[CoLoCo] Linux netbook

Thu Jul 15 02:50:41 BST 2010

Hello Ian,

    Sys76 is an E-Commerce website.  Fair enough.  However, my initial PoV has not changed.  Sys76 DOES NOT NEED address or phone information to set up an account so that someone can get emailed information about products.  Sys76 only needs an address when there is an actual product sale which requires shipment; and gets that at the time of sale.  Sys76's current account creation rule creates an assumption that Sys76 will send future purchases to the address I provide.  That is a whole-cloth, unsupportable argument.  I may well ask Sys76 to ship the product to one of my two sons who are in college.  Will I have to set up new accounts for each such purchase?  I suspect not.  My point thereby remains potent and is not a misconception.  Sys76 does not need address and phone information just to set up an email information account.  Any other position is untenable and indicative, IMHO, of ulterior motives or really sloppy thinking.

   I don't view social-networking sites, such as Twitter, Identi.ca, and Facebook, to be particularly useful sales or product information outlets.  I connect with family and friends, not vendors.

   I won't continue to push this point.  I try to be, and strongly encourage others to be, careful with dispersing personal information.  I called out Sys76's policy because I do not perceive a valid reason for the collection of the requested personal information.  I've, by now, either made my point or failed, about Sys76's collection of personal, identifying information.   Good luck with the Starling.  I hope to hear really good things about it.  I might even buy one myself.  Who knows.

- Nelson

-----Original Message-----
From: Ian Santopietro <isantop at gmail.com>
To: Ubuntu Colorado Local Community Team <ubuntu-us-co at lists.ubuntu.com>
Sent: Tue, Jul 13, 2010 1:26 pm
Subject: Re: [CoLoCo] Linux netbook

Hi Nelson.

I'm sorry you feel that way. Let me clarify a little bit.

We collect your address when you create an account on our site because we are an E-Commerce website. We need that information to ship you products. We do not sell customer information and we never will. If you're still uncomfortable about creating an account on our website, you're welcome to follow us on Twitter, Identi.ca, or Facebook.

http://www.twitter.com/system76
http://www.identi.ca/system76
http://www.facebook.com/system76

We did initially plan on releasing the new Starling around mid-july. However, recent set-backs have pushed the release date back a bit. We don't want to release a product that isn't ready just to meet a previously stated date. To maintain our quality standards, it is necessary to complete all of our engineering, even if that means we have to change the release date.

I hope this resolves some misconceptions you may have had.

On 12 July 2010 15:58, Nelson Ingersoll <nelson.ingersoll at email.com> wrote:

    Initially a Sys76 rep suggested that the new Starling would be READY
by mid-July.  Now I read on their Facebook site that actual sales won't
happen until whenever they're ready, like August or September.

    TL;DR Don't trust what you're told by sales people.

    Upon the start of this thread I visited the Sys76 site and started
the process of "creating an account".  I stopped when I saw that Sys76
required my home address and phone number to complete the process.  I
mentioned that fact to them and was quickly told that Sys76 would never
ever under any circumstance share that info with anyone else.  I didn't
continue the conversation; however, my immediate thought was, "Then why
collect the info?  What use is it?"

    That one visit left a bad impression with me.  Companies which claim
privacy ethics withhold the complete truth.  First and foremost the
company must make money or go out of business.  They will change their
privacy policy when it suits their bottom line; though, they may offer a
heart-felt "Funk & Wagnalls Front Porch Mason Jar" opt-out provision.
You'll have to pay attention and put your opt-out in a mason jar on Funk
& Wagnalls front porch, a nod to Johnny Carson, for it to take effect.
This presumes they are actually ethical; you are on your own if they aren't.

    Thus, I'm wary of Sys76 and am concerned their products may be as
poorly thought out as their personal-information gathering.  To
paraphrase Tom Peters, "When you board a plane, the first thing you do
after sitting down is to lower the tray table in front of you.  If the
tray table is dirty you can't help but wonder if the engine maintenance
done."

Nelson

On 7/10/2010 8:59 AM, Diane Leikvold wrote:
> I have a Dell mini 9 netbook with a 3 cell battery.  I've had it for
> about 2 years now.  It gets around 3-4 hours of battery life depending
> on what you are doing.  I switched from Windows XP to Ubuntu Netbook
> about 6 weeks ago and I didn't really see too much difference in battery
> life, but it breathed new life into it as far as speed.
>
> Kurt : Diane's husband
>
> On Sat, Jul 10, 2010 at 12:46 AM, Jim Hutchinson <jim at ubuntu-rocks.org

> <mailto:jim at ubuntu-rocks.org>> wrote:
>
>
>
>     On Thu, Jul 8, 2010 at 6:01 PM, David Overcash

>     <funnylookinhat at gmail.com <mailto:funnylookinhat at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>         New details on the Starling:
>         http://facebook.com/system76
>
>         Looks awesome!
>
>
>     Thanks for the tip. Looks pretty cool. Curious what sort of battery
>     life it will get. 3 cell sounds kind of small.
>
>     Jim
>
>     --
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-- 
Ian Santopietro
CEO - Prodigy Games

"Eala Earendel enlga beorohtast
 Ofer middangeard monnum sended"

Pa gur yv y porthaur?

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