Uh... No. While you may get US support if all of the overseas lines are busy, most calls still go to India. For US based support you have to read between the lines of their support contract. "Advanced Level Technicians" (read US based) are only available with their Business Standard and Premium service plans. Business basic and consumer support still goes overseas.
"Dell doesn't even make the laptops. They are all made by a handful of companies in Taiwan who then sell them to Dell, HP, Gateway, etc...."
True with a minor quibble. Each company designs or contracts for a design per their specs then contracts for manufacturing. Your statement makes it sound like Taiwan & Co crank out laptops and slap a Dell or HP logo on them. While this may be true for the smaller labels, the larger companies have theirs "custom" built.
One other thing to think about. Considering the 500 pound gorilla status of Dell, you can probably count on them getting parts for free by making the manufacturer warranty them. Either that or they get another supplier. That lowers the cost of support quite a bit.
"Since each service call must cost Dell at least $100 (plus parts), I assume they lost money on those laptop sales. If that happens enough, their beancounters may demand that the machines work right first time.:)"
A little insight and I 'm in a position to know. I'm a service tech that does on site service for Dell.
In order to get on site service you first have to go through phone tech support. Unless you purchase one of the "elite" plans, this means dealing with outsourced techs overseas (guess where?) for a period of time that can easily run 2-4 hours. I have never had a customer tell me that it took less. Your chances of getting someone that knows his/her ass from a hole in the ground is about 20%.
Once a diagnosis is made that requires parts a service order is generated and the parts are shipped overnight to the tech. Chances are about 80 to 90% that the diagnosis is correct AND that you will get the right parts AND that the new (actually refurb) parts are not DOA or faulty in some way. If one of these 3 problems crop up the tech has to order new parts and schedule another visit.
Often times if they can't diagnose a problem with a specific part they'll just throw a box of parts at it. It's not unusual to get boxes of parts for desktops that contain a motherboard, power supply, ram, a cpu and even a new heatsink. Laptops get the same except for an AC adapter, fan/heatsink combo,palm rest and a shitload of plastic parts. They're called Hero or Party boxes and will fix most problems. The jobs we do the most are probably motherboard replacement and HD swaps. We go through a ton of these but considering the number of units Dell ships the percentage is probably fairly small.
Now for the cost. Take 2 to 4 hours of phone support at whatever the overseas rate is. Lets say $20 (a figure I pulled out of my ass). Sure the phone monkeys don't make anything but you can bet the company they work for does. Add an average $10 shipping to that (they get a "rate") plus the $65 that we get and you're pretty close to $100. To that add the cost of parts, the cost of the box and the guy that pulls, packs and slaps the label on it. Also add the cost of US infrastructure (building, equipment, warranty exec & other worker bee pay, etc) and you're well over $100.
The payoff: You and I wouldn't but Joe Six Pack would be scared to death to buy a computer without a warranty. All I've got handy is a Dell business computer catalog and they charge about $80 to $100 per year for an on site warranty (after jumping through hoops and going through phone support) depending on model and plan. Considering the huge number of units sold I'm betting that the number requiring service calls is relatively small. We don't have the info to crunch the numbers but you can bet Dell has. They're on site support is a profit center for them and I'll bet it's a pretty good one.
Take an old appliance cord about 2 feet long with the plug on one end. Strip an inch or two of insulation off the other end of the two wires and wrap each one around the head end of a 10 penny nail. Use a plain steel nail not galvanized for reasons that will become obvious later.
In your left hand place a hot dog bun then put a hot dog in the bun. Insert each nail about two inches into opposite ends of the hot dog. Don't let them touch! Holding the hot dog and bun in one hand and the plug in the other, insert the plug into the nearest hot socket for a few seconds. You'll know when to stop. Add garnish and eat.
We use to do this all the time at the race track when we wanted a quick meal and were too lazy to fire up the grill.
This reminds me of a story that happened just after 9/11. Willard Scott was on the Tonight Show discussing airport security with Jay Leno. Willard went through the security checkpoint and they confiscated some batteries and a nail clipper from his carry on bag then let him through. As he was walking down the concourse he passed one of those kiosks that sells lots of crappy little junk. What did they have for sale? Yup, batteries and nail clippers.
"The lighting is good, but not that good. Try using the flashlight between a grating for example."
I tried to kill an imp by firing my pistol through a floor grate. No go and he didn't even know I was there. A little disappointing but I still like the game.
