Consumer
Difficulties with Dell
27/07/08 15:05
Maybe some people link Dell to being easy and
efficient but in almost every case I have found them
to be unable to deliver in either of those two
categories. Read More...
Is the world ready for the iPhone?
08/07/08 22:22
Although the Apple iPhone is coming out this Friday
it seems that the overseas release might still have
some hiccups. When I went to a local Swisscom vendor
(Manor in Geneva) to ask about it they seemed to be
thoroughly confused on all points except the release
date. Read
More...
Puzzling puzzles from Hanayama Toys
27/05/08 08:21
If you are looking for some manual puzzles for a gift
or to while away the time, and you come across
puzzles from the Japanese company Hanayama, keep
looking. Read
More...
Nikon Coolpix p50 does not impress
20/03/08 08:31
This camera has definitely been a disappointment.
Below are a few of the problems that we have
experienced.
There were 2 pluses for us however.
So, in general, if you can avoid this camera, do so. If you receive it as a gift, just smile and thank the giver.
We picked it up at our local Manor store where they refuse to let you try anything in advance, it is all by recommendation only. That was obviously a mistake.
- Pictures are often out of focus
- Indoor lightning is not detected causing poorly colored photos
- the USB connection is USB 1 so it is horribly slow transferring images or video
- instructions for "High ISO" setting say the pictures may come out grainy... yes they do, unusable
- battery indicator only appears when the battery is about to fail... very useful. Otherwise it is hidden
- you cannot use date stamping and the anti-shake feature at the same time
- the anti-shake feature does not work on most of the photos
- low quality view finder (the image are very grainy)
There were 2 pluses for us however.
- it does accept AA batteries
- the video that it does is okay (well okay if you are used to 8mm film quality but that is fine for our home movies)
So, in general, if you can avoid this camera, do so. If you receive it as a gift, just smile and thank the giver.
We picked it up at our local Manor store where they refuse to let you try anything in advance, it is all by recommendation only. That was obviously a mistake.
Experiences with KLM Switzerland
10/06/06 21:39
It seemed at every corner KLM has found a way to tag
on extra charges to their flyers. Already you have to
pay .50 a minute just to talk with a reservation
agent and after walking through their callcenter
electronic guide for a few minutes, 2 out of 4 times
I got through to an agent who simply hung up on me.
Fortunately I had looked on their website first to get an idea of what was available. I really liked their presentation showing what days would offer you what price. However, after finding the flight that I wanted, the English speaker who answered said that I could only take the higher priced flights. I explained that I could also clearly see the higher priced route he was offering but that I wanted the cheaper connection. He insisted that anything cheaper was an "Internet Special" and that I should buy it over the Internet if it looked cheaper there.
Calling back again, but this time choosing the French speaker I arrived at a nice lady who offered at first the same price as the German/ English speaker fellow. However when I told her I wanted another connection she asked which flights I wanted and proceeded to make the reservation without a problem, for a nice 60CHF reservation fee. There was no "Internet Special", apparently the fellow was new on the job or somesuch.
So, if you find a great price online but still feel more comfortable speaking to a person, simply print out what you want and ask specifically for the flights numbers as you saw on the Internet. Even better, if you go right to the Zurich or Geneva airport and pay directly, you can save the 60CHF phone reservation fee (and the 15+CHF for the numerous calls).
That seemed to be the end of it but on returning to Geneva I unhappily found that my suitcase had a wheel ripped off and so I had to drag it to the train and up the hills of Neuchatel. The airport claims office said that I should take the luggage to a repair specialist and get a repair quote from them, then I could contact KLM about paying for it. Ugh, I am sure that I will again have to pay 50cents a minute to talk about my claim as well.
So, as an end to the story, although KLM might have the cheapest online tickets for many connections, add a good 10% to the ticket price to get the real cost.
