Josiah International

I wish I was this cool!

2006-01-10T16:47:00.000-05:00

Maybe I'm just too much of a geek, but I find this (direct link to a video) unbelievably impressive.

Yes folks, that's a scanner... as in the device that sits on your desk and magically helps you get your pictures and documents into the computer.

Major props to the guy who figured this out, or at least documented it.

Ok, this is kind of broken

2006-01-09T16:39:00.000-05:00

I noticed a really strange idiosyncrasy/broken system today.

I'm running Windows XP Professional, I'll use some screenshots to demonstrate what I'm talking about:

Let's say I'm connected to a network, in this example it's my home network, and I want to disconnect from it. I highlight it in the list of available networks and click 'Disconnect' in the lower right hand corner of the window. I get the following dialog box: (click to view full and escape the horrors of compression)

So I click 'Yes' - makes sense so far, Windows disconnects from the network and all is well.

However, if I get into the advanced properties dialog for this connection and then select the appropriate network and click "Properties" and then finally move over to the "Connection" tab, I see the following: (again, click to view full)

Ok, somebody explain this to me... according to my earlier choice I'm not going to automatically connect to this network anymore, and in fact it DOESN'T automatically connect to this network. So why in the WORLD is this checkbox checked?

Am I just stupid and misunderstanding this? (Not beyond belief) If anyone has a sane explanation for this - please, comment, I'm listening. :-)

Maybe it's just life with Microsoft products, eh?

This space intentionally left blank

2006-01-06T16:23:00.000-05:00

Well, maybe it was, I've resurrected this site, at least for now.
Maybe this is just a one-night stand with my blog, (uh, right) and I won't be back tomorrow, or ever, but I guess we will all have to wait until tomorrow, etc. to find out.

Ok, so I guess I'll try to run down a long-overdue update of goings-on.

When last we left our hero he was in his second semester at the local community college - taking 15 course hours, working through 11th grade material and working a 15-20 hour a week job. We find him now taking 7 course hours at that same college, continuing to work through 11th grade and blissfully rid of that job. This is his story.

Ok, I'll try to stop being so weird now, but it's probably not gonna happen.

I stopped writing on this blog simply because I was so incredibly busy. I've even started a few posts in the past months and been pulled away to work on something and left them incomplete. Perhaps that shows I can't finish a task, I'd say it just shows that blabbing in a public place is not high on my priority list. (... and Robert Scoble goes into shock. ;-) )

So, as far as school went this past semester I made it through all of my classes without major event, still carrying a spotless 4.0GPA, yay! Let's see how that holds up when I'm actually taking hard courses.

This past semester I was in ENG-111 and CIS-115 on campus - NET-110, CIS-130 and CIS-152 online.
ENG-111, a composition course, writing various papers, great fun. The teacher and the group of students in that class was really great, there was about a half-dozen homeschool students, so that always ups the quality of a class. *ahem*
CIS-115, Intro to Programming and Logic, once again a whole lot of fun, but this time due mainly to the instructor, I've had several courses with her and I make a nuisance of myself by hanging around her office a lot, she's sharp, really a pleasant surprise when I consider where I'm going to school.
NET-110, not too bad of a course, about networking, but taught incompetently. The course material was a Network+ training book, which I read and it was excellent, unfortunately the actual course didn't come close to the quality of the text. It was basically an English class, but with technology-related subjects. ("Write a brief paper on what WEP and WPA are and how to use them." I think I actually used the book IN the course once, it was all stuff I already knew. Heh.)
CIS-130, Survey of Operating Systems. Several flavors of Windows, OS X, Novell, Linux, not very challenging, but still a pretty good course, the instructor was nice and very accommodating when I accidentally missed a deadline due to sickness.
CIS-152, Database Concepts and Applications. A pretty good class, I actually struggled somewhat with this, I had trouble with a few of the concepts near the end of the course and at that time the instructor was busy with some other things they needed to be doing and was pretty much unavailable to help me. I thankfully still managed to pull out with an 'A' though.

