Blackberry or Crackberry, you decide

Posted by Ed:

I use a blackberry. What’s a Blackberry? My Blackberry is a cell phone, email tool, time manager, mobile internet device, time waster, time saver, and overall addicting device. My Blackberry is addicting because every few minutes I get the feeling like I need to check my email. Being able to receive and send email at any time of the day is a good and bad thing because it can become addicting. It is so addicting that it has been called a Crackberry instead of a Blackberry. Sometimes you just want to be disconnected from the world. I remember my days working for a summer camp and being out in the wilderness canoeing down the Ausable river. We had no connection to the rest of the world, just a peacefulness and tranquility of the wilderness and the river around us. My happy place is on that river and when I am feeling overwhelmed, I bring my mind back to that river and the calmness. My mind drifts and peace fills my mind and thoughts, and then “BUZZZZZZZZZZ, BUZZZZZZZZZZZ” from my Crackberry. Oh, I got another email from a Nigerian telling me a sob story about a ton of money he wants me to help him make. So much for going to a happy place when you have a constant connection to the world.

What sound does a PSP make when it falls in toilet water?

Posted by Ed:

My son wanted a Sony PSP video game device. He said “please please please, can I have a PSP?” I explained to him that he has not proven to be responsible enough to have such a device. He has a tenancy to leave things laying around and then losing them or damaging them. I told him that he would need to earn the money for it and ask for gift certificates from relatives. Over a brief time, he was able to acquire enough money to purchase a PSP and was very happy with it. He took it everywhere, even in the bathroom. On this particular Sunday in March, he had to use the restroom and perform the number 2. Normally he has a carrying case for his PSP, but on this day he decided to store it in his hooded sweatshirt pocket (you know the one with a whole on both sides to warm your hands.) As he stands up to wipe his nether regions, the PSP slips out of his pocket and all he heard was “ploop.” Ploop is the sound a PSP makes when it enters the soiled water of a toilet bowl.

My son comes out of the bathroom very distraught, and hands me a PSP that does not smell too good. As he tells me what happened, I immediately instruct him to take the battery out. The best thing to do is remove any possibility of power short circuiting the device. We dried it off and I told him that we will need to let it dry for a few days before we try to power it up again.

Tonight was the night to see if it would still work. It has been 3 days, and it was time to give it a try. He put the battery in and turned on the device. The familiar PSP logo appeared on the screen and he was ecstatic. “IT WORKS!” He yelled.

My son learned a couple things from this.
1. Always keep your electronics away from the toilet.
2. If your electronic device gets wet while the power is off, pull out the battery and let it dry.

My Geek Squad Experience (NO LEMON)

Posted by Ed:

This is a follow up post to my Best Buy Geek Squad experience.  Last week I called the Geek Squad to get a status on the repair of my Canon SD100 camera.  The repair was going beyond the estimated completion date, and they had not contacted me.  The Geek Squad employee at my local Best Buy store told me last Friday that she would send an escalation request to the repair center to get a status.

Today I walked into the Best Buy store at lunch time to get the status, and the Geek Squadder was very quiet.  He checked his computer screen for a bit, scanned the service order barcode, made some funny faces, and then pulled out a “No Lemon Replacement” form and told me that the camera was being replaced.  I was stunned and elated because I was expecting to wait even longer for the repair.  I originally payed $350 for the camera, and they gave me an equivalent camera for that same price.  I walked out of the Best Buy with a brand spanking new Canon SD750 (see photo.)  You better believe I purchased the 4 year replacement warranty on this camera too.  Thank you Best Buy and the Geek Squad.

What do you think, should we include this experience in the podcast too?

My Geek Squad Experience

Posted by Ed:

My digital camera broke recently, so I decided to take advantage of the 4 year replacement warranty I had purchased 3 years ago at my local Best Buy store. Standing in line at the Geek Squad counter, my mind started drifting back in time to when I purchased my camera. I really wanted the Canon SD100 because of it’s small size and the amount of features it had. The salesman attempted to sell me the 4 year replacement warranty, and just as I was about to say “NO!” he informed me that it would cover the replacement of the rechargible proprietary battery. So the $60 I would pay for the warranty up front would cover the cost of the battery after it dies. So I agreed.

