Take a look that the article I have at the bottom of this post. The retailer involved is U.K owned PCWorld. They also own Dixon’s and Curry’s as well.

But the post below shows just how stupid they are and uninformed. For those who don’t know me, and you should because I rawk, I worked for these guys for a very very short time while I was in between contracts and needed the money. I lasted all of three weeks in that circle of hell.

When I started , they had me doing some sales and also spending time in the PC Clinic. On my first day I asked if they wanted copies of my certifications. I have my MCSE, CNE, A+ and CCIE. A lot of alphabets but they are important in the computer world.

The A+ is important for a job like PCWorld because that means I went to school to learn how to fix computers, understand the technologies involved and wrote the exams to go with it. But back to the story. Mine and Tikka’s.

Turns out that no one who fixes computers at PCWorld ,at least in Cork are certified to fix the stuff they sell. They are hacks. NOT HACKERS but hacks. I was bemused but didn’t really give it much energy because I knew that after my first day that the clock was counting down.
I actually did like helping the people who came to the store. I have over 10 years experience in the I.T trade and have made some expensive blunders myself so I knew I could help people avoid them.

By the way, the manager of the PC Clinic where I was working (Cork) came up from the warehouse and has a background in marketing and presentation as she told me over a cup of coffee. The lads trying to fix computers have little or no experience, and have not had to deal with some of the strangeness like I have and they sure as hell don’t have the guidance from someone to help them learn or the task managment needed to take care of the huge amount of work they have. They are nice enough lads, really are. They give it a mighty try but if this was a car, I wouldn’t let them near my brake pads. But the manager was more worried about making it a profit centre first, not about taking care of the customer.

Where this all relates is that Tikka (who the article at the bottom is all about) has a warranty that PCWorld won’t honour. You get a 12 month manufacturers warranty and then they will strong arm you into buying a extended 3 year warranty that PCWorld pockets. I can feel their hands rubbing together just writing about it. For a laptop the extended cover is about 350 Euro’s that they will grudgingly not want to give up. Tikka is getting the run around because PCWorld doesn’t know how to fix what they sell. PERIOD.

PCWorld answer me this . . .What does an Operating System have to do with a broken hinge on the case??? Was the Linux kernel to heavy for it?

I can see where Tikka wouldn’t get any software support as it is not a standard install and something that PCWorld doesn’t sell. But this is hardware. It has nothing to do with the broken case. Just bad manufacturing.

The lesson you can take from this, and from someone who was once the enemy don’t buy from them because they can’t support you. When you buy a new car, you have the reasonable expectation that they will fix it when it breaks down even if you put a higher or lower grade of gas into the tank.

What pushed me over the edge with PCWorld was when I was working with a customer helping thme buy a computer that was within their budget. They had a set budget and a baby on the way, so they could only spend so much. I worked the deal as best I could so they got exactly what they needed and would be set for a long time.

I needed some help to get it into the system and when my co-worker noticed that there wasn’t an extended warranty added to it, I told him I already talked to the customer and they didn’t want it. They actually couldn’t afford it. But I did tell the customer (on the side) that they had eleven months before the manufacturers warranty runs out to buy the extended cover plan if their finances allowed. Said co-worker started calling him a fool and was stupid to not buy it. I was floored.

Those were the words used. Stupid and fool.

After everything was wrapped up, I went to the manager and related what happened. He just looked at me and said, “If it works, good enough”. I couldn’t beleive it. On that very spot I wrote my resignation on a pad of paper, handed in my locker key and security fob and walked out the door. I went searching for Bertie to get him to buy me a pint. But once again he is ignoring my text messages.

My principles are in place and I have my Geek-Credit back. I don’t like not working and I hate the fact we have no money now. But I am not going to resort to the tactics that PCWorld likes to perpetrate.

DON’T buy from them. But if you do arm yourself with a copy of this posting or a copy of the article below and tell them “Feck off just give me the computer and go away!”

Tell them Dennis sent you.
/rant

Slashdot Retailer Refuses Hardware Repair Due To Linux

Retailer Refuses Hardware Repair Due To Linux

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday September 11, @10:04PM
from the bad-hinge-driver dept. Tikka writes “Today I visited PC World (London, UK) because my 5-month-old laptop has developed a manufacturing fault: the hinge to the display has started to crack the plastic casing. Anyone in the know will know that this is due to the joint inside, and it means that in time the screen will separate from the keyboard. Repair was refused, because I have Gentoo Linux on my laptop, replacing the Windows Vista that was pre-installed. PC World said that installing Linux had voided my warranty and there is nothing they will do for me. I spoke to a manager, who said that he has been told to refuse any repairs if the operating system has been changed. I feel this has really gone against my statut

But fear not! Rugby World Cup is upon us and I will be watching with great interest. Canuckastan plays Wales first. We don’t have a hope in hell. Those boys are tough. We might be fielding a team full of large lads, but Wales is tough. Being the sons of coal miners might be behind this.

