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Wednesday, May 18, 2011

andes mountain range

andes mountain range. Andes Mountains by air
  • Andes Mountains by air



  • roadbloc
    Apr 7, 10:19 AM
    I've heard that disk images will be automatically mountable. Another OS X/Linux feature that should have been in the last two features in the very least.

    Live integration is also what I'm hearing. It'll be interesting to see how that ones pans out because I hate Live Essentials, but I know some people who love it.





    andes mountain range. Andes Mountain Range. the
  • Andes Mountain Range. the



  • Joshuarocks
    Apr 8, 07:36 PM
    I'm a current employee at Best Buy and thought I'd offer my two cents on a few issues.

    First, I don't really like Best Buy. I got a job there to work for around 4 hours a week to get the generous discount. It's particularly generous when dealing with open-box items. Even so, I am miserable leading up to heading in and I do not enjoy the time that I spend there. Thankfully, I have a good full-time job plus a lot of side work and I'm planning on quitting in the next month or so as the thrill of the discount has long worn off.

    That said, I have no problem being very open and honest about Best Buy and my experiences there.

    In regards to the iPad situation, I haven't been in since this issue came up and won't be in for awhile, so I don't really know what the buzz is on this matter exactly. I do know that they wouldn't put a freeze on selling new iPad 2 stock if they regularly had it for a random promotion, if only for the very reason that many think caused the initial problem: quota.

    I'm betting 1 of 2 things happened:

    1) They did indeed get in trouble with Apple for something. Sure, it's possible, and it's the easiest reasonable conclusion. I don't know why this would be though, and I'm skeptical about the whole hording thing. And again, this is coming from someone who has access to the inventory systems and all the places that would hide "horded" iPads. Plus, I have a good enough relationship with multiple managers (ones who know the score about Best Buy in an objective world...) who would be honest about this with me.

    Generally speaking, when they say there are no iPads for sale, there are no iPads for sale. It's really that simple. Demand is real, and supply is lacking. When we have them for sale, they're in the cages, and this would occur after passing through the pre-order system. White Verizon iPads tend to be the ones most often available, usually just a couple, and they're gone almost immediately all the same.

    Another factor in the equation though is processing shipments. I saw someone noted that after an open-box controversy between two customers, the manager was able to procure a new iPad 2 for a disappointed customer when apparently there were none for sale. Well, there probably weren't. He either bumped someone back on the pre-order list to be nice to the pissed off customer in the store or perhaps a shipment came in on the truck that had yet to be processed and he worked it out with the ops team to get them to process one so he could get it out. Oftentimes the managers do actually try to make the customer happy, even if it's somewhat unreasonable. The ops guys have their procedures, and it's rarely slimy in intent so much as rooted in overall efficiency, so sometimes a shipment won't go to the floor for sales until the next day because the processing takes time. If the manager pushes to work something out in that situation, the manager is doing you a favor and pissing off some ops guys to do so.

    Anyways, on to the 2nd scenario...

    2) This is what I'd really venture to bet is the problem: the pre-order system is a huge mess. It was a rush job authorized by corporate at the last minute and handled by less-than-informed employees who were also in a rush. From day 1 it was clear that problems were going to creep up, and they absolutely have. Nobody in store is happy about it. The employees don't like telling customers that they have to wait on a pre-order list, they don't like the 48 hour pickup window, they don't like having to deal with customers pissing and moaning and crying about conspiracy theories when only a 64 GB white Verizon iPad 2 is available once in a blue moon when a pre-order turns it down. It's not fun, for anyone, and unfortunately, there's nothing we can do about it.

    So what I'm guessing is really happening is that Best Buy is just digging out of this pre-order mess as fast as possible and skipping anything else until they get past the ramifications of a stupid decision. Considering there's little to skip seeing as supply is so low and we rarely have the most in-demand models available anyways, it's easier for them to just bow out of this for a couple of weeks and in a sense re-launch the normal sales when supplies are less constrained and they don't have a stupid pre-order process hanging over their heads. It's a cut and dry move that will allow them to gear up again in a more normal, focused way. Considering how things have gone there in the last month in dealing with anything iPad related, this might be the best decision for them.

