Unruly Behavior

Ok,

One of our law firms merged with antoher law firm. As is the usual case in this type of sitaution, one firm becomes the controlling firm, and their standards get put in place.

Tonight was the night to migrate to the new firm's computer systems. This is something that we have been trying to make happen for a week, but the idiots on the other end could not get a simple T3 up and running for the WAN. Houston to San Francisco, no big deal, but they are using a company called Yipes! to do the WAN, and it took nearly fourteen days for them to get the circuit up and running.

Now they are managing to take a migration of 12 workstations that should have taken about an hour and stretchign it out to four and a half hours now, with no end in sight.

They haven't taken down the old DHCP server or DNS, and that is causing problems. Their GPOs are not in force properly, so users are not getting their proper settings. The Login script is broken and does not map two of the required drives.

The site here has a Minolta QMS magicolor 2200 DeskLaser printer. They said they could not find a driver for over two hours. I brought up Internet Explorer and typed in http://www.minolta.com/ and even though I initially got an error, was able to download the driver in under five minutes.

It's now 9:15 PM, and we have one user that needs to run a local copy of Quick Books, but they won't make her a Local Administrator. So we either have to convice the dumb asses to make her the Local Administrator, or edit like fifty registry keys. These guys are retarded.

The only good part of the evening is that I got some free pizza.

Migrations suck.

Took this cool photo of my Odometer yesterday morning, it reads 123456. Yep, I'm a dork.

I'm on hold with Dell Support this morning.

Dell recently implemented a Voice Activated system when you call for support.

So far, they are 0 for 6 in connecting me to the appropriate technician for the product on which I am calling.

Even a broken clock is right twice a day. Dell can't even accidentally get me connected to the right tech in six tries.

I've called for support on:

Dell Printer
Dell Dimension
Dell Latitude
Dell JukeBox
Dell Dimension
Dell Precision Workstation

I have just been informed by the disembodied voice that I am in the Dell Dimension Queue, and I should hang up and try again. Yeah, right, I'm going to get a human on the phone and have them transfer me to the correct queue.

The system has a failed CD-RW drive. This is a $20 retail part. I spent about 15 minutes troubleshooting it with the customer on Friday. I'll bet that Dell makes me spend 30 minutes with their tech before sending me a new one. Then it will take about 15 minutes to swap out the drive when it arrives.

Our billing for the job? Probably around $100.00. To get a warranty part replaced for free. I don't know why anyone buys extended warranties for Dell products other than servers. By the time you invest the required time to get a part from them, 9 out of 10 times, it would have been less expensive to just buy a new part and install it yourself. It would also be faster.

Ok, this just go better:

I'm on hold with Dell, listening to the incessant disembodied voice, when I hear the following, "Dell does not install, nor support, spyware or virus software on your computer."

Do they really have to tell people this? "Hi, I'm having trouble with my virus, it's not sending out enough copies of itself, or rebooting the computer as often as the code requires. What did I do wrong when I installed it?"

Or, "Yes, my social security and bank information has only gone to half the crooks in the world, I need to hurry up and get it to all of them."

And even better:

After being on hold for an eternity, I finally get through to a human who informs me that Dell Workstaions have a special phone support number, 800-456-3355, instead of the main number, and they can transfer me to this number. I got transferred, and now I am on hold again. One improvement to this Queue: Instead of the disembodied voice, I am getting some nice classical music.

Or are you just happy to see me?

These could be the ultimate geek clothes, but they are pretty pricy. I can get a pair of Dockers for $25 or less on sale. $80 for pants is pretty steep.

Still a cool concept though.

SCOTTEVEST [SeV] - Technology Enabled Clothing

Movie Theater owners are firing back at the studios that is the product (movies) not the venue (theaters) that is keeping people at home watching movies on DVD instead of going out.

While I agree that a lot of what is out there now is crap, it has always been crap. Here are the reasons I don't go to the theater very often any more.

1. Cell Phones. I can't tell you the last time I saw a movie without hearing a cellphone ring, or seeing one light up in the theater.

2. People Talk. I've mentioned it here before, and I will tell people in no uncertain terms to shut up during the movie. I shouldn't have to do this, but I will if needed.

3. Commercials. I just paid betwen $5 and $9 and now you hold me captive and show a bunch of commercials. I'll avoid going.

4. Pricing. It costs my wife and I $10-$18 for tickets. I got a DVD of Clay Pigeons and another DVD of Suan Of The Dead for $16.95 last week. Two movies for the cost of going to see one, and I can watch them when I want again.

5. Quality of presentation. My house sounds better, and my TV often looks better. One of the criteria that we have now for going to the movies is, 'Will it look any better or sound any better, than at home?' If the answer is 'No,' then we don't go to the show.

