I learned photography on this model more than 20 years ago. Match needle metering, depth of field preview combine for consistently good exposures...much better than I ever got in any autofocus "upgraded" model (including digital) later in life. Very forgiving and rugged: I schlepped mine all over the western Pacific, Mideast and parts of Africa while in the navy....it made multiple cat shots and arrested landings too. About 150$ on ebay.
NPD may not be a puppet of the RIAA, but is sure sounds like the RIAA may be a paying customer. In any case, the results are pure bullshit. There are obviously some sweeping assumptions made on extrapolation from their data set. I can come up with my own sample of respondants that have deleted exactly **zero** music files during the same period, and are still p2p-ing software and media files like crazy. Fuck the RIAA. They can't take away the 4th amendment.
If you keep a shortcut to an optical drive on your desktop, right click on it. Now try to think of your mother, father, great aunt/uncle, grandparent of boss trying to decide what to do. "Open" ought to do the trick. Except it's a long road from "Open" logically to "Eject". Interface desiners need to keep this in mind.
I use help desks only as a last resort. While trying to troubleshoot one of many bad Linksys wireless devices I bought last year, I had a phone tech say to me "maybe you shouldn't be trying to install a home network". This after 20 years plus exerience as a an operator, analyst and user of comptuer systems. I understand the challenges of front like customer support. But it's NOT our fault that companies ship products that are either inoperative or incompatible with hardware/software configurations they are supposed to be. By the time we pick up the phone: It's YOUR fault...so get patient, get empathetic...and deal with it.
Postcript: My home network is now Linksys free. And while Linkys/Cisco may not care about where I spend my lousy $500 on home networking hardware, I sure as hell do. And this decision was based entirely on a regrettable comment by one first level tech...and the failure of his supervisor to try and make nice afterwards. Note to Linksys/Cisco consumer products management: Multiply by *X* such episodes, and insert and subract from your bottom line.
OK, I've followed this thread with growing annoyance and can't restrain myself any longer. I know that "HanzoSan" will respond with a string of "Yeah but I...." paragraphs, but I'm going to fire away.
Let me qualify myself. I am a math/physics/chemistry rock. Just not wired up for those disciplines. I have other gifts that I've been able to make the most of (primarily writing, critical thinking and foreign language acquistion). There have been occaisional breakthroughs (in statistics and geometry) in the world of numbers, but I am painfully aware of my own limitations in grokking them and in the way my left side wetwire is wired.
But: I appreciate the place math and physical science have in both my personal and professional lives, and respect BOTH the science and those who are facile in them. In fact, I work in a highly technical environment with some actual rocket scientists, and we are all smart enought to realize the special talents each of us add in taking on our hardest problems.
I used community college between my freshman and sophmore years of college (after a review of my HS transcript revealed I was in an 1 yeard "Algebra for Dummies" section that took 2 years to complete instead of actually taking a 2nd year of Algebra. A community college gave me the 2nd year I needed.
After a 17-year interruption in my eductation (a long story fueled by ETOH), I eventually received my BS degree from the State University of New York via a non-traditional program, that permitted me to meet the math/science requirement with a CLEP exam. A mear four years after that....and while still working full time...I received an MS from the University of MD (which included an A in stats). I'm not about to complete any differential equations for fun an profit. But, I have a full appreciation for those who can, and for the value that hard numbers and real science add to any problem: whether it's an orbital manuever calculation or simply determining the proportions of a piece of sculpture.
But here's my bottom line: YOU NEED A PLAN "B" that does not included attending an "elite private university." Because here's the real deal: they turn away many many many times more well qualified candidtates than they admit. And they do without a second thought, because they know that every well qualfied applicant will get into another school someplace.
Success in life does NOT depend on where you go to school or how you obtain your eduction. It comes from respecting the power of learning, understanding what you are good at, and from passion for ideas and accomplishment.
The superficiality of your stated desire ("I might meet some important people who can hook me in the future") will be crystal clear to any interview.
Figure out what you love to learn about. And then figure out how to go work in that field. Get eductated because you want to contribute to the body knowlege (either in research or in practice), not because you might have classmates who will get you a job. Good grief.
And for what it's worth, I have a friend who's son made an academic journey from a Maryland community college student to an MFA from Harvard. His passion for creating art carried him to Cambridge, and beginning his eductaion at a CC held him back in no way.
I am now an adjunct instructor the community college where I live. My #1 message from outside the text: establish goals for your eduction and your professional life. My #2 message: it's never to late to learn, achieve or grow. But you have to start with a work ethic, and not a bucket of "Yeah buts..." Put yours away, and get to work. Screw the GPA and the admissions challenges associated with "elite private universities", and go challenge yourself.....