"My absolute all time favorite feature of Doom is the one that has never returned - co-operative mode."
Doom3 co-op would be fantastic, not split screen on the X-Box, but on a PC. My buddies and I have a LAN party almost every Friday and while we lately have a UT2K4 fragfest, we really prefer co-op. Serious Sam 1 & 2 were the last good co-op games. The Clancy/Ops type games aren't bad but tend to get old and repetitive in a hury. We need more co-op FPS adventure games like SS and Return to Napali!
"In order to make the most impact, those of us in the middle need to work through the Democrat and Republican parties to change the face of these parties. Without us in the middle to pull back the extreme left/right - these parties have a tendency to lean more precariously both ways - causing more dissention and seperation between them - and thus causing more apathy in the voting public."
"I think of it in terms of the Balkans. Much like that troubled part of the world, our political landscape is factionalized to such an extent that real compromise is almost impossible. Both parties realize this, to a certain extent, and make their candidates 'look' moderate, as much as possible to garner the most votes - while persuing their ultra left/right wing agendas when the elections are over. With more real moderates active in both parties, the behind the scenes decisions will have a voice of reason."
Lets take a "for instance" in Minnesota, the state where nothing is allowed.
At the caucuses for both parties a moderate will get hammered into the ground by the extremists until they are overpowered or just give up. Many stories and letters to the editor of the two local newspapers have, over the years, reported this situation. Of course, Minnesota is 99% sure to vote Democrat so there is little chance that any other vote will count but, you're right, it is necessary to keep trying.
We have the same thing on a state level. A legislature, more or less in balance but full of extremists spending more time calling each other names rather than getting anything done. Oh sure, they say they're working hard for the public good and it's the "other guys" fault but all they really did this past session was pass a few nonsensical laws, rape the public purse, further restrict freedoms and blame the other party. Now they want to call a special session to do more of the same things they couldn't get done while in session but they can't even agree enough to get that underway (probably a good thing).
The same attitude has crept into local government. We've got a bunch of little Hitlers that say "my way or the highway" and they're VERY obnoxious about it. Of course this attitude doesn't come out until after the election. Once they get in power all they want to do is tell others what they can't do by further restricting freedoms and beat down the voice of common sense. My city use to be a nice place to live when I moved here back in 1976. Don't kill, rob or beat anybody and they pretty much left you alone, the way it should be. Now you have to watch every step so you don't violate some stupid ordinance and get fined. It sucks.
I use to say that we (America) were only 30 years behind England in the role of taxes and restricting freedoms. Now, I think we've passed them up and are leading the way. I've heard that the average country government (or something like that ) lasts about 200 years. We've been at it for 228 now but I think are definitely on the downhill side.
On the whole though, I belive everything you said.
"When young and foolish - as opposed to old and foolish - I once wired a 12 electrolytic capacitor across the mains as an experiment."
Back a hundred or so years ago in 7th grade 1st period electronics class... On the first day of class one of the first things our instructor said was to NOT do the above. Less than 5 minutes later, good old Dick Dickhead (or whatever his name was) did exactly what he was just told not to do. Boom! He went running out of the room and we never saw him again.
OT #1: This same instructor got as big a laugh out of it as we did when we hooked a Model T coil up to the metal classroom doorknob and zapped the girls that brought around the absentee lists for the day. (Hey, it was the 60's and you could get away with anything.)
OT #2: Grandpa (bless his soul) used to have a Model T coil hooked up to his garbage cans. When the neighborhood dogs came around to piss on them... now THAT was funny.
"Doom has something most FPSs don't even touch on nowadays - a single player game that can be played in a coop mode. It is sorely missed."
I agree 110%. Nothing like romping through a world pillaging and killing with your buddies. Many of my friends aren't going to buy D3 just because it doesn't have co-op. We need more co-op!!!
Only semi-related to your post but this seemed like a good place to plop my rant:
Here in Minneapolis we've got a station called KQRS, arguably the premirer rock station in this town. When they started out back in 1969 the DJs programmed their own play lists. You'd hear the "hits" but we would also get to hear a lot of the alternate tracks off the albums. The result: great music radio. Now, 35 years later, this "Classic Rock" station advertises the worlds largest album library and plays the same couple of hundred "hits" over and over and over again. The result: a tired "Classic Rock" station. What do I listen to? Talk radio or my MP3 collection.
