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I started writing this, but was too pissed off to frame a coherent post. With a day's remove, I can complete it. Tech support stupidity follows.
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What we did this weekend
Sep. 8th, 2024 05:07 pmWe flew to San Diego for a quick getaway. I know we went to Italy a few months ago, but this was a somewhat spur-of-the-moment weekend vacation.
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Bunch of Savages in This Town
Mar. 18th, 2024 07:06 amThe fuzzy upstairs neighbor patched our city-tagged sidewalk crack yesterday, which they insist is more than ten square feet. It wasn't even ten linear feet long and is at most 1/8" wide in a couple places. Unfortunately, we'll probably still have to still pay an extortion tax (i.e. permit and inspection). He did a nice job. Continued unfortunately, some jerkwaffle thought it was funny to stomp all over it and leave tread prints in the concrete fill. (It was obviously quite deliberate.) We brushed some of it away and may be able to re-fill over some of the rest, but probably can't get rid of all the urban marking.
The clock alarm did its usual morning thing and I could not turn the damn thing off. That's when I realized I had dreamed it and it was only 2:30. Eff off, brain.
The clock alarm did its usual morning thing and I could not turn the damn thing off. That's when I realized I had dreamed it and it was only 2:30. Eff off, brain.
(no subject)
Jun. 28th, 2023 09:52 amI have never had a great tolerance for stupidity. Watching Unstable I kept commenting about how Rob Lowe's character wasn't "quirky yet brilliant", he was an overly-entitled genius who needed a smackdown and a leash to reach his potential. Even moreso, Fred Armisen's needy and equally-entitled character made me want to punch him in the face repeatedly.
(Also, companies, and boards of directors, don't work the way that this show has them. Sudden Nobel Prize-worthy breakthroughs aren't required for a completely unsuitable CEO to keep his job. The CEO can't fire a board member. If he can, because he owns the company, then he's not at risk of losing his job because he owns the company. And that guy shouldn't be the CEO at all, he should be the Chief Scientist. Put someone competent in charge to run the firm - which they have, as one of the main characters who apparently has no significant duties given the script has her running after the CEO all the time - and let the science guy Do Science where he can actually accomplish things.)
I realized that I hate these kind of characters when I watched What About Bob? in college. My friends thought it was hilarious, but I sympathized with Richard Dreyfuss and equally wanted to kill Bill Murray's character.
(Also, companies, and boards of directors, don't work the way that this show has them. Sudden Nobel Prize-worthy breakthroughs aren't required for a completely unsuitable CEO to keep his job. The CEO can't fire a board member. If he can, because he owns the company, then he's not at risk of losing his job because he owns the company. And that guy shouldn't be the CEO at all, he should be the Chief Scientist. Put someone competent in charge to run the firm - which they have, as one of the main characters who apparently has no significant duties given the script has her running after the CEO all the time - and let the science guy Do Science where he can actually accomplish things.)
I realized that I hate these kind of characters when I watched What About Bob? in college. My friends thought it was hilarious, but I sympathized with Richard Dreyfuss and equally wanted to kill Bill Murray's character.
"Is this a fucking joke?"
Jun. 16th, 2023 08:55 amI am disappointed to see the Athletics leave, but only as a baseball fan. As a Bay Area resident, I am thrilled that Oakland did not choose to pony up billions of taxpayer funds for a miserly billionaire team owner who does nothing for the community. (They're still paying off the ill-advised Al Davis ransom note. And how did that turn out for them?)
Las Vegas, Fisher is your problem now.
Las Vegas, Fisher is your problem now.
A Municipal Government Parable.
Jan. 11th, 2023 12:56 pmThe recent and current drenching storms have reminded me of the saga of San Francisco bus stop shelters from about ten years ago. Sadly, it's a good parable of how SF government works. Or more correctly, doesn't.
Initially the plan was for basic enclosures: three walls and a roof, to keep sun and rain off people while they waited for the bus. But then various supervisors, agencies, etc swooped in and demanded that they design custom shelters "to uniquely suit San Francisco's unique needs." Many of these decisions are, on their own, for laudable reasons. Some are flat-out stupid.
