Geez. What the hell is Microsoft using to punish misbehaving Xboxes? This thing looks worse than the one attacked by a crazy chick and a golf club. But we're certain that if Nic contacts Microsoft and shows them these photos of his naughty Xbox, they're sure to send him a replacement. Possibly even one that works. (Provided, of course, that this damage wasn't caused by Nic when he got the unit back, unrepaired, or by yet another nutty girlfriend.) [Flickr via Nic H]

Last week I called Dell Technical Support about my Dell Studio 1537 Laptop and a DVD drive which was making loud noises and ejecting all cds. I had the basic "mail-in" warranty which required I ship them the laptop back. After my phone conversation with overseas tech support I received an empty box with a prepaid packing slip to mail the laptop back. A couple days ago I received both an automated email and phone call that my laptop was coming back to me. This morning, Fedex delivered a refurbished hard drive - yes just a hard drive.

I began my calling spree this morning and spoke to 7, yes 7, different Dell reps who transferred me between technical support, customer service, and back to technical support. After about 90 minutes of phone calls, hold music, and redialing I'm stuck with a 250gb hard drive but no laptop. Who do I call for help?

Oh, so he expected the whole computer to come back to him. I see. Perhaps this is some sort of new "you'll get a hard drive and like it" approach to customer support Dell is trying out. I don't see it working. Incidentally, Consumerist suggests sending emails to michael@dell.com in situations like this. Apparently, the messages are routed to an executive relations team that has been helpful in the past. [Consumerist Image via 60 in 3]

Our young supportsman (not a word) hasn't yet been convicted of a crime, and deserves the benefit of the doubt, but the alleged victim's account of the scenario is pretty spectacular (that's him above, with the shiner):

"The guy essentially snapped. He cold-cocked me, hit me two or three solid shots to the head while my hands were down," said Isakson, a limo driver.

But surely Mr, Isakson was being a dick, or something, right? Right? Well, if you count asking an angry-seeming man for his ID before you let him into your house in Queens as being a dick, then yes. Back to the violence:

But things got uglier, Isakson said, when Benjamin squeezed him around the neck and pressed him up against the wall.

"He's prepared to kill me," Isakson said. "That's all I could think of."

Isakson said he broke free and ran down the stairs — fracturing his ankle along the way — to get help in his building's lobby.

For what it's worth, Verizon did eventually fix the problem, though they apparently didn't need to send anyone into Isakson's home in the first place. Service!

Also, it looks like all those "Verizon face punch" keyword ad buys have finally paid off for Sprint:

[New York Post]

The great thing about the Bra Dryer is how unambiguously designed it is. No one will have any doubts about what this thing is for when they find a pair of wire mesh breasts sitting in your laundry room. And I like to think that if you run out of Bras to dry, you can just use it as a boob-shaped heat fan.

One question: what if your boobs are bigger or smaller than the shapes of the dryer? Will that warp your delicates? Oh, the questions I have about this thing. [Bra Dryer via NotCot]

The email came from Frank Eliason, whom the NY Times has a great story on this morning. He's a Comcast rep who constantly monitors blogs, forums, Twitter, Facebook comments and everything in between for gripes about Comcast, then responds directly to the complainer to "clear the air." He's done this well over a thousand times in the 7 months he's been on the job.

Direct one-on-one service sure beats spending days of your life on hold with support only to find there's no cable being run to your house, and definitely no hard feelings for Frank, who is just doing his job and doing it well it sounds like, but leave it to Comcast to instill what could be a good thing with such overt Orwellian creepiness. [New York Times]

Received my "open computer" day before yesterday. Two immediate problems.

First, the noise level was completely intolerable. Never heard a computer as loud in my life.

Second problem was video was DOA right out of the box. No signal going to monitor. Boot up is a moot point as there is nothing to see.

Called the company. A female answered the phone, presumably a receptionist. She informed me some one would return my call shortly and give me RA# I had requested. No call. Called back after several hours. Spoke with one of the guys there in either sales or support. They assured me that they were getting the information from UPS as we spoke and would shortly be sending me the return shipping label via UPS within minutes. Nothing.

Called back again this morning. Was assured that shipping info was to be emailed shortly and they were going to be calling UPS to arrange a pickup for this afternoon. Nothing.

All I want to do is return the computer and get a refund.

We knew about the incredibly loud fan before, but unfortunately reader Rick ordered before he saw it featured here. C'mon, Psystar. The first couple weeks is vital to proving your legitimacy and professionalism. If you're going to drop the ball like this, you might as well just shut down and go home now.

I have had a Eeepc for less than a week. I have never been able to connect to the Internet wirelessly. The dreaded "pending" problem. I decided to call technical support. The tech asked what router I had. I replied "two wire". He says "oh, I have never been able to make one work with two wire." "It's a known issue. We are working on it but DON'T HAVE A TWO WIRE ROUTER TO TEST IT WITH." He continued "I got a friend in the valley who has a two wire router, ive been meaning to go see him and test it out. But he lives pretty far away." Now here I am, having spent $348 on a nice little computer that can only work when hardwired to the router. I already have a computer hardwired, I don't need a tiny little one hardwired. So I ask the tech "what am I supposed to do with this computer? Should I send it back?" He responds "yeah I guess you could do that." I know customer service is bad all around but a big company like Asus doesn't have a router from a larger manufacturer to test their equipment on? Give me a break, you sent out a computer that has not been tested on a commonly used router? I love the machine, but its useless if it doesn't work!!!!!!!!! Asus, get your act together, my goodness!!!!!!!!!