Of course non-consituent mail will not get any direct action. BUT: whether it arrives electronically or via the USPS, there is an overhead burden to his staff in dealing with it. The burden increases with the volume, and maybe an increasing burden will become a clue that it's time for the Senator to moderate his stance. I write to members of congress who are not from my state/district regularly under 2 conditions: (1) when their introduction of a bill or membership on a committee has implications for my own favorite special interest group (me); (2) when they use their national platform to address issues of national interst that clearly extend beyong the boundaries of their state/district (Tom Daschle's car parts stunt to illusttate tax cut "unfairness" 2 years ago comes to mind. Even if they don't represent you, don't let them off the hook: let them know that their comments extend beyond their direct consituents! Do it respectfully, do it succinctly, but by all mean do it....
...In that the quality of instruction (and work ethic of the instructors) will vary widely based on the skills of the person in front of the class. Don't base the merits of online classes on the basis of a sample size of 1. After spending 23 years to finish my BS (all in face to face classes, since much of my work predated the WWW), I completed an MS program during the last 4. I did about half of my classes online. The quality of classes was independent of delivery method (f2f vs. online)....the instructor was the sole variable. Online is different than face to face, and your instructors will have different levels of confort with using online tools as instruments of teaching. In the hands of a skilled teacher, online sections give introverts a chance, keep you off the highways and add flexibility to your schedule...don't judge based on a single experience...
I'd be more impressed.....
on
Alien Case Mod
·
· Score: 1
If it included the stupid cat...or Sigourney Weaver in her underwear......
...When MLB was similarly trying to pick the pockets of fans outside of local AM broadcast range:
As a displaced Cleveland Indians fan for over 20 years (New Jersey, California, Texas, Hawaii, Japan and Maryland) I was very unhappy in 97 (or maybe 98) when the Indians decided to make streaming audio of their radio game broadcasts a premium feature of their web site (interesting to note that for about the last year of the MLB official team sites are now subbed off the MLB mothership domain).
The simple work-around at the time was to listen to the OPPOSING team's FREE RA (I think only the Pirates --and maybe one other team-- did not have such an offering).
I wrote the Indians a passionate letter to point out the fundamental flaws of the 'pay-for-streaming-audio' model:
1. Fans living in their local broadcast network area can listen to the game for free over the air. Even with a broadband connection and a decent PC, I still choose the stand-alone AM radio while slaving at the PC --if available . It's simple matter of conserving system resources for real work and having to eff around with RA whenever possible. And when I'm outside schlepping around the yard, the stand-alone AM is the obvious choice over the 'puter.
2. Attention MLB MBAs and marketing wizards: Those fans living outside the AM broadcast area network coverage aren't in a position to support your metro advertisers.
3. Therefore, the 'pay-for-streaming-audio' model essentially picks the pocket of out-of-town fans while those in the broadcast market get the same product for "free" (free being the exposure to ads).
4. MLB just doesn't get it. A-Rod making a quarter of a billion, and they want us to spend $20 for low quality, ad-laden, low-fidelity audio of a team that might not break.500.
Boink em-- I'll go watch the minors; there are at least 5 (from A to AAA) within a 2-hour drive of my house: young guys who are not yet spoiled millionaires and still play high quality baseball in interesting --and intimate-- settings (usually with free parking, riduculously low ticket prices, and concessions that cost half of what an MLB venue charges). MLB continues to severing any connection between the game and the people who grew up loving it: they are just adding iformation technology to their toolkit for doing so.
via email and the postal service. email was to their public affairs flacks (the only non "support" address I found on their site at: public_relations@intuit.com), snail mail to: Tom Allanson Senior Vice President Consumer Tax Group, Intuit Inc. 2632 Marine Way Mountain View, CA 94043
6 weeks and counting, and no response on the snail mail side. I did get an email response from a member of the Turbo Tax "Executive Response Team" (myra_support@intuit.com). This obvious boilerplate reminded me what a good idea --and how utterly benign-- the product activation was. I used to spend 3 days doing taxes....software has reduced that to about an hour. But it won't be done with TT any more. Their response is followed by my letter. I hereby place them both in the public domain:-)
From Intuit: My name is Myra and I am a member of the Executive Response Team for TurboTax. I am sorry to learn that you have some concerns about our products and want to thank you for taking time to contact us directly about it. Hearing directly from customers like you is the best way for us to know exactly what you're experiencing so we can work together to get you correct information and the best solution. I'd also like to apologize for the delay in responding to you.
After reading your message, please let me share some quick facts with you that I believe will give you the information you need.
TurboTax 2002 includes a product activation process that ensures TurboTax is used in accordance with the TurboTax software license and services agreement.
Product activation ties printing and filing from the TurboTax federal product to a single computer, preventing unlicensed use of the product.
Privacy was a key consideration when implementing the Product Activation technology in TurboTax. Product activation is completely anonymous -- no personal information is transmitted to Intuit. We would never violate your trust or privacy by installing any type of third party software such as spyware.
