...Well, it's not exactly my dream job, because doing retail during the Christmas shopping season isn't exactly a career that I'd like to pursue for my entire life.
But then, when you factor in that I'm going to be working for Apple Computer at their newly-opened store in the Christiana Mall, that's about as good as it gets for a Mac geek like me! This is the kind of job that I can actually enjoy. No more lame bagel shop or receptionist desk for me! Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
Hint: on Boxing Day you will get a lot of irate PC owners who've found out their new iPods (with For MAC and PC in large letters on the box) don't actually come with a USB cable. Last year I think I got about the last one left in Bristol.
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
Boxing Day? What is this Boxing Day?
(Yes, I know, it's December 26th...)
Posted by Fleet-Admiral Michael T. Colorge (Member # 144) on :
Isn't that an American tradition of re-wrapping gifts to give out to relatives that you don't like/love/use?
Posted by Ritten (Member # 417) on :
I thought it was the day you went about boxing the ears of people you don't lke, making a day for it makes it legal once a year....
Posted by Balaam Xumucane (Member # 419) on :
Congratulations, MM. I do hope you'll properly exploit your employee discount. Will you be working at the Genius Bar? Also do they have a "Mac Geek" T-shirt anymore? Whenever I wear mine while shopping, someone invariably approaches me thinking I work there. I tend to help them anyway.
My dad called me this morning to say he was looking at the new Fry's ad and was thinking of going down and finally getting that iMac G5 (He's had to re-install Windows on his machine two or three times over the last couple months). I told him that the Apple Store's price was only a teensy bit more and the service he'd get there would definitely be worth it. (They'll probably wind up exploiting Mom's educator's discount.)
Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
I never understand how some people end up reinstalling Windows once a month. If they hacked systems for a living, sure, but normal people who aren't idiots? Don't get it.
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
Balaam: I'm "only" going to be a Mac Specialist (translation: floor salesman) for the time being. I do have some experience with troubleshooting Macs, but I don't think I'd be comfortable with that being my entire job (not just yet, anyway).
And yeah, I most definitely plan on taking advantage of the employee discount -- I get a 25% deduction for one purchase of a complete system each year! And seeing as how my current iBook (an ancient but reliable G3/600) is now three years old, I'm going to be upgrading to a top-of-the-line 15" PowerBook as soon as I've got sufficient funds!
(Actually, who knows? MacWorld is coming up in only two months... if I'm lucky, Steve will be announcing PowerBook G5's in January and I can finally have a system that beats out my dad's.) Posted by Charles Capps (Member # 9) on :
quote:Originally posted by Lee: Hint: on Boxing Day you will get a lot of irate PC owners who've found out their new iPods (with For MAC and PC in large letters on the box) don't actually come with a USB cable. Last year I think I got about the last one left in Bristol.
Mine came with both a USB and a Firewire cable...
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
Well, mine didn't. And judging by the number of people trying to buy USB cables for iPods the day after Christmas, neither did anyone else's. Maybe they've changed it since then, although doing something that made sense would be a first for Apple.
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
quote:Originally posted by Lee: Maybe they've changed it since then, although doing something that made sense would be a first for Apple.
Does that mean you don't consider designing and marketing the world's most popular digital music player to be "something that made sense"? Posted by Cartman (Member # 256) on :
"He's had to re-install Windows on his machine two or three times..."
"...he was looking at the new Fry's ad and was thinking of going down and finally getting that iMac G5"
TRUE STORY: my car ran two flat tires in a row once, and I got so mad I pushed it to the scrapheap with my bare hands and went out and bought this really overpriced truck with wheels of steel the next day so I would never again have to relive the horror of replacing a tire ALL BY MYSELF IN THE STREAMING RAIN, only then I found out my new truck was barred from public roads and that I had spent my life savings for nothing. Then I got even madder.
Then I learnt I could drive around spikey obstacles instead of over them, and I got really mad.
Posted by Ritten (Member # 417) on :
Use a mac do ya???
Posted by Balaam Xumucane (Member # 419) on :
quote:Originally posted by PsyLiam: I never understand how some people end up reinstalling Windows once a month. If they hacked systems for a living, sure, but normal people who aren't idiots? Don't get it.
I'm going to trust that you aren't intimating that my father is an idiot, Liam. This is the man who wire-wrapped all the (literal) bread-board components of the first computer I ever used. He programmed some early SC/MP tic-tac-toe games (in assembly code on the freakin' teletype). A fault may have been he was a little too trusting and perhaps as a result of his earlier experience, perhaps not as interested in the nuts and bolts of the inner-workings of his latest machine. He had been using IE more or less exclusively until very recently. Also AOL. The re-installs were at the insistence of tech-support from Intego, McAffe, AOL and the TurboTax guys. Basically any time he tried upgrading his software his Dell machine started giving him major hassle. I don't understand it. I never had as many issues with my PC they way he and my mother did. But then I don't think it makes you an idiot to want things to work properly and to assume that when you download an upgrade, that it will make your computer work better instead of, say, worse. He's gonna like that 20" iMac G5.
