08:37
- Here's irony. C|Net just ran an
article about O'Reilly's FOO Camp.
"For a couple
of years, Tim O'Reilly has been bringing together some of the smartest
people in technology for a weekend campout of thinking, talking,
brainstorming and beer drinking.
Because of the A-list names--such as Google co-founder Larry Page and
Technorati founder Dave Sifry--and the level of discourse involved, the
trip, known as Foo Camp (for Friends of O'Reilly), has become one of
the must-get invites among the geek set.
But when the event convenes again this weekend near the Sebastopol,
Calif., offices of O'Reilly & Associates, O'Reilly's publishing
company, a number of people who have attended previously or who would
like to be on hand won't have gotten invitations."
So, O'Reilly called me a month or so ago and invited Barbara and me to
attend FOO Camp. My response? "Thanks, but we're really too busy."
Heads-down writing continues. I'll not have much time to spend updating
this page until the book reaches 100% in October.
10:15
- Same old same old. Researching, testing, writing, and shooting
images. An author's work is never done.
All hopes of a unified high-capacity DVD format are apparently gone, says
C|Net. I don't doubt it, and I'd bet that Blu-Ray is going to be
the winner. About the only thing HD-DVD has going for it at this point
is that HD-DVD discs can be made on existing equipment, while Blu-Ray
discs will require new equipment. That's a two-edged sword, though. If
legitimate DVD pressing plants need to buy new equipment to produce
Blu-Ray discs, well so do pirate pressing plants.
Otherwise, Blu-Ray has all the advantages. HD-DVD appeared to have a
time-to-market advantage, with the first players expected to arrive in
US stores late this year, while Blu-Ray players wouldn't be on the
shelves until at least mid-2006. Even that advantage appears to be
illusory, though. The studios that support HD-DVD are backing off on
their release plans, and it appears that few titles will be available.
I wonder how many $1,000 HD-DVD players will sell during their first
year, with few titles available to play in them. As was true of DVD-RAM
and DVD-R/RW before HD-DVD, the endorsement of the DVD Forum seems to
be the kiss of death.
11:55
- This is very odd.
We just returned Connections 2 Discs 1 through 3. Discs 4 and 5 of that
series were both available, as were all five discs of Connections 3, so
I'd have expected them to ship us Connections 2 Discs 4 and 5, along
with Connections 3 Disc 1. Instead, they're shipping us only Disc
4 of Connections 2, along with Discs 1 and 2 of Connections 3.
Presumably, they think people don't mind watching stuff out of order.
Wednesday, 24 August
2005
09:52
- The University of Texas has eliminated
its undergraduate library.
I fear we are on the cusp of a coming Dark Age. That is, alas, the
natural order of things. We have come to think of enlightenment as the
natural state, but throughout history ignorance and illiteracy has been
the rule.
The only things standing between us and a Dark Age are the twin piers
of literacy and science. Neither is respected nowadays. Our literacy
rate falls year by year, and even many who can read do not read, the
so-called aliterates. Science is under constant attack by the
know-nothings, many of whom represent themselves as scientists. Not one
person in a hundred could define the Scientific Method, including many
students in our university science programs.
Where will our next generation of scientists and mathematicians and
engineers come from? We will have some, certainly. The best and
brightest are still attracted to those fields. But will they be enough?
I hope so, but I fear not.
09:02
- I tried to place an order with NewEgg yesterday. It was a
small order, a spindle of Verbatim DVD+R discs, a package of 100 paper
DVD sleeves, and a Case Logic 128 DVD case. The total with shipping was
about $60. I've ordered from NewEgg many times, and have an account
there. I didn't expect any problems. Boy, was I wrong.
I added the items to my shopping basket and proceeded to check out. The
first problem was that they wanted the CVN number from the back of my
credit card. I didn't want to provide that, so I left that field blank
and clicked the continue button. A page popped up that told me I'd
forgotten to enter my CVN number. There was a clickable link next to
the field for CVN, so I clicked it. The popup told me that NewEgg
requested the CVN number, and that providing it would expedite handling
of my order, but it wasn't mandatory. So I entered "none" in the field,
but their shopping cart software told me that field had to be all
numbers. So, being a programmer in an earlier incarnation, I entered
"999" in the field and clicked Continue.
Here's the next screen that appeared:
Now, I never "activated" my card in "Verified by Visa", and I had no
desire to participate in this program. One more password to remember is
the last thing I want. And I'm certainly not going to provide the
information they demand here. So I clicked Continue, but nothing
happened. Apparently, there was no way to complete my order other than
by completing this form, so I just closed the browser Window and
abandoned the order.
A minute or two later, I got email from NewEgg, saying that my order
had not been completed:
"Unfortunately
we are unable to complete the processing of your order because payment
authorization to your credit/debit card has failed.
This means that your credit/debit card issuer has declined our request
for authorization due to an invalid credit/debit card number, incorrect
expiration date, exceedance of your daily limit, insufficient funds or
perhaps some other reason."
The message also mentioned that they'd try running the credit card
again, and it gave the 800 number for customer service. At this point,
there was steam coming out of my ears, but I called the 800 number
anyway. After 15 minutes on hold, and a lot more steam, a nice woman
picked up and I told her the problems I'd experienced.
I can understand that credit card fraud is a big problem for on-line
vendors, but I have a history with these people. All they needed to do
was check my order history, and they'd find that I've ordered from
NewEgg many times in the past and that there's never been a problem
with any of my orders. The customer service woman told me that they'd
apparently done that, because my order had in fact been processed. I
checked my email, and sure enough there was a confirmation message that
the order had been accepted. As I told her, it's lucky I hadn't ordered
the stuff somewhere else already.
As to the Verified by Visa program, she said that was optional. I told
her that NewEgg's definition of "optional" differed from mine, since
the only button on that screen was "Continue". Kind of like one of
those obnoxious Microsoft dialogs that warn you you're about to be
raped and then provide only an "OK" button.
I'm not happy with NewEgg right now. I told the customer service woman
politely but in no uncertain terms that the way they were handling
check out was going to lose them a boatload of customers. Treating
first-time customers with caution is understandable. Credit card fraud
is widespread, and vendors always come up on the short end.
But treating returning customers the same way, particularly ones who've
bought from you many times, is just stupid. They know I'm me. They know
they've shipped to me at this same address many times over many years
and that there's never been a problem. The order pattern tells them
that this isn't a case of someone placing several small initial orders
to establish credibility and then a huge order that's possibly
fraudulent. This order was for about $60. The probability that this
order is fraudulent is so close to zero as not to matter. They don't
need any verification in situations like this.
Making loyal customers go through unnecessary verification is a good
way to lose those customers. And it costs a lot to develop a new
customer.
11:11
- Still plugging. I'd hoped to finish the chapter on Optical
Drives yesterday, but I didn't make it. Maybe today.
00:00
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00:00
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Copyright
© 1998,
1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 by Robert Bruce Thompson. All
Rights Reserved.
