Dell Sets Linux-PC Story Straight
Grok Headline matches for Dell Sets Linux-PC Story Straight
Dell Sets Linux-PC Story Straight
(NewsFactor)
Dell Sets Linux-PC Story Straight
(NewsFactor)
07/07/2004 03:00 PMNewsFactor - A PC dealer in Europe has begun selling Dell (Nasdaq:
DELL) desktop computers equipped with Linux, but Dell has distanced
itself from the announcement, saying that the systems were customized
by the dealer, and that it is not the first time a reseller has loaded
Linux onto Dell computers.
The Straight Story
The Straight Story
06/05/2005 11:29 PMFor God's sake, SUPERDUPERMEGAGIGABLOGGER, aren't those POP-UP ADS
paying you enough? .. "The straight
story."
weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/005/677tl
qda.asp
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OpenOffice Gets Its OS X Story Straight
OpenOffice Gets Its OS X Story Straight
03/20/2003 01:05 PMThe difficulties of managing a corporate-sponsored open source project
were highlighted
when an incorrect news report about OpenOffice.org took both Sun
Microsystems and the
OpenOffice.org community by surprise. An article recently appeared on
an online news site
incorrectly stating that Sun and Apple were collaborating on
developing StarOffice for Mac.
The Times sets its WMD record straight
The Times sets its WMD record straight
05/26/2004 02:59 AMStay up late on the West Coast and you get tomorrow's New York Times
today. Tonight brings a long
"From the Editors" note that reconsiders the WMD
hysteria that marked some of its prewar coverage and marred its
reputation:
"It is still possible that chemical or biological weapons will be
unearthed in Iraq, but in this case it looks as if we, along with the
administration, were taken in. And until now we have not reported that
to our readers."
"We consider the story of Iraq's weapons, and of the pattern of
misinformation, to be unfinished business. And we fully intend to
continue aggressive reporting aimed at setting the record straight."
For the Times, this transparency thing is still very new. And
admitting that major stories that helped launch an ill-conceived war
were at best careless and at worst fraudulent is a painful thing for
any journalistic enterprise. But admitting mistakes is the first step
toward preventing their recurrence.
Now if we can only get our president to understand that principle.
Instead, here he is solemnly announcing, in his speech last night,
that "Iraq is now the central front in the war on terror." Sure it is.
How did it get that way? It wasn't such a front before we invaded. Our
mistakes -- Bush's mistakes -- opened another front for bin Ladenism
to exploit.
Will Saletan in Slate has a smart deconstruction of
the strange rhetoric in Bush's speech that omits any acknowledgment of
missteps and all reference to his own agency in the unfolding Iraq
disaster. Bush hasn't done anything; instead, "history is moving." It
would be funny if there weren't so many lives already lost, and more
on the line.
Joel sets the matter straight
Joel sets the matter straight
06/09/2004 05:54 AMRDF-simple-API.
RDF-simple-API
Submitted by joeldg on Tue, 06/08/2004 - 16:11.
There is currently a lot of talk on the rdfdev list
over converting a version of RAP to work with a simple FOAF parser
that only needs to grab a few things.
Well, I agree with this on principle, I also
feel that 'feature creep' is what kills (or at least partially dooms a
lot of projects) and as I used to tell overzealous project managers
"Lets just get this working with the minimal features first" before
going head over heels into some bell or whistle or 'blinky-light' you
(or the client) would like to see in it.
I usually try to work this way. I manage most
of the time but often even I get stuck in the "it has to do
'everything'" mode and that will kill my productivity for a day or two
until I grab myself and shake for a while until I am back to the
"core" of what needs to be done.
When I worked as a systems analyst and would be
creating diagrams of core functionality for this or that it really
helped refine for developers (which I also was one of) and everyone
involved because it gave you a map. (last count I have done DFD's,
ERD's etc and even data dictionaries for over a hundred projects that
have been brought to completion for clients.)
So, lets just have a nice map for where this is
going "before" jumping off a proverbial bridge and then trying to
swing a grappling hook back up as we are falling.
Ask a few
questions (I know it seems simple, but bear with me):
1) What
does it 'need' to do?
2) What language(s) does it 'need' to be done
in?
3) What does the client want that can wait for a later refine
and further work? (i.e. what can they live without that they say they
cannot?)
4) What exactly do we need to do to support this?
5)
and finally, is there something that 'works' currently out there so we
don't have to do this at all? (programmers are lazy by
nature...)
