If you a gamer like I am then I'm sure you aware of Battlefield 2142 and Need for Speed Carbon which are set to release in the very near future. While I could care less about BF (Battlefield), I am excited to play NFS (Need for Speed). While looking into the release a little further I stumbled across some very disturbing information. Both games are going to be released with mandatory spyware to target dynamic in-game advertisements. This spyware is going to read through your browser history and give you specific products that relate to web sites you have visited. If any other software manufacture included mandatory spyware computer users around the world would be upset. Because the game industry has complete control over what we see and how we see it no one seems to care. I couldn't find anyone complaining about this except for the story I found on slash dot. http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/06/10/17/1319235.shtml The only way that we as consumers can fight this is to refuse to buy and play these games. If the developers and producers see that their sales are suffering because of their decisions they will think twice about installing extra software that maliciously attacks your personal data. As you see on the left hand side the banner for boycott starforce, I am also boycotting Need for Speed Carbon and Battlefield 2142. Don't let the game industry take over. We need to stand together and fight back to get our points across.
What's worse about this is some malicious little hacker is going to reverse engineer these games and find a way to exploit the code that drives these dynamics ads. When this happens, any data on your computer is vulnerable to the world. We already have enough exploits dealing with Microshaft and all of their security bugs. We don't need to install software that will be a giant glowing advertisement to hackers to come and steal our personal data.
Join with me in this boycott. Let our voices be heard that we will not stand for this. We as consumers have the right to decide what we bring in our homes. If a company is going to steal our personal information then we should have no part in supporting them.
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Friday, July 28, 2006
The evils of the movie theater
Why is it that I pay to go see a movie to sit and be bombarded by advertisements? Just recently I went to see a movie in the theater which I was very excited to see. I was not disappointed with the movie but having to sit through 15 minutes of commercials really bothered me. Now don't get me wrong, I enjoy the previews for the most part and look forward to watching a few, but watching 6 commercials for smaco-cola is a bit much don't you think? I mean come on you walk in the theater and are bombarded by advertisements. You pay for your tickets and again are staring face to face with yet more advertisements. You sit in the theater waiting for the movie to start and get watch slide-show style ads. After that you get to watch 15 minutes of commercials from everything from shampoo, the "coolest" car in the world and 6 ads for a certain brand of cola that we dare not mention but you all know which one I'm talking about. Who in the hell's bright idea was it to start showing commercials when I've paid my hard earned money to go and watch a movie. Don't you think we have enough advertising now? How many billboards do you pass a day driving to and from work? How many commercials do you see when you get? Well for those of you who are too lazy to look or are just too stupid to figure out how to use google on a type day the average person sees between 400 and 600 ads. If you take into account the normal life expectancy of us mere humans that adds up to over 40,000,000 (yes that's 40 million) ads in our lifetimes. What really gets me is that most of the advertisements are unsolicited. I don't care how great the latest tampon is. I don't care if you feel fresh or not. Why do these bastards think that any of us actually care about this shit? I don't go running around buying shit just because some asshole on the TV said it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Does anybody? Ok, so I got a bit off track but you see my point. With all the advertising that is spent in this country don't you think that's enough? Can't I go to a movie and just watch a movie? I don't want to buy your products, I don't want to support your business, I don't care about you. Just let me watch a God Damn movie in peace you bastards.
Friday, April 21, 2006
Why Office Depot is the spawn of Satan
First let's start things off with a brief history lesson of what led me to my conclusion that Office Depot is Satan's love child. Several months ago I stumbled across the latest and greatest ergo keyboard from microshaft. As much as I despise their software their input devices are top notch. After reading some reviews and doing some research I decided that I was going to purchase two of these delectable keyboards. But as a poor person I was unable to fork out the $60 bucks a piece for two keyboards so I went on a waiting spree to see if the price would come down or I could scrounge enough cash to buy them. Along comes April 11th and I was linked to a site that has my precious keyboards on sale for $22.02 each. Hallelujah my prayers have been answered. I click on the link soon to discover that the retailer selling the keyboards is Office Depot. Knowing that they've been around for a while I decide now is the time to buy. I quickly scoop a few friends together and place an order for five keyboards to partake in the free shipping offer that they are also advertising.
At this point everything is fine and we are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the much coveted keyboards to arrive. While waiting patiently at this point I check my account and notice that they have posted a delivery date for my order. "Wow, that is fast shipping" I say to fellow orderees. The order was placed on Tuesday morning and set to deliver Thursday. Getting giddy with anticipation Thursday seems to take forever to get there. Finally Thursday arrives and I rush home to see if my order has arrived. Not really expecting it to be there knowing full well that 99% of all deliveries to my house show up after 5 pm. So I decide to watch a movie while I wait. The movie gets over and there was never a knock at my door. Damn. Oh well, it was too good to be true to get them that fast anyway, they will come tomorrow like I was expecting them to in the first place.
