Rants!

My rantings…

Articles/Editorials, Rants!

Amazon Versus Netflix Instant Video Comparison

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Just posted this over on TestFreaks…

 

Link: http://blog.testfreaks.com/information/amazon-versus-netflix-instant-video-comparison/

Quote:
" When it comes to instant video watching online you’ve really got two big choices, Amazon or Netflix. Yes there are other options but these two are the big ones really, the others are just there trying to compete and play catch up really, it’s only a mater of time before they disappear altogether I think. I loved Netflix at one point but I’ve become increasing unhappy with them as they just keep changing things for the worse it seems. I do the majority of my watching on my computer and sometimes on my PS3 and very rarely on my phone or tablet. Amazon Prime is what I would call a work in progress and it seems to be getting better and better while Netflix is going down hill with all of these so called improvements that really aren’t. At the present time I have both Amazon Prime Instant Video and Netflix Instant Video and I’m really thinking of dropping Netflix but maybe just not quite yet. I did have Netflix with the DVD/Blu-ray option up until they raised the prices, then I dropped as really I was getting like maybe one of two movies per month sent to me and it just wasn’t worth the cost. So I’ve compiled a list of pros and cons and just observations of both Amazon and Netflix that are really in no order, just more of a random thing as I thought of them or as I noticed them. It’s a list, a big list with my comments about them."

Articles/Editorials, Rants!

Have You Ever Noticed…

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I’ve been around for while and I’ve noticed things in life that just aren’t right and shouldn’t be. So I was bored and compiled a little list of them…

 

-nothing seems to work as it should, nothing is easy-to-assemble really, that ‘some assembly required’ means you’ll be there all day

-nothing is ever as good as it sounds –Slushie Magic is a prime example, my kids just have to have it and it’s just horrible. I review product’s and oftentimes things just aren’t as good as they are hyped to be. I can recall numerous times I’ve went and bought something and it just wasn’t at all what I expected and it was nothing as good as the hype surrounding it.

-the doorbell always rings when you’re in the bathroom, doing dishes, taking a nap or any other time other than when you’re just sitting there doing nothing?! I don’t get it, I can sit here and know a delivery is coming and it won’t come until I decide to get in the shower.. it’s amazing really…

-every project that should be easy seems to end up taking more time than it should – seriously the simplest project always seems to take more time than it should. I usually end up having to do two or three other things to get the original thing done.

-no matter how prepared you think you are, you never have the right tool, size washer, nut etc or thing you need to get the job done. You always have to go looking for it?! I was working on my gate and fence, trying to fix it and I must have had to make twenty trips back into the house to get things, it always seemed like I just didn’t have what I needed.

-the phone will always ring when you walk away from it – this annoys me to no end, I’ll be waiting for a call and the phone won’t ring until I walk away from it, it makes no sense…

-you lose your cellphone signal just when you want to make a call – I have a cellphone of course, but I don’t use it often but it seems 9 out of 10 times when I do decide to actually need to use it the signal is horrible…

-parenting is not as easy as it seems – this one is just amazing, I never realized what my mother went through. No matter what I try with my kids nothing seems to work and they just don’t appreciate anything. No matter what they want more, they’re never satisfied with anything you do or give them, they always have to have more. The months preceding this past Christmas I watched for sales on video games and I ended up getting them 48 games for Christmas and that still wasn’t enough, they still wanted more a few days later. They still haven’t played all of them yet, and they want more games. They have a 3DS, DSi XL and DS Lite and an iPod Touch and an Android tablet for portable gaming but that’s not enough, no mater what they always want to use the same thing. they always end up fighting over one of them.

-life is nothing like that book or movie -people should really stop expecting it to be. I can’t stand this, all these movies and books about romance and life and it’s not like that in real life, I wish people would stop expecting it to be…

-you never have enough money no mater what you do -  this is self-explanatory I think

-people have become horrible over the year- I remember when we could leave doors and windows open, and walk down the street safely, but you can’t do that anymore. You need bars on your windows, security systems, cameras and all that and it’s because people have become horrible. Society has just fallen from what it used to be, I’ve watched society just decay over the years… once great and friendly neighborhoods and now considered ghettos with gangs and drugs all of the place…

-people just don’t really seem to care about laws… right through red lights and stop signs – police are really good with this as well, no turn signals, don’t stop etc. We now have the no texting and driving law here and people don’t give a crap, I still see them doing it, weaving back and forth into the other lane while they’re texting. They just don’t care about anything but themselves…

-no matter what you have you always want more – I think this has always been true, no matter what you have you want more

-life in general just sucks overall – maybe it’s just me, but I think life just sucks in general overall. I’m sick of all the politically correct crap, I’m sick of having to watch everything I say and do because I might offend someone and be sued or put in jail for it. it’s just ridiculous….

 

-The nanny state – I’m so sick of the government sticking their noses into everything and every part of daily life. Prime example: If I want to buy a large drink then I should be allowed, its shouldn’t be a law and be illegal to buy a large drink… just goofy all of it…

Rants!

