Posts by John Stith

Climate scientists agree: Humans cause global warming

Re: Well

During the Bush years, when researchers in numerous cases knew they risked losing funding when their findings supported the notion of climate change, they continued to report anyway.

'Catastrophic' Avira antivirus update bricks Windows PCs

Re: Brick?

I agree. The word "brick" has come to have a very specific meaning--crippling a device (by overwriting firmware) to the extent that it is permanently unusable or so that only the factory can repair it. We would have the same complaint if a headline said "Bin Laden dead" when he'd only gotten a flesh wound.

Apple slashes iPhone prices

Rewarding early adopters could be a strong marketing force

I've long felt that companies who penalize their best supporters--the early adopters--could turn that around and reward them, thereby increasing sales and customer loyalty. Institute a program that says, for instance, all buyers who make their purchase in the first month (or whatever) or sales, will get a rebate coupon for the price difference as soon as the price drops significantly.

Then the early adopters know they won't be crapped on, and they'll be more encouraged to buy. In theory, sales will start stronger, taking the product to the point of profitability sooner, so the price drops faster, more units are sold, and everybody wins.

Too complex for most companies I guess.

ISPs hijack BBC in tiered services push

Reminiscent of Comcast complaints

The issue of Comcast calling high-traffic customers to tell them to cut back has been documented here as well as other places.

In the past I've seen a lot more "it's their right to limit heavy users" messages than this time around. I feel that it's acceptable for ISPs to have transfer limits. But I still don't like the fact that Comcast continues to advertise unlimited accounts, terminates rather than throttling heavy-user accounts, and refuses to divulge what the limits are.

At least competition has the potential to make bad actors clean up their act. I am ready for DSL or a second cable company to operate in this market. The wireless ISPs are getting better, but the one I have dealt with here has not yet gotten to the point of fulling understanding how to install their equipment.