That is the major reason I mentioned that it may have to be a government agency, so that the private firm wouldn't be able to simply pass the bad expereience buck along. Of course, that eliminates competition to go with a central system.
Maybe this is an idea: companies don't outsource to one place, but to several (all?) through a common interface to keep organizational ovehead down. The customer service companies would have to pass security checks an such-like (lwt's not get bogged down on such details). Thus, consumers could call any of the service companies as front ends, and will naturally gravitate towards ones that provide a better experience, and the companies being served by the industries pay by number of customers serviced.
Seems tough to me, personally, to balance the competing forces here. Take returns for example: as the seller, I really don't want you to return soemthing unless absolutely necessary, but as a customer I would like to do so with impunity. Anybody have any ideas or insight as to how companies themselves handle these sorts of competing drives?
Thanks for the input and great link, but I think your DMV quip is a little disconnected from the issue (state government agency, and very different pressures, funding levels, etc.). Also, I didin't specify that it would have to be a government agency, so is there a way to maybe find a private version (and encourage competition as well?)? My local DMV is extremely fast, here in VT, BTW. Of course, we have very few people, but they could have cut staff until it was reduced to unaceptably high traffic levels, so that doesn't really matter so much.
My wife has come across fly-by-night companies that won't refund purchases no-matter-what in spite of advertsing money-back guarentees and things like that, and it got me wondering if maybe companies should be required to outsource (maybe to a gov't system?) basic customer things like returns, rebates (it's in their intyerest to process 'em slowly), cancellations, warranty coverage, billing statement copies, etc. It could provide a real commonality of experience and be used to enforce minimum standards.
This is a brainstorming post, so before you fire off devil's advocate reponses, instead try to think of ways this could be made to work (or a smaller subset, perhaps, or a different take on the same basic idea), rather than just ways to shoot it down, which leaves us exactly where we are now. I'm just asking everyone be constructive in their criticisms (suggest an alternative, perhaps?).
My bad! I forgot I have Final Cut Express! Final Cut Pro does seem to go back all the way to version 1 on the crossgrade path. Oops. Motion 1.0 is out, as was my DVD Studio version, and I mentally lopped them all together. Sorry about that.
Look at the upgrade options based on version. I'm one version too old on Final Cut, Motion, and DVD Studio. It's not that Apple should go all the way back to the end of time on crossgrade options, but it does open up possibilites for Premiere to possibly market to anyone in this position, that was my point.
Cross grade doesn't go back beyond a certain version (I'm on the road and don't have my version number in front of me). I have already had the long chat with the Apple reps. If I was pirating, why would I care about upgrade price, I'd just rip it off again.
I keep forgetting that tone doesn't come across in email. I just meant to point out that users in my position do have a reason to consider their alternatives, not to necessarily blame apple for the situation. I am dissapointed rosetta won't run my version, but I assume that's becasue it's got assembly code in there or soemthing that it won't emulate. I also have Motion and DVD Studio in the same boat. That's a lot of cash, all together! Ouch. I'll probably just skip anbother generation of software and upgrade then, or even buy a newer G4 mac (used, of course) to extend my current software lifespan.
I posted my comment specifcally to get you Linux advocates interested. So, now that you're here, why should I abandon osx for linux, specifically? "It's not as hard to use as it used to be" needs to be improved upon, wouldn't you agree?
As an admittedly non-initiate in linux (I run osx), this seems very much what linux is good for, rather than for a desktop os, where difficulty of setup would be a severe handicap. I've always believed that open-source suffers from the in-house-tool mentality, which assumes the end user is extremely sophistacted. As an engineer, I can testify to my lack of desire to make the UI more than bare-bones.
Older owners of Final Cut can't upgrade to the intel mac other than buying a whole new copy. It won't even run under Rosetta, so I will definitely consider alternatives before just automatically plunking down $1000 for the intel version.
>> So, in short, they are considering if the item is worth the asking price? That actually sounds a lot like a rational thought process to me.
It seems as if they ignored the fact that people value money directly, rather than having to translate it into items that the money could be used to buy at some later date for the sake of comparison. I conciously debate between the pleasure of ownership vs. the pain of parting with the cash all the time, and I didn't need an MRI to tell me that!
On a related note, this strikes me as one of those "cold is the absence of heat" observations. My personal favorite is the "power of negative thought". It's not that thinking positively boosts your immune system beyond what is normally possible, but rather than thinking negatively degrades it from what should be the norm. That's my theory, anyway.
In case you were wondering, I believe the glass is at 50% of it's capacity.
What I want to know is when they are going to start having fake Nascar? Pretty much the same demographic as wrestling, isn't it? Imagine the crashes you could have!
I am bulding my own house, and early on my wife and I agreed on a lighting policy. The idea is to have low-level lighting for navigation putposes, with task lighting for extra illiumination right where you need it (desk lamps, light in the cosmetic area, closet lgiths & cabinet lights on door siwtches, a light in the shower on a timer, etc).
Of course, since I'm building the house myself, right now all we have are drop lights hooked to extension coords! At least there are floursecent bulbs in those drop lights!
