Yume no Naka

I had a dream and in that dream, I dreamt that I was on a smoke and dust filled battlefield, I could barely see if there was any of my comrades still alive. As I looked about I then saw in the distance several dark apparitions, marching through the fog of war as if searching for those warriors who had fallen bravely in battle that deserved their place in heaven.

つづく ( To be continued... )

The Ultimate Clock Radio!

Just received my new clock radio from Creative Labs yesterday and got it unpacked and setup last night. I really like the sound quality but the LED status lights are a little bright to try and fall asleep. I ended up cutting up the protective plastic and painting it black then put it on top of the area where the LED's are. Good 'nuff. Dark enough to fall asleep by, with the radio, falling asleep in stereo is a good thing.

The SoundWorks Radio 730 has Radio Data Service, Alarm Clock as well as a built in Sub-woofer. I looked at the SoundWorks Radio 830HD, but couldn't justify spending over $300 for something like that (yeah, I know... I did spend over $200 for the 730...), just for a couple of stations in HD, I just couldn't do it. If I do, it'll be a regular HD bookshelf stereo system. I'm sure by that time, they'll be more stations broadcasting in HD.

My next major upgrade is looking like my TV, but I still have time before they discontinue broadcasting in Analog, hopefully by the time I do get a new TV, the prices will be a lot lower than they are now.

つづく ( To be continued... )

Creative Labs, Electrical Devices, T.C.

In my last entry, I wrote about Creative Labs, then someone named T.C. commented that I'm unhappy with any electrical device I've owned, but that is not the case. I've been very happy with all of my electrical devices, I'll even research the hell out of it before making a purchase to make sure it will fit my needs, have the features I want and support my budget. All of the Creative Labs products I've owned and currently own, I've been very happy with. However when making purchases directly from Creative Labs, their sales support is truly terrible. Any other company, the response would be quick, usually within an hour. Not Creative, it takes them 1 whole day which is unacceptable, especially when dealing with shipping.

It wasn't just this recent issue, there have been at least 2 previous issues with notification and shipping. I recently sent my Vision: W in for repairs. No status updates or notification that it had been shipped back to me or what was repaired. Just silence for over a week then it shows up on my doorstep, literally, just placed there by the shipper. What if I had been away for a week or two? I wouldn't have known my device was shipped back to me, someone could've walked off with it...

In January of 2005, I had ordered a set of earphones directly from them, which showed it was in stock. After checking back the next day, my order showed that the earphones were out of stock and still got charged for the purchase. After having to call them a couple of days later to find out why, somehow they were able to find a set and send them. In 2002, I had order a power adapter for a Nomad mp3 player and was sent a carrying case for a different mp3 player.

I have owned, in the past, a SoundBlaster 16, SoundBlaster 32, SoundBlaster 64, a SoundBlaster Audigy, the Audigy 2, the Cambridge SoundWorks DTT 2500 5.1 Speakers, a Creative MuVo Tx, a Creative Nomad, the Zen Micro, Zen Travel Dock and Sub-Woofer and recently the Zen Vision: W 60 gig and the Zen Stone. For the office I have a set of 2.1 speakers, the SBS 380 and soon the Cambridge SoundWorks Radio 730. I would have gotten the 735 but it only supports the iPod, if it supported the Vision: W, I would've gotten that.

A year ago, I was having issues with the headphone jack on the Zen Micro, I had sent it in once before while it was under warranty and got it back repaired. Then, several months ago, I was having the same issue with the headphone jack, it was out of warranty, I knew that, I would've been willing to pay them to repair the headset jack cause I was going to give it away to a friend, it works fine, just when you use a headphone, only one side will work at random. Did creative response? NO, nada, nothing, so screw that, I fixed it myself, I didn't want to, but I did it so that I could give it to a friend.

So, when I buy electrical devices, I usually name brands, this way, I know the quality of the device is what I'm also paying for. My expectations are higher because of that. If I buy a 2nd rate name brand, I don't expect much of it, I get what I pay for. I've expected Creative Labs to have higher standards of quality, higher standards of service and willing to please the customer so that they'll be loyal customers and willing to promote Creative Labs through word of Mouth.

Creative Labs should advertise themselves more to the American public for product recognition, most people, you ask about mp3 players, they'll say an 'iPod", when you mention Creative Labs, they'll say "Huh?, what's/who's that?" Stores here do more to promote the Apple product than they do for Creative Labs, if they do carry them at all. They need to stop thinking like their the only thing in town, listen to their customers more and think like their in second place all the time cause right now, it seems like their in 5th place.

To T.C., it may seem like I'm never happy about the electrical devices I have, but is in fact, never satisfied with the ones that I purchased, mostly because by the time I can get the latest gadget, there is something new coming or already out. At the time, I may have underestimated my personal requirements. Another reason may have been because at the time, the device that I've complained about may have done exactly what I wanted but a new version of the device may have been released that may have improved features, like for example, my digital camera.

