Reviews Posts

I am going to do everything in my power as a writer and fellow consumer to influence you not to buy anything from Warners Stellian. Ever.

I’m dedicating two Q-Review posts to this effort because if I wrote it as one review, it would require too much of the average Internet reader’s attention span. Too many of you wouldn’t read it in its entirety. And I’d be doing you, my audience, a disservice if I didn’t do everything in my power to make this article as easy as possible to read and learn from.

Part two can be read here.

But even if you only read these few opening paragraphs, I want you to go away with this simple message: Do not buy any major appliances from Warners Stellian. As of this writing, it has been fully one month that my family has gone without a properly functioning refrigerator. And I do not know for certain when it will be repaired.

A family in need of a refrigerator

A house needs a refrigerator, and so it was that when the Kenmore that came with the house gave up the ghost, we were forced to replace it. We had become accustomed to a few of the niceties that the Kenmore afforded us, mainly the water dispenser in the door, and we had become tired of some of the inconveniences, such as the cramped freezer space due to the side-by-side design. But, for various reasons, budget was an overriding factor. So we went forth and began our search for a new fridge.

The purchasing experience

After a day or so of research and viewings and demonstrations, we found ourselves in the hands of Andy on the display floor of the Warners Stellian in Edina. And he helped us find what appeared to be the perfect refrigerator.

It was an LG, and while that brand was unknown to us, Andy soon explained that LG was a Korean company that actually supplies the majority of parts for most major refrigerator manufacturers, so we weren’t taking a big risk by buying from an unknown. It had two great features that we wanted:

• It had a water dispenser in the door

• It had a freezer on the bottom

It was a discontinued model, so the price was reduced, making it by far the most affordable model with these two features. And so…we bought it. I sprung for a 2-year extended warranty for $40 (a bargain when the repair bill for our previous fridge was well over $400), and we walked out of the store feeling very pleased. After having gone over a week without a fridge, we rested easy in the knowledge that a new one would be delivered the next day. What we didn’t know was that the one delivered the next day would be the first of four.

The Dents: 4 fridges in 7 days

Delivery happened the next day, as promised. I work from home, so scheduling a time was no problem. The delivery guys were nice, efficient and clean. They answered questions, and helped me get the water line connected. The only thing they didn’t do was pull the plastic sheeting that covered the stainless steel front. And if they had, they would have discovered the problem:

The entire face of the fridge door and the freezer door was slightly, but noticeably, concave, as though something had squeezed the appliance. In looking at the back of the unit, there were definite indications of a squeeze, deformed grilles and frame.

Because the crew had already departed, I had to call the service number and schedule someone to come out. Luckily another crew was in the area, and they were able to make it out later that afternoon. Again, because I work from home, scheduling wasn’t an issue. They confirmed the damage, and offered me a choice of getting a replacement, or getting a 10% discount off of the unit price.

Laughing at the ridiculous discount, I said we wanted a new one. Scheduling wasn’t an issue because I work from home. Fortunately, they allowed us to keep the installed machine so that we could have a functioning fridge until a replacement showed up.

The second unit was delivered the next day. The crew unloaded the unit into the street, but before bringing it into the house, they called me outside to look at it: there was a huge and unmistakable notch in the freezer handle. A result of incorrect operation of the machinery used to move things around in the warehouse I was told. Back into the truck it went.

The third unit was delivered the next day. Scheduling wasn’t an issue because I work from home. It was lowered into the street, and at my insistence, the crew opened the box so I could inspect it. Again, this unit had dents and compression damage. Back into the truck it went.

The fourth, and final unit was delivered the next week. Scheduling wasn’t an issue because I work from home (I’m attempting to illustrate the huge, HUGE inconvenience that this would be cause for someone who didn’t have my flexibility, in case you hadn’t noticed). No noticeable damage on the front, but there was some minor compression damage on one or two of the grilles on the rear. Tired of this game, I accepted the unit. They took the damaged one, and installed the new one.

This was a ridiculous exercise. The warehouse management wasted my time by not inspecting the machines that they were sending out. Completely unacceptable service, except by a family who were in desperate need of a refrigerator. This is enough of a reason for you not to purchase your appliances from Warners Stellian.

A postscript: the water dispenser was faulty on this unit, and so another tech had to be dispatched to first diagnose the issue and order parts, and another had to be dispatched a few days later to install them. Scheduling wasn’t an issue because…well, you know.

Next week, I shall continue to try and convince you never to buy anything from Warners Stellian. See you back here in seven.

Links

Warners Stellian

I’m in love with the concept of the PDA. The notion of having a powerful device that can, quickly, easily, and from the palm of my hand, serve as a decent surrogate for the full-featured computer that’s either on my desk or stowed inconveniently in my backpack is an attractive one.

I’ve been the excited but ultimately disappointed owner of 3 or 4 PDAs in my time, both Palm and Windows Mobile based. While all were digital and personal in nature, none of them have fulfilled the promise of assisting me in any way. For 5 years, I’ve sworn off PDAs, cold turkey. I spent too much time and money to learn the valuable lesson that they just don’t do what I want them to do.

