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I am just outraged now, so that is usually when I do my best writing

I’ll try to keep it brief, if possible. My son and I came across a strategically positioned CD in local GameStop about a month and a half ago, showing Final Fantasy XI Demo for PC for $2 . At a moment of weakness, we decided to give Final Fantasy XI a try, since we generally enjoy online play, as you probably know by now.

Upon arrival at home, we promptly attempted to install the game. Strangely, the process wanted us to submit a Credit Card. Granted, I should have stopped right there and read the 100 page User Agreement, but thinking of Sony and Square-Enix brand names, I decided that I can really trust these companies to do Right by their customers.

However, on a first attempt to play, it failed after half an hour of trying to "patch" itself. We tried to install on another computer, but with the same sad results. As much as I hate to, I was forced to spend some time online with their Tech support, who after silly troubleshooting attempts simply assured me that we must be having Internet connectivity issues and try again later. Obviously our high speed Internet had no such issues, which was also obvious by the fact that half the patch was downloading successfully prior to failure. Long story short, since my son kept begging, after various attempts and more calls, I left a laptop overnight connected to Internet directly (bypassing the router) which somehow did let the patch through…

After about half a day of play, he complained that there was no Tutorial at all to understand how to play. There were also no obvious ways to understand Who to see to start off in the world, and How to do Anything. He also had computer hang and forced a restart in the first few minutes of play, and I am certain it isn’t our computer’s fault… Mind you, this is the dude that tried almost every MMO out there, free and paid!

So, after he promptly stopped playing, I tried to remove this horrible ordeal from my memory, and disregard the hours and effort spent to just make the darn game work. Until this weekend, when my online Credit Card showed a charge of almost $18 from Square-Enix/PlayOnline.

I promptly called them and explained the situation. The answer I got was: The charge represents pro-rated part of March after 30 days expired plus a charge for April. And, although they can help me cancel the account (which hasn’t been used for over 40 days, but they insist that they have "no way of checking usage" ), the Charges CANNOT be refunded EVER and IT IS stated in the agreement?! I didn’t find it in the agreement, and the representative insisted that Manager is unavailable and I need to call again. Well I did call again, and got the same Answer, albeit this time with some assurances that "someone will call you back"……..

The ridiculous part is that we never purchased the game, just the silly demo, so I didn’t expect charges. In contrast, World of Warcraft gives you 30 days trial and even though you also need a credit card for the trial, they will never charge you until you Choose to subscribe and continue after the trial!

Another ridiculous part is the supposed pro-ration, the charge for the Future month (April) and refusal to refund even the future month only. Plus, no Emails What So Ever to say "You were charged" or simple courtesy reminder that "Your 30 Day Demo has Expired".

Sorry to bore you with this, but I think all companies should learn something here. Here is what my son said when he heard about the ordeal: Lesson Learned – Never Buy Anything Sony. I definitely join him in this profound realization, plus I will be thinking twice or more before considering future Square-Enix games as well… Maybe there’s truth to all those articles saying that Sony is in financial trouble and going downhill fast…

I hope your $18 was worth this for you, Sony!

PS: For your reading pleasure, the PlayOnline Member Agreement, which is weird since you can even have PlayOnline account for free… Where is the part in which it says we charge "whatever" and keep the money no matter what, for future services not granted?

In light of most recent RIAA suicide attempt (which finally may be a successful one), I thought it would be a good opportunity to tell everyone about a great music site I discovered some time ago.

Amie Street is an online marketplace of independent artists. It works as a massive self guiding social network, with pricing which starts near zero, and then raises as popularity of a song increases. This way true quality music that everyone downloads raises in price, and becomes reasonable way to compensate the artist and support their further music endeavors. While new, undiscovered, or lower quality works, cost very little (few cents or so), and often stay that way. That’s not to say that there aren’t some gems in the few-cents-per-song crowd, there often is, in fact.

I have only had little time to dig around for gems there, but one example is Amanda Kaletsky, check out her Say You Believe song. Or, want more mainstream, try the world famous band Barenaked Ladies. One thing to watch out for is their built-in media player, it isn’t that good, I found interface unfriendly and confusing at times.

Of course, all Amie Street music is DRM free, as all music should be! Thus, between this and Amazon’s MP3 music store, which keeps adding major labels, there’s hope yet. So, lets work together to Free the Music, while we continue to pay for it, to the artist and not RIAA…

I want to apologize for light blogging this past week.

