Posts tagged "Rants"
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How to get your stuff repaired when the retailer and manufacturer don't wanna: take 'em to court
A few weeks ago I was roasting some pumpkin for a delicious soup and towards the end of the cooking time the fan on the oven started into overdrive, making a lot of noise then it started beeping and p…
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Companies: why are you like this?
25 years ago a bunch of Internet people cracked the shits with the inhuman, one-way corporate speak employed by the companies they interacted with, consulted to and advised. Those rants became The Clu…
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Dear "Web Producers"
If you're going to call yourself a "web producer", surely you could take the time to learn a little about the field in which you work? I would expect a "TV producer" to know the difference between 16:…
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Rolling news is a scourge
Rolling news has always pissed me off. When nothing big is happening and you just want a summary of the day's stories, they're running some long-form programming that's not news. When something big is…
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Anyone work for the ATO?
It'd be a real shame if details of Gerry Harvey and Harvey Norman's tax arrangements leaked out. Terrible really. Apparently it's unAustralian to shop online because you avoid paying tax and [cough] l…
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Adobe's Omniture license agreements getting ridiculous
Some time ago I was invited to Adobe Omniture's Client Advisory Board to have some input into the next iteration of the Adobe's Omniture products. They sent me through an agreement to sign before I co…
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Dear Australian Retailers
Your recent campaign to get GST levied on all Internet transactions has some rather major logical flaws. 1. Your prices are much more than 10% higher than overseas prices. It's interesting that Angus…
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Why don't we all switch banks?
The Prime Minister is telling angry bank customers to " take their money and their business somewhere else ". For your transaction and savings accounts, this is reasonably easy. If you have a mortgage…
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Spreets: a bit shonky, a lot badly organised
The concept of the Groupon has been going on in Australia for a bit. Essentially it's a "deal a day" idea where, if enough people sign on to the day's deal, it happens. Suppliers can use it to build i…
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Erm, thanks but no thanks
Being invited to attend a company's "Customer Advisory Board" is nice. It recognises my real-world experience with their products, and hopefully means some of my ideas will end up in the product, maki…
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Why thank you Windows
So I'm copying files onto an SD card to go into a digital photo frame and suddenly get this message: Odd. I check whether there's space on the card. Loads. I check that the file names aren't too long…
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Rip off Australia
In Britain before the crash, "Rip off Britain" was a common trope for newspapers, comparing prices for identical products with the prices charged on the continent or across the Atlantic. There must be…
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Misleading children's toy packaging
No way is that kid aged 2+. (Yes, I'm getting bored with bath time. Louis still quite happy. I want new toys.)
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I hate 24 hour news channels
So the ABC is launching "ABC News 24". Full marks for the totally unique name. I want to have a kvetch about 24 news channels. My pattern of use of these channels, I suspect, isn't that different from…
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One thing about the NBN that annoys me
One of the things that's annoying me about all the NBN talk is the insistence on metro-equivalent services in regional and remote areas, as though this is a reasonable thing to require. I live in the…
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Jeremy Champion of Connect Digital: welcome to the shitlist
It's no secret I'm no fan of recruitment consultants. They're up there with estate agents in being leeches on society that provide no value while scraping off their percentage. Their inability to unde…
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Josephine's Cheese: Terrible packaging
Josephine's Cheese, given your site has no contact information, and doesn't even display the product I bought, I'll have to howl into the aether and assume you'll find it when I SEO your arse (given G…
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Getting rid of my landline
I'm getting rid of my landline. And no, not just to avoid the Telstra tax, but because the people who call land lines have no social graces. The only people who call landlines are old people and telem…
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What is it with recruiters?
Why are all IT recruiters: English? Almost every one of them. Completely unable to communicate in any method other than the telephone? Unable to accept any format other than MS Word. Even for Web and…
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Crotchety old buggers
Now I thought I'd become suitably curmudgeonly with age, what with still using a text-mode email client and grumbling about HTML posts. But it's always good to know there's someone better at something…
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Do Not Call means just that
We've received two telemarketing calls from the Police Citizens Youth Club soliciting donations in the last week. Being a charity, they're legally excluded from complying with the government's Do Not…
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No more donations to Oxfam
Dear Oxfam I'm writing publicly because you've completely ignored the email I sent you about this matter. Nice one. I've been an Oxfam supporter for many years. You're one of the more respectable aid…
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Tank Stream tour, despite their best attempts
I've wanted to see the Tank Stream, Sydney's first water source, for a long time. While it provided clean water to the original white settlers, it quickly became polluted and these days is little more…
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Those poor, poor banks
So the banks are crying poor, claiming there's not enough liquidity in the market. You'd think this would mean their savings interest rates would be hovering somewhere around the RBA Cash Rate so they…
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NSW Department of Fair Trading shows how not to do publicity
Step 1: Issue a press release that is reported on but doesn't give enough detail for consumers to take any meaningful action. Step 2: Don't put the press release in the "Media releases" section of you…
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Fastway do it again!
