Archive for the ‘Magazine’ Category

The Freedom-Software Community is more powerfull than Linux Haters!

Friday, July 18th, 2008

By Justin Breithaupt.

Recently I’ve been talking with Richard Stallman for 2 – 3 weeks on the subject of running free-software. ( Richard Stallman is the president and founder of the FSF or Free Software Foundation. ) What I got out of reading Richard Stallman’s writings and e-mails was that free-software as in freedom is software that has it’s source code released to the public and the public is allowed to modify and redistribute that software as well. This does not necessarily mean free as in cost. This includes drivers and firmware as well.

If your running hardware that has non-free software / firmware in it you can’t use it because that’s against the FSF and if that hardware requires non-free drivers you can’t use it according to the FSF.

I did research to find hardware that supported a modern PCI Express video card with 3D that would work with the free drivers. I also looked for motherboards.

What I did find was obsolete and would require me to spend more money to aquire. At the time I was trying to start a business charging kids to play games on my computers. (playing just free-software games would have been ok).

So now we have rulled out free-software only GNU/Linux distributions and hardware out of the picture. What is the alternitive?

Open Source / FOSS is the alternative. Businesses and countless others such as Ubuntu have went to Open Source / FOSS which is the idea that non-free software and free-software can coexist. This sounds great doesn’t it? The problem is that these people get lazy and don’t try to make free-software and become independent of non-free software any more. Instead they get money from big companies like DELL, IBM, HP, ect. to put non-free drivers in their kernels so that the vendor’s hardware will be supported with Ubuntu’s kernel even though it has non-free software in it and it will work on almost any computer. Sounds great Right? But how does this help make us independent from Corporate America and all the non-free software? It doesn’t.

The other problem is companies like NVIDIA are making it harder to use their proprietary drivers. ATI however has the respect of the FSF for now. NVIDIA drivers for newer cards and chipsets don’t seem to play friendly with GNU/Linux distributions unless you download Ubuntu’s latest kernel. Why? Why are all the rest of us left in the dark? Why must we become dependent on Ubuntu and Corporate America?

A perfect example of this is Ubuntu 8.04. It’s kernel is not even up to date enough to support the newest NVIDIA drivers that are out there and in some instances you can’t install it. I based the latest version of Ultumix TM off of Ubuntu. I updated the kernel and guess what it works! But why should you have to update the kernel every month. Any GNU/Linux hardcore hacker will tell you that’s a bad idea and will make your programs and system unstable.

The thing is whenever it’s possible to use free software to do your work you should but you should not be limited to just using free-software all together. Likewise the developers should work harder to create free-software, drivers, firmware, ect. We also need hardware made by companies that support the free-software idea that the drivers and frimware should be free-software.

The other major problem in FOSS is that the different distros and communities fight with each other to get to the top of distrowatch.com and say they are the best.  I’ve heard officials from the Ubuntu community say to me that they believe that their distro is the best one out there and that users should only be presented with Ubuntu. Why I asked? Because of the confusion of choice they answered. Free-software is all about freedom of choice and not a one world takeover. Lets get back to the GPL guys. And worst of all the people who are really in charge of these projects have lost control. Their moderators go wild in the forums and make people angry and ban people for nothing.

So now that that’s all clearly spelled out to you take two tablets of Tylenol as we discuss the solution.

The Freedom-Software Community TM or FSC can and will solve all of these problems if Linux distributions join in. The FSC has not officially or publicly announced it’s presence before. That’s because they are still working on writing it’s philosophy for people to follow.

Here is the basic idea:

You are expected to use free software when:

1. There is hardware that is supported by free-software and the hardware is in no way more restricted than when it’s using non-free software.
2. The abilities of the non-free software that are needed are not met by the free software.
3. When the expenses of using free-software are affordable. Example of when this would not be the case: You want to run the hardware that supports free-software and has all the abilities of similar hardware that only supports non-free software but the hardware that supports the free-software is either obsolete or too expensive for the average consumer.

At any other time you are expected to try and use free-software and even if these conditions above don’t exist you are expected to try to support free-software in whatever way you can.

There are more aspects to the Freedom-Software Community that prevent fighting and arguing and promote unity and community. You will have to wait for the announcement in the news to hear that unless your an active member of the Ultumix TM Project.

The FSC TM is a Trademark of Justin Breithaupt.

Linux on ESPN This Weekend! April 19-20 2008

Tuesday, April 15th, 2008

Justin Breithaupt | *NIXEDBLOG

You read right! Watch ESPN on the 19th and 20th. Ultumix GNU/Linux will be on ESPN this weekend in Garfield County. As you see here on the Map there are 6 courses. 4 of these races have spectator areas. I will be putting up 2 billboards at each of these spectator areas with the Tux Penguin and ULTUMIX.COM written on top. Click Here To See The Bill Board Design. The Race is known as the Olympus Rally. since they will be driving past 2 spectator spots every day I will be making 4 signs and posting 2 at each of the two tracks each day. I don’t know if I will sell many computers or get any donations but I’m sure that these signs will be worth the $10.00 laminate board I’m putting them on. 🙂 If your in the local area and this race was anything like last year’s race I hope to see you there.

