AMEX Buyers Assurance: A good experience

My Canon s410 compact died at age 1.8 years -- out of warranty. I'd bought it using my AMEX card though, so it was in the extended warranty period. I bought an Gordon's SD600 (a bit disappointing) and began the AMEX claim process. It took about five weeks from start to finish, but it went well. I was reimbursed for the entire cost of the original s410, which paid for the SD600.

If I'd been faster to ship it probably would have taken a bit over 3 weeks. AMEX provides a web site for status updates on the process and that worked very well. Their phone support was also excellent, though they did flub a request for an old statement.

Some tips on the process:

• You need your warranty, the AMEX statement with the transaction on it, and the original receipt. Now when I buy something of value I scan all three and file them on my PC. These are faxed to AMEX, so scans will do well.
• AMEX doesn't provide web access to old statements, though I suspect they will eventually. They will mail or fax old statements, but there may be a fee attached (unclear, I need to look for this). I couldn't find my old statement at first, though I did eventually. I was told they'd fax the old statement to me, but it came in the mail -- five weeks after I requested it.
• Canon provides a warranty record on their web site and Amazon keeps old receipts. (So does Google Checkout.) In fact I was able to eventually find all the originals.
• AMEX sent me a claim number and asked me to send the s410 to a company that specializes in scavenging (I fear eBay may end up with my old, defective, seemingly workable, camera). I was very good about this, I managed to find everything that came with it, including the original box, software, manuals, memory card ... everything! I suspect that was overkill, but really it seemed only fair.
• The scavenger company never got back to AMEX. Three weeks after I UPSd the box AMEX called asking where it was. I had misplaced my UPS shipping number, but once I found it AMEX credited my account within 2 days. Don't lose your UPS number.
  

I don't buy anything with less than a one year warranty, and I always use AMEX for significant purchases.

EMC Retrospect Professional: Does anyone use it?

EMC Insignia: Retrospect for Windows is one of the survivors of Dantz corporation, a Macintosh software vendor that flamed out after years of declining product quality. I use an earlier version to backup a mixed LAN of Macs and PCs to an XP box.

The version I have works most of the time, but it is an ugly piece of software. It goes wrong in a myriad number of ways, with cryptic error messages or no error messages at all. Sometimes I can figure out what happened, sometimes I can't. The network backup has to hack deep into the client OS to work, so it's vulnerable to all kinds of security patches or OS updates.

Alas, there are no alternatives. I have to hope Google does backup and decides to support OS X in addition to Windows -- but I fear they won't.

So I'd like to upgrade -- if I thought the new product was better. It's cheap enough -- $100 or so via Amazon. But is the current version any better? How can I tell?

EMC bought Dantz's products, likely at a firesale price. They eliminated the Dantz user forums. How can I tell if their current version is any good? Amazon has exactly one credible review, and it's pretty negative. Versiontracker has no credible reviews. EMC offers trial versions, but they say:

Do not download evaluation software for an EMC Insignia product if you are already a licensed user of that product. In order to upgrade your retail version of an EMC Insignia product, please proceed to the Upgrade page or contact your local EMC Insignia reseller.

Hmmm. Maybe I'll hold out on my current version a bit longer -- though I'm sure OS X 10.5 will break it. I can't hold out indefinitely?

Aperture: the critical flaw - and 1 GB on a Mac Pro

I'm at the Apple store playing with a woefully under-resourced Mac Pro Xeon "quad" (two dual core really). The floor model has 1 GB of RAM, and Aperture is sluggish.

So I decide to look at how date metadata changes are made in Aperture. Which is when I realize I can't edit the date field. So I try the help file, but Aperture doesn't have a proper Apple help file. It only has a PDF. Nothing there.

So I google. I find this comment in an O'Reilly blog about what's missing from 1.1:

MacDevCenter.com -- Aperture 1.1--Apple Listens

5. The ability to change date metadata. Our office uses many scanned images and the dates used in Aperture are the dates of the scans, we want to change them to the date of the image was actually taken.

Oooookaaay. So Aperture can't edit date metadata. Wow. Speechless I am.

Apple, wake me up when Aperture can edit date metadata. More interestingly, where are all the computer reviewers? This should have been item one in Aperture reviews.

PS. The kb on this MacBook is awful. I hope it's an old store model they didn't replace. Apple, please send help to your Mall of America store ...

Update: There is a peculiar way to revise the date of an image in Aperture. Export to iPhoto. Change the date in iPhoto. Import to Aperture. Aperture respects iPhoto's date metadata!

Leopard: It does include remote control software

What's wrong with the geek coverage of the Leopard announcements? There are some very pleasant surprises hidden away that are getting little discussion. iChat is particularly interesting. Leopard's iChat is said to include the ability to share static images -- a feature that would be incredibly useful for corporate communication.

... Use new iChat Theater to present photos from iPhoto, slides from Keynote, or content from any iChat-enabled application with any iChat or AOL AIM buddy. And do it in style — full-screen, accompanied by a video feed of you playing host. iChat’s virtual presentation room makes a big impact...

Much to my pleasant surprise, it also includes the first real move towards useful bunded remote control software:

Apple - Apple - Mac OS X - Leopard Sneak Peek - iChat

... Share and share alike

Remote control takes on a whole new meaning with iChat in Leopard. Thanks to iChat Screen Sharing, you and your buddy can observe and control a single desktop via iChat, making it a cinch to collaborate with colleagues, browse the Web with a friend, or pick the perfect plane seats with your spouse. Share your own desktop or share your buddy’s — you both have complete control at all times. And when you start a Screen Sharing session, iChat automatically initiates an audio chat so you can talk things through while you’re at it...

This is something I've been moaning about for years. My one wish for Leapard was remote control that worked and performed well, something analogous to Microsoft Remote Desktop. This seems like a big step in that direction, and it's more than I'd expected. True, it's only ONE desktop (no true thin client multiuser support) and it probably won't work with fast user switching, and it may be hard to hack to allow remote initiation of session control ... but hey, it's a start.

It will, at the very least, make it possible to manage my mother's machine -- which means I can justify buying her a Mac Mini!

Between the static image sharing and remote control in iChat, and the innovative backup approach, if Leopard performs as well or better than 10.4 on legacy hardware I'll be a very happy customer. Now if Apple would only add antiviral/antiworm services ...

Google Related Links

This isn't new, but I'd missed it. Google provides HTML code to insert in you web page. When viewed it shows any combination of related pages, search, video, and news. I'll try adding it to some of my more popular pages.

NAV fails - responses to a worm infection

Gordon's Notes: The day the software died - my worm and the end of the second golden age of the PC is mostly editorial, but it also outlines the steps I'm taking after a recent worm infection.

The MacBook Pro heat problem - is it the CPU or the GPU

I know two people who bought an early MacBook Pro. 100% of the machines died, both have been rebuilt under warranty.

Macintouch's quality survey indicated a high mortality rate on the early MacBook Pro (the 17" has done well though). Apple tried to launch with the original PowerBook enclosure and they evidently failed. Lots of pain for the early adopters, but Apple people are used to that.

The usual suspect is the Intel CPU. Did it fail to live up to the MIPS/watt hype? I wonder about the GPU though. How much of the MacBook Pro's heat problems are from the Intel CPU vs. the GPU? Does thermal efficiency favor integrated GPU/CPU solutions or not?

I'd like to see a discussion on this. I'm looking.