A friend of mine rents a loft in my house and he asked me to check out why his part of our power bill was so much greater (he now has a meter). Turns out his standby power on all his devices is half of his total average power draw. They are on all the time, after all, whereas the bigegr items are used mkore rarely. He also has more gizmos than you can shake a stick at. To sum thar up: when he's away from the house on vacation or whatever, with TVs and compuetrs off, his power draw is still at 50% of the noraml amount. For what's it's worth...
I copy all my old data to my new drive one every time I upgrade (this is true of my backup drive as well, of course) since the drives get so much bigger each time. It's not a static system like a DVD.
Does anyone actually try and use hard disks as static data backup? If so, I'd love to hear their reasons (not being sarcastic here).
Also, even if magnetic tape is a better medium than any optical device (debatable), wouldn't a digital tape backup be better than an analog one?
Works for me. I never watch DVDs in a DVD player. I like to watch them at 25% greater speed (Quicktime has this capability without it sounding like Alvin & The Chipmunks).
Skipping commercials and pausing is great, but it's time-shifting that's the killer feature of DVRs for me. I've occaisonnaly thought about what a stellite provider's service could look like if all their customers had DVRs and a netflix-esque interface and they then scheduled programs intentionally so the DVRs would pick the shows up at whatever time worked out best for the most customers. Never gonna happen, but I think it's intersting because broadcast infrastructure could be made to do quite a bit more than it is currently.
With the parents, of course. Adults control the world children live in, right? Once your kids are adults (and the transition to adulthood starts around age 8, earlier for the smart ones), if you haven't taught them basic common sense (not common whatsoever IMO), then it's on you. We're supposed to limit the ability of people to communicate with one another? Communication is, after all, what you make of it.
Maybe it's just the engineer in me, but why would I want my name on a mini disc on Mars? Seems to me that's pretty much one level above herostratic fame, which ain't saying much.
I believe we will discover we're more hard-wired than we like to think (deny anyone iodine in their diet and they will turn paranoid quickly), but to imply the end result of this is that we don't have any free will is simply stupid. I can still decide whether or not to go get a ham sandwich, even if I can't change whether I like aspargus.
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That is the major reason I mentioned that it may have to be a government agency, so that the private firm
wouldn't be able to simply pass the bad expereience buck along. Of course, that eliminates competition to
go with a central system.
Maybe this is an idea: companies don't outsource to one place, but to several (all?) through a common
interface to keep organizational ovehead down. The customer service companies would have to pass
security checks an such-like (lwt's not get bogged down on such details). Thus, consumers could
call any of the service companies as front ends, and will naturally gravitate towards ones that provide
a better experience, and the companies being served by the industries pay by number of customers
serviced.
Seems tough to me, personally, to balance the competing forces here. Take returns for example:
as the seller, I really don't want you to return soemthing unless absolutely necessary, but as a
customer I would like to do so with impunity. Anybody have any ideas or insight as to how companies
themselves handle these sorts of competing drives?
Maxim
Thanks for the input and great link, but I think your DMV quip is a little disconnected from
the issue (state government agency, and very different pressures, funding levels, etc.). Also,
I didin't specify that it would have to be a government agency, so is there a way to maybe find
a private version (and encourage competition as well?)? My local DMV is extremely fast, here
in VT, BTW. Of course, we have very few people, but they could have cut staff until it was reduced
to unaceptably high traffic levels, so that doesn't really matter so much.
Maxim
My wife has come across fly-by-night companies that won't refund
purchases no-matter-what in spite of advertsing money-back guarentees
and things like that, and it got me wondering if maybe companies should
be required to outsource (maybe to a gov't system?) basic customer things
like returns, rebates (it's in their intyerest to process 'em slowly), cancellations,
warranty coverage, billing statement copies, etc. It could provide a real
commonality of experience and be used to enforce minimum standards.
This is a brainstorming post, so before you fire off devil's advocate reponses,
instead try to think of ways this could be made to work (or a smaller subset,
perhaps, or a different take on the same basic idea), rather than just ways to
shoot it down, which leaves us exactly where we are now. I'm just asking everyone
be constructive in their criticisms (suggest an alternative, perhaps?).
Maxim
My bad! I forgot I have Final Cut Express! Final Cut Pro does seem to go
back all the way to version 1 on the crossgrade path. Oops. Motion 1.0
is out, as was my DVD Studio version, and I mentally lopped them all
together. Sorry about that.
Look at the upgrade options based on version. I'm one version too old on
Final Cut, Motion, and DVD Studio. It's not that Apple should go all the way back
to the end of time on crossgrade options, but it does open up possibilites for
Premiere to possibly market to anyone in this position, that was my point.
Cross grade doesn't go back beyond a certain version (I'm on the road and don't have my version number
in front of me). I have already had the long chat with the Apple reps. If I was pirating, why would I care
about upgrade price, I'd just rip it off again.
I keep forgetting that tone doesn't come across in email. I just meant to point out that users
in my position do have a reason to consider their alternatives, not to necessarily blame apple for
the situation. I am dissapointed rosetta won't run my version, but I assume that's becasue it's got
assembly code in there or soemthing that it won't emulate. I also have Motion and DVD Studio
in the same boat. That's a lot of cash, all together! Ouch. I'll probably just skip anbother generation
of software and upgrade then, or even buy a newer G4 mac (used, of course) to extend my current software
lifespan.
