The good, the bad, the ugly: personal experiences in consumerism.
This is the kind of bullshit I expect from AT&T for using their network.
Apple: seriously? Come on. You've got a phone that can't stay on the shelves. You're making money from apps already. Paying to re-download? Everyone has taken this app store idea and implemented their own... and now Apple has to change their winning formula?
I mean, how much overhead can there be? The apps don't need to be re-moderated. The only cost is a little bit of bandwidth on their servers. Most likely negligible...
Today I received an email to an OLD email alias I had used in the late 90's for one of those browser bars that pays you to surf (Spedia) - that address has obviously been resold to various people and companies, but this is pretty nuts. The marketeers behind the McCain/Palin campaign have actually purchased a list that includes that email alias, which means they're not really sending out emails to so-called "targeted" folks. The email alias I had registered has no context related to it; they're just sending out emails to anyone on a list they've purchased.
Pretty weak. I checked the headers too. This is legitimately from his campaign email marketing!
Delivered-To: email@removed.com
Received: by 10.142.104.5 with SMTP id b5cs104203wfc;
Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:02:21 -0700 (PDT)
Received: by 10.150.97.19 with SMTP id u19mr247318ybb.24.1221696140048;
Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:02:20 -0700 (PDT)
Return-Path:
Received: from sm1.johnmccain.com (sm1.johnmccain.com [64.203.105.81])
by mx.google.com with ESMTP id 6si22813870ywn.0.2008.09.17.17.02.19;
Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:02:20 -0700 (PDT)
Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of bounce-95-5944-2427115@bounces.johnmccain.com designates 64.203.105.81 as permitted sender) client-ip=64.203.105.81;
Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=pass (google.com: domain of bounce-95-5944-2427115@bounces.johnmccain.com designates 64.203.105.81 as permitted sender) smtp.mail=bounce-95-5944-2427115@bounces.johnmccain.com
Received: from unknown (unknown [192.168.201.181])
by sm1.johnmccain.com (Postfix) with QMQP id 4A6E3490F6
for; Wed, 17 Sep 2008 20:02:19 -0400 (EDT)
Errors-To:
X-Bounce-Track:
From: "McCain Palin 2008"
To:
Subject: Get Your Oregon Absentee Ballot
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary="----=_NextPart_5A3_E4DD8AB6.47E75371"
Message-Id: <20080918000219.4A6E3490F6@sm1.johnmccain.com>
Date: Wed, 17 Sep 2008 20:02:19 -0400 (EDT)
The text of the email?
Your vote in this election is more critical than ever as the polls show John McCain and Governor Palin in a virtual tie. Voting early by absentee ballot or in person is the best way to get your vote counted now and avoid the long lines on Election Day.
... more stuff hoping to rope in absentee votes for their party ...
P.S. If you are not yet registered to vote, please register right away by following this link. [link to johnmccain.com]
...
Please visit this page if you want to remove yourself from the email list. [link to johnmccain.com]
...
Paid for by McCain-Palin 2008
It even has a proper SPF record. So yes, they have officially sent me unsolicited email from an email list sold to them... However, they use Postfix - I'll give them props for that.
You know, Netflix is neat. Not only is their website pretty simple and clean, the company itself seems to "do right" by its customers too. Today is the second time they've made me feel warm and fuzzy being a customer. The first time was when they decided to change their rate plans to be cheaper and automatically started charging me less. A lot of companies drop the price on their monthly rates and you have to re-signup or call and complain, etc...
Dear Michael,
Great news! We're lowering the price of your 3 DVDs out at-a-time plan to $16.99 a month plus applicable taxes. Now you can enjoy Netflix for less!
You don't need to do a thing - except pay less. Your membership will automatically move to the lower price and be reflected in your Membership Terms and Details. The lower price will take effect beginning with your statement on or after July 23, 2007.
Membership Terms and Details: http://www.netflix.com/Terms
Your $16.99 plan not only gives you 3 DVDs out at-a-time but you can also watch 17 hours of movies and TV episodes instantly on your PC each month - for no additional charge.
Check it out: http://www.netflix.com/WatchNow
Enjoy!
