I'm having a hard time filtering through the sarcasm, but it is pretty hard to dispute that, not only is Keynote WAY better than PowerPoint, but it kicks PowerPoint's ass in nearly every category. Funny how Apple easily one-ups Microsoft at every turn. Even with a 15 year head start, Microsoft PowerPoint is still a p.o.s compared to Keynote. And how can you say PowerPoint is "powerful"? It's only "powerful" because it let's you do things that you SHOULD be able to do with pretty much any software, but can't (like Word and Excel).
But they weren't professional instructional or graphic designers...which is my point. Just because you are a professional (fill in the blank), doesn't mean you know crap about the highly technical skill of good design.
As an Interactive Multimedia Instruction (IMI) developer, I warmly accept your post:-) Death to amateurs! Leave it to us pros!
In all seriousness, it isn't PowerPoint's fault that the masses have been given a decent tool to get their (mostly lousy) message across. It's the message that sucks, and the lack of basic design and instructional design principles that makes them suck so hard...oh and the fact that any nitwit thinks they are suddenly a designer just because they "know" PowerPoint. There's a reason there is a career field called "graphic design", and it ain't because anyone can use PowerPoint. In this arena, Keynote wins hands down, because at least the boring and poorly designed presentations will LOOK a little better while boring you to tears.
But in all, I'm glad these unskilled people exist using these mediocre tools, because it keeps me fully employed. I bet this statement has been said a million times by html programmers in the late 90s as well. Hmmm, maybe I should start a PowerPoint repair service..fix up those lousy slides and put a good instructional design principles to otherwise awful presentations.
The fact that somebody on slashdot has tagged this "haha" is a new low for slashdot. Considering Apple does NOTHING to prevent you from hacking this software and putting it on a PC, the "haha" tag is completely stupid. Apple engineers are busy making the most polished OS on the planet http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2704,2207556,00.asp?sr=hotnews and waste no resources preventing the less than 1% of geeks out there from hacking it to work on a PC.
Call me when there is a serious threat to my Mac. Still don't see any viruses or malware 20+ years on now... With every new Apple product come the lowliest, most insecure, windows-using chumps with lame attempts like this thread to cast a bad light on Apple.
Well this is going nowhere, since you refuse to believe anything other than your mistaken beliefs. "The Customer is Always Right" is merely a business motto that infers that it is better to give the customer the benefit of the doubt because bad publicity from not doing so could cost more than any real loss. That's it. There is no legal precedent or standing for this saying, unless of course you'd like to cite some references.
I like newegg.com and amazon.com and even apple.com, but when I want to go to a store and buy something right now, the choices all pretty much suck. Fry's, Best Buy, CompUSA (went to one yesterday, so yes, still around) and Circuit City are all clones of each other. Picking on Best Buy ALL the time on Slashdot, with nary a mention of the other equally evil stores is tiresome.
No, I compeletely understand the sentence. Your example goes to show that you THINK the customer is always right is some sort of law, yet there is no such law that even so much as implies as that being true. The Customer is Always Right is not a law, never was a law, never will be a law. As long as there are peeved customers out there though, millions of people will mistakenly believe it is, however.
In the case of a dispute, NOBODY is right until one party or the other can prove their case. That's why it's called a dispute. If the customer were always right, then there would never be any disputes.
As I stated, yes, there are laws to protect the consumer. But to unequivocally declare that the customer is always right is just ignorant, especially when there is no such guarantee (implicit or explicit). Keep perpetuating this myth, though, because we all know that popular slashdot opinion is far more valuable than reality.
Well you aren't a conspiracy theorist, but you are wrong. You don't have to activate the phone to use the non-phone features. Plenty of threads exist on this topic already. Complaining isn't the same as being crazy, but when people start making stuff up in their complaints, then it starts bordering on crazy. It doesn't always start off that way, but as the flamefest festers on/. the complaints become more and more sensational.
Well my friend, I admire your convictions, but I believe in this case they've made you near-sighted. The data are what they are....data. Consumer reports doesn't do anything to interpret the data, they simply report it. They don't take advertising money or kickbacks either, so there is hardly a more unbiased publication out there. If they are to be faulted, it is because they don't measure anything subjectively, and the biggest part of owning a car (for me at least) are based on the subjective qualities of the car. I have no stake in the success/failure of American/Japanese/German/Whatever cars whatsoever, and I'm hardly attacking the US middle class (for fear of attacking myself and my entire family, I suppose) nor am I or Consumer Reports "racist". What I do notice, though, is that you get a lot better car for the same amount of money if you avoid Detroit. To look at it another way, you get a whole lot of car, but not the quality, if you buy American. What's more important to the consumer? Well, that's up to each individual consumer. You can defend the Unions all you want, but they are part of the problem.
