Blog – Page 271 – Stilgherrian

09 October 2008

Links for 02 October 2008 through 06 October 2008

Stilgherrian’s links for 02 October 2008 through 06 October 2008, covered in peanut butter and cat fur:

Tragedy mars Leena’s run for governor | Bangkok Post: I wouldn’t have made as much fun of this story if I’d had the full details. While Bangkok governor candidate Leena Jangjanya was safely rescued from a canal durign a publicity stunt, her campaign manager Teerasak Sitanont drowned.
We can’t afford to keep Sydney running: Rees | smh.com.au: New South Wales’ new Premier reckons we can’t afford to run Australia’s largest city. That strikes me as odd. Where did all the money go? Is he looking in the right places?
I saved Telstra, says Trujillo | Australian IT: Telstra’s boss does bit of auto-hagiography. Given that he’s talking up how much he achieved, does that mean there’s some disaster about to be revealed?
What I want from an e-book reader… | Doc Holds Fourth: Steve “Doc” Baty’s requirements for a e-book reader. I particularly like “I can ‘loan’ my copy of a book to a friend by transferring it to their reader. If I do that, it’s no longer on my reader. This could also act as a way to give people Gifts.”

03 October 200803 October 2008

Episode 29 online!

Last night’s episode of Stilgherrian Live was a strange journey through the streets of Surry Hills, Sydney, and is now online for your viewing pleasure. ’Pong took some great photos, too, and I’ll post them later, along with the results of “Cnut of the Week”.

02 October 2008

At Town Hall station? You breathe this!

Photograph of filthy air vent at Town Hall station

This is the air vent in the elevator between platforms 1/2 and 4 at Sydney’s Town Hall station. Do you like that layer of black crap?

Town Hall station is already hot, humid, smelly and dangerously over-crowded. Add to these risks the fact that you’re breathing whatever it is that’s accumulating up there.

While taking this photo with my trusty but battered Nokia N80 the other day, I expected someone to question me — concerned that I was a terrorist or something. I reckon terrorists are the least of your worries here.

02 October 200810 October 2008

Dell’s useless customer “service”

[Update: This problem has since been resolved. Please also read How Dell fixed my monitor order for the full story.]

Dell logo

Dell, I’m not happy with you. I’m not happy with you at all. Your incompetent customer service has screwed up the timelines for an important project for a new client, yet your blind, stupid corporate machine blunders on like a brain-damaged slug.

If you read my Twitter stream yesterday you can probably skip this post. However I will document this little disaster because I’m still waiting for Dell to provide the promised explanation and I’ll point their people in this direction. I have specific questions at the end.

In brief, though, it was a customer “service” disaster. I’ll continue to recommend Hewlett Packard’s well-engineered computers and excellent service to my clients.

Continue reading “Dell’s useless customer “service””

02 October 2008

Links for 28 September 208 through 01 October 2008

Here are the web links I’ve found for 28 September 2008 through 01 October 2008, posted automatically and covered in badger fat.

How to be Creative | gapingvoid: Hugh MacLeod’s classic article on how to be creative, starting off with Tip #1: “Ignore everybody.”
Pigeon-powered Internet takes flight | CNET News: A news report on the 2001 experiment to implement Internet protocol RFC1149, which allows Internet data to be sent by carrier pigeon. It’s not fast, it’s not particularly reliable.
Welcome to my world, the “online community” that prefers to keep out of site | theage.com.au: A strangely misinformed article about online communities, which commits what I think is the great sin of assuming a social relationship becomes less valid when mediated online.
Height | xkcd: xkcd is “a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language”, but this episode is a wonderful diagram of the universe drawn to a logarithmic scale, from the height of a giraffe to 46 billion light years out. It’s also available as a poster print (hint hint).
How to change the product key for Office XP, for Office 2003, and for the 2007 Office system: I’ve had to roll out a lot of computers this weekend. Rather than spend 4.5 hours on each one, I set up one and then cloned them (at least where the hardware was identical). That meant they all had the same product key for Microsoft Office. This article explains how to reset it and change it back.
Change the Windows Vista Key | About.com: I’ve had to roll out a lot of computers this weekend. Rather than spend 4.5 hours on each one, I set up one and then cloned them (at least where the hardware was identical). That meant they all had the same product key for Windows. This article explains how to reset it and change it back in Vista.
How to change the Volume Licensing product key on a computer that is running Windows XP SP1 and later versions of Windows XP: I’ve had to roll out a lot of computers this weekend. Rather than spend 4.5 hours on each one, I set up one and then cloned them (at least where the hardware was identical). That meant they all had the same product key for Windows. This article explains how to reset it and change it back in Windows XP.