gringcorp's Profile

In what universe does a preponderance of #fail hashtags equal a hated brand?

I still don't get these arguments for convenience that people wheel out with USB turntables. What they're bundling together are a turntable, phono pre-amp and computer sound card/mic input. Most people with large vinyl collections already have these. If a single one of these USB turntables came with decent usable software for digitising the analog input they'd be a killer. Most just send you the way of audacity.

The Eton Red Cross thing really irritates me. Red Cross organisations are meant to make sure that non-approved organisations do not use their logo so as to minimise potential for confusion in war zones etc. You can argue about how sensible this policy is - they've been known to go after video game makes for using red crosses. But the fact that the American Red Cross, which pays its CEO half a million bucks, is resorting to this shilling really annoys me.

There's a corollary to this. Gadget-buying paralysis. This terrible condition where you get fixated on a set of impossible-to-assemble features or, more likely price point, and worry that a future upgrade will render it less attractive. I have a terrible mobile phone. I want to replace it. I have no idea how. Now mobiles are a special case, since they're victims of widely-differing standards in different countries, but I've waited six months while I figure out what to get.

We use a Harmony remote, which in theory would be quite easy to master for guests and babysitters and so forth. But unless they've used one before it can be a bit off-putting. Then there's the issue of making sure it's pointing at the components for the whole ten seconds or so while everything starts up. If they make a mistake then there's always the help prompt, but again, unless you've become used to that kind of remote set-up, the idea of interacting with a remote is a little strange.

Got the vibe speakers once as a corporate gift, and then got moved into a cubicle and have only used them about once. They're interesting looking, but I didn't play them at a loud enough volume to vouch for their sound quality.