Everyone, at some point in their lives, has to ring up a support line for an issue they have. I have only ever once had a good experience with a support person, the other half a dozen times have been mediocre or horrible.

Yesterday I rang up Compaq support, you listen to the voice and it gives you options. That’s fine if you are ringing once, but if you ring multiple times, it gets a little irritating. Anyway, once you have been through that, they put you on hold and play the shittiest tunes ever. Who would listen to the crap they play, honestly? And what makes it worse is that you have to listen to it while you wait for a human to answer.

So back to the story, I rang them up. I gave my details. A told the support person my issue. All I want is a recovery disc so I can reinstall my operation system and an expresscard blank. The reason I don’t have either of these things are because when I sent my computer away for repair a couple of months ago, they never gave them back to me. This is thier problem and I should be entitled to them.

It shouldn’t be too much trouble to just get these two things sent to me, but no, they don’t send recovery cds, you have to use the recovery partition. After trying to explain my situation multiple times, she ended up telling me that my hard drive will have to be completely reimaged. Screw doing that, its much more convenient for me to pirate the operating system than having it sent away for a few days.

The second part was even more horrible because the person wouldn’t give me one unless I had the case number from the last support call. Like I kept that information! It would have been thrown out with all the rest of the random papers in the house. I had proof of the case on the job report, but the person wouldn’t listen. After about ten minutes, I found the first case number and also read out the job report. After being put for hold again for ten minutes or so, she said she can’t get the records and will ring me back.

Now that didn’t happen did it. I have no fucking idea what is going on, but at this point I am pissed off and want nothing to do with them. I’m just going to download it. Screw them! Then this morning, I get a phone call from the repair centre telling me they got a case sent through and wanted to know if they were getting any parts or what not. Now I might know what is going on if the support person rang back to tell me what was going on, but no, I am left in the dark.

Eventually I said that I will just buy a Vista Upgrade disc and install that so I don’t need the recovery stuff. I still have no idea on what is going on with the expresscard slot, that just so happens to be filling up with dust. I don’t think dust is good for it and it is their fault that it is doing that because they never returned my expresscard blank. They should really do something about it.

Why does support suck? I have only once got good support, at it just so happened to be on a public holiday. I got through fast, the person understood that I knew what I was doing and quickly pushed me through to getting it fixed. I was happy with the support I got there. Why can’t they treat me like a normal computer user, not some dumbass that got a virus or uninstalled a driver or some shit like that? Can you get good support anywhere???

Yesterday, one of the desktop computers gave in. The thing just would not work. It had a good life, seven years with no problems what so ever (except for viruses and spyware.) My sister was using it as we replaced it a couple of years back. We looked around a few shops at the computer and decided that maybe a laptop computer would be an option, rather than a desktop. The price of a laptop isn’t that much different from a desktop and depending on what you use your computer for would depend on if it is a good idea to go portable or not.

We ended up getting a new laptop, same series as mine, only a higher model. The main differences are the better processor, an AMD Athlon X2 1.8Ghz, 120GB Hard Drive, Bluetooth and Vista Home Premium. Other than that it waspretty much the same, except for Compaq’s new (ugly) logo. It is a huge upgrade for my sister, going from a 1.3Ghz, 30GB Hard Drive with 512 RAM. I wouldn’t notice that much of an advancement but for someone using such a low spec computer, this computer would be blazing!

Some of the thing I like about this one, than my model, is the precessor. Yes, its a little faster but what makes it better than mine is the heat. With the new laptop, you hardly feel any warmth coming from the thing, where as mine, you always feel heat coming from it, and depending on the conditions, it can even get to the point that it burn you if it touches your skin too long. I would benifit from a cooler processor because I use my computer on my lap and it can get uncomfortable when using it for a while, and even be unbearable if the weather is hot as well.

Another thing that is great about it is the bluetooth. This is one thing I have never experienced in my life, and for a lot of people, its the normal, even old technology. I was surprised about how great it work. Sending a picture from a cellphone took 30 seconds, from capture to looking at it on the computer. I know there are other things you can do with bluetooth but just sending a picture amazed me. I have no idea why our digital cameras, Mp3 players and other common devices don’t use bluetooth to communicate with computers. Bluetooth is a great feature, but personally I wouldn’t use it because I do not have any bluetooth devices. Still, it was amazing to play with.

