| Monday
June 12, 2000
A great deal of mail last week,
especially Sunday night.
Welcome to the wonderful world of rebates. The
entire computer industry's approach to rebates is to make it as difficult
as possible for the consumer to get the $$. The hope is that no more thant
1-2% of consumers will actually take the time and complete the paperwork
"correctly" or "without errors" and get fullfillment.
I know this since I used to rep for manufacturers and this was the
"understood" policy for retail rebates.
Robert Grenader Vector Resources
rgrenader@vectorusa.com
I have always suspected this, but
what is the point? Most people forget to mail in their rebate
materials -- I generally forget -- and don't end up hating the company as
a result. But when you do take the trouble, and they just plain don't
honor their own commitments, you end up wishing the sponsoring company
ill. As I do about Western Digital, a company I had some reason to think
well of until this scam.
I can only say "hear hear" to your recent
rant about Western Digital. I no longer will buy anything that has a
mail-in rebate. I travel a lot in the U.S. on business (from my home in
Canada) and mail-in rebates on US purchases would be iffy at best. Even
ones here in Canada are almost always done by promotional houses that are
engaged by the real vendor (it is possible that Western Digital isn't even
aware that they have jerked you around).
My theory is that if the rebate isnt good enough to
slap on at the register then I'll buy something else or nothing at all.
Vote with your wallet!
¯`·¸¸·´¯`·¸¸·´¯`·¸¸·´¯`·¸¸·´
Kerry M. Liles kerryl@inglenet.com Inglenet Business
Solutions Inc.
Interestingly, I have never had any
problem with Microsoft rebates. Western Digital is another story. And now
something more serious:
> Western Digital drives are not particularly better or worse than
anyone else's
I don't know about that. WD drives have been on my
"don't-buy" list for some time now. I bought two WD AC34300L 4.3
GB hard drives about two years ago. With all the shifting around I do,
both of them ended up in my spares box. When I was building my RoadRunner
machine this weekend, I pulled one of them from the box to use for that
machine. After considerable time wasted, it turned out that the drive was
bad. Western Digital diagnostics tell me that it has "errors that are
not repairable." That was aggravating, but drives do die sometimes.
So I pulled the bad drive and installed the other
identical drive. Same problem. Exactly. "This drive has one or more
errors that are not repairable. The final status code is 0207. Please
contact Western Digital Technical Support, and report the status code
shown here." Thinking that perhaps there was something wrong with the
cable or the IDE interface on the machine, I pulled the second dead WD
drive and installed a Maxtor 91000D8, expecting that perhaps it would also
exhibit similar problems. It fired right up and is working normally.
Apparently, the WD drives really are dead, and both were fine when I put
them on the shelf.
So now I have two dead WD drives, and given your
problem getting WD to cough up the rebate they owed you, I don't think
I'll waste my time trying to get them replaced under warranty. Nor is this
an isolated problem. I have a stack of dead WD drives accumulated over the
years, or did have until Barbara made me clean up recently. There weren't
any dead Maxtor or Seagate drives in that stack. I've discarded a few of
them when they became too small to be useful, but I haven't had a Maxtor
or Seagate drive die in years.
Don't forget that WD is the company that shipped
something like a million hard drives last fall before they noticed that
they'd all been built with a defective component which gave them an
expected lifetime measured in months. What kind of quality control allows
a company to build a million defective drives before they notice that
anything is wrong? They recalled that drive, but I wonder how many people
weren't aware of the recall and got stuck with defective drives. Perhaps
my experience is anomalous, but I certainly won't be buying any more WD
drives
--
Robert Bruce Thompson
thompson@ttgnet.com
http://www.ttgnet.com
I didn't get one of those bad
drives, and I have had no problems with the WD brands I have bought. Mr.
Rice informs me that Maxtor drives are made by Western Digital: one
wonders if there is some difference in quality control between the brands,
since I seldom see Maxtor at huge discounts. Mr. Thompson questions that. See
below.
Jerry I have an ORB
External SCSI drive. I have two computers. One running NT 4.0 FixPack 6
and the other Win2000. They have both worked from the get go without the
need for installing any drivers. I regularly move them, along with an IOM
JAZ and an old Optical (all SCSI) back and forth with no problems.
Morton Kaplon
Interesting. But what I have is USB
ORB and IDE internal ORB and both explicitly say in the installation
manual that they are not for Windows 2000 and not for NT. I used SyQuest
drives with SCSI too. Maybe I'll try the USB with a Windows 2000 machine
as a test. Thanks.
