A few examples of GOOD customer support experiences, to let people know some companies still care:
I had purchased a copy of OS/2 3.0 from a friend. It was a boxed copy, still had all of the registration cards, manuals, etc. OS/2 did not like my sound card, which was a cheap SB16 clone. I called IBM tech support, and was rather horrified to know that I was a known OS/2 custoemr in their records (despite never using it before, not telling them about it, and my friend never tellng them about me. Odd) Anyway, the support person that I spoke with actually had a clue, and ironically shared a story about how he promised himself he'd never buy IBM again because of bad tech support in the past. Anyway, it two phone calls over two days, but IBM eventually had me download an experiemntal driver from their website and said that if that did not work, they would conference to determine whether they had to fly a tech to my home to solve it, or if there were a way to solve the problem more quickly. All this over a $50 copy of OS/2!
My new HP USB scanner (4100C, I think it was) didn't work in my computer because there were two basic types of USB controller: The Intel one and everyone else. I had everyone else. I called HP tech support who, after about an hour, could not solve it. The tech eventually spoke with someone else and found that it was a known problem with my USB controller. Now, the company that I purchased the scanner from, Future Shop in Boise, ID. (USA), had gone out of business so I was pretty convinced I was SOL and out of $200. The HP tech then asked me if I had a working parallel port or SCSI controller. I did, so he offered to send next HIGHER scanner to me provided I sent the old one back, and that it would take 6-8 weeks to deliver. Well, 5 weeks later I called (6-8 weeks is usually a BS figure they give for safety so you don't bug them) and asked where the scanner was. Apparently the last guy had forgotten to ask for my credit card for collateral in case I did not send back the old scanner... So he sent the next higher up scanner after the one they already offered to send. A 6100Cse. So, I was getting a $400 scanner as a replacement for a $200 scanner. Not bad. The next day the scanner arrived, sent priority overnight and with documents explaining who to call to have my scanner picked up on HP's bill. That pretty much won me over to HP, other than their crappy PCs. I was very impressed at how far they went to solve the problem.
Cisco: I have a friend that works for a telco in Pocatello, ID, USA. To make my point clear, let me give you some quick background: Pocatello has a population of about 45,000 people. It is in Idaho, one of the physically largest states in the USA with one of the smallest populations. The total population of the whole state barely exceeds 1 million and there are zero major cities within several hours. There was a problem with a Cisco router and my friend's work. Bad power supply, IIRC. He called Cisco about it and they had a replacement part to him TWO HOURS LATER! They had actually hired a taxi cab to deliver it that much faster. How they got a part to such a podunk little backwater town in two hours amazes me to this day. The have no offices anywhere near.
DirecTV also has great support (the support guys get in trouble if they don't solve your problem--if they don't, ask to speak to a supervisor).
I don't think it's fair to associate Albert Einstein's theory of relativity with a mushroom cloud. The theory and Einstein himself were about advancing the state of human knowledge, not destroying it. It was even Einstein himself who made the famous quote, ""I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."
My perception of "Opteron" was being derived from "optical" For example, using optical chip technology. I guess that's entirely forgiveable as Intel's "coppermine" implied using copper interconnects.
1) If you need my email address, I don't need your software. (and if I do need your software, I'll enter support@microsoft.com) 2) Most utilities and apps are more trouble than they're worth. Particularly if we are talking about Windows software, it seems popular for 'programmers' to make a big deal out of their little program, writing all over the registry and putting files who knows where (which should not leave the program's own directory). Most of these save their registry settings "just in case" its reinstalled and don't fully uninstall themselves. As far as Unix programs, chances are there's a better and free implimentation at Freshmeat. Make it GPL. 3) With Windows shareware/demoware in general, it's just a pain to deal with the cute little "register me" BS like popup windows, program start delays, time limits, "enter your registration number," etc. If I like the program, I'll register it, but annoying me every time I use the program just associates being annoyed with using that program. Psychology 101 will show companies why that is a bad thing. Just my $0.02
Re:Using it right now!!!
on
WineX 2.0
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· Score: 2
How does Max Payne on WINE perform relative to, say, Windows? Also, please post any weird flakinesses that may pop up. I'd install it on my Gentoo Linux setup, but its portage system (the whole thing) bit the dust after a power out. (and i'm using XFS!) Also, what hardware are you running? Thanks!
Re:important WineX info
on
WineX 2.0
·
· Score: 0, Offtopic
OT: This guy has some pretty good posts. It's really too bad that he has to degrade himself and/. with stuff like this.
Intel is evil, Cyrix is laughable, and now AMD is evil. Who does that leave? Transmeta? Not for a high end system. Looks like it's finally time to switch to Mac.
