Just One More thing(tm): (as Jobs says), My neice had read this already, she is just after telling me, and she said: " who would want to write to these stupid dumb people who have too big an ego anyway! (I presumed she meant Steve Jobs, and also Allchin).
And also It maybe is the fact that English is NOT my first language, and my grammer sucks, but still, that does not give any nasty people on BBS's the right to talk to me in that patronising crap way like they do in normal everyday life. Anyway whats the point of talking and trying to explain my self to a bunch of bitches. And I just walk away from them in everyday life. I'll do that here. what a bunch of immature %$$$'s.
Some people even expect the little girl to have read the legal notice on apple web site (how many people read legal notices and even if you do, how many understand these notices.. lawyers not eligible to respond). I have never read apple legal notices and personally, i have better things to do (like enjoy life, for example, smell the fresh air, visit friends, etc).. who the hell sits in front of a computer reading apple legal notices?. How fucked up is your life that you took a few minutes out of it to read a legal notice on a web site? (i might read a legal notice if it came with a product i bought but visiting a website to read a legal notice?.. i'd rather pluck an eye out than admit my life sucks that bad that i find it interesting to go to a website to read a legal notice). [/B]
Exactly. it is good that someone here has some resemblence of morals here. and has something constructive to say.
People dont seem to have anything better to do if they read 'software licences', hell I write software, and I DONT even care about stupid licences, never mind a 9 y.o. why should a nine year old care about such evil things!!
I wonder what would happen if i wrote Michael Dell? Since he makes a living on destorying dreams...
If you wrote Michael Dell, you'd have the words 'Michael Dell' on a bit of paper in front of you.
Now if you wrote TO Michael Dell, well, that's another matter.
Maybe you should give it a go. "Hi, I'm a 9 year old fan of your computers, but they would look really nice if they came in pink with flowers, and ponies!" and see what response you get
She wrote to Apple and got a form letter back stating they cannot accept product ideas. Big deal. End of story. But no... Somehow the letter is a personal attack against the girl and has caused irreparable harm to her psyche. Her dreams have been squashed. She will never be the same. Come on! This is ridiculous and you all know it.
Sure, it would be nice if everyone who wrote a letter to Apple got a personal reply back from Steve Jobs along with an iTunes gift card but that's unrealistic. I think this is what the parents were expecting. I'm surprised they haven't sued Apple for "mental anguish" yet.
Singers and sports stars and stuff DO all kinds of charity events with kids, they visit kid's schools, there are book signings, autographs, cd signings, all kinds of stuff.
Public figures like that DO get themselves out there, in a BIG way.
On top of that all most all of them have people that their PR has recived letters and they people that write them usually get back an autographed pictured and/or a stock letter.
That happens all the time, so I don't know what your talking about, if your kid wanted Kobe's autograph he almost definetly get one.
Heh ... some do ... a lot of them don't. You can't tell your kid to write somebody and then say, yeah - expect an autograph back! Most of what these people send back are form letters too - written in such a way as to say they didn't have time to personally review your letter, but thank your for your support - here's an autopenned signature. Or they may get no response back at all. The school visits and charity events they do have to be scheduled along with their job ommitments along with their own lives, so most of their fan / hate mail never sees them. Most signatures they give through the mail aren't hand signed because lo and behold, you don't know who the 7 year old with cancer is and who's just going to clip the signature and sell it.
Singers and athletes are almost never more angelic than companies. The bottom line is the $ sign in this case. Why is this even news? Mom and dad wanted to make it news expecting something out of it. The bottom line here shouldn't be a pissing contest between overly sensitive people that think Apple is a child-eating monster and the do-or-die fanboys ... what is most disturbing about this is how the girls own parents have exploited her. What else is the point of taking this story to the news?
Just One More thing(tm): (as Jobs says), My neice had read this already, she is just after telling me, and she said: " who would want to write to these stupid dumb people who have too big an ego anyway! (I presumed she meant Steve Jobs, and also Allchin).