My job, this changed a lot this semester. I got the new job late in the summer semester, working for a guy fixing Windows computers, it was OK, but as I said many times to friends "It's not bad, but I definitely won't be turning a screwdriver for the rest of my life."
Things went well there at first, I worked on computers, the boss managed and brought in customers, wizz-bang it all works out. But then in early September we started to work on the website for the business... hoooo boy. I built the whole ecommerce site to his specs in a few weeks and put it in front of him. He instantly became the "Customer from Hell"(TM), he wanted this different, that different some random thing that customers will never see different because he doesn't like the color, etc, etc, etc. This happened over and over again, I would build exactly what he requested and he would change his mind or add a feature that was "required." I don't mind big projects, I don't mind long projects, but I can't abide projects that will still be in the build stage when I'm dead. So that ridiculous mess hanging over my head started to really make life there miserable. In early November the boss finally came through on some things he'd been promising me since I had started working for him, which was nice. However things continued to go downhill, I was being asked to interface with customers more and more, and our clientele was... frustrating. I don't mind dealing with a competent customer who wants me to create with code what they can conceive in their mind, it's really a joy. When you're trying to troubleshoot problems on a Windows box over the phone with someone who can't use proper English (or even enough poor English that you can at least guess what they're getting at) and doesn't even know how to unplug their computer, well - it will drive you to the edge. My blood pressure has probably been permanently knocked up several points just working at that place.
In the middle of December I informed him that I wouldn't be back to work for him as of Janury 1, 2006. He begged and pleaded and tried to appease with various offerings of greater pay and the like.
But that wasn't the issue, the issue was two-headed - something he can't change and something else he can't change quickly.
He cannot change who he is, not in the foundational areas of his actions, methods and thought processes. And, in conjunction with that, he could not change the direction of his business and the clientele he was attracting and serving.
Both of those drove me almost mad working for him. This town lacks a really good computer repair company, and he's in no shape to take that place.
Even as I was walking out the door for the last time he was trying to negotiate my return at some time, asking me to give him a call if I had free time. This I agreed to, I have no problem with that, but then he asks me to promise that if I have free time I will call him and offer my time to him.. what in the world?? So yes, on my way out the door for the last time he gave me an outstanding example of why I'm glad I no longer work there.

So I'm now in the midst of the first time in almost 3 years (I reached the legal age to work in this state a little less than 3 years ago.) that I haven't actively been working a job with some firm of one type or another. Interestingly enough, I have yet to apply for any job. I seriously average approximately 1 job offer every 6 months. Not bad for a kid, if I do say so myself.
In a few weeks, once I get a gauge of how much work this semester is actually going to require of me I will probably contact one of the firms I left a while back - I'm reasonably certain they'd like to have me back to work there, and I enjoyed the job. :-) (I suppose this begs the question of why I left that office: I left for another job with higher pay and a closer location to where I'm living, going across town everyday was getting old.)

Break! My holiday break this year was pretty good, had a good time seeing family, etc. I also spent a lot of time studying random things I'd like to know but don't always have time to learn. Many colleges are now putting webcasts of various courses online, over the break I went through an entire course on XML and the first 1/4 of CS61A (A good course, I didn't abandon it, I'm still working through it. :-) ), both from UC Berkeley.

Today break ended, I had my first day of class, this semester I'm taking:
CIS-151 - Java Programming, doesn't start until Monday, I talked to the instructor today, he said it is absolutely *swamped* - heh, bet it'll be less than a dozen people at midterm.
ENG-114 - Professional Writing and Reporting, started today, seems to be a decent course, it's in one of the new buildings on campus, nice classroom.
ACA-111 - College Student Success, gag me.

I'm taking a relatively small course load this semester because I had a lot of trouble last semester keeping up in my homeschool work with so much going on outside my house, so I'm throttling back to try to get a lot of home stuff done that needs to be done.

This thing is really getting far too long, so I guess I'll wrap it up now. Dunno if I'll be back soon, guess you'll have to come back and see. ;-)

This just in... yesterday anyways...

2005-10-03T14:52:00.000-04:00

Confirmed: There IS such a thing as "too much studying"

I confirmed this one independently yesterday. (With a little help from my dad.)

After we got home from church yesterday afternoon I went straight to work studying for various things, college classes, high school work, etc. I worked on all of this pretty much nonstop until the middle of yesterday evening.

At which point I got out from underneath my laptop and books, and out of my chair.

I proceeded to wander around the house making "engine noises" (You know, like I was a race car or something.)
(Stop laughing, it's not that funny.)

