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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Jozef: I'm sorry to bother you with such a small thing, but for the past half an hour I've been trying to locate a regular power cable for my desktop on your site.
Darlene: I apologize, but I cannot assist you with that kind of information.
Darlene: I would love to help you with that question, but unfortunately Newegg employees such as myself aren't technically certified, and cannot offer such support. I definitely don't want to provide you with wrong information and cause any type of inconvenience.
Darlene: At this time, we are working on a solution to assist valued customers such as yourself, but for now I highly recommend speaking to the product manufacture, I am confident that they have specialists who are qualified to answer your questions.
Jozef: Thanks.

After fifteen more minutes I found a single power cord. I'm ashamed to admit that I did order it from Newegg, mainly because the other items I ordered and shipping were both cheaper than at Tigerdirect, which is much better at displaying what I'm looking for.
August 5, 2006 at 12:22 am by Jozef

Why I don't shop at Home Depot
I remember when I was still in school, and at an info session for Home Depot position I asked why the quality of their customer service decreased so much. I used the example of glass cutting, which is still available in Lowe's, but which has been removed at Home Depot. The short answer was that such services did not add value to the company's bottom line. Later, I was scolded for my question by my career advisor. I didn't have anything to lose: I decided not to apply for a position at Home Depot, hearing first-hand stories about the complete disregard for applicants from the company's HR department. Ultimatelly, a few of my friends joined the company, but even though they are very smart and responsible individuals, the company's culture of disregarding its own employees, applicants and customers will drown them. But that's not the reason why I stopped shopping at Home Depot. The real reason is the service I received.

About two years ago, I was housesitting a house where the owner ordered a new garage door from Home Depot. It took over three months of confusion, such as the door parts ariving at the owner's billing address and not shipping address, the shipping of the wrong door engine and other issues, until the door was installed. Granted, it was a Home Depot contractor who did most of the installation, but the material was delayed at Home Depot's end, and the contractor was endorsed by Home Depot.

Undeterred, the owner decided to keep doing business with Home Depot, and I agreed to help him. In May, he ordered and paid for four unassembled bookcases. Together, they cost over $1000 (about four times as much as I's pay for similar bookcases at Target). They were supposed to be delivered on June 17. The key word here is "supposed". After much delay and playing phone tag with the Home Depot store for several days, we finally settled on a new delivery date, the July 8. That accounts for nearly a month worth of delay. I came to the house to accept the package, as the owner was away. I was there on time, at 8AM, as I was told that the delivery would come between 8 and 10AM. The van finally showed up at 2.30PM. A single, very large box rolled out. I asked the delivery people whether all four bookcases were in the one box, and they assured me it was so.

The owner came back a week ago, and opened the box. Instead of four unassembled bookcases there was only one, fully assembled. Since then, the owner has been playing phone tag with Home Depot again, and most recently he was told he would have to fly down to Atlanta and come to the particular Home Depot store personally. If it wasn't so much money he'd swallow the cost and order bookcases from Lowe's, but as it is, he wants at least his money back.

A few weeks ago, Business Week has placed Home Depot among the four companies who suffered the most significant decline in market share due to poor customer service. Here's a good reason why.
August 3, 2006 at 5:15 pm by Jozef

30
Today.
April 23, 2006 at 10:24 pm by Jozef

Sysiphus

At that subtle moment when man glances backward over his life, Sisyphus returning toward his rock, in that slight pivoting he contemplates that series of unrelated actions which become his fate, created by him, combined under his memory's eye and soon sealed by his death. Thus, convinced of the wholly human origin of all that is human, a blind man eager to see who knows that the night has no end, he is still on the go. The rock is still rolling. I leave Sisyphus at the foot of the mountain! One always finds one's burden again. But Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negates the gods and raises rocks. He too concludes that all is well. This universe henceforth without a master seems to him neither sterile nor futile. Each atom of that stone, each mineral flake of that night filled mountain, in itself forms a world. The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.

The box office and the lawyers
Copyfight has an article on the sad state of movie box office sales this year. The article mentions some of the reasons, which I consider to be very valid: the comparably strong year last year, and fewer movies released this year.

Copyfight is not alone noticing this problem the movie studios are struggling with. Business Week, in a recent cartoon, blamed the box office slump on the number of sequels, remakes or new twists of old themes, which the movie theaters seem to be choke full of (speaking of new twists, the one that starts today - War of the Worlds - seem to be one of the weirdest ones I remember). However, the cartoon does not address why we have so many sequels and derivative movies.

