MS's support logic

On 8/24/14 12:22 PM, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
In message , Ken Springer
writes:
[]
article is spot on. If over the life of PC1, let's say 5 years, you
spend $3500 in keeping it going, but over the same amount of time Mac1
only cost you $1000, which computer has cost you less money at the end
of that 5 year period after you add in the $300 for the PC and the
$1000 for the Mac? And if you want to keep your operating costs down,
which one would you buy in the future?

Unfortunately, to paraphrase the line anyone selling a financial product
in the UK is obliged to say, "past performance is not necessarily an
indication of future".

I didn't mean to sound like it's an exact science. Just a means of
tracking costs of X, Y, and Z over a period of time to determine if
there's the possibility of a lowering of costs, improvement in work
habits, etc.

Say you oversee a couple thousand of computers, and over the last 5
years you buy 10 different models of Brand A, and 10 different models of
Brand B. Data shows you have recurring issues with 7 of the Brand A
models, and just 2 of the Brand B models. For your next purchase, would
you choose something from Brand A or B? Based on history/experience,
you'll choose Brand B. That's no guaranteed the next model you buy from
Brand B won't be a lemon, but the odds are better.

The idea really works good with labor costs. I once had an employee
that changed the alternator on a vehicle. I asked him if he made a
wiring diagram so he could get the wires back in the right place. "I
don't need one, I'll remember." New alternator came, didn't work. That
eliminated the alternator as the problem, and we went into changing the
regulator, checking wiring, etc. I finally came to the conclusion it
had to be the alternator. Got permission from the supplier to take it
apart to look for a problem. I was just taking the alternator apart
when I looked at the back, and the number of possible points of wiring
connections. 4 possible points, but only 3 wires. Asked my employee
where he'd put the wires, he showed me. One wire on the wrong post. I
told him to put the alternator back in, and where to put the wires.
Worked fine.

When the timecards were entered into the software, we had $1,000 more or
less involved in just labor. Showed that to the employee, and he was
all but crushed. Always made wiring diagrams afterword.

Another plays where this can be useful is when Tom does a particular job
in just 2 hours, but it takes Dick 5 hours. You now have to go ask why.
The difference could be legitimate, or Dick may just be goofing off.

[]
What I do think is, many find Apple products easier to use, especially
if they are not tech savvy. They just want to use the device, not have
to have a degree before it's functional for them. So much depends on

That's a _little_ harsh: I've known people who don't find Apple OSs at
all intuitive: I'm one of them. I think having got used to Windows' way
of doing things doesn't help.

I've noticed a lot of people who are tech savvy or logical thinkers have
problems with OS X. I did. LOL And still do to some extent. Once in
a while, I find myself trying to treat OS X as if it was Windows, and
generally it doesn't work.

the type of human brain the individual has, and their needs/desires.
I've one friend who could never figure out how to use Windows, but has
no problem using her Mac. (Just wish she was interested in solving
some software issues, but that's another story.) And I have another
friend who has a truly upscale Win8 laptop that hates Macs. But they
are two different types of people, with differing wants/needs/desires,
which is a factor usually left unaccounted for when you get into the
Mac vs. Windows arguments.

Yes, that's a fair description: the two different ways of working do
appeal, to rather a simplification but to some extent, to different
kinds of brain - with neither (kind of brain) being _better_.

Relating back to my previous paragraph above, the friend that had no
problem using her new Mac knew right away what "Airport" was. Took me
two weeks to finally figure it out! LOL

As I've posted many times, I've a Win 7/8 computer I assembled that
will run circles around this 5.5 year old Mac I'm writing this on.
But... I have absolutely no desire to move to Windows for my primary

Some of that's probably familiarity, in the same way that some of us
have no desire/intention/whatever of leaving XP/7 for 8, let alone Mac.

Not that at all. My first window based computers were Ataris. Very
much the same philosophy of operation as MS. First MS computer I used
after DOS was WFWG 3.x, then 95, 98. First Windows computer I owned was
Win 98, then XP Home. When XP Home blew up (hardware issues), I looked
at this Mac. Two things sold me on it. The reputation of no viruses,
and the display.

