Hard News: Electrickery
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surely there is something remarkable in a politician responding to a campaign emergency with a sophisticated, positive and thoughtful piece of oratory, rather than the usual risible damage control.
That's the beauty of this campaign. Barack Obama can talk directly to his supporters and other voters via YouTube without having to reduce it to soundbites so his message gets through the MSM filtering. Was this speech written for CNN or for voters? It's great to see new technology encouraging more traditional and/or authentic oratory.
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Your only real hope of getting good advice in a regular consumer electronics store is to find one that has low staff attrition, if you can. At least that way you mind find a staff member who knows anything. However the standard model seems to be process an endless chain of young people who move on too quickly to develop any real depth of knowledge, so good luck
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I've given up speaking to anyone in big-chain electronics stores about anything but the price and the availability. On all other questions, the best they can do is waste your time and misinform you, I have found.
Smaller stores, particularly owner-operator, seem to have much better service.
I don't blame the staff. It's an inevitable consequence of the bewildering array of products, and the piss-poor pay. These days I only use such places as a way of getting a look at a product, then back to the net to research it, and find the cheapest source.
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the best they can do is waste your time and misinform you,
so true, if you need a reminder, ask them about hifi cabling, they will start talking about how much better monster cables are.....then you know most of their advice has been worthless.
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Noel Lemmings customer service is utterly mediocre, in my experience. I don't expect shop assistants to tell me their life story, but I do at least expect them to acknowledge my presence - I may, after all, be willing to splash out some money in their shop.
So poor is their reputation that I've mentioned the experience, without naming them, in other electronics chain shops and the staff there have always gone "Noel Lemmings, I presume?".
When I've gone to buy a computer and a digital camera in recent times, I've shopped at another big name electronics chain and the service has been really good, so sometimes the staff at chain shop can get it right.
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So, SJD are playing in Nelson on saturday? Impressive - they're also playing at Phoenix fest in AKLD on saturday too. Playing in both the North and South Island in the same day -how very rock n roll!
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Impressive - they're also playing at Phoenix fest in AKLD on saturday too. Playing in both the North and South Island in the same day -how very rock n roll!
Well, a direct flight from Auckland to Wellington is only 1.20 (but longer if you go via Wellington). So it could be done without having to involve dusting off a Concorde from an aero museum.
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The Obama speech is thirty-seven minutes long, which is a big deal on my poor little attention span when you include download time. So how many of the 4 million visits actually "read the whole thing"? Though 4 million shows of interest is still quite impressive.
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Even if you don't think the speech got Obama off the hook over his former pastor's unfortunate raving
Maybe I'm a communist or something, but I don't think Jeremiah Wright's preaching inhabited Crazyville. It was on Slightly Unbalanced Highway to Dodgytown with the HIV stuff (although: Tuskeegee, people), but really, the rest of it was pretty mild. Even 'God damn America', in context, makes perfect sense to me. (Plus there is a fairly clear double standard operating here: Wright is OMG TEH ANGRY BLACK MAN!, but all those religious-right pastors who are friends with the Republicans and blame terrorist attacks on Americans allowing feminism and liberalism to run amok are just loveable kooks?)
I think what was so great about that speech was the way it transcended the 'gotcha!' dumbassness of the US political process, and said 'wait. Let's do this differently'. And at the same time, he managed to talk about the way race has been used to make working-class people vote against their own self-interest. And, wonderfully, he didn't avoid the fact that we all know people who say dodgy things, and that distancing yourself from those people and yelling 'you're a racist!' doesn't help anyone or anything to change.
Basically, the more I read that speech, the more I love it. I think I might be a fangirl.
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My Noel Leeming experience: Went to store to buy new iPod Classic. After staring at display for awhile and not finding one, a staff member came over. I said I was looking to buy a iPod Classic, do they have any? He said I'd have to look it up on their website.
Your website? I said. But I'm in the store.
He mentioned something about the website listing stock of each store, then pointed to a computer in the corner.
You want me to look it up myself? I asked.
Yes he did. So I go over to the computer, have to launch Internet Explorer and TYPE IN www.noelleeming.co.nz myself, search for iPod Classic, and call him over. He makes a note of some code on the page, goes to the counter, types it in, and informs me, I quote, "you can't get them in New Zealand yet."
So I went down the road to Parallel Imported and bought one cheaper than their website was listing it for
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Sounds like peanuts & monkeys.
James who was the parallel importer?
Not to be out done I was in Dick Smith Riccarton and an older dude was looking at the cameras.
He asked for assistence and advice.
The attendant said no-one in the shop knew anything about camewas. All the time he had a smug "What you gonna do?" smile.
Still looking for a cheap laptop & don't really need it except i keep losing my memory sticks as they're too small.
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The attendant said no-one in the shop knew anything about camewas. All the time he had a smug "What you gonna do?" smile.
When we were looking at cameras, Smiths City was offering a good deal on one that sounded about right. We went in, were treated like morons (we were using terminology the staff member didn't understand, like the difference between digital and optical zoom).
We went to the Bond and Bond next door. Told them Smiths City had what we wanted cheaper, but we didn't want to buy it from them, and what could they do. They knocked the price down and threw in a bunch of extra stuff as well.
That's what I'm going to bloody do, thanks.
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I think I've got to the point where I can't buy any product without using the Internet for research (if not purchase). Given the Obama example maybe that should apply to political candidates as well as TVs!
