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1Determine that you have a phone with a SIM card that is equipped for Global Packet Radio Service. You cannot activate GPRS on a phone that is not programmed for GPRS services. If you do not have the correct type of phone and/or SIM card, you will have to get a new one.
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2Enroll in a mobile service provider plan that is GPRS compatible. GPRS is available in over 200 countries. Shop around for a mobile phone service that provides GPRS and GPRS-equipped phones.
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3Contact your service provider and ask for instructions. The customer care department should be able to guide you through the steps necessary to activate GPRS services on your phone. The activation process generally requires 1 of the following 3 steps:
- Calling your provider's automated GPRS activation service using the appropriate number code.
- Sending an SMS (Short Message Service) or text message to activate GPRS. The message text will be a number or codeword that your service provider can give you.
- Accessing GPRS services settings through a menu on your mobile phone. Once your service provider gives you instructions to guide you to the appropriate menu, you can control the GPRS services settings on your phone, and sometimes access GPRS applications, depending on your service provider and the mobile telephone model you are using.
Funny Stuff
How to Activate GPRS
GPRS (Global Packet Radio Service) is a packet-based method of data transfer, used for wireless services on cellular phones and mobile Internet devices. This means that data files are broken into chunks, or packets, to be routed through different Internet channels, then are put together again to form the complete data file once they reach their destination location. With GPRS, data transfers at a much faster rate than with mobile communication services, and those using GPRS have uninterrupted Internet connections on all of their mobile devices. GPRS services enable MP3 downloads, videos, games, wallpapers, animations and more. Each mobile service provider has different guidelines for activating GPRS, so follow the method appropriate to your provider. Mobile phone SIM (Subscriber Identification Module) cards sometimes come with the GPRS capabilities already activated, but if your SIM is not equipped with GPRS, you will have to opt-in to GPRS services. Follow the steps below for how to activate GPRS.
Keep Your Digital Memories Safe
“Google is a library or an archive like a supermarket is a food museum.”
— Jason Scott, digital archivist
Do you value your digital stuff? Nearly everyone is creating things with computers, and some do it without any concern for its value. Others recognize its current value, but think little about what it could mean to them in the future, and either aren't aware or don't think that all of it could be destroyed tomorrow. But hard drives die all the time, and the online services into which people sink their time close with alarming regularity, taking the work of millions of people with it. Preserve your digital memories now, before it's too late.
Steps
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1Make a quick backup now. If nothing else, get a cheap USB stick and drag-and-drop your documents folder onto it. Worry about the other things later. You shoulddo more than this, but it's most important to take the most valuable, irreplaceable information from your hard drive and put it on a second medium to guard against hard drive failure, theft or loss.
Stop reading until you have done this and stop making excuses to not do it. - 2Decide what you value. Some questions to ask yourself are:
- Would you care if this was deleted tomorrow? For things like business accounts and documents, the answer is of course you would. This kind of thing should be your first priority.
- Would you care if you had no record of this in ten years' time?Alternatively, if you're old enough to remember what happened a decade ago,What happened a decade ago that you wish you had a record of today? Your picture of your cat might not matter too much now, but you would probably think differently after your cat passed away.
- How replaceable is this data? MP3s and movies you have downloaded are generally replaceable (even if it's a pain to do so), so it's not the end of the world if they get lost. Documents you have written or photos you have taken cannot easily be re-created.
- How good are you at assessing the value of items? As human beings, our choice of things to back up will be fallible and probably short-sighted. Err on the side of backing up too much stuff; disk space is cheap and 23 cubic inches holds a fantastic amount of data.
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3Beware of sinking time, and data, into online services. This isn't to say that youmust never post a picture on Facebook or say anything on Twitter; these things are fun. But remember that no online service should be considered an archive or a permanent home. Sometimes these services go down. Other times, your account there might be suspended or your data lost by accident.
- Never sink time into any service that doesn't give you an easy way to get your data out again. If it doesn't allow you to download all of your stuff as either a ZIP file or with some automated tools via an API, it's probably a bad idea to use it.
- Keep a current email address for any services you use in case the service goes down. If they give you any notice, it will likely be via email.