If you would like to help by donating to this cause please go to www.mindblowingidea.com/Ultumix and donate ASAP. Thanks.

To digg this article please go here.

New Viruses that Can and Will Destroy Your Computer!

Friday, April 11th, 2008

by Justin Breithaupt

 

Ladies and Gentlemen I can finally say that my worst nightmare has become a reality. So what could be so bad? Well back when I was younger I thought of a computer virus that could literally destroy a computer. How? Well there is this little chip that controls all of the power settings and the boot sequence of your entire computer. Some call it the BIOS and some call it the CMOS but whatever you call it it’s the flash ROM thats in your computer. So I thought to myself what if someone made a virus that reprogrammed the BIOS / CMOS to tell the rest of the computer to put out maximum watts and volts that were possible and fry the machine? Then I was approached by a man that told me of such a virus that exists about 6 months ago. I didn’t think anything like this was out on the internet but I guess now I’m wrong.

I spoke to some computer techs in the Lewiston Clarkston area that work on Microsoft Windows Vista and XP computers. They told me that there are two viruses that do two different things and one of them makes your computer useless. Evidently one of these new viruses does reprogram your BIOS or CMOS but it does not fry your computer. All this virus does is make your computer into a door stop by telling the BIOS / CMOS to never let your computer start again. What’s even better is if you pull the Hard Drive out and run it in another computer the virus puts itself into that computer as well.

The second virus removes all administrative rights to your computer and gives them to some other guy somewhere else who now controls your computer. We don’t know what this guy uses your computer for but we can only assume it’s not good.

In case your wondering I have seen computers with these viruses for myself and they are real.

So why didn’t I know about these viruses? Well it’s pretty simple really. I don’t get Viruses on my computer and if one of my customers gets one they usually choose to switch to the GNU/Linux system and I just back up all their personal information, pictures, ect. and copy them over. This does put me at a bit of a disadvantage because I am out of touch with the frustration that most Windows users experience from Viruses, Intruders, Spyware, Trojans, and Adaware.

PayPal Update. They have turned to mental warfare.

Wednesday, February 13th, 2008

ScreenShot1ScreenShot2

usacomputertec
Command Sergeant Major
Command Sergeant Major
Joined: 23 Oct 2007
Posts: 60
Location: WA State USA

Ok PayPal has finally done it. One of their employees has gone insane and decided to post this:

PPman

“You people are ALL IDIOTS. You sign up and then you whine! I am so tired of dealing my my CR’s complaining about your stupid idiot calls and now I have to deal with the people calling telling us about this site.

We are on to you! This site is going down. You cannot fight PayPal. We own you and your money. If you people just followed our rules you would have your money today. Our user agreement is very fair and very easy to understand!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I promise you this site will be down by Friday! You cannot get away with making these accusations and think nothing is going to happen to you. I am sick of you and your stupid website!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Manager of a REAL company”

Here

You can draw more attention and spread this to others by clicking here.

How do we know it was PayPal? Well we can’t be 100% sure but here is what we do know.

1. PayPal’s escalations specialists are in:

Attention PayPal
PO Box 45950
Omaha Nebraska 68145

2. This guy who posted this has an IP that was traced back to Oneal Nebraska. (he claims he is in WA state)

3. He has been sending all kinds of strange e-mails from the same IP to the owner of the site.

This gives us good reason to believe that this is just an escalations specialist or a manager of the escalations specialists in Nebraska. So why the strange threat? Can the really shut down Screw-PayPal.com ? No they can’t shut down Screw-PayPal.com but they can try to do something legal to them. However Screw-PayPal.com has not put out any slander against PayPal. Hmmm. One thing I can’t figure out is why this guy isn’t defending himself.

I can’t believe PayPal would do something so foolish but then again here is some other things they have done in the past.

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=323A9B4B8876ADD9

You get the picture. However this is not the only web site to get a threat from PayPal

http://www.paypalsucks.com/
http://www.internationalterrorist.com/paypal.html
http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/04/05/18/0128201.shtml?tid=126&tid=153&tid=172&tid=93&tid=95&tid=99
http://www.gnutellanews.com/article/12148
http://www.tcj.com/messboard/ubb/Forum1/HTML/007500.html
http://seclists.org/lists/politech/2003/Mar/0040.html
http://dir.salon.com/tech/feature/2001/02/23/pay_pal/index.html
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/paypal.html
http://www.aboutpaypal.org/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/paypalperil/
http://www.outofthedark.com/CorporateWars/PayPal/index.html
http://www.ygoodman.com/paypal.aspetc.

