The way I read the story, it seems he wasn't a "tech" as in tech support script-reading monkey that asks if your computer is turned on.
It seems that he was a tech that was out in the field, and able to tap into land lines with their special little widget. So if he's in a quiet suburb in the middle of the day, it's plausible nobody would notice what he was really doing unless he was making motions.
Editing source code isn't fundamentally different than word processing, either.
Actually, you have to figure it does.
Ignoring the fact that many developers will do a partial build from time to time, an IDE is doing a lot more in the background that a word processor. It's checking your syntax, suggesting functions, performing auto-completion. All of this work is more complex that the automatic spell checker and grammar checker.
I'm not saying it's night and day, but there is a difference. And again, depending on the platform you might want a partial compile, build, or debug run.
Oh, then again the evil PaperClip might hit your performance a little to so maybe that brings it closer?
I know too many people that think "beta" means Gold (or at least Release Candidate). I wouldn't be surprised if they now think "beta" is synonymous with freeware.
Anything beta should be given a lot leeway in terms of stability and performance.
On the other hand, if the difference is DRASTICALLY different from past versions then maybe it brings some pause. While it could simply be the package isn't optimized and there are debug lines in there, it is also possible that it is a sign that the end-product might be a hog.
Interesting! How does it compare with IntelliJ IDEA?
I'm currently stuck on IntelliJ ver 5.1, though I used IntelliJ ver 6 for a while. Sadly I don't recall much about the IntelliJ 7 demo I tried].
I'd say NetBeans 6 is better than IntelliJ 5, and probably around as good as IntelliJ 6. Plus it's free, which is also good. I'm no NetBeans zealot as I'm still getting familiar with it, but I'm liking what I see (save that slowdown issue I mentioned).
The only thing I don't fancy about NetBeans 6 is the way they handle the User Libraries (or perhaps I haven't figured them out yet). While other IDEs let you setup your Global Libraries in a similar way (where you make your own segmented list of Libraries you see yourself using) it appears NetBeans 6.1 allows you to add to an existing list. So instead of a lean Library list that has only what you use you get some other stuff.
I'm still pretty early into NetBeans but so far it's looking pretty good. Assuming I don't find a bunch of things I don't like I might start using it at work.
As I mention, it does start slowing down at work when I start modifying code while in run/debug mode (for a long/large process) so that is annoying, then again I probably shouldn't be doing that anyway. Also so far I've only noticed that problem at work, which has a slower Intel CPU (SingleCore). At home I have a fast rig with dual cores.
I never really liked NetBeans, I tried it with ver 5 and decided to stick with IntelliJ and Eclipse.
Recently I decided to give NetBeans 6.1 a try and was quite impressed. There was little/no noticeable lag, unless I was coding while I was "running/debugging" a long-running process.
There are many things it does that I like over Eclipse.
I'll admit my "retail" experience is limited to what few years I worked behind a register years ago...
But I'd imagine an online store (and its customer) could benefit from keeping the transaction record (with CC number) for a few weeks if only to handle Returns and Refunds.
IE, the (usual) 30-day return policy some stores have. It would make refunding everything a little easier. It would be less back-and-forth, the store could initiate the refund without having to ask you "OK, please give me the credit card number ending in wxyz."
Beyond that, maybe something to do with them handling a "stolen credit card report" if it came a few days after a fraudulent purchase.
But that should be it. They shouldn't be permanently archiving these things or keeping them for months on end.
That is not something you do over the phone! What is wrong with you?!?! Ever hear about phishing? You make them come into the office, provide identification and in the scenario you suggested, a death certificate, and work it in the office.
My first line: Sample scenario of face-to-face between widow and life insurance agent, using your logic.
Granted, I'll give you that my opening Widow line sounded a little like a phonecall. It was meant to be her talking to an agent face to face. With only relying on account numbers we run into problems.
The (Canadian) cable company that I do some occasional tech work for can look up subscriber records by account number (of course), name, street address or telephone number. Telephone number lookup is generally about as fast as account number. Name or street address generally takes about one minute.
