Just need to rant a bit about electronics.
Exhibit A:
A year or two ago I got a work laptop. At work we have HDMI cables in the conference room, but of course nothing can be simple.
and out there are at least 3 types of HDMI. Cause why would we standardize on anything? There is full size, mini and micro. Well of course my laptop has mini. My boss' has full size. WTH? Who is ordering these laptops?
So I go to find an adapter. Well good luck with that. Best Buy? Nope. Radio Shack? Maybe. Wal Mart? Forget it. I can't remember what I finally ended up doing, but I distinctly remember driving to a bunch of different stores before I finally found something.
Exhibit B:
We have a TV that we would like to plug headphones into. It's a Sanyo. Of course with me apparently nothing is easy. So I pick up some headphones with a 1/8" mini plug. Years ago I bought a 2-1 adapter (that was a story like the one above) and a 6' extension (yeah, kinda like the above too). So we can have two sets of headphones listening to the TV. Wrong.
Crawled to the back of the TV to look and see what it had, and the audio output is RCA. Okay, maybe that makes sense for speakers and such, but is it really that hard to put in a 1/8" mini? I mean there's like a billion connections back there, so what's the big deal?
Okay, so this can't be hard to find an RCA to mini adapter. Wrong again. Best Buy is out of stock. Woo hoo no surprise there, this stupid store never has anything I ever need. I mean it's not like they market to electronics geeks so that they should have every conceivable combination of hardware in existence in stock, or that they can look at what kinds of plugs are on the backs of TVs and on the sides of laptops to see what kinds of wire connections are being added to this equipment, and spend some time thinking about what people would want to sent that to. No, that's not their job. It's up to me to go hunting and scratching all over tarnation to find it some other place. Or maybe it's the end of the week (that's what the guy said). Um - Wednesday night is the end of the week? Well apparently they will get a shipment in tomorrow, so maybe their "week" is based on their shipping cycles. Oh yeah like I'm supposed to know that your week is Thursday to Thursday? "Well maybe it'll be in the shipment tomorrow." Okay doofus zombie brain, maybe I'll come back tomorrow hoping my cable will just have happened to have been shipped.
Yeah right. You know what? I worked in retail and we could go check to see exactly what was arriving and when. Why can't I get that little courtesy from you? You think I like going out of my way to come all the way in here to be disappointed? Don't think so.
Ended up finding what I needed at Wal Mart, which is like a 20 minute drive away. Whatever I hate shopping at Wal Mart but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.
So does anybody have a reliable place to find stuff like this? Or do I just make it much harder than it needs to be? Maybe I just find all the wacko applications that is the hardest possible way to do something and then go traipsing off to make my life more difficult? What gives?
Seriously besides Radio Shack, Best Buy, Wal Mart and Home Depot (surprisingly I think this is where I actually found that HDMI adapter above) I don't know of anywhere where I can walk in with half an expectation that they might have what I want. And that's not saying much for those 4 stores listed above.
Exhibit A:
A year or two ago I got a work laptop. At work we have HDMI cables in the conference room, but of course nothing can be simple.
and out there are at least 3 types of HDMI. Cause why would we standardize on anything? There is full size, mini and micro. Well of course my laptop has mini. My boss' has full size. WTH? Who is ordering these laptops?
So I go to find an adapter. Well good luck with that. Best Buy? Nope. Radio Shack? Maybe. Wal Mart? Forget it. I can't remember what I finally ended up doing, but I distinctly remember driving to a bunch of different stores before I finally found something.
Exhibit B:
We have a TV that we would like to plug headphones into. It's a Sanyo. Of course with me apparently nothing is easy. So I pick up some headphones with a 1/8" mini plug. Years ago I bought a 2-1 adapter (that was a story like the one above) and a 6' extension (yeah, kinda like the above too). So we can have two sets of headphones listening to the TV. Wrong.
Crawled to the back of the TV to look and see what it had, and the audio output is RCA. Okay, maybe that makes sense for speakers and such, but is it really that hard to put in a 1/8" mini? I mean there's like a billion connections back there, so what's the big deal?
Okay, so this can't be hard to find an RCA to mini adapter. Wrong again. Best Buy is out of stock. Woo hoo no surprise there, this stupid store never has anything I ever need. I mean it's not like they market to electronics geeks so that they should have every conceivable combination of hardware in existence in stock, or that they can look at what kinds of plugs are on the backs of TVs and on the sides of laptops to see what kinds of wire connections are being added to this equipment, and spend some time thinking about what people would want to sent that to. No, that's not their job. It's up to me to go hunting and scratching all over tarnation to find it some other place. Or maybe it's the end of the week (that's what the guy said). Um - Wednesday night is the end of the week? Well apparently they will get a shipment in tomorrow, so maybe their "week" is based on their shipping cycles. Oh yeah like I'm supposed to know that your week is Thursday to Thursday? "Well maybe it'll be in the shipment tomorrow." Okay doofus zombie brain, maybe I'll come back tomorrow hoping my cable will just have happened to have been shipped.
Yeah right. You know what? I worked in retail and we could go check to see exactly what was arriving and when. Why can't I get that little courtesy from you? You think I like going out of my way to come all the way in here to be disappointed? Don't think so.Ended up finding what I needed at Wal Mart, which is like a 20 minute drive away. Whatever I hate shopping at Wal Mart but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.
So does anybody have a reliable place to find stuff like this? Or do I just make it much harder than it needs to be? Maybe I just find all the wacko applications that is the hardest possible way to do something and then go traipsing off to make my life more difficult? What gives?
Seriously besides Radio Shack, Best Buy, Wal Mart and Home Depot (surprisingly I think this is where I actually found that HDMI adapter above) I don't know of anywhere where I can walk in with half an expectation that they might have what I want. And that's not saying much for those 4 stores listed above.
303) 302-8500
The last time I went there for something not phone related I made nearly the same comment to the store manager. I was so shocked to actually find some real non-flux cored solder and a few other misc electronics items.
