Modem Woes

The Sunday before last I noticed that my Kindle was not connecting to the internet via my WAP. I investigated and YIKES! My modem was dead!

I called AT&T tech support and arranged to have a new modem overnighted to me. Since I suspected the modem's power supply might be the failing component, I ordered a new one from Amazon. In the meantime I hooked up an old DSL modem I had in my closet. It worked like a champ. I'm still using it for now actually.

When the power supply arrived I tested my modem with and, yes, my modem was alive.

So... now I have 3 functional DSL modems and am out $100+ for the new modem.

But you know... whatever it takes to be online. Am I right?

Knee-Capping The Client

If you're not interested in office drama, this story will not interest you. Move along.

All names have been changed or omitted to protect... me. If you think you know who I'm talking about... you don't. This may or may not be in reference to a company of which I currently may or may not be an employee.

For the past 10 or so months I've been working on a project that was estimated to take 200 hours. It has gone way beyond that. Something in the range of 500 hours at least. I will say that I and, by extension, the company at which I may or may not be an employee, has gained technical experience that will be useful and profitable in the years to come.

The project was underestimated, yes, but the client has been given free rein to expand the scope of the project ad infinitum. I've been complaining for months now in staff meetings that the client was asking for "free" work completely outside the scope of the original specs document. I was told that I was absolutely correct, but nobody told the client. Thus the client continued to contact me (the programmer) directly to ask for free enhancements to his web site.

Finally, 2 weeks ago the client was presented with an invoice for work done. One week ago the client refused to pay claiming unmet requirements.

At long last the company owners are taking this seriously. They've told the client that his weekly meetings with me will come to an end this coming Wednesday. At the end of the meeting on Wednesday, he will be presented with (again) the invoice for the project and a second invoice for additional work requested.

I have a lot on my plate these days. It gives me great satisfaction to know that my bosses are standing behind me in this quest to stonewall a client who has been getting work for free.

Yeah. Happy dance.

Net-Fux

I do have a major gripe with Netflix. I also have a couple of good things to say about them. First, some background.

I don't have cable TV. I have lots of DVDs, but it's a lame financial model to purchase the DVD of every movie that you think you might like. I do have a Kindle Fire and I subscribe to Amazon Prime. Amazon lets me stream a fairly good selection of movies and TV shows for free--included with my Prime subscription. There are some gaps--particularly movies that are not "mainstream" and black-and-white movies.

I decided to check out Netflix streaming. The fee of $8 a month seemed reasonable, assuming that the selection was good. I did not discover a way to preview the titles in their streaming catalog so I just bit for the 30-day free trial.

Watching a movie on Netflix streaming is a very pleasant experience. Amazon is good, but Netflix is really good. In general, the Netflix streaming just worked the way you'd want it to. Resuming a movie was seamless.

Another thing I'll say in Netflix's favor is that their recommendation of movies is actually pretty good. I know I've been frustrated by Amazon's book recommendations continuously hyping Harry Potter to me. I'm like, Thanks, I'm sure it's a quality series, but I'm just not interested! Amazon never did get the hint.

Okay, now for the slams... and they are devastating.

Netflix's streaming selection is really pretty lame. If you're only interested in well-known, mainstream movies, Netflix might suit you fine. If you're interested in quirky cult classics or even classic black-and-white titles, Netflix Streaming has little to offer.

And you know, it's not even such a problem that Netflix Streaming has a weak catalog. The bigger problem is that if they don't have what you're looking for, they suggest a pile of unrelated crap that they expect you to weed through.

Case in point: I search for "Out of the Past"--in quotes. I'm looking for a specific film noir movie. Turns out (I think) that Netflix doesn't have it available for streaming. But they don't give me a simple "Not Found" message. No, they give me 340 pages of unrelated crap including (hello) Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet the Wolfman. Do they think I'm an idiot? Do they think I'm going to pore through 340 pages of junk when I provided them with an exact title and it was not returned on the first page of search results?

Perhaps if I were willing to use their DVD-by-Mail service, the title selection would be more reasonable. Given that their streaming selection is so lame and given that their search algorithm is crap and (in my case) given that I already subscribe to Amazon Prime, I think there is little chance that I'll be sending them $8 a month for the privilege of accessing their services. I still have 3 weeks on my trial so I may yet change my mind. Yeah, right.

A 1-Click Mishap at Amazon

I guess it had to happen sooner or later. Last night as I was preparing to watch an episode of Dr. Who streamed from Amazon, I accidentally clicked on a link that instantly purchased a license for said episode. I was blind-sided because I knew that I had the right to stream the episode by virtue of my $79-per-year subscription to Amazon Prime. To me, it didn't make any sense that Amazon would offer to let me watch a show for $1.99 when I had already paid for the privilege of watching it.

What really frustrated me though were my fruitless efforts to back out of my mistake. With most 1-Click purchases, you can cancel the order for any reason prior to the order being shipped. It turns out that 1-click purchases of digital media are irreversible. I find this policy absurd and indefensible. I spent maybe 20 minutes poking around on Amazon's web site trying to find a usable "Contact Us" page. There were plenty of FAQs and Help pages, but their contact information was very well hidden. I finally discovered a usable page via Google search.