And that's what I've come to expect. I had the account number written down and obviously knew the rest if they needed it. But this idiot said I could not report it with a SSN.
I asked him "do you mean account number?" and he replied "know, your social security number." I found that completely rediculous and told him as much. I even suspected it was bogus since I'd never been asked that before by a cable company tech support lackey.
So I hung up and called back later. They let me proceed with just the phone number and confirmation of the address. I should have questioned the lady on the phone during the second call but I was in a hurry to go out that night.
You don't need to store all those details about personal identity though. You only need to know that someone is the person with a contract with you.
Sample scenario of face-to-face between widow and life insurance agent, using your logic.
WidowHi, sniff, this is Mrs So-and-So. My husband was just killed in a fire last week. Specifically our house burned down. I believe he has a policy with you. Agent:I'm sorry to hear that. What's his account number? Widow:I don't know, most of his papers burned and I can't find them. Agent:I'm sorry without your account number I cannot help you Widow:But here's the police report, death certificate, his name, social security number, and birth certificate Agent:Sorry, without that number I cannot continue. NEXT!
Now, granted said husband should have kept that info in a safe deposit box, fireproof safe, etc. But a wife, husband, daughter, mother, etc might not always have access to account info.
In those cases they would need to backtrack via personal data (name + birthday, etc). Sure the process might need a lot more red tape to weed out fraud but it still needs to be a possibility.
Nobody needs to store SSN's except the government that issues them. The fact that people made the MISTAKE of standardizing on SSN's as primary keys for users to begin with is their own fault.
I'm no Database expert (or DBA) but I'd never use SSN as a primary key for the same reasons you listed (not to mention privacy ones). However, considering the piss-poor Oracle developers and DBAs I've met I have no doubt that some people out there are using it that way.
Heck, colleges alone probably start the trend in the people they train as many colleges use the SSN as the student number that has to be on every-piece-of-paper a student hands in.
Considering how imporant a SSN is, I'm pretty disappointed in how many places ask for it. I reported a cable outtage to Comcast for my parents once and the idiot tech said they couldn't proceed without the subscribers SSN. I questioned him on it and aruged that it was rediculous until I finally hung up.
Apparently you have not purchased life insurance recently.
I'll be brief.
When an Agent sells you a policy they bring along a laptop and enter your personal information into it.
Following along so far? Good.
Sarcastic much?
I have. First 7 years ago, the same policy and time he got his, and more recently I got a 2nd policy 3 years ago. And in both cases there was no face-to-face with an insurance guy as they were through my companies.
In both of our cases (7 years ago) it was through our respective Consulting firms, and we had to certify-mail and fax some data to their head office and were done. Since we left they let us continue our policy no problem.
It's not a major policy, just enough to cover our funerals and maybe a little extra.
So if this was 7 years ago, and there was no face-to-face, then why should it be on a laptop in 2008?
It should have been entered directly into their system and that should have been the end of it.
Someone suggested that his data was being used to render some report (or some such nonsense). That makes more sense than "someone cached our data 7 years ago while entering it and never deleted it."
I've got a better idea. Ban the collection of personal information beyond the time required for the transaction. I don't but it that companies somehow need to store all this info on people especially years after the transaction has occurred. If you are going to be light on them when they lose it, then be heavy on what they can keep.
Well what about long-term services like Life Insurance? A service like that would need to keep your Name, Birthday, Social Security Number, address, next of kin, etc until you died and someone collected. And what about Banks and Loan offices?
A friend of mine got a notice from his life insurance firm saying that a laptop was stolen that probably had his records on it. Why it would be on a flippin LAPTOP I have no idea, something like that should be a server only accessible from the company's encrypted network (but I digress).
I could also see the benefit of some stores keeping some light data on you (name, address, phone) so they can contact you but I think they should get rid of your credit card info after X days/weeks.
