HP Shafted Me!

I have been involved in the world of technology most of my life and have experienced the magnificence of this ever changing industry.  Things are moving fast and I am one who tries to keep up with the latest computer, cell phone, etc.

The downfall in our society today is customer service for these products.  Manufacturers don’t seem to care whether you are happy or not.  I am in a position of recommending products, especially laptop and desktop computers and always steer customers toward HP.  I have a studio full of HP products and especially love the three HP monitors that I use.   My main monitor is a large 27” and in less than a year it failed.  I called HP and they sent me a new one.  That part of the story is good.  Then within 90 days the second one failed with the exact same problem, and HP refuses to do anything about it.

The first frustration was that I had to talk to several people with very broken English who were in India.  I was informed that the replacement has no warranty.  When I asked to speak to a supervisor I was put on hold for 30 minutes and just left hanging.  I’ve heard of that trick from other people.  Two different HP representatives said that someone would call me, but I’ve never heard a word.

The second frustration is that you’ll never get past that level one technician in India.  Talking to someone “higher up” is impossible.  I even tried to leave a comment on HP’s web site as to this situation, but couldn’t.  You can leave a positive comment about one of their products, but you can’t leave a negative comment.  I wonder what would happen if I drove to their corporate office in California and asked to speak to the CEO?  How about maybe I take a film crew with me?

So, Hewlett Packard you have cost me $350 to replace your monitor that worked for less than 3 months.  Thanks so much, as I have certainly lost all my enthusiasm for your company!

What I’d really like to do is to take that 27 inch monitor and bust it into a million pieces with a sledge hammer, then put the video on YouTube, for the world to see, but that would be wasting my time!  I’ve already wasted several hours on this project especially talking to people in India that can’t speak English and are computer illiterate!

The Possibilities of a Photograph

I just attended a two day Nikon Photography School 
and thoroughly enjoyed it.  No matter how much you think you know about a subject you never stop learning and after attending a seminar you are usually fired up. (Click on Photos to enlarge.)

So today, I was taking pictures of just about anything around the house.  I took this shot sitting in my studio at an overhead spotlight.  I started playing with it in my photo editor and came up with the ones below.

Once you start fiddling with a photo the possibilities are endless and this could have gone on all day.

It’s amazing what you can come up with if you do some creative thinking when you’re taking the shot and again in post editing.

These effects were achieved in Paint Shop Pro X3 with their built in special effects.  At other times I use filters from Topaz Labs.  They are very professional and a welcome addition to any photo buffs toolbox!  The “Photo Art” Gallery contains these pictures on my Photo Web Site.