Apple makes the hate list
- Thread starter Mercutio
- Start date
Tannin
Storage? I am Storage!
What moron woiuld buy a proprietary machine to run a business on? Well, OK, lots of morons do just that. But it's so stupid. When you can't even replace a bloody power supply for chrisake ..... it's pitiful. Four weeks and counting for a job that on a real computer wouldn't even rate a trip into the workshop, just an on-the-spot replacement on the front counter. (Or, for anyone that can holed a screwdriver, not even that.) Hell, we have a very small shop and right at this moment there are about 20 or 25 spare power supplies in stock and available at zero notice.
Honestly, I have no idea why anyonbe ever buys an Apple. (Well, OK, I just remembered that the alternative is Windows. This was a fairly slow to medium week as these things go, and we probably did a couple of dozen spyware and/or virus removal jobs on Windows systems. Sort of puts things in perspective, doesn't it.)
PS: Reading this over I discoverd a typo, which was almost worth keeping. I originally wrote: "What moron woiuld buy a proprietary machine to ruin a business on?"
Honestly, I have no idea why anyonbe ever buys an Apple. (Well, OK, I just remembered that the alternative is Windows. This was a fairly slow to medium week as these things go, and we probably did a couple of dozen spyware and/or virus removal jobs on Windows systems. Sort of puts things in perspective, doesn't it.)
PS: Reading this over I discoverd a typo, which was almost worth keeping. I originally wrote: "What moron woiuld buy a proprietary machine to ruin a business on?"
Tannin
Storage? I am Storage!
Come to think of it, I arrived here in this thread with an entirely different tale to tell. Customer came in a month or so ago to buy WinXP and have it installed, so that daughter could use her new iPod. No problem, it was a decent machine, added som RAM and away we went.
Came back today. System worked fine until she loaded iTunes. Now can't access the iPod. To my disgust, the Soup Nazi made himself so busy with other jobs that I had to have a go at it myself. Me! Darling, I don't do games, printers, or anything to do with stupid music software. (Waves limp wrist and winces. Or possibly minces.)
Where to start? Take crap out of the startup, I guess. Hello, hello, that looks like a whole stack of spyware to me, along with the typical commercial junk (Realplayer, Quicktime, MSN, the usual suspects). Soon as you see filenames in startup like skjsdjhuirtf.exe you know it's another spyware job.
An hour or so later, Hijackthis, Spybot, and Ad-Aware had done their stuff and the system was vaguely clean. Still no iPod. No sign of an add-remove programs entry for iTunes though. So I went back into safe mode, and brute-force deleted the iTunes folder out of program files. Slipped into Regedit and did a global search and delete for iTunes. Well, did a bit of it, then I ran out of time and just hoped I'd nailed the important bits. Rebooted, and hey presto, the iPod works again.
I told them that they could probably load iTunes again now, seeing as the system is clean, but it would be wise to wait until we re-open in the new year, just in case it stuffs up again. Whole job took me an hour and a half, give or take. Told them no charge, it's Christmas.
(I'll go back to being my usual mercenary self before too long, of course.)
Came back today. System worked fine until she loaded iTunes. Now can't access the iPod. To my disgust, the Soup Nazi made himself so busy with other jobs that I had to have a go at it myself. Me! Darling, I don't do games, printers, or anything to do with stupid music software. (Waves limp wrist and winces. Or possibly minces.)
Where to start? Take crap out of the startup, I guess. Hello, hello, that looks like a whole stack of spyware to me, along with the typical commercial junk (Realplayer, Quicktime, MSN, the usual suspects). Soon as you see filenames in startup like skjsdjhuirtf.exe you know it's another spyware job.
An hour or so later, Hijackthis, Spybot, and Ad-Aware had done their stuff and the system was vaguely clean. Still no iPod. No sign of an add-remove programs entry for iTunes though. So I went back into safe mode, and brute-force deleted the iTunes folder out of program files. Slipped into Regedit and did a global search and delete for iTunes. Well, did a bit of it, then I ran out of time and just hoped I'd nailed the important bits. Rebooted, and hey presto, the iPod works again.
I told them that they could probably load iTunes again now, seeing as the system is clean, but it would be wise to wait until we re-open in the new year, just in case it stuffs up again. Whole job took me an hour and a half, give or take. Told them no charge, it's Christmas.
(I'll go back to being my usual mercenary self before too long, of course.)
e_dawg
Storage Freak
Did the notion of telling your boss that having iTunes on a company PC is against our company's acceptable use policy (and I will therefore have to delete it and make a note in your employee file) ever enter your mind? 
LOL...
LOL...e_dawg
Storage Freak
Just to pile on Apple, I also can't stand QuickTime or iTunes. I think I've been able to avoid using QuickTime for a couple years now and haven't used iTunes in about a year. And I am a happier person for it.
e_dawg
Storage Freak
As for Dell support, when my Dimension desktop was on the fritz with booting and freezing problems, I never seriously considered calling Dell support. It was probably due to a couple driver conflicts and USB support with Windows XP. In any event, I reset the CMOS and reinstalled Vista, and (surprisingly) all is well.
I don't think I'll ever call Dell support unless it's to ask for an RMA for defective hardware.
I don't think I'll ever call Dell support unless it's to ask for an RMA for defective hardware.
ddrueding
Fixture
It's funny, there are some companies I just don't think about calling. Even if I know it is their problem, I don't consider calling them part of the solution. In this category are commodity hardware vendors and most major software companies. But I think this is one space where MS has it right; if you call them and pay the money, your problem is fixed. The only other company I've gotten that kind of support from is IBM's AS400 group.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I've never had a productive call to Microsoft.
ddrueding
Fixture
Ok, I'll bite.
Had a problem with a 2003 domain controller that went up in smoke. Not the only DC for the domain, but it did hold a couple of the roles and was primary DNS. Called MS, payed $300. They had 3-8 people conferenced in at any one time from different departments, taking turns with remote desktop. After about 6 hours, not only had they cleaned up the mess and made it all right, they had identified a number of other minor configuration issues and sent a batch of "best practices" for me to implement on my own.
Serious man-hours, knowledgeable people, fixing my mistake for a total of $300. I think that was pretty productive.
Had a problem with a 2003 domain controller that went up in smoke. Not the only DC for the domain, but it did hold a couple of the roles and was primary DNS. Called MS, payed $300. They had 3-8 people conferenced in at any one time from different departments, taking turns with remote desktop. After about 6 hours, not only had they cleaned up the mess and made it all right, they had identified a number of other minor configuration issues and sent a batch of "best practices" for me to implement on my own.
Serious man-hours, knowledgeable people, fixing my mistake for a total of $300. I think that was pretty productive.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Every time I've ever called Microsoft, they've told me one of two things: "You're running an unsupported configuration" or "That's a vendor-specific/service provider issue."
What I've learned to do is to be very cautious about doing anything on a Windows server. If I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing, I do it on a Linux box or in a VM and just make Windows to that.
What I've learned to do is to be very cautious about doing anything on a Windows server. If I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing, I do it on a Linux box or in a VM and just make Windows to that.
mubs
Storage? I am Storage!
Migrating from Exchange 5.5 to 7 broke some things for us. 16+ hours on a support call to MS (US --> India --> back to US --> back to India --> back to US) did not fix anything, and we hung up on them and implemented a kludgy workaround on our own. It's still that way (Exchange 5.5 is running on old box functioning as a forwarder for SQL Server generated email).