everyday

UPDATE! Netflix has reversed their decision.

I received a notice from Netflix that, effective September 1st, they will no longer be allowing users to have more than one queue. LAME!

I currently have the “2 at a time” plan with 2 different queues. This allows my wife and I to each get one movie at a time from our respective queues. This is such a convenient feature that I am not sure I will want to continue using the service should they discontinue the multiple queues. I would like to know what bean counter came up with this brilliant way to increase profits. Perhaps I can provide some advice, reducing the costs to operate your service will be meaningless to your bottom line when your customers leave.

Here is a link to some very, very lame corporate marketing / used car salesman language Netflix is using to “sell” this feature removal as a “improvement” to their service. Ha!

In my work as a Network Administrator for a school district, I run into problems with email click-through marketing techniques rather frequently. The specific problem is with click-through tracking of email advertising campaigns. Since we are a school district that provides internet access to minors, we tend to filter our internet traffic rather heavily. This filtering wreaks havoc with most click-through advertising emails.

For instance, an email is received inside of our network with a link to:

<a href="http://www.rs6.net/?kna76dv978y34qtib33t897jk1bt4hq3fr897&site=www.theactuallink.com">www.theactuallink.com</a>

The user thinks that when they click on theactuallink.com that they will be taken to theactuallink.com, they are instead taken to rs6.net and then bounced through to theactuallink.com. This causes a great deal of frustration with our users. We constantly receive phone calls that our internet filter is blocking theactuallink.com, when it is in fact blocking rs6.net, and rightfully so.

I imagine that this problem will only increase as more and more companies increase the amount of internet filtering they do to comply with various laws and regulations. So, what is the solution?

I would highly recommend never, ever rely on a 3rd party to bounce your links through. If you need to track the effectiveness of an email advertising campaign, then invest the time and resources to roll your own tracking. That or use a tool like Google Analytics that will not break the link even if the tracking itself gets blocked. I know that a large number of the emails are generated by non-profit organizations or businesses with limited budgets that are running their email advertising campaigns through a 3rd party, but I think the time has come to abandon the 3rd party and either hire the talent or develop it from within to avoid losing your audience entirely. There are a large number of free, open source applications that will allow you to run email advertising campaigns so the cost for software would be negligible. Hardware costs and requirements are ever decreasing as well, so the excuses not to are few.

Having recently moved I have been dealing with the unfortunate reality of an extended commute on a number of California’s highways. My commute is 39 miles, one way, the majority of which is spent on one highway or another. As a result of this commute I have found myself becoming increasingly frustrated with large trucks, spefically the lanes in which they choose to occupy.

On any given day, on any given highway I run across numerous trucks that, through their choice to violate certain sections of the California Vehicle Code (CVC), consume far more than their fair share of the road. Through an entirely non-scientific and casual observation of traffic, I have found that trucks make up around 15% of the road going traffic while using well over 50% of the road. I did a little research today and found the following:

21655. (a) … (b) Any … vehicle subject to the provisions of Section 22406 shall be driven in the lane or lanes designated … whenever signs have been erected… . …, when a specific lane or lanes have not been so designated, … those vehicles shall be driven in the right-hand lane for traffic or as close as practicable to the right edge or curb. If, however, a specific lane or lanes have not been designated on a divided highway having four or more clearly marked lanes for traffic in one direction, … those vehicles may also be driven in the lane to the immediate left of that right-hand lane, … When overtaking and passing another vehicle proceeding in the same direction, the driver shall use either the designated lane, the lane to the immediate left of the right-hand lane, or the right-hand lane for traffic … This subdivision does not apply to a driver who is preparing for a left- or right-hand turn or who is entering into or exiting from a highway or to a driver who must … drive in a lane other than the right-hand lane to continue on his or her intended route.