But my abstinence ended with purchase of an iPod Touch.

The Touch? Why not the iPhone?

To many, the perfect device would be Apple’s iPhone. And while I would be hard-pressed to argue that the iPhone isn’t a fantastic piece of technology, I would have to say that the iPhone has three things going against it: A, T, and T.

Granted, I exaggerate, but the truth is that I’m a Verizon customer and I’m very happy with the quality of service I’m getting through them, and I’ve vendor-hopped enough to know that all service providers are not the same. To me it’s not worth the risk of bad reception and bad experience to switch to AT&T.

Also, since I spend 95% of my time in locations with wi-fi, I have no justifiable need for the data services. That’s $60 or $70 I don’t have to spend.

The Touch gives me nearly all the functionality that I want from the device:

• Music, podcast, and video playback.

• Access to the zillions of applications available on the iTunes App store

• Wi-fi

The only thing that miss, and I would have liked to see included is a built-in camera. The iPhone has one, the Touch does not.

All that said, I can definitely see the possibility of me moving to an iPhone in the future if the cost of data plans and the total yearly cost of owning an iPhone comes down some.

The secret ingredient is the interface

What makes the Touch really fulfill my PDA needs is the interface. Gone is the stylus, gone is the Graffiti text input method. The on-screen keyboard is probably the most efficient method for input that there is. And while there’re many out there who dislike the lack of a physical keyboard, I don’t mind it. Never having used a Blackberry or anything similar, I don’t have experience with a physical keyboard, so I’m not missing anything. And I do like the flexibility of a keyboard that instantly gets out of the way when it’s not needed and doesn’t add to the bulk of the device.

Apple worked very hard to make the navigation of the Touch work extremely well. Again, the removal of the stylus works in it’s favor. Using the tip of your finger to open apps, move the cursor around, and interact with the software feels very intuitive. Flicking through lists of songs and files is very smooth and fun. Resizing images and web pages by pinching with thumb and forefinger feels natural. I don’t have skinny fingers, and yet, I don’t make many mistakes when typing or tapping on small buttons or links.

The thing is just damned fun to use.

There is a complaint

The completely on-screen interface does have a drawback. The first version of the iPod Touch had no physical buttons to speak of, save for the Home button. One had to be looking at the screen in order to play, pause, increase volume, etc.

With this second generation, apple included a set of volume controls, a rocker button on the side that can be controlled when the Touch is stowed in your pocket, but in order to play and pause, you still need to pull it out and flick at it a few times before you can pause. This is a pretty serious drawback for me, due to the way that I use my iPod over the course of the day. I want to be able to quickly pause and resume playback.

Sadly, the only solution that’s available is a special set of headphones not yet available from Apple. The phones include an in-line remote and a microphone. While I’m very interested in the possibilities that having a mic provides (voice recording and Skype?), I’m typically not a big fan of having bulky things like chunky remotes or noise-cancelling controls that add weight and snagginess to the wire. It looks like these phones from Apple are pretty streamlined, but I’ll need to see them in person to know for sure if they’d be acceptable.

Overall, iPod Touch is awesome

Despite the lack of a physical play/pause button, I’m completely in love with the Touch. I bought it for the express purpose of giving me quick access to email, the web, and text editing while carrying out the care and feeding of two small children, one (and soon both) of which is enamored with shiny devices like Macbooks and mice when used on laps or left unsupervised on tabletops. And the thing has met these needs with surprising success.
The fact that I can listen to music and podcasts and watch video on the same device is gravy.

Love it.

Apps I find useful

I’ve found a bunch of apps that I really like and use all the time.

Text editing

WriteRoom: A great, simple text editor that has a landscape mode.

Social Networking

Facebook and Twitteriffic: Pretty good mobile versions of corresponding desktop and web interfaces.

Games

Trism: A fun Bejeweled-esque game that’s a bit more challenging

Word Up!: An interesting cross between Scrabble, Boggle, and Solitaire

Document viewing

Files: This lets you copy documents (PDFs, Word docs, HTML, videos) to the Touch and view them. Seems like a feature that should be built in to the OS, but what can you do?

RSS feed reader

Google Reader: GR has a very nice and usable page design for mobile devices.

A few weeks ago, HBO premiered True Blood, a new series created by Alan Ball (American Beauty and Six Feet Under) and based on a series of supernatural mystery novels by Charlaine Harris.

The premise and the backstory of True Blood aren’t wholly original (but in the genre of vampire fiction, very little is), which makes it an odd choice for HBO. But the fact that the network is willing to put a little faith in this story of the outed undead gives me a little hope that this series will become more than it appears upon viewing the first couple of episodes.

In the first episode we were introduced into a world where a Japanese synthetic blood provides vampires with all of their nutritional requirements, allowing them to safely co-habitate with we humans without the threat of them feasting upon all of our tasty blood. But there are political ramifications for this. And this shared existence does not sit well with everyone.

While the homosexual metaphor, illustrated by obvious hints to we viewers with such phrases as “coming out of the coffin” and “God hates fangs”, may have some legs, Mr. Ball has a lot of work to do in meantime to establish the rules and logic of this world. Because not only are there vampires in our convenience stores buying fake blood, ore putting down roots in small Southern towns and or appearing on TV, but the main character, Sookie Stackhouse, is a telepathic waitress, and all signs point to her boss being a lycanthrope.

This is a lot of information to throw at the average viewer. The show does try hard to keep our attention by throwing in some nakedness and sexing around at strategic moments, effectively bridging some of the stiff character introductions.

But I’m hoping that HBO has learned from their experience with Tell Me You Love Me: parades of sweaty naked people do not automatically guarantee success. They did, after all, just commit to a 2nd season for the show. Which is more than the last couple of original series got.

I sincerely hope that once we’ve bought into everything, put in our time watching the first couple of episodes that creak with the weight of exposition and establishing shots, that there’s a hell of a reward for our efforts.

Sadly, I’m pessimistic. I’ve not read the novels that this series is based on, but if this show is just the tale of a spunky, telepathic prude who’s in love with a handsome and mysterious vampire and goes around solving mysteries in a grungy little Louisiana town, while being followed around by a weredog boss, horndog brother, and bitchy best friend…I don’t think I’ll stick around for long.

There are times when I’m working in a place where the air is filled with distracting and concentration-shattering noise, places like a coffee shop or a home office besieged by small children.

In order to block out that sound, I often turn to music. But there are times when that just doesn’t cut it well enough. Music can be distracting itself, defeating the purpose.

So, I’ve found myself turning more and more often to a simple little app called Noisy.

Noisy doesn’t do anything except pour forth a fizzy gusher of white or pink noise. Like Alka-Seltzer, this magic hiss can reduce the distraction power of just about any background noise to tolerable levels, allowing you to get back to work.

It’s free, simple, and it works.

Links

Noisy @ Google Code

Incredibly confusing description of Pink Noise on Wikipedia

First, a little bit about the most recent Hellboy movie.

I took some of my rare and valuable free time to go and see this thing. I had already read and heard some reviews of the show, and I was made aware about the sizable butt-print that Guillermo Del Toro had left on this movie, that it didn’t have the same feel as the first film. But, I must say, despite the forewarning, I was caught off-guard by the complete change in tone and feel.

I like Del Toro, and he makes some good movies, and I’m excited by the news that he’s going to be directing the 2 Hobbit movies (whether or not this is still the case, I don’t know; I’m too lazy to google it). But Hellboy 2 felt like it wasn’t so much the continuation of the Hellboy franchise, but the director’s batting practice for the Hobbit. Elves, goofy creatures, and high fantasy are not part of the Hellboy universe that I’m a fan of.

I’m a Mike Mignola fan. He’s the guy behind the Hellboy and B.P.R.D. comics. He was involved with the movies, but sadly, his influence didn’t seem to be as present in the second film. However, he’s putting out comics at a terrifically satisfying pace. And while the Hellboy and B.P.R.D. series are very newcomer friendly, you can jump in just about anywhere and not feel lost because they don’t follow a strict chronology, a series that has 10 or 12 volumes of stories can be a bit intimidating.

Calling Screw-On Head

This is where I recommend the Amazing Screw-On Head. It’s a 32-page one-shot that follows the adventures of the greatest supernatural investigator of the 1860’s.

Here’s the plot synopsis:

The Screw-On Head is an agent for President Abraham Lincoln, fulfilling much the same role as the modern-day fictional B.P.R.D. (Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense). He is summoned by Lincoln to track down Emperor Zombie, an undead occultist and originally a groundskeeper at Hyde Park. Zombie and his henchmen, the vampiress “Madam” and scientist Dr. Snap, have stolen an ancient manuscript. This will allow him access to the tomb of Gung, a warlord who nearly conquered the world over ten thousand years ago with supernatural power gained from “a fabulous melon-sized jewel”, which Zombie obviously plans to use for himself.

With the aid of his manservant Mr. Groin and dog Mr. Dog, Screw-On Head manages to track down Zombie, but not before the villain and his henchmen (including his vampire lover) find the treasure: instead of a jewel, the tomb contains a turnip with “a small parallel universe” inside. Zombie unleashes the demon within, but Screw-On Head manages to defeat it in combat.

(via Wikipedia)

The issue is tough to find, I won’t lie to you. It was published in 2002, and has seen 3 printings, but still not available from Amazon. But you can order it through Things From Another World_14975) and get a slight discount as well. You’ll probably need to order some other treats so that you’re not getting completely screwed on shipping costs. I recommend the plushie Abe Sapien.

It is well worth the trouble.

And if you’re still hesitant about picking it up, you can still get a taste of the style and look of the comic by watching the tragically passed-upon pilot that was made for the Sci-fi channel in ‘06. Great voice talent by Paul Giamatti, David Hyde Pierce, Patton Oswald, and Molly Shannon. It’s pretty good. Here, watch:

Links

The Amazing Screw-On Head’s Wikipedia Page

Buy The Amazing Screw-On Head from Things From Another World_14975)