Apple's servers are melting down due to the overwhelming demand for activating the 3G iPhone and installing the OS 2.0 upgrade.

Apparently Apple failed to anticipate this demand, or load test the infrastructure.

New iPhones are failing to activate, and the unfortunate customers who have attempted to upgrade their existing phones are having them left in an unusable limbo state when the final stage of the upgrade fails to complete.

Apple has managed to brick (make completely unusable) thousands of phones, including mine.

My phone completed the upgrade to OS 2.0, but before it will restore my data or even make a non-emergency call, it needs to be re-activated by Apple's iTunes server.

Which is down. And which has been down for hours now.

So for the time being, my phone is dead. I can not even receive incoming calls.

Thanks Apple.

The Apple discussion thread on the issue is here, and the mainstream media is starting to pick up the story too.

Why is there such a frenzy over a phone?

The Mercury News article linked above interviewed one customer, asking why he had spent the night outside an Apple store waiting to buy an iPhone.

His answer: "Chicks dig the iPhone."

Yeah, but only when it works!

*grrrr*

UPDATE: As of 3:30pm, my iPhone is live and full of OS 2.0 goodness. The App Store so totally rocks - this is what the on device application experience is meant to be. I've downloaded the iTunes Remote app, and I am loving having remote control of my music via WiFi. And the weather radar feature in Weather Bug is also impressing me.

Yay!

Mobile connectivity is essential to our life as technomads.

And over the past year and half, Sprint's EVDO service has worked wonderfully for us. We have gotten broadband speed all over the country, and it has worked so well that we have even been able to cut the cable modem line while living here at Cherie's house in Florida.

To connect we use a Novatel Merlin EX720 card, and to share the connection we use a small Cradlepoint CTR-350 WiFi router. This combination is small, portable, simple, power efficient, and it works amazingly well.

The reason that we chose Sprint last year was that it was the only nationwide carrier offering "unlimited" wireless data. At the time Verizon was also advertising "unlimited data", but was attaching fine print defining unlimited as "5GB a month".

(The New York Attorney General actually had to get involved to get Verizon to stop marketing 5GB as "unlimited"!!!)

Over the past year, Sprint won a lot of customers thanks to this "unlimited" policy, despite having inferior coverage. But the limits of "unlimited" have apparently now been reached.

Taking Verizon's lead - Sprint is dropping the easy to understand and consumer friendly "unlimited" and is now implementing a 5GB cap.


The new deal from Spint:
Here are Sprint's new terms, that we must either agree to or use as an excuse to cancel our two year contract:

Sprint reserves the right to limit throughput speeds or amount of data transferred and to deny, terminate, modify, or suspend service if usage exceeds 5gb per month in total or 300mb/month while off-network roaming.

*grrrrr*

How are we supposed to depend on our wireless connection for getting work done when it can be throttled down or canceled at any time without warning? The 300mb off-network roaming is particularly troubling, because there is not even a way to tell when you ARE roaming, and such roaming has always been free.

Sprint's cap is a "soft cap" - there is no charge if you go over, but there is also no certainty that your connection will not be cut off either. Install a major OS update and you could find yourself cut off. Get a lot of work in to do, and you could find yourself unable to do it. Etc...

There is no longer ANY option for a real unlimited usage connection from Sprint, even if you would gladly pay more for it.


Verizon's WORSE Deal:
Meanwhile, Verizon's "soft cap" is growing painfully and outrageously hard. Rather than having a rarely enforced threat of service cancelation if you exceed 5GB of usage, Verizon is now rolling out "overage charges" of $250 per GB.

Let me repeat: TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS PER GIGABYTE!!!

In other words - the first 5GB you use are around $14 each, but the 6th you consume is suddenly 18x more expensive. This is the sort of gouging that you typically see con-men trying to pull after a natural disaster.

For an example of how easily it is to consume this much data - we have been watching the TV series Torchwood (purchased via iTunes). One episode is around 600MB - which via Verizon's new pricing would cost us $2.00 to Apple, and $150 to Verizon to view.

Based on this math, to download the entire season will cost you nearly $2000!!! ($25 to Apple and $1810 to Verizon). This is one VERY expensive single click of the mouse!

Here are the details of Verizon's new terms:

Effective June 22, 2008, Verizon has now changed how overage charges will affect those who exceed their allotted (5GB) usage per month. The new implementation provides for:

• All plans are now subject to standardized $0.25/MB overage charge.


• There is now a temporary "usage limit" cap of $250 for monthly overage fees.


• All customers will only have three monthly bills subjected to a usage limit of $250. After the third bill to have the usage limit applied, there will no longer be a usage limit on the monthly bill, and the customer will be responsible to pay for all actual usage charges incurred on their monthly bill.


• In addition to the changes in overage charges to existing 50MB and 5GB plans, a new plan is being made available to customers who have used up all their 'usage limits'. This new "save plan" provides 10GB of data usage for $199.99/mo and the same $0.25/mb overage charge after the alloted data usage.

Insane.


AT&T's Capped Plans:
In the past year, AT&T's 3G HSDPA network has become a viable mobile data alternative to EVDO on Sprint and Verizon. But AT&T has a 5GB soft cap just like Sprint (and like Verizon used to):

The parties agree that AT&T has the right to impose additional charges if you use more than 5 gigabytes in a month. Prior to the imposition of any additional charges, AT&T shall provide you with notice and you shall have the right to terminate your service.

At the moment, AT&T is not charging for data over 5GB, and they are not enforcing their cap. But how long before they join Verizon in the gouging? I am guessing it is only a matter of time.


