Look, if You Don’t Want to Get Ripped Off, Stop Buying Things
Caveat Emptor used to mean that if those rancid meat pies you bought at the equinox fair gave you dysentery and you died, it was your own damned fault for being a peasant during the Middle Ages. And it’s good to know corporations like Microsoft and Blue Cross Insurance are keeping that sentiment alive.
“Windows Vista capable PCs are junk.”
“I now have a $2,100 e-mail machine.”
“Even a piece of junk will qualify.”
Reasonable assessments of the bait-and-switch scheme Microsoft developed to boost their holiday sales: putting a “Windows Vista capable” sticker on low-end PCs and selling them to hapless technophobes.
The mildly surprising part is, those quotes aren’t from reviewers, but from top Microsoft executives discussing their shitty computers (many of which could only run very limited versions of Vista anyway) via internal emails.
This is an OS so crappy, “Windows Vista capable” has taken on an insulting quality, like telling someone they’re capable of wandering around with their pants around their ankles muttering to themselves and falling into piles of boxes. And some of these machines could barely do that.
The only thing that makes me not want to bring vigilante street justice down upon their heads is the fact that while they were wringing their hands and admitting “we really botched this,” Blue Cross was trying their damnedest to take coverage away from anyone who might need it at the moment and feeling no remorse whatsoever.
Blue Cross, it seems, has for years made it routine policy to send out letters to doctors with copies of a new patient’s application and the instruction to report “any condition not listed on the report that turns out to be pre-existing.” Which doesn’t sound quite as seedy as the literal translation “so hey, how can we fuck this guy?”
Because of course the reporting of even the most minor unreported condition (an unreported pregnancy qualifies, even if the patient wasn’t aware they were pregnant at the time they filled out the form) gave Blue Cross the legal grounds to wait until the person got deathly ill and then deny their coverage requests.
And getting doctors to rat on patients is a hell of a lot cheaper than taking the time to verify information, that’s for damn sure. Which is basically their defense, that they were “trying to keep costs at a minimum.” Which is like a guy who runs a drugstore replacing all the pills with tic-tacs to save on overhead.
Caveat Emptor!
The only thing that cheers me up is the fact that I now know the name of the president of the California Medical Association, and it’s Dick Frankenstein.
When not blogging for Cracked, Michael makes consumer awareness videos as head writer and co-founder of Those Aren’t Muskets!
February 15th, 2008 at 8:25 am
Okay, so for the Blue Cross thing, is it bad that the insurance company did that, or is the first bad thing that doctors apparently comply?
February 15th, 2008 at 8:41 am
Probably both, they should all be tailsmacked
February 15th, 2008 at 8:43 am
I saw the movie Sicko, by Michael Moore, so I have a complete, and unbiased of the way your “medical” system “works.”
February 15th, 2008 at 8:44 am
Where is all this hate for Vista coming from? I have a Vista machine and it runs beautifully with minimal maintenance. Why do people bash on it? I’ve not had any problems with it yet and I’ve been running it for almost a year.
Thank God I get my medical through anyone else but Blue Cross.
February 15th, 2008 at 9:16 am
Vista works great for me too and I sure as hell didn’t spend $2100 on my machine. What a dumbass, admittedly I built my own system but I’m sitting here nearly salivating thinking of the machine I could have built with $2100.
@kingmonkey We could have socialized medicine here too if all we had to worry about was treating moose tramplings, curling or hockey injuries and people choking on back bacon, like you Casnadian do.
February 15th, 2008 at 9:53 am
Who would win in a fight between Dr. Dick Frankenstein and Dr. Mindbender?
February 15th, 2008 at 10:32 am
Yeah. For $2100 you could build a top of the line system yourself with the works. Duel 512MB video cards, 5.1 surround, huge monitor, 3.2 duel core, etc. I still don’t see the problem though. Vista Ultimate works amazingly for me without the super top of the line system. The “deskscapes” are awesome too.