Product activation transfers nothing but a Product Key and Request Code. The Key and Code key are matched together and a confirmation is sent from Intuit that activates TurboTax on your computer.
Product activation does not monitor any activities on your computer nor will it prevent you from using your CD-R or CD-RW drives.
The functionality that manages the TurboTax product activation (Macrovision SafeCast(r)) can be deleted from your computer when you are done using TurboTax. The uninstall utility is available on our support site at http://www.turbotaxsupport.com/default.asp?platfor m=1&DocID=836
Once again, we are sorry we caused you concern. Your opinion matters to us and we will improve the process for next year taking your input into account. Thank you for your comments. If there is anything I can do to keep you as a TurboTax customer, please let me know. I hope this helps. If I can address any additional concerns please e-mail me at Myra_Support@intuit.com, or you can visit our website at www.turbotaxsupport.com. Best regards, Myra Executive Response Team Intuit, Inc. Myra_Support@intuit.com
My letter: I have been a satisfied user of Intuit's TurboTax for ten years, and purchased a deluxe version with downloadable state tax packages directly from Intuit annually since 1997. Regrettably, unless Intuit revisits its approach towards the honesty of its customers next year, the 2002 version may represent my final purchase of TurboTax.
. The product activation requirement and limitation to use of the 2002 TurboTax product on a single PC makes an unpleasant statement about Intuit's perception of the typical behaviors of its customers, and is unrealistic as more homes move to a networked, multiple PC computing environment. In the last year, my home network grew to three computers sharing two printers on a wireless LAN. It is quite simply unacceptable that I am limited to using TurboTax at just one of these machines. As a 20-year information technology professional, I am sensitive to --and share-- your legitimate concerns over intellectual property and related digital rights. Moreover, as a multi-year repeat customer, I am offended by Intuit's negative assumptions about my honesty.
Equally disturbing was the fact that TurboTax --unknown to me at the time of installation-- placed the hidden "C-Dilla"folder and its associated "SafeCast"file on my PC. I have read Intuit's FAQ on these files, and it's not yet clear to me exactly how "SafeCast"serves me as an honest consumer in any way. I am appalled that I was not notified or given any options about this code during installation.
I am sure you are aware that H&R Block's "Tax Cut"is not only priced below TurboTax, has no activation requirement, and is sold under an family license explicitly permitting installation on multiple computers. As my family prepares now for the 2003 tax season, I hope you'll appreciate why TurboTax has lost much of its appeal in our household. My plans for any future purchases of TurboTax hinge directly on how Intuit intends to approach its customers in 2003. I look forward to hearing from your on your plans for next year's version of TurboTax.
..this is about Dell trying to work the razor thin margins of PC hardware sales. I can by a generic OEM floppy for $10-- I expect Dell's cost is a significant fraction of that. It doesn't occupy an IDE port on my motherboard. My mom is nearly 70: after a career in journalism that found her very accomplished in high-end layout products, she went online about 5 years ago, a couple of years into retirement. She ebays. She emails. She does some light surfing and freelance editing. Her locally built 600 MHZ AMD machine does not have a CD-RW: and she is fine with that (she's not downloading tunez and warez from Kazaa all day after all). The offline data she and her peers exchange and backup is perfectly suited to a floppy. I could install a CD-RW in her machine in half an hour: but she is one of many many users who's data writing and storage needs are met fine by a floppy. This is why I build my own: I don't like the big manufacturers shoving their requirements down my throat in the name of "modernization". This about Dell's bottom line, and nothing else.
I have personal experience with a (surprisingly supportive) congressional response to an issue of interest (that included bill proposals in both houses) during the 106th Congress. The letters I send to my representative and senators were my own words (tm): but they were prepared with a word processor and prepared with attention to format as if they were professional correspondence (and because this legislation had a significant impact on a recurring military pension payemnt, I guess you could consider it that). They also ended up published or quoted in major DC and Baltimore newspapers.
Response summary: Letters to my two equally clueless senators responded in riduculous form letters that indicated the letters were barely read, let alone given any significant attention by the staff. One form letter mangled my "gender" (I became a "MS"), the other response was a generic response about an issue I hadn't even addressed. My represenative's response included multiple phone calls from a staff member in his local office, including updates on the bill's markups in both houses and his record of votes.
This unscientific survey indicates that the quality of the audience is at least as important as the quality of the letter (or maybe that GOP representatives in central MD are more responsive to their consitutents than their Democrat colleagues in the Senate). I had some beefs with some earlier legislative initiatives by my M.O.C: but he took care of business when asked. I expect that a hastily jotted note would have received little attention from either the print media or poltical audiences involved..
...have been doing this for years. We've been doing it for five years in central Maryland. New Yorkers are resourceful and resiliant. They got over the "loss" of the 202 area code as a Manhattan "signature". They'll figure this out too....
