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Dean 
Special Collaborator
Retired Admin and Amateur Layabout
Joined: May 13 2007
Location: Europe
Status: Offline
Points: 37575
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 Posted: February 16 2009 at 09:56 |
Welcome to our world Ian - the Shed is a place where people of a certain age come and moan, chat and reminisce, to laugh at the mores of modern society, to lament a bygone age when Prog was in still king - a place for people who remember the buzz when most of the albums we talk about were just being released, when petrol was pennies a gallon, when beer was beer, men were men and sheep were scared... erm. That's kind of it really. 
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VanderGraafKommandöh
Prog Reviewer
Joined: July 04 2005
Location: Malaria
Status: Offline
Points: 89372
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Posted: February 16 2009 at 10:03 |
 Dean wrote:
Wilcey wrote:
Happy Birthday Lee!
Neil, Jim, Vicky, I do comiserate on the PC-World experience. I have had similar soul murdering sessions in PC world......... I do dispare, what happened to "product knowledge" ????? It's incredible the lack of understanding, the lack of willingness to help, the lack of life that some of the staff have! I want to shoot myself everytime I have to go in there, I really do !
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I have to admit I have a very limited experience of PC World, but it was a good. Being a general all-round techie PC know-all nerd, I went there knowing what exactly I wanted, but let the sales assistant go through his patter. When he asked me what I wanted it for I told him making music, he guided me to the PC I'd already picked out, and then to the sound card I intended to buy. The only thing he couldn't sell me was the extended warranty. A year later when I returned for a second monitor (I run a dual monitor system - it makes music composing so much easier) he recognised me and asked how the music was coming along. With all these things, it's the luck of the drawer whether you get someone who enjoys their work or someone who couldn't give a monkey's. |
I have a degree in Computing and Information Systems and I'd be hard pushed to know stuff if I worked in PC World. I am just not clued up enough about modern machines, even though I have a fairly up-to-date laptop. I have no idea what SLI does, for instance.
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Padraic
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: February 16 2006
Location: Pennsylvania
Status: Offline
Points: 31169
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Posted: February 16 2009 at 10:05 |
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I think SLI is basically parallel processing for graphics.
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VanderGraafKommandöh
Prog Reviewer
Joined: July 04 2005
Location: Malaria
Status: Offline
Points: 89372
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Posted: February 16 2009 at 10:07 |
NaturalScience wrote:
I think SLI is basically parallel processing for graphics.
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That's sort of what my mate was saying to me over the weekend... he wants two graphics cards in his new laptop (his has blown up and Evesham Micros went bust a year or so back). He's a bit of a gamer.
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Dean
Special Collaborator
Retired Admin and Amateur Layabout
Joined: May 13 2007
Location: Europe
Status: Offline
Points: 37575
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Posted: February 16 2009 at 10:09 |
^ yup - and an absolutely brilliant way of selling two graphics cards to people 
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chopper
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: July 13 2005
Location: Essex, UK
Status: Offline
Points: 20031
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Posted: February 16 2009 at 11:30 |
Wilcey wrote:
Happy Birthday Lee!
Neil, Jim, Vicky, I do comiserate on the PC-World experience. I have had similar soul murdering sessions in PC world......... I do dispare, what happened to "product knowledge" ????? It's incredible the lack of understanding, the lack of willingness to help, the lack of life that some of the staff have! I want to shoot myself everytime I have to go in there, I really do !
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I made the mistake once of going in our local electrical "superstore" on a Saturday once and got served by a spotty kid who was more interested in talking to his mate. I asked him about two particular televisions and what the difference was between them. He thought about it for a bit and then said "er, they look different". At that point I walked out. The shop closed down last year.
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Jim Garten
Special Collaborator
Retired Admin & Razor Guru
Joined: February 02 2004
Location: South England
Status: Offline
Points: 14693
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Posted: February 16 2009 at 11:35 |
I do have to say though...
| He thought about it for a bit and then said "er, they look different" |
...was probably a very accurate answer. 
