maestro64

macsince1988 said:

maestro64 said:

joogabah said:

mknelson said:

Slower speeds of chip card transactions? Do you guys process them "weird" in the US?

Insert card, hit OK, enter PIN, done. Doesn't really take any more time than signing.

In the USA, you don't enter a PIN (I know, it's stupid).  You insert the card and wait 15 to 20 seconds (which feel like an eternity standing in line with people waiting behind you) until the terminal sounds a loud, sometimes startling series of beeps to indicate you should remove your card.  

I hate the whole chip and pin idea, who's stupid idea was that. I remember when Apple Pay came out all the people from EU said it was not needed since the problem (theft) was solved with chip and pin. Every chance I get I use Apple pay it is a 2 second thing and those who have it set up correctly it does not even required a signature. I travel outside the US where Chip and Pin is required with the CC and it is a pain and take longer and a few times I almost left the card in a Gas Pump. Most stores and restaurants will make sure you do not leave the card behind since it happens all the time. One time I could not remember the PIN on the company card and you enter it wrong a few times and they lock the card on you, what royal pain.

Apple pay is the perfect example of how to fix a problem the right way verse all the other bad solutions other has come up with. Apple was the only one who could have fixed this since they control the hardware and software. The Banks trusted what they were doing.

I am still seeing lots of locations which the new POS terminals but they do not accept the chip and pin or apple pay, they have it disable, This is good think for Samsung pay which they can still emulate the mag-strip.

How does one "have it set up correctly it does not even require a signature"?  I am asked to sign whenever the amount goes over the merchant's threshold for requiring a signature.  Only smaller transactions are signature-free.

joogabah said:

mknelson said:

Slower speeds of chip card transactions? Do you guys process them "weird" in the US?

Insert card, hit OK, enter PIN, done. Doesn't really take any more time than signing.

In the USA, you don't enter a PIN (I know, it's stupid).  You insert the card and wait 15 to 20 seconds (which feel like an eternity standing in line with people waiting behind you) until the terminal sounds a loud, sometimes startling series of beeps to indicate you should remove your card.  

I hate the whole chip and pin idea, who's stupid idea was that. I remember when Apple Pay came out all the people from EU said it was not needed since the problem (theft) was solved with chip and pin. Every chance I get I use Apple pay it is a 2 second thing and those who have it set up correctly it does not even required a signature. I travel outside the US where Chip and Pin is required with the CC and it is a pain and take longer and a few times I almost left the card in a Gas Pump. Most stores and restaurants will make sure you do not leave the card behind since it happens all the time. One time I could not remember the PIN on the company card and you enter it wrong a few times and they lock the card on you, what royal pain.

Apple pay is the perfect example of how to fix a problem the right way verse all the other bad solutions other has come up with. Apple was the only one who could have fixed this since they control the hardware and software. The Banks trusted what they were doing.

I am still seeing lots of locations which the new POS terminals but they do not accept the chip and pin or apple pay, they have it disable, This is good think for Samsung pay which they can still emulate the mag-strip.

anton zuykov said:

robin huber said:

I stopped buying WD backup drives (commonly featured at Costco) because they just don't last. I've had much longer life from Seagate ones. I suppose it won't be long before flash replaces splinning platters altogether, then it won't matter. 

Then you made a very foolish/bad decision, based on your anecdotal evidence. Congrats, great job! Keep it up!

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2089464/three-year-27-000-drive-study-reveals-the-most-reliable-hard-drive-makers.html

From pcworld:

Over a 36 month span, Hitachi drives had a 96.9 percent survival rate, followed by WD at 94.8 percent and Seagate way below that at 73.5 percent.

In other words, by doing that, you increased the chance of your HDDs failing, from 5.2% to 26.5%, which is more than 5 times the difference.