Yet again, Fastway couriers fraudulently forge a signature to "prove" delivery. At least this time they didn't forge my own name. In this case, the courier didn't bother to knock. We were in bed at th…
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Do not call!
I just had a call from a telemarketer at my private health insurer (don't get me started on being forced to have one) trying to get me to sign up for their "Extras" cover. In case you don't know how t…
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Why steal music?
Wow, can't imagine why people might download music illegally when the legal avenues are just so easy. I just tried to buy Gotye's first album Boardface from Creative Vibes. First, their system charged…
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Goodbye St George
I've been a customer of St George Bank, and before that one of the previous incarnations, Advance Bank, for many many years. Since I was a teenager. They had one of the first online banking systems, a…
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Fastway: such great couriers
I've ordered something online and been given a tracking number from the company supplying it. Here's what I just saw when I looked up the tracking number. I can tell you three things: One, I haven't t…
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Learnings?!?!
When did learnings become an accepted part of business vocabulary for anyone other than faux-Eastern Europeans?
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Recruiters just don't get it
Recruiters just don't get this "ethics" thing, do they? With this behaviour, Charterhouse Partnership have joined my recruiter blacklist. Yesterday I got this email from "Principle Consultant" Paul Ro…
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Rip off Australian booksellers
What planet do these people live on with book prices in this country? Why certainly I'll buy William Gibson's new book from Angus & Robertson for $44.95 + postage when it's available from the US from…
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GBBF 2007: lucky bastards!
Just in case Holly and I weren't missing all the great stuff going on in London, Scott sent through this photo of him and some other mates enjoying the Great British Beer Festival. Bastards!
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The downside of hub gears
Last night I discovered the downside of hub gears when I went to ride off from work and discovered my rear wheel was flat as a pancake. Getting the wheel out is quite an operation on my commuter bike.…
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Estate agents lie: SHOCK
Estate agents who willfully underquote houses going to auction will apparently get big fines with a new investigation. It won't be hard for them to find examples. Say, a 2-bedroom house quoted as "ove…
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How bad decisions get made
Here's a little anecdote from personal experience about why bad decisions sometimes end up happening, then staying around. I'm not quite sure how big companies can institutionally resolve this kind of…
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Thieving scumbags
Two "news" sites have stolen one of my photos from the last Glastonbury. Fortunately Google News makes it easy to find such infringements. Does this or this look familiar to you? They'll be receiving…
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Tip for people thinking of returning to Australia
If you're thinking of moving back to Australia from London after an extended stay, check the El Nino-Southern Oscillation and if it looks like we're headed into a La Nina phase, stay in London. It'll…
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Why are worm farms so expensive?
Worms farms are pretty simple pieces of equipment. You have a few layers of trays where you put your veggie scraps and worms, separated by a perforated mesh that the worms can move through. The top an…
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Fuck you Virgin Mobile!
Where on this page does it say that you can't get 3G internet access with this company's pre-pay SIM cards? That's right, it doesn't. I churned over because $5/month for 50 megs would be much cheaper…
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Real estate dictionary
We're looking at houses and we've encountered plenty of real estate jargon. Here's some handy descriptions to benefit others. cute and cosy: tiny easy maintenance courtyard: concrete courtyard stroll…
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Private health insurance redux
James Hamilton points out that the government has a new site for comparing health funds, kind of on the road to what I described. The problem is, the information it gives you is extremely limited, and…
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Private health insurance is a joke
I've just signed up for private health insurance. The system has changed so remarkably in Australia that you're effectively forced to sign up to one. If I didn't I'd end up paying an extra 1% income t…
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Anti-phone spam list opens
The Australian Do Not Call register has finally opened so you can register to not have phone spam. Of course our government in their infinite wisdom has exempted charities, organizations peddling supe…
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Justifiable homicide?
Does having an annoying, very loud ring tone on a phone that rings every five minutes in an open-plan office qualify the owner for removal from the gene pool? Is that qualification increased when he's…
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Real estate agent making threats
I had a couple of phone calls from the real estate agent who got us into this house yesterday. He made vague threats about my web page, which details our troubles with them. Fortunately the defamation…
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Rupert recycles far-right scare stories
Dave Cross pointed out a scare story in Britain's Daily Fascist newspaper. Seems Rupert's Daily Terrorgraph has stolen the story wholesale, though the sub editor amusingly "corrected" the spelling of…
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Keith Urban: you're an arsehole
It seems crappy country singer Keith Urban is is sueing oil painter Keith Urban for owning and using the domain name of his own name. Nowhere on his site does painter Urban claim to be a country singe…
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When did this become Emo Planet?
