Oh noes! Say it isn’t so. Part the sixth of The HitchHiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, “And Another Thing“.
Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely adore the series. But, I mourn Douglas’ passing each year. This book will not, cannot be in the same galaxy as Douglas’ work. I cringe fearfully of what will come this October.
I’d forgotten that I had signed up for the JoliCloud1 Beta a couple of months ago when I was trying to decide on a Netbook vs. a MacBook. Apple won and Steve has my money, but I got my JoliCloud Beta invite a couple of days ago.
The OS still looked cute and highly polished, if only in a GUI way. So I decided to try it out. Virtualization for the win!
Problem: Most Virts don’t like USB keys, at least not for booting. And that is precisely what JoliCloud needs. A bootable USB key.
Solution: After trying a variety of solutions with minimal success I found that the IMG file that you get from JoliCloud, you do have beta access right?, is a bootable HDD file that VirtualBox will recognize. So here are the steps I took:
Pretty simple really. Glad I thought of it!
Really tho, VirtualBox, while nice is painfully slow. If you want to try out JoliCloud, build the USB key, walk into a BestBuy and reboot a machine into it. That is the only way to test it’s speed etc. Just don’t install it onto the store’s netbooks. It’s not nice to tease the GeekSquad nerds.
Okay, my free time is officially over. I got my Beta invite to Dungeons & Dragons Online.
See you next year.
You may have seen the comercials, or perhsp heard the radio spots on any Rogers’ owned station. “Buy our Home Phone Classic Value Plan. And save $25 over Bell’s comparable plan.” I call shenanigans on that right there.
First of all, much like a pop band who’s third album is called ‘Classic Hits’, can you really call a package ‘Classic Value’ when you’ve been selling home phone service for less than three years?
But let’s ignore that for now. Let’s debunk the claims…
| Bell | Rogers | |
|---|---|---|
| Plan | Lite | Classic Value |
| Cost | $22.95 | $24.95 |
| LD Min | 0 | 500 |
Rogers says you save $25/mn based on a comparable plan. The key word here is comparable.Rogers is able to compare it’s plans (and it does have one that is even cheaper: $21.95 w/ 250 LD mins) against Bell’s plans + long distance because all of the Rogers plans come with some minutes.
You can save $25 a month because the Home Phone Challenge1 automatically adds Bell’s $19.95 Unlimited Long Distance Minutes package. (This is hilarious because they offer the exact same package but don’t select it by default when you take the challenge.)
If you deselect any of the features (voicemail, call waiting, etc) you will compare the Basic Value package against Bell. But even then, you are forced to select at least one long distance package from Bell for comparison purposes. I understand the ‘white’ side of this lie. You want to compare apple to apples. Rogers’ plans all come with long distance whether you want it or not.
You only save money over Bell because they are forcing you to take long distance minutes even if you don’t use them.
I hate these kind of mistruths in advertising. If I was an uninformed consumer and walked into a Rogers store and wanted to save my $25/mn and switched, the odds are I wouldn’t be saving much more than five bucks. If I didn’t care about long distance, the most I’d save is a dollar.
But in reality it is worse than that:
| Bell | Rogers | |
|---|---|---|
| Plan | Lite | Basic Value |
| Details | Price: $17.95
System Access Fee: $5.95 Rogers forgets to mention that their $21.95 is based on a bundle price with internet. So that drops Bell down to $17.95 a month… Invoice: $23.90 |
Price: $21.95
Other Fees: $0.41 System Access Fee (non-government fee): $5.95 Includes 250 North American Long Distance minutes2 Invoice: $28.31/month |
So there you have it. You may not get long distance, but you pay less with Bell.
Aw crap, there goes all of my personal productivity… GemCraft1 is a wonderfully addictive tower defense style of game. It sucks you in with a interesting take on the genre.
You don’t have a variety of towers in this game. There are only two units, towers and traps, but they are modified by different gems. Each gem can be upgraded.
Oh, and then there is skill building between levels giving you better abilities and controlling things liek how much each gem costs.
And did I mention that there are nine different ways to play each map? That’s right, multiple maps.
Damn, there go my sleep filled nights.
Okay so I’m not one to scrimp on every penny, go looking for the best bargains, or wait until that item I need/want goes on sale. But I do know what the going price is for items I’m shopping for and can see when I’m getting ripped off.
Case in point: Apple 60W MagSafe power adapter for 13.3″ MacBook.
Apple Store1: $99
BestBuy2: $158.99
Wow, that’s a pretty big bit of profit! I mean, how do they justify a markup of 62%?
I know Apple’s margins on hardware are razor thin, so really, BestBuy is somewhat justified trying to squeeze money from it’s consumers via accessories, but doesn’t Apple do the same? I doubt bringing this to the attention of the BestBuy corp will do anything. Esp as their sister store FutureShop3 has the exact same pricing for the items in question.
So what can I do in this situation besides simply to buy the adapter from the Apple Store (which I did)? If I emailed their PR people would they do anything? Would Apple?