6. Concessions pricing. At the local Cinemark, it costs $20 for two large sodas, a large popcorn and two hot dogs. At the supermarket, I can buy 2 12 packs of Soda, a pack of 8 hot dogs, 8 buns, and a box of microwave popcorn for about $10 if I shop sales and use coupons. Their pricing again is outrageous, so why go there?

In conclusion: If you aren't giving me better value, a better experience or a better presentation, why should I come to your venue?

Movie theater owners fire back at studios

Ok, we have a lot of Media to store, about 800 CDs of music and over 300 DVDs.

So on July 31st, after getting their catalog in the mail, we trekked off to Ikea in Houston to get some storage solutions.

For our CD's we chose an Ivar system, composed of (2) end pieces, (2) shelves, and (5) CD Multimedia Storage Shelves.

Upon arriving home, we discovered that one of the end pieces was improperly manufactured. So I took it back the next day to exchange it for a new one.

I've not got 160 miles of driving into this storage rack. I started putting in the Multimedia Shelves, only to discover that one of them didn't come with any hardware.

Ok, I'm not driving all the way back there for two screws. But of course, these are not screws that I can just get at the hardware store. So I went to their website the next day and called their customer service.

Finally got to talk to a person, they will send me the screws.

Today, nearly 3 weeks later, I get a call from Ikea, they tell me that they are not going to send me the screws because I bought the items at a "Franchise" store, and they are not responsible for customer service. I will have to contact the Houston store directly, but they can transfer me to that store.

Ok, so I get transferred to Houston. Takes about 10 minutes to get someone on the line. I explain the problem, and read them the item number off the receipt, and say I would like them to send me my two screws.

I am then informed that they cannot look up items by the item numbers on the receipt, as that is not a valid number for this process. (I'm thinking to myself that Sweedish logic is really bad at this point.) She then proceeds to look up a part that comes with about 25 pieces of hardware and wants to know which of the two screws I need for this. So I explained again that what I want are the only two screws that were supposed to come with my purchase.

She went to look again and could not find the right screws. She proceeds to ask me to look it up in the owner's manual. I let her know that I was at work and did not carry the owner's manual for furniture I purchase with me each place I got. Further that since they are looking at a greater than 20% failure rate for parts that they sold me, I'm looking for a little more from customer service than to find it myself.

Back on hold. Finally she comes back and wants to know the tracking number on my receipt and my date of purchase. Back on hold. Finally she comes back and has figured out what parts I need, when would I like to pick them up at the store?

I informed her that they would be shipped to me, as I live about 40 miles from the store, and that 80 miles with of gas at current prices would be about $7.50, and unless they were willing to pay me for my third trip to the store for a single purchase, they would mail them.

She then took my name and address and said that they would ship tomorrow.

I'm not holding my breath, and I have till 9/14/2005 to return the shelf. If I don't have the screws by Wednesday, it is going back.

Oh, the DVD racks that I got look great and I'm very pleased with them.

IKEA | IKEA Houston

Saw this over at Jake's.

I'm not a huge Roger Ebert fan. (Even though he is huge.)

But this is one more movie that goes to prove Hollywood is clueless when complaining about lower movie ticket sales.

Mr. Schneider, your movie sucks.

Pop artist Kinky Friedman is running for Governor of Texas this year.

Our current governor, Rick Perry, has been ineffective and unable to lead for the entire time he has been in office.

Oh, and I got a survey and request for a campaign donation from Rick Perry in the mail, won't that be fun to fill out this week?

It's time for change. And what better change than Kinky?

Vote for Kinky, why the hell not.

My wife made fun of me when I insisted that we run CAT-5 everywhere in the house, even the kitchen. Now I can have a toaster with it's own web page! Maybe I can integrate a web cam and catch it early when the toaster makes the slice that looks like Jesus or Elvis.

Technologic Systems TS-7200 SBC uses NetBSD OS to control Toaster

Ok, two years ago tonight I went to the hospital with what I thought was a kidney stone.

Next thing I remember is waking up in September. Damn coma.

My wife was told twice to make plans for what to do with my remains. But she never gave up hope, and I love her for that.

So, remember, no matter how bad you think the odds might be, you can get through anything.

I lost 40 pounds in 30 days on the coma diet!

Sometimes, it's nice to read a buddy's blog, like Jake's, and find out that I'm not the only one that gets the totally random, screwed up stuff heading in their direction.

That Was Random

Looks like Korea is taking a proactive stance in stopping famine in their country. Anyone out there for General Joes Schnauzer?

S Korea unveils first dog clone

Yeah,

I didn't fail 70-292 three times with scores of 500, 484 and 628, I'm just experiencing "Deferred Success", and right now I have to wait 12 more days before I can achieve this success that has been deferred because Microsoft has a 14 day waiting period for retakes #3 and higher.

Plenty of time to study, the test guide I downloaded Sunday afternoon is only 1,145 pages!

Education | Teachers say no-one should 'fail'