Alltel - The Last Bastion of Unlimited Data:
Alltel is the only nationwide wireless network that is still offering unlimited EVDO usage, for only $59/ month. But seeing as Alltel is in the process of being acquired by Verizon, my guess is that this offer will probably not be around for very much longer.

Even though the deal is likely not to last, Alltel is the only carrier with reasonable data plans. Because of this, we will probably soon cancel our contract with Sprint and switch to Alltel. At least we will have a few months before we have to cancel again and look for another alternative...


*sigh*

It looks as if the unlimited usage plans that have allowed wireless data in the US to thrive are soon to be a thing of the past. This is a shame. The wired Internet only took off once ISP's stopped billing per hour and offered unlimited use. With usage caps and outrageous overage charges in place, users will grow very wary of actually making use of all these wonderful fast networks that are being deployed.

Why have fast 3G wireless data if you can't actually make use of it?

Unlimited data. RIP.

My iPhone has died.

*grrr*

Over the weekend the battery had gotten dangerously low (10% warning) - and the iPhone was on the verge of shutting down while we needed it to try and navigate towards Wrestlemania. Greg and Betty realized that they had an iPod car-charger onboard, so I borrowed it and plugged in.

A moment after I did so, the iPhone reset and rebooted twice - and then gave me a kernel panic and the screen filled with text. It was actually pretty cool to watch, though disturbing.

I picked up the iPhone, and the back of the case was shockingly hot to touch. Yikes!

I unplugged, and forced the iPhone to reboot by holding down the front and top buttons for ten seconds, and when it returned to life I put it into "Airplane Mode", guessing that the wireless radio combined with the charge current for the critically low battery had overwhelmed the charging circuit. Once in Airplane mode, the iPhone seemed to charge fine for the remaining 15 minutes of our drive.

Once inside the Citrus Bowl, I was able to use my iPhone to snap and email pictures, and place a few phone calls. The battery was still in the red, but the phone was working fine. After emailing a final picture off to my folks, I stuck the phone into my pocket.

About an hour later, I felt a brief vibration. I think that was my iPhone's dying gasp.

Later in the night, the iPhone was dead to the world. Nothing I could do would make it reset or wake up - the screen was hopelessly black. Once home, I plugged into both my laptop and the wall charger - but neither would bring the iPhone back to life. Even leaving it plugged in overnight did nothing.

Googling around, I've found reports of the iPhone charge circuitry sometimes failing and frying. I think that is what happened to me.

In theory, I should be able to take advantage of the 1yr Apple warranty - but since I have never activated on AT&T this may be tough. I will have to convince a Genius at an Apple store to swap my dead phone for a live one. But one catch - every Apple store in the state of FL is sold out of iPhones. There is a mysterious nationwide shortage going on right now. Even the Apple online store is out of stock..

The next generation 3G iPhone is due sometime between now and June. I was planning to buy that as soon as it is released. Now I am faced with the dilemma - do I limp along with my backup broken down Treo until then? Should I sell my dead iPhone on Ebay for parts (potentially worth up to $300)? Should I wait until the Orlando Apple store gets more equivalent iPhones in stock and try and sweet talk a warranty swap? Or...

I could even dissect my iPhone, order a new logic board for $200, and with some careful work, likely resurrect it.

I've gotten so used to having my email, web access, photo albums, and music with me all the time. It feels miserable to be without. Fortunately, I still have a Treo to fall back upon. But it does feel positively stone-age to use it.

*grrrr*

To my dismay - I have discovered that Gmail can not be trusted to keep email safe.

This is extremely troubling - Google should be better than this. But I've caught Gmail in the act, mysteriously losing data twice now. Here are the details:

Last Friday afternoon serolynne emailed my mom some hotel options for my parent's visit to Florida next week.

Saturday morning, my mom called me to say that she had been on Gmail and seen the email on Friday, and she had even forwarded it to my father. But now that she was ready to call the hotel we recommended, the email was missing, and she was confused as to why.

I talked her through checking Gmail's trash and spam filters, but it was nowhere to be found. It was missing from my father's Gmail account too.

Weird. But - my parent's and technology often combine in mysterious ways, so I didn't worry too much, and Cherie resent them the email.

Fast forward to this evening, and I am catching up on my todo list for the week. I knew I had to follow up with a potential consulting client who had contacted us, and I went looking for his latest email to respond to. I was dismayed to discover that it was missing from my Two Steps Beyond inbox, which is powered by Gmail via Google Apps for Your Domain.

I could see the email proposal I had sent him on Friday evening in my Sent folder, and I knew that he had replied over the weekend proposing further conversation - but I searched everywhere and his reply was missing, including from the Gmail archive, spam, and trash folders!

Fortunately, Cherie had been cc'ed, and she found her copy of his mail. Our potential client had replied at 1:23PM on Saturday. (Interestingly - later in the day than my Mom's email had gone missing...)

Thanks to the magic of Apple's Time Machine, I have a full image backup of my system from 12:15AM Sunday morning, and I have been able to travel back in time to see that the message was missing even then, less than 12 hours after it had been sent. I could see my synchronized IMAP copies of my Gmail state, including the trash, archive, and spam folders. But the mail from our contact was completely AWOL.

How on earth could this happen?!??

It seems to me that Google must have had some serious data center failure over the weekend, but if so, I would expect them to warn potentially affected customers that they could have lost critical data and communications.

It makes me wonder - what else has Gmail lost? Is Gmail trustworthy? Was this an isolated incident? What are the chances of it being repeated? And how will I ever even know if something like this happens again unless I am lucky enough to catch Gmail in the act devouring messages?

*grrr*

I am not impressed with Google right now. I don't mind Gmail being down on occasion, but losing data is completely unacceptable.

