Zoli's Blog

Virtualinvoice: Time To Fight Back

Posted on July 1, 2008 ·

There are two types of computer users:

The problem-solving techno-geeks who build hardware, hack software and enjoy every challenge, even bugs to dug themselves get deeper an deeper in… most of us have probably been there, done that, then grew up.
Those who simply want to use their systems for work, fun or whatever they damn please, and hate when they are forced to spend hours investigating problems that should not occur in the first place, and then they should be documented… I suspect that’s the majority of us. A few hours here, half a day there, always in the worst possible time. We feel it’s unfair that we are forced to work instead of [insert your favorite lousy company here]. After all, wear not on their payroll.

Enough is enough. Let’s fight back! If you’re a freelancer, or are in any profession where you bill your hourly, you know exactly what your rate is. Even if not, chances are you have a realistic estimate of your time’s worth. Next time you feel you got robbed of a few valuable hours, just bill it! Chances are, you won’t get paid, but you’ll feel better. I certainly do, having just billed Microsoft, Mozilla and HP.

Remember to tag your invoice / blog post.. whatever as virtualinvoice: I will keep tab of the totals, and periodically publish them.

Viva La Revolucion!

Update: It looks like Bob Warfield is should send a Virtual Invoice about now …

Filed Under: Customer Service, Humor, Misc · Tagged: customet support, technical support, virtualinvoice, zoho invoice

UPS: Delays and Customer Service

Posted on June 30, 2008 ·

I’m expecting a package that was due for delivery today. Here’s the UPS tracking info:

Let me get this straight: the package was here in California, 42 miles from my home yesterday at 8am. Apparently the train was late, but who cares, it was here yesterday morning, will sure make to my place today? Nope, a day later it’s still in San Pablo and it’s being rescheduled for delivery tomorrow.

Today it will make it all the way to the UPS center in San Ramon, a 30-mile trip, and just 12 miles from my house. Then tomorrow afternoon it will finally get here – 42 miles in 3 days.

Now, I can already hear the arguments about logistics optimization. My package may just have missed the early morning pick-up and that was the last one for the day. But isn’t timely delivery, and consequently customer satisfaction worth scheduling an additional pick-up in case a train is late?

It gets worse. In this case UPS simply did not go the extra mile to make up for the train delay. But I’ve seen cases when the package arrived to San Ramon a day earlier than scheduled, yet it did not make it on the truck the next morning. UPS would rather store it an extra day at their facility than deliver a day early. Forget customer satisfaction, this is all about market segmentation and protection. They will have to make sure a 7-day delivery is indeed 7 days and not any faster, otherwise they might just reduce their customers’ inclination to pay for faster delivery methods.

Update (7/1): Oh, boy, when I wrote this, I had no clue just how bad UPS Customer Service can really get…

Filed Under: Business, Customer Service · Tagged: customer satisfaction, Customer Service, package delivery, UPS

MS Money: Old Financial Data May Not Be Accessible on Vista

Posted on June 30, 2008 ·

You’d think at least Microsoft’s own products are compatible with Vista. Well, sort of. MS Money users who converted from Quicken may be out of luck.

I have a lot of financial data in Microsoft Money and prior to that in Quicken files. Both applications used to recommend you keep the data files small by archiving earlier years. With today’s faster computers archiving is no longer an issue, but if you’re a long-time user like I am, you probably have a few old archive files.

Every time you “upgrade” Money (hardly any new value, but if you use online services, MS forces you to upgrade every 2-3 years) your current data file is upgraded to the new formats, too. But what happens to the archive files?

I decided to convert all my older Quicken files to Money, just in case… after all, Money supports Quicken conversion. Or not: crash. Crash again.. and again. I tried several data files, even rebooted the system, to no avail: Money consistently crashed at all conversion attempts.

