technology
posts related to technology.
New Website
Aug 19th
I have a new website devoted to nothing but video.
If you find something good use the form on the right side of the site to submit.
It should be fun. Thanks
Westinghouse Frustration
Apr 15th

I ordered a refurb Westinghouse 19” tv from eCost in February. When it showed up it had a problem. The tv would turn off by itself every minute or so. I called eCost and their policy is to have the customer send the tv to the manufacturer. So then I called Westinghouse. The emailed me a RMA number and I shipped the tv to them at my own expense. They said it usually only takes a week or two for repair or replacement.
This is when the nightmare starts. I called Westinghouse a week after sending the tv to check the status as they told me to. There was no status update so they requested one. I called again a week later on March 23rd. Same thing, no status update from the repair center and they would request one again. I know they signed for the tv on the 16th since I sent it via Fedex. I called again on March 31st and they said usually it would be done by now but there is still no update. This time she said she would request a corporate status update that should get things figured out and I could call back in 2-3 days for the results.
I called back on Friday April 3rd and there was no response from their corporate office. I expressed my frustration since they had the tv in their position for so long and didn’t even know where it was. I called back on the 8th and they still had no status and they said they would resubmit a request to the corporate office.
On Tuesday April 14th I called again and there was still no update. I asked to speak with a supervisor at this point. The customer service rep said the supervisor would say the same thing he did, to call back in 5 business days. I told him I still wanted to speak with a supervisor and he said someone would call me back.
Later on Tuesday I received a call from Corry, a supervisor. He said that he checked my status and there is nothing else he could do.
At this point I decided to call eCost since they had my money. I spoke with a rep and explained the situation. He said he would call Westinghouse while I was on the line. A supervisor Kelly pretty much said the exact same thing. I asked if they could send me a different refurbished tv and she said they couldn’t. I asked if they would call me when the status changed and she said she couldn’t. I asked if there was someone higher to talk to and she said Corry was her boss and there is nothing they can do.
I am completely frustrated at this point. I can’t get my money back from eCost since I can’t send the tv back to them. Westinghouse is useless in helping me. What is the point in having a customer service supervisor that is powerless to help the customer. Having the supervisor agree with me that it is ridiculous doesn’t really make me happy either.
I have no idea what to do now.
Amazon.com iPhone App
Dec 3rd

Amazon finally came out with an official iPhone application today. It works pretty well much like their iPhone ready website. A new feature that was introduced is the experimental “Amazon Remembers” feature.
With Amazon Remembers you can take a photo of a product anywhere and it is then uploaded to Amazon’s servers. From there some magic happens and usually within a few minutes there is a link to the product on Amazon.com. I was impressed with the accuracy when I tried it. I not only identified the sharpie I photographed but picked the correct size.
How does it work?
“We also use a community of real people to research your photo and try to match it to a similar product on Amazon.com”.
They are using their own service Mechanical Turk. Someone is sitting on the couch looking up your photo on Mechanical Turk and posting the link. Then magically it appears on your Amazon account. Turk really is “Artificial Artificial Intelligence”. Amazon is paying 10 cents to someone every time a link to the proper item on their website is identified and delivered to you.
Free Calls (sorta)
Dec 2nd

I purchased Walkietalkie on the iPhone for $1.99 last week. The application allows you to easily connect to the application on a Mac or Pc to talk for free. I know there are applications like Skype that do the same thing but both people are usually on a computer. I like this because I can be on the street somewhere talking to a friend in Taiwan that is on their computer or iPhone. Since my ATT iPhone plan has unlimited data I can bank tons of minutes by using walkietalkie. The application is extremely simple (under 700kb on a mac) but that is the beauty of it. Simple, stable and fast.
Check it out if you have an iPhone and can convince some friends and family to download the free tiny application to talk to you. Send me your username if you install and want to chat.
New MacBooks Leaked
Oct 14th

Just hours before the official announcement real (blurry) photos have been leaked of the new MacBook Pro. It looks like a really nice update. I hope the screen comes in matte as well as the pictured gloss. The gloss looks nice but the glare can be blinding. I hope these are shipping today as I am due for a new machine at work :)
via engadget







