Quothe Tony Duell, from writings of Thu, Oct 16, 2003 at 09:41:11PM +0100:
> > I constructed my PDP-8 replica with materials all found at Home Depot (or
> > Lowes since it's closer, but the people at HD in my area are pretty
>
> Your DIY stores keep ICs, etc????
No. Imagine what it would be like trying to find one if they did.
After all, this afternoon, the manager of the electrical department at
the local Lowes store didn't even know what an Edison base fuse was.
Doh! ...and the electrical department sales droid that I spoke with
over the telephone, who had to ask him what one was, didn't know
either. The sales droid told me that her manager was an electrician,
and I told her that he had no business being one if if didn't know
what an Edison base fuse was. Next, I explained what an Edison base
fuse looked like, then proceeded to tell her that the people working
in the local small hardware store, which Lowes helped to drive out of
business, knew what an Edison base fuse was.
About the aforementioned small hardware store: the owner, a very
pleasant older gentleman, was in his 90's, and he just died recently
while the store was still having it's going out of business sale... it
appeared that he knew more about hardware than all of the employees in
all of the Home Depot's and Lowes stores combined... plus, he spoke,
and could comprehend, fluent English... something that many of the
minorities (more like majorities in many areas though) and immigrants
working in those big stores don't appear to be able to do! (yes, I
know, that wasn't a politically correct statement, however, it was the
truth; screw political correctness, which is helping to destroy
western civilization)
> My moan is not that the salesdroids are not knowledgable. I don't expect
> them to be. All I expect them to be able to do is to find me the item
> that I am asking for. If I want some 20mm M3 screws, then they should
> know where they are. Most of the time they don't.
Yes, that's the problem. They don't even know much about their
inventory. Despite the size of those stores, the selection of
inventory is still lacking. Try finding hose supplies in the middle
of the winter, and be told something like "that's a seasonal item, we
won't be getting any more until spring." Ok, so, I guess I was
supposed to either tell the horses that needed water that a hose
coupling was a seasonal item, or else carry many five gallon buckets
of water from the stream to the barns; yes, right.
> I don't expect them to tell me how to use the stuff, or to suggest what
> product I need (in fact, I find it _very annoying_ if I go to a shop and
> ask for a particular product and the salesdroid finds me something else
> which is 'just as good'. Hint : If I ask for something by name, then I
"But look, this is made in China, Japan, Outer Mongolia, Mexico or
Ungabungaland, and its cheaper, uh, somewhat inferior, but cheaper,
and our profit margin is higher if you buy it."
> have a good reaso nfor wanting just that item, I'd use a generic term if
> I didn't care).
They're not in business to sell us what we want or need. We're supposed
to exist only to increase profits for shareholders and to help increase
government revenues.
--
Copyright (C) 2003 R. D. Davis The difference between humans & other animals:
All Rights Reserved an unnatural belief that we're above Nature &
rdd_at_rddavis.org 410-744-4900 her other creatures, using dogma to justify such
http://www.rddavis.org beliefs and to justify much human cruelty.
Received on Sun Oct 19 2003 - 14:18:27 BST