Disqus - Latest Comments for Winston

Re: Macs are even more expensive than I thought (Scripting News)

Winston — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 15:25:03 -0000

I work at an Apple Authorized Reseller and Service Center. We get tons of disgruntled customers from the local Apple Store.

Obviously, because of my job, I never make my way into the Apple Store, but I know this from what my customers tell me (customers who I am able to spend good time with, even just to check in their computer for service, running through the initial trouble-shooting steps). When you make an appointment at an Apple Store, you are reserving 15 minutes of their time. Then it's on to the next person. In that 15 minutes supposedly they are able to diagnose the hardware in your computer and give you a report, and you are supposed to be happy.

Furthermore, the apple store here in town hates servicing computers, because they have no time to spend on repairs. I don't know the status of Apple Resellers in your city, but if they are an authorized service center, mostly likely they have a dedicated technician (or a few) who do not have to bounce back and forth between repairing computers and helping customers.

Furthermore, it's well known that apple marks up upgrades to their computers. I was laughing the other day at the costs to max out Macbooks on the website. At our local store, we do upgrades in house at far cheaper costs and immediate results for the customer. Because we are Apple Authorized, we do not void the warranty with these upgrades.

I know it's hard, but somehow Apple Stores have to be slightly distinguished from Apple Computer - even though they are the same corporate entity, there seems to be different goals for each branch. Apple Stores are all about moving people through as quickly as possible and reaching typical retail goals. Apple Computer (cupertino) seems much more interested in the highest quality goods and user experience possible; these seem to clash often.

So to sum up my rant, you're right, but it is not the only way to deal with Apple Computer. If you deal with local Apple Authorized resellers, you are working with locally owned stores that will have people in place for you to talk to and deal with if you are unsatisfied. And a lot of times, despite their love of Apple Computers, they are very disgruntled by the way Apple Computer treats them, so they sympathize with your position.

Re: MacMerc.com: Clips: clipboard and TextExpander reinvented?

Winston — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 09:57:33 -0000

I was testing that program for a couple weeks and found it to be one of the buggiest programs I'd encountered on mac in awhile. It uses a dashboard-like "always present" feel and it constantly would lock up while this window was called forth.

Because it becomes the topmost window, there was no way to quit it except for a hard reset. The program does not show up in Force Quit and therefore must be force quit via Activity Monitor, which wouldn't open on top of the Clips window. I removed it after about 2 days.

Text Expander still reigns in my book.

Re: Largehearted Boy: Contest: Olive Reader Pocket Books, Win Three Modern Classic Novels

Winston — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 12:36:07 -0000

Currently carrying around The Hero With a Thousand Faces by Joseph Cambell, and Notes from Underground by Dostoevsky.

And my name is Winston.

Re: Largehearted Boy: Contest: The Complete Monty Python's Flying Circus: Collector's Edition Megaset

Winston — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 17:00:09 -0000

Arrested Development. Without a doubt.

Re: Largehearted Boy: Contest: The Complete Monty Python's Flying Circus: Collector's Edition Megaset (One More Time)

Winston — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 11:36:45 -0000

George Michael Bluth. Because he was always hanging out with Egg.

Re: Largehearted Boy: Giveaway: Win Wilco's Ashes of American Flags & I Am Trying to Break Your Heart DVDs

Winston — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 13:35:49 -0000

Best concert ever had to be Sufjan Stevens at the Ryman here in Nashville... his unplugged 2 song encore took my breath away.

Re: Largehearted Boy: Contest - Largehearted Housecleaning x2 - Win 50 CDs + 50 Books

Winston — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 18:47:14 -0000

The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky. A thick volume, but well worth the read.

Re: Largehearted Boy: Contest - Largehearted Housecleaning x3 - Win 75 CDs

Winston — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 16:59:21 -0000

It's no fair to make me choose favorite of all time... but because you ask...

The Arcade Fire

Re: Largehearted Boy: Contest - Win Two of 2009's Finest Short Story Collections

Winston — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 17:49:12 -0000

I'm participating in the Infinite Summer reading challenge (although I'm quite a bit behind due to overtime working) and also, always I'm reading and re-reading the stories of Flannery O'Connor.

