Thank god for Askimet!
Since I started posting about Zenphoto here, I guess this blog has gotten some visibility. So much so, that it now seems to be in some splogging list. I get ~15-30 splogs a day. Most annoying! Don’t those idiots have anything better to do? Well, it got really tiring having to delete all the spam, not to mention my mailbox was getting spammed with all the post notifications. Askimet to the rescue. It correctly identifies the majority of my splog and just removes it from my view. Some still get through, but it’s a lot less than before. Today, I removed 81 splogs!! Grrr.
The only stupid thing about Askimet was that I had to sign up at wordpress.com so I could active the plugin. That’s stupid! I have a blog here, why make me have a wasted blog there? Oh well.. I’m sure they’ll change that policy when they find most wordpress.com blogs are dead.
Filed under Rants, Zenphoto | Comment (0)WP 2.0 initial thoughts
So I upgraded my dad’s site to WP 2.0 the other day. I used him as a guinea pig because a) he had no real posts to mention, and b) he was used to using Hello to upload pictures to his Blogger account, and didn’t like the fact that WP didn’t have something similar to offer. And WP 2.0 supposedly has this built into the add window now.
I saw supposedly, because when I tried it it’s perhaps the most broken bit of code I’ve come across in a while. Ok, you can upload images using the browse button, and you get a list of them below your edit window. But then what? Can you drag them into the post? No. Why not? Drag and drop is simple now! You can use the image button, or click on the image to be presented with some horrible popup box. That’s just broken! It’s not discoverable at all, I found it by accident. And what if I want to control the size of the thumbnail? SOL.
Let me be clear, there are some improvements in the Admin interface to WP 2.0, those guys have obviously been working hard, but my general overall impression was that this sentiment “Call it AJAX, call it DHTML, call it Larry” was taken too far. Horribly garish coloured status boxes that fade and change color just make me want to barf. Whoever did that was clearly under the influence of something illicit and got carried away for the sake of it, rather than trying to make the UI better for real reasons.
Filed under Rants, Technology, Updates | Comment (1)Brain dead McLaren
What is it with McLaren? It’s almost as if they are trying to sabotage Kimi’s run at the F1 championship. No wonder he’s itching to jump ship to Ferrari. In the recent Monza grand prix, they pulled off one of the most brain dead moves I’ve seen in recent years. Seems they decided to go with a new experimental upgrade on the engine they were using for Kimi. And lo’ and behold, the darn thing failed, and they had to change it, relegating Kimi to 11th place for the race.
Why bother? The Kimi/McLaren package has been the fastest on the planet all year. As it was, the replacement engine was the older version anyway, and Kimi still made everyone else look like they were driving a Ford Fiesta! He stuck it on pole, with enough fuel for a one stopper!! But the damage was done. The heavier fuel caused his tires to fail earlier than JPMs, causing him to come in for an extra pitstop. Now even further behind he had to really push and spun. Amazingly he still finished forth.
See, if he’d just started with the old engine, he’d have cruised home, without having to place any stress on the fragile car. McLaren have only themselve to blame for this brain dead move. Still, they are not exactly known for being clever with strategy.
Filed under F1, Rants | Comment (1)Dell sucks! (2)
So, further to my earlier post. I finally got my laptop fixed. Not without incurring further trauma though. On the second day of waiting, the tech turned up to fix my laptop. Nice guy, very personable. “Ok, I’m gonna replace the bluetooth chip for you“. Hmm, about the motherboard? That’s what the Dell technical support guy had diagnosed was broken. “Hmm, motherboard, no the sheet only says bluetooth. I don’t have a motherboard with me“. Are you kidding me!
I’m like, look again buddy. It’s definitely the motherboard and the bluetooth chip. Her peers at the order sheet. “Oh yeah, someone at the warehouse must have messed up. I’ll have to go and get it. It’s in Downtown.” Now, anyone who knows LA knows that a drive from Manhattan Beach to Downtown and back is not for the faint of heart. I pressed him “You’re sure you’re gonna come back?” “Yeah, sure“.
