Red Hat Diaries/000b

Myths

While we're at it, let's dispell a few myths out there.

DVD player noise level - several reviewers say the DVD player is loud. Sure it is - when you first insert a DVD and it's warming up, getting up to speed. But this disappears almost immediately, when the DVD player programme initialises, and after that it's silent as a kitten.

Sensitive surface - various reviews complain that the surface is easily marred, easily scratched. Our sales manager Marc at Ten Plus (http://www.tenplus.com) said that we should be careful with the outer casing, but that the inner surfaces were quite durable. And then, as we were leaving on the first visit, a gentleman came in with his son's box and we talked to him about it. He said his son treats his box roughly, and yet all we could see was a tiny scratch by the one hinge. The outer surface itself seemed smudged with fingerprints, and I asked Marc about this, asked him what one could do to polish it off, and he said he'd never tried. I think he must have been sleeping that day, or listening with only one ear, for when we went back and tested the surface ourselves (by smudging as many thumb prints as we could all over it), we not only noticed no effect at all, but he came in and told us we could always us a clean lint free cloth, perhaps a smidgeon of dampness - and in fact, this is what the owner's manual also says.

Brittle - one reviewer - actually a 'complainer' at Consumer Affairs - said that he'd first had his battery fall out, drop to a table, and bounce back up and put a dent in his box. Oh well. But he went on to say that he once dropped his box from a height of four inches from a table surface, and the thing just buckled up on him. Well I don't know, but although the box did initially have a problem with the battery (which has since been fixed), you'd think that this guy, whoever he was, was a bit clumsy. I don't plan on dropping any boxes at all, and for that matter, the gentleman we talked to at Ten Plus told us a cute story. He'd been staying at a hotel on the coast and was on his way out, the piccolo having packed all his luggage on a carrier cart, and the piccolo hit a bump somewhere, the gentleman's briefcase on top of the heap started flying out, the latch on the briefcase opened - and out few his Mac. This Mac then hit the floor from an estimated height of five feet. There was no damage. And while I am inclined to be careful anyway, I would therefore take the story at Consumer Affairs with a grain of salt. At the very worst, I would guess it was either not the entire truth that was told, or the box just hit in a very fluke way. Whatever, no one is going to suffer a box to any degree of clumsiness - if you do that, you can of course expect to reap the consequences.

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