{ Computers / PC, Laptops / Netbooks }

Best Buy Caught Scamming Computer Buyers With ‘Optimizations’

Read this: don’t let Best Buy scam you into “optimizing” your [brand new] computer. The optimization has been such a huge controversy that Gizmodo released a blog post entitled, “Best Buy’s ‘Optimization’ Is Officially a Huge, Evil Scam.” Ouch.

So what exactly did they do? Well, they offer computer optimizations for $40. This “optimization” entails installing software which Best Buy gets a $5.00 fee for each trial that’s turned into a purchase. Additionally, they remove the icons from your desktop so you don’t even know exactly what they installed. Read more

{ Computers / PC, Home and Living }

Dad Programs Computer To Rock His Baby To Sleep

We all know computers can multi-task. But, did you know that they can also rock your baby to sleep? Neither did we! One lazy incredibly smart dad found a way by creating a program in Linux. It was simple, really. All he had to do was make the CD drive eject and slide back in while tying a string from it to his baby’s car seat. Genius.

If this video does anything, it’s just an incentive for me to continue learning Java. Hell, any programming language for that matter.

[Bits & Pieces via Neatorama via Dvice]

{ Computers / PC }

Can You Trust Computer Repairmen? Short Answer: Hell No

Should this really be a shocker to us all? Sky News in the UK has uncovered a story that computer repairmen can’t be trusted. To test their theory they visited a couple of PC repair shops in London. They set up a pretty standard hardware issue where there was a loose piece of RAM, inevitably making the computer unable to boot.

Using some sweet software, Sky News was able to remotely watch and hear the employees every move via the built-in camera, and see everything they were accessing on the computer. So, what happened when they finally booted up the computer? They started in the picture folder where there looking at the owners personal photos. From there they tried accessing the owners bank account — several times, even — though the news channel placed false information on the computer. This wasn’t the end of their shenanigans, either. Head past the break for the full video. Read more