Truely Annoying

Do you have anything that is truly annoying to you?

I think that maybe I have too many things that annoy me!  Of course, if I didn’t then maybe I would not be me.  I would instead be a mindless follower.

At the moment, there is someone 30ft away from me typing on a keyboard.  It is one of those modern keyboards that make almost no noise when used properly.  You may as yourself, “How does he know that this person is typing on this nearly silent keyboard?”.  And the answer, because this person is a 2 finger, hunt and pecker that is bashing the shit out of that keyboard.

I must say that it is truly annoying!

Anyone else who needs to let off a little steam, feel free to send a comment!

WTF?

I mainly use this place as a place to bitch.  And I can tell you that I have not been bitching enough lately.  So I resolve to bitch more.

I have decided to try and write a book.  If I can’t get someone to publish the book, I will just do one of those self publishing things.  At least I will be able to say that I once published a book.  While I am pretty sure that no one will want to read the thing, I think that it does have a little potential.  If nothing else, what I plan the book to be about will make a good guide for just about anyone in the customer service industry.

Well, off I go!

In Mexico

For the last 2 weeks, I was in Mexico.  I brought my computer, but when I got there I didn’t use it one time.  It was actually nice to take a break from the constant using of electronic devices.  I didn’t even use my phone.  Better yet, my wife, the phone addict, didn’t use her phone!

I thought before leaving that I was not going to be able to handle not using the computer, but I adjusted quite well.  I recommend that all you computer junkies out there give it a try sometime.  Of course, I am now back home and using my electronics again, but the break was very nice.

Stupid Question of the Day – 05 Feb. 2009

“Do you have one of those new BlueLine Players”?

Hmmmmmmmm.

Read the Manual

I have probably bitched about this before, but I am going to bitch again.  Mainly because we have had countless customers in the store who have had this problem.  The problem, as you can figure out from the title, is “not READING the f-ing manual”.

One customer asked if we had a radio scanner over one month ago.  We had one, so she asked us to hold it for her to come and pick it up.  She comes to the store and decides that she wanted the thing programmed.  Ok, she never asked for that, but we can do that.  She said that she would run a couple errands and come back.  We program the scanner.  She never shows up to get it.  Two weeks later she calls again asking about the scanner.  It is here we tell her and she asks surprised.  She also stated that no one called to tell it was done. (You can probably tell what we are dealing with here!) She finally comes in the store and purchases the scanner.  Two days later she calls to say that she can’t make it work.  Holy shit!  We finally tell her that she can return the scanner or keep it!  See, this is the 5th time that we have dealt with this woman and radio scanners.  Everytime we have ended up with the woman claiming the it is broken or doesn’t work right.  It all boils down to NOT READING THE MANUAL!

Televisions are the absolute worst.  We get calls on the phone and people comping to the store all the time that have no idea how their TV’s work.  Why?  They don’t read the manual.  They call bitching because, through no fault of their own, their TV will not display what they want it to.  Either the cable, satellite, DVD, Blu-Ray, etc, etc.  They have not looked in the manual to figure out how to make the TV work.  For some reason they think that it will be easier to call some random guy at an electronics store than to take a little spare time and review the features and functions of their new, expensive TV’s.  They are just completely baffled by the things.

Downadup / Conficker

There have recently been a spate of articles about the Downadup / Conficker Worm in the tech media and regular media.  Upon first hearing about the worm, I was impressed with its abilities.  There was a patch to prevent the worm put out by Microsoft, so I thought that it would be interesting to see how it propagated.  If a system was updated and patched, there shouldn’t be a problem.  Any security expert worth their salt will tell everyone to keep Windows systems updated and patched.  Many even recommend that a novice allow the Automatic Updates download and install the monthly updates automatically, without user intervention.

The security researchers at F-Secure have stated that this worm has the potential to infect up to 1/3 of Windows PCs.  This is due to the systems having not been updated, even though the patch was available in October.  That is a lot of computers.

Now for a personal perspective.  4 out of 4 of the systems that have been brought in my store in the last week, have been infected with this little beauty.  It becomes pretty obvious when the AV / Malware products that the customer is using will not update.  Of course, none of the system had been updated for quite some time.  One I believe had not been updated since purchase.  So I guess the message has not gone mainstream.  Only the “geeks” update their systems.

The question is, “How do we get the ‘average joe and jane’ to keep their Internet connected Windows PCs updated?”.

WTF People?

This woman brings her grandkid into the store on an irregular basis.  In other words, every once in a while.  The kid is a complete little asshole.  I mean it!  He may be young, but his manners, even for his age, are complete shit.

The only reason they every come to the store together is to rent movies and occasionally a video game of some kind.  Today the kid came in and began a campaign of destruction in the video section of the store.  The grandmother did nothing.  An employee asked if he could not move all the video cases around the store.  OK!

