Google’s Support ??

So I keep trying to get Google to change a screen. I post that the screen gives me incorrect information by telling me it’s done, and this guy keeps telling me so what.

Or, he just doesn’t see what it is I’m complaining about, so has “nothing to fix.”

When I go to Google’s Contact Support, they lead me to the forums, where I get snarky answers and get called indignant because he thinks I’m referring to DNS latency. I just want the screen to update and set my expectations correctly.

Edit 4/2/2009 I'm not having luck continuing my conversation with that rep, so I started new threads for each of the problems.

For the fact that people can't sign out of my Blogfront, I created this thread:
http://groups.google.com/group/blogger-help-publishing/browse_thread/thread/0c4d0b56e86e8626#

Star rating not working on Blogfront:
http://groups.google.com/group/blogger-help-publishing/browse_thread/thread/85214c43ae094d4e#

*Update 4/13/2009 Having not heard from anyone for some time, I continued posting bumps on the thread hoping the issues would get attention and get fixed. I suspect it's something wrong with my particular Blog, but 10 days with only me giving replies...

And the nitecruzr's response to me is about me posting on Easter, not about fixing the problem. Why focus on me posting on Easter? If people would focus their attention on fixing problems rather than discussing non-issues like this, more problems would get fixed and less Blog posts would be written about these issues. Please. Fix. The issue.

Conficker count failure

I wanted to learn about the Conficker worm today.  It’s supposed to “go off” tomorrow.  So I go to http://www.microsoft.com/protect/computer/viruses/worms/conficker.mspx and see:

It says “two variants” but then it lists four variants.  They’re listed by bullets, though, so the person typing it didn’t have a visual counter.  Maybe they didn’t want to extrapolate that D is the 4th letter?

It seems they must have put that intro paragraph between 12/29/2008 and 2/20/200, but you think they could have left it more generic.  How about, “To date, security researchers have discovered these variants of the worm in the wild.”  Then they can just OLE the list here and never worry about the intro paragraph again!

Update 4/8/2009:
I see they have fixed the text to state the number of variants correctly.  I wonder if they saw my post and changed it, or if they were notified some other way.  The page now says the topic was added on 4/1/2009, so that must have been when they updated it.

I wonder why they like saying the number of variants found, rather than just saying “researches have discovered these variants…” ?

Billing Support

Raven Stevenson is practicing calling in to technical support to receive billing support. Dominic takes the call.

Ehlers-Danlos syndrome

So a doctor tells me today that I have Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, the hypermobility type.

That apparently explains the pains in the wrists, shoulders, and possibly right ankle.  I was able to look up some information online, but I wasn’t able to find treatment to manage the symptoms.  Well, one site mentioned treating it like rheumatism.

I guess I should start carrying a card in my wallet to let people know.

I found a list of symptoms of Ehlers-Danlos Symdrome on the UW Medicine site.

• skin problems – Yes, around fingers
• soft velvet-like skin – I wish
• fragile skin that bruises or tears easily - No
• stretchy rubber band-like skin – No
• easy or severe bruising – No
• poor and slow wound healing (usually taking weeks to months to heal) – Maybe, my ankle is taking a long time to heal
• small harmless bumps under the skin - No
• joint problems - Yes
• loose unstable joints causing frequent dislocations usually occurring in the shoulders, knees, hips, collar bone or jaw - Yes
• double jointedness (hyper extensible joints), extreme in some cases – Yes, shoulders, thumbs, others places
• joint pain from frequent dislocation – Yes, shoulders, wrists, knees
• eye problems – Maybe, this isn’t very definite.  I do have eye problems but I don’t know if they are related.
• nearsightedness, occasionally extreme – Yes, have worn glasses since a child.

The doctor I saw today noticed the hypermobility – the wrists, ankles, and other joints able to bend far, and shoulders and wrists dislocate and relocate at will.

Harassing Phone Calls – Despite donotcall.gov!

I registered with DoNotCall.gov in November 2003.  You can have them send a registration confirmation to your e-mail to find out how long you’ve been registered.  It tells me to wait 31 days from that date before the calls stop.

