talkingDigital

by Adam Cochran

The Hooding of the Doctorates (Photo credit: Michael Buck)

I worked in radio during the transition from CDs, carts, and LPs to computer automated programming and music traffic. My job was to sleep on the floor of the studio and listen for the alarm to indicate dead air. At which point, I was to wake-up and type a couple of commands into the prompt to restart the software. – D.J.s protested but maintained that people wouldn’t listen to an automated radio station. Most radio stations are now completely automated. If they have live on-air people, it is generally only during drive times.

I worked for the Walmart empire as Amazon.com and eBay were just beginning to appear as viable retail options. Walmart was one of the few retailers that didn’t scoff at the concept of people buying the day-to-day necessities online. Read the rest of this entry →

photo credit: Flyinace2000

I have written articles and talked about Radio Shack in a number of arenas. I have pointed out the slogan, “You’ve got questions, we’ve got answers” really means, “If you ask a question, we can come up with an answer that sounds pretty good.”

Consumerist.com posted this interesting account about trying to find a standard and common cable at Radio Shack.

Sadly, I have had similar experiences with Best Buy and Office Depot. Cables are very inexpensive. Before you head out and buy a cable from one of the usual places, check you local Big Lots, dollar store or even Ross. Recharging cables, USB cables, mice and keyboards are staples now. This means that you will find them at extremely low prices in places that sell closeout items of all kinds.

If you’re not in a hurry and don’t mind ordering from the web, you can find cables and accessories of all sorts online. I once had a prong break in a $50 – 25′ Monster cable. I headed over to eBay and found a replacement for $12. I am sure audio and video geeks will try to convince me that the Monster cables were superior in some way, but I am not using $20,000 speakers or a $72″ plasma TV.

I used the Monster cable for about a year. I am going on seven years with that $12 cable and I bought a second one as backup.

Sales Pitches: Radio Shack Sales Staff Unfazed By 2,400% Markup.

I used to love eBay. Indeed, I was an eBay fanboy. I made thousands of dollars selling found items using eBay. eBay made a lot of money off of me and I was happy to give them a share of what I made. That is, until eBay decided they didn’t want to be eBay anymore.

This photo was taken when eBay was awesome.

photo credit: Ryan Fanshaw PhotographyAfter taking a year off from eBay after writing my rant piece Where is Pierre Omidyar’s eBay?, I decided to try it again. I have learned over the past nine years as a computer geek not to take anyone’s word for what’s good and what’s bad in the computer world. I have to try things out for myself.

I knew that eBay had made many changes over the past year or two, but I had no idea how much those changes would effect my experience as a seller and buyer on eBay. Read the rest of this entry →