On the insurance part: if you are young and single, or married and childless, life insurance is probably the last thing you need. It's a much different story if you have a family and are part of a multi-income pair of adults, and a totally different story of you are with family and the only wage earner. Live within your means..yes. Save some..yes (young people...check out the trite but true and widely "power of compounding charts. Convert your nextpay raise into additional savings....yes. Avoid credit card and installment debt like the plauge...yes. Insurance? "Whole life?? Eff that. Term life to prevent those you leave behind from ending up on the street for a while....go for it....if you have kids....
OK: The interface is non-intuitive, the 'mapped' results are inscrutable (and mostly irrlevant), and they homepage contained a whine about the 20-fold increase in traffic since the slashdot article appeared. Not ready for prime time. And located in France (does this mean it was a fine French whine??). I'll stick with Google......
Single point of contact support?? Clearly you've never been caught in the "it's the software/hardware/your peripherals" limbo blame exercise.
My advice to anybody who asks me (and is not inclined to build their own): have a machine built locally by the guy whose shop you've noticed as you've driven by the strip mall for the last few years. He (or she) will probably talk you smartly about what you plan use it for, get creative about component trade offs to get you in your budget range. Since he just might be a neighbor and interested in the positive effects of good word of mouth, expect responsive (even if not 24/7) support. Two shops within 4 miles of my house can custom build a machine within 72 hours. No shipping charges, no UPS dropkicks (and one guy doesn't charge sales tax: everything is bundled as a "labor charge".
For a personal use box, locally built machines are excellent options both for somebody good who knows what they need and for somebody who's still trying to figure it out.
I'd love to put a check in the mail. I damned sure don't want to go give paypal access to my checking account. That paypal is "easy and simple right now" is an inadequate answer to the 'how to pay' question. The devil is always in the details, and the move to create a subscription model has failed to address this detail. eff paypal. i've been self filtering banner ads for years....i can continue to do so.
Excellent. Pass along to your senator pal that anonymous 'fact finding' probes make smart-thinking taxpayers on nervous. I lile my legislating done on the record....
OK, I'll accept your doing this out of the goodness of your heart and it's not costing the taxpayers of a dime. Even at my advanced age, I retain a certain naievete (that usually results in righteous screwings).
BUT: I still got a BIG damnd problem with a senior senator sending a proxy forth to try and get the pulse of the technology community anonlymously. I expect my elected officials to do their business on the record. Wonder if I can FOIA his ass.....
I'd rather NOT have my elected officials seeking ANONYMOUS input from the public via an attorney. Sorry, but unless your work for this mystery senator is pro bono, then as a taxpayer I'm picking up the tab for BOTH your work AND his cluelessness. He needs to sponsor some hearings, and invite the public sector experts he's so concerned about to testify... or at least meet with them in a face to face environment where everybody can get some actual feedback on how well the gentleman from XX is groking these complex IT concepts. The idea is to get his good work ON THE RECORD instead of having a lawyer sniffing about slashdot. Geez. Do politicians ever do anything but self-aggrandize???
Let's see: my two favorite classes of people: an attorney and a senior US senator. How much are you billing your senator for your time on slashdot? How about if you roll up your sleeves and do some of your own research-- or at least get one of your ambitious partner wannabees to do it for you.
...and given that streaming audio is user-limited, will you then defend any consumer entitlements to credit when servers fail to deliver content? The bottom line is that in-AM-broadcast area listeners get this for free, and that this is a MLB mandate to the teams to pick the pockets of the out-of-range-of-AM fans.
As a displaced Cleveland Indians fan for over 20 years (New Jersey, California, Texas, Hawaii, Japan and Maryland) I was very unhappy in 97 (or maybe 98) when they decided to make streaming audio of their radio game broadcasts a premium feature of their web site (interesting to note that all of the MLB official team sites are now subbed off the MLB domain).
The simple work-around at the timw was to listen to the OPPOSING team's FREE RA (I think only the Pirates did not have such an offering).
I wrote them a passionate letter, and pointed out the fundamental flaws of the 'pay-for-streaming-audio' model:
1. Fans living in their broadcast network can listen to the game for free over the air. Even with a broadband connection and a new , I still choose the stand-alone AM radio while slaving at the PC. It's simple matter of conserving system resources for real work. And when I'm outside schlepping around the yard, the stand-alone AM is the obvious choice over the 'puter.
2. Fans living outside the AM broadcast area network coverage aren't in a position to support "X" metro advertisers.
3. Therefore, the 'pay-for-streaming-audio' model essentially picks the pocket of out-of-town fans while those in the broadcast market get the same product for free.
4. MLB just doesn't get it. A-Rod making a quarter of a billion, and they want us to spend $20 for low quality, ad-laden, low-fidelity audio of a team that might not break.500.
Boink em-- I'll go watch the minors. All they are doing is severing any connection between the game and the people who grew up loving it.