I go to work thinking I'm going to get my nifty keyboards. I leave work and have a few errands to run before I can get home to see if they've come yet. After all that is done I get home and they still haven't arrived so I sit and wait and watch the clock. When 5 rolls around I decide to call the 800 number to see what's going on with my order. As always anytime I place a call to an 800 number I always get the Indian who I can't understand a damn word they say, they talk way too much and never get to the point. So during this call I get told that they should have been delivered all ready and they will send my order to the "Research Team" to find out what's going on. Since its late Friday I will get a call Monday morning before 11 am. "Fine" I said and hung up the phone. Monday rolls around and I get a call before 8 am. If I didn't work at the ass crack of dawn I would have been pissed that they called this early, but at least they called like they said they would. So, I explained my situation to the lady of the phone who is very understanding and tells me that the keyboards are on back order and they can cancel my order or re-submit the order and get them sent out after they arrive. I say keep them order and I will wait. I ask her "why does it show as shipped if the item was placed on back order?" I don't receive a straight answer just some garbage about we apologize for the inconvenience blah blah blah. I check my order status shortly after I get off the phone only to find that the sale price had been negated and was being charged full price of $59.95. I called back again and got the response we'll send this to our research tem and they'll call you back. I agree to this and within minutes I get another call and of course they try to deny that fact that I ordered at a sale price until I provide my original order number. She finally agrees and fixes the price.
At this point the frustration level is starting to rise but I am still anticipating the arrival. A few days go by and I check every day to see if my order status has changed knowing that I am just torturing myself. Finally late Tuesday the 19th I check my order and it says shipped once again and a delivery date of Thursday. I go through the same process of waiting at my house for the order to arrive which I'm sure you've guess by now didn't arrive. So I called this morning to see what was going on knowing full well I was going to fed more lines of shit. Again I get the Indian I can't understand and in the midst of their ramblings I find out that the item has now been discontinued. "How can the item be discontinued if you already sold it to me, approved the charge of my credit card and said it was shipped twice?" I ask. The response I get is "I'm sorry but that's what the system is saying." At this point my rage is at full capacity and I demand to speak to a supervisor. This action did nothing for me but cause my hatred to boil to a point it hadn't reached in a very long time. They even had the nerve to tell me when can find you a similar item, give you a discount and send that out for you. Now honestly, do you think I'd accept a substitute for my precious? I tell the supervisor the only think I want is for my order to be delivered like it was promised twice. I again get I'm sorry but we don't have any to ship out and we aren't getting anymore and she again offers to find me a substitute. This time I make it clear, the only thing I want is what I ordered if you can't deliver that then I want my order to be cancelled and I will never do business with you again. She then goes on to say "I'm sorry to hear that we might (MIGHT?) lose you as a customer but we can give you a discount and I'm sorry for the inconvenience." So needless to say I canceled my order and slammed the phone down.
By this time I am so furious I immediately dial a local store and ask for the corporate headquarters number, which they gave to me without any delay. I phoned the corporate office and got transferred to the corporate customer care division and for once I finally get someone I can understand on the phone and explained my situation again. This time the tone of the call was very different, she was helpful, she understood that I was furious and was doing anything and everything to help me rather than giving me canned responses read off a monitor. So now, my order is being shipped from Minnesota via UPS and should arrive the middle of next week. While on the phone I ask "why wasn't I ever notified about these changes to my order when they happened rather than them just showing as shipped?" "We don't have anyone staffed that can place calls to our customers if things like this happen" I'm told. What kind of company doesn't notify its customers if they can't deliver on their promise to deliver my order in a timely fashion? Even an email would have been sufficient. I make sure she logs all my complaints about their incompetent order entry system so hopefully the next poor sap that orders from them won't have to go through all this. I doubt that will happen but I did my part. With the exception of the item being discontinued and them not willing to fulfill and order that was already place without a call to corporate I would not have been nearly as pissed if they would have just given me status updates when I place my order. When I place the original order it should have said "item is on backorder". But it didn't, and led me to believe that everything was fine with my order. When I called to find out that it was backordered had they said it is discontinued and we won't be able to ship it to you, I would have been upset but I would have lived. Instead they show it as shipped and never a word from them.
The moral to all of this is: It's not how you bitch but who you bitch to that will get things done.
