Land of Oz

Web Bugs

As cool as the Internet can be, there are still a lot of sites that really tick me off. Often to the point of just moving on without even reading what they have to offer. Here in no particular order are some the things that really bug me about web pages:

• Music (which is definitely in the ear of the beholder) that you can't turn off. At least give me an obvious link to turn it off.
  
• Huge fonts on a page. If I need it bigger, I can make it bigger with the browser.
  
• Dark text on a dark image background. Get rid of the picture or wrap the text around it.
  
• Multiple column articles. Great in print, not so great online when you have to scroll down and up and over...
  
• Registration pages that don't work. If I have to register, at least keep the registry working.
  
• Free offers that require you to input your credit card info. You'd better have a really good reason for that and it's something I desperately want to see.
  
• Video articles. At least give me a choice of text to read. Even with broadband, I often find video downloads too slow to wait around for.
  
• Multipart articles with broken links to the next article.
  
• Pages that won't let you back out to the previous page and keep reloading themselves.
  
• Ads - actually, I don't mind most ads. I do mind the ones that take over the page. Now they have some that float over the text for what seems like several minutes and won't let you read the article.
  
• Text that is all in italics . Some is OK, but keep it under control please.
  
• Crap that follows my cursor around - OK for a few seconds, but then it becomes very annoying.
  

Labels: computers, gripes

Killing

Here we go, another bomb, another couple dozen folks killed. It's bigger news this time because of the target - Benazir Bhutto. It got me to wonder about killing. The USofA is often in the news as a kill-crazy country. We have our share of Columbines, Colorado ministries and shopping mall shootings that make big news. However, we don't have the indiscriminate bombings that happen in so many other countries. (If I said, Muslim countries people would complain, but let's face it, they have more than their share of bombings).

The big difference is that in the USofA we usually kill strangers up close and personal. Not for us is the impersonality of a bomb in a crowd - we want to see the face of our victim as the .38 slug snuffs them out. I wonder why that is? Some people blame our cowboy and outlaw west, but I don't agree. Most killers today couldn't identify when and what was the cowboy west, let alone be influenced by it. The only good thing about suicide bombers is that you don't have to waste any time and money prosecuting them and then watch them go free because of some law technicality. That happens way too much in the USofA.

By the way, in the Detroit Free Press today, they say there's a 2 in 3 chance that if you murder someone you won't be caught. How would you like odds like that on a race horse? Think about those numbers! For every three people killed; two of the killers are going to be free to kill again. Think about that the next time you visit Detroit, er, for whatever reason you'd want to anyway.

By the way, CBS News had the seriously redundant title Bhutto Killed In Deadly Suicide Blast. How could killed and suicide be anything else but deadly?

Labels: crime, government, gripes, michigan

Furniture

We've been out looking at furniture lately. It's been new furniture, not antique stuff. Which brings me to a couple things. First, I really hate the new furniture that has been distressed to look like old furniture. You know the kind of stuff I'm talking about; fake worm holes, chain dents and dings, sand papered paint jobs, stains and the occasional piece of acid rusted hardware. If I'm paying money for new furniture, I don't want it to look like it's spent ten years being beaten up in a house full of pre-schoolers. I'm also not that into real antiques. I don't want something that looks like something I just tossed into a dumpster (which actually happened this weekend). And I can't understand why people pay extraordinary chunks of money to possess junk like this. This isn't to say, I wouldn't mind a nice looking piece of ancient furniture - it just means I don't a piece of ancient furniture that looks like ancient furniture - with rotted wood, cracked boards and rusty screws.

I also don't care for the new and modern style of design. White (or some puny pastel), plastic appearing crap seems to be the latest style. I don't like it. The same with plastic/metal whatevers that have to emphasize the grain of wood. Do you know how much time is spent making a piece of wooden furniture smooth? And they decide to copy it by making deep wood-like grooves in the plastic that are supposed to suggest warm wood.