I vented here in November about the miserable experience I had with Charter Communications trying to help my parents switch from DSL and Dish to cable.

To summarize: the Charter contract installer came late, cut (!!!) the cables to the Dish, decided he didn't want to work late on a Friday afternoon, smashed the curbside tap (he claimed it was already smashed), and promised to be back in the morning after a different Charter tech comes out to repair the tap. The Charter call center then proceeded to demonstrate extreme mastery of giving me the runaround and incorrect information, ruining an entire weekend with stress and waiting for calls back and AWOL installers. Only after several days of constant hounding were we able to get a "real" technician to come out to get everything squared away.

After that nightmare - I am certainly no fan of Charter.

So I was really amused to see this headline in the news today: Cable Co. empties 14,000 e-mail accounts

Charter, of course.

It seems that in the course of routine system maintenance, they accidentally deleted fourteen thousand active customer email accounts, including all the saved emails contained there. Irrevocably.

This billion dollar company doesn't even seem to know how to handle backups.

Egads.

I am so glad that I have my parents using GMail.

The mind boggles at how Charter could manage to be so incompetent...

So I've been working on organizing my financial life, embracing Quicken 2008 as my new personal accounting system.
(Yes - the Windows version, because the Mac version is still lagging severely...)

I have a bunch of data from Microsoft Money 2005 that I'd like to bring forward - and according to Intuit this should be no problem and is actually an advertised feature of Quicken.

But...

First you have to dig around the Quicken website to find the most recent version of the Data Converter - I found it here.

But running the Data Converter gives me the following error: "CreateQWPAManager could not be found in qwutil.dll"

No amount of re-installing or fiddling seems to resolve this, and others have posted about this problem to the support forums with no response or solution yet found. So I try Intuit's online tech support chat system...

The first person I get links me to this page, which is totally useless.

As Intuit states:

Beginning with Quicken 2005 for Windows, and for all future versions of Quicken for Windows, QIF Data Import will no longer be available for most accounts.

Money can import and export QIF fine, but Quicken hasn't been able to import QIF files for three years. You think they would update the call center staff to know this.

Why would Quicken drop QIF support? They claim it is to reduce support costs and increase customer satisfaction, but the cynical reason is that it was done to force online banks to upgrade to QFX (which must be licensed from Intuit).

Certainly, they are not reducing support costs now. Nor increasing customer satisfaction.

Interestingly, Quicken still supports exporting QIF, but provides for no way to import the data it exports. What sort of lame product manager approved of that design?

I try chatting with tech support again, and this time they acknowledge that the lack of QIF import ability is a problem. And they give me a link to download Quicken 2002 (!!?!??) so that I can use that to better handle importing data from Money.

I am flabbergasted. Intuit is recommending a six year old version of Quicken as an alternative to their latest and greatest. Then - once I've manually gone through the painful process of QIF import / export one account at a time, I can "upgrade" back to Quicken 2008 from Quicken 2002, and all my data "should" be preserved.

All this because their new "Data Converter" product hasn't been properly QA tested.

You'd think Quicken would put a little more effort into making it easier for their customers to migrate away from their biggest competitor.

This is technological progress? *grrrr*

Last night as we were setting up camp at Beales Point State Park (near Folsom Lake, CA) - serolynne asked me "what is that beeping?"

The beeping turned out to be our Xantrex XM1000 Inverter - flashing an "E05 - OL" code, indicating an overload condition and depriving us of AC power. *ugh*

I spent the evening tearing apart the electrical system to try and isolate the problem, only to conclude that the inverter was internally broken. It was still giving us an "overload" with no load at all...

Perfect timing, just two days before Burning Man. If only that were the only glitch I was dealing with...

Here is a rundown of all the broken, busted, or sprained things I've got to worry about - and how I am dealing with them:

Xantrex XM1000 Inverter: Perpetually overloaded, but still under warranty. Xantrex gave me an RMA without much fuss, so hopefully I'll have it mailed off tomorrow and repaired within a few weeks. In the meantime - I spent today rewiring the electric system to use the old 400W inverter. It is up and working after a day of hard work - BUT - there is not enough power to drive the blender.
(No SolarSmoothies on the playa!!!)

MacBook Pro: Kent called back today, and after consulting with engineering he has decided to authorize "a special one-time-only out of warranty repair." He set up an appointment for me to drop off my Mac at the Apple store in Reno on Sunday - with luck it should be fully functional by the time I return from BRC.

Treo 650: My Treo has been flaky ever since I dunked it in Monster Kaos a year ago. But over the past few weeks it has gotten significantly worse, and now in addition to the fiddly keyboard - my phone is now only holding a charge for at most a few minutes. And just this afternoon I reached into my pocket to grab it - and the antenna popped off! *ugh*

It is time for a new phone - but what? The iPhone looks like lots of fun, now that it has been hacked wide open... But the costs and the downsides are pretty extreme too... Also worth considering is a Treo 755P (Palm OS), a HTC 6800 (Pocket PC), or perhaps even a BlackBerry. Whatever I get, I need to decide soon...

HP PSC 2510 Printer: I've always hauled a printer around with me in Tab, and last year at Burning Man I set up the "Solar Studio" and did photo portraits and 8x10 printouts right on the playa. This afternoon Cherie and I set up the printer to test out our ink supply, and print out a new stack of business cards. But... All the printer does now is click. It never even fully wakes up when you turn it on. Dead. *ugh*

Casio Exilim EX750: The other core component of the Solar Studio is my uber-sweet Casio digital camera. But... Ever since Oklahoma (May), there has been a faint black dot in the upper left corner of every picture I have taken. No amount of lens cleaning seems to make a difference either. It is probably time for a new camera, but not until after Burning Man. *ugh*

Email: The email server I share with the Geeks has imploded again, and though our email backup is working to forward all my incoming mail to Gmail, all my filters and spam prevention tools are now broken. *ugh* I think it is time to move my mail hosting to DreamHost...

