Well last week I found a use. My secondary PC decided to take a dirt nap, it really only serves as a file server at this point, but not having my iTunes library and all my graphic files, etc available has been annoying. So last Saturday I jump on the web and do a search for “The Technology Recycling Center”. Best result I get is a yellow pages link and the google maps link to where they are. The place does not have a freakin webapge. They may recycle technology, but they sure as hell do not know how to use it. It is not like this place has not been around for a while, I know they have been there for at least 1 year probably more like 2 or 3. I grumble and figure, what the hell, I’ll run by. I was planning on getting out anyway.

So I run by knowing full well there is a chance they are not open. For the record I think this is possibly the dumbest move a retail business can make. Not maintaining some hours of operation on Saturday is like a big “kiss my ass” to anyone who maintains a 9 to 5 job for themselves. I am not going to take part of a day off from work to go visit a business. There is this thing called the internet and if I want something, and you place barriers between yourself and my money I will go elsewhere. You do not deserve my money, I refuse to work to give it to you. Not only were they not open, they had no posted hours on their door.

So today I finally got around to checking out the brochure I picked up from their table. It has an address and phone number for them. It also lists no hours of operation. They tout their services and how wonderful they are, heck according to them you could potentially outfit your whole office, including furniture from them. You just need to be lucky enough to find them open.

How amazon figures in to this post is their huge snafu when supposedly some code monkey “accidentally” flipped a switch that caused any book that even hinted at gay content to be blocked from being reviewed or coming up on searches. After a huge uproar this was “fixed”. I was suspicious but their explanation was believable. Now however I am stepping back and wondering if it was some sort of collusion between Amazon and Apple (at Apples insistence) that those books be VERY hard to come across. You see Amazon just recently launched their Kindle application for the iPhone and Apple has no direct control over the content viewable within that application. So it is pretty easy to see Apple putting the screws to amazon and finding a way to impede users reading what they want to read.

What popped the light bulb on this was another story about a rejected application, coincidentally another e-book reader. Saw this story on Just Another iPhone Blog. So apparently this nice new app which allows access to all the books available on Project Gutenberg, which much to Apples prudishness include the Kama Sutra. So when one of the reviewers specifically searched for Kama Sutra, they found it and rejected the application (called Eucalyptus).

This whole mess for Apple has to be a huge pain, I sort of sympathize with them, but they are so arbitrary in what gets banned and what doesn’t that my sympathy is fleeting. I really feel sorry for someone who spends the time to develop what looks like a nice little application to get shut down for providing access to content that is freely available on the internet, including the Safari browser ON THE iPhone!

I have already called requesting repair and have been approved on SR xxxxxxxxx. I am unable to print my labels because I get an error when I enter my sr# and zip code that states the zip code does not match. I have tried both the 5 and 9 digit zip code. I have a 2nd SR related to this xxxxxxxx and was told to wait 24 hours. This problem has been happening since Saturday when I got my initial email. I am also not seeing my console registered on my live id (email address) This is turning from what was an initially smooth support experience into a frustrating, disappoint experience very quickly. In addition to the 10 to 15 day turn around time I have once I am finally able to ship my dead console, the days are ticking by quickly adding to that total because I can not even print the required labels to ship the useless brick.

One of my favorite past times is heading out to book/game stores. I might be in the mood for a comic or two, maybe a good used or hard to find paperback or hang out for a while at a game store looking over the shelves. Of the three goals there, comics, games and used books, the only thing Huntsville has a good option for really is used books. As for comics and games the selection for my needs are pitiful.

The local game stores are limited to big chains which all carry the same thing and what used to be a very good store which has faded to barely passable. They now carry pretty much what the chain stores carry with a few extra bits and pieces tossed in for good measure. They do have a decent room for the running RPG’s and I suppose miniatures but I really don’t have the time to drive 45 minutes across town to try to play.  They will do a good job of special ordering things for you, but honestly I can do that for myself and often much cheaper than they can. Plus it comes to my house, not an hour round trip away. I do still go there once a month to look around pick up a couple of things they get for me regularly, so I have not completly written them off. I have simpathy for their plight. It is just a lot of effort on my part to go there and it makes me slightly sad a tthe state of an old hobby.

Recently there was a ray of hope. A new store was opening up on my side of town. One which promissed games and comics. They claimed they would host games and wanted to be a friendly place to hang. Wow did they fall flat on their face. I imagine getting a store like this running must be tought to do on a shoe string budget. Their location is a new strip mall so the rent is probably a killer. A store like this really needs location to make it I think. Word of mouth just ain’t what it used to be unless it is bad word of mouth.

So the first time I went into the store I gave them the benefit of the doubt when selection was sparce and no one was playing anything. I did not see any comics that caught my fancy and had no intention of picking up any games or miniatures. They are supposed to be big into miniature gamming so I would have expected them to have some, they had a smaller selection than the other place that has not put anything new on the shelves in 5 years. The 2nd time I went in I picked up 4 comics and tried but failed to find a graphic novel I wanted. Gaming supplies were still non-existant. Placed my comics on the counter and had two options for payment, a debit card and a $50. The dude behind the counter looked like a deer in the headlights when he saw me pull out the card. THEY DID NOT TAKE DEBIT/CREDIT. How can you run a business that does not take credit cards? To make matters worse I probably screwed him up royally with the $50 bill. It nearly cleared him out of change. I offered to go hit the atm for something smaller but he would nto let me do it for fear I would not return to grab my $12 worth of paper.

I expect the next time I go back ( it has been over 2 months since the last trip ) the place will be closed, but how can I feel bad for them, they failed on every aspect. Heck their back issues of their comics were in boxes on the floor. Pretty damn hard to browse for anything hunched over on the freakin floor. Oh and did I mention next to no game supplies at all? Can’t sell what you don’t have.