Powerbook G5. W0ot! I just hope they will have worked out some better heat dissipation. Even my Pismo G3/400 can get uncomfortably hot without proper ventilation. But, so, yeah, it's time to upgrade.
Congratulations again on the job. Finally you'll get paid for your Mac evangelism!
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
They just don't get it, do they? The point isn't that they made a digital music player that works well and is really nicely-designed. The point is that a large proportion of the many millions of poeple who bought them got them home, opened them up, and found to their disbelief that despite the large letters saying For MAC and PC on the box, there was no way to connect it to a PC without going out and buying an extra cable.
Posted by Balaam Xumucane (Member # 419) on :
quote:Lee intoned: ...The point is that a large proportion of the many millions of poeple who bought them got them home, opened them up, and found to their disbelief that despite the large letters saying For MAC and PC on the box, there was no way to connect it to a PC without going out and buying an extra cable.
That is irritating. It'd cost them, what $0.55USD per unit? You're charging how many hundreds of dollars more for a premium digital music player, you'd think they'd include the bells and whistles. My iPod came with a Firewire cable, but that was back before they had the USB2.0 ones. A couple years ago when I bought an EPSON printer that said right on the box that it was Mac and PC compatible, it came with a parallel cable but no USB. I'd planned on using it for both. Turns out it was a crap printer and the heads kept drying up. The HP I bought after that came with a USB cable.
Cartman: Here's another story: A retired old man got really sick of the spings in his old rover's seat poking him in the ass and dealing with all the bullshit and toll-roads and swerving madly around all the spikey obstacles and instead spent a bit more to get himself a nice luxury sedan with plush seats and a killer stereo. The last straw had been when a recall had actually damaged his car and the dealership had been completely insensitive. His luxury sedan wasn't as fast as some of the other cars (but it could certainly keep up), and it couldn't handle all of the other roads (a surprising number of them, yes, but not all). The important thing for the old man was that his sedan would take him where he wanted to go and his ass would hurt less.
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
And the moral of this story is, only buy a MAC if you're senile. 8)
Posted by Balaam Xumucane (Member # 419) on :
Alack. I am zinged.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
I am sooo dosapointed that your "dream job" has nothing to do with porn.
(shakes head in dismay)
Posted by Mucus (Member # 24) on :
quote:Originally posted by Lee: ...despite the large letters saying For MAC and PC on the box, there was no way to connect it to a PC without going out and buying an extra cable.
If I'm understanding this conversation correctly, the iPods come with only a Firewire cable. Since they lack a USB cable, you claim that PC users have to buy extra cables to connect them. The thing is, thats not quite true. Both my current PC motherboard and my old one have two Firewire ports.
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
Maybe that's a US thing. But most PCs I've seen in the UK and in NZ don't have Firewire ports. In fact I've yet to see one that does - seen a lot of add-in cards for Firewire in online stores and in shops, but as yet having them as a standard motherboard feature is nowhere near as common as you seem to believe.
Posted by Mucus (Member # 24) on :
*shrug* I'm just saying thats its not an entirely unreasonable stance for them and if it saves me $4, all power to them. Besides, don't they normally put what cables and accessories are included on the box?
Posted by Ritten (Member # 417) on :
But they didn't, thus Lee's point.....
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
"Cartman: Here's another story: ...[etc.]"
See, though, for your analogy to be appropriate, the man's car trouble would be due less to the quality of the car, and more to his own inability or unwillingness to maintain it. Say, he went three years without changing the oil, and then cursed it for not running well. So then he goes and buys a new car that costs twice as much, but isn't capable of driving to half the places the old one could.
Posted by Mucus (Member # 24) on :
quote:Originally posted by Ritten: But they didn't, thus Lee's point.....
Well, maybe I'm missing something, but while he's stated the "for PC and Mac in big letters" thing twice, he hasn't said what else is on the box.
Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
It is a reasonable assumption. If you bought a printer 5 years ago, you didn't check the box to make sure it included a parallel cable, because you knew that it would. Likewise, if you bought one nowadays you know it would include a USB cable. You don't advertise something as being for a product, and then don't supply a way of actually connecting them. I've known three people in the past two years buy digital video cameras, and each one of them got a firewire card in the box. If they can supply an entire card, I'm sure Apple can splurge for a cable.
