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The Lacie Boycott
In August of ‘07 I bought one of these:
First of all, this drive is NOT 2 Terabytes. No sir ree. LaCie is misleading, at the very least, in their marketing. This is actually four 500 Gigabyte drive, shoved in one case, and laid out in a RAID array. Which means your data is written in little, tiny pieces on all 4 drives. So, if one of the 4 drives fails, you’re screwed. Or, as in my case, if the “controller” part of the RAID fails, and can only read 1 of the drives, you’re equally screwed.
I already had a couple of 250 Gig drives, and I got this one just to back up my DVDs and Music (the bigger stuff). And immediately I noticed some “rattling” noise, almost like something wasn’t attached properly inside. So I reported it to LaCie and they sent me a return box. I shipped it in, and they backed up my data (but only after begging them), they put it on a new drive, and sent it back to me.
Good, right? Well, not so fast.
Almost immediately after I got it out of the box, and plugged it in, it started spinning REALLY FAST. So, I emailed their tech support again. And they said “unplug it for 30 minutes”.
So, I did, but the symptoms persisted. I emailed them back… but nothing. I emailed them back again… still nothing.
Then, the drive started “dropping” from my system window. Just like that, it would “unmount”, randomly. So I emailed tech support again, and they told me to use a different power supply.
But then they emailed back and said “wait… DON’T USE A DIFFERENT POWER SUPPLY!”… which was very confusing. Because I was getting different emails from different tech support guys telling me to do, or don’t do, different things.
Then it just plum died. Well, not totally. I could bring it up in “disk utility”, but it only read 1 drive, just ¼ of the RAID array. Meaning something wasn’t “connecting” the drives together.
I emailed them about that… but heard nothing back. So I called.I talked to a very un-inspiring guy who told me that it “looked bleak”, but offered to send me a new power supply, because in his experience the power supplies were “frying the RAID controllers”. Wait. WHAT?!?!?
So he sent me a new power supply that did absolutely nothing.I called back, and that’s when they told me to call a “data recovery” place, and gave me a couple of numbers to call…
$10,000.00.
Seriously.
$10,000.00!
And LaCie WON’T HELP AT ALL.
The don’t have even an “ad hock” data recovery function. Not even an enclosure they can put these 4 drives in and re-connect the RAID. They ONLY fix the drives (which makes absolutely no sense), and they ever-so-smugly reminded me that “in the fine print” it stated clearly, yet small-ly, that they don’t do “data recovery”. Ironic, isn’t it?
Never mind that this is a “hardware failure” in that the CONTROLLER that connects the drives together was FRIED BY THEIR POWER SUPPLY. I asked them very nicely, based on my extended, and storied back-and-forth with customer service, if they would “help” defray the cost.
They said, in effect, hell no.
Now, you may ask “why don’t you just let those movies and music go?” Well… because… and this is a funny story… right before the drive failed I got Mac OSX Leopard. And I wanted to use the new Time Machine backup scheme, instead of my (achem) LaCie SilverKeeper backup-to-backup scheme. So I moved my backup to another drive, and that backup to this 2TB drive (which again, LaCie ASSURED me was still fine)… and that very day, as if on cue, it gasped it’s final breath.
Here’s the kicker: it just so happens that at that exact point in time the ONLY thing that wasn’t backed up… was my entire professional portfolio. Seriously.
Look. I’m a backup fanatic. I have always had a backup of my backups (though previously only on FWdisks, not DVDs). But the one, seriously ONE time I flew by the seat of my pants (so to speak) for ONE DAY I got burned, and burned bad by LaCie, their faulty products, and their awful customer service. On a drive that was acting a bit wonky, but a drive that they assured me was a-ok.
The funny thing was I had read many, many, many BAD reviews of LaCie products before I bought this one (just do a quick Google search, or even check out the ones on the Amazon site link). I had read all the computer magazines reviews, and saw that almost ALL other drives consistently had better ratings than LaCie. But, unfortunately, I was suckered in by price, and a misleading description of the drive.
And false hope.
Well, now I’ve got to send in my drive to LaCie’s “partner” data recovery service (sound fishy?) and spend an ungodly amount of money to recover data from a drive that failed from 10000% hardware malfunctions. As in: LaCie’s faulty power supply fried LaCie’s RAID controller. As in LaCie’s fault*.
So learn from my mistake. Back up your back ups of your back ups. On DVDs as well. And if you’re going to buy a large external drive, find out if it’s a RAID. If it is, think again about buying it.And more importantly, avoid LaCie like the plague they are. In fact, tell everyone you know to avoid LaCie. Buy any other brand… well, except Maxtor. They’re the only brand with *almost* as many bad reviews as LaCie. Almost.
A call to arms. Boycott LaCie.
e
*Lawyers: a class action suit against LaCie would net you about a zillion dollars. But all I want is my data recovery expenses reimbursed.
I was both surprised, and not surprised in the least, to see Mike Huckabee pop up on “Weekend Update” on Saturday Night Live last night.
