A new appreciation for the USA

Nothing makes you appreciate your freedom and the country in which we live more than a trip to another country. Recently my family took a European cruise and had the opportunity to visit St Petersburg Russia for 2 days. The ship was greeted by a band playing music to welcome us which was a nice touch but instead of having a cruise port we were docked in a shipping yard. I didn't mind so much but felt bad because it was a poor first impression for the county I was looking most forward to visiting.

We really enjoyed seeing the palaces, Hermitage, churches and parks that you can find pictures of on the internet. What was surprising was the poor conditions of the rest of the areas. Many broken windows could be seen in apartment complexes, sidewalks in disrepair and the port was surrounded by abandoned buildings and ships left to rot.

I was amazed by the contrast between the beauty of the palaces and city as compared to the condition of the surrounding areas.

It was truly an experience I will never forget.

The plot thickens.

Everyone has heard about Nvidia's recent problems with a defect in their video cards. Now HP admits that they have known about the issue since late last year. So how long did Nvidia keep this under their hat?

Dell listens?

This morning Dell announced a new service called "Your tech team". For a $99 per year fee Dell provides North American

hardware warranty support for your new system and all other systems in your household (that are still under warranty). Other technical support options, like performance tuning, wireless network set-up and anti-virus support are available for a fee but can be purchased while you are on the call with your favorite technician.

The option to have North American tech support has been asked for several times on IdeaStorm. For some reason Dell took a simple idea and instead of offering a reasonable upgrade decided to bundle other things into it for an unreasonable price. Adding $99 per year on top of the extended warranty service pricing is unreasonable for a single product household and in the end could in some cases double the cost of the product over 3 years.

Is Dell really listening?