Might be a nice computer for all I know, but the design is rather ugly and heavyhanded. NIce for a Dell, but no Apple-killer from a beauty standpoint.
It so happens that some of us buy computers and other random IT related gadgets with a list of criteria where looks don't get the first place (not even close). Somehow I've even seen people being quite happy with non Apple hardware. It's possible they hadn't yet had their latte with nougat flavoured syrup though.
(not that I bothered to check the specs on that gizmo)
This is incredibly unethical, but then so is paying workers not on the service the customer enjoys but in how much they make for the company.
Either you're not out of school yet or you're completely sheltered from the way your company works. Either way, welcome to the real world. Hint : ethics doesn't pay for the shareholders pool.
Most salespeople will admit they lie if you ask (outside the store).
Huh ? Most ? I haven't met any who haven't agreed to at least "embellishing" things quite a bit (is not lying outright, and that's the ones that don't use matches under the nails to get a signature). Mostly along the lines of "Well 'duh' you expect me to go tell them I sell the same crap as everybody else ? I've got objectives to meet, and my Audi to pay. (duh)"
Now (true story), when I was a student, I once ended up being a salesperson at [huge store] for a few weeks. Someone once came to me with two devices which actually were perfectly identical but re-branded and sold under two different names (and therefore with two different identities and attached perceived qualities).
Id10t : "Excuse me, what's the difference between those two devices ?" Me : (I make sure they're the same) "The only difference is the price".
Customer ponders, buys the most expensive one. And no, there were no extra services or anything attached. One was simply 180% the price of the other. Warranty was the local legal standard (1 year), the difference was the price (and the box, now that I think of it maybe they wanted to do something with the box).
Sometimes I think the salespeople are right because it's just too easy. So far the feeling quickly goes away though (and I long for a machine gun whenever another one comes visit).
It makes it very difficult to compete as a smaller business, since 2-3 percent of a shit ton makes you rich, but 2-3 percent of a couple million leaves very little.
Quite. And when you see how large Wall Mart has had to become to become profitable (which presumably includes, given the size, deals at the source that nobody else could get), no wonder others have gotten to cheating to survive.
Now of course WallMart isn't a PC or IT retailer as such (although apparently they sell a bit of that too). But office/IT resellers operate in a market that work pretty much along the same lines. Super tight margins, source pricing that changes all the time, little control on manufacturers (but some leverage if you're large enough).
WallMart has the advantage that it sells stuff that for the most part people haven't gotten around to buy online which also helps impulse buying. IT resellers don't benefit much from that kind of thing.
I remember when I also once recruited a guy who used to be a RAM buyer at the source for Euro resellers (another cut throat market). Since RAM prices tended to change without warning from day to day, it was a bit like playing the stock market...
Anyway, for those who are old enough to remember, or who bothered to document themselves, consider the computing power we can have nowadays for a pittance compared to what was available, say, in the mid 70s.
While the pricing of computing devices is regularly weird, akin to the price of a fashion item (cf. Sony), all in all, I know that I wouldn't mind paying 5% or 10% more (which would mean a lot to the food chain) if it made things a bit saner. And that's as a home user (since corporations will overpay anything as long as they get to keep the pen).
Well the second preview video that they released in late 2017 really looked good (although it was a bit short to really see what the game was going to look like).
But now that they've confirmed that DNF is going to be released "real soon now", I really don't see any other game having a chance. GTA XV is getting a bit old, Doom IX is too dark (I mean even in 3D, black is still black). No, it's DNF all the way.
Because they've slashed their margins on the things you're actually there to buy so low trying to get you in there to buy them. Think about the people you know. If they could choose between Store A which has their product at $300 and Store B that has it at $250 but are going to push as hard as they possibly can to get you to buy their $50 warranty, which are they likely to choose? The majority of people are going to choose Store B and then bitch about the pressure to buy a warranty as if the two things were unrelated.
Sad but true. Remember that even structures like IBM gave up on selling PCs because they couldn't make a profit on them. And for having known very intimately the workings of [very large western computer maker (not Dell)], the margins were (it got sold since) in the 1.5% range. It's a nasty business. Nowadays the "brick and mortar" retailers have to fight the online resellers who have quite an edge on them. So if anything the fight has gotten even more nasty (but then with sales people, what can you expect ?).