One group of calls has never stopped – the dreaded Florida Call.  I get calls from a group of numbers in Florida which use an ominous sounding pre-recorded message which seems intentionally cut off on my answering machine.  It says something like, “last message about your credit card.”  Or, “this one last important courtesy message about your car’s warranty!”  They must expect that I’ll check my caller ID and call them right back.

These are clearly solicitation calls coming to my phone number which is clearly registered with the Do Not Call registry.  When I look the phone numbers up on the Web, I see lots of other people complaining about receiving soliciting calls from those numbers, and many of them complain that they are on the Do Not Call registry.

So how can this company (I’m assuming it’s one company in Florida) continue to call all these people for this long?  Doesn’t the government take action against them after so many people report them on donotcall.gov?  I know I report them, but then a week or two later I’ll get another call, telling me something important about my credit card…

For the record, here are the dates, times, and phone numbers that called me.  I also include what they were calling about.
3/23/2009 12:04pm 561-649-9574 - car warranty going to expire
3/18/2009 10:57am 305-382-1991 - lower credit card rates
2/14/2009 9:46am 561-784-9844 - car warranty
1/22/2009 11:27am
1/13/2009 6:12p 850-432-3928

If you are also getting calls like this, report them at donotcall.gov – maybe they just need a large number of complaints before they can take serious action!

youparkrudely.com

I started http://www.youparkrudely.com a couple of years ago with the idea that I would post pictures of rudely parked cars - ones that I've taken, and ones viewers submit.

The format of the site was not conducive to the program - it had a downloadable form people could print and put on cars, and a link to a gallery, and a link to submit photos, but wasn't super interesting.  I toyed with a community site at ning, but couldn't seem to build a user base.

Eventually I tried a Blogger format - I had http://youparkrudely.blogspot.com for several weeks.  I posted dozens of pictures in the first few days, then slowed down to a few a day.  Now I'd like to continue consistently at two per day.  Look for posts at 1:00am and 1:00pm every day.

I would like to increase the posting frequency if I had a better source of pictures - hopefully people will submit photos to youparkrudely@gmail.com so I can post more quickly :)

Today I told my domain host to switch youparkrudely.com to the Blog site.  Does anyone know if I have to re-submit the posts to the social bookmarking sites I used (Digg, Mixx, del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, etc.)?  Please post a comment if you do.  Also, any other work I may need to do to transfer my traffic and followers to the new domain.

I guess you could say that You Park Rudely is an offshoot of this Blog - I've had a rude people segment on this Blog for some time.  I wasn't sure I could make a whole site out of rude trash people or laundry people.  It's not very interesting to see the laundry room light left on again and again, or lint left on the dryer filter, or people driving slow just to look at someone getting a ticket on the side of the rode.  Making a Blog about people parking rudely seemed natural because I have so much source material :)

Also look for the upcoming Irish section as You Park Rudely goes international.  A series of photos of rudely parked cars in Ireland starts on 3/29/2009 - set your bookmark now!

Adobe (lack of) Support

I'm having a problem with Adobe's RoboHelp. When I publish with it, some of the images are saved as .emz, but the .html file is trying to refer to them as a .gif. This means that the resulting page has a bunch of red "x" instead of images.

After searching for a solution online, I then call our Platinum Support number. Platinum Support is something we pay for to get instant support on our products. It's a payment above and beyond the software costs.

The automated system reads off a list of software, and RoboHelp isn't listed, so I press the button for more. It reads more software - again no RoboHelp. Pressing "0" for an Operator just repeats the menu. So I choose another piece of software, and talk to a rep telling him I need help with RoboHelp. He transfers me to a generic voicemail box.

I call back several times, but get no better results.

So I go to their site and click Technical Support for RoboHelp. I see a phone number for technical support and call it.

After 10 minutes on hold, Sophia answers the phone. She verified my call, and then told me she would transfer me to technical support.

After another 10 minutes on hold, another rep answers. They verify my call again, and then tell me they are transferring me to technical support.