The kid finally picks out a couple of movies.  The total is $4.70.  He then proceeds to pull out a change bag and dumps it on the counter.  WTF?  That is mean.  The clerk holds him temper and calmly counts the change, which happens to be all nickels, and the total is $2.95.  The kid starts to argue that he thought he had $3.00.  FINE!  In either case, the kid doesn’t have enough money for the movies.  So now he turns on the charm.  He wants grandma to fork over the money for the movie.  Of course she does.  This despite the fact that the entire time he was here, he was a disrespectful little …..

I want to know WHY people don’t start taking responsibility for their kids?

The Idiocy of Wi-Fi Continues

23 January 2009

After listening to TWIT, Security Now and several other podcasts that are relevant to the tech industry, I have heard that more and more people and businesses are using WEP and WPA on their wireless networks.  While WEP is certainly NOT the best solution, it is something.  WPA is widely considered the minimum protection by many, if not most, of people who care about the use of wi-fi networks.  I certainly encourage my customers to use it when they purchase a wireless network setup.

Now for the “IDIOCY”!

A phone call came into the store shortly before we opened today.  The person on the phone states to me that he works for a local business and gets his wireless from a different local business.  He is having trouble connecting, because the router is over 40 feet away and goes through several walls.  Well that can be a problem.  He wants an antenna that will “improve” his connection.

The first thing I ask is if he actually has permission to use this connection.  He states that he in fact does have permission.  OK.  I tell him that we do carry some antennas that “could” help, with emphasis on the “COULD”.  We discuss the type of wi-fi adapter that he has to determine if one of the antennas we have will actually work for him.  He tells me that he has a desktop PC with a wi-fi adapter in the back.  I as if it is USB, and he tells me that it is not USB.  Well, it sounds like we can help.

When the guy shows up in the store, he has a different story about the wi-fi adapter.  He actually looked at it and turns out it is a USB adapter.  Since he is not giving me the “tech toy hacker” vibe, I don’t even suggest soldering on an antenna to the USB device.  He says that it might help if he was to get past one of the walls and wants to know if we have an extension cord for USB.  We can do that, so he purchases one.

During to course of our conversation, I was able to get more info on his “wireless setup”.  He business and “several” other businesses all use the high speed DSL connection that it paid for by one of the local businesses.  This is probably against the “terms of service”.  He did tell me he has to put in a “security code” to connect to the wireless.

Now for the scary part.  The business that they are all using for their wireless connection is an insurance company.  I know quite a bit about the network used in the insurance company, because I know who installed the network equipment.  He was told that the owner of the business wanted a wired/wireless network for “in office” use only.  There would be 2 wired users and 1 wireless user.  Only the office staff would have access to the network.  It was setup with a WPA key for the wireless user to prevent anyone from using the network that was not part of the office.  Windows file sharing is in use on this network and none of the shares have passwords as per the owners requirements.  This means that anyone connecting to the wireless network has access to the shares on the original network setup for the insurance company.  I repeat, anyone connecting to this network can now SEE the files that have been shared by the insurance company.

25 January 2009

I wrote the original post above two days ago.  I was amazed and a little upset at the time and thought that the person who came in the store may have had incorrect information or somehow figured out that WPA key from the insurance agent and was using the wireless network without permission.  I was, however, wrong in this assumption and the original information was correct.  The insurance agent is giving out the WPA key to his wireless network so that the other businesses around him can share the connection.  He pays for a business class internet connection from a local ISP, then splits it out with the neighbors.  He is using consumer grade equipment, a Linksys WRT54G, to create this wireless connection.  The Windows shares are still unsecured as the insurance agent is unaware of how to change it and seems unwilling to do so.  This is unfortunate as the shared data is there for to taking by anyone who is able to connect to this network.  I have to hope that the people who have access to this data are honest people.

The moral of my story is this, if you are going to go to the trouble to secure your wireless, please don’t just give the key out to whomever.  If you are going to be benevolent and share an internet connection that is connected to a network, by all means, protect sensitive data.  The sharing of your network should not give everyone the keys to the kingdom.

Stupid Answer of the Day (24 January 2009)

Ok, here is a NEW Topic!

The Studip Answer of the Day

He is the question.  “What is your last name?”

Answer. “Imnew.”

You may have noted that the answer given is actually, “I’m New”.  But, this caused some cnfusion with the clerk working, because the customer obviously didn’t answer the question properly and didn’t clarify.

Please, the correct answer is (INSERT LAST NAME), not a statement about your status as a dvd renter.

Stupid Question of the Day – 24 January 2009

What is the differance between the 3ft. AV cable and the 6ft. AV cable?