Anyway, back he comes two hours later, with all the parts. And here’s where the story gets better. Quick as a flash, he’s replaced both the motherboard and the bluetooth chip in my laptop. And it’s back to its former glory. Finally!
The moral of the story is… hmm, there isn’t one. Just that DELL SUCKS!
Filed under Rants, Updates | Comments (9)Dell sucks!
What is it with Dell nowadays? I used to love that company. Their laptops were cool, and just worked out of the box. And their tech support was excellent. No longer! I’ve had a lot of experience with Dell over the years, and I can definitely say they are failing fast. At my previous company we used to order laptops from them on roughly a monthly basis. So I’ve lived their grim slide down the path of customer (un)service and (un)satisfaction. The straw that broke the camels back, so to speak, was my recent experience with their customer service. My laptop just stopped working. Wifi and Bluetooth card just get reinitializing every 10 seconds. Isn’t that USB sound annoying??
So I ring customer service and attempt to navigate my way through the phone maze. Thing is, when I’m asked to state what type of problem I have, the system just moves on and I end up in the Dell Dimension call queue. I redial three times but each time the system won’t wait for my option to be entered. Ok, I figure, the Dimension queue is roughly 10 mins they say, I can wait and get forwarded. 10 mins? More like 40! Finally I get through to some dude called David. Hmmm, David? Sounds more like a Pradesh! Anyway, I try to tell him I’m in the wrong place and can he forward me. He insists on working through his script, getting info. Ok dumbass, let’s do this dance.
Finally he says, “Oh sorry, this is a laptop problem, I’ll have to forward you to the laptop line“. No shit genious! I could have told you that if you’d listened. He forwards me, and again the queue. Finally, some lady tech comes on, I’ll call her Vidya, and goes through the same script. “What? It’s a problem with your wifi card. Oh, you need the wireless dept, not the laptop one.” Grrrr! Another forward and I finally talk to a guy called Tony who definitely was not Indian, more of the brotherly variety, comes on line. Seems like he knows what he’s doing. Within 2 mins we’ve diagnosed the motherboard has had it, and so has the WiFi/Bluetooth card. Since I was smart and bought a good warranty, he says the new parts can be shipped out over night and a tech can come around the next day to do the installation. Sweet I think! Ok, the phone system navigation sucked, but this at least was always Dell’s forte. Getting parts out and fixing problems on site.
At least it used to be! That night, some dude from the service repair rings, sets up the appointment. 10 – 5!!! WTF! Why is it that the service industry find it impossible to pin down a time when they’ll arrive at your door? But that’s another story! Anyway, suffice to say, I sit at home all day, waiting for the tech to arrive. Never does. I ring the number I’m given to talk to central dispatch to figure out where the tech is. Turns out that Dell has outsourced service repair to Unisys. Guess what? All they can do is page them. Can’t call them. How stupid is that? How the fuck are you supposed to be able to coordinate a service work force if all you can do is send page messages? They are pretty easy to ignore!
“Well Sir, I can page their supervisor, and get them to follow up with you“. Sure, why not. What have I got to lose? Nothing it turns out as the supervisor clearly is out to lunch too. No call back.
Finally, the whole day has gone by and no contact at all from any of the service techs. All the central dispatch can do is book another appointment w/ me the next day. So here I sit, vainly hoping someone will turn out to fix my now dead laptop.
Not happy with the service, I file a complaint with the dispatch center. The lady there is very helpful. She assures me that it’ll get escalated. I ask her, “What is that process by the way?“. She looks it up in her resources. Turns out that all complaints get sent back to Dell. Funny eh? They outsource all the important stuff, stuff that’ll keep customers happy. But in source dealing with complaints!! I guess that makes it easy to ignore, because clearly I am not the only person who thinks DELL SUCKS!
Filed under Rants, Updates | Comments (6)
