Anti-virus companies are sponsoring this in the hope that the platform grows. As it does, it will become a bigger target for virus writers and Mac users will finally have to use Anti-virus software.
There was an article posted several months ago about how Microsoft now requires a phone activation for product IDs that are generated for their 10 biggest customers. Since you use an eMachine you fall in that category. This is a common thing with computer repair, a technician can take care of this for you as part of the system repair.
Windows XP has been out for a long time, this has always been an issue. I'm actually kind of interested in how this sort of thing will be handled in Vista.
Apple has long been the Mercedes Benz/BMW of computers, mp3 players, and now they are going to be the same to cell phones. I don't hear apple, mercedes benz, bmw, or their customers complaining.
There is also another problem with phones that cost more then $400. They run Palm and Pocket PC. Of course nobody is really interested. OS X on a phone is something else.
I kept a list of the ones i found funny. This won't be funny to everyone, but some should get a laugh.
12-24-2004
We shipped a modem packaged inside a box from a video card. The customer returned it to us claiming that we sent him the wrong part without even opening up the box to check what was inside.
01-03-2005
A customer brought in a system he assembled, on a motherboard he bought from us. The motherboard was screwed directly to the chassis, without the metal spacers, causing a short every time the unit was turned on.
Customer came back again, he assembled another unit, which would not work, he had forgotten to peel the sticker completely from the bottom of the cooling fan.
01-08-2005
We shipped a 1U server to a customer. After they received the server the called us claiming that we forgot to put in the cd-rom drive into the unit, after some period of questions, we realized that the customer was looking at the server from the rear end.
02-02-2005
Customer bought a refurbished DVDRW unit for $64(cheap). The LED on the unit doesn't work. Otherwise the unit works perfectly. Customer is returning the unit for replacement.
02-22-2005
Received hard drive packaged in popcorn, unbuttered, unsalted.
04-07-2005
Customer calls, I can hardly hear him over the phone. After I let him know about the trouble, he says: "Yes I know, my phone is broken".
I found a disk just like this inside a cd-rom drive from a lot of 50 drives our company bought on e-bay. The disc is marked MRI and then a date from 2002.
"The lock-in argument: one day they might stop running the activation service?
Sure, but one day they might release a service pack that detects your pirated version and stops it working.
So the future isn't certain either way."
Before now you could have bought a stolen COA sticker for $15 to get around this problem, now microsoft closed this hole.
The whole problem was caused by MS to begin with. Every couple months your product key's internet registration flag was re-set, so you could buy a Dell, register windows, use it for a couple months, then sell your COA and Windows disc on eBay, then the buyer installs it, registers with MS... and so on.
This loophole could have been closed by disabling this automatic re-set, so that people would have to call only if they had previously registered.
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Anti-virus companies are sponsoring this in the hope that the platform grows. As it does, it will become a bigger target for virus writers and Mac users will finally have to use Anti-virus software.
There was an article posted several months ago about how Microsoft now requires a phone activation for product IDs that are generated for their 10 biggest customers. Since you use an eMachine you fall in that category. This is a common thing with computer repair, a technician can take care of this for you as part of the system repair.
Windows XP has been out for a long time, this has always been an issue. I'm actually kind of interested in how this sort of thing will be handled in Vista.
Apple has long been the Mercedes Benz/BMW of computers, mp3 players, and now they are going to be the same to cell phones. I don't hear apple, mercedes benz, bmw, or their customers complaining. There is also another problem with phones that cost more then $400. They run Palm and Pocket PC. Of course nobody is really interested. OS X on a phone is something else.
Electronic chips burn, it happends. Capacitors explode. I guess this is just the first time for him, so he blogged about it.
I kept a list of the ones i found funny. This won't be funny to everyone, but some should get a laugh.
12-24-2004
We shipped a modem packaged inside a box from a video card. The customer returned it to us claiming that we sent him the wrong part without even opening up the box to check what was inside.
01-03-2005
A customer brought in a system he assembled, on a motherboard he bought from us. The motherboard was screwed directly to the chassis, without the metal spacers, causing a short every time the unit was turned on.
Customer came back again, he assembled another unit, which would not work, he had forgotten to peel the sticker completely from the bottom of the cooling fan.
01-08-2005
We shipped a 1U server to a customer. After they received the server the called us claiming that we forgot to put in the cd-rom drive into the unit, after some period of questions, we realized that the customer was looking at the server from the rear end.
02-02-2005
Customer bought a refurbished DVDRW unit for $64(cheap). The LED on the unit doesn't work. Otherwise the unit works perfectly. Customer is returning the unit for replacement.
02-22-2005
Received hard drive packaged in popcorn, unbuttered, unsalted.
04-07-2005
Customer calls, I can hardly hear him over the phone. After I let him know about the trouble, he says: "Yes I know, my phone is broken".
It is really worth my while to buy the cheap releases in Hong Kong and resell them here, but the man wants to keep me down.
I found a disk just like this inside a cd-rom drive from a lot of 50 drives our company bought on e-bay. The disc is marked MRI and then a date from 2002.
"The lock-in argument: one day they might stop running the activation service?
Sure, but one day they might release a service pack that detects your pirated version and stops it working.
So the future isn't certain either way."
Before now you could have bought a stolen COA sticker for $15 to get around this problem, now microsoft closed this hole.
The whole problem was caused by MS to begin with. Every couple months your product key's internet registration flag was re-set, so you could buy a Dell, register windows, use it for a couple months, then sell your COA and Windows disc on eBay, then the buyer installs it, registers with MS... and so on. This loophole could have been closed by disabling this automatic re-set, so that people would have to call only if they had previously registered.