This is where Vista’s Problem Reports and Solutions comes handy, and yes, a few days later it shows “solution found”. Hm… if they found it, they certainly are not sharing it. Here’s the user-friendly stuff I found:

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-16″?>
<DATABASE>
<EXE NAME=”MSMoney.EXE” FILTER=”GRABMI_FILTER_PRIVACY”>
<MATCHING_FILE NAME=”adapt.dll” SIZE=”109360″ CHECKSUM=”0x24BD92C0″ BIN_FILE_VERSION=”16.0.0.1303″ BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION=”16.0.0.1303″ PRODUCT_VERSION=”16.00.1303″ FILE_DESCRIPTION=”MSN Money Adaptation DLL” COMPANY_NAME=”Microsoft(R) Corporation” PRODUCT_NAME=”Microsoft(R) Money” FILE_VERSION=”16.00.1303″ ORIGINAL_FILENAME=”adapt.dll” INTERNAL_NAME=”adaptation” LEGAL_COPYRIGHT=”Copyright © Microsoft Corp. ” VERDATEHI=”0x0″ VERDATELO=”0x0″ VERFILEOS=”0x4″ VERFILETYPE=”0x2″ MODULE_TYPE=”WIN32″ PE_CHECKSUM=”0x25BFE” LINKER_VERSION=”0x60000″ UPTO_BIN_FILE_VERSION=”16.0.0.1303″ UPTO_BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION=”16.0.0.1303″ LINK_DATE=”01/04/2007 07:49:53″ UPTO_LINK_DATE=”01/04/2007 07:49:53″ EXPORT_NAME=”Adapt.DLL” VER_LANGUAGE=”English (United States) [0x409]” />
<MATCHING_FILE NAME=”adaptres.dll” SIZE=”13104″ CHECKSUM=”0xA99DDA54″ BIN_FILE_VERSION=”16.0.0.1303″ BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION=”16.0.0.1303″ PRODUCT_VERSION=”16.00.1303″ FILE_DESCRIPTION=”MSN Money Adaptation DLL” COMPANY_NAME=”Microsoft(R) Corporation” PRODUCT_NAME=”Microsoft(R) Money” FILE_VERSION=”16.00.1303″ ORIGINAL_FILENAME=”adapt.dll” INTERNAL_NAME=”adaptation” LEGAL_COPYRIGHT=”Copyright © Microsoft Corp. ” VERDATEHI=”0x0″ VERDATELO=”0x0″ VERFILEOS=”0x4″ VERFILETYPE=”0x2″ MODULE_TYPE=”WIN32″ PE_CHECKSUM=”0x4855″ LINKER_VERSION=”0x60000″ UPTO_BIN_FILE_VERSION=”16.0.0.1303″ UPTO_BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION=”16.0.0.1303″ LINK_DATE=”01/04/2007 07:00:04″ UPTO_LINK_DATE=”01/04/2007 07:00:04″ VER_LANGUAGE=”English (United States) [0x409]” />

This looks like the problem report sent to Microsoft, not the solution. There’s one hint though: the filename is AppCompat.txt. Perhaps it’s a Vista compatibility issue? Luckily I still have an XP laptop around, the data files are there thanks to Foldershare sync (more on synchronization in the next post), all I have to do is install MS Money on the XP machine and try conversion there.

Voila! Half an hour later I have the Quicken files converted to Money on the XP computer. Money’s import/conversion routine is incompatible with Vista! The whole exercise, including search on the Money Group took me about 2 hours, so dear Microsoft, here’s my invoice for lost productivity:

Oh, wait, we’re in the US, perhaps I should have presented a properly Americanized version.

My poor experience was with MS Money 2007, but with Money Plus, the 2008 version of the product line Microsoft shows true ignorance to users’ legacy data needs. Money Plus comes in four editions: Essentials, Deluxe, Premium, and Home & Business.

Microsoft offers a nice comparison chart, which neglects to mention a small detail, available only at the footnotes:

* Important note – Microsoft Money Essentials will not be able to open previous Money or Quicken files. If you are upgrading from a previous version of Money or Quicken, Money Plus Deluxe may be the right solution for you.

Not opening Quicken … well, it’s their decision. But not opening data from their very own previous releases? And this is hidden in the small print?

I rest my case.

