Rottweilers Ate My Laptop

Rottweilers. Computers. Cameras. World Domination. Not necessarily in that order.

Rottweilers.
Computers. Cameras.
World Domination.
Not necessarily in that order.

Archives for August 2009

Driving while distracted

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There has been a lot of talk on the ‘net and in the news recently about a graphic car crash re-enactment video produced as a UK PSA against texting while driving. Odds are you’ve already seen the video, but here it is, just in case you haven’t. It is a re-enactment, and yes, it is quite graphic, and I hope the message is heard.

Many municipalities have proposed or enacted laws prohibiting and punishing texting and other cell phone use while driving. I don’t think this is a bad thing.

I would still like to take a moment to remind everyone that singling out specific technologies is still not the whole answer. The distracted driving incident that I still find most horrific was not caused by texting or any other high-tech distraction. It was caused by a thoughtless person’s decision that it was okay to paint her nails while driving.

I wrote about the death of motorcyclist Anita Zaffke when it happened, with tragic irony at the start of Motorcycle Awareness Month (May).

Please take a moment to read about the organization her son, Greg Zaffke, founded to raise awareness about the dangers of distracted driving, and then visit the Black Nail Brigade‘s site.

(NaBloPoMo | August ’09: 26 of 31 | 75% Challenge: 214 of 274)

It’s all blurring together

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I’m working on a couple of personal projects right now and not enjoying myself at all. The particular tasks I’m working on are way too similar to what I do for a living: image creation and modification, proofreading, and page layout. I guess it shouldn’t be surprising that my enthusiasm isn’t at a fever pitch if I’ve been doing the same things all day and then more of the same all night.

It’s self-inflicted, so I suppose I should not complain. The reason I do this type of project is that I feel it’s the only real way I can contribute to most of the organizations I’ve belonged to. There aren’t very many clubs and organizations that don’t need flyers, programs, advertisements and various other printed pieces to keep things (whatever those things may be) in motion, and for the sake of effective communication and a polished image, the job really shouldn’t be left to someone with good intent but no communication or computer skills.

On the one hand, I’m happy I can help “my” groups by producing printed pieces with all of the words spelled correctly, and at least somewhat professional-looking (and by that I mean at least they are totally devoid of Comic Sans and cheap-ass clip art). On the other hand, I am so freaking sick of InDesign and Photoshop and especially stupid Microsoft Word which everyone insists on using and whose most recent version simply served to lower my productivity to levels that cannot be detected by the unaided human eye, that I just want to walk away from volunteering for anything even remotely related to document production ever again.

I’m sure I’ll get over it in a day or two, but for now, thank you for listening to my rant.

(NaBloPoMo | August ’09: 25 of 31 | 75% Challenge: 213 of 274)

No Snow Leopard for me

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Apple’s latest and greatest incarnation of OS X, Snow Leopard, will be out this coming Friday. I usually let others cut themselves on the bleeding edge of new OS, and most application, releases. But this time, I can’t be an early adopter even if I wanted to. My G4 iBook is a PowerPC, and with Snow Leopard, Apple is dropping support for the PowerPC Macs. Snow Leopard will run only on Intel Macs.

I’m usually even more cautious about upgrades for the computers at the business. But again, since many of our computers are PowerPC Macs, we’re going to be faced with a pretty unpleasant upgrade situation once the applications no longer support the older OS X versions.

As a small business in a Mac-centric niche that has not exactly shown explosive growth in the past few years, we pretty much run our Macs till the wheels fall off. A PowerPC G4 or G5 that’s maxed out on RAM is hardly a useless relic, and in the case of the G5s, they are only three or four years old.

I know that computer years are like dog years, and I’m not one of those people that thinks a company should support old operating systems and applications forever. I just hope we have enough time to switch over gradually enough to prevent a financial crisis.

(NaBloPoMo | August ’09: 24 of 31 | 75% Challenge: 212 of 274)

Axel embraces the joy of the self-pedicure

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Last month I wrote about our experiences with Shirley Chong’s doggie nail file. Freya still doesn’t see any reason to do her own nails, but Axel is still enjoying it way more than you’d think a dog, especially a boy dog, ever could.

For anyone who came here hoping to get some tips on how to teach a dog to use the nail file, sorry. I haven’t pursued the issue with the uninterested Freya, and Axel almost didn’t need instruction or encouragement. The best suggestion I can give you is to read the original article on Shirley Chong’s site. Basically, you are shaping the behavior by rewarding the dog for pawing or scratching at the board.

Here’s the video proof of Axel’s joy of pedicure:

(NaBloPoMo | August ’09: 23 of 31 | 75% Challenge: 211 of 274)

Call back until you get the smart person

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Almost every time I’ve called with a connection problem to my past DSL provider (Earthlink) or current cable internet provider (Comcast), they have tried to tell me that my modem was the problem. The modem has never, not even once, turned out to be the actual problem. When I left Earthlink earlier this year, my original modem was almost 10 years old and still working.

In all cases but one, the problem was somewhere on their network, well before my house. In the other case, the problem was in the NID box (the phone company network interface device) mounted on the outside of my house.

Today I called Comcast twice as our high-speed internet connection went out this morning. The first rep I spoke to told me that they aren’t always able to see network outages on their screens and that it must be my modem anyway because she was unable to reset it from her end. I pointed out to her that the last two times I called, I had been told the same thing and both times it turned out to be something on the network. She offered to set up a service call and said the first spot available was on Monday. Since neither Dan or I would be able to be home for any Monday slot, I said I’d call back.

When I called back, I got a different rep, so I figured it wouldn’t hurt to tell the whole story yet again, including the part about the modem not being a problem in the past. Much different response. He tried to reset my modem from his end and could not. But, unlike the first rep, he heard and comprehended what I said about suspecting a network problem, and actually made the effort to check to see if there was in fact a problem on the network. And there was. There was a problem in a junction box somewhere in my area, and it was affecting a few other customers as well. He said he would have a truck sent out to the junction box, and also set up a service call for me in case the junction box was not the only problem. He was able to find a Sunday slot open for us (so there was a cancellation in the 10 minutes it took for Dan and me to discuss which Tuesday time slot would work for us? Possible, I guess, but I bet the first rep never even checked weekend slots) as well.

About twenty minutes later, our connection was back up. I called to cancel the service call a couple of hours ago as it’s obviously not needed.

I just wonder why the first rep made no effort to even check for a network problem. Was her statement correct about not being able to see network outage information? If so, why not? Why was the second rep able to check and see a whole lot of information that led to a correct solution to the problem? The second rep sounded quite a bit older and infinitely techier than the first rep, but shouldn’t everyone answering calls for high-speed internet connection problems either have access to the same information, or be smart enough to pass the call to someone who does have the correct information?

My problem is solved for now, but I hate to think that I’ll always have to keep calling until the smart person answers, rather than be able to expect a smart person on the other end no matter when I call. I guess I should just be glad that they’re not outsourced.

(NaBloPoMo | August ’09: 22 of 31 | 75% Challenge: 210 of 274)