Slashdot Mirror
I learned photography on this model more than 20 years ago. Match needle metering, depth of field preview combine for consistently good exposures...much better than I ever got in any autofocus "upgraded" model (including digital) later in life. Very forgiving and rugged: I schlepped mine all over the western Pacific, Mideast and parts of Africa while in the navy....it made multiple cat shots and arrested landings too. About 150$ on ebay.
Financial pundits!
NPD may not be a puppet of the RIAA, but is sure sounds like the RIAA may be a paying customer. In any case, the results are pure bullshit. There are obviously some sweeping assumptions made on extrapolation from their data set. I can come up with my own sample of respondants that have deleted exactly **zero** music files during the same period, and are still p2p-ing software and media files like crazy. Fuck the RIAA. They can't take away the 4th amendment.
If you keep a shortcut to an optical drive on your desktop, right click on it. Now try to think of your mother, father, great aunt/uncle, grandparent of boss trying to decide what to do. "Open" ought to do the trick. Except it's a long road from "Open" logically to "Eject". Interface desiners need to keep this in mind.
I use help desks only as a last resort. While trying to troubleshoot one of many bad Linksys wireless devices I bought last year, I had a phone tech say to me "maybe you shouldn't be trying to install a home network". This after 20 years plus exerience as a an operator, analyst and user of comptuer systems. I understand the challenges of front like customer support. But it's NOT our fault that companies ship products that are either inoperative or incompatible with hardware/software configurations they are supposed to be. By the time we pick up the phone: It's YOUR fault...so get patient, get empathetic...and deal with it.
Postcript: My home network is now Linksys free. And while Linkys/Cisco may not care about where I spend my lousy $500 on home networking hardware, I sure as hell do. And this decision was based entirely on a regrettable comment by one first level tech...and the failure of his supervisor to try and make nice afterwards. Note to Linksys/Cisco consumer products management: Multiply by *X* such episodes, and insert and subract from your bottom line.
OK, I've followed this thread with growing annoyance and can't restrain myself any longer. I know that "HanzoSan" will respond with a string of "Yeah but I...." paragraphs, but I'm going to fire away.
Let me qualify myself. I am a math/physics/chemistry rock. Just not wired up for those disciplines. I have other gifts that I've been able to make the most of (primarily writing, critical thinking and foreign language acquistion). There have been occaisional breakthroughs (in statistics and geometry)
in the world of numbers, but I am painfully
aware of my own limitations in grokking them
and in the way my left side wetwire is wired.
But: I appreciate the place math and physical
science have in both my personal and professional
lives, and respect BOTH the science and those
who are facile in them. In fact, I work in a highly technical environment with some actual rocket scientists, and we are all smart enought
to realize the special talents each of us add in
taking on our hardest problems.
I used community college between my freshman and sophmore years of college (after a review of my HS transcript revealed I was in an 1 yeard "Algebra for Dummies" section that took 2 years to complete instead of actually taking a 2nd year of Algebra. A community college gave me the 2nd year I needed.
After a 17-year interruption in my eductation (a long story fueled by ETOH), I eventually received my BS degree from the State University of New York via a non-traditional program, that permitted me to meet the math/science requirement with a CLEP exam. A mear four years after that....and while still working full time...I received an MS from the University of MD (which included an A in stats). I'm not about to complete any differential equations for fun an profit. But, I have a full appreciation for those who can, and for the value that hard numbers and real science add to any problem: whether it's an orbital manuever calculation or simply determining the proportions of a piece of sculpture.
But here's my bottom line: YOU NEED A PLAN "B" that does not included attending an "elite private university." Because here's the real deal: they turn away many many many times more well qualified candidtates than they admit. And they do without a second thought, because they know that every well qualfied applicant will get into another school someplace.
Success in life does NOT depend on where you go to school or how you obtain your eduction. It comes from respecting the power of learning, understanding what you are good at, and from passion for ideas and accomplishment.
The superficiality of your stated desire ("I might meet some important people who can hook me in the future") will be crystal clear to any interview.
Figure out what you love to learn about. And then figure out how to go work in that field. Get eductated because you want to contribute to the body knowlege (either in research or in practice), not because you might have classmates who will get you a job. Good grief.
And for what it's worth, I have a friend who's son made an academic journey from a Maryland community college student to an MFA from Harvard. His passion for creating art carried him to Cambridge, and beginning his eductaion at a CC held him back in no way.
I am now an adjunct instructor the community college where I live. My #1 message from outside the text: establish goals for your eduction and your professional life. My #2 message: it's never to late to learn, achieve or grow. But you have to start with a work ethic, and not a bucket of "Yeah buts..." Put yours away, and get to work. Screw the GPA and the admissions challenges associated with "elite private universities", and go challenge yourself.....
