As I mentioned previously, I purchased a Dell XPS 400 in January. One of the biggest annoyances I encountered was the excessive amount of bloatware that came preinstalled on the system.

After I unpacked, set up, and made sure everything was functional, I decided to wipe the hard drive to get rid of all of the bloatware (which is quite extensive) …

According to the guys over at HardOCP, Dell is striving to appease concerns that they aren’t committed to the gaming community (and those who want a higher end computing experience) by addressing the issue:

They now offer their customers total choice on the software loads of their high end XPS systems that are targeted towards gamers. Dell recently announced that they would feature a no preinstalled software installation option on select XPS systems in their gaming lineup. No more free ISP offers, no more AOL icons, music jukebox software, or background services hogging precious system resources.
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To reiterate, Dell has told us specifically that the only program installed on systems that have the “no preinstalled software” option will be the anti-virus solution.

Read the full article over at HardOCP to get the full scoop on what Dell is doing to make the “premium” customer experience much more enjoyable.

It’s great that Dell is working to improve the experience for their higher end consumers and is showing that they can adapt and are willing to make good on their mistakes. That said, I don’t understand how they didn’t have enough foresight to anticipate a negative response from people in the gaming community whom they were targeting.

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About a month ago a Verizon sales rep was going door to door in my neighborhood pitching their FiOS service. After listening to her pitch, I decided to sign up for the $29.99/month offer which includes the installation and first month free. I decided to start with the 5/2Mbps for now but may upgrade to the 15/2Mbps for $10/month more at some point. Not a week later they had a subcontractor out to hook up the fiber cable from the distribution box to my house. They left the fiber that protruded from the ground neatly coiled, with the rest buried very cleanly.

I setup an appointment for this past Friday for a service technician to come and install the ONT. I was given a window of 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and was told the installation could take anywhere from four to six hours.

I received a call at about 8:15 from the service technician notifying me that she was about ten to fifteen minutes away from my house. When she arrived she asked to see where my computer was, and where the closest power outlet was in relation to where the ONT would be installed. After that she quickly outlined the steps she would take during the installation:

• Mount the ONT box outside the house
• Setup the ONT Power Supply Unit / Battery Backup Unit
• Run the line inside and install a RJ45 jack
• Setup the router and connect the line to the jack
• Setup the account

She handed me the welcome kit to look through and got to work. Three hours later, everything was done. The only snag came when the phone initially had no dial tone but was quickly rectified with a phone call, a walk to the ONT box.

The ONT ended up being mounted adjacent to the electric meter, the ONT Power Supply Unit was placed just inside the back door in a fairly inconspicuous location, the RJ45 jack installed beside an existing electrical outlet, and the cable lines the baseboards until it reaches the router located on my desk.

At one point during the install I asked the technician what her longest install was. She told me that the installs she has done in the multi-million dollar homes in McLean have taken her the longest, with one taking all of twelve hours.

All in all I was pleased with the entire process and was minimally inconvenienced. I’ve heard the most difficult and sometimes problematic aspect is the activation but mine was a breeze. So now that I’ve ditched Cox and moved on to FiOS, here’s to consistent high speed and lower latency!

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After exploring alternative options and further contemplation (having already received one dud), I decided to give Dell a second chance. This time I ordered an XPS 400 instead of a Dimension E310. I placed my order on Tuesday morning, and by Thursday evening the computer had already arrived. I was once again impressed with the quick turnaround in their fulfillment and shipping of my order, especially since their anticipated ship date wasn’t until January 31st.

