Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Overwatch - Saltywatch: Beyond Borders

Narrator: Every year thousands of Korean teenagers, Japanese clans, cold Chinese, Egyptian families, cowboys, giant gorillas and big Russian women leave the safety of their borders to enter dangerous places like King's Row. When the evil omnics strikes, the Overwatch Saltywatch Team is called into action.

Tracer voice-over: An Overwatch proverb says: "Cheers love, the cavalry is here!"

(Cut to a scene at Watchpoint Gibraltar and lots and lots of screens with random unreadable data. Lucio and D.Va are video-conferencing with Winston.)

Winston: So a British in King's Row has been murdered and witnesses saw a omnic running away from the death scene.

Lucio: And London needs our help?

Winston: No they don't. But because the victim is a British, and Tracer our poster lesbian is British, we will help. Whether their Prime Minister or Queen like it or not.

Tracer: Hell yeah!

D.Va: What do we know about King's Row?

Winston: King's Row is an upscale cosmopolitan area in London, but just beneath its peaceful surface, tensions between omnics and humans are running high. After England slashed the influx of immigrants entering London, they have been relying on the cheaper, better, faster omnics. But most omnics are forced to live in the slums, denied the basic rights that humans have. The omnics are just a bomb waiting to explode right under London's nose.

Lucio: Is London pursuing the suspect at this moment?

Winston: They would try, but I don't think they can handle it. The witnesses only saw an OR14 running away. But London can't tell one OR14 from another.

Tracer: Erm... neither do we.

Winston: Right, we don't. But we will kill all the OR14s that we encounter.

D.Va (grins): All I need is a nerf.

(Cut to a scene on King's Row, beneath the tube station. One middle-age fat police inspector from the Scotland Yard is gesturing and pointing on a large paper map on the desk.)

London police inspector: The unsup has been seen running towards this old abandoned factory here.

D.Va (gasps): This is where Santa Torbjorn produced all the Christmas presents last Christmas! How dare!

Lucio: Okay, it is personal now.

(Cut to a scene in the old abandoned factory which is badly destroyed by numerous MEKA Self Destruct, and broken metals all over the ground.)

London police inspector: Thank you very much. I could not have solved this crime without Overwatch. Although we still don't know which OR14 killed the human, but it doesn't matter since all the OR14s are dead. By the way, I thought you guys always travel in four?

Tracer: Yeah we do, mate. But it's Hanzo. He's never at the objective.

Monday, February 27, 2017

Alienware. Where support is not really here. Or there.

What is one of the important things you consider when buying a PC? The processor? The graphics card? The screen size if you're buying a notebook? Sure. But how many of you actually think about the warranty? And how many of you take it for granted?

"Oh so it comes with an one-year warranty? Oh ok, isn't that the standard?"

Yup, most people will be contented with an one-year warranty. Which is really the minimum these days. So when a popular brand like Alienware provides a three-years warranty, that's really a gift right?

Wrong. Apparently, they didn't expect you to expect them to honor this three-years warranty. It's a... "For display only" item.

And here's the real-life story of why you shouldn't trust an Alienware warranty.

The long story can be found here, on my friend Sarah's blog:
Buy Alienware Dell ?

The short story is here:

  1. Girl bought Alienware PC with 3-years warranty included.
  2. Alienware PC broke down within the 3-years warranty period.
  3. Girl called up Alienware Support and was asked to switch on and off the PC, then switch on and off the PC, then switch on and off the PC...
  4. Alienware Support finally decided to move their arses and do a house call. Only during THEIR business hours. Which means Girl has to take a day off from work. Lucky for her, after some negotiation, they gave in and made the visit at 7pm.
  5. Alienware Support tried to fix the PC with refurbished motherboards. 
  6. Refurbished motherboards still won't work, PC still not working, and Alienware still refused to replace Girl's PC or even with a new motherboard.
  7. Girl still stuck with a defective Alienware PC.

So yeah. This is why you should consider spending your bucks on other brands like HP, Asus, MSI, Acer... well, basically any other brands BUT Alienware.