Of course non-consituent mail will not get any direct action. BUT: whether it arrives electronically or via the USPS, there is an overhead burden to his staff in dealing with it. The burden increases with the volume, and maybe an increasing burden will become a clue that it's time for the Senator to moderate his stance. I write to members of congress who are not from my state/district regularly under 2 conditions:
(1) when their introduction of a bill or membership on a committee has implications for my own favorite special interest group (me);
(2) when they use their national platform to address issues of national interst that clearly extend beyong the boundaries of their state/district (Tom Daschle's car parts stunt to illusttate tax cut "unfairness" 2 years ago comes to mind.
Even if they don't represent you, don't let them off the hook: let them know that their comments extend beyond their direct consituents!
Do it respectfully, do it succinctly, but by all mean do it....
...In that the quality of instruction (and work ethic of the instructors) will vary widely based on the skills of the person in front of the class. Don't base the merits of online classes on the basis of a sample size of 1. After spending 23 years to finish my BS (all in face to face classes, since much of my work predated the WWW), I completed an MS program during the last 4. I did about half of my classes online. The quality of classes was independent of delivery method (f2f vs. online)....the instructor was the sole variable. Online is different than face to face, and your instructors will have different levels of confort with using online tools as instruments of teaching. In the hands of a skilled teacher, online sections give introverts a chance, keep you off the highways and add flexibility to your schedule...don't judge based on a single experience...
If it included the stupid cat...or Sigourney Weaver in her underwear......
...When MLB was similarly trying to pick the pockets of fans outside of local AM broadcast range:
.500.
As a displaced Cleveland Indians fan for over 20 years (New Jersey, California, Texas, Hawaii, Japan and Maryland) I was very unhappy in 97 (or maybe 98) when the Indians decided to make streaming audio of their radio game broadcasts a premium feature of their web site (interesting to note that for about the last year of the MLB official team sites are now subbed off the MLB mothership domain).
The simple work-around at the time was to listen to the OPPOSING team's FREE RA (I think only the Pirates --and maybe one other team-- did not have such an offering).
I wrote the Indians a passionate letter to point out the fundamental flaws of the 'pay-for-streaming-audio' model:
1. Fans living in their local broadcast network area can listen to the game for free over the air. Even with a broadband connection and a decent PC, I still choose the stand-alone AM radio while slaving at the PC --if available . It's simple matter of conserving system resources for real work and having to eff around with RA whenever possible. And when I'm outside schlepping around the yard, the stand-alone AM is the obvious choice over the 'puter.
2. Attention MLB MBAs and marketing wizards: Those fans living outside the AM broadcast area network coverage aren't in a position to support your metro advertisers.
3. Therefore, the 'pay-for-streaming-audio' model essentially picks the pocket of out-of-town fans while those in the broadcast market get the same product for "free" (free being the exposure to ads).
4. MLB just doesn't get it. A-Rod making a quarter of a billion, and they want us to spend $20 for low quality, ad-laden, low-fidelity audio of a team that might not break
Boink em-- I'll go watch the minors; there are at least 5 (from A to AAA) within a 2-hour drive of my house: young guys who are not yet spoiled millionaires and still play high quality baseball in interesting --and intimate-- settings (usually with free parking, riduculously low ticket prices, and concessions that cost half of what an MLB venue charges). MLB continues to severing any connection between the game and the people who grew up loving it: they are just adding iformation technology to their toolkit for doing so.
via email and the postal service. email was to their public affairs flacks (the only non "support" address I found on their site at: public_relations@intuit.com), snail mail to:
r m=1&DocID=836
Tom Allanson
Senior Vice President
Consumer Tax Group, Intuit Inc.
2632 Marine Way
Mountain View, CA 94043
6 weeks and counting, and no response on the snail mail side. I did get an email response from a member of the Turbo Tax "Executive Response Team" (myra_support@intuit.com). This obvious boilerplate reminded me what a good idea --and how utterly benign-- the product activation was. I used to spend 3 days doing taxes....software has reduced that to about an hour. But it won't be done with TT any more.
Their response is followed by my letter. I hereby place them both in the public domain:-)
From Intuit:
My name is Myra and I am a member of the Executive Response Team for TurboTax. I am sorry to learn that you have some concerns about our products and want to thank you for taking time to contact us directly about it. Hearing directly from customers like you is the best way for us to know exactly what you're experiencing so we can work together to get you correct information and the best solution. I'd also like to apologize for the delay in responding to you.
After reading your message, please let me share some quick facts with you that I believe will give you the information you need.
TurboTax 2002 includes a product activation process that ensures TurboTax is used in accordance with the TurboTax software license and services agreement.
Product activation ties printing and filing from the TurboTax federal product to a single computer, preventing unlicensed use of the product.
Privacy was a key consideration when implementing the Product Activation technology in TurboTax. Product activation is completely anonymous -- no personal information is transmitted to Intuit. We would never violate your trust or privacy by installing any type of third party software such as spyware.
Product activation transfers nothing but a Product Key and Request Code. The Key and Code key are matched together and a confirmation is sent from Intuit that activates TurboTax on your computer.