I wait another 10 minutes on hold, and then another rep answers. Again, they verify my call, and tell me they are transferring me to technical support. I tell them I already went through that twice, and they go ahead and transfer my call.

Kelly from technical support answers and is happy to help me. Except ... he isn't in the RoboHelp support department, so can't help with the issue I'm calling about. He says he will have Premiere Support call me back. How long, I ask? He has no idea - he doesn't know if it will be in the next hour, or tomorrow, or next week.

So, I spent 90 minutes trying to get help from Adobe, and still don't have help. We pay for Premium Platinum Support, and I still can't get help.

Interview

Click to Play

Geoffery Collins being interviewed for his job in TSI.

Trial Download

Click to Play

It took this caller so long to download the trial software, that the trial expired before they finished downloading it. Don't worry, though. There's a new trial coming up this weekend!

Start to Finish

Click to Play

Dominic Fischer takes a call from someone who needs to access certain settings in a very particular area. Apparently, they clicked something wrong...

Eye Surgery

I have eye surgery coming up on April 3, 2009 at 10:30am.

To quote:

Benefits:  Repair the entropion (in turning) of the lashes-lids and improve the pain and irritation.  90% success rate.  10% recurrence rate would require further surgery.
To close the tear draining ducts.
Remove lesions left upper lid and both tear glands.
Success rate 90%.
Alternatives:  Medication will not help.
No treatment:  Will stay the same or get worse.

Risks

1. Scar, deformity, bleeding, infection 1%
2. Change of lid level 10%
3. Double vision 1/10,000
4. Anesthetic reaction - death, coma 1/18,000

The plan is that I'll come out able to see the world with less pain.

Disposing of prescription medication

So you're not supposed to flush prescription medication - it gets into the water system and poisons our children.

You're not supposed to throw it away.  Animals or people might get their hands on it and use it.

I read online that you are supposed to mix medicine with coffee grounds or used kitty litter, put it in a plastic bag, then put that in a paper bag, and then put that in the trash.  Supposedly this makes people and animals not want to use it.

But I don't drink coffee and I don't have a cat.  So what am I to do?  Well, I had a doctor's appointment today, so I figure I'll ask the doctor.

Unfortunately, the doctor doesn't know how to dispose of medicine, and referred me to ask at the pharmacy downstairs.

At the pharmacy, the person behind the counter did not know that - the question had obviously never occurred to her.  She set up a Consult with the Pharmacist who told me to mix it with water and put it in a plastic bag, and then throw it away.

I'm just surprised that people in the profession don't know how to dispose of medicine.  They dispense it frequently - heck, I've been given samples and prescriptions by the doctor I was asking.  You'd think if they dispense it, they'd know a) that there's something special to do other than tossing it in the trash, and b) what that something special is.

Error in Mistborn

As you may know, I like finding errors in books and reporting them to someone.  Since I can never find people to report them to, I've taken to just posting them on my Blog, and hoping the author eventually hears about it.

Today's error is in a great book called Mistborn, the Final Empire, by Brandon Sanderson.

On page 278 of the paperback (ISBN 978-0-7653-5038-1), I find this sentence:

"Is your respite pleasant, dear?" Renoux asked, pouring over another ledger.

It should be poring, not pouring.

Dominic Fischer's Blog

Dominic Fischer is a character in our TV show TSI, which is a comedy spoof on a technical support department. Check out Dominic's Blog here!

Who parks most rudely?

Ever wonder what brand of model of car parks worst?  Or what color, perhaps?

You can now find out!

On my You Park Rudely Blog site here:  http://youparkrudely.blogspot.com/

As of today, there's 68 pictures on there, with more coming almost every day.  You can click on a tag next to a picture, and see how many other pictures were submitted with the same tag.  Choose a tag such as grey, red, or black.  Or choose a tag with a model like corolla or civic.  Or, you can look at brands.

You'd be surprised how many Black Honda Accords park rudely!

If you want to help, e-mail pictures of rudely parked cars to youparkrudely@gmail.com