Category: Rants

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Package is not delivered, blame it on UPS.

Beginning of rants.

Have you ever made an appointment with cable installations, or anything alike? Most likely you’ll be getting the usual “We’ll be there between 8:00am to 12:00pm” or even worse like “We’ll be there between 8:00am to 5:00pm.”

That is just plain annoying.

Well, I ordered Canon Vixia HV30 for a specifically for a 4th of July event from Amazon.com and had it on a one-day-shipping arrangement. Amazon shipped it immediately, and the package arrived at a local UPS distribution center early morning. According to the UPS tracking center, the package was out for delivery at 6:33am. I received an automated call from UPS that the package is being delivered and requires delivery confirmation in person. I had no problem with that, with the exception UPS did not have any delivery time specified. From my experience, UPS delivered packages in my area ranging from 2:00pm to 8:00pm. There was at least one person at the location until 5:00pm. Due to a little arrangement called “work”, I wouldn’t be able to get back to the location until after 6:00pm.

Due to severe traffics and other factors, I arrived at the location a little bit after 7:00pm. I found the UPS delivery aatempt notifications at the door. I immediately called UPS so that I could pick up my package at their distribution center. To my surprised, UPS wouldn’t let me pick up the package because I didn’t call them before 7:00pm. Since Friday is a holiday, and UPS wouldn’t do anything on the weekend, I wouldn’t be able to pick anyhting up until Monday June 7th.

Considering that I purchased the camcorder mainly for the special 4th of July event, it would be a “little” too late. What really bugs me is that UPS wouldn’t let me pick up the package tonight.

I had it, and I instructed UPS to send the package back to Amazon. I called Amazon and explained the situation. They understood the situation and would give full refund to my account.

I am really happy with Amazon, and I completely blame UPS.

end of rants…… maybe.

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iPhone 3G and The Subsidy Dilemma

The original iPhone brought an interesting and effective concept to the mobile phone industry. The iPhone activation process was regarded as on of the greatest things that Apple brought to the mobile industry. Customer can buy the iPhone and activate it at their own time through iTunes. No more wasting the precious time at the store waiting for the phone activations. There were some problems with the activation process for the first few days as record numbers of people trying to do the same thing at the same time. After all the hickups the iPhone set a new standard for the mobile phone industry, the activation process in particular.

Since its introductions in January 2007, the iPhone was criticized by the so-called-tech-journalists who didn’t even have access to the phone. They screamed and yelled about the lack of 3G network support and the pricing of the iPhone. Let’s take a look at the two factors.

  1. 3G Network Support.
    Having a faster wireless network on the iPhone is a definite advantage. Some said that the 3G network support requires more power consumptions thus shortening the battery life. The so-called-tech-journalists declared that the iPhone is severely behind the times for not having 3G network support. The irony of this argument is that the same “tech journalists” were saying that the 3G support in the iPhone is pretty much useless because of AT&T’s lack of 3G network in the United States. Honestly, why would these so-called-tech-journalists criticize the original iPhone for not having 3G network support? That’s a rhetorical question.
  2. iPhone Pricing.
    In the United States, the iPhone was originally priced at $499 and $599 for the 4GB and 8GB iPhone respectively. The so-called-tech-journalists screamed and yelled for the lack of subsidy on the iPhone. Fast forward a year later, AT&T is now subsidizing the iPhone 3G with a few caveats. Based on the available informations, iPhone 3G requires in-store-activations and a two-year-agreement. Whatever happened to the easy-to-do activation process through iTunes? It’s now gone because of the subsidy. The pay-as-you-go plan is currently not available for the iPhone 3G. AT&T wants to deter all the unlocking by forcing the in-store-activation. For sure they are losing money for subsidizing phones that are not bound to their service contracts.

What have we learned here? We can’t have the cake and eat it too.

Eight more days to go, and we’ll see if how Apple would handle the iPhone 3G sales in their own retail stores. Until then, we could only speculate.

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The Revolt Against Rogers Canada

short version which will be updated later with a longer version because this one is really bugging me.

Blah blah blah iPhone 3g blah blah Canada, blah blah blah Rogers.

Rogers reveals iPhone 3G plan for Canada. No unlimited wireless data plan.

The series of tubes explodes with anger. iPhone 3G + Rogers = Screw You Canadian.

blah blah blah, tell Steve Jobs about it blah blah blah.

——-

Compared to AT&T plan for the iPhone 3G in the United States, the Canadian seems to get the shor end of the stick.

The main question is, why the revolt now? What about the Blackberry data plan? It was even more horrible than the iPhone 3G data plan.

The iPhone 3G can stir things up better than the Blackberry. Where’s the revolt against the Blackberry data plan? Blackberry + Rogers = Screw You Canadian

All in all, the wireless data plans in Canada are horrible to begin with. That has nothing to do with the iPhone 3G. Is the iPhone 3G plan any better than before. It seems to be that way, but what do I knwo. I’m still trying to figure it out reading Rogers site.

In clonclusion, blah blah blah iPhone 3G blah blah blah Steve Jobs blah blah blah Apple blah blah blah Rogers screws customers regardless.

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Metallica turns the Internet into 13-year-olds.

Love ’em or hate ’em, the mere mentions of “Metallica” turns the series of tubes into two giant 13-year-olds.

Take a look at the comments from Digg and Reddit, Metallica is still hated by many for whatever the reason is. On the other side, some diehard Metallica fans would defend their idols to the death.

It is obvious that Metallica had made some unpopular move in the past. They did the wrong thing for the right reason. Wait a minute, they did the right thing for the wrong reasons. OK, that’s a bit confusing. The point is that Metallica became the enemy when they sued Napster and their own fans (who used Napster to download Metallica songs). The original Napster got shutdown, but the apparent victim of this event was none other than Metallica’s reputations.

