Mood : accomplished
Ok, so Krys mentioned earlier that I should try moving to Wordpress.. again..
..so here it is.. and it appears to work. So far so good eh? Now to play with it a bit and make it into what I want. Also with the new look/feel you can probably expect a new type of post. Rather than going on and on about what ticked me off or what just was the most impressive thing in the world, I’ll be blogging probably a bit more about tech and other crap than before just for fun.
Ok, so was looking to grab a few items and I’ve heard everyone talk about Tiger Direct and decided to try them.. Most tech people seem happy to recommend them.
Unfortunately, couldn’t have been a worse experience.. and this is only day 1, the day I placed the order.. and I think I succeeded in killing my order, but here’s the blunder list:
* Website screwed up and left 1/2 of my order off
* Phone sales screwed me into buying 2 of 1 of my items and tells me
to just “rerfuse delivery” of the first (assuming I am here to do that)
* Phone sales AGAIN causes the order to not make it thanks to warrenty
problem
* E-mail response to my complaint about website tells me to call in to
credit but gives no special # and doesn’t bother mentioning that the
department is already closed for the day.
* Called back in to try to talk to the credit department, am told they’re
closed
* Called back to try to cancel the order and am told the account is frozen
by the credit department. Meanwhile person I spoke with hears the story
and is confused as to why I was asked to order a SECOND of the same item
just to put it on the same order.. (as am I) They were also unable to
verify if the order has gone out, if there is actually a hold or if the
order will be shipped tomorrow.
Will update later, but I have to say, this company does NOT make ordering items easy.. or any part of the order process for that matter. Most places I order from online I place an order with, item ships next day, I have it after that based on which shipping I asked for.. it’s as easy as can be.
Previously I had the Siemens SX66. A number of issues with it caused me to look for a replacement. If I wanted to use the GRPS, a reboot was needed. If I wanted to use bluetooth, another reboot (not enough memory for bluetooth drivers otherwise). Occasionally, when picking up the phone (ougoing or incoming) there would be no sound.. reboot would solve it. ..other than the above issues, was great to have instant messaging, e-mail, ssh, IRC, etc handy any time. Also, last time I went to jury duty, it was quite handy to have a set of videos to watch.
The Cingular 8125 is actually the “HTC Wizard”, the Siemens SX66 was the “HTC Blue Angel”.. so same people behind the technology.
..so.. how does the Cingular 8125 stand up?
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Sometimes, as a geek, I forget that other people don’t do things the same way I do.. friend of mine was mentioning how annoyed they were that they weren’t at home to reset something on their computer for a few days. The solution to this problem is somehting I do anyway, but figured I’d mention some of the standard things here for whoever was reading and wanted some tech inspiration.
* I have a version of VNC installed on all of my systems. This allows me to remote control any of the systems. Sometimes I’m just too lazy to grab the laptop in the other room and it’s handy to VNC to it. Other times I can be in Australia or UK and connect in to do whatever I need.
* I have 2 VPNs installed on my machines. One connects to the hamachi network and allows me to connect to most of my machines regardless if a machine of mine is behind a router at a friend’s house or on a normal ‘net connection. The other VPN I have installed goes to my server. Anytime I need to visit an odd site, want an extra step of security when on an odd network, or need a different route to get to a site I login to the alternate VPN and it solves a lot of problems.
* Have a shell box handy and configured with goodies. You never know when you need an end-point for a VPN, a place to have mail w/fun filtering, ability to try out toys, have a shoutcast relay or any number of other things.
* Dynamic DNS - always handy to have some form of this so you can find your machines when you leave them on a remote network.. although that alternate VPN util mentioned above is handy for that too.
May post more later, but yah.. anyway.. was overdue for a blog post so there it was.
..and I do mean crap..
Apple..
Earlier today watched a conversation about Apple. A few people were talking about their ipods and ibooks and were slamming microsoft. The slams about stability were definately worth it with 95/98/ME.. but in reality, I’ve had very few OS level problems with 2k/XP that weren’t caused by another program. The main item that amused me was the part when they spoke about the evil Microsoft company.. and it wasn’t so much about the business practices about forcing companies to bundle windows, but was just “anti-large-company” which amuses me since Apple isn’t exactly run out of someone’s garage anymore.. but hey, there’s always an underdog to cheer for.. and I admit that I may someday purchase an ibook for myself, not because of Apple making it, but because it runs unix and hopefully will do everything I want and do it well.
Bank one and their annoying calls.
While on the phone overseas with my woman earlier, I got one of those annoying calls where they gloss over the part of the call where they’re selling something and get to the “we’d like to confirm your address” part.. then they alert you that they’re going to record the call to confirm the spelling of your name and that you’ll get the special gift… for allowing them to add purchase protection to your account. I *HATE* that BS and the way they phrase it. As with any offer, the wording is important.. and they do their trick well. I just hate that as an existing customer they call and bug me and ended up causing a dropped call. *grumble*
Police yearbook fund…
Ok, so my home number is listed as a business number.. was the only way to get the correct people dealing with my account. Unfortunately it also makes it possible for people to call the business since there’s no “business” do no call list.. so the other day, the police call regarding a yearbook fund - no matter how many times I tried to explain this isn’t a business and I don’t have a window to put their “we support the police” sticker in, they continue their sales.. finally I gave in, it wasn’t worth it.. this does give me some concerns about the law enforcement’s ability to listen though.. I just got my stickers for my business window today.. no idea where I’m gonna stick ‘em
Plucked bird…
Ok, so last weekend I was at the parent’s place and we were talking about my parrot with the feather plucking problem. He found a website kings cages which had a formula that you add to the water and it helps reduce the bird’s plucking. I’ve ordered some.. should get here in a couple weeks (they’re backordered).. and then should take 5 weeks to see major changes.. we’ll see how it goes. I plan to document the changes. Probably will be a post here after it’s done.
Jack FM
I liked it at first, but having many styles of music on random gets old quickly. Personally the Clear Channel ownership doesn’t change my listening to the station.. but it all comes down to the type of music and the DJ. Unfortunately many of my favorite stations over time have all gone away.. the best ever was 98.1 in St Louis which had NO TALK RADIO in the mornings.. and just played good music with your standard commercial breaks and occasionally a comment or two from the DJs, but mainly there was music.. good music. Something tells me that mp3 players in cars will become more common in the future, especially as the main generations that drive become more tech-friendly. Now if they’d start selling music collections on MP3 CDs in the store I’d be a happy guy.
