Fezmid

Oh yeah, that one's great too! "It's a CD player!" "Oooh, let me go get our albums!"

Despite the economy, good programmers are NOT a dime a dozen. That's just further proof that you know nothing about IT or the industry. "India" steared you towards the easiest solution - buy a new printer because your old one won't work. What would YOU have wanted them to do? I'm seriously curious what you think would've been "good customer service."

Target and Best Buy, both in MN...

Wow, I hadn't heard about Nortel... Pooj -- it sucks that you're out of a job, but you'll bounce back. Move to Minnesota and work for Best Buy. On second thought, with our weather, maybe not.

I have no problem admitting to enjoying all types of movies. I really enjoy "Never Been Kissed," and "Music and Lyrics." Does "Bring it On" count as a chick flick?

I'd second this. My wife works for a non-profit and got 4 weeks of vacation. A year or so later her boss said she would've given 5 weeks if my wife had asked. (why would she even SAY that after the fact?!)

-34F in Minnesota this morning... (although the lowest airport tempoerature was apparently -22F...) It warmed up though and is now +4F!!! I'm in favor of global warming....

Would you be willing to spend $500 on a printer that was supported for a long time if the consumables were cheaper? Most people woudn't - home printers are now generally disposable, and thus not supported long-term. I bought a nice high-end Brother laser printer back around 2002 or so. Cost me around $500-$600, and I've only had to buy one new toner cartridge (for about $60) - and that's with my wife starting and finishing her MBA in the process! I paid a lot up front, but not so much afterwards. You can still do that, but most people don't. I'm still not sure which is better, to be honest, although I do love this printer and will be sad when it dies or if it is no longer supported if I "upgrade" to Windows 7.

Right, and then you stopped paying for support, yet you still expect support on your cheap printer and 7 year old computer...? How many years should they be expected to support the stuff? Heck, the companies (ALL of them) stop supporting the stuff after a few years unless you upgrade. And I'm talking enterprise-class hardware/software. We have servers at my company that cost $500,000/each that we need to replace because they're no longer supported by the vendor (well, we COULD get support, but it's cheaper to just buy a new server). There's just no way that a company can support every peice of software and hardware for eternity. It's just not possible. And in fact, the problem wasn't even with Dell -- like I said, your real issue is with Canon (who made the printer and are resposible for writing the drivers) and/or Microsoft (who wrote the OS). Dell just sold you some silicon, so why are you blaming them? You simply do not understand how hardware/software work (which you admitted to earlier). I hate India outsourcing/offshoring as much as the next guy, but that had nothing to do with the situation you talked about. There was literally NOTHING that could be done. Your printer was no longer supported by the manufacturer, so no new drivers could be written. You really think companies should spend time/money (programmers are expensive) supporting a 7 year old printer.... Seriously?? A $109 printer in 2002 is a cheap peice of crap printer.

Yes -- the printer was so old that there were no drivers on the new OS to support it. People want cheap electronics ($50 printers! $300 PCs! YAY!!!), but then they get upset when there's no support behind it. Well, the company (Dell, in this case) needs to make a profit. If they're not going to make much on the sale of the equipment, they need to make it up in other areas -- and that's usually support. How can the company make money selling a printer for $50, but still writing drivers for it 6 years later? Dell can't, and the company that made the initial printer can't. It's not about customer service and tech support -- if you pay for it, you'll get it -- but most people don't want to pay for it.

Sweet, thanks for the heads up! I just set my DVR up (remotely - I love DirecTV )

You do realize that this has nothing to do with the PC and everything to do with the OS, right? A USB or Parallel port is the same regardless of who sells you the silicon.

If you work for the company you implied in your first post, then I've been told by our local rep that there's an awful lot of Apple laptops around campus too.... Which is extremely funny.

You know, when I was at my last company I was invited to a Lenovo seminar. I think they thought I had some sort of power to convince the company to buy their laptops, but I digress. The presentation was great. They talked about all of the little extra things they do to make their laptops better than the competition (Dell). Little things like trays that filter spilled liquids away from the electronics, better latching, and stronger plastic bezel. Then they gave everyone at the presentation (about a dozen people) a free laptop -- either the Thinkpad T61 or the X61. I took the T61, and I have to say I'm VERY impressed with it -- so much so that I'll probably buy another Lenovo when I need a new laptop. They're quite a bit more expensive compared to Dell (and I haven't had any problems with the two Dell laptops we have in the house), but they just feel like they're built better. I'm sold.

I'd get out of the car, tell my friend to drive the dying woman to the hospital and spend time with the woman of my dreams.

You might also want to look at a cruise. It's like a floating all-inclusive. My wife and I have been on two -- one to Alaska, and one to Hawaii (and back again). Both were awesome trips, and not all that expensive, relatively speaking. The 7 day Alaska trip (that stopped in Juneau, Skagway, and Ketchikan) was about $1,500/person, and the 14 day Hawaii trip (4 days on the water, 5 days in Hawaii, 4 days back on the water to SD) was about $1,600/person. That doesn't include shore excursions, but it does include all of your food, entertainment, etc (except for alcohol). Anyway, worth checking into it if you're not into the "lay on the beach" scene.

Am I the only one who doesn't think that 275 is really all that large, at least in regards to fitting in an MRI machine....? Heck, how many football players actually weight less than that? 5' is a bit short for that weight, but still, the story surprised me a bit. Based on this quote, I think it was just the lab tech being an ass: "The University of Kansas Hospital would not comment on Ragan’s claim, but said its MRI department does not know of any animal MRI in the Kansas City area that would scan a human."

Why didn't you just call FedEx and have them re-route the package instead of accepting delivery and re-shipping it?

It could also be that they don't deal with death very well and stayed away because they couldn't handle it. Funerals are there to help the living deal with the situation and move on. I wouldn't say that them not showing up is necessarily an ill reflection on them. Of course I know nothing about the situation, so maybe they're just jerks.

Everyone files a tax return... Why wouldn't it have helped the households most in need...?

Instead of the coupons I think it would've made more sense to give everyone a $40 tax credit. Saves the government money by not having to do the whole coupon thing with the overhead there, and then nobody complains about not getting a coupon. Of course not everyone gets a converter box either, so maybe it would've ended up costing more. Regardless, the government is making money from auctioning off the spectrum, so of course they should be paying for the transition. But let's get it done already - no more delays.

So what I'm reading here is to not waste my time with diet and excercise....? Seriously though, that sucks

So why is this different than what (allegedly) happened on the Neverland Ranch? Average 13 year old boy would be stronger than Mr. Jackson, no? So that means that wasn't a big deal, right?

Well to be fair, the kid wasn't her student in this case... Not that it makes it any better.

I guess I'm crazy too because there is no difference. In both instances you have an adult taking advantage of a child.