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tinyE: Since we are on topic, and I realize this is the wrong thread, my dad would like to get Norton off his Win8 notebook. He has a very heavy email flow but I'd like something dependable and FREE I can put on there for him.
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jjsimp: I only have experience with MSE and AVG. But there is also Avast, Avira, and probably countless other ones. I have read that AVG and Avira are the best of the free ones.
I have free AVG and love it but I don't have email so my threat level isn't very high. MSE is great according to my brother but I can't find the free version for Win8.

I'll keep looking. I've derailed this thread enough for today. :D Thanks jjsimp.
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tinyE: I have free AVG and love it but I don't have email so my threat level isn't very high. MSE is great according to my brother but I can't find the free version for Win8.
Microsoft changed the name back to Windows Defender for 8. I think it is installed by default, anyone with 8 confirm that.

Edit: updated with link.
Post edited March 27, 2014 by jjsimp
Its the second day of us working there... i was there with 3 friends, all of them got fired today. im the only one left. and even though i was told to "keep up the good work" i think i won't make it much longer.
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HereForTheBeer: I'd love to get just one day like that. Between the wife snoring, the dog snoring, the other dog wanting to go outside at 5am, my picky back, and all the crap running through my brain, I'm lucky to get a fitful six or seven hours. The rest I can deal with, but the stupid back and the stupid brain...

Got to write a non-toxic "go screw yourself" letter to a customer yesterday, after a call I got Monday. Some new person paying the bills, who decides that the company is no longer going to pay for the travel time and expenses on my invoice. Beg pardon? He demands that I absorb those costs when traveling at their request.

"None of the other techs charge for that." You're talking about local techs, and none of them drive the same 140 miles and 2.5 hours that I do - each way - to work on your machines. And yes, they DO charge travel; it's simply that they roll the travel into the labor charge whereas I do it honestly on individual line items so you know exactly what you're paying. You'll see that when they're in your shop for four hours and the invoice charges five hours.

"I drive 65 miles each way to get to work and the company doesn't pay me for that." Obviously, you need to move closer to work (he didn't like that one). But think about it: if the company asks you to drive your own vehicle, on your own time, to visit a customer 150 miles away, would you be compensated for the miles and paid for the time? Yes, you would. When your company is contracted to ship and install the products it makes, does it include in the contracted product price an additional amount in order to cover those particular costs? Yes, it does. When your company - and every other business - does the same, why am I the one guy expected to do it differently?

"We'll just call one of the local techs from now on." That's always your option, and if it's more important to pay a little less instead of having your machine serviced by the person in the US with the most experience on this brand and model, then I suppose that's a decision you need to make for yourself. Remember that it will take them longer to repair and adjust the machine so the labor charge will be higher - and be sure to note for yourself that actual time spent on the machine versus the time on the invoice. Also be certain to keep my number handy when you need the top expert to correct those things done improperly by the guy you hired to save you money, and who sees this type of machine just once or twice a year. When you have me come back keep in mind that you'll be paying travel time and cost - just like your company has paid for every other visit since 2008, and your parent company has paid since 2006 - for my visit to fix the other techs' screw-ups.

Again, your decision. Good luck.

A few years back I had one guy ask why he had to pay travel time AND mileage. "Why am I paying for your car to get here?" You're not paying for my car to get there. You're paying for my toolbox to get there. Just so happens that doing so requires a car. If you'd prefer I could fly and rent a car, just like the OEMs do, instead of driving 3.5 hours myself. And still charge travel time. It'll cost you two or three times more, but if that's what you want then that's what I'll do.

Fuck me runnin' - I have more experience than any of the OEM techs, and I charge much less. It's your machinery that needs to be fixed so why am I the asshole for trying to earn a living when you call me to quickly repair and adjust things that you break and can't fix yourselves?
It's hard being a small business owner in America. Look on the bright side, at least, this douche bag customer of yours didn't leave a negative review of your business on Yelp.
Post edited March 28, 2014 by monkeydelarge
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HereForTheBeer:
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monkeydelarge: It's hard being a small business owner in America. Look on the bright side, at least, this douche bag customer of yours didn't leave a negative review of your business on Yelp.
I've got a few people on Trip Advisor I'd like to have a chat with. Not all bad reviews irk me because I have things I could improve on but clearly "insane" people shouldn't be allowed to post on those sites. :P

@HereForTheBeer: Any time you want a pick me up I'll feed you some of the request and complaints I get; that will perk you up. XD While I don't doubt I live anything but a charmed life, dealing with some of these folks can make anyone start screaming.
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monkeydelarge: It's hard being a small business owner in America. Look on the bright side, at least, this douche bag customer of yours didn't leave a negative review of your business on Yelp.
It has it's challenges, to be sure, but this has been a great fit for me. Working for the OEM was getting old, mostly because the techs tend to get thrown at the fire of the day. Nature of the business - stuff breaks so you send the most suitable person for that emergency, and that may screw up your weekend plans, have you flying to four different places in five days, keep you away from home 70% of the time, etc. Wore me out after ten years, and I wasn't able to concentrate on the people in my geographical area. So I left and the rest is history. Except for the fluttery stomach that came when I first started out, and again when things dried-up around 2009-2011, I can only complain about details here and there, like this case.