- Keep local copies of everything. Don't delete your local copies after you've put something online unless you are totally, 100 percent sure that you will never want to see it again.
- Watch out for signs of impending doom, either for your data or for the service as a whole. These are some of the signs that you should consider moving your data somewhere else and be doubly vigilant of having local copies of your work:
- Unclear or unsustainable business model. Have fun with these services, but as with any service, don't count on it being around next year.
- Losing data or extended periods of downtime should make you consider whether you want to continue being there at all. Fotopic was a fine example of this; after suffering several periods of downtime, at least one of them extended, people continued to put their photos on the site before it was shut down, with no notice, in 2011.
- Reports of deletion of accounts by staff of the site. One does not even need to discuss whether they might actually have a good reason for doing so to note that this happens rather a lot to people who are not expecting it on many of today's social networking sites.
- A buy-out of the service by another company that has no clear plans for its future. In particular, beware of talent acquisitions which might leave the service orphaned; the 2012 acquisition of Posterous by Twitter is a great example of this, if you're good at reading between the lines.[2]
Access Another Computer from Your Computer
Ever wish you could access some files on your work computer when you’re sitting in your home office? Need a report from your home computer that’s due in class? You can configure your computers to be accessible anywhere in the world, from virtually any other computer. There are a variety of ways to do this, including built-in tools, downloadable programs, and browser-based solutions. Read on after the jump to learn how.
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1Enable Remote Desktop on the computer you want to access. On the Windows PC that you want to access, you will need to enable Remote Access so that other computers can connect to it. You can enable this on the Pro or Enterprise versions of XP, Vista, 7, and 8. This method requires that you be on the same network as the computer you want to access, either through the router or through a VPN.
- Press the Windows key + Pause to open the System menu. An alternative method is to click the Start menu, open up the Control Panel, click System and Security, then click System.
- Click the “Remote settings” link on the left side of the window.
- Check the “Allow remote connections to this computer” box. You can adjust some of the advanced options, such as length of time an invitation is good for, by clicking the “Advanced” button.
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2Add users. You will need to set which users can log in remotely on that machine. Click the “Select Users” button, and then click the Add button. Choose which users you would like to add.
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3Find the system name. When you connect to the computer, you will need to know the system name. You can find this by pressing Windows key + Pause and looking for the “Computer name” entry.
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4Disable Sleep mode. You will not be able to connect to a computer that is Sleeping or in Hibernate. Make sure to disable these if you want to connect remotely.
- Open the Control Panel and then select Power Options. You may have to switch views to see the icon.
- Click the “Change plan settings” link next to your active plan.
- Set Sleep and Hibernate to Never. Click the “Save changes” button when you are finished.
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5Connect to the computer. Log on to the computer that you want to use to connect to the remote computer. Click the Start menu and enter “remote desktop connection” into the Search field. Click it to open it.
- Enter in the system name of the computer that you want to connect to.
- Enter in the user name that you are connecting with.
- Click the “Show options” button to open the advanced options for your connection. You can use these options to tweak your connection to give you the best performance, as well as configure the sound and display.
- Click Connect to start connecting to the computer. When the connection is made, the other computer’s display will appear in a window on your computer. You can navigate Windows just like you normally would.
How to Do Advanced Computer Yoga
Computer yoga is an easy and enjoyable way of unwinding at the desk, helping your body to relax and your mind to have a decent break. If you've already learned Computer Yoga for Beginners, this article will take your learning a bit further, extending your computer yoga skills into deeper relaxation and increased positive feelings.
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1Move your head. As you move it, think the mantra "Om" in your head.
- Turn your head left and right.
- Stretch your head forward then backward.
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2Move your shoulders. Find a way that works best for you such as shrugging, rolling or shifting your shoulders up and down. Move forward, and then move another way round. Think the "Om , Om, Om... " mantra in your shoulders.
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3Move your spine to the right and left side. Think "Om , Om, Om... " in your spine.
Method 2 of 5: Lower Body
- 1Move your feet on the ground. Say "Om" as you ground yourself in the earth. Concentrate on the whole earth and think the mantra "Om" in the earth.
