To The Guy Who Tailgated Me For 20 Miles

To the guy who tailgated me for 20 miles this morning...
I get it. You wanted to go faster, and given that you drive a Mitsubishi Lancer maybe you are under the impression that you are fast and/or furious. I’m the guy who was in front of you for 20 miles from Alpine Junction to Ithaca, driving at various speeds with the constant being that you were so close to my rear end it felt like I was trapped in a changing room with Richard Simmons.
We met at 61 mph, a nice speed for Route 13 — fast enough to not take forever and slow enough to go unremarked by the many police who patrol that road. You were unsatisfied and expressed it by staying a cool 5 feet off my bumper. I slowed down gradually to 55 mph. This was one of several opportunities to pass me, but you just slowed down too and stayed back there like you wanted to turn on a Sting album and spoon me. So I sped up again hoping that you’d get the message and let me keep the distance I had won between us…but no, you are a jealous sharer of the road, Mitsubishi Lancer. You caught up. For 10 more miles we were like cellmates and you tried to make me your bitch, but all you succeeded in doing was going 13 miles an hour slower than when you started tailgating me. How did that work out for you?
Coming down the hill into Ithaca I sped up again, figuring you’d been punished enough. So when you tried to give me the Sneaky Pete again, I admit I lost my cool and touched the brake for the first time. I hope you spilled your coffee on what I imagine were your Faded Glory pleated khaki pants. Then, in the two-lane road in town you didn’t go around. You proceeded to follow me all the way to my parking place before giving me a look and going on your way to, I assume, the DMV where you work.
I offer you these common sense tips:
1. Tailgating is a dick move, and it’s even more of a dick move if the guy in front of you is already well above the speed limit on a well-patrolled road.
2. If you are tailgating someone and they slow down, that’s your cue to pass and if you can’t pass, well then screw you because you are being a dick anyway.
3. It actually makes sense to leave some distance for you too. Have you seen all the deer carcasses on the road? That’s because cars hit them. If a deer jumps in front of me and I have to slam on the brakes, I don’t want you crashing into me. Based on your body, your reaction time is only fast in World of Warcraft.

Ex Geek Squad Employee Tells All

Alright, I am a Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator (MCSA) and full time student at New Horizons getting certified in Linux and Cisco Systems. I have lived entirely off of eBay for the past year and a half and last month I decided to take a job on the side to help pay some bills while attending school. I got a referral from my "Placement Coordinator" at New Horizons for a job as a Geek Squad agent at Best Buy. After 3 interviews and numerous certification exams, I was in. I was the only one out of 34 applicants from New Horizons alone to be accepted.

From day one, I was absolutely amazed at what Geek Squad really does. They are absolutely NOT technicians. Agents are not certified in computer repair or diagnostics! They are certified in sales, customer profiling, and situational tactics. I kid you not! I had to take 2 (100 question) exams based entirely on "expected computer repair costs from urban environments in today's economy" and how to get the upper hand. Needless to say, I quit today after 52 days of work.

So here is what I have say about Geek Squad:

1. DO NOT take your computer to Geek Squad for a software issue!

Reason: Geek Squad charges $70 for a diagnostic (which is a program built into every computer's BIOS, it's nothing special). A "Repair" (which is just removing virus infections or reinstalling the OS if needed) is $130. A grand total of $200. And that's only if you don't care that they wipe the hard drive clean! If you have ANY files that you want backed up, even 2-3 pictures, it will cost you AT LEAST another $100. And the "Advanced Data Management Transfer" that they mention is just dragging and dropping your files onto a DVD and burning it. If your OS is corrupt and you can't get to your files, move the HDD to another computer and drag-&-drop your files over. DON'T take it to the Geek Squad.

2. Geek Squad CANNOT do ANY hardware repairs in-store.

Reason: Any client with a hardware issue must send their unit to service; A: for liability reasons and B: because no agent is trained in hardware repair. It takes AT LEAST 2 1/2 weeks to get a response from service and again, you will be charged to backup files.

3. Never have an "Optimization" done by Geek Squad.

Reason: Whenever you purchase a new computer from Best Buy, you are pressured into thinking that the computer already has issues. Best Buy's salespeople will say: "Oh this computer really needs a new PC setup to create a user account and an optimization to speed it up, oh and you HAVE to get an anti-virus program, and you won't be able to type anything without Microsoft Office". It's absolute bullshit.

Here's what we do for an optimization:

-Open up the control panel and uninstall trial software
-Remove unwanted desktop icons and shortcuts
-Run Windows Updates

That's it.

4. Agents DO lie to customers!

During my fist interview, I was asked by our SSM how much I normally charge to backup someone's files and install an upgraded operating system on a computer with a virus. I said $50, because that's what I always charge. It's not difficult and it doesn't take very long. Well, I was told that the store would charge $600!!! Here's the layout:

1. Diagnostic and Repair (to find and remove the virus) - $200
2. Backup Files (drag-&-drop) - $150
3. Perform a clean install of a new OS - $130 (which would format the HDD and remove the virus anyway)
4. Purchase the operating system ($120 for a standard edition of Windows 7)
-If you just want a restore, they HAVE to have your original recovery discs (that aren't included in 50% of new computers) and all they do is put the discs in and hit "Run".

All for a whopping $600... the price of a brand new badass computer with every bell and whistle available. It's insane, absolutely insane.