Metallica has taken a lot of heat since the release of “Metallica” a.k.a. “The Black Album” in 1991. Sad but true, many Metallica’s haters were not even born in 1991. The ultra-diehard Metallica fans didn’t like the radio-friendly Metallica, they wanted another “Master of Puppets”. Even though “The Black Album” put Metallica and Metal into the mainstream. Metallica gained humongous amount of fans after the release of “The Black Album”, only to be harshly criticized during the Load/ReLoad era. The departure from Metallica’s classic sound brought the band into the court of public opinion whether or not they were being a sell-out. Despite all of the criticism, Metallica still managed to draw the crowds to fill up arena and stadiums only a few bands in the world could.

Fast forward to “St. Anger”. The trash-can-like snare drum sounds, repetitive riffs and lyrics, and the absence of guitar solos, Metallica managed to bust tons of eardrums. Many fans were turned off by “St. Anger” and many would give Metallica one last chance.

“Death Magnetic”, Metallica’s ninth studio album is slated for release in September 2008. Metallica held a special listening party previewing the work in progress in London to select journalists/bloggers (Kerrang, Metal Hammer, The Quietus). Along came another controversy. Apparently, somebody at QPrime demanded the preview/early reviews to be taken down without Metallica’s consent.

Once again, the series of tubes turned into giant 13-year-olds. Comments on sites like Digg and Reddit clearly shows that Metallica is still hated. CNET’s own Don Reisinger who seems to be wearing bright red lipstick, posted some psycho babble about the fiasco by quoting Ars Technica which was quoting a blog that quoted the original source.

After the official statement from Metallica, Ars Technica corrected their article and removed the picture of Cliff Burton which was inappropriately used. Seriously, what Ars Technica did was tasteless and factually wrong. Cliff Burton has nothing to do with whatever Ars Technica wanted to say.

Metallica, one of the greatest band in the history, will grace the music world with “Death Magnetic”. The early reviews have been positive, and many of us are hopeful. Comes September, Metallica will have to prove that they are indeed still the mighty one that brought “Kill ‘Em All” and “Master of Puppets”. Based on what I heard so far, it is indeed the Metallica I remembered. For those who hates Metallica, please put down the keyboard and stop reading anything Metallica-related.

I for one am looking forward to “Death Magnetic” and would call it as I hear it.

Head over to Metallica.com and MissionMetallica.com for more Metallica.

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Reviews of Movies I Have Not Seen.

On this posting, I will be reviewing movies that I have not seen. As a matter of fact, none of any members of the general public has seen the movie. I’ll review it based on the online preview.

It’s an easy thing to review those movies, just like what Paul Thurrott is doing with his brilliant preview of Apple’s revamped and rebranded .Mac service; MobileMe.

How in the world Paul Thurrott knows anything about MobileMe? Thurrott is the last person you want to hear from when it comes to anything non-Microsoft. As a matter of fact, it’s painful to listen to Thurrott, because he sounds like a Microsoft PR person; if he is not one already.

For the love of whatever God you believe in, please stop your web-hit seeking babbles. You have not used MobileMe service, and no one should read or listen to your misleading opinions. You parrots anything that Microsoft puts out and keeps telling people that you are impartial. Don’t you remember that you actually published your opinions in magazine and on the Internet.

What’s next? You’re going to preview and review Mac OS X Snow Leopard. Maybe you’d convince your readers that  Mac OS X Snow Leopard is a Windows 7 rip-off.

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Metallica: Damage Control, Inc.

UPDATE:
I’d rather read a phonebook rather than reading or listening to Don Reisinger. He doesn’t even do any fact checking to anything he writes. Don Reisinger, you are no better than Paul Thurrott or even Rob Enderle. Next time please think before you start typing just to get page hits.

The tubes were were somewhat filled with people wasting their hate towards Metallica since the story first broke. “Metallica hates the internet, told bloggers to take down reviews of their work in progress.” I completely para-phrased the sentence, but the message remains the same.

Ars Technica then picked up the story quoting a blog that quoted another blog, originally titled: “Metallica to Bloggers: Don’t Review Our Music!”

The “internet” went wild. Comments on social news site such as Digg and Reddit clearly shows that Metallica is still the public internet enemy number one. Even CNET’s Don Reisinger took the chance out of his busy day bashing Metallica. CNET? Wait, didn’t they get bought out by CBS for one and a half billion dollars? The same CNET that employs so called journalists that treated rumors as facts?

Reisinger, whose last name is just as confusing to pronounce like Kim Basinger’s, quoted Ars Technica’s article. That’s great. CNET’s Reisinger quoted Ars Technica’s article which was quoting a blog that quoted the original blog. WOW!

Meanwhile, Ars Technica updated their article including official statement from Metallica regarding the matter. It turns out that Metallica’s management company QPrime acted without the band’s consent.

Who knows what the real story is. It doesn’t make sense for Metallica, the most hated band on the internet to do such things. People should give them the benefit of the doubt instead of turning into a 13 year old and start declaring their hatred towards Metallica. Sad but true, a lot of people who commented on Digg and Reddit are about 13 years old.

Being a journalist means reporting the news objectively, do not include any personal feelings toward the story. By adding personal feelings, it becomes opinion. I’m pretty sure that Reisinger’s colleague Molly Wood was having a field day regarding this matter. Then again, she might have gone to journalism school, but she doesn’t act like one. I stopped listening to any CNET’s podcasts long ago when they are reporting rumors as news.

CNET, you’re still unforgiven.

As for Metallica, this record better be good because you are walking on thin ice. Lars Ulrich made enemies during the Napster fiasco. Metallica made ruins lots of ears with St. Anger sound. This new record is your third chance, Metallica. Do not make the world be in anger with you.