This morning at work (as on many Fridays) Art over in SysAdmin brought in goodies – Einstein Bros. bagels and cream cheese. Now, I absolutely loves me some poppy seed bagels that have been toasted a little crunchy on the outside (toasted sesame seed is a nice second place choice). We have a decent, wide mouth toaster in the pantry, but it’s a bit slow.
So I grab a poppy bagel, slice, drop in the toaster, depress the lever, and head back to my desk. My office is like 10 steps from the pantry, and that toaster is slow. I figure I’ll spend the 2 or 3 minutes it’ll need looking up some info someone asked me for while I was grabbing the bagel.
A couple minutes go by, and I return. My bagel hasn’t popped up yet, so I peek down inside. It doesn’t look toasty, even a little. There’s no heat coming out of the toaster. I look down at the little toastyness-adjustment dial, and it’s set all the way to the left. On most toasters, this is minimum toastyness. But on our WonderToaster, all the way to the left is beyond minimum… it’s actually labeled “Off”.
This device is a TOASTER. You push the lever down when you want something toasted! The basic design hasn’t changed in like a hundred years. In what possible scenario did some white-lab-coat frocked Poindexter (or his pointy-haired boss) imagine I would place my bread-or-breadlike-product into the toaster, depress the big lever, thus lowering my bread-or-breadlike-product into the bowels of the machine, and yet NOT want it to get toasted?
This is a perfect example of over-engineering. Listen up people- a job is finished when you solve the problem. Once I can choose a level of toastyness and initiate toasting, your job is done. “Off” is not a level of toastyness. Its an un-feature. It makes your product less useful. Stop doing that.
So here I was, idly checking my Bloglines feeds and lamenting the fact that I had nothing to blog about tonight. Silly rabbit, be careful what you wish for. Poing! New Mail. No, wait… 6 new e-mails in the 5 minutes since the last automatic check. That never happens. Must be comment spam on the ol’ blog.
Indeed. Not only that, but all of the spam comments showed up in my inbox as new comments, not spam attempts. This means my anti-spam measures have failed. Several months ago, I suffered a severe spam onslaught, which lead to my disabling comments for three weeks. When my comment system returned, I had implemented several changes to help stop the spam. I even kept the details to myself to slow the spammers from catching on. Looks like they’ve caught on.
My countermeasures included rejecting all items without a referrer, and changing the default value in a hidden comment form field used by the Blosxom writeback plugin. Nice try. Tonight’s spammer is much more sophisticated. Each post came from a separate IP address. Referrer is present and correct, and the User Agent string looks innocuous, although I’d bet it’s a bot. The posts came in groups of three, and for each group of three I can see a single IP address GETing the original post plus other pages (archive links, etc); however the two “sniffer” IPs are different.
These little weasels deserve all seven levels of Dante’s Inferno and a couple of new ones I just thought up. For now, I’ve shut off comments. Looks like I’ll be setting up the blosxom port of the MT blacklist very soon. Sorry for the inconvenience, feel free to email me in the interim. Unless you are a spammer… you may feel free to (Extremely violent and anatomically questionable recommendation censored).
Who was the slackwit who decided the keystroke for Close Window (or Close Tab) should be right next to the keystroke for Quit application? In most OS X applications, Cmd-W closes the current window. In Firefox, it closes the current tab if multiple tabs are open; it closes the window if only one tab is open. In nearly all OS X applications (Including Firefox), Cmd-Q quits the application. In an app such as Firefox, where there’s no need to save anything, Cmd-Q quits without confirmation… Even though Firefox prompts me to confirm if I try to click the “Close Window” button with multiple tabs open, it just accepts the keystroke without batting an eye.
UPDATE: See the end of the post for a retraction. The original post remains for posterity.
Even though I swore off CompUSA several months ago, today I almost caved in. In the end, they just proved me right. You can’t trust them.
I was browsing the sales ads in today’s newspaper, looking for a large harddrive cheap to put in my TiVo. Circuit City had a 160GB Western Digital for $109 after rebate (plus a $20 gift card), but curiousity made me check CompUSA. They had the same drive for $59 after (multiple) rebates. Being that I didn’t see the ad until late in the afternoon, I figured going to the store was probably pointless… they never have much stock on these kinds of offers; they just want to get you into the store. I’ve been bitten many times.
This evening, I decided to see if I could get the rebates if I purchase the drive from their website. I’ve read the webpage and both rebate forms, and I can’t really tell. It all implies that you must purchase from the store in order to get the rebate. Of course, the rebates are only good for drives purchased this week, and only from CompUSA. Tempted, I decided to use the “check availability” feature. Naturally, all 5 stores within 50 miles of me had already sold out. But then I looked a little closer:
The highlighted section tells the story: “availability information is up-to-date as of 4/18/2004 3:40:41 AM”. That was before the store even opened on the day the ad broke.
