Have you read your service agreements lately?

If you have a service contract, with anybody, and have a credit or debit card on file with that company, beware of some surprise charges to that account. In my case it is DirecTV, but I would imagine it's not a situation that's exclusive to them. Wireless Phone companies, Cable and Satellite companies, Internet Service, etc...basically anyone that you have a service contract with that it either billed to, or has on file in any way...even an online profile, a credit or debit card may be subject to some hidden fees that may or may not be charged to your card automatically and seemingly without your consent.

I say seemingly because apparently in the fine print (and I do mean fine...) of the service contract with DirecTV, there is a bit about giving them authorization to charge your account for any unpaid fees at the time of cancellation. They can do this immediately, even before sending you a final bill.

This happened to us and this charge over drafted our account and caused 5 other pending charges to be overdrawn as well, totalling 6 (including their original charge) overdraft fees from our bank. On top of that, about half of their original charge was for something that wasn't even owed. It was for one (of 3) receivers that we returned that they said they did not receive. Magically, while on the phone with them they found it and said they would return THAT charge within 4-5 days...which has come and gone and no refund. But that story is for a different day...

There is some question (certainly in my mind at least) whether this practice is even legal, regardless of what the contract says. Two different states have pending lawsuits against DirecTV for different shady billing policies. In September of 2009, a class-action suit was filed in Los Angeles Superior court to block DirecTV from automatically billing customer's accounts for service fees. In December of last year, Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna's office filed a suit against the California based company for deceptive and unfair sales practices, stating several instances of items in the service contract that he claimed were intentionally hidden or misleading. He also reported that DirecTV has generated more consumer complaints (total of 375 in 2009 alone) to his office than any other company.

DirecTV is no stranger to legal issues. According to consumer advocacy site, ConsumerAffairs.com, DirecTV has been named in at least 300 lawsuits over the last 5 years, many of them class actions. Consumeraffairs.com also reports there are over 1400 complaints on DirecTV in their database alone.

To be completely fair, on the flip side of the "fine print" issue...sometimes there are items in there that would allow you to get out of your contract without an early termination fee. For instance, Sprint has historically had a policy in their contracts that if an item in the contract changes, for any reason, it nullifies the contract. This is with the caveat that you complain about said change within 30 days of being notified. So when you get those little notices in the mail or in your email about a "minor" change to your service agreement, it might be helpful to read those as it might give you an out. Now, that being said, given the sometimes shady business practices of some of these companies and their propensity to take money out of your account at their whim (and then in turn give it back at a much slower rate) attempt this at your own risk.

Since I am having a personal battle with DirecTV, my research has admittedly been exclusive to them. I would expect that there are other companies that have similar "fine print" in their contracts, so beware of what you are signing...or maybe have already signed. May not be much you can do about the contract you're already in, other than to be informed and to keep a watchful eye on your account. But, going forward, you might want to actually read those extensive, and very small font, service agreement contracts that nobody ever really reads.

April is the new March

Maybe you should sit down...or at least hold on to something...this is going to shock you. Apple announced they are going to miss the promised March release date of the iPad. I know, I know...hard to believe. I mean that almost never happens. Well, except for Snow Leopard. Oh, and the iPhone. What's that? Oh yeah, the iPhone 3g too...right. Ok, well at least when all of those did finally arrive in customer hands they all worked perfectly...wait, they didn't? Huh...

Ok, the sarcasm is getting a bit thick even for me so I'll stop there. The reality is that virtually every time Apple announces a release date, you can pretty much count on them missing it. Apple announced that the new iPad will instead release on April 3rd and only in the US, and then only the version WITHOUT 3g connectivity. A week from today US-based customers who want to by the first incomplete, and almost assuredly buggy, iPad can pre-order and hope you can use it when it gets there.

In late April (assuming that holds...and history says otherwise) Apple will supposedly deliever the 3g models.

Now, not to mention that its just a glorified iPod touch...something you'd think they'd be very familiar with. Given the features they've announced, I don't see what there is that's so groundbreaking and different from products that Apple already sells that should cause delays.

That said, I would expect the Apple "lemmings" to head out in droves and push up the presales numbers. That maybe the only thing "magical and revolutionary" about the iPad. Sorry, I know I said that was it for the sarcasm, but I just couldn't help myself....

