Archive for November, 2009

Google Chrome OS

Well normally when I talk about a open source program/os I do it lovingly and proudly. With Google’s Chrome OS I don’t feel the same way. I find it interesting that we are giving ALL our digital information to Google without a second thought. Google has a product for everything:

Product Google’s solution
e-mail Gmail
Music Lala
Word editor Google docks
Navigation Google maps
411 Google 411
Online commerce Google Checkout
Health information Google Health
Internet browser Google Chrome
Books/stories Google Books
News Google News
Videos YouTube
Blogs Blogger
Forums Google groups
Pictures Picasa
Web sites Google sites
3d modeling Google Sketch up
Instant messaging Gtalk
Foreign Languages Google Translate
Wikipedia Knol
Friend finder Orkut
Operation System Google Chrome OS
Games Ok you got me there

Google is building a super monopoly of really good free products. This is very bad! Soon small programs like me will not be able to make products to compete with Google’s monopoly. Can you honestly find something you do on a computer that Google cant do? But enough rambling about the big G lets talk about Chrome OS!

I personally (wait for it) dislike (wait for it) cloud computing.(NO HE DIDN’T!) I dislike the idea of ALWAYS being online. Google is trying to move the market in that direction because that’s what all their products do, compute in the cloud.

I found Chrome OS to be dumb as it is JUST a web browser. I was hoping for some revolutionary interface or some revolutionary features but was disappointed. Lets start by saying it was slow for me in a VM but that is probably normal. I also found it to be unintuitive and confusing. At one point I wanted to see if I could change a setting and couldn’t figure out how or where to go to change it. How do you shut it down? It also rendered this website horribly. I HATE IT! (It does download file though….) I HATE IT SO SO MUCH!

If you are thinking about trying it about trying it, just fire up Google chrome on pc. It’s the same thing except you can do other stuff too. Google doesn’t realize consumers might spend 99% of their computer time online but that other 1% is so frustrating on Google chrome os it makes it unusable. It crashed more that Vista did. It is open source though so good job there.

Ubuntu netbook edition is a WAY better choice if you want to get a free netbook OS.

Google chrome os is just stupid.

I give it a thumbs down.

EDIT:

Apple bought Lala before google had time to close the deal.

So you can ignore that part of Google’s digital monopoly

Bank of America

Get ready for the mother of all rants. A rant so big if you work at Bank of America(BofA) you will drop DEAD!

I am a student who works a full time job as an IT Technician for a local business. I am not one of the snobby rich kinds who was given what ever I wanted whenever I wanted. I work hard from my early years to buy everything I own. I was in the process of switching my accounts over to BofA when I received a massive amount of fees due to an employees negligence. I never recovered the money and it is really hard for me to louse that much money. I explored all the options. I talked with: clerks, managers, customer support agents and regional managers and non of them where whiling to help me. The funny part about this whole ordeal is it wasn’t my fault!

WHAT THE H$LL BofA! WHY?! WHY do you feel the need to screw over a student who is going to community college?! Why do you have to be so selfish?! You just received BILLIONSSSSSS of dollars of tax payers money! THAT WASN’T ENOUGH? One of YOUR employees makes a mistake causing me days of grief and anxiety and somehow it is MY fault!

Ok so you might now be saying ” Jake, you where just a unlucky person Bank of America is not normally like that.” WRONGGG!!

I actually forgave Bank of America and recommended a family member to join.(So I could get $50 dollars which by the way I have not yet received!) While my family member was opening the account the clerk gave me a catalog of cool card designs that I could pick from for FREE! I thought “cool” and asked her “I will only pick out a different design if the card numbers stay the same.” She inter reassured me that they would not change. So I picked out a cool design and left happy….. But not for LONG!