And also It maybe is the fact that English is NOT my first language, and my grammer sucks, but still, that does not give any nasty people on BBS's the right to talk to me in that patronising crap way like they do in normal everyday life. Anyway whats the point of talking and trying to explain my self to a bunch of bitches. And I just walk away from them in everyday life. I'll do that here. what a bunch of immature %$$$'s.
I have recently read a VERY sad story about a 9-year old boy who called 911 because his mother collapsed. The 911 operator told him not to mess with the phone and to call a grown-up (there was nobody around). When the rescue team arrived after the boy's second attempt, his mother was dead!
Of course there are many pranks and jokes, but in both cases the person who received the message did not read or listen carefully...
I think Apple did the right thing sending a formal letter. If kids want to participate in a grown up world then what good would sending them a kiddy letter have been?
I get so tired of people treating kids differently. If a kid rapes/murders another kid or possibly an adult then they are treated less harshly than an adult would. Why? They have committed the same offence with the same consequences for the victim.
Maybe they didn't realise what they were doing but maybe they did. Age is not the deciding factor for everyone. What if a mentally retarded adult had written to Apple with a similar request and thrown a tantrum at a formal response? Should Apple be expected to have to deal with each stupid letter they get with such care? I personally think not.
I think the little girl should consider herself damn lucky to have even got a reply because in my job search, I applied to over 50 businesses with perfectly reasonable letters and on a lot of occasions received no reply whatsoever.
I also agree with the comments made about the bad parenting and the news channel. The problem we face today of course is because this kind of behaviour has been allowed to go on too long, we are now in a state where spoiled little kids like this girl have grown into dumb adults who sympathize with the situation.
I have recently read a VERY sad story about a 9-year old boy who called 911 because his mother collapsed. The 911 operator told him not to mess with the phone and to call a grown-up (there was nobody around). When the rescue team arrived after the boy's second attempt, his mother was dead!
Of course there are many pranks and jokes, but in both cases the person who received the message did not read or listen carefully...
Now that is something that should make the news and it makes this look quite ridiculous in comparison.
The boy called 911 after his mother collapsed and the operator scolded him for making a prank call. When he called again they still didn't believe him. The police were sent out instead of an ambulance and the mother died by the time they got there.
There was a time when corporations used to pride themselves on being good citizens. After all, they are real entities under law.
Times have definantly changed. It's not so disturbing that corporations have become money grubbing, hate filled entities. The disturbing part is that people seem to be applauding this change.
Yes, I'm old. The world seemed to work better in those days.
I admit it. This story made me mad. Mad #1 because of the tone of the reporting, making it look like Apple was the Grinch that stole Christmas, and mad #2 because the parent(s) who called the media, possibly hoping to cash in on the resulting publicity... and consequently making a fool of their daughter and exposing their weak parenting. Repugnant!
I'm surprised she got any response at all. I understand that studios don't even open unsolicited scripts in fear that the author will sue if any show or movie has some vague resemblence to the submitted script.
As for Chris_Jerome, wnurse, et al. given that the letter wasn't provided you have no idea what was in the letter. Presumably it was polite, if a bit formal. Calling it "sharp" or "bitchy" simply indicates your own biases. I doubt Mr. Aaker was impolite in any fashion because lawyers don't like getting sued for something they write. Makes them look stupid.
I have a little girl and I certainly would be managing expectations from day 1 not to expect a reply and certainly not a personal one.
Perhaps if she sent a note asking for a autographed photo of Jobs it might have been routed to the PR department rather than legal and the outcome more genial.
Great headline though. Always love it when big evil corporations makes little girls cry.
Now that is something that should make the news and it makes this look quite ridiculous in comparison.
The boy called 911 after his mother collapsed and the operator scolded him for making a prank call. When he called again they still didn't believe him. The police were sent out instead of an ambulance and the mother died by the time they got there.
