Monthly Archive for June, 2007

I hate Network Solutions

Published
by
John
on 6/30/2007
in general
. 5 Comments

A couple weeks ago I got something in my inbox that I dread getting each year: the domain renewal reminder for jjb.cc. Why do I dread this email so much? Well you see, I am registered for this domain with Network Solutions.

directnic.com, a much more reputable company than Network Solutions [a friend tells me that directNic is sleezy too; see the whole story here], will also register .cc domains, and for a full $10 less per year, but unfortunately does not accept transfers. I write to them every year, begging for a, err, Solution®, but alas, they appologize and tell me that a transfer is not possible.

So, reluctantly, I just went through with renewing with Network Solutions, and decided to share with you the sleezy experience that Network Solutions makes out of the simple act of domain registration renewal.

I start out by logging into my account. As a paying, existing customer, I am brought to a dashboard filled with useful and intuitive tools for managing my resources and account information a full page of advertisements:

landing page after logging into Network Solutions, filled with advertisements

I select the domain renewal page from the menu, and am immediately offered a “private registration” feature to keep my personal data “secure”, which costs $9 a year, presumably per domain. What they are really offering is a WHOIS privacy/proxy service, which they can provide at a sunk/negligible cost, and Dreamhost and other registrars provide for free.

Network Solutions offering their “private registration” product

I decline this “service” and continue to the next page. I am met with more advertisements, this time for web hosting.

Network Solutions offering me web hosting

I decline web hosting and am met with a page full of even more offerings. This page is really packed with sleeze. Web forwarding for $12 a year per domain? “Search engine submission”?? Paying extra for TLS acces to the mail server??? Wow.

Network Solutions page of sleeze, 1 of 3Network Solutions page of sleeze, 2 of 3Network Solutions page of sleeze, 3 of 3

Moving on to the next page, I am relieved to finally be presented with the price structure for the actual domain renewal.

Network Solutions’ insane domain name price structure.

First I would like to again point out that the 1-year price is a full $10 more than directnic.com, which is by no means considered a bargain registrar.

Second, I would like to give Network Solutions kudos (!) for giving a rebate for multi-year registrations. This makes sense, as the multi-year registration is something that saves both the customer and the registrar time and resources, and allows for guaranteed cash-flow projections on the side of the registrar.

Third, please do not fail to pause and appreciate the last item in that list. Network Solutions if offering to register my domain name for 100 years. One-Hundred Years. Thank you, Network Solutions. In the year 2100, when the world economy is completely restructured, when the web, domain name registration system, and even the internet do not exist in any way shape or form as they do today, I will rest assured that jjb.cc is registered for 7 more years.

I select 1 year (maybe, just maybe, directnic or someone else will offer .cc transfers next year!) and continue to the next page. Hooray, nothing but a credit card form. Let’s get something done! But what’s this? Network solutions remembered my credit card information from last year, and filled it in for me. I deleted the information in the screenshot below, but note that the form offers me no option for my credit card information to NOT be remembered.

Network Solutions remembers my credit card information without asking me if that’s okay.

I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that it is possible to later go back into my account settings and delete the stored credit card information WRONG! There is no way to have Network Solutions forget my credit card information!

Sigh. I fill in my payment information and submit the form. It’s been a rough journey, but the end is in sight. The form goes through, and I am met with what the progress visualization tool at the top of the page refers to as the “order complete” page, which of course Network Solutions considers to be an appropriate venue for a feedback screen thanking me for my purchase and directing me to useful documentation and support resources one last page of advertisements!

post-payment advertisements, 1 of 2post-payment advertisements, 2 of 2

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Still the best laptop sleeve that I can find: the Tom Bihn Brain Cell

Published
by
John
on 6/29/2007
in general
. Closed

When I got my PowerBook two and a half years ago, the best laptop sleeve I could find was the Tom Bihn Brain Cell. I just got a new MacBook Pro and need to get a sleeve for it, and as far as I can tell the market hasn’t changed one bit. Here is why I like this sleeve so much:

  • Soft AND hard protection. There is a layer of foam and a hard plastic layer as well. I have a lot more confidence in this system than in 3 millimeters of neoprene.
    tom bihn braincell layers of soft and hard material
  • The laptop is suspended by the inner material. Therefore, the bottom of the laptop will never get bumped when putting down the case. This is a brilliant and simple way to solve a significant weakness in all other sleeves that I have seen.
    laptop suspended in inner material in tom bihn braincell
  • An overall clean, functional, well-thought-out design. With the simple inclusion of the handles, Tom Bihn has created a laptop sleeve that has everything necessary to fully protect the laptop without needing to put it in a larger bag to feel confident about carrying it to a cafe or a meeting.

I know this sounds like a cheesy advertisement (and the product photos straight from the vendor’s website don’t help…) but for someone who spends so much time using and transporting his computer, well designed tools like this really make my life easier.

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T-Mobile’s transition to VoIP

Published
by
John
on 6/28/2007
in general
. 0 Comments

Check this out:

http://www.theonlyphoneyouneed.com/

It’s a system of devices and calling plans that enables you to use a T-Mobile hotspot wifi network to make calls when you are near one, and the regular mobile network when not.

This is a pretty radical move for a mobile carrier to make, since it’s a system where all of the intelligence is on the ends (internet style (well no shit, it is using the internet)) instead of in the middle (archaic mobile network style). This system hinges on Net Neutrality. Will Verizon start to filter or slow down T-Mobile voice traffic?

