2005 April 22

Lockergnomie Rusty Weller, upon reading a note about Verizon's CEO dissing his customers:

You're such a kind soul. Very enlightening, too. I appreciate all that you do.
If Verizon's CEO disrespects his customers, you ought to be an AT&T merger victim in the unmerciful hands of Cingular. No, you ought not, on second thought.
After research, my wife and I chose AT&T over all other cell phone companies because it best suited what we needed and wanted. We enjoyed a nearby AT&T store stocked with a wide variety of cell phones and friendly employees who helped my wife learn her new gadget. From time to time she browsed the many phones lining store walls and looked forward being an AT&T customer long enough for an economical upgrade.
Then came the merger. Suddenly red-headed stepchildren, we were told there would be no new phones for us unless we “migrated” over to Cingular, which offered the same plans we previously rejected. We asked out of our contract, since AT&T now wasn't living up to its end of the bargain, and were given a flat “no.” We could buy our way out at a substantial amount for us fixed-income folk, or serve out the original sentence without any benefits.
At Christmas I wanted to get my wife of 35 years a better phone. The Cingular Store told me so few AT&T phones were left they'd be gone that very day. Aunty, you've certainly heard of the expression “as big as Dallas”? Well, that's where we live, yet only one Cingular store in all of Dallas had phones for AT&T customers. I rushed to that location apparently in time, but the Cingular computer didn't recognize my wife's upgrade eligibility and demanded full price for the phone. I called to register a complaint and, several levels deep into Cingular, I eventually was given a one-time opportunity for a phone at half price. No selection, though. Just one flip phone. Take it or leave it. The price was more than the one-year contract upgrade my wife was supposed to be entitled to receive, but I took it. Better than nothing, or full price.
When my phone later acted up and needed to be replaced, I had to go through much the same process. Both times if I'd taken the word or store personnel or the first two levels of phone support, we'd be empty handed today.
Oh, yes, both phone purchases re-started our two-year AT&T contracts. So to get the phones needed to keep using our contracts we're having to pay for, we had to greatly lengthen the time we are at Cingular's (lack of) mercy.
Cingular employees aren't all bad, mind you. They've just not been given anything to offer AT&T's orphans. It's like the Capitol One commerical — “no, no, no.” Time and again they ask: “Why don't you just join Cingular?” Because I didn't want Cingular from the start, I say. Because Cingular's closest plan gives us far less minutes at a greater price, I say. Because Cingular is heartlessly coercing AT&T customers into converting by offering no phones or benefits, by demanding contract buyouts, by making it extremely hard to ride out original contracts.
Just thought you might like to know.

Well, I'm still a Verizon customer. I might switch to Sprint, however, due to its killer data plan.

Read more on The Sins of Cingular…

Hey Opera – Firefox is killing your desktop business model. I admire your CEO for aiming to swim from Norway to the USA, but… that's not likely to win over any new users these days. Internet Explorer may have annoyed us in the past, but with free shells like Maxthon, any kind of ad-supported browser is just… silly. You're an underdog, certainly – but hindering adoption by RAISING the bar ain't gonna win anybody over. I'm sure the Opera Web browser has a set of enthusiasts, as does every browser on the planet (even Lynx, I'm sure). OS X has Safari, and Linux has Konqueror. You're pretty much the odd man out, Opera. If you really want to compete, it's time to find another way of monetizing your browser brand. Would I consider installing Opera again? Sure, but I don't *NEED* to install it.
I'm usually one who can notice the slightest speed difference, but I honestly can't see the difference between any browser these days. It all boils down to UI, IMHO – as well as feature set and compatibility. Web standards are certainly important, but… if my Bank doesn't care about Web standards (or is, say, only compatible with IE), you're not creating a very compelling argument for Joe and Judy Consumer.
Good luck with reaching a million, but… the world would be much more impressed if you were shooting for a million REGISTERED (paid) browser users in four days. I'm not going to pay for my browser, and I'm certainly not alone. The average user isn't going to move beyond IE, because that's what's there. Thank goodness advanced users are installing Firefox for their friends and family members – because competition is healthy. But please, Opera – compete!

Read more on Paying for a Web Browser…

Should Lockergnomie Mike Nelson feel bad?

I run my own computer repair business. I am the only one locally that will actually go to people's home and fix their sick little babies. Mind you, I love what I do, but the attitude of some customers has left me thinking later I should have said this, or that to get my point across. A recent customer who had a partition virus, got a dump and reload, left me wishing I had thought of this to say or that, just not the right thing at the right time.
I was called back to their residents two days after I cleaned their computer with a new XP Home with SP2 installed. I had to put their IE explorer back to default settings so it was friendlier to the urls they were going to.
As I had her test it out to make sure it was doing what she expected, a pop-up showed up wanting to know if flash media could install on her banking site. I told her that was the SP2 in action and was normal. Next words out of her mouth, “well, what if I don't want SP2? I like the old way.” Knowing that Microsoft now doesn't give you much of a choice because of their policy change this month, I just matter of fact stated SP2 was for security, and she doesn't have a choice. SP2 is for her security and everyone else on the internet. After all, we would not want her computer spreading virus to other systems would we? I try to keep things simple for my customers as I have found over the years that simple, even if it is not 100% true, but it passes the 99% test, I am doing the customer a favor confusing them with long explanations. But I have to admit, in the back of my mind, I was thinking “Who the Hell does this person think she is?”
After I got home, I thought I should have told her that if she had a car that was being recalled to fix the wheels so they wouldn't fall off after a few thousand miles and endanger not only her life, but other cars around her, would not she take it in and get it fixed? I get disturbed that people just don't get it sometimes. I spend a few hours getting their computer fixed because of some action or lack of action on their part and I love doing it. I love helping people. Of course loving doing something and getting paid to do it is even better. But I do find myself getting irritated when people come up with this attitude I don't want to change the way I do things and I am going to do it my way whether it is right or not.
I am sure I am going to be called back to fix their computer again as I put Adaware, Spybot, Spyblaster, and a firewall on their computer when I redid it, but they are not going to keep them updated and run scans even if I put those first three in a Twice A Month Folder I created on their desktop. I realize that it just makes me more money, but attitudes of customers sometimes really leaves me shaking my head wondering why in the heck these people even bother with computers when they can't follow directions.
I guess I shouldn't complain, as it keeps my business going. But it is really hard for me to keep smiling sometimes.

I love helping people, too – and I always prefer giving the shorter explanation.

Read more on Fixing Computers for a Living…

There's been an awful lot of geek activity over the past week. The moon must be in the house of Babbage?
First, the geek known as Lenn is leaving Microsoft for Skype:

Read more on Geeks!…