This 911 incident should be investigated and the operator should go to jail. Outrageous that this wasn't immediately investigated! They have a legal responsibility to respond to every call placed, even if they turn out to be mistakes. Sad.
Never forget one thing: our kids are the future. They will judge us, they will have to look after us when we are old and they might treat us the way we have been treating them.
I don't want to excuse the attitude of "grown-ups" who do not respond to a seriously written letter as it unfortunately happens frequently. On the other hand, the letter from the girl was probably as serious as it could be.
But I suspect one of the previous posts got it right: The answer from apple was probably standardized legal mumble-bumble to prevent copyright issues (just in case a feature should become implemented no matter where the idea came from). But the nature of the letter was quite aggressive which makes me think that there is a lot of fear related to this subject, however, it's a little bit like protecting your territory with mines because you are afraid of intruders.
Well... yes, this has gone way out in left field but, look at the way it was presented:
Apple calls meeting after making little girl cry
Just another case of the media (in this case AppleInsider) pushing the bounds of what really happened to be able to grab the attention of the audience. Now that you have it, you should be able to roll with the punches!!
Sorry, but we, the forums mods, have very little (ie, no) input into the news end of AI. What they do with headlines is their business, but how you all interact in here is ours.
And I really think this thread has gone off-course. Badly. Time to put it out of our misery, unless you all can somehow give it some dignity and reason to live.
This 911 incident should be investigated and the operator should go to jail. Outrageous that this wasn't immediately investigated! They have a legal responsibility to respond to every call placed, even if they turn out to be mistakes. Sad.
The story sounds fishy to me but it's not listed in Snopes. Usually all 911 calls are taken seriously such that there are penalties for those that knowingly make false 911 calls.
But that doesn't have anything to do with Apple, this letter, or the response of the media. Start a new thread in AO for that topic, please. Actually, I'm sure there is already one there. Please use it instead of this one.
Imho the cases are related. In both cases a serious request (by a kid) has not been handled appropriately. I guess a combination of individual incompetence, inadequate policies and insufficient manpower (perhaps as a result of budgetary restrictions) produced the results. One of them was fatal. The other might result in bad publicity for a big company whose clients of tomorrow are today's kids. Preventing bad publicity should be as important as creating good publicity.
Comments
Steve Jobs!?, forget him, she probably has. You lot here and a few other places would probably drive the poor girl to suicide!!. Think before you say!
I Do have a point. So just read more carefully. I am not ATTACKING any of you people here, so what is all the defensive and bitchy crap about?
Chris. J.
And also It maybe is the fact that English is NOT my first language, and my grammer sucks, but still, that does not give any nasty people on BBS's the right to talk to me in that patronising crap way like they do in normal everyday life. Anyway whats the point of talking and trying to explain my self to a bunch of bitches. And I just walk away from them in everyday life. I'll do that here. what a bunch of immature %$$$'s.
Once you meet one of you, you have met em all!!!!
Originally posted by wnurse
Some people even expect the little girl to have read the legal notice on apple web site (how many people read legal notices and even if you do, how many understand these notices.. lawyers not eligible to respond). I have never read apple legal notices and personally, i have better things to do (like enjoy life, for example, smell the fresh air, visit friends, etc).. who the hell sits in front of a computer reading apple legal notices?. How fucked up is your life that you took a few minutes out of it to read a legal notice on a web site? (i might read a legal notice if it came with a product i bought but visiting a website to read a legal notice?.. i'd rather pluck an eye out than admit my life sucks that bad that i find it interesting to go to a website to read a legal notice). [/B]
Exactly. it is good that someone here has some resemblence of morals here. and has something constructive to say.
People dont seem to have anything better to do if they read 'software licences', hell I write software, and I DONT even care about stupid licences, never mind a 9 y.o. why should a nine year old care about such evil things!!