First, the back wall had to be largely eliminated so that wheelchairs "wouldn't lose dignity by having to back in."
Then they decided to make all the walls glass, so that people's views weren't obstructed.
Then somebody decided that they had to make the shelters public art, so that the sidewalks weren't crowded with utilitarian boxes. The winning pitch made the roof wavy red plastic curves, supposedly to look like a seismograph reading.
How did all these work out? The glass walls all get smashed, to the point that the agency isn't bothering to repair them anymore. The art roof design meant that there were multiple gaps between the curves and the top of the walls. What we have are two side walls (often just frames because the glass is smashed), no back wall, and a roof with sizeable gaps. We have bus shelters that expensively fail to perform their most basic function: sheltering people from sun and rain while waiting for the bus.
This has sadly repeated itself multiple times, most recently with our $20k trash can fiasco. All too often, they get wrapped up in process and lose sight of the desired outcome - which is to solve a problem.
And we all pay the price.
Initially the plan was for basic enclosures: three walls and a roof, to keep sun and rain off people while they waited for the bus. But then various supervisors, agencies, etc swooped in and demanded that they design custom shelters "to uniquely suit San Francisco's unique needs." Many of these decisions are, on their own, for laudable reasons. Some are flat-out stupid.
First, the back wall had to be largely eliminated so that wheelchairs "wouldn't lose dignity by having to back in."
Then they decided to make all the walls glass, so that people's views weren't obstructed.
Then somebody decided that they had to make the shelters public art, so that the sidewalks weren't crowded with utilitarian boxes. The winning pitch made the roof wavy red plastic curves, supposedly to look like a seismograph reading.
How did all these work out? The glass walls all get smashed, to the point that the agency isn't bothering to repair them anymore. The art roof design meant that there were multiple gaps between the curves and the top of the walls. What we have are two side walls (often just frames because the glass is smashed), no back wall, and a roof with sizeable gaps. We have bus shelters that expensively fail to perform their most basic function: sheltering people from sun and rain while waiting for the bus.
This has sadly repeated itself multiple times, most recently with our $20k trash can fiasco. All too often, they get wrapped up in process and lose sight of the desired outcome - which is to solve a problem.
And we all pay the price.
(no subject)
Apr. 14th, 2021 11:52 amI borrow a lot of books from our public library. I know how the system works and in some cases better than the librarians. When a book goes on hold, it updates with "in transit" to say it's being delivered to my branch. When they have it in, the book status changes to "ready for pickup". Pretty self-explanatory. Transit times are usually 1-2 days, which makes sense for van delivery within the city.
So when three books were stuck on "in transit" for two weeks (!) I contacted an online chat-librarian. He/she gave me a bullshit answer that the books were still on order - that local branches might have not processed the books yet. Note: that is what the "on order" status is for. Also, that is bullshit because those books have already been previously checked out, so I know they aren't actually on order.
I wanted to give the librarian-bot a really withering dose of sarcasm about the meaning of statuses, but refrained because really, what good would it do? I just want books to read.
So when three books were stuck on "in transit" for two weeks (!) I contacted an online chat-librarian. He/she gave me a bullshit answer that the books were still on order - that local branches might have not processed the books yet. Note: that is what the "on order" status is for. Also, that is bullshit because those books have already been previously checked out, so I know they aren't actually on order.
I wanted to give the librarian-bot a really withering dose of sarcasm about the meaning of statuses, but refrained because really, what good would it do? I just want books to read.
A few random things
Nov. 29th, 2018 08:53 amYesterday started as a delivery fail day. The Wall St Journal wasn't delivered (apparently their error, not the carrier). I missed one bus by about 15 seconds, so I walked to the other bus line. Where I waited for 15 minutes, watching the late bus on the first line go by. I got into work about ten minutes late. No one really cares, but I try to set a good example.
