Showing messages 1 through 4 of 4.

• Red Herring Argument
  2004-05-27 10:36:46  jmincey [View]
  
  
  Justin, are you absolutely sure the person you spoke with was an Apple "genius"? I ask because at times the most tech savvy sales person may substitute for the genius or help out if one is out sick or on vacation or if the store is otherwise short staffed.
  
  In my experience, even the Apple SALES people (at their retail stores) are quite aware that OS X includes a "Terminal" utility which permits access to the UNIX shells and shell tools (and CLI syntax). They may not all know about single-user mode specifically, but even this is fairly common knowledge to anyone who is so much as a casual visitor to the discussion forums on Apple's web site. I have been pleasantly surprised by the technical fluency of the staff at the Apple stores.
  
  This is why I suggest you may have misunderstood the individual you spoke with. When they spoke of never having seen something before, maybe they were referring to the specific error message which was being reported. And in any event, the Apple people have a protocol to confer with each other in the event one can't help a customer with his problem. No employee can know everything.
  
  Meantime, I'm not among those who thinks Apple (or Steve Jobs) walks on water. At the end of the day, the Macintosh is a machine and OS X is an operating system designed and developed by fallible humans. But I don't know anyone who says anything to the contrary. Even the greatest Mac proponent will acknowledge that the Mac is not flawless -- after all, if it were without flaw, then there would be no need for Apple to release bug-fix updates nor for Apple to maintain a large tech support department. So let me suggest this is a red herring -- you are arguing against a position that no one takes in the first place. (Or can you indeed show me someone who contends that the Mac is a perfect machine?)
• Red Herring Argument
  2004-05-27 10:45:14  Justin Gehtland | [View]
  
  
  Please see my post called "Starting to regret picking on the Mac."
  
  As for whether or not my Genius was a Genius, well, he could have been a Martian in human clothes (and an Apple t-shirt) for all I can prove. All I know is:
  
  a) he claimed he was the Genius on shift
  b) that he had never seen single-user mode before
  c) the only thing he could suggest was running Norton
  
  I'm sure that most Apple Genuises are smart, helpful people. Please, Apple Geniuses, don't hunt me down! You are doing a great job!
  
  
• Red Herring Argument
  2004-05-27 11:26:27  jmincey [View]
  
  
  >Please see my post called "Starting to regret picking on the Mac."
  
  And this post would be...where?
• Red Herring Argument
  2004-05-27 15:00:14  Justin Gehtland | [View]
  
  
  http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/4969