Originally posted by mike518
I wonder what would happen if i wrote Michael Dell? Since he makes a living on destorying dreams...
If you wrote Michael Dell, you'd have the words 'Michael Dell' on a bit of paper in front of you.
Now if you wrote TO Michael Dell, well, that's another matter.
Maybe you should give it a go. "Hi, I'm a 9 year old fan of your computers, but they would look really nice if they came in pink with flowers, and ponies!" and see what response you get
Sure, it would be nice if everyone who wrote a letter to Apple got a personal reply back from Steve Jobs along with an iTunes gift card but that's unrealistic. I think this is what the parents were expecting. I'm surprised they haven't sued Apple for "mental anguish" yet.
Originally posted by TednDi
She should have written to Woz instead of Jobs.
In that case she would almost certainly have received a personal reply.
Originally posted by ecking
Singers and sports stars and stuff DO all kinds of charity events with kids, they visit kid's schools, there are book signings, autographs, cd signings, all kinds of stuff.
Public figures like that DO get themselves out there, in a BIG way.
On top of that all most all of them have people that their PR has recived letters and they people that write them usually get back an autographed pictured and/or a stock letter.
That happens all the time, so I don't know what your talking about, if your kid wanted Kobe's autograph he almost definetly get one.
Heh ... some do ... a lot of them don't. You can't tell your kid to write somebody and then say, yeah - expect an autograph back! Most of what these people send back are form letters too - written in such a way as to say they didn't have time to personally review your letter, but thank your for your support - here's an autopenned signature. Or they may get no response back at all. The school visits and charity events they do have to be scheduled along with their job ommitments along with their own lives, so most of their fan / hate mail never sees them. Most signatures they give through the mail aren't hand signed because lo and behold, you don't know who the 7 year old with cancer is and who's just going to clip the signature and sell it.
Singers and athletes are almost never more angelic than companies. The bottom line is the $ sign in this case. Why is this even news? Mom and dad wanted to make it news expecting something out of it. The bottom line here shouldn't be a pissing contest between overly sensitive people that think Apple is a child-eating monster and the do-or-die fanboys ... what is most disturbing about this is how the girls own parents have exploited her. What else is the point of taking this story to the news?
Originally posted by Chris_jerome
Just One More thing(tm): (as Jobs says), My neice had read this already, she is just after telling me, and she said: " who would want to write to these stupid dumb people who have too big an ego anyway! (I presumed she meant Steve Jobs, and also Allchin).
And also It maybe is the fact that English is NOT my first language, and my grammer sucks, but still, that does not give any nasty people on BBS's the right to talk to me in that patronising crap way like they do in normal everyday life. Anyway whats the point of talking and trying to explain my self to a bunch of bitches. And I just walk away from them in everyday life. I'll do that here. what a bunch of immature %$$$'s.
Once you meet one of you, you have met em all!!!!
Nice dude ... real mature.
Of course there are many pranks and jokes, but in both cases the person who received the message did not read or listen carefully...
I get so tired of people treating kids differently. If a kid rapes/murders another kid or possibly an adult then they are treated less harshly than an adult would. Why? They have committed the same offence with the same consequences for the victim.
Maybe they didn't realise what they were doing but maybe they did. Age is not the deciding factor for everyone. What if a mentally retarded adult had written to Apple with a similar request and thrown a tantrum at a formal response? Should Apple be expected to have to deal with each stupid letter they get with such care? I personally think not.
I think the little girl should consider herself damn lucky to have even got a reply because in my job search, I applied to over 50 businesses with perfectly reasonable letters and on a lot of occasions received no reply whatsoever.
I also agree with the comments made about the bad parenting and the news channel. The problem we face today of course is because this kind of behaviour has been allowed to go on too long, we are now in a state where spoiled little kids like this girl have grown into dumb adults who sympathize with the situation.
