It wasn't my fault

My wife's Dell Inspiron 1720 died 2 weeks ago. As the post title will tell you, it was not my fault. We have had the thing for about a year and a half. My wife tries to turn the laptop on one day and nothing. No hard drive spin, no error beep/light codes, just blank screen and a sinking feeling. I have had a number of computers in my time and it really strikes me odd that this thing would just up and die.

I called Dell Support and got an English speaking person first time (miracles never cease) and after a few steps, one of which was "power off the laptop" to which I said "you do understand that is all it does now, right?", we finally agreed that it was not functioning properly and we were told we would get a box to ship it in for service. This was almost two weeks ago. With profit margins so small on computers these days wouldn't it be less expensive for Dell to just replace rather than maintain the infrastructure needed to make a major repair like this (motherboard replacement)?

Relatively immaterial at this point I supposed but two weeks? That seems a bit much but I'm not going to complain too much yet since the work is covered under warranty. So for now, we wait and my wife has to use my computer if she needs something online. Not that I have an issue with sharing or anything but, COME ON DELL, I want my... uh, wife's computer back. plzkthanxbai

Xbox 360 sucks ass but we all bought it anyway!

I really need to figure out a way to get people to buy any old piece of shit from me and brainwash them all into thinking they love it and want to buy another one. Oh, wait Microsoft already did that and I think my own sense of pride and general scruples would keep me from being able to do that. What's that? You Microsoft wouldn't do that or worse yet you live under a rock and haven't seen umpteen reports on the astronomical failure rate of the 360.

Come on kids, let's get real. We were all suckered and yet we stand in line asking "Please Sir, can I have some more?" Any other product with a 54% failure rate, yes a 54% fail rate, would see the manufacturer in bankruptcy before you could say "Steve Ballmer is a hyperactive, power mad, dancing monkey!". What this really showcases is the complete breakdown of the way free markets and/or capitalism is supposed to work. Consumers have so fallen for the marketing BS! that we believe we need something whether it works or not.

Do I sound pissed? Damn right! I knew all this and still bought a effin' 360. Every time I turn it on I know there is a 50/50 shot that the RRoD will bite me in the ass. Oh yea, we have all that cool XBLive stuff thrown in and we get to do all kinds of cool gaming with friends and stuff. No! Not only do we pay $400 for a POS console, it has about as much online capability as a Commodore 64 until you pay an extra fee and then if you want to watch a video that is otherwise freely available on the Internet you have to pay AGAIN!?! As Penn Jillette would say, "Fuck!".