Sinabro

Damn. I have too many enemies. I realized that when I saw a post on slickdeals.net and clicking on the product link to buy.com, I had to ask myself, “Do I have a reason not to buy from Buy.com?”

It was so much easier when price was the only reason to buy something from one place or not to. Nowadays, I don’t buy from:

• Sony: because they are greedy bastards who can’t make a product right (exploding Sony batteries & Sony BMG incidents, where they try to criminalize being their customer)
• Intel: because they are monopolists who go after nonprofit organizations that benefit third-world country children.
• Sears and Kmart: because they sell their customer information …by installing spyware on their computers!
• Sandisk: because they stifle innovation by abusing patent.
• Microsoft: What does Microsoft, Melkor, Morgoth, and Mordor have in common? Oh, other than the fact that they all begin with “M”.

And probably a couple more I forgot. I usually do have a good memory, but with so many companies to remember, it’s easy to forget a few (at least without a good trigger). For Sony, well, I never had a reason to buy from them anyways. For Intel, I hope by now I planted a subconscious trigger in myself—when I start thinkng about my next notebook purchase (I’m buying a whitebook specifically to avoid Microsoft and Intel. It doesn’t matter if a $600 notebook ends up costing $1800. My conscience costs a little more than that). For Sears or Kmart, well, I don’t need a reminder: only old people buy from Sears, and Kmart sucks. For Sandisk, the trigger is flash memory devices (like USB keys and media players). For Microsoft, well, to put it bluntly, I’ll kill myself before buying a Microsoft product.