UH-oh Karmic Koala

I just installed Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Karmic Koala" on my MacBook Pro. Of course, Ubuntu ships with no proprietary software (copyright fonts, hardware drivers, Adobe Flash Player, etc)... it all must be installed through Internet downloads. All this is based on aptitude, the Debian package manager which uses centralized "repositories" to download everything. I dunno about the rest of you, but Ubuntu's repositories are running painfully slow for me today. Presumably, this is due to all the people downloading the brand new 10.04 LTS today and hammering the repositories all at once as they try to get their proprietary goodies, drivers, the add-on software they want, etc. Understandable. But it sure doesn't make a good impression on the early adopters like me trying it out on day one. Worse, it gives me concerns about the safety of "Cloud Computing" in general. Do I want my documents in a "cloud" where a high-load or bad-server day could render them inaccessible? Or do I want them on my own computer where I'm not depending on the outside world for access to my data? Just a thought... - Mark

Backpacking Europe... The World?

Hey guys, it's been a dream of mine for years to travel across the world... or at least Europe (actually my heart is more in South America or Asia, but my lack of language knowledge would get to me more there. In Europe, at least you can survive only knowing English - even if not the most pleasantly at times).

I'm trying to figure out how to do this cheaply. It doesn't have to be the exorbitant expense many people think it is. Hostels instead of hotels. Buses instead of trains. Making friends in advance to stay with. Applying for a British passport in advance so I can legally work in Europe should I decide to settle down... or some random opportunity come up (my mom is from Northern Ireland so this is an option for me). Grocery stores instead of eating out. Exploring instead of "tourist experiences" (that charge admission fees). Without saying (since I wouldn't do this anyway) no drinking your head off in Berlin, prostitutes in Amsterdam, etc (I'm not saying those cities are like that, just that those are, true or not, the stereotypes). No cell phone, no luxuries.

Just see the world, pray for it, and gain a greater appreciation for God's creation and a greater understanding of my place in it.

I don't have a plan in place yet, once I do, I'm going to create a blog for my trip - or my attempt at one. Right now, more than anything, I'd appreciate the prayers of friends and family. I love you all so much,

Mark

Is It Okay To Laugh At The CPSC Yet?

The US Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) is, in their words, "charged with protecting the public from unreasonable risks of serious injury or death from thousands of types of consumer products under the agency's jurisdiction." Why, then, did Macmillan today announce a recall of Big Rex & Friends (no Amazon link available for obvious reasons)? Because... the children's storybook has a RED DOT WITH LEAD IN IT!!! OH NO!!! The unreasonable risk of serious injury or death!!!! Save the children!!!! The horror of red plastic dots with lead in them!!!!

Seriously, this stems from an unreasonable new lead level standard that is over-broad and absolutely absurdly disproportionate to the risks. For this to be a hazard, the kid would have to tear this dot out of the book and suck on it. Even then, the lead exposure would probably be noticeably less than the amount in his food!

Thank, once again, the US PIRG (Public Interest Research Group) for this absurd fear-mongering finding. My own interest as a member of the public? Quit wasting resources on finding stuff like this, on shipping the books, destroying them, etc over a completely unrealistic hazard. The kid is more likely to bleed to death from a paper cut (OH NO!!! THE HORROR!!! BETTER BAN PAPER!!!) than for this plastic to ever harm a child or expose them to a significant amount of lead in the real world. But laugh at the CPSC for the absurd lead standards...

Apple... Evil?

Well, I first teased the idea of evil companies a bit ago... myself questioning if such a concept even were possible, or if companies can simply reflect the evil deeds of those who run them. If there ever were a company where this is a very grey line, it's increasingly Apple. I've had a love-hate relationship with Apple for years. Their products were expensive, but always top quality and backed by excellent customer support. As many of you know, my MacBook Pro has been anything but. Buggy with horrific customer support. However, I am pretty tied into the big wide world of Apple and am not going to escape any time soon I am afraid, despite making escape plans.