I posted my comment specifcally to get you Linux advocates interested.
So, now that you're here, why should I abandon osx for linux, specifically?
"It's not as hard to use as it used to be" needs to be improved upon, wouldn't
you agree?
As an admittedly non-initiate in linux (I run osx), this seems very much what linux is
good for, rather than for a desktop os, where difficulty of setup would be a severe
handicap. I've always believed that open-source suffers from the in-house-tool
mentality, which assumes the end user is extremely sophistacted. As an engineer,
I can testify to my lack of desire to make the UI more than bare-bones.
Maxim
Older owners of Final Cut can't upgrade to the intel mac other than
buying a whole new copy. It won't even run under Rosetta, so I will
definitely consider alternatives before just automatically plunking
down $1000 for the intel version.
Maxim
>> So, in short, they are considering if the item is worth the asking price? That actually sounds a lot like a rational thought process to me.
It seems as if they ignored the fact that people value money directly, rather
than having to translate it into items that the money could be used to buy at some
later date for the sake of comparison. I conciously debate between the pleasure of
ownership vs. the pain of parting with the cash all the time, and I didn't need an MRI
to tell me that!
On a related note, this strikes me as one of those "cold is the absence of heat" observations.
My personal favorite is the "power of negative thought". It's not that thinking positively
boosts your immune system beyond what is normally possible, but rather than thinking
negatively degrades it from what should be the norm. That's my theory, anyway.
In case you were wondering, I believe the glass is at 50% of it's capacity.
Maxim
And think of all the werewolves we'd be helping!
What I want to know is when they are going to start having fake Nascar? Pretty much
the same demographic as wrestling, isn't it? Imagine the crashes you could have!
I am bulding my own house, and early on my wife and I agreed on a lighting policy. The
idea is to have low-level lighting for navigation putposes, with task lighting for extra
illiumination right where you need it (desk lamps, light in the cosmetic area, closet lgiths
& cabinet lights on door siwtches, a light in the shower on a timer, etc).
Of course, since I'm building the house myself, right now all we have are drop lights hooked to
extension coords! At least there are floursecent bulbs in those drop lights!
Maxim
That article makes a very good point (indirectly): smaller gains made by 80% of people beat that crap out of huge gaisn made by
2% of people.
A friend of mine rents a loft in my house and he asked me to check out why his part
of our power bill was so much greater (he now has a meter). Turns out his standby
power on all his devices is half of his total average power draw. They are on all the
time, after all, whereas the bigegr items are used mkore rarely. He also has more
gizmos than you can shake a stick at. To sum thar up: when he's away from the house
on vacation or whatever, with TVs and compuetrs off, his power draw is still at 50% of
the noraml amount. For what's it's worth...
Maxim'
>> Quake in Taiwan Cripples Internet
They must really love first person shooters in Taiwan!
By static I meant long-term archival storage: the hard drive sitting around for 10-20 years and
still expecting it to work.
I copy all my old data to my new drive one every time I upgrade (this is true of my
backup drive as well, of course) since the drives get so much bigger each time.
It's not a static system like a DVD.
Does anyone actually try and use hard disks as static data backup? If so, I'd love
to hear their reasons (not being sarcastic here).
Also, even if magnetic tape is a better medium than any optical device (debatable),
wouldn't a digital tape backup be better than an analog one?
Alas poor Amiga, I knew him well!
Works for me. I never watch DVDs in a DVD player. I like to watch them at
25% greater speed (Quicktime has this capability without it sounding like
Alvin & The Chipmunks).
20 years? Sure thing. Rip it to a hard drive. Embrace the digital nature olf the DVD!
Skipping commercials and pausing is great, but it's time-shifting that's the killer feature of
DVRs for me. I've occaisonnaly thought about what a stellite provider's service
could look like if all their customers had DVRs and a netflix-esque interface and
they then scheduled programs intentionally so the DVRs would pick the shows
up at whatever time worked out best for the most customers. Never gonna happen,
but I think it's intersting because broadcast infrastructure could be made to do
quite a bit more than it is currently.
Maxim
>> Where are the safegaurds?
With the parents, of course. Adults control the world children live in, right? Once your kids are adults
(and the transition to adulthood starts around age 8, earlier for the smart ones), if you haven't taught
them basic common sense (not common whatsoever IMO), then it's on you. We're supposed to limit
the ability of people to communicate with one another? Communication is, after all, what you make of it.
Maxim
Maybe it's just the engineer in me, but why would I want my name on a mini disc on Mars?
Seems to me that's pretty much one level above herostratic fame, which ain't saying much.
Maxim
I believe we will discover we're more hard-wired than we like to think
(deny anyone iodine in their diet and they will turn paranoid quickly),
but to imply the end result of this is that we don't have any free will is
simply stupid. I can still decide whether or not to go get a ham sandwich,
even if I can't change whether I like aspargus.
Maxim