Fortunately I had looked on their website first to get an idea of what was available. I really liked their presentation showing what days would offer you what price. However, after finding the flight that I wanted, the English speaker who answered said that I could only take the higher priced flights. I explained that I could also clearly see the higher priced route he was offering but that I wanted the cheaper connection. He insisted that anything cheaper was an "Internet Special" and that I should buy it over the Internet if it looked cheaper there.
Calling back again, but this time choosing the French speaker I arrived at a nice lady who offered at first the same price as the German/ English speaker fellow. However when I told her I wanted another connection she asked which flights I wanted and proceeded to make the reservation without a problem, for a nice 60CHF reservation fee. There was no "Internet Special", apparently the fellow was new on the job or somesuch.
So, if you find a great price online but still feel more comfortable speaking to a person, simply print out what you want and ask specifically for the flights numbers as you saw on the Internet. Even better, if you go right to the Zurich or Geneva airport and pay directly, you can save the 60CHF phone reservation fee (and the 15+CHF for the numerous calls).
That seemed to be the end of it but on returning to Geneva I unhappily found that my suitcase had a wheel ripped off and so I had to drag it to the train and up the hills of Neuchatel. The airport claims office said that I should take the luggage to a repair specialist and get a repair quote from them, then I could contact KLM about paying for it. Ugh, I am sure that I will again have to pay 50cents a minute to talk about my claim as well.
So, as an end to the story, although KLM might have the cheapest online tickets for many connections, add a good 10% to the ticket price to get the real cost.
Joys of PayPal
08/06/06 21:39
Hmm, I thought that upgrading to a Business Account
would only be a good thing but now I see that all
received moneys will generate fees for PayPal.
Previously, with a Personal account you could receive
up to $500 free (though not from debit/ credit cards)
which was a nice way to transfer money among friends
and family.
Once your account has become Business level however those previously free transfers now get a 2.9% fee added on them. PayPal did offer a workaround: if I wanted I could make a new Personal account along with the business account. Personally, I think they should notify you clearly when a previously free service becomes a fee based service but I guess that is how they keep in business.
Once your account has become Business level however those previously free transfers now get a 2.9% fee added on them. PayPal did offer a workaround: if I wanted I could make a new Personal account along with the business account. Personally, I think they should notify you clearly when a previously free service becomes a fee based service but I guess that is how they keep in business.
LCD panel fuzziness solved
24/01/06 19:39
Well, I just got a small acer fp553 15" LCD screen
for a Windows server and was suprised to see vertical
lines of fuzziness when I first powered it up. At
first I thought it was a warped screen or some
plastic covering but no, every so often their were
simply lines of fuzzy characters. Before I packed it
up and went back to the store I thought I would play
with the Windows settings and sure enough, changing
the monitor frequency from 60Hz to 70 or 75Hz cleared
it up. I have no idea why this is but it saved a trip
back to the store 
Joys of rebates
26/08/05 13:30
Rebates have always been annoying but only recently
have I seen them become a severe loss of time. There
are no guarantees that you will get your money back
and then it will usually be in 2 months.
First there was buy.com that had problems printing my online receipt in time to submit a rebate. All requests for aid (and even sending a copy of their server error message) received no response.
I should have learned my lesson but not, I am out again to Compusa, tempted by their weekend ads to pick up some long awaited gadgets. Not only do I leave with 5 rebates to submit but a couple of products had 2 rebates each to get the advertised price.
To make matters worse, when I asked for price matching to their competitor across the street the response was:
"Oh look, there is a new rebate for the exact value you were asking for. I did not see that before. Well we cannot offer you a price matching if there are rebates at the same value." Interesting this rebate was never advertised anywhere and was good only for a week. In effect they are saying that "we will probably match the price... in two months time and after you do some paperwork/ photocopying/ pay for postage. If you don't get your money in 2 months come back and talk to us."
To their credit they did suggest that if I wanted the cheaper price now I could go across the street. My confidence was not improved seeing that most of the rebates were to be sent to post office boxes in different cities.