The final little difference is Vista. Yes, I have been using Vista since February, or so I though. You really aren’t experiencing Vista unless you are using Home Premium or above. Home Basic in my books, doesn’t count anymore. It is stripped down, I don’t even know why they even have this version. To me it seems like a bloated XP with a fancy skin on it, nothing mch new here. I love the smoothness and animations of Premium, especially the Flip3D. It is so pretty to look at and I can’t believe they would have a version without it. To be honest, the visual features is the only real selling point of Vista, yet they have a version that lacks all that.

Do I wish I could have that laptop instead of the one I have now? Yes! Would I trade what I have for that one? No! This is my laptop and I am going to keep it forever. I wouldn’t trade it in for anything. I wouldn’t mind a new laptop in the nearish future so we will see what happens. Some more RAM and Home Premium would be nice to get and would make this last until it is time to upgrade. MacBook Pro, I’m coming, just wait a little longer!

Yesterday was Christmas Day. I finally got to play with the iPod that was purchased in September. I wasn’t really looking forward to it that much because all the hype had gone and I had moved onto other things. When that day finally came, I had a quick play and put it aside to return to the internet. I did take the uttermost care to not leave a fingerprint on her by wearing gloves. Shes in a case now and not getting fingered anytime soon.

There was not much else to do on it other than listen to music, but in the short time I was playing with it, my first impressions are not that great. I am pretty disappointed with this product and I think I should thank higher powers for not giving this to me earlier, before the patchs because that could have been torture. I have to say, I enjoy listening to music on this. Other than the “nothing special, generic” earbuds, it sounds pretty good, but its elsewhere where the flaws lie.

It looks great, I do have to point that out. Apple always has brilliant design in their products, more so now than ever, and this this is beautiful. I just with that it wasn’t so fingerprint prone. I accidentally touched the screen before I put the protector on but lucky I had wet and dry wipes to clean it away. I know how bad the back scratches and marks, its the same as it has been since the start of the iPod. Its pretty and shiny but I do with they could use a more resistant metal.

I have never been a fan of the nearly endangered scroll wheel. It has always given me problems on older iPods. I always either under scroll or over scroll and I have always found it slightly tricky to get it in the exact location first try. This iPod’s scroll wheel it absolute torture and the worst thing about the classic I have found so far. It is so unresponsive that is it frustrating. Even worse is that it doesn’t work very well with my iPod sleve, so much that I will most likely have to resort to self modification and sergically remove the scrool wheel cover from it just so I can get a little funtionality back. It is not prefect and I wish they had this sorted before they released it. If there is anything worse I hate about iPods than over scrolling, its having it not scroll at all.

One of the most hyped features about the new iPods was Coverflow. I never really use it on the PC because it is painfully slow and I feel no compelling reason to use it. I was hoping that would be different with this, because I lovethe idea of flicking through album art to play an album. I generally pick an album to play, rather than use playlists so this feature is for me. I do have to say, it is generally an okay experience, as long as you don’t jump ahead and scroll too far and end up with a bunch of question marked albums that eventually load. Yes, there could be many reason that it does that but I don’t really care, it bothers me little.

What does bother me is when an album art is duplicated. It is one album, but because there is a variation with one of the artist names, it thinks they are seperate. iTunes is smart enough to realise that it is the same album and to group it together, so I have no idea why the iPod cannot do the same. Its really slack of them to not have it work right. Don’t go telling me about workarounds because they have their own flaws, it should be done rightand not have people working around it.

This thing is a little slower compared to older iPod but since this is my “first” iPod, I can’t really comment on that. My overall opinion is if you have a iPod video, there is no need to upgrade. If you want a iPod Classic, see if you can get an iPod Video first, or if a Nano suffices your music collection, get that instead. There is always the touch for the big spender that like pretty things and lots of features, but then again, I have never played with a Nano or Touch so I can’t give an honest opinion. I am a little displeased and disappointed with this product, but because it has the Apple Logo on it, I have to let it slide and say its a good product. Well done Apple! Well done Steve Jobs!