This is a subject I have lots of experience with from Work experience stand point and we had 10s of million drive deployed,

First this company who was doing the backup of data and such using consumer grade products deserve what they got. I would agree in a consumer grade product WD is a better product. However, once you leave this realm, and get into high performance drives, Seagate is a far better product. Part of the reason why consumers view of Seagate is not good is the fact Seagate test and waterfalls their product keeping the best for their OEM customers and anything which does not meet OEM quality is sold into distribution which ends up and all kinds of cheaper products.

This is just an example of you only get what you pay for, it is not unusual to have a HDD with a 0.5% or less failure rates which is far better than what that study saw. If you want the best quality you have to pay for it, otherwise, you get the luck of the draw. I personal have multiply enterprise class Seagate drive in my home and they are all been running for yrs the longest 8 yrs. I also had WD and both my MyBooks from WD had issues. I also have Toshiba 2.5 drives I use as backups to desktops and laptops and those too have performed very well. But I did not go out and try and find the cheapest drives out there.  

ihatescreennames said:

randominternetperson said:

trashman69 said:

I bet 10$ he will be replaced by a women.  

The push for diversification will ruin this company.  (Refer to Ms. Huffington on the board)

and if I was an investor- I would sell my stock immediately.

As that name become synonymous with assholery, secrecy, and blatant law-breaking  the entire company suffers.  They absolutely have to bring in a public face that turns that around.

I'm not entirely sure how much the company is suffering here, from a publicity standpoint anyway.  I know several people who use Uber all the time but also have no idea of what an asshole company it is.  They also don't realize that Lyft exists, let alone that it is essentially the same service being provided.

Two examples: The daughter of my friend, she's mid-20s and uses Uber all the time in the DC area.  According to my friend, she loves Uber and is always mentioning using them and suggesting to others to use Uber. When he mentioned Lyft to her she flat out refused to even give them a try.  She's loyal to Uber.

Another couple I'm friends with have a daughter, also mid-20s but in the Boston area and an Uber user.  She raved about them to her parents and convinced them to try Uber on a trip to Florida.  They had a good experience.  When they came home the wife was talking to me about 'getting and Uber' to pick up her mother from the airport when she came to visit.  I mentioned a little surprise at using Uber, citing a couple of issues with harassment and a story from a while back about Uber employees booking rides with Left and then canceling them.  My friend hadn't heard of Lyft or the negative stuff about Uber. I sent her a couple of links a few days later and she had the expected "that isn't right" response. When I followed up a few weeks later she said she had gone with Uber to pick up her mother because that's what she already had experience with, plus her daughter uses Uber.

So, just based on that a few other similar instances, my guess is that the publicity won't affect Uber long term.  Maybe the whole Uber/Waymo thing will have an impact on them but all the other stuff doesn't seem to matter in the grand scheme.

I have to agree, anytime I tell people who use Uber the things they have been doing, they do not seem to care. What is important to them is the fact someone is driving them to where they want to go. These are the same people who seem to care about everything others are doing except in this case it benefits them so it not that bad. Their attitude seem to be it is someone else's issue not theirs so they are not going to change. The funny part of this these same people would have never used a cab since they claim cabs were creepy. They like driving in someone's personal car verse something that was design to haul people all day, you know the plastic interiors which are easy to clean. It not okay to get into a car with clean plastic seats, but they will get into someone's private car with cloth seats which may have never been clean.

Every day I hear issue from people who use uber but they can not stop using it. My son's GF was telling us about a college friend here in the US from the UK was out drinking, got trashed decided to Uber home and passed out in the car, only to wake up with the car stopped on the side of the road and the driver tying to get in the back seat with her. My Daughter used it a few time to get a ride from the train station to her college and said the price would change constantly, she would refesh the app until the price she wanted to pay would come up. I know Uber has surge pricing, but this was during a time which it was not busy, one time it was $20 she waited a few minutes and refresh and it was then $10. I do not think most people realize the pricing games they are doing.

rogifan_new said:

So Apple admitting price matters in certain markets?