How to Buy Used Electronics
We buy used cars, furniture, and sometimes clothes but buying used electronics may be the riskiest of all. They do not have a valid warranty, may be defective, and may not work as long as newer ones. Still, buying used electronics may save you money and help reduce environmental waste. Fortunately, you can come out on top if you ask the right questions and take the following steps.
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1Research the product itself. Some products last a long time; some do not last as long (as they may be a well known and famous product) . In addition, there are versions of particular products that may have a known fault with them.
- Read online reviews. You can ask the owner questions to see if the product has these problems. For example, some devices may have several complaints about the handle coming off, or maybe the unit overheats when it sits idle for a few minutes. Look closely at the used device in person, if possible, to see if these defects are present. Usually, preliminary research will tell you what to look for.
- When reviewing, ask, "What does the device come with if I buy it new?" This way, you will know if there is anything missing, and the price should be adjusted to reflect any missing components or documentation.
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2Become familiar with the lingo. A refurbished product hasn't necessarily been used; it may have been sent back to the manufacturer for a cosmetic reason, fixed accordingly, and sold as refurbished (often with a manufacturer's warranty). Areconditioned item, on the other hand, has been used and fixed up; they usually come with a warranty from the company who's selling it, but not from the manufacturer.
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3Ask about who fixed or refurbished the product. If the manufacturer did it, then there is less risk involved than if it was done by a third party. You might also be able to find out what about the product was fixed or changed.
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4Make sure the product comes with a decent warranty. If you are buying from a retail chain or other reputable sellers, chances are that some sort of warranty is available. Find out how long this lasts and what it covers. Can you buy additional coverage? If so, for how long and how much does it cost? Even if you choose not to buy the extended warranty, the fact that it is offered might suggest the company or manufacturer's confidence in the product. A shorter warranty (about 6-months and under) could show a lack of confidence in the product.
6 Famous Companies You Had No Clue Were Dying
6 Famous Companies You Had No Clue Were Dying
At first glance, some businesses seem completely bulletproof. They've been super successful just short of forever and have made enough money to gas up the average SUV at least twice, so it's ridiculous to think their fate is anything but "keep making money until Galactus turns our planet into poop."
But the truth is, every business eventually is sent to live at the sunny Business Farm upstate, with the cows and the chickens and all your childhood pets. This includes companies that millions upon millions of people still pay attention to. And just because they seem healthy on the outside doesn't mean they aren't decaying into an atrophied, gangrenous lump on the inside ...
#6. Fast Food And Casual Dining Is Grasping At Straws
Many of our favorite restaurants -- both casual dining and fast food -- are in grave danger of being forced onto an all-liquidation diet. Their crimes: being too expensive, too unhealthy, or too uncool. The worst offenders are all three.
Take Red Lobster, sold by their owner last year after sales dropped nearly 9 percent and visits dropped 19 percent, in a single quarter. Or Olive Garden, whose recent drops are less severe (5.5 percent sales drop with 13 percent less traffic) but equally alarming. In a world where nobody has money, fewer and fewer want to plunk down $15 to $20 on a plate of spaghetti or trout they could easily prepare themselves without a gaggle of stoned teenagers as the middleman.
And thanks to Pinterest, you can totally make your own stupid lobster hat.
Furthermore, these restaurants boast slow service (a crime akin to murder in today's fast-paced world) and suffer the stink of looking exactly as they did 20 or 30 years ago. They're out-of-touch, old eateries for out-of-touch, old eaters. Not even sandwiches made out of breadsticks can save a company that, fair or not, the hip kids of modernity have officially dubbed "neither the cat's pajamas nor the bee's knees."
It's part of their "Unlimited Soup And Eyeball Rolls" menu.
Then there's Quiznos and Sbarro. Both are hundreds of millions of dollars in debt, thanks largely to a growing reputation of not being nearly as healthy as ostensibly figure-friendly eateries like Panera Bread and Chipotle. Both have filed for bankruptcy -- in fact, this is Sbarro's second filing this decade alone. On the bright side, this gives Sbarro two punches on their Bankruptcy Court VIP card. Eight more and they get one filing absolutely free.
