your mailbox is unavailable.

your mailbox is unavailable.

and nobody can help you.

redesigning customer service

Here's an idea: don't allow customer service reps to hang up - if they DO hang up, link the call to a survey to let me rate the rep or escalate to a manager etc.. a good rep will get kudos, a bad rep won't last long at the job!

I mean is this really that difficult to set up? am I the only one that ever put some thought to the customer service call workflow!? you're welcome, humanity. you're welcome.

Google, please stop..

Today Google puts out a HUGE arrow that points to their awesomely failed Google+ efforts.. Talk about desperate means to make their social circle technology succeed; Let's put a HUGE ANIMATED ARROW TO POINT THEM WHERE TO CLICK! - brilliant idea, Google.

You might as well have finished the job and put the text you really meant to put up along with the arrow, ie:

My BitLocker Relationship

BitLocker started as a wonderful hard drive encryption technology to keep my files safe and protected.. it was a good thing at first..

but soon I started getting random nagging messages and errors on my computer about BitLocker.. so I called the helpdesk. They adviced I decrypt the drive, apply an update, and re-encrypt the drive again.

Naively, I start decrypting the drive only to watch the system come to a complete meltdown at around 30% ... unresponsive, followed by the monitor shutting down, and eventually leaving the laptop fan at full blast blowing hot air.

4 hours go by without any indication that the system was doing anything productive.

expecting the worst, I reboot..

well.. that was expected. I just lost everything in the disk..
I opt to cut my losses and try to reformat the drive.

...ok, so the BIOS doesn't even recognize that there's even a disk in the machine! the drive pretty much imploded taking everything along with it..

The analogy here is that BitLocker made me feel used and scathed.. It started off wonderfully and full of hopes and promise. then came an increasing nagging that left me to find a solution. and.. this solution, analogous to a nasty divorce, left me with nothing.

BitLocker, you took everything from me. I hope you're satisfied.

what's that burning smell?

I wish I had a better story to this one; I wasn't even intoxicated to justify it.. I tripped over the iron cord, and by the time I realized I knocked it over the carpet was nice and toasty. charred and melted real nice..

so what now? thankfully, my pack-rat instincts helped me on this one. I kept some leftover carpet in the attic from when I bought the house and figured I could fix it.. I cut up the burnt mark and replaced it with new carpet. sealed it with 'carpet tape' aka: duct tape, and good as new..

out with the old

in with the new

... the end result, while not 100% perfect is close enough and will blend in more with time.

the dollar refund...

Filing my taxes across different states I worked in and I owe everywhere..
except for Ohio. I am getting a dollar refund... SCORE!