(Still waiting in line and the amount of people behind me is growing. The Geek Squad staff is oblivious to the number of people waiting.)

I start to remember the first time I took this camera in for service. It was missing a screw and the battery was starting fail. The Geek Squad guy informed me that they would need to send the camera in to have the screw replaced and I would not have it for several weeks. The screw was minor, so I decided against it.

(I have now been waiting 20 minutes and the line behind me is 10 people deep. The Geek squad has no problem answering phone calls while all these people wait. It seems that phone callers take priority over line waiters.)

So if I did not get the screw, at least they could replace the battery for me. The guy then informed me that the battery was not covered under the warranty and that I would need to purchase a new $60 battery. I was livid, and I said “When I bought this thing, the salesman told me that the battery was covered. That’s the only reason I bought the service contract to begin with!” A supervisory Geek Squad guy noticed my pissed offedness and came over to diffuse the situation. He informed the other Geek Sqadder that the battery was covered and promptly replaced the battery for me. I was satisfied about the battery, but disappointed that they could not just order a screw without sending the camera in.

(Finally it’s my turn 30 minutes later to talk with the Geek Squadder)

Now I am no longer in line dreaming about my past Geek Squad experience. I am at the counter describing my current problems with my camera. I informed the Geek Squadder at the counter of the three problems I had with the camera (Shutter would not close, the screw was still missing, and the battery needed to be replaced again.) The battery really didn’t need to be replaced again, but I figured I may as well since it’s going out for service and I only have 6 months left on my service contract. Why not get my money’s worth? My order as estimated to be complete by 3/6/2007. As of this post 3/9/2007 my camera is still not finished. I also have not received a call informing me that it will be late. I have a nice website that I can visit, but it just says “REPAIR IN PROGRESS.”

Stay tuned to see how well the Geek Squad does with my camera……..

Daylight Savings Time DST (Should you be afraid?)

Posted by Ed:

My brother called me the other day because he was worried about the daylight savings time change.  He was asked by his IT staff at his office to restart his computer over the weekend because they had done an upgrade for the DST change.  This sparked concern in him about his home computer.  “What should I do?”  “Will anything go wrong?”  “Will planes fall out of the sky?”   “Will the earth stop spinning?”  “Will my wife’s due date for our second child change?”  Lots of fear about the DST change can be eliminated by understanding why and what you need to do.

So why is the daylight savings time changing this year?    The US congress decided to alter the daylight savings time to reduce energy costs.  I suppose it has something to do with the amount of energy used during night time vs day time.

What is the change?  (Glad you asked.)   We all need to set our clocks ahead one hour on March 11, 2007 instead of April 1, 2007.  Also, we will set our clocks back one hour on the first Sunday on November 4, 2007, instead of October 28, 2007.

What’s the big deal?  Well, think about all of the appointments that you have scheduled in your phone or day planner that fall within March 11, to April 1st dates.  If you do nothing and rely on these schedule reminders, then you will consistently be an hour late for everything.  This may be ok if your friends expect you to be late all of the time, but will cause large problems if you have business meetings or try to make a flight on time.

What should I do?  If you have a device that relies on the time and updates based on daylight savings time, then you may need an update from the manufacturer.  Blackberry devices, smartphones, etc. may need a software update.  Windows update should be run (and not just the critical update,) to make sure the changes take affect.  If you are running on an exchange server, then contact your IT person if they have not contacted you yet.  Most exchange fixes can be done from the server.  Take a look at DSTPatch.com to find links for applications that require a DST update.  Here’s a link to the Microsoft DST Website to help you make changes for Microsoft products.

Will planes fall out of the sky? Um………no