Finally, there's good ol' McDonald's. This January, they decided what they really needed was to takea giant shit all over health food. So they filmed a commercial where they insisted they would neversell out with disgusting, hipster swill like soy, Greek yogurt, or, Grimace forbid, kale.
Four months later, McDonald's introduced kale. Of course they did -- misguided principles are the first to go when your business is fucking dying. Sales have dropped significantly over the past couple years, leading to the closing of over 350 stores, in addition to that sheepish attempt to win back millennials with devil-kale. Unfortunately, the rest of their menu is still some of the worst food possible health-wise, and when combined with the brick-and-mortar manifestation of a cheesy uncle who thinks he's "with it" because he knows what hashtags are, you can see why Ronald might be grilling up flatbreads at Panera sooner rather than later.
#5. Hip Clothing Stores Are Ass Now
As our fireside restaurant chat proved, it's good business to consider the wants and needs of young people. And now for the shitstorm that occurs when that's all you think about.
There's a clothing massacre going on at your local mall. All those hip, trendy fashion shops that were the places to be for young, gorgeous people dumb enough to wear a shirt featuring the name of the store they bought it from like a good little billboard -- are in gigantic trouble. Very soon, there'll be a lot of empty space at that mall you haven't visited in 10 years. It'll look good next to the empty space that's already there.
American Eagle Outfitters, for one, plans to close down 150 stores over the next three years. After years of declining sales, it's nice of them to leave a window open in case customers suddenly change their minds. Aeropostale, meanwhile, isn't nearly as patient. They've thrown in the towel so hard they shut down stores during the holiday season -- the one time people actually pay attention to the mall, and they can't even make money then.
Even the models have given up.
American Apparel, meanwhile, lost $19 million in one quarter last year, due to both poor sales and spending mountains of money to oust CEO Dov Charney, who just couldn't quit masturbating in front of women and taking his pants off during meetings long enough to actually run his company. Shit sales and batshit leaders are rarely a winning combination, it turns out.
"I've put my blood, sweat, and ... actually, it'd be quicker to list the
body fluids I haven't inserted in this company."
And what of the big one, Abercrombie & Fitch? Apparently being name-checked by one putrid songonly drives sales for about a decade, because their bottom line is bottoming out. Stocks are half of what they were a year ago, and at least 60 stores are on the chopping block. It certainly doesn't help that longtime CEO Mike Jeffries, who retired just a few months ago, once publicly stated he wanted to market only to "cool, good-looking people."
"And inform the shareholders 'cool, good-looking people' look like
an Easter Island sculpture of Gary Busey."
Each of these companies, even the ones with sane management, suffered the same problem: They catered to a young, trendy audience but didn't grow with the times. They assumed that, just because Generation Y enjoyed advertising "A&F" or "AM Eagle" all over their hoodies, Generation Z would as well. That simply isn't the case, as Generation Z has their own trendy stores -- Forever 21, Zara, H&M, and others that just "get it." But this'll last only until Generation Now-I-Know-My-ABCs comes of age and starts shopping at Zorbo's and Doodledong's and Crazy Ezekiel's Tunic Outlet.
#4. BlackBerry Is Dying A Loud And Undignified Death
Way back in your grandpappy's day (2003), BlackBerry all but invented the smartphone. Then, Apple came along and built a better one, challenging BlackBerry to become more than just a glorified email machine for millennial yuppies. Well, since the company's still around, they must have weathered this stiff competition pretty well, right?
Yeah, about that -- BlackBerry's not just unhip; it's fucking dying. Three years ago, the company was worth over $5 billion. Since then, sales have freefallen, starting in 2012 with a 43 percent drop, inone quarter. Since then, they've somewhat slowed the bleeding, with sales down only 32 percentyear over year. It's like how a cadaver decays less after it loses virtually all of its flesh.
But rather than retire to a rocking chair and wistfully recall the good old days of being relevant, BlackBerry is raging against the dying of the trackball. They're desperately innovating, a fine idea they probably should've thought of six or seven years ago. Of course, company-saving innovations still have to be good, unlike this ... thing:
You know a phone's right for you when you have to strain to hold it.
