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Goodbye XBox

Saturday, August 8th, 2009

It was just a matter of time: Last night my XBox 360 flashed the Three Red Rings of Death. The good news is that Microsoft is paying for the shipping. The bad news is twofold: I was on the hook for $25 in packaging costs, and I’m going to wait a few weeks to get it back.

Hey Microsoft: Not cool. You used to send out packaging for people to send back their defective XBoxes. Why did you stop? Did you stop because you did such a poor job of testing it that you lost tons and tons of money, and just got stingy about taking responsibility for your poor standards? I bet that’s it.

Unfortunately, this is the era in which we live. Hardware is rushed to market in order to establish dominance (and, yes, for Microsoft it paid off in this generation of console wars), but the consumer really suffers in the end. It was like that with the BlackBerry Storm – it was so buggy as to be nearly unusable, and early-adopters had to wait for a software update. RIM knew the problems, but put it out anyway. If you listen to sources at Microsoft, they knew what they were doing, too: On one of their test runs, 68 of every 100 units were defective.

It’s sort of ridiculous that this is somehow OK. It’s why, even after they put out the iPhone 3G, I waited for a couple of months to pick one up. I’d rather wait for the first wave of people who pick it up and discover all the hardware and software failures, so they can be fixed. I’m sorry they’re the ones who have to do that, as opposed to the manufacturer, because product testing is not our job.

Posted in Just not right | 2,173 Responses »
Tags: 3 Red Rings of Death, Microsoft, XBox 360

Darwinism, please?

Tuesday, August 4th, 2009

A recent college grad from the Bronx, Trina Thompson, is suing Monroe College because, three months after graduating, the college hasn’t done enough to find her a job. She’s seeking $70,000 in tuition reimbursement, as well as $2,000 for stress.

I’m pretty sure it’s not Monroe College’s fault, and I’ll give you two reasons as to why:

1. Check out the story NY1 did here. While a gracious editor cleaned up her quote in the text, if you listen to the video, her quote is actually this (emphasis mine):

“I need a full-time job placement and that’s what they said they was going to help me with and they didn’t.”

2. In her complaint, which you can read here, you can see that’s she’s “seeking a reimbursement of $70,000 from [her] tutision.”

So the reason Trina can’t find a job is not because of anything Monroe College did. Actually, it’s despite their effort. It’s because she’s a moron.

It’s kinda sad that my generation is one that expects handouts without having to do any work.

If I really thought about this, I would probably be overcome with an impending sense of doom, that if the children are our future, and the children are retarded, then we are completely screwed as a race, and I may as well go live in a shack in the mountains and become self-sufficient to try and stave off the eventual collapse of society.

Instead, I’ll just laugh and move on.

Posted in Just not right, NYC, Really? | 121 Responses »
Tags: Monroe College, Trina Thompson

The shame of lower Manhattan

Tuesday, August 4th, 2009

Here’s something that makes me wonder how the elected officials and landowners involved have convinced themselves that they’re still worthy members of society: According to the Daily News, the Freedom Tower, and surrounding transit hub and memorial, won’t be completed until 2018.

2018.

Read it and weep.

That’s 17 years after the terrorist attacks. Meanwhile, excavation for the Empire State Building started on January 22, 1930. It opened on May 1, 1931. That’s barely more than a year! And I’m pretty sure they didn’t even have electricity in the 1930s! If you adjust for advances in technology, by today’s standards, we should be able to build the Freedom Tower in 45 minutes.

So what’s the problem? Well, Larry Silverstein, who leases the property, isn’t helping. This is the kind of guy Larry Silverstein is: His insurance policy was for $3.5 billion, but he wants double that, because since it was two planes, that means two separate attacks, which means he’s due closer to $7 billion. Makes sense. I mean, c’mon, $3.5 billion, what is that? That’s practically an insult. What can you buy with that? Cuba? Whatever. Clearly, he is an easy-going guy who wants to do the right thing: The right thing is collecting all the money ever printed in America.

Although, it also didn’t help that former Gov. Pataki appointed his buddy, John Whitehead, to the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. You’d figure a successful banker would have experience with construction and economic development, right? I mean, that’s why I call my butcher when my sink is backed up. Seriously though, it must be fun to be a political appointee, unless you’re Michael Brown (although, in Bush’s defense, I believe that raising horses is qualification to run the country’s disaster-response agency. It makes just as much sense as abstinence-only programs and invading a country that didn’t attack us. Right?)

