Interesting things 6/16/10

Today was a quiet day as far as picture taking goes. We went on the ferry over to St. John and did some shopping.

On the way over we saw Rumbaba taking a group out.



Stopped near the marina



for lunch



Eventually heading back to the condo for a light dinner



Click on any of the pictures for the full gallery for the fifth day.


Technorati : astronomy, beach, fish, interesting, st thomas, stars
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Stay away from Petland

While Susan and I were running errands yesterday we saw several protestors outside a local shopping area. We didn’t get a good look at the signs they were carrying at first but saw that they had Petland on them. Our initial reaction was “shit yeah.” We aren’t even remotely fans of Petland and have never come out of their stores thinking anything nice about what we found.

When we passed by their store my blood pressure went up and I had to stop to take a picture.

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As mentioned in the linked WFAA story this store has a particularly bad reputation.

Stay away, just stay away.

Further stories:

Petland Linked to Puppy Mills

Former Petland Kennel Manager Speaks Out


Technorati : abuse, boycott, pets, protest
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How to behave like a d**k and end up arrested

While visiting some relatives Michael Righi stopped into a Circuit City and decided to get arrested.

Two minutes later Brooklyn, Ohio police officer Ernie Arroyo arrived on the scene. As I began to explain the story leading up to Joe Atha preventing my egress from the parking lot, officer Arroyo began to question why I refused to show my receipt in the first place. I explained that I lawfully purchased the contents in the bag and didn’t feel that it was necessary for me to let a Circuit City employee inspect the bag as I left. Officer Arroyo disagreed. He claimed that stores have the right to inspect all receipts and all bags upon leaving their store.

Not long after this Mr. Righi refused to show his drivers license (what I might call his "papers") to the officer and was subsequently arrested for "Obstructing Official Business".

Lame, incredibly lame. The arrest sounds unlawful to me and part of me applauds Mr. Righi for standing up for his right not to have to show his papers on demand but the way he got into the situation shows what an idiot he is.

While it’s annoying to have to show your receipt and goods at the door, just present them to the drone, let him pretend to understand what he’s looking at and you’ll be on your way. There’s no good reason to get the police involved unless the store starts the conversation by accusing you of theft. Looking through your bag isn’t an accusation, it’s an admission that they aren’t bright and haven’t thought up a better way to prevent people stealing from them.

I hope he beats the arrest but also hopes he stays away from electronics retail stores in the future.

Be careful with your shopping

Related to the entry I made back on June 5, it’s apparently becoming increasingly easier for people to steal your information while you’re shopping on insecure sites.

The Washington Post has a new article and related blog entry available showing just how easy it is for scammers to hack into some sites and retrieve your credit card information.

Be careful out there.

Continue reading Be careful with your shopping

Lack of Post-sale Customer Service

Back in May 2005 I purchased an Averatec C3500 tablet PC. It was a bit of an impulse buy but I was looking for another model from Averatec that had everything the C3500 has but no tablet and after getting a demo I decided to buy one. I’m pretty happy with the laptop except that the beast runs hot and has pretty awful battery life. I can squeeze two hours out of it but that’s the maximum. On the other hand it’s fairly light and saved our butts during a recent trip to Spain.

But this entry isn’t about the laptop or Averatec. It’s about a different company with apparently crappy customer service.

Continue reading Lack of Post-sale Customer Service