Meet the BlackBerry Passport -- basically a normal phone that quit working out and started scarfing three dozen donuts a day. Despite a design too clunky for anyone but the Incredible Hulk, BlackBerry insists it's a good idea that consumers love. They know this not from reading silly old sales figures but from Amazon reviews, many of which rate the product five stars. And the company is just pleased as punch about this. So fret not, Internet commenters: The world might not give a fuck what you say, but at least BlackBerry does.
Not content with mere denial, BlackBerry has already tackled the next stage of grief: bargaining. This past January, CEO John Chen penned an open letter to the Senate, letting them know his feelings on Net Neutrality. Good news: He's for it! Bad news: He has no idea what it is! According to the man himself:
Neutrality must be mandated at the application and content layer if we truly want a free, open, and non-discriminatory Internet. All wireless broadband customers must have the ability to access any lawful applications and content they choose, and applications/content providers must be prohibited from discriminating based on the customer's mobile operating system.
So it's not really bargaining so much as it is whining that his brother has more Cheerios than him.
In short, Chen's pissed that BlackBerry users can't access popular apps like the cool kids, and he wants the government to force Apple, Netflix, Android, and others to let anybody use their stuff, no matter what shitty, outdated software they want to use it on.
#3. Music Sites Like Spotify And Shazam Haven't Made Money In Forever
Unless you're an untouchable megastar or an unscrupulous label executive, it's all but impossible to make money in music anymore. And guess what? That rule applies to your favorite music websites too.
We've already mentioned that your favorite streaming site is a musician's wallet's nightmare, but it turns out it's actually terrible for everybody ... except for the consumer listening for free, of course. Spotify and Pandora, the two most popular streaming websites, have never made money. EVER. Their revenue's certainly high -- Spotify, for example, brought in $1.3 billion in 2014, 45 percent more than it did in 2013. And yet, 2014 saw losses of $197 million, three times as much as they pissed away in 2013. Their total losses from launch until 2013: $200 million. They doubled up on red in one goddamn year.
Meanwhile, Pandora's valued at $5 billion and has as much to show for it as a broke college freshman. Because the more money these companies pull in, the more money they have to fork over. Between royalties and licensing/distribution fees, just short of 100 percent of their revenue goes anywhere but their savings account. Plus, they're hiring more than ever (since bigger sites need more hands to run them), which pushes them straight into the negative. And as they grow more popular (which, unless the public suddenly tires of free music, is guaranteed to happen), they'll bleed even more money, until the people in charge pull the plug and force us all back onto terrestrial radio like a bunch of cave-dwellers.
Still cool with blowing Blue Ivy's college money on Tidal, Jay-Z? Considering the massive, money-losing flop it's already been, probably not.
No mo' big pimpin', we outta cheese.
But it's not just streaming music that's drying up. Shazam, which tells you what song you're listening to (for when Googling "doo doo doodoodoo doo doo DOOOOO" turns up nothing but scat porn),hasn't turned a profit since 2006. This despite sporting 100 million users and being worth over $1 billion. Once again, the occasional ad isn't enough nutrition to keep a business from starving to death.
Even its brand-new feature of telling you what linebacker is angrily grunting what has failed to help.
Maybe if Shazam went back to its pre-app model of charging people a buck per search, they'd finally crawl back into the black. Otherwise, we foresee a future of nobody profiting off of Shazam except maybe The Rock.
#2. Amazon Has Never Made Money
Yes, that Amazon. One of the most popular websites on the fucking planet. A site you've almost certainly used before, if only to procure some of that sweet, sweet dino porn that stodgy-ass Barnes & Noble refuses to stock. That company's not making money.
Worse, they've never made money, period. Amazon.com is literally a born loser.
Since their launch in 1994, Amazon has struggled to break even, with barely a decent uptick on Wall Street. But CEO Jeff Bezos is a forward-thinker, eschewing such bourgeois standards of success as "good stocks" and "earnings" in favor of shit like "profitless prosperity." This is a buzz-wordy way of being cool with not making money in the short term, because they'll surely be swimming in it once this whole online delivery thing finally takes off.
