Bennett Haselton
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I have no idea who the fuck this guy is, but he's (somehow) started getting published regularly on Slashdot (yeah, yeah, I know).
I'm just pointing this out so you guys can realize how brilliant and well-thought-out my rants are in comparison to this clown's.
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That guy is a complete ass hat. It was shipped overnight! It's not like he had to wait weeks or anything.
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If you read closely, he also could have gotten one right away by paying a $50 restocking fee.
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agreed.
and even though it was a bit over the top he was remarkably coherent too, a nice touch. He made some actually valid points about how the customer service experience could have been better and how the cellphone company could have saved even more money than they are now.
so yes, a big bottle of whine, but well presented and coherent.
7.5/10 would critique again.
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If you read closely, he also could have gotten one right away by paying a $50 restocking fee.
Yeah, I half agree with him on that one, which is why I didn't mention it. I completely understand the restocking fee, but $50 seems a little steep. Plus, even without that, he still sounds like a whining baby. My two year old complains less.
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I personally think the whole article exists because of the parenthetical in the first paragraph.
"I don't really have anything to talk about, but I want to brag that I was out on a zodiac raft with some bikini babes-- what should I do!?"
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Probably works for Dice or something... they own SlashDot these days.
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Every time I have had a phone replaced by insurance it was usually at my door the next morning by 10am. Mildly inconvenient, but not a big deal.
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You try to pick up the New Cellphone but A huge green fierce UPS Deliveryman bars the way!
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[code]
┌────────┐┌────────────────┐
│ Attack││ Ice │
│☞ Magic ││ Fire ↕│ ┌──────────────────┐
│ Run ││☞ Scan │ │☞ UPS Deliveryman │
│ Item ││ Cure │ └──────────────────┘
└────────┘└────────────────┘
[/code]
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So THAT's what those
porn moviesadult entertainmentafternoon entertainment shows were trying to convey!
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I have no idea who the fuck this guy is, but he's (somehow) started getting published regularly on Slashdot (yeah, yeah, I know).
He started getting regular press there a long time ago. I have no idea why, either.
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He lost me right away:
I would be in favor of a regulation...
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┌────────┐┌────────────────┐
│ Attack││ Ice │
│☞ Magic ││ Fire ↕│ ┌──────────────────┐
│ Run ││☞ Scan │ │☞ UPS Deliveryman │
│ Item ││ Cure │ └──────────────────┘
└────────┘└────────────────┘With your insight you can tell that the UPS Deliveryman has the uncanny ability to make you lose your hearing for 15 seconds while he is walking up to your door. A Secondary ability is to put a small paper note saying that your package has been returned to sender because you have missed 3 deliveries even when you've only missed one. His final ability is Late which causes you to take off work to sign for something only for him to show up at 8:30 pm.
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@Intercourse said:
Every time I have had a phone replaced by insurance it was usually at my door the next morning by 10am. Mildly inconvenient, but not a big deal.
This, plus T-Mobile has loaners. They're not shiny current-gen smartphones like this guy wanted, but they make calls and can send/receive texts, which is presumably the issue if you can't live without it for one afternoon/evening.
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[code]
┌────────┐┌────────────────┐
│ Attack││☞ Ice │
│☞ Magic ││ Fire ↕│ ┌──────────────────┐
│ Run ││ Scan │ │☞ UPS Deliveryman │
│ Item ││ Cure │ └──────────────────┘
└────────┘└────────────────┘
[/code]
That should teach him not to waste my time.
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This is your fault for reading the article. I saw the title about an hour ago, and scrolled past it.
/. isn't much more than clickbait these days.
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Not to forget, pretty much all the reasonable commenters left the site once beta appeared and got shoved down everyone's throat.
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I'd hate for something like that to happen here.
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They were gone long before then.
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were they ever there?
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Yeah, but the commentary got worse and worse as more competent competitors arrived. Hacker News, Digg, Reddit, Quora.
To your point about the beta: they've never ever changed the core code, it's just as broken today as it is in 1998. All they've ever done is occasionally restyle it and add more JavaScript. Their moderation system has been broken for a solid decade at this point.
That's what happens, people, when you write something larger than "Hello, World!" in Perl.