Re: Two Remarkable Animated Films at the Nashville Film Festival You Must See: ‘I Am So Proud of You’ and ‘Slaves’

Winston — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 22:01:37 -0000

I was really excited to see that Don Hertzfeldt's latest was playing the festival, I've been a fan of his since seeing "The Meaning of Life" a few years ago at the Birmingham Film Festival.

Glad to hear he's staying on top of his game.

Re: These Are A Few Of Our Favorite Things [Free Stuff] | Nashvillest

Winston — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 14:37:22 -0000

Tonight at the Mercy Lounge is a free show as well, their Grand Reopening Party:

Featuring:
Eastern Block
Shoot The Mountain
The Glib
nite nite
Wes Sp8
The Tits

Re: Nashville In The News: No One Can Figure Out This Gas Thing

Winston — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 02:39:56 -0000

Yeah the CNN article was humorous to read this morning. It was the same where I work (Macauthority) - it wasn't that we heard we were running out of gas, it was that NO ONE COULD FIND ANY.

Oh well. Thanks CNN, for letting us know why this happened.

Re: Happy Hour: 30,000 Pounds Of Fried Chicken

Winston — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 18:53:58 -0000

30,000 Pounds of Chicken sounds like a rousing sequel to that old Harry Chapin song, 30,000 Pounds of Bananas.

Re: Win A Free Nashville Citipass Book! [Merry Christmas]

Winston — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 11:35:45 -0000

Well you said any comment will work, but I figure a mention that I love your site a lot and read it daily can't hurt.

Keep up the work!

Re: Fiction Family At The Belcourt On January 30 [Guest Posts]

Winston — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 17:12:39 -0000

Great Review! I saw Sean and Sara Watkins perform at the Largo out in LA a few years ago, and Jon Foreman made a guest appearance. I really wanted to see Fiction Family but alas, it was sold out and I was poor.

Re: The Food Network Names Rotier’s Cheeseburger Best In Tennessee

Winston — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 11:53:24 -0000

The PM burger is... well i don't really know good food adjectives.

Delectable? Splendiferous? Gorge-worthy?

Re: Happy Hour: Unlucky Day

Winston — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 13:33:50 -0000

Oh crap, jblank beat me to it!

Re: Bright & Early: Get On The Bus Edition

Winston — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:05:05 -0000

He's probably just afraid his GPS will take him to it and he won't realize until it's too late.

Re: Inked

Winston — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 11:22:53 -0000

I just got my first last weekend. Spur of the moment, but I'd had the idea for awhile. It's excellent.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/winstonavich/34565...

Re: Drunken shenanigans in London. Who's up for it?

Winston — Thu, 14 May 2009 11:07:07 -0000

I can't do London, but I could probably do Birmingham.

Alabama.

Re: Giveaway: Win a ‘Moon’ Poster Signed by Duncan Jones

Winston — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 14:40:35 -0000

Tarkovsky's Solaris no doubt. Sure, I haven't "actually" finished it, but when I think of outer space, I don't think of endless void; I think of cramped Russian space stations. Space is no final frontier, it's just the final mental institution - a place of cold heartless set design and cold heartless dreams come to life - who just might tear through metal doors if we try to leave them behind.

But mostly, it's my favorite space movie because of the awesome video blogs that everyone carries around with them and records on whim at super high quality. Tarkovsky was way ahead of the iPhone 3GS dammit.

Re: Win a $500 Griffin Technology Shopping Spree!

Winston — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 09:14:41 -0000

Video! I'm a video editor and I can't wait to see what kind of Video Production style Apps are released for the iPhone 3GS.

Re: Largehearted Boy: Contest - Win Nick Hornby's New Novel "Juliet Naked"

Winston — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 12:21:19 -0000

No Country For Old Men has been the adaptation I was most impressed with thus far.

I'm hoping that the loose adaptation of Where The Wild Things Are blows me away though.