By the same token, table tops should be smooth - not creased with grooves and holes and emphasized hardware attachments. I can put up with separate boards in some table tops, but not as a general rule. And speaking of table tops, the latest style seems to be HIGH tables and chairs. I don't want a dining room table six inches taller than they used to be. I don't want to have to sit on a tall stool to eat dinner. It's OK for snacks and quick lunches, but I'd prefer to keep my feet on the floor when I'm seriously chowing down.

So, do you want to make me some quality furniture? How about using real solid wood; oak or walnut perhaps, finish it with a nice satiny rubbed oil finish and keep the chains and awls out of the table top. Leave your paint and particle board for the kids and don't make me a dining room table that looks like giants will eat there. Unfortunately, after all that, you're going to have to charge a gazillion dollars for it, and I won't be able to afford it anyway.

Labels: gripes

Tiger kills man at San Francisco Zoo

I suppose I should be shocked and upset by this news story, but I'm not. You can't blame a tiger for being a tiger. I am a little sad they had to shoot the tiger, but I guess you can't just leave a tiger alone while it munches on a bystander.

This bothers the same way that man-eating grizzlies being shot does. Why blame the grizzly for being a grizzly? Isn't the hiker much more to blame for blundering into the grizzly in the grizzly's home? A brain and upright walking only go so far in survival. You have to know when to use both of them. If 80,000 years ago, Ugh the caveman didn't think, "There grizzly, grizzly bad, me run" and then beat feet, we wouldn't be here to complain about "wild" animals.

And besides, how smart are we if we can't keep a tiger in its cage in San Francisco? I have to say, that while I like zoos, I'm not entirely comfortable with the idea of them. Why take some poor old tiger/lion/bear or even mouse/frog/fish and coop them up in a cage - no matter how cool looking the cage. I don't blame the tiger for getting pissed and chowing down on some guy. If I was him, I'd get pissed too.

Labels: freedom

WWW Defined

Here's a simple, yet interesting example of just what the World Wide Web is capable of. I was inbetween edits at work when I saw a story about What's in your fridge? on the BBC, so I posted off a quick comment on their form. A few minutes later, one of their editors emailed me back asking if I could send a photo of our fridge to them. I called my wife and asked her to take a picture and email it to me so I could email it back to the BBC. A few minutes later my wife emailed me a couple of photos to pick from and I chose one and forwarded it back to the BBC editor. Just a short while later she sent me back the link for the article (the image below is the header).

So this 30-40 minutes of international colloboration involved my Taiwanese wife (who I met on the Internet after she moved to Canada), the midwestern Me and a BBC editor with an hispanic sounding name, posting info on an international story on the BBC Web site - is that cool or what?

Labels: computers, government, rave

Post Office Games

Here's an email I recently sent the US Post Office using their online form. Note, that I've changed the actual address and other names in the text below, but that otherwise it is identical to what I sent. It'll be surprising what (and even if) I ever get a reply.

---

There seems to be confusion about what my actual mailing address is.

The physical street sign on our street is Elmchip Cir

According to the 4#### Post Office (I talked with them by phone) the address is 1229 Elmchip Drive with no East or West and that the street sign is incorrect.

According to the local Road Commission official the correct address is 1229 Elmchip Circle and sign is correct.

The problem is that many online address forms use some type of validation for the address and there are some that won't accept "1229 E. Elmchip Circle" and some won't accept "1229 Elmchip" and others that need "1229 Elmchip Dr". Other online sites will also give a warning that "1229 E. Elmchip Cir" is not currently an address the Post Office delivers to although we do get mail there.

Can you folks check into this and find out what the actual correct address I'm supposed to use is?

---

As is normal with bureaucracies, both sides are positive they are correct and the other side is incorrect. And as usual, we're in the middle.

Oh, they did respond. They gave me an 800 number to call. I tried calling it, but was warned off and told there was a real long wait. I guess I'll try later. I guess this way the post office can say they fixed the problem and turned it back to the customer for further information.