While listening to a radio program on stock
investing, (I think it's called Foolish Investing, they have a website
called fool.com and the name derives from a quote where only a fool would
invest without a stockbroker, of course they say your foolish to let
someone else mange your money), the inevitable Microsoft debate came up.
In the course of the question and answer period with the experts the query
came up as to whether Gates lack of financial contribution to the DNC and
the Slickmiester caused Microsoft to be targeted. One of the inhouse
experts brought your name up as having commented that Gates' lack of
payment of tribute may have indeed been the reason for the DOJ targeting
Microsoft. Beware the Jack Booted Thugs!
On an alternate topic---In the late 80's I was a
company commander of a reserve Tow Light Anti-Tank Company in
Philadelphia. Jeeps with TOWs hunting T-72's, HOOOWAAAAH! All of my senior
NCO's were civil service of some sort, and many were Vietnam Vets. Of my
junior NCO's most were either civil servants, waiting to be civil
servants, or college students who more than likely would stay in for
twenty, regardless of their profession, as they would have 7 to 8 years in
by the time they graduated. As an OPFOR commander at FT Dix and FT Drum,
one of the units we trained was the scout troop of a ARNG calvary sqaudron.
Virtually the entire unit was made up of cops from NYC and Northeastern
NJ, and they were quite good. The problem is when you have ARNG units in
rural areas. Many use the Guard as supplementary income, and the civil
service is not an option. Teachers have always made good Gaurdsmen and
reservists, you would be surprized at the number of principals that have
eagle or stars!
Finally, as an S-1 of an infantry battalion in a
Seperate Infantry Brigade, we had clerks assigned to us that normally
would have been in a division rear depot. Some of our missions involved
such things as securing a section of Autobahn to use as an airfield for
A-10's. Someone got the bright idea that the attached PAC should field
train with us for at least 5 days, and pass basic field survival skills,
such as digging foxholes, firing weapons, and MOPP gear usage. We tried it
twice, and failed both times, as the females complained that there was
inadequate field sanitation, in particular showers.
Maybe a majority of women from the Bronze age may
put up with dirt and yuck for weeks at a time as soldiers. But the best
place for women warriors is in the pages of S.M. Sterlings' fantasy. I've
met a few who could hack it, but not enough to build effective policy
around (and they weren't gay either Steve).
thanks, JODY
Jody Dorsett
Thanks. The name of the show is
"Motley Fool" I believe. I've heard it a few times and they seem
to know what they are doing.
One problem is that honorable men
don't let women stay in danger; which means we must either get the
honorable men out of the military and have a military service that doesn't
include them, or change a centuries old definition of honor and do it
rapidly. I suspect the latter is impossible.
RE: But *WHY* did MS legal
dept screw up so badly.
Pierre Mihok said: >
WHY did they screw this up? It makes no sense to me. >I figured all
along, they have something up their sleeve. >But what? And when will we
find out?
Some of our minds turn naturally to conspiracy
theories. We have no evidence for the non-obvious intent, but such
theories make life more interesting. I have seen speculation on SlashDot
(I have the time to wade the merde) that MS is up against development
barriers and that the internal complexity of Windows is heading for some
major fall. Security was not designed into the kernel and is a difficult
thing to retrofit. A lot of APIs that seemed like a good idea at the time
are locked into an interface that no mortal can keep track of.
So MS forces the government to split it. The
principals pick up the Explorer+Office side of the new company, move their
leverage efforts to "hidden Explorer APIs", and wait for the New
Windows Corp to fall on its face. They can then blame the collapse on the
government rather than a spongy foundation.
No evidence. I just view it as an interesting
speculation. But that's just the way my mind works. Give me an inch and
I'll tell you all about the OJ prosecutors and Oswald too...(grin)
.../ Greg Goss (mailto:gossg@mindlink.com)
Dr. Pournelle,
I bought an HP6648C package
from Sam's Wholesale Club(a WalMart subsidiary) and Red Hat ver6.2 at the
same time so that I would have a receipt showing that I did have a 'valid'
OS. Contacted HP through their customer support forum as to how to get
refunded the cost of Windows. Actually, the cost of the Windows Recovery
CDs but that horse is being flogged to death in another thread. Their
public response on the forum is copied below for you.
Seems that you don't have a
choice about the matter. Buy HP = = buy Microsoft. First, no true systems
disks and, now, you cannot even return that crud. The only recourse is to
return the whole PC. I used to be somewhat sympathetic to Micro$oft but
now it is 'Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war.'
Keep the faith,
Will Ganz
//========= message posted
on HP's customer support forum. =====/
Written by: HPpavtech67
(Steve)
On: June 12 2000 at 2:05 AM
Subject:HP Software License Agreement and software refunds.