This tells me that trucks should stay in the right lane (unless there are four or more available lanes). I continually run across trucks in the right 2 lanes on a 3 lane highway. I have even run across trucks in all 3 lanes on 3 a lane highway. But wait, it gets worse… I have been on a five lane highway with trucks in all but the leftmost lane! One thing that I have never seen is a truck being stopped by the California Highway Patrol for any of these violations.

So what can be done? Well, how about pressing the CHP to cite violators for starters? I for one would love to see a law enacted mandating that trucks stay in the right most lane irregardless of the number of lanes. I would also like to see a significant penalty for lane violations, including both a stiff fine and a number of “points” on the driver’s record.

Unsubscribing from an email mailing list should be simple, one click simple. Microsoft makes the process relatively painful, except for one glaring design fohpah. The instructions to unsubscribe seem simple enough:

To unsubscribe, select the checkbox next to the desired communication(s) and click the Unsubscribe button below.

What the directions fail to explain is that the “checkbox” is entitled “Subscribe”! So I need to click on the “Subscribe” checkbox, then click the “Unsubscribe” button? That isn’t confusing at all.

Well, nothing like being a month late. While I was extremely disappointed with Flickr’s prescribed response time, the problem did sort itself out the next day. I was finally able to log in to Flickr about one hour before I was contacted by their technical support. So, poor support, but the problem fixed itself. Hopefully I will not need to contact Flickr’s technical support any more in the future.

I have used Flickr for years now. While I have been generally pleased with their service, pleased enough to upgrade to their “Pro” service, I have recently ran into a problem with their support (or lack thereof) that I find wholly unacceptable. I was in the process of migrating my Flickr account to a new Yahoo! ID when my Flickr account became inaccessible. When I attempt to login to my Flickr account using my Yahoo! ID, I receive the following error:

Your registration was successful.

However, we couldn’t log you in automatically because it looks like you don’t have cookies enabled.

There are a few options:

• Clear your existing Flickr cookies
• Check that your cookies are actually enabled (Click here for instructions on how to enable your cookies.)
• If you’ve done both of these things, and restarted your browser, and tried to log in and it’s still not working, please contact us.

Here’s a link to the login page.

Alright, some funky error is happening. No big deal, sometimes this stuff happens and I am willing to allow them to correct the problem. I set out to contact Flickr according to their directions. The form was simple and I had it filled out in just a few moments. After clicking on “Submit”, I received the following email:

Just a quick email from Team Flickr to let you know that we’ve successfully received your recent Help by Email query and we hope to respond within 3 days.

We’d also like to take an opportunity to remind you that one query is sufficient and multiple queries regarding the same issue make the Magic Donkey cry.

Lastly, you may not be aware that our FAQs and forums are full of help goodness:

http://www.flickr.com/help/faq/
http://www.flickr.com/help/forum/

The Flickreenos

Some of you may have missed the infuriating part… 3 days!!! Are they kidding? I pay good money for this service and their goal for simply responding to my support inquiry is 3 days! WTF? This is simply unacceptable, and I am looking into alternatives to Flickr as soon as I finish this post. With my annual membership as a Flickr Pro user I expect “Pro” support, not to have to wait 3 days for a response to my inquiry. Note that they have not said that the problem will be fixed within 3 days (which would also be unacceptable), they will only be responding to my inquiry within 3 days.

I was a little apprehensive when it was announced that Yahoo! would be acquiring Flickr. Up until today, when I required support, I have had no problems. After perusing the user forums I have found that there are many unhappy users that have received poor support from Flickr, post Yahoo!.

I will post Flickr’s actual response time and what the resolution of the problem when that eventually happens.

[UPDATE] I did receive a response from Flickr, within their specified time, but the the problem had already magically fixed itself. I still thinks that 3 days is way too long to expect a support response from a service that I am paying for!

I recently took a trip up to the central valley of California to visit some family. While the trip was altogether pleasant, the drive was not. Apart from the semi-trucks consuming more than their fair share of the available lanes, the condition of the highways was atrocious.