Bike: The chain on my bike is jammed. I can probably fix it myself, but I had hoped to have time to do so (or have a professional do it) before Burning Man. But with so much else to do, it will just have to wait until I get there. Hopefully I can find one of the bike repair camps for help if I end up needing it...

Jeep: The dimmed AC light is now back to full brightness, and Jeep seems to be running great. But... I worry whenever an electrical problem (like a dim light) miraculously heals. It will be a while before I fully trust the work done by Great Valley Jeep...

Girl: And even my girlfriend is broken. Well, not broken - just sprained. Cherie took a bad step out of Tab last weekend at SolFest, and ever since she has been hobbled. Though fortunately - she has been healing rapidly. I am hoping that she is back to full speed by the time we arrive in Black Rock City on Sunday.


Egads, that is a long list...


But - surprisingly, I am feeling great. Last night was full of growling, snarling, and frustration... But today I've just been plugging away getting stuff fixed and handled. And - there is nothing here that I can't handle. It actually feels good to face down challenges, and not be stopped by them.

But, enough for this week - ok?

I just realized that I never shared the ending to the story of being trapped in Sacramento while Great Valley Chrysler Jeep fumbled around trying to fix a check engine light on our Jeep Liberty Diesel.

First a summary of the first two chapters of the saga (written about here and here):
( The first half of the story... )
And now the thrilling conclusion...

July 24th (Tuesday): Chris actually calls me at 10AM - the first proactive call from Great Valley this entire time. But - they have still not been able to program the PCM computer, and his tech has been on the phone with Chrysler since 8AM. Chris promises to call in the afternoon with an update. When I don't here from him, I call again at 2:15. "Ah, I was just talking with Frank, and was about to call you! -- We got the PCM to program, but it is now reporting that the flow check valve is bad - which is actually one of the parts we replaced already. We have been talking to Chrysler, and they have recommended that we replace it again - so we have ordered the part and it will be here in the AM." I told him that one way or another we need to pick up the Jeep Wednesday mid-day since we needed to relocate to San Francisco. He agreed, and promised to call me first thing in the morning with an update.

July 25th (Wednesday): When mid-day rolled around without a phone call, I again called Great Valley myself to speak with Chris. "I was just about to call you! Good news - our tech is test-driving your Jeep now, and he gave me a thumbs up when he rolled out. I think we are good. I'll call you back in 10 minutes to let you know when it will be ready for pickup". An hour later (he never called) I call him: "Yep, it is done. I was just writing up the paperwork now. Come and get it..."

We came in to pick Jeep up at 3pm, and I asked Chris to explain to me just what the hell was wrong with it and why it took so long to fix: "The check engine code indicated a bad flow check valve, so we replaced that. But then, the engine would no longer start - and the computer was now indicating that the PCM itself was bad. We replaced the PCM, and then had trouble programming it. Once it was programmed - it still was throwing a code about a bad flow control valve. Chrysler insisted that it must be the wiring, so we pulled all the wires and even tested the current to the flow control valve by hooking up the new blower we had just installed (recall repair) to the PCM wires and it came on fine - so we knew the wires were good. So Chrysler then had us replace the flow control valve again - and now everything is fine." Uhm, ok. What a mess. I'm guessing these "trained specialists" have never actually worked on a diesel Jeep before. Scary.

During the drive home, I discovered that the cruise control was no longer working. Looking around further, I notice that the air conditioning ON light is now dead and does not light up to indicate that the AC is turned on. Looking under the hood when we get home, I am puzzled - things look different. And at least one of the wiring harnesses looks as if it has not been screwed back to the frame properly. Frustrated and puzzled, I come inside and check my voice mail, only to have a message waiting from Frank (the service tech who had been doing the work): "Woops - I just noticed that we forgot to put your engine cover back on. It is mostly cosmetic, just covers up the wires, says Jeep on it, and makes the engine look pretty. Call me back if you want it..." WTF!?!!

I called back at 4:30pm, only to be told that Frank and Chris are already gone for the day. I explain the situation - and about needing to be on the road towards San Francisco first thing in the morning. I am told to come in, and they'll look at it while I wait. "I don't think it will be any problem. Frank's in training all day tomorrow - but just come on by and we'll find somebody to slap that thing on for you...."

July 26th (Thursday): I pull up, and Chris walks out laughing and holding the engine cover. We pop the hood, and it takes him just a minute to re-attach it. I point out the places where the wiring harness looks as if it has not been screwed down, and he tells me "it is supposed to look that way"... He then tells Cherie and I to go grab some breakfast while he has a tech check out the cruise control and AC light.

We take a two hour breakfast and return... Chris explains to me: "We tested it, and the cruise control isn't broken. You have to hold down the button for THIRTY seconds to turn it on and off, that is the way it is supposed to work." I tell him it never used to work that way, and he speculates that maybe the new PCM computer has updated software. As for the AC light, fixing it requires replacing the entire AC panel mechanism - a part which they do not have in stock. He gives me a part requisition slip, and tells me that I should be able to have some other dealer handle it.

*ugh*

Driving away, I test the cruise control. It works fine, and as normal. Thirty seconds?!? That would be ridiculous, and unsafe. Clearly there was a problem, and they fixed it. Maybe holding down the button for 30 seconds is how you reset the computer... I don't know - I certainly don't trust anything the techs at Great Valley Jeep have to say on the subject.