I received the card which by some weird reason was already activated. When I looked it over I saw that the card security number changed and the expiration date was different also. I immediately called BofA and asked them if I could keep my old card. They told me “NOPE!” and also told me that all card transactions for the old number would be denied! WHAT?! THEY SCREWED ME AGAIN! My phone, iTunes, Amazon, and direct two drive all had denied transactions. Again, this wasn’t my FAULT! Why are your employees so !@#$%^& STUPID? The person I recommended heard me ask the lady if my card would change. However, when I went back they intern told me I “misunderstood” and I was the one at fault.

If you don’t get the moral of this story go take up cliff jumping, because ,the moral should be as clear as day. DON’T OPEN A BANK OF AMERICA ACCOUNT! EVEN If THEY GIVE YOU BOAT LOADS OF CASH. STAY AWAY FROM THEM AS IF THEY HAD SWINE FLUE!

Below is a copy of the letter I sent to Bank of America over two months ago. I have yet to receive a response.

Dear Bank of America,

Ever since I opened my accounts at bank of America I have been immensely pleased with the customer service, technological advanced ATMs, services and branch locations. Recently this beautiful cloud has turned into a thunderstorm over my head.

On August twenty eighth a coworker who was leaving my company and I went to the local diner “MORRETTES”. We had a decent meal paid and left. The total of said meal was $12.45.Now at this point if anyone is reading this you would ask why I am writing to the board of directors for something minor.

Said $12.45 charge over drafted my checking accounts even though I had over a hundred dollars in saving. When I open my account I requested my Checking and saving be linked to prevent such an event from happening. However a human error somewhere along the line prevented this from accruing.

So as we once again come back to my story, this transaction and another transaction pushed my account ten dollars in the red. I noticed this irregularity that evening. I dumped some of my savings into my checking bringing it to approximately $90. When I checked my balance the 29th I saw a very unpleasant sight, my account was again in the red and I had no money to bring it back up. Bank of America charged me two $35 fees. Combine that with a $20 purchase I made the previous day and you have a problem. So I called Bank of America to see if this could be fixed. After a long conversation with a representative I decided I would use my one time “stuff happens” and received half of the fee back and I would just “forget” about the other one.

So little did I know that some other transactions were going to come in that I had no control of. Four transactions came in from previous purchases wiping out that thirty fife dollars bringing my account balance one again into the red. I do not know why these transactions took so long to hit my account but who can know. So today 09/03/2009 bank of America charged me three $35 dollar charges. This is a total of 5 charges totaling $175. This is almost 3 days of work for me. As a student money is tight and I cannot afford to lose this much money. I will have paid 17 times the amount I over drafted.

Do you think this is fair?

[end letter]

New Theme

I redesigned the site with a new theme. I took off the ads which many of you found annoying and replace them with beautiful nothing-ness. Comment on this post if you have any feed back.

F()X out!

GOG

Thank you for reading this blog, apparently over a thousand of you innocent people get hit by ranting and raving each month. It appears that most of you don’t care what I think unless my hateful thought process is directed towards a product you are interested in buying. So I will start reviewing more products more frequently to please you and make you want to come back.

Always remember I cannot spell or write to save my life. The polished work you see here is spel checked and grammar is checked also.

I wanted to talk a little bit about GOG. GOG (Good old Games) is a site that sells old games for digital download.

Screen clipping taken: 11/8/2009, 6:20 PM

Some of the features GOG brags:

  • Cheap titles
  • Growing catalogue
  • And best of all……. THEIR DRM FREEEEEEE!!!

    Everyone knows how much I hate DRM. DRMs give me nightmares (clever GOG pun) and make me want to hit things. However, I have dozens of posts that say how much I hate DRM so I will save you from another DRM rant.

    I just recently found GOG in my desperate attempt to find some DRM free media outlets and I bought Psychonauts because it has been recommended by every gamer I have ever met.

    The download process was simple and easy VIA their Adobe air application. They truly impressed me with their simple site and support. I wish they sold new games on this platform. I originally wondered if the game would work on Windows 7. To put you mind at ease, it works flawlessly.

    Psychonauts is one of the best games I have ever played and I am really glad I obtained it through GOG. Go give GOG a shot. http://gog.com