Category Archives: Rants

If I have a problem with something, here it will be.

New Server Move Not-So-Complete

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After having spent a few days on the new service, Bluehost.com, I can say that I’m having some problems that don’t allow me to say that all is well.

First off, all of my scripts that do site redirection are broken with an Server Error 500 page.  The reason, according to the logs, is that the headers (hidden stuff at the front of all good web pages) aren’t being sent.  But I’ve checked things out and they are being sent.  Wonderful, another set of problems to track down.

On top of that the host has been down twice in 2 weeks, not a good start.  This is why I am leaving my old web host, Infinology. I’m not buying into bargain basement fees here, so I have to wonder if this is what the web really is all about these days: advertise heavily, get the customer’s data and credit card, bill them, then hide away and let the service go to hell.  Sounds like some late 90′s business plans if you ask me.

Short Take: Driving on a Saturday

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It was warm out today so I decided to take the car out for an extended spin. Little did I know that I would get to experience all of the following:

  • - Massive amounts of traffic
  • - Crazed drivers who must race and pass me every 5 miles
  • - That “bad fish” smell that comes from certain areas near the ocean
  • - Many dead skunks on the road (and now on my tires)
  • - Large 4×4 trucks with muck falling off of them
  • - Roads closed due to mudslides
  • - A Saturn that nearly became part of the rear of my car

All that for a few pictures and some driving around town (and then some). Sometimes I wonder why I bother getting up in the morning.

The Day the PSP Fell Down

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It is with some sadness that I must write today that my PSP’s analog joystick has died. Quite simply, it separated itself from the main body of the device and ceased working. This was proceeded by the joystick becoming stuck, spinning my character in circles for the better part of a game, and the other players in the game using me as easy target practice.

Given that I work for the company that makes this device, it seems well and truly sad that such a spot of bad luck would befall my purchase. The PSP is only a few months old and already its headed to the RMA depot. I can only hope that the refurb unit they send me lasts longer than this one did, lest my thumbs again gain feeling and my days become longer with the extra time spent away from GTA.

A Friendly Reminder: Don't Valet Park

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I just had another of those experiences where I kick myself for knowing better, but then I go ahead and do something anyway. I convinced myself that it might be OK to allow someone to valet park the C6.

The guy who took the keys could barely speak English, and he couldn’t tell me how he was going to park the car (yes, the vette requires a special shutdown and park procedure) and he had to summon someone over who spoke a little English to notify me that yes, he had parked “one of these” before. I would later learn that he had not.

So, with that pain behind me I went in to eat, trying not to think of that fateful scene in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off where the valet’s fly out the back of the garage at full speed.

When I exited to retrieve the car, a new set of valet’s were around, and sure enough, they had problems. First, they tried to bring the car around with another car parked directly in front of the C6. Once they woke up enough to realize that wouldn’t work (and moved the other car) one of them hopped in my car and proceeded to wave his hands around frantically, starring at the dash for what seemed like minutes, only to exit the car and say “I need some help.” Yes, the C6 managed to befuddle him to the point of not being able to find the start button.

In the end, I took my key back, hopped in the car, fired it up, and got out of there before someone else took a swipe at the vehicle roulette wheel. Lesson learned, again.

The Tale of the Harmony 880 Remote

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I recently became the owner of a new smart remote control, the Logitech Harmony 880 via a friend of mine who will remain nameless (he knows who he is).  After months of pain with the previous remote, the Philips Pronto NG (I think the NG stood for “not good”) I was ready to switch to something better.  The Harmony 880 looked to be the ticket.

To be fair, I was warned that the setup process for the 880 would be a little, um, rough.  The warning was correct.  It was an unholy terror to setup the remote due to a few factors, which I will now dutifully list:

  • All of the software needed to program the remote is on the web, literally. There is no software on the PC, it is all run remotely from a browser.  This brings with it all the pain (timeouts, 404s, constant refreshes) of normal Web 1.0 browsing with none of the benefit.
  • You have to know exactly what the model name and number is of every component you own.  Simply knowing you have a Sony DVD player is not enough, and it leads you to hunt around for all of your manuals to be sure the name is correct.
  • The “activities” are fixed in function by the web site.  If you don’t like the order or devices the “activity wizard” decides to drop in each button, well tough.  That’s the way it works.
  • God forbid one of your devices doesn’t work properly, as then you’ll suffer through the pain of the “help wizard” on the remote control itself.  This hellish process involves the remote constantly asking “is product XYZ turned on now?  How about now?  Is it working now?” until you give up and go online to try it all again.