Will,
Thank you for participating in our Forum. When software that is purchased
from HP directly is found to be unsatisfactory, that software can be
returned for a full refund within the specified period of time. However,
when software that is part of the packaging for another product is found
unsatisfactory, the product itself, including the accompanying software
must be returned. Additionally, since the Windows 98 program supplied with
the Pavilion is an OEM version, not the retail copy, Microsoft is not
responsible for exchanging the software since you did not buy it form
them, you purchased it as a component of the HP Pavilion.
For a more thorough
understanding of the information detailed above, please visit the on-line
copy of the HP Software License Agreement, which can be accessed by
clicking on the Hyperlink below.
http://www.hp.com/cposupport/esclicense.html
We hope this information
adequately addresses your concerns.
HPpavtech67 Steve
Fascinating, but not
unexpected. I am hardly part of the hate Microsoft crowd, but it bothers
me that issues like this, which are important, were not raised in the
anti-trust trials yet are used in the "remedy". That is bad law,
I think. And what Microsoft was found guilty of isn't going to be fixed by
the proposed remedy, which was proposed before the trial ever began.
To clear something up:
Jerry,
Sorry it took until today to get back on this, but
this is my work email account. In checking back, it turns out this was on
"Marketplace", not "ATC". Here is a link to the
transcript: http://www.marketplace.org/archives/rundown/2000/06.08.html
Here is a portion of the transcript. The statement
to which I was referring is at the end. Sorry again about the confusion.
As you always say, 'never attribute to malice what can adequately be
explained by (in this case my) incompetence'.
John DeVries
=========================
It's Thursday, the 8th of June. I'm David
Brancaccio.
The judge in the Microsoft anti-trust case
says, while the door remains open to a settlement, such an outcome is
"unlikely." In an interview with Marketplace less than a day
after he ordered the breakup of the software company into two parts, Judge
Thomas Penfield Jackson says he has no desire to punish Microsoft, but
wants to end its monopoly. Marketplace's Washington editor John Dimsdale
spoke with Penfield Jackson at his office in the U.S. District Court
building today.
Dimsdale: "Thomas Penfield Jackson looks
like a judge. A distinguished, 63 year-old pipe smoker with a judicial
shock of silver-white hair. A veteran of the law, but not technology.
Judge, what was your personal computing experience before this trial? Did
you surf the web? Did you download files? Did you word process?"
Judge Jackson: "Relatively little. I'm
from the pre-computer generation. I sent, received email. By and large
that was the limit of my computing experience."
Dimsdale: "So you had to bone up on what
browsers are and what a server is and application programming
interface?"
Judge Jackson: "It was a lot of learning
that was involved in doing this case."
Dimsdale: "Do you have a computer
now?"
Judge Jackson: "Yes, we have a computer
at home."
Dimsdale: "And is it a Mac or a
PC?"
Judge Jackson: "I don't recall who the
manufacturer is. It's got Windows software."
And see below
This debate continues:
Sir,
I will just drop one quote from a previous writer
for comment:
"I'd combine this with no further pay
increases for E-1 to E-4, no marriage clauses in the first term contracts
or even living outside the barracks for the first term (and no POV's for
the first three) and a large scale revival of correctional custody
facilities. Not enlisting misfits is an excellent idea. An Open Door
policy during the entire contract is a different matter. Domestic troubles
at the trailer park home are a leading cause of mid contract attitude
problems. We've had enough experience with 16 year old non-driver-licensed
child brides with two kids. We just don't need this kind of dead weight
hanging on our forces. Those child brides are also a leading conduit for
enticing otherwise upstanding troops into temporary drug usage."
Well, this is someone who should NOT be involved in
military decision making. First, it would require conscription, because no
one of sufficient qualifications would enlist under such draconian rules.
Second, while true that we have our share of problems with young married
soldiers who are below the poverty level (primarily because the spouse has
a hard time finding decent employment with PCS moves every 2-3 years),
eliminating married soldiers as an option isn't a good solution.
"Domestic troubles at the trailer park home" is a bit
condescending, and misses the point: we have those domestic problems with
Colonels and Generals, and they ain't in the trailer park.
What exactly does he think "large scale revival
of correctional custody facilities" will do? We court-martial at will
now, and our crime rates are way down. I know, as I teach military
prosecutors, and my main hurdle is lack of experience in the court-room.
In 1989, I was lead counsel on 50 courts-martial; the average counsel now
will do 5 in a year. That's GOOD news, though it makes my job difficult.