Can PayPal afford to keep fighting this? I don’t think so. Not with all the new alternatives. My new employer is even going to start ibeforeebay.com, ibeforeebayandsometimesybay.com ibeforeebayexceptaftercbay.com and others. 🙂

http://paypalsucks.com/images/NoPayPal468banner1black.gif

The image “http://banners.paypalwarning.com/paypalwarning1.gif” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

The image “http://www.screw-paypal.com/images/banner_4.gif” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

And my personal favorite

Click here for full size.

I’m sorry but our skilled professionals using a highly scientific algorithm have determined your account must be frozen.

For more PayPal fun go here http://www.screw-paypal.com/paypal_videos.html

Ultumix 0.0.1.3 and beyond. What’s new?

Saturday, January 26th, 2008

OK Lets Get Right Too It! ( www.ultumix.com )

The question that is on everyone’s mind is What will Ultumix 0.0.1.3 have over the buggy 0.0.1.2 and the impressive 0.0.1.1? Well thats a 3 part question because there will be 3 editions in the end.

First of all we will have Ultumix Light. It’s the most stable version and the fastest. Based on Mint XFCE 4.0 it runs very fast, has tons of hardware support, supports dial up a lot better than 0.0.1.2 and 0.0.1.1, and it has a very nice Windows User friendly interface. It has a few programs on the desktop. Not as many as in the other versions. 0.0.1.3 should be able to fit on the Eee PC. I would recommend replacing the 4 GB memory module with an 8 GB memory module. It just makes more sense. You should also buy an external DVD drive. We also want to add a nice video editor. If it works out we may even put some Linux programs directly onto a CD or DVD so that you can pop the disk in your Eee PC and play the game or open the program installed on it without compiling first.

Ultumix Standard Edition will have all of the nice jaw dropping graphics and programs that Ultumix Light will have but it will have an even more Windows User Friendly user interface because it will be based on KDE with a custom Kmenu. Unlike Ultumix Light it won’t support Dial Up as well and it will require more RAM and processor power but it will be worth it because you will have more programs available and it will be easier to use than it’s XFCE counter part. Don’t get your hopes up because this project will come out long after the XFCE version. We hope to have Cinelerra installed and working right this time. (future versions will be in 64 bit)

Ultumix Ultimate Edition will have everything Standard edition had and be very similar except for one thing. It will have tons of Games and media center applications pre installed to maximize the user’s experience. Ultimate Edition will probably require a 20+ GB root partition but Oh well. All that matters in life is Games, Junk Food, and That Name Tag In Lights You Are Wearing right? I’m sorry if you think so but anyway there is something for everyone. (future versions will be in 64 bit)

In future versions of Ultumix we plan to release our OS compiled for the PS2, PS3, Wii, Nintendo DS, iPhone, XBOX 360, XBOX, and other future Game Consoles. Maybe we could even find a way to hack that mysterious TiVo?

Ultumix 0.0.1.3 is comming soon to a Desktop near you!

Saturday, January 19th, 2008

ScreenshotScreenshot2

LOOK OUT! Ultumix is running faster than ever thanks to the new XFCE interface. It’s running so fast with such a small RAM requirement that It does not even slow my PC down when I start it up in a Virtual Machine.

But thats not what makes Ultumix 0.0.1.3 so cool. I found a Start Button on the internet that looked very similar to the XP start button. It looked so similar that I decided it needed some tweaking first. Basically it’s like an ICE version of the XP start menu button if there is such a thing. It’s a cool blue button with START in Big Red Letters across it. No more excuses to not use this OS.

Now there is one thing or make that two things that are driving me crazy. First of all I can’t edit the start menu the way I’d like too because it’s not KDE. The editor only lets me have some abilities. The second thing is that I can’t just right click on the icons in the menu and add them to the desktop.

However in XFCE there are no monitor resolution problems. This is a very good Plus.

In order to add the applications to the desktop I will need to write down the commands used to open each one. It also appears the link to writer is broken in the menu. It opens office but it does not open a document.

There is a lot of work to be done yet to make it more Windows user friendly but I’m getting there. The hardest thing yet may be to edit the GRUB and boot splash.

Newegg.com Consumer Report.

Saturday, January 5th, 2008

Newegg.com Consumer Report.

Well about a month ago I submitted a story to Lxer.com suggesting that we boycott Newegg.com. The original story is below.

————————————————————————————————————————–

“Should the Linux community boycott newegg.com?

I’m beginning to wonder myself. My uncle bought a $1200.00 laptop that didn’t work right brand new and wanted to return it for a refund in under 30 days. In the US its illegal not to refund someone’s money for a defective product or a product that is not as described and everyone has the right to return something that is new.