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That's what happens, people, when you write something larger than "Hello, World!" in Perl.
If you think that's bad, when I was taught Perl, I was never even told about the "my" keyword. Which is used to make a variable a local variable.
Mind you, this was from a class with an instructor and not some self-taught thing.
(Before you ask, I haven't written Perl code since 2005ish at latest and that was for a contractor position at Gaia Online.)
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This, plus T-Mobile has loaners. They're not shiny current-gen smartphones like this guy wanted, but they make calls and can send/receive texts, which is presumably the issue if you can't live without it for one afternoon/evening.
We usually keep at least one old phone around for the same reason. My old Droid Razr Maxx may not be the fastest thing in the world, but I could handle it for phone calls and email for 12 hours if I ever damage my phone while cavorting on a zodiac with blondes in bikinis.
The point would be moot though as most of the phone calls, texts and emails I would get would be from my very angry wife...
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To your point about the beta: they've never ever changed the core code
They have read your rants about never changing APIs and just ran with it.
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It's not that Perl is bad, it just doesn't belong on the web.
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This may be my 90s Perl experience talking, but the most common way of using Perl on the web (CGI.pm) was a humongous memory hog. And don't even get me started on the WTFiness of mod_perl.
Bad memory, bad memories, sticks head in bucket.
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With your insight you can tell that the UPS Deliveryman has the uncanny ability to make you lose your hearing for 15 seconds while he is walking up to your door. A Secondary ability is to put a small paper note saying that your package has been returned to sender because you have missed 3 deliveries even when you've only missed one. His final ability is Late which causes you to take off work to sign for something only for him to show up at 8:30 pm.
No repro. I'm sure UPS has had me sign for something some time in the past, but it's been so long that I can't remember having done so. I have had them just leave packages that should have required a signature without even trying. At least they comply with the note taped to my front door asking them to leave stuff at the back door ('cuz stuff's been stolen from the front).
USPS, OTOH, I always end up having to go to the PO to get my stuff, which is just a tad inconvenient.
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This may be my 90s Perl experience talking, but the most common way of using Perl on the web (CGI.pm) was a humongous memory hog. And don't even get me started on the WTFiness of mod_perl.
Bad memory, bad memories, sticks head in bucket.
Hence why I'm converting a Perl web app (read: compilation of files) that I inherited to use Python instead.
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I should probably mention my web programming stuff went from Perl -> PHP -> Java -> .NET -> back to Java.
Well, technically I do a mix of .NET and Java, I just happen to be assigned to my work group's only active Java app. Which reminds me, I need to dig through it for some good code snippets to post here from our previous "Senior Developers"
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I have no idea who the fuck this guy is, but he's (somehow) started getting published regularly on Slashdot (yeah, yeah, I know).
he's just another random self-important blogger
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The article is not so bad. Even though it sounds like a spoiled whine (and I suppose, in part it is), the point is actually how market forces aren't all-powerful guides to consumer satisfaction, even where they are in place. You could write a similar article about customer support and printer cartridges.
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He started getting regular press there a long time ago. I have no idea why, either.
Try reading the submissions stream, and realise that virtually anything that is vaguely on-topic, reasonably well-written and not obvious spam will stand a good chance to get published. Even being a shill isn't a big impediment, they're that desperate for content.
Much like a newspaper I hear…
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Even though it sounds like a spoiled whine (and I suppose, in part it is), the point is actually how market forces aren't all-powerful guides to consumer satisfaction, even where they are in place.
As Sowell says, this is missing "compared to what" question. Probably higher insurance prices due to regulatory compliance resulting in a whiny rant about the cost of insurance.
Still, if this were a significant problem, then presumably there would be ways to do this. And apparently, there are (as @reverendryan pointed out).
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Yeah, I've never had a problem with UPS actually. FedEx on the other hand...
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As Sowell says, this is missing "compared to what" question. Probably higher insurance prices due to regulatory compliance resulting in a whiny rant about the cost of insurance.
Oh I didn't mean to argue for the liberal position. Regulation is shit too. Sometimes, the correct solution is "there is no solution ATM".
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Or to be more accurate, "there is no solution that can be implemented without stepping on the wrong toes."