I have opinions about the military's troubles. I do
what any soldier can do, try to make things better on my end, and push
ideas up the chain, and down to my subordinates. Reorganize the military?
Good idea, but with what goal? Low intensity conflict? Operations other
than war? Are we going to be the classic army of history, a hybrid, or
something different entirely? Good questions I cannot answer. Perhaps more
debate here?
Please withhold the name
The Army of the Old West didn't
allow (legal) marriages, nor life outside the barracks, without the Army's
permission, which was rarely given for anyone below buck sergeant; but
that was a different army of different people.
You might be able to form some kind
of Legion out of jailbirds, but hardly a modern high tech army. As to
conscription, while I think it necessary for any republic that wishes to
both have a large standing army and remain a republic, you certainly will
not have conscript citizen soldiers living as single men in barracks for
more than a few months...
Dr. Pournelle,
Quoting your Sunday 11 June mail: "Interesting.
But I gather that morale is at rock bottom, in part because of the
integration of women; at least in the combat branches. Perhaps things will
soon all be well as the kinks get shook out?"
I don't think the inclusion of women is a key issue, but it belongs on the
list. My opinions, and even though I have been out of the service for
seven years I think they are still valid:
1.) "Don't ask, don't tell"- I relate to
my experience as an Infantryman, most grunts are a macho bunch. Hopped up
on testosterone with a bit of homophobia thrown in. Not a good
combination, since it leads to distrust of even your best buddy, and
teamwork really suffers, which is the lynch pin of a successful unit. This
also ties in to the integration of women, for many of the same reasons.
Also, many resent the women's relaxed qualifications for essentially the
same job. There is still a lot of politics involved in the service, right
from promotion in the ranks through job assignment. Personally, I could
care less who was in the fighting hole next to me as long as this person
did the job competently. Unfortunately, there aren't enough like-minded
people in the services. Maybe eventually.
2.) Low pay. Now, a service member gets enough pay
when you consider that their meals and housing are free as long as they
remain unmarried. I blew my check completely twice a month on goofing off,
with a little spent on maintenance of my personal equipment. However, most
civilian counterpart jobs pay a lot better, so the kids join the civilian
market, rather than the service. This is made even worse if the kid is
married, perhaps with kids. Even with the basic allowances for food,
housing and cost of living thrown in, a paycheck isn't much. Most of the
junior ranks qualify for and need food stamps to feed their dependents.
After I was married, I wouldn't take food stamps, though I could have, and
my wife tried to work every night when I wasn't. Still, it wasn't enough,
and we fell behind. I am sure my situation isn't unique.
3.) Discipline. Many kids don't want to work long
hours for little pay, with someone barely older than they are barking
orders, little recognition, and no individuality. Free expression is not
encouraged. And since they are doing little more than sitting about, even
when deployed to foreign soil, one gets a little restless. Servicemembers
want to DO SOMETHING, but they aren't. A couple of friends lost their cool
while deployed for Desert Shield, all that sitting around waiting for
months, and were disciplined (demoted and fined, essentially).
Peacekeeping duty tends to wear one down, since the peacekeepers are
getting shot at, but can't return fire, and are sitting in a tent or at a
checkpoint far from home, not doing anything. The old saw is "hurry
up and wait", but most can't handle much of the wait part anymore.
These are some of my opinions as to why the armed
forces are having recruiting and retention problems. Some solutions
readily present themselves. Like not allowing anyone below a certain rank
to marry, or increasing base pay, or keeping the troops busy actually
doing some work. Some problems require a lot of study before a solution is
available. I wish I had all of the answers.
George Laiacona III <george@eisainc.com> ICQ
37042478/ 28885038 "Your shots will be more consistently accurate if
you keep your eyes open." -Sgt. Schustec, King's Men Drill Instructor
"Listen, when I want your opinion, I'll tell you what it is."
-Sgt. Ingram
When my daughter was in intelligence
officer in the 42nd FA in Giessen just across from the Fulda Gap, she
didn't have the experience that there was too little to do: there was too
much to do. But that was during the Seventy Years War when the US troops
in Germany didn't know what might happen at any time.
It's a different situation today.
NATO is not threatened although it does threaten...
And this one is
representative of a LOT of mail I am getting:
Jerry,
I've read and enjoyed your columns for years. The
newest nonsense from Microsoft hit a real nerve though. I manage a
corporate IS group responsible for PC support.
I have two major gripes as a corporate user.
