Archives March 2009

Acer support can go pound sand

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Acer, quite possible the shittiest, yet most popular, cheap ass computer company out there.  Why are they so popular?  Because their systems are dirt cheap.  Unfortunately you do get what you pay for.  You pay for shit, you get shit.  Acer shits on it’s customers all day long.
I’m pretty sure that e-machines put out better garbage then Acer’s crappy computers.
From the amount of Acer systems I have seen fail, I believe that it isn’t a matter of if your system will fail, it’s simply a matter of when. 1 year? 2 years? 3 years? Who knows…  I’d be willing to guess your Acer computer will fail with in the first 3 years.
I recently wrote about how OEM preinstalled software needs to stop, and Acer was the driving force behind that post.

Today, I bring you another reason why you should never buy anything from Acer.

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Breaking Bad – The Best Show You’re Not Watching

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I heard about this show from a post on a message board.  People were raving about how good it is, and since I’m not one to miss a good show, I thought I’d check it out.  I’ve watched the first 4 episodes and I am hooked.  This show is fantastic.

I said it’s the best show you’re not watching because it is.  Sure House is better, but you’re probably already watching that.

How AMC landed a show like Breaking Bad blows my mind a bit.  Give the show at least 2 episodes.  I watched the series premiere and I felt kind of on the line about it, but after I watched another episode I was really hooked and drawn in to it.

To give a quick plot summary, the main character is diagnosed with a terminal illness.  He is a typically passive goody-goody up until he realizes he is going to die.  He realizes his family needs money and he will do anything he can to ensure his family, a crippled teenager, and a pregnant wife, will have what they need after he is gone.  This leads to crazy, yet fascinating stories such as him becoming the finest meth cook New Mexico has ever seen.

It really makes you feel for Walter (the main character), feel the despair, the confusion, the anger…  Bryan Cranston deserves an award based on his performance in the first 4 episodes alone.  I can’t wait to see what the final 3 of the first season, and the first episodes of the currently-running 2nd season have in store.

So anyway, give Breaking Bad a chance, I bet you’ll like it, and it deserves all of the attention it can get!

Preinstalled “OEM” Software Needs to STOP

Attention: This content is 15 years old. Please keep its age in mind while reading as its contents may now be outdated or inaccurate.

This is a long one, but it is really a pet peeve of mine and I don’t know how I haven’t written about this before…

I’m sure you all know what this junk is… it’s software that comes installed already on the computer when you buy a pre-built system from companies like Acer, Lenovo, HP, Dell, etc.  The manufacturers often get paid large amounts of money to pre-install this crapware on your shiney new computer, or sometimes it is software direct from the manufacturer that they think will help you or be of some benefit.

Unfortunately this is hardly EVER the case and more often then not the software does more damage then it does good.

The 2 biggest offenders I have ran in to during my countless dealings with all of the major brands have been Lenovo and Acer.  Acer shouldn’t be that big of a surprise as they are generally a shit company.  They put out PC’s with shitty, cheap components which will fail, and even when you’re paying a premium for their gaming machine line, Acer still has to recall them all because they could potentially burn down your house, and their support is absolutely worthless.  I’ll save the Acer rant for another time though.  So really it should be no surprise when Acer installs software that will cause your machine to eventually bluescreen whenever booted normally (not in safe mode, thankfully).

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Update on Boxee/Hulu

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I’m sure you’re following the situation more closely over at http://blog.boxee.tv/ but I’m glad to see Boxee has made Hulu work on their software again.
I’m glad they just didn’t lay down and say “oh well”.
Content providers need to learn the consumer will enjoy content they way the consumer wants to, despite what restrictions the content providers try to arbitrarily enforce.

Now if Boxee would just release current Windows builds 🙁