Good Business is how much you can milk from your customers and how fast regardless of the consequences.
In my experience "Good Business is how much you can milk from your customers and how fast while staying out of jail". But then anyone who has talked to the sales guys from his company (or who has been on the receiving end of the sales guys of any other company) knows this.
(very) Slightly modified pitch I was delivered a few years ago : "Oh yes, our router cures cancer, sure." "And we'll have world hunger as an option next year" "Would you sign here please ? I'll let you keep the pen you know. It's shiny."
Its not a Justice system, its a Legal System. And the law is foobar'd.
I thought it was merely "Snafu". Since it seems odd that anyone would expect it to be any different in practice after so many such examples (as opposed to what it should be in theory).
Hasn't this been a fairly popular fight in numerous western countries lately ?
Lots of politicians are freedom fighters and, oddly enough, seem to be pretty proud of it.
(as an aside, I was watching a documentary on the militia that was set up during German occupation during ww2 last night and one of the tenants was "down with democracy, yay with order" - paraphrasing obviously... it was profoundly disturbing in many ways).
Indeed, because there are a still few reasons to use Arcoread, mostly when you use colour proofed PDF formats (X-3) for professional printing. Apparently only Adobe's reader fully supports those parts.
Apart from that I typically stick with Okular (Version 0.8.1 Using KDE 4.2.1) which is now quite complete enough for my needs. Although I haven't had to use documents with forms for a while so I'm not sure what the level of support is on that front. If it doesn't work it might be a problem for some (on top of the fact that it's a KDE app and therefore less simple to use outside of Unix land).
I am so excited about this that I'm going to start working on it just as soon as I get done rewriting all my userspace tools in TCL.
I'm right with you on this. TCL + the Athena widgets (for maximum portability and less overhead) with a decent database backend storing system data on a dedicated partition) are a sure win. The year of the Linux desktop is finally at hand !
China's military is tightly interwoven into the country's economy. Apparently you won't find a company that doesn't have a general behind it somewhere. So military or civilian, it's all the same in the end.
And unfortunately they don't get to hang around (or manage) the type of users the poster above you mentions. In their infinite wisdom they believe that users are curious and intelligent beings that - are reasonable and mild mannered - will take time to learn what they don't know - will explore on their own - don't really need documentation - will send bug reports in case of problems
However as any of us who have been around them for any amount of time knows, users : - are dumb - are in a hurry - are ignorant and determined to remain so - are completely unwilling to learn the most basic thing about the system - will forget any simple procedure as soon as they've said "yes ok" - will break any piece of software - will never ever read any message on their screen
It's not a matter of whether it's a good or a bad thing. People are just that way when it comes to computers. And annoying as it is we have to find ways to deal with it because it doesn't seem to be about to change even with a copious application of LARTs.
According to the article, his point was that switching to Linux, only considering price and mismanaging it with people who have no clue as to what they are doing because they are probably clueless MSCEs who were told to go with "free" will end up in disaster. And most likely an expensive one. As in a never upgraded installation of RH4 that for some unexplained reason required a small army to maintain. The morale being (according to the article) "go with Linux because it's better, not because it's cheaper (although it might well end up being cheaper as well)".
Slashdot Mirror
Not sure about the "sounding" part.
"Adamo, pronounced 'A-dahm-o,' [...]"
As opposed to being pronounced what ? 'Gloofingle' ?
Might be a nice computer for all I know, but the design is rather ugly and heavyhanded. NIce for a Dell, but no Apple-killer from a beauty standpoint.
It so happens that some of us buy computers and other random IT related gadgets with a list of criteria where looks don't get the first place (not even close). Somehow I've even seen people being quite happy with non Apple hardware. It's possible they hadn't yet had their latte with nougat flavoured syrup though.
(not that I bothered to check the specs on that gizmo)
yes, but it's a sony...
And you know what they say : "better safe than Sony".
This is incredibly unethical, but then so is paying workers not on the service the customer enjoys but in how much they make for the company.
Either you're not out of school yet or you're completely sheltered from the way your company works. Either way, welcome to the real world.