Just for the record: I've got Qwest DSL (not that I'm bragging about it) and a non-MSN ISP. I get raw unfiltered internet and can do anything I want within the law. I get a free static IP, can run all the servers I want and get 1.0 up/1.5 down. Oh, and a virtually unlimited sized mailbox. This is residential DSL. My Comcast brethren in Mpls however get to pay about $8.00/month more, get a dynamic IP, can't (according to their TOS) run any servers, port 25 is blocked, a 5 meg mailbox and get 256 up/3.0 down. I get reasonable helpdesk support (for the few times I've needed it in the last 7 years) from Qwest and excellent support from my ISP. Give a little, get a little.
Not condemming your post, just an FYI. Speed ain't everything.
(NB- Following the acquition of a NewTek DigiView Gold, I "became" a Cool friend of NewTek! The DigiView was a 21-Bit colour video grabber marketed pre-'90s that generated income to finance the development of the VideoToaster.)
So you were the other one! I remember answering their questionaire and sending it in. Got a few trinkets back as I remember. Never heard from them again.
They wanted a lot of money for the little motorized gizmo that turned the color wheel so I built one myself from an RC plane servo. Worked great. Still have all that stuff downstairs somewhere along with an A2000 & A3000. Alas, the only reason I have to fire them up any more is to play A-10 Tank Killer which still is a hell of a lot more fun than the PC versions.
"Excelent. They are back on my list of options. I like them because the ports are in the back and the lights are in the front. That layout works better in my setup."
Slashdot Mirror
"Why is Hillary Clinton becoming the first female U.S president a problem?"
One reason
"Dell has moved their phone support back to US."
Uh... No. While you may get US support if all of the overseas lines are busy, most calls still go to India. For US based support you have to read between the lines of their support contract. "Advanced Level Technicians" (read US based) are only available with their Business Standard and Premium service plans. Business basic and consumer support still goes overseas.
"Dell doesn't even make the laptops. They are all made by a handful of companies in Taiwan who then sell them to Dell, HP, Gateway, etc...."
True with a minor quibble. Each company designs or contracts for a design per their specs then contracts for manufacturing. Your statement makes it sound like Taiwan & Co crank out laptops and slap a Dell or HP logo on them. While this may be true for the smaller labels, the larger companies have theirs "custom" built.
One other thing to think about. Considering the 500 pound gorilla status of Dell, you can probably count on them getting parts for free by making the manufacturer warranty them. Either that or they get another supplier. That lowers the cost of support quite a bit.
"Since each service call must cost Dell at least $100 (plus parts), I assume they lost money on those laptop sales. If that happens enough, their beancounters may demand that the machines work right first time. :)"
A little insight and I 'm in a position to know. I'm a service tech that does on site service for Dell.
In order to get on site service you first have to go through phone tech support. Unless you purchase one of the "elite" plans, this means dealing with outsourced techs overseas (guess where?) for a period of time that can easily run 2-4 hours. I have never had a customer tell me that it took less. Your chances of getting someone that knows his/her ass from a hole in the ground is about 20%.
Once a diagnosis is made that requires parts a service order is generated and the parts are shipped overnight to the tech. Chances are about 80 to 90% that the diagnosis is correct AND that you will get the right parts AND that the new (actually refurb) parts are not DOA or faulty in some way. If one of these 3 problems crop up the tech has to order new parts and schedule another visit.
Often times if they can't diagnose a problem with a specific part they'll just throw a box of parts at it. It's not unusual to get boxes of parts for desktops that contain a motherboard, power supply, ram, a cpu and even a new heatsink. Laptops get the same except for an AC adapter, fan/heatsink combo,palm rest and a shitload of plastic parts. They're called Hero or Party boxes and will fix most problems. The jobs we do the most are probably motherboard replacement and HD swaps. We go through a ton of these but considering the number of units Dell ships the percentage is probably fairly small.
Now for the cost. Take 2 to 4 hours of phone support at whatever the overseas rate is. Lets say $20 (a figure I pulled out of my ass). Sure the phone monkeys don't make anything but you can bet the company they work for does. Add an average $10 shipping to that (they get a "rate") plus the $65 that we get and you're pretty close to $100. To that add the cost of parts, the cost of the box and the guy that pulls, packs and slaps the label on it. Also add the cost of US infrastructure (building, equipment, warranty exec & other worker bee pay, etc) and you're well over $100.