My dad is standing in the kitchen getting something out of the fridge (Or putting something in, I don't remember exactly.) and he just kinda looks at me like I'm crazy.
I just gave up one of those "Yepp, I AM crazy" grins and explained "I think I spent too much time studying today."
"Yeah, I think so." He agrees, and shakes his head.

My brain had pretty much ceased functioning after the programming/English essays/Algebra 2/Chemistry combination I'd endured that afternoon.

Beware the dangers of studying too much!

Latest news from my world

2005-09-30T15:45:00.000-04:00

Well, I'm running the Build 5219 bits of Windows Vista (Codenamed Longhorn), good stuff, a lot of really nice eye-candy that's been brought in over the older Beta 1 code branch. I think MS has the potential to do good things with this OS. But it's still a race against time, and Microsoft has a tendency to lose those.

Also of interest: I'm involved in starting up a videogame development club at the community college I'm attending, I'll post more information on that as it becomes available. If this continues, we will eventually have a website, so hopefully I'll be able to pass that information along somewhere down the road.
All work with this club is purely preliminary at this point, we're getting a members list together. Then we're going to figure out the best time for us all to get together. Once that has been decided we'll be meeting and ~~arguing over~~ intelligently discussing stuff like which engine we will use, what kind of game we're going to actually make, etc.
If it works out the way we envision it (haha) it will actually be a pretty cool deal. :-)

RAM Upgrade! Party!

2005-09-25T16:39:00.000-04:00

As the title implies, I upgraded the RAM in my computer today... w00t w00t!

I bumped my Sony Vaio laptop up to 768MB over the 512MB I was running on. There's a noticeable speed increase, not huge, but definitely noticeable.

--

In response to Tom Major's comment on my last post:

I agree that Vista is going to be pretty incredible, and it is definitely going to be groundbreaking in some areas, but I look at it this way:
Look at how much faster the development cycle for OS X has been, they have been able to implement features in half the time that MS was promising to deliver them. (The "instant" desktop search is my favorite example of this, but there are others.) Heck, Google beat Microsoft on that one.
Microsoft has just gotten too big. What makes them so powerful is going to be their undoing, they have the strength to crush all the competition, but by the time they've brought that strength to bear the enemy has moved.
Right now I feel that (minus the massive user base, of course) Mac OS X is pretty much on a level playing field with what Windows Vista will be when it's actually released. That means that Apple still has a year and some change to to keep innovating, to keep advancing, Mac OS X 10.5 (Or maybe even 10.6, depending on how this goes.) will probably be out around the same time as Vista. That's two major versions from now. That's huge.

I think MS has the potentional to kill all the competition, but at their current rate it feels like they're going to show up after the battle has already been decided.

Another thing about Longhorn/Vista:
I know it's currently just in Beta stages, but right now the install process seems hopelessly broken... it's unbelievable the hoops I have to go through at times to get an install up and running.
I'm about to try to install the x64 edition again, because I really want to be able to run it.

Granted, Office 12/Office Vista looks like it's going to be simply stunning, let's just hope they don't kill productivity with impressive graphics.

I guess I'll work on that install now!

I switched mail clients... (Plus a whole lot of other stuff)

2005-09-17T13:08:00.000-04:00

OK, I’ve dumped Outlook. Yes, it’s a nice platform, but I’ve decided I don’t really like it. I’ve switched over to the open source (and, of course, free) companion email client to Mozilla Firefox, Thunderbird!

I like Thunderbird because it is open source and free, and not only does that mean a good deal for me (can’t beat free ;-) ), but I like what I feel open source/free software does for the software market. Open source software encourages anyone and everyone to “jump in,” to add their voice (or their code, really) to any project, and I like that. If I decide I don’t like a feature Thunderbird, if it’s within my technical skill set to do so I can change or remove that feature in my copy of the program.

As an added bonus: Thunderbird is just plain fast. Yes, any of you Outlook junkies will say “but Outlook has so many more features, and this and that and the other thing” yeah, those are great, and I’ll admit that Outlook certainly has its place. But that place is not as my email client, at least not right now.

I’ve used Thunderbird in the past, but I drifted away from it when Mac OS X Tiger came out, because Mail.app was so well integrated into the OS and supported the new Spotlight feature so well, I instantly gravitated towards it. ( (Up until a few days ago I was using my Powerbook exclusively for email, for security reasons.)