As for the broken light.... That is just going to have to wait. I am not about to turn my Jeep over for service again anytime soon.


One other issue I just noticed... The cost for the minor maintenance ended up being $150.41 - twenty five dollars more than the estimate. But the final printout says "customer acknowledges receiving original estimate of $150". That is a total falsehood since I still have the paperwork from when I dropped Jeep off with "original estimate $125" written on it. (I wish I had noticed this sooner or I would have made a fuss - but I was so frustrated with the other issues being bungled that the cost of the maintenance was the least of my worries...)

What sort of dealership changes an estimate behind the scenes without any sort of disclosure???

What sort of dealership assumes that it is OK to keep a car for a week without any advance notice - particularly when the car was perfectly drivable when we brought it in and the initial estimate was for less than a day?!?

What sort of dealership promises over and over again to call, and only once actually does?


The way Great Valley have been handling things demonstrates anything but "Five Star" service. I feel obligated to spread the word - this dealership should be avoided! *ugh*

Ok - this is getting ridiculous.

As I posted about on July 23rd, the SuperDrive in my MacBook Pro has gone totally dead after downloading and installing Apple's SuperDrive Firmware Update 2.1.

Being just two months out of warranty, I was not a happy camper.

Checking the net, I discovered that I was not alone. The "Superdrive Update 2.1 killed drive" thread on Apple's own support forums now has 122 posts and over 9,500 views - so many that Apple has even locked the thread - without posting any sort of acknowledgment or official fix.

(A new thread has been started, btw...)

Clearly Apple knows there is a problem. They have even long-ago pulled the download link from the Apple website and removed the Firmware Update 2.1 from the Macintosh Software Update.

Some users (including those out of warranty) have reported getting their drives, or even their entire computers, replaced. Many others have gotten a "we are still waiting for an official fix" story. Others have been told that they are just SOL and that they need to buy a new $500 drive.

Apple has had no consistent response on this issue at all.

I waited a few weeks for an official fix to become available, but all Apple did was lock the first thread on the forum. So last week I took my MacBook Pro in to see a Genius at the San Francisco Apple Store.

After talking with him for a while - his Genius conclusion was "It is clear Apple messed this one up. I'm sure we'll make it right. But until there is an official article in the knowledgebase, we can't help you unless you are under warranty..."

Gee - great.

After seeing some posts on the new thread reporting success with calling AppleCare - I decided to give that route a try today.

I just spent nearly an hour (56 minutes, to be exact) on the phone with AppleCare, most of it on hold.
The first tech spent 20 minutes "researching the problem", including reading through the Apple Forum threads. He eventually concluded that I needed to pay him a $49 "phone support fee" for talking with him about an out of warranty issue since he couldn't find "anything official" about the issue in Apple's support system.

When I balked at paying anything, he elevated me to a "Senior Product Specialist" named Kent.

Kent had me power down my Macintosh, remove the battery and power cable, hold down the power button for 10 seconds, and then restart. The drive was of course still dead - but we did confirm that at least it shows up in the ATA device tree. He was particularly concerned with getting the revision number: "Model: MATSHITADVD-R UJ-857 Revision: 0009"

Kent then said that the next step was for him to escalate the problem and "send it to engineering" because it was still under internal investigation by Apple and they "might want to analyze your computer" and have me send it in. He told me that it "typically takes five business days" to hear back from engineering, but it may be sooner. He gave me his direct extension, and told me to call him next week. He also took down my number and email address in case he hears back sooner. When I asked him for his email address, he said that he "didn't have one that he could use externally" (WTF?!?) and that if he needed to email me he would need to create a special personal account. (Huh?!!??)

And that's that. It has been nearly a month, and I still do not have a functional SuperDrive - or any idea when Apple will "make things right"...


I am amazed that a company as well known for great customer support as Apple has been unable to gracefully handle this issue. Having no official response that your in-store Geniuses and phone support people can refer to is just downright sloppy. And having your "Senior Product Specialists" unable to send and receive email seems like the stone age. And FIVE days to hear back from engineering on an issue that has been well known and widely reported for over a month?!? Egads!


Apple - you screwed this one up. You released a bad firmware update. It happens. Now FIX IT!

serolynne ranted about this a few weeks ago - and now I want to provide an update and spread the word about the rotten customer service and attitude we've gotten from Mail House Plus in Castro Valley, CA.

Short story: avoid this place.

Slightly longer story: We used Mail House Plus to ship the unneeded luggage rack that came with Jeep v2 to an eBay buyer in Virginia. We dropped it off for UPS ground shipping on 6/28, and they did not actually SHIP the package until 7/11 -- the day after we called to notify them that the shipper had not received it.

But instead of admitting to making a mistake or apologizing, Mail House Plus tried to blame UPS and even yelled at me when I tried to call them on it.

And now that I've filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, Mail House Plus has had the gall to accuse me of wanting "a free ride" and not being "appreciative". WTF?!?

I hope Mail House Plus is "appreciative" of the damage that a publicly posted complaint like this can do when it shows up highly in Google searches.... *grrr* (Cherie's rant is already in the top five on Google!)

It is sad that so many companies have no clue about how to deliver good customer service, and respond so poorly when given the chance to make things right.

For the record, here is my most recent reply to the Better Business Bureau:

On July 10th when we called to notify Mail House Plus that the recipient had not yet received the package, Mail House Plus told us that "the package had shipped" on June 29th, and that it "was in the UPS warehouse in Sacramento".

Now Mail House Plus is seemingly indirectly admitting that they indeed did not ship the package until July 11th (after our first call to complain) - and they even have the gall to say we should be "appreciative" of this poor service.

