Reviews

There are 143 posts filed in Reviews (this is page 5 of 15).

AWOL on last night’s debate

I’ve been flying solo with the kids for most of this week as my lovely and talented wife was away for business. She’s back now but while she was gone I had my hands full with kid duties. As such didn’t feel compelled to turn on the TV during last night’s debates. Yeah, as much as I like politics I didn’t even watch. I didn’t think I’d learn anything about the candidates that I didn’t already know.

I suppose this is how the majority of voters probably feel. With as much as people hate all the negative advertising being pushed by political consultants, it takes a special kind of person to willingly tune into watch more blood-boiling political scrapping.

From the reviews I’ve read, though, I wasn’t the only one AWOL from last night’s debate. In addition to the truth and the moderator, our president apparently didn’t feel the need to show up. Obama must not have read my critique of his speaking skills because it seems Professor Obama showed up in President Obama’s place. It takes a royal screw-up on Obama’s part to make Mitt Romney look like the human one.

I agree with some pundits’ opinion that most folks have made up their mind by now. Some say that debates mean little in the long run. Still, Obama wants to hang on to his job he’d better show more fire from here on out.

SiriusXM’s awesome customer support


I have been enjoying a 6-month deal from Sirius XM to keep my satellite radio running but that deal runs out tomorrow. I called SirusXM to find out what the cost was to renew it or if I should cancel. It turns out the same 6 months for $25 is still in effect, so I was easily able to renew. What’s even better is that it was almost free for me as I had a $21 balance on my account.

To get my radio renewed I had to wade briefly through a voice-response system, which I detest. As soon as I’d selected the “cancel” option, though, I was connected with Sally, a woman with a Midwestern accent in SirusXM’s Listener Care department. Sally had just the right amount of small talk and business, chatting about her dirty glasses before finding my information. Her folksiness conveyed readily over the phone and I never heard any apologies for “slow computers” or other excuses. In short, I can tell Sally loves her job and I have no qualms spending more money with SiriusXM. Heck, she almost had me ready to buy the company’s higher-priced service.

In an age when many companies outsource their call center operations and treat customer care as an afterthought, I was delighted to discover SiriusXM treats its customers right. Outstanding job, SiriusXM!

Light-Bot: A fun way to learn programming

Now that their school is out for the summer, I was looking for a simple yet fun way for the kids to learn programming. There are plenty of programming languages I could start them on but that seemed like it might seem like too much work.

Thanks to a blog post from Marshall Brain, though, I found this Adobe Flash game called Light-Bot. Players devise a series of commands to move Light-Bot across a grid and light up all the blue tiles on the grid. The number of commands the player can use is limited and there are two functions that the player can use to automate repetitive tasks. Using these tools, the player can have fun playing while at the same time learn a little about logic and programming.
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Zazzle yanks sticker under pressure from Honda

Odyssey transmissions blow chunks. Literally.

It seems Honda took offense to my first bumper sticker, asking Zazzle to pull it from sale. I asked Zazzle to elaborate:

Thanks for the response regarding my rejected bumper sticker content. However, I am still at a loss as to how this sticker infringes on any copyrights, trademarks, and/or libels or defames anyone. Could you please cite the specific content guideline that is of concern?

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Ask me about Honda transmissions bumper sticker

Honda transmissions suck


After becoming disgusted with American Honda’s refusal to own up to the problems with the Honda Odyssey transmissions, I decided to create a bumper sticker which will help spread the word about Honda’s shoddy treatment of its customers.

Feel free to share!

Update 1:25 PM: It seems Zazzle has removed my bumper sticker without explanation. My email is down at the moment but when it returns I hope to hear what happened. I certainly hope it isn’t a case of Zazzle getting nervous about me exercising my First Amendment rights. Certainly there’s nothing defamatory about a product that simply reads “ask me about Honda transmissions,” is there?

The Art of Deception

The recent LinkedIn password crisis got me looking for good book on hacking. Sadly, Kevin Mitnick’s book The Art of Deception is not that book. On the foreward page of the book, one reader scrawled a message that said:

WARNING! THIS BOOK COULD HAVE BEEN A MAGAZINE ARTICLE, FOR ALL ITS SUBSTANCE!

I got through about ten pages before I concluded that the previous reader was right. Mitnick’s a terrible writer, with many of his sentences tend to ramble and lack focus. It reads as if he was told by his editor to fill x pages and so he put little thought into what he is trying to say.

