via Freakonomics
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Category Archives: product complaints
NO on the “Yes Inn”, Hong Kong
Worst hostel in many years.
Yes Inn, one of the many cheapos in Hong Kong.
Not friendly. Not much helpful. Crowded. No instructions on how to get the shower hot. Bad.
I’d gone there because of this offer on their website:
That was posted on this page.
Seems to be a ‘bait and switch’. At least that was the experience of me and a couple from Utah. No response to the ‘inquiry’. And then a renegotiation on the 7 night cost once you get to the desk.
I was happy to move over to another cheapo — the Ah Shan Hostel (reviews) in Mong Kok. Better — only 1 giant cockroach sighting … but I still left after 2 nights.
From the same desk they run Dragon Inn / A-Inn hostels. All the private hostels in Hong Kong are crappy I’m hearing from other travelers. Now I’m happily ensconced at Mt Davis hostel, my hangout many times in the past.
That photo is from 1983 … but not much has changed since. They’ve added high speed WiFi.
“online backup” is SLOW
I paid for 1yr of Carbonite online back-up storage. Then quit as it was WAY TOO SLOW to be practical. (I’m back to using external hard drives.)
Now Apple is building in similar cloud back-ups. Will it work?
… I have not had the best experiences when experimenting with Lion Internet Recovery. One attempt to use it on my MacBook Air during the week when iOS 5, iCloud and the iPhone 4S launched resulted in a recovery, just for Mac OS X Lion, that was going to take well over nine hours to complete! Ouch. …
… recovering and restoring a computer to full working order could take up to two days …
Cult of Mac – The Reason Why The World Isn’t Ready For Lion Internet Recoveries [Opinion]
Dana bought a ROKU
In Las Vegas:
… (Dish Network) bundled with our phone and internet has been costing us around $170 per month, for terribly slow internet. Of those 300 channels, we use perhaps a maximum of 15 of them. …
Yeesh. Why hasn’t traditional TV improved options for consumers?
She dropped Dish and got this digital video player, instead, the ROKU.
Channels available via the internet include Hulu Plus (U.S. only), Netflix (U.S. and Canada only), Disney.com, TWiT.tv and dozens more.
Dana:
… made the leap and bought a ROKU. It’s brilliant.
… In addition, switching to a better internet provider will allow for high speed everything. So it’s official – done with traditional cable/satellite TV.
Tweet the Streets – Quit TV! You can Too!
Tweet the Streets, by the way, is news from the people, for the people. Bloggers working together to create something like an online news magazine. Dana has volunteered to write for them, when inspiration strikes.
Will Roberts is one of the founders, a friend of Dana’s.
related – TechCrunch – The Four Big Steps To Cutting The Cord
tech gurus
The most popular Geekcast is TWIT, This Week in Technology.
I’ve actually become less attached to that show, preferring MacBreak Weekly and This Week in Google as audiocasts from the same network.
But the most recent episode of TWIT was excellent: There’s An App in my Lap
Leo Laporte, Om Malik, Robert Scoble, and John C. Dvorak
The first 3 are respected tech gurus. Dvorak’s there as a comic, contrary counterpoint. Here’s their advice:
• iPhone 4S is a winner — first as a replacement for you point-and-shoot camera. Still a great phone for regular folks. Tech geeks will be happier with the high end Androids. Look for the Nexus Prime with Ice Cream Sandwich to be launched next week.
• iPhone 4S Siri voice controller is “the future”, but works inconsistently so far
• Kindle Fire (coming Nov. 15th) likely to be a loser, a poor competitor to the iPad. Instead get a $79 Kindle e-reader, the low end. A perfect Christmas present.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
It costs $109 if you want NO ADS on that same cheap device. … I’m not sure how well it works around the world. Check first before you buy one if you’re not living in the States.
• huge fight looming between Facebook & Google. Many already spend most of their time in Facebook … when they can SEARCH and WATCH TV / Movies in Facebook, they’ll never need to leave.
• the future of watching what you want, when you want, online is still up in the air. Another looming battle.