As for PC's coming with firewall...almost every case I've seen for the past few years has some sort of firewall socket (or at least hole) on the front, but none of the motherboards have come with it as standard, so the actual port does nothing. Possibly I'm just not buying expensive enough motherboards, but if 10% of PC users have a firewall socket, I'd be very surprised.
And as pointed out, a USB lead would probably cost them less than a dollar a unit, so I really doubt they'd have to change the price to include it. If anything, since Macs come with USB sockets, it'd make sense to take out the firewire lead and just have a USB one in there.
Lee: There's someone where I work who's a bit of a computer, well, nerd. Ponytail, beard, wears black a lot. He says that last year, the iPods were released in firewire and USB versions, and they weren't compatible. So while it might have said "for PC and Mac" on the box, it meant "PCs with firewire and Mac", and that it made that clear on the packaging. Did it?
quote:Originally posted by Balaam Xumucane: I'm going to trust that you aren't intimating that my father is an idiot, Liam.
I would never insinuate that your father is an idiot, Balaam.
quote:He had been using IE more or less exclusively until very recently.
Not at all.
quote:Also AOL.
In any way.
quote:The re-installs were at the insistence of tech-support from Intego, McAffe, AOL and the TurboTax guys.
Tech support will ask you to reinstall Windows if your nose has developed an itch. The first line people are just working off a flow chart most of the time. The trick is to get them to put the problem through to the second line team, or more specialised troubleshooters. THEN you might have found what the problem was.
Posted by Balaam Xumucane (Member # 419) on :
Nice. You just dissed my dad. Seriously, do you even have any friends?
Also:
quote:Originally posted by PsyLiam: ...As for PC's coming with firewall...
That's "firewire", genius.
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
Liam: I don't know, to tell the truth. I don't have the packaging handy.
But. . . to add insult to injury, you can't actually GET a USB cable for the iPod. What you get is actually a combo USB-Firewire cable, with two cables coming out of the iPod end of the rig. So now I have two fucking Firewire cables!
And also, why the hell does iTunes need to be a 21Mb download? Because it's combined with QuickTime, of course. So you can't download one without the other. So despite the fact I already had QT on my laptop and was quite happy, when I decided to upgrade to the new version of iTunes (Christ only knows why, it seemed a good idea at the time) I had to install the audiovisual abortion as well.
Posted by Balaam Xumucane (Member # 419) on :
quote:Originally posted by Lee: ...So you can't download one without the other....
Well, you can download and install QT without iTunes. Just not vice-versa.
quote:Originally posted by Lee: So despite the fact I already had QT on my laptop and was quite happy, when I decided to upgrade to the new version of iTunes (Christ only knows why, it seemed a good idea at the time) I had to install the audiovisual abortion as well.
I'm not sure I'd characterize QT quite that way. And in answer to your question here's one opinion.
Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
quote:Originally posted by Balaam Xumucane: Nice. You just dissed my dad. Seriously, do you even have any friends?
Oh, calm down. I wasn't seriously insulting your dad, who I obviously have never met or know anything about. It was just my humble attempt to be mildly humorous. If I failed, then by all means carry on picking out misplaced words in my posts.
Posted by Ritten (Member # 417) on :
Yes, you failed, ok, we will.....
Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
I'm pretty sure that second comma should be a full stop. Or better yet, knock out the third comma and replace "ok" with "so".
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
Actually, a while ago at work I did download QT to install on my work PC, and it installed iTunes as well.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
"But. . . to add insult to injury, you can't actually GET a USB cable for the iPod. What you get is actually a combo USB-Firewire cable, with two cables coming out of the iPod end of the rig. So now I have two fucking Firewire cables!"
So, even though USB is supposed to be a "standard", they make their own USB cables that are incompatible with any other sort of USB connection?
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
No, it's an ordinary USB cable with the PC plug on one end, and the wide iPod plug at the other - but that wide iPod plug also has another cable sticking out of it leading to the MAC end of a Firewire cable. It's simultaneously annoying - because you have this cable that's just dangling there and getting in the way - and (intermittently) useful, because the power socket for charging requires a Firewire plug.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
Well, that's what I'm saying. "iPod plug"? A USB cable should be a USB cable. Proprietary connectors and such should be grounds for having your ass kicked, or something.
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
Ah, I see what you mean. Yup, the other end of the USB cable has been removed, and replaced with the iPod connector, which it has to share with a Firewire cable:
According to the Apple site, they now come with USB cables. Must have changed their policy, especially since they now supply the dock only with the 40Gb models but I got one with my 20Gb.
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Mine came with both a USB and a Firewire cable...