Your friends at Netflix
Now that is cool. But then they've given me another reason to praise them. They're reporting disc shipment issues, and being nice about it, they've just decided to issue a credit since we're technically losing a few days of service. They didn't have to do that, but they did.
I just received this email today:
We're Sorry DVD Shipments Are Delayed
Dear Michael,
Our shipping system is unexpectedly down. We received a DVD back from you and should have shipped you a DVD, but we likely have not. Our goal is to ship DVDs as soon as possible, and we will keep you posted on the status of your DVD shipments.
We are sorry for any inconvenience this has caused. If your DVD shipment is delayed, we will be issuing a credit to your account in the next few days. You don't need to do anything. The credit will be automatically applied to your next billing statement.
Again, we apologize for the delay and thank you for your understanding. If you need further assistance, please call us at 1-888-638-3549.
-The Netflix Team
I think I keep my machines pretty well up to date. I'm fixing up my girlfriend's computer right now, and I finally got all the updates applied except apparently one got missed. Okay, simple enough right?
Step #1: Install .NET Framework 1.0, click "Check for updates" - what? there's another update?
Step #2: Install .NET Framework 1.1 Service Pack 1, click "Check for updates" - what? ANOTHER one?
Step #3: Install .NET Framework 1.1 Service Pack 1 security update, click "Check for updates" ...
Really? Why couldn't we have a pre-packaged full install? Why do I have to run this "check for updates" over and over (and why does it take so goddamn long nowadays?)
Okay, looks like that really was the last update and this machine is now 100% up to date. At least for the moment...
When I reinstall XP (which I do too often) I always round up my customizations (which I can do in under 10 minutes blindfolded... sigh) with a bunch of tweaks inside of Tweak UI. Normally I never fuss with that "Repair" area, but for some odd reason I decided to click "Rebuild Icons" this time around. It didn't appear to do anything at first until I connected to my machine via Remote Desktop (which is how I connect to most of my machines...)
It had somehow messed up and all my icons in the taskbar, "Save As..." dialogs, desktop, etc. were all in 16 bit color. I even tried installing XP SP3 RC to see if it helped. I followed numerous suggestions about "tricking" Windows into re-caching the icons, deleting the icon cache, etc. Nothing fixed it. Finally, I came across a forum post (well, actually it was the first result in Google but this particular suggestion was the last one I tried) that had the magic fix. It's a simple .reg file that resets some icon settings somewhere. It was the only thing that seemed to do the trick, and I have decided to host a copy of it just in case that link ever goes dead. So, thank you to "wissnx01" at That Computer Guy's forums.
To fix the issue, download this zip file and merge the .reg file inside of it. Reboot (or maybe even just logout and log back in) and voila. Fixed.
I learned some pretty disturbing news from my friend earlier. Looks like he was turned down for a job he was fully qualified for due to his bad credit. That sounded a little bit discrimatory to me. Someone's previous lifestyle should not affect their future employment. Not to mention how many people have crappy credit. How are people with bad credit supposed to advance? Working crappy pizza jobs for years until their credit score is improved?
Besides, a person in need might even work harder! Most people probably want their credit to improve, I'd imagine.
Something about this really rubs me wrong. Like, write-to-my-senator-or-congressman wrong. We already have things like the Fair Credit Reporting Act and all this privacy around our credit, why should our employer have access to information about how we spend our money? As long as the work gets done, that is all they should care about.
I do agree however that criminal background checks are a good thing. But credit? What's next? We won't be hired if we have poor bowling skills or some other equally personal detail?
Did you know there are five types of DVI connectors? I didn't. DVI-D dual link, DVI-D single link, DVI-I dual link, DVI-I single link, and DVI-A. Of course, I learned this the hard way, and I bet most people still haven't. I don't have much previous experience with DVI, but now that I have a Macbook Pro and an HDTV, I wanted to connect it at 1080p once I realized I could (using an HDMI port on the TV, not the VGA connection.)
I thought it would be as simple as going and picking up an HDMI to DVI cable. Not even close. After I picked one up at a local shop and brought it home, I realized it was "missing" pins. It would function still, but not at its full potential. I wondered about this and hit up Wikipedia, and sure enough, there are multiple types of DVI connections.