In all, it's a mixed bag of blame. Personally I think the government and law enforcement should take Identify Theft a lot more seriously, with major penalties against these fraudulent jerks.
Jersey resident here, and I get the 20Mbit plan (5Mbit up) from Verizon. And we weren't even one of the early ones to get it. Prior to that we were on DSL because we hate the cable company.
I guess it depends on where you live. I imagine rural Jersey has fewer options.
The only thing wrong with NJ is the taxes, cost of property, and the state gov.
Beyond that it's a nice place to live. Everyone always thinks all of NJ is inner-city Newark because that's all the see from the Parkway and Turnpike because of trees and sound dividers, or when they land at Newark International Airport, or look at us across the river.
When it fact it's a nice place with plenty of trees and forests.
Some people I know were talking about how they drove to NJ for the first time from out west. They were flabbergasted when they realized they'd been driving in NJ for over an hour and had stopped at a few places in NJ. They said they never saw that portion of NJ on the TV.
They do say median. Some areas, like rural sections, probably bring that down. And yes, there are a bunch of those areas on the east coast (though not as much as the mid-west).
Here in NJ (east coast US) we have Verizon Fiber as an option. I'm personally on a 20Mbit connection and I think they go up to 50Mbit for consumer-level. There might be faster offerings for consumers but 20 is fast enough for me.
I'll admit, I really doubt anything will "change" with Obama in office. All politicians talk of change and yet it's the same thing every administration.
In this case, we can't complain too much. The US VP does very little in the government. Some even say it's a joke position. He gets a vote in Congress, and has a lead position at NASA and the Smithsonian. Beyond that he has little power.
The one thing the VP can do for him is serve as an advisor.
Some people like that Obama is new, others think he lacks enough experience. By putting someone high profile in his camp that has experience, the nay-sayers can relax.
Now, I waited for the second generation iPhone to purchase one, and I have to deal with this. I was thinking about getting an apple notebook, but why bother when they have such a shitty track record ?
They have a bad track record for you, and I don't blame you for not wanting to go back. I had similar experiences with Dell systems in the past (insane physical issues due to design) which is why I tend to stay away from them now, even though they were probably flukes.
Honda may be known as a reliable brand of car, but if I had 1 or 2 Hondas that were nothing but problems I'd probably stop getting Hondas. Would that make Honda a bad choice for a car? No, but it won't stop me from ignoring them as a choice in the future.
As I said, Apple isn't perfect but I personally I wouldn't say they frequently screw up the hardware, because they're probably hitting par for the course as far as that goes, or maybe a little under.
Their systems are usually pretty nice and usually pretty well built. Their laptops tend to be nicer than much of the competition, and their iMacs are definitely worth a look unless the mere idea of it turns you off. But nobody is perfect.
First, I don't have an iPhone nor do I plan on getting one. And while I use a MacBook Pro at home I'm not a zealot... I've had tech issues with my Apple products.
Apple isn't perfect. They have the occasional hardware issue with their rev A systems and a poor OS update here and there. As a whole their systems are usually pretty darn stable, but they still get major issues.
Heck, I was suffering with a known keyboard issue on my MacBook Pro for a year before they fixed it. A year.
But in their defense, they're still somewhat new to the Cellphone arena. Sure, this is their second phone and some of the insides are similar to the iPod touch, but they're still new. It's like if a Car designer was asked to design and build a great riding lawn mower. They'd make one, but their first 2 models might have issues.
Meanwhile, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, etc have been pumping out Cellphones for a while and have gone through their growing pains. They know what to avoid when designing hardware and what to do when sending out a software update. And yet with all of this neither they are perfect.
I've had issues with cellphones from other companies, and know some people that experience MAJOR issues with other cellphones. It happens.
It's pretty sad that the 3G iPhone is running into problems. Especially since it has such high visibility due to everyone wanting one.
Actually, if this was any other cellphone company you would just get some bad reviews on a hardware site... and that's it. The fact that it's Apple means that it is appearing in more mainstream media.