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He's a long-time freedom-of-speech/anti-censorship/blocking campagner. He's probably known to the /. crowd for his website peacefire.org, which supplies proxy and circumvention advice to kids looking to get past their local net nannying firewalls at school.
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Ah, thanks.
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I didn't read much of the article beyond the first sentence. The rest seems reasonable in tone, but the entire premise is just dumb. Government regulation to fuck up cell phone inventory? And one of the comments suggests regulating phone insurance plans because I suppose the commenter couldn't understand that phone insurance is fundamentally screwing you over in the first place. (Why not, say, save money like a real person and keep it in a fucking piggy bank if you have to in order to keep from spending it as if you haven't got any self-control.)
Then this conversation naturally degrades into stupid political bullshit about how "regulation is evil/no regulation is the best solution to everything", as if the context of the problem doesn't matter. Cue someone trotting out the same old tired Ayn Rand bullshit to counter the idiots who think they shouldn't have to take a piss without Uncle Sam gently cupping their balls.
Now, I am definitely what Fox News would consider a bleeding heart liberal. I believe in regulating business because, frankly, normal people can't manage that. For instance, I have two choices for internet: speedy with shit service and no chance of ever getting 1Gbaud speeds, or shitty and slow and expensive. The cable and DSL companies have monopolies in their respective businesses, and there is nary a crack for any competition. This is a prime example of what regulation is for: ensuring that the market is free.
But making laws to keep impatient douches who make bad decisions happy? No fucking thanks.
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The cable and DSL companies have monopolies in their respective businesses, and there is nary a crack for any competition. This is a prime example of what regulation is for: ensuring that the market is free.
Except, of course, more often than not, regulation has enforced the monopoly.
But making laws to keep impatient douches who make bad decisions happy? No fucking thanks.
At least we can agree on something.
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phone insurance is fundamentally screwing you over in the first place.
Depends on the phone insurance. T-Mobile's JUMP program includes phone insurance, but also gives you the ability to upgrade to a new phone before your current one is fully paid off. All for $10 a month.
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The problem with regulation is that the people who will be regulated have the most drive to become/be buddies with the regulators.
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Except, of course, more often than not, regulation has enforced the monopoly.
Your state governments have a special talent for astoundingly bad regulation. They make the feds look good. Heck, you even make our bunch of talentless oxygen-wasters look vaguely competent.
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Except, of course, more often than not, regulation has enforced the monopoly.
Mainly because the regulation was PAID FOR by that company with or desiring the monopoly.
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Your state governments have a special talent for astoundingly bad regulation. They make the feds look good. Heck, you even make our bunch of talentless oxygen-wasters look vaguely competent.
And you haven't even gotten to the local level, where really a lot of this sort of stuff is decided.
Mainly because the regulation was PAID FOR by that company with or desiring the monopoly.
Yep. Because the regulator was willing and able to regulate for food. Clearly the answer is to add more powerful regulators who wouldn't possibly be a corruptible as the other guys.
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Yep. Because the regulator was willing and able to regulate for food. Clearly the answer is to add more powerful regulators who wouldn't possibly be a corruptible as the other guys.
You need to find the right kind of person, an uptight asshole who will do things right because that's how things should be done, and damn the consequences. It's not like we know such people cannot exist…
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You need to find the right kind of person, an uptight asshole who will do things right because that's how things should be done, and damn the consequences. It's not like we know such people cannot exist…
They do exist, and they are generally worse than corrupt regulators. A corrupt regulator will usually stop once he gets his bribe. An uptight asshole will impose all kinds of fuckwittery on the populace and stop at nothing because he thinks he's doing the right thing.
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Clearly the answer is to add more powerful regulators who wouldn't possibly be a corruptible as the other guys.
Clearly the answer is to remove all regulators and let the companies that wouldn't possibly be corrupt dictate their own terms.
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They do exist, and they are generally worse than corrupt regulators. A corrupt regulator will usually stop once he gets his bribe. An uptight asshole will impose all kinds of fuckwittery on the populace and stop at nothing because he thinks he's doing the right thing.
A quote by C.S. Lewis
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons th...
@C.S. Lewis said:
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