This mention of Mail.app reminds me: Once again, Microsoft is ripping somebody off. I saw a video over on Channel 9 of an interview with the Outlook Express team. (They’re now re-formed as the “Windows Mail” team.) Ok, “Windows Mail” that alone is half rip-off, I mean, yeah, what else are you going to call it? But it still sounds all too familiar.
Also of interest is how much they’re trumpeting their new integrated search feature, it’s the same thing that Mac OS X Tiger already has… so when this comes out in late 2006 it will almost be a two-year old “innovation” and MSFT still thinks they’re being brilliant and original. It’s kind of pathetic, really.

I think Windows Vista (as this new OS is to be called) is really going to be the tipping point for Microsoft. If they can’t get their act together and put out a really good product, they’re going to have some serious customer defections. Especially if one considers the anticipated price tags on their various editions, I mean, from $99 (for what can barely pass as a completed OS.) to $999 (For everything, even the kitchen sink! <g>) (I think those were the numbers? I’d have to look it up…) to get a copy of a really useful OS you’re probably going to have to drop between 2-400 dollars, or you could just get Mac OS X for $130.

Wow, this has really turned into something of a ramble/rant, sorry about that. I guess I’ll go do something besides sit in front of a computer for a while. :-P

I (sorta) love technology

2005-09-16T16:48:00.000-04:00

We pulled into the driveway at home just now and my computer automatically connected to our network and I was online. I (sorta) love technology. :-)
So I sat in the car and finished the email I was typing then sent it, and now I’m writing this brief blog post, again, technology is awesome. :-)

I’ve been working on an eCommerce site for my office this week, it’s going very well, and I’m enjoying doing “something else” for a change. (Writing a website as opposed to turning a screwdriver, repairing PCs.)

On another note, I’ve somehow lost my Blogger for Word plugin…. It’s showing up as installed, but it’s nowhere to be found in Word. A mystery, but what involving Microsoft isn’t? Ha.

EDIT: Apparently it's something to do with Outlook that is breaking the toolbar. ~~I'm going to contact Blogger/Google about this...~~ /EDIT
EDIT2: It's a known issue with the toolbar... rawr. When you use Word as the email editor for Outlook (Which I do.) it disables toolbars. This is why I (sorta) love technology. :-) /EDIT2

Google Blog Search

2005-09-14T15:56:00.000-04:00

I signed in to briefly mention the new Google Blog Search and found that it had already invaded (in a good way, if that makes sense.) the Blogger back-end, very nice integration, Google! (Google owns the Blogger service, FYI)

Back from the library...

2005-09-10T16:48:00.000-04:00

OK, I’m back from my library excursion. I picked up several books.

The afore-mentioned title: The Cuckoo’s Egg as well as Takedown and Masters of Deception, I was hoping that my library had some of Mitnick’s own work, but if any of you know anything about the library around here, you probably predicted my lack of luck with that goal!

I’ve read The Cuckoo’s Egg and Takedown before, Masters of Deception is new to me, and hopefully it’s good.
I’d like to find some newer “geek” titles, I know they’re out there, I just need to go look them up… plus pay for them, no thanks to our crummy library. (They have NO selection of any worth, and are extremely slow at pulling in new titles, if you want a book, you have to buy it for yourself and your own home library!)

OK, what I’ve been doing for my own furtherance lately:

I’ve been working on coding problems. These can be found in many places online and provide excellent practice in writing code and thinking in a programming language.

Most recently I wrote a C++ application to decipher a folded cipher, a solution to the problem presented here.

That was fun, it took me about two hours, and I learned stuff! :-)

--

EDITED: for clarity on the library bit

Nothing to do?

2005-09-10T15:37:00.000-04:00

I actually have no assignments to work on right now.I'm taking 15 course hours at college and 11th grade. I have no assignments that require my immediate attention. This is unreal.

For those of you who noted poor grammar, etc. in the last post (speech-recognition): I know about it, I just left it up there as a testament to how good the application may or may not be, how far it has to come, etc.

I’m typing this, not speaking it, if that proves anything, speech recognition can be handy… but I type faster than I talk. Plus I talk fast anyways, and so that tends to trip speech-recognition systems up. (Sometimes even the most complex ones around, humans!)