Filed Under: Personal Productivity, Software · Tagged: compatibility, data conversion, data portability, intuit, legacy data, microsoft, Microsoft Money, money plus, MS Money, ms money plus, quicken, virtualinvoice, vista, vistasucks, Windows, xp, zoho invoice

Atlassian Hiring Chief Heineken-taster

Posted on June 28, 2008 ·

Last time I thought VP Marketing @ Atlassian was the Dream Job, but this one is better. Your job will be to compare beer quality in Amsterdam vs. what they sell at Atlassian’s (almost) in-house pub in Sydney. According to a commenter you may do some additional market research, too.

Oh, well, here’s what they really want (cool company anyway).

Filed Under: Humor · Tagged: atlassian, Beer, confluence, hiring, Humor, jira, wiki

HP Shopping Program Disguised as Critical Alert

Posted on June 27, 2008 ·

I don’t know why I haven’t killed HP Total Care Advisor yet, but today I accidentally clicked on it:

Wow. I’ve seen crapware .. but never before have I seen a vendor with the audacity to place their shopping program under Critical Alerts. Shame, shame, absolute shame, HP.

Filed Under: Customer Service, Marketing / PR · Tagged: Customer support, hewlett-packard, HP, hp total care, technical support

Firefox 3: Lost a Few Extensions, Found Others… No Smooth Sailing Though

Posted on June 26, 2008 ·

Several of my favorite Firefox extensions did not make it to 3.0 for compatibility reasons, but I found functional equivalents for almost all. Amongst the (temporary) losses is Zoho QuickRead, being replaced by OpenITOnline (The Zoho Team tells me QuickRead will be FF3 compatible in a few days The FF3 compatible Zoho QuickRead update is now available).

OpenITOnline is a handy extension that allows you to read documents online without the need to first download, then open them in the relevant Office applications. The file formats currently handled are:

Documents (*.doc, *.rtf, *.odt, *.sxw)
Spreadsheets (*.xls, *.csv, *.ods, *.sxc)
Presentations (*.ppt, *.pps, *.odp, *.sxi)
Images (*.jpg, *.gif,*.png)

There’s an easy guided setup, where I changed the default Zoho Viewer to the relevant “active” services, i.e. Zoho Writer, Sheet and Show. OpenITOnline also supports Google Docs and ThinkFree.

My old-style del.icio.us extension was replaced by the functionally richer new one. The PayPal Plugin became a casualty, just days after I had discovered it.

The upgrade itself was anything but smooth sailing, and I’m not referring to the initial download fiasco. The new Firefox appeared to work fine on the Vista PC, but exhibited strange behavior on two XP machines.

It simply did not “remember” the settings for two key extensions: every single time I started Firefox I got flooded by pop-up windows to configure Gmail Manager (one window for each account) and had to go through the hoops of setting up Foxmarks. For a while I thought the extensions were to blame, or perhaps a strange interaction with some of the new extensions – once you’re on the wrong track, you can spend hours uninstalling/ reinstalling them in various sequences. But then I noticed some of my default settings were gone, homepage reset, cookie handling and history tracking all changed. Weirdest of all was the fact that the “OK” button did not work on any configuration/setup screen.

So now I knew something was wrong with Firefox itself – to cut a long story short, I could fix one of the laptops by some magic sequence of uninstalling/reinstalling everything a few times, but the other one was hopeless. I had to resort to brute force: uninstall Firefox, wipe out all related directories (those ugly documents etc.. \user\ local data\whatever paths), then System Restore to the day before the Firefox upgrade, then install everything again, followed buy repeated Windows and McAfee updates that the system forgot due to the Restore. It was ugly.

Now Firefox 3 (almost) works, except that the “Use my choice for all cookies from this site” button does not seem to do anything. (Update: It’s damn frustrating having to hit the same button a zillion times!)

I lost about half a day, and more importantly at a time I really couldn’t afford it, had more urgent things to do. Not the first time, and I’m afraid not the last one either. But this time I’ve decided to do something about it: I’m presenting a virtual invoice to Mozilla, for the productive time lost.

Of course this invoice won’t ever be paid.. but I already feel better. Every time a software company hijacks my productive time, I will create a Virtual Invoice. (I already have another one in the queue, for Microsoft… coming soon).