The problem, for me, is that Apple keeps introducing amazing new things that just offer BETTER than the competition. The iPhone's App Store has made me long await an iPhone (though when I finally become an AT&T customer after my current contract is up, I may choose an Android device...). The amazing display and physical build quality are the reasons I bought this MacBook Pro I am typing on. Mac OS X has a superior "out of box experience" - everything just WORKS. Usually. Except when buggy nVidia hardware causes the whole thing to melt down and a stupid dent causes Apple to refuse to support you in any way.

These, though, are all consumer experiences. Stupid bugs. Things that relate only to technology that will cease to exist in a few years. If the good outweighs the bad, I can still buy Apple. They're not moral choices. They're "what offers me the best solution for my needs for the money" choices.

Recently, however, I am increasingly appalled by Apple's corporate ethics. We all know that last year a Foxconn engineer committed suicide after losing an iPhone prototype rather than face the wrath of Apple. But it could be justified that he took his own life, and that it was Foxconn, not Apple, he was afraid of. Well, Foxconn only acts like that because they too are afraid of the wrath of Jobs. It made me think.

But Foxconn is a long ways from here and China is a whole different game. Recently, I read about a tragedy right here, on American soil. An Apple test engineer had an iPad 3G (an ANNOUNCED PRODUCT) with him on the Wi-Fi model's launch day, and let Steve Wozniak (who didn't know it was a 3G) see it. For that, the guy was fired. Seriously. For showing an announced but unreleased product to the co-founder of the company. Woz, of course (being an old hippie basically), has basically said Jobs has no heart (in slightly more elegant words).

Can I support a company like this? I don't think so. Apple may be cool and stylish, and the products may be innovative. But if a company can be evil (a still unanswered question), I think Apple's recent actions qualify them as such. Watch the Pirates of Silicon Valley, I think it's a more realistic portrayal of Jobs than many of us would like to believe.

I leave you with two things - an old Apple ad. I love it, it's inspirational and very ironic. It's time to push forward and reject the status quo. At the time that meant rejecting Microsoft, but now - I think it's time to reject Apple and choose ubuntu ("humanity to others") - not necessarily the Ubuntu OS (as great as it is) - but at least something by someone with some sense of humanity to others:



And a view of how Apple ("Mapple" in this spoof) is more realistically acting today (at best):

Department of Justice has approved Alltel Divestiture to AT&T

According to a reliable source, the Department of Justice (DoJ) has approved the divestiture of Alltel markets to AT&T, following last weeks approval of the Atlantic Tele-Network divestiture markets. Both transactions are still pending FCC approval before they can close. This means we're getting close to having AT&T service in Montana, the Dakotas, and other former Alltel markets! Even after closing, AT&T still has to do some work for a network transition here though... they use a different network technology from Alltel. This has been one of the longest, most absurdly irrational political fights over a license transfer I have ever seen, and certainly the longest I can recall for a divestiture that has been ordered by the FCC and Department of Justice! If this is a sign of how things are going to work in the "new" FCC, it's just sad. It should have been simple enough - you ordered a divestiture to maintain competition, you sold to companies with no market presence in the divested markets, that preserves an additional competitor, end of story.

Kin One and Kin Two?

Today... after years of "project pink" rumors... Microsoft unveiled... Kin One and Kin Two. [Insert Dr. Seuss Cat In The Hat Thing One and Thing Two joke here]. Seriously, no matter how awkward of names Apple comes up with (MacBook, iPad, etc)... Microsoft manages to out do them. For all my issues with Apple as of late... For the fact I really have no desire to ever buy an Apple product again... at least their weirdness is somewhat stylish and fashionable. The Kin 1 & Kin 2 are devices we've seen leaks of for, oh, at least a year now. They make no real sense. No third party apps. No Windows Phone 7 (which itself is REMOVING multitasking at a time even Apple is adding it). Basically, the Kin phones are modern versions of the Danger/T-Mobile Sidekick (which Microsoft now owns). They're made by Sharp, the same company that's made most of the Sidekicks. The difference, however, is that the Sidekick was a groundbreaking device in it's time. Kin One and Kin Two are simply stripped-down smartphones with now-essential features such as third party apps taken away. If this is the best Microsoft has to show off, Google's Android, Apple's iPhone, and even RIM's BlackBerry should have no problem at all burying the last remains of Microsoft's smartphone business. Rumor is Palm's for sale, maybe Microsoft should consider buying them... at least WebOS is supposed to actually be pretty good. - Mark