Hint : ethics doesn't pay for the shareholders pool.
Most salespeople will admit they lie if you ask (outside the store).
Huh ? Most ?
I haven't met any who haven't agreed to at least "embellishing" things quite a bit (is not lying outright, and that's the ones that don't use matches under the nails to get a signature). Mostly along the lines of "Well 'duh' you expect me to go tell them I sell the same crap as everybody else ? I've got objectives to meet, and my Audi to pay. (duh)"
Now (true story), when I was a student, I once ended up being a salesperson at [huge store] for a few weeks. Someone once came to me with two devices which actually were perfectly identical but re-branded and sold under two different names (and therefore with two different identities and attached perceived qualities).
Id10t : "Excuse me, what's the difference between those two devices ?"
Me : (I make sure they're the same) "The only difference is the price".
Customer ponders, buys the most expensive one. And no, there were no extra services or anything attached. One was simply 180% the price of the other. Warranty was the local legal standard (1 year), the difference was the price (and the box, now that I think of it maybe they wanted to do something with the box).
Sometimes I think the salespeople are right because it's just too easy. So far the feeling quickly goes away though (and I long for a machine gun whenever another one comes visit).
Wal-Mart's margins are very low too.
It makes it very difficult to compete as a smaller business, since 2-3 percent of a shit ton makes you rich, but 2-3 percent of a couple million leaves very little.
Quite. And when you see how large Wall Mart has had to become to become profitable (which presumably includes, given the size, deals at the source that nobody else could get), no wonder others have gotten to cheating to survive.
Now of course WallMart isn't a PC or IT retailer as such (although apparently they sell a bit of that too). But office/IT resellers operate in a market that work pretty much along the same lines. Super tight margins, source pricing that changes all the time, little control on manufacturers (but some leverage if you're large enough).
WallMart has the advantage that it sells stuff that for the most part people haven't gotten around to buy online which also helps impulse buying. IT resellers don't benefit much from that kind of thing.
I remember when I also once recruited a guy who used to be a RAM buyer at the source for Euro resellers (another cut throat market). Since RAM prices tended to change without warning from day to day, it was a bit like playing the stock market...
Anyway, for those who are old enough to remember, or who bothered to document themselves, consider the computing power we can have nowadays for a pittance compared to what was available, say, in the mid 70s.
While the pricing of computing devices is regularly weird, akin to the price of a fashion item (cf. Sony), all in all, I know that I wouldn't mind paying 5% or 10% more (which would mean a lot to the food chain) if it made things a bit saner. And that's as a home user (since corporations will overpay anything as long as they get to keep the pen).
That's pretty optimistic of you.
Well the second preview video that they released in late 2017 really looked good (although it was a bit short to really see what the game was going to look like).
But now that they've confirmed that DNF is going to be released "real soon now", I really don't see any other game having a chance. GTA XV is getting a bit old, Doom IX is too dark (I mean even in 3D, black is still black). No, it's DNF all the way.
Because they've slashed their margins on the things you're actually there to buy so low trying to get you in there to buy them. Think about the people you know. If they could choose between Store A which has their product at $300 and Store B that has it at $250 but are going to push as hard as they possibly can to get you to buy their $50 warranty, which are they likely to choose? The majority of people are going to choose Store B and then bitch about the pressure to buy a warranty as if the two things were unrelated.
Sad but true. Remember that even structures like IBM gave up on selling PCs because they couldn't make a profit on them.
And for having known very intimately the workings of [very large western computer maker (not Dell)], the margins were (it got sold since) in the 1.5% range. It's a nasty business.
Nowadays the "brick and mortar" retailers have to fight the online resellers who have quite an edge on them. So if anything the fight has gotten even more nasty (but then with sales people, what can you expect ?).
Good Business is how much you can milk from your customers and how fast regardless of the consequences.
In my experience "Good Business is how much you can milk from your customers and how fast while staying out of jail". But then anyone who has talked to the sales guys from his company (or who has been on the receiving end of the sales guys of any other company) knows this.
(very) Slightly modified pitch I was delivered a few years ago :
"Oh yes, our router cures cancer, sure."
"And we'll have world hunger as an option next year"
"Would you sign here please ? I'll let you keep the pen you know. It's shiny."
