Agreed. And the guy being interviewed seems to be on the same side of the argument we are. The media however are trying to spin this. I detect a hint of disdain in the tone of the anchorwoman as she goes over the list of repairs that were deemed a higher priority... Like replacing boilers, roofs, and removing asbestos... None of which are cheap. The bloody computer system works. It has its problems, but it works on 30 year old hardware. If it works on that there's no need to build out a 1.5 mil system to replace it. A modest modern desktop system to run the controller, upgrade the radios to get it off the communication frequency, and a good service contract with whoever you get that desktop from...you've got a system that'll last another 30 years for less than half the proposed budget.

Everything I deal with is a computer issue of some kind, so thanks for that. I tend to like to have a bit more context so when I call the client back I can get right down to troubleshooting the specific issue without wasting the client's time for the client to describe the issue in more or less the exact same way he described in the voicemail.

So your bitch is with Adobe, not Google. This is the apples to apples comparison that wernercd was mentioning.

People have a problem with Oracle's method of having Oracle's Java installation include an opt-out download of the Ask Toolbar which is known to be malware and very difficult to uninstall through traditional methods.

People have a problem with Adobe's method of having Adobe's Flash installation include an opt-out download of the Google Toolbar which is known to be spyware and fairly easy to uninstall through traditional methods.

People do not bitch about InterActiveCorp force feeding the toolbar on them for the Java install, because IAC has no control over Oracle's installer. Likewise there's no reason for people to bitch about Google force feeding the toolbar on them for the Flash install, because Google has no control over Adobe's installer. This is not to say that IAC's and Google's respective toolbars don't have issues of their own, only that IAC and Google aren't directly responsible for what 3rd parties do when 3rd parties try to install their software.

Yes. Google had a tool bar, no one is contesting that; but was it forced down your throat by google? If you downloaded any google software, did you have to specifically uncheck a box to not have it installed, or did you have to explicitly click on a link that said "Get the google toolbar" that was more than a few lines below the "Google Search" and "I'm Feeling Lucky" buttons where you couldn't accidentally miss the button by a few pixels to click on the link? If I remember right, it fit more the latter case I presented.

That's a lot different from putting a checkbox with 8pt Text in a 12pt body that you have to find and uncheck to prevent the installer from automatically installing the toolbar.

Except when the majority of people you get a voicemail from has a sufficiently thick accent that transcription leaves an indecipherable jumble of words.

"My car hill devil cream pewter shakes dawn under noticable with. Read line on palestine." is an actual transcription of a single sentence of a voicemail I received from a client. Allow me to relay what the customer actually said in the recording:

"My goddamn computer shut down without notice and there's a red light on the power brick." (This turned out to be from a short that developed in the client's $3 powered USB hub that he got off ebay, for those interested.)

My voicemail gets full of these types of transcriptions daily, and I frankly find them useless. Sometime's they'll be closer to where there's enough context that makes it through to decipher the message. Unfortunately, more often than not, the transcriptions are worse than the example I used. I've used both Sprint's offering for Visual Voicemail (on promo only...it wasn't worth paying for), and Google hangouts VV. Neither are worth having.