1. We lease a lot of PCs through a major mail order
house. When we began returning those systems a couple of month's ago we
learned that we must now return the OS CD that came with that system (one
for one) or be charged for the OS. It was not that way when the original
contract was negotiated but Microsoft changed their policy a while ago and
our OEM is forced to comply. Needless to say, most of the original CD's
ended up who knows where. We struck a compromise, though. When we replace
the leased system we just ship the OS CD from the new system back . . .
now this!
2. A while ago Microsoft began replacing their
corporate Select Agreements with new Enterprise Agreements. On the face of
it, the new agreements are cheaper and easier to manage. As a result
they've become extremely popular. There is one significant difference,
though. The Select agreement split fees into the original license cost and
an upgrade/maintenance component. At the end of the agreement you could
then simply continue paying maintenance on the licenses you
"owned". Under the new maintenance Agreement you pay a combined
fee every three or four years. In essence you get to buy a brand new copy
for your installed base at that time! Try getting a straight answer from
Microsoft about what you do or don't own if you don't re-new. As most of
these Enterprise Agreements have only been in use for about 2 years many
companies haven't realised this yet.
I'd appreciate it if you don't publish a name with
this, as "thuggish" is an apt description of their behavior to
those who question their corporate practices as well. [Read complaints and
criticism to everyone up to the CEO . . . but no response on the numbers!]
Jerry,
Well, I like to say I run Windows '84 -- dedicated
Mac user that I am. But Justice Expert Penfield who spun up so rapidly for
the MSTrial should have been able to say he has a WINTEL box.
Reminds me of the school of "management"
gurus who maintain that a great manager can manage in any environment,
versus the school that maintains that subject matter expertise is also a
requirement. I don't think Judge Penfield was equipped with the knowledge
and experience to allow him to apply turn of the last century
jurisprudence to a turn of this century technology case.
Also when the Judge says he is not our to get MS, my
brain hears that as "I am out to get MS".
jim dodd
Me too. But indulging his whims
costs the rest of us a lot. There are things that ought to be done about
the industry, but this isn't the way to do them.
> Mr. Rice informs me that Maxtor drives are made
by Western Digital
Eh? That's news to me. A quick check of the Maxtor
and Western Digital web sites makes no mention of this. WD has their 1999
10K/Annual Report posted (http://www.westerndigital.com/invest/99annual.html)
and it makes no mention of any such thing. In fact, it lists Maxtor as one
of its major competitors. I did some searching around the web and couldn't
turn up anything there about Maxtor drives being produced by WD. Also, the
drives appear to be completely different physically.
I'd never say flat-out that someone was wrong about
a statement like this, but I'd need some evidence before I'd believe it.
--
Robert Bruce Thompson
thompson@ttgnet.com
http://www.ttgnet.com
That's one of the best things about
this place: someone will know this stuff. Thanks. Now we'll find out
definitively. Me, I have always liked Maxtor products.
Many retailers of motherboards have the
same relationship with Microsoft as full system vendors. Thus they are
able to sell the OEM edition of Win98SE with the purchase of a mobo,
although so also require a CPU and/or drive be included to constitute a
system. The price is usually a good markup over what they pay but still
much less the retail. Fry's, for instance, sells OEM Win98SE Full Version
for $100 with a motherboard purchase. No word yet on OEM Win2K offerings.
Eric Pobirs
For the when-laws-cease-to-have-moral-force file:
http://www.nationalpost.com/financialpost.asp?f=000610/313783
Diane Francis makes an excellent point here. You, an
author, have not starved because of public libraries. Arguably, you eat
better because of them. Musicians don't starve because kids tape them off
the radio. They definitely eat better because of radio.
I still go to the theatre even though plays are
often televised. Films are much better on the big screen. Live concerts
are better than listening to CDs. Artists will not starve in a world where
recordings are free.
Kind Regards, Bruce Hollebone: hollebon (at)
cyberus.ca
There was a time when the 2000 or so
libraries in the US were a substantial part of the market for mid-list
hardbound books. In those days authors got about a dollar a book, and you
could live, in genteel poverty, on $4000 a year or less. Thus the paradox
that authors were taxed in order to support institutions that loaned out
their books for free, but at the same time, those sales were an important
part of the author's income.
No. I haven't starved. I've been
seven times on the best-seller list and once for fourteen weeks as #2 (Lucifer's
Hammer) and once as #1 (Footfall).
That changes your life. But getting to that status is hard work, and it's
harder to do now than it used to be.
But the analogy between libraries
and outright piracy breaks down, I think. As to the rest of your message,
sure, tastes are different one from another. At the moment most people
would far rather read a book as a book than on screen; but the technology
is changing rapidly, that won't always be true, and at that point it may
not be quite so simple.
I hope you're right and there's
nothing to worry about. I hope.
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