    All in all, Best Buy is Best Buy: a brick and mortar retailer lost in an internet-connected world. Best Buy isn't nearly as evil as they are lost and longing for the 20th century. Sure, there's a lot of margin on accessories, but it's because there's more often than not no margin on anything else. They don't make much money at all on TV's and Computers anymore. If they're on sale, and at Best Buy, almost everything is always "On Sale," it's likely at cost or within a few dollars of cost. There's little margin in the shrinking physical media world either. The only departments with major products that have margin still are appliances and for certain stores, musical instruments. This is why Best Buy will likely be dead in 5 years if they don't drastically change their business model. They did a better job at adapting to the new world than other electronics chains, but they haven't done nearly enough. It's not an easy business at this point though as it has as much to do with dealing with suppliers suffering the same pinch and customers who want to have it all but don't want to pay for it.

    Also, in regards to stupid employees and sleazy mangers, yeah, they do exist. But more employees know their stuff than you might think. And there are quite a few managers who actually do care about trying to do a good job and help the customer.

    As far as the employees, the biggest shock to me after working at Best Buy was realizing that so much of the supposed employee ignorance has more to do with incessantly having to dumb things down to the most absurd of levels with customers. 90% of the people who come in are nice people who just don't know much of anything about what they're buying. You have to learn to communicate on their level and not over-complicate things for them. It's easy to get stuck in that default mode and you have to actively snap yourself out of it on the rare occasion when you get customers who can actually hold their own in a conversation about the technology. And make no mistake, it's a huge relief for most of us when that happens because most of us that work there actually are pretty excited about the technology.

    Now on the other hand, sleazy managers and supervisors can screw so much of this up. While most of the employees aren't making a career out of working at Best Buy, the sups and managers typically are on some level at least, and it takes a certain, umm, level of person to get, err, stuck, yes, at that level if you know what I mean. There's a lot of inconsistency in these types of people. If you get good ones though, they tend to hire good employees and foster a good environment for customers. My store has good management. It's the only thing that makes it remotely tolerable to me. The employees actually know their stuff and are honest with the customers. They also work as a team because the management pushes it and thankfully we don't have commission to muck things up. And customers do love us for it. You'd be shocked by how often a selling relationship turns into a friendship practically at our particular store. We get invited out after work all the time. Honesty goes a long ways, and when you're helping people save money by making sure they make a smart decision for their needs, it goes a long ways. And our managers are objective enough (and not locked into Best Buy corporate brainwash mode) to know that the only thing Best Buy has to offer over Amazon is the possibility of a good customer service experience. They do all they reasonably can to ensure that it happens.

    But again, this simply isn't the case everywhere at all, and it so often boils down to the luck of the draw on management. Good managers hire good people leading to good teams leading to generally happy customers and good sales. Bad managers hire their dumb friends, play games with customers, lie, cheat, and usually they don't put up good numbers.

    At the end of the day though, the good stores and the bad stores are equally screwed because the industry is a mess, the world is changing, and Best Buy corporate utterly and completely lacks the talent and leadership to be innovative in the 21st century. They refuse to reasonably acknowledge change, they're too scared to piss off manufacturers who have lines all across the store that vary dramatically when it comes to success and quality, and they're wildly inconsistent and disorganized with their processes and as they put it, "solutions." As said, if things don't drastically change, and I don't believe they will without a major shift in leadership, they'll be dead in 5 years. It's a sinking ship. I'll be happy to be out of there.

    Again, I don't think they're near as evil and corrupt as they are just lost. When you're lost, things can get confusing real fast. Bear in mind that oftentimes when employees appear aloof, they're probably confused because corporate changes things all the time and does little to help keep us informed of these changes. Also, don't mistake conspiracy theories for sheer stupidity. Like we saw in this whole conversation, people will say some wild things. It's easy to think it from the outside. I can assure you from the inside, that oftentimes what looks like scheming and maneuvering is really just disorganization, stupidity and/or confusion due to the muddled processes and the ever-foggy way in which corporate outlines these processes.

    I don't blame people for not liking Best Buy. I don't like them either. Just go easy on the guys on the floor and in the back. Unless they're the total goof-off employees which do exist, what you're pissed about is probably not their fault at all.

    The only "Worst Buy" I am against is the one in Owings Mills, MD where they discriminated against me just because of a small disability. Pending a court case with corporate on this matter.. and I used to work for them back in 2005 and left them on a great note. Eligible for re-hire.. then tried to go back to them(Owings Mills) and the manager was very disrespectful and also discriminatory.