“Desktop PC, Notebook, and Tablet PC Return Policy
Return for refund within: non-refundable
Return for replacement within: 30 days (defective items only)

This is our Detailed Desktop PC, Notebook and Tablet PC Return Policy. Under this policy all Desktop PCs/Notebooks/Tablet PCs are non-refundable, and this supersedes all other return policies. There are NO EXCEPTIONS to this policy. Any Desktop PCs/Notebook/Tablet PC that is deemed defective may be returned for a replacement within 30 days only, but a request for refund will not be granted. If a Desktop PC/Notebook/Tablet PC is returned for a replacement, but no problems are found, the Desktop PC/Notebook/Tablet PC will be returned at your (the buyer’s) expense. You should be certain in your decision to purchase a Desktop PC/Notebook/Tablet PC and must agree to this policy before completing your order. By confirming your order, you indicate your agreement to this policy.

A defective Desktop PC, Notebook, or Tablet PC that is returned for a replacement may be repaired or replaced at Newegg.com’s discretion, unless otherwise required by law. We strive to uphold our standard RMA processing time for these types of items; however, in some situations the item must be sent to the manufacturer for repairs. Unfortunately Newegg cannot expedite the RMA repair process in these situations, as we must abide by the manufacturer’s established processing time. If you have a question regarding a Desktop PC, Notebook, or Tablet PC RMA, please contact our Customer Service Department.”

Newegg.com is not obeying the law and has you agreeing that they can break it with every purchase of a Laptop, Desktop, and Tablet PC. This to me sounds like a Microsoft agreement. They don’t trust the customers. I myself have purchased thousands of dollars of their products over the last year for my customers. I know that they are convenient and low cost. However if they don’t trust us why should we trust them? They won’t listen to their customer feedback. I think that the only way to get Newegg to listen is to do the following:

1.Kindly send them letters from everyone in the community stating that we want them to change their return policy before we boycott them.

2.Get the Linux community to decide on a date that we will all boycott newegg.com and boycott them for at least a month. If we all do this their sales will drop dramatically and they will look into their consumer feedback. It might take them a while if it’s backed up.

3.Resend our letters.

4.If they don’t comply repeat steps 2 – 3 and let all your friends and family know as well as any computer businesses in your area.

5.If they do comply then everyone should send them a letter of thanks but be careful as they can change their policy at any time.

If you think this is what we need to do please comment here. Thanks.”

What shocked me was that after all the calls that I had made to Newegg.com resulting in negative responses someone from Newegg.com contacted me here on lxer.com. The messages you will see below are direct quotes except for the names used and account information. Newegg.com’s responces and comments will be in BOLD.

“Dear usacomputertec,

We Sincerely apologize for any inconvenience you may of had, and Thank you for your informative review. At your earliest convenience please contact me at [] or at ——– ext ——- with your order information so I may make this right for you as we truly care about each and every customer like family here at Newegg and really hate to hear any negative feedback or bad experiences as we try to make every customer’s purchase a positive enjoyable one.

Thank you

Sincerely,

Newegg Support”

“Dear, John Doe

This is usacomputertec / Justin Breithaupt from lxer.com

I purchase thousands of dollars of hardware from you every year and resell it to my customers. I also recommend you to some of my customers and other resellers. I figured that should have counted for something and even mentioned that on the phone to the newegg.com representatives. All they said was that they had to follow their return policy which is not legal in the US.

Original Product Invoice.

Order Information

Invoice # Order # Order Date Order total CustomerPoNumber  ----- 11/9/2007 1:40:24 AM $1,213.98     Shipping Information  To From Date Method  -----  11/9/2007 11:19:37 AM  UPS Ground   Payment Information Cardholder's Name Card Type Card # Exp. Date  -----        Products   Qty. Product Description Total Price  Item(s) shipped from CA       Tracking Number: ----- Track  1 ASUS A8 Series A8SC-B1 Intel Core 2 Duo T7250(2.00GHz) 14"  Wide XGA 2GB 160GB DVD Super Multi NVIDIA GeForce 8400M G NoteBook -  Retail Item #: N82E16834220225  Return Policy: Desktop PC, Notebook, and Tablet PC Return Policy For Asus Tech Support, Please Call 502-995-0883 or  http://helpdesk.asus.com/  $1,198.99    Subtotal: $1,198.99  Tax: $0.00  Shipping: $14.99  Amount Paid:  $1,213.98   Special ordered items are not refundable. All items come with  manufacturers warranty only. Open box items come with 15-day warranty only. All  refunds require 15% restocking fee. Do not remove any labels from any  parts or it will result in your  warranty being void. Any wrong or  damaged item must be reported within 7 days. No refund after 30 days, NO CPU  REFUND AFTER 7 DAYS, no exceptions.  PLEASE NOTE:   - If you need to return an item to Newegg, please obtain an RMA by  contacting Customer Service at (800) 390-1119 or clicking "My Account" on  our web page.  - Please save all packaging and accessories. All original equipment,  components, manuals, cables, documents and packaging must be returned  with your item in order for Newegg.com to process your RMA.  Return Policy Text  Desktop PC, Notebook, and Tablet PC Return Policy  Summary   Return for refund within: non-refundable  Return for replacement within: 30 days (defective items only) Detail  This is our Detailed Desktop PC, Notebook and Tablet PC Return Policy.  Under this policy all Desktop  PCs/Notebooks/Tablet PCs are  non-refundable, and this supersedes all other return policies. There are NO  EXCEPTIONS to this policy. Any Desktop PCs/Notebook/Tablet PC that is deemed  defective may be returned for a replacement within 30 days only, but a  request for refund will not be granted. If a Desktop PC/Notebook/Tablet  PC is returned for a replacement, but no problems are found, the  Desktop PC/Notebook/Tablet PC will be returned at your (the buyer's) expense.  You should be certain in your decision to purchase a Desktop  PC/Notebook/Tablet PC and must agree to this policy before completing your  order. By confirming your order, you indicate your agreement to this policy.  A defective Desktop PC, Notebook, or Tablet PC that is returned for a  replacement may be repaired or replaced at Newegg.com's discretion,  unless otherwise required by law. We strive to  uphold our standard RMA  processing time for these types of items; however, in some situations the  item must be sent to the manufacturer for repairs. Unfortunately Newegg  cannot expedite the RMA repair process in these situations, as we must  abide by the manufacturer's established processing time. If you have a  question regarding a Desktop PC, Notebook, or Tablet PC RMA, please  contact our Customer Service Department.  