Note the use of the word "need" above, if
it does not fit in that, it is extra and can wait or be
tossed.
As an example, for core functionality of FOAFnet, why
the hell would we ever want to put in WOT or airport codes? It is not
and will never be needed for that. (For sub-projects yes, but not for
FOAFnet core)
Anyway, I propose a marriage of a couple of
things.
1) a
pre-existing
class that has already been done that can handle
everything we currently need (triples-based-parsing) and it is faster
than RAP and sits at around 30k if you rip the comments.
2) my little rdf->tree parser which is easy.
(
here is the source) which is geared
towards being nothing but fast but is easily extensible with more
functions. (it fufills some of my core functionality for simplicity
and has already proved itself in the "real world" for a scutter I
wrote to comb through foafs (lj, typepad etc all that)
I think
that joining those two is perfect and that I what I will be working
on. RAP for base level usuage will still be too big because once you
made room to put in the kitchen sink you can't unmake the
room.
Another reality (that some people are going to have to be
force-fed) is that people who handroll their FOAF's are currently in
the MAJOR minority [editor's note:
sorry]. Almost all FOAF being used today is
generated on the big sites and uses only a small portion of the FOAF
vocab and then only the most stable and useful portions [of FOAF] or
portions that are easy to infer from their current data.
A lot of people are seriously paranoid about
privacy issues. For instance, the most oft asked question about
the
MeNowDocument
vocab is privacy issues. i.e. do people really need to know this about
me, and would anyone really care? I feel I have addressed a lot of
these issues in the spec itself (i.e. it is obviously optional, and
scripts handle most of it.) Anyway I digress.
Handrolled
FOAF's I predict will cease to exist within a year or two at most.
[editor's note:
here
here]This is a "machine" readable and
"writable" format people, and honestly, how often do you "view source"
on webpages anymore?
Feel free to disagree, but if you do, at
least let me know why.
Joel has been getting attacked for writing a
simple, fast, highly optimized FOAF parser that ONLY recognizes the
parts of FOAF - which are in our FOAFnet spec.
On one side you can say "that's all we need, so
let's not worry about anything else" - while on the other side
you can fear that your well tuned, highly refined, incredibly elegant
architecture and plans - which aren't done yet - will never happen,
because your spec is being highjacked by short term thinking
malcontents.
Guess which side I'm on?
Folks just have to realize that we have to take
baby steps before we can walk. It's really hard to get 25-50
companies - to all agree on a spec for passing entire social networks
between systems.
But we promise - we really do - that we'll add
more FOAF vocabulary - juicy items like Node ID,
foaf:knows or rel:acquaintance - just as soon
as we get really basic import/export working - with JUST:
- name
- image (depiction)
- email (sha1sum encrypted)
- and a list of names of
friends
That's it.
This is a message that Joel De Gan needed to send
to the FOAFnet and rdfweb heads who were trying to tell him that his
optmized parser was........
Net's 'savior' sets the record straight
Net's 'savior' sets the record straight
04/23/2004 04:14 PMDelivering a presentation at a security confab in Canada, researcher
Paul Watson, "The Man Who Saved the Internet," says it was nothing.
Really.
Former Intel exec sets Wi-Fi crowd
straight
Former Intel exec sets Wi-Fi crowd
straight
12/04/2003 05:59 PMLes Vadasz, who retired from Intel earlier this year, told the Wi-Fi
Planet Conference & Expo that much remains to be done before wireless
LANs are considered secure and easy to use.
German IT agency sets record straight on
IE
German IT agency sets record straight on
IE
09/16/2004 09:20 AMIn response to the growing number of viruses infecting computers, a
spokesman for Germany's Federal Office for Information Security (BSI)
has suggested that users consider alternatives to Microsoft Corp.'s
Internet Explorer (IE) Web browser. But the agency did not recommend
that users steer clear of Microsoft products, the spokesman said,
refuting a press release issued Tuesday by browser developer Opera
Software ASA.
German IT agency sets record straight on
Explorer
German IT agency sets record straight on
Explorer
09/16/2004 04:58 PMA spokesman for Germany's Federal Office for Information Security has
said users should consider alternatives to Microsoft's Internet
Explorer Web browser, but it didn't recommend that they steer clear of
Microsoft products.