I will be meeting Bertie at the pub to watch this slaughtering at 1PM. I figure I should get a pint out of him, but my money is on he will “neglect” to bring his wallet and I will be on the hook for the rounds. I will keep you updated.

In the mean time, have a giggle watching this.

The Chief Pharmacist from the Department of Health and Welfare Canada for the Province of Alberta told me that would be what happens when you take any of those pills.

Always a trade off. I guess I will have to stay bald, beautiful and horny.
But really, who paid for this study? I could have told them right off.

Men want hot women, study confirms – CNN.com
WASHINGTON (AP) — Science is confirming what most women know: When given the choice for a mate, men go for good looks. In the dating game, men know what they want.
And guys won’t be surprised to learn that women are much choosier about partners than they are.

“Just because people say they’re looking for a particular set of characteristics in a mate, someone like themselves, doesn’t mean that is what they’ll end up choosing,” Peter M. Todd, of the cognitive science program at Indiana University, Bloomington, said in a telephone interview.
Researchers led by Todd report that in Tuesday’s edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that their study found humans were similar to most other mammals, “following Darwin’s principle of choosy females and competitive males, even if humans say something different.”

And the Fat Lady Sings! About time. The guy may have been talented and a voice that made the angels weep. But the devil is getting his now. The guy was a piece of crap.

But the big question is . . . what is Dom Deluise going to do??

Sorry Mom.

Italian opera star Luciano Pavarotti, known as the King of High Cs in his heyday, died on Thursday at the age of 71.

Pavarotti was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last year and had surgery in July 2006 at a New York hospital to remove a pancreatic tumour. He cancelled all remaining concerts for his Worldwide Farewell Tour and since then had not made any public appearances.

The tenor underwent another two weeks of treatment last month, and was released from hospital in his hometown of Modena, Italy on Aug. 25. He was being attended to at home by cancer specialists up until his death at 5 a.m. local time.

“The Maestro fought a long, tough battle against the pancreatic cancer which eventually took his life,” his manager Terri Robson told The Associated Press in a statement. “In fitting with the approach that characterised his life and work, he remained positive until finally succumbing to the last stages of his illness.”

Pavarotti’s death comes the day after he received a new government award for his work in promoting Italian culture in Italy and abroad.

770 CHQR – CHQRAM

CALGARY/AM770CHQR – RCMP and Alberta sheriffs teamed up to patrol the province’s highways this long weekend, and they found a number of people breaking the law.
They caught 457 speeders.
67 violations were handed out for equipment problems and other provincial offences.
5 people were arrested on outstanding warrants, and several people were charged for having open alcohol in a vehicle.

Wow, Hey Ireland beat this! You would think that the cops in Alberta are trying to fill up their quotas with those kind of numbers. The Police Service reluctantly admitted a couple of years ago that Police Officers in Alberta have to fill out a certain amount of traffic tickets each month, but those numbers should carry them well into the next year!!

I do have to admit that the Guards here in Ireland do have their priorities right, they don’t target speeding as much because it is way to easy. With all these narrow roads you can see and hear them coming from a mile away.

For my Canadian friends, the Guards priority is looking for Drunk Drivers. Some people and the numbers seem to be dwindling, in Ireland haven’t received the message about drinking and driving, and with these narrow roads it is very very easy to kill others. And the sad thing is it is usually the drunk driver that lives.

Ireland and for the majority of the drivers here, they don’t do it or even attempt it. They reserve that for mooning foreign dignitaries.

Ok, I am kidding there but seriously now like, When I am in the pub you would not believe how many people go home early to get the car home and then get back to the business at hand. get drunk.

And it doesn’t stop there. Peer Pressure kicks in to. I have one friend who won’t even talk to a old mate of his because they had driven home drunk and is mad about it. A little overboard, but I have to admire the principle.

Another observation I have noted is that the after work crowd seems less in the pub. You know, the friday end of the week and lets all meet at the pub for a couple of pints. Well that crowd is a lot lower now. Seems, they would rather get their cars home first, have a bit of supper, call a taxi and THEN go out.

Wow, an Irish Stereotype is being smashed. Good on yah Ireland!

In Canada, the opposite. We just give it lip service. “So what if I drive home after five or six pints. I am only hurting myself”. That is the attitude. Not thinking of others and not thinking that if they were to get hurt and God forbid kill someone, they are not aware that their families and friends are going to pay a price.

