I guess you can tell a fanboy when they bleed in six colors…
Did I used to know one?
This in itself is a major issue plaguing Apple. They are sending cryptic messages, on one end they are a company of the post-PC world and they are living in their dark past. Why? Continue reading
Early on in one of my first projects “breaking the internet” with content was The Museum of Telephony which was wordpress-dot-com product until 2020 when it was moved on our hosting platform. I can speak freely again because the previous manager is no longer involved. Anyways 4 months into the endeavor, I had posted A Post on Apple and Avaya Together . Within a week, a Google Search referral (because in 2012 you could get this data, not so much – even on your own hosting platforms) “Steve Jobs fan of AT&T Merlin phone” .
If the pic rings a bell, it was the inside picture in the hard cover of Walter Issacason’s bio of the said man. (of which I should re-read.) I said at the time that it was a no-brainer. Steve Jobs was man of detail, including his preferred list of vendors, whether it was Apple, NeXT or Pixar. It was so blaintely obvious he was drawn by Ma Bell, and that AT&T Merlin phone in his home was another giveaway.
Despite the Merlin being made in the 1980s and discontinued by 1990, AT&T and later Lucent and Avaya was well known for continuing to market these systems as refurbished models well into the mid 2000s. Also, the 7400 series Digital “Voice Terminals” had the Merlin casing, but was used in the System 75/Definity Generic 3 PBX, of which was the PBX used at NeXT, Pixar and Apple, the infamous boxy 8400 Series Digital Voice Terminals did not come to market till 1994 and by 1995, these decade old sets would finally be End of Sale, but this 1980s look continued well into the 2000s because Lucent (and later Avaya) allowed it. Hence why my 7407 or 7102 sets are next to my Office of Yesteryear where my Color Classic sits. The thing is telephony and IT do not go hand in hand. A phone from the 1980s and a PC from the 1990s aren’t required to match, because telephony on the enterprise level was not part of MIS or IT for many businesses.
As a sidenote: though Apple did not refresh the desksets often, some of Apples earlier campuses still had the 1970s Multibutton Electronic Telephone of which AT&T wanted to nix by the time 1990 came along…. now I am going outside the scope of this post…
Would Steve Jobs still be a fan of Avaya?
I am not sure. Avaya was in the process of acquiring Nortel, prior to his departure of the company and his life. In reality, while Avaya disconnected Nortel’s offerings, the management and many of their engineers was retained. A lot of Avaya from the Steve Jobs admiered era (the System 75/Definity G3/Merlin/etc) was kinda getting phased out with that infamous Aura experiment, and the botched IP Office offerings (the small end systems often found at Apple stores); and other oddball moonshot stuff that Avaya has done.
I am not sure if Jobs had opinions of vendors in the same way he did for the Apple products, since these would be operations and would be in Tim Cook’s old position. I would think he would say things like those damned B100 series of IP sets to “be full of shit”. Those gawd-awful 2-wire DCP 9500s to be “more shit” and probably would piss on the cost of having Avaya equipment in an enterprise like Apple.
It’s unclear if the new Apple campus is wired to Cisco or Avaya, I wouldn’t be surprised it’s on the former. Apple’s retail has slowly gone on to the KallStrangler bandwagon, and would Apple want to pay ridiculous contracts to finance internet trolls defending Fucking Kari’s Law? I certainly would hope ill of Avaya to declare Chapter 11… oh wait, they did didn’t they?!
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People call technical support and say
“It doesn’t work”
[You’re the genius, you know everything, fix it!]
In reality these people are not as technical as you think. Technical support is not some fantasy, cinematic with Star Wars like CGI projected displays.
They are offices, with generic Herman Miller or Steelcase cubicles, with generation or two old enterprise class desktops probably running Enterprise class Windows 7, and telephones that are DCP or ISDN, two wired landline like terminals functioning as Automatic Call Distribution as the telephone.
When you call a technical support, you go to Tier 1, and depending on your rap sheet with your brand (or vendor) it may route you to a better or worse “agent” because the special PBX and the computer that handles the number and your case history are plugged together.
How do you “throw away the script”?
SPECIFIC INFORMATION REQUIRED
If you can be coherent and explain things in a thought out manner without acting like wishy-washy or “well something is working, but I am not sure, because I dunno something may not work but I do not know for sure” will delay the line of communication to the goal of restoration.
Answer those specifics, you can get to Tier II or III. Tier III for most vendors Tier III is developer, engineers, the VIP circle. They will highly respect you if YOU continue Proper Line of Communication of Specificity. Acting like girl in Clueless back to Tier I in less than New York Second!
