A blog no one reads that I never update.
I really can’t imagine what made me think that Taco Bell’s Chili Cheese Nachos would be anything other than repulsive.
In other news, I passed my CCNA exam on Monday.
I’m also aware that the spacing on the image for the last post really screws up formatting. I’m not fixing it.
I’m in the process of getting my Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) certification. There are two routes you can take for the exam: one test with everything on it, or breaking it up into two smaller tests that contain the same information. Assuming the two-test option would be easier, I very lazily spent the last year reading and studying the first book. I finished it several months ago and never bothered to take the test.
Then, I found out that the test is changing at the beginning of next month–this would mean that my $100 study materials would be useless and need to be re-purchased, and that I’d have to re-read the intro book.
So, after studying a bit, I took the CCNA Intro exam on Friday and passed. (Whoo!) A small part of me was hoping I wouldn’t… I figured that if I failed the first exam, there would be no point in trying to pass the second within this time frame.
I now have to read and memorize a 500-page Interconnecting Cisco Networking Devices (ICND) textbook before the end of the month, then pass a test on it. Two of my coworkers have taken the full test, and both made at least two attempts before actually passing. It’s not an easy exam.
There are only 13 chapters, so I’m going to read a chapter a day. Really, this isn’t much different than what I did at the end of every semester in college… I’d typically slack off for most the semester, then realize with horror I had an entire program/case study/semester-long project due. I’d spend the next two weeks barely sleeping and working 18 hours a day, pausing only to sleep and eat.
It’s a good system.
I bought an iPhone on August 17th for $599. Yesterday, nineteen days after I bought it, Apple dropped the price to $399. I’m really, really pissed. There’s a difference between a $50 initial price cut and dropping the price by a third straight off–I would have shrugged it off if this price cut had been $50, $75, or even $100.
I was fully expecting the price to drop eventually. I thought it would be a hundred bucks after six months, followed by another fifty here and there for the next year or so. As it turns out, Apple simply decided they’d rather just screw over all of their most loyal early adopters. They offered a product at an initially very steep price, fleecing anyone willing to pay it, then immediately reduced it by a third to pick up everyone else.
What does Steve Jobs have to say about this? “It’s technology.”
No, Steve, it’s not. It’s greed, and it’s a really excellent way of losing the trust of your customers. I had been eagerly awaiting the purchase of a MacBook once OSX 10.5 arrived, but now I’m going to go with another manufacturer. You fucked me, and now you don’t get any more of my money.
I’ve already tried calling AT&T to see if they’d offer a refund or a credit to my bill–they wouldn’t. I tried calling my bank to see if there are any consumer protections or price adjustments available on my debit card–there aren’t. Next up is calling Apple, then dropping by the AT&T store where I bought it for a “friendly chat.”
Update: Steve Jobs apparently received so many angry responses that he posted open letter to all iPhone owners. Apple is now offering a $100 credit towards any purchase in any Apple retail store, their online store, or iTunes.
Cynically, I can’t help but wonder if this entire fiasco and subsequent apology had been planned from the beginning. Even with this “generous” offer from Apple, they still stand to keep a minimum of $100:
This, by the way, is why retail stores love to sell you gift cards: in order for you to fully redeem a card, you nearly always have to spend more than its value. If Aunt Millie gives you a $25 gift card to JC Penny for Christmas, you may have to pay $32 for jeans and a tshirt because the tshirt was only $19. Either that, or the store simply keeps Millie’s extra six dollars.
If you use most of the credit without going over, Apple keeps your money.
If you go over, you end up paying Apple even more money.
So Apple is really only giving up about $33.
And Apple keeps all $200.
Anyway, I still feel like Apple screwed me a bit, but I may end up using the credit toward that MacBook anyhow. Preplanned or not, I appreciate that Steve Jobs was willing to apologize for such a dick move.
And on that note, I apologize to all of you for whining about my ultra-premium phone.