At first I thought “wow, great impersonation”. But then I realized it was actually him.
And of course it was. Because even though he represents pretty much everything about the Republican Party the “mainstream media” love to loathe (he’n not only a bible thumper, he’s a freakin evangelist, for crying out loud), they still LOVE him.
Why? Because he’s got a good personality. It’s as simple as that.
I honestly think if a serial killer had an engaging persona, and was “good on camera”, they’d fawn all over him, too.
Of course SNL had Obama on a few weeks back, too. Because even though his “policies” are as high minded and vapid as a high schooler’s “How I Would Change The World” midterm essay, they love him. And he not only gets a free pass, he gets invited to all the cool parties.
The opposite is true with Hillary, and especially George W Bush.
Which begs the question: would you rather have your President “likable”? Or “good”?
“Magnetic” or “effective”?
Would you rather have a person who gives good speaches? Or a person who makes good policy?
A “jock”? Or a “nerd”?
Obviously, there can be both. Or at least shades of both. And I’m certainly not saying that Obama, or Huckabee for that matter, is completely devoid of substance. They probably have some, in some form. But the fact of the matter is the press doesn’t care. They want to hang out with Obama and Huckabee. And they would pay money not to be stuck sitting next to Hillary on a trans-continental flight. It’s as simple as that.
It’s the election for class president all over again, and we know full well that the quarterback always wins.
A man was robbed at in New York City today. At gunpoint. Just south of Central Park, in front of a Starbucks. The thief made off with $100,000.00.
I’m not kidding. See?
But what’s striking to me about this was not how unique, and brazen a crime it was (and, as a New Yorker, I must admit I am kindof freaked out), but rather how the foolishly, and recklessly politically correct is the description of the suspect was:
“Police were searching a suspect they described as a man between 25 and 30 years old who was wearing a black parka, black pants is about five feet 9 inches tall.”
Um, wha? …Really? We’re seriously going to continue this charade? Male. Average height. Poncho. Really? Are we really supposed to just pretend that this person wasn’t white, black, or brown? But rather a pure amalgamation of all the human races, with the skin tone of a just-past-perfectly baked sugar cookie? Gimme a break. How are we supposed to look out for this guy? More importantly, how are the Police supposed to look out for this guy? (Well, they won’t admit it publicly, but I ASSURE you they know what race and ethnicity this guy is).
I’ve got an idea. What about not saying “African American” or “White”? What about simply “light complected”? Or “dark-skinned”? More of a medical diagnosis?
And before you even say it, there’s a marked difference here between this and “racial profiling”. THAT is where you assume people of certain vague descriptions *could* commit a crime. This is very, very different. There is an armed, and well-funded maniac on the loose. In my hood. Yikes.
Well, either way, as a society we’ve reached a level of certifiable insanity. If we have to tiptoe around what a gun-toting maniac actually looks like, we’re doomed. Just doomed.
Doomed.
A childhood mistake
The chance to be good again
Tied up with a bow
Not only was she sober, and completely awesome. She apparently got her tooth fixed. She won Record of the Year along with a few other Grammys. And she sang “Rehab”. Nice.
HOLYMYGOD…
Linky: Sharia law in UK is ‘unavoidable’
It’s finally come to this, has it?
Millions of Muslims have literally flooded into the UK over the past century. And most, regardless of the circumstances, were grateful for it. They were grateful to be alive. To be free.
They also realized that Britain was graciously allowing them to keep, intact, an amazing amount of their own cultures; something many of their own countries were incapable of.
The UK didn’t force their version of Western “culture” down their collective throats.The UK didn’t ask them to stop being themselves.Unfortunately, many of those millions of Muslims (and other cultures as well) haven’t understood the nature of the bargain. And not only have they failed to willingly fold into the pre-existing culture of their newfound homeland, many of them have insisted on inflicting their way of life onto British society.
How rude.
You really expect a millenia-old culture, already deep, and well-established should bend to your ways of life?Immigration only works if both sets of the equation behave with respect. In this case, Britain has been more than respectful. They have bent over backwards (some would say too far) to welcome, and embrace Islamic culture. And now the back of Britain has broken. They have acquiesced beyond the point of no return.
There is no turning back.
Bring on the Sharia Law.
Another great response: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mM2dC1iWzww
The inaugural entry …from my sister:
Wedding veils blood soaked
The Devil in the Desert
Shot him at the last
The so-called “transit system” that supposedly “serves” New York City is an unmitigated joke. I really, truly, and honestly believe it is run by monkeys. Actual, hairy, poop-throwing monkeys.
First blog post on WordPress… W00t! e
(edit)
oddly posted AFTER the later posts… Hmmmm.
Commercial-wise, I mean.
Not since the infamous “dot com” Super Bowl (which featured Christopher Reeve walking, as well as other super-expensive-yet-somehow-utterly-forgetable gems) has there been such a startling collection of marketing misfire (although, to be fair, the “dot com” Super Bowl was the site of the second best Super Bowl ad ever: monster.com’s “When I Grow Up…”).
…