UPDATE: Never let it be said that I can’t admit a mistake. When I posted this Sunday night, I believed that all 5 CompUSA stores in my area were sold out of this promotional item before the promotion even began. On Monday evening, it occurred to me that I should recheck in the interest of fairness. Sure enough, on Monday all 5 stores showed the drive in stock, “as of 4/19/2004 03:36:41 AM”. I can only conclude that they held the items until the sale promotion began, before putting them into stock. To appologize to CompUSA for jumping to an incorrect conclusion, I went today to purchase a drive. They still had it in stock.
To the folks at EOS Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers:
How do you define the word “Now”? Let me use it in context for you: “Now Available.”
Over the last few years, I have made it a personal policy not to read books in an unfinished series. Thanks to authors such as Robert Jordan and Terry Goodkind, I despair of growing interested in a series of books, only to learn that the series will not be complete until long after I am in the grave. In fact, I am beginning to actively seek out books published as stand-alone volumes or trilogies, to avoid being tied up in never-ending series.
Recently, I purchased The Magicians’ Guild at a mall-based bookseller. Not having the convenience of Internet research, I checked the inside-front-cover, and learned that this is book 1 of The Black Magician Trilogy. I made my decision to buy this book based on the words “Now Available” printed directly above pictures of the covers of volumes 2 and 3 in this trilogy.
Imagine my shock and dismay upon searching for these books on Amazon.com. It appears that Volume 2, The Novice, will not be published until April 27, 2004. It also appears that Volume 3, The High Lord, will not be published until September 1, 2004. Willing to give the benefit of the doubt, I have consulted my calendar. As today is April 15, 2004, it would appear that neither of these books are “Now Available”, unless you define “now” to mean “sometime in the future”. How would you define “Truth in advertising?”
When I purchase books in the future, I will be very careful to read not the inside front cover, but instead the back of the title page. To avoid any further deceptive marketing, I will be checking to confirm that the name HarperCollins is nowhere to be found.
Compusa (no link provided, you know who they are) has lost my business. Forever. Want to lose my business too? Learn from them.
At Christmas time, my wife asked me for a list of gift ideas, and hinted the Compusa’s web site was offering free shipping. I sent her links to three items on the Compusa website: A firewire harddrive, a firewire DVD burner (from LaCie), and a Griffith Powermate. She got a little carried away and bought all three.
Before I ever opened the DVD burner, I learned that Apple’s iDVD only works with Apple SuperDrives. Since I wanted to use iDVD, I decided to return the LaCie. I’ll get by burning Video CD’s for a while, and by a new Mac sometime in the next year (G5. Mmmmm.) This is good news for Compusa, since they are the closest Apple retailer. By far. The nearest Apple store is an hour away. Also, I live in a tax-free state, and the Apple store is in the next state over… so I’d pay tax there. I bought my 15″ Powerbook from Compusa less than a year ago.
However, Compusa has a 14 day return policy. As in, 14 days from the date on your receipt. Even on web orders, which means you effectively have less than 14 days. Even though the item was a gift. Even though it’s never been opened.
Congratulations, Compusa. The $3000+ I will probably spend in the next year on a G5 Desktop will not be spent with you. Good work.
I hate powerbricks. It used to be that when you bought an electronics device that used an external power supply, it came with a giant block that plugged directly into the outlet. These were not power-strip friendly, and gave way to the powerbrick. The same giant block, only now moved halfway up the cord between the outlet and the device. The are clumsy and unwieldy. There has got to be a better way.
For example, when I visted my parents recently, I took along a few toys… Powerbook, DV Camcorder, Firewire HD. After shooting some video of my son playing with one of his gifts, I decided to whip up a little short with iMovie. Of the three devices, only the Firewire HD requires the powerbrick at all times; the Powerbook and the camcorder have batteries. Of course, these are normally in varying states of discharge, so I usually plugin in everything when using them together. This means three lumpy bundles of brick+wires in my computer bag, and three bricks taking up tablespace or getting under feet. It’s alot of bother.
Around the house it’s worse. Cellphone cradle. Scanner. Wireless Router. Sherri’s Palm Pilot. Everything has bricks. And whatever doesn’t usually has the old oversized plug. For every new gadget, get a new brick. And they’re almost never compatible.