The payoff: You and I wouldn't but Joe Six Pack would be scared to death to buy a computer without a warranty. All I've got handy is a Dell business computer catalog and they charge about $80 to $100 per year for an on site warranty (after jumping through hoops and going through phone support) depending on model and plan. Considering the huge number of units sold I'm betting that the number requiring service calls is relatively small. We don't have the info to crunch the numbers but you can bet Dell has. They're on site support is a profit center for them and I'll bet it's a pretty good one.
Here's one that's actually useful, sort of.
Take an old appliance cord about 2 feet long with the plug on one end. Strip an inch or two of insulation off the other end of the two wires and wrap each one around the head end of a 10 penny nail. Use a plain steel nail not galvanized for reasons that will become obvious later.
In your left hand place a hot dog bun then put a hot dog in the bun. Insert each nail about two inches into opposite ends of the hot dog. Don't let them touch! Holding the hot dog and bun in one hand and the plug in the other, insert the plug into the nearest hot socket for a few seconds. You'll know when to stop. Add garnish and eat.
We use to do this all the time at the race track when we wanted a quick meal and were too lazy to fire up the grill.
This reminds me of a story that happened just after 9/11. Willard Scott was on the Tonight Show discussing airport security with Jay Leno. Willard went through the security checkpoint and they confiscated some batteries and a nail clipper from his carry on bag then let him through. As he was walking down the concourse he passed one of those kiosks that sells lots of crappy little junk. What did they have for sale? Yup, batteries and nail clippers.
"I've got my knife, nail clippers, tweezers, chainsaw..."
Yea, but where's the chain gun and rocket launcher?
At your first step pull down a console. Type "give all." Kill everyone and take their stuff. YOU become the demon from Hell!
Oops, accidentially posted too soon...
o n= mainpage&aid=1
"Funniest...Thread...Ever."
No, this was...
http://slashdot.org/pollBooth.pl?qid=1153§i
Read down to "Most Reliable"
"Funniest...Thread...Ever."
o n= mainpage&aid=1
No, this was...
http://slashdot.org/pollBooth.pl?qid=1153§i
"The lighting is good, but not that good. Try using the flashlight between a grating for example."
I tried to kill an imp by firing my pistol through a floor grate. No go and he didn't even know I was there. A little disappointing but I still like the game.
"This already exists. The modding community is fast, kemosabe."
Really? I'm going to look for it right now bit just in case, tell me more...
Yea, but that's the special "Walmart version" with the violence removed.
"My absolute all time favorite feature of Doom is the one that has never returned - co-operative mode."
Doom3 co-op would be fantastic, not split screen on the X-Box, but on a PC. My buddies and I have a LAN party almost every Friday and while we lately have a UT2K4 fragfest, we really prefer co-op. Serious Sam 1 & 2 were the last good co-op games. The Clancy/Ops type games aren't bad but tend to get old and repetitive in a hury. We need more co-op FPS adventure games like SS and Return to Napali!
"In order to make the most impact, those of us in the middle need to work through the Democrat and Republican parties to change the face of these parties. Without us in the middle to pull back the extreme left/right - these parties have a tendency to lean more precariously both ways - causing more dissention and seperation between them - and thus causing more apathy in the voting public."
"I think of it in terms of the Balkans. Much like that troubled part of the world, our political landscape is factionalized to such an extent that real compromise is almost impossible. Both parties realize this, to a certain extent, and make their candidates 'look' moderate, as much as possible to garner the most votes - while persuing their ultra left/right wing agendas when the elections are over. With more real moderates active in both parties, the behind the scenes decisions will have a voice of reason."
Lets take a "for instance" in Minnesota, the state where nothing is allowed.
At the caucuses for both parties a moderate will get hammered into the ground by the extremists until they are overpowered or just give up. Many stories and letters to the editor of the two local newspapers have, over the years, reported this situation. Of course, Minnesota is 99% sure to vote Democrat so there is little chance that any other vote will count but, you're right, it is necessary to keep trying.
We have the same thing on a state level. A legislature, more or less in balance but full of extremists spending more time calling each other names rather than getting anything done. Oh sure, they say they're working hard for the public good and it's the "other guys" fault but all they really did this past session was pass a few nonsensical laws, rape the public purse, further restrict freedoms and blame the other party. Now they want to call a special session to do more of the same things they couldn't get done while in session but they can't even agree enough to get that underway (probably a good thing).
