williamlondon

tryd said:

With Google it is a privacy thing. I know that they have not been proven to do anything malicious wth the data, but on the other hand when I search for something, I want to find all the stuff related to what I search for, not just the things that the search engine thinks I want to find. I use Ghostery to list all the trackers on the web-sites I visit.
As to Office, I just don't like it. It is filled with functionality I never use, and looks ugly. Office can do almost anything, which just masks the things I need and makes it difficult to use. Excel is extremely confusing compared to Numbers (of course it can do more, but this functionality I never use), and Powerpoint its laid out so that it is difficult to make really elegant and efficient presentations. The tools just makes it difficult to do what you want, even though everything is possible. I just like elegant tools, and Office really is not elegant. The tool just gets in the way.
I know I went a bit overboard with my hate-comment. I don't hate any software out there - hate is such a strong word. Office just does not fit my needs, and the position it has in the marketplace makes it almost impossible for other solutions to compete. 
I like that there are different solutions out there, so you can have real competition. If only Office survives, we are worse off than if there are alternative solutions, no matter how good Office is.

Office is like Windows, people use it because that's what comes on their machines at work, and the reason it's on their machines as work is because Microsoft locked their companies into ELAs and convinced the IT guys that they needed all the bells and whistles of a bloated suite of software with annual upgrades. The reality is that the vast (vast!) majority of people using Office use only the bare basic functions, all of which are included in every single other modern desktop office suite of products out there, paid and free, but mostly free these days. Inertia is what keeps people on Office, not love of it or need either. Finance people at some point will figure this out and the racket that is Microsoft and move their companies on to free shit that just works, there's no point in 80% or more of users staying on Office, except that's what they already have, but why pay for that bloated piece of crap if you use only the basic stuff it provides?

gatorguy said:

williamlondon said:

birko said:

muadibe said:

Sold out globally. Impressive. 

Is it impressive or a marketing stunt. They sell out year after year. Why don't they just make millions more before launch - what doesn't sell will sell pre-christmas. 

Okay, how many? How many more million? Store them where? How much more time devoted to production and security of storage, should they start building iPhone 8s right now so they have enough for next year's model? How much money do you expect to pay for this, because the cost has to be embedded in the phone for storage, extra security to protect these filled warehouses which store *unsold* product worth potentially billions of dollars. What is the exact formula, other than simply, "more." The costs, the supply chain constraints, the security, the money spent in the stock that just sits there, the lead time to manufacture millions of phones, perhaps the problem is all the impatient people who day one "MUST HAVE TODAY!" attitudes that should be managed, eh?!

You think the stock would just sit there? Really? It's darn obvious that if Apple had a few million more available they wouldn't be sitting around gathering dust. Your post doesn't make much sense since it's based on the flawed premise they'd have to be stuffed in a warehouse until someone wanted them.

To be honest I don't really understand why every iPhone launch, every single one, starts out with "constrained supply" unless that's the way Apple prefers it. 9 years in now if Apple wanted plenty of iPhones available for launch day, and considering Tim Cook's reputation as a master of the supply chain, they would have them. They can't reasonably be surprised by the demand after all these years. So the simplest explanation, which more often than not is the correct one, is that it all happens because that's the way Apple wants it. They would appear to be totally unconcerned, perhaps even pleased, if initial product stock can't meet demand, and why not? They're not going to lose any sale if someone has to wait an extra week or two to get an iPhone, and on the plus side it builds anticipation, evidence for a great product that everyone must want, and a sense of rarity "so get it now" leading to perhaps more demand for a few more of 'em. It works so there's zero reason to change anything.  Next year they same thing will play out just as it has for the past nine.

Another, "I know better than they do," expert on supply chain management. YES, the fucking stock would sit there. Do you know how many months in advance they start to build these things? Do you realise how many components go into the making of these phones, and those of course would need to be fabricated FIRST, such as the chips. You demonstrate zero knowledge of business in your "they aren't going to lose any sale" and utter ignorance of corporate risk and management/business decisions, it's laughable. But, any opportunity to slam Apple from the armchair critics association of people who have never held positions such as those.

birko said:

muadibe said:

Sold out globally. Impressive. 

Is it impressive or a marketing stunt. They sell out year after year. Why don't they just make millions more before launch - what doesn't sell will sell pre-christmas. 

Okay, how many? How many more million? Store them where? How much more time devoted to production and security of storage, should they start building iPhone 8s right now so they have enough for next year's model? How much money do you expect to pay for this, because the cost has to be embedded in the phone for storage, extra security to protect these filled warehouses which store *unsold* product worth potentially billions of dollars. What is the exact formula, other than simply, "more." The costs, the supply chain constraints, the security, the money spent in the stock that just sits there, the lead time to manufacture millions of phones, perhaps the problem is all the impatient people who day one "MUST HAVE TODAY!" attitudes that should be managed, eh?!

It's all about pandering to the internet troll and his sycophantic followers using click-bait articles to entice one to join in the disparagement of some easy target in an effort to drive volume in the discussion threads so they can charge advertisers more money. It's like when the Republicans around Reagan's era decided to appeal to the social conservatives so they could pursue their own fiscal conservative agendas, merely by using social conservatives as quantity fodder. Trolls and their sycophantic juvenile followers and mimics are merely that: they are used by blogs and websites to drive discussion volume (post-parry-riposte, tit-tat fighting) so they can earn more advertising revenue, they just don't realise how they're being used.

Look at Ars Technica, once a great site with lots of Apple and non-Apple intelligent discussion. So rapidly they have embraced the click-bait articles and attracted those vermin who now are the first to post their negative childish rants and baby-bird-like squawks. Andrew Cunningham, the local Apple writer, is now one of the biggest concern trolls and click-bait journalists at that site, it's disgusting.

The problem is the never ending pursuit of greatness on the part of journalists, so great in quantity they are a dime a dozen all of whom are trying to get someone to pay attention to them, and the demand by the business to drive more traffic, because that's what equates to revenue.

This latest launch of Apple's is such a microcosm of what is such a huge problem out there. Gone are the days we can go to a tech blog and have an intelligent discussion without the children arriving to ruin all discussion and discourse. And that's the modern tech journalist's target reader these days. What a sad state of affairs.

lkrupp said:

Let’s get something straight. Those who have a big hard on for what Apple did with the headphone jack will not be satisfied by anything, EVER. Somebody could come up the most elegant solution and charge only $1.99 for it and this crowd would snicker and trash it. To that ilk I say, it’s a done deal. It’s over. Apple did it. Deal with it. All the bitching and whining won’t change a thing. There’s no going back. So if you want to pray to whatever deity you believe in that iPhone 7 sales tank, that Apple relents, that the company goes bankrupt, that Steve is resurrected go right ahead. It will change nothing. The headpohne jack is gone for good.

Sadly, the internets are overflowing with those children and the trolls they idolise, and blogs seem to pander to them. No matter what happens they're always going to complain, because, well, the cool kids complain and they want to be like the cool kids (in between selfies). Negative Nellies and Chicken Littles, never satisfied, never happy, entitled to their first world grief and melodramas. Sigh.