Why have bricks at all? Well, the power in your wall outlet is around 115V AC. About right for lightbulbs and hairdryers, not so great for integrated circuits. For reasons I won’t go into, AC power is much better for transmission over the power lines that bring power to your home. Computers and gadgets of all sorts are designed for DC power… usually between 4.5 and 12V worth. The powerbricks convert the power from your wall outlet into what your device wants. This tends to generate heat, and a bit of space for the transformer. By separating this functionality into the brick, you remove weight and size from the device, and reduce heat dissipation issues. And if the brick dies, it’s much easier to replace.
Of course, everyone seems to use a slightly different voltage, or a different plug configuration, etc. What I’d like to see is a new spec… the Universal Power Bus. For example, any device that can accept a standard voltage and draw no more than a standard wattage could use UPB. It would feature standardized connector, for attaching a UPB-compliant Powerbrick. But here’s the good part… since everything is standard, you could replace the brick. For example, a PC could have a few UPB ports built in to take advantage of the PC’s power supply. Or you could buy a UPB Power Strip… a device the size of a couple of paperbacks that could sit under your desk or on a shelf and supply connections for 5 or 6 UPB devices. Airports and hotel rooms could offer UPB recepticles, allowing any compatible device to be powered or recharged with any UBP cord.
Now, I’m no electronics expert. I’m sure I’ve glossed over or missed some important details. I’m sure device manufacturers have reasons for differing power requirements for simliar devices. But I’m also betting many of things things could be solved. Here’s hoping someone will try. Like the rest of my site, this idea is Some Rights Reserved – released under Creative Commons Licence. Go on, build it!
Random rantage, assorted annoyances, miscellaneous mumblings.
- Updates to Mail.app in Panther include some new sound effects. There is a new ‘mail sent’ sound, like a swoosh or airplane taking off; there’s also a ‘no new mail’ sound (played only if you asked for mail check manually) that’s a charming mix of fingers on a blackboard and the shower scene from Psycho. In Mail’s preferences dialog, you can change the new mail sound (just as you could in Jaguar), but you can’t change any of the other sounds. You can only turn ‘other sounds’ on or off. That’s just lazy and sloppy.
- If you’re going to bother inserting ads in a webpage, use a permalink. Ads on Macintouch are tasteful and subtle (one line of text, in a colored box, inline in the articles), but when I saw one today for something I was interested in, the link took me to the advertiser’s home page, not to the product mentioned in the ad. I searched and found the product is still caried and in stock (just out of curiosity as to why the link failed), but they lost a potential sale.
- Firebird 0.7.1 has been bugging me lately. Granted, it’s beta, but this is just one of those things I keep noticing. I use the status bar, so I can hover a link and see where it goes before deciding to click. I also tend to maximize my Firebird window. At this point, if I click a link from another app (like NetNewsWire) which opens a new window, it’s top-left corner is tiled over and down from my existing window. Since the existing window was maximized, the new window is the same size; but since the new window is tiled down, the status bar is now off the bottome of the screen.
- Speaking of status bars, Mail.app doesn’t have one. It claims to, but this is the info bar between the mail list and the preview pane. I need a real status bar, at the bottom of the window, so I can hover links and see where they go. Or show me this info as a tooltip. Don’t make me click blind.
- Football coverage on CBS is just plain painful. Greg Gumble has got to be the worst commentator I have ever heard. Thank goodness the Eagles games are usually covered on Fox. Go Birds.
or, I’ve Buttered My Bread and Now I Have to Lay in it.
I did not intend for my second post to be a rant. I won’t let that stop me.
Although I work primarily on a Mac in my spare time, my work machine is a Windows box. I also several at home, with three currently in service. In both locations I use a Microsoft 5-button optical mouse. I use the comfortable beige one, not that awful grey one with all the ergonomics of a rock. Just as with the scroll wheel before it, the five button has become something I am keenly aware of missing when it’s not present. I don’t even use all five… it’s the thumb button that makes this mouse special to me. It is wired by default to Internet Explorer’s Back button. I can’t express how much I love not having to drag my mouse to the toolbar every time I want to back up. Sheer Genius, as I have extolled to many.
And so it was a cruel twist indeed today, when my beloved thumb button stabbed me in the back. I was entering a post for this blog into a webpage (via wikieditish. I had been at this for a good 10 minutes, and was nearly done. It was then, for reasons I can not quite recall, I casually tried to nudge my mouse away from my keyboard an inch or so. And (you saw this coming) hit the thumb button. Back, Browser!
Oops. Goodbye post. I did try (in vain) to use the Forward button from the menu bar to return, but the form was cleared, the work lost.
Why is it that those we love the most hurt us the most?