Oh no, the Nokia xxxx is dropping calls left and right. Yawn. Oh no the Razor isn't great. Yawn.
Umm there's a problem with the iPho... OMG! CNN needs to cover this!
I've had/used cellphones that were pieces of garbage; dropped calls, poor reception, etc.
I guess that's the problem with a re-design; had they just refreshed the original iPhone there would be few technical glitches. But rolling out a new circuit board is causing them some headaches.
There are some concepts that one should dedicate their lives to: freedom, equality, free speech, freedom of religion, etc. People have laid down their lives for these.
Then there are some that, while important, do not merit spending your entire life on. The time and money spent on this issue was probably too much for her, and upon reach an agreeable settlement she probably said enough is enough.
Life isn't about money or lawsuits or even sticking it to greedy cowards. Life is about living.
Spending time with friends and family is priceless, and dealing with these greedy labels probably robbed her of enough birthday parties, outings, and nights of sleep.
At some point, for some issues, you need to pass the baton. If you want to continue the fight, then pick up the baton and yell a battle cry. Otherwise, do not question someone wishing to end a struggle that they do not want to spend years on end fighting.
Don't get me wrong, I sometimes think it's stupid to have commercials on a service I'm paying for (like w/ X radio).
But the grandparent clearly separates "basic cable" with "premium channels," and even admits that he/she can understand having them on basic cable. They typically come standard with a cable service. OTA is a separate animal.
"Basic cable" is the standard cable content: basic channels like Comedy Central, USA, SciFi, Discovery, Hallmark, etc.
"Premium" channels are those you have to pay extra to get beyond cable's basic offerings. These channels typically include HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, Starz, etc.
On said "premium" channels, I've never seen an advert that wasn't about its own channel. Adverts would only come between shows and would be about upcoming shows/movies on that channel, like "Don't forget to tune into Dexter's new season, start this Fall."
So if he means premium meaning "anything I have to pay for" then yes, he's technically paying for the OTA channels coming through Cable. But the cable is just re-transmitting the channels to him.
I'm "less" annoyed by the popups now, but only because some people got a clue about the noise-factor.
If I'm watching a crime drama I don't need to hear the sounds of car engines roaring and impact wrenches activating to notice the Nascar logo on the bottom of the screen.
Seeing the logo is one thing, not being able to hear the dialog in a friggin MYSTERY show is infuriating. Thankfully I don't experience many of those loud popups anymore.
Excellent point, I always found it odd that even the quite expensive "premium" channels have advertising.
Define premium.
Around here, we define premium as HBO, ShowTime, Starz, etc. The only commercials I've ever seen on these channels are adverts for themselves... like "Tune in next month for a new season of Dexter, everyone's favorite serial killer" or "The Tudors are returning this fall." I find that completely acceptable.
Then again I don't watch any premium Sports channels so I don't know much about them.
Don't get me wrong, I find it annoying that there are so many adverts on basic cable.
For a while Verizon Fios was giving out free Digital adapter boxes if you went to a service station and asked (no purchase or rental). They're really cheap-quality boxes, about the size of a CD wallet and don't have a TV Guide or VoD server. They just allow for manual entry of channels via a remote (which is what most people really need anyway).
But they can watch all non-HD channels that you subscribe to, all the way up through the 1000's.
I think they charge for them now as a purchase (not a rental). So you might want to ask about it.
The problem Apple has is with them putting OSX on the systems and selling them. Legal or not, their EULA prohibits this in multiple layers.
While they won't stop or sue Joe Sixpack for installing it on his Dell after some fidgeting, they do have a problem with a company making profit by selling systems with their product.
On top of which, I think that the version of OSX they're installing is a patched system so it can explicitly work on their generic rigs. And that brings about even more Eula and/or copyright questions. IE, what if you started selling a slipstream install of Vista with a bunch of modules installed?