So using Win 7/8 doesn't bother me at all, once I've figured out the
nuances of the newer versions. But, OS X just feels "smoother", for
lack of a better word. Where Windows now feels rather "klunky", also
for lack of a better word. G

computer usage. No Patch Tuesday issues, rare concerns about Malware,
etc. I can be relatively sure I can turn it on and use it, and not
wait for it to finish updating.

Well, I've been using this (XP) machine for some years, and don't
remember any Patch Tuesday issues, and haven't had any malware. I
usually get update delays when I shut down, rather than start up, but I
usually leave it to shut itself down then.

No issues here, either. But, you still have to deal with it. And I
don't. AV software sometimes caught something, but I don't remember
being infected. Some questionable "Possibly Unwanted Programs" would
get installed, etc. Nothing that destroyed everything.

For what it's worth, my tablet is Android. LOL

Ditto. The Apple ones did look a _little_ nicer on the UI front, but not
enough to me to be worth three to six times the price (-:.

I was seriously looking at the iPad Mini, again because of the quality
of the display. I had no interest in a full sized tablet. Then I saw
the Nexus 7, and the rest is history.

[]
For me it's not really an issue. I don't mind dealing
with security and privacy online. I don't enable risky
browser behaviors. I avoid shopping online, and I
would never do anything like banking online. In short,
I don't have any juicy data on my PC for malware to
steal, even if I got an infection.

And this is where you are in the vast minority of computer users. I'm

I guess you'd say me too.

There was a time when I didn't mind dealing with these things, but no
more. I want to use the computer, not have to do anything more than
necessary first.

not quite this conservative, but I do practice a version of "safe hex"
that fits what I want to do. The downside of your level of
conservatism is you are being left behind (that's an observation, not a
judgement) and you are possibly losing out on things that may be of
interest to you.

Indeed. In my case that'd have to be things that would save me time on
things I do already, which I'm willing to concede might be the case: in
other words, I don't have enough time in my life to do the things I
already want to, so new things ...

Ditto, for the most part. But take online banking... It used to take
me over 30 minutes to sit down and write all those checks. Now, I'm
done in 10 minutes or less. And I can keep all my money in a savings
account, and move what I need to into checking for bill paying. I could
shorten that if I wanted, by paying from savings directly. Just don't
want to, as I still have a couple of bills that I can't pay online. So
everything is paid from the checking account. Also, if your financial
institutions allow transferring between institutions, piece of cake.

An example of this for me is delving into local history. Because of
the internet I've access to books and information I'd never even known
about otherwise. It's been very interesting to see how facts of 100+
years ago have morphed into things that never happened. :-)


(Is your access to such matters easier with Mac? Not a loaded question -
I can see they might be. Or, of course, you're more familiar with how to
do them on the Mac.)

Not any easier to access the information, but many times the software to
accomplish my goal doesn't exist for the Mac. That's one place where
the Windows platform is better, more specialty types of software, and
where both platforms have the same type of software, there are more
choices for Windows.

And Windows is more user customizable, but I'm left unimpressed with
Win8 in this regard. Windows is easier for me to change things to fit
how I work, where Apple wants everyone to more closely do things their way.

The Win 7/8 computer started out as a challenge to see if I could
assemble what I wanted, not what Dell, HP, etc., wanted to sell me.
Yes, there was no computer I found that had what I wanted hardware wise
from the factory. Then, I set it up to basically be a "learning"
computer, to learn about 7 and then 8. But I also left space to try out
Linux some day.

Then came the history research. I started to tweak 7, then decided to
move to 8. Now that I've found a couple of things that I prefer in 7
over 8, I'm considering regressing and doing the history project in 7.



--
Ken
Mac OS X 10.8.5
Firefox 25.0
Thunderbird 24.6.0
"My brain is like lightning, a quick flash
and it's gone!"