JohnA lifeBlog

For those who know me, I love Disney World. In spite of the criticisms presented, there is something about paying your fee, and then being transported to a world that has never existed.

As an internet professional, I have friends and contacts who send me link after link, all day and every day, saying that I absolutely must see it.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve received several links that show the true vision of Walt Disney in central Florida. He had a brilliant plan which was defeated through bureuacracy. Fortunately for us, a rendition of his film argument still exists.

Thank you SO much waltopia, as you have preserved a legacy. Please click here to see the true vision for Walt’s Florida purchases… which I will guarantee do not include instructions to use the transportation hub.

EDIT: If you’re impatient, fast forward to 9 minutes in to see about Epcot.

So, as you may have noticed, I’ve worked seriously on losing weight over the last 2 years. The bottom line is that I look great.

Tonight, I was out shopping, and I ran into someone who was an acquatence about a year ago. She worked at the local Quiznos’, and I ate there at least twice a week.

I ran into her and her son at Food4Less tonight. When we recognized each other, she gave me a hug. Then she proceeded to put her hands on my hips, and kept saying “WOW! You have lost so much weight”

She wouldn’t say anything else… she kept saying how good I looked. Obviously, that made an impact, and I allowed her to pursue that path.

I asked her for her phone number, to which she replied, “I so wish I could”. I asked why she couldn’t. She pointed to her son, and said “I’m with someone for him”

We smiled, and laughed, and then, *poof*, she was gone.

Will I see her again? Probably not. My last encounter was a year ago, prior to her having a new beau.

Sigh, at the very least, it gave me the confidence to ask someone special out.

Current mood: okay
Category: Quiz/Survey

I saw this one on Sarah’s blog, and thought it was great! Thanks, Sarah

This is for fun. Just do it!!

Leave your name and:

1. I’ll respond with something random about you.
2. I’ll tell you what song/movie reminds me of you.
3. I’ll pick a liquor i’d take a shot of with you
4. I’ll say something that only makes sense to you and me.
5. I’ll tell you my first/clearest memory of you.
6. I’ll tell you what animal you remind me of.
7. I’ll ask you something that I’ve always wondered or liked about you.
8. If I do this for you, you must post this on your Blog

Dear AppleCare,

I love Mac OS X. I love everything about it, and I love that I am so much more productive. But, I am not a fanboi. So, in this letter, I hope to share my concerns. This is the e-mail I recently sent to Apple Support.

Good Evening, AppleCare / ProCare.

Our entire organization uses Dell hardware. I am the sole exception, since I require a Macintosh to support our Mac customer base.

With Dell, if we call with any kind of laptop / portable issue, there is a technican ON SITE the next day.

With Apple? I have to mail in my system, including hundreds of thousands of lines of confidential code, provide my root password, and hope that nothing seems to “escape.”

Others in our organization want to switch to Mac, but our CTO refuses their requests, because Apple does not offer onsite NBD (sorry, next business day) service.

I am “lucky” as the maintainer of the Apple instances of our technology. But there is no way you can compete with Dell or HP if you do not offer a same day service package.

Apple, I don’t know if you are serious about competing in the enterprise space, but if you are, you need to vastly improve your corporate customer service channels.

Kindest Regards,

John Anderson

Or, install iTunes 7. That is the question.

After watching the webcast, I decided that I should allow my Mac to self update, and install the latest version of iTunes.

After a download and reboot, I was ready to launch. I put my 4G iPod into my dock, and watched the magic… um, the magic crashed down to earth.

Aside from the spinning beach-ball of death, I was completely unable to engage my iPod. In fact, after waiting 20 minutes, I chose to eject my iPod. Big mistake, friends. Now, when I hook up my iPod to my insanely expensive MacBook, I get a message saying that I need to re-format my iPod. I agree, and again, the software tells me that the unexplained error is my fault.

I am so tired of dealing with software that refuses to take responsibility. Apple, stop trying to make your customers out to be idiots. Listen to them, and (as incredibly difficult as it may be) stop looking down on them. Their experiences hold your future. Embrace it.

I was reading about the new iPod lineup, and realized that I really should do something about my ol’ faithful 4G iPod that has served me well since 2004. Currently, it has a whopping 20 minutes of battery life. So, I decided to take advantage of Apple’s out of warranty battery replacement, which is actually quite reasonably priced. So I began to go through the “self-service” process.

