12.04.06
Posted in rants at 6:34 pm by stickupkid
Thanks to the marvels of modern technology that allow zombie botnets, I’ve had to disable trackback for a while. My spam protection isn’t stopping the thousands of spam trackbacks filling things up, and I’m getting sick of manually trashing them out. Besides, trackbacks weren’t working right anyway 
I have to admit, Typo hasn’t been a resounding success as a blogging platform. I’ll persevere in the meantime, but there may be a backend change here in the future…
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09.28.06
Posted in rants at 6:04 am by stickupkid
And while I’m on the subject of Agile…
If anyone (credible or otherwise) starts railing against Agile (capital-A) as a bad thing, chances are they have missed the point. The fact that a senior voice at Google has joined the chorus of folk slagging agile without taking the time to understand it goes a long way to showing the dire state the IT industry is in today. Everyone is always too ready to call bullsh*t on any new trend, for fear it might upset their applecart and require learning new skills. Yes, Google boys, your interviews might be hard, but they don’t test for innovation or rational thought - only alpha-geekiness. Hence the “no delete button in gmail” fiasco. Hence Google boys feeling they have to “debunk” Agile and similar.
In a futile effort to clarify the debate for everyone once again:
Agile is for a set of specific circumstances:
- Limited budget
- Hard deadline
- Uncertain or poorly understood technology
… check the details of the approach in these terms and it comes clear…
- Test-driven development: because your underlying tech probably is buggy.
- Pair programming: because in a week they will be the two world experts.
- No requirements documents: because you don’t have time.
- No status update (or other, preferably) meetings: because you _really_ don’t have time.
- Deliver early, deliver often: because at least if you run out of budget, there’s _something_ to show for it.
- (SCRUM) Meet for brief periods of time to let your team know what you are doing for the next 24hrs and what they might have to do to make sure it happens: because you don’t have time to wait for each other to catch up.
… and so on, and so forth. Agile is a good approach to a particular problem. Much like Assembler is a good approach to particular problems, Django is a good approach to particular problems, Wasabi is probably a pile of bollocks, and J2EE is a solution looking for a problem.
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09.24.06
Posted in rants at 9:36 am by stickupkid
Well, I just returned from an attempt to fly to New Zealand today. Clearly, an *unsuccessful* attempt.
I scored the flight through QANTAS’s frequent flier scheme (which incidentally is one of the worst in the world), which meant I didn’t have a direct Sydney=>Auckland flight - QANTAS don’t let you take spare capacity but rather only specifically allocated frequent flier seating, which means you end up on really strange journeys - like today, Sydney->Melbourne->Auckland.
So, I got to Melbourne okay (getting pretty used to that flight) and got on the next leg. About 1/3 of the way over the Tasman, the captain found a warning of a possible engine malfunction, so turned back… _to Sydney_.
Now, safety is a priority when you’re in a metal cylinder hurtling through the sky, held aloft by hope and excessive speed. However, I couldn’t help but taste some bitter irony on landing in Sydney, back where I began. Oh well, at least I got to go home, unlike all the rest of the passengers!
(Special mention must go out to the passenger in Business Class who loudly complained that they had a meeting with the President of Chile and that the QANTAS peon should go order a plane to turn around and fly them to Auckland immediately. It was such a stereotype I kept expecting Ashton Kutcher to show up).
… I loooove flying…
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Posted in rants, tech at 8:29 am by stickupkid
Yes kids, it’s back! I took delivery on Friday of my Macbook… completely unrepaired. Yes, since I was no longer working in Melbourne, I had to collect my still unrepaired laptop from Apple to take to Sydney for repair at a later date.
After a suitable period of venting at a customer relations (digression: is it called “customer relations” because after dealing with them you feel like they’ve had some rather rough ‘relations’ with your tradesman’s entrance?) they put forward their view of the world:
- Apple made a defective product. Not their problem.
- Apple then couldn’t figure out how to fix it for several weeks. Not their problem either.
- Apple then had manufacturing problems making the replacement part. Also not their problem.
- Apple’s supply chain through Singapore had several problems, making it hard for them to land the replacement part. You guessed it, not their problem.
So the upshot being, after all aspects (design, testing, manufacture, supply chain, service, customer relations) of the process of delivering an item to a paying customer failed, it is the responsibility of the customer to bear the negative consequences. I call bullsh*t on that, Apple.