All of that being said, I have always received my rebates in the past but the amount of work for multiple rebate items and the use of rebates to say someone can match their competitors price is making me wonder if this is really worth the effort.
First there was buy.com that had problems printing my online receipt in time to submit a rebate. All requests for aid (and even sending a copy of their server error message) received no response.
I should have learned my lesson but not, I am out again to Compusa, tempted by their weekend ads to pick up some long awaited gadgets. Not only do I leave with 5 rebates to submit but a couple of products had 2 rebates each to get the advertised price.
To make matters worse, when I asked for price matching to their competitor across the street the response was:
"Oh look, there is a new rebate for the exact value you were asking for. I did not see that before. Well we cannot offer you a price matching if there are rebates at the same value." Interesting this rebate was never advertised anywhere and was good only for a week. In effect they are saying that "we will probably match the price... in two months time and after you do some paperwork/ photocopying/ pay for postage. If you don't get your money in 2 months come back and talk to us."
To their credit they did suggest that if I wanted the cheaper price now I could go across the street. My confidence was not improved seeing that most of the rebates were to be sent to post office boxes in different cities.
All of that being said, I have always received my rebates in the past but the amount of work for multiple rebate items and the use of rebates to say someone can match their competitors price is making me wonder if this is really worth the effort.
Gmail notifier resets winxp video resolution to 8 bit
12/08/05 08:50
For the longest time my winxp home (sp2) kept
resetting the screen color to 8 bit after each
reboot. Although this was a minor annoyance it was
something I wanted to have fixed Using the msconfig windows utility
I was able to see it was one of the
software'sbeing loaded at startup that was
causing this.
After disabling all likely candidates it actually turned out to be the gmail notifier that was doing this. Don't ask me how, it is only supposed to check the my email at google's gmail site. After uninstalling it all was well again.
Using the msconfig windows utility
I was able to see it was one of the
software'sbeing loaded at startup that was
causing this.
After disabling all likely candidates it actually turned out to be the gmail notifier that was doing this. Don't ask me how, it is only supposed to check the my email at google's gmail site. After uninstalling it all was well again.
Evil Ink Jet Photo Printers
11/07/05 20:44
I do not know what to think of these inkjet printers.
So far we've owned both an Epson and HP. Cost wise it
does not seem to come out much cheaper than a good
photo service... replacing a single ink cartridge is
about 75% of the price I originally paid for the
printer.
If I try to get maximum value for my letter sized photo paper by printing more than one image per page, I have to figure in the fun time of trimming those images out.
Trying those nifty red-eye correction pens on the ink-jet photos doesn't always work well with the inks either.
And finally, I am starting to see photos I had printed getting pretty faded after 8 months of hanging on the wall with some indirect sun. I did not realize that there were as many different qualities of ink-jet paper as there are colors in the rainbow. Cheaper papers fade quicker. So now I am buying the top of the line HP Premium Plus Glossy photo paper to see if it can hold an image for at least a year. Even that says I have to leave it dry for days before mounting it.
The only thing that they are clearly good for is saving a trip to the mailbox to order prints or for making lots of little changes with a photo program and seeing the changes immediately. This is definitiely a nice benefit but that's about the only real one we've seen.
If I try to get maximum value for my letter sized photo paper by printing more than one image per page, I have to figure in the fun time of trimming those images out.
Trying those nifty red-eye correction pens on the ink-jet photos doesn't always work well with the inks either.
And finally, I am starting to see photos I had printed getting pretty faded after 8 months of hanging on the wall with some indirect sun. I did not realize that there were as many different qualities of ink-jet paper as there are colors in the rainbow. Cheaper papers fade quicker. So now I am buying the top of the line HP Premium Plus Glossy photo paper to see if it can hold an image for at least a year. Even that says I have to leave it dry for days before mounting it.
The only thing that they are clearly good for is saving a trip to the mailbox to order prints or for making lots of little changes with a photo program and seeing the changes immediately. This is definitiely a nice benefit but that's about the only real one we've seen.