Then there’s dealing with the Port Authority, a bi-state agency that actually owns the site, and is also full of political appointees. They made an agreement in 2006, called the master development agreement, with Silverstein, which gave the PA control of the Freedom Tower and Silverstein would have to build some of the smaller towers. Problem was, it resulted in $132 million in late fees after multiple deadlines passed, because a random wall in the middle of the site prevented it from getting handed over…

You know what? Fuck this. This is ridiculous. Fuck everyone involved who handed al-Qaeda the win on this. Because they did win. We live in a constant state of fear and political bickering, we’ve given up our civil liberties for the illusion of safety and we’ve accepted that a big, gaping hole in lower Manhattan is just something to accept. For a country as jingoistic as America, I fail to understand why there isn’t rioting in the streets. It’s also the same reason that I refuse to acknowledge the Pledge of Allegiance or the Star Spangled Banner anymore. This country, and the standards we set for ourselves, it’s all a joke.

Posted in Democracy, Just not right, NYC, Politics | 1 Response »

We’re not gonna take it, except we are

Thursday, July 30th, 2009

Cell phone companies suck. Seriously. Why do I have to pay an exorbitant amount of money for text messaging when the amount of data involved is so miniscule as to be negligible to the overall network? David Pogue at the New York Times wrote a pretty good article about how much the industry likes to bend over the consumer, which you can read here.

Then Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell C. McAdam wrote an open letter to the Times, indicating that their article was wrong, and then doesn’t actually answer the charges made in the article, such as unfair double-billing, subsidies and contracts. Check that out here.

Anyway, the point is this: Cell phone companies charge by the minute, right? Say you’re on the phone for one minute and one second. That one second gets rounded up to a second minute. Nice, right? Now, ever notice how, before you can leave a voicemail message on someone’s phone, you have to listen to 15 seconds worth of instructions? As if you don’t know how to talk after the beep and hang out? See where I’m going with this?

The Consumerist (pound-for-pound the best consumer rights blog on the interwebs) put up a post detailing how to skip those messages and go directly to voicemail. So, you know, it’s the little steps that don’t make a difference but maybe can help us sleep at night. Read about it here.

Posted in Democracy, Just not right | 928 Responses »
Tags: cell phones, Consumerist, Verizon

Bronx bombing

Monday, July 27th, 2009

photoyankees

I finally caught a game at the new Yankee Stadium yesterday. The Yankees beat the A’s 7-5. Pictured are the ground level seats that I would have to sell a kidney to afford. Instead I sat in the upper deck – all told, it was a pretty good view of the field. Before I get into my list of random thoughts about the experience, just for the record, this is what it cost for me, my dad, my brother and my sister.

Four tickets, upper deck: $255
Four foot-long hot dogs: $27
Two small iced-teas: $10
One small diet Coke: $5
Large bottle of water: $5
Four beers: $34
Parking: $19

Now, on to the random thoughts:

1. Spending $355 for an afternoon of baseball is absurd, and someone somewhere ought to be ashamed for creating an environment where that kind of price gouging is OK. Granted, I share some of the blame for actually shelling out $8.50 for a beer, but still. Not cool.

2. Also not cool? That they built that stadium in between the end of one season and the start of another, and nine years later Ground Zero is still a big gaping hole. I understand that these are different situations – there are more people and entities involved in redeveloping Ground Zero, which makes it much harder – but still, shameful.

3. The ratio of crazy, drunken true believers to families and tourists has shifted dramatically. I’ve never seen so many fanny-packs at a Yankee game, and so few people getting tossed for some form of disorderly conduct.

4. You know how you can tell the age of a tree by the rings? You can also tell age with layers of grime and wear on buildings in New York City. The new stadium is so clean, it lacks the charm of the team’s history. That’ll change, but not for a very long time.

5. I’m still upset about how much it cost.

6. The team used to be made up of really solid utility players who always came through in the clutch. Now it’s a bunch of superstars who seem to choke when they’re needed most. What I’m saying is, I miss Scott Brosius.

7. A friend of a friend said that in the new stadium, no one stands up for two strikes. I couldn’t sum up the experience any better than that.

8. I will allow that maybe it’s a fun time at the ballpark and either I’ve become too much of a cynical asshole to notice, or it was just a run-of-the-mill day and I expected too much, but you know what? I’m not going back any time soon, and that has a lot to do with paying $8.50 for a beer.

Posted in Just not right, NYC | 89 Responses »
Tags: New York Yankees

Open letter to the Big Brothers at Amazon

Friday, July 17th, 2009

Dear Amazon,

I was interested in the prospect of buying a Kindle. While I prefer the feel of a page and the heft of a book, the thought of technology that could one day instantly access any book every written appeals to me. While I am pro-book, I am not anti-technology. It’s fair to say that, within the next year or two, pending a drop in price, I would have bought one.

Then, the publisher of 1984 and Animal Farm decided it didn’t want to sell electronic editions of these books anymore. You decided that the best course of action was to cede to the publisher’s absurd demand to remotely access Kindles and delete these books.

Giving customers a refund, which you did, is not enough. The fact that the Kindle is an electronic medium does not affect the legitemacy of the purchase. If a book publisher decided to discontinue a book, would you break into people’s houses and take them away? That may seem like a strong analogy, but it’s tantamount to what you did.