• Microsoft bought Skype. The gurus have no confidence that’s going to work. Competitors could beat Skype.
old technology at Petrocan
I filled a Propane tank at a Petrocan in North Vancouver. Check out the technology used to weigh my tank.
hotel room safe combo = 0 0 0 0 0 0
Do you trust your valuables to those hotel safes?
Best watch this video.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
(via Gadling)
Verizon paid less tax than they charged YOU last year
Although Verizon paid less in income taxes than its average customer paid in phone bills, the company broke no laws. America’s corporations spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year on lobbying, and they get a good return on their investments. They get tax loopholes — and plenty of them. Last year, Verizon shelled out $16.8 million to lobby federal lawmakers and another $18.7 million on contributions into the campaign accounts of their favorite federal politicians.
Obviously Verizon needs to charge customers MORE … so they can pay some corporate tax.
Read more on Consumerist.
I know that the USA cannot tax itself to fiscal balance. But it’s stupid to perpetuate a system where “25 out of the country’s 100 highest-paid chief executives actually earned more in 2010 than their companies paid out in corporate income taxes”.
Corporations and rich individuals should actually pay more tax.
Bank scam – Fauxclosure Crisis
“60 Minutes” … weighed in with a thoughtful segment on the mortgage mess involving faulty or fraudulent mortgage paperwork. (Deal Journal readers previously have dubbed this the “Fauxclosure Crisis.”)
The news magazine program went in search of “Linda Green,” a woman in rural Georgia whose signature was on thousands on mortgage documents as a vice president of more than 20 banks — at the same time. Linda Green told “60 Minutes” she had never been a bank vice president, but was dubbed one by an alleged mortgage sweatshop because her name was short and easy to spell.
Click HERE to watch the “60 Minutes” segment. …
pie-in-the-face of Rupert Murdoch
Everybody loves a good pie in the face.
I’m not sure even Gandhi could suppress a giggle.
Jonnie Marbles: Why I foam-pied Rupert Murdoch:
… It’s not difficult to find reasons to dislike Rupert Murdoch. His reach is one of the most insidious and toxic forces in global politics today. The phone-hacking scandal, despicable though it is, barely scratches the surface of the damage done by News International. It is a media empire built on deceit and bile, that trades vitriol for debate and thinks nothing of greasing the wheels of power until they turn in its favour. What’s more, no matter what the grievances he wreaks on those he has never met, his power and money keep him forever safely out of their reach. …
read more – Guardian
I love symbolic actions, even mildly violent ones.
The average person doesn’t know Rupert Murdoch, Chairman and CEO of News Corporation, the world’s second-largest media conglomerate.
His biographer, Michael Wolff, knows Murdoch – Ad Week – How Bad Is News Corp.?
… He is ranked 13th most powerful person in the world in the 2010 Forbes’ The World’s Most Powerful People list. With a personal net worth of US$7.6 billion, he was ranked 117th wealthiest person in the world in March 2011. …
My most trusted source on media, On The Media, thinks he and his son will be going down for the phone hacking scandal.
Not for the scummy and illegal practices, but for the cover-up.
Glad to hear it. His Fox News is the source of more bias, misinformation and downright lies than any other major media.
He bought the Wall Street Journal in 2007, once a bastion of news excellence. They’ve been slammed for jumping on the anti-Muslim bandwagon as quickly as tabloids.
In reaction to the massacre in Norway by Anders Behring Breivik, a Christian extremist:
… Many news organizations leapt to the conclusion that the bombing and shootings were the work of a jihadist terrorist group. The Wall Street Journal laid the blame in that direction in an editorial and then scrubbed away the evidence after it turned out to be incorrect. Rupert Murdoch’s The Sun went with the headline, “Al Qaeda Massacre: Norway’s 9/11.” …
The WSJ tried to cover-up the error rather than make a correction, standard practice.
If you like bashing Murdoch and Fox as I do, read on – Guardian – Even Rupert Murdoch is afraid of Roger Ailes, the paranoid boss of Fox News.
… apparently Murdoch has nothing to do with Fox News, so long as it keeps bringing in massive profits.
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On the bright side, the much maligned NY Times paywall seems to be working. About 250,000 subscribers are paying up to $500/yr. It may yet be a business model that can keep newspapers printed on dead trees.
Now The Onion is testing a paywall. Hmmm …
