millenium for exactly that purpose. This would have been in 2004/05.
I have all my variable data set on a separate partition.
I install the OS and all the mundane third part products. Make my settings for email, Firefox, etc.
Then I Ghost it all out.
If I catch a nasty, takes about 20 minutes to restore my boot image drive. And all my mail and bookmarks and favorites are still there.
This will make you cry, that same person voting.
The job I had before this one had some required “company software” training, including the Office suite.
I was the only person being trained. In the training room - me and the trainer.
She introduced herself, I introduced myself, we decided to get started, and she said (my hand to God, I am not making this up): “Okay, see that W on the screen in front of you? Use your mouse to move the arrow over the W, then click your left mouse button twice and Microsoft Word will open.”
I said, very nicely, “I appreciate this, but I know all the basics, if you’d like to skip to the more advanced and company-specific stuff.”
No dice. She was programmed to give her spiel in a certain order, and there was no fast-forwarding. I had to sit through THREE HOURS of “Okay, now you see that green X? Double-click on that, and . . . “
That's a very interesting statement, and I can't figure out what it means. Are you talking about technical competency issues or about institutional indoctrination that makes them untrustworthy??
I would've thought that all of the P60s had toasted themselves by now. You likely have a neat little museum piece, someday.
My experience with Packard Bell & Circuit City was an education, and one I do not regret.
It soured me on "store bought" PCs. More importantly, it motivated me to learn to trouble-shoot, upgrade, repair my PC(s).
The money I've saved since, has more than paid for that Packard Bell. Lol.
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