Not Cool

Bitdefender Total Security Terrible Business Practice [Updated]

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About a year ago, I decided to purchase a family subscription to Bitdefender as it was affordable, and gave you a 15 device protection plan with a dashboard to view all device status and incidents. I thought this was awesome, and Bitdefender had a really good reputation for being light and having high detection rates.

However here’s the part that is causing me to make this blog post and ask for a complete refund. Their business practices are terrible. They keep trying to upsell their other products in very annoying ways. They bundle their VPN product with this install, which OK, that’s understandable, so if you won’t want to try it, just uninstall it, right? Wrong. If you uninstall it, it will reinstall itself next time it updates, start the application, and be in your tray if you’re in windows or in your menu bar if you’re on Mac OS.

I contacted Bitdefender about this, and expressed my frustration, and basically they said, that’s too bad, you can disable it. I replied and let them know that the VPN re installs itself even if you uninstall it and will re enable itself. Eventually I just gave up, and dealt with this annoyance.

However, today was the last straw. I was watching a YouTube video in full-screen, when I got a pop up ad that was quite large advertising their VPN product. I first checked to see if I’m logged into the Total Security application so that it knows I’m a paid user, and I was. I can understand this type of behavior if I was using a free version of their software, however I’m a paying user, I shouldn’t have to deal with their ads to up-sell me. That’s why I submitted a ticket to have my money fully refunded and I’ll move to another product. I posted this, to hopefully keep people from using their software if they are looking into it, and hopefully to force them to change their terrible business practices. If the ad shows up again, I’ll take a screenshot and update the post.

Update: Ad came up again right after making this post, I’ve put the ad as the main image above, and attached a screenshot below showing it with the Bitdefender Dashboad showing that I am logged in (personal info redacted) and that I have an active subscription. And it immediately came up on my Mac the second I opened the lid. I’ve since told Bitdefender that this “Special Offers” option should be Opt in, not Opt Out.

Update [23/10/2020] – Bitdefender has apologized, and sent feedback to the team that this should be opt in, not opt out. I hope the changes get made. I believe also the VPN has not been re installing itself anymore of recent. Thanks to Bitdefender for accepting criticism.

Gaddafi’s Death

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Today the news spread around the world really fast, that Gaddafi was captured, then killed. The pictures followed quickly. I remember I thought the picture was really tormenting, reminded me of The Joker as played by Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight. When I see things like this I really cringe at humanity, but I don’t want to get too carried away here. Anyways I feel it’s hard to know how to feel here. On one hand the the guy killed his own people. Wait let me clarify that better, he hired mercenaries to kill his own people. At the same time, I don’t like seeing people get killed even if they were drunk with power. To me it’s really sad when people celebrate a death, and just wrong. I’m sure many would disagree, but that’s how I feel about the subject.

Tonsil Stones and Tonsil Cryptolysis

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Warning this post is graphic and disgusting!

Since highschool I was always coughing in the mornings because I felt there was something stuck in my throat. Every once in a while I would cough up a small yellow ball of an unknown substance. It is very disgusting and smells so bad you have no idea, yet I feel so relieved when I get some out. I eventually went to a throat, mouth, and nose doctor (I don’t know how he was considered a doctor) who told me I was imagining things, YES IMAGINING THINGS!

Come a couple of days ago, I don’t know how I stumbled on the actual term for these yellow creatures. Tonsil Stones (tonsillolith), Yup and I felt so validated that I was right and the “doctor” did not know what he was talking about. I saw the video below which grossed me out and encouraged me to do the same. I found that my crypts are not visible since the lining of my mouth is small, but I was determined to remove some stones. I poked around with my finger and a huge chuck came out. It felt so satisfying.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uELOO4wskto

Pretty disgusting huh? Well the video below is the latest operation that can help get rid of the crypts and the problem all together. I read somewhere that 2-3% of the world’s population suffers from tonsil stones in crypts, however I think it’s much more, but people just don’t know they have them.  If you haven’t figured out by now, they are probably the main cause of halitosis (bad breath), so if you have bad breath see if you have tonsil stones. I want to have this operation performed on me.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_hKKleXkgo

The scam that is the Amsterdam Schiphol Airport Casino

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On my way back home this summer, I passed through Amsterdam. As always if I had some extra money I would go to the Casino to play a couple of hands of blackjack. This time however I was really shocked at the scam they are now running. I entered and played with 70€. In my last hand I bet 40€ and pushed. I am not the fastest when it comes to math, however I added up and found that I pushed with the dealer with an 18. The dealer still took my chips. I exclaimed “What are you doing?  That is a push!” The dealer told me that a push is a lose here. I was so shocked and wanted to complain.

