Larry "Zonka" Collette

Gain of Confidence in Best Buy (well sorta)

LarryZonka — Fri, 17 Feb 2006 14:41:00 GMT

Ok ok... I finally got a laptop. I went to the local Best Buy after work yesterday and found a Toshiba Satellite M65-S9092. It has a Pentium Centrino 2GHz 2mb L2 cache 512mhz, 1GB PC4200 (512x2) upgradable to 2GB, 100GB HD (5200 RPM), ATI Radeon x600SE 256mb (128-bit) and a 17 inch WXGA (1440x900). I was about to purchase it and in conversation with the sales guy, asked him if he had anything else that had the same size monitor. He mentioned about the Toshiba Qosmio, but it was an "Open-Box" item marked down, I took a look at it and it was all beat to hell. I said, "Nah, but do you have the one I am about to buy in an open box? If so, what difference does it make between a new one." He said, "Nothing, it is in still working order, it just has an open box." I would save about $350, to get an "Open Box" item, if it works just as well as a new model, plus I was going to buy the extended service agreement, which means if anything would happen to it in 3 years that I would be able to get it fixed or replace it with a brand new one. You can't beat that deal. So I went for it. Before I bought it, I took a look at it. The machine itself was brand spanking new, just with fingerprints and stuff and appeared to be used by the previous owner so I would have to slick it when I get home.

Well I got it home and began installing (my very legal copy of) Windows XP Professional. Midway in installation, I got the devious BSD. UUgughgh! What? So ok, I will have to reboot and reinstall the OS. Turned it on, heard the fan come on, then heard the fan cut off.... no OS, no BIOS splash screen... nothing. I did this for 30 minutes, maybe I was doing something wrong. Still nothing, I waited a few more minutes... still nothing. Dang I have to go back to Best Buy. Someone must really not want me to have a laptop!?!?

So my son and I took a trip back to Best Buy. I am laughing all the way there because I was glad I bought the extended warranty and I knew I would be going home with a new laptop! When I got there I explained what happend. They said that they will have to either get me a refund or turn it in for service. Refund? Service? No, I want a new laptop. According to your service agreement, fix it or give me a new one. "Sorry sir, you just recently purchased this item today, we are going to have to send it to the manufacturer to get it repaired." Well how long will this take? "Two weeks..." Two weeks?!?!? I just got it today... "Well we can give you a refund." A refund?! It will take me 2-3 days to show back up on my card!??! Aaarrrgghhhh. I thought about it, my first intentions was to buy it brand new, so I supposed I will just buy a brand new one. I went and told the sales guy that helped me earlier about it, he said then asked to talk to the manager and maybe he could give me a discount. I went back to the counter and that was exactly what they did for me. Sooo, I spent $300 more than I initially did, but saved $100 on what I intended to spend on. Either way, I have a new laptop, I am satisfied and I got a discount on a brand new product rather than the high risk of a used opened boxed product.

Best Buy has moved to my happy list, while Alienware and Dell has moved into my bad list. I still use Dell at work, but you won't catch me buying one.

Loss of Confidence in Dell (Customer Service Strikes Back)

LarryZonka — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 19:32:00 GMT

I was pretty upset with Alienware that I was bound and determined to get me a Laptop if it was even going to kill me. So, I figured since I have worked with Dell computers at work and they have been pretty reliable the past few years I could just order one of those Dell XPS, that I heard so much about. I went online and built the Dell XPS the best that I could afford and saved it in my shopping cart. I wasn't about to be screwed again, so I figured it would be best to call and talk to a sales professional, this way I could try to get the best deal possible.

I called Dell's 1-800 number, navigated through a series of phone menus until I got a sales pro. I told him my situation and I was pending refund from Alienware, which I am sure that made their faces glow to know an unsatisfied Alienware customer is running to Dell. I told him I went through the web site and built and saved it. He was able to recover it and look to see what I ordered, at the same time I asked since I worked for a company that bought Dell servers and systems, if there was a way to get a corporate discount. He said, "Let me check," and put me on hold. He returned and said that he could give it to me at a quoted price $20 lower than the original cost. I said, "Only twenty?" He put me on hold again and came back 3-4 minutes later and quoted me another price now, $491 dollars less than the original cost. I was shocked! I asked this included EVERYTHING I requested on my order form, he said, “Yes”, I then asked, “including the overnight next business shipping?” He said, “Yes.” I laughed and said, “Let’s do it.” So we got everything settled, method of payment, shipping, yadda yadda. He told me he will send the order information in email for my records. I was damn excited.