Wednesday is our normal "work pays for lunch" day. One of the partners calls it a free lunch, but 1) there's no such thing; 2) it's company-paid, not free. I look at our books; there's a difference. Said same partner is not an adventurous eater: he's in his 70s and grew up in the Midwest. He eats the exact same thing for lunch every day. So he always defaults to doing lunch at the same place, which is adequate - but it has a limited menu and so I also end up ordering the same thing, because every time I've branched out I've regretted it. I've been trying to enforce changing things around, but it's resulted in him picking a separate place to go each time. That's not what I'm trying to accomplish...
Instead of that usual sandwich lunch, we went out to a sit-down restaurant. We had two birthdays this month as the excuse. I was in a meeting, so I didn't have any input - and so the partner made reservations at a nice local place. Sadly, it's the same sit-down place we've been to the last four times we've gone out. I made a couple mildly snarky remarks about memorizing the menu and I may have made the point. We're in the financial district; we don't lack for choices.
Wednesday is our normal "work pays for lunch" day. One of the partners calls it a free lunch, but 1) there's no such thing; 2) it's company-paid, not free. I look at our books; there's a difference. Said same partner is not an adventurous eater: he's in his 70s and grew up in the Midwest. He eats the exact same thing for lunch every day. So he always defaults to doing lunch at the same place, which is adequate - but it has a limited menu and so I also end up ordering the same thing, because every time I've branched out I've regretted it. I've been trying to enforce changing things around, but it's resulted in him picking a separate place to go each time. That's not what I'm trying to accomplish...
Instead of that usual sandwich lunch, we went out to a sit-down restaurant. We had two birthdays this month as the excuse. I was in a meeting, so I didn't have any input - and so the partner made reservations at a nice local place. Sadly, it's the same sit-down place we've been to the last four times we've gone out. I made a couple mildly snarky remarks about memorizing the menu and I may have made the point. We're in the financial district; we don't lack for choices.
(no subject)
Feb. 8th, 2018 07:58 amThe upstairs neighbors' internet has been out all week. A tech finally showed up yesterday.
He didn't fix their problem. He did, however, kill our internet. And denied that it was his fault.
He didn't fix their problem. He did, however, kill our internet. And denied that it was his fault.
Random things with a common connection
Jun. 16th, 2016 07:28 amI had dinner last night with a friend who I hadn't seen in a couple years. Good pizza and chattage. It meant I got home around 10 PM, and I'm feeling that lack of sleep today. But I don't do this sort of thing very often and it was good to catch up.
The pizza was at a small chain called Blue Line. It's got an elevated train as its logo. I overheard the couple next to us asking each other if it was a BART train. Yes, that's right -- it has nothing to do with serving Chicago-style deep-dish pizza and the Blue Line being a Chicago train. Nope. BART's trains were originally blue with red accents (hence the original name, "Blue And Red Trains") and this is a homage to that forgotten bit of Bay Area history.
...I forbore to interject this into their conversation in a withering tone, but it was a close thing. Though I did not manage to forestall an eyeroll.
I had an odd dream that I, unusually, remembered: civilization was broken because the structure of the universe had been irreparably damaged by time travel. Apparently traveling to the future caused time rips or something, but because civilization had collapsed due to these rips, we made very short time trips to the future to collect resources so we could muddle along. Of course, the daughter of the protagonist, feeling like she could be a hero, made a long trip to the future to collect a huge amount of resources... and this was the cause and reason that the time rips had broken the structure of the universe. Closed loop. Which is how I like my time travel plots, so it's nice that my subconscious cooperated.
The pizza was at a small chain called Blue Line. It's got an elevated train as its logo. I overheard the couple next to us asking each other if it was a BART train. Yes, that's right -- it has nothing to do with serving Chicago-style deep-dish pizza and the Blue Line being a Chicago train. Nope. BART's trains were originally blue with red accents (hence the original name, "Blue And Red Trains") and this is a homage to that forgotten bit of Bay Area history.
...I forbore to interject this into their conversation in a withering tone, but it was a close thing. Though I did not manage to forestall an eyeroll.