The tech messiah has come!!...a.k.a Windows 7

Yes, I realize it was released a month ago and I am a little late to the lather-up-in-Windows7-butter party. I've been on a bit of a blogging hiatus for a while. I got into reading and doing book reviews and then got busy with other stuff...but I am back to my senses now. Not that I am no longer going to do book reviews. I like it, in fact. But this is a tech blog...and no matter my attempts to hide it and push it deep down into the dark recesses of my persona, I am still just a simple tech geek. We are what we are, no since fighting it.

So, on that note, with some fear and trepidation, I have made the jump to Windows 7. And, so far, I love it. There are the usual pains of changing to a new OS interface (like we had with the Windows95 jump...and then in turn the Windows XP jump) where things are in different places and some ways of doing things have changed. But what I like about it is simple...it works. The way things are done might be different, but the new ways work. The old ways didn't always do that.

There are some similar issues with Vista. Legacy hardware and software support is not guaranteed. Some legacy apps that I used with XP don't work on Windows7. The majority of these apps have released newer versions that work with Vista/Windows7, but then that requires buying a new version (usually) and then likely that interface has changed and so now another learning curve to figure out how to do the same things I did before. Painful yes...but, change often is.

It seems to use system resources more efficiently than XP did. It feels much faster than XP on the same laptop. It has some new graphics and motion and frilly stuff that many home users will enjoy, at least superficially. But more important to me is that it works. It does what it says it does.

The jury is still out one whether it is their best ever. There are countless different scenarios even just with the process of migrating to Windows7 from earlier versions that haven't been fully tested. The next 6 months or so will tell the tale more clearly. I'm not going to get into all the specifics of Windows 7 just yet...mostly because I haven't had time to go through it all myself.

But, so far, I'm impressed. It's almost enough to get that nasty "Vista" taste out of my mouth.

Book Review - Green by Ted Dekker

In Green, the group known as the "Circle", led by Thomas Hunter, is fracturing. It has been 10 years since they have really seen God (called Elyon in this story). In that world, which is actually a couple thousand years in the future, the unseen is now seen. Good and Evil are incarnated and tangible. The followers of the evil lord Teelah, Elyon’s enemy, are clearly visible by the scabbing disease that ravages their body, and the followers of Elyon have had the disease washed away by Elyon’s waters. But, they have not experienced their Savior in over 10 years. It was wearing on the Circle, many of whom were used to experiencing Elyon on a regular basis, and they are starting to doubt their faith. Even Thomas’ own son, Samuel, has turned his back on his father, and the peaceful teachings of Elyon to love their enemy, the Horde, in an effort to save as many of them as possible before Elyon’s final return. Samuel has instead conspired with dark forces to wage what he believes would be a final war to crush the “enemies” of Elyon.

Thomas tries desperately to save the Circle, to help them rescue their faith, and at the same time rescue his first-born from a self-destructive path that is taking Samuel dangerously close to becoming the enemy he so badly wants to destroy. In this desperate time, Thomas finds a way back to the other reality (our reality) that he had visited before…in his dreams…to find something, anything, to help his people again.

Green is Dekker’s latest addition to what was once referred to as the "Circle Trilogy" (once…but not now, obviously. You see, this is the 4th book in the series and a trilogy is only…well, you get it). The Circle “Series” is a part of the larger epic “Books of History Chronicles” which is now upwards of 15 books broken up into 3 different series including the aforementioned Circle Series and then also the “Lost Books” and the “Paradise Novels”.

Having only recently read the original Trilogy (which includes Black, Red, and White), I was really looking forward to Green, and at the same time not so much. The books seemed to fit so well as a trilogy and although it found it intriguing to have some of the mysteries of the original story revealed and loose ends tied up, I also like the imagination that is prompted when you are left to fill in the blanks for yourself.

Green is referred to as book "Zero"…the beginning and the end. Dekker describes it himself that you can read Green as the first book, or the last book. However, having read the other three books already, it seemed to me that some of the story would be lost on a reader that had not read the others. There isn’t quite as much story development at the beginning to explain a lot of the background of the story and the characters, and given that the story was developed over 3 novels I’m not sure it really could be…or should be. There was a lot of unknown in Black (the original "first" book), granted, but the fact that it was unknown was intrinsic to the story. Nobody knew exactly what was going on in the beginning, not even all characters, and that was the fun part. In this book a reader new to the story might feel more like the “unknown” is in fact known to everyone else and they are just left out.