At this point everything is fine and we are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the much coveted keyboards to arrive. While waiting patiently at this point I check my account and notice that they have posted a delivery date for my order. "Wow, that is fast shipping" I say to fellow orderees. The order was placed on Tuesday morning and set to deliver Thursday. Getting giddy with anticipation Thursday seems to take forever to get there. Finally Thursday arrives and I rush home to see if my order has arrived. Not really expecting it to be there knowing full well that 99% of all deliveries to my house show up after 5 pm. So I decide to watch a movie while I wait. The movie gets over and there was never a knock at my door. Damn. Oh well, it was too good to be true to get them that fast anyway, they will come tomorrow like I was expecting them to in the first place.
I go to work thinking I'm going to get my nifty keyboards. I leave work and have a few errands to run before I can get home to see if they've come yet. After all that is done I get home and they still haven't arrived so I sit and wait and watch the clock. When 5 rolls around I decide to call the 800 number to see what's going on with my order. As always anytime I place a call to an 800 number I always get the Indian who I can't understand a damn word they say, they talk way too much and never get to the point. So during this call I get told that they should have been delivered all ready and they will send my order to the "Research Team" to find out what's going on. Since its late Friday I will get a call Monday morning before 11 am. "Fine" I said and hung up the phone. Monday rolls around and I get a call before 8 am. If I didn't work at the ass crack of dawn I would have been pissed that they called this early, but at least they called like they said they would. So, I explained my situation to the lady of the phone who is very understanding and tells me that the keyboards are on back order and they can cancel my order or re-submit the order and get them sent out after they arrive. I say keep them order and I will wait. I ask her "why does it show as shipped if the item was placed on back order?" I don't receive a straight answer just some garbage about we apologize for the inconvenience blah blah blah. I check my order status shortly after I get off the phone only to find that the sale price had been negated and was being charged full price of $59.95. I called back again and got the response we'll send this to our research tem and they'll call you back. I agree to this and within minutes I get another call and of course they try to deny that fact that I ordered at a sale price until I provide my original order number. She finally agrees and fixes the price.
At this point the frustration level is starting to rise but I am still anticipating the arrival. A few days go by and I check every day to see if my order status has changed knowing that I am just torturing myself. Finally late Tuesday the 19th I check my order and it says shipped once again and a delivery date of Thursday. I go through the same process of waiting at my house for the order to arrive which I'm sure you've guess by now didn't arrive. So I called this morning to see what was going on knowing full well I was going to fed more lines of shit. Again I get the Indian I can't understand and in the midst of their ramblings I find out that the item has now been discontinued. "How can the item be discontinued if you already sold it to me, approved the charge of my credit card and said it was shipped twice?" I ask. The response I get is "I'm sorry but that's what the system is saying." At this point my rage is at full capacity and I demand to speak to a supervisor. This action did nothing for me but cause my hatred to boil to a point it hadn't reached in a very long time. They even had the nerve to tell me when can find you a similar item, give you a discount and send that out for you. Now honestly, do you think I'd accept a substitute for my precious? I tell the supervisor the only think I want is for my order to be delivered like it was promised twice. I again get I'm sorry but we don't have any to ship out and we aren't getting anymore and she again offers to find me a substitute. This time I make it clear, the only thing I want is what I ordered if you can't deliver that then I want my order to be cancelled and I will never do business with you again. She then goes on to say "I'm sorry to hear that we might (MIGHT?) lose you as a customer but we can give you a discount and I'm sorry for the inconvenience." So needless to say I canceled my order and slammed the phone down.
By this time I am so furious I immediately dial a local store and ask for the corporate headquarters number, which they gave to me without any delay. I phoned the corporate office and got transferred to the corporate customer care division and for once I finally get someone I can understand on the phone and explained my situation again. This time the tone of the call was very different, she was helpful, she understood that I was furious and was doing anything and everything to help me rather than giving me canned responses read off a monitor. So now, my order is being shipped from Minnesota via UPS and should arrive the middle of next week. While on the phone I ask "why wasn't I ever notified about these changes to my order when they happened rather than them just showing as shipped?" "We don't have anyone staffed that can place calls to our customers if things like this happen" I'm told. What kind of company doesn't notify its customers if they can't deliver on their promise to deliver my order in a timely fashion? Even an email would have been sufficient. I make sure she logs all my complaints about their incompetent order entry system so hopefully the next poor sap that orders from them won't have to go through all this. I doubt that will happen but I did my part. With the exception of the item being discontinued and them not willing to fulfill and order that was already place without a call to corporate I would not have been nearly as pissed if they would have just given me status updates when I place my order. When I place the original order it should have said "item is on backorder". But it didn't, and led me to believe that everything was fine with my order. When I called to find out that it was backordered had they said it is discontinued and we won't be able to ship it to you, I would have been upset but I would have lived. Instead they show it as shipped and never a word from them.
The moral to all of this is: It's not how you bitch but who you bitch to that will get things done.
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