And lastly, Apple is probably worried about 2 more thing: 1) IBM vs Clone market, and how it pretty much killed their desktop dept. 2) Brand control. Joe Sixpacks around the world might buy Psystars and call them Macs, and get annoyed when the patched systems don't work right. Then the FUD about unstable Macs start being spread.
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The way I read the story, it seems he wasn't a "tech" as in tech support script-reading monkey that asks if your computer is turned on.
It seems that he was a tech that was out in the field, and able to tap into land lines with their special little widget. So if he's in a quiet suburb in the middle of the day, it's plausible nobody would notice what he was really doing unless he was making motions.
Then again I could be wrong.
Actually, you have to figure it does.
Ignoring the fact that many developers will do a partial build from time to time, an IDE is doing a lot more in the background that a word processor. It's checking your syntax, suggesting functions, performing auto-completion. All of this work is more complex that the automatic spell checker and grammar checker.
I'm not saying it's night and day, but there is a difference. And again, depending on the platform you might want a partial compile, build, or debug run.
Oh, then again the evil PaperClip might hit your performance a little to so maybe that brings it closer?
Blame Google.
I know too many people that think "beta" means Gold (or at least Release Candidate). I wouldn't be surprised if they now think "beta" is synonymous with freeware.
Anything beta should be given a lot leeway in terms of stability and performance.
On the other hand, if the difference is DRASTICALLY different from past versions then maybe it brings some pause. While it could simply be the package isn't optimized and there are debug lines in there, it is also possible that it is a sign that the end-product might be a hog.
Interesting! How does it compare with IntelliJ IDEA?
I'm currently stuck on IntelliJ ver 5.1, though I used IntelliJ ver 6 for a while. Sadly I don't recall much about the IntelliJ 7 demo I tried].
I'd say NetBeans 6 is better than IntelliJ 5, and probably around as good as IntelliJ 6. Plus it's free, which is also good. I'm no NetBeans zealot as I'm still getting familiar with it, but I'm liking what I see (save that slowdown issue I mentioned).
The only thing I don't fancy about NetBeans 6 is the way they handle the User Libraries (or perhaps I haven't figured them out yet). While other IDEs let you setup your Global Libraries in a similar way (where you make your own segmented list of Libraries you see yourself using) it appears NetBeans 6.1 allows you to add to an existing list. So instead of a lean Library list that has only what you use you get some other stuff.
I'm still pretty early into NetBeans but so far it's looking pretty good. Assuming I don't find a bunch of things I don't like I might start using it at work.
As I mention, it does start slowing down at work when I start modifying code while in run/debug mode (for a long/large process) so that is annoying, then again I probably shouldn't be doing that anyway. Also so far I've only noticed that problem at work, which has a slower Intel CPU (SingleCore). At home I have a fast rig with dual cores.
I never really liked NetBeans, I tried it with ver 5 and decided to stick with IntelliJ and Eclipse.
Recently I decided to give NetBeans 6.1 a try and was quite impressed. There was little/no noticeable lag, unless I was coding while I was "running/debugging" a long-running process.
There are many things it does that I like over Eclipse.
I'll admit my "retail" experience is limited to what few years I worked behind a register years ago...
But I'd imagine an online store (and its customer) could benefit from keeping the transaction record (with CC number) for a few weeks if only to handle Returns and Refunds.
IE, the (usual) 30-day return policy some stores have. It would make refunding everything a little easier. It would be less back-and-forth, the store could initiate the refund without having to ask you "OK, please give me the credit card number ending in wxyz."
Beyond that, maybe something to do with them handling a "stolen credit card report" if it came a few days after a fraudulent purchase.
But that should be it. They shouldn't be permanently archiving these things or keeping them for months on end.
That is not something you do over the phone! What is wrong with you?!?! Ever hear about phishing? You make them come into the office, provide identification and in the scenario you suggested, a death certificate, and work it in the office.
My first line:
Sample scenario of face-to-face between widow and life insurance agent, using your logic.