Dell sets the bar high for Rollins
Dell sets the bar high for Rollins
07/16/2004 01:57 PMZDNet Jul 16 2004 6:28PM GMT
"No, it's a straight, white,
blue-collar, never-divorced Catholic
couple with two happy, straight adult
children...and who don't even drink"
"No, it's a straight, white,
blue-collar, never-divorced Catholic
couple with two happy, straight adult
children...and who don't even drink"
04/27/2004 03:55 PMNo, it's a straight, white, blue-collar,
never-divorced Catholic couple with two
happy, straight adult children...and who
don't even drink
No, it's a straight, white, blue-collar,
never-divorced Catholic couple with two
happy, straight adult children...and who
don't even drink
04/28/2004 05:51 AMan article on blue-staters .. The Washington
Post
washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44724-2004Apr26.html
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Dell - Dell Linux - What's New
Dell - Dell Linux - What's New
02/10/2004 05:01 AMDell - Dell Linux - What's New .. ˆ¨„§ „ ..
Weblog
linux.dell.com/blog
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MY DELL
STORY
MY DELL
STORY
07/30/2004 12:24 PM
 I
deliberately waited a couple of weeks after my dreadful experience
trying to get my new Dell 5150 fixed, partly to calm down and partly
to
make sure the problem has in fact been fixed. This is a long and
convoluted story but because it's embarrassing, and not particularly
amusing, I'm not going to tell it in detail. Suffice it to say that it
involved:
- Four courier trips by two different courier companies
delivering parts between my house and the Dell Parts Depot
- Four trips by me to a company called Solectron,
located North ofToronto, to which Dell subcontracts technical service
work
- Six lengthy conversations with Dell India, which handles
the diagnosis of technical problems for non-corporate
customers
- Thirty bewildering e-mail messages trying to get
answers
online, only to be told to RTFM, and then that Canadian non-corporate
customers cannot get service by e-mail, and must instead phone Dell
India
- One infuriating conversation with Dell 'Customer
Care', a
total oxymoron, with a guy who spoke English with no accent but I have
no idea where he was located (he refused to say)
The final diagnosis was that a defective $5 AC adapter shorted
out not one, but two
motherboards. Total cost to Dell for parts, delivery and labour: about
$2,000, and even that is less than the value of my
time spent trying to get the problem fixed. My computer was out of
service for a week. IF I had been simply instructed to take the PC
into
Solectron and wait for them to check it out, I would have been in and
out in 30 minutes and the cost would have been minimal.
Since I'm copying Dell on this (that is if I can actually find an
address of someone in authority to send it to) rather than tell you
all
the things that they did wrong (and that, acting on their instruction,
I did wrong), I'll describe instead how Dell could dramatically
improve
their customer service processes.
But before I do, I want to be clear about something: The
people working at the grassroots level at Dell and its outsourcers are
all hard-working, polite people doing their best to do their job. All
the fuck-ups (and they were legion) were directly caused by Dell
management policies, and can only be rectified by Dell
management.
OK. Here's what Dell needs to do to change the 'customer experience'
from ghastly, interminable nightmare to quick-and-bearable:
- Provide single-point-of-contact for each service issue.
Solectron was wonderful -- far more knowledgeable than those
disembodied voices at the end of the telephone. The first time I
phoned, or e-mailed, with a problem, Solectron should have handled the
issue. Yeah, I know Dell doesn't trust their outsourcer not to pad the
bill, especially on warrantee work. That's one of the problems with
outsourcing.
- When you tell the customer to take/send in their
computer, tell them to send it all
in. I was told by Dell India to take everything out and just send in
the shell. This is the lawyers talking, and more distrust of the
outsourcer. This is just plain bad policy.
- If you're going to use people in India to do
diagnostics, for pete's sake trust them. More than half
of the very long time that these telephone conversations took was dead
air -- while the tech service people apologetically put me repeatedly
on hold to get 'permission' to send me a $5 part, or to check with
their boss that it was OK for me to take/send in my computer for
warrantee service. It's outrageous that customers have to wait on line
while employees are treated like children and second-guessed by their
superiors.
- Educate your people about the individual policies
of your
outsourcers. Solectron Canada has an in-by-10, out-by-5 same-day
repair
policy. The people at Dell didn't know about it, and that cost me an
extra day.
- Give your outsourcers a full supply of repair
parts, and
let them sell parts retail as well. When the outsourcers have to
requisition parts from Dell and then wait for them to come in, that
unnecessarily delays customer service. If Dell had the decency to
provide loaners to customers who are without their machines more than
24 hours, this might not be so bad. But they don't, so delays just add
insult to injury.