That said, given that I have read the other three books, I thoroughly enjoyed this story. Once again, Dekker does a fantastic job of painting the picture of the emotions of the characters and posing thought provoking questions about faith and the sometimes blurred lines between good and evil…love and hate…right and wrong. Action junkies fear not, there is no shortage of the usual suspense, action and epic battles. The evil in this one was more real and more gruesome than ever. In fact, my one complaint about the book itself is that the evil and gore are a little over-the-top and disturbing. Evil is inherently disturbing, to be sure, but Dekker’s gift of making these images come to life make the creepy that much creepier. As usual he is very descriptive of the emotion that the characters feel and with the “evil” taking so much joy and almost sexual pleasure in their “evil”, I sometimes felt the need to "look away". It was almost exaggerated and I would probably prefer it be scaled back just a bit. But, it is not Dekker’s way to sugar-coat, and I suppose it might be ultimately more disappointing to have him soften things and depart from what makes him the story teller that he is.

All in all, I thought it was a very compelling book, just maybe not for the faint of heart (or those with a weak stomach). It has the gripping drama, the suspense, and great story telling typical with Dekker novels.

A great “ending” to the story, or possibly the beginning, where the past is the future, and the future the past.

Dive in…dive deep.

Ever-expanding Horizions

Being of an engineering mind, I am a creature of habit. So, I don't branch that far out in anything really. When I find something I like, I tend to stick to it. You know the type..."Change is not good...no matter what anyone else says." But, I've begun to branch out and read more than just Computer Magazines and Technical Journals...to expand my Geekness.

I have always enjoyed the mystery/crime drama movies based off the novels of Grisham and Patterson and the like, but have never read the actual books. I'm a busy guy, and watching the movie just seemed easier and faster. Kind of like a Cliff's Notes version of the Cliff's Notes, if you will.

As I've gotten older I've come to really enjoy the time-outs in life, though, from time to time. I don't have that feeling of being afraid I'm going to miss something as much as I used to. Maybe in a way, I'm resigned to the fact that I probably already missed it...i dunno. I decided that maybe taking time to relax and read a good book wasn't so bad after all and that maybe I'd give it a shot.

Only, I don't have any books. My library consists of computer magazines, home improvement magazines and how-to books, and a few self-help books my mom gave me over the years (most of which, I'll admit, I haven't opened let alone read...sorry Mom). I borrowed a book from my Mom to get started. No, not another self-help book, but a completely fictional crime drama that is set in a real life small town in North Carolina close to where my parents live (and happens to be where the Author, John Hart, lives as well). The book was called King of Lies and it was fantastic. I couldn't put it down. Reading those crime stories was so much more engrossing than watching the Hollywood versions of them.

So I read more. Not just crime dramas anymore, either (although, I do tend to lean that way). I used to read a ton when I was young. I learned to read rather young and I love learning in general, so I would read whatever I could. Absorb as much information as possible. I kind of feel like that again. Like a whole new world has been re-opened, as it were.

So, to make a long story, well...longer, I've signed up to be a reviewer of newly released books from different publishers. And, I am going to expand this blog to include those reviews as they come. Kind of an exciting new thing for me...and it gets me a way to build my library for free!

I know you're waiting with bated breath...so here comes the first one...

...no sleeping!!

If your Xbox 360 has not failed yet...just wait...

Recently, a popular Video Game magazine surveyed over 5,000 video game players and found that an astonishing 54.2 percent of Xbox 360 consoles experienced severe hardware failures, more 5 times the rate than competing consoles. Sony PS3 showed a 10.6% failure rate while the Nintendo Wii was the smallest at 6.8%.

Even more alarming is the fact that of the Xbox 360 consoles that are repaired by Microsoft and returned to the owners...over 41% of those experience ANOTHER severe hardware failure, requiring yet another repair.

