Technology

Guest WiFi – exercise in frustration

Posted on by backuphill

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This is a love-hate type relationship.

Have you ever been in a store and unable to get a cell signal? Yeah, it happens more than you think. Have you been in such a store only to find there is no “Guest Wifi” available to you? Irritating. I find this most irritating while shopping at Costco. I mean, come on, it’s a warehouse for crying out-loud. It wouldn’t be that hard to put wifi in the place.

On the other hand, there are those places that have “Guest WiFi” available but it doesn’t work or is slower than molasses (here’s one for you…electronics store Best Buy has spotty guest wifi). I was traveling recently and learned that there was a place nearby (a government agency, actually) that had guest wifi. So, I went to check it out. FULL signal, this is promising! However, no data transferred at all. It was basically the same as when you’re at home and you know the wifi is on and you get a signal but it has to be rebooted so it will allow the transfer of data. So, what was promising became just an exercise in frustration.

So, we are left with the love-hate relationship again. I love stores that make it available, but I hate places that have it and it doesn’t work.

 

Receipt check

Posted on by backuphill

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Shoppers beware!

I was shopping at Safeway yesterday and upon checkout, the receipt didn’t appear to be right. Upon closer inspection, it was totally wrong!!

Safeway has a three tiered price structure – regular, Member, and Just for U. They send out weekly paper fliers and they have an app that supposedly can help you keep track of all the things you need, as well as the special offers for members and Just for U that may apply to the things you need.

Well that app, specifically the Just for U pricing, doesn’t appear to be working or maybe is just a scam. Check your receipt! After I left the store something didn’t feel right, so I compared the app prices to the receipt prices and there was something definitely wrong.

9 items were purchased and 7 of them we rung up with the incorrect price – totaling almost a $10 difference in being overcharged!! That’s kind of a big deal and not something you can just let slide. Not that $10 is that big a deal in the financial department to me, but it is for lots of people.

The question is, does this happen on a regular basis? Do you check your receipts? How many times does Safeway, et al, (FYI – Albertsons, Safeway, and Haggens are all the same company) let this happen? My guess is more than it should!

Bad computer programming? Easy mistake? On purpose fraud? Hard to say, but someone knows. The store had no explanation for it.

They refunded the appropriate amount, but I am not sure I am satisfied with that.

Do you regularly check your receipts? Have you ever notices a recurring problem at any stores?

Off the grid

Posted on by backuphill

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So I have been camping this week. I am sure it has been relaxing, but I can’t say for sure because I am writing this post ahead of time…like I did for all these posts this week.

When you are “off the grid” there is a certain kind of freedom because you aren’t faced with the rush of trying to keep up on everything that goes on around you. The outside world doesn’t interfere with the “here and now.”

But, there is also a downside to that. Once you have been off the grid for a few days, you start to feel the addiction of the grid. What’s going on? What are others doing? Is the world falling apart without me? It is really tough to unplug and “just be” because the internet and electronics are so imbedded in our lives.

Off the grid vacations are great, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t dread them a little too.

 

black and white blank challenge connect

Drawn and quartered

Posted on by backuphill

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There are very few things in life that seem to warrant the old punishment of “Drawn and Quartered.” It used to be reserved for high treason, but it isn’t used anymore. Something about cruel and unusual…whatever…

I have determined, and I am sure many of you will agree, that this punishment should now be returned to service, not to be used for high treason but for something much worse.

Being the creator of spam.

In EVERY single form it exists.

We are all aware of the spam we get in our email. We are also all now very aware of those auto-dialers that create spam phone calls. Spam on social media is now a thing too. Here’s one you may or may not be aware of…

Have you checked your blog comments section for spam? Good grief. There is a lot of crap in that file. Thank goodness it gets filtered! But good grief, how do you get like entire Wikipedia science articles spliced into 18 different comments? Yeah, spam. Lots of it. It seems this is all hidden behind “proxy” type addresses, so it is easy to quickly decide it is spam and delete but the fact that you have to do it at all is really annoying.

So, I submit to you all that we bring this medieval punishment of “drawn and quartering” back for a 21st century crime. It might not stop the behavior as a deterrent, but it would be totally satisfying to see the spam creator suffer a just punishment.

Just saying.

#endspam

Who’s with me here? Do you agree? Do you have a better suggestion?

Do your job

Posted on by backuphill

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The job I have is to help people with the software they use every day. I help them extract data from the software and help then fix issues when it doesn’t work correctly.

What I don’t like doing is their jobs for them.

We often get requests that are a are a regular function of their job, something they should know how to do after years of working at the job. Yes, there are those who are new to the position so I can understand asking for help at that point.

However, there are lots of people who call us on a regular basis to help them get data from the system they should have learned how to do by now. They just refuse to figure it out.

“Oh, it’s just easier if you do it.” 

“I know it is accurate when you do it.” Um, no, not necessarily. It’s your data. We don’t know if it is accurate. We just tell you what we see.

“It takes too much time to learn this stuff.”

Good grief…just freaking do your job.

Anyone else out there tired of doing someone else’s job? What is it and why do you do it?

Not representative

Posted on by backuphill

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Recently I was tasked with finding a used car to purchase for my daughter. A process I am not fond of, let alone knowing my daughter is now old enough to be out on the road on her own. Scary times I tell ya!