    I plan to have that store shut down permanently.





    andes mountain range. the Andes Mountain Range,
  • the Andes Mountain Range,



  • Lammergeier
    Mar 28, 02:40 PM
    Cynical move. But it's naive to expect independent awards from Apple.





    andes mountain range. and Andes Mountain range
  • and Andes Mountain range



  • chameleon81
    Jan 9, 04:57 PM
    iphone with a better camera. that 2 megapixel camera is outdated.





    andes mountain range. Andean mountain range
  • Andean mountain range



  • lmalave
    Oct 20, 09:59 AM
    When will we see these numbers broken out into business/enterprise vs. consumer?

    Seriously, Apple is pretty much a non-factor in the enterprise. There simply is no integration, no large-scale server application use other than web, and few enterprise-ready applications. There's no Biztalk/Websphere/SQL/Oracle running on Apple outside of a few educational institutions. Microsoft and IBM own the enterprise and considering Apple in an enterprise outside of some limited marketing/advertising/media/audio verticals is absurd. I personally deal with 130 companies that have 500-250k computers and Apple is simply not a factor at all.

    However, in the consumer world it's a very different story. Apple has the potential to continue making huge inroads into the consumer/home user/SOHO segments where the lack of enterprise applications means little if anything.

    I'd like to see the numbers of how Apple compares in the home segment rather than just the overall. Why can't we see this broken out?

    Hmm...well another thread mentioned a survey that something like 18% of consumers are considering buying a Mac. I'll bet in the lasest quarter, Apple broke 10% in the consumer market. This is a good strategy for Apple. Macs have a chance to make inroads in the consumer market, whereas they have no chance in the corporate market. Even things like XServe and XRaid are marketed to industries where the Apple is still relatively strong (e.g. video production, scientific research).





    andes mountain range. stock photo : Andes mountain
  • stock photo : Andes mountain



  • dethmaShine
    Apr 18, 07:40 AM
    Wow, so the finder is finally giving us, what other OS' had for years. I wonder what the fanboys will say now, after defending this lack of a feature for years.

    I suspect along the lines that apple innovates again and creates a brand new feature :p

    I don't know which iPhone users were you talking about.

    Everyone wanted multi-tasking; there are hypocrites, but can't believe any body touting that multi-tasking is bad or could be bad.





    andes mountain range. Andes Mountain Range
  • Andes Mountain Range



  • Appstur
    Apr 15, 07:33 PM
    The design is nice and I honestly wouldn't doubt that Apple might make the new iphone similar to this since the macs and the ipad are taking that turn, however like others have said, this is a fake because the aluminum would block the 3G receiver. Unless Apple magically found a way to get around that issue! which would be AMAZING!

    Here is an idea, because the apple logo is black plastic, why not put the 3G receiver behind the Apple logo? ;)





    andes mountain range. Andean Mountain Range,
  • Andean Mountain Range,



  • nuckinfutz
    Oct 17, 05:58 PM
    Apple supports both formats. They've made this clear last April when they announced HD DVD support (rudimentary) in DVD Studio Pro 4. At NAB 2007 I fully expect them to announce authoring support for HD DVD and Blu-Ray. They may make them modules that you add on if you need to for licensing/cost reasons.

    HD DVD vs Blu-Ray- forget the specs. You can't win that argument since both platforms use the SAME codecs. Both will look identical with the same encode. Thus it comes down to price and content.

    HD DVD has the price - players can be had for $399
    Blu-Ray has the content- 7 of 8 large studios

    The storage is inconsequential. HD DVD already has 3 hr movies in Troy and King Kong (nov 14) which look phenomenal. These new codecs AVC and VC-1 can kick out a phenomenal picture at DVD bitrates.

    Don't wait...by the most affordable player you can and start enjoying the best HD you will see on your HDTV.


    Do it now!





    andes mountain range. Ecuador+andes+mountains
  • Ecuador+andes+mountains



  • zoozx
    Jan 5, 05:09 PM
    Any bets that James Brown gets used in the apple event in some way.
    Talk about thinking different.
    The guy made music out of a word like popcorn.
    RIP JB.......:cool:





    andes mountain range. Andes mountain range in
  • Andes mountain range in



  • GGJstudios
    Apr 21, 12:16 PM
    Very inexactly. The system is borked.
    Before you assume that, try xUKHCx's suggestion. In testing on dormant threads, where others aren't voting constantly, it works accurately every time. This thread has 67 posts but 341 views... you don't know how many of those viewing are clicking to vote on various posts.