On my way back to Montreal, I visited and told the manager I wanted to complain. He gave me the whole “yes it’s your right schpeel”. I could tell he was not being genuine. He gave me a mailing address (not an email) to write my complaint to. First off I could not read it, so I just went on the Amsterdam Airport website (which does not even work properly) and emailed them until my complaint was forwarded to the right people. I received this as a reply:

Thanks for giving your information about your visit at our Casino.
We try to inform our customers about the rules in our casino by signs and from the dealers
themselves.

What a pity that your experience with our rules is not the kind we like to see. The specified
BJ rule in our airport casino is official approved by the Dutch gaming commission. All over the
world casinos deal BJ with various rules.
We as Holland Casino purpose to give our players a good feeling when they visit one of our
Casino’s. We are sorry that your experience is different.
We have to tell you that we’ll not remove this rule, but once again we will give instructions
to our dealers and tell them to give our customers the extra information about our rules by
personal information and refer to the signs at the tables.

At least we can’t refund your € 80,00 because gambling is still a persons own responsibility.

With kind regards,
Holland Casino Schiphol Airport

P. Braamzeel
Shiftleader

Now I know that gambling is everyone’s own fault, but what was written in the email is absolute bullshit (pardon my French). They are just trying to justify their ongoing scam, not once was it mentioned to me by the dealer that a push is a lose, and the sign that they claim to have, was on the other side of the table facing outward and was in size 16 font I’m guessing. As they claim different Casinos throughout the world have different rules, which is true, but never have I seen a push as a loose. They clearly want to take advantage of the high volume of people going through the Airport, which is vile in my opinion. It was made clear to me when they said it was the only Casino in Holland with this rule. So this is the reason I’m writing this post is to expose them to the world. Also I’m emailing the link of this post directly to them so they know that they are being exposed.

PS. Below is a blurry picture I got of their front desk with two gaming awards for 2008 and 2009. I really don’t believe those should be there.

Holland Casino Gaming Awards 2008 2009

Diesel Canada’s Terrible Customer Service

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Today I received a call from the Diesel store in Montreal. It was concerning the pants I wanted them to replace. I wore these pants only three or four times maximum and every time I washed them a large hole would appear. Their decision was that they would not replace the pants. I understand a lot of people try to screw companies over by playing this card, however I was being honest. Since there is no way that the Diesel Rep Kerry could be certain of this let us assume I was lying and I wore them everyday that I owned them. At this point I don’t care about the money or replacement pants, however I care about being treated with respect. I dropped off the pants to the Diesel store in April, we are now in July which means I waited three patient months to hear “No” as a reply. If I don’t get treated with respect then what is  the point of doing business with a company or person for that matter that just wants your money? I suggest that Diesel Canada work harder and much faster to fix their Customer Care problems. As of now I will try not to buy Diesel products, not because their product Quality is bad (Actually I feel Diesel has the best Quality and lasting Jeans) but because I feel it doesn’t take three months to look at a pair of pants to decide that they won’t pay up.  <humor>If they launched a forensic investigation it wouldn’t have taken this long!</humor>

Photo of the day – Death is Calling

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Death is Calling

Death is Calling… How long will it take you to answer?

I took this picture today on the way back from Westmount Park. Earlier there was lots of smoke coming out of it, I should have pictured it then to really prove my point. (I hate smoking). so today’s picture is not a pleasant one but, it serves a cause.

Burning Uhaul Truck Montreal

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[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/Ni_mNBPa3Qo" width="576" height="324" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]

On our way to Toronto we saw this. Before I had a chance to start recording sparks erupted from the truck. I think someone burnt it for insurance. Anyways it’s not everyday you see a burning car. When we passed it we could feel the Heat, it was pretty intense!