Policy & Agreement | Privacy Policy | 2000-2007 Newegg Inc.

My customer/uncle who received the laptop is content to keep it now because of all the hassle but we still both believe that return policy is a joke. I’ve even talked it over with people that use to work for the Government that told me it is against the law. So now it’s not a matter of getting a better laptop or getting our money back but just to get newegg.com to realize that having a no return policy even under 30 days for a return does not comply with US Laws. And even if there is some loop hole where online sales can escape US Law that does not mean that we should be taken advantage of.

With a reputable company like newegg.com I figure that when I agree to terms and conditions that these terms and conditions are within the laws passed in the US. I’ve had no problem in the past returning items that were DOA or just completely not as described like a USB wireless card that didn’t work right in Window$ or Linux. I felt that that case was handled very well. This laptop that we ordered was described as being very high quality and having a large LCD screen. When we got it not only was the screen smaller than it looked in the picture due to the fact that the manufacturer had put the screen in a tapered hole to make it look bigger but there were numerous other problems that were most likely manufacturer related. The Ethernet didn’t work at first. I installed Linux and left Vista Home Premium on for the customer as well as he requested. (He really wants to become independent of Vista) When we booted Linux it would not recognize the Ethernet connection and when we booted Vista the entire computer would lock up after opening Internet Exploder 7 on the first boot. In order to turn the computer off we had to hold down the power button. 3 reboots later we got Internet Exploder 7 to go directly to www.getfirefox.com and it corrected the problem. I also had to reconfigure Linux to accept the Ethernet card as well. This was very unexpected because the Linux drivers for Ethernet work on any Ethernet device. So you can see how with Vista crashing when trying to access the Internet and not even bringing up a page and Linux not connecting that we thought the Ethernet was broken. Of course that was just the beginning of our fun. The laptop has 2GBs of RAM, a 128MB NVIDIA video card, and a dual core Intel processor and it still runs slower than Mozes with Vista like it is an 800Mhz PC with 128 Mbs of RAM and I know for a fact that cheaper Laptops with the same specs run much faster with Vista on them. To me this hunk of junk should not have been priced at $1,200.00 and been described as being the elite laptop that it was intended to be. We should have been able to send it back and get that $700.00 Gateway laptop that had much better hardware. It was under 30 days.

To be realistic here lets think about this bogus return policy. You walk into a store in the US and you buy a Laptop in the US and you get it home and it does not work. You take it back and they give you your money back and you go somewhere else. Thats the American way and it’s the law. What makes that any different than shopping online?

Thats why I made that comment about signing for something like a package and finding out that you just agreed to sell yourself to a sweat shop in a foreign country and are contracted to work for them for 4 years. That would be signing your rights away to a company. Rights that American citizens have been given by the Government can’t be taken away by contracts or agreements. And Like I said before even if there is some loop hole for selling online that I’m not aware of it’s not right to exploit it in this manner.

The best example of this is the Window$ Vista agreement that gives them the right to invade your privacy, control your computer, deactivate your computer, and you sign away your ownership of any previous Window$ licenses that you used on that computer. Thats like saying that by buying this cell phone from me you no longer own your old phone and will not be credited any money back for your old phone. Of course here is where it gets really good. You can recover from Micro$oft and its suppliers only direct damages up to the amount you paid for the software. You cannot recover any other damages, including consequential, lost profits, special, indirect or incidental damages. (Translation Micro$oft is not responsible for any problems with the software that may cause you loss of money or property unless that value is less than the cost of the software) It also applies even if repair, replacement or a refund for the software does not fully compensate you for any losses; or Micro$oft knew or should have known about the possibility of the damages. So Micro$oft gets to be legally negligent with your permission.