About 30 minutes later, I received the email, again anxious, I reviewed the order form. I started noticing that the items I requested weren’t on there. I replied back and told him there were discrepancies in the order. He told me to call him back. I called and he told me those needed to be ordered and there will be additional costs? Additional costs, for what? This isn’t what I was quoted when I asked it was the price of what I asked for. He put me on hold (again), and then I got to thinking. This guy tried to pull a fast one on me. I went back online and put when he put on my order form and tallied the price and sure enough, $20 more than what they quoted me on a computer I thought I was getting a $500 discount.

At this point, I was fed up. I waited for him to get back from hold. He was ready to wheel and deal and I said, wait a second. I took a deep breath and said to him, “Ok, now I am starting to get irritated. I feel that you are trying to pull a fast one on me. Instead of getting a good deal on a computer I built, you downgraded everything, to appear that it was a discount, thinking that maybe I wouldn’t notice.” He said he made a few order mistakes and apologized. He re quoted me a deal with this order, at this point I wasn’t interested. I told him fine, send me the quote with the list of items and I will tell you whether to go forward with the order. Well when I got home yesterday afternoon and checked my email, it was still the same shady deal. There was no deal. I emailed back and said forget it. Deal is over…. WTF?!?!?

I am just going to find a computer locally, I bet I can find a good deal at Staples, Best Buy or Circuit City.

Read Loss of Confidence in Alienware

Loss of Confindence in Alienware

LarryZonka — Tue, 14 Feb 2006 17:42:00 GMT

I have lost all confidence in Alienware. A week has passed and it still sat at "Payment Received" with no progress on the system and no promise it will be delivered on time. I supposed I am just impatient, but if you are going to say it is going to be delivered and say it is going to be delivered with no delays. They told me last week it would be shipped today, but it doesn't look like I may see it for a month. I read other reviews (http://forum.notebookreview.com/archive/index.php?f-1018.html) about Alienware and since I have became VERY discouraged about this reputable company.

So since this morning, I have cancelled my order with fear of experiencing the same problems other have posted about. Of course, I have research many forums and many non-bias sites, searching for positive feedback. Occasionally I would see a few with happy endings, but more with negative. Yet, what is a good lap top company? I have been dealing with Dell the last 5 years and really never had any problems with them, why the change? I will never know. So now instead of waiting on a new Alienware laptop, I am waiting on the refund. I hope it doesn't nearly take as long as it takes to wait for the laptop, as you can tell I am just a very impatient person.

Trying to understand Web Services on Visual Studio 2005

LarryZonka — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 17:41:00 GMT

[WebMethod]
public Member getMemberInfo() {
return new Member("Larry Collette");
}

This is how I invoke this web service (above) from the client:

private void getMyMemberInfo() {
DemoWebService.Member me = DemoWebService.Service().getMemberInfo();
TextBox1.Text = me.MyName;
}

This all works ok... now what if I wanted a collection of members?

[WebMethod]
public Member[] getTeamInfo() {
      Members[] myMembers = {
            new Member("Larry"),
            new Member("Matt"),
            new Member("Joe")
      }

      return myMembers;
}

This is how I invoke this web service (above) from the client:

private void getMyMembers() {
      DemoWebService.Member[] team
               = DemoWebService.Service().getTeamInfo();
      TextBox1.Text = team[0].MyName;   //gets value Larry
      TextBox2.Text = team[1].MyName;   //gets value Matt
      TextBox3.Text = team[2].MyName;   //gets value Joe
}

If I binding the above to a BindingSource class or DataGridView, it is not sortable. You can also try this, instead of an the type array, but....

