Daily Nonsense

Since November 19th, 2007, my ‘Worst Customer Service Award’ has been held by a company called goingTODAY.com.  You can read how they came to hold that title here:  GoingTODAY.com? GONE today!

Well, today I have nominated a new company for that singular honor.  The company is called Casanova Enterprises, Inc. doing business on EBay as jayco_tech.  Despite their 20119 comments and their gold star status on EBay, they have done nothing else but lie to me and disappoint me with their products and their pitiful attempt at customer service.  (Using that phrase, customer service, belies the total indifference and apathy I have experienced in all dealings with them).

I recently purchased an MSI Wind U100- 10-Inch Netbook computer.  It is being used to help stimulate my creative urges by allowing me to schlep the little thing around and work on my book when and where I want to.  One thing that wasn’t working well was the RealTek wireless card that comes standard with that model.  It works fine in Windows, but I’ve loaded Ubuntu 8.0.4 and there is no direct support from RealTek.  I decided to forgo compiling drivers myself and chose to buy an Intel Pro 3945 Wireless MINI Card on EBay to use as a substitute for the RealTek product.

After some careful searching I found this card from jayco_tech.  I thought that the price was good, the shipping was free and that I would have the card in a short amount of time.  Figuring that card only weighed a couple of ounces I guessed (correctly as it turned out) that it would be shipped USPS First Class Mail.  Coming from McAllen Texas, that should only have been a couple of days.

So, on April 1st I clicked the ‘Buy It Now’ button, paid through PayPal and awaited my new WiFi card.  On April 2nd I received an email from jayco_tech stating that my product had been shipped!  Well, that was the first lie.

But, what did I know at that point.  So I waited.  And waited, and waited……… Until April 9th when I received a message from from jayco_tech stating that my product had been shipped.  Huh?  Wasn’t it shipped on the 2nd?  A little research shows that the Post Office didn’t actually get the package until the 7th, 5 days after I was told it shipped!

So, now it is 9 days and counting.  4 days later,  on the 13th, I finally get a bubble envelope from Casanova Enterprises.  Guess what was in it?  No, really, guess….

The wrong frickin part is what was in it.  Click the pic below to see a bigger picture.

I immediately sent an EMail with this image attached and was surprised to receive an Email with the following explanation:

Sorry the boxes are right next to each other the guy who boxes these up probably reached into the wrong one. well really i can send you the right one or i can refund your money. let me know.

- jayco_tech

And again,this is from a company that has 20,000+ positive responses?

I followed up with an email asking what I should do with the wrong part.  I was told that my correct part would be shipped the next day and I should just put the wrong part back into the envelope when it arrived and ship it back.  they would credit my PayPal account with $3.00 when they received it.

OK, supposedly they shipped on the 14th but I have had no additional communication from these deadbeats.  I sent a follow-up with no reply.  So, today, 22 days after I initially paid for a part I haven’t received I went to the PayPal resolution center and started the formal complaint process.

But, since they do seem to have a high turnover I though I would publish my complaint in a forum where it will be more difficult to ‘hide’ it under the rug.

So, to conclude, there are tons of places on-line to spend your money.  Don’t spend it with Casanova  Enterprises, jayco_tech or goingTODAY.com.

Some additional jayco_tech issues that I’ve found on the interwebs:

• Dell 600M motherboard scam: http://www.hillcroftconsulting.net/index.htm
• Negative Feedback Removal Bribe:  http://www.djselectronics.com/TRUTH.htm

Something I found on boingboing this morning.  Thoughtful discussion on how the convergence of TV and the computer didn’t really result in a new appliance.  The apparent winner of the war is the computer which has been refined to supplant traditional TV distribution.

Although the advent of some of the devices that stream NetFlix does lay the foundation for an argument for a newer convergent appliance, they are the exception and not required to take advantage of the rich online content.

The incentive to figure out the technologies is not limited to the youth.  I’m a 51 year old man who streams NetFlix through a PlayOn server into a PlayStation 3 80GB and from there into my HDTV.  The incentive to use the Watch Instantly content on a screen bigger than my laptop was all it took.

Funny how this discussion mirrors the whole MP3 & music industry brouhahas in so many ways, staid and uninventive massive corporations trying to force a product down the throats of a demographic that want more than the ‘Top 40′.  It should be clear to almost everyone at this point that the consumer really makes the rules, not the mindless and faceless corporations.

Why TV Lost: a merry jig on the gogglebox’s grave

Posted by Cory Doctorow, March 3, 2009 11:48 AM | permalink

Paul Graham’s "Why TV Lost" is a sweet little schadenfreude bomb lobbed at the telly people, half neener-neener and half keen analysis and every word of it is lovable:

About twenty years ago people noticed computers and TV were on a collision course and started to speculate about what they’d produce when they converged. We now know the answer: computers…

The somewhat more surprising force was one specific type of innovation: social applications. The average teenage kid has a pretty much infinite capacity for talking to their friends. But they can’t physically be with them all the time. When I was in high school the solution was the telephone. Now it’s social networks, multiplayer games, and various messaging applications. The way you reach them all is through a computer. [3] Which means every teenage kid (a) wants a computer with an Internet connection, (b) has an incentive to figure out how to use it, and (c) spends countless hours in front of it…

After decades of running an IV drip right into their audience, people in the entertainment business had understandably come to think of them as rather passive. They thought they’d be able to dictate the way shows reached audiences. But they underestimated the force of their desire to connect with one another.