    I do agree that you should be able to remove your vote, rendering a net change of zero, but otherwise, it appears to be accurate.
    The Arabs invented 0 some time ago.
    http://www.thegeminigeek.com/who-invented-the-zero/





    andes mountain range. Andean mountain range, Santa
  • Andean mountain range, Santa



  • maflynn
    Apr 22, 07:28 AM
    I hate it when MS fans get their hopes up for nothing.
    Seriously you hate it when MS fans get their hopes up :rolleyes: Given your blind fanboyism, I doubt very much you have much empathy for anything related to MS.





    andes mountain range. The Andes Mountain Range
  • The Andes Mountain Range



  • MacFly123
    Oct 6, 05:50 PM
    T-Mo may have screwed the pooch on their 3G rollout, but my phone doesn't drop 30% of my calls. It'll be interesting to see how ATT, and TMo keep up with the 3G coverage, as Verizon and Sprint move forward.

    My iPhone never drops calls and hasnt since after the first few months the 3G luanched. But I am not in New York or California! :p

    I did have a hard time sending MMS the week it launched. Lots of sending errors. And tethering...... how about that AT&T? :rolleyes:

    I want another US carrier to get the iPhone, if for no other reasons than to just spur competition and get a big load off of the AT&T network.





    andes mountain range. Andes Mountain Range - null,
  • Andes Mountain Range - null,



  • Stanjara
    May 2, 01:36 PM
    If this is going to improve ios and iphone performance than fine...i will update....if not, like if the gps and maps are going to be slower then no thanks...





    andes mountain range. Andes mountain range
  • Andes mountain range



  • smadder
    Jan 14, 05:32 PM
    Worse than lame.

    Where does Gizmodo operate from? I'm going to pay them a visit and turn their monitors off. If you can't tell that's a metaphor for kicking them in the shins and then the face.

    And then maybe if there's enough time, I'll force them to watch Dark Planet or that episode of Battlestar Galactica 1980 where the kids go up in a tree and turn invisible and start throwing apples at the people down below and they have those ridiculous viper bikes.

    Anyone remember Tek Wars? What a show!

    That... that was something.





    andes mountain range. The Andes mountain range,
  • The Andes mountain range,



  • gkarris
    Mar 28, 05:27 PM
    Good. I'm all in favor of Apple adding more incentives for devs to embrace the Mac App store. As a consumer I really like the idea of an App Store that makes buying and installing as easy as one click as well as fostering competition between comparable apps.

    And not being able to resell it or trade it in... :eek:





    andes mountain range. Change in the Andes
  • Change in the Andes



  • SchneiderMan
    Apr 10, 05:45 AM
    Incredible movie!

    http://www.theyoungfolks.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/I-Love-You-Phillip-Morris-21-10-10-kc.jpg





    andes mountain range. the vast Andes Mountains
  • the vast Andes Mountains



  • Hephaestus
    Mar 18, 02:57 PM
    Seriously?

    You're behaving pretty pathetically too. What are you trying to gain from this thread? The approval of other Apple fanboys? Or are you trying to make yourself feel better about your purchase?

    Take a look through the forums, and you'll find plenty of people 'behaving so pathetically' in plenty of threads. Including this one!

    FTR I have two iPhone 4's, a Nexus S and a LYNX 3D (SH-03C). There goes your theory that Android device owners are all too poor to afford an iPhone :rolleyes:

    Several things:

    Never had Angry Birds run at '2FPS' and I have the 'original Google phone'- a HTC G1. Runs nice and smooth on 2.2 (general usage and games). My iPhone 3G OTOH...

    Doing the same things (heavy web browsing, 1~2 hours of talk time, 1 hour of A2DP BT music streaming in my car) I get just under 1 days' battery life on both my NS and iPhone 4.

    As for the screen- less pixel dense on my NS obviously but in direct sunlight the NS's SAMOLED is way better than my iPhone.
    Love the 3D on my SH-03C. Mobile ASV on it is as good, if not better than, the iPhone's IPS technology.
    I gotta admit that my 4's screen is crisper. Shame they can't produce them all the same (my 32GB is pee-yellow while my 16GB is very white).