I think when you get modded -1 troll your IP should be revealed.
His IP is 127.0.0.1, have fun.
Obviously the fix would be to pull backup cables to the satellites instead of relying on that crappy wireless.
Since planes don't have anchors, it would be failsafe.
I know the looks don't matter, but, this still looks like someones case mod they made in their basement out of old PC's and some jiffy markers.
A simple way to make it look better would have been to leave the price tag on.
Its not a Justice system, its a Legal System. And the law is foobar'd.
I thought it was merely "Snafu". Since it seems odd that anyone would expect it to be any different in practice after so many such examples (as opposed to what it should be in theory).
(as long as we're going with old acronyms)
So you can go fight freedom?
Hasn't this been a fairly popular fight in numerous western countries lately ?
Lots of politicians are freedom fighters and, oddly enough, seem to be pretty proud of it.
(as an aside, I was watching a documentary on the militia that was set up during German occupation during ww2 last night and one of the tenants was "down with democracy, yay with order" - paraphrasing obviously... it was profoundly disturbing in many ways).
Oops, did I just Goodwin myself ?
There goes my concept of a game with devil worshiping big breasted skeletons... Back to the drawing board.
I know you've probably never felt any breasts (this being slashdot and all), but to the best of my knowledge they don't have bones.
Given my target customers, you can trust me, this is completely irrelevant.
Circuit City is bankrupt. Apparently this tactic didn't actually keep them competitive.
Obviously they didn't lie enough.
If we combine chinese and US censorship, will there be anything left?
There goes my concept of a game with devil worshiping big breasted skeletons... Back to the drawing board.
Do people even still use Acrobat Reader?
Yes.
Indeed, because there are a still few reasons to use Arcoread, mostly when you use colour proofed PDF formats (X-3) for professional printing. Apparently only Adobe's reader fully supports those parts.
Apart from that I typically stick with Okular (Version 0.8.1 Using KDE 4.2.1) which is now quite complete enough for my needs. Although I haven't had to use documents with forms for a while so I'm not sure what the level of support is on that front. If it doesn't work it might be a problem for some (on top of the fact that it's a KDE app and therefore less simple to use outside of Unix land).
I am so excited about this that I'm going to start working on it just as soon as I get done rewriting all my userspace tools in TCL.
I'm right with you on this. TCL + the Athena widgets (for maximum portability and less overhead) with a decent database backend storing system data on a dedicated partition) are a sure win. The year of the Linux desktop is finally at hand !
What we need now is a newsletter.
China's military is tightly interwoven into the country's economy. Apparently you won't find a company that doesn't have a general behind it somewhere. So military or civilian, it's all the same in the end.
SELinux is not what he's looking for.
Your Linux mind tricks do not work on me, I'm a MSCE !
And unfortunately they don't get to hang around (or manage) the type of users the poster above you mentions. In their infinite wisdom they believe that users are curious and intelligent beings that
- are reasonable and mild mannered
- will take time to learn what they don't know
- will explore on their own
- don't really need documentation
- will send bug reports in case of problems
However as any of us who have been around them for any amount of time knows, users :
- are dumb
- are in a hurry
- are ignorant and determined to remain so
- are completely unwilling to learn the most basic thing about the system
- will forget any simple procedure as soon as they've said "yes ok"
- will break any piece of software
- will never ever read any message on their screen
It's not a matter of whether it's a good or a bad thing. People are just that way when it comes to computers. And annoying as it is we have to find ways to deal with it because it doesn't seem to be about to change even with a copious application of LARTs.
According to the article, his point was that switching to Linux, only considering price and mismanaging it with people who have no clue as to what they are doing because they are probably clueless MSCEs who were told to go with "free" will end up in disaster. And most likely an expensive one. As in a never upgraded installation of RH4 that for some unexplained reason required a small army to maintain.
The morale being (according to the article) "go with Linux because it's better, not because it's cheaper (although it might well end up being cheaper as well)".
It made sense to me.
All it takes is the slightest thought.
Sadly, that's where things start to break down in most companies... (I have switched a number of small businesses to Linux desktops)
This sucks. I was hoping we were finally going to get rid of marketing.