Some time ago, I purchased a piece of clothing in support of my favorite web browser. I’ve found that, in an age where everyone and their mother has a PDA or phone, wearing something like this is still a broad announcement of my geekhood to the surrounding environment.

At the same time, it’s a sort of secret code, like tracing a fish in the sand. It’s amazing how wearing it to social functions causes the Wired the reveal themselves to me. Of course, this effect comes in different forms. I spoke with a computer science girl recently who picked up a Google shirt at a trade show and said that it’s the biggest guy-magnet she’s ever discovered. (Although, as she said of females in computer science: “For them, the odds are good, but the goods are odd.”)

On an unrelated note, it came to my attention that a classic Penny Arcade addressed my same DSL frustrations with a little humour and without slandering any particular company.

But then, they slander companies and individuals all the time.

Mike

I’m not a rash person. I think things through and make informed decisions — usually. But buying technology is my greatest weakness.

I researched computers for months before I bought my first one at age 12. I researched digital cameras for quite some time, before I bought my first one two years ago. In both cases, I walked into a store on a whim and bought a product with little forethought and no research.

The only significant difference between the computer and camera and the cell phone I’ve just bought is that the computer and the camera were single, one-time purchases of about $400 apiece, whereas the phone was bought by selling my soul to Rogers for the next three years.

In all, the cost of three years of cellular service is a little over $1000, and it’s unlimited for the first six months, which is when I really need it.

My chief rationalization is that as part of the Co-operative Education Program, I’m now a professional in the workplace, and I should be reachable at all times, and at a consistent number, no matter where my dwelling place is.

I was already reachable consistently — by email, but not everyone is on that bandwagon yet. For the rest of my entire life, my name at this domain and at my other, perhaps more permanent one will be pointers to the same inbox that is checked at least daily, and most days, sits open for hours, being checked constantly.

For those over eighteen and under thirty, there’s really no excuse for not having mail at your own domain. Google ‘Mike Purvis’ and see what comes up. It’s not just vanity — it’s good business practice. Or bad, depending what I write here. But it’s been shown that outside of entrenched HR departments, hiring officers like to see a blog for an applicant — even if it is a little scathing at times: it’s got more personality than an interview, it shows communication and design skill, and it shows ability to stick at a project.

Mike

Statistics are fascinating. Some are a little bit scary.

If you send me an email or leave a comment on this site, I know your IP address. I can look at my logs and see every page you clicked, every file you accessed. In fact, I can even see, from the referrals, how you got to this page — by typing it in, searching Google, or linking from another page. Every webmaster has this ability.

If you’ve ever used Google, you have the Google Cookie on your machine — a unique number that they associate with your settings and preferences on their site. And also, it’s well established, with their search logs. They can create extraordinarly detailed personality maps for each computer just based on all the searches you’ve performed since last clearing your cookies.

And that’s fine. They provide me a service: fast, free, and accurate web searches. If my search habit data is entering a larger corpus of information that powers Sergey Brin’s science projects, great. However, the advent of GMail introduces a whole new variable into this equation. Now all those searches can suddenly be connected to a corpus of email, and also the name that was provided on signup.

Even this is fine. Google is a company that I trust. They’re a selfless organization that’s taken advertising online from ludicrous flashing banners to useful, relevant text links.

What’s worrying is what will happen when governments and lawyers suddenly realise that all this personal information may be available, just waiting for a subpoena. The recent attempts of ISPs to protect their customers from the MPAA prove that when it’s the Law versus Privacy, the law wins.

Which, generally, is good. I’d rather be safe. But it’s a slippery slope. Google may just be a privacy disaster waiting to happen. Yes, 99% of the drivel at Google-Watch is complete garbage. But this one point deserves attention. Being the custodian of anything takes responsibility, but perhaps the most when it’s information, which is so easy to share.

Anyone really worried about privacy shouldn’t be online at all. For all the security in email, you might as well have written your private information on the back of a postcard.

Mike

Followup to yesterday’s piece.

So I got home from work and, whoops, my DSL still isn’t hooked up. On the phone, the unphased techs assure me that my hookup date is the following Tuesday. Hmm… I could sworn it was supposed to be yesterday. Whoops.

I politely ask the tech what the charge will be to me if I cancel with Bell and order Rogers at this point — not because I really intend to, but because saying such things makes me feel delightfully spiteful. He doesn’t know, and transfers me to Sales, where they say that I’ll be fully refunded.

On a whim, I call Rogers, and bam! they’ve got a service opening this evening, because there was a cancellation. So I go for that, and even get persuaded to buy a Roger’s cell so I don’t have to pay for my useless land line (so much for VoIP, oops). There was some kind of promotion and I’m getting the spiffy new Motorola V220. I don’t really need or want a camera phone, but hey, technology interests me, so what the heck. He was able to waive the $150 cable installation fee, so I was feeling magnanimous.

