Category archive for ‘Rant’ at bioneural.net

Archive for the 'Rant' category

The MacBeep Pause

Published by Bruce on July 15, 2009 in Rant. 10 responses

Potential buyers of Apple's new (June 2009) MacBook Pro should be cautious about specifying a configure-to-order faster and larger hard drive 'upgrade'. The drive supplied by Apple, a Seagate Momentus 7200.4 (model number ST9500420ASG) appears to be operating improperly, with some users experiencing random pauses in disk activity associated with disturbing clicks and beeps. Apple are telling some of us that their top-of-the-line laptop is supposed to lock up frequently, and that the beep is normal too (so I guess my previous Macs were all defective as they lacked such 'features').
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TomTom latest map guarantee trap

Published by Bruce on May 23, 2008 in Rant. 44 responses

Just bought a new TomTom with a 30-day latest map guarantee? Don't download any map update as prompted by TomTom HOME on the day you register your device. Why not? Because if TomTom do release a new map in 30 days time, you won't be allowed to download it. You may still be within 30 days, but you will have the map that was current on the day you got your device. If, however, you carefully count to day 30 before downloading any map updates, you will get the latest map as of that time. The ambiguous guarantee is not for the latest map within 30 days—it's for a map within that period.
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Unarranged overdraft bank charges

Published by Bruce on May 8, 2008 in Rant. 2 responses

When you inadvertently write a cheque from the wrong account putting said account into overdraft, you expect to pay for your mistake. But would you expect to pay four different charges, incurring a total liability in fees nearly four times the size of the overdraft—even though it was rectified within 6 working days? If you bank with Halifax, who always give you extra, you can indeed.
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ATMs should be avoided. The Internet too.

Published by Bruce on March 13, 2008 in Rant. 9 responses

Some cretin recently cloned our debit card, in reflection of rising UK and international rates of card fraud despite technological countermeasures like "chip and pin".
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GP College confused over qualifications

Published by Bruce on June 23, 2007 in Rant. 2 responses

The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) remains confused over whether its Membership examination (MRCGP) is a qualification or merely an indication of "club membership". Non-Members are told not to refer to "MRCGP" and "qualification" in the same breath—although it would appear that the College can.

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American Engrish

Published by Bruce on January 22, 2007 in Rant. 6 responses

Do they no longer teach English in American schools? I am aware that "American" English has its nuances, but was not aware that it had diverged so far from international English as to become an entirely separate dialect. To illustrate my point, I'd like to share the text of an e-mail I recently received from a certain company's U.S. Networking Tech Support.
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