Can a company be *evil*?

You hear the idea all the time. Evil companies. Even "evil corporate America." The Bible says that the love of money is the root of all evil, and surely nobody loves money more than a big company, whose sole reason to exist is to make money.... WAIT! Hold up a minute here? Are companies people? Can they be an "anybody"? Of course not! Therefore, a company is simply a collection of individuals. A company cannot be evil.

Oh wait, it can't be that simple either. If it was, Google's motto wouldn't be "Don't Be Evil" (though they're often called an evil company (you know, the evil companies list everyone seems to have - Monsanto, Microsoft, Google, etc). There are lots of books and documentaries on this concept. Lords Of The Harvest: Biotech, Big Money, And The Future Of Food, The World According to Monsanto (US NTSC Format), Competition, Innovation and the Microsoft Monopoly: Antitrust, Tinker Belles and Evil Queens: The Walt Disney Company from the Inside Out, The I Hate Corporate America Reader: How Big Companies from McDonald's to Microsoft Are Destroying Our Way of Life (The "I Hate" Series), and many more (those were just titles I found in a quick Amazon search, they all look interesting but I haven't read them).

It's your call... I don't have an opinion this time. I will form one. I put this idea out there for a future blog post I'll be writing. I'm not sure if a company, as a whole, can be composed of such corrupt people to truly, itself (rather than just some of the individuals in it), be evil. What do you think?

A letter to Steve Jobs

In a last-ditch (and probably doomed to fail) effort to get my lemon of a Macbook Pro fixed, I have sent the following email to Apple's Steve Jobs.

Dear Mr. Jobs,

My name is Mark Uhde and I have been an Apple customer for years. I am writing to you, again (in hopes this email gets to an address that will get read or responded to, as I've had luck with this address with an issue with my prior MacBook), to express my disappointment with my new 2009 MacBook Pro (ordered the day after they were announced last summer, for use in the classroom).

Within two weeks of buying the machine, I decided I needed more storage. I installed a 500GB hard drive (a Hitachi 5K500.B). Everything was okay, though the computer was sometimes glitchy. A few weeks later, I applied the firmware 1.7 update. And the nightmare began. The computer was slow, froze often, and simply did not work properly. The issues were widely reported on the Internet and for months Apple followed an official policy of denial. Additionally, I found the computer would often go to sleep randomly especially when running on battery (another widely reported issue)

While waiting for a fix of some kind, knowing that the problems were widely reported, my computer suffered an accident. I dropped it a couple feet onto a hard floor and dented one corner of the case and lid. No other damage has been notable.

When I found through the Internet that a firmware downgrade was available, I immediately went to the local Apple Authorized repair center, only to find they didn't have access to it. After calling half a dozen or so Apple stores, I learned that the ONLY way to get the firmware downgrade was to drive to one. So I waited several weeks until I would be passing through Salt Lake City, UT. A drive of over 600 miles from my house. I had them downgrade the firmware. They noted the dents on the machine and said that they hoped the firmware downgrade would solve my problem, because they probably wouldn't do anything else for me with the dents, and that he wasn't sure that he should even be doing the firmware downgrade. That attitude just horrified me. The idea that all support should cease due to minor cosmetic issues goes against the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act of 1975. Still, they did the firmware downgrade.