Filed Under: Humor, Personal Productivity, Software · Tagged: ff3, firefox, firefox 3.0, foxmarks, gmail manager, google docs, Mozilla, openitonline, thinkfree, virtualinvoice, zoho, zoho invoice

Mexican Invasion …

Posted on June 26, 2008 ·

Isn’t it funny how two accidentally juxtaposed news items may appear related?

Bloomberg reports on how wealthy Mexicans are buying up foreclosed homes in Texas:

More than a century and a half after Mexico lost Texas to the U.S., Virgilio Garza wants a piece of it back.

In Phoenix they don’t bother paying.. just send in the Army (as in Mexican Army renegades).

Filed Under: Misc ·

Zoho Show: Another Step Towards Better Group Collaboration

Posted on June 25, 2008 ·

I don’t normally write about incremental product updates, even if they come from one of my Clients – like in this case Zoho. But today’s Zoho Show update touches a pet peeve of mine, group collaboration, specifically the lack of portable group definitions available for many online services.

For example the Enterprise Irregulars group has intense discussion threads using Google Groups, which I often praised for stepping out of being just a group email mechanism, becoming a mini community/collaborative platform. But it’s a closed system, the definition of a “group”, i.e. it’s members does not exist outside the Groups application, we can’t just simply share a Google Doc, Spreadsheet, or Calendar with the predefined EI group. Note: I am not complaining about Google specifically , most services are like this, basically allowing three levels of collaboration/sharing:

none (private)
shared with a list of users
public

Zoho started to address better Group management about half a year ago, in February, enabling Writer, Sheet and Mail to recognize a Group created in their My Account area. Today Zoho Show joins the list: you can share your presentations with contacts pulled from Zoho Mail, save them to groups, or use groups defined elsewhere (Mail, Accounts) in Zoho. Eventually there will be multiple privacy / sharing levels within the Zoho Universe:

private
shared with individual email id’s
shared with Groups (defined once, recognized in all applications)
shared by Domain (i.e. share info within your business)

Other than group collaboration, today’s update brings export capability to PowerPoint and other formats, expanded language support, easy embedding of Picasa images (Flickr support has been available for a while) and more. For a full list of the enhancements see the Zoho Blog.

Filed Under: Collaboration, Personal Productivity, SaaS · Tagged: Collaboration, Google, google Groups, group collaboration, powerpoint, zoho, zoho show

The ZDNet Obstacle Course, or Eating One’s Own Dog Food

Posted on June 25, 2008 ·

Michael Krigsman tends to be critical all the time. Not that he’s mean, but what else can you do when your blog title is IT Project Failures ?

Today’s he’s getting his own dog food served up, in nice bite-sized portions . After poking fun at Bill Gate’s Byzantine Web Experience at Microsoft.com, one of the first comments he received by a fellow Enterprise Irregular was:

Michael
Good thing that Bill Gates hasn’t tried to comment on the ZDNET blogs.
Imagine that rant…!-)

Ouch… but he is so right. ZDNet has built a hard-to-penetrate comment wall that deters most from entering the conversation. Anyway, the story gets better. Michael received the following email from his own Mother:

I DECIDED TO BE BRAVE AND ENTER A COMMENT OF MY OWN, BUT I DID NOT GET VERY
FAR. HAVING TYPED MY THING, I FOUND MYSELF WITH A FORM TO FILL OUT, A
SEEMINGLY VERY SIMPLE TASK. LITTLE DID I KNOW THAT IN THE WORLD YOU
INHABIT, EVEN FORMS DON’T SPEAK MY KIND OF ENGLISH. I WAS REJECTED OUT OF
HAND BECAUSE I COULDN’T FIGURE OUT WHERE TO ENTER ZIP CODE!!! LIKE A DOG
CHEWING ON A BONE, THE FORM WOULDN’T LET ME GO, INSISTING ON THE ZIP CODE.
AFTER TRYING AND TRYING, I FINALLY GAVE UP…… THE FORM IS PROBABLY STILL
LAUGHING NOW.