Labels: computers, government, gripes

Winter Drivers

As part of my permanent rant mode about drivers, I'd like to talk about an SUV I saw driving down the road today. Yesterday, we finished a major snow storm of about 8-10". The major roads were pretty much cleared off by the time I left for work this morning, but the secondary roads are still the pits; which makes my very low VW New Beetle very unhappy. (And the original Beetles were such good snow machines too.) Ironically, as I pulled out onto are unplowed road this morning, I met the snow plow coming in.

The main road to work was pretty clear, but did have a little slush from the drifting snow of the evening. I came up behind an SUV driving about 10 mph under the speed limit. No big thing, I can understand the caution and stayed behind her for awhile. Finally I sped up a little and passed her as the road got better. When I passed I took a look at the cautious driver.

She had no lights on, was smoking a cigarette and talking on her cell phone, and had only uncovered her window leaving a pile of snow on her hood and roof. Does she really think that driving a little slower will counteract all the stupid stuff she was also doing? Granted, I've seen much worse. Cars with nothing more than a porthole cleared in the front window with all other windows covered in inches of snow; tailgating on icy, snow-covered roads; driving with no lights on during a dark and snowy night; the stupidity continues unabated.

You'd think that after living in Michigan, you'd come up with some snow common sense. It's not like Mississippi where you might see snow once a year - if that often. You couldn't possibly be surprised that it's snowy and slippery out - OK, I guess you can. They did interview people on TV last night who were totally clueless that a snow fall had been forecast for a week. Supposedly, these folks had gotten up on Sunday surprised at the 6 inches of snow. Please find these people a place on the Darwin Award rolls.

Labels: driving, gripes

Help? Line

Have you called a help line lately? Companies efforts to use computer voice recognition for their customer support just plain sucks - is that clear enough? I suppose it's OK if you happen to be asking about one of their choices, but for whatever reason, I rarely do. So that means Ihave to listen to tons of crappy messages about stuff I have no interest in.

And then when I finally do get a question I can answer, the computer doesn't understand. How many times have you heard, "I don't understand that, can you repeat it please?" at which time I repeat my phrase and the computer repeats its phrase. I slowly and clearly speak midwestern English with no speech impediment and little or no accent. You'd think the stupid computer would understand that.

And you know what really pisses me off? After all that fighting with menus and computers and you finally get a human, their accent is so thick you can barely understand them! I really don't have any strong prejudices against people who speak with a strong accent unless I can't understand them. I had a couple of university professors who spoke with such strong accents that I often had no idea what they were talking about. I've had the same experience with more than one customer service rep.

Come on companies, get it together. Get rid of the speech non-recognition software and at least go to keyboard controlled menus.If you have to out-source your calling center to some exotic country,please make sure the folks you hire can speak understandable English if needed. How about making a first choice menu for language preference.

Now, do you agree? Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't understand that, could you repeat that please?

Labels: computers, gripes, tech

The Moving Business

We recently had a move planned. Not a huge thing, but enough so that we decided to hire a moving company. I can't believe the range in estimates for this job. We talked to four companies and got four wildly different estimates. Three companies sent a rep out to the house to look things over and one company did the estimate via a phone call and email.

The first company estimated four people over 12 hours for a cost of about $2200. The second company estimated four people over 18 hours for $3000. The third company estimated four people for eight hours at $1300 and the last company (over the phone) estimated two people for six hours at $600. (The prices here are estimates as I remember them)

Hard to believe that all those folks were going to do the same project, isn't it? The $2200 company rep was personable and I got along with him fine. We had some similar interests and he seemed to know what he was talking about. The $3000 company rep was late for our appointment and rushed. I can't say he was very impressive. The third company ($1300) rep was the only woman and had a cold that day, but pulled out her handheld and made her estimate and then printed me out a copy. The last, $600 company asked how many rooms I had during the phone call and then sent me an email with the estimate.