[WebMethod]
public ArrayList getTeamInfoArrayList() {
      ArrayList myMembers = new ArrayList();
      myMembers.add(new Member("Larry"));
      myMembers.add(new Member("Matt"));
      myMembers.add(new Member("Joe"));

      return myMembers;
}

Now, what do you think when this method is invoked what do you get? An ArrayList data type? Wrong... guess... a stupid Object...... you guessed it [] array. So I take the array and reconvert it back to the ArrayList. Now... can I cast this Array Object[] to ArrayList... nope. I have to loop through each item in the Object[] and add it to the ArrayList. Using a CollectionBase class is also no different.

private void getMyMembersArrayList() {
Object[] team
= DemoWebService.Service().getTeamInfoArrayList();

            ArrayList myTeam = new ArrayList();

      for (int i=0; i<team.length; i++) {
            myTeam.add((DemoWebService.Member)team[i]);
      }

      DataGridView1.DataSource = myTeam;

      TextBox1.Text = myTeam[0].MyName;   //gets value Larry
      TextBox2.Text = myTeam[1].MyName;   //gets value Matt
      TextBox3.Text = myTeam[2].MyName;   //gets value Joe
}

Now with the data... I still can't sort or filter it. So now I have to create a method with recursive loop to send each element value and types to a local Member() class that inherits the CollectionBase() class and interfaces the IBindData() class, so I can allow sorting and filtering. Also I want to put this data into an XML that is saved locally. I haven't gotten that far yet. Since my Members() class have properties that I cannot loop through each "Column" and "Row" like I could with DataTables, I have to use those nasty nested for loops on the Object arrays. Yipppie.

On another note about testing an Invoke to a Method that returns a DataTable... I haven't figured it out yet. The Web Reference in the Windows App show that method as a DataSource and an 'ANY' and 'ANY1' XMLElement[] type... I tried to use it, but was not successful in getting my data from it. I can only assume it IS xml, but to extract the data?? All the properties point to null.... kinda odd.

Friend helping friends C#'er with Java.

LarryZonka — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 19:40:00 GMT

I spent a few hours Friday night helping some friends who are going back to school to get their engineering degrees. Before the semester started, they told me how excited they were that they got to do start their first programming class in Java. Now, I have been dealing with Visual Basic and C# for the past 6-7 years, to include Classic ASP, DHTML (JavaScripts), Flash 8 Action Scripts and Cold Fusion. Never really took a gander at Java but was surprised to see how similar it was to C#.

Since I lived around the corner, I rode over there to see what they were up to and come to find out all I saw on the faces was confusion and frustration. I laughed and told them that they didn't want any advice from a “Self Taught Hacker. “ One had said, “At this point, I would take advice from my little daughter. “ So after looking over what they have done, I had to explain to them about the classes, constructors, private properties, public variables and methods. I pretty much tried to put it in perspective as best as I could. End result, one got frustrated and the other, I noticed a little light upstairs come on. Did I mention it took 3 hours for me to help them with their project? If they read this, I don't want them to take this personal. I wrote their project in C# and expanded a little more on it, I think it took me all but 15 minutes or so and another 10 for tweaking the console.

This part of the code serves really no purpose, but to give them a better example:

using System;

public class Student

{

#region Student Constructor

/// <summary>

/// Constructor

/// </summary>

/// <param name="StudentName">Student Name as String</param>

public Student(String StudentName)

{

this.studentname = StudentName;

}

#endregion Student Constructor

#region Properties

/// <summary>

/// Properties of Student's name

/// </summary>

private String studentname;

public String StudentName

{

get { return studentname; }

set { studentname = value; }

}

/// <summary>

/// Properties of the Total combined quiz score

/// </summary>

private Int32 totalquizscore = 0;

public Int32 TotalQuizScore

{

get { return totalquizscore; }

set { totalquizscore = value; }

}

/// <summary>

/// Properties of one quiz score

/// </summary>

private Int32 quizscore = 0;

public Int32 QuizScore

{

get { return quizscore; }

set { quizscore = value; }

}

/// <summary>

/// Counter to total quizzes inputed

/// </summary>

private Int32 quizcount = 0;

public Int32 QuizCount

{

get { return quizcount; }

set { quizcount = value; }

}

/// <summary>

/// Gets the Average Quiz Grade from the Total Quiz Score and Quiz Count

/// </summary>

public Double QuizAverage

{

get { return totalquizscore / quizcount; }

}

/// <summary>

/// Stores an array of multiple quiz scores

/// </summary>

private Int32[] quizscorearray;

public Int32[] QuizScoreArray

{

get { return quizscorearray; }

set { quizscorearray = value; }

}

#endregion Properties

#region Methods

/// <summary>

/// Gets the student's name

/// </summary>

/// <returns></returns>

public String getStudentName()