If a person has a good idea, can work directly with all aspects of their customers' business (I learned along the way), the gumption to give it a go, and the resources to carry over a few months until things get going, then I suggest that someone who is unhappy in their current job at least take a look at going independent. It ain't for everyone, but it's the perfect fit for some.

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tinyE: While I don't doubt I live anything but a charmed life, dealing with some of these folks can make anyone start screaming.
That's exactly this case. I really do enjoy working with this customer, and love what I do, but this one guy comes along and... but maybe he's the new guy and is trying to make the impression that he's the big money-saver. Dunno.

Best I can do is explain why I do what I do, and be clear that this is my policy, period. As I like to say, that's the beauty of the marketplace.


Balanced out by the guy I talked with this morning - I installed the machine in early 1998 and have been the tech ever since. Worked him through a technical problem and told him where to find the part he needs. He said, "You're the smartest guy I know." Dang, Roger, if I'm the smartest guy you know then you need to hang around with better people. "No, I meant that you're the smartest guy I know for these machines." LOL - in that, case, thanks!
EU stole me an hour of my life right now!
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Protoss: EU stole me an hour of my life right now!
Isn't Germany the only country that does it?
Come on Humble Bundle! If you are offering Bittorrent downloads as an option, shouldn't you make sure there are always at least a few seeders for your games? Or do you always leave it up to the end users to seed your games?

I decided to re-download all my HB Android games with Bittorrent from the HumbleBundle site and then copy and install the games to two of my Android devices, as the HB Android client is shit. Others came fine, but these Android games have been just sitting there whole weekend with 0 seeders most of the time:

Carmageddon
Kingdom Rush
Ridiculous Fishing
Serious Sam Kamikaze Attack
Time Surfer

I guess I need to download those pending games with direct links instead... I decided against the HB Android client because it is generally quite buggy (sometimes having to restart a download several times), it doesn't let me channel the downloads to e.g. a bigger external SD card on the Android device, and for some reason it was not listing e.g. Canabalt for me to download at all, so I wasn't sure if its list is missing some of my other HB Android games too. I can see Canabalt on my HB account through the browser.
Post edited March 30, 2014 by timppu
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Protoss: EU stole me an hour of my life right now!
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Soccorro: Isn't Germany the only country that does it?
Was that a serious question? "Daylight saving time" aka "Summer time" is an EU wide thing, the whole EU switches at the same time. US probably switches at some other date etc.

And I hate it. I have yet to see any good explanation why we should move around the clock twice a year. The "then factory workers and farmers have one more hour of light to work" is pure bullshit, you don't need to move around clocks for something like that. You just go work one hour earlier, that's all.

Thailand has none of that shit, and that's why it has become the greatest country of all time. The rice farmers there go early enough to work either way, the roosters will tell when it is time to get up (around 5am or so, it seems).

I don't agree with Russian's "let's be in Summer Time all the time then", because I consider that the wrong time. 12 o'clock, noon, the sun should be highest, and in the "winter time" it is generally closest to that ideal. Being in "summer time" means that sun is at its highest point at around 1pm, so it is one hour off. Yeah I know the time zones don't go quite evenly around the world anyway, but the thought is important. Summer time is the wrong time.

Well, at least nowadays many clocks (in phones, TV boxes, computers and such) usually switch the time automatically, but I still have to switch it manually to my wall clock and car clock. Silly.
The daylight saving time system is ass.

Days are reasonably warm these days. Unfortunately, I work in the early hours when it's still 0°C or less, although I know that it could be much colder this time of the year.
I think my doctor switched out my Prozac with salt pills. I haven't been this mind numbingly depressed since high school and back then I was practicing self mutilation. OY.....rough winter indeed!
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tinyE: back then I was practicing self mutilation.
Yeah, we know on what. :-(
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tinyE: back then I was practicing self mutilation.
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Telika: Yeah, we know on what. :-(
ha ha ha :P
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AlKim: The daylight saving time system is ass.

Days are reasonably warm these days. Unfortunately, I work in the early hours when it's still 0°C or less, although I know that it could be much colder this time of the year.
Our Daylight Savings was a few weekends ago (Mar 9th) and I agree it is a bunch of BS. If it's for the children, make their young asses and teachers change schedule. If it's for farmers, they will get up when the rooster crows and if not they are lousy farmers. Don't make the whole bloody world change their lives twice a @#$% here, make those who thinks it's a good idea change their lives. I agree that noon should be when the sun is at it's apex (or as close as possible)...how else does high noon make sense, except maybe in the pot/drug scene.
The only positive for DST is mowing my lawn during the fall, but my lawn is half-dead, and I mow on the weekends anyway.