Tim Holloway wrote: > On Tue, 2010-04-20 at 23:06 -0400, William L. Thomson Jr. wrote: > >> On Tue, 2010-04-20 at 22:58 -0400, Kyle Gonzales wrote: >> >>> My recommendation: buy a router that you can load DD-WRT or OpenWRT or >>> the like on, and use that. It will give you infinitely more control >>> and stability, and greatly extend the life and usefulness of that >>> hardware. >>> >> I second that, I can't believe how well they will perform with different >> firmware. I was very impressed with DD-WRT on a Linksys WRT54GL. >> >> Also same applies for my Android based T-Mobile G1. Which runs way >> better and has more software features with the Cyanogenmod than with the >> firmware/version of Android provided by T-Mobile. >> >> > (italics) > >> Not sure what that means for closed source software going forward, but >> leave hardware to manufacturers and software to the community, for the >> most part. >> >> > (/italics) > > I'd like to blame Microsoft for that, but I'm afraid it might have > happened anyway. > > If you happen across any old TV programs from the 1960's, a common > comedy gag was based on the "Computers don't make mistakes" and the > trouble people had when a computer screwup couldn't be fixed because no > one would admit that computers COULD screw up. > > Fast forward to 198x or so. "My program stopped running". "Press Ctrl > +Alt+Del and start over." > > We've gone from expecting computers to be infallible to the equally > absurd idea that computers are totally unreliable. > > Microsoft's rotten quality standards notwithstanding, consumers these > days are generally eager to take any amount of abuse if they think it > will give them "Always the Lowest Price". Do we even HAVE any > full-service filling stations anymore? OK, admittedly cars don't need > quite the pampering they used to. But that doesn't explain telephone > menus (Your call is VERY important to us!). Or the fact that you can't > return items to the store anymore when you unpack them and more than the > anticipated number of pieces (notice I didn't say "parts") fall out. And > rant, and rant and rant and-getoffamylawn. > > Still, the real price isn't any lower if you're trading money for > quality of life. Money, after all, is what you spend to /obtain/ quality > of life. Do you really /want/ "efficient" tasting food? Ah forget it, > you just got back from MickeyD's, didn'tcha? I give up! > > But my profession is technology, oriented towards the software end, and > frankly I'm offended by what passes for "passable" quality these days. > One of the biggest reasons that open source has a generally better > reputation than the commercial stuff these days is that in commercial > shops, Quality is Job None[tm]. That "Git 'R Dun!" is the watchword, > that "It shouldn't take that long because All You Have To Do Is...". And > I've said it all before, but sometimes all you can do is keep carping > until people get fed up and demand better. Open-source projects mostly > don't have to meet deadlines, and amazingly enough, people manage to get > things done in a generally realistic amount of time despite that. Then > again, realistic isn't a hallmark of business IT planning. AYHTDI, > y'know. > > While I know that some think that the magical Free Market Fairy will fix > everything, there's a lot more than just simple supply-and-demand at > work. Otherwise we wouldn't have allowed ourselves to be led into Phone > Menu Hell. Personally, I've dropped local businesses who installed those > abominations, but they continue to use them anyway. Just not on me. > > Remember, the point of any large business isn't actually to make > customers happy. It's to separate people from their money. Unlike, say, > the corner sandwich shop, they're not just happy to see you come in, > they want the cash. If they can extract cash from you on a regular > basis, so much the better, but it's more important that the profits are > spiraling ever upwards, so spending on development, quality, support, > and so forth (a/k/a "expenses") has to be minimized. They don't /have/ > to offer a "superior" product, just one that's insufficiently wretched > that you'll buy it anyway. And when you're dealing with commodity > products, that leaves /plenty/ of room for wretched, unfortunately. > > Unless you happen to be one of those fortunate people who can set up > their own factory, you're pretty much in the position of choosing > between evils in many cases. If you're lucky and you do your homework, > you may do OK. If not, I heartily encourage any (legal) way to make > unloading of inferior products onto a susceptible public unprofitable. > Don't just "dumpster" a crap router, demand a full refund and be loud > (but not aggressive) about it. Don't accept second-rate support. Let > people know when something's terrible - and just as importantly - what > could have been done to make it better. > > And for FSM's sake, if you can stand telephone queues and phone menus, > donate a little of your lifespan to selecting options that cost THEM > instead of just YOU! > > Demand better. Just remember, better usually costs more. Then again, as > I said, if you're trading money for happiness anyway, what have you got > to lose I think you just explained Apple's business model.
* looks around at his office * And I think it works. ;-) Seriously, I completely understand. Last night I was helping a family member transfer a domain, and the online tools would NOT give us the information we needed in any reasonable timespan. So we called up the toll free number, thinking it was going to be phone menu hell. We were both surprised when, at 8pm, a live operator routed us to the appropriate place for help. While we did have to sit on hold waiting at the next step, dealing with a live person at the start really helped. I've had someone tell me recently that they just could not "imagine" paying more than $400 for a notebook. After about 30 seconds of discussion, I realized that is all they felt it was worth, and would therefore get what they paid for. I will not be taking their tech support calls. One of the things I do greatly appreciate about Linux is how it is able to take an older piece of hardware that with its original software/firmware load (be it router or desktop) was rather poor or outdated, and turn it into something incredibly functional and useful again, effectively extending its reasonable lifespan by several years. -- Kyle Gonzales [email protected] GPG Key #0x566B435B Read My Tech Blog: http://techiebloggiethingie.blogspot.com/