February 15th, 2008 at 10:36 am
Would living in a shot-up gang neighborhood qualify as a “pre-existing condition?”
February 15th, 2008 at 10:58 am
I mean, Dr. Mindbender rocks both a cape and a monocle. But Dr. Frankenstein is a self-taught pianist who has been to Ireland and Singapore. Of course, they both use Windows ME.
February 15th, 2008 at 11:24 am
Oh CrazyCracker. You’re so crazy. Everyone know that people that live in gang neighborhoods don’t have insurance.
February 15th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
I’ve seen a couple Vista hating articles on this site before, and like you guys above, I don’t quite understand it. Admittedly, I am nowhere near to being a tech sort of guy. But in Xmas of 2006 I did get an extremely sweet deal on a pc, with Vista, and I have to say I have not had one problem with it. Which is great, because usually when I have computer problems I have no clue whatsover how to remedy it. So are the people posting pro-Vista sentiments on here the only happy Windows customers?
As far as the health insurancec bit goes, I work in insurance(not so much health, but it was required learning for my license) and them wanting doctors to fil lthem in on pre-existing medical conditions really doesn’t seem like a big deal to me. Insurers are always looking for red flags, whether it’s health, commercial or personal insurance. It’s all a game really, and if you get busted for not disclosing something on your original application then you simply lost the game. I usually try to help people cheat insurance companies though. I must’ve been asleep during the ethics portion of the insurance licensing classes.
February 15th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
I have Blue Cross and it makes me sad pretty much every time I get sick…does that count as a pre-existing condition of Depression Caused by Shitty Insurance?
February 15th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
Hahaha. Nice try Satanikus. Looks like no one wanted to play.
Mayheminthehood, I can see how working in insurance it’s easy to see it as a game–people get a bit jaded and realistic about whatever field they have a great deal of knowledge in. I think it’s just a depressing reality check for most of us to find that when our family member gets cancer, our insurance company is avidly looking for ways to “beat” her at a “game” and “take away” her “insurance.”
Any bitterness sensed is not directed at you. i appreciate the opinion of someone with a greater deal of knowledge than myself.
Also, never saw Sicko, but did anyone see the deleted section about Norway and their ridiculous quality of life? Youtube that shit.
February 15th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Swaim, nice to get a response from you. My friends and I have watched all of Those Arent Muskets’ videos with joy. I stopped wearing sleeveless shirts, thanks to you guys. Okay, I didn’t but I tried really hard to.
There are a ton of things that are ridiculous about the insurance biz, and it drives me insane every day. I feel for people getting screwed as well, because usually when they get screwed it’s more like they’re getting killed rather than just getting a Dr. Pepper from a soda machine when you pressed the Mountain Dew button. Insurance companies don’t understand extenuating circumstances, and I’m pretty sure they don’t even understand what a human being is. It’s shitty and i’ll probably be in this crappy industry for a long time. It’s making me go bald, I think.
February 15th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
I didn’t really focus on anything else, but I looked at that picture and thought “wow, I was sure the Iron Maiden had more spikes than THAT!”
I’m a geek, sue me.
February 15th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
Ross I think one would be enough.
February 15th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
I knew a guy in high school who was nicknamed ‘Frankenstein Dick’.
It turned out he had syphillus.
February 16th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
My Vista has Iron Maiden. Powerslave, Virtual XI, Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son, you name it.
February 17th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
Even if Vista is crappy now, I think it’s going through the same thing that XP had when it was launched.
February 17th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
My cousins have vista and it works well though it gets annoying when it asks you whether or not you want to run a program every time you click.
February 18th, 2008 at 8:36 am
Alirio, you can turn off that function. It’s called UAC (user account control). It acts as a security measure for your computer against the internet and yourself. It keeps any program from running including 3rd party programs you can pick up from the internet and it will also keep the non-tech nerds from changing settings they shouldn’t. A simple google search for “Vista turn off asking to run a program” will give you several pages about how to turn it off.