The same attitude has crept into local government. We've got a bunch of little Hitlers that say "my way or the highway" and they're VERY obnoxious about it. Of course this attitude doesn't come out until after the election. Once they get in power all they want to do is tell others what they can't do by further restricting freedoms and beat down the voice of common sense. My city use to be a nice place to live when I moved here back in 1976. Don't kill, rob or beat anybody and they pretty much left you alone, the way it should be. Now you have to watch every step so you don't violate some stupid ordinance and get fined. It sucks.
I use to say that we (America) were only 30 years behind England in the role of taxes and restricting freedoms. Now, I think we've passed them up and are leading the way. I've heard that the average country government (or something like that ) lasts about 200 years. We've been at it for 228 now but I think are definitely on the downhill side.
On the whole though, I belive everything you said.
"When young and foolish - as opposed to old and foolish - I once wired a 12 electrolytic capacitor across the mains as an experiment."
Back a hundred or so years ago in 7th grade 1st period electronics class... On the first day of class one of the first things our instructor said was to NOT do the above. Less than 5 minutes later, good old Dick Dickhead (or whatever his name was) did exactly what he was just told not to do. Boom! He went running out of the room and we never saw him again.
OT #1: This same instructor got as big a laugh out of it as we did when we hooked a Model T coil up to the metal classroom doorknob and zapped the girls that brought around the absentee lists for the day. (Hey, it was the 60's and you could get away with anything.)
OT #2: Grandpa (bless his soul) used to have a Model T coil hooked up to his garbage cans. When the neighborhood dogs came around to piss on them... now THAT was funny.
"Doom has something most FPSs don't even touch on nowadays - a single player game that can be played in a coop mode. It is sorely missed."
I agree 110%. Nothing like romping through a world pillaging and killing with your buddies. Many of my friends aren't going to buy D3 just because it doesn't have co-op. We need more co-op!!!
Hmmmm, the sticker is missing from the copy I downloaded from usenet. Try again SunnComm and BMG.
Only semi-related to your post but this seemed like a good place to plop my rant:
Here in Minneapolis we've got a station called KQRS, arguably the premirer rock station in this town. When they started out back in 1969 the DJs programmed their own play lists. You'd hear the "hits" but we would also get to hear a lot of the alternate tracks off the albums. The result: great music radio. Now, 35 years later, this "Classic Rock" station advertises the worlds largest album library and plays the same couple of hundred "hits" over and over and over again. The result: a tired "Classic Rock" station. What do I listen to? Talk radio or my MP3 collection.
Just for the record: I've got Qwest DSL (not that I'm bragging about it) and a non-MSN ISP. I get raw unfiltered internet and can do anything I want within the law. I get a free static IP, can run all the servers I want and get 1.0 up/1.5 down. Oh, and a virtually unlimited sized mailbox. This is residential DSL. My Comcast brethren in Mpls however get to pay about $8.00/month more, get a dynamic IP, can't (according to their TOS) run any servers, port 25 is blocked, a 5 meg mailbox and get 256 up/3.0 down. I get reasonable helpdesk support (for the few times I've needed it in the last 7 years) from Qwest and excellent support from my ISP. Give a little, get a little.
Not condemming your post, just an FYI. Speed ain't everything.
(NB- Following the acquition of a NewTek DigiView Gold, I "became" a Cool friend of NewTek! The DigiView was a 21-Bit colour video grabber marketed pre-'90s that generated income to finance the development of the VideoToaster.)
So you were the other one! I remember answering their questionaire and sending it in. Got a few trinkets back as I remember. Never heard from them again.
They wanted a lot of money for the little motorized gizmo that turned the color wheel so I built one myself from an RC plane servo. Worked great. Still have all that stuff downstairs somewhere along with an A2000 & A3000. Alas, the only reason I have to fire them up any more is to play A-10 Tank Killer which still is a hell of a lot more fun than the PC versions.
"Excelent. They are back on my list of options.
I like them because the ports are in the back and
the lights are in the front. That layout works
better in my setup."
And they stack nice with other Linksys stuff too.
"Thanks"
NP
It was the EG008W. Just confirmed, no fan.
I ust put a Linksys 8 port gbit switch in a place last week. Don't remember the model number but it was cheap ( $150). No fan.