I wish the cops in Alberta would set that kind of priority. The only time you see it a priority is during Christmas. Lots of Public Service Announcements and lots of newspaper articles about Drunk Driving. Well, I am sorry but during Christmas the message is getting lost on me because I am inundated with adverts to buy stuff. Not about the ills of Drunk Driving.

I have tackled my drunk driving by using a dog sled and having Winston pull it. Cheaper then a taxi and he knows the way home so I don’t need to give directions.

This is soooo cool. Canada hasn’t given a thumping to the Americans since Trudeau told the Americans to feck off back in the 1960′s. I mean really! Makes me proud like.

The Prime Minister of Canuckastan seems to want to make sure that the Americans stay out of something they have no business being in and is doing a good job of it. Even George “Sparky” Bush doesn’t want to talk about it. But that is only because all he can about think of is the Oil.

For my Irish readers, you probably don’t care at all and I don’t blame you. But for me it is like having Romanian Gypsies moving in next door.

When I get home, I am going to help out by patrolling the North with my trusty dog Winston pulling my sled, armed with stale Timbits and frozen yellow snowballs. So hurry up and donate to the cause to kick me out. The faster I leave, the faster I can take over an American Submarine!!

Canada flexes its muscles in dispute over Arctic wastes – Telegraph

Canadian warships were sailing towards the Arctic yesterday in the latest act of gunboat diplomacy over control of the frozen wastes there.

Ottawa has launched a series of Arctic sovereignty patrols to assert its territorial claims and fend off rivals, Denmark, Norway, Russia and the United States.

Other then a birthday party gone wrong last night it has been uneventful week. The birthday boy booked the South County Bar, reserved a section of tables ordered food was to drunk to enjoy himself. He went home at nine-ish and stumbled out. I had just arrived at 730.

From the last reports that I got, he started in typical fine fashion by drinking at the start of opening hours in some pub in Cork City Centre.

I did get a chance to take some photo’s for the weekly newspaper that I submit articles to and the occasional photos. Once I get them cleaned up I will post a couple as they were kind of fun to do.

So today, all I have to offer is a little video. Nothing fancy except just to watch. Winston doing what he does best . . . sleep! Because that is the kind of day it is today. Gloomy, dreary and not all that nice. So pour yourself a nice cup of coffee or tea and relax. Google is paying for the bandwidth on this one. I am also screwing around with googles new tools to do video as well. If it works and isn’t painful I will do more.

Martin, a friend of mine from South Africa and myself are going over to the hospital later today. We want to find the ward where they keep EMO kiddies (click the link to find out what an “emo” is) and pick on them. That should take the edge off of this funk.

“When Irish eyes are smiling, watch your step”-Gerald Kersh

I figured I should get a quick post in while I have Bertie The Grand Poobah of The Republic of Ireland walking my dog. I told him it was good therapy and that he should do it more often. “Steve Harper, Prime Minister of Canuckastan walks his two pet polar bears bubbles and fluffy every day and look at him, all nice and relaxed!” A perfect time to reflect I told him like.

The reason I am not walking Winston The Maniac of West Cork, is because I am suffering from “walkers rage“. This is an affliction that I just don’t know how much longer I can control. Especially when I see red, blue or yellow colours in a nylon jacket form.

The people who cause this come from a group called Concern primarily but there are a slew of other groups out there. I don’t really know anything about them and I try not to let them get close to me. When I see those smiling faces armed with a clipboard and holding their hand out to me to shake it, all I want to do is rip that arm off and club them like a baby seal with it.

Now usually I can get around them. I thrust the headset pods into my ears and crank up the music on my IPod and ignore them. But now it is getting worse, and my defence shields are getting week.

Has anyone noticed that you cannot go more them 15 metres WITHOUT being approached by these happy, smiling, gonna save the world hippy dippy people? They have taken to swarming and mobbing you. You can’t get away from them unless you execute a perfect zig zag pattern that any Navy Seal would be in awe of when evading enemy fire.

Maybe send them to my Travelers Sanctuary that I am building? They are a form of traveler in my estimation. I couldn’t help but notice that none of them are from Ireland. Does the Church of Scientology know about this competition they are having? They seem so brainwashed and way to happy for my liking.

Well, Bertie should be back soon and he still owes me a pint. I think I will chat with him about this. I think I have the ultimate plan, and good for tourism. I will get Bertie to announce National Whacking day, like we have in Canada. But instead of baby seals, we can use Concerns brainwashed zombies. And instead of axe handles, you use hurly’s.

Think of it as crowd control like.

