I gave Wlofie [1] a ride over to the local Office Depot [2] as he needed a new office chair. Once there, I wandered off while Wlofie negotiated with one of the sales clerks wandering about the store.
In the laptop section, I spied a unit that claimed to have a wireless connection to the Internet. I fire up the only browser available, Internet Explorer, and I'm impressed at the security feature, which is preventing the Office Depot Web Site [3] from doing nasty things to the laptop.
[Office Depot has determined that the Office Depot Web Site is dangerous and can't be used] [4] [5]
Nice to know that Office Depot, in conjunction with Internet Explorer, is keeping those dangerous Office Depot Web Sites from damaging the laptop for sale at Office Depot. Although viewing /. [6] is A-OK. Nice to know.
My interests soon turn to seeing what garbage is being foisted off as keyboards this year, and yet again, I'm not disapointed, with over a dozen crappy keyboards that induced carpal tunnel syndrome [7] the second my hands got near. There was one special keyboard though, that looked like a cheap metal tray with a cheap photograph of keys laminated on top that surprisingly enough, was not a cheap metal tray with a cheap photograph of keys laminated on top, but was in fact, a cheap metal tray with cheap plastic keys with about a millimeter of travel.
[I think I'd prefer typing on a paper replica than this thing] [8] [9]
Having had my fill of pain-inducing keyboards, I then wandered over to the cell phone isle. Such tiny things they are now-a-days, and as I was examining a particularly small example, I noticed that the cell phone (which had no battery and a paper insert inside the screen poorly simulating a working phone) appeared to be attached to the display case via an actual phone cable, much like the type that goes from your phone (or base station if you have a cordless phone) to the wall.
How odd, I thought. I thought they locked these things down. I wonder if I can unplug this—
And yes, you can unplug the cord easily enough.
I wouldn't do it though, unless you enjoy listening to an ear-piercing alarm system blaring throughout the entire store which the employees blindly ignore because this is the umpteenth time this day it's gone off.
Thankfully, Wlofie was pretty much done with negotiations and we were able to leave the store without further incidents.
[2] http://www.officedepot.com/
[3] http://www.officedepot.com/
[4] /boston/2008/09/04/thumb.sp.jpg
[5] /boston/2008/09/04/store.protection.jpg
[7] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpal_tunnel_syndrome
[8] /boston/2008/09/04/thumb.pk.jpg
![[4] /boston/2008/09/04/thumb.sp.jpg](/gemini.conman.org/boston/2008/09/04/thumb.sp.jpg){kind=link}
![[5] /boston/2008/09/04/store.protection.jpg](/gemini.conman.org/boston/2008/09/04/store.protection.jpg){kind=link}
![[8] /boston/2008/09/04/thumb.pk.jpg](/gemini.conman.org/boston/2008/09/04/thumb.pk.jpg){kind=link}
![[9] /boston/2008/09/04/paper.keyboard.jpg](/gemini.conman.org/boston/2008/09/04/paper.keyboard.jpg){kind=link}