Product activation does not monitor any activities on your computer nor will it prevent you from using your CD-R or CD-RW drives.
The functionality that manages the TurboTax product activation (Macrovision SafeCast(r)) can be deleted from your computer when you are done using TurboTax. The uninstall utility is available on our support site at http://www.turbotaxsupport.com/default.asp?platfo
Once again, we are sorry we caused you concern. Your opinion matters to us and we will improve the process for next year taking your input into account. Thank you for your comments. If there is anything I can do to keep you as a TurboTax customer, please let me know. I hope this helps. If I can address any additional concerns please e-mail me at Myra_Support@intuit.com, or you can visit our website at www.turbotaxsupport.com.
Best regards,
Myra
Executive Response Team
Intuit, Inc.
Myra_Support@intuit.com
My letter:
I have been a satisfied user of Intuit's TurboTax for ten years, and purchased a deluxe version with downloadable state tax packages directly from Intuit annually since 1997. Regrettably, unless Intuit revisits its approach towards the honesty of its customers next year, the 2002 version may represent my final purchase of TurboTax.
. The product activation requirement and limitation to use of the 2002 TurboTax product on a single PC makes an unpleasant statement about Intuit's perception of the typical behaviors of its customers, and is unrealistic as more homes move to a networked, multiple PC computing environment. In the last year, my home network grew to three computers sharing two printers on a wireless LAN. It is quite simply unacceptable that I am limited to using TurboTax at just one of these machines. As a 20-year information technology professional, I am sensitive to --and share-- your legitimate concerns over intellectual property and related digital rights. Moreover, as a multi-year repeat customer, I am offended by Intuit's negative assumptions about my honesty.
Equally disturbing was the fact that TurboTax --unknown to me at the time of installation-- placed the hidden "C-Dilla"folder and its associated "SafeCast"file on my PC. I have read Intuit's FAQ on these files, and it's not yet clear to me exactly how "SafeCast"serves me as an honest consumer in any way. I am appalled that I was not notified or given any options about this code during installation.
I am sure you are aware that H&R Block's "Tax Cut"is not only priced below TurboTax, has no activation requirement, and is sold under an family license explicitly permitting installation on multiple computers. As my family prepares now for the 2003 tax season, I hope you'll appreciate why TurboTax has lost much of its appeal in our household. My plans for any future purchases of TurboTax hinge directly on how Intuit intends to approach its customers in 2003. I look forward to hearing from your on your plans for next year's version of TurboTax.
..this is about Dell trying to work the razor thin margins of PC hardware sales. I can by a generic OEM floppy for $10-- I expect Dell's cost is a significant fraction of that. It doesn't occupy an IDE port on my motherboard. My mom is nearly 70: after a career in journalism that found her very accomplished in high-end layout products, she went online about 5 years ago, a couple of years into retirement. She ebays. She emails. She does some light surfing and freelance editing. Her locally built 600 MHZ AMD machine does not have a CD-RW: and she is fine with that (she's not downloading tunez and warez from Kazaa all day after all). The offline data she and her peers exchange and backup
is perfectly suited to a floppy. I could install a CD-RW in her machine in half an hour: but she is one of many many users who's data writing and storage needs are met fine by a floppy. This is why I build my own: I don't like the big manufacturers shoving their requirements down my throat in the name of "modernization". This about Dell's bottom line, and nothing else.
I have personal experience with a (surprisingly supportive) congressional response to an issue of interest (that included bill proposals in both houses) during the 106th Congress. The letters I send to my representative and senators were my own words (tm): but they were prepared with a word processor and prepared with attention to format as if they were professional correspondence (and because this legislation had a significant impact on a recurring military pension payemnt, I guess you could consider it that). They also ended up published or quoted in major DC and Baltimore newspapers.
Response summary: Letters to my two equally clueless senators responded in riduculous form letters that indicated the letters were barely read, let alone given any significant attention by the staff. One form letter mangled my "gender" (I became a "MS"), the other response was a generic response about an issue I hadn't even addressed. My represenative's response included multiple phone calls from a staff member in his local office, including updates on the bill's markups in both houses and his record of votes.
This unscientific survey indicates that the quality of the audience is at least as important as the quality of the letter (or maybe that GOP representatives in central MD are more responsive to their consitutents than their Democrat colleagues in the Senate). I had some beefs with some earlier legislative initiatives by my M.O.C: but he took care of business when asked. I expect that a hastily jotted note would have received little attention from either the print media or poltical audiences involved..
...have been doing this for years. We've been doing it for five years in central Maryland. New Yorkers are resourceful and resiliant. They got over the "loss" of the 202 area code as a Manhattan "signature". They'll figure this out too....
