Derek Tacconelli Blog » Rant

Electronic Waste Recycling Act15-34

Derek — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 06:10:42 +0000

I just ordered a new monitor from NewEgg.com and was slammed with a $16 charge for “Electronic Waste Recycling Act15-34″. I guess this applies to all monitors purchased in California larger than 4 inches. The last monitor I purchased was a CRT in about 2005 — no recycling tax applied. I am really pissed that NewEgg did not mention one thing about a $16 tax on my monitor. I was not even aware of it until I my confirmation e-mail was sent with $16 tacked on to the end. It is really sad that they do this.

This is the monitor I got, I am excited and can’t hardly wait! I’m still pissed about the fucking tax they added without telling me about it.

ASUS VH236H

SlickSurf Replacement Mouse Feet Review

Derek — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 01:02:30 +0000

So my Logitech G5 mouse feet were wearing down from about a year and a half of heavy gaming usage and it was time to get some replacement pads. I use a large cloth Corepad EYEpad mouse pad that has served me well for about 3 years now. I surfed Google to find proper mouse feet replacements and found a lot. There were some from Hyperglide, Func pads, and Steel Series (all had shipping that cost about the same as the product itself!) — but then I stumbled upon a home-grown, independent mouse feet maker by the name of SlickSurf. The website looked sketchy and seemed almost like it was from the 90s. Alas, I researched more on this product and found that most of the reviews from gaming forums and Logitech’s forums were good — not to mention, there is a page on their website that had great reviews and testimonials. So I ordered them — can’t complain when the shipping was only $1.

They came in a plain envelope with a receipt, nice and simple. Upon inspecting the product I noticed that the feet were most likely die cut from a larger piece of smooth plastic (on his site “J Cole” says that the feet are not Teflon, but are as smooth as Teflon), creating feathering and non-smooth edges — different from the mouse feet that came with my G5, which featured a domed-shape with rounded edges. I shrugged it off and thought to myself, “Maybe they are meant to be this way. This product is going to rock!” So, following the directions, I peeled off my old feet, removed the old, gunky adhesive leftovers and stuck on the SlickSurf feet. The feet are about 1 or 2 mm smaller than the original feet and don’t completely fill in the alloted mouse feet space. To my dismay, I tried my mouse: did. not. like. It now made a scratching noise on my CLOTH mouse pad and the feathery corners of the feet snagged with every movement. I tried cutting the edges but with no success. I ended up putting my old feet back on over the SlickSurf feet. Even though the originals were somewhat mangled and ruined, they still glide better than these SlickSurf ones.

I would not suggest purchasing SlickSurf mouse feet replacements if you use a cloth mouse pad.

I read reviews that these feet are “as smooth as ice” on hard surface/plastic mouse pads and were good on cloth pads. Unfortunate for me, I got a defunct product or “J Cole” himself lurks forums and posts great reviews himself.

Barney Frank is the MAN

Derek — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 04:35:32 +0000

‘Nuff said.

HARD Summer 2009 Debacle

Derek — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 23:49:19 +0000

Well, the night started off with a huge line at the Groove Tickets will call stations. Never in my life have I waited this long to get will call tickets. As usual, sub-par event security were doing nothing to control line cutting and gate hopping — but it is as expected. It took about an hour to get my tickets (and we cut twice). Angie and I met this really chill couple in line as we joked about our outrageous predicament and all the under-aged kids surrounding us. When I got my ticket we hopped into the actual line to get into the Forum; another wait ensued — approximately 45 minutes of crunch time. The second we got through security, I received a text from Cris saying they stopped the show. I asked around, people said the crowd was getting to rowdy so they stopped to let the crowd settle. The truth of the matter is, the fire marshal would not let the show continue until people cleared the first five rows around the entire venue. People were jumping off the stands because they would not let people down on the floor — it was extremely packed when we got there, and a steady stream of people kept flowing in. In my honest opinion they simply overbooked The Forum. Moreover, it was an all-ages event, which I don’t fully comprehend — cut out all the under-aged kids and it would have been a blast! So, the house lights came on at about 11:30pm~12am and event security started clearing out the venue; event cancelled.

When they started clearing out the show, they brought in the Inglewood Police Department and their riot squad. There was a mini dance party that flowed from the parking lot onto the sidewalk, so helicopters were circling around telling people it was an illegal congregation and that they had to leave or arrests would be made. We were one of the last to leave in our car from the parking lot, it was pretty much grid locked for 3 square blocks around The Forum.

After we left, Angie and I found an AM/PM (“Too much good stuff”), and parked the car to chat for a bit. At that point of the night, having heard virtually no music, we were left with only our hearts to carry the beat.

Upon checking the Hardfest website early this morning, they stated:

We are terribly sorry. LAFD and Inglewood PD made the decision to shut down the event tonight. There are many questions to answer; rest assured you will be receiving your refunds. Please check back soon for more details. The show must go on…

I have videos I want to post on YouTube. Stay tuned for those.

Microsoft’s Free Beta Antimalware Releases Tuesday

Derek — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 01:16:55 +0000

Not that I’m excited to see ‘new’ Microsoft products, but they seem more of a ‘second try’ to products that did not succeed in the past. I guess this post is more of a rant about Microsoft than their Antimalware release this Tuesday. If you are interested in reading more about Microsoft’s ‘second try’ at an antispyware, antitrojan, antivirus ‘solution’ — you should click HERE.

To continue my mini-rant — Microsoft is having their run of second tries these past few years it seems. Anyone remember Microsoft’s “Live OneCare”? It only held 2% market share in its three year run. Doesn’t the name echo with a similar reverberation of Apple’s OneCare? Well, this is Microsoft’s ‘second try’ with Live OneCare — a product that flopped financially, yet it worked almost the same as other antivirus and antispyware solutions. This is because Microsoft hardly runs the forefront of new products, it lives in the shadows of others’ and meagerly copies and pastes.

What about Microsoft’s “Bing” that came out a few weeks ago. (I am actually in the works of compiling an analysis of Bing — to be released in the next few days/week) A lot of the features it has already exist. There is nothing that new about it. This is Microsoft’s ‘second try’ when it comes to search engines. Anyone remember their “Live Search”? What a flop, it just posted the same results as Google and Yahoo…and it was only a few years too late!

So it seems as though Microsoft has ditched their failure of a campaign with it’s “Live” series of products and has moved on to their “second try” line. Oh good lord. At least this beta is free — and I hope their full fledged product is free. Nobody is going to want to pay for something that is only second rate, when free alternatives that are better are readily available. I use Avast’s Antivirus (which is completely free and works great) and Super Antispyware (also free, also great) and I never see any viruses or spyware slow-downs on my system. Did I mention these are completely free options? (Oh, now I see that I already mentioned it) Best of luck to Microsoft in copy/pasting in the future!