I'm not exactly saying that US manufacturing is to blame, because many fine Hondas and Toyotas are manufactured in America. If I am "racist" about anything, it is the dispicable way that US corporations undercut everything in the name of "value". There's a reason BMWs and Mercedes Benzes cost more than Fords and Cadillacs, and it ain't just because of the respective emblems on the hoods. I WISH I could buy an American car that was 75% of the BMW 3 series. That whole line of entry level luxury sedans is dominated by Germany and Japan with no US entries. Instead, we get the usual Detroit line about, "Buy a Ford 500! It's every bit as good as a Bimmer but for $20k less!" Then you look into it and see uou get half the car for a 5% discount.
Obviously I don't shun the US Automakers entirely given my purchase history (from current to oldest: 2002 Ford Ranger, 1999 Ford Contour SVT, 1997 Ford Escort, 1996 Chevy Cavalier (worst care ever), 1995 Ford Escort, 1995 Dodge Caravan, 1993 Ford Probe GT, 1990 Honda Civic, 1988 VW GT, 1984 Honda Civic S, 1980 VW Pickup, 1978 VW Scirocco). It is in SPITE of the poor-quality that I've bought a few of my US cars (the SVT, the Caravan and the Probe GT, in particular). I wish any one of these American cars could say they had half the build quality as the 1990 Honda Civic, but sadly, I can't say that.
Wow, you've never really seen how store security works, have you? I believe in the two years I worked in retail, probably 1,000 people were detained by store security and ALL of them charged with "shoplifting", with no more proof other than "Security Manager Joe saw this guy lifting some cds..we stopped them outside of the store and found the cds". Nobody was ever accused of a felony either, because shoplifting is a misdemeanor. "Joe" and his many years of experience in security was credible enough to convict these people. Joe's role was simply to catch these guys and then legally be able to prohibit them from entering our establishment again. The shoplfiting business was all handled by local authorities, not by K-mart. Oh, and the fact that Joe and guys like me were able to tackle the thieves to get our stuff back saved the company money by getting it's goods back.
Of course I didn't buy the extended warranty because those are monumental wastes of money, regardless if it's Best Buy or Circuit City or CompUSA or Sears trying to sell it. In Best Buy's defense, the guy didn't try to sell me on it, nor did the second guy who rang it up. And that's my problem with this entire thread; everyone is carrying on about how bad/evil/stupid Best Buy is, when they are no different than all the other Big Box stores out there. Reminds me of the AT&T flamefests that go on in these parts.
Well, for what it is worth, I bought a 32" Sony plasma tv from BB and it was a great experience. The sales guy went out of his way to point out that mine was a closeout model and had the exact same specs as the new model, but was basically half price (about $700). It wasn't even an open box deal. He didn't have anything to gain by pointing out the good deal. Most every other time I'm in BB, the idiot salesperson is clueless though, so I guess that was a small victory for me and BB.
No, it is a mantra, because so many people are fooled into thinking it is some sort of law, when it isn't. There are many consumer rights in place, but I assure you, NONE of them say, "the customer is always right".
Here's $5, now give me that iPod. What? Don't you know, the customer is always right? Even though your sign says $200 for that iPod, I say it's $5, now hand it over!
You don't have to believe me. There is plenty of data out there supporting my own anecdotal evidence that American cars cut corners at every possible chance, ESPECIALLY in interior design components, long term reliability, and initial quality reports. Consumer Reports would be a good place to start. I live in Austin, TX. Before that, San Antonio, and before that San Angelo, TX (high desert). I don't need a lecture on UV light to show you my curled up dash board, my broken light switch, my thrice cracked/replaced overhead lamp, my fogged over lens covers, my faded paint on the quarter panel to know that my Ford Contour SVT has a pretty lame quality history over it's 8 years. The saving grace being zero mechanical issues and I'm up to 100,000 miles. It still has the original front brake pads too! If this car (and my newer Ford Ranger) weren't rattling buckets of plastic crap, I'd say they were some of the best manufactured cars on the road, in absence of mechanical problems. Unfortunately, I don't think the standard Contours got the same levels of attention mechanically as the SVTs did, so the Contour's below average to poor quality rating is valid, since they only sold about 3000 SVTs a year for about 7 years.
