Random notices...

I usually don't check the newspaper often (though I really should), but there are times when I glance through the pile and something will catch my eye.  New technology, late-breaking news, art, and photography are the main things, and there was a photography article I saw that I didn't think about before.

Copyright-worried labs reject some digital printing jobs

Now this was interesting.  Seems like consumer photo labs, like Walmart, Walgreens, and any other all purpose stores will reject photos if they look "too professional" to try to protect copyrights.  It seems reasonable, but then the problem is how do you prove you own (or don't own) the photos, especially when they're digital?  Good thing I never print my photos in places like that.  I can already see several of my photos getting rejected, and I would have a hard time trying to convince them I took the photos when I still look like a kid.  I can already imagine the conversation and my anger when they won't budge.

Now a real question is what if a real professional photographer was to develop there (for some odd reason).  Would they still reject him/her and how would they prove it was their's?  Then again, why would they want to go there when there's plenty of online and pro-lab places with better options?

Laptop mayhem

I now have a brand new HP laptop, high powered with a 64-bit AMD chip, Radeon graphics card (though nothing comparable to destop cards), 100GB HD, and the essential wireless network.  However, getting the laptop was a pain.  My mom and I went to Best Buy to get the laptop I saw in the ad.  Normally, it would be a quick 10 minute deal, but instead, it took us over an hour.  Why?  No one served us.  In the beginning, it was reasonable, there were a lot of people and all 6 representatives were busy.  After some time passed, the people started to disperse and my mom managed to give the computer tag to one of the people there.  However, he disappeared with the tag, and at one point, we were the only ones at the computer section, still with no help.

My mom was furious and kept trying to get some help on getting the laptop.  There was still no help for some minutes.  So now, when someone came to help (after 45 minutes), my mom kept complaining, and when offered to talk to the manager, she agreed and complained to him.  He was apologetic and understood that waiting for an hour was not reasonable, but we had a slight problem:  the laptop I wanted was now missing and the tag was gone because the guy never returned, so no one knew what laptop it was.  All we remembered was the price.  I decided to just choose another one and chose a more powerful one.

Another problem:  the one I chose was also not available, except for the two on display.  Going through all this trouble to not get a laptop would look extremely bad for Best Buy and a waste of our time, so the manager said I could have the one on display and get a discount for it.  My mom chimed in asking if we could get it for the price of the laptop we were originally going to buy, and seeing as we waited for much more than an hour here, he agreed.  Retail price:  $1400.  We got it for $950.  I suppose that redeems them for the lack of service, but I still prefer not to spend over an hour doing nothing.