I was in a Best Buy shopping for Vacuum cleaner bags recently. I saw a couple come in and look at the Dyson vacuum cleaners. They were fascinated by every model on the floor. Hypnotized by the commercials Dyson runs on TV constantly, they overlooked all of the other models available on the floor, despite the tremendous price difference.

Had these people bothered to test out each vacuum cleaner, or do some online research, they may be shocked to see that the $150 Eureka Boss performs a great deal better than the any of the expensive Dyson models. I felt like saying something to these people, but I know they would probably wonder why I considered myself the authority on vacuum cleaners. They had made up their minds already anyway.

Dyson sells people on their ‘new technology’ that supposedly cleans better. The less sexy Eureka Boss on the other hand uses older technology and requires a bag. People overlook which model actually does the job better, which really should be the deciding factor if you asked me. I own 2 Eureka Boss vacuum cleaners, and I’ve owned a Dyson as well. The Dyson broke not long after I started using it. I’m very happy I didn’t throw more of my money away by replacing it with another one. The Dyson is now only good at looking sexy in the corner of my living room. It never cleaned well when it was working. The large, clunky looking Eureka however, will slurp up everything and anything off my floor.

Even with all the information available at our hands these days, people still fall for the classic sales pitch and advertising.  If people would learn to research the products they choose instead, they would end up with way better products and spend way less money.

Some people amaze me. They can’t seem to think for themselves let alone head in the direction of solving problems on their own. It’s just plain laziness to experience a problem and then immediately call somebody else and put them to work for you without trying anything first.

I’ve always been a person that likes to solve problems on my own. I like to use my mind. I can’t imagine ever calling somebody to help me until I’ve exhausted all options on my own. Then again, some of the people I talk to end up breaking things worse. Restarting the computer however is a no-brainer. You have no worries about restarting and causing more problems.

I also love how some people also have an attitude if I suggest that they restart the computer first thing when they call. They never think it will solve their issue. The sarcasm just oozes through the phone. When restarting does work, they usually act angry and question why they have to restart to get it to work properly. It’s a computer people! A computer running Windows. It just needs to be refreshed sometimes.

I know it’s good job security to have people relying on me for computer support, but I think I’d rather be unemployed than have to deal with people that are too lazy to try the simple stuff on their own. Besides, I have plenty of other people that really need my help for real problems.

I wanted to share something with you all that I didn’t know. A company I worked for owns PHP-Nuke. Yeah! I know! I couldn’t believe it either. PHP-Nuke has been known for years as an open-source CMS system used by webmasters everywhere to build their web sites. Well, unfortunately webmasters can’t use PHP-Nuke anymore because the company I worked for owns it.

Let me give you the back story. Many moons ago I worked on a knowledgebase for a company. I used PHP-Nuke to build a web site for them where employees could share knowledge. I grew so fond of PHP-Nuke that I also used it to build a web site on the Internet for myself. Later a manager at the company got wind of my personal site. He viewed it and was concerned that it looked similar to the knowledgebase I had built for the company.

It seemed my manager thought that I was stealing from the company. I was treated as though I had stolen company secrets that were to only be used internally. I tried explaining that PHP-Nuke is open source software. There are thousands of sites that are formatted and look similar to the company knowledgebase. They didn’t get it. I was advised my management to pull my site off the web.

I caved in at first and removed the site, but later got the bravery back in me and reinstated the site. I have since then switched to WordPress because it works better for me. I should make everybody out there aware that the company also has other web sites built with Joomla and WordPress, so all you bloggers should probably not use either of those CMS systems either. You just might get sued.

In my job in Tech Support, I regularly get people that call in and say they can’t connect to my company. The first thing I ask them is “Are you connected to the Internet?” The answer is always “Yes!”. How do they determine this? They bring up Internet Explorer and see their cached home page, thinking it’s live. When I ask them to try some other site, they get all pissy with me. Usually they eventually find that they can’t get anywhere else on the Internet.

Another thing people do is they check to see if they have the icon with the 2 computers in the taskbar. They think that if that icon is flashing, they must have Internet.

Both of these features should be disabled for stupid people so they will never be fooled again. You know it’s one thing to not know something. That’s fine, I get paid to help with computer issues. But why the hell would you bother to call a support line and not check the connection first? Also, why would you get pissy when I suggest the problem might just be on your end?

It’s interesting to see the evolution of Internet stores. Back in 2000, some analysts were saying how Internet stores were just a fad, and could never compete with your local brick and mortar store. Now there are several industries that Internet sites dominate so well, that stores are vanishing from the landscape.

Blockbuster is getting pwnd by Netflix again since they raised their rates. Not to mention Netflix is always one step ahead. They were first to offer movie rentals over the mail and now they keep evolving with their service where you can view movies and TV shows online. They also are planning set top boxes for your TV to make delivery of movies even easier.