And you are assuming that the unchecked product goes directly back on the shelf? Hardly. I can't vouch for Best Buy, but other retail outlets have an entire returns department in the back that go through returns and repackage them for sale on the shelf (if deemed worthy of resale). Otherwise, the return departments would spend a huge portion of profits wasted on reselling a broken/defective product that keeps getting returned.
I really dislike big box stores, but your post is pretty accurate, and convincing. What I've found that works as a happy medium, is to go to the Big Box store and get their price. Take that price to the Ma&Pa store next door and ask them if they can come close to matching the Best Buy price. I do this with musical instruments. I go to Guitar Center to find the "going internet price" (or just go online to musician's friend) and then take those prices to local music stores. They can never match the price, but they can bring it down to reasonable prices to the point where I can justify it for the sense of community and personalized service I get as a valued customer. Musician's Friend and Guitar Center have never gotten me a gig in town, paid me to conduct a clinic demonstrating a new drumset or hired me to give private lessons in their store. Not sure how you run that analogy against Best Buy, but I'm sure you can get creative, if it is important to you. Unfortunately, most American's are cheap MoFo's that would slit their own sister's throat to save $25 on a hard drive.
Well most stores (and the two you mentioned by name) require photo id and an address on the return. This is to track fraudsters when they buy stuff with cash and try to return it. You can only defraud stores in your local area one or two times before your name shoots right to the top of the list, right along with the bad check writers, and every store in your area will refuse to take returns from you. If you build up enough hate, some will even arrest you next time you come to their store
You forgot, conveniently enough, one scenario. IF the guy takes the box home, takes the drive out, and stuffs the box with tiles and goes back to the store for a refund, then it's Best Buy's fault? I'm curious how you'd justify that logic.
Because it would be business suicide to reject EVERY $100-$200 return, Best Buy probably had a very good reason not to honor this one.....such as the guy is a habitual scam artist, for one. Otherwise, like you said, it wouldn't be good for their image or business. Makes their case against this guy much more believable. Sucks to be him.
Well, there's always the "off" chance that Best Buy is just getting a bum-wrap by a bunch of rabid/. fans who are merely perpetuating the same tired urban legends.
Recently Walmart puts people who return merchandise too often in a watch list and restrict their "no-questions asked return policy."
This is no revelation. K-mart did this back in 1984 when I worked there and I'm sure every other retailer did/does the same thing. The list was actually much more cynical than this though, as our security manager knew EVERY customer that had a fishy return record by name, and would stop every security procedure that was occuring at the time to shadow/monitor those on the list.
Loss prevention spends just as much time, if not more, watching employees in back rooms with shrink wrap machines as they do customers with long jackets on stuffing cd's in the pockets. I can't tell you how many teenager checkers were arrested for scanning one item then bagging a second, more expensive item for their friends who came through their lines.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm having a hard time filtering through the sarcasm, but it is pretty hard to dispute that, not only is Keynote WAY better than PowerPoint, but it kicks PowerPoint's ass in nearly every category. Funny how Apple easily one-ups Microsoft at every turn. Even with a 15 year head start, Microsoft PowerPoint is still a p.o.s compared to Keynote. And how can you say PowerPoint is "powerful"? It's only "powerful" because it let's you do things that you SHOULD be able to do with pretty much any software, but can't (like Word and Excel).
That's why serious companies have design branches who get paid a lot of money to make professional slideshows, and not the amateur one's you mention.
But they weren't professional instructional or graphic designers...which is my point. Just because you are a professional (fill in the blank), doesn't mean you know crap about the highly technical skill of good design.
In all seriousness, it isn't PowerPoint's fault that the masses have been given a decent tool to get their (mostly lousy) message across. It's the message that sucks, and the lack of basic design and instructional design principles that makes them suck so hard...oh and the fact that any nitwit thinks they are suddenly a designer just because they "know" PowerPoint. There's a reason there is a career field called "graphic design", and it ain't because anyone can use PowerPoint. In this arena, Keynote wins hands down, because at least the boring and poorly designed presentations will LOOK a little better while boring you to tears.