Assume all call centers are not local. The agent doesn’t now East Manchester, NH to Manchester, California. They don’t have access vital information to the “last mile boxes” or the cell tower, or the code in Office 365. You want the keys to the VIP, you prove yourself to show you know something.
Take responsibility. The Vendor has no right to treat a high schooler full access support if that high schooler minded person cannot explain themself. It’s called advocacy. Consumer class people, under-informed (do not confuse this as under-educated), people living in poor communities, are not fully aware that enterprise class companies are at larger scale and are unfortunately less “neighborly” and is not as fully intelligent to basic levels of technology.
Act like an adult, talk logically, think methodically. Filter yourself. Think about what is going on at the “agent’s” end. Ignore the TV commercials of what contact center looks like. Think boring thoughts. That’s how society works in an Enterprise World.
#EnterpriseYOURself
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Computers are like humans, they no longer are spring chickens.
Today’s subject is on the Mac, and it’s bootup process when it fails. The most ideal failure should result in a black screen, showing Susan Kare’s infamous “Sad Macintosh” icon, (known for it’s frown on it’s right hand side, an extra pixel or two), and an accommodating “Chimes of Death”, if all failure goes as planned per to the startup process on the vintage Macintoshes. All Macs made before 1998 had the Sad Mac Icon, but any Mac made after 1987 (beginning with the SE and Macintosh II) had the “Chimes” to go along. (The original Macintosh, the Fat Mac, the XL, 512Ke, and the Plus did not have such ability.)
Any modern electronic equipment is vulnerable for failures as they age. While the subject is on the “Sad Macintosh” icon appearing at startup sequence in vintage (“Classic” Macs), failures shall not be limited to Macs, but PCs and even other computers like minis, etc. A PS/2 from the early 1990s could not boot properly only because it’s capacitors are failing as well.
The recommended directions by Apple was to bring your Mac to your Authorized Service Provider. Other than that the documentation wouldn’t say too much. Because I do not have access to historical Apple technical documents (since knowledge bases of this type predates the Web) it’s unsure if capacitors, etc was common. I think it’s safe to say because it’s more of an age than anything else.
(As a sidebar: In the early 1990s, Apple also produced a small number of Macintosh service handheld devices for the use of Authorized Service Providers. In models after 1990, the SCSI port would open up after the Sad Macintosh screen, and send additional information to this device, which would then backup on some flash device, which then was downloaded onto another Mac to figure out additional problems. There was also ROM cards that a serviceman would plug in depending on the type of Macintosh, one flash card was for LC line, one for the II line and another for like the Classic.)
Most of the electronics that are failing are due to blown up capacitors, and sometimes when it blows up, it’s like taking a bottle of Coke and throwing it into the circuit board. This doesn’t mean its totaled, you may need to replace them, (by the use of a soldering iron.)
Sometimes all attempts may not work and you may need to surrender reviving your Mac.
Classic Macs, the hardware sense, the ones with the all in ones like the 128K to Color Classics are most vulnerable because of the capacitors that hold power for the monitor. This part will need some expertise as dealing with display capacitors can be lethal.
The following YouTube videos feature Macs failing the usual failures of the startup process. (and yes I have vetted to ensure that they aren’t manipulated, etc.)
REALLY UNSUAL SAD MAC FAILS
The Macintosh Portable wants to Jam! Now these models had no “Power On Key” so the user would strike a key. But it goes right to the Sad Mac, so therefore something failed immediately.
Typically a Sad Mac should cut right in. Now I can’t tell if there’s an arm on the left of the picture trying to do an Interrupt, but it’s not normal for a screen to wipe down, stay black, then the Sad Mac to appear.
Yeah, things are peachy for this Classic II. Analog board must had been busted.
SINGLEHANDED CASES OF CHIMES OF DEATH WITH A BLACK OR GREY SCREEN
While this may or may not show the Sad Mac, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility you may run into any Vintage Macintosh that may have a grey screen and just hear the Chimes of Death and nothing coming on screen, not even the disk icons, Happy or Sad Macintoshes. This was never documented in any of the end user Macintosh guides, and any of the technical docs I own does not discuss just the singular Chimes of Death situation. Typically this is where you can rule out capacitor issues. This became a subject on the vintage boards on Apple Discussions a few years ago, starting the awareness of the vulernabilities of aging PCs.
Here’s a better example
Another example of the Chimes without a Sad Mac
Fast or Slow and/or High or Low Pitched Chimes of Death?
Yup I’ve witnessed it!
That’s all!
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Many years ago, Apple introduced a very innovative service delivery system, at the time Macintosh and iPods called the Genius Bar. Without poking fun at these people or the concept thereof, this is how Apple mastered the concept of “repairing relationships” between the customer and their Mac or Apple. Continue reading