So yeah, I prefer typing over speaking. I like speech for interface manipulation when it is advantageous to have a hands-free environment.

For instance if you could have a Bluetooth headset associated with your computer, wear the headset over your ear and from up to 30 feet away you could be issuing commands to the computer. (“iTunes volume up”, “go to the next track”, etc.)

Good stuff.

By the way, I’m writing this post in Word, and it will then be posted up to my blog using the Blogger for Word toolbar, it allows me to write my post in Word and then upload it directly to my blog, no intermediary copy/paste necessary, etc.

For those of you interested in such things, there’s a video up on Channel 9 with the developers of this add-in.

Back to education: (Sorry about the random jumping around here…)

These are the courses I’ve taken and I am taking at the local community college:

(Summer ’05, my first semester)
CIS-110 – Intro to Computer
CSC-139 – Visual BASIC Programming
CIS-172 – Intro to the Internet

(Fall ’05, current semester)
CIS-152 – Database Concepts and Applications
NET-110 – Data Communications/Networking
CIS-130 – Survey of Operating Systems
CIS-115 – Intro to Programming and Logic (Really basic C++ stuff, I’m currently attempting to challenge out of it.)
ENG-111 – Expository Writing (My only general college course, anyone care to guess my major? ;-) )

I’ve got A’s in all of them… but that’s not saying much, they’re all really basic.

I’m skipping out of here for a bit, going to the library, might as well do something besides sit at the keyboard all day.

I think I’ll pick up a copy of Clifford Stoll’s The Cuckoo’s Egg while I’m there.

speech-recognition is an interesting application

2005-08-21T14:20:00.000-04:00

So I am writing this entry using Dragon NaturallySpeaking, it is a pretty good program, it naturally has its quirks, but like it.
For those of you who don't know what speech-recognition is, I'm currently talking into a microphone connected to my computer. Everything you're reading is not being typed by hand, but is being spoken by my voice and interpreted into the computer by this software.

So yeah, it's pretty handy.

At any rate, I have some other things to get to, so I will be back later.

Meet the new kid...

2005-08-14T20:46:00.000-04:00

My new computer. Plus junk on my desk.

You can't really tell in this picture, but there are neons in the case, one(blue) vertically along the back of the computer, and one(red) running horizontally along the top.

--

A (rather blurry) look inside the new case, you can see the lit fans pretty well in this one. :-)

Specs on the machine:
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ overclocked to 2.03GHZ
1GB Corsair RAM
Dual 120GB hard drives (one came in the computer, I added a second.)
Radeon 9600 with 128MB of DDR on-board
8x DVD+/-RW (Dual Layer)
52x CD-ROM

I guess those are the basics, if you have other questions, ask the.
Also: I'll sell it to you if you make a decent offer, so feel free to do so.

I'm still alive!

2005-08-06T21:03:00.000-04:00

… or something like that.

Wow! It’s been a long time since I updated here. I AM alive.. I’ve just been very busy with a lot of stuff for the last month.

Since I last updated I have been doing a lot of work at my new job plus finishing up the summer semester at the community college, yeah, I’ve been busy.

When not working or studying, I can generally be found somewhere around town with some friends and a Frisbee. Try it, guaranteed fun time had by all. :-)

—

I’ve tried to take some pictures of the (damaged) Powerbook, but because of the shiny/reflective titanium surface, lighting that doesn’t go totally whack when you take a picture is hard to get. I will keep trying, but my first attempts haven’t gone so well.

—

Mrs A: Read your comment on my mom’s site, I’ll email you directly as soon as I’ve completed this. :-)

—

Ok, to segue back into school-related stuff. (Non-geeks can tune out now, if you wish.) I’ve had to/had the opportunity to (depends on how you look at it, I suppose.) write some (I think) pretty cool code recently.

I took a class this summer on Visual Basic .NET, there were 8 assignments total for the semester, plus mid-term and final. The first 6 assignments were pretty simple, just read the corresponding chapter(s) in the book and do some basic coding, not mindless, still mentally stimulating, but not too challenging. Well, the last two assignments changed that, completely. He introduced code requirements that were totally outside anything in the course material thus far, I was left floundering trying to guess how to perform some necessary functions to complete the code.