Certain aspects of the system are a little murkey…

  • There probably isn’t a technical reason to restrict wi-fi usage to T-Mobile hotspot networks, other than I suppose quality control. Still, I think most users, given a minimal amount of education regarding the factors involved, would want flexibility over quality.
  • They refer to your home network as a “T-Mobile hotspot”… does this mean that other t-mobile customers can use your home network with their laptops and phone plans?
  • They sure aren’t making it easy to figure out how much these special plans cost.
  • And last but not least… wow, look at all those handhelds! How long have these dual-platform devices been on the market in the US? It’s news to me.

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Computer Hassles Scale: A Measure of Computer Stress.

Published
by
John
on 6/26/2007
in general
. 2 Comments

My sister was doing some research and came accross the “Computer Hassles Scale: A Measure of Computer Stress.”, a stress evaluation tool put together by Richard A. Hudiburg, who researches “technostress”. As someone who spends the majority of his waking hours interacting with a computer, I find the existence of such research to be comforting. Also, some of the criteria on this list are just hilarious (but totally valid). I emailed Dr. Hudiburg for permission to reproduce the scale on my blog, and he quickly responded saying it was fine, and attached rtf versions of the scale so I wouldn’t have to scan it.

I love the two introductory paragraphs. Yes, sometimes I do feel hassled by computers.

                            COMPUTER HASSLES SCALE
Directions: Computer technology hassles are irritants related to
experiences with computers and computer technology. These
irritants can range from minor annoyances to fairly major
problems. They can occur infrequently or fairly often.

Listed below are a number of ways in which a person can feel
hassled by computers and computer technology. Respond to each
hassle by circling a 0, 1, 2, or 3 to indicate how SEVERE the
hassle has been for you during the past TWO MONTHS.
------------------------------------------------------------------

    SEVERITY

0 - not at all
1 - somewhat severe
2 - moderately severe
3 - extremely severe

     HASSLES

1. computer system is down
2. lost in the computer
3. poorly documented software
4. computer hardware failure
5. computer keyboard lockup
6. programming error
7. illegal input message
8. updated software requirements
9. poor user/computer interface
10. slow program speed
11. slow computer speed
12. poorly written computer documentation
13. incompatible software program
14. incomprehensible computer instructions
15. outdated computer skills
16. increased time demands
17. electrical surges - data are lost
18. lost data
19. lost program
20. crashed program
21. crashed system/ lockup
22. damaged storage media - disks, tapes
23. need to update skills
24. keyboard typing errors
25. need to learn new software
26. forgot to save work
27. keyboard paralysis
28. uninformative computer conversations
29. violent language of computers
30. too much computer information
31. too little computer information
32. software confusion
33. lack of help with a computer problem
34. lack of computer expertise
35. increased computer use expectations
36. lack of computer application software
37. obsolete computers

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Amazon customer reviews continue to entertain

Published
by
John
on 6/25/2007
in general
. 2 Comments

Selected from reviews for this blender:

This blender is louder than some others, but that is the price of power.

Powerful, though a sound baffle wasn’t part of the production budget. Be prepared to wake the neighbors, but at least you can hand them a perfectly blended smoothie when they bang on your door.

But, the drawback is, it is REALLY loud - probably due to the all metal drive. If you have young children in the house please take note, they will be frightened.

The ice turned to sluce before I could blink. I could not believe how fast it blended the ice. It is absolutely amazing.

It’s squat, ugly, industrial gray and utilitatian in design and as loud as a mig at takeoff when going full blend, but underneath this blender lies the heart of a beast that will surely never die.

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Teach for America blog site sees surge in activity

Published
by
John
on 6/19/2007
in general
. 2 Comments

A Lyceum installation that I’ve been involved with, TeachFor.Us, provides blogs for Teach For America teachers. It has recently seen a surge of activity. In response to this activity, the tireless, dedicated, and brave Adam Geller and I have spruced up the front page, which now shows excerpts of the 5 most recent posts. Go check it out!

More coverage here.

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Review: Missing Sync for Windows Mobile is a nightmare

Published
by
John
on 6/9/2007
in general
. 4 Comments

Ever since I got my MDA about a year ago, I’ve been wrestling with Missing Sync for Windows Mobile, trying to get it to syncronize data with my mac. I’ve had so many problems, I figured it was time to blog about it.

Do not buy this software. It has given me nothing but grief. I have followed the documentation to the word, and use it only for address book syncronization. Even for that, I find that I have to reestablish my BlueTooth device pairings almost every time I synchronize my address book!

All of the “solutions” offered in the support/troubleshooting documentation involve reinstalling software, soft resetting the phone, and other start-from-scratch procedures which I do not find acceptable!

Furthermore, the software provides no way to upgrade the phone’s system software. This must be done using a computer running Windows!

Unless someone comes out with some truly impressive software, this is the last time I’ll buy a device that is not directly supported by my operating system.

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Two ways to reduce junk mail (snailmail)

Published
by
John
on 6/9/2007
in general
. 1 Comment

I just got an information packet from the New York Department of Sanitation (side note: wow, that is a truly amazing (read: horribly designed) url) about recycling and other various waste reduction strategies. They mention two services that seem like magic to me, and I had never heard of them before, so I figured I’d mention them here:

  • Register for the Direct Marketing Association’s Mail Preference Service at www.the-dma.org (click on Remove my name from mailing lists). There’s a $1 verification fee.
  • Opt out of credit card offers: call 1-888-5-OPTOUT

    • [note: you can also opt out from their website: optoutprescreen.com]

I don’t know how effective either of these are, but even if they cut down on my junkmail by 25%, I consider that a big win.

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