Wednesday, June 20, 2007

CNET not always to be trusted



I signed up for a weekly email from cnet thinking it would help my general computer skills, since I always need help and usually have to follow such a breadcrumb trail to figure things out. So I get this bright yellow perky message each week featuring a guy who looks like a chipmunk and talks about his kids too much. (Have I mentioned that aI have a low tolerance for anyone who says: "I feel blessed?") ) :: (

Last week Mr. Perky asked if my computer was loading too slowly, and offered some quick tips on using msconfig. "Good Idea" I think, and pop on over to msconfig and uncheck various items that seem irrelevant to my system.

My computer's been a wreck ever since. I've gone to system restore, where it restores to an earlier time-- hmm, I could take 1926.. but I took about two weeks ago. Tried that, it was a bear. Told it to go back farther in time, that was worse. Told it to unistall the restores. Now the basic programs I use, like Flash and Word, need reinstall/repairs. Some of those programs have nasty activations required.

Thanks Chipmunk. Next email you send I'm unsubscribing. (I've also bought products on their advice that I haven't been so keen on upon receipt.)

a link to Dinah's new phone.

4 comments:

Sally said...

I'll forward this to Pat. Feel free to ask him any questions you have; he troubleshoots both platforms. You can email me and I'll forward; that way I can remind him to check his messages.

Linda Davick said...

This is horrible. HORRIBLE!!!!

I feel blessed that I read your blog post before I signed up for CNET's weekly email.

What products were you not so keen on?

p.s. Just wondering ... What's your tolerance level for people who wear "life is good" shirts?

Sally said...

Thanks, Sally. It's mostly been put back together again. So odd how certain programs that I use all the time like Flash, disappeared, but Photoshop, which is fussy about activation, hung in there. A lot of the little programs that I've downloaded from here and there also took a beating, but most of them I still had in download zip form.

As I recall, Linda, we tossed a few printers that cnet said were good, and I think my previous Canon camera came with cnet endorsement. However Dinah found her new super hot cel phone via cnet, at ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170112147411



It's a I haven't seen the "life is good" shirts.

Anonymous said...

I can't believe you would ever buy a phone for your daughter that comes with bug wallpaper. (Is that thing a spittle bug?)