After I unpacked, set up, and made sure everything was functional, I decided to wipe the hard drive to get rid of all of the bloatware (which is quite extensive) and Windows XP Media Center, and put a fresh install of Windows XP Professional on instead. That ended up being more of an ordeal than anticipated, requiring me to create and tweak a Windows XP Service Pack 2 slipstream and then walking through the following steps that I found after scouring the Dell Support Forums:

1. Create an XP SP2 slipstream CD to boot
2. In BIOS, Change SATA Config to “Combination”
3. In BIOS, Change Video display from “PEG” to “PCI”
4. Boot XP Pro + SP2 slipstream CD, and install Windows XP Professional
5. After XP install finishes, change BIOS Video display settings back to “PEG”
6. Install chipset and other drivers from Dell support web site (for an XPS 400, in my case)

After finally getting Windows XP Professional installed, everything was smooth sailing. The system is fast, quiet, and so far, stable!

I built my previous system (AMD Thunderbird 1.2Ghz) back in the summer of 2000 and it held up great in the five and half years since. Having had some success building a computer before, I know I could have gone that route again and probably gotten a little more bang for my buck. Instead, I opted to go with Dell because of the convenience and more importantly, because of their financing plan. I also entertained the idea of ordering from iBuyPower and CyberPower, as I’ve heard good things about both, but Dell’s one-year no-interest financing ultimately won me over.

Time will be the deciding factor as to whether or not Dell has redeemed themselves (as far as their dealings with me are concerned), but so far, they are off to a good start.

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I was looking through the February issue of Money Magazine and came across an article discussing the “MySpace Generation”, the creation of online profiles, and their potential affect on future job prospects.

The assertion of the writer (Scott Medintz) is that people (kids in particular) tend to be more forthright online, sharing everything from gossip, photos (sometimes risque) , their political views, to their most intimate thoughts. All of this is being done without any consideration being given to the long-term consequences of doing so. Medintz wrote that online profiles could potentially serve as “shadow resumes”, with more companies going to the web for information when performing background checks. With Google’s caching and the Internet Archive’s recording of web pages, content that has been long been removed is often times still retrievable.I guess my view is that if it’s out there, it’s technically fair game, so use some common sense when sharing anything online. That said, I also think it’s relatively easy (and not that uncommon) for someone with a vendetta or simply out of boredom, to impersonate someone else on the web. I don’t see how companies will be able to mine the web for information on job applicants and factor it into their decision as to whether or not they are going to hire that person. Without knowing the intent, context, and ultimately, the validity of whatever “dirt” is found, how can it be seen as anything other than hearsay?

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So today is Christmas Eve. and I’m visiting with my parents. Outside of running to the store for a couple last minute gifts, I plan to spend the day snacking on some of mom’s baking goodness, and watching a lot of football (Go Redskins!).

I was just doing inventory on my Christmas purchases, and realized that I had bought roughly half of my gifts online, and the other half in retail stores. I guess I was surprised since I a lot of the purchases I make throughout the year, I make online. It got me to thinking about previous speculation about how online shopping will eventually eliminate physical stores, as it will be more convenient for consumers and cheaper for the seller. I think we have a long way to go before this happens, if ever. I think there are many reasons why people like to go to the store to shop, and many of those reasons have yet to be thoroughly addressed:

• Tangible factor - People like to touch, to hold, to try on items before purchasing.clothes before buying.
• Social factor - Some people like to interact, whether its to ask store personnel questions, or just being around other shoppers.
• Trust factor - With all of the media coverage of hacking, spamming, spoofing, and phishing, there are those who are weary of shopping online, and others who abstain entirely.
• Now factor - People are impatient, and don’t want to wait for shipping. Why wait until next week to receive your purchase when you can drive to the store and pick it up now? Even if people did move toward making most of their purchases online, would the shipping infrastructure be able to handle it?

I think we will continue to move toward more of a hybrid of the two (ie. L.L. Beans’ Dressing Room, where you can create and save a 3d model of yourself or whoever you are shopping for, specifying the person’s physical characteristics including hair color and skin tone, height, weight, etc. Next, you can dress your model and see how outfits that you create look on a person with the specifications you provided). I can see this evolving to a point where you could then send the outfits that you have chosen on to a retail store in your vicinity, so that you could simply drive up and pick up your order.

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