The last step, naturally, is where your card is charged, and your request placed. I have a card I use exclusively for online transactions (actually, so I can track my woot.com behavior), so I put it in, and pressed Continue. A few seconds later, the system returns an error saying.. “Unknown Error. Please try your request again” So I did. Long story short?

Now, this card had a zero balance prior to Apple’s behavior. And now, I offer the free E-Commerce programming lesson. I may not be an expert, but I have dabbled in E-Commerce programing from time to time.

In UltraCart, we have a particular sub-system called the “Billing Background Service”. This particular system is responsible for all financial transactions that occur within the UltraCart platform.

Unlike the rest of the system, this section has a zero-bug tolerance. Every line is analyzed and scruinized prior to commit, and then a code review is done by another developer. Finally, the entire thing is surrounded with the following pseudo-code:

try {

performTheFinancialTransaction();

} catch (AnyErrorUnderTheSun error) {

// Do exhaustive forensic analysis to determine if ANY financial transaction occurred, and how
// best to recover from it. If this means programmatically querying the gateway, so be it. But
// don’t let this go unchecked.
}

The bottom line is that, when a customer’s money is involved, you do whatever is necessary to avoid challenging the customer’s faith in e-commerce. There is no tolerance for cryptic error messages, or oblique error codes. If there is any section of your code that deserves DoD like analysis, it’s the billing system.

As e-commerce is my profession, the ramifications of Apple’s design is scary. Imagine had I used a debit card… at this point, over $700 of REAL money would be unavailable from my checking account.

Apple, I love your products, but please, hire some e-commerce architects who understand the importance of the customer’s bottom line.

A friend of mine invited me to join him and his wife to the invitation-only sneak preview event at downtown Merced’s newest venue, Big Bubba’s Bad BBQ.  Located in the same two buildings that formerly housed the Firehouse Brewpub, this theme restaurant has all of the stylings of a new and exciting place for Mercedians to gather.  And, the best part of all? They are still going to be selling the same microbrew beer that made won several regional and state awards.
I’ll bring my camera, and (since I know the owner), hopefully will be able to take pictures without the threat of police intervention.

So, truth be known, I’m stuck in this backwards lame town for a while.  I won’t go into details, but the truth is, I am here for at least a few years.

After watching my neighbor play in a jazz band in the local bistro, I realized a new idea.  Too many people think that there is no nightlife in the downtown area.  I mean, the town can now claim as its own the first new UC campus to open in over 40 years.

Anyway, I had an idea.  I thought it would be a great thing if I could visit the downtown establishments that have something to offer past 7pm, and give them a venue to share what they offer, and to show that there is much more at night in downtown than simply the local movie theater.  From this idea, the concept of Merced After Dark was launched.

On Friday, I went to several establishments to take pictures of their night life.  A number of the venues were excited. I was able to take a number of pictures that showcased the town’s available venues.  We had fun…

…Until I went to Starbucks.  I went inside, and asked permission to take the pictures of several couples that were there enjoying a late night drink.  They all agreed, and even asked to take my picture.

Things were going great, until a minimum wage paid employee told me that I was harassing the customers.  I replied that I asked their permissions first, and that they all agreed.  She then said I had to leave immediately.  I replied, I asked their permission.  They said yes, and that I was doing this to help bring business back downtown.  This teenage employee then said that I had to leave or that she would call the police.  I was pissed at this point, and told her she was a closed-minded bitch.  I then chose to left the premises, and talked to the CHP officers who were there buying a drink.  The agreed that I had behaved properly, leaving when asked, and not trying to make a scene.

So, here is what I ask my readers.  I am calling Starbucks corporate tomorrow.  I am going to share with their PR department that they need to better train their employees. I am spending my own time and my own money trying to promote their business, and am greeted by an ignorant minimum wage employee who has no real grasp of the big picture.

So, call Starbucks corporate.  The only number I can find for “customer relations” is 1-800-211-8307. There are probably better numbers, and hope that if you find one, you’ll post it as a reply.

As you can imagine, they will NOT be included in my new web site trying to boost the downtown economy.