Thankfully, he(my instructor) called a meeting on campus and explained some concepts needed for the two assignments, this helped a lot, and I coded up both of them in an afternoon.

I think I’m going to insert some screenshots of the programs and explain what they do, I don’t know how interesting this will be to any of you, but here goes:

The first, DollarAmount, takes a word that the user inputs and calculates the dollar amount of that word, the dollar amount is calculated by taking A=1, B=2, C=3… Z=26 and adding the value of the letters together.

(Pardon the poor screenshot quality, silly JPEGs.)

Private Sub btnCalc_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnCalc.Click
' setup the necessary variables...
Dim strWord As String = txtWord.Text ' send the value of our TextBox to a string
Dim intCounter As Integer = 1 ' initiate a counter for our loop count
Dim intValue As Integer ' initiate a variable to hold the 'value' of the user's word
' the real 'meat' of the code, does the actual work...
For intCounter = 1 To Len(strWord) ' loop for each letter in the word..
intValue += Asc(UCase(Mid(strWord, intCounter, 1))) - 64 ' add up intValue
Next ' loop...
lblAmount.Text = intValue ' set the text of our output label to the value of the word
End Sub ' btCalc_Click

(Pardon the poor indentation, the code I turned in was correct, this blog-post editor isn’t very good.)

(Anyone here know why when that loop repeats, it automatically increments intCounter +1? I can’t figure out why VB .NET does… *shrug* Microsoft is weird.)

The concept behind this application seemed impossible, at first. Well, not impossible, but like I would have to write dozens or hundreds of lines of code, with many, many nested If statements. Not fun. However, a nifty trick about ASCII text was brought to my attention. That ‘nifty trick’ is this… a capital ‘a’ is given the value 65 on the ASCII table, capital ‘b’ is 66, and so forth, on to capital ‘z’ is 90, so, what happens if you subtract 64 everytime? A=1, B=2… Z=26. :-D

So, in one line of code, I could write a function that would get the ASCII value of the uppercase version of the given letter, subtract 64, and *bing* I was in business.

Sorry if I didn’t make all of this very clear, I’m just randomly spouting what’s on my mind. (Yeah, bad idea, I know, sorry!)

—

The second application: FileIO – works with input and output to/from files.

I’m not going to post up the code for this one, but I will include some screenshots and explain how it functions. This assignment built on the DollarAmount application with some added functionality and a different focus, as you shall see.

Load up the application and click ‘Click Me’, (I write for function, not aesthetics, sorry.) this File Open dialog presents itself:

(Click for larger view.)

Click on ‘Open’ and the application parses the file and throws back all kinds of entertaining output:

On the right side we have a box that lists all “Dollar Words” the value of these words has been determined to be ‘one dollar’ (By using the formula demonstrated in the code in DollarAmount)

This application also ouputs how many words it read, how many ‘dollar words’ were found, the average value of all the words, the longest word found (Yes, it’s running OUT of that textbox..), the value of said longest word, and the text and value of the shortest word found. (This last function is obviously kind of broken, because any single letter is going to be a very short word. This is not a bug however, the code is working as designed, if someone passed a file without short words, it would still list the shortest word amongst them.)

At any rate, I got an ‘A’ in the class. :-)

—

Ok, I think that may be about it for this (long overdue) update. Have a good night all.

Oops

2005-07-12T09:08:00.000-04:00

When I got to work this morning I started pulling my Powerbook G4 out of its sleeve... and it slipped out of my hand and fell on a stack of motherboards. (Don't laugh, I work at a computer repair shop, heh.)
It wasn't a long fall, at all. So internally all is well.
Unfortunately, the metal and silicon of a motherboard does not-so-pretty things to the outside of an Aluminum computer. The back of the display now has some nice lil gouges on it. Meh.
This is only the second time in my life that I've dropped a computer. Wow.
I'll be getting some pictures of the damage when I get home.

2005-07-10T18:42:00.000-04:00

Apologies to all that it has been so long since I posted here. (Or should I be apologizing for tormenting you with more senseless content?) Life started happening on me. Heh.

Stuff started piling up, new job keeping me busy, midterm projects and papers and just a bunch of random stuff happening.

A lot has happened since the last time I posted. A lot.

Start by updating on the computer situation(s).