FAILURE TO FIND A PLACE FOR THIS PIECE OF INFORMATION WAS NEW TO ME, ONE WHO
IS USED TO MEET WITH OTHER FAILURES REGULARLY. BUT TO FAIL TO COMPLETE MY
ADDRESS? WHAT GIVES?

Beware of a Mother’s wrath . Joke apart, Michael’s Mom must be quite frustrated, as shown by the all-CAPS.

Jeff Nolan’s more analytical opinion on the EI discussion group:

Actually that ZDNet comment wall is a legitimate example for a post on how complex systems that deviate from community norms discourage participation which in the end frustrate the objectives of the host.

We hear this left and right. Not only from readers, but from some ZDNet bloggers as well. And while at it, let me quickly admit I was guilty of building an obstacle course myself – although nothing as discouraging as ZDNet’s wall. And to be fair, today’s criticism isn’t directed at Michael, but ZDNet’s management.

I can’t resist (mis)quoting President Ronald Reagan’s famous words :

Mr. Gorbachev , [insert ZDNet Exec here] open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev , [ZDNet Exec] tear down this wall!

Filed Under: Blogging · Tagged: Blogging, co.mments, comment wall, conversation, dogfod, zdnet

Microsoft, the Walking Dead

Posted on June 24, 2008 ·

Over a year ago Paul Graham caused quite some uproar calling Microsoft Dead. Unlike in the 90’s, none of his startup Founders fear (or even respect) Microsoft. They have their eyes on Google and other startups – so Microsoft must be dead. Cash-rich, wildly successful – just not a future force to reckon with.

Today I read evidence that Paul Graham is right. Todd Bishop produced a Bill Gates email from 2003, in which the Microsoft CEO complains about his own systems usability (or lack of).

—- Original Message —-

From: Bill Gates
Sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2003 10:05 AM
To: Jim Allchin
Cc: Chris Jones (WINDOWS); Bharat Shah (NT); Joe Peterson; Will Poole; Brian Valentine; Anoop Gupta (RESEARCH)
Subject: Windows Usability Systematic degradation flame

I am quite disappointed at how Windows Usability has been going backwards and the program management groups don’t drive usability issues.

Let me give you my experience from yesterday.

I decided to download (Moviemaker) and buy the Digital Plus pack … so I went to Microsoft.com.

…

This site is so slow it is unusable.

…

Someone decided to trash the one part of Windows that was usable? The file system is no longer usable. The registry is not usable. This program listing was one sane place but now it is all crapped up.

…

So after more than an hour of craziness and making my programs list garbage and being scared and seeing that Microsoft.com is a terrible website I haven’t run Moviemaker and I haven’t got the plus package.

The lack of attention to usability represented by these experiences blows my mind. I thought we had reached a low with Windows Network places or the messages I get when I try to use 802.11

I tried to selectively quote from this email, but it’s impossible. This email is a goldmine, you have to read it in its entirety.

It sounds like John Doe Windows User spilling out all his frustration with a useless, unfriendly system. Or like me, ranting about Vista. Which brings me to my point: although we’re blinded by the sales success, a result of monopoly, nothing changes the fact that Vista is widely considered a fiasco. If this is the best the world’s richest company could come up with 5 years after the CEO’s angry rant – well, that speaks for itself. Microsoft is dead. Rich, powerful, but without a future. A Walking Dead.

(And now you can call me crazy.)

Update (6/25): Jeff Nolan feels sorry for Citizen Bill: Of course he’s right about the usability… too bad he can’t switch to a Mac.

Phil Wainewright is wondering whether Gates is “a secret cloud convert, or have I been drinking too much of my own Kool-Aid again?”

Michael Krigsman points to this PDF which shows some of the follow-up email correspondence – you’d think after the CEO /Chairman rants so explicitely, they rush to find a solution. Instead, what we find is fingerpointing, politics, total corporate inertia. That’s what kills (formerly great) organizations.

Update (10/7/2010) – Good read @ Computerworld: Microsoft’s coming heart-attack moment

Filed Under: Business, Software · Tagged: microsoft, monopoly, paul graham, vista, walking dead, Windows