Hi faithful bloggerinoes. I've got a question for you. Have you been to Kinko's lately? If so, were you using one of their computers? Did you notice anything funny? I just got back from one and I am very disturbed. As you may know, when you use their computer's, you pay about $0.45/minute for use and $0.50/page for black and white prints. But are they actively trying to force you to sit at the machine longer than you should have to?The first thing I noticed when I looked over Kinkos's computer cubicles were the old-looking machines. It looked to me that a lot had been done to the machine to make them look as old as possible. One detail was that the little silver Dell circle was ripped off of every single machine (even thought the label on each monitor says "Dell Workstation #x"). Once I sat down, I realized that the Microsoft and Intel stickers were still on theses desktops. They were P4's with the "Made For XP" sticker. But what operating system was loaded on? Slow as all hell, Windows 98! Now, I didn't go through all the checks to find out exactly what this box was packing, or what processes were running in the background, after all I was too busy spending almost 7 minutes getting to gmail to download 19k zip file. But I knew this was running a crippled version of 98, because when I plugged in my USB flash drive, the driver install dialog popped up. The dell didn't even know what it was!
Anyway, aside from crippleing perfectly good computers, Kinkos also gives you the slowest internet connection known to man. It felt like I was sharing an ISDN with about 5 other machines. Now understanding what's availible, what equipment is used, and prices of services like a cable modem or DSL, I can only conclude that Kinko's is purposefully trying to rip people off. The one I visited is in Brooklyn, NY and I can't vouch for other Kinko's in other areas, so post some comments about your experiences.
Later
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11 comments:
Points in your message:
1. Of course they want you to spend as much time as possible. They're a business.
2. The Made for XP sticker does not specifically imply the machine has XP on it, only that it's capable of running it. I had a brand new 98 laptop once that was able to support XP, even though it came out with 98 on it. The only way to be sure the machine came with XP is to look for the certificate of authenticity attached to the machine and see if that is a license for XP or 98.
3. Windows 98 does not have complete support for USB (especially USB 2.0 devices) and these units require drivers to enable them to run under 98/Me. They are usually supplied on a CD when you buy your memory key/drive.
Perhaps next time you use them, ask what their bandwidth is and if its guaranteed (i.e. fairly shared). Then you can tell if you are being ripped or not. The OS won't make much of a difference to download speed either.
Upside: 98 is less bloated than XP so works faster.
Downside: the USB support is naiscent, not native.
Oh, and to make up for the online issues and complication on the machine (I had to work on my resume there once, lacking a computer at the time), I dropped into the Fonts folder and swiped anything that wasn't nailed down.
Small reciprocation but I got my money's worth with Ariel Rounded.
That's a great idea, I wish I had thought of it when I was there.
No computer at Fedexkinkos has Win98 on them, the entire network is win2000. Yes they are slow do to the fact that the software bundle has a lot of process to load when a user logs on, real-time antivirus scanning of disks, the cost/time tracking software, and a few other proggies to keep the losers, sorry, users, from mucking up the boxes. The dell logos missing from the fronts? Customers prying them off! Those machine get used and abused, 24 hours a day, If customers had repect for other peoples property and new something about computer then I believe that things wouldn't seem so bad. As far as printing charges, do you know how much Toner costs?(300 bucks for the bw printer alone, plus machine maintaince parts (Fuser $450). They also only have a T1 line, which is not fast anymore, appox. 192KBps, so stop bitching and buy your own computer, laser printer and pay for your own bandwidth. Hope you have 10 grand handy....
Listen Mr. Anonymous, if that is your real name, don't come on my freakin blog and try to lie to me and my readers. Why would I have written this whole thing, if the machine didn't have windows 200 on it? I saw the freakin logo on the start menu! Unless Kinko's runs a mod of Win2K that claims to be 98, then you're full of shit! I will give you the logo's pryed off the boxes were porbably done by users, but how can a user cause a michine to be slower, when they have no rights to do anything on said machine!?!? The anti-virus also probably cause some serious slow downs, but ya know what, maybe they should use an anti-virus that's easier on system resources, and not bloated Norton or McAffe (NOD32 is my personal choice) but any other AV out there is sleaker than those two (I don't remember if it was norton or mcaffe, but I know it was one of the two).
Now since you obviously work for kinko's let me explain my post to you (since you seem to have missed the point). I went in there to print some files. I have no problem paying the 50 cents per page to print. After all, that's what I came in to do, and I understand the cost of Toner and the printers. But I didn't want to use kinko's slow ass computers to do it. I printed a 4 page doc and wound up paying almost $6 because of loading and download times. That's what I conseder to be a rip-off! I didn't want to wait 5 minutes, but I had to pay for it. Paying for something you don't want is the exact definition of a rip-off!!! So Mr. Kinkos Fanboy, take your lies and propaganda elsewhere, because even though this is a personal, lame, stupid and pointless blog, it is no places for your lies! I may almost never have a point to what I say, but I always speak the truth!
Correction in my last comment:
Why would I have written this whole thing, if the machine didn't have windows 98 on it?
I apologize if I came on a bit strong, I didn't mean to get in a flame war over this, but I've never seen a CRW (computer rental workstation) with Win98. Yes, this is my job, so I know something about this. There are two disk images that they send out for all the CRW's and they are the same (win2k)for all the computer company wide. There is a slim verison with Word, PPT, and several browsers, and a design verison with PS, Illus, INdesign, etc.. but they are all win2k machines. I've never seen win98 at Kinkos ever, they went from win95 to win2k around early 2001, which is a sad and pitiful thing in itself. I would love to see a screen shot of this mystery computer, I admit I am intrigued by this story. Believe me, Kinkos IT department is Crap, I have very little hair left after the last 6 years trying to understand the poor corporate decisions that this company has made about technology. Check out this story for how to have some real fun at Kinkos. Peace out! www.mal-aware.org/2006/02/28/fedex-kinkos-smart-cards-hacked/
I must apologize too. No one enjoys flame wars, and I don't want to be some Bill O'Reilly - type jerk who just screams at people and tells them to shut up. And I understand your frustration with the corporate entities making IT decisions. Believe me I understand that. I will attempt to get this screen shot for you (i.e. picture of screen, cause as you know I won't be able to install any software), but I know it had to be 98 because of the problem with plugging in my usb-stick (that's what made me check).
It might take me a few days cause I've been a little busy (as you can tell by the lack of intersting new posts), but if I have time tonight I will do it. So check back tomorrow. If it turns out that I am wrong, I will openly admit it (like I said, I am no liar, but I can make mistakes). I also don't want to alienate one of my many (5 or 6?) readers.
P.S. I saw that smart-card story on digg yesterday, and it gave me a warm fuzzy feeling inside.
Geoff
i work at a kinkos in northern ca. basic stations are 25 cents/min and design stations are 40 cents/min. ouch! all basic pc monitors are fuzzy as all get out but the company doesn't seem to care about fixing them, nor streamlining the connection speed. we run windows 2k. we're on a t-1 but it runs at the speed of fax.
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