I’ve installed my mom’s hard drive, all seems to be running as expected now. Hopefully that will keep it in working order for a while to come. There are some programs left to be installed, (School curriculum, etc.) but that should all be taken care of in short order.

…

Now… for the PNY debacle. More headaches there. I don’t even want the replacement card anymore, my brother went and bought himself a new one. Now I’m just going to get a hold of a ‘service’ representative and not let go until they agree to some sort of restitution for the chunk of my life they’ve stolen.

That’s the theory anyways.

Three days after my last post a guy from PNY called me back, in typical form, I wasn’t home. I called him back about an hour later and got their answering system. Left him my name and number and synopsis of who I was, etc. Have yet to hear back from him. This is ridiculous.

…

I spent most of Thursday hunched over either computer or radio devouring every tidbit I could about the bombings in the London underground. Very unfortunate happening. :-(

For news coverage of this (and any other item), I’d recommend you check out WikiNews. Awesome site, I love community efforts, I’m part of this one, I’ve created a few articles and edited a few more, and I’ll try to continue to be active.

…

For some more geeky news:

Microsoft has reportedly been distributing invitations to check out Longhorn Beta 1 to their best beta testers. I can’t wait to get my hands on this one. Let’s hope it’s as good as it’s hyped up as being.

…

I have to get out of her for a while, later.

2005-07-05T16:34:00.000-04:00

My mom’s hard drive came in today, and I installed it. Still running the recovery. Let’s hope this fixes everything.

—

Got an email from PNY today:

Please give me a call at <phone number> to resolve this issue

Regards
Rafael
PNY Technologies

Tried to call him, got an answering service. Hopefully they’ll call me back.

2005-07-04T16:49:00.000-04:00

Happy July 4th! I’ll be going out to the fireworks this evening, those of you who know where I live, and where that will be, feel free to show up and look out for me!

—

I'm going to give PNY until Wednesday to either call me back or respond to my email, and then I will be contacting them again.

More updates on that as needed.

—

Google Earth is amazing, and slightly disturbing. Check it out.

—

I’ll edit this if I think of something more post-worthy.

Hello? Anybody home?

2005-07-02T09:48:00.000-04:00

I just shot this email to PNY technical support:

[The box here said something like “Describe the problem”]

Problem? The problem is your 'customer service'. I need an RMA completed on a 128MB SD Flash Memory Card, and I can't get it.

This started last week, I called and was left on hold for 45 minutes, I was finally sent to a voice mail line, when a technician called back, I was out of the house, he left a message, I called him back, left him a message, and never heard from him again.

I decided to try again.

I spent 35 minutes on hold yesterday, waiting to get through, someone finally picks up, he puts me back on hold for 15 more minutes, when he answers again he goes through and gets all my information and then tells me he's going to "send this RMA request through, and then call [me] back in 20 minutes."
He read back my telephone number to me, so I know you have it on file correctly.
I waited by the phone for 8 hours, and never heard back from him.

To top it all off, you've made this email form very difficult to find, I actually had to use Google to find this, your own site was no help.

This is one of the worst 'customer service' experiences I've ever been submitted to.

I'm still waiting for my RMA number so I can have this replaced.

I'm afraid you've lost at least one customer, and probably more than that, I've been blogging this:
[Link]
[Link]
[Link]

I'll be blogging this until it is resolved.

Regards,
[My name, phone number and email address, which I summarily edited for privacy reasons]

It's all a waiting game..

2005-07-02T09:22:00.000-04:00

I think the theory behind’s PNY’s ‘customer service’ goes something like this:

“We will offer a lifetime warranty on every product we sell, then we will make it so hard to make a claim on this warranty that 99% of our customers will just give up and go buy a replacement.”

PNY isn’t the only company doing this… but they’re the one I’m struggling with at the moment.

PNY: I will get my replacement product, and you will be providing it, and it will be provided at no cost to me. (And, yes, that includes shipping, I’m not going to pay shipping on a ‘free’ replacement product, that’s ridiculous.) That’s what ‘lifetime warranty’ means, and if you’re not willing to comply to that standard, then don’t say that you are. At this point I’m going to hound you with phone calls and emails, get my replacement and then never buy another PNY product.

Up until this point I have been pretty satisfied with your products, they really are pretty decent, but if you’re going to give me such a hard time just to get a replacement for an SD Flash Memory card, well, that’s fine, you obviously don’t need my business.

