I requre phone service. If there's only one option, I am forced to use it. If they gouge me, it is certainly the government's role to stop it.
You might say "Well, don't have a phone!" but that's just a restatement for "Let them eat cake", which never was and never will be a philosophy I think is appropriate for government.
I don't want them to say "We won't do Action A. We can change this contract any time we want without telling you."
I want to see "We WILL do Actions A, B, C, and D. If we change this policy, we will call you and ask for your permission to disclose this information."
What incentive do I have to NOT game the system? If they're not doing anything inappropriate with the data, it won't matter.
I'd be willing to not pay the sale price. The problem is, they RAISE the price if you don't have the card. Sometimes by a significant factor. (Four bucks for a pound of butter? Forget it.)
Again, if only a few stores had the "don't fuck me" cards, it'd be fine. I'd go to other stores. And if I could get reasonable prices (yes, that's my determination) without the card, I'd do that.
However, I can't, so I'm forced to abuse the system in whatever small ways I can.
Where I live, all the grocery stores (except the high end "organic" shops) have loyalty cards. They have raised their non-loyalty-card prices to the level of said high end shops. So if you want decent prices on groceries, you get a card.
I resent the hell out of this practice. I made a point of telling the manager of the one store that held out (for almost a year) whenever I was in the store "I appreciate that you don't have a loyalty card. That is why I come here, rather than to the stores that are closer to my house."
Didn't do any good.
Voting with your dollars is just like voting in a presidential election. When all the choices suck, you're hosed.
Used to live in Wheaton. Now live in Dallas. For a while, we had a Pizzaria Uno's not too far from my place, and it was acceptable.
However, the best pizza I've eaten outside of Gino's is in Austin. Mangia Pizza is teh roolz.
Forget that nelly "new york style" crap. If I want to eat fax paper, I'll go eat fax paper. I want an inch and a half of cheese and meat and veggies, and the pizza must weigh ten pounds.
I was the single technical support guy for 100 doctors' offices, each from two to ten PC's. If something blew up, I got the call.
I was able to take the scaredest-of-the-computer receptionist, and teach her how to a) fix simple problems (like "I can't print!") and also to gather data about other problems so that I could more easily troubleshoot them.
It's an interpersonal skills thing. You get them on your side, by being extremely polite and supportive. You get them to trust that a) you know what you're doing and b) you don't mind helping them. If you approach them with a "You are a stupid luser" attitude, they are not going to cooperate.
If the person is so aggressively stupid (such are in the vanishing minority in my experience) you start documenting stuff, and talk to their supervisor. "Hey, Person X is having particular trouble with their computer. How about popping for this class to help them be more productive?"
My dad's a retail pharmacist. Think you get bad calls on your phone? Imagine having to let grumpy old sick people shout at you because their health insurance fucked something up. Imagine this happens every. single. day. all day. Now imagine earning a doctorate just to have the privilege of having grumpy old sick people shout at you.
Now imagine that the pharmacy's accounting system is set up such that it is not possible for you to fulfill its performance requirements.
You don't know anything about the "average" human. The average human makes their purchase and walks out of your life, and you never remember them. At one end of the normal distribution, you have the idiots like you describe. At the other end, you have people like me, who smile at cashiers and say "Thank you!" when we leave.
But you don't remember the average ones and the nice ones. You just let the assholes give us all a bad name. Maybe I should become an asshole, so you will remember me.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm a geek.
I like the product.
Your stereotypes are not helpful.
I think my grandparent's post is spot on.
I requre phone service. If there's only one option, I am forced to use it. If they gouge me, it is certainly the government's role to stop it.
You might say "Well, don't have a phone!" but that's just a restatement for "Let them eat cake", which never was and never will be a philosophy I think is appropriate for government.
Yeah, because the court system would be the perfect way to run a telco. Perfectly logical, that.
It's more like a judge sees a one of the competitors murdering all his opponents, and decides to prosecute him for committing a crime.
At least, that's what it would be if we had a true capitalist system.
Well, since these communities were apparently getting better service for lower prices, yes, the government DOES provide better service.
And monopoly means one. When there's competition, there is not monopoly. There is free market. That is good.
Capitalism without a free market is like getting fucked in the ass without a reacharound.
No, but one of its purposes is to regulate harmful monopolies.
You miss my point.
I don't want them to say "We won't do Action A. We can change this contract any time we want without telling you."
I want to see "We WILL do Actions A, B, C, and D. If we change this policy, we will call you and ask for your permission to disclose this information."
What incentive do I have to NOT game the system? If they're not doing anything inappropriate with the data, it won't matter.
If they were going to be honest with me about the consequences of the contract, that would be one thing.