One would think that with the advances in technology over the last few thousand years of road making that we would be able to enjoy a relatively smooth surface on any of vast number of highways in California. This is, however, not the case. Potholes, debris, dips, humps, jumps, undulations, outdated markings and grooves make for a ride not unlike one you would experience at an amusement park. The primary difference being that driving on these highways is not amusing. While I can almost excuse potholes due to a lack of funding in recent years, there is no excuse for poor engineering and even poorer construction quality.

The worst aspect of the experience for me is the entrance and exit ramps for overpasses and bridges. I say ramps, because that is exactly what they are. I imagine that on many of these entrance ramps, my car was completely airborne! I truly hope this isn’t what was meant by everyone having a flying car.

The next most egregious flaw in the roadways is the unexplained undulations that appear to exist solely for the continued financial success of the shock-absorber and spring industries. It seems that every few miles along an otherwise flat and smooth roadway there is a dip or bump, some of which are so extreme that, again, I feel as though my car has aspirations to fly. These dips and bumps are almost always accompanied by gouges caused by the undercarriages of vehicles that are probably only slightly closer to the ground than my own.

One would think that with the enormous amount of money that we all pay in taxes to build and maintain these roads, that they should be of the highest quality.

Another day, another life threatening incident on a freeway caused by a truck. I am getting sick and tired of big trucks on the freeway. It doesn’t bother me when they are in the right lane, or even when they are passing one another in the second lane. What does bother me is when they feel the need to consume 3 out of 4 lanes! Especially when they whip into that third lane with no regard for the person that they come within inches of killing.

Now for my solution… Enact a law that forces trucks to remain in the right lane only!

I am often annoyed by people saving seats in a movie theatre. I have, on numerous occassions, passed by many a fine seat because some person said “Sorry, this seat is taken”. Every time this happens I want to reply “I don’t see anyone sitting there, so, no, it isn’t taken.” and then promptly sit down. I don’t mind it so much when it is one seat, or even two. If a lady is saving a seat next to her for her companion, I don’t mind. It is when half a row of seats is being saved because one person in a group of 10 gave Timmy his order for a hot dog and jumbo Coke while he “saves” everyone else a seat. Why do we accept this? Would anyone really try to stop me if I just ignored the, “This seat is saved” comment and just sat down? I feel that I have the same right as any other ticket holder to sit in any seat that is not occupied.

The same goes for standing in line. I hate it when someone excuses themselves to the front of the line where their “friend” has been saving them a spot. I call shenanigans. Allowing people to cut in line defeats the entire purpose of standing in line. If a person arrives to an event later than the rest of their group, why does that entitle them to a spot in line in front of me. I was there earlier than they were, by definition, I should be ahead of them in the line, right? Perhaps the next time I witness this, I will call the person on it. I wonder what would happen, fisticuffs perhaps?

Your thoughts?

Why can’t the omnipotent software engineers and programmers figure out a way to more accurately display the time remaining for a particular task to finish? I have been re-installing some software and the installation program started by stating that it had 4 hours remaining, that was 45 minutes ago. Now, it states that there is 1 minute remaining. It has stated “Estimated time remaining… 1 minute” for approximately 10 minutes. This is rather annoying. Suppose this was the norm for all other tasks that required you to wait for a period of time…
Say you wanted to buy a hamburger at McDoogles. You enter the store, place your order and are told that your burger will be ready in approximately 48 minutes. You decide to run across the street to buy a birthday card for a friend, after all, you have 48 minutes. McDoogles calls your order number 1 minute and 25 seconds after you placed the order, but you are already gone. You re-enter McDoogles, with 7 minutes remaining in your initial approximated burger delivery time frame. McDoogles lets you know that they discarded your order approximately 20 minutes ago due to your failure to pick it up. They then notify you that the current wait for a burger is estimated at 36 minutes.
I don’t think McDoogle’s would be in business for very long if this were the case. So, I urge software engineers to more accurately predict and estimate the time it will take me to install this software. Oh yeah, I still have an estimated 1 minute remaining…