What’s Wrong with the Xbox One?

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I just posted an article over on TestFreaks about the things wrong with the Xbox One… stop by and give it a read when you get a chance..

 

Link: http://blog.testfreaks.com/news/whats-wrong-with-the-xbox-one/

Quote:
"So what’s wrong with the Xbox One? Too many things at this point it seems. In the past day or so we’ve learned a lot about the Xbox One and then we really didn’t learn that much did we? It seems like we did, but watching that broadcast it seemed all smoke and mirrors to me with Microsoft leaving out a lot of things that I think most gamers are concerned with. Many issues were not addressed and when Microsoft was asked about them they provided vague answers that really weren’t answers at all. From what I saw most of their answers were basically no comment on a lot of things that are important to their customers.  We’ve had a lot of media attention in the preceding months, a  lot of speculation and a lot of people just talking about the next Xbox. People have made it clear what they wanted and didn’t want and what they expected from the next Xbox and it seems to me Microsoft just ignored  everything that was said everywhere. "

Rants!

HTC One – Another Botched Phone Launch by AT&T

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Ah yes the HTC One.. there isn’t really anything wrong with the phone itself, but to celebrate the launch AT&T did a pre-order special where if you pre-ordered the HTC One you got the HTC Media Link HD for free. I wanted it and I did the pre-order, and I got the phone a day before launch and the Media Link HD just got here today… So it was late, that I can deal with, but it doesn’t quite work with the HTC One… grrr….

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Anyway, the saga continues on over on TestFreaks where I wrote about it in depth: http://blog.testfreaks.com/news/att-htc-one-not-quite-compatible-with-htc-media-link-hd-yet/

Rants!

WTF Netflix? Why Do You Keep Changing Everything?

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So a week or so ago I noticed my Instant Queue was gone from the top of my Netflix page. WTF? It was replaced by a horrible scrolling bar called ‘Your List’. Why? Why change things? I hate the damn scrolling bars for the movies, I try and always click through to the sort of old style pages. Now they’ve forced me to use that horrible scrolling bar system by just totally eliminating my instant queue.

I’ve been seriously thinking of trying Amazon Prime, and I think now is the time to do it really.

There’s an old adage: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” and that very much applies here to Netflix. Sure I get the whole changing it for the iPad and mobile interfaces and even the TV interface but why not at least give the people who are giving you money a choice at how they want it? You just force these changes upon us.

When it first happened I tweeted about it to the Netflix support or helps or whatever it’s called and apparently they didn’t even know it changed as they told me oh just refresh your browser or login and logout and then it should reappear. Yeah, none of that worked, I’m stuck with the sucky scroll bar for my Instant Queue now. I have 19 things in my queue right now and it takes 7 seconds to scroll to the end to see them all. Can you imagine if I had say 30 things in my queue?  That’s ridiculous.

The PC interface is not a mobile interface, so why do I have to scroll? It’s slow and I hate it.

My Instant Queue list right now is small and I keep deleting things from it as it takes so damn long to scroll through it. What the hell was wrong with having the Instant Queue? it worked just fine, everything was listed right there on the page for you to see and pick what you wanted to watch.

Rants!

Site Down- Thanks for Blaming me GoDaddy!

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So my site Review the Tech is down and has been down since who knows when. Well it was working yesterday, but sometime between yesterday and today it went down. It’s up and down intermittently, and when it is up it’s not up for long. A few seconds at most.

The issue is with GoDaddy servers apparently.

I called them this morning because I couldn’t email them via their support form on their website.

I called and basically I was blamed for the problem. I was told that it was most likely one of my plugins that was causing the issue. I was told to deactivate my plugins and see what happens. I was also told that I shouldn’t keep any plugins that I don’t have active, I should delete them.

After speaking for a while and troubleshooting he went and talked to someone else and said yes there was a slight issue with a couple of their nodes, but it shouldn’t be affecting my site this way and he still thinks it was one of my plugins that was causing the problem. So that was a 35 minute phone call that ended with me thinking it was pretty much my fault and one of my plugins was causing my site to crash.

Six hours later, and too many attempts to login I finally got all of the plugins shut off. This took me all day basically, because I could disable one and then the site would error out and have to restart the process all over again.

Anyway, six hours later I decided to do some searching and hit the GoDaddy forums where I found everyone is complaining about their sites being down for days now. It’s a known issue, so why not tell me that in the first place?

They knew about the problem but yet essentially blamed me for my site being down. They said it was probably because of my plugins, when this was plainly NOT true. They knew they were having issues, but yet still blamed me. I don’t understand that at all.

How is it my fault that your having issues with your server?

Why blame the customer?

Why lie to the customer?

Why not just tell the truth?

So basically I spent all day fiddling with the site, deactivating and deleting my plugins when I didn’t have to do any of that. If I would have been told the truth the first time I wouldn’t have had to waste my time.