Look out for the Snakes...I mean Geeks!!!!

Geek Squad... You see their VW Beetles cruising around town, their eye catching commercials and especially, their flat black ties and white short-sleeve shirts in your local Best Buy. You think they're the ones that can help, offer incite and recommendations for your PC or other Best Buy purchased electronic device, GUESS AGAIN!

The Geek Squad is by far the biggest rip-off going! After reading the article posted on Consumerist.com, we realize just how scummy the squad really is from a former Geek. He admits that the Geek Squad end of Best Buy had to meet certain numbers and would target older users or uninformed users to jack up their repair costs.

"As a Geek Squad employee you are expected to meet certain budgets regardless of hours worked and complete x number of units in a day or risk immediate termination. In order to meet the budgets I constantly found that my coworkers, my senior(s), my managers and I regret to admit myself were deceiving customers. Often times I would review tickets and find that units were being checked in that suffered only from minor Windows problems that might take less than 30 minutes to complete however on the ticket they were charged for an OS repair, malware removal and tune-up which at the time cost $118. The units often only had one tracking cookie or some temp files and there was no sign of a malware problem and no need for a tune-up. "

Personally, this doesn't surprise me at all. Any large electronics store that offers extended warranty or repair services is completely full of it! I have stood by the geek squad bench to listen to them tell customers complete BS and charging astranomical prices for relatively do-it-yourself simple tasks to be done.

In 7th grade I started BunamiTek (Formerly Computers By J), a small computer company that offers custom builds, configurations, networking, repairs, etc... I have seen everything under the sun from computers that were a on their death bed to those that seemed to house every corrupt file possible that was available on KaZaa. When taking your computer to get fixed, be aware of the sleezeballs at places like Best Buy. Generally, they follow the same old routine and not actually dig in there to see what's causing the problem. Remember you're going to know more about the problem than they are because you've dealt with it and have already experieinced it. If they try to feed you some bologna, turn around and walk out because you're only going to get swooped in as their next victim.

When you do have a problem with your PC, look for the local guys or other companies like mine. Usually, rates are less expensive, they'll come right to the house and prices are more affordable.

In a nutshell, stay away from places like the geek squad and DO NOT get any extended warranty, especially at places like Best Buy.

For More info Clicke: http://consumerist.com/consumer/best-buy/geek-squad-gouges-197249.php

or

http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-11225_7-6695676-2.html?messageID=2421074&tag=lst

I really thought that Barcodes would be replaced by RFID...maybe I'm wrong?

After Professor White's lecture, I must admit, I was convinced that Wal-Mart and their goal of being the first retailer to manage inventory via RFID labels on all of their products would be a trend that would spread like wildfire. Not only is it relatively inexpensive to produce these labels or tags, but it's extremely accurate and efficient. With all of these great benefits, I figured that was the sure shot jump that had to be made from today's monochromatic striped bar codes.

The computer giant "monopoly" Microsoft may have something up there sleeve that will be sure to delay a large jump to RFID. There new barcodes are nothing like those that we are familiar with today, Gavin Jancke has added color to store more information. His use of four or eight hues will allow a greater amount of data to be packed into less space. The different colors used are made up of interlocking triangles forming a perfect square shape.

Although it's quite possible to see this new form of barcoding take off, Microsoft is targeting commercial media like videogames, movies or other recordings and may appear on DVD's by the end of the year.

Well...How does the consumer benefit?
One mentioned instance of a special feature that these new High Capacity Color Bar Codes offer is added security, or links to a movie trailer or bonus features. -- Whoopity doo!

Downsides: We've got a few...
Color labels call for color printers...and I mean high-quality color printers. With various hues in the label, there cannot be a chance of colors running or not being uniform throughout a batch. Standard barcode readers also wont read these color codes. What does this mean? Microsoft monopolizes yet another aspect of technology and if this takes off, every company will have to buy their readers/scanners to utilize the new barcodes.

Overall, I think it's a nice idea..pack some more information into a 1x1 inch space, but I think its a jump that is completely unnecessary. Who cares if you can get a free trailer or see a few special feature clips on the net, with one click of a button, you can get a hold of that content no matter how exclusive they try to make it sound. As much as I am for adoption of new technology, I feel this is a nice attempt at adopting a soon to be antiquated barcoding methodology.

Read more about the New Barcodes here: http://news.com.com/Microsoft+gives+bar+codes+a+splash+of+color/2100-1008_3-6175909.html?tag=cd.lede

Standard HD Plasmas and LCD...already a tech toy of the past?

Sony does it again! If we thought for one second that the current lines of plasmas and LCD's are sleek and sharp enough, think again! OLED technology is the future of high def!

Recently in Tokyo, Sony released the prototype of the all new 11 inch OLED screen. When it comes to streamline design and sleekness, these new monitors clearly take the cake. What makes these new monitors even more attractive how thin they are and the option that they come in both white and black. Aside from the aesthetics, these screens also are better on energey and do not require a backlight, which on today's flat screens eventually will die out after 60,000 viewing hours.

What does this mean? We could be seeing future computer monitors, screens in laptop computers, all use this new OLED technology. Although we currently see these OLED's in 2.5" dimensions in digital cameras, the brige to large screens is there.

Who is going to the be prime customer? The people who simply don't care about the price tag. These are going to be expensive! So shine that piggy bank off and start saving!


Learn more here:http://news.com.com/2300-1041_3-6175494-2.html?tag=ne.gall.pg