After shopping at five different stores (including the Apple Store and the Mac Store) I realized that nobody actually sells DVI-D or DVI-I dual link cables (or even adapters) which is what is required for 1080p. I had to go down to Fry's in Wilsonville and finally was able to pick one up. 15 feet for $24.99, actually much cheaper than most of the single link options at all the other stores (and those were shorter cables, too.)
Sure enough, DVI-D dual link saves the day. I can now use the Macbook at full 1080p on my 47" Vizio GV47LF, although I have to say the text is pretty small. Using Front Row and watching movie trailers through it using all 47" is pretty neat though.
Wow, once again NTFS has ruined my day by invalidating an entire external USB drive's data. The filesystem looks fine, passes all checks, I can copy the data even using Linux but it acts like it is corrupt. So I try some NTFS recovery software and it's showing me all this "EFS" stuff - like this stuff has some Encrypted File System related issue. Sure enough, I picked up an EFS decryption tool (if you know the password) and it shows every file as being encrypted. Did I ever encrypt it? No. I don't even have EFS readily available in my right-click menu. Even if it was encrypted for some odd reason it would have been using one of only a couple passwords I've used on my desktops... and none of them work.
Meanwhile now I am stuck with a perfect directory listing of these thousands of files that are now digital rubbish. The least NTFS could have done was just corrupt itself like usual and let me try to recover pieces of them. Always something new out of Redmond. Sigh.
Updating the definitions keeps failing on my Active Virus Shield installation. Why? Quickly Googling it I find out that it's suspended and is being replaced with a special version of McAfee VirusScan. This comes only a couple months after I just removed Norton off all my computers and the people I support (family, friends) since it was becoming more of a resource hog as time went on.
Originally I discovered AVS through CPU Magazine, and in their tests Kaspersky Anti-Virus ranked #2 (IIRC) - which was a bonus - it was free, and it was basically the best. Now if I want a free "supported" copy from AOL, I have to change to McAfee, which is already scaring me with its 25 meg download and extra programs like "SecurityCenter" - at least I was able to unselect the firewall.
Instead of a single program with a smaller footprint, I now have SecurityCenter AND VirusScan running. I highly doubt this will run as clean as AVS did. Currently it is struggling to update the windows even. Feels like Norton all over again... sigh.
I bought a prepaid Virgin Mobile phone for $25 at 7-11. I thought okay, it's simple: I buy it, I activate it, it's available to use. Wrong.
What they don't tell you about (well, not clearly) is that you must wait four hours after activating the phone to use any services other than simple voice calls. You're not supposed to text, refill your minutes, etc (at least through the phone)
After talking with customer support rep #1, he told me that the reason I wasn't receiving picture messages was due to the fact that my account only had "bonus money" in it and not actual money I paid. So I used the refill I bought to "top-up" - did that fix it? No.
After talking with customer support rep #2, she informed me of the four hour rule - and that was the reason, NOT the different funds in my account. She also informed me that I am required to have a camera phone to receive picture messages even. So I go and pick up a camera phone. After it fails to let me switch it online, I call up customer support rep #3 who does the phone transfer for me. Okay, so now things should work right? No - he informs me that I need to wait four hours again for this new phone to propogate. Being the techie that I am, I find that nonsense - I tried a little while later, most likely within the four hour period. Did it work? No. But it was time for bed.
Today is almost 20 hours into it now. I tried sending and receiving picture messages. Did it work? No. Customer support rep #4 informs me that if you try any of those "advanced" features during that four hour window, you will kill the phone and it will not let you do that again for the life of the phone - did anyone else mention that? No, they just "advise" against it.
So now it appears I may have two phones that are useless for multimedia messaging, and who knows what else. Why don't they have safeguards built in to the system? How hard would it be to simply reject unauthorized items until it is fully propogated? If nothing else, they could at least inform you the phone will be physically dead.
Oh and another suggestion: fire customer rep #1. Now I've got $30 of wasted credit with them because I was told I had to use that to make things work. Blah.