If you get lucky, like I did about the 99th time I tinkered with the web site settings (their “software” evidently hates my Sony AV receiver) when you detach the remote from your PC, things work and you are in happy, happy entertainment land.  If it doesn’t, be prepared to spend a long time on the web site changing settings.

Once this remote gets working its actually quite nice, with a large set of hard buttons and a fairly nice (though narrow viewing angle) screen.  The market that Logitech seems to be aiming this at is the do-it-yourself home theater owner who knows next to nothing about PCs and remote controls.  I’m not sure the overly simplistic approach they take with the on-the-web setup is the right one, but perhaps I’m just used to more control. 

When you think about it, that’s what remotes are all about: control.  And when it gets taken away from me for the purposes of ease-of-use I just cringe.  Perhaps as I spend more time with this remote I’ll grow to accept its “features” but for now I’m a bit grumpy over the whole experience.

Long Ride Up and Back, with Good Ski In-Between

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There was good skiing to be had last weekend, but a lot of pain on the ride to and from Tahoe made it bittersweet.  It was the first time I’ve ever seen snow in Placerville, a town located at 1800 feet above sea level.  It’s rare to find snow that low in California, so out came the Caltrans chain crews and down goes the speed limit.

It took just over 7 hours to get to Tahoe that Friday evening.

On Saturday and Sunday there was a bit over an inch of new snow, really cold weather, and very light crowds.  Slopes were groomed and generally people free, so it made for some nice high speed skiing.  Great stuff.

But then the ride home turned ugly.  There was a serious accident on highway 50 involving a fatality, and since its only a 2 lane road (one lane for each direction) the whole road was shut down for about 3 hours.  This made the ride home take about 8 hours.

This episode really makes me want to learn to fly a plane.

Old Dog, New Tricks, Sort of

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Today I took a lesson and attempted to snowboard for the first time. To be sure, I’m hurting as I sit here and type this, and it was a real chore to try to learn how to do something so unnatural as boarding.

To be fair, I’ve skied for longer than I can remember so I’m used to not falling down all the time. I’m also not accustomed to sitting in the middle of a trail, waiting to get hit, yet after my lesson and some further practice, this is something that boarders are taught to do.

I think I’ll keep to my skiing, thank you very much.  Oh, and traffic on the way home was the worst its been all year.  It took nearly 2 hours more to get home, thanks to the snow, rain, and my favorite, California’s best drivers.

The Long, Dark Road

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I don’t normally write about work, but things have been getting a bit rough these days.  After spending some serious time over the last year getting a product built and shipped (even though I didn’t approve of shipping it) the public reception left a lot to be desired.  And that is putting it mildly.

Now there is a full-on, wholesale re-org coming and where things end up no one is quite sure yet.  The engineering team isn’t in the best of spirits, and I can’t say that I blame them, given this situation.  My only hope at this point is that we can salvage some learning out of the process and vow never to be pushed into doing what was done again.

Back from CES

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I have just returned from CES, that large consumer electronics and computer show in Las Vegas, and I am just beat.  Why people must insist on smoking so much I will never know, but I now have the smell to remind me of the time spent there this past week.

It was 4 days of meetings, endless walking, dinners, drinking, and for some (not yours truly) gambling.  2006 will be the year of both big screen (hi-def) and small screen (portable video) given what I saw there.  Plenty of reasons to go out and buy that HDTV or new phone / PDA / portable device you’ve been swearing off.

There were also some of the most amazing looking women on the planet there too, but precious few of them are in the industry.  I managed to miss the high-wattage star power in attendance as well: Robin Williams, Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, Kevin Federline, Britney Spears, Tom Hanks, Bill Gates, just to name a few. 

I did see Lazlow, and hear that he’s continuing to rock on with his other jobs, despite his weekly radio experiment being over.  One can only hope that it rises from the ashes to help shake us from the lameness that is today’s free radio experience.

The snow trip that wasn't

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Yesterday I got up before dawn, staggered around the house, and gathered up all of my skiing possessions in the hope of a day of snow induced bliss.  This sadly did not happen.

Quite the opposite happened, actually.

After it was all finished, the people going spent about 9 hours in transit to-and-from Tahoe only to be taught a recurring lesson: Ski resorts lie about their weather conditions.  It was raining and windy, and 50 F at the mountains, completely unsuitable for skiing.

I will wait for the weather situation to improve before trying to travel up to Tahoe again, that is for sure.