Any readers able to get it working with 2Wire? Seems pretty strange that any laptop wouldn't work with a router, seeing as, you know, they follow a standard. [Thanks John!]

...four days later, I received an e-mail from my manager saying that Apple was at my service. Word of my problem initially made it's way to Apple not by way of my public profile, but by a technician receiving the report as they would anyone else's and passing it along internally until word reached my friends at the company.

Well, John, sorry to bust the bubble, but if you start your bug reports saying you are John Mayer, of course your manager is going to get a mail from Apple. The support guy who took care of Mayer had this to say:

"We take crash reports seriously on our side, because for us it's just like being able to talk directly with the customer while the problem is happening. The information that we get from the automated system is perfect for helping us solve the problem, and obviously the customers comments can take it one step further."

We bet that Apple takes reports seriously, but have you ever got anyone from Apple—or any other company—sending you an email from a bug report? [John Mayer —thanks Robbie]

Guest Editor's Answer: Mr. T has sent hundreds of bug reports about Safari breaking down and never got ANYTHING back from those Apple suckas! Here's my latest report:

Hello suckas! Mr. T here. I was trying to do some of editing today for this tech site and the crazy Safari crashed! I pity the fool who goes out tryin' a' take over da world with their browser, then runs home cryin' to his momma! So listen to me, suckas! You're going to fix this! Or I'm gonna kill that crazy Jobs! Sincerely, Mr. T

And then I added a picture of genitals drawn in ASCII code!

Hop on over to see how. – Jason Chen

UPDATE: Geek Squad CEO Promises To Resolve Any Consumerist Reader Complaint He Receives, And Then Does So [Consumerist]

More as we get the release, but this is pretty big news for fans. – Jason Chen

Utunbu [via Fabian Rodriguez via Boing Boing]

Turns out it's just a registry value to enable visibility in the shell. Cake! Hit the jump for the instructions.

1. Make sure your Zune is not plugged in and your Zune software isn't running 2. open up regedit by going to the start menu and selecting "run". Type regedt32 and hit "OK" 3. Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\ControlSet001\Enum\USB\ 4. Search for "PortableDeviceNameSpace". This should be contained in the Vid_####&Pid_####\########_-_########_-_########_-_########\Device Parameters within the above ...\USB\ The ##'s listed here will be numbers and letters specific to your Zune 5. Change the following values: * EnableLegacySupport to 1 * PortableDeviceNameSpaceExcludeFromShell to 0 * ShowInShell to 1 6. Plug in your Zune, and make sure the Zune Software starts up. 7. Hopefully at this point you can open up "My Computer" and browse your device, though it does NOT show up as a drive letter.

Right now I can access it both as a harddrive and sync through the Zune Software.

– Jason Chen

How to copy data off your Zune [Phaleux via MAKE]

Prototype Just-in-Time Med Device Enables Untrained Bystanders to Save Lives [via MedGadget]

Support Page [Apple]

The problems started soon after the purchase, where Ciccone noticed whining noises emanating from his laptop, accompanied by extremely hot temperatures. Two unsuccessful repair attempts later, Apple replaced the MacBook with a new unit. Bringing that home, Ciccone noticed there was still a whining noise but used a plug-in to make that go away, only to find three weeks later there was a loud mooing noise coming out of the machine. Then the MagSafe connector began fraying from the heat, and at about the same time Apple recalled the unit's defective battery. Next he noticed severe warping in the battery slot area, causing the battery to wiggle. Now he's getting some sort of flaking problem.

At the end of his rope, Ciccone called Apple Executive Relations, asking for either a new MacBook Pro or a refund. The response: "It's to our discretion if we want to replace it and this is not an option for you." Now he's taken matters to the top, writing an open letter to Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Six different service issues on two different MacBook pros? Something's fishy here. Is Ciccone alone? Is everyone having these types of problems? What's happening here? – Charlie White

A Letter to Steve Jobs [Mobility Today]

Hey there, kiddies, Uncle Billy really hopes you're not still using Windows 98 because starting today his mom and pop operation is no longer offering technical support for it. Internet Explorer on the fritz? Task bar disappeared? BSODs getting you down? Well, it's no longer his problem, so tough cookies.

In addition to ending [paid, over the phone] technical support, Microsoft is no longer offering security updates for its old OS. There's an estimated 70 million users out there who are still using the affected software, Windows 98, Windows 98 SE and Windows Me. How this might affect the propagation of worms and viruses can only be speculated, but considering most remaining installations of Windows 98 are home users, it's safe to say that the magic 8 ball reads, "outlook not so good."

Microsoft originally wanted to end all support for its legacy OS by the end of 2003, but following customer complaints decided to extend paid support for a little while longer. That time has now ended. Let the fun begin! – Nicholas Deleon

Microsoft shuts down Windows 98 [BBC News]

ATRACLife Colloquium [ATRACLife]