That is incorrect. I am a soldier and ahve spoken with the press a few times; nothing about "what to say" was ever mentioned to me and some comments that I made, which were not positive, were never mentioned by anyone else. The military prefers "impressing civilians" by being very good at D&C (Drill & Ceremony), meaning everything related to being in a formation (a group of soldiers organized in columns and rows.) I doubt it works. I personally wouldn't particularly care if someone was marching out of step with everyone else.
Yes, obviously a high end RAID array is going to need a real RAID card, but we aren't talking about server class hardware here. Guess what, if a server has a modem it will probably be hardware based as well. Since we are talking about consumer products here, my RAID example was more referring to two and four channel IDE RAID. That said, if you want to be not-picky, Linux and FreeBSD andeven Windows 2000 have very good software RAID support--good enough that they would indeed compete with your hardware RAID array if the CPU wasn't completely pinned doing other things. In fact, software RAID has an advantage in that it has a large, powerful CPU to back it up, whereas most hardware RAID cards (yours not included) have relatively wimpy processors and can be a bottleneck on large RAID5 arrays. Software can also support mixed SCSI/IDE drives without complaining, thoguh this wouldn;t be optimal.
Anyway, back on topic now, take a Winmodem and a hardware modem. Guess which wins? Neither. There is nothing about either that inherantly makes it faster, and the.5% of CPU clock time it uses isn't significant. Even if MS's hardware drivers eat 30% of a GHz Athlon, big deal, the ordinary consumer can't tell the difference between a K6-2/500 and a AthlonXP 2000+ in most apps, and CPUs will get faster anyway, as will the drivers.
Remember the first winmodems ate quite a bit of clock time, but now it isn't even on the radar, the only concern is that Winmodems aren't multiplatform. We can't rationally tear down a technology just because it doesn't support Linux or just because it was made by Microsoft. Even Microsoft has come up with some really good technologies. I can't think of any at the moment... Anyway, you're probably just a troll trying to brag about your expensive hardware so I'll stop this long, boring, partly offtopic reply now.
One way to reduce hardware cost is to put hardware functions in software. You don't see anyone calling "monopoly" about software RAID cards, and those that do pay far more (andget only marginally better performance) from hardware RAID. Winmodems may be a PITA for us, but you can get then for $5, vs. $70ish for a hardware modem (the 3Com Performance Pro comes to mind) I can see that Microsoft may look at this as another opportunity to extend the duration of their doomed monopoly, but honestly I don't believe that they are morally obligated to keep hardware prices up by NOT integrating their functions into software. They are, after all, a software company.
Does it not make sense to introduce new stolen ideas to make more use of software? Besides, these are Microsoft drivers. They'll probably be slow enough to help the ailing hardware industry sell a few more chips. That's aid that they could use now. Yes, I know it isn't kisher to say that not *everything* Microsoft does is evil. Mod me down if you like.
Actually it is free, as in beer, at the moment. As you can see on this page: "Insight 2.9 is now free for a limited time. This is a full functioning version and does not have an expiration date."
and
"This offer is good now and until further notice."
The freeness seems a little precarious, though.
That's right, every single person, at least everyone reading this, should own an X-box. Why? Microsoft supporters can buy one and enjoy the rather excellent games available for it, and
Microsoft... Um, non-supporters can buy one knowing that Microsoft loses over one hundred U.S. Dollars with each purchase, not buy any games for it, and install Linux to serve a website that makes fun of the hourly IIS 'sploits.
You can usually control what version FreeBSD installs via the ports collection by going to the appropriate version directory and installing from there. If you go to/usr/ports/shells/bash; bash version 1 will likely be installed. Instead, you'd go do/usr/ports/shells/bash2 Often there is a development branch port as well, but that's what CVS is for.:)
You wouldn't put them into a beowulf cluster anymore than you would put hard drives into a beowulf cluster. RAID is what you want, but really, a RAID array of these things would be pretty rediculous.:-)
Games usually run from main memory, so the storage system would only effect load times. Of course, your Q3 frame rates would likely shoot up if you ran the game from your swapfile...
To get the full bandwidth utilization out of one of these over a network, you would need at least 640 gigabit ethernet connections, and even that would work only if the cards transfered data at their peak theoretical bandwidth. In reality, you'd likely need a bare minimum of 800.
Slashdot Mirror
A few examples of GOOD customer support experiences, to let people know some companies still care:
I had purchased a copy of OS/2 3.0 from a friend. It was a boxed copy, still had all of the registration cards, manuals, etc. OS/2 did not like my sound card, which was a cheap SB16 clone. I called IBM tech support, and was rather horrified to know that I was a known OS/2 custoemr in their records (despite never using it before, not telling them about it, and my friend never tellng them about me. Odd) Anyway, the support person that I spoke with actually had a clue, and ironically shared a story about how he promised himself he'd never buy IBM again because of bad tech support in the past. Anyway, it two phone calls over two days, but IBM eventually had me download an experiemntal driver from their website and said that if that did not work, they would conference to determine whether they had to fly a tech to my home to solve it, or if there were a way to solve the problem more quickly. All this over a $50 copy of OS/2!
