Category: dead to me

big, fat idiot – Rush Limbaugh on Haiti

On By Rick McIn dead to me, ethics, product complaints1 Comment

Rush Limbaugh on Haiti relief donations:

‘We’ve already donated to Haiti. It’s called the U.S. income tax’

Of all the over-paid right wing radio talk show nobs, I like Rush the best. He’s got some sort of folksy appeal. Once in a while he talks some common sense.

That said, he’s a bald-faced liar, at times, distorting facts to serve his own political biases. That he’d use the suffering of innocents in Haiti just to bolster ratings … and bash Obama. That’s the last straw.

Rush Limbaugh is dead to me. I’ll never listen to the Big Fat Idiot again.

[picapp align=”center” wrap=”false” link=”term=Limbaugh&iid=4127878″ src=”3/f/d/2/PicImg_Conservative_Political_Action_e4e6.JPG?adImageId=9112317&imageId=4127878″ width=”500″ height=”329″ /]

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That’s my decision. Read other reactions on the L.A. Times Comments blog.

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dead tree books are dead to me

On By Rick McIn books, dead to meLeave a comment

The newspaper industry is shrinking.

Book publishers are hurting badly.

Some feel the next big thing is eBooks. (The Kindle is sold out until February.) But I don’t want a Kindle. It’s not much better than the book I have sitting unread on my bedside table.

I don’t want to “read”.

I like audible books.

Listening to books while I’m walking, biking, on the bus.

Sadly, there’s only one main distributor of audible books …

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Audible.com

And — since they were bought by Amazon last March — I’m not sure how quickly Audible is going to bring the books I want to MP3. Their selection is too limited for me.

I’m happy to pay $12 for an audio copy of a book I want … but they won’t produce an audio version of most books. No wonder publishers are failing.

Canon is dead to me

On By Rick McIn dead to me, product complaintsLeave a comment

I got irked 25yrs ago after problems with a JVC warranty. Customer service back then was almost always terrible.

I never bought anything from JVC again. And never will.

Now Canon is dead to me too.

Despite consistently good reviews on-line, my Canon Elura series camcorder was a dud. Most of the trouble involved the mechanism ejecting tapes.

I had some warranty problems with it too.

My advice is to buy Sony. Or Panasonic.

Shun Canon if you can.

advertising is dead to me

On By Rick McIn Apple, dead to me, product endorsementsLeave a comment

Do you hate advertising as much as I do?

Unless you make an effort to avoid them, you’ll see 5000 ads / day.

… billboards, sandwich boards, TV commercials, radio spots, posters, newspaper inserts, storefront promos, magazine ads, web banners, spam emails, product placements, infomercials, sponsorship logos, advertorials, and so on …

adbusters

Why are you wasting my time?

Advertisers, I promise NOT to buy your product if you pester me.

You might ask, “What about those ads on this blog, Rick?”

… good question.

Well, … the Google text ads are contextual. The least offensive and intrusive possible. And they are supposed to relate to topics on this page.

google-ad.jpg

Or you might ask, about those video ads you post on this site. “Rick, why are you shilling the Apple iPhone?

I might say those are entertainments. Funny. Or interesting. They may or may not inspire you to purchase a product.

The things I specifically recommend are listed under my product endorsement category.

That’s the only kind of advertising I want to see. Specific advice from people who have some expertise in the area. Especially those I know personally.

If you tip me to something I might be interested in buying, I should give you a small commission.

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Adbusters

John Dvorak is dead to me

On By Rick McIn audiocasts, dead to me, internet, product complaints, videocastsLeave a comment

I’ve known for a long time now that tech reporter John Dvorak is a sloppy, irresponsible yellow journalist.

Time to cut him loose. Let him sink to the bottom of the dead pool.

I’ve cancelled my RSS subscription to his blog and videocast. And will plug my ears when he happens to appear on other audiocasts.

His buffoonery is getting old.

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Dvorak is known throughout the tech community as being a Troll_(Internet). His theories are far fetched and is almost invariably wrong at most of the conclusions that he draws.

Wikipedia

definition of “Troll”:

… someone who intentionally posts derogatory or otherwise inflammatory messages about sensitive topics in an established online community such as an online discussion forum to bait users into responding.

Wikipedia

Tour de France dead to me

On By Rick McIn bad news, cycling, dead to me, product complaints, sport - amateur, sport - proLeave a comment

I want to thank Bjarne Riis. Good on you for coming clean.

What shred of credibility remained about elite pro cycling has disappeared as 1996 Tour de France winner Bjarne Riis of Denmark on Friday became the first Tour winner to admit he used banned performance-enhancing drugs.

… Riis said in a news conference Friday he had taken the blood booster erythropoietin (EPO) from 1993 through 1998, including during his Tour victory. He also confessed to using human growth hormone and cortisone.

“The time has come to put the cards on the table,” Riis said. “I have done things I now regret and I wouldn’t do again. I have doped. I have taken EPO. For awhile it was part of my life.”

Riis, currently manager of the Danish CSC cycling team, expected to be stripped of his Tour de France title.

“My yellow jersey is in a box at home. You can come and collect it,” Riis said of the jersey worn by the Tour de France leader.

A sport caught in a cycle of cheating on ChicagoSports.com

I’ll never watch race cycling again.

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source

magazines are dead to me

On By Rick McIn dead to me, internetLeave a comment

In the late ’90s I scheduled one evening a week to browse magazines at the library.

A few years later I stopped as magazine content seemed old — I had seen some of the stories on the internet. Google News, in particular, ruined magazines for me.

In 2006 I rely much less on Google News as most stories of interest I see a day or two earlier on one blog or another, delivered to me by my RSS feed reader. Google News should integrate quality blogs.

loyalty programs are dead to me

On By Rick McIn dead to me, product complaintsLeave a comment

In general, I am loyal to merchants who have no loyalty program. I shop for groceries only at The Great Canadian Superstore in my town where I am not penalized for NOT having a loyalty card.

Safeway? Forget it!

“Air Miles?”

I’ve almost lost interest in airline frequent flyer programs as points become harder to get, harder to redeem.

Rewards programs are their own punishment – CNET reviews