Well midnight just passed on my country of New Zealand and it is officially Christmas Day, the 25th of December, 2007. No, I am not going to write anymore today because this is not a long rant and I don’t think it is really a good time for you to be reading a three hundred to seven hundred word rant on something silly, in this case, something about Christmas.

All the staff here are Yum9me’s Journal wish you a happy and safe Christmas. I hope Santa, your parents, and your relatives are all generous and give you what you have been wanting all year. Have a wonderful day!

As you all know, I have been looking for a new feedreader. I decided to go with the feed reader Peppery uses. I downloaded it and it is lighter than Snarfer, my old reader. The only problem is that I love both of these feed readers. Both have features that I really love. I wish there was a hybrid of there two, and if there was, I would be a loyal fanboy forever!

One thing I like about FeedReader is the layout. It is very similar, if not the same as Snarfer’s. The problem with Snarfer is that everytime i open Snarfer, the layout has moved back to default instead of where I moved it it, with a larger viewing area. If Snarfer could just remember my the size I set it to, these two readers would be equal, but since it doesn’t, FeedReader gets the point. Another thing I like about FeedReader is the search feature. It works so much better and is much easier to use and simple than the one featured in Snarfer.

There are some things I still prefer in Snarfer, those are the notifications of when new feeds have come in. Snarfer would notify me with a simple sound. FeedReader, well I don’t know what it does, because it is completely broken. Once it did manage to notifty me, but it was telling me so much that it bewildered me. This is not what I want, a simple sound or a tiny message would suffice me. One thing I dislike about FeedReader is the downloader (manager maybe?) that is built in. With Snarfer, it would show the link to the attachment in the viewer frame and allow me to download it, either with my browser or even with my download manager (if it is integrated, if not, there is still copy and paste.) In FeedReader I am forced to either use their downloader or click through to the page and downlad it there. It is pretty painful and I wish it was as simple as in Snarfer.

There are still things that both of these are lacking, one of these things is the ability to open the article in Firefox, easily. It sounds simple and like a no brainer, but no, either  reader doesn’t do this in a simple way. feedReader requires a two click thing to get that, and its slow and lags my computer sometimes. Snafer needs me to copy the link and paste it manually. Feedreader does have the upper hand here but both are painful and shuld be much simpler. There are also some nonsence features in both readers that could be taken away to make it less “cluttered.

They both are good feedreaders and I couldnt tell you which one I wuld recommend more. I have changed boats to FeedReader purely on the fact that Snarfer doesn’t work anymore and I can’t be bothered reinstalling it and setting it up right. I have gotten use to FeedReader and am pretty happy with the transition. I hope thatthe things these readers lack come to them eventually. It would be nice to have a “perfect” RSS Reader.

I watch a lot of television shows, 24 to be exact. This is a huge number and it is very hard to decide which order to download and watch. The downloading generally isn’t a problem as long as I have access to premium services but having half a dozen or more shows on queue is pretty daunting. This isn’t such a problem to be honest, because just like everyone else, I have my favorites, which take priority over anything else. I am going to tell you my five favorite shows that I currently watch, in no particular order.

Heroes -This is a show about ordinary people with extraordinary abilities. Oddly enough, this is their slogan. Heroes is a show you have to give a chance. It does start off slow but heats up and gets really good near the end of a volume. Volume One was great but it was a little slow. I though it was amazing though and it turned me into a fanboy of the series. Volume Two wasn’t as good in my opinion but still great. I cannot wait for Volume Three because I know it is going to be mindblowing! You have to check out this show!

Chuck - This show has just been picked up in the fall season and has had a successful first half. I’m going to skip the unusual explanation of the storyline because that is what Wikipedia is for. Other than the “geek culture” stuff they try and put in and the unusual storyline, there is one thing that keeps me coming back for more, Yvonne Strahovski. She is smoking hot in her uniform!

Prison Break -This one managed to squeeze its way into my top five. This television show blew me away with the first season but is steadily declining.To be honest, I think they should quit while they are ahead. The thing I loved about this show was the secrets and puzzles that we witnessed in the show. There is a lot of things hidden and the ingenious way they get from inside to outside the prison was amazing. Too bad its not the same as it was then.