{

return studentname;

}

/// <summary>

/// Adds one quiz score

/// </summary>

/// <param name="QuizScore">One Quiz score as Integer</param>

public void addQuizScore(Int32 QuizScore)

{

//Increments the quizcount by 1

this.quizcount += 1;

//Sets QuizScore variable by the input parameter value

this.QuizScore = QuizScore;

//Sums the Total Quiz Score by the QuizScore variable

this.totalquizscore += this.quizscore;

}

/// <summary>

/// Adds the array of quiz scores, uses the addQuizScore method

/// </summary>

/// <param name="QuizScores">Integer Array of Quiz scores</param>

public void addQuizScores(Int32[] QuizScores)

{

//Sets the QuizScoreArray variable to the input parameter value

this.QuizScoreArray = QuizScores;

//Loops through each QuizScores Array

for (int i = 0; i < QuizScores.Length; i++)

{

//Add the score by using the addQuizScore method

addQuizScore(QuizScores[i]);

}

#endregion Methods

}

class Program

{

static void Main(string[] args)

{

//Creates a new instance of the object Student

Student StudentReport = new Student("Zonka");

//Adds quiz grades

StudentReport.addQuizGrade(90);

StudentReport.addQuizGrade(85);

StudentReport.addQuizGrade(50);

StudentReport.addQuizGrade(100);

StudentReport.addQuizGrade(10);

//Outputs using local methods

OuputStudentName(StudentReport);

OutputQuizAverage(StudentReport);

//Separater from the first object example

Console.WriteLine("\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n");

//Sets a new instance of the object Student setting a new student name

StudentReport = new Student("Clifford");

//Creates a local array of quiz scores

Int32[] CliffQuizzes = { 76, 84, 78, 98, 68 };

//Uses the addQuizGrades passing the array of grades

StudentReport.addQuizGrades(CliffQuizzes);

//Outputs using local methods

OuputStudentName(StudentReport);

OutputQuizGrades(StudentReport);

OutputQuizAverage(StudentReport);

}

/// <summary>

/// Outputs the students name in a console format

/// </summary>

/// <param name="StudentReport">StudentReport object as Student</param>

private static void OuputStudentName(Student StudentReport)

{

Console.WriteLine("====================================");

Console.WriteLine(String.Format("Student name: {0}", StudentReport.StudentName));

}

/// <summary>

/// Outputs the student's score for each quiz in a console format

/// </summary>

/// <param name="StudentReport">StudentReport object as Student</param>

private static void OutputQuizGrades(Student StudentReport)

{

Console.WriteLine("------------------------------------");

Console.WriteLine("Quiz\t\t\tScore");

Console.WriteLine("------------------------------------");

for (int i = 0; i < StudentReport.QuizScoreArray.Length; i++)

{

Console.WriteLine(String.Format("Chapter {0} Quiz\t\t{1}", i + 1, StudentReport.QuizScoreArray[i]));

}

Console.WriteLine("------------------------------------");

Console.WriteLine(String.Format("Total\t\t\t{0}\n", StudentReport.TotalQuizScore));

}

/// <summary>

/// Outputs the student's Quiz count and Average Quiz Grade in a console format

/// </summary>

/// <param name="StudentReport">StudentReport object as Student</param>

private static void OutputQuizAverage(Student StudentReport)

{

Console.WriteLine("------------------------------------");

Console.WriteLine(String.Format("Total Quizzes:\t\t{0}", StudentReport.QuizCount));

Console.WriteLine(String.Format("Average Grade:\t\t{0}", StudentReport.QuizAverage));

Console.WriteLine("====================================");

}

This Rocks!

LarryZonka — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 19:14:00 GMT

I have a blog! Thanks Keith.