Mail House Plus is now trying to claim that it took them two weeks to package a simple flat luggage rack in cardboard. It was not a fragile or oddly shaped item. Yet despite Mail House Plus "taking all precautions" and promising "undamaged secure arrival" - the recipient reported to us that the item was actually poorly packaged, and that one end of the luggage rack had torn through the cardboard.

Fortunatately - the item was not damaged.

But this complaint is not about the poor packing job done. This complaint is about the very simple fact that Mail House Plus took two weeks to ship a package that they initially claimed they had shipped the next day.

Mail House Plus has demonstrated horrible customer service every step of the way, and has shown no interest in trying to make things right.

This is not acceptable.

Egads - the tech gods are not smiling on me.

As I ranted about on Friday, my Jeep has been held hostage SINCE LAST WEDNESDAY waiting for a part to fix a check engine light issue. (It had been driving great, btw...)

I called Great Valley Chrysler Jeep this morning, and confirmed the part had arrived. My phone-averse service tech Chris told me that they were installing it now, and he would call me the moment it was ready to be picked up - probably around 3:30pm.

I called at 4:50pm having not heard from him.

"Woops - he has already left for the day. But your Jeep is ready, wait, no - maybe not. Uhm, here's his cell phone, give him a call..." Eh??

I call Chris, and he starts apologizing for forgetting to call me. Somehow he forgot. Yes, the part came in - and it is installed. But it is the Jeep's PCM computer, and they are having trouble programming it. They have three "DRB computers" at the dealership that can interface to the Jeep, and two of them are not working with my Jeep for some reason. The third one is, but they "need to enter the VIN number into the DRB and then it connects to Chrysler and programs my Jeep over the Internet..." And for some reason, that wasn't working. When he left the tech was on the phone with Chrysler trying to figure it out. Chris promised me it will be ready first thing in the morning, and he will call me as soon as he gets in tomorrow with an update.

Uhm. WTF?!?! My Jeep is having trouble connecting to Chrysler over the Internet to download a software update?!?!!? Egads.

Technology sucks.

And to make sure I get that message - the technology gods just delivered another boot to my head.

A few days ago, my MacBook Pro automatically downloaded and installed "SuperDrive Firmware Update 2.1" - a seemingly trivial update that is supposed to make my Mac compatible with a wider variety of optical discs.

Today - I went to pop in a DVD, and.... nothing.

The disc won't even insert. The drive is dead to the world. Totally unresponsive. WTF?!!?

Turning to Google, I soon discover that this update has been bricking drives all over the place...

MacOS X Hints Thread: SuperDrive Firmware Update 2.1 killed our SuperDrives!
Apple's Support Forums: Superdrive Update 2.1 killed drive
And more on Apple's Forums: SuperDrive Firmware Update 2.1

Apple has not yet officially responded in any fashion to the rash of complaints, but they have removed the update from their website and the automatic Software Update service.

Clearly Apple knows there is a problem.

But - are they going to fix it?!!?

There is no software fix known. Some people who have had this problem have sent their Mac's off and have gotten new drives installed under warranty. But my warranty expired two months ago - and I am not about to spend $500 for a new optical drive when it was Apple's botched software update that killed it.

*gargh*

I think I need to go live in a cave. I'm done with craptastic technology....

Despite Jeep heaping fame and glory upon us by using some of our photos for a national advertising campaign, all is not right in the Jeep world...

Early Wednesday morning we dropped Jeep v2 off at Great Valley Chrysler Jeep in Sacramento for scheduled maintenance and to have a check engine light looked at. The service tech told us we should expect Jeep to be ready by 6:30pm, and to expect a call in the afternoon. No problem.

Come 5:30pm we hadn't heard from them, so I called. Our service tech (Chris) had already gone for the day, but we were told that it looked like they were waiting for a part - and to call in the morning to find out when on Thursday things will be ready. *grumble*

Thursday morning I called and spoke with Chris. He said that the part had not arrived in the AM, that it might arrive in the afternoon, and if not he would personally make sure that things would be handled first thing on Friday. I was a bit upset, but he assured me he would call me with a status update to keep me posted on when my Jeep would be ready.

He never called.

I just called an hour ago (Friday afternoon now!) to again check on things, and after being bounced around on hold for a while I was eventually again talking to Chris. He told me that "most of the parts" came in, but that the key PCM computer was still missing and due in on Monday. I told him that was not acceptable, that we had weekend plans, and that we'd come and pick up Jeep tonight and find a different dealer who can handle the repairs. He told me that was impossible - our Jeep was taken apart and not drivable. He then checked, and told us we were also not eligible for a loaner car - but we could call Chrysler and if "we complained to them loud enough" they might step in to arrange one.

Not that a loaner would do us any good since we need to tow!

Fortunately we have Tab securely parked behind Sean and Lindsay's place, and they have let us make ourselves at home here. But now we are forced to miss out on a clamshell trailer rally we were considering going to this weekend, and until Great Valley finishes with things - we are trapped here in Sacramento.

The most frustrating thing about this is that Great Valley (and especially Chris) has done such a bad job of keeping us in the loop, and updated us on just what is wrong and what the status is. They never once pro-actively called us, despite repeated promises to do so. And they have given us false estimates of when things would be done every step of the way. If they had called us on Wednesday and said "the check engine light indicates a PCM replacement, which may take a week" I could have opted out and handled it later, or made alternate plans.

What sort of dealership assumes that it is OK to keep a car for a week without any notice - particularly when the car was perfectly drivable when we brought it in and the initial estimate was for less than a day?!?

The way Great Valley have been handling things demonstrates anything but "Five Star" service.