February 19th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Has the Vista service pack been released yet? I know that Microsoft was a bit concerned that XP SP3 was going to make XP faster than Vista SP1, so I figured they’d delay the release until Vista was up to snuff. Either that, or cripple the XP service pack.
February 19th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
I saw this recently on “linux questions.org”:
“A computer running without Windows is like a dog running without bricks tied to its head.”
We don’t have health care in the U.S. We have Sick Care. People buy accessories and treatments for their sicknesses and the insurance companies sell them doctors to sell them more Bling, while employers assist them with financing the Bling.
If you don’t have the cash, you don’t get the stash. You just live like a peasant as long as you can hold out.
And Hillary wants to REQUIRE that you buy your Bling through insurance companies….think about it…what a freakin’ scam. Where can I get some o’dat?
February 20th, 2008 at 9:52 am
This is for you kingmonkey:
*Summery for the non-technical savvy*
The benchmarks are skewed because the computers used were weak. Make sure your computer is strong enough to run the new OS. People said the same things about XP when it came out and now it’s the “bee’s knees.”
*For those that care about the technical junk*
Vista SP1 should be coming out in 4-8 weeks, unless you have access to the MS developers network or a few other very limited places. XP SP3 WILL run faster than Vista SP1, but….
You have to look at the benchmarks in perspective. They’re running on a horrible system with only 1GB of RAM. With that little RAM, Vista has to start switching to virtual memory sooner than XP because it is a new OS that requires more RAM. They also don’t say what services are running. Vista runs a lot of extra ’services’ that can be turned off to increase performance (there were plenty in XP too), but some of the Vista eat up a good amount of memory (the UAC I mentioned in my last post for example).
Basically, if you’re going to run Vista Basic, you’ll probably be okay with 2 gigs, but if you’re going to run Ultimate for all the extra stuff like Aero, Dreamscapes, and all the pretty stuff you need to have the 3-4 gigs. You also need the other things to back it up: decent video card, duel core processor, etc.
They said the same things about XP when it came out. That it was slower than 98 or 2000, it had security holes (and still does), blah blah blah. It’s because XP needed at least 512 MB to run well, and most people were still running 128 or 256. You want a better OS, you need a better system. If you ran the same benchmark with Windows 3.1x that would run even faster than XP. XP SP3 will still run faster than Vista SP1 even on a good machine, but the results will be closer.
Personally, I love my Vista machine. I ran my own benchmark: I opened 4 instances of World of Warcraft, borrowed accounts info from 3 friends, and ran 4 characters at the same time in 4 unmaximized windows, Bioshock, 5 instances of Firefox set to pages that streamed sound/video like radio stations, Trillian and Yahoo messanger, AND a few games that aren’t even supposed to run on Vista like Final Fantasy VII and VIII and I was able to switch between them with Aero *almost* seamlessly (I got a few stutters). If the OS can make it through all that without crashing, it’s okay in my book.