RTÉ News: ‘Mooning’ student gets suspended sentence

‘Mooning’ student gets suspended sentence

Wednesday, 29 August 2007 19:41

A Donegal student who dropped his trousers in front of a governor’s home in Senegal has been given a four-month suspended sentence.

At a hearing today, Patrick Devine from Dunfanaghy, in Donegal, also received a fine of €230. A lawyer for Mr Devine, Moustapha Diop, said his client regretted the unfortunate incident.

The 19-year-old spent more than three weeks in prison in St Louis in Senegal before being released on bail last week. He returned to Dunfanaghy at the begining of this week.

An EU consular official was in court in the west African state today for the trial and Irish officials monitored the situation from the embassy in Nigeria.

Mr Devine’s family have issued a statement this afternoon asking for privacy. The family said that the decision by the court brings final closure to Mr Devine’s ordeal in Sengal.

They said that Patrick needs a period of time to recuperate.

Patrick needs to recuperate? I think Patrick needs some time on a farm being worked till he drops or maybe keep him there because he is to dumb to be out in the world on his own.

Way to go Patrick! You just keep the stereotype of the dumb ass paddy out in the world and away from his mammy for the first time going. Now to be fair, he may not have been drunk.

Think you need to go back to school Patrick because obviously you didn’t learn one damn thing.

But has anyone taught him anything about respect?

I have never been one to want to put a Canadian Flag on my backpack because, well I don’t own one. But if I did, I wouldn’t.

That is because I don’t need it. When I travel, I have and show respect for the country I am visiting and respect for their sensibilities. So I don’t have problems and I don’t have to worry and most people brought up well don’t have issues either.

As I had mentioned above, that dumb ass just reinforces the stereotype of the Irish male away from his mammy. Drunk, dumb and totally unaware. The only reason they don’t show up in the Darwin Awards is that there are to many of them to print.

/rant

First it was the Russians sending a submarine to put a Russian flag UNDER the north pole now it is the Americans who are laying claim to the Northwest Passage area.

Can someone PLEASE explain to me why the Americans even care about this and don’t tell me it is about oil, because that is way to obvious.

Does Santa have Weapons Of Mass Destruction?

Lets get some of the history out of the way thanks;

The Canadian government claims are that some of the waters of the Northwest Passage, particularly those in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, are internal to Canada, giving Canada the right to bar transit through these waters.

Most maritime nations including the United States and the nations of the European Union, consider them to be an international strait, where foreign vessels have the right of “transit passage”.

The Canadian government issued a declaration in 1986 reaffirming Canadian rights to the waters. However, the United States refused to recognize the Canadian claim.

In 1988 the governments of Canada and the US signed an agreement, “Arctic Cooperation”, that did not solve the sovereignty issues but stated that US icebreakers would require permission from the Government of Canada to pass through.

In 2005, it was alleged that U.S. nuclear submarines had traveled unannounced through Canadian Arctic waters. In his first news conference after the federal election, Prime Minister Stephen Harper contested an earlier statement made by the American ambassador that Arctic waters were international, stating the Canadian government’s intention to enforce its sovereignty there.

These allegations arose after the U.S. Navy released photographs of the USS Charlotte surfaced at the North Pole.

On April 9, 2006, Canada’s Joint Task Force North declared that the Canadian military will no longer refer to the region as the Northwest Passage, but as the Canadian Internal Waters. The declaration came after the successful completion of Operation Nunalivut (Inuktitut for “the land is ours”), which was an expedition into the region by five military patrols.

The only people I can figure who can take issue are the people from Greenland. As neighbours to the north of us, they are pretty cool. We have our own issues with each other, but at least we are not throwing snowballs at each other.

But look at the map (click on it to make it bigger). Where the heck does America get the idea that they have the rights to the Northwest Passage?

Look out Santa, I think they want to divert the attention from Iraq and take on someone they figure they can beat. Better stock up on those frozen snowballs. Your going to need them.

I am going to gather up all my friends and get a bucket full of stale Tim Bits. If that submarine shows up again, we are going to pelt them with the Tim Bits. That will show we mean business!

Bush and Harper agree to disagree on Northwest Passage

Norma Greenaway, CanWest News Service

Bush and Harper agree to disagree on Northwest Passage

MONTEBELLO, Que. — The United States accepts Canada’s sovereignty over the Arctic Islands but not over the Northwest Passage waterway, President George W. Bush says.

Speaking at a closing news conference at a summit of the three North American leaders here Tuesday, Bush made clear he was not persuaded so far by Canada’s claims of sovereignty over the Northwest Passage, even though the claim won a nod of approval earlier this week from a former U.S. ambassador to Canada who was appointed by Bush