But in all, I'm glad these unskilled people exist using these mediocre tools, because it keeps me fully employed. I bet this statement has been said a million times by html programmers in the late 90s as well. Hmmm, maybe I should start a PowerPoint repair service..fix up those lousy slides and put a good instructional design principles to otherwise awful presentations.
The fact that somebody on slashdot has tagged this "haha" is a new low for slashdot. Considering Apple does NOTHING to prevent you from hacking this software and putting it on a PC, the "haha" tag is completely stupid. Apple engineers are busy making the most polished OS on the planet http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2704,2207556,00.asp?sr=hotnews and waste no resources preventing the less than 1% of geeks out there from hacking it to work on a PC.
Call me when there is a serious threat to my Mac. Still don't see any viruses or malware 20+ years on now... With every new Apple product come the lowliest, most insecure, windows-using chumps with lame attempts like this thread to cast a bad light on Apple.
You could start with: http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/106700.html which gives a nice little history of the origin of the phrase.
I like newegg.com and amazon.com and even apple.com, but when I want to go to a store and buy something right now, the choices all pretty much suck. Fry's, Best Buy, CompUSA (went to one yesterday, so yes, still around) and Circuit City are all clones of each other. Picking on Best Buy ALL the time on Slashdot, with nary a mention of the other equally evil stores is tiresome.
In the case of a dispute, NOBODY is right until one party or the other can prove their case. That's why it's called a dispute. If the customer were always right, then there would never be any disputes.
As I stated, yes, there are laws to protect the consumer. But to unequivocally declare that the customer is always right is just ignorant, especially when there is no such guarantee (implicit or explicit). Keep perpetuating this myth, though, because we all know that popular slashdot opinion is far more valuable than reality.
Well you aren't a conspiracy theorist, but you are wrong. You don't have to activate the phone to use the non-phone features. Plenty of threads exist on this topic already. Complaining isn't the same as being crazy, but when people start making stuff up in their complaints, then it starts bordering on crazy. It doesn't always start off that way, but as the flamefest festers on /. the complaints become more and more sensational.
I'm not exactly saying that US manufacturing is to blame, because many fine Hondas and Toyotas are manufactured in America. If I am "racist" about anything, it is the dispicable way that US corporations undercut everything in the name of "value". There's a reason BMWs and Mercedes Benzes cost more than Fords and Cadillacs, and it ain't just because of the respective emblems on the hoods. I WISH I could buy an American car that was 75% of the BMW 3 series. That whole line of entry level luxury sedans is dominated by Germany and Japan with no US entries. Instead, we get the usual Detroit line about, "Buy a Ford 500! It's every bit as good as a Bimmer but for $20k less!" Then you look into it and see uou get half the car for a 5% discount.
Obviously I don't shun the US Automakers entirely given my purchase history (from current to oldest: 2002 Ford Ranger, 1999 Ford Contour SVT, 1997 Ford Escort, 1996 Chevy Cavalier (worst care ever), 1995 Ford Escort, 1995 Dodge Caravan, 1993 Ford Probe GT, 1990 Honda Civic, 1988 VW GT, 1984 Honda Civic S, 1980 VW Pickup, 1978 VW Scirocco). It is in SPITE of the poor-quality that I've bought a few of my US cars (the SVT, the Caravan and the Probe GT, in particular). I wish any one of these American cars could say they had half the build quality as the 1990 Honda Civic, but sadly, I can't say that.
Wow, you've never really seen how store security works, have you? I believe in the two years I worked in retail, probably 1,000 people were detained by store security and ALL of them charged with "shoplifting", with no more proof other than "Security Manager Joe saw this guy lifting some cds..we stopped them outside of the store and found the cds". Nobody was ever accused of a felony either, because shoplifting is a misdemeanor. "Joe" and his many years of experience in security was credible enough to convict these people. Joe's role was simply to catch these guys and then legally be able to prohibit them from entering our establishment again. The shoplfiting business was all handled by local authorities, not by K-mart. Oh, and the fact that Joe and guys like me were able to tackle the thieves to get our stuff back saved the company money by getting it's goods back.
