Some companies seem plagued by idiot vice presidents and can never recover from major screw ups, such as Sony and their laptop batteries. Well, these companies recover in a way, since they don't go out of business or their executives get sent to jail, but they don't fix their decision making processes that caused the first blunder, so they keep blundering along.
Forgiving Sony is hard, because some (at least me) are still upset over their music division putting rootkits on CDs a few years ago. Play a legally purchased CD in a legal way (on your PC) and then get a serious rootkit infestation. Then Sony messed up laptop battery manufacturing two years ago, calling into question whether Sony executives have a clue about quality or customer service. Now they have another 100,000 batteries to recall.
Worse, the interdependence between technology companies makes it hard to punish one misbehaving company by avoiding their products. According to the headline of the ComputerWorld story "HP, Dell, Toshiiba Recall Sony Laptop Batteries Again," we know immediately that bypassing Sony Vaio laptops doesn't keep us safe from poorly-made Sony batteries.
For reasons like this, be sure and fill out the registration information for new laptop and desktop computers. Both are priced low enough today that many feel the registration process will just invite more spam, but recalls happen. If you didn't register your HP, Dell, or Toshiba laptop, pay careful attention to the recall information provided by ComputerWorld. The laptop you save from frying may be your own.
Sign up for ITworld's Daily newsletter
Follow ITworld on Twitter @IT_world
Brian Proffitt
Microsoft/Novell: Breaking Down the Coupon Numbers
Esther Schindler
Drupal's Dries Buytaert on Building the Next Drupal
Tom Henderson
Top Ten General Operating Systems Rants
pasmith
PS3 motion controller delayed; goes up against Project Natal
sjvn
Neolithic Windows security hole alive and well in Windows 7
claird
Perl source code comparison makes for good reading
mikelgan
Cell phones don't create stress or interrupt much
Sandra Henry-Stocker
How to: The Unix Interview
Where Google Chrome security fails: the password
I heard mention that the Chrome OS will have some sort of encryption available a la bitlocker. If it's possible to encrypt personal data using another password or key, then it may have potential for very secure data.... And Ubuntu has an 'encrypt home directory' option, perhaps google should follow suit.
- Dann
Join the conversation here
Quick, practical advice for IT pros. Made fresh daily.
- Ubuntu advances: Why Ubuntu server installations will surge in 2010
- Social media marketing: How to make friends with benefits
- More...
Want to cash in on your IT savvy? Send your tip to tips@itworld.com. If we post it, we'll send you a $25 Amazon e-gift card.
Sony Laptop
In May of 2008 I made the mistake of purchasing a Sony Laptop. After having it for a mere 30 days the LCD monitor blew up, i.e it looks like an explosion behing the plexiglass. I did not drop it or do anything to cause it. I bought it on-line through Best Buy (2nd mistake) and when I got my invoice it stated my PSP would be e-mailed to me, therefore making me think I had one. Well I didn't nor was I given the opportunity to purchase one. Anyway I returned my laptop to Sony after I was told by their customer service that they would replace the LCD monitor. Instead I was told it would cost me $600.00 to replace it but they would put a new hard drive in it because the one in the computer was warped. I told them to send it back and I would not pay for a new LCD monitor. I later heard of the recall due to a wire between the keyboard and monitor that was not right or something. This laptop was getting rather hot from the day I bought it but never having one before I thought this was normal. According to Sony my Laptop is not in their recall but was told to resend it back and they would fix the monitor which I just did. Now they are telling me once again it had to be something I did and they aren't going to replace the monitor. There are no cracks on the plexiglas over the monitor all the damage is interior but they are still refusing to fix it. I actually only used it approximatley 10 times since I bought it new. The model number we have is a T-2310 but they are saying they don'[t have a T-2310 even though I sent my invoice copy to them showing the Model Number. Anyway to make it short I wouldn't take anything free from Sony let alone pay for anything that says sonyMake 'em as cheap as possible
They're slaves to the bottom line. Having worked in the electronics industry for several decades has shown me that company managers seem to have an endless talent for wringing the quality out of products by squeezing suppliers for price with resulting drops in reliability. Japanese companies seem to do this particularly well, so much so that I wouldn't consider using any product from Sony, Panasonic (Matsushita) or any of the other major Japanese players in a mission-critical or enterprise-critical application. Until managers can be trained to see the tradeoff of lost customer confidence and lost sales versus savings on design and materials, this problem will persist. The bottom line may get a manager the annual bonus he seeks, but it may cost the company severely in the end.SONY worldwide
SONY worldwide is now run by a American CEO and the USA based operations not a Japanese or the Japanese operation and has been for the past several years it appears that ever since then they seem to have lost the reliability and engineering SONY were previously renown for and now seem more interested in the bottom line and DRM. Also in Japan the Japanese buy SONY only if it is marked as made and manufactured in Japan many (25 plus) have told me that the quality is not there if it is made elsewhere anymore