Granted, I'll give you that my opening Widow line sounded a little like a phonecall. It was meant to be her talking to an agent face to face. With only relying on account numbers we run into problems.
The (Canadian) cable company that I do some occasional tech work for can look up subscriber records by account number (of course), name, street address or telephone number. Telephone number lookup is generally about as fast as account number. Name or street address generally takes about one minute.
And that's what I've come to expect. I had the account number written down and obviously knew the rest if they needed it. But this idiot said I could not report it with a SSN.
I asked him "do you mean account number?" and he replied "know, your social security number." I found that completely rediculous and told him as much. I even suspected it was bogus since I'd never been asked that before by a cable company tech support lackey.
So I hung up and called back later. They let me proceed with just the phone number and confirmation of the address. I should have questioned the lady on the phone during the second call but I was in a hurry to go out that night.
Sample scenario of face-to-face between widow and life insurance agent, using your logic.
Widow Hi, sniff, this is Mrs So-and-So. My husband was just killed in a fire last week. Specifically our house burned down. I believe he has a policy with you.
Agent: I'm sorry to hear that. What's his account number?
Widow: I don't know, most of his papers burned and I can't find them.
Agent: I'm sorry without your account number I cannot help you
Widow: But here's the police report, death certificate, his name, social security number, and birth certificate
Agent: Sorry, without that number I cannot continue. NEXT!
Now, granted said husband should have kept that info in a safe deposit box, fireproof safe, etc. But a wife, husband, daughter, mother, etc might not always have access to account info.
In those cases they would need to backtrack via personal data (name + birthday, etc). Sure the process might need a lot more red tape to weed out fraud but it still needs to be a possibility.
I'm no Database expert (or DBA) but I'd never use SSN as a primary key for the same reasons you listed (not to mention privacy ones). However, considering the piss-poor Oracle developers and DBAs I've met I have no doubt that some people out there are using it that way.
Heck, colleges alone probably start the trend in the people they train as many colleges use the SSN as the student number that has to be on every-piece-of-paper a student hands in.
Considering how imporant a SSN is, I'm pretty disappointed in how many places ask for it. I reported a cable outtage to Comcast for my parents once and the idiot tech said they couldn't proceed without the subscribers SSN. I questioned him on it and aruged that it was rediculous until I finally hung up.
Sarcastic much?
I have. First 7 years ago, the same policy and time he got his, and more recently I got a 2nd policy 3 years ago. And in both cases there was no face-to-face with an insurance guy as they were through my companies.
In both of our cases (7 years ago) it was through our respective Consulting firms, and we had to certify-mail and fax some data to their head office and were done. Since we left they let us continue our policy no problem.
It's not a major policy, just enough to cover our funerals and maybe a little extra.
So if this was 7 years ago, and there was no face-to-face, then why should it be on a laptop in 2008?
It should have been entered directly into their system and that should have been the end of it.
Someone suggested that his data was being used to render some report (or some such nonsense). That makes more sense than "someone cached our data 7 years ago while entering it and never deleted it."
I've got a better idea. Ban the collection of personal information beyond the time required for the transaction. I don't but it that companies somehow need to store all this info on people especially years after the transaction has occurred. If you are going to be light on them when they lose it, then be heavy on what they can keep.
Well what about long-term services like Life Insurance? A service like that would need to keep your Name, Birthday, Social Security Number, address, next of kin, etc until you died and someone collected. And what about Banks and Loan offices?
A friend of mine got a notice from his life insurance firm saying that a laptop was stolen that probably had his records on it. Why it would be on a flippin LAPTOP I have no idea, something like that should be a server only accessible from the company's encrypted network (but I digress).
I could also see the benefit of some stores keeping some light data on you (name, address, phone) so they can contact you but I think they should get rid of your credit card info after X days/weeks.
In all, it's a mixed bag of blame. Personally I think the government and law enforcement should take Identify Theft a lot more seriously, with major penalties against these fraudulent jerks.
