-
In Japan, Christmas Eve is celebrated as we celebrate Valentine's Day. Complete with chocolate hearts.
-
It is a truth almost universally acknowledged among technology professionals that Dell computers were really great through the late nineties, and about a decade ago began a sad slide that likewise claimed Compaq, HP, Packard Bell, NEC, Acer, and Gateway. They were all in a race to the bottom while Apple took the opposite tack. One can get an inside view of this in a recently unsealed lawsuit brought against Dell by one of the large businesses to which the manufacturer sold thousands of faulty computers. Dell was selling crap, they knew that they were selling crap, but they denied it all along.
-
If this sort of crap is what Fox News is telling people about the economy, it's no wonder conservatives think that the economy is in worse shape than it really is.
-
Io turns out to smell pretty ghastly, a result of sublimating frozen sulfur.
Comments are closed.
I take issue with the idea that Compaq “about a decade ago began a sad slide.” Compaq was always crap, as I remember it.
I buy a lot of Dell hardware. And I’m very happy with it. I’m very careful, and I don’t purchase on a price point. If you want reliable computers you have to do your homework and specify them, not just buy what Mallwart or Bestbuy is selling. Most buyers are unaware that there is a huge variation in Dell quality throughout their broad product line.
Perhaps Dell’s best product is their pro-support. Finally we have a technology company that takes a break from the Microsoft model – screw the customer. First rate support, delivered fast, from knowledgeable American techs.
Compaq was really great in the mid- to late-eighties. They were the first to release a 386, and that’s when they started trouncing IBM. They were innovative and made great stuff. Then they dominated the industry, started cutting corners, and started their own slide. It was sad when they bought DEC in the late nineties—DEC had been such a powerhouse, and Compaq was so lousy by then.
Wait. Packard Bell once made quality computers?
Fair point. :) Packard Bell made OK computers, with occasional bursts of innovation. They came up with the business of color-coding ports and cables, and they played with case design in ways that nobody was doing back then. (I recall one of their systems that was designed to sit in a corner, sort of a right triangle shape.) But, yeah, they were towards the bottom of the list of decent computer makers of that age.