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2005-08-16 -Short Attention Span Theater-

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Posted by Jackal 2005-08-16 15:46|| || Front Page|| [2 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 I live in the Richmond area (thank god not in Henrico) and this was a clusterf*ck from the word go.

They were originally going to go on sale LAST Tuesday (the school system is switching to Dell this year) to anyone who showed up (considering what happened today, thank every god you can think of they didn't), but some Henrico residents complained and the Board of Supervisors passed an emergency ruling that they had to be sold to Henrico residents first before anyone else. (Which makes sense to normal people.)

So they pushed it back a week, and had the changes and what you needed for proof of residency all over the news. (Don't even ask about the people who showed up last week anyway, including people who drove from Michigan and Florida.)

The first guy in line arrived at the gates at 1:30 a.m. last night. By 7 a.m., when the fairgrounds (part of the raceway, but not the track area) opened the gates to let people in - where they were supposed to walk in an orderly fashion to the building where the sale would start at 9 a.m. - the traffic around the raceway/fairgrounds was a nightmare. The traffic reporters were warning everyone to stay away from the area (it's actually on a fairly major artery), and people stuck in traffic were calling the radio station to say the traffic was worse than during the State Fair.

In answer to your unasked question, yes, the school people had hired some off-duty Henrico police officers (4, I think) for crowd "control" and those officers called for backup when things got out of control, but with a crowd estimated anywhere between 5,000 (probably low) and 10,000 (probably high, but not by much) trying to pass through the gates (the middle one is wide enough to pass 2 cars, and the 2 on either side of that are 1-person size) and ~~run~~ walk a distance of about 2 football fields (maybe 3, depending on which building housed the "event") to stand in another line for another 2 hours, it was too late. (By the way, security was totally the responsibility of the Henrico school system; the Raceway people, and the State Fair people who share the space, are NOT responsible for security at an event put on by outsiders who have rented the space. Though I'll bet they're going to take a loooong look at that policy now.)

Everyone I know figured it would play out just about like it did - can't think why the school officials didn't.

All for a 4-year-old Apple computer, fergawdsake! :-(

Posted by Barbara Skolaut">Barbara Skolaut 2005-08-16 19:09|| http://www.ariellestjohndesigns.com]">[http://www.ariellestjohndesigns.com] 2005-08-16 19:09|| Front Page Top

#2 Sheesh. This sucks and is, well, "sad" is a pretty good start, Jackal. I mean an iBook, for crying out loud. I've always thought Apple people are weird...

Ha! Just kidding - about the Apple folks - not about the the crowd. This prolly would've happened if they were peddling Vic-20's for $50. I hate crowds - the lowest IQ seems to prevail often enough. The best part? Blaming the Henrico County officials:

Steven Poor, who managed to get a laptop, said the problem was simple. âJust poor County management,â he said.

How about greedy asinine behavior by fuckwits, Stevie? I see you got yours, asshole. Who did you step on?

This just made the news on Fox - and there was a woman carrying a destroyed stroller. Amazing.

Posted by .com 2005-08-16 19:25|| 2005-08-16 19:25|| Front Page Top

#3 Hmmm. I was whacking away and watching Fox - so I crossed with yours, Barbara.

I have to disagree about the crowd. People are responsible for their own behavior, IMHO. This kind of shit infuriates me. If people can't be trusted to act civilly, then hold a drawing - and just notify winners by mail. Cracking heads with Ebonite sticks or spring-steel Zaps sounds apropos, IMHO, but none of it should've been necessary. Obviously, people who showed up with small children in strollers didn't expect their neighbors to act like savages.

Posted by .com 2005-08-16 19:33|| 2005-08-16 19:33|| Front Page Top

#4 Man, I can't believe how badly they screwed this up, but then if it's a public school running it I guess it's only to be expected.

How about a lottery? Give out tickets and draw numbers? There were only 1,000 iBooks to sell--this was just asking for trouble to do it live first-come-first-serve.

Posted by Dar">Dar 2005-08-16 19:35|| 2005-08-16 19:35|| Front Page Top

#5 Why not price the laptops so there is an appropriate amount of buyers. Giving stuff away for much less than what it's worth on the market is a recipe for disaster.

I blame the school for a total absence of market savvy. When supply and demand don't freely meet, inhuman behaviour is either the cause or the consequence.

Posted by Kalle (kafir forever) 2005-08-16 19:48|| 2005-08-16 19:48|| Front Page Top

#6 "I blame the school for a total absence of market savvy."

Bingo, Kalle!

That, plus a complete lack of common sense.

It is a public school system, after all.

Posted by Barbara Skolaut">Barbara Skolaut 2005-08-16 20:08|| http://www.ariellestjohndesigns.com]">[http://www.ariellestjohndesigns.com] 2005-08-16 20:08|| Front Page Top

#7 they do this all the time for concerts, with numbered wrist bands....how hard was this to predict?

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2005-08-16 20:11|| 2005-08-16 20:11|| Front Page Top

#8 Wife's health dept had a sale where doors opened at 1pm. We were the only ones to walk in at 1.01 pm (elevator was slow) and these crooks had sold them all to themselves. Xeon servers, quads, desktops everything. Fixed price and sold before you could focus on it. Dual 1800mhz Xeon servers for $12. Price printed on the same sheet as the word Sold and in the same pen.

Posted by 3dc 2005-08-16 20:30|| 2005-08-16 20:30|| Front Page Top

#9 Only in America... or some third world country as well

Posted by 3863 2005-08-16 20:52|| 2005-08-16 20:52|| Front Page Top

#10 TROLL alert. 3863 is just here to bash the U.S.

Posted by Darrell 2005-08-16 21:02|| 2005-08-16 21:02|| Front Page Top

#11 yep

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2005-08-16 21:05|| 2005-08-16 21:05|| Front Page Top

#12 But the big question is: were any Q'K'oran'''sss damaged or desicrated during the bruhaha?

Posted by Alaska Paul">Alaska Paul 2005-08-16 21:17|| 2005-08-16 21:17|| Front Page Top

#13 AP - one can only hope.

Posted by Barbara Skolaut">Barbara Skolaut 2005-08-16 21:38|| http://www.ariellestjohndesigns.com]">[http://www.ariellestjohndesigns.com] 2005-08-16 21:38|| Front Page Top

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