Category: product complaints

are YOU distracted by devices?

On By Rick McIn friends, internet, product complaints1 Comment

Clifford Nass is a professor of communications at Stanford University and a renowned authority on Human Computer Interaction.

I was quite alarmed by a radio interview with him on CBC Spark.

Are you wondering why you can‘t seem to get the important things in your life done?

… “Chronic multitaskers are suckers for irrelevancy. Everything distracts them. They can’t ignore things, can’t remember as well, and have weaker self-control,” writes Stanford University communications professor Clifford Nass in a report that’s not well received in nearby Silicon Valley where buildings are full of computer experts who get lost in cyberspace. …

Technology pushing new multitasking apps, while experts say it’s too much

I consider myself a fair average multi-tasker. One of the few people who doesn’t seem to have some sort of ADD.

… But social networking has gone too far for me.

How are kids handling the new reality?

Young people, readers of Discovery Girls Magazine, are online 6.9hrs / day.

Yet they report feeling ‘better’ when face-to-face with friends, rather than on Facebook or texting them.

Here’s a good article on the topic – Multitasking and the Brain: The War on Productivity

THAT”S IT. As Oprah commands … No mobile phone for me.

I don’t trust myself to manage that distraction.

If you MUST have a mobile phone, schedule OFF time.

Blockbuster bankrupt

On By Rick McIn economics, movies, music, product complaintsLeave a comment

I recall years ago the CEO of Blockbuster (at the time driving local video stores out of business) mocking an upstart called … Netflix.

Just like Borders, Blockbuster could not adapt to a rapidly changing marketplace.

… Bloomberg News is reporting that the video chain will be making the filing official on Thursday morning. …

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn, who bought about one-third of Blockbuster’s bonds, will join with a group of creditors in swapping their debt for all of the video-rental company’s stock, …

If creditors get all of Blockbuster’s stock, current shareholders will be wiped out. …

Consumerist

If you have an unused Blockbuster gift card sitting around, use it now.

Which will be the next dinosaur to declare bankruptcy?

One of the big four music labels (I wish), perhaps Sony Music. Amazon will be happy to eat their lunch.

Borders Books bankrupt

On By Rick McIn books, product complaints1 Comment

I used to drive a milk cart, pulled by a horse.

Those were the good old days.

I used to enjoy lounging around in book stores like Borders, browsing the travel section, browsing magazines. Enjoying a coffee. (… Libraries didn’t allow coffee, back in the good old days.)

Borders is selling at least 200 of their 500 Superstores. The company is going the way of the milk cart.

There should be some pretty sweet bargains … right?

We should swoop down on the corpse. … right?

… At the Borders Group Inc. store on Broadway near Wall Street, box sets of Stieg Larsson’s best- selling “Millennium” trilogy, including the “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” sat on a table near the door last week on sale for $69.39 — a liquidation markdown of 30 percent.

The set costs half as much on Amazon.com Inc.’s website, where it was listed for $34.58 — with free shipping. Amazon’s Kindle e-book editions were even less, priced at $27.97. At Wal- Mart Stores Inc.’s website, the three books sold for $34.96. …

Businessweek

Even in death, Borders can’t compete.

Last week I took my Mom into a Borders to look at the Kindle. … But the e-reader display wasn’t set up. Nobody on staff would have been able to explain it, in any case.

Borders deserves to die.

Why didn’t they rebrand to become an entertainment / food / drink venue, with high mark-up product on the side. That could have worked. We’d go there for book readings, poetry readings, public meetings, etc. … Something like an Apple store.

Hey, isn’t Borders the big, bad company that killed the neighbourhood bookstore in the film You’ve Got Mail (1998)

Live by the sword, die by the sword.

Some of the local bookstores will survive, I predict. Happy that big box Borders is gone from their city.

Worst Company In America 2011

On By Rick McIn humour, product complaintsLeave a comment

It’s March Madness over at Consumerist.

… I’ve got to think one of the TelCos will win LOSE.

Here’s Your Lineup For Worst Company In America 2011!

Thanks for the link, Jason.

Google delivers you CRAP

On By Rick McIn Google, gymnastics, product complaints1 Comment

eHow is an online how-to guide with more than 1 million articles and 170,000 videos offering step-by-step instructions on how to do things.

It’s much criticized as a “content mill” or “content farm“. Low quality crap written to get a high Google ranking, pushing Google ads deceptively.

Hows that working out for them?

My gymnastics site is the best on the web on the topic of “gymnastics coach” and “gymnastics coaching”.

eHow got the #1 rank for a Google search = “Gymnastics Coach”.

(I reset the Browser so there was nothing in the cache or history.)

The content on that eHow page is crap written by someone who doesn’t coach gymnastics.

Why doesn’t Google rank content farms lower?

… Maybe they like all that Google ad revenue.

Google has launched one counter attack. I doubt that’s going to work.