So you can see why someone like me or the other Linux users might react the way I did to your return Policy.

Also for your information

Also I have a few suggestions on how to make newegg.com more Linux Buyer Friendly like adding a rating for how Linux compatible an item is and if the user had to use a Window$ driver to make the device (like a wireless card) work or if they had to install a Linux driver or if it just worked out of the box. You should also have something that says what percentage of the components were made in the USA if any and where it was assembled. It matters to some of my customers and it matters to me.

Anyway in conclusion I don’t believe that Newegg.com is practicing fair and just business practices. If Newegg.com can’t change their policy to be considered fair business practice then I will buy locally instead of online as some suggest despite the higher prices. The fact that you pay attention to lxer.com gives me some faith that you will do what is right.”

“Dear Mr. Breithaupt,

Thank you for contacting Newegg.

I’d like to start by once again sincerely apologizing for any inconvenience, I understand your point and totally agree with the things you have explained in this email. Please give me the chance to make this whole ordeal right. I have went ahead and automatically credited your account in good faith for this inconvenience $200.00, please allow 3-5 business days for this credit to post in your credit card. Also, I would love to speak to you by telephone to talk further about this issue if possible, you may contact me at —- at ext —–. Anytime you have any other issues and or concerns please accept my personal offer to become your personnel agent here at Newegg by contacting me directly and if the issue needs an exception I would give it 110% to doing just that. We here at Newegg try for only the best customer service and hope this one issue doesn’t detour you from shopping with us again and I personally will make sure your shopping expirience with us from here on out goes as smoothly as possible.

Thank you,

John Doe

Customer Service Professional

Eggxpert Moderator”

“I am sending this message to my uncle because you have refunded the money to his account as far as I understand and I am sure he will appreciate this gesture greatly.

If you want me to call you on the phone please let me know what the best time is to reach you.

You will be rewarded for your actions when I post the results on lxer.com as many are curious as to what is going on between you and me.

Some have suggested that I ask you about Linux vendors (such as myself) being able to sell computers on newegg.com as well as the name brand companies that sell Vista computers primarily. In fact I’ve even thought of a system that would benefit newegg.com even more.

Because some Linux vendors like me buy our parts from newegg.com and resell our computers it might be easier if we saved time by advertising our computers on your site and listing the parts (as a group or kit) that are in the computer. Then Linux users could simply buy the kit from newegg.com and the vendor that is responsible for the hardware being compatible would get commission off of the sales. And further more the buyer could request that the vendor such as myself could build the Kit for them for an extra fee.

I’m sure there are more ways that newegg.com can attract more customers from the Linux community. I want to help out in any way that I can.”

“Dear Mr. Breithaupt,

 

Thank you so much for your reply. If possible, can you please put together an email and send it to me with all your information and what you would like us to do so I may pass it on and see what we can do on our end, since we do usually deal with only vendors in that regard. With you sending that email out to me I will be able to further assist you in this matter. If you would like you can contact my via phone at —- ext —– from 8-5 PST.

Thank you,

John Doe

Customer Service Professional

Eggxpert Moderator”

“The vendor thing was just an idea. Mainly I was thinking of other Linux Vendors that have been in the business longer than I have and have more impressive web sites.

Justin Breithaupt
—————
PO Box —
1-5————-
1-2————
www.mindblowingidea.com

newegg.com Customer number: ------”

“Dear Mr. Breithaupt,

Oh I see, let me ask you this. Is there anything else I may assist you with, or do you have any further questions or concerns ? I want to make sure everything is good and you are a happy Newegg Customer 🙂

Thank you,

John Doe

Customer Service Professional

Eggxpert Moderator”

“The only question I have for you is this.

Are you going to change your policies? Thats what it boils down to.”

“Dear Mr. Breithaupt,

 

Unfortunately, we have policies Sir and we are unable to change these policies but are more than willing to make exceptions when need be to assist our customers. Also, we are working with our vendors to do what we can to make any possible changes that will benefit you the customer. I understand your point in regards to our policies but they are legal Sir. We will be monitoring the Lxer sight just in case anyone has any issues or concerns and if able we will be more than happy to help them out. I would love to talk to you via phone if you can Sir, you may contact me anytime within 8-5 PST. If you have any further questions or concerns please feel free to contact me personally.

 

Thank you,

John Doe

Customer Service Professional

Eggxpert Moderator”

Conclusion: I recommend my uncle buy a laptop from Newegg.com. My uncle buys it and we are not satisfied with it’s performance or quality. Newegg.com informs me that they have a zero return policy. I complain on lxer.com. Newegg.com Customer Service Professional Eggxpert Moderator contacts me. Newegg.com gives me $200.00 in good faith and tells me they completely agree with everything I said including the part about their return policy being illegal. Newegg.com asks me if I’m happy and if I have any more questions. My last question was if they would change their return policy to comply with US laws. They said no but apparently if you complain here they will be monitoring this site and may make an exception. In the last message it says “in regards to our policies but they are legal Sir” after saying that he agreed 100% with what I said in my first reply to him.