The next person who blames the lack of creativity in Hollywood gets smacked in the head. Over the years, Hollywood has proven to have highly creative people, and that's not anything that can change from day to day. True, the innovative spirit may be a little weaker than it used to be, but not as bad as the recent movies seem to indicate. The real problem are the Hollywood lawyers. IP protection has been abused by them for so long, that not even their own employers, Hollywood studios are safe from them anymore.

Not so long ago, movie studios could steal an entire movie, without consequences. That's no longer true, though, and even non-intentional infringments on copyright (and thanks to J. D. Lasica's Darknet we know now that even tiny excerpts or coincidental resemblance of existing movies now fall into this category) can spark a lawsuit. As a result, movie studios are scared of producing original movies, out of fear that someone else may have already had the same idea. As a result, we see largely movies that are based on the studio's existing intellectual property (sequels, remakes), are based on narrowly defined IP of a person/company who grants the movie rights (comic-based movies), or are based on IP that's in public domain (War of the Worlds). While the last category can produce some great results (I personally still wait for somebody to take on Gustave Flaubert's Salammbo), the vast majority of new movies falls into the previous two categories.

So in the end, Hollywood is suffering by their own weapons. Too bad that it will continue blaming movie piracy, and thus further priming the gun that keeps shooting in its foot.
June 29, 2005 at 5:34 pm by Jozef

Losing my patience
So my editorial on how game companies are trying to rip you off has finally made it from the print version to the Web.
March 25, 2005 at 10:22 pm by Jozef

I'm not a lawyer, Part 1 (or how Allofmp3.com may be legal)
Recently, reading some on-line discussion about pirating music, I came across a person who admitted that he was illegally downloading music by using Allofmp3.com, but he didn't feel any remorse.

One thing is if the RIAA claims the site is illegal; a whole different thing is if one of its customers says so. So I looked deeper into the issue, and this is what I found out:

* The site has been investigated by the Russian authorities and deemed legal by current Russian laws.
* It is legal to import music, legally obtained in another country, into the US, as long as it is intended for the personal use of the importer, as per US Code: Title 17, Chapter 6, § 602.

In other words, I see absolutely no legal reason to stop using Allofmp3.com. As long as the Russian law doesn't change, the RIAA can only do the same as I do whenever I'm confronted with yet another copyright terms extension - bitch about the government.
March 22, 2005 at 2:17 am by Jozef

Budweiser Select
Tried it last night. The commercials were right; indeed, there's no aftertaste. Unfortunately, there isn't any before- and duringtaste, either...
February 28, 2005 at 1:21 pm by Jozef

VCIC
Yesterday, I returned from this year's Venture Capital Investment Competition. We didn't win, and I was as exhausted and burned out as ever, but boy; it's been a lot of fun...
February 8, 2005 at 2:27 am by Jozef

Adapt this!
Apparently, one of the buttons in Sony's new handheld, PSP, doesn't work. There have been thousands of returns already. Sony's gaming division President replied to this that the faulty button was a feature, and that gamers should adapt to it. In that case, Sony should also adapt to potential customers not buying the product, like me.
January 27, 2005 at 7:10 pm by Jozef

Year 2004 in review
Year 2004 was marked with natural disasters and terrorist attacks. Whether it was the floods in Haiti or the tsunami in Asia, or terrorist attacks from Spain to Russia, the year was quite a depressing one. That’s why I decided to focus on what the year brought me.

After a very successful GMAT, I managed to be accepted to two MBA programs – the superb MBA program at Tuck, and the up and coming program at Georgia Tech. All spring long I was suffering from the dilemma of which one to enroll into, and until this day I’m revisiting my decision. This has been one of the toughest decisions I’ve ever faced, and I’ve never had a closer one. Tuck has always been my dream. The environment was ideal for me, from a small town in the middle of nowhere, through the most friendly student body, to one of the best faculty in the world. However, at the end, it was a matter of finance and creative control. GA Tech offered me a free ride and scholarship on top of it, and I felt that I had marginally more control over the development of the MBA program than at Tuck. Still, until this day I’m feeling very sad that I’m not up in New Hampshire, every time that I need to drive for two hours to the nearest hike or see flowers blooming in December.

In the middle of the year, I quit my job in the position of a senior research analyst. That was yet another huge change for me, and not the most welcome one. I was sad to leave the firm, even though I acknowledged that there wasn’t much left to learn. I went home to Slovakia, nearly managed to kill myself on a hike, and in August came to Atlanta to begin my MBA training. Since then, I was busier than ever before. In addition to school and work, I became quite active in the student government, busy with starting my own company and organizing parties.