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal described how TV networks were trying to add more live shows, partly as a way to make viewers watch TV synchronously instead of watching recorded shows when it suited them. Instead of delivering what viewers want, they’re trying to force them to change their habits to suit the networks’ obsolete business model. That never works unless you have a monopoly or cartel to enforce it, and even then it only works temporarily.

Why TV Lost (via Negatendo)

[Thanks, boingboing]

The proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement hopes to crackdown on pirating of music and DVDs and the counterfeit labeling of goods by enacting draconian laws in the member states.  The Australian government  seems to be looking at a plan to start searching MP3 players at airport security checkpoints. The reason?  To seek out and destroy illegally pirated music.

I was under the impression that having to submit to the TSA and two hour wait times at the airport was to protect us from weapons or explosives or even, (god forbid), crazed terrorists with a Google map printout and some iconic landmark that has offended them in some way.  But to even consider using the already incompetent and inept TSA security rabble to search through my electronic devices seems like a guaranteed plan to add hours to my my airport ‘check-in’ times.

And how are these otherwise unemployable high school graduates going to determine if any one particular song has been pirated?  What criteria will that use to cull the legal from the illegal?

Australian Government Proposes Checking MP3 Players at Airports
By Brian X. Chen – July 30, 2008 | 6:23:36 PM

Walking through the airport-security checkpoint could get even more annoying if guards start checking travelers’ MP3 players for pirated music.

News Digital Media sheds light on a leaked document containing the Australian government’s plans to search music devices in airports in the effort to combat illegal-music downloads. The proposal is also being considered in an international treaty, which includes the United States. If the proposal goes through, anybody caught with illegal music would be subject to fines or even jail time.

Before you freak out and toss your iPod into a lake, keep in mind this is just a proposal. It would need to be thoroughly discussed and agreed upon before it would be implemented. I can’t imagine this even working logistically: Airports are crowded (and inefficient) enough, and it would take forever to scan someone’s MP3 playlist. And how would they determine which songs are pirated anyway?

Some reports have speculated that the RIAA has a hand in this proposal, which wouldn’t be a surprise. Scanning our service providers isn’t enough; now they want airport employees to dig into our pockets. Classy.

[Thanks, Wired]

Nano-technology will eventually become commonplace for all of us, but I think it is the developments that are happening now that are worthy of special merit.  Scientists and researchers are forced to invent techniques and sometimes materials as they investigate this new, cutting edge field.

A tenfold improvement in battery life?

By Alex Serpo
Special to CNET News.com
Published: January 15, 2008, 7:35 AM PST

Stanford University researchers have made a discovery that could signal the arrival of laptop batteries that last more than a day on a single charge.

The researchers have found a way to use silicon nanowires to give rechargeable lithium ion batteries–used in laptops, iPods, video cameras, and mobile phones–as much as 10 times more charge. This potentially could give a conventional battery-powered laptop 40 hours of battery life, rather than 4 hours.

The new batteries were developed by assistant professor Yi Cui and colleagues at Stanford University’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering.

"It’s not a small improvement," Cui said. "It’s a revolutionary development."

Citing a research paper they wrote, published in Nature Nanotechnology, Cui said the increased battery capacity was made possible though a new type of anode that utilizes silicon nanowires. Traditional lithium ion batteries use graphite as the anode. This limits the amount of lithium–which holds the charge–that can be held in the anode, and it therefore limits battery life.

Silicon anodes have the "the highest theoretical charge capacity" according to Cui’s paper, but they expand when charging and shrink during use: a cycle that causes the silicon to be pulverized, degrading the performance of the battery. For 30 years, this dead end stumped researchers, who poured their battery life-extending energy into improving graphite-based anodes.

Cui and his colleagues looked at this old problem and overcame it by constructing a new type of silicon nanowire anode. In Cui’s anode, the lithium is stored in a forest of tiny silicon nanowires, each with a diameter that is a thousandth of the thickness of a sheet of paper. The nanowires inflate to four times their normal size as they soak up lithium, but unlike previous silicon anodes, they do not fracture.

Cui said there are a few barriers to commercializing the technology.

"We are working on scaling up and evaluating the cost of our technology," Cui said. "There are no roadblocks for either of these."

Cui has filed a patent on the technology and is considering formation of a company or an agreement with a battery manufacturer. He expects the battery to be commercialized and available within "several years," pending testing.

Alex Serpo of ZDNet Australia reported from Sydney.

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