On the insurance part: if you are young and single, or married and childless, life insurance is probably the last thing you need. It's a much different story if you have a family and are part of a multi-income pair of adults, and a totally different story of you are with family and the only wage earner. Live within your means..yes. Save some..yes (young people...check out the trite but true and widely "power of compounding charts. Convert your nextpay raise into additional savings....yes. Avoid credit card and installment debt like the plauge...yes. Insurance? "Whole life?? Eff that. Term life to prevent those you leave behind from ending up on the street for a while....go for it....if you have kids....
OH man. Now that's some damned fine haiku.
OK: The interface is non-intuitive, the 'mapped' results are inscrutable (and mostly irrlevant), and they homepage contained a whine about the 20-fold increase in traffic since the slashdot article appeared. Not ready for prime time. And located in France (does this mean it was a fine French whine??). I'll stick with Google......
Single point of contact support?? Clearly you've never been caught in the "it's the software/hardware/your peripherals" limbo blame exercise.
My advice to anybody who asks me (and is not inclined to build their own): have a machine built locally by the guy whose shop you've noticed as you've driven by the strip mall for the last few years. He (or she) will probably talk you smartly about what you plan use it for, get creative about component trade offs to get you in your budget range. Since he just might be a neighbor and interested in the positive effects of good word of mouth, expect responsive (even if not 24/7) support. Two shops within 4 miles of my house can custom build a machine within 72 hours. No shipping charges, no UPS dropkicks (and one guy doesn't charge sales tax: everything is bundled as a "labor charge".
For a personal use box, locally built machines are excellent options both for somebody good who knows what they need and for somebody who's still trying to figure it out.
I'd love to put a check in the mail. I damned sure don't want to go give paypal access to my checking account. That paypal is "easy and simple right now" is an inadequate answer to the 'how to pay' question. The devil is always in the details, and the move to create a subscription model has failed to address this detail. eff paypal. i've been self filtering banner ads for years....i can continue to do so.
Excellent. Pass along to your senator pal that anonymous 'fact finding' probes make smart-thinking taxpayers on nervous. I lile my legislating done on the record....
OK, I'll accept your doing this out of the goodness of your heart and it's not costing the taxpayers of a dime. Even at my advanced age, I retain a certain naievete (that usually results in righteous screwings).
BUT: I still got a BIG damnd problem with a senior senator sending a proxy forth to try and get the pulse of the technology community anonlymously. I expect my elected officials to do their business on the record. Wonder if I can FOIA his ass.....
I'd rather NOT have my elected officials seeking ANONYMOUS input from the public via an attorney. Sorry, but unless your work for this mystery senator is pro bono, then as a taxpayer I'm picking up the tab for BOTH your work AND his cluelessness. He needs to sponsor some hearings, and invite the public sector experts he's so concerned about to testify... or at least meet with them in a face to face environment where everybody can get some actual feedback on how well the gentleman from XX is groking these complex IT concepts. The idea is to get his good work ON THE RECORD instead of having a lawyer sniffing about slashdot. Geez. Do politicians ever do anything but self-aggrandize???
Let's see: my two favorite classes of people: an attorney and a senior US senator. How much are you billing your senator for your time on slashdot? How about if you roll up your sleeves and do some of your own research-- or at least get one of your ambitious partner wannabees to do it for you.
Rush has said this about his OWN offering. Well then it MUST be going just great......
...and given that streaming audio is user-limited, will you then defend any consumer entitlements to credit when servers fail to deliver content? The bottom line is that in-AM-broadcast area listeners get this for free, and that this is a MLB mandate to the teams to pick the pockets of the out-of-range-of-AM fans.
As a displaced Cleveland Indians fan for over 20 years (New Jersey, California, Texas, Hawaii, Japan and Maryland) I was very unhappy in 97 (or maybe 98) when they decided to make streaming audio of their radio game broadcasts a premium feature of their web site (interesting to note that all of the MLB official team sites are now subbed off the MLB domain).
.500.
The simple work-around at the timw was to listen to the OPPOSING team's FREE RA (I think only the Pirates did not have such an offering).
I wrote them a passionate letter, and pointed out the fundamental flaws of the 'pay-for-streaming-audio' model:
1. Fans living in their broadcast network can listen to the game for free over the air. Even with a broadband connection and a new , I still choose the stand-alone AM radio while slaving at the PC. It's simple matter of conserving system resources for real work. And when I'm outside schlepping around the yard, the stand-alone AM is the obvious choice over the 'puter.
2. Fans living outside the AM broadcast area network coverage aren't in a position to support "X" metro advertisers.
3. Therefore, the 'pay-for-streaming-audio' model essentially picks the pocket of out-of-town fans while those in the broadcast market get the same product for free.
4. MLB just doesn't get it. A-Rod making a quarter of a billion, and they want us to spend $20 for low quality, ad-laden, low-fidelity audio of a team that might not break
Boink em-- I'll go watch the minors. All they are doing is severing any connection between the game and the people who grew up loving it.