Jersey resident here, and I get the 20Mbit plan (5Mbit up) from Verizon. And we weren't even one of the early ones to get it. Prior to that we were on DSL because we hate the cable company.
I guess it depends on where you live. I imagine rural Jersey has fewer options.
The only thing wrong with NJ is the taxes, cost of property, and the state gov.
Beyond that it's a nice place to live. Everyone always thinks all of NJ is inner-city Newark because that's all the see from the Parkway and Turnpike because of trees and sound dividers, or when they land at Newark International Airport, or look at us across the river.
When it fact it's a nice place with plenty of trees and forests.
Some people I know were talking about how they drove to NJ for the first time from out west. They were flabbergasted when they realized they'd been driving in NJ for over an hour and had stopped at a few places in NJ. They said they never saw that portion of NJ on the TV.
They do say median. Some areas, like rural sections, probably bring that down. And yes, there are a bunch of those areas on the east coast (though not as much as the mid-west).
Here in NJ (east coast US) we have Verizon Fiber as an option. I'm personally on a 20Mbit connection and I think they go up to 50Mbit for consumer-level. There might be faster offerings for consumers but 20 is fast enough for me.
I'll admit, I really doubt anything will "change" with Obama in office. All politicians talk of change and yet it's the same thing every administration.
In this case, we can't complain too much. The US VP does very little in the government. Some even say it's a joke position. He gets a vote in Congress, and has a lead position at NASA and the Smithsonian. Beyond that he has little power.
The one thing the VP can do for him is serve as an advisor.
Some people like that Obama is new, others think he lacks enough experience. By putting someone high profile in his camp that has experience, the nay-sayers can relax.
They have a bad track record for you, and I don't blame you for not wanting to go back. I had similar experiences with Dell systems in the past (insane physical issues due to design) which is why I tend to stay away from them now, even though they were probably flukes.
Honda may be known as a reliable brand of car, but if I had 1 or 2 Hondas that were nothing but problems I'd probably stop getting Hondas. Would that make Honda a bad choice for a car? No, but it won't stop me from ignoring them as a choice in the future.
As I said, Apple isn't perfect but I personally I wouldn't say they frequently screw up the hardware, because they're probably hitting par for the course as far as that goes, or maybe a little under.
Their systems are usually pretty nice and usually pretty well built. Their laptops tend to be nicer than much of the competition, and their iMacs are definitely worth a look unless the mere idea of it turns you off. But nobody is perfect.
First, I don't have an iPhone nor do I plan on getting one. And while I use a MacBook Pro at home I'm not a zealot... I've had tech issues with my Apple products.
Apple isn't perfect. They have the occasional hardware issue with their rev A systems and a poor OS update here and there. As a whole their systems are usually pretty darn stable, but they still get major issues.
Heck, I was suffering with a known keyboard issue on my MacBook Pro for a year before they fixed it. A year.
But in their defense, they're still somewhat new to the Cellphone arena. Sure, this is their second phone and some of the insides are similar to the iPod touch, but they're still new. It's like if a Car designer was asked to design and build a great riding lawn mower. They'd make one, but their first 2 models might have issues.
Meanwhile, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, etc have been pumping out Cellphones for a while and have gone through their growing pains. They know what to avoid when designing hardware and what to do when sending out a software update. And yet with all of this neither they are perfect.
I've had issues with cellphones from other companies, and know some people that experience MAJOR issues with other cellphones. It happens.
Here's hoping that third time's a charm.
It's pretty sad that the 3G iPhone is running into problems. Especially since it has such high visibility due to everyone wanting one.
Actually, if this was any other cellphone company you would just get some bad reviews on a hardware site... and that's it. The fact that it's Apple means that it is appearing in more mainstream media.
Oh no, the Nokia xxxx is dropping calls left and right. Yawn. Oh no the Razor isn't great. Yawn.
Umm there's a problem with the iPho... OMG! CNN needs to cover this!
I've had/used cellphones that were pieces of garbage; dropped calls, poor reception, etc.