I will not purchase a device I clearly would not have any control over. In addition, I’m currently waiting for a shipment of books from your site. That will be the last time I do business with Amazon. While you actions have not directly impacted me, the sheer absurdity of your decision has lost you a customer.

I also encourage the three or four people who read this site to consider a boycott.

Cheers,
RH

P.S. Seriously guys, George Orwell would be ashamed

Posted in Just not right | 1,005 Responses »
Tags: Amazon, boycott, Kindle

Oh, what a world…

Thursday, July 16th, 2009

Did you know that in Albany, in exchange for political allegiance, you get awarded a committee chairmanship that adds $12,500 onto your salary? Despite the fact that you (allegedly) slashed your girlfriend’s face open with a broken piece of glass? And when our elected leaders are confronted over who’s responsible for doing something that’s maybe illegal and definitely immoral, they’ll all lie about it?

Read about it here. Read about it and weep, long and hard.

Posted in Democracy, Just not right, Politics, Really? | No Responses »
Tags: Albany, Hiram Monserrate

Give me whisky or give me death

Monday, July 13th, 2009

This is mega-lame – a bunch of bars got nailed for watering down drinks, hosting fruit flies and re-filling top-shelf bottles with bottom-shelf booze. One of the bars that got nailed by the State Liquor Authority is Crash Mansion, a decent club with good live music. That bums me out, considering how many times I’ve been there.

My drink is Jack on the rocks, and I don’t recall ever being given something else at Crash (I can taste the difference), but it’s really, really lame for people to do this. It’s just another reason for me to not want to go out to bars anymore. Besides the obnoxious hipsters and the serial-drunks that just aren’t funny anymore, now we can’t even trust what’s in the glass.

The New York Post wrote about the biggest offenders, which you can read about here.

My solution? Boycott them. The one bar I will always frequent is the bar where I get generous pours that aren’t watered down. If we don’t go to the bars that screw us, maybe they’ll stop screwing us. Viva la whisky revolucion!

Posted in Democracy, Just not right, NYC, Really?, Uncategorized | No Responses »
Tags: Crash Mansion, Jack Daniels, State Liquor Authority

Really, MTA? REALLY?!?

Monday, July 13th, 2009

The Verrazano Bridge is the only way for Staten Island residents to drive into any of the other four boroughs, without hooking through stupid New Jersey. Yesterday the MTA raised the toll from $10 to $11.

The bridge is a major artery, and travelers going up and down the Eastern seaboard are more likely to take that than to go the long way through stupid New Jersey. So, a small, tiny, overly-rational part of me understands why that bridge is much more expensive than every other bridge or tunnel in the city (and probably the world).

I mean, if you have E-ZPass, you only pay the arbitrary sum of $9.14. If you have both E-ZPass and you’re a Staten Island resident, you pay the equally arbitrary sum of $5.48.

Here’s my problem with that: The bridge, again, is the only way to drive into the rest of the city. They don’t allow cars on the ferry anymore. If all New Yorkers were created equal, then you’d figure that the E-ZPass discount on all the other bridges and tunnels would be the same, right? I mean, it’s OK to punish outsiders as long as all New Yorkers are able to pay the same price.

Except the E-ZPass discount on the RFK, the Bronx-Whitestone, the Throgs Neck, the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel and the Queens Midtown Tunnel is $4.57 (down from the full price of $5.50).

So, if you live in Queens, and you want to visit the Bronx, you pay $4.57. That’s if you have to pay a toll. With such an insane network of roads, I’ve done plenty of inter-borough driving without paying a toll.

If you are a Staten Islander and you want to visit any other part of the city, it costs $5.48.

I know it’s popular to rag on Staten Island, but you know what? That’s messed up. Sure, it’s only a difference of 91 cents, but it’s a principal thing.

Unfortunately, the borough’s slim population leaves it with fewer elected officials and therefore less clout, so this will never change, but it should, because it’s just not right. I’m pretty confident the MTA is the worst agency ever, and that’s part of the problem.

Seriously guys. You suck.

Posted in Just not right, NYC, Politics, Really?, Staten Island | 950 Responses »
Tags: MTA, Staten Island, tolls, Verrazano

Food Network FAIL

Sunday, July 12th, 2009

The judges on The Next Food Network Star totally just sent home Michael. That is SO messed up. Debbie totally acted like a bitch, and she’s proven herself to be dishonest, and yet they decide to send home the one guy who actually has a great personality. Plus, The Food Network needs more gay.

I was so upset when he got voted off I thought to myself, “I gotta go blog about this and tell the world how I feel.” So here I am.

I am SO sad right now. You know how people type LOL when they’re happy? Well, I’m the exact opposite of LOL. I am anti-LOL.

Posted in Democracy, Food, Just not right, NYC | 936 Responses »
Tags: Food Network, Michael, Next Food Network Star