Result: I won’t be buying anything threw Newegg.com unless I can’t find it anywhere else or I need it in a pinch. You can look at this however you want to. I’m trying to be as positive as possible and still retain the facts without being biased.

Ultumix 0.0.1.2 has some new cool stuff!

Wednesday, December 19th, 2007

Ultumix 0.0.1.2 has the illegal lame, and win32 codecs removed and has the newest PCLinuxOS Kernel 2.6.22.10.tex1 and Xorg 7.2.0-1. I also included Kormair fonts for Cambodia. This way we can give this distro to a new country. The latest drivers (except ALSA and x11 openchrome) have been installed and updated as of 12-18-07. There are new icons on the desktop to further simplify the user’s experience. The IRC chat has been fixed and there should be more people in there more often. If you use Ultumix please leave the IRC chat open when you are at your computer so that you can help answer other people’s questions. Also don’t e-mail me with hardware problems. Put them in the SF.net Forum. If your having a problem chances are someone else has the problem too and is looking for the solution also. I don’t want to send out separate e-mails over and over. The new mouse theme is a plus. Users that want something different will like it and elderly will be able to see it better (tested on the elderly). I also went ahead and included the downloaded biblical texts so that users would not have to download them. This way in foreign countries they can hand out DVD-Rs with an OS that has the Bible in English already on it. If they want another language they can download it. I’m not going to use all the disk space for all the languages of the Bible. That can wait for the Christian Edition. The current ISO is 2.8Gbs. www.mindblowingidea.com/Ultumix

The Software Story

Wednesday, December 19th, 2007

I’ve been under heavy fire latley from the Linux community all over the internet about Religion and Linux. The one statement that really stuck out was when some guy asked “What does Relgion have to do with Linux?” I know this sounds like a question that would stump most people right? Well Here was my responce.

“What does Linux have to do with Christianity?

Well it’s simple really.

Linus Torvalds created a better Operating System that he could use. He didn’t think anyone would really use it but he made it anyway. Then he decided that he would share it with the world if anyone wanted to use it. All that he required was that you share it with anyone who asks you if they can get a copy.

Jesus Christ gave up his luxury in Heaven and comfort to be born on earth as a little child in a horse trough or manger. He came to offer salvation with the hope that at least one person would use it. He chose to take on all the pain and suffering that everyone deserved as well as the guilt and shame. He was and is blameless but for the time he suffered and took our place he was looked on by everyone including God as though he had committed every crime, and he felt that guilt. All that he requires of us is that we accept his gift and share the news of it with others.

So you see weather or not Linus Torvalds is a Christian is irrelevant here. What is reliant is the spirit of sharing and sacrifice. Besides Christianity uses the Internet and programs in Linux to spread the word and educate people. A lot of Christian organizations have not been reached by the Linux community and are still using Proprietary software because we don’t reach out to them. So why not? Is this what we really want? To leave the Christian community in the darkness and blindness of Proprietary software and licenses? If he is without God then how great is that darkness.”

Now I had one reply in my forums that I deleted and had the writer correct the grammar and spelling errors due to popular demand. EdwinStar should be posting it back in the forum soon.