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09.19.06
Posted in rants at 1:20 am by stickupkid
Apparently, the only person at Apple who can help me sort out my defective Macbook won’t take my calls. Calling the general support line gets me “we’ll leave him a message” and calling his direct line goes to voicemail. Every minute for around an hour (hurray for automatic redial!), several hours so far today.
So, I’ve referred them to the Victorian Consumer Affairs Dept (takes about 2 weeks, *sigh*), much good though it’s likely to do me. Unfortunately, I can’t demand a refund, as they believe the case damage (which I maintain is a defect) is caused by physical damage.
Since my time in sunny Melbourne is (at least for a month or so) coming to an end, I have no choice but to take the defective laptop back from the service centre, and start _all over again_ at a different service centre in Sydney.
Incidentally, anyone thinking about servicing a faulty Macbook, good luck - the service centre I’m at is currently waiting on *fifteen* replacement logic boards… that’s a lot of faulty laptops for a single store.
So, in summary:
- Macbooks: defective on an alarming scale.
- Apple Australia: unwilling to help or return calls.
- Me: screwed.
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09.12.06
Posted in rants at 7:35 am by stickupkid
I’m snakemothering sick of these snakemothering wifi spots with their snakemothering URL redirection!
Every time I’m on a new hotel internet access point, they throw new tech glitches into the mix. The one that I particularly love is when they do a URL redirect / rewrite to any request. So, when the connection drops out (they all are flaky as hell in Melbourne) my iTunes podcast downloads replace all the URLs with the login page. So, long story short, I lose all the URLs of all my podcasts, to be replaced by “auth13.wifi.org/login”. I don’t know who to be more p*ssed at, Apple or the wifi guys… either way, I have to reload all my podcasts for the 5th time… auuuugh…
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Posted in rants, tech at 6:46 am by stickupkid
So I spoke to Apple again today - still no ETA on repairing my Macbook. 22 working days after putting it in for repair, and not even a hint as to when I might expect it back. I directly asked Apple Australia Customer Relations if they considered it acceptable to spend 22 working days without replacing a work machine, they answered _YES_ (albeit with a bit of weaseling).
So, we have the definitive answer: Apple Australia is totally unwilling to support business users. Noone in business can expect a full month with no repair on a basic warranty issue. Irony is, had I thrown it off a building, my insurance would have replaced it _faster_ than Apple have been able to so far. Truly, I am shocked and awed at the sheer unwillingness to make a customer happy here…
Oh well, on the upside at least my Powerbook’s battery hasn’t ignited yet (touch aluminum)…
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09.06.06
Posted in rants at 8:43 am by stickupkid
Nice bit of thought at membox… no answers unfortunately, but I certainly agree with the idea that business concepts are fundamentally simpler than technical concepts.
In my experience, this sort of counter-intuitive thinking is particular prevalant in financial services - for example, banks typically rate financial experience many times higher than technical competence when choosing employees or consulting partners. You may have done full end-to-end real-time integration of a global supply chain, but somehow they would prefer someone who knows how to work with finance. You know, primary school arithmetic. Finance is simply a form of specialised and very simplistic mathematics - the kind that any programmer understands inside out as a prerequisite. After all, is it any coincidence that when you get a programming manual, example 1 is “Hello, World!” and example 2 is a bank account. The only requirements are: +, -, *. Really not so hard…
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Posted in rants, tech at 4:59 am by stickupkid
After an exhausting (and still ongoing) encounter with Apple support in Australia, it seems clear that Apple are unwilling and uninterested in supporting the use of Apple computers in a business.
My odyssey began when my new (< 3 months old) black Macbook started the dreaded random shutdowns (a la Kevin Rose on Diggnation - possibly recently explained?). I’m currently travelling back and forth between Sydney and Melbourne for work, so on the weekend at home (Sydney) I backed up and prepared to take the Macbook in for servicing, figuring I could do without it for a couple of days without a serious work issue (I have a client PC to use for email). After taking the Macbook to Melbourne on Monday, I prepared to drop it off with the local reseller who I had purchased it from (fortunately on a Gold Card, more to come on that).
However, upon opening the case Monday to do a last check on my backup, I was greeted with a piece of the edge of the topcase “sproinging” off, holding on by merely a thread. Literally, I saw part of the case detach spontaneously! This piece fell off completely when i closed the lid. Insult to injury and all that. I took the Macbook in to the Apple reseller on Monday 14th of August. After some days I had received no contact, no information and no indication of when I might receive the computer I work on back. It was suggested I speak to Apple Australia customer relations by the reseller in order to escalate the priority of the repair, however Apple seemed surprised to be called in this case and referred me back to the reseller again.