February 27th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
Don’t believe one optimistic word from any public figure about the economy or humanity in general. They are all part of the problem. Its like a game of Monopoly. In America, the richest 1% now hold 1/2 OF ALL UNITED STATES WEALTH. Unlike ‘lesser’ estimates, this includes all stocks, bonds, cash, and material assets held by America’s richest 1%. Even that filthy pig Oprah acknowledged that it was at about 50% in 2006. Naturally, she put her own ‘humanitarian’ spin on it. Calling attention to her own ‘good will’. WHAT A DISGUSTING HYPOCRITE SLOB. THE RICHEST 1% HAVE LITERALLY MADE WORLD PROSPERITY ABSOLUTELY IMPOSSIBLE. Don’t fall for all of their ‘humanitarian’ CRAP. ITS A SHAM. THESE PEOPLE ARE CAUSING THE SAME PROBLEMS THEY PRETEND TO CARE ABOUT. Ask any professor of economics. Money does not grow on trees. The government can’t just print up more on a whim. At any given time, there is a relative limit to the wealth within ANY economy of ANY size. So when too much wealth accumulates at the top, the middle class slip further into debt and the lower class further into poverty. A similar rule applies worldwide. The world’s richest 1% now own over 40% of ALL WORLD WEALTH. This is EVEN AFTER you account for all of this ‘good will’ ‘humanitarian’ BS from celebrities and executives. ITS A SHAM. As they get richer and richer, less wealth is left circulating beneath them. This is the single greatest underlying cause for the current US recession. The middle class can no longer afford to sustain their share of the economy. Their wealth has been gradually transfered to the richest 1%. One way or another, we suffer because of their incredible greed. We are talking about TRILLIONS of dollars. Transfered FROM US TO THEM. Over a period of about 27 years. Thats Reaganomics for you. The wealth does not ‘trickle down’ as we were told it would. It just accumulates at the top. Shrinking the middle class and expanding the lower class. Causing a domino effect of socio-economic problems. But the rich will never stop. They will never settle for a reasonable share of ANYTHING. They will do whatever it takes to get even richer. Leaving even less of the pie for the other 99% of us to share. At the same time, they throw back a few tax deductable crumbs and call themselves ‘humanitarians’. IT CAN’T WORK THIS WAY. This is going to end just like a game of Monopoly. The current US recession will drag on for years and lead into the worst US depression of all time. The richest 1% will live like royalty while the rest of us fight over jobs, food, and gasoline. Crime, poverty, and suicide will skyrocket. So don’t fall for all of this PR CRAP from Hollywood, Pro Sports, and Wall Street PIGS. ITS A SHAM. Remember: They are filthy rich EVEN AFTER their tax deductable contributions. Greedy pigs. Now, we are headed for the worst economic and cultural crisis of all time. SEND A “THANK YOU” NOTE TO YOUR FAVORITE MILLIONAIRE. ITS THEIR FAULT. I’m not discounting other factors like China, sub-prime, or gas prices. But all of those factors combined still pale in comparison to that HUGE transfer of wealth to the rich. Anyway, those other factors are all related and further aggrivated because of GREED. If it weren’t for the OBSCENE distribution of wealth within our country, there never would have been such a market for sub-prime to begin with. Which by the way, was another trick whipped up by greedy bankers and executives. IT MAKES THEM RICHER. The credit industry has been ENDORSED by people like Oprah, Ellen, Dr Phil, and many other celebrities. IT MAKES THEM RICHER. So don’t fall for their ‘humanitarian’ BS. ITS A SHAM. NOTHING BUT TAX DEDUCTABLE PR CRAP. Bottom line: The richest 1% will soon tank the largest economy in the world. It will be like nothing we’ve ever seen before. and thats just the beginning. Greed will eventually tank every major economy in the world. Causing millions to suffer and die. Oprah, Angelina, Brad, Bono, and Bill are not part of the solution. They are part of the problem. EXTREME WEALTH HAS MADE WORLD PROSPERITY ABSOLUTELY IMPOSSIBLE. WITHOUT WORLD PROSPERITY, THERE WILL NEVER BE WORLD PEACE OR ANYTHING EVEN CLOSE. GREED KILLS. IT WILL BE OUR DOWNFALL. Of course, the rich will throw a fit and call me a madman. Of course, their ignorant fans will do the same. You have to expect that. But I speak the truth. If you don’t believe me, then copy this entry and run it by any professor of economics or socio-economics. Then tell a friend. Call the local radio station. Re-post this entry or put it in your own words. Be one of the first to predict the worst economic and cultural crisis of all time and explain its cause. WE ARE IN BIG TROUBLE.
March 9th, 2008 at 7:05 am
Carpets & Rugs…
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March 24th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
het Stratumseind in Eindhoven…
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