Superfunkomatic - Observations of the Socially Inept » computer geekery http://www.superfunkomatic.com The Path Less Travelled – Accounts of Mind, Body and Spirit Fri, 21 Oct 2011 14:08:20 +0000 en-us hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Onion Takes the Piss Out of Apple http://www.superfunkomatic.com/2009/01/06/onion-takes-the-piss-out-of-apple/ http://www.superfunkomatic.com/2009/01/06/onion-takes-the-piss-out-of-apple/#comments Tue, 06 Jan 2009 17:58:36 +0000 superfunkomatic http://www.superfunkomatic.com/?p=349 On the day of MacWorld announcements, the Onion releases this video.


Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard

]]> http://www.superfunkomatic.com/2009/01/06/onion-takes-the-piss-out-of-apple/feed/ 0 LaCie Hard Drive Failure – Poor Product, Poor Customer Service http://www.superfunkomatic.com/2008/12/22/lacie-hard-drive-failure-poor-product-poor-customer-service/ http://www.superfunkomatic.com/2008/12/22/lacie-hard-drive-failure-poor-product-poor-customer-service/#comments Mon, 22 Dec 2008 21:57:03 +0000 superfunkomatic http://www.superfunkomatic.com/?p=344 Recently I had a LaCie Quadra 500GB External Hard Drive fail (500GB LaCie d2 HD QUADRA 7200RPM 16MB – 301110U). One might expect that the hard drive would stop working, but low and behold it’s the internal power and controller card – likely with a value of less than $20. The drive is only 2 weeks past the one year warranty period.

A quick search of the internet shows that this is quite a familiar issue with LaCie’s external drives of all types. Here are a few examples from a quick five minute search of the internet:

I’ve been able to pull the drive from the enclosure, buy a $40 replacement external enclosure and the drive works fine.

LaCie will not replace the drive or offer replacement internal parts, even if I am willing to pay for the parts and shipping. They will also not make any effort to salvage a customer relationship on a failed product that is only just slightly outside of the warranty period.

“Technology is not perfect and electronic devices can fail some last ten years other may only last ten minutes. We do our best to ensure that we send out a product that will last but, once it leaves our facility we can only react to failures and troubleshoot at that point.”

Basically what they are saying is “Buyer beware – expect failure! We do not guarantee our product will work for its intended use for any period of time once it’s assembled.”

I guarantee one thing from my end – I’ll never buy another product from this company. My hope is that others will be able to find this through a Google search and realize they too could be making a mistake by purchasing a product from LaCie. Word on the internet travels fast, Lacie!

]]> http://www.superfunkomatic.com/2008/12/22/lacie-hard-drive-failure-poor-product-poor-customer-service/feed/ 0 Ocarina – Blow Your iPhone, Create Music http://www.superfunkomatic.com/2008/12/16/ocarina-blow-your-iphone-create-music/ http://www.superfunkomatic.com/2008/12/16/ocarina-blow-your-iphone-create-music/#comments Tue, 16 Dec 2008 23:27:41 +0000 superfunkomatic http://www.superfunkomatic.com/?p=341 This is one of the coolest things i’ve seen for the iPhone. Blow lightly into the microphone and use the touchscreen to create notes of music.

Apparently this small developer has had 400,000 downloads at a buck a pop in the first month since its release.

Smule – Ocarina

Video example – Led Zepplin’s – Stairway to Heaven

]]> http://www.superfunkomatic.com/2008/12/16/ocarina-blow-your-iphone-create-music/feed/ 0 My ilove with the iphone http://www.superfunkomatic.com/2008/09/01/my-ilove-with-the-iphone/ http://www.superfunkomatic.com/2008/09/01/my-ilove-with-the-iphone/#comments Mon, 01 Sep 2008 19:40:12 +0000 superfunkomatic http://www.superfunkomatic.com/2008/09/01/my-ilove-with-the-iphone/ Well, I finally jumped ship from telus’ cellphone service. After almost ten years I’ve been wooed away by,you guessed it, the apple iPhone.

This is one of the coolest devices for remote communication on the market.

It’s a great cellphone but also really useful for weather,gps navigation and social networking/chat. I’ve had those functions on my old phone but they were cumbersome and limited in functionality.

Did I mention that it even supports wordpress blogging? I’m posting this first entry from the iphone. Extra cool for posting info to a classroom blog.

I’m excited to see how the iphone platform evolves into more advanced mobile computing.

]]> http://www.superfunkomatic.com/2008/09/01/my-ilove-with-the-iphone/feed/ 0 holy frickin’ updates batman http://www.superfunkomatic.com/2007/10/31/holy-frickin-updates-batman/ http://www.superfunkomatic.com/2007/10/31/holy-frickin-updates-batman/#comments Wed, 31 Oct 2007 23:39:15 +0000 superfunkomatic http://www.superfunkomatic.com/2007/10/31/holy-frickin-updates-batman/ well, being that i’m an early adopter, i decided last night to install the latest and greatest macintosh OS – 10.5 leopard. pretty slick, no problems with the install. then…

what the frick? now the websites don’t work, blogs don’t work, forums don’t work. the new operating system broke my webserver.

i freaked out, tried editing the files in apache. no avail. nothing is working. again WTF? i spent 4 hours monkeying with configuration files, reworking things and it still didn’t work.

turns out, 10.5 now uses apache 2.X, which i didn’t know. it no longer uses the old configuration files, didn’t read database connections, etc.

found a helpful post and was able to get everything up and running again in about an hour. if your stuck configuring a webserver on leopard mac OS 10.5 check out this link – http://www.procata.com/blog/archives/2007/10/28/working-with-php-5-in-mac-os-x-105/

]]> http://www.superfunkomatic.com/2007/10/31/holy-frickin-updates-batman/feed/ 0 takes a lickin’ and keeps on tickin’ http://www.superfunkomatic.com/2007/03/05/takes-a-lickin-and-keeps-on-ticking/ http://www.superfunkomatic.com/2007/03/05/takes-a-lickin-and-keeps-on-ticking/#comments Mon, 05 Mar 2007 15:37:56 +0000 superfunkomatic http://www.toolbarmedia.com/blogs/2007/03/05/takes-a-lickin-and-keeps-on-ticking/ my little school companion (small stanley), the macintosh G3 400 PowerBook laptop, has served me well. i bought it in 2000 when it was the second fastest laptop. well, i’m still using it today, even to post this very entry.

bit of a scare this morning. i had a bit of a spill on the way to school this morning on some ice and landed right on top of the laptop. heard a horrible snapping sound. opened my bag, no visibile damage. got to school and it fired right up. no problems at all.

talk about great engineering, having a 200 pound object fall on a 5 pound laptop and have it survive, unreal.

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