When did Planet Linux Australia become emo planet? WTF?
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Best Herald byline evar
Last night I was reading Saturday's Snidey Moaning Herald and came to the best byline I've yet read in that esteemed publication: "Miranda Devine is on holiday". Can't get better than that! And whatta…
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Scalpers are killing live music
Saw a hit on my web server from an eBay auction selling tickets to see Razorlight and using a photo I took at Glastonbury. Since the arsehole couldn't be bothered serving his stolen photos himself, I…
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Killed by a popunder ad
I'm compiling a list of resources for customers of a major ISP. The kind of thing that will be displayed when they use the bundled CD to install their internet connection. Anyway for the reference sec…
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Hearing booked
I've booked a hearing at the Consumer, Trader and Tenancy Tribunal, regarding our dodgy real estate agent's non-payment of our bond. I did this last week and just now got a call from their "Property M…
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Catania Medrano Real Estate: ethics free zone
I know, I know. I shouldn't be expecting ethics from estate agents. It's like trying to find a vegetarian shark. They're scum. All of them. They make used car salesmen seems like paragons of virtue. W…
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Bloody tired
Don't think I've been this knackered since my last bout of jetlag. Last night was one of those hot, still, humid evenings we get to look forward to in summer in Sydney. At 2am it was still 22° and I w…
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DVD menus: why oh why?
Last night I installed my grandmother-in-law's (is that a real term?) shiny new telly and DVD player for her, and was tasked with showing her how to use it. The telly is probably going to be okay, des…
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Drought? What drought?
Australia is apparently experiencing the worst drought in living memory. You could've fooled me! Since moving back to Sydney from London it's rained more than it ever did in London, and that's the cit…
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Word of the day: Confusopoly
Discovered this great word coined by Dilbert author Scott Adams: Confusopoly where instead of competing, companies instead try to bamboozle customers. It's a great term and applies in so many areas. B…
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When did futons get expensive?
When I moved out of my parents' house, my room was about 50cm longer than a double bed, and about 10cm wider. Still, I needed a bed and wasn't going to be very successful with the laydeez if I had a s…
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Why we should respect the Police
Spotted last night at the end of my parents' street, a police paddy wagon parked outside the local pizza joint in a No Stopping zone while the copper was inside waiting for his pizza. There's a car pa…
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ARGH! Real estate scum!
Turned up at 11:30 this morning to move in, and it turns out the tenants are still in the house. Still asleep even! Do you think this elicits an apology from the estate scum? Course not. "Nothing we c…
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I'm a resource
I love it when project managers refer to human beings as "resources". It would be okay if they were using it in the general, but you never hear them talking about equipment as a resource. When they sa…
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Estate agents: how I love thee so
Ahh doncha just love estate agents? They're so honest! Here's an ad in our target area. Let's decode the real estate-speak: FANTASTIC LOCATION! The house is shite, but what a great spot! Two bedroom,…
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How to treat your customers
When phoning to ask for a piece of information, unless you are sure the customer has screwed up, don't use language like "you didn't give us your..." as if you are in the wrong, you give the impressio…
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Recruiter blacklist: Sapphire Technologies
I applied for a job advertised by these recruit-scum. Turns out they're flogging training, not jobs. I didn't hear from them, and saw the same ads getting posted day after day so I assumed there was s…
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Shittybank does it again
Last Friday I had a rather unfortunate experience with my bank card. It stopped working, with conflicting messages from different points: ATMs said "your bank is unable to process your transaction" wh…
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Lost my phone
Well about forty minutes after my last moblog post, I lost my phone on a gondola. Doh! Hopefully insurance will cover it. Until I get a replacement, you'll have to contact me through other methods.
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I never thought I'd say this...
But I now have no reason to complain about the Australian Tax Office. I just completed (yes, very late) my UK tax return for 2004/2005. ARGH!!!! I think the Marquis de Sade couldn't design a more conv…
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Guardian starts spamming
The last two days, I've received emails through two addresses registered over the years with The Guardian. These were addresses used to register for competitions, forums etc. I never gave permission t…
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How about some sun?
Getting into that bad time of year here in London. Haven't seen the sun in weeks, and not much prospect of seeing it. Well, at least we'll be skiing in a couple of weeks, and that's something to look…
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Text strike!
Last night, I sent a text message to Holly around 19:30. It arrived this morning around 07:30. Twelve hours to send about twelve bytes of payload, at a cost of 3p. It's about the most expensive data t…
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News in the middle of a movie?
