Simon is a hands-on software architect who works within 
[Twitter] simonbrown: wondering whether Adobe's commercial approach to Flex Builder will limit adoption of Flex ... which will be a shame, because I quite like it
[Coding the Architecture] As mentioned before, we were speakers at, and community sponsors of the Software Architect 2008 conference (3rd-5th June 2008, London). This is the first dedicated software architecture conference that I've been to and the majority of the ...
MacBook Pro order cancelled
What a mess!
So I cancelled my MacBook Pro, which I ordered in the same week as the MacWorld conference last month. I ordered a built-to-order unit - 1.83GHz with 2GB of RAM and a 7200RPM disk. Don't get me wrong, I think that MacBooks are going to be great machines and I was very pleased to be getting an upgrade to the 2.0GHz processors. And I still want one, and I'll still get one. Just not now.
Up until yesterday my order status showed that it was ready to ship today (15th Feb). Later in the day came the press release, Apple Begins Shipping MacBook Pro, shortly followed by an e-mail from Apple saying that my unit had been automatically upgraded. However, this is where I started to lose faith.
The e-mail I received wasn't customized to my order, containing text that hadn't be correctly substituted such as W{V-AST_WEB_ORDER_NUMBER}. Also, it stated that my order had been upgraded to the 1.83GHz from the 1.67GHZ, when I ordered a 1.83GHz in the first place. Finally, it wrapped up by saying "We anticipate shipping your upgraded order by February 28th, 2006". After a short period of time, my online status was changed to reflect this new e-mail (albeit with the 2.0GHz upgrade) and a shipping date of the 28th Feb. Later still, my shipping date got pushed back even further, to the 15th of March. Even if you order now, the estimated ship time is 3-4 weeks. I don't know what's going on over at Apple, but I suspect their order system is very messed up. My cancellation e-mail stated that I'd ordered two MacBooks - one at 1.83GHz and one at 2.0GHz.
I've only been an Apple customer for about 3 years now, but this has got to be one of the most botched product launches that I've ever seen. Take a look at Apple's MacBook Pro (pre-release) discussion forum - everybody is getting conflicting information. I'll still get a MacBook (assuming battery life turns out okay!), but I'm going to wait until I actually see one before I part with my cash.