My new HP USB scanner (4100C, I think it was) didn't work in my computer because there were two basic types of USB controller: The Intel one and everyone else. I had everyone else. I called HP tech support who, after about an hour, could not solve it. The tech eventually spoke with someone else and found that it was a known problem with my USB controller. Now, the company that I purchased the scanner from, Future Shop in Boise, ID. (USA), had gone out of business so I was pretty convinced I was SOL and out of $200.
The HP tech then asked me if I had a working parallel port or SCSI controller. I did, so he offered to send next HIGHER scanner to me provided I sent the old one back, and that it would take 6-8 weeks to deliver.
Well, 5 weeks later I called (6-8 weeks is usually a BS figure they give for safety so you don't bug them) and asked where the scanner was. Apparently the last guy had forgotten to ask for my credit card for collateral in case I did not send back the old scanner... So he sent the next higher up scanner after the one they already offered to send. A 6100Cse. So, I was getting a $400 scanner as a replacement for a $200 scanner. Not bad.
The next day the scanner arrived, sent priority overnight and with documents explaining who to call to have my scanner picked up on HP's bill.
That pretty much won me over to HP, other than their crappy PCs. I was very impressed at how far they went to solve the problem.
Cisco:
I have a friend that works for a telco in Pocatello, ID, USA. To make my point clear, let me give you some quick background: Pocatello has a population of about 45,000 people. It is in Idaho, one of the physically largest states in the USA with one of the smallest populations. The total population of the whole state barely exceeds 1 million and there are zero major cities within several hours.
There was a problem with a Cisco router and my friend's work. Bad power supply, IIRC. He called Cisco about it and they had a replacement part to him TWO HOURS LATER! They had actually hired a taxi cab to deliver it that much faster. How they got a part to such a podunk little backwater town in two hours amazes me to this day. The have no offices anywhere near.
DirecTV also has great support (the support guys get in trouble if they don't solve your problem--if they don't, ask to speak to a supervisor).
I don't think it's fair to associate Albert Einstein's theory of relativity with a mushroom cloud. The theory and Einstein himself were about advancing the state of human knowledge, not destroying it. It was even Einstein himself who made the famous quote, ""I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."
It's a good thing they had the servers all in one place, else they may have inconvenience the thieves.
My perception of "Opteron" was being derived from "optical"
For example, using optical chip technology.
I guess that's entirely forgiveable as Intel's "coppermine" implied using copper interconnects.
1) If you need my email address, I don't need your software. (and if I do need your software, I'll enter support@microsoft.com)
2) Most utilities and apps are more trouble than they're worth. Particularly if we are talking about Windows software, it seems popular for 'programmers' to make a big deal out of their little program, writing all over the registry and putting files who knows where (which should not leave the program's own directory). Most of these save their registry settings "just in case" its reinstalled and don't fully uninstall themselves.
As far as Unix programs, chances are there's a better and free implimentation at Freshmeat. Make it GPL.
3) With Windows shareware/demoware in general, it's just a pain to deal with the cute little "register me" BS like popup windows, program start delays, time limits, "enter your registration number," etc. If I like the program, I'll register it, but annoying me every time I use the program just associates being annoyed with using that program.
Psychology 101 will show companies why that is a bad thing.
Just my $0.02
How does Max Payne on WINE perform relative to, say, Windows?
Also, please post any weird flakinesses that may pop up. I'd install it on my Gentoo Linux setup, but its portage system (the whole thing) bit the dust after a power out. (and i'm using XFS!)
Also, what hardware are you running?
Thanks!
OT: /. with stuff like this.
This guy has some pretty good posts. It's really too bad that he has to degrade himself and
Er, was the voice recognition written in Perl?
That would be an...interesting challenge.
Go program something new.
Like a desktop written in Perl?
OMG! An "Ask Slashdot" question in which the submitter checked search engines first!? :-)
Of course, in the REAL world, developers always keep all the code to themselves.
This makes it more challenging for coworkers.
Intel is evil, Cyrix is laughable, and now AMD is evil. Who does that leave? Transmeta? Not for a high end system.
Looks like it's finally time to switch to Mac.
That is incorrect. I am a soldier and ahve spoken with the press a few times; nothing about "what to say" was ever mentioned to me and some comments that I made, which were not positive, were never mentioned by anyone else. The military prefers "impressing civilians" by being very good at D&C (Drill & Ceremony), meaning everything related to being in a formation (a group of soldiers organized in columns and rows.)