Apart of school and work, I’ve still been active in gaming. Three of my articles have been featured on Slashdot, one written for Netjak and two for DIYGames, where I became a staff writer. This position has brought me some additional recognition from various Web sites and adventure gaming developers, such as Ron Gilbert. The year in gaming has been capped with having one of my articles printed in Computer Games Magazine.

All in all, it’s been quite an interesting year for me.
January 1, 2005 at 5:37 pm by Jozef

How not to make money, Comcast style
Comcast. A true enigma for me. This company, which provides me with cable and Internet service, and which does a much better job than RCN and Patriot Media previously, is grossly overvalued on the stock market, and it continues tokeep its stock price despite the management's best efforts to bring it down. As a former equity analyst, I learned that numbers aren't everything, and that the management quality is crusial to the success of an investment. Granted, the company would never show up on my stock screener, but if it was cheaper or if I were asked to look at it, I'd look behind the numbers on latest business accomplishments. In the case of a cable operator in particular, I'd look at its content offerings, as this is where the growth should be found. So let's see how Comcast spent $300 million in 2004:

In March of 2004, the company has spent $300 million in cash, or 30% of its free cash flow, to acquire TechTV. At that time, Comcast has already owned several channels - E! Entertainment, Style Network, The Golf Channel, Outdoor Life Network and G4TV. With the exception of The Golf Channel, none was available in my extended cable offering, which I found surprising. I expected Comcast to leverage its business synergies and push all the channels down my throat.

Anyway, back to the story. So Comcast has purchased TechTV and merged it with its fledging gaming network, G4TV. Regardless of the fact that gaming seems to be as important as movie watching, in terms of revenues, G4TV has never made it off the ground, probably because Comcast itself has offered it for extra, in a package with other truly unattractive channels. The merger was completed in May 2004, and the network became known as G4TechTV. At that time, many known personalities left TechTV, while others were being fired. Only roughly 100 of them remained, after agreeing to move from San Francisco to L.A. These were fired later, in November, when more TechTV shows were canceled. As of now, Comcast has managed to get rid of all non-gaming content with the exception of The Screen Savers, which suffered three rounds of layoffs and replacements, and which is currently a good candidate for cancellation. Small wonder, considering that G4TechTV is currently tied for the last position in the Nielsen Media Ratings, with a 0.1 rating (for comparison, the highest rated, Nicolodeon, has ratings of 1.8 to 2.1). According to the buzz on the G4 official boards, as of January 2005 the channel would go back to its original name, G4TV.

So let's recapitulate: within 9 months, management spends a third of its free cash flow, $300 million, to purchase a TV channel. Then it spends considerable time and effort to fire nearly everybody and cancel all the shows that were carried over, and tops it with killing off its last remains. All that for absolutely no effect. This tells me one thing: Comcast runs by itself, not due to superb management. In fact, the management seems to be more a hinderance to the company than a boon. It's too bad that it took the destruction of an entire TV channel to alert me of this, but now I'll know: Comcast is not on my list of potential stock investments.
December 25, 2004 at 11:18 pm by Jozef

Cell phones on planes
So the FCC is thinking about lifting restrictions on cell phone usage on planes. Lotsa people think it's a Very Bad Idea (TM), and I don't blame them. I get annoyed when people standing in the same checkout line as me talk on their cell phones; I'd be uber-annoyed if I sat between two such people on a plane. However, I realize that no matter how many people would protest, the silent majority would have its way once again, and in a few years we'll view cell phones on airplanes as the necessary evil. There may be a major behavioral shift, though.

Currently, there is a certain sense of decency on planes. People who'd otherwise bump into you on the sidewalk and called you an asshole suddenly care about you enough to allow you your 12 inches and access to the bathroom once in a while. They do so because you are all closed in a tiny space without a painless exit strategy, and for the next few hours you could be quite unpleasant if they didn't extend some rudimentary courtesy to you. However, cell phone talkers would change this. They think that their habit is a God given right, and they won't care a bit how annoying they can be. Tese people will become the tipping point in air travel courtesy. Suddenly, nobody will feel obliged to be nice or at least neutral to their fellow travelers, and we'll be up for some interesting times in the air. Here's a few things I expect would become commonplace:

* People talking on their cellphones, really loudly, because of the plane noises and others talking on their respective phones.
* Other people listening to loud music. Preferably using those headphones that don't fit smugly on their ears, and half of the noise escapes to their environment. This will cause people talk even more loudly on their cellphones.
* People will stop passing food to each other. It's hard to do so when they talk on the phone on the same time. Anti-phone people at the windows may "accidentally" dump some of the food on the cell phone talkers' laps.
* Farting will become commonplace. What's a better way to annoy people you don't like than to fart at them in a place where they can't escape it?
* All these may escalate into shouting matches and the exchange of a few punches. Especially people like me, who are capable of being smugly pleasant as a means of provocation, will often be in the middle of such scuffles, and hopefully will end up being the "victims who had the right to defend themselves". So if you like to be on your cell phone all the time, try not to sit close to me on a plane.
December 20, 2004 at 3:22 am by Jozef

What were they thinking?
I just had the very doubious pleasure to watch Dungeons and Dragons. Everybody and their dog knows by now that it's one of the most pretentious movies ever made. It was hyped like the best movie since Star Wars, and it turned out to be one of the worst pieces of shit ever released. The script wasn't too bad, by Hollywood standards, so I can understand how the producers could sign up such a good cast of bum actors. However, giving the direction to a first-timer and giving him enough control to squish any attempt at acting is inconceivable. Still, terrible mistakes have been done before, and even though they should warrant a decade or two of hard labor in North Korea, they are explainable. What I don't understand is how could anybody give the director another shot at making a new movie?!
December 18, 2004 at 4:50 pm by Jozef

Merry Christmas!
Who'd ever thought that Christmas would be such a polarizing issue one day. From people outlaving the word "Christmas" and banning Christmas carrols, to people threatening to boycott stores that replaced "Christmas" to "Holidays", everybody seems to be up in arms about the issue

Here's a newsflash for those who are fighting to stop CHristmas from disappearing: Christmas as a traditional holiday has died a long time ago. It has died when baby Jesus was replaced by an obese retiree in a red suit, and when nativity scenes on the front lawn were exchanged for reindeer and snowmen. Stores and all "Holidays" zealots are just reacting to the changing society. If you really want to resurrect Christmas, launch a bottoms-up capmaign that starts at your home and your front lawn, and not from top down.

And while you are at it, have a Merry Christmas everyone.
December 16, 2004 at 7:30 pm by Jozef

Asshole of the moment

A florida driver, Scott Eisenberg, who ran over a motorcyclist who ended up on the hood of his car, kept yelling at the driver to stop, but the driver just shook him off and kept on driving for another 20 miles before getting stopped by the police. I fail to see how such people retain the right to breath air, much less to have a driving license.
December 8, 2004 at 3:45 pm by Jozef

A modest proposal
How about putting big cages into the Pistons stadium and keep the Detroit fans locked there until the games are over? And while you are at it, please somebody castrate this idiot fan, so that he's taken out of the human genepool.
November 20, 2004 at 2:45 pm by Jozef

A few observations
* Saturday Night Live has had the weakest opening I can remember last night. The five minutes "presidential debate" was very unfunny, mainly due to the very poor impersonation of George W. Bush.
* Blizzard has won a lawsuit against Bnetd. The court ruled that end-user license agreements are legally enforceable, including provisions against first sale and fair use rights. This may shut down used games markets, such as eBay and Amazon Marketplace. I personally am very happy that I prefer independent games.
* Speaking of used games markets, recently people were discussing the upcoming rise in game prices. Pretty much everybody said that they were already purchasing used or budget games, and that the price hike wouldn't affect them. If that's so, who's buying new games?
* And one more thing about games: Silent Storm is finally receiving the word of mouth it deserves. However, at the same time people who praise it also disclose that the game uses Starforce protection and advise others to wait for a budget re-release, which will hopefully lack this protection.
* Yesterday, I was scanning some slides of mine, and noticed that each of the image files of over 100MB turned out to be corrupted. I'd love to know what's causing it, so that I can bitch about that bug.
October 3, 2004 at 3:37 pm by Jozef

The Sims 2 warning
The wonderful people at Electronic Arts have finally released The Sims 2. Too bad that they forgot to disclose that there is a chance the game won't run on your computer. I'll be waiting for a patch fixing this issue before bothering with the game...
September 20, 2004 at 9:28 pm by Jozef

Time for some good computer games
My newest issue of the Independent Adventuring monthly has been released. If you are up to a few weeks of free, high-quality gaming, check it out.
September 10, 2004 at 12:11 am by Jozef