Most consumer products are sold on low margins. There isn't much budget left for service, let alone support. I once spoke to a product manager at a computer company who worked out if they got two service calls (simply phone calls) after selling a PC, they'd lose money on the sale. If NL takes two hours to do paperwork I expect that will be showing up in their bottom line and if not fixed will sink them.
Even if I do strike a good sales person in a shop, I generally want the best deal I can get for my dollars. I feel guilty using up their time to educate me on features when I'm likely to go and buy the product elsewhere.
If you don't have the Internet and want a hassle-free purchase, I don't there's much choice but to rely on the Goodsonnet (or equivalent).
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I recommend the Obama speech. I think it has validity for New Zealand.
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Danielle - I agree. I couldn't see much wrong with the speech either.
I'm sure my American cousins would differ though - ones in the Marines after all & Iraq is not a subject we talk about.Anyone else get visions of Ronald Reagans dementia when hearing Hillary recall her heroics?
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"Maybe I'm a communist or something, but I don't think Jeremiah Wright's preaching inhabited Crazyville. It was on Slightly Unbalanced Highway to Dodgytown with the HIV stuff (although: Tuskeegee, people), but really, the rest of it was pretty mild. Even 'God damn America', in context, makes perfect sense to me."
Great point, and any new president regardless of colour is going to have to deal to the aspirations of the U.S black community. It's a political issue that is well overdue for purposeful remedy. I don't think that makes you a communist , a progressive i think they like to call that kind of point of view these days.To deal with reality or not to deal with reality?
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Sue,
my trick is ask a question you know the answer to
ask it and when they get it right or say they don't know but can find out = jump for joy
when they get it wrong
= inform them of the correct answer and ask them how much they want to sell this to you for a discount -
Sue,
nicely done emma
I'm adding that to my list of things to do :D -
Maybe I'm a communist or something, but I don't think Jeremiah Wright's preaching inhabited Crazyville.
Same....the HIV stuff asude, you hear or read more devoid of rationale craziness every day in the NY Post or, for that matter, the average White House press conference.
I'm not sure why confronting the word 'why' is so crazy.
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Maybe I'm a communist or something, but I don't think Jeremiah Wright's preaching inhabited Crazyville. It was on Slightly Unbalanced Highway to Dodgytown with the HIV stuff (although: Tuskeegee, people)
Tuskegee was awful, although it didn't, as is often thought, involve the US government infecting black men with syphillis -- just leaving them untreated for years, when there were effective treatments available.
It's still a bit of a jump from there to the US government creating the HIV virus "as a means of genocide against people of color".
I'm squeamish about preachers, i guess. But it should be pointed out that McCain has the plumb-crazy hate-preacher Rev Hagee on his side, and Hilary has consorted with some freaky religious types too.
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Writing about HDMI and hi-def media from the manufacturing side is part of my bread and butter. I'm often surprised how much confusion exists within the industry. It's hardly surprising that those on the retail end people are far behind the eight ball.
Perhaps there's an opportunity in NZ for an operation similar to Circuit City's Geek Squad in the U.S.
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just leaving them untreated for years, when there were effective treatments available.
An 'unfortunate experiment'...
I'm as squeamish as the next person about preachers and the invisible bearded dude in the sky, but they're just a fact of life in US politics. And everyone knows that progressive movements in the USA have often used Christianity as an inspiration, so it's not all hatemongering. In any case, I think Obama distanced himself perfectly adequately from Wright's most extreme views, while eloquently explaining why Wright might hold them.
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Gotta agree with Danielle, Shep and Simon about the Rev Wright. While some of his comments appear questionable and delusional (belief in a higher power?) it's nothing comapred to Powell, Cheney, et al, whose rhetoric about Iraq and WMD's and Iraq's ties to AQ have led to the deaths of thousands.
And to make matters worse plenty of Republicans and Democrats consistently make insane comments about the threat of Iran. That is far more worrying than anything Wright has ever said.
I also marvel at the hypocrisy involved when the people who have a problem with Wright talking about "chickens coming home to roost" are often the same ones who were completely in favour of the US bombing of Afghanistan following 9/11.
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"Maybe I'm a communist or something, but I don't think Jeremiah Wright's preaching inhabited Crazyville. It was on Slightly Unbalanced Highway to Dodgytown with the HIV stuff (although: Tuskeegee, people), but really, the rest of it was pretty mild. Even 'God damn America', in context, makes perfect sense to me."
I'll dissent from you there Danielle (and you're not a communist - well, not a big one): Wright is bugshit crazy. Sorry, but I've had a dear friend die of AIDS and if the HIV virus was some kind of CIA plot to exterminate black folks they really went FUBAR.
But, OTOH, I don't agree with every bloody word that comes out of the mouths of the drivelling pisspots that pass for the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference. If that makes me a bad Catholic, tough, because I've also known Catholic clergymen who have been (yes) spiritual mentors. And damn good people.
It would be nice of some folks got their heads around the notion that you can respect people without expecting - or even wanting them - to be saints. But I won't hold my breath waiting.
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Gotta agree with Danielle, Shep and Simon about the Rev Wright. While some of his comments appear questionable and delusional (belief in a higher power?) it's nothing comapred to Powell, Cheney, et al, whose rhetoric about Iraq and WMD's and Iraq's ties to AQ have led to the deaths of thousands.
Bennett:
Go sing that song in fucking Africa where misinformation, conspiracy theories and quackery around AIDS/HIV are responsible for misery and death that is affecting millions. If I had my way, Thabo Mbeki would be in The Hague right now being charged with crimes against humanity.
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