But they're not. They can do whatever they want with the data, and that is not acceptable to me. So I go out of my way to break their system.
I'd be willing to not pay the sale price. The problem is, they RAISE the price if you don't have the card. Sometimes by a significant factor. (Four bucks for a pound of butter? Forget it.)
Again, if only a few stores had the "don't fuck me" cards, it'd be fine. I'd go to other stores. And if I could get reasonable prices (yes, that's my determination) without the card, I'd do that.
However, I can't, so I'm forced to abuse the system in whatever small ways I can.
Your mom was a big one.
A BIG one.
(just kidding, mate. Touche. : )
So you're willing to sell your anonymity for baby formula coupons. That's fine...that's your prerogative.
However, the rest of us don't have a choice, and that is unacceptable.
Where I live, all the grocery stores (except the high end "organic" shops) have loyalty cards. They have raised their non-loyalty-card prices to the level of said high end shops. So if you want decent prices on groceries, you get a card.
I resent the hell out of this practice. I made a point of telling the manager of the one store that held out (for almost a year) whenever I was in the store "I appreciate that you don't have a loyalty card. That is why I come here, rather than to the stores that are closer to my house."
Didn't do any good.
Voting with your dollars is just like voting in a presidential election. When all the choices suck, you're hosed.
None of mine did. I couldn't find my driver's license that said
Vladimir Il'ych Lenin
123 Kremlin St.
Moscow, USSR
02134
They didn't seem to mind. I think I've got customer loyalty cards for most of the prominent figures in 20th century Soviet politics.
Now I know why you aren't good at technical support.
Used to live in Wheaton. Now live in Dallas. For a while, we had a Pizzaria Uno's not too far from my place, and it was acceptable.
However, the best pizza I've eaten outside of Gino's is in Austin. Mangia Pizza is teh roolz.
Forget that nelly "new york style" crap. If I want to eat fax paper, I'll go eat fax paper. I want an inch and a half of cheese and meat and veggies, and the pizza must weigh ten pounds.
I was the single technical support guy for 100 doctors' offices, each from two to ten PC's. If something blew up, I got the call.
I was able to take the scaredest-of-the-computer receptionist, and teach her how to a) fix simple problems (like "I can't print!") and also to gather data about other problems so that I could more easily troubleshoot them.
It's an interpersonal skills thing. You get them on your side, by being extremely polite and supportive. You get them to trust that a) you know what you're doing and b) you don't mind helping them. If you approach them with a "You are a stupid luser" attitude, they are not going to cooperate.
If the person is so aggressively stupid (such are in the vanishing minority in my experience) you start documenting stuff, and talk to their supervisor. "Hey, Person X is having particular trouble with their computer. How about popping for this class to help them be more productive?"
It's due diligence. It's your job.
Uh huh. That's why you make friends with them. You show them how the knowledge helps them get their job done with less effort.
My dad's a retail pharmacist. Think you get bad calls on your phone? Imagine having to let grumpy old sick people shout at you because their health insurance fucked something up. Imagine this happens every. single. day. all day. Now imagine earning a doctorate just to have the privilege of having grumpy old sick people shout at you.
Now imagine that the pharmacy's accounting system is set up such that it is not possible for you to fulfill its performance requirements.
Tell me that's not a recipe for dissatisfaction.
So when you do support, you teach them. If you can't do that, you're bad at your job.
Having an A+ cert doesn't make somebody a competent technician. Testing only evaluates your ability to pass tests.
Stop trying to foist off the responsibility onto somebody else. It is the help desk's job to a) fix the problem and b) educate the user.
It's hard. Lots of people are bad at it. Same is true of any profession.
Or maybe they're happy and you're not because you're too stupid to know how to be happy.
Yup. +2 for you.
looks like a Mangia pizza. Or a nice Gino's East. Yum.
If you have good people skills, you can defuse that fear and anger response. If you don't have good people skills, you're in the wrong damn job.
You don't know anything about the "average" human. The average human makes their purchase and walks out of your life, and you never remember them. At one end of the normal distribution, you have the idiots like you describe. At the other end, you have people like me, who smile at cashiers and say "Thank you!" when we leave.
But you don't remember the average ones and the nice ones. You just let the assholes give us all a bad name. Maybe I should become an asshole, so you will remember me.
The reason cars and airplanes are licensed is because they're dangerous.
The reason you think computers should be the same was is that you are an elitist.
Because you don't understand that heat transfer via moving air is about 20x more effective than passive cooling by conduction.
You might think that your aluminum case keeps your PC cooler, but to a very good approximation, you're wrong.
Airflow is the ONLY issue.