That's modded funny, but it's 100% correct. That happened to Gary Fisher (of bicycling fame) some years ago. He's a bit annoyed that he can't get he company to quit putting his name on bikes he thinks aren't that good.
>>>it really surprising that any sufficiently complex field has jargon?
Products that are intended to be consumed by the average person on the street should not include jargon - that includes not just user manuals but also laws. The Patriot Act should be written in plain English, so the citizens can understand it and obey it. Or else nullified by a jury on the grounds that the defendant can not reasonably be expected to obey a law he can not read.
IANAL and as such can't speak to the legalities, however if I find that there is a company using this approach to misrepresent the products that I spend my dollars on, they will NEVER get another cent from me again.
a company known for using a kill switch against their own customers
It's fairly clear they were compelled by copyright law to use that kill switch.
My Sharp Zarus (or however that was spelled) would also like to have a word with the Newton newcomer after your Psion.
Everyone always says, "I can just plug in my dual wizbang monitors and Windows detects it all and everything JUST WORKS!"
Anyone who says that absolutely everything "just works" in any operating system is an idiot.
Generally, what people say about Windows is that most common devices "just work" when you plug them in. In my experience, this is true.
In my experience, this is also mostly true in Linux, but only very recently, and to a lesser extent than in Windows. For example, I still haven't seen a decent "plug it in and it works" distro for dual monitors. Also, it wasn't until Ubuntu 9.04 came out that I finally found a distro that "just worked" for the wireless adapter in my laptop. However, most other devices "just work" quite nicely.
Personally, I use both, but for different purposes. All my servers run Linux, and all my workstations and media centers run Windows (I experimented with Linux media centers, but I found Windows to be a better fit there).
Sites that post customer reviews typically have something in their policies which indicates that they reserve the right to screen the reviews before they go up. As someone else already indicated, as long as they are not editing your review to make it sound more positive and posting the edited version, they're probably not violating any laws. It is certainly borderline from an ethical standpoint though, regardless of what their official policies are.
I've generally found that the quality of customer reviews at online retailers leaves a lot to be desired anyway. Most of the people posting them seem to be clueless, and sometimes it is even obvious that they're never even bought the product in question! I generally ignore customer reviews entirely. Occasionally I may use them to make a final decision between two otherwise very similar products; but if you are relying on them to give you unbiased feedback about a product, IMO you are asking for trouble.
If that were the case the USA wouldn't have needed to bail out all those car manufacturers recently, so I would guess not, unless they import some engineers from Japan or France, or hell, China (which has the fastest in-service train at 268mph (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Maglev_Train) although that is just willy waving rather than useful, and German designed anyway).
www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2009/10/02
Just listened to this the other night at work--worth finding in U-space.
Drones who sell stuff are prone to lie about their products? HAS THE PRESIDENT BEEN TOLD?
Yes, and re-elected in 2004 to boot. (And if you don't keep an eye on them, I'll be using this cheap joke in 2013 too.)
Mystics always hope that science will some day overtake them. -- Booth Tarkington