Here's what I was told: 90% of people don't know anything about computers. They know that technology is a huge industry and it is commonly expensive. The fact is, people are dumb, they don't know anything about computers so we have the upper hand. If a customer comes in with a computer and says it's slow, just open up Computer Management, find some random errors and say "Oh yeah, you have a really bad virus, your banking information is vulnerable". And they will pay whatever it takes to get their files back and for their computer to be safe.

And let me tell you a little secret: There is only ONE tool that Geek Squad uses that isn't readily available to the public. It's called "MRI" and you know what? It's all over the internet. Search for MRI on isohunt.com and you'll find it. Most of the time a new updated version of MRI is available online long before it hits the store!

So all I really have to say is: Stay away from Geek Squad. If you have computer issues, look on Craigslist, find someone who knows what their doing and get it done quick and cheap. I live in Gainesville FL and know for a fact that there are at least 1,000 UF students that could do everything Geek Squad does in about an hour for $20 or so. Don't trust Geek Squad!!!

-Ryan MacNeille - thetechstop.info

Obama Isn't What You May Think

I have this theory about Barack Obama. I think he's
led a kind of make-believe life in which money was
provided and doors were opened because at some point
early on somebody or some group took a look at this
tall, good looking, half-white, half-black, young man
with an exotic African/Muslim name and concluded he
could be guided toward a life in politics where his
facile speaking skills could even put him in the White
House. 

In a very real way, he has been a young man in a very
big hurry. Who else do you know has written two memoirs
before the age of 45? "Dreams of My Father" was
published in 1995 when he was only 34 years old. The
"Audacity of Hope" followed in 2006. If, indeed, he did
write them himself. There are some who think that his
mentor and friend, Bill Ayers, a man who calls himself
a "communist with a small 'c'" was the real author. 

His political skills consisted of rarely voting on
anything that might be deemed controversial.. He went
from a legislator in the Illinois legislature to the
Senator from that state because he had the good fortune
of having Mayor Daley's formidable political machine at
his disposal. 

He was in the U.S.. Senate so briefly that his bid for
the presidency was either an act of astonishing
self-confidence or part of some greater game plan that
had been determined before he first stepped foot in the
Capital. How, many must wonder, was he selected to be a
2004 keynote speaker at the Democrat convention that
nominated John Kerry when virtually no one had ever
even heard of him before? 

He outmaneuvered Hillary Clinton in primaries. He took
Iowa by storm. A charming young man, an anomaly in the
state with a very small black population, he oozed
"cool" in a place where agriculture was the antithesis
of cool. He dazzled the locals.. And he had an army of
volunteers drawn to a charisma that hid any real
substance.. 

And then he had the great good fortune of having the
Republicans select one of the most inept candidates for
the presidency since Bob Dole. And then John McCain did
something crazy. He picked Sarah Palin, an unknown
female governor from the very distant state of Alaska .
It was a ticket that was reminiscent of 1984's Walter
Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro and they went down to
defeat. 

The mainstream political media fell in love with him.
It was a schoolgirl crush with febrile commentators
like Chris Mathews swooning then and now over the man.
The venom directed against McCain and, in particular,
Palin, was extraordinary. 

Now, nearly a full year into his first term, all of
those gilded years leading up to the White House have
left him unprepared to be President. Left to his own
instincts, he has a talent for saying the wrong thing
at the wrong time. It swiftly became a joke that he
could not deliver even the briefest of statements
without the ever-present Tele-Prompters. 

Far worse, however, is his capacity to want to "wish
away" some terrible realities, not the least of which
is the Islamist intention to destroy America and
enslave the West. Any student of history knows how
swiftly Islam initially spread. It knocked on the doors
of Europe , having gained a foothold in Spain .. 

The great crowds that greeted him at home or on his
campaign "world tour" were no substitute for having
even the slightest grasp of history and the reality of
a world filled with really bad people with really bad
intentions. 

Oddly and perhaps even inevitably, his political
experience, a cakewalk, has positioned him to destroy
the Democrat Party's hold on power in Congress because
in the end it was never about the Party. It was always
about his communist ideology, learned at an early age
from family, mentors, college professors, and extreme
leftist friends and colleagues. 

Obama is a man who could deliver a snap judgment about
a Boston police officer who arrested an "obstreperous"
Harvard professor-friend, but would warn Americans
against "jumping to conclusions" about a mass murderer
at Fort Hood who shouted "Allahu Akbar." The absurdity
of that was lost on no one. He has since compounded
this by calling the Christmas bomber "an isolated
extremist" only to have to admit a day or two later
that he was part of an al Qaeda plot. 

He is a man who could strive to close down our
detention facility at Guantanamo even though those
released were known to have returned to the battlefield
against America .. He could even instruct his Attorney
General to afford the perpetrator of 9/11 a civil trial
when no one else would ever even consider such an
obscenity. And he is a man who could wait three days
before having anything to say about the perpetrator of
yet another terrorist attack on Americans and then have
to elaborate on his remarks the following day because
his first statement was so lame. 

The pattern repeats itself. He either blames any
problem on the Bush administration or he naively seeks
to wish away the truth.

Knock, knock. Anyone home? Anyone there? Barack Obama
exists only as the sock puppet of his handlers, of the
people who have maneuvered and manufactured this
pathetic individual's life. 

When anyone else would quickly and easily produce a
birth certificate, this man has spent over a million
dollars to deny access to his. Most other documents,
the paper trail we all leave in our wake, have been
sequestered from review. He has lived a make-believe
life whose true facts remain hidden. 

We laugh at the ventriloquist's dummy, but what do you
do when the dummy is President of the United States of
America?