Any day now.
Exhibit B for Amazon: their "free cash flow," which currently sits at $2 billion a year. That sounds downright impressive, until you realize what free cash flow is: paying people on time. And that's all! Customers pay Amazon, Amazon pays their suppliers, and everybody's happy. You might recognize this circle of dead presidents as Decent Business 101. Amazon, on the other hand, sees it as irrefutable proof that they're successful as fuck.
Except they're not successful. The whole point of business is to make money and keep it -- Amazon's mastered the former, but shits the bed with the latter. They make gobs of sales ($89 billion in 2014 alone), but expenses eat most of that up. When they get real bored, they spend yetmore money on stillborn ideas like the Fire smartphone, or money-sucking ideas like free shipping and Amazon Prime, aka freer shipping.
"It's like the phone you already have, only not the phone you already have! Buy today?"
And it looks like the company's profitless prosperity has finally quit prospering. Last October, their normally stagnant stock plummeted 20 percent, resulting in a gargantuan $437 million loss for the year -- 10 times the loss they suffered the year before. This past January, they reported another major loss, this time $241 million. Friendly reminder: They made $89 billion last year.
For now, Bezos insists everything is fine, but how many believe him? His stockholders, in particular, are mighty pissed that Amazon has finally been exposed as little more than a glorified charity that benefits only the consumer. Oh, and Bezos, who's currently worth $38 billion.
"Did you know I once turned an entire abandoned Barnes & Noble into my own canopy bed?"
#1. Internet Companies Are Slowly Killing Cable
Finally, we have not a dying business but an entire dying industry: Cable TV is rapidly learning, the hard way, that it has no place in the Daffy Duck push-button home of the future.
The latest numbers forecast an ugly future for Big Cord. During first-quarter 2015, almost 180,000 people canceled their pay-TV subscriptions. In all, between 30,000 and 40,000 fewer people flip channels now than they did during the last Christmas Story marathon. That's bad enough alone, but the first quarter's traditionally known for very strong sales, which makes this news suddenly way worse.
It's the Price Is Right Yodel Guy mountain climb in reverse, but with the same ending.
As for Internet subscriptions, they're strong as ever and getting stronger all the time. Comcast recently reported having more Internet subscriptions than video ones, for the first time ever. Trust us, it will not be the only time, as customers are clearly fed up with paying sky-high prices for a thousand channels, especially when only one of them has Game Of Thrones. And since you can easily watch the Tyrion, Death, And Dragons Variety Fun Hour online (legally, you cheap bastards), along with virtually any other show, the idea of a whole package of channels has simply become unappealing.
Watching this little shit get his is way more satisfying without 15 ESPNs tacked onto the bill.
Speaking of unappealing, let's talk horrid customer service -- a sad bastion of cable that should prove harder to get away with now that everyone's online and free to expose terrible work to their little hearts' desires. Like, Comcast upped earnings by 10 percent last quarter, thanks mainly to their Internet wing. But if they want to keep their now-very-loud customers happy, they'll need to improve on the little things, like treating people humanely.
Their current fix involves hiring 5,500 customer service reps and hundreds more service techs, along with re-training current workers on how not to be sociopathic assholes. Though they should probably also shelve their "everyone's a salesperson" gimmick if they truly want to make customers happy and keep them that way.
Which they don't, though it'd be nice to see them pretend, at least.
Or they could simply withhold refunds in exchange for vows of silence, as they've done in the past. Wait, not in the past -- they just fucking did that. A customer forced to pay $600 in late fees for a cable box he returned in 2010 received a non-disclosure agreement from Comcast, which essentially said, "You can have your stupid $600, but only if you agree never, ever to sue or even complain about our stealing your money."
Yeah, he didn't sign. Instead, he immediately complained to the news, who immediately posted it online. Coincidentally, Comcast issued the refund, also immediately.
One of these two approaches might keep irate customers from drowning your soon-to-be-cable-less company in social media outrage. The other definitely will not, and it will definitely bleed your bottom line faster than it already is. Choose wisely.
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