Anyway, looking for a used car these days is tough. People are shady.

People are shady.

Hundreds of car ads on multiple platforms and driving by, stopping and looking, at cars on the side of the road with signs in them. It is hard to find a quality used car for a decent price. Or, I should say a decent car for an inexpensive price.

I wanted something that I didn’t have to worry about my 16 year old being on the side of the road in the dark somewhere but also knew it wasn’t going to be in perfect condition. The problem is that when you take all that into consideration and then add in a relatively limited budget, well let’s just say an ice cube in hell has a better chance. LOL

People are shady.

I already knew that point, but as I looked at cars online and then would go look at them in person I found a great majority of them were misrepresented in the ad. The body condition was accurately reflected in the photos. The interior was purposely misrepresented for obvious or glaring flaws. The engine leaked oil. The description left out the mile on the vehicle. Windows didn’t work. Mold growing on the interior? Come on.

Anyway, we found a car. I am not sure it was as great a deal as we first thought. New brakes all around after purchase and the key FOB doesn’t work even after the battery replacement. It is even possible the engine was pressure washed to hide a small oil leak.

I didn’t expect perfect, but people are shady.

Have you had similar purchase experiences from buying this online? Got a horror story to share?

Avoid or ignore?

Posted on by backuphill

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No, I am not talking about doing that childhood favorite of skipping down the road obnoxiously swinging your arms, smiling, and just generally being carefree.

I am talking when someone purposely and obviously skips (avoids?) you but manages to respond to everyone else.

I don’t make it habit of leaving comments on other people’s blogs just so to leave a comment. I am selective and I try to put thought into it so that it can generate a conversations. I also make every effort to respond to comments left on my blog as I believe engagement is a good thing (at least when the comment isn’t purposely malicious).

Anyway, I have noticed that certain bloggers out there are really good at leaving a comment, a thank you, a thumbs up, etc. for the people who take time to comment on their blog. I think that is great, especially if there are a lot of comments, because it takes time. Returning the love is a good thing.

However, it also becomes a rather conspicuous omission when they fail to respond as well. As an example, a blog I made a comment to yesterday had 48 comments as of this morning. Now, we know that WordPress (for some reason) counts all comments, including the ones from the author, so really there were fewer than 48 comments from people who read the blog. As I scrolled through this morning to see if I received a comment (maybe I had missed a notification?), I noticed that every single comment the blog received go a response except mine. In some cases, there were multiple responses from the author.

Hmmm, weird.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not butthurt here. I just think it is rather interesting because it is SO OBVIOUS.

What habits of bloggers to you find annoying? Do you have any that you really appreciate?

Ain’t a whole new world

Posted on by backuphill

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Unfortunately, Disney has found it necessary to continue to grab money by remaking it’s classic animated movies into “live action” movies. It’s rather irritating, really.

I wasn’t a fan of the Beauty and the Beast remake. I saw it on DVD. I am not liking what I am seeing so far for the Aladdin remake. I am optimistically hopeful for the Lion King remake.

Disney continues to make these remakes because they can and people pay money to see them, well, because it’s Disney. Really though, it is just a money grab. I suspect that if Disney made an animated movie, releasing it in February, and then took the exact same movie and made it live action for release in November – well, people would pay to see both. Because, as consumers, we just aren’t that bright.

It ain’t a whole new world. It’s just a rehashed and recycled world.

The long road home

Posted on by backuphill

yellow and black detour signage

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I was returning home last night after dropping my daughter off with her mom.

I knew I was gonna have to take the long road home since the highway in the opposite direction (my usual return route) was backed up because of road construction. It was clearly visible from the other side of the highway that the construction workers had closed one of the two lanes that was supposed to be open to keep traffic moving (it was in the plans to keep two lanes open at all times, posted on WSDOT website). Looks like that wasn’t the case after all.

Anyway, knowing this in advance, I took the long way around.

I found it rather interesting that the people who set up the detour route left a little bit to be desired with the route. I have navigation and already had a fairly good idea around the backup, but it was odd that the detour round ended in the middle of nowhere. It just stopped. I knew where to go from there, but someone who was not familiar of the area would have had no clue what to do next when the “Detour End” sign came up. Seems someone may have run out of signs and just decided to end the route because there were at least two more turns on the route to be back to where someone would have started normally.

I guess with navigation you are really never lost.

Take the long road home once in a while. You might see something you didn’t expect. Plus, do you really need to be in a hurry all the time?

Did you hear that?

Posted on by backuphill

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Did you hear that? I am surprised if you didn’t.

It was loud.

Or maybe it was just loud because it was in my confined space.

What what is?

It was the sound of my head hitting my desk.

No, I wasn’t under it looking for the Cheez-it I dropped.

It was my head hitting the desk out of boredom.

I say boredom, but really I have a ton of things to do. I have a ton of things to do, but this particular task of software testing and verification is tedious and boring. Staring at the screens all day and very little movement has left me rather sleepy.

I have other tasks that would be much more interesting and stimulating. However, this particular task I have put off longer than I should so I am plowing my way through it. I am only about half way done. Ugh!

I have a feeling my head will have a few extra lumps on it when I am done. How many bounces will my noggin take off the desk? Care to take any bets?

Do you have a task at work that is tedious, boring, and positively mind-numbing?