I guess that's the problem with a re-design; had they just refreshed the original iPhone there would be few technical glitches. But rolling out a new circuit board is causing them some headaches.
There are some concepts that one should dedicate their lives to: freedom, equality, free speech, freedom of religion, etc. People have laid down their lives for these.
Then there are some that, while important, do not merit spending your entire life on. The time and money spent on this issue was probably too much for her, and upon reach an agreeable settlement she probably said enough is enough.
Life isn't about money or lawsuits or even sticking it to greedy cowards. Life is about living.
Spending time with friends and family is priceless, and dealing with these greedy labels probably robbed her of enough birthday parties, outings, and nights of sleep.
At some point, for some issues, you need to pass the baton. If you want to continue the fight, then pick up the baton and yell a battle cry. Otherwise, do not question someone wishing to end a struggle that they do not want to spend years on end fighting.
Define premium.
TV service that you pay for, as opposed to OTA.
Don't get me wrong, I sometimes think it's stupid to have commercials on a service I'm paying for (like w/ X radio).
But the grandparent clearly separates "basic cable" with "premium channels," and even admits that he/she can understand having them on basic cable. They typically come standard with a cable service. OTA is a separate animal.
"Basic cable" is the standard cable content: basic channels like Comedy Central, USA, SciFi, Discovery, Hallmark, etc.
"Premium" channels are those you have to pay extra to get beyond cable's basic offerings. These channels typically include HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, Starz, etc.
On said "premium" channels, I've never seen an advert that wasn't about its own channel. Adverts would only come between shows and would be about upcoming shows/movies on that channel, like "Don't forget to tune into Dexter's new season, start this Fall."
So if he means premium meaning "anything I have to pay for" then yes, he's technically paying for the OTA channels coming through Cable. But the cable is just re-transmitting the channels to him.
I'm "less" annoyed by the popups now, but only because some people got a clue about the noise-factor.
If I'm watching a crime drama I don't need to hear the sounds of car engines roaring and impact wrenches activating to notice the Nascar logo on the bottom of the screen.
Seeing the logo is one thing, not being able to hear the dialog in a friggin MYSTERY show is infuriating. Thankfully I don't experience many of those loud popups anymore.
Excellent point, I always found it odd that even the quite expensive "premium" channels have advertising.
Define premium.
Around here, we define premium as HBO, ShowTime, Starz, etc. The only commercials I've ever seen on these channels are adverts for themselves... like "Tune in next month for a new season of Dexter, everyone's favorite serial killer" or "The Tudors are returning this fall." I find that completely acceptable.
Then again I don't watch any premium Sports channels so I don't know much about them.
Don't get me wrong, I find it annoying that there are so many adverts on basic cable.
For a while Verizon Fios was giving out free Digital adapter boxes if you went to a service station and asked (no purchase or rental). They're really cheap-quality boxes, about the size of a CD wallet and don't have a TV Guide or VoD server. They just allow for manual entry of channels via a remote (which is what most people really need anyway).
But they can watch all non-HD channels that you subscribe to, all the way up through the 1000's.
I think they charge for them now as a purchase (not a rental). So you might want to ask about it.
The problem Apple has is with them putting OSX on the systems and selling them. Legal or not, their EULA prohibits this in multiple layers.
While they won't stop or sue Joe Sixpack for installing it on his Dell after some fidgeting, they do have a problem with a company making profit by selling systems with their product.
On top of which, I think that the version of OSX they're installing is a patched system so it can explicitly work on their generic rigs. And that brings about even more Eula and/or copyright questions. IE, what if you started selling a slipstream install of Vista with a bunch of modules installed?
And lastly, Apple is probably worried about 2 more thing:
1) IBM vs Clone market, and how it pretty much killed their desktop dept.
2) Brand control. Joe Sixpacks around the world might buy Psystars and call them Macs, and get annoyed when the patched systems don't work right. Then the FUD about unstable Macs start being spread.