Amazon did reverse the charge after warning me that 1-Click purchases of digital media are non-refundable.

I like the convenience of 1-Click purchasing, especially when shopping on a Kindle or my Droid. I always assumed that I had a safety net if I accidentally clicked a purchase link. Now that I know this is not true, I've disabled 1-Click on all devices. Curiously, the "Buy now with 1-Click" buttons still appear.

Blog Visibility -- An Occasional Problem

Sometimes I feel like blogging about things that have occurred in my workplace. Uh... can't do it on Blogger.com because all of my blog entries are potentially viewable by anyone on the internet. This is not a bad thing when I'm blogging about, say, a recipe. When I'm blogging about an unpleasant disagreement with my boss... well, that's another thing. And if the date-time stamp indicates that I posted the entry in the middle of a work day? I don't do this habitually, but yes, it has happened on a slow day.

In the interest of stress-free blogging I will be looking into creating a second blog that I would prefer to be visible only to my known friends. I've come across some comments (which may be outdated) that suggest that such a scenario is possible on Blogger.com. If I can make this work and if I can invite all my current followers, please don't get freaked out by an email inviting you to follow such-and-such a new blog.

Yeah. And Merry Christmas. Happy Chanukah.

Afraid

 

Blogger is pretty cool. It's nice. It's free. But it's not... um... secure.

Everything I post here is basically visible to the whole g-d damned world. That's not a bad thing if I'm posting, say, recipes. If I'm posting personal baggage that I would prefer only be seen my my friends... this is not the soapbox I am looking for.

I could post such personal outpourings on Facebook or Google. Well, their formatting options SUCK BIG DONKEY DONGS, to put it mildly. Available options... constricting... hard... to breathe....

Since I do web stuph for a living and I've registered a few domain names in my time, I could publish a blog of my own design. I could control access to the blog via logins. This might be the only truly secure solution to my quandary. Would people want to have to enter yet another ID and password to view some dork's pop-capped spittle? Cookies--I could save the login for a while so visitors wouldn't have to log in every damned time! (What about the rights of that little girl! Give me a break--I'm brainstorming.)

Maybe. Maybe that would be okay. I'm not sure.

One thing I know is this: There are precious few people I've blocked on Facebook, Twitter, and GPlus. Precious damned few. But, for the love of Jebus, I do not want those people snooping around my blog. There are some freaky freaks out there and to the extent possible, I'd like to nip their damned stalking in the bud. Nip it in the bud, I say!

It's a little more trouble to set up a secure blog than it is to just slipstream good old Google, but the benefits might outweigh the effort.

The reader will be kept informed of my progress on this issue.

A Slight Kindle Problem

I love my Kindle! I'm currently reading H. P. Lovecraft's short stories during my lunch breaks. The Kindle is lightweight, attractive, easy to use, and easy on the eyes.

There is one design flaw, however. To move the cursor, you press on the tiny edges of a square cursor movement button. I use my thumbnail to do this. It could be easier, but that's not my complaint. Closely below the Down Arrow edge of the cursor button is a Back key. It turns out that it's very easy to accidentally press the Back key while moving the cursor down--I've done it 3 times now. If you're in the middle of a book, this might pop you back to the list of books on the Kindle. To get back to the page you were reading, you just press the Forward key, right? Surprise! There is no Forward key!

To get back to your place in the book, you can use a Go To feature and specify a location code, which is similar to a page number. If you recognize that this puts you on text you've read recently, you can page forward until you find your place. I've started placing a bookmark on the page I'm on when I quit reading for the day. This helps, but it clutters up your list of notes and bookmarks.

Others have suggested (and I agree) that Amazon should change the Kindle software to recognize Alt+Back as "Forward". This would neatly solve the problem without a physical change.

If you have a Kindle 3 and have run into the Back key problem, please drop a note to kindle-feedback@Amazon.com and suggest that they implement the Alt+Back solution.

There's "Smoke-Free" And Then There's... Not

I hate conflict. Seriously. I avoid it whenever I can, but sometimes I can't.

One of those times was yesterday. My house is just north of a day care center. They've been good neighbors, but some of their employees have been using my driveway as a smoking commons while I'm at work. I come home to find cigarette butts in splotches of 2 around the concrete.

The day care center has a policy that their staff may not smoke anywhere on their premises. It's unhealthy for the kids and it looks bad to parents to see staffers sucking on their smokes. On the other hand, that places an unfair burden on adjacent property owners. I really don't mind people smoking in my yard. I only mind them tossing their litter on the ground when they're done. I think the proper thing for a company to do in those circumstances would be to require employees to smoke in their cars. I know that could still be off-putting to parents, but the day care center doesn't have the right to define usage policies for neighboring properties.

Yesterday, after coming home from a workday filled with trivial stress, I found that the number of cigarette butts was growing exponentially. I walked next door to the day care center and asked to speak to one of the owners. The lady who opened the door for me took me into her office and heard my complaint. She understood and said she'd take care of it.

I hope my direct approach has led to a problem solved. I suspect that the owner is going to tell her staffers to smoke in the parking lot of the office buildings on the other side of the day care center. As long as my driveway isn't being trashed up, I'm not going to complain.