because not enough websites start with the letter “Z”
Posted in random on Oct 1st, 2007
My employer utilizes Microsoft Outlook for email and calendaring. The culture here uses the calendar to track outages. When you are going to be out of the office, whether for training, the dentist, or vacation, you are to send a meeting announcement to your team letting them know of your absence. It’s a good idea, [...]
Posted in nerdliness, random on Jun 22nd, 2007
I was hoping to write today about finding a cure for my Yahoo Messenger ills. The latest and greatest instant messenger client from Y! refuses to stay connected for more than about 10 minutes. It drops connectivity in the middle of chats, file transfers, and when it is just idle. Repeated forays into the support [...]
Posted in random on Jun 19th, 2007
Auto Flush Overnight, one night last week, all the toilets in the men’s rooms in the building where I work were converted from manual flush to automatic flush through the installation of some overly sensitive infrared sensors. I discovered both of these facts simultaneously when I shifted a bit while seated. The flush mechanism makes [...]
Posted in random on Jun 18th, 2007
Over the weekend I added international calling to my phone. This seemingly simple goal was made overly complicated by the “customer service” paradigm employed by AT&T. Online Ordering Repeated attempts to access my account in order to add the new service via AT&T web account manager failed. The error message displayed was ambiguous as to [...]
Posted in random on Apr 27th, 2007
If you want to piss me off, if you want to do something that will cause me to hold a grudge, simply agree to meet me somewhere and then don’t show up. Nothing upsets me more or faster that being stood up. For example. I scheduled a lunch with a bunch of the people I [...]
Posted in random on Mar 20th, 2007
While out and about on Sunday afternoon I managed to run over a can of spray paint laying in the road. The paint is in the red family of colors. I know this as my car has a surprising amount of paint on it now. From looking at the car I can tell that the [...]
Posted in random on Dec 21st, 2006
As a software developer, one who focuses (or can when he chooses) on minutia, I am often acutely aware that most people do not notice details. Which is a shame, as the little things in life are the ones that are worth noticing. Big things in life are just conglomerations of little things. The lease [...]
Go to your nearest pastry store, bakery, or donut shop and buy a couple of your favorite whatever to go. Watch carefully what happens next. The person behind the counter will grab a sheet of tissue paper, usually decorated with the name of the establishment and it’s logo, to handle the food items you are [...]
Posted in random on Nov 21st, 2006
Yesterday I set out to pay some bills online. Most of the creditors I have sport payment pages on their web site making it easy to point, click, and pay. One loan, however, proved to be the exception. Several years ago, when purchasing the two Apple computers I own, a line of credit was established [...]
Posted in random on Nov 10th, 2006
Many of you, who have home owners or renters insurance, may have a “replacement value” clause. The common misconception is that when your insured widget, gewgaw, or family heirloom is lost, damaged, or stolen you’ll get enough money to go get yourself a new one. This is a nice misconception, but a misconception nonetheless. Reality [...]