James R. Stoup's Profile

@Paul Howland, You are right! How could I be so foolish? When bloggers started making up stories about Steve Job's health? That was Apple's fault. When doctors who had never examined him gave dire speculative interviews, that was also Apple's fault. And when the press wouldn't let the story die, forcing him to issue a public response on the issue of his health. . . you got it, also Apple's fault. And why is it Apple's fault? According to you its because they used their CEO for marketing purposes. Are you kidding me? So, by your logic, anyone at any company used to promote products is fair game? Tell me you don't really believe this? Tell me you have some spark of decency in you. Tell me that your world view isn't that black and white. "You reap what you sow." How about this, just tell me you aren't a moron.

Beeb, Just because I don't want an iPhone doesn't mean that I don't want a phone that is well designed. Let me hit you with some examples. I have a fairly basic phone, yet the menu system is horrible. It is cluttered and unintuitive and makes finding some settings really difficult. The speakerphone is defective to the point of uselessness. The ability to record a voice memo takes 10 seconds and several steps effectively negating the point of having a quick and easy way to record voice memos. The list goes on. I don't want a phone that plays movies, but I do want a phone that isn't filled with unnecessary clutter. I really don't think that is such an extraordinary request.

zato3, It was all down hill once I started using Vista.

I see what everyone is saying about quality, but I think some of you may be missing my point. Think about it this way. You buy a BMW whose top speed is 150 mph. Then, the next year BMW releases an update to that car which has a top speed of 180 mph. In fact, it accelerates faster, corners better and when driven to its limits performs better in every way. Would you trade in your car for the upgrade? Well, if you are a speed freak then the answer is probably "yes". But if you just drive it around town and never go over 60 mph, why bother spending the money? If it goes at mach 5, who cares? You will never need that much speed. The same argument applies here. Is it worth it to your average consumer to upgrade their system when, in all likelihood, they won't notice any difference in the speed in which they can surf the web. If it takes Word 9 seconds to open instead of 11, was it worth the money? Maybe to you it is worth it, but I don't think that everyone will feel that way.

@hitchhiker, I realize, as the author, my opinion is somewhat biased, but I'm going to have to agree with Beeb on this one. In your first comment you complain that this "story" doesn't "say anything". Ok, that is your opinion and I thank you for it. However, when Beeb points out (fairly reasonably too) that if you were expecting a news "story" then you came to the wrong place, you get offended. You next complain about the quality control, which is also a valid complaint. Ok, you don't like the quality of my writing, I'm very sorry. But when Beeb asks just what is wrong with this piece, you now claim your problem is with the "sloppy writing". After that the debate kind of falls apart as such. However you never really said what you had a problem with. In case you didn't see, my article does have a point. Now, you can argue that you don't agree with my point, that the point isn't relevant or that it was written in a poor manner, but you can't complain that this was a fluff piece about daisies and rainbows. If you have a valid complaint I'm willing to listen, but so far all you've managed to do is make Beeb sound like the voice of reason. I'm just saying. . .

Beeblebrox, Do we actually agree on this topic?

@starman4 I'm not upset at Target at all. Its not their fault that two of these fans are junk. What makes me mad is this insane return policy. First they blame Target (because of course its not their fault), then they as me to cut up my fan and mail it to them (at my expense) and I'm suppose to wait for a new fan to arrive "sometime in the future." Oh, and be sure to get a tracking number (as she mentioned) because if the cord is lost in the mail then I'm SOL. Is this their idea of good customer service? Really? I don't think so.

ibvanmat et al, After reading all these comments I must say I am somewhat confused. Everyone agrees with at least some of what I have to say, and yet apparently I still don't "get it". So, we agree that Cover Flow isn't useful for searching large numbers of files, we agree that it isn't useful at all for certain types of files, we agree that it will be amazingly slow (and regardless of how fast computers get in a year you still won't be able to load the entire harddrive into memory) and we agree we agree that it isn't the solution to the problem that is the Finder. And in spite of all that I'm still told that I "obviously missed the point, again." Wow, imagine how pissed you guys would be if you actually disagreed with me.