They lashed back at critics in a Jan. 21st post:

… January brought a spate of stories about Google’s search quality. Reading through some of these recent articles, you might ask whether our search quality has gotten worse. …

I’ll believe Google has fixed the problem when eHow is not on the first 100 pages of results.
_____

In a Bing search, eHow was #1, as well. (And Bing results are consistently worse for me on any specialized search term.)

The new Duck Duck Go browser filters out all eHow results. My site was #1 there.

related – TechCrunch – Search Still Sucks

Wikipedia has blacklisted all eHow articles.

… as for me, I’ve downloaded the free Chrome browser extension Personal Blocklist and BLOCKED all eHow sites from my personal search results. If enough people do that, that content farm will die.

Scientology fact-checked

On By Rick McIn audiocasts, product complaints2 Comments

NPR interviewed director Paul Haggis (who left the Church of Scientology after 35 years) in an audiocast titled The Church Of Scientology, Fact-Checked.

One of many Hollywood bigwigs in Scientology, the story of Haggis falling out with the secretive religion is big news after The New Yorker posted this story – THE APOSTATE – Paul Haggis vs. the Church of Scientology.

Haggis left the church mainly because some Scientologists supported California’s Proposition 8. Haggis felt it was discriminatory to gays and lesbians.

But his departure has blown up. The most important thread, in my opinion, is this detail about the life of L. Ron Hubbard:

… the founder of Scientology, had maintained that he was blind and a ‘hopeless cripple’ at the end of World War II — and that he had healed himself through measures that later became the basis of Dianetics, the 1950 book that became the basis for Scientology.

But checking American military records showed:

… there was no evidence that he had ever been wounded in battle or distinguished himself in any way during the war.

read more on the NPR blog – The Church Of Scientology, Fact-Checked

If Hubbard lied about that, what else is bogus about Scientology?

I’m disillusioned. 🙂

L. Ron Hubbard 1951

why ‘normal’ people won’t give up Cable TV

On By Rick McIn Apple, bad news, Google, product complaints, TV3 Comments

Ad agency Hill Holliday recently conducted an experiment, asking five families to give up cable TV in favor of connected TV devices for a week.

The growing availability of online content and video subscription services, coupled with an exploding market for connected devices, has pushed the idea of cord cutting — or dropping a traditional cable TV subscription package in favor of online video sources — into the mainstream. But how viable is the concept, really?

For its experiment (which the agency stresses was not intended as a scientific research study), Hill Holliday provided each family with a different connected device: the Roku, Apple TV, Xbox 360, Boxee Box and Google TV.

An Experiment In Cord Cutting from Hill Holliday on Vimeo.

Traditional Cable TV is horrid. But the alternatives are still even worse.

When is Apple or Google going to get it right?

(via Mashable)

how TELUS lies

On By Rick McIn government, product complaintsLeave a comment

From the company’s FAQ:

Q. Why do you call your service unlimited, when my monthly usage is limited?

A. We refer to TELUS High Speed as being unlimited because you get unlimited hours of monthly access.

If that’s not deceptive enough, Napalm points out that it’s also wrong. A month has only 744 hours, not “unlimited”.

(via Michael Geist)

want a FREE Honda Civic?

On By Rick McIn product complaints, travel9 Comments

First you need read this post …

After 11yrs carless, I bought a ’96 Honda Civic hatchback a year ago for $1600.

With it I made 2 big road trips through the USA.

While away for 3 months (Oct-Dec) I offered to hire Sam to “take care” of my cherished vehicle.

Here’s how I found it:

One tire was a little low …

… I had to reduce his wages. 🙂

Just to get it back roadworthy my first quote was for about $850.

… no go.

Instead I’ll donate it to the Kidney Foundation. Or give it away to friends.

Was it worth the hassle and responsibility of possession?

I think so.

$1600 initial cost
$1000 insurance for 1 year
$500 repairs in Montana
$400 AMA, registration and other incidental repairs
______
$3500 for one year … plus fuel / oil

I’ll be giving it away Feb. 7th

Contact me if you want this lemon for free. It’s running. But that’s the best I can say.

Stop The Meter On Your Internet Use

On By Rick McIn bad news, government, internet, product complaintsLeave a comment

… this post for Canadians who want good internet service at a fair market price …

Atop my least trusted and most hated corporations list are the Telecos.

(There’s a special circle of Hell reserved for TELUS employees.)

An enemy of my enemy is my friend … these guys:
Stop The Meter On Your Internet Use

I like their strident hyperbole:

Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are about to impose usage-based billing on YOU.

This means we’re looking at a future where ISPs will charge per byte, the way they do with smart phones. If we allow this to happen Canadians will have no choice but to pay MUCH more for less Internet. Big Telecom companies are obviously trying to gouge consumers, control the Internet market, and ensure that consumers continue to subscribe to their television services.

These Big Telecom companies are forcing small ISP competitors to adopt the same pricing scheme. So we have no choice but to pay these punitive fees.

This will crush innovative services, Canada’s digital competitiveness, and your wallet.

This will bring you up to speed.

Click PLAY or watch a CBC news summary on YouTube.