I hope you’re satisfied, you’ve lost a customer.

Quick update...

2005-07-01T15:20:00.000-04:00

In this post I talked about my mom’s computer crashing…

This is the second time this has happened in the last month, and I’ve had Sony dispatch a new hard drive, hopefully that will fix the problem, more updates as that progresses.

…

I still have not heard back from PNY (See previous post.) It’s been an hour and a half, and counting.

—

I started to blog extensively about Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor leaving the bench, but I backspaced it. If you’re interested though, check out the online coverage.

—

Another thing I really like about BlogJet: it’s actually much faster as far as publishing/editing goes then the Blogger.com backend that they provide to their users. This really makes me giddy with happiness, that was the only thing I disliked about Blogger.com… the slow interface. So… w00t w00t for BlogJet!

Still no call from PNY, not that I’m expecting one anymore.

…

OK, so now I’m closing on 2 hours since I was promised a call back within twenty minutes. I’m really vexed with PNY, really, really vexed.

This takes the cake..

2005-07-01T14:00:00.000-04:00

The big ol’ “Worst Customer Service Experience” cake that is…

At this point I’ve been on hold with PNY Technology for over half an hour, and still haven’t spoken with a “Customer Service Representative”. This canned voice comes on the line every five minutes suggesting I “Press 0 to leave a message.” I refuse to. I absolutely refuse to let their system shunt me away from actually getting some service.

…

Someone just picked up, he’s “finishing up with someone else, and [he]’ll be right with [me].” ‘Bout time. 35 minutes on hold, and right back there again. What a saga. All I have to say is that when I do talk to him, he better remedy this situation* quickly.

…

Ok, just spoke with the representative, he’s issuing an RMA (Return Merchandise Authorisation) on the card, and he’s supposed to call me back in less than 20 minutes.

…

In other news, I’m now using the excellent BlogJet blog publishing tool, it works with many different blogging services (Check their site for a complete list.) and is a nice lil WYSIWYG text editor + publishing/editing tool. Excellent application, major props to the developer.

…

Sorry about all the spacing out, I’ve written some of this off-line and some online.. Microsoft Windows memory ‘management’ is the devil, I’m sorry to be so blunt about it, but it just is. I got so frustrated with my Windows XP laptop just now that I shut it down, closed the top and switched over to my Powerbook. I figured I’d better get away from it before I tried to re-program it with a very large axe. Which reminds me, on my way to work today I ended up behind a light-blue Mitsubishi Eclipse with a “DNTPANIC” custom license plate and a “If you don’t like blogging, try crying yourself to sleep” bumper sticker (Which I can’t find anywhere online, for some reason). Obvious geek, I wonder who it was.

…

It’s been over an hour now since I was promised a call back in twenty minutes, I’m so annoyed at PNY right now. Anyone reading this: I’d advise not buying any more PNY products. If they can’t even provide the most base level of customer support, then they don’t deserve your business.

—

*My brother’s 128MB SD card has died, it’s stuck in “Read-only” mode, rendering it practically useless.

2005-06-30T21:47:00.000-04:00

That's pretty spiffy. Both the animation and the product!

As a reminder to do your backups...

2005-06-30T17:30:00.000-04:00

... my mom just lost everything on her computer.

I tried booting from Knoppix and checked out the hard drive... nothing, nadda, zip. Man...

Re-installing from the recovery disks now. This is not good, not good at all. I'll be spending this evening re-loading applications n such.

And I'll be backing up once a week from now on. Meh.

2005-06-28T09:58:00.000-04:00

This was me yesterday:

Technically I still have geometry to work on, but that was assigned late and hence I have a month left still working on that. *sigh*

But the main portion of the work is done, all the papers are written and submitted, and I can sit back and semi-relax. w00t!

Random note: the factory-state restore process on HP computers is really well implemented, just press F10 during boot up (before it hands off to the operating system, but you knew that ;-) ) click a few self explanatory dialog boxes, and it does a non-destructive OS restore, meaning that everything is back like it was brand new... AND all your programs, files, desktop icons, favorites, etc are still there! It's really nice. Yeah. Otherwise, HP, ick! But nice to know when it invariably breaks it will be easy to fix. ;-)