At the time, it was very good for what I was doing, but even with research, as I used it more, I found the performance didn't perform as I needed it to.

つづく ( To be continued... )

Anything Gummy, Creative Labs and the Constructions almost done...

My name is Tekbandit (hi, tekbandit) and I'm a gummy-holic.

Once I get my hands on a bag of gummies, doesn't matter what kind of gummies, I'll eat them non-stop till it's gone, usually in about 3-4 hours. With Halloween coming up, the bags of gummies are huge, which makes for a lot of gummies to consume.

Ok, so now I've ordered my radio directly from Creative Labs... on Friday morning so that it would make the shipment that afternoon. Most, if not all companies, even the smaller companies, if you place an order before 12 (depending on which time zone), your order makes it for the afternoon pickup. Not Creative, it takes approximately 24 hours for your credit card to be confirmed. I order from newegg and my card gets charged within a minute of clicking on submit.

Now the weekend passes and it's Monday. I check with Creative Labs to see if my order shipped. I check almost every hour and still hasn't shipped. I emailed their sales support at least 3 times asking about my order. With Newegg, I get a response within the half hour of emailing them.

Now, I'm a really big fan of Creative Lab products, but after this lack of response and support, I'm looking at different products for sound and audio devices/cards. It was after 11 CDT that I had seen it was shipped at 9 PM PDT and I still didn't get a response from their sales support. The next day, after I already knew it was shipped, I get an email that it was shipped... WTF!!!!

Well, my purchase is on it's way, this is the 2nd or 3rd time this has happened. Creative Labs has the potential for being a great company but with the service the way it is, their really putting themselves out of business.

The ceiling in my room is finally up, all that it needs now is to mud and paint. One other thing is that he's planning on covering the load bearing beam with sheet rock, instead of screws, he's planing on using liquid nails (basically glue it up). The main thing is that it's now warmer, quieter and a little more brighter.

つづく ( To be continued... )

Under Construction...

Well, my room/apartment/house (part of it) is under construction. My friend who owns the house is putting up the ceiling. It started out funny cause we started the day at Menards, picking up supplies for putting in the ceiling. I wanted the ceiling to be sound proof (or at least dampened) so he ended up picking up some sound damping insulation. After we get back and drop off the supplies, he took off to pick up the dry wall jack to hold it up while he secures it to the ceiling...

Just as we start, I asked, "what about the lights and the cooling/heating ducts?" cause he only was supposed to have it for about 4 hours. He then realized... "Damn, I completely forgot" so he ended up calling the rental place back and putting in for a 24 hour rental. We started at about 11 and as of right now, we've got 2 panels up and still got about 20 percent more insulation to put up. At about 6, he realized that the ceiling duct was not the right one, so we ended up going back again to Menards and picked up the right one... at that point, I was just too tired to laugh, so we'll pick it up again at 7 the next day...

Since he had to turn off the electricity to take down the lights, only the electrical outlets work at this time so at least I have my computer and a lamp... I should take some pictures... it's funny in a tired sort of way...

つづく ( To be continued... )

In addition....

Showing the softer side of me...

From icanhascheezburger.com



and from cuteoverload.com



Just had to share these with everyone...

つづく ( To be continued... )

Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy!!!!

I'm happy when I'm upgrading my computer... I have 2 DVD burners in today. One is a Lightscribe DVD burner and the other is a Super Multi DVD Burner. Both have black bezels so it'll match the case. In a way, I'll be sad to see my NEC DVD burner go, it's been really good to me and hopefully the new ones will be able to give me the same, if not better performance than the NEC.

With October in full swing, so has the Office candy project. So far, these past 2 years, I've brought in Halloween candy for everyone to take for the whole month of October. I found that having candy is better than trying to stuff turkey into a container, also it lasts longer.

Next week, I'm planning on getting a new clock/radio. Theres this one from Creative Labs, produced by Cambridge Soundsworks. It's called the Soundworks Radio 730. Cambridge Soundworks has a newer model, the Soundworks Radio 735I, but it's geared towards the iPod owners. What really got me interested in the 730 (and the other models have the same feature) is the RDS feature. RDS displays the station ID, song and artist that is currently playing. The other feature I like about it is that it has a sub-woofer built into it.

Another Item I want to get is a Dymo Rhino labeler. I was looking at getting the Rhino 6000 Hardcase kit which includes the data cable and software with a nice case to carry it in. It's made for labeling router racks and other areas for computer networking and also has a shrink wrap tubing cartridge for making labels out of shrink wrap tubing. Although I just may settle for the Rhino 6000 without the hardcase kit and just get the data cable and software separate. Although they have a price listed on their site, I'm sure I can find an online retailer that would have it for less than if I were to purchase it directly from Dymo.

For some reason, I feel like the Tim Taylor of the computer world... it's computing power and computer tools... .

つづく ( To be continued... )