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Jon Lord 1941 - 2012
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chopper
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: July 13 2005
Location: Essex, UK
Status: Offline
Points: 20031
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Posted: February 16 2009 at 11:57 |
chopper wrote:
Fun and games with my broadband today. Phoned Virgin yesterday and a very helpful young lady told me I could upgrade to a 10Mb line for £10 less than we're paying now per month. Bargain of the year (so I thought) but nothing could be that simple! I got called out for work in the early hours of this morning and discovered I had no broadband. Called Virgin and after much messing about, I discovered that you can't have a 10Mb broadband with the set-top box that we have. Sadly the helpful young lady never mentioned this. So it's back to Virgin and get the line reset back to what it was (1Mb).
Then I have to phone the technical support again (good job it's free) and he tells me I have to physically connect the PC to the set-top box to get my old connection back. I tell him I can't do this as the PC is upstairs and the box is downstairs. He tells me to take the PC downstairs. I swear at him then discover it's working anyway. The only good thing about all this is that I now appear to have a 4Mb connection. 
So apparently they're sending me the cable modem I need to get up to 10MB, but why didn't they tell me that in the first place? 
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It gets worse. I just phoned Virgin to find out where my cable modem was. After being put on hold and having to listen to Girls Aloud, it transpires we need an engineer to fit the cable modem as we've not had one before. So the first time I phone, they don't tell me I need a cable modem. The second time I phone they tell me I just need to plug it in and the third time I find out I actually need an engineer. It beggars belief. The only good thing so far is the feedback form they sent me after the first call. They won't appreciate the feedback I gave. Heh heh.
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Jared
Forum Senior Member
Joined: May 06 2005
Location: Hereford, UK
Status: Offline
Points: 20088
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Posted: February 16 2009 at 12:03 |
^^ could have been worse... they could have left you on hold, listening to 'Eine Kleine Nachtmusik'... 
anyway, on a brighter note Alan, I see AFC Wimbledon are doing rather well...  |
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Music has always been a matter of energy to me. On some nights I believe that a car with the needle on empty can run 50 more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. Hunter S Thompson
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Neil
Forum Senior Member
Joined: October 04 2006
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 1497
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Posted: February 16 2009 at 12:52 |
Jim Garten wrote:
Neil wrote:
Been to PC World this afternoon (against my better judgement and as it turns out rightly so). I was after an A3 capable scanner for some work I need to do and had seen on the net a Brother combined A3 printer/scanner. I'm never home to receive things via courier so decided to try PC World just to see if they had anything in stock that I could take with me. I asked the double glazed pizza faced sales child if they had any A3 scanners and he said "only one but it's combined with a printer". He showed me the only one in stock which was a boxed Brother unit similar to the one that I'd seen on the net. He said that he couldn't unbox it if I wasn't going to buy it but it had A3 written all over the box so at under £200 I though "why not?". After having an argument at the till explaining to them that they did not legally need my address and telephone number to sell me a printer and that unless they bypassed the computer I would just leave without it I was on my way home with my purchase.
When I get home I then find that this version of the combined printer scanner is only A3 capable for printing, the scanner is A4 (doesn't say so on the box). So the ****ing thing is no use whatsoever to me as it was the A3 scanner that I actually required.  |
This reminds me very much of mine & Vicky's last sojourn into PC World's hallowed halls last year - we were there to spend what is (to us) a lot of money on a new PC, printer, external hard drive etc; after looking around, discounting the obvious this-is-a-crap-PC-but-isn't-it-pretty models, and the this-is-a-crap-PC-but-we've-used-the-word-'professional'-so-we-can-charge-triple-its-value models, we did narrow things down to a couple of choices & then proceeded to await assistance... and wait, and wait. Eventually, I persuaded the floor manager to put a battery in one of his drones & send it trundling toward us, whereupon he showed such a complete lack of interest (or even life, to be honest), we got totally fed up with the entire process & walked out saying loudly "let's go somewhere we can get some kind of service, shall we?".
With heavy hearts & low expectations we ended up in Comet... to be met by a very helpful young assistant, who dissuaded us from the more expensive model we were looking at & pointed us at what he considered to be the best in our price range (actually considerably less than we expected to pay) & said if we had any problems in setup we should call him at the store & he'd take us through things over the phone. |
Fortunately for PC World they attended to me promptly this morning and gave me a full refund without prompting.
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When people get lost in thought it's often because it's unfamiliar territory.