I had an odd dream that I, unusually, remembered: civilization was broken because the structure of the universe had been irreparably damaged by time travel. Apparently traveling to the future caused time rips or something, but because civilization had collapsed due to these rips, we made very short time trips to the future to collect resources so we could muddle along. Of course, the daughter of the protagonist, feeling like she could be a hero, made a long trip to the future to collect a huge amount of resources... and this was the cause and reason that the time rips had broken the structure of the universe. Closed loop. Which is how I like my time travel plots, so it's nice that my subconscious cooperated.
My dad gave me a B&N virtual gift card to download things to my Nook. My dad gave us a Nook some years back, which we promptly returned for actual books. I do have an iPad from work now; occasionally I download books from the library, but I feel no need to pay money for things I plan to read once (even electronically). I have a conference I am attending in Florida in February, and I thought hey - there are a couple e-books I wanted to read, so what the heck. I'll use the gift card to buy those, and because it's a gift I won't care if I delete them afterwards.* This will allow me to carry less stuff.
However.
Trying to redeem the gift card took me to their website where I logged on. It then told me I was using the wrong e-mail. I tried logging on with that one and... it's not a valid account.
I finally braced myself to deal with their customer service - and after some runaround with the rep going by script rather than communicating with what I said, was told that they have to refund the gift card. And have my dad then re-purchase it with the e-mail logon I use with them once it clears.
Making prospective customers jump through multiple hoops just to spend money is a guaranteed way to lose said prospective customers.
* I first typed "afterwords", which is vaguely amusing and not totally wrong.
However.
Trying to redeem the gift card took me to their website where I logged on. It then told me I was using the wrong e-mail. I tried logging on with that one and... it's not a valid account.
I finally braced myself to deal with their customer service - and after some runaround with the rep going by script rather than communicating with what I said, was told that they have to refund the gift card. And have my dad then re-purchase it with the e-mail logon I use with them once it clears.
Making prospective customers jump through multiple hoops just to spend money is a guaranteed way to lose said prospective customers.
* I first typed "afterwords", which is vaguely amusing and not totally wrong.
(no subject)
Oct. 20th, 2015 07:56 amWhy, why do I ever listen to migraine-brain when it insists it knows better than pain-free brain?
Dell, you can die in a fire.
Jul. 10th, 2015 07:39 amTen days after getting the new monitor setup for my home office, one of them started frizzing out. I spent about 45 minutes on the phone with Dell tech support, but generally had no complaints as they promised to send a replacement and I would ship the defective one back. I was clever and had them ship it to our home rather than the office this time, because trying to take a ginormous box of expensive, fragile electronics home on public transit is not the best idea for several reasons.
They promised to ship it within three business days. This would work out well - it would arrive before we left for Oregon the following Friday, and there would be time to get everything set up before working from home today.
However. Dell's business model is apparently predicated on making service so painful that you hang up in disgust without using it.
They never sent me a confirmation with the tracking information. I called Wednesday (three business days later). I spent an hour getting transferred four times (!), eventually ending up back at the original number I actually dialed. All to get one e-mail that perhaps took the foreign tech ten seconds to send. It showed that the delivery was scheduled for Thursday. Was that so hard?
...Except that they completely ignored everything I had said in the original call and sent it to our office. Where I actually was on Thursday, but because no one else was there I didn't have the front door unlocked for the delivery guy to come in. And I can't hear tentative knocking, so they left a sticker on the door and went away. I called FedEx and they assured me they'd re-deliver on Friday. Which, may I remind you, was July 4 - a financial holiday on which the markets and our company were closed. "No problem," said FedEx. "We have a special delivery set up." Um, you're missing the point. No one will be in the office. And because I was taking Monday off (as was a cow-orker) no one would be in Monday either. Which meant that they would unsuccessfully deliver three times, and then ship it back to Dell. Whereupon I would have to spend more hours getting transferred and on hold to get my damn working monitor.
So I called Thursday evening. Three transfers and 45 more wasted minutes (along with a tech hanging up on me!) later, the tech promised to contact FedEx and not have it delivered Friday. I reiterated my desire to have it delivered to our home address as originally promised, and gave them the information once again.