*grumble*

Gads, this is just pitiful:

"Enough dawdling! Grab hold of yourself! This is not good! You're at the edge ... dangling precariously ... just inches (or millimeters if you've gone metric) from disaster ... about to freefall headlong into the cold, dark, and tragically lonely world of the friendless wanderers. Yikes!"

And this is supposed to convince me to renew my membership to the Good Sam Club??? As if!

No matter what the benefits of membership are, no value could make this much annoying junk mail worthwhile. The Good Spam Club sends out more crap in the mail than any other company I've ever come across.

Enough already!

UPDATE: The $19/year Good Sam Club membership turns out to be worth well over $100/year in savings on my car insurance. So I guess I am stuck with the "Good Spam Club" for now. *groan*

NetBank sucks.

I was just now trying to log onto Netbank. After correctly entering my account ID and password, I was prompted with the question: "What is your favorite candy?"

WTF?

I am not a particularly big candy fan. I don't have a favorite candy. And if I did, it certainly would change - often. My favorite candy is whatever I happen to be eating RIGHT NOW. And why the hell does my bank care??

After guessing wrong three times, NetBank has now locked me out of my account entirely. Now I need to sit on hold and beg to have the security system reset before I can log on again.

Ironically, I was logging on to transfer out the last of my money and cancel the account.
Now - I would like to cancel the damn account with extreme prejudice. *gargh*

Even if you like candy, avoid NetBank. They have had horrible customer support, surprise annoying fees, and now the world's worst security system. Stay away!

Responding to customer demand (they don't mention it, but I think my rant pushed them over the edge) - Dell has announced that it is bringing back Windows XP as an option for consumers.

This is a pretty major slap in Microsoft's face. I've never before seen a major PC maker bring back an old operating system once Microsoft has phased it out. Kudos to Dell.

Microsoft has less than a year to get Vista into better shape. Based on Microsoft's current licensing rules, computer makers will have no choice and will be required to install Vista on all computers sold after January 2008. I sure hope Vista is ready by then...

Not that XP is really all the much better. As serolynne chronicled, we were up until 3AM Thursday night fighting with Windows XP driver issues and a system completely fubared by a botched Roxio install. Ugh.

It blows me away that it is actually easier to install and configure Windows onto a Mac than onto a Dell. But then again, I suppose that is what I should expect from Apple...

For example: drivers that Dell tech support on the phone considers ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL and MUST BE INSTALLED FIRST are labeled as "optional" on the Dell tech support website. And with Cherie's Dell D820, there are 63 (!!!) different driver options to sort through, figure out, and install in the precisely correct (but apparently secret) order. But using Apple's Bootcamp to run Windows XP on my MacBook Pro, there is just ONE simple unified file of Windows drivers to download, and they easily install all at once. Nice.

serolynne has upgraded to a new laptop - a Dell D820 that is indeed a beautiful piece of hardware. It has an incredible 1920x1200 resolution screen, amazing battery life, it runs silent, is built solid, and it is nearly as small and light (if not as silver-sexy) as my MacBook Pro.

I've had some serious hardware envy the past few days as we've been playing around with getting it set up.

Hardware envy - but software nightmares. Windows Vista is bad news.

Problem #1: Microsoft's own developer tools (Visual Studio) have yet to be updated to properly support Vista. Installing Visual Studio 2005 generated all sorts of warnings about needing service packs and Vista compatibility patches that were totally cryptic to understand and act on. Once we did figure out what needed to be installed, the 500MB's of service packs and patches took literally hours of watching an unmoving pulsing green "progress" bar to get installed. Ugh.

Problem #2: The Microsoft Office 2007 install required an OS reboot - annoying (why should installing a word processor ever mandate a reboot?!!?), but not unexpected. But then upon first starting any Office application a long 10 minute "configuring your machine" process is initiated. Followed by a request for another reboot (!!!). Reboot, try again, trigger the same 10 minute long configuring process. Repeat again, until frustration sets in and you throw Office out and download Open Office instead - which "just works" with no fuss at all.

Problem #3: Vista would not connect to Cherie's company VPN - and it wouldn't even give any sort of error message explaining why not. Only after hours of research was I able to discover that Vista has dropped support for the MS-CHAP v1 protocol (in favor of v2) for VPN authentication. Older Cisco firewalls do not support v2 - leaving no clear way short of a $3000 firewall upgrade for Vista to connect to the remote servers that Cherie needs to manage. It seems that Microsoft is refusing to enable v1 support in Vista to force people to move to v2, and Cisco is refusing to offer a v2 software upgrade for older firewalls to force people to buy newer hardware. Ugh.
(BTW - I was amused to confirm that on Mac OS X connecting to the VPN "just worked" without needing to do any configuration at all...)

Problems #4-50: Exploring Vista, there have been plenty of other strange behaviors and compatibility glitches that just shouldn't be there on a stable mainstream operating system like Vista is marketed to be.


Solution: We are now in the process of "downgrading" Cherie's D820 to Windows XP. And XP is currently busy downloading the 80+ (!!!!) critical security patches necessary to bring itself up to date. I wonder - hasn't anyone at Microsoft ever heard of a cumulative update? Geesh!

In some ways it feels wrong to invest a lot of effort configuring a new machine with an officially obsolete operating system like XP - but Vista is not yet ready for prime time, leaving us seemingly no choice. If even Microsoft's own other products are not yet ready to work with Vista glitch free, it is no wonder that so many third party applications also seem to be having trouble. At this pace, Vista may not be ready to fully replace XP for years...


To recap - Microsoft's own newest developer tools and office suite both have major issues working properly with Microsoft's new flagship operating system, despite Vista having been in beta testing for well over a year and under development almost forever. If Vista points towards the future of Microsoft operating systems, I dread what that future may look like. What a mess.

