Where was the call service center? India?

don't think Apple has ever had overseas call center customer service.

She was corn-fed, that I can tell you.

I have a USB to serial converter (haven't try Ubuntu) but all the Mac friendly programs I've tried don't see it. I'll keep trying.

stealthn - they all have low level generic support in Linux - architecture doesn't matter (PPC vs. Intel, etc)

That's a big +

I still remember a frustrating Econ professor talking about "Zero coupon barns"

"Dr Varghese please spell barns for me."

"Yes, BARNS, B-O-N-D-S, Barns"

that's like our Calculus TA in college. off the boat Chinese. nearly everyone in our class failed because he couldn't speak a word of English...just couldn't understand him and as pre-med, it wasn't like math was anyone's strong suit. A bunch of us went to the Admin (Brandeis) mid-semester and complained. Nothing. Seeing our grades at the end of the semester, everyone in the class ended up getting an A after we practically stormed the offices. it didn't help that he taught Calc as if we were all math majors either. A friend of mine who was had a hard time with our tests.

drivers

try here,

http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm

Actually they do, and I've spent a few frustrating hours on the phone with them. But I will say that after a couple calls to them trying to fix what they thought might be software related problems and finally taking it in twice to a repair center for them to chase hardware problems in a haunted machine that they couldn't fix, they gave me a new G5 dual core Imac.

Very smart on their part, I think the computer was just a lemon and they did the right thing and replaced it even though the warranty had already expired. Nice people to deal with, and great products.

DHL dropped off a special box on Monday.

I shipped it on Tuesday.

It was fixed on Wednesday.

I got it back this morning.

they installed a new display. noted one of my RAM sets was defective and removed it.

All over 1 month out of warrantee.

Bravo Apple!

You ought to forward my post to her, if you have her email.

-I've never been a MAC person. I don't see the point; my best friend has had nothing but Apple laptops since 1990, and nearly everyone in his family is the same way. He puts pressure on me all the time to buy an Apple laptop. YES I've used his Apple products extensively- frankly, I can't see the difference between them and Windows units. YES there are a few less steps in opening certain files. But beyond that, I can't see why I should pay probably 20% more for a unit that does the same thing as my current Sony Vaio K35.

Also, all my files are on a Windows platform. And all my software is based on Windows. And "emulator" programs are slow and full of problems, they've never really come up with a good emulator, from what I've heard. When my 2001 Sony Vaio started to have problems in 2004, I initially tried to fix it, but when that didn't work out... I just bought another Vaio

[I still have my old Vaio; it works as long as the "Fn" key is held down].

The files were VERY easy to transfer to my new laptop, and within a day I was basically up and running again. Transition to not only a new laptop...but a totally different operating system? Holy hell Batman! Talk about problems-

However-

Any company that is willing to honor a warrantee claim 40 days out of its valid period gets 100% of my attention. That's a company that is realistic and values its' customers. Listen, when I go to replace this laptop, I will certainly look at Apples a lot more carefully than I have in the past.

When you compare an identically configured Mac to an identically configured PC there is no appreciable diff in price. In fact my MacPro tower is $400 less than an identically configured Dell.

Yes you can get cheaper PC's but they don't match the spec of the more expensive Mac OR the more expensive PC.

It's like saying why should I pay for a Lexus when I can get a Toyota?

The software that allows you to run Windows on a Mac is not emulation, it's virtualization. Big difference. Virtual Machines have been around forever and are the heart and soul of anyone doing development because you can run infinite OS configurations on one piece of hardware with the same performance.

The base OS on my current box started life as OS X Developer Release 8 years ago. It is the same base image that has been moved to 5 machines so far and has upgraded without a hitch thru every OS released to date. Have not lost a file or app.

Which post is that Norm. Don't have her email anyway, but I'm sure you could search Apple.com a bit and send it in.