- Just get rid of 'Customer Care', and provide
a proper complaint department instead. The so-called Customer Care
department has absolutely no
authority to do anything for customers. Their sole job is to
explain and apologize for Dell's idiotic policies, including the five
above. They are instructed never to
give out their full names, and never to give out names, addresses or contact information of
anyone higher up in Dell.
In other words, these lackeys are paid to run interference, stonewall
and prevent aggrieved customers, and customers who have ideas for
improvement, from any contact with the people in Dell who could
resolve
or act on them. Staggering arrogance, disgraceful and classic
corporatist contempt for customers. Every customer has the right to
complain, in writing, about bad service or bad products. And in the
process to copy the regulatory authorities so that if the complaints
are frequent, the conduct of the company will be investigated.
Dell just reported record earnings last week. Michael Dell and
his
fellow executives each raked in over $3 million last year, excluding
the huge value of their stock options. Meanwhile, according to Consumer
Reports, about one laptop in four has a serious problem in its
short shelflife -- that's about 100,000,000 units with at least one
important defect. One in twelve has problems in the first month of
ownership, and one in eight has a problem that makes the computer
completely inoperable -- that's 25,000,000 people per year temporarily
unable to do their job while the tech support people fiddle with
defects in their employers' products. Customer satisfaction ranks just
around 50%, the second lowest ratings of any consumer products the
magazine tracks. There is a large increase in complaints about
offshored tech support in the past year.
The big seven produce about 200,000,000 new computers each
year, which on average end up in landfill sites in four to five years
(the fastest growing and one of the most toxic components of our
garbage problem). The vast majority are made from shoddy materials in
third world countries like China, Malaysia and Singapore, by workers
who get paid a few dollars a day, using components that wreak
environmental havoc from slipshod and reckless mining and refining
techniques. Why bother making a quality product
when it will be garbage so soon anyway? And if you work with Microsoft
et al, you can guarantee that even if it isn't technically obsolete by
the time it falls apart, it will be unable to power the next bloated
versions of the software by then anyway. I would have added a point 7
above -- "build a high quality product" -- but even I'm not that
naive.
My new AC adapter works fine, but still fits loosely in the slot at
the
back of the machine, and usually falls out when I lift up the machine
to put it on my lap. If they built cars this sloppily we'd all be
dead.
This is what happens when a company gets big,
and is rewarded for 'maximizing profit for shareholders' instead of
producing a quality product and providing quality service. It's what
happens when a company's management becomes removed, and then
isolated,
from its customers. It's what happens when an oligopoly of seven
companies corners the market and offers essentially identical,
mediocre, overpriced products. It's what we get when we fail to hold
corporations accountable and responsible for what they do. It's what
we
get when we accept the corporatist propaganda that the unregulated
'market' will always produce the best possible solution and value for
customers, and that government regulation is inherently bad.
We should know better. We should expect better. We deserve better.
|
A Public Library's Linux Success Story
A Public Library's Linux Success Story
05/05/2004 11:19 AMVote for your favorite "Who wrote Linux"
story
Vote for your favorite "Who wrote Linux"
story
08/02/2004 03:25 PMDirect and Related Links
for 'Vote for your favorite “Who wrote Linux”
story'
“It was a dark and stormy night. A troop of highly
intelligent penguins had just received a communication from their
leader, a time-traveling extraterrestrial who looked a bit like Elvis.
The penguins learned their mission: to organize a force of monkeys,
who would clack away indefinitely on a bunch of Commodore 64s until
they achieved Nirvana. Their results were intercepted by Russian
spies, who flew off with the floppy disk in a jet bound for…
TechBrief: Munich sets a vote on using
Linux
TechBrief: Munich sets a vote on using
Linux
06/15/2004 06:23 PMInternational Herald Tribune,France-1 hour ago ... GOOGLE INVESTS IN
CHINA: Expanding its reach overseas, the Internet search company
Google has taken a minority stake in a leading Chinese-language search
...
Apple sets up Rendezvous with Windows,
Linux
Apple sets up Rendezvous with Windows,
Linux
07/01/2004 08:45 AMZDNet UK Jul 1 2004 12:22PM GMT
Linux in action: A public library's
success story
Linux in action: A public library's
success story
05/05/2004 07:00 AM Over the past year, the Howard County (Md.) Public Library has
migrated more than 200 public PCs from Windows 98 and Windows NT to
Linux. These PCs are used both to surf the Internet and to access the
library's catalogues. NewsForge recently spoke with Brian Auger,
associate director of the library, and the IT team responsible for the
migration. We wanted to learn more about why and how it was
accomplished, and how pleased they are with the results.
