Major large courier with an arrow in its logo versus an HP server
Back in February, a server came into our office from a client in the United States. I think that the images speak for themselves, but the damage was severe enough that the system wouldn't boot let alone turn on its fans. After the insurance was taken care of and the server was brought back to us from the United States even though they were told to ship it to us, I managed to successfully rescue the array--slowly.
More photos included in this post.
Rogers and their idiocy with Android
You think that the whole malarky with Rogers not paying HTC for upgrades to Android is bad? Look at the garbage that I have gone through with my newly-acquired HTC Dream. Why is it that the lone GSM provider in the country has the most inept managers and network technicians?
If Rogers was serious about a revolution with the HTC Dream, then this is certainly a hell of a one.
Ed (20:50 PDT): Added a section on Rogers' stupidity with Blackberries. Oi.
Great Clips violates your privacy!
A visit to a Great Clips location on the weekend proved to be an annoyance more than a necessity. Here's a letter of complaint I have sent to their corporate head office. I also forwarded copies to two other organizations to ensure that this matter is looked at.
Repost: I do not accept your forced firmware update
Being that I had to endure the bullshit that Rogers placed upon me with my HTC Dream, my friend, Luke had something to say:
Hello Rogers Communications Inc,
I do not accept the premise that you can disconnect my paid data service unless I install your firmware on my device.
I understand and appreciate that you want your customers to be running stable, secure, bug-free phone software/firmware. However, I do not accept your premise that the only path is for me to install your firmware when you say. My phone is a small computer. I'm sure we'd both agree that it would be ridiculous for your Internet Service Provider to mandate what operating system you ran on your home PC or laptop. This is essentially the same issue.
Right now, as a customer of your service I have two options:
1) Use the firmware you give me. If I bought my phone from you I have firmware that you've chosen. I do not have access to details (read: code) describing what it does, it has no regular update schedule, it is locked down (restricting my freedoms), it is extremely slow to receive security updates (eg: a critical 911 fix left un-fixed for 4 months), the update process is bulky and difficult and it does not receive community support to add new features and improve it.
OR
2) Install the firmware I want to use. I can gain administrative access to my phone, and then install custom firmware created by an active open source community. I have full access to the source code (meaning I can verify it as well as improve it), I regularly get new features and performance improvements, security updates are available within days of discovery (eg: the 911 GPS fix), has an amazing built-in firmware updater ("over the air") and has an extremely active community for support.
I assert that provided that my device functions correctly on your network, I should receive the service I pay for regardless of the software or firmware running on my device.
I would strongly advise all Rogers customers with HTC Magic or Dream phones to immediately take steps to remove the locked down Rogers firmware on their phone, and replace it with the high quality open source "Cyanogenmod" firmware. Rogers customers should attempt the process themselves, or get in touch with their local hackspace and ask if anyone can help.
Rogers, I will not assume any bad intent on your part with this update. You are new to this new world of next-generation phones (via Android), and likely do not yet have business processes in place to enable fast turnaround on security issues or the core abilities to quickly backport features and add new functionality to the firmware your customers use. It is great that you are fixing this GPS/911 bug (finally) for all your customers and pushing out a firmware update, but do not force this on customers that have had this issue fixed for months and are running much better, newer firmware.
Rogers, please focus on building a solid network and trying to give me the best data service at the best price.
Thanks,
Luke Closs
I hope to $deity that Rogers fulfils their statement to me of giving me a month's worth of data for free. I am also overlooking my existing contract to see if I should just as well leave the carrier.
And for the record: I didn't bother with the plan in my previous entry. I am going to wait for WIND's arrival here in Vancouver this upcoming June and then decide on what I'd like to do.
My problem with the Olympics
I didn't want to go a whole month without a blog entry and there has been a huge cloud that has been hanging over my head with regards to the upcoming 2010 Winter Olympic games here in Vancouver. For most people, the excitement of the world watching our city display some excellent achievements in sporting activities has created a disconnect between what they think is going to happen and what is in fact reality.
Text messaging malarky
TELUS Mobility and Bell Mobility are screwing Canadians and are also lying about it in the process. In an announcement made earlier this week, both carriers plan to charge users $0.15 per received message instead of not charging at all.
This is of course totally unfair to those who do not have any text messaging packages on their service plans already, and it basically punishes anyone who receives a text message whether or not they want to receive any to begin with.
I want a refund for my music
I have a question for all IP holders who are demanding that we have our copyright law changed to reflect their wishes: will you refund me my money when the technology that contains their material becomes almost unusable?
Upstream providers are full of shit
The topic of the Internet running out of bandwidth came up in this Macworld article and was also posted to Slashdot.
A very damning paragraph appears in the article:
The study confirms long-time concerns of the Internet Innovation Alliance (IIA), an advocacy group focused on upgrading U.S. broadband networks, said Bruce Mehlman, co-chairman of the group. The group, with members including AT&T, Level 3 Communications, Corning, Americans for Tax Reform and the American Council of the Blind, has been warning people of the coming “exaflood†of video and other Web content that could clog its pipes.
Anonymity the fatal flaw of Wikipedia
It’s brought together laymen and academics alike, and, in theory anyway, will eventually document everything and anything that can be documented. However, Wikipedia suffers the same problem that the rest of the Internet experiences, which is that there’s no way to verify its users’ identities. Since it’s “the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit,†a user can choose to edit anonymously—only revealing their computer’s Internet address—or they can choose to register a pseudonym.