    You're either a balanced 'reviewer' or an Apple apologist (plenty of them here!). I'm leaning towards the latter. ;)

    Thats some pretty narrow minded thinking there buddy. I'm just posting about some harassment I've been experiencing because of the phone I've purchased and was wondering if other iPhone owners have experienced it, and by judging from the responses a lot have. I already feel great about my purchase, and I haven't been here long enough to know if the users are fanboys. Judging from the responses I'd say these guys seem pretty fair. Pretty judgemental and silly post in my opinion.

    I couldn't exactly call myself an Apple 'fanboy' either. If HTC made a better phone I'd gladly go pick it up, but I'm simply posting my experiences.





    andes mountain range. The Andes Mountain Range
  • The Andes Mountain Range



  • wlh99
    Apr 27, 02:44 PM
    Target is the object that the message is going to execute isn't it. For example, if it's self, that means that those parameters are for the timer object you just created. Please correct me if I'm wrong, I'm not trying to challenge your knowledge, just to learn as I go.

    If you see my code before, I'm using NSDate for my timePicker. One favor, I'm not answering more quiz questions, I get your point.. I still need to learn more fundamentals.. I get it, just please contribute with the thread to find solutions or not.. (there are many Professional Forums).

    If this were a "Professional Forum" I would just give you an answer. I want to know what you do and do not know, so I can help you learn it. So please don't take the questions as condescending, they will help us help you.

    Think of objects as people, so to speak. Not only is the NSTimer an object, but so is your viewcontroller. So are the buttons. These objects know how to do things. These things they know how to do are methods. A message is an instruction for an object to do something.

    cancelIt: is a method in your viewcontroller object, as are all the methods we have discussed. Then self would refer to the viewcontroller, not the timer. Self would refer to the timer if you had access to apples code that implemets the timer and you were modifiying that.

    So a target is the object you are sending a message to. The message is the name of the method you want the object to execute.

    [aTimer invalidate]; // tells the timer pointed to by aTimer to execute the invalidate method

    When you press a button, a message is sent. The target and method are chosen when you make the connection in Interface Builder. In your case, the target is your viewcontroller, and the method is one of the start or cancel methods.

    I asked the question becasue it is fundamental to what an NSTimer is/does.

    An NSTimer sends a message to an object at regular intervals.

    In your case, the NSTimer is telling your viewcontroller to execute the echoIt: every second. The important part is that your viewcontroller is an object, echoIt: is something your viewcontroller is doing (not the timer). You only have one viewcontroller, so anything it stores (for example seconds) will persit for any NSTimer you create.

    Now look at the NSTimer documentation:





    andes mountain range. Andes Mountain range
  • Andes Mountain range



  • berkleeboy210
    Oct 10, 04:38 PM
    Remember when at one event apple announced iTunes 6, then a month later i think it was announced iTunes 7? Well here we are a month later, just about from when apple annnoucned the 5.5g and now the 6g ipod will be announced soon hopefully.





    razzmatazz
    Sep 12, 07:25 AM
    Man I'm going to be at school while this is all going on. Hmm...time to play sick :rolleyes: :D





    tophergt
    Oct 19, 04:54 PM
    We're talking about hardware here, not OS. So Vista should have very little effect on Apple's PC marketshare, unless of course Vista's release encourages people to buy new PCs from Dell, HP, etc.

    Yeah, that was my point--if there is an imminent OS release, there exists a significant number of consumers who will wait so that they can get Vista for "free." Same concept as not purchasing that iMac or MacBook in mid-march when you know that 10.5 will be out in a month.





    Diode
    Apr 21, 04:21 PM
    I like the reputation system slickdeals uses. Give points to useful posts (that the user then accumulates) - allows people to realize who the better posters are, as having a high post count can be worthless.





    BJB Productions
    Mar 17, 10:57 AM
    I feel bad for the kid who's not going to have a job because a costumer was too American to be honest and tell him that he did not pay the correct amount.

    What is American coming to? I think I'll move to Japan.





    phillipduran
    May 3, 04:38 PM
    So maybe, just maybe you fandroids out there, Apple had the foresight to design an ecosystem that just works and do it the right way.

    Seems like as the Android OS gets bigger, it moves more in the direction of being like iOS.

    "were free and open!" ya right :rolleyes: