Bacon

As I read through Globe and Mail (online, not the actual newspaper), I see this article:

This iPhone app wakes you up to the sound – and smell – of bacon.

And I ask myself, “what is happening to this world?”

Seriously? Is this what people are doing nowadays? Spending mindless hours perfecting a device that will wake me up in the morning to the smell and sizzling sound of bacon? What has the world gone to? It’s quite frustrating to see that technology has entered a realm where we can now smell the scent of bacon as our own alarm clocks. Is this what we are funding today? In this day and age, we’ve become far more competent of everything around us. This generation is probably the smartest generation ever. But when someone comes and starts talking about a device where it can send out scents of morning bacon, I begin to wonder. I mean, come on. That is not technology! That is not acceptable! That is not innovation!

I’ll have 20.

Keep Chewing!

Dear Samsung

Dear Samsung,

I’d like to establish something first before I get things off my chest.

I respect Samsung. They’re a great company, their products are great and their foundation, what they stand for, is even greater. I have only one product from Samsung: a microwave (well, my dad has a Note, but it’s not really ‘mine’). The microwave is great, although I wish they’d put the numeric keypad on it, giving me more options than just “One Minute cook.” They have the dial and all, but it’s not as efficient as using a keypad. Back to the topic…

Anyways, Samsung, you are a powerhouse company for all the good reasons. I like that about you. But, for the past two years or so, you’re becoming a problem.

You’re becoming more like Apple…

You release another Samsung Galaxy S5 and it barely has any changes, really. Sure, a scanner here and there, some specification changes, but that’s it. Nothing major occurred to your phone – and it’s scaring me.

We all know that Apple just keeps on selling the same thing, just refurnished. But Samsung, being a company of innovation, starts selling the “same thing” again, then we have a problem.

All I can say to you Samsung: please do better. We love your phones and your tablets and all your other gizmos and gadgets, but please, don’t turn into something so painfully and utterly scary.

That’s coming from me, a fan of your work, and a plethora of the Android community (I can only imagine).

Keep Chewing!

Dear Google

Dear Google,

Why are you trying to shove Google+ down our throats? I mean, seriously, we don’t like Google+. Maybe a few people may like your Google+, but truth be told, I don’t think it can compete with the leading social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Also, why the heck did you change your commenting system on YouTube? First, you change the rating system from stars to likes and dislikes. Then, you put advertisements on each video. Now you’re, once again, shoving and choking us with Google+. The fact that there are over 20,000 people actually signing a petition to ask you to change back the commenting system should be enough of a sign.

Please fix your freakin’ system with YouTube. What the heck is this?

Monkeys? Is that why your servers are terrible? Because monkeys manage it? Seriously Google.

I understand that you’re trying to get Google+ off the ground. What you’re doing — is not working. At all.

For a guy who just wants to watch YouTube videos, comments do not matter much to me. I’m more of a guy who’s just there for the video. Sure, comment wars are entertaining, but I didn’t go to YouTube for that.

Also, fix your servers! Your advertising servers are better than servers you have for the actual video.

I do, however, like your search engine. Keep up the good work on that.

Love, the Internet.

Keep Chewing!

——

I haven’t done a rant in quite a while, and I believe this situation is definitely worth writing about. I hope you enjoyed the rant!

The Truth About Careless People

Ever since I worked for Future Shop, I’ve always wanted to write this. Here it goes.

What really grinds my gears are those who can’t take care of their tech. I am a lover of all things computers, from cellphones, gadgetry, hardware and software. Out of all of my things, I’ve only broken one special thing to me: my old Toshiba. After that, that was it.

Even then, although I was not tech savvy as now or as careful as now, I still feel bad for being careless about my stuff. I just feel that we should give some kind of importance for the things we buy or we get, no matter the price.

Consider this. I’ve had my HP laptop (Hannah Patricia) for an exact year now. Never have I scratched her, broken her or let her down. Sure, she was sick every once  and a while from BSODs and fever (overheating while installing Ubuntu), but I made sure that she was working on top performance. I cleaned her every week both software and peripherally. She still runs as good as new.

I hate those people who are so careless that you can literally smell the smoke coming out of their computer. I opened computer units that are so dirty, I had to excuse myself because I vomited a little. Some collect so much dust, that we have to vacuum it for at least 10 minutes.

Some are just so scratched out, that when we write our sign-in report, we just literally put an X on top of the report to signify that the unit came in with these scratches.

Come on! I seriously can’t believe some people. I mean, even Apple products get scratched. It shows that people are becoming less and less appreciative of things.

If you are reading this and you think you’re one of those people that I mentioned, please stop. Take care of your stuff. Be nice to it. Be thankful that you have it. Don’t get careless.

Keep Chewing!

Mozilla Firefox 22

Recently, Mozilla Firefox sent out Mozilla Firefox 22. Of course, I downloaded it so that I can have the most up to date web browsing experience. I was wrong.

It’s so frustrating and annoying for me. I would be watching a YouTube video and it would crash. This constantly happened and I’m beginning to think that I should return to using Chrome. I still haven’t changed, however, it is an option.

For some reason (including Mozilla Firefox 21 and 20), the browser would always crash and each time I put my laptop on hibernate or sleep, once I resume my computing, Firefox would be slow to respond. At times, it would literally lag and crash. The Firefox “send bug” message box appears, asking me if I want to send a bug report to Mozilla.

Recently, I did a few tests. I took out a couple of my plugins and extensions (recommended by tPenguinLTG). It did not work. One thing I’m currently doing right now is using a different theme or appearance on Mozilla. It seems to be working. All I can hope for right now is for it to work properly.

Now, I’ll be reinstalling all of my plugins – only hoping that it won’t crash anymore.

Here’s a good article about Firefox and its logo changes by tPenguinLTG.

Firefox Changes its Logo Again!

Keep Chewing!

My Healthy Hate With Apple

First of all, I would like to give credit where it’s due.

Steve Jobs is one of the most important people that revolutionized the computing world. His story is astounding and amazing. He left his legacy to a world that will surely miss his black turtleneck and his profoundly simple yet awesome presentations. May God rest his soul.

Apple, Steve Jobs’ company is a great company. In fact, it pushed the boundaries of computing. Now, almost all of our smartphones are as powerful or more powerful than your average PC or laptop 5-6 years ago. My phone is stronger than my Acer desktop.

Now, let’s return to What Really Grinds My Gears.

You know what really grinds my gears? Apple.

I want you to take a look at this graphic. This should explain my healthy hate with Apple.

The fact this, Apple overprices everything! The only thing that they are trying to sell is the “beauty” of a Mac. I doubt it.

Also, the services that they offer are pretty freakin’ overpriced (excuse my language). Recently, a guy brought in his Mac Air. It had water damage. On average, a PC to be fixed of water damage is about $300 – $400, which still hurts. But for a Mac? On average, it’s about $800 – $950! CRAZY!

Yeah. That’s about it. Hopefully you enjoyed the rant even though it’s really short.

Awesome and Keep Chewing!

Blue Screen of Death

You know what really grinds my gears? BSODs!

Throughout my years with computers, either through my “hacker” stage, my “try everything ’til it breaks” stage and my “hardcore gamer” stage (in which I am still in), the most annoying thing ever is… BSODs.

First of all, they are a pain in the butt. When I first encountered it, I was so scared. It had words and letters that I had no idea about. It occurred with my first PC in the Philippines. It was a Dell and I had no clue with computers yet. Long story, short: I told my dad and we sent it to a computer repair shop where it was fixed. Unfortunately, my gaming data wasn’t saved, so all of my story mode saved data were deleted.

These things are annoying! They pop up either in the worst time like when I’m printing out my five page essay that is due the next day or just for a stupid reason like when I plugged in a PS2 end keyboard because I like the feel of it, it would always show up a BSOD.

It’s frustrating because it is so difficult to handle. Some codes that pop up are hard to find a solution to. Also, some BSODs do not allow full entrance to the computer, which makes it a pain (you can get in through safe mode, however).

But, because of this, it made me love computers even more. I began reading about things like dumps and safe mode and learned many new terms. It’s one of the reasons why I wanted to learn about computers more.

I hate BSODs, and I’m sure my fellow Windows users hate it too.

Leave a comment below describing some of your experiences with BSODs.

Awesome and Keep Chewing!

Darn Customers

Hello everyone! This is the first ever post of: Gear Grinders. This will actually be the name of every rant that I write. All rants are clean but may be concentrated to either certain types of people or tech, but it is an opinion and I do have the right to express my opinion respectfully.

Let’s begin this right.

YOU KNOW WHAT REALLY GRINDS MY GEARS? DARN CUSTOMERS!

For some who do not know, I do cooperative education at Future Shop (About) and work in the Connect Pro position fixing computers. It’s awesome.

The other day, a couple brought in their Sony VAIO. It’s a great laptop, about three years old according to them. They brought it in to get the D/C jack fixed. We told them that the repair costs [large amount of money]. A new VAIO is probably $700 – $800. We told them it is probably best if they purchase a new laptop. They decided to do so, so we got them a sales rep.

A few minutes later, the man returned asking a question: “Can you install AutoCAD on the Apple laptop?” Unfortunately, I do not know what AutoCAD is, so as an honest guy I told him. He told me straight up “You shouldn’t be working here. If you don’t know what AutoCAD is, you shouldn’t be working here at all.” I was furious! OK, so I don’t know anything about a popular architectural/engineering software. I’M A FREAKING COMPUTER ENGINEER FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! SERIOUSLY! I COULDN’T CARE LESS ABOUT SOME APPLICATION.

These customers need to realize that we take our job seriously. If we don’t specialize in one thing (e.g. engineering), that doesn’t give you any rights to judge me. You’re the one coming here for help and you have the guts to tell me what I’m not good at? Darn you! Darn you to heck!

The same day, two male customers came to us bringing a 17″ Toshiba with Intel i7 @ 2.8 GHz with 8GB DDR3 RAM and 1TB hard drive. Awesome laptop, right?

Well, I guess everyone is entitled to their own opinion. In his own words: “This computer is sh*t.” Ok, I understand. Sometimes computers can be “defective” and cause the customer to have a bad experience with it. It’s not rare at all. But what really grinds my gears is what he told me next.

“This computer is sh*t. I brought this a couple of months ago because it is slow. Then I brought it in weeks ago it didn’t work the way I want it. I SLAMMED the LCD screen and now it is broken. This computer is sh*t. Toshiba is sh*t”

When I heard this, I just had to excuse myself to the bathroom because I had to think of what the heck just happened.

First of all, you can’t really blame the computer if your internet provider is garbage. It may not even be your provider, but rather the package you are paying for (I bet they had Rogers. Switch to Bell for awesome Fiber Internet; no, I am not sponsored).

If I gave two different people – one who knows how to take care of a laptop and one like him – who do you think would have the laptop the longest? Of course, it would be the person who takes care of the laptop. People need to realize that computers need TLC too. Just because they have awesome processing speed and great hardware, does not mean we get careless. I have an awesome laptop, but I get super protective when either someone is using it or when it gets hot.

Lesson is, computers are people too.

If people had built in webcam, WiFi and a Terabyte of hard drive.

Oh wait, we do.

Keep chewing!