Anyhow, I call back the Bell Sales department and let them know that I’d like to cancel everything as soon as possible. No, I’m not interested in just ’suspending’ my account, yes, I’m aware that Roger’s is charging me slightly more. No, that’s quite alright.

I had to get my bike chain fixed this morning, so I was out in town, and I stopped at a tiny little cafe for breakfast. The kind of place that doesn’t add a ‘gratuity’ to your bill, because they know that there prices are modest enough and the service and food is good enough that you’ll tip them anyways. Delightful.

Good service is priceless.

Mike

ps– I’m going with the guys from work this afternoon to see the Cannes Advertising Festival at Princess. Looks like it’ll be a blast.

I won’t frequently use this space for tirades against products and corporations that have mistreated me, but my recent frustrations with Bell warrant it in this instance.

I had mentioned below that it shocked me how difficult and expensive it was to acquire even a basic highspeed internet connection in this town: Bell forces you to buy a phone line also (which can be had online with VoIP for pennies, by comparison), and Rogers charges a crippling installation cost, since their records showed that this house never had Cable installed to it.

It seems amazing to me that ’student housing’ doesn’t automatically imply ‘internet available’, but it’s even more so that these companies aren’t tripping over themselves to win impressionable students as lifetime customers. Special 4-month student packages should be offered that give you the best of everything for a quarter of the cost. I’m not saying this just because I want it — it’s a sound long-term business strategy. But then, so is all-around good, prompt service.

Bell could have offered me something like that, and taken a chance that I’d convert. As it is, after this term, I will be permanently a cable customer. Rogers, at my previous house, was always fast and reliable, and when I called a serviceman to the house for something that turned out to be my fault (lousy router), he arrived in 48 hours and diagnosed the problem for me.

Given a second chance, I’d have swallowed the installation fee and gone with Rogers.

So Sympatico should have been installed today. They shipped the package yesterday, so I’ve now been plugged-in and ready to go for over 24 hours. I’ve called support several times, getting the various opinions of the different drones there, and the consensus seemed to be that, “since it was to be hooked up today, I should call back after midnight if it’s still not working.”

Ludicrous. In what world does ‘installed Thursday’ mean ‘installed in the wee hours of Friday morning, if that’?

I mean, delays are understandable, but shouldn’t the technical support representatives report a delay as a delay rather than end their calls with the moronic suggestion to call back once their shift is ended? To be fair, the support people were very nice and attentive, but when enabling the service is, I imagine, the flick of a switch at their end, being instructed to call back at 12:01 is not reassuring.

Continuum: I’ve been typing this mostly while on-hold with various reps, and I finally made it to a Tier 2 Tech (’Nathan’) who said that there’s some kind of major snafu at the main interchange and the boys may take 72 hours to get me online. He also mentioned that he’d dealt with a lot of 519 area-code numbers this evening… hmm…

He was very honest and polite. But I’m still not impressed.

Mike

… when in just 48 hours you’ve burned through half a box of Neo Citron, a quarter of a jar of Buckley’s, and an entire box of Kleenex.

Ugh.

So anyhow, I’m back in Waterloo, and I’m not very impressed with Bell and Rogers in this town. I arrived here last Wednesday, and I can’t get my highspeed hookup until this coming Thursday. So much for having a productive weekend.

Anyhow, here’s a preview of the gallery. It’s not even close to done, but tell me what you think.

Mike

I wrote some time ago my positive experience buying a PDA from from eBay.

After I bought it, I realised that it might have been an idea to investigate upgrade opportunities before jumping to the conclusion that the same model again was the correct choice.

Yesterday I discovered an unexpected advantage to having two identical units. When the motherboard on Unit 2 died unexpectedly, I did a little surgery and grafted the working screen from Unit 2 onto the working motherboard of Unit 1. So I had one with a smashed LCD and toasted innards, and one that worked great.

Then I realised that the button pad on Unit 1 was acting a little iffy, so I switched those components as well.

The one final thing I’d like to try if possible is to get the digitizer (the part that picks up the stylus pokes) from the smashed LCD and move it to the new unit. As far as I can tell, the screen is two thin slices of glass, which should be somehow separable, and it sure looks like it’s only the one beneath that’s cracked. Anyhow, even if the stylus doesn’t work quite perfectly, I’m still thrilled to get a little more life out of the unit.

There’s a sort of Frankenstein-ian thrill to be had when you manage to get something working that you don’t really understand fully, if at all. I guess that’s why I’m in Engineering — I love the challenge.

Mike