Superfunkomatic - Observations of the Socially Inept

Recently I had a LaCie Quadra 500GB External Hard Drive fail (500GB LaCie d2 HD QUADRA 7200RPM 16MB - 301110U). One might expect that the hard drive would stop working, but low and behold it’s the internal power and controller card - likely with a value of less than $20. The drive is only 2 weeks past the one year warranty period.

A quick search of the internet shows that this is quite a familiar issue with LaCie’s external drives of all types. Here are a few examples from a quick five minute search of the internet:

• http://www.darcynorman.net/2006/01/24/lacie-big-disk-extreme-failure/
• http://reviews.pricegrabber.com/hard-drives/m/11165853/
• http://www.lightstalkers.org/lacie-hard-drive-failure

I’ve been able to pull the drive from the enclosure, buy a $40 replacement external enclosure and the drive works fine.

LaCie will not replace the drive or offer replacement internal parts, even if I am willing to pay for the parts and shipping. They will also not make any effort to salvage a customer relationship on a failed product that is only just slightly outside of the warranty period.

“Technology is not perfect and electronic devices can fail some last ten years other may only last ten minutes. We do our best to ensure that we send out a product that will last but, once it leaves our facility we can only react to failures and troubleshoot at that point.”

Basically what they are saying is “Buyer beware - expect failure! We do not guarantee our product will work for its intended use for any period of time once it’s assembled.”

I guarantee one thing from my end - I’ll never buy another product from this company. My hope is that others will be able to find this through a Google search and realize they too could be making a mistake by purchasing a product from LaCie. Word on the internet travels fast, Lacie!

Tags: Customer Service, Failure, Hard Drive, LaCie

This is one of the coolest things i’ve seen for the iPhone. Blow lightly into the microphone and use the touchscreen to create notes of music.

Apparently this small developer has had 400,000 downloads at a buck a pop in the first month since its release.

Smule - Ocarina

Video example - Led Zepplin’s - Stairway to Heaven

Tags: iphone, Ocarina

with the election behind us and another conservative reign ahead at least our canadian identity can still be described as ‘not american.’

here’s a curious take by slate magazine -

Tags: canada, canadian identity, election

so let me get this straight. provincially this riding, calgary central, overwhelmingly elected a liberal candidate. in the federal election the vote was a landslide vote for the conservative candidate. how can one riding swing so dramatically from left to right in their voting? how can you explain voting for parties with such radically different viewpoints on immigration, culture, the economy and the environment?

i’m puzzled. if economy was the sticking point for voters a quick review of the facts would show that prior to stephen harper’s mandate he was left with an abundant surplus. ‘conservative’ economics no show that canada is in a deficit position. how can that be reconciled by they way people vote for the conservative party?

oh well, on the bright side i guess we’ll only have another year or so before the next election.

Well, no sooner was the current VFR meet completed then someone has suggested the location for next years. And being the planner i am i’ve already chosen a basic ride route to get there - the long way….

5,972 kilometres just to get there. I’ll have to figure out the rest of the route back, maybe east coast?

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Tags: 2009 Colorado Rocky Mountain VFRD Summit, Ride Route, VFR meet 2009