'Asianux' Sets Sights on Asian Linux
Market
'Asianux' Sets Sights on Asian Linux
Market
01/09/2004 09:52 PMJapan-based Miracle Linux is teaming up with China's Red Flag to form
a new Linux development environment that has far reaching implications
for the open-source OS.
Fred Emmott's Linux kernel patch sets
Fred Emmott's Linux kernel patch sets
08/16/2004 06:20 PM2.6.8.1-fe2 released
Why Novell's internal migration to Linux
desktops is a landmark story
Why Novell's internal migration to Linux
desktops is a landmark story
03/23/2005 03:46 PMSALT LAKE CITY -- There have been so many announcements, so much
activity, such a hurried pace to the Brainshare 2005 conference that I
think many may have overlooked the big story. It was thrown out in an
almost offhand manner during Novell CEO Jack Messman's keynote address
on Monday: Longtime Microsoft partner Novell is migrating all of its
own 6,000 Windows desktops to Linux.
Dell: It's not our Linux
Dell: It's not our Linux
07/07/2004 07:49 AMZDNet Jul 7 2004 11:41AM GMT
" Dell Linux Communuty Web"
" Dell Linux Communuty Web"
02/10/2004 02:52 AMLinux Getting Comfy In Consumers' World,
From Cars To TV Sets (Investor's
Business Daily)
Linux Getting Comfy In Consumers' World,
From Cars To TV Sets (Investor's
Business Daily)
03/24/2005 12:18 AMInvestor's Business Daily - If you're wondering what kind of person
uses Linux, take a look in the mirror.
Dell denies Linux installation
Dell denies Linux installation
07/07/2004 04:29 AMSilicon.com Jul 7 2004 8:19AM GMT
Dell Takes More Steps into Linux
Dell Takes More Steps into Linux
04/30/2004 05:39 PMLinuxPlanet Apr 30 2004 10:19PM GMT
Michael Dell puts $99.5M in Red Hat
Linux
Michael Dell puts $99.5M in Red Hat
Linux
06/05/2005 11:27 PMA fairly significant event in operating system history.
Dell distances itself from Linux claims
Dell distances itself from Linux claims
07/08/2004 10:11 PMSunday Times South Africa Jul 9 2004 2:27AM GMT
Dell Expands Linux Offensive
Dell Expands Linux Offensive
03/20/2003 01:05 PMDell Computer is extending its alliance with Linux packager Red Hat to
jointly deliver
services designed to accelerate the deployment of Linux in the
enterprise. The new
portfolio of services will help customers migrate from proprietary
Unix systems to Linux.
Dell clarifies reports of Linux PCs in
Europe
Dell clarifies reports of Linux PCs in
Europe
07/06/2004 08:09 PMA dealer there is selling Dell machines equipped with the OS, but the
PC maker says the operating system was not factory installed.
Dell Ships First Computers with Desktop
Linux
Dell Ships First Computers with Desktop
Linux
07/06/2004 08:19 PMLinux Insider Jul 7 2004 0:47AM GMT
Dell raises Red Flag Linux in China
Dell raises Red Flag Linux in China
12/04/2003 03:41 PMZDNet Dec 4 2003 3:13PM ET
Dell flies Red Flag Linux in China
Dell flies Red Flag Linux in China
12/04/2003 02:31 PMThe computer maker starts selling servers running a version of Linux
from Red Flag, a Chinese company seen as an important ally in gaining
customers in that country.
Dell To Ship Linux Desktops to Europe
Dell To Ship Linux Desktops to Europe
07/06/2004 06:23 PMEnterprise Linux I.T. Jul 6 2004 10:43PM GMT
Dell Launches Desktop Linux Line
Dell Launches Desktop Linux Line
07/06/2004 03:31 PMDell ships first Euro Linux business PCs
Dell ships first Euro Linux business PCs
07/06/2004 09:59 AMIndirectly
Dell to Ship Linux Desktops in Europe
Dell to Ship Linux Desktops in Europe
07/06/2004 01:22 PMDell to Offer Linux-Loaded PCs in Europe
Dell to Offer Linux-Loaded PCs in Europe
07/06/2004 06:23 PMBizReport.com Jul 6 2004 11:14PM GMT
Grok Description matches for Dell Sets Linux-PC Story Straight
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Dell Sets Linux-PC Story Straight
