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Now that I'll be getting a new laptop my wife has pretty much commandeered my current one. It's all phone for me right now.
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@jk But, you have picked an interesting time to go shopping. Everyone is going thing/light with ultrabooks.
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@gamerchick02 I have to say, Apple makes nice looking gear. Enjoy.
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@nybill I'll be going with a pretty straightforward laptop, Toshiba with i3, 6gb ram, 750gb hd. 14" screen.
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@nybill They do and I don't have to muck with drivers for anything. Ubuntu and 7 on the desktop though. :)
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@gamerchick02 Well, I draw the line at the cool gear. :P I'm not so into the "cult of apple" walled garden, lock in, over priced, etc...
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@nybill the laptop is at best buy, hope I don't count *against* the poor salesman's numbers when I don't buy any of their extra crap.
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@jk that's their problem for working for a crappy company, I take my lumps for my companies' issues, I'm sure you deal with crazy stuff too.
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@kevingranade yeah there's something to that, but I'm still sympathetic to floor sales kids. A few of my students work there. Nice kids.
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@kevingranade btw have you ever heard the computer sales pitch at best buy? Wow it's amazing. It'd cost $500 to get it all.
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@kevingranade we're driving through Alabama right now, isn't that where you're from? Long way from Mobile though. Approaching Birmingham.
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@jk yea it's pretty ridiculous, though I wouldn't be surprised if it's gotten worse since the last time I heard it.
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@jk yep, haven't been through Birmingham all that often, I assume you're taking I-65 or I-59, I usually took I-45 if I headed north.
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@kevingranade usually MS Office, antivirus, geek squad setup service (win updates, install other SW), printer, usb drives, network setup...
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@jk @kevingranade whoops silly me, forgot most obvious, 2yr extended warranty.
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@jk wow, I think they did pile some more on there.
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@kevingranade on I-65 now, veering onto 59 at Birmingham, stopping in Meridian tonight.
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@nybill yeah man the sales guy has a clipboard with checklist to make sure he doesn't forget anything. @kevingranade
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@jk Should have told them, "Yea, I'd like the geek squad to come to my house and put Arch on it." >:P
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@johnnynull Heh. & I saw this one yesterday: "Saw someone getting ripped off this morning." http://ur1.ca/9jjyk
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@nybill Awesome.
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@nybill My question to them is usually “How can you call yourself a part of a geek squad and not kno…
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@jpope I just avoid Bestbuy at all costs. ;) I can't remember the last thing I bought from them. Maybe wireless keyboard 4 mythbox ~8ys ago.
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@x1101 I heard they can get a bit scammy with price matching though. Like,exact same TV as down the street will have a diff serial # for BB.
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@nybill retaillers also often get models made ONLY for them, identical to everyone elses, but diff model number to avoid price matches
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@nybill PR = "we'll not be beat on price" - reality = "only we stock this exact model because we planned it like that"
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@thistleweb That is what I'm talking about. @x1101
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@nybill That's been a standard "big box" retailer trick for some time.
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@nybill It also helps to confuse comparison shoppers when 30 models seem to have same specs. /cc @thistleweb
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@nybill Just as well, price matching is a form of collusion http://ur1.ca/9jk82
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@lnxwalt280 exactly, along with the age old "double it's price for a while, then drop it to just aboce it's normal price & claim BARGAIN!"
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@nybill another fun one is stores advertising lower prices for e.g. chips, and getting a custom smaller bag of chips made for them.
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@lnxwalt280 I think we're all in agreement here. @thistleweb
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@thistleweb @nybill I bought my Droid there cheaper than anywhere else, and my GalaxyNexus the matched Amazon.
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@kevingranade I thought you were going to go to the "loss leaders" tactic there. But, no I never heard of the smaller product trick.
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@nybill next time you're in a dollar store chain (dollar tree for example) take a look at the sizes of the snack foods.
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@nybill assuming that happens, it's been years since I've been in one :)
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@kevingranade I've never been in one. (and don't plan too) ;)
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@nybill The last thing I bought from them was my nexus s. And they jacked up my plan where I damn near lost my unlimited data.
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@nybill Overall, my experience with bestbuy has been shitty and that last one has caused me to vow to never go back.
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@nybill probably for the best, they're generally well past the line between "thrifty" and "cheap".
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@nybill exactly. If I tried to explain how I wanted my laptop configured I'd lose the guy in about 3 seconds.
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@jk I don't doubt there are geek squad guys who know their stuff. Its just such an easy target to pick on. :P
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@johnnynull Wholeheartedly agreed. That guy's great.
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Those on the geek squad with skills such as that are rare. Most I’ve come across have deer in headlights look when I say Linux.
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@johnnynull @nybill yes one of my advisees works in cell dept at best buy too, knows everything about phones. I ask him stuff b4 class haha!
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@johnnynull Heh, just tell him its spelled like "cellphone". Just, not as much.
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@nybill I'm not in the cult of Apple. I just use one of their toys. The phone is Android and the desktop will be Ubuntu. :)
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@gamerchick02 I wasn't pointing fingers. ;)
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@nybill It's ok. I've come to the conclusion that Mac is good for portables. I'm getting sick of every laptop being a project.
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@nybill I've actually talked to the geek squad former student about the up-selling crap at BB he said he totally agrees w/me that it's evil.
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@jk Yep, told my father he could back up the business on thumbdrives instead of floppies. He came back from BB with new accounting software!
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