6 ms·

I can painfully relate. One of my computers was called the Crapple (dual inherited from cripple and crap). I've owned four Apple computers (ibook G3, ibook G4,

by bk 18y ago

I can painfully relate. One of my computers was called the Crapple (dual inherited from cripple and crap). I've owned four Apple computers (ibook G3, ibook G4, imac G5, macbook), and despite skipping first revisions and treating my computers very well, every single one of them has had several minor defects and all my notebooks have broken completely within a 3 year time frame. In my personal experience, Apple is a hardware bimbo - pretty but useless. I only come back for OS X, which is the nicest desktop 'nix. I wish apple were still apple computers, not apple media. I'm waiting for the next mb/mbp's, but if anyone has tips for alternatives, I'd love to hear them.

qqq 18y ago
Anecdotal evidence is not important. Quality control needs to be observed over a large sample size.
- unalone 18y ago
  That's what I came here to post. Seeing as within my college I've observed no laptop breakdowns, I think that Apple's still doing a pretty damn good job with quality control within my frame of reference. Meanwhile, a friend's HP notebook has broken down twice in the last year. Not saying that my point of view is any more accurate than yours, but... you can't use a single frame of reference and decide that it's the most accurate. Gruber wrote about this a little while ago: after TechCrunch wrote that Apple had slipped from a 96% customer satisfaction rate to something in the 80s. His point was that yes, Apple had slipped, but it was still by far at the absolute top of the chain. I asked my question kind of expecting the answer, but here's my two cents anyway: I really don't think that your original comment, or this entire chain of comments, really added to the thread at all. I've noticed a thread of people who'll enter any Apple thread just to bash Apple, and I think it's slightly annoying. I don't think I've seen anything on the Linux side going the other way, though I've seen people doing it to Windows articles and that's an annoyance too. Considering how high quality HN is usually, can't we decide to give it a rest and only add things to threads when they're relevant?
- bk 18y ago
  Anecdotal evidence is very important when it concerns you - if you get cancer or your parachute happens to be the one that fails, the larger statistic is really not all that relevant, unless you're in a competition for "I got screwed in the most unlikely way in the world". Secondly, even without a larger statistic, applying combinatorics, Markov chains, Bayesian inference can yield interesting insights, even if just for nerdy fun. Lastly, by using "I can [...] relate" and "In my personal experience" I clearly signaled that I was merely making a personal statement. Cheers.
  - mattmaroon 18y ago
    FWIW, I've got a pretty large sample of anecdotal evidence that agrees. I had 3 cofounders with MBPs, all purchased within a couple months. Only one has run with no problems. The other 3 (one bought a backup) have been in and out of the Apple store forever, though a lot of the problem was that the "geniuses" just weren't fixing them properly. And I know a lot of other startups that run primarily on Macs, and it's not an uncommon occurrence at all. In fact, it's so prevalent that a lot of them keep a spare handy just in case. Again, not a statistically relevant sample, but enough to convince me they're pretty flimsy in the hardware department.
    - qqq 18y ago
      3 is not large. if you admit it's not statistically relevant then it's irrational to be convinced of anything.
      - deleted 18y ago
        [deleted]
      - mattmaroon 18y ago
        It's a lot more than 3. I mentioned other startups I know, and if I did a survey I could probably collect data on a couple hundred. Also it would be 4 just among my 3 cofounders, since one was bought as a replacement and then began having problems itself. Nonetheless, there is very likely to be a substantial failure rate for anyone to observe of 3 out of 4 Macbooks having problems. While you can't get an accurate mean failure rate from that small of a sample, you could pin down ranges for a given certainty. I'm too lazy to figure out how to do the math to get a range for say, 75% certainty, but I guarantee it's high by industry standards. Also, you could simply Google around. Mac fans everywhere seem to consider their notebooks highly unreliable. Again, anecdotes, and probably a weighted sample too. But from Apple's perspective, it might as well be data since people will perceive it as such.

by bk 18y ago

qqq 18y ago

Anecdotal evidence is not important. Quality control needs to be observed over a large sample size.

unalone 18y ago
That's what I came here to post. Seeing as within my college I've observed no laptop breakdowns, I think that Apple's still doing a pretty damn good job with quality control within my frame of reference. Meanwhile, a friend's HP notebook has broken down twice in the last year. Not saying that my point of view is any more accurate than yours, but... you can't use a single frame of reference and decide that it's the most accurate. Gruber wrote about this a little while ago: after TechCrunch wrote that Apple had slipped from a 96% customer satisfaction rate to something in the 80s. His point was that yes, Apple had slipped, but it was still by far at the absolute top of the chain. I asked my question kind of expecting the answer, but here's my two cents anyway: I really don't think that your original comment, or this entire chain of comments, really added to the thread at all. I've noticed a thread of people who'll enter any Apple thread just to bash Apple, and I think it's slightly annoying. I don't think I've seen anything on the Linux side going the other way, though I've seen people doing it to Windows articles and that's an annoyance too. Considering how high quality HN is usually, can't we decide to give it a rest and only add things to threads when they're relevant?
bk 18y ago
Anecdotal evidence is very important when it concerns you - if you get cancer or your parachute happens to be the one that fails, the larger statistic is really not all that relevant, unless you're in a competition for "I got screwed in the most unlikely way in the world". Secondly, even without a larger statistic, applying combinatorics, Markov chains, Bayesian inference can yield interesting insights, even if just for nerdy fun. Lastly, by using "I can [...] relate" and "In my personal experience" I clearly signaled that I was merely making a personal statement. Cheers.
- mattmaroon 18y ago
  FWIW, I've got a pretty large sample of anecdotal evidence that agrees. I had 3 cofounders with MBPs, all purchased within a couple months. Only one has run with no problems. The other 3 (one bought a backup) have been in and out of the Apple store forever, though a lot of the problem was that the "geniuses" just weren't fixing them properly. And I know a lot of other startups that run primarily on Macs, and it's not an uncommon occurrence at all. In fact, it's so prevalent that a lot of them keep a spare handy just in case. Again, not a statistically relevant sample, but enough to convince me they're pretty flimsy in the hardware department.
  - qqq 18y ago
    3 is not large. if you admit it's not statistically relevant then it's irrational to be convinced of anything.
    - deleted 18y ago
      [deleted]
    - mattmaroon 18y ago
      It's a lot more than 3. I mentioned other startups I know, and if I did a survey I could probably collect data on a couple hundred. Also it would be 4 just among my 3 cofounders, since one was bought as a replacement and then began having problems itself. Nonetheless, there is very likely to be a substantial failure rate for anyone to observe of 3 out of 4 Macbooks having problems. While you can't get an accurate mean failure rate from that small of a sample, you could pin down ranges for a given certainty. I'm too lazy to figure out how to do the math to get a range for say, 75% certainty, but I guarantee it's high by industry standards. Also, you could simply Google around. Mac fans everywhere seem to consider their notebooks highly unreliable. Again, anecdotes, and probably a weighted sample too. But from Apple's perspective, it might as well be data since people will perceive it as such.