I ended up choosing the $1300 estimate (based on hourly charges and the fact she was the only one who followed up the estimate with a letter) but asked for her to recheck the place since that estimate was so much shorter than the others. (I dropped the email company out of the running since it seemed to me to be so obviously out of the loop) She did return and say yes, only a day.

Came the day of the move and a big old Corrigan moving van pulled up right on time and four guys got out and started hauling. Three hours later they had everything moved out (we pre-packed) and they said they'd meet us at our new place at 1230-1300 hrs. Came 1240, and there they were and started hauling all over again. They finished in just under eight hours. Best of all, it seems like nothing was damaged and nothing was missing and they were under the estimate.

If you're looking for a mover in the Saginaw area, you ought to try Corrigan Moving, 989.667.9000. Obviously, your results may be different from mine, but I'm really happy with their work.

Labels: gripes, rave

BBC

As you probably know, just check out the links on the right, I read (is that red or reed the BBC News pretty often. There was a placement on their website that I thought was interesting. See the attached screenshot. That isn't retouched in anyway. The two on top just happened to be above the two mentioned below. Both being excellent standouts by the way. :-)

Labels: celebs

Apple vrs. PC

Why does your Apple run better than a similar PC? While some will argue this statement, in general, it does seem to be true - sort of, anyway.

But why? Here's probably the biggest reason. Right now, I'm typing this on a Microsoft Windows PC using a Dell keyboard with a Logitech mouse running on a Dell computer loaded with how knows what all. At home I have a Toshiba, a Dell and an IBM Notebook all running Windows. And of course, I have packed into them stuff bought from all over the place made by who knows all companies.

On the other hand, I also use Apple OSX running on an Apple iMac and MacBook. The buttoned-down corporate ogre Microsoft has to make software that will run on just about anything this side of two cans and a string. And heaven forbid their latest overhaul of the OS doesn't run a program that is probably older than most of the engineers writing the new OS. Whereas Apple just changes from 10.4.x to 10.5; and some older stuff doesn't run now, but that seems to be OK. And don't forget, the Apple stuff only has to run on Apple stuff.

Oh, and we just moved. The simple Apple isn't so... I just have a pretty plain iMac running. But, I still have cables from the iMac to a USB hub and cables to the DSL modem via the Airport, and to the printer and to the portable hard drive and to the backup hard drive along with the Apple mouse and Apple keyboard -- oh, and I forgot the speakers. Hee, hee... just a simple iMac setup.

Labels: apple, computers

DUI

Another actor bites the bullet with a DUI and this time faces some serious jail time. Kiefer Sutherland's 24 hours has been extended into 48 days and Daniel Baldwin has a warrant put out on him. And actors from Lost seem to make DUIs part of the script. What bugs me is that people seem to get extra pissed when this happens.

Actors are people too. Driving while impaired is a lot more common than the police blotter would lead you to believe. Looking back on my childhood so many years ago, I hesitate to count the number of times I might have allegedly been driving under conditions that may or may have not been considered under the influence. Not that I would ever do something like that. (Is that phrase legally wishy-washy enough to get by?)

The biggest problem is that Joe Smith gets busted and it's filed on page 6 under Metro News while when Mel Gibson gets busted it's front page news on every manner of media known to man. Just think about how many times you've left a restaurant after a couple glasses wine and after dinner drink? Can you honestly say you weren't over the limit? You probably made it home this time, but sooner or later you're going to pay for the alcohol high. If we're lucky, you'll just wrap your car and yourself around a tree. If we're unlucky, you'll take some of us with you.

Labels: driving, food, gripes

Bad Joke

For a lack of anything better, I thought I'd copy this joke I read in Night Fall a book by Nelson Demille:

So, Jeffrey Dahmer asks his mother over for lunch, and she's eating and says, "Jeffrey, I don't like your friends." an he says, "Well, then, just eat the vegetables."

Hey, I didn't write it, I just copied it...


Night Fall

Labels: crime, food