Monday we hadn't gotten a delivery, and while one of us was staying home we potentially needed to go out. So I checked the tracking number... and of course they had delivered it to the office. Fortunately an officemate was there and signed, but aargh.
So Wednesday I drove in to pick up the monitor and send it home with the wife. That evening I set it up and got it working. All done. Ready to package up the defective one and send it back.
Except that Dell has not sent any information about that. No packing slip, no packaging, nothing. I searched through everything. I steeled myself for another hour of hold music and forced transfers. And then... I thought better of it. I had an e-mail from one of the techs informing me that the ticket was closed as they had sent the replacement. I e-mailed him back stating that I would not be wasting any more of my time on this issue, and unless Dell contacted me with information to send back the defective monitor, I was not going to do anything.
Screw you, Dell. I will have no more contact with you ever again if I can help it.
They promised to ship it within three business days. This would work out well - it would arrive before we left for Oregon the following Friday, and there would be time to get everything set up before working from home today.
However. Dell's business model is apparently predicated on making service so painful that you hang up in disgust without using it.
They never sent me a confirmation with the tracking information. I called Wednesday (three business days later). I spent an hour getting transferred four times (!), eventually ending up back at the original number I actually dialed. All to get one e-mail that perhaps took the foreign tech ten seconds to send. It showed that the delivery was scheduled for Thursday. Was that so hard?
...Except that they completely ignored everything I had said in the original call and sent it to our office. Where I actually was on Thursday, but because no one else was there I didn't have the front door unlocked for the delivery guy to come in. And I can't hear tentative knocking, so they left a sticker on the door and went away. I called FedEx and they assured me they'd re-deliver on Friday. Which, may I remind you, was July 4 - a financial holiday on which the markets and our company were closed. "No problem," said FedEx. "We have a special delivery set up." Um, you're missing the point. No one will be in the office. And because I was taking Monday off (as was a cow-orker) no one would be in Monday either. Which meant that they would unsuccessfully deliver three times, and then ship it back to Dell. Whereupon I would have to spend more hours getting transferred and on hold to get my damn working monitor.
So I called Thursday evening. Three transfers and 45 more wasted minutes (along with a tech hanging up on me!) later, the tech promised to contact FedEx and not have it delivered Friday. I reiterated my desire to have it delivered to our home address as originally promised, and gave them the information once again.
Monday we hadn't gotten a delivery, and while one of us was staying home we potentially needed to go out. So I checked the tracking number... and of course they had delivered it to the office. Fortunately an officemate was there and signed, but aargh.
So Wednesday I drove in to pick up the monitor and send it home with the wife. That evening I set it up and got it working. All done. Ready to package up the defective one and send it back.
Except that Dell has not sent any information about that. No packing slip, no packaging, nothing. I searched through everything. I steeled myself for another hour of hold music and forced transfers. And then... I thought better of it. I had an e-mail from one of the techs informing me that the ticket was closed as they had sent the replacement. I e-mailed him back stating that I would not be wasting any more of my time on this issue, and unless Dell contacted me with information to send back the defective monitor, I was not going to do anything.
Screw you, Dell. I will have no more contact with you ever again if I can help it.
Bunch of savages in this town
Jul. 16th, 2014 07:21 amYes, I keep using that header. Sadly, it continues to be apropos.
I discovered yesterday that someone had wrenched my rear-window wiper off. And then dumped it right by the driver's door, where I'd be sure to find it. Ha ha, jerkface.
Second time that's happened. The joys of parking on the street where douchewaffles walk by.
I discovered yesterday that someone had wrenched my rear-window wiper off. And then dumped it right by the driver's door, where I'd be sure to find it. Ha ha, jerkface.
Second time that's happened. The joys of parking on the street where douchewaffles walk by.
(no subject)
Feb. 23rd, 2014 01:23 pmWhy is it so bloody difficult to find black dress shoelaces?
Go to a grocery store. They only have sport laces. Go to a different store. They don't have the right length/color.
Go to a drugstore. They are out. Go to a different drugstore. They only have white and brown.