Dexter -This is a new show that has come to my attention this year. All I can say is that I wish I found this gem earlier. It really is a amazing show, one of the best I’ve seen, and it didn’t dull in the second season. I did have a small issue with the final episode of season 2 but overall the show is great and I managed to overlook it. If there is any show I would recommend to anyone at this stage, it would be this one hands down. If you haven’t seen it already definitively get the first season.The most intriguing thing about this show is that it is from the point of view of a serial killer. It is a very unique view, one which is not shown on many other shows.

Monk - Finally, a last minute decision, was this show. I remember seeing this show when I was 12 and I though it was amazing. The thing that makes it that was is the brilliant acting my Tony Shalhoub. The humour is how a person with OCD deals with issues and chalenges with life.This is very amusing for any normal person watching. It really hard to describe this show but it is an intersting watch.

There are quite a few great shows that didn’t make the list. I will whip up an honorable mentions list to include those shows because they are worth it. I can’t put every show I watch on my top five list an it is unfortunate so many got cut. You may disagree with these shows and you are entitles to your own opinion. It would be a boring place if everyone loves the same things. If you haven’t checked out any, or all of these shows, definitely do that as soon as possible, they are well worth the chance. Who knows, you might love them just as much as me.

I watch a lot of TV shows. Some TV shows are good, other are average, some are utter crap, but I’m not going to discuss the quality of television that is currently airing, that is for another post. I don’t watch my TV shows the way that typical people do. You would expect typical people to watch television shows, well on a television. Don’t sound obserd, does it? Well I am not like these people, I am not a typical person, for many reasons, but in particular for the way I obtain my television shows and watch them.

I don’t know whether or not it is true to assume, that more people are not watching television on their television. With computers being able to play video and being great to use as media centers, some people watch video content on there. Also with the huge growth of portable media players, there is another place that people are watching video content. People are watching video, not just on their television, but on other devices. I myself watch most, if not all, of my video content on my computer. But why do I watch it there? Why do I watch my TV shows on my computer, rather than on my television?

There are many reasons behind this. I do not live in America, the place where “all” television comes from. I do not get to see Heroes, Prison Break, or even Lost, when it gets released over there. No, if I want to see it on my television, I have to wait half a year to a year. But the thing is, I can access this stuff freely on the internet. It is so simple for me to just click a few buttons here and there and in no time, I have this television show, hot off the press, on my hard drive ready for me to watch.

Its not only the waiting times, it is also the quality. Over in America, they have had High Definition channels for quite some time now. Over here, nope, no HD channels till next year! So this pretty much means, by the time it does get over here, we get it in average standard definition. Back a couple of years ago, that would have been nothing we could do about it, but things have change, because there is something we can do about it. We can get these shows, in high resolution, 720p, off the internet. They may not want us to but we can do it! I don’t have to put up with second best because I can get better.

There are many other advantages that come with downloading your television shows. One of them is freedom. You aren’t being told when to watch it and where. You can watch it at anytime, as long as you have it with you. You can also watch it anywhere, your computer, your iPod, even your TV. You’ve had your HD television for a while now and you are watching standard definition on it? Well why don’t you play those 720p TV shows on it. Finally, something else you have to take advantage of the full capacity of your television.

There are many ways of obtaining these shows, some legal, and some questionable. If it is available in your country, or you have a way of accessing a store that has TV Show downloads, you can get the shows that way. The problem is, they generally either have ads, are overpriced, and if you save them to your hard drive, the most likely have some for of Digital Rights Management. Another way of obtaining them it through bittorrent, or any other p2p program, or other file sharing sites. This way you can always guarantee free, ad-less, DRM free, high quality video. This is alway the best video and far surpasses any other methods of obtaining television shows.

It is a game of cat and mouse. Networks want you to pay for their shows but they give us a crap deal. We can get it for free, and much better doing other means. If they want me to watch television shows on my television, I should get them the same time as the rest of the world, and in the same quality. I understand that there are issues and it is not necessarily the networks fault that they cannot provide this, but the least they could do is give it to me online to download, legally and without overpricing it and giving me worse quality than I can get illegally. If you wanna beat it, you have to do just as good, if not one up from what is already available to me. I am going to get my television shows in a way convenient to me by all means necessary.