Remember, the bug-plagued Xbox 360 was at the center of a $1.1 billion warranty recall last year and is rather notorious for the "Red Ring of Death" hardware failure that in reality seems to happen at some point to every Xbox 360...at least all of them purchased prior to this year. With the drop in price this year of the console, Microsoft has actually sold a large number of the Xbox 360s this year over last year and that might explain why the failure rate is actually lower than most experts thought it would be. Interesting isn't it that a 55% failure rate is "better" than expected? Kind of like Bill Clinton championing the fact that he took Arkansas from 50th in education up to 49th (yee-haw!!!).

The most surprising stat from this survey, in my opinion, is that the bad experiences with the Xbox 360 reliability have not had much effect on their owners. In fact, only 3.8% of users said they would never buy another one because of the hardware issues and 36.4 percent actually purchased a second console. Just following Bill "Pied Piper" Gates all the way to oblivion.

"Microsoft stands behind the Xbox 360 as a superior entertainment console with one of the best warranties in the industry," a Microsoft spokesperson noted in a response to this damning survey. "We are constantly improving the design, manufacture and performance of the console through extensive testing of potential sources of any problems. Xbox 360 is pleased to maintain the title of 'most played console' and the vast majority of Xbox 360 customers have enjoyed a terrific gaming and entertainment experience since their first day, and continue to, day in and day out."

Well, it appears that not only is the Xbox 360 the "most played console" in the industry...it is also the "most often repaired" console and even the "most often repaired again" console.

Mozilla Releases Firefox 3.5

Mozilla launched its latest browser, Firefox 3.5, Tuesday. This release adds new functionality, some performance improvements, new customization options, and increased support for some of the new web standards. "Firefox 3.5 brings together the most innovative web technologies and delivers them in the most complete and powerful modern browser," says Mozilla CEO John Lilly. "So much is happening on the web right now, it's a great time for browsers."

The new version of Firefox got off to a fast start with reports of more than 1.1 million downloads on the first day of availability. Firefox is already the number 2 browser worldwide, trailing only Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE).

Originally, Mozilla had planned to release a minor update (version 3.1) to the Firefox browser, but decided to release the product as Firefox 3.5 instead, which is considered a "major" release. 3.5 adds a new "Private Browsing Mode" (similar to IE 8's "InPrivate" feature) and support for the next generation HTML 5 standard.

Mozilla also claims that 3.5, because of its improved JavaScript engine (labelled "TraceMonkey"), is "two times faster than Firefox 3.0 and ten times faster than 2.0 on complex websites". I chuckle at vague performance claims that can be neither confirmed or denied in any kind of testing....what exactly defines a "complex" website? Other browsers, such as Chrome and Safari, have been making similar claims recently and each is touting new JS engines.

Speaking of Safari, Apple proudly announced 2 weeks ago the release of Safari 4 had garnered 11 million downloads in its first 3 days. A hidden detail though (taken straight from the Microsoft book of statistics) was that much of these downloads occurred due to Apple force-feeding the update to customers through its updating utility. Mozilla put that number into perspective the following day, when they mentioned that the VERY minor update to Firefox (version 3.0.11) had been downloaded more than 150 million times in 24 hours. Moral of the story...Firefox is a major player in the browser world...Safari, not so much.

Even Mozilla's presence needs perspective, however. In the US, Firefox accounts for about 20 percent of the usage share, compared to 73 percent for IE. It's a respectable number, mind you, considering that IE is available virtually by default for the vast majority of people, but 20% is 20%. Internationally, however, those numbers are closer together and in some European countries (such as Finland, Poland, and Slovenia) Firefox actually leads IE and controls about 50% of the market.

Market share in Europe will get even closer with the release of Windows 7. Due to the EU's rather unreasonable antitrust battle with Microsoft, the software giant announced recently it would meet their demands and will not include IE8 with Windows 7 (after all...they aren't asking Apple to un-bundle Safari). Microsoft will instead include IE8 as an optional add-on (called "IE 8 Pack") that can be acquired via CD, FTP, or retail channels. This version of Windows will be known as "Windows 7 E". Again, to add a bit of perspective here, PC manufacturers will always bundle a browser of some kind with their machines, and true, some of them will include Firefox instead of IE. But, Microsoft has shifted their giant "marketing" machine (some might loosely translate "marketing" as "goon squad") toward PC makers instead and it can be expected that the majority of those manufacturers will still include the new IE 8 Pack...but just maybe not exclusively anymore.

For more information on the new Firefox browser, and the free download, head on over to the Mozilla Website.