Without going into too much detail, I’ll just say that our Plasma TV of long had some troubles that could not be repaired. Thanks to Costco and their Concierge Service, we now have brand new TV that everyone loves.

Now that this crisis is resolved, I promise to go back to regularly scheduled blogging!

My family is happy again, so here is one more time: Thanks Costco!

Season Greetings! This post is probably a bit overdue, but maybe you’re still planning a big bash for New Year’s and this is definitely something useful for the new year!

KraftFoods.com has become my primary portal for favorite recipes this year. It has wonderful photos, showing you what you’re making, something many other sites out there lack. Plus, Kraft folks seem to keep manageable repertoire of recipes, most of which are easy and quick, instead of mishmash of thousands or millions, like some other sites contain.

You can easily sign up for a free online account and mark your favorite recipes, and then sort them into custom categories, though web interface for organizing recipes needs some work! And, to top off the beautiful recipe photos off, they just started to add some nice how-to videos recently!

I have linked to some of my favorite recipes here, but there is yet another excellent aspect to Kraft Foods (can you tell I am a shareholder, well, Duhh!!) If you live in US, you can sign up for Free printed Magazine called Food & Family! We have been enjoying it for over a year now and it’s highly recommended.

Yea, Yea, I know Kraft is bound to be pushing their own products in the Magazine and in the online recipes. But I didn’t find it to be obvious at all, plus it’s Free and ultimately, no-one is preventing you from substituting the ingredients, if you are so inclined, for some unknown reason. "Recipe Box" Web Sites is another wave of the future, and with proliferation of cheap wireless web devices, it is easier than ever to get to your recipes right from on your kitchen table. I am also pretty certain there are other wonderful Recipe sites out there, so share away in Comments below!

True short story! A lady came up to me as I was coming off the airplane from a recent business trip and exclaimed: "Is This A Zune!?". She continued to explain that she never seen anyone with Zune and she actually has one herself. But, her biggest beef with it is that she can’t figure out how to get Videos onto it! She bought it for bigger screen, which isn’t much help without Video content!

Here is the tip for everyone out there! There is A Lot of Free and easily accessible Video (and Audio) content for your Zune! Start by simply navigating to Podcasts category in the Marketplace section of the new Zune client software! And the best part — all of it is Free! Your Zune clent software will auto-download the latest episodes from the Internet, whenever you dock your Zune or even when you sync wirelessly.

This is actually the biggest feature added in the new Zune software & firmware, and the main reason I finally splurged on a Zune. There is a huge library of Podcasts in the new category in Zune Marketplace, both Audio and Video, and all free, of course.  Each podcast includes short description and subscribing is as easy as clicking ‘Subscribe’, and there are some options hidden deeper if you prefer to manually control how many episodes of the Podcast show Zune keeps by default.

There are too many excellent podcasts that I subscribe to for me to list here, and even more excellent ones that I just don’t have time for. So, first step, check out My Subscriptions screen capture, to the right. I managed to reformat the screen to fit all the little pictures in, although reading their full name will be tough. So, here are some highlights, with brief description:

• EscapePod – I mentioned this one already, it’s awesome short science fiction stories
• Buzz Out Loud – Daily techno news, presented in fun manner
• CNN Now in the News – Brings you Video News daily, on the go
• NPR: Science Friday – Keeps you informed of latest scientific research, in easy to understand format. Actually, NPR has an Array of excellent podcasts, check it out!
• TWiT – This Week in Tech consists of insightful discussion around top week tech news, excellent show but usually at least an hour long. Leo has again an array of well produced podcasts, with Windows Weekly being another one I enjoy. Check them out!
• National Geographic Wild Chronicles – Short and sweet look at some of the most amazing wild creatures out there, keeps things interesting and diversified

These are just some highlights, there are tons more of them available in Marketplace or out there on the Internet, including almost any niche subject that may interest you. Anyone can download Zune Software, even without a Zune! You’ll simply have to watch the video shows, or listen to the audio podcasts right there on your computer. Actually, once your PC client downloads the podcast show files, you can manually copy them to any other type of audio or video mobile player, most will be compatible. Or, if you don’t have Zune and don’t want this software, check out Open Source Miro software, which is similar in many ways.