Archive for the 'rants' Category

Allow shipping time when extending Apple’s limited warranty to an AppleCare Protection Plan

Published
by
brent
on October 9, 2007
in FTO xpost and rants
. 0 Comments

Wow, I just spent 25 minutes on the phone with Apple Support. It was very professional and pleasant, even the time spent on hold listening to the likes of Moby and some groovy R&B, but completely unnecessary.

A word to the wise — allow for shipping time so your AppleCare Protection Program box arrives before your limited warranty expires, or just do the upgrade over the phone in the first place.

I bought a Mac mini a year ago and use it as a file server and central backup device for my network. Apple sent me a nice note a few weeks ago that my 1 year limited warranty was about to expire — would I like to purchase an AppleCare Protection Plan and extend my coverage another two years? I really like my mini and it's a crucial part of my business, so sure! But of course, Platforms took my attention for a few weeks, and I remembered on the last day of my mini's coverage that I needed to renew.

No problem I thought, it was still Oct. 6 in Cupertino, so I hopped on to apple.com/support, paid them my money, and expected to receive a "thanks for extending" message, or at least an email containing the magic enrollment number which I could plug in to the APP signup page. Instead, they had to ship something to me. Uh oh.

I received the box today, so I went to enroll online. But it wouldn't let me and told me to call Apple Support. After a 20 minute game of giving my serial number, then holding, then giving the contract number, then holding, then being asked where I bought the mini, then holding, then told I needed to fax the APP receipt to Apple (which I had just *bought* from Apple), then holding, then giving my APP web order number, hold, APP enrollment number (second time I gave it), hold, APP serial number from the box, hold, then a big hold for 5 minutes — finally I was told without fanfare that I was all set and to expect confirmation in the mail in two weeks.

I was ready to fight, but thankfully didn't have to. After all, I'm probably throwing $161.48 (pesky NY sales tax) straight into their bank account, as I've only ever needed service on my macs 4 times in 27 years of Mac ownership. (One was on a Mac Plus, the other 3 were laptops.) And if you wanted to get technical, I did purchase my plan before the limited warranty expired. But even so, I'm not trying to sneak in a few extra days, just add two years to the original expiration date and we're all happy.

Even tho I presented her with a bit of a gray-area problem, I have to think some fat could be trimmed from their process. What does 25 minutes of Phone Support Girl's time cost Apple, I wonder?

iTunes Store “Complete My Album” amnesty expires June 26

Published
by
Brent
on June 15, 2007
in music and rants
. 0 Comments

(Cross-posted from FatLab Music)

An big deadline is approaching for customers of the iTunes Store. This past March, Apple introduced “Complete My Album”, which gives you a credit against albums purchased within 180 days of buying an individual track.

But what about singles you bought long ago? Well, Apple set June 26, 2007 as the date “Complete My Album” expires for tracks purchased before December 28, 2006. (FAQ link)

That’s less than two weeks away, so go to iTunes and see what you can buy and for how much:

(all affiliate proceeds help me feed my dogs)
Apple iTunes

But before you get too excited, there are gobs of exceptions. Hidden in the FAQ is one catch 22 where you can be penalized for, get this, having purchased too many individual tracks. Case in point: I spent $7.92 to buy an album from my youth, Use Your Illusion II by Guns N’ Roses. I bought all eight tracks of the “partial album only” which Apple was offering, so kudos to them for letting me upgrade now to the full album, right? Nope.

The CMA FAQ says:

…if you previously acquired so many single tracks from the same album that the price would be less than the current price of a single song…, you will not be able to purchase the remaining tracks.

Since “Use Your Illusion II” now costs only $6.99, if I had bought less — only 6 of the 8 tracks — I could have upgraded for $1.05. Instead it will now cost me $14.91 total after I repurchase the full album and with it tracks I already own, in a DRM’d low-res format no less. It’s a stoopid policy which punishes individual track purchasing, and worse, it was Apple (or GnR’s label) who restricted me from buying the full album in the first place.

I like the convenience of the iTunes Store and all, but if Apple does enough of this, CDs on Amazon are looking pretty good again.