Scanning the net and talking to other geeks, I am amazed at the flood of Vista horror stories that I am hearing. I don't think I've ever seen such a negative reaction to a new Microsoft OS before - not even towards the unloved Windows ME.

In so many ways Vista is very clearly an improvement over XP for "everyday users" that I was hoping I could start recommending it to friends and family - but there seems to be too much that feels broken in the overall Vista experience right now to make this recommendation seem wise.

I am sad to say that my official geek recommendation regarding Vista right now is this:
AVOID

As alchmst mentioned recently (he just bough my old PowerBook) - "once you go Mac, you never go back". And I have to say - I've come to discover that I couldn't agree more.

The catastrophic server failure I posted about last week has not yet been totally resolved, but things are close.

Email has been redirected to Gmail for the time being, so for the last week email HAS been getting through to me, but it is bypassing my normal filters and is thus a big jumbled mess. Some email however was almost certainly permanently lost into the void before the backup forwarding was in place. *grumble*

And though email is working, my website remains down, sadly.

But the Geeks have been working hard, and a new server is in place and is close to being fully configured. I expect everything to be back to normal soon...

In other news, the catastrophic weather failure experienced by Florida last week (massive tornados, death, and destruction) seems to have missed us. Cherie and I escaped the state Thursday evening to fly out to California for a weekend of skiing and a week of visiting folks.

Hopefully my Tab will be fully intact when we return to FL on Monday, though it looks like the storms all passed well south of the area I have it stored.

More details later...

Logging on to Netbank today to handle my monthly bill-paying, I got introduced to their "new and vastly improved" security system.

*gargh*

First - they FORCED me to change my password. Forced password changes are a BAD idea, for numerous reasons. And there is no reason to discard my existing password - it is cryptographically rock-solid, easy for me to remember, and beyond impossible for anyone to guess.

But that was only a minor annoyance.

Next - before they would let me finish logging in, I was REQUIRED to select "five questions about your life", and then provide answers for them. Presumably, in the future at random times Netbank will challenge me with these questions to prove who I am.

As if me knowing MY PASSWORD isn't enough proof.

And out of the 20 questions they gave me to choose from - I could only come up with three or four that I would be likely to consistently answer years from now. Most of the ancient trivia questions I couldn't even remember, and don't care to remember. "What was your first grade teacher's last name?" "What was your favorite hangout in high-school?"

Others are of things that will likely change over time: "Who is your favorite artist?" "What is the name of your favorite singer?" And so on...

And then there were several that were just not relevant at all: "Where did you go on your honeymoon?"

WTF?!?

This DOES NOTHING to improve account security in any real fashion. Egads.

Perhaps they should ask "What online bank are you going to switch to because NetBank is increasingly stupid and annoying?"

Any recommendations? Ever since SFNB (the first, and it always was the best) went away, I have been on a futile quest for a decent online bank. And so far, everything I have tried ever since has sucked.

*sigh*

How is it that I had a better, easier to use, and more full featured online bank in 1994 than in 2007?

My email and website share a server with the rest of the Geeks of GeekSpeak, and that server has been mostly down the past three or four days now. Last I heard, it looked like potentially catastrophic hardware failure.

*grrrr*

I know that the other geeks are certainly working to get things back to normal, but for the time being my email is out of commission, and I am on the wrong coast to help out or even get a decent status update.

Be informed: Any emails sent my way in the past few days have NOT gotten through, and perhaps may have been eaten by the void. *grumble*

In defending his decision to make the iPhone a closed device, Steve Jobs said this to Newsweek:

But it’s not like the walled garden has gone away. “You don’t want your phone to be an open platform,” meaning that anyone can write applications for it and potentially gum up the provider's network, says Jobs. “You need it to work when you need it to work. Cingular doesn’t want to see their West Coast network go down because some application messed up.”

Steve - you are being absolutely ridiculous and beyond foolish now. Are we supposed to believe that the cell phone networks of the world teeter on the brink of collapse every time a Treo crashes? How far disconnected from reality are you?

No - there are plenty of fully open smartphones out there. In fact, that is often a key part of the definition of just what a "smartphone" is.

Michael Mace has posted his analysis, postulating that this is an attempt by Apple to control iPhone users by locking them in so thoroughly that no future competitive device will be able to lure them away.

But before you lock users in, you have to get them on board first - and I think Apple may be shooting themselves in the foot here. If they had heralded the iPhone as "the next great platform for developers", very nearly every mobile developer and tech enthusiast on earth would be lining up to buy one to experiment with. Within six months of the iPhone's launch there would be hundreds of innovative applications available, and behind all of those applications would be developers evangelizing the iPhone to potential customers.

Not even the mighty Apple marketing machine would be able to equal the sort of grass roots push that would emerge.

Instead - mobile enthusiasts and developers are starting to become vocal critics of the iPhone, instead of fans.

I love this comment I read today on SlashDot in reference to the way Steve Jobs is locking down the iPhone:
"The word "irony" is way overused, but these words, coming from a guy who started his company with money earned by selling blue boxes to defraud the phone company, belong in irony's fucking dictionary entry."

Indeed.

In the Newsweek article, Steve goes on to say:
“[The iPhone] is five years ahead of what everybody else has got,” he gushes. “If we didn’t do one more thing, we’d be set for five years!”

In some ways he may be right. The iPhone certainly is a big step forward in a lot of ways, and it is incredibly refreshing to see some actual UI innovation in phones at long last.

But - open and extensible smartphones have been around for about five years now.... And in that regard, I'd say that the iPhone may just be five years BEHIND. *gargh*