Guess what? It was only a partial fix. 80% better. It still didn't solve the random sleep issue or all of the drive freezes, but it made the computer usable most of the time. Again, the random sleep issue had been happening since before I dropped the computer. Further reading on the Internet revealed to me that the only real fix people had any luck with was a logic board replacement. I went back to Allied Computing in Kalispell, MT where the owner literally laughed at me and said that the dents voided the warranty completely. He agreed it was a logic board issue most likely, but said he could do nothing for me. I pointed out Magnuson-Moss and he said "that only applies to cars" which is untrue, but there was no reasoning with him. I asked him how he would feel if his car had a dent in the door - or even a damaged bumper - and the manufacturer refused to fix an unrelated engine problem. He simply said "those are Apple's rules" and his attitude was that Apple was untouchable and perfect (I'll get more into that at the closing of this letter).

Thus, I've lived with a computer that is only partially functional since almost day one a year ago. I'm trying to teach classes with this computer and use it every day for well, just about everything. And I can't afford (and shouldn't have to) to just buy a new one. Between the software driver update Apple released more recently (which got rid of 95% of the slowdowns) and switching to a Samsung hard drive the hard drive freezes are totally gone in OS X, but still occur in my boot camp Windows partition (obviously, since Apple released a driver update to mask symptoms, instead of fixing the real hardware problem that so obviously exists with these systems' logic boards), making my boot camp partition nearly unusable. Additionally, I still get the computer randomly going to sleep is OS X, a problem which has got much worse since upgrading to Snow Leopard for some reason. This is also a fairly widely reported logic board problem that clearly has nothing to do with the minor cosmetic damage the computer suffered, yet of course, I have no support from Apple or the local Apple repair center.

Anyways, I guess if you were willing to fix my computer that would be great, but at this point, I've given up all hope of *that* happening. Instead, I'm writing to you today to hopefully open someone's eyes to what Apple is doing by refusing to honor the warranty on my system. In the short term, you are saving yourself the cost of a likely logic board replacement. Great. I can see how you like saving costs on the bottom line, and I understand it.

However, does it really help your long-term bottom line to refuse to treat customers fairly and with respect? I was going to buy an iPhone for my next phone (we should be getting AT&T service here in Montana "soon"). Now, I'm going to buy an Android device instead of an iPhone to replace my Blackberry when my contract is up. I'm already making plans to replace this laptop with a Sony or Dell this summer, sell this on eBay hoping to get whatever I can out of it (I'll be honest about all the problems it has). Sure, Windows isn't perfect - but between a dual-boot of Ubuntu and Windows 7, I can live with it. And Renewed Vision's ProPresenter is being released for Windows this summer, removing the major reason why switching to Windows simply has not been a viable option for me…

In addition to my own future purchases of Apple gear, I'm the type of person seen as a "computer geek" among all my friends/family/colleagues. I used to strongly recommend Apple. Now I tell people when they ask how I like my Mac (a common question) "honestly, I hate it; and Apple support has been terrible to me. Seriously, buy anything but a Mac unless you absolutely need a program that only runs on OS X. This computer is a total lemon and has been my nightmare." Just from my own recommendations, I'd estimate you've lost thousands in sales.

Was saving the few hundred dollars it would've cost you to honor my warranty and replace the (likely) faulty logic board for a couple of widely-reported problems really worth the lost future business? I know that if I owned stock in Apple, I'd be selling it right now because a company that has made such short-sighted decisions regarding how they treat their customers simply cannot survive for long. Apple is not infallible. Windows 7 machines are increasingly capable of replacing Macs for most uses. There are some fantastic Android phones and tablets coming to market this year that, while they may not be as slick and well-supported as iPhone, are getting close. Even my iPod Touch (which I love) could easily find itself replaced by non-Apple devices being released soon…

Of course, I hope that someone will read this letter and just decide to fix the computer. That would be great. However, after all the people I've talked to in various stores, I've given up. Thank you for taking the time to read my message and listen to my concerns.

Best regards,

Mark Uhde