I doubt it works. I personally wouldn't particularly care if someone was marching out of step with everyone else.
Yes, obviously a high end RAID array is going to need a real RAID card, but we aren't talking about server class hardware here.
.5% of CPU clock time it uses isn't significant. Even if MS's hardware drivers eat 30% of a GHz Athlon, big deal, the ordinary consumer can't tell the difference between a K6-2/500 and a AthlonXP 2000+ in most apps, and CPUs will get faster anyway, as will the drivers.
Guess what, if a server has a modem it will probably be hardware based as well.
Since we are talking about consumer products here, my RAID example was more referring to two and four channel IDE RAID.
That said, if you want to be not-picky, Linux and FreeBSD andeven Windows 2000 have very good software RAID support--good enough that they would indeed compete with your hardware RAID array if the CPU wasn't completely pinned doing other things.
In fact, software RAID has an advantage in that it has a large, powerful CPU to back it up, whereas most hardware RAID cards (yours not included) have relatively wimpy processors and can be a bottleneck on large RAID5 arrays. Software can also support mixed SCSI/IDE drives without complaining, thoguh this wouldn;t be optimal.
Anyway, back on topic now, take a Winmodem and a hardware modem. Guess which wins? Neither. There is nothing about either that inherantly makes it faster, and the
Remember the first winmodems ate quite a bit of clock time, but now it isn't even on the radar, the only concern is that Winmodems aren't multiplatform.
We can't rationally tear down a technology just because it doesn't support Linux or just because it was made by Microsoft. Even Microsoft has come up with some really good technologies. I can't think of any at the moment... Anyway, you're probably just a troll trying to brag about your expensive hardware so I'll stop this long, boring, partly offtopic reply now.
One way to reduce hardware cost is to put hardware functions in software.
You don't see anyone calling "monopoly" about software RAID cards, and those that do pay far more (andget only marginally better performance) from hardware RAID.
Winmodems may be a PITA for us, but you can get then for $5, vs. $70ish for a hardware modem (the 3Com Performance Pro comes to mind)
I can see that Microsoft may look at this as another opportunity to extend the duration of their doomed monopoly, but honestly I don't believe that they are morally obligated to keep hardware prices up by NOT integrating their functions into software. They are, after all, a software company.
Does it not make sense to introduce new stolen ideas to make more use of software?
Besides, these are Microsoft drivers. They'll probably be slow enough to help the ailing hardware industry sell a few more chips. That's aid that they could use now.
Yes, I know it isn't kisher to say that not *everything* Microsoft does is evil. Mod me down if you like.
Actually it is free, as in beer, at the moment. As you can see on this page: "Insight 2.9 is now free for a limited time. This is a full functioning version and does not have an expiration date."
and
"This offer is good now and until further notice."
The freeness seems a little precarious, though.
"time is an illusion, lunchtime even more so"
No.
"Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so."
Remember, Douglas Adams was British, and the British like using the word "doubly."
"Where else can you develop software on a personal workstation and feel comfortable that it'll run smoothly on the big-iron servers down the hall?"
Java.
That's right, every single person, at least everyone reading this, should own an X-box.
Why?
Microsoft supporters can buy one and enjoy the rather excellent games available for it, and
Microsoft... Um, non-supporters can buy one knowing that Microsoft loses over one hundred U.S. Dollars with each purchase, not buy any games for it, and install Linux to serve a website that makes fun of the hourly IIS 'sploits.
You can usually control what version FreeBSD installs via the ports collection by going to the appropriate version directory and installing from there. If you go to /usr/ports/shells/bash; bash version 1 will likely be installed. Instead, you'd go do /usr/ports/shells/bash2 :)
Often there is a development branch port as well, but that's what CVS is for.
How, exactly, is this offtopic? It's a storage system, storage systems are used in file servers.
Sheesh, getting an offtopic moderation for an on-topic post in response to a story that I was the submitter for.
224GB is quite a bit for a solid state storage device--look at the Quantum Rushmore drives. Their capacities are in the single digit GB.
You wouldn't put them into a beowulf cluster anymore than you would put hard drives into a beowulf cluster. RAID is what you want, but really, a RAID array of these things would be pretty rediculous. :-)
Games usually run from main memory, so the storage system would only effect load times. Of course, your Q3 frame rates would likely shoot up if you ran the game from your swapfile...
To get the full bandwidth utilization out of one of these over a network, you would need at least 640 gigabit ethernet connections, and even that would work only if the cards transfered data at their peak theoretical bandwidth. In reality, you'd likely need a bare minimum of 800.
That'd be a great headline for Samba.org...