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Wow, Microsoft has problems!

September 23, 2010

It’s been so long since I’ve developed on the Microsoft stack, it comes as something of a surprise that their tools are so dang hard to install.
I want to use their HealthVault SDK. Well, it requires Visual Studio. Not, apparently, any of the free versions (though they don’t say that), but the real one. The [...]

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Great Amazon.com customer service experience

September 20, 2010

Wow.
I was watching the new episode of “Mad Men” on my Roku, purchased digitally via Amazon. About 12 minutes in, the show cut out, with a message to call Amazon customer service. Which I did. After about one ring, I got the recorded message that a human would be with me shortly.
And a human was [...]

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Comcast customer service – no sense of irony

September 5, 2010

I called Comcast customer service because my bandwidth had dropped to some 70 bytes / second.
While I was on hold, they play the recording that says: “Hate your slow internet?” Um, yes. But their solution was to sign up for Comcast high-speed internet.

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Wow, a misleading chart!

September 2, 2010

You’d think that in this era that is so much more aware of the perils of presenting misleading charts, you wouldn’t see one that has the 50% mark at other than half-way across the display. But here it is:

(source: http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/02/distimo-july-2010-2/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content=Google+Reader)

Would it have been so hard to have the width indicate the entire market? To be [...]

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Best Books about Rock and Roll

August 28, 2010

So with this move to St. Paul, Minnesota, and the requisite unpacking, I’ve had the opportunity to review the various books about rock and roll I’ve acquired over the years.
Here are the ones I consider personal favorites (and I’ll leave out the Guralnicks, Marcuses, etc., etc.). Maybe not actually the best, but I’ll leave the [...]

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New Kindle DX annoyances

July 2, 2010

I just don’t get it. Amazon has introduced the new Kindle DX. I have a Kindle DX and use it. It’s pretty great. I’ve kept my oath for some months now not to buy another printed book, so my DX and the library have been wonderful helps.
But the new DX . . . Greater contrast [...]

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Running the gem doc server at startup on OS/X

June 18, 2010

I’ve been traveling a fair bit lately, and have occasionally had spotty Internet access. So my access to documentation for gems and whatnot has been limited.
It would be nice to have all of my gem documentation available locally. But I’m lazy. I don’t want to be typing “gem server” all the time.
So here’s what you [...]

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Bruegger’s free wifi terms of service — Usenet?

June 15, 2010

Bruegger’s (in Porter Sq., Cambridge, at least) has some words regarding Usenet (!) in their free wifi terms of service:

Usenet News in Particular.
With respect to Usenet news, you understand that we are providing you with unfiltered access to Usenet. You should be aware that we cannot, nor do we try to, control the content available [...]

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ATT still hasn’t figured out what business it’s in

June 9, 2010

It is comical to me when I read the fine print regarding ATT’s data plans for the iPhone. They are so dedicated to a “connection” model for billing, that they just can’t understand that they sell bytes.
In the olden days, you paid for a land line connection, and could make all of the calls you [...]

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