Stop Calling It A Nor’easter

Published
by
Brent
on April 20, 2007
in rants
. 0 Comments

It must have been all over ‘e world news, because wha’ever happens in New York City happens to ‘e world. See, we got seven inches of rain in one day. Lots of flooding, pretty serious. But I had to turn off ‘e TV cuz ‘e newscasters were falling all over ‘emselves to say “nor’easter” all ‘e time.

I’m from Minnesota, so ‘is New England drawl some folks have can be a bit much sometimes (like Minn-ee-soooo-tans are ones to talk). But c’mon, “nor’easter”? Yeah, it’s a big low pressure system ‘at parks itself off ‘e Atlantic coast and churns rain from ‘e nor’east all over ‘e upper nor’east of ‘e country. But WHO says “nor’east” ever?

Unless ye tell someone to “drive nor’east a bit, ‘en turn left”, ye shouldn’t call ‘e storm a “nor’easter”.

Google news confirms ‘is horrible epidemic. Over a ‘ree day period starting April 15 2007 (’e day of ‘e Great Spring Nor’easter of 2007 as wikifolks are calling it), 6000+ references were made to Nor’easter while a measly 120 used ‘e more complicated yet sensible Northeaster. Local New York channel CW11 actually went as far as posting a screen graphic saying “APRIL NOR ‘EASTER”, as if it was neither April nor Easter, and ‘EASTER was abbreviated from something far too complicated to spell out.

Seems I’m not alone in my disdain for ‘is rampant appropriation of salty-dog-speak:

For decades, Edgar Comee, of Brunswick, Maine, waged a determined battle against use of ‘e term “nor’easter” by ‘e press, which usage he considered “a pretentious and altogether lamentable affectation” and “the odious, even loathsome, practice of landlubbers who would be seen as salty as the sea itself.” –wikipedia.com

I’m not a sailor. I doubt (m)any of ‘e newscasters are ei’er. I didn’t just get back from ‘e Sou’ By Sou’west Film Festival. No, I went to ‘e SouTH by SouTHwest.

TH is a phoneme peculiar to only a few world languages. It should be treasured, not apostrophized. All you landlubbers, c’mon now: norTHeaster, norTHeaster.

‘ank you.

Has Musical Theatre jumped the shark?

Published
by
Brent
on March 30, 2007
in rants and theatre
. 2 Comments

NBC’s “Grease: You’re The One That I Want” finished last Sunday, but was anybody watching? I hope not. The low production values, questionable music selections, an inexcusably shallow talent pool — it all adds up to everyone I know calling this show “unwatchable”. Being that I plan to make much of my living in musical theatre, it is horrifying to me that Broadway’s latest attempt to be cool in the national spotlight was so half-assed.

Unfortunately for the (mostly) talented kids on the show, the producers seemed bent on playing up the underdog theme. The 2nd place runner-up, Austin “Hot Danny” Miller, played Woody in the 2006 NYMF production of my musical “Go-Go Beach” and was great. But his NBC bio page has ZERO mention of any of his theatre experience. His occupation? “Former “Days of Our Lives” Actor”. (Hmmm, doesn’t NBC air “Days”?) I could care less if they mentioned Go-Go, but at least mention that the kid starred in the Vegas production of Hairspray — he’s hardly just the Billy-Elliot-of-Texas, son-of-a-feedstore-owner kid they make him out to be.

The same story with other kids who were portrayed as waitresses or trainers or whatever. That might all *technically* be true, but c’mon. The producers deliberately turned a blind eye to underplay any previous theatre experience, in an attempt to appear to find a “raw” talent or something, while secretly certain their winner would have the stamina to perform a Broadway schedule.

So, you’ve got a nation of potential ticket buyers being shown that hard work and years of training aren’t necessary to be a star on Broadway. Just win a TV popularity contest. Great, now come pay $100 to see the show.

So why do this? Why create drama when the story of these kids’ struggle to become actors is already ripe with drama. Countless musicals have been written *about* the backstage drama of being in a musical. “Grease: YTOTIW” did an extreme disservice to the hard-working, talented kids all over New York. The show promoted an annoyingly diverse palette of “types”, focusing the final rounds on carefully manufactured Reality TV drama, rather than actual talent.

Broadway tried, and you know what, it’s just not hip. If he hasn’t already, the Fonz is on his bike revving his engine.