Of course I didn't buy the extended warranty because those are monumental wastes of money, regardless if it's Best Buy or Circuit City or CompUSA or Sears trying to sell it. In Best Buy's defense, the guy didn't try to sell me on it, nor did the second guy who rang it up. And that's my problem with this entire thread; everyone is carrying on about how bad/evil/stupid Best Buy is, when they are no different than all the other Big Box stores out there. Reminds me of the AT&T flamefests that go on in these parts.
Well, for what it is worth, I bought a 32" Sony plasma tv from BB and it was a great experience. The sales guy went out of his way to point out that mine was a closeout model and had the exact same specs as the new model, but was basically half price (about $700). It wasn't even an open box deal. He didn't have anything to gain by pointing out the good deal. Most every other time I'm in BB, the idiot salesperson is clueless though, so I guess that was a small victory for me and BB.
Here's $5, now give me that iPod. What? Don't you know, the customer is always right? Even though your sign says $200 for that iPod, I say it's $5, now hand it over!
You don't have to believe me. There is plenty of data out there supporting my own anecdotal evidence that American cars cut corners at every possible chance, ESPECIALLY in interior design components, long term reliability, and initial quality reports. Consumer Reports would be a good place to start. I live in Austin, TX. Before that, San Antonio, and before that San Angelo, TX (high desert). I don't need a lecture on UV light to show you my curled up dash board, my broken light switch, my thrice cracked/replaced overhead lamp, my fogged over lens covers, my faded paint on the quarter panel to know that my Ford Contour SVT has a pretty lame quality history over it's 8 years. The saving grace being zero mechanical issues and I'm up to 100,000 miles. It still has the original front brake pads too! If this car (and my newer Ford Ranger) weren't rattling buckets of plastic crap, I'd say they were some of the best manufactured cars on the road, in absence of mechanical problems. Unfortunately, I don't think the standard Contours got the same levels of attention mechanically as the SVTs did, so the Contour's below average to poor quality rating is valid, since they only sold about 3000 SVTs a year for about 7 years.
And you are assuming that the unchecked product goes directly back on the shelf? Hardly. I can't vouch for Best Buy, but other retail outlets have an entire returns department in the back that go through returns and repackage them for sale on the shelf (if deemed worthy of resale). Otherwise, the return departments would spend a huge portion of profits wasted on reselling a broken/defective product that keeps getting returned.
I really dislike big box stores, but your post is pretty accurate, and convincing. What I've found that works as a happy medium, is to go to the Big Box store and get their price. Take that price to the Ma&Pa store next door and ask them if they can come close to matching the Best Buy price. I do this with musical instruments. I go to Guitar Center to find the "going internet price" (or just go online to musician's friend) and then take those prices to local music stores. They can never match the price, but they can bring it down to reasonable prices to the point where I can justify it for the sense of community and personalized service I get as a valued customer. Musician's Friend and Guitar Center have never gotten me a gig in town, paid me to conduct a clinic demonstrating a new drumset or hired me to give private lessons in their store. Not sure how you run that analogy against Best Buy, but I'm sure you can get creative, if it is important to you. Unfortunately, most American's are cheap MoFo's that would slit their own sister's throat to save $25 on a hard drive.
Well most stores (and the two you mentioned by name) require photo id and an address on the return. This is to track fraudsters when they buy stuff with cash and try to return it. You can only defraud stores in your local area one or two times before your name shoots right to the top of the list, right along with the bad check writers, and every store in your area will refuse to take returns from you. If you build up enough hate, some will even arrest you next time you come to their store
You forgot, conveniently enough, one scenario. IF the guy takes the box home, takes the drive out, and stuffs the box with tiles and goes back to the store for a refund, then it's Best Buy's fault? I'm curious how you'd justify that logic.
Because it would be business suicide to reject EVERY $100-$200 return, Best Buy probably had a very good reason not to honor this one.....such as the guy is a habitual scam artist, for one. Otherwise, like you said, it wouldn't be good for their image or business. Makes their case against this guy much more believable. Sucks to be him.
Well, there's always the "off" chance that Best Buy is just getting a bum-wrap by a bunch of rabid /. fans who are merely perpetuating the same tired urban legends.
Loss prevention spends just as much time, if not more, watching employees in back rooms with shrink wrap machines as they do customers with long jackets on stuffing cd's in the pockets. I can't tell you how many teenager checkers were arrested for scanning one item then bagging a second, more expensive item for their friends who came through their lines.