Go to a department store. Find the shoe section. "Oh, we sold out of those. We're low on stock."
Go to a different one. Find the shoe section. "We don't sell shoelaces."
Find a shoe store. They only carry tennis shoes.
Go to a grocery store. They only have sport laces. Go to a different store. They don't have the right length/color.
Go to a drugstore. They are out. Go to a different drugstore. They only have white and brown.
Go to a department store. Find the shoe section. "Oh, we sold out of those. We're low on stock."
Go to a different one. Find the shoe section. "We don't sell shoelaces."
Find a shoe store. They only carry tennis shoes.
Minor, and yet not
Jan. 30th, 2014 07:47 amThe car is back. Apparently we paid for Lo-Jack when we bought it, so 45 minutes after the police came by and filed the report, they located the car. Dumped in the Bayview (shocker!), which is a crappy neighborhood a mile+ away.
The damage I can see: broken window, obviously. That's being fixed today. A few new bumper scrapes on both sides because clearly they cared about driving this carefully. [sarcasm] Those will be fixed Monday. I was honest and didn't attribute the huge bumper dent from a few years back to the joyride. I'll ask the body shop to fix that but at our expense. They smoked and left some cigarette butts in the ashtray. How kind of them to use it! [sarcasm] So I'll need to get the car cleaned, also for the psychological "get the invaders' presence out".
I haven't done a complete inventory, but my prescription sunglasses are still there as is the Fastrak. The wife pointed out something I'd missed though: they took the Edward Gorey bean-bat that was on my dash.
This is something she gave me quite a few years ago. I've always had a bat in my car dating back to high school, when we did a very silly Batman video project for Drama class. This was an awesome one, because it's Gorey. And now it's gone. At best given to some kid, most likely tossed with whatever other crap they grabbed from the other cars and couldn't immediately fence.
A very quick check shows that replacements go for anywhere from $150 to $500. Presumably because they were made while Gorey was still alive. I'm not a collector, and can't justify paying that kind of money in any case.
But... if we can't replace the bat, that actually hurts the most from this whole sordid little affair. Because it's an emotional loss that isn't even valued by the thieves.
The damage I can see: broken window, obviously. That's being fixed today. A few new bumper scrapes on both sides because clearly they cared about driving this carefully. [sarcasm] Those will be fixed Monday. I was honest and didn't attribute the huge bumper dent from a few years back to the joyride. I'll ask the body shop to fix that but at our expense. They smoked and left some cigarette butts in the ashtray. How kind of them to use it! [sarcasm] So I'll need to get the car cleaned, also for the psychological "get the invaders' presence out".
I haven't done a complete inventory, but my prescription sunglasses are still there as is the Fastrak. The wife pointed out something I'd missed though: they took the Edward Gorey bean-bat that was on my dash.
This is something she gave me quite a few years ago. I've always had a bat in my car dating back to high school, when we did a very silly Batman video project for Drama class. This was an awesome one, because it's Gorey. And now it's gone. At best given to some kid, most likely tossed with whatever other crap they grabbed from the other cars and couldn't immediately fence.
A very quick check shows that replacements go for anywhere from $150 to $500. Presumably because they were made while Gorey was still alive. I'm not a collector, and can't justify paying that kind of money in any case.
But... if we can't replace the bat, that actually hurts the most from this whole sordid little affair. Because it's an emotional loss that isn't even valued by the thieves.
Bunch of savages in this town
Jan. 29th, 2014 01:00 pmSome time last night there was a smash-and-grab down much of the street. We got the lottery ticket: they stole our car.
Normally this isn't a problem in our neighborhood, but there it is. Police report filed and insurance notified. All we can do is wait and see if it's dumped somewhere, and if so in what condition.
No real losses other than the car. My prescription sunglasses and the Fastrak.
Normally this isn't a problem in our neighborhood, but there it is. Police report filed and insurance notified. All we can do is wait and see if it's dumped somewhere, and if so in what condition.
No real losses other than the car. My prescription sunglasses and the Fastrak.