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Neil
Forum Senior Member
Joined: October 04 2006
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 1497
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Posted: February 16 2009 at 12:53 |
Vibrationbaby wrote:
Can someone explain to me what this thread is about. Is it like the Jerry Seinfeld Show. A thread about nothing. I occasionally check it out and haven`t a clue how certain things are connected. |
Sounds like you've got the general idea 
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When people get lost in thought it's often because it's unfamiliar territory.
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Jared
Forum Senior Member
Joined: May 06 2005
Location: Hereford, UK
Status: Offline
Points: 20088
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Posted: February 16 2009 at 13:01 |
Neil wrote:
Fortunately for PC World they attended to me promptly this morning and gave me a full refund without prompting. |
Do you think their decision was influenced mostly by the boodstained axe you were wielding, or the crazed, psychopathic look in your eyes?..
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Music has always been a matter of energy to me. On some nights I believe that a car with the needle on empty can run 50 more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. Hunter S Thompson
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VanderGraafKommandöh
Prog Reviewer
Joined: July 04 2005
Location: Malaria
Status: Offline
Points: 89372
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Posted: February 16 2009 at 13:08 |
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Dean
Special Collaborator
Retired Admin and Amateur Layabout
Joined: May 13 2007
Location: Europe
Status: Offline
Points: 37575
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Posted: February 16 2009 at 13:22 |
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What?
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mystic fred
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: March 13 2006
Location: Londinium
Status: Offline
Points: 4252
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Posted: February 16 2009 at 14:37 |
PC WORLD - i have obtained numerous bits and bobs from this emporium over the years, including 2 Advent pc's which both broke down after the guarantee had run out - impossible to find replacements for these £800 / 900 units i have bought new units over the internet from independent sellers ( ) and had 2 3GHz machines for less than £250 each. On one the power unit failed - removed and sent the power unit back within a week had a new replacement, and the hard drive on the other failed - sent it back got a brand new replacement....you guessed it within a week. now both running along nicely - had to purchase my own copy of windows of course but the repairs cost nothing except postage, and the pc's less than the price of PCW inflated guarantees...
Edited by mystic fred - February 16 2009 at 14:40
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 Prog Archives Tour Van 
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Jared
Forum Senior Member
Joined: May 06 2005
Location: Hereford, UK
Status: Offline
Points: 20088
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Posted: February 16 2009 at 15:32 |
personally, I can't recommend these guys highly enough:
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Music has always been a matter of energy to me. On some nights I believe that a car with the needle on empty can run 50 more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. Hunter S Thompson
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Man Erg
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: August 26 2004
Location: Isle of Lucy
Status: Offline
Points: 7456
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Posted: February 17 2009 at 01:50 |
Thank you all for the birthday felicitations. 
I had a wonderful day.
One of my presents was the autobiography of Terry-Thomas called Bounder!
I shall put it into the shed library when I've finished with it.
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Do 'The Stanley' otherwise I'll thrash you with some rhubarb.
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mystic fred
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: March 13 2006
Location: Londinium
Status: Offline
Points: 4252
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Posted: February 17 2009 at 02:33 |
belated birthday greetings Lee! 
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Prog Archives Tour Van
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Neil
Forum Senior Member
Joined: October 04 2006
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 1497
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Posted: February 17 2009 at 02:42 |
Jared wrote:
personally, I can't recommend these guys highly enough:
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Just tried them. Their search angine is not very good as it couldn't find what I wanted but when I looked through a list of items they did actually stock it.
Then I tried to register but every time I clicked no for their marketing e-mails it threw me out.
Then when I get to checkout it tells me that I can only deliver to my own address for the first order which is of no use to me at all because I'm not in.
Not convinced I'm afraid.
Edited by Neil - February 17 2009 at 02:42
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When people get lost in thought it's often because it's unfamiliar territory.
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Jim Garten
Special Collaborator
Retired Admin & Razor Guru
Joined: February 02 2004
Location: South England
Status: Offline
Points: 14693
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Posted: February 17 2009 at 02:45 |
Jared wrote:
Neil wrote:
Fortunately for PC World they attended to me promptly this morning and gave me a full refund without prompting. |
Do you think their decision was influenced mostly by the boodstained axe you were wielding, or the crazed, psychopathic look in your eyes?.. |
Either that or he'd been drinking mild on Sunday & they just wanted him out of the store
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Jon Lord 1941 - 2012
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