Category: commerce
04/27/07 07:30 - 50ºF - ID#39063
i fucking hate radio shack
I have a bit of a problem: I need to run 250ft of video cable all over the roller rink. I was able to buy 500ft of RG-6 coaxial cable at Home Depot for $40, but I still needed ends. (e:ih8gates) was awesome enough to lend me his crimper and seven BNC connectors, but I needed one more, and some BNC-to-RCA adapters. I went to no less than five Radio Shacks through Hell and high water and could find only one BNC connector between them. It should be mentioned at this point that BNC connectors multiply in drawers the way coat hangers multiply in closets . Last night we discovered that the one connector that was provided by the combined efforts of a half-dozen Radio Shack outlets - had a short.
At some point I decided it would be a perfect business model to run a chain of stores exactly like Radio Shack, except where Radio Shack was terrible, these stores would be the opposite of that. This is no longer necessary. There is a place you can go where they know what you are talking about, they have what you need, and it is not gold plated for maximum markup. There is a weird little building down by GM Powertrain with a sign that says 'Radio Equipment Corporation - Public Welcome.' The public does not feel welcome - the parking lot is around back, there are no windows, and the door does not say 'Entrance.' One gets a sense from the Radio Equipment Corporation that buying BNC connectors is akin to buying weapons-grade enriched plutonium, and thus should be carried out hush-hush. But when you get inside, it nearly looks like a store, with rows of cardboard boxes full of stuff you could never possibly need, because you never know. The weird dude behind the counter assumes you know what you're talking about, because he does too. I get the feeling that if you didn't know what you were talking about, he could still help you. I told him if I ever have to go to Radio Shack again I'd murder someone. He understood.
Radio Equipment Corporation - 196 Vulcan St - 874-2690
- Z
Permalink: i_fucking_hate_radio_shack.html
Words: 527
Location: Buffalo, NY
Category: wang
04/25/07 04:35 - 46ºF - ID#39040
woh
- Z
Permalink: woh.html
Words: 10
Location: Buffalo, NY
Category: politics
04/24/07 03:03 - 55ºF - ID#39027
a substitute for political commentary
I think it would be great to start a 'political cartoon' of sorts with no actual commentary or talent - just a picture of today's top headline with googly eyes. You probably think that's stupid, but I bet the comment threads would be incendiary enough to generate and maintain significant traffic. How many steps does it take to get from 'Alberto Gonzales has googly eyes' to ' (e:zobar) is an America-hating fascist?'
- Z
Permalink: a_substitute_for_political_commentary.html
Words: 78
Location: Buffalo, NY
Category: geeky
04/22/07 09:47 - 60ºF - ID#39008
perverse
I have begun a perverse new project which I call Billustrator, a simple drawing program with a familiar interface:
It is written in Java, and thus runs on Mac OS X and Linux as well as Windows. It will be small and lightweight, so that users can do simple editing quickly. The architecture is extensible by design, and so it is not limited by its own assumptions. I think it would be keen to be able to embed it into web pages as an applet, and thus enhance the graphic capabilities of this 'Web 2.0' nonsense. [Along the lines of the (e:strip) chalkboard, only more so.]
(e:dragonlady7) thought I was cracked, until this afternoon when she said she needed to crop & scale an image and had to resort to Photoshop. I guarantee that Billustrator could have had the job done before Photoshop had even finished launching.
The main UI is nearly done, and all the commands and tools are stubbed out. Even the builtins are implemented as plugins, so the plugin architecture is coming along as well and should end up very robust. More details [or not] as they become available [or don't].
- Z
Permalink: perverse.html
Words: 204
Location: Buffalo, NY
Category: awesome
04/18/07 11:28 - 38ºF - ID#38938
1 ring...1 steel cage...8 wrestlers...and YOU!
My money's on Dick the Destroyer or Unnamed Wrestler #4 [with the feather boa].
- Z
Permalink: 1_ring_1_steel_cage_8_wrestlers_and_YOU_.html
Words: 55
Location: Buffalo, NY
Category: hassled by the man
04/11/07 12:03 - 32ºF - ID#38845
some fuckin' people
Next red light I was not so lucky. Homeboy comes charging out of his car and starts slamming on my side window. Reassuring words from the passenger side: 'he's wearing a police badge...' Fine, I roll down the window. Homeboy starts howling about everything under the moon but I think all I did was give him a blank stare. Light turns green and he books down Kenmore 50mph.
Instant poll: DWI off-duty cop with a Napoleon complex? Or a flabby ex-gay-costume-stripper bitter about his long-past glory days?
- Z
Permalink: some_fuckin_people.html
Words: 159
Location: Buffalo, NY
Category: the liberal media
04/10/07 04:49 - 41ºF - ID#38837
i work for the liberal media
Trust me, we don't care. This means you, (e:james,38834)
[I found this ad on an article about the May postage rate increase. Apparently it's only the maverick alternative conservative media with the harbls to cover postage rate increases.]
- Z
Permalink: i_work_for_the_liberal_media.html
Words: 43
Location: Buffalo, NY
Category: a series of tubes
04/06/07 04:04 - 25ºF - ID#38775
im in ur internets
Permalink: im_in_ur_internets.html
Words: 7
Location: Buffalo, NY
Category: television
04/03/07 12:08 - 49ºF - ID#38727
damn fine coffee
The Twin Peaks Season 2 DVD is now finally shipping for those of you who already own Season 1. For boneheads like me who were waiting until Season 2 came out to buy both, Season 1 is totally sold out and is fetching around $100 on eBay. I asked some random dude about it and he said if you don't have Season 1 already he'd recommend waiting for the full box set in October.
- Z
_______________
New user sound: 'Falling' by Angelo Badalamenti gather:0667080001175616651
Permalink: damn_fine_coffee.html
Words: 113
Location: Buffalo, NY
Category: roller derby
04/02/07 10:44 - 47ºF - ID#38716
for the lamos who lamed out on us
Permalink: for_the_lamos_who_lamed_out_on_us.html
Words: 15
Location: Buffalo, NY
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ps i have about a dozen BNC's in my desk drawer i'd send you but it probably would be too late... :)
Until you have worked at Radio Shack, you have no idea of the kind of pain the can inflict.
You think the BNC shit is bad? Back when I worked there in '99, they were still running an old Xenix system of an old tandy with a floppy tape for backup. None of the fucking machines that had set up as the registers could fucking read CD-ROMS. So guess what--customer asks you some kind of question about an obscure part, we had to get the manager to find the key to the display cabinets for the computers we sold (we displayed shells of computers, the actually ones were in a cabinet below), log out of the demo flash program (which was the only thing a prospective buyer could actually play with), and stick the CD-ROM in the display machine and then look up their question. Even more dumb, when we finally were transitioning to a windows system, we replaced the old tandy computers running Xenix terminals with blazing fast pentium 75's. Yup, that's right, the company was so incredibly fucking stupid that they actually bought the machines that would run the software at the time they were first drawing up the requirements for the software itself. By the time they had written the first alpha, the machines were already obsolete. And in regards to the software, we weren't allowed to use the word 'bugs'; we to use the term 'issues'. My experiences at radio shack taught me that one important thing: that there is no "The Man". Corporations really aren't evil, just unbelievably stupid. To damn stupid for anyone's own damn good.
As for the lack of knowlegable staff, it's always a catch-22. A really knowledgable staff person, if they were really knowlegable enough to answer hard questions, would probably work for people who would pay much more than the almost-minimum wage Radio Shack. does. What are you really going to expect for $7.00/hr?