After a few more days and call, eventually I was told that it would be somewhere in the realm of 5 or more working days for Apple to decide if they would replace the cracking case under warranty. After having a minor rant at customer relations about this being a work pc and this kind of downtime being untenable, they came up with a compromise: they would tell the reseller to install a new logic board to fix the shutdowns, return the Macbook to me that Friday (18th August) and take the cracking case offline for resolution (they had photos of it so could run their process independent of me getting my computer back to work on).
But it was not to be.
After waiting until Friday with no contact, I called the reseller for an update. They were too busy dealing with repairs instore (probably more with random shutdown problems!) to take my call, and promised to call back… but didn’t. This pattern that repeated itself several times until on WEDNESDAY 23rd, I finally got in touch, only to find out they hadn’t been given any instructions to return the Macbook and they were still waiting on an email from Apple Care Engineers to send the photos through so they could judge if the case issues was a defect. I got on the phone again to Apple customer relations - upon which, after much ranting, I was informed that their policy was if they decided that the case was damaged (not a defect) then they would refuse to fix ANY defects under warranty on the basis the physical damage might have caused them. Ye gods.
Fortunately, this particular f-you from Apple turned out to be a false alarm: On the 29th of August, I was informed that the case was considered damage, and it would not be covered, HOWEVER Apple would continue to look at fixing the random shutdown. Fortunately, through purchasing the laptop on a Gold Card that had purchase insurance (against any physical damage in 90 days), I was able to claim for the repair, no thanks to Apple. I kicked off the purchase insurance proces, which due to paperwork, processing etc takes some weeks to resolve. However, I felt at this point (2+ weeks after putting it in for repair) that the process had been unacceptable - an obviously defective (random shutdowns) unit was still not repaired, and I was becoming steadily more impaired in my ability to work. (As an aside, I work in IT Consulting where my rate charged to a Customer is roughly 1 Macbook/day - so the loss in productivity was quite an issue!)
I asked Apple what the complaint process was, and I was told that my only recourse would be to mail or fax (iLife, anyone? Nice to see a supposedly modern computer company using Fax and Snail Mail) a complaint to Apple - which I did. I have yet to receive any response to this complaint.
On Friday the 1st of September, I spoke to the reseller, who told me they had ordered the logic board, and it would arrive Monday. Note they didn’t order it when I brought it in, but rather waited until the latest necessary time. Good call. Upshot was, I would finally get the laptop back, over three weeks after it had been sent in with a known issue, on Monday the 4th of September. No word on Monday, so I contacted them Tuesday the 5th. I was informed that the logic boards were out of stock (I guess there are a lot of defective 2GHz Macbooks out there in Aussie!) and they couldn’t tell me when one might be available, and to contact Apple to get more info. I contacted Apple _again_ and was told they didn’t know when one would be available, but would get back to me. Come Wednesday, I was informed they were unable to give me any ETA whatsoever, and I was back in limbo.
So the current state of play: I have been without a work machine for 3 and a half weeks, Apple have basically told me they won’t do anything to resolve the issue, I still have no ETA on the repair, no idea when I might get my laptop back, and to make matters worse the case is defective and won’t be repaired under warranty! At the end of the day, it looks like the only way to get any accountability from Apple is to name and shame them! There are several key lessons everyone out there should be taking away from this:
- Apple (in Australia at least) are unwilling to support the needs of a business user.
- Apple Australia will gladly screw their customers to avoid replacing a defective unit.
- Make sure if you buy an Apple product that you have alternative purchase insurance or you run a high risk of getting a defective, unfixed product.
- Reiterating 1) above - if you are in business, and want to use an Apple, buy two and keep them synchronised - when one of them goes in for repair, you’ll need the other to tide you over.
- Apple make defective products, and don’t support them. Okay, laptops are complicated to make, and all manufacturers have a return rate, but at least they generally fix them quickly when they are defective!
PS: To add to the fun, my backup computer is an old 12″ Powerbook. And yes, I recently learned that it’s included in the battery recall. While the Macbook is in the shop, I can’t give up the battery (they expect you to hand in your battery, then wait EIGHT WEEKS