The Software Story

Hi Everyone,

About 4 years, or more like 7 years, ago — I can not remember when it started, I blocked it out of my mind every day for YEARS — I started to come under conviction for using and sharing the computer. …Before Linux came along… I wanted to live right, but it seemed like some computer related laws would not let me. …Before Linux come along… You see, it wasn’t really the computer at all that was the problem, nor the software written for it, but the legal issues surrounding the software written for it, that was the problem! It’s called copyright laws. …Before Linux came along… You see, I was a born-again, Holy-Ghost-filled, washed-in-the-Blood, Sanctified, baptized-in-Jesus-Name, Bible-believing, walking-with-God, Church-going, Christian. …Before Linux came along… Now, I must have installed this Micro$oft software 100,000 times on 10,000 computers only paying for it, maybe 4 or 5 times at the most! And I never did been caught!! …Before Linux came along… Or did I get caught? God was convicting me every time I booted another computer for the first time, after installing all that wonderful software I had copies of. Micro$oft Windows, IBM Dos, MS Dos, DR Dos, etc, etc, etc, and the list goes on and on and on. …Before Linux came along… I had hundreds of thousands of illegal copies of software programs to share with my friends and neighbors — all for free, and I never got caught!!! …Before Linux came along… God was starting to talk to me about this “pirating” of software that I was getting all messed up in. …Then Linux came along… And I continued pirating all this wonderful software I had at my disposal, because I thought Linux was too hard to use yet. …Then, SimplyMepis 6.0, Linux came along…I didn’t think I was breaking the law, or should I say, I blocked it out of my mind that I was breaking the law. …Then, PCLinuxOS v.92 Big Daddy, Linux came along… Linux was getting easier and easier to use and God was starting to convict me more and more! …Then, SimplyMepis 6.5, Linux came along… and kept coming… and coming… and coming along!! I was now so convicted, and felt so bad, that I finely started to use Linux as my primary operating system more and more!!! I felt better for the first time in a long time about my computer addictions! …Then, PCLinuxOS v.93 Big Daddy, Linux came along… But, I backslid and went back to law-breaking again (BTW, breaking the copyright laws in software is law-breaking, in case you don’t know it)!! …Then, PCLinuxOS 2007, Linux came along… And God was convicting me more and more and more!!!…Then PCLinuxOS 2007 Final Linux came along… Now, I consider myself very lucky that the FBI hadn’t broke down my door and confiscated all the thousands of illegal copies of software I had by now, along with my 4 or 5 legitimate copies to-boot, and thrown my happy butt into prison for a very, very long time, by now! …Then lots more Linux distros came along… All the time Linux was getting easier and easier, and better and better!! BTW, Linux IS free — REALLY!!! …Then Linux came along… God was convicting me even more. I could not live for God, go to Church, or call myself a Christian anymore! …Then Linux came along… Now, God obviously provided a way for me to use the computer completely legally!! This was through the great solutions of things called Open Source Software Foundation, GNU, and GPL/Linux!!! …Then Linux came along… Therefore, now I can be that born-again, Holy-Ghost-filled, washed-in-the-Blood, Sanctified, baptized-in-Jesus-Name, Bible-believing, walking-with-God, Church-going, Christian again! — if I want to be!! …Because Linux came along… So, you see — for me — sense Linux came along, I can feel so much better about my computer addictions!!! I can not separate God from Linux — ever — in the Open Source community, ever! …Because Linux came along… I can now live a little closer to God!! …Because Linux came along… I even think that God Almighty Himself has chosen the free GPL/Linux operating system, along with all the other GPL/Linux software that so FREELY comes along with it, as thee foundation for His followers all over the world to use!!! …Now Linux is around… At least this follower will, from now on and for evermore, will happily use GPL/Linux based software as thee primary choice to feed his computer addictions! …Now Linux is around… I also think that God Almighty Himself uses Linux only, and that He is the One who got this GPL/Linux software revolution where it is today in the first place!! …Now Linux is around… Nevertheless, I will give Linus Trovalds credit for being the vessel God used; and Richard Stallman credit for being the vessel God used as well!! …Now, Ultumix Linux 2008 Final Pre Release, Linux is around… You see, when something is needed, God will provide it, for His followers, and for the whole world — He will provide it — whatsoever the need is — He will provide it!!! He always has provided, always will, and it never ends. …Now Linux is around… And Linux will keep coming and coming and coming around! Now, this might not sound like a religious experience for you, but it sure is for me!! …Now Linux is around… Because now, sense God and Linux are around… the computer communities all over the world, us hackers/users, have something, and Some One, to help us feel a whole lot better about the addicting computer revolution that is hitting the world right now!!! …Now Linux is around… So, for me, Linux is a religion, always has been, always will be, and will never end! God too!!

I will never have a problem with religion being mixed into Linux stuff. Like two peas in a pod, they are so much alike. Not a problem with me at all. Even in a “World without end”. amen

…Now Linux is around… And Linux is going to keep getting better, and better, and better!!! amen

EdwinStarr

ps
Sorry about the looong paragraph, I just could not see where to break the story up. 🙂

If you want to use Linux go to www.mindblowingidea.com/Ultumix

Thank you Justin Breithaupt, for getting the MindBlowingIdea to remaster PCLinuxOS 2007 Final into an even greater distribution. Ultumix Linux 2008 Final Pre, it’s as solid as a rock!

Thankfully and humbly yours,

EdwinStarr

No Refunds at newegg.com even under 30 days!

Thursday, December 6th, 2007

When buying certain items on Newegg.com like laptops you are signing an agreement that says that you can not return the item for a refund ever even if it’s damaged, under 30 days, is not as described, or whatever. You can however get a replacement item. In layman’s terms if you buy something under this agreement (I think it even applies to CPUs) you are married to that item for better or worse in sickness and in health tell life does you part. The only way you can get rid of it is to throw it away or sell it.

My uncle bought an ASUS laptop that had a non functioning Ethernet port. ASUS said that newegg.com would have to refund me because they would refund newegg.com. Still haven’t heard back from them yet. The laptop is now considered over priced at $1,200 when it’s ACER counter part is only $700.00. This is America and we have certain rights. These corporations have the right to take those rights away from us by getting us to sing agreements that we really don’t want to read.