All record stores are getting pwnd by iTunes. Tower Records never had a chance. Other options such as Wal-Mart censor some of their selection, turning buyers off. There is also the piracy option of course.

I’m surprised Amazon hasn’t taken over book stores. Places like Barnes & Noble and Borders do well only because yuppies have to have a place to be seen reading or using their laptop while they sip on their cappuccino. One day I believe they will meet their demise though.

I used to believe that technology enabled criminals to do things better than they used to. Phishing scams, online pedophiles and pyramid schemes seem to just work better online. With the recent reports of the Lakeland, FL teens beating a girl on camera along with the many episodes of Dateline NBC that have been televised where pedophiles getting nabbed I’m beginning to think technology catches more criminals than it creates.

There are new reports of people getting caught every day. Here is South Dakota a report just came out about an 18 year old text messaging a 12 year old for a sexual encounter from his cell phone. It even says in the report that the offender knew what he was doing was wrong. I also watched World’s Dumbest Criminals this weekend where a family actually recorded themselves committing insurance fraud. Another featured a woman stealing a dog in plain site of a clearly visibe camera.
I guess I never figured people were that stupid before. I guess anyone willing to commit a crime isn’t that smart to begin with. But they take it to a new level to do their crimes where everything you do is recorded. Simply stunning!

While in Chicago 2 weeks ago, I visited a place that has so far survived the shakeout of record stores from the commercial landscape, Rolling Stone Records. It was one of the only places on the Northwest side of Chicago that for many years you’d be sure to find that single or album that you just had to have. They used to have everything in stock whenever you went there. An old album by Elvis? Sure! Guns N’ Roses’ latest? Absolutely!

Sadly, things have changed. I went this time only to find they seem to only carry are a few of the latest CD’s along with some greatest hits albums from the older bands. If you wanted older albums from the Smashing Pumpkins or Green Day, you would be out of luck at Rolling Stone now. And if you want a single? Ha! No friggin’ way! Oh how I longed for the day when they had the single cassette tapes lining the wall near the cashier. Now it’s replaced with DVD movies.

This will probably be my last visit to Rolling Stone as it seems to be in a downfall. The place was a ghost town when I visited. I think the only other customer that came in while I was there was buying porn. I walked out with a Greed Day album that featured a live performance and a Garbage compilation. Truly it was all they had that I was interested in. I guess Wal-Mart, Target or Amazon are the only places you can surely get almost any album you want now. It’s a sad era indeed.

Here is another lesson in English. A coworker of mine today asked me “did you get my emails?” I corrected them by saying “You mean email?”

When you ask if the postman delivered the mail, you don’t use the word mails. The word mail is never plural. So why is email so often used in the plural form?

I just think email sounds better.  Now I wonder, should the word be hyphenated? E-mail?

Have you ever had a job interview that wasted your time? You know those interviews where the phone screening didn’t quite go so well, but they bring you in anyway? I just had one, and I am super annoyed by it.

I am currently living in South Dakota. I have been looking to make it back to Chicago for quite some time now. So I get the phone screening, and I just got a vibe that the dude wasn’t into me. So I wrote it off. To my surprise I got a call back and we discussed me coming into the office. So I drove to Chicago to have the interview. The dude again, just totally wasn’t into me. From the start of it all, he never was into me, and never will be. What a colossal waste of my time! This wasn’t a case where I was a bad interview either. I think I did just fine. The douchebag had his mind made up before he even made the first phone call to me. He probably had a guy who had a dumbed down resume that he felt was a better fit.  All of my talking wasn’t going to do anything to sway him.

I’ve had many of these interviews. Once I had 2 interviews with the same guy and he asked me the same questions and didn’t remember the first time I had been there. In another situation, I was shown around the office while the guy just talked, he wasn’t interested in what services I could provide at all, just wanted somebody to talk to.

So after $160 in gas, $30 for parking and about 6 hours of my time preparing and interviewing and 2 vacation days off work, I am left empty handed. How fun! Here’s an idea. How about not being a jackass and just letting a guy know you’re not interested instead of just bringing people in for a show? It will save everyone a whole lot of time and trouble.

I haven’t blogged here in a few days. The reason is because my eyes were strained greatly for the past 5 days. At work I was was responsible for email support for a week. This meant hours of reading and writing email to our customers. By Friday my eyes didn’t want to focus on anything. I was dizzy and my eyes were dry and in pain. I decided to just ease off. I took my contacts out, went around blind and did the best I could without focusing on too much. This also meant no TV.

Let this be a reminder that you should take regular breaks when using your computer. My sister’s work advises a few minutes of focusing your eyes on something else every 7 minutes of looking at a computer display. This can be hard to do for techies such as myself. But if you don’t want to be shut down for 5 days like mine were, you might want to make an effort to give your eyes a break.