British television has some very annoying habits. We won't go into the running of their best programming on Friday and Saturday nights, and their worst on Sundays. Or the fact they can't seem to start…
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Eric Idle: the unfunny Python
Just sat down to watch The Rutles (three quid at Virgin). I can't imagine a less funny "comedy". What a waste of space! Now we all know that John Cleese has been incredbly unfunny since he went throug…
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Why does technical marketing have to be meaningless?
We're looking around for bug tracking software at my work, so this involves a lot of research into the available tools. It seems that the web sites of most software companies are written by and for pe…
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Please oh please, someone kill Network Solutions
I've been trying to get my rumble.net domain off Network Solutions for the past three months. Eight support requests later and they still have it locked with lock status "REGISTRAR-LOCK". Every time I…
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Australia vs New Zealand, but where can I get tickets?
According to FFA there's a friendly match between Australia and New Zealand here in London on 9th June. But do you think there's any information about when, where and how one gets tickets? Don't be ri…
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Google Justice Results
Well it appears my crack at Google Justice has been wildly successful. Searches for vallandry apartment, apartment les choucas and john and sonia potts all end up on my page about them trying to rip u…
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My Windows ate itself
Looks like my work Windows XP machine ate itself on Friday. Completely destroyed itself. Impressive considering I hadn't installed any new software (except last week's Windows updates?). Doesn't seem…
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Google justice
The people who own the Les Choucas apartment in Vallandry, John and Sonia Potts where we stayed for our recent ski trip have tried to fleece us out of some of the deposit. So I've written up a page ab…
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Tax morons
As a socialist, I have no problem with taxation. In fact, I think it's an important thing. I don't mind paying what I'm due. What does piss me off, however, is the incompetence of the UK's Inland Reve…
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Lazy-arse tube drivers
Tube drivers on the Picadilly Line are on strike today. Apparently they're upset because one of the drivers was demoted for running through four red signals. These bastards, with their £35,000 salarie…
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Hawkshead are spammers
I ordered from this company once. Fortunately I used a Sneakemail address so I can delete it. Postal spam isn't going to be so easily solved. In a short time, this email address will start bouncing. R…
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Network Solutions suck!
Yes I know I know, I should have moved registrars when Network Solutions lost their monopoly on.com,.org and.net domains. I didn't get around to it. Certainly should have done it when they hijacked th…
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British radio sucks!
I bought one of these handlebar-mounted radios from eBay recently. It arrived yesterday and I listened to XFM on the way into work this morning. Over my 35 minute commute they played three songs and s…
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What a lovely area!
My work is in such a delightful area. Apparently there was a shooting just outside the office last night around 1800. This morning I get to work to find Police and Fire Brigade around the building bec…
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Alternative to allmusic.com?
I've used allmusic.com to find out information about musicians, albums and songs for years. It's always been a clunky, slow web site. The most annoying thing was that they used Javascript instead of a…
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These train prices are crazy
I just went and booked £500 worth of travel for the future. We're doing a fair bit of moving about this Summer. Heading to Utrecht to visit Mani and Joachim, Leicester to visit Sam, Stu and Alfie, Gla…
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Can you find something more brain damaged?
I'm thinking of getting a driving licence, so I check out this site from the Automobile Association. And they have this little gem of idiocy: Get a £24 discount when you sign up for lessons online. Cl…
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Globalisation isn't working
I thought globalisation was supposed to mean prices were the same around the world. No more of these ridiculous price inequalities. Well not in electronics, they certainly aren't! I'm looking to a dig…
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Homeless?
Well after weeks of dicking us around, the landlord of the flat we intended to move into next weekend has finally given us no option but to not go ahead with it. Every communication with him has seen…
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I fought Easycar and won (for now)
A month or so ago, I tried to hire a car from Easycar. First mistake, of course, with their ridiculous policies and puny (100km/day) mileage allowance. But anyway, I attempted to do it. I use Mozilla…
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Power is back
London can't let New York edge us out for crappiest infrastructure of a so-called modern city. No, we had our own little power outage this evening. I was in the tube but fortunately the power cut out…
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Shoe voodoo
Last night I went shoe shopping. I normally buy shoes in outdoor stores. They tend to stock hiking-type shoes which suit my lifestyle, plus I don't wear bright white shoes. Ugh. Anyway, I'm going thro…
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Recruit scum volume 1
(first installment of a trilogy in eighty-three parts) What is it about recruiters that they're uniformly clueless, lying scumbags? But getting more specific, why are they all terrified of email? Sure…
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Testing spammers
This address, i8pte1u02@sneakemail.com, is for special purposes so don't email it. It's a spam trap. I'm doing some tests to see how spammers harvest their email addresses, using Sneakemail which prov…