What’s more, much of what he says doesn’t rise beyond simple common sense. It’s not entirely Mitnick’s fault, as network security became far more sophisticated while he was serving time for his crimes. While he might have been a big fish when he was arrested in Raleigh in the early 90s, his hacking methods don’t compare to those used today. For instance, Mitnick recommends against writing down passwords, even though most security experts now agree that this policy encourages people to use simple, easy-to-remember passwords that can be easily cracked. Even if Mitnick was up on the latest techniques, though, it’s likely he can’t reveal these techniques due to terms of his parole.

What we’re left with is a book that is actually pretty boring. I’m a guy who enjoys learning about network security but even I can’t bear to finish this book.

Bill Graham Presents

Bill Graham. (Photo by Mark Sarfati)

I just read the autobiography Bill Graham Presents: My Life Inside Rock And Out and I have to say that Graham led one spectacular life. I was interested in learning about how concert promotion is done, but Graham’s life went far beyond that.

Graham was a Holocaust survivor who was spirited out of Germany to France and then to America. Graham spent time as a youth in an upstate New York orphanage, where he became dejected after repeatedly being passed over for adoption. Some say that drove his need to feel loved, which he worked to do every day of his life. He always gave the extra effort, which made the musicians he worked with very happy but often annoyed the musicians’ managers, who paid for Graham’s largesse.

Graham had an extraordinarily keen business sense, which showed itself early in his life. When he signed up for Army duty in the Korean war, he put this ability to use by selling food from his troop transport ship’s galley to other hungry soldiers. He also ran gambling on the ship. Any time he saw a need, he was angling for a way to fill it and make a profit.
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Rocky support from Earthlink

Yesterday I discovered that at least one of Earthlink’s mail servers has been listed on a spam blackhole list, meaning mail sent through that server disappears from the Internet.

I searched in vain on Earthlink’s support page for an email address to a clueful engineer. Instead, I made do with a “live chat” with someone named “Rocky.” Rocky dutifully followed his script but instead of hearing me when I told him that Earthlink’s servers were blacklisted, Rocky had me recheck my email settings.

It’s sad when I know more than the support person who supposedly is there to help me.

Please hold for the next available agent. Your chat should begin in approximately 0 minutes. You may type your question while you wait, but you won’t be able to SEND it until your chat is assigned to an agent.

‘Rocky S’ says: Thank you for contacting EarthLink LiveChat, how may I help you today?

Rocky S: Hello, how may I assist you today?

CUSTOMER@earthlink.net: I just got a bounced email which indicates an Earthlink mail server is on a blackhole list.

Rocky S: Please stay on hold for three minutes, while I go through the issue.

CUSTOMER@earthlink.net: 550 5.7.1 Service unavailable; Client host [209.86.89.69] blocked using Trend Micro RBL+.

CUSTOMER@earthlink.net: Were you aware of this?

Rocky S: Thank you for being on hold.

Rocky S: I am sorry to hear that. I’ll do my best to resolve this issue.
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Cuisinart’s customer service rules

My wife Kelly got a Cuisinart espresso maker as a gift about a year and a half ago and has used it religiously! Every day she happily makes herself a latte. One morning last week her beloved espresso machine began to balk at making her morning coffee. I knew how sad this would make her so I was already determining how much it would cost to buy her a new one.

I needn’t have worried. Kelly called Cuisinart’s (now owned by Conair) support number and, unlike many companies today, spoke to a live person. Not just a live person, but a clueful, live person! After offering Kelly a few strategies to get her ailing espresso maker working, the helpful rep offered to replace the whole thing for free.

Yep. It didn’t matter that it was a gift and Kelly didn’t have the receipt, nor did it matter that it was a year and a half old. Cuisinart is shipping her a brand new espresso maker and taking back her broken one, for free!

At a time when so few companies remember who keeps them in business (ahem, their customers), Cuisinart goes above and beyond. Bravo!

Scratch another Honda Odyssey

Remember four years ago when the transmission in my 2002 Honda Odyssey disintegrated? Remember when Honda jerked us around and I said I’d never buy another Honda again?

I should’ve stuck with that.

On my way to work this morning, the transmission died in our 2003 Honda Odyssey. You know, the one that Leith Honda assured us wasn’t susceptible to the low coolant flow problem like our prior Odyssey. I was heading west on Wade Avenue at Ridge Road when the transmission began slipping. I was fortunate enough to hobble the car over to Kelly’s office nearby, rather than get stuck out on I-40 which is what could’ve very easily happened.
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