Originally posted by Maxipeg
I have recently read a VERY sad story about a 9-year old boy who called 911 because his mother collapsed. The 911 operator told him not to mess with the phone and to call a grown-up (there was nobody around). When the rescue team arrived after the boy's second attempt, his mother was dead!
Of course there are many pranks and jokes, but in both cases the person who received the message did not read or listen carefully...
Now that is something that should make the news and it makes this look quite ridiculous in comparison.
The boy called 911 after his mother collapsed and the operator scolded him for making a prank call. When he called again they still didn't believe him. The police were sent out instead of an ambulance and the mother died by the time they got there.
Originally posted by kresh
There was a time when corporations used to pride themselves on being good citizens. After all, they are real entities under law.
Times have definantly changed. It's not so disturbing that corporations have become money grubbing, hate filled entities. The disturbing part is that people seem to be applauding this change.
Yes, I'm old. The world seemed to work better in those days.
I admit it. This story made me mad. Mad #1 because of the tone of the reporting, making it look like Apple was the Grinch that stole Christmas, and mad #2 because the parent(s) who called the media, possibly hoping to cash in on the resulting publicity... and consequently making a fool of their daughter and exposing their weak parenting. Repugnant!
As for Chris_Jerome, wnurse, et al. given that the letter wasn't provided you have no idea what was in the letter. Presumably it was polite, if a bit formal. Calling it "sharp" or "bitchy" simply indicates your own biases. I doubt Mr. Aaker was impolite in any fashion because lawyers don't like getting sued for something they write. Makes them look stupid.
I have a little girl and I certainly would be managing expectations from day 1 not to expect a reply and certainly not a personal one.
Perhaps if she sent a note asking for a autographed photo of Jobs it might have been routed to the PR department rather than legal and the outcome more genial.
Great headline though. Always love it when big evil corporations makes little girls cry.
Vinea
Originally posted by 1984
Now that is something that should make the news and it makes this look quite ridiculous in comparison.
The boy called 911 after his mother collapsed and the operator scolded him for making a prank call. When he called again they still didn't believe him. The police were sent out instead of an ambulance and the mother died by the time they got there.
This 911 incident should be investigated and the operator should go to jail. Outrageous that this wasn't immediately investigated! They have a legal responsibility to respond to every call placed, even if they turn out to be mistakes. Sad.
I don't want to excuse the attitude of "grown-ups" who do not respond to a seriously written letter as it unfortunately happens frequently. On the other hand, the letter from the girl was probably as serious as it could be.
But I suspect one of the previous posts got it right: The answer from apple was probably standardized legal mumble-bumble to prevent copyright issues (just in case a feature should become implemented no matter where the idea came from). But the nature of the letter was quite aggressive which makes me think that there is a lot of fear related to this subject, however, it's a little bit like protecting your territory with mines because you are afraid of intruders.
Originally posted by BuzDots
Well... yes, this has gone way out in left field but, look at the way it was presented:
Apple calls meeting after making little girl cry
Just another case of the media (in this case AppleInsider) pushing the bounds of what really happened to be able to grab the attention of the audience. Now that you have it, you should be able to roll with the punches!!
Sorry, but we, the forums mods, have very little (ie, no) input into the news end of AI. What they do with headlines is their business, but how you all interact in here is ours.
And I really think this thread has gone off-course. Badly. Time to put it out of our misery, unless you all can somehow give it some dignity and reason to live.
Originally posted by SpamSandwich
This 911 incident should be investigated and the operator should go to jail. Outrageous that this wasn't immediately investigated! They have a legal responsibility to respond to every call placed, even if they turn out to be mistakes. Sad.
The story sounds fishy to me but it's not listed in Snopes. Usually all 911 calls are taken seriously such that there are penalties for those that knowingly make false 911 calls.
But that doesn't have anything to do with Apple, this letter, or the response of the media. Start a new thread in AO for that topic, please. Actually, I'm sure there is already one there. Please use it instead of this one.