In another entry for the I'm-always-the-last-to-know file, apparently online retailers offer different prices to different people online depending on factors like whether you surfed a price-comparison shop previously or not.

[link]

From that article:

More than two-thirds of people surveyed also said they believed online travel sites are required by law to offer the lowest airline prices possible

I'm not saying it's right to fleece people, but come on -- don't make it so tempting!

"We don't let ourselves be tracked that way in any other facet of our lives. Why would you want that to happen while you're shopping?"

Don't we? At the very least, I know Barnes & Nobles and I have reached an agreement -- they know what I buy, I get some money off. I'm cheating Ralph's, but they certainly are still profiling my purchases and offering me coupons based on the pattern.

Grrr...

I just called Apple, as they instructed me to in an email (which indicated that they found something else wrong, which I would have to pay to have fixed), only to be put on hold twice, and then get an apology for the email, which, apparently, was sent in error.

This past weekend, I got 2 phone calls. One of which was to tell me they needed to replace my screen, which would not cost me anything. The other telling me my HD is fried. I called them, and then they called me back, telling me that, yeah, the person who made the HD diagnosis was smoking crack, which is why the actual experts have to check her work.

Now, I appreciate that thinking things are going to be expensive, and then not is better than having things be expensive, but this is getting ridiculous. If it happens again, I expect ice cream.

I'm thinking of getting an external DVD-burner for my laptop (an IBM ThinkPad with a CDRW/DVD-player module.) Any recommendation for a reliable *and* not-too-expensive model?

I got the LaCie Slim DVD±RW last week and it's worked great. The nice thing about it for use with a laptop is that it draws power from the Firewire port, so you don't have to carry a power brick around for it.

They have a USB 2.0 version as well, which is probably a better choice for a ThinkPad, since I don't think those tend to have powered Firewire ports. It's also a little cheaper.

Is this safe for the media? I really feel I'm wasting cases on some of my CDs, but that looks so damned naked.

I'm keeping TV show episodes (until I replace them with boughten DVDs) on CDs in CD wallets... I've been wondering what solutions people here use for storage?

Mac wireless print server recs, anyone? (Airport Base Station being the obvious answer, which leads me to the question, will it work with my Tivo?)

[eta that I have an HP printer, which comes with its own set of Issues. I'm really hoping I don't have to replace it.]

Huh.

My tv, connected to digi cable through a Replay, has decided that it doesn't much feel like putting effort into the audio. Turned up all of the way, I can't really hear either recorded shows or live tv.

However, I just swapped inputs and put in a DVD, the sound is totally normal. It's, "Yikes!" Loud even...

WTF?

Either this is some crazy subliminal way to get me to watch my movies and finally send them back or something is wrong. Honestly, I don't know which.

Is there something obvious to others that I could try? I've got some season finales that I kinda want to watch... (Kicking the tv, not helpful. Though it showed a range of motion I was unsure of pre-kick.)

Well . . . . have you tried (can you) swap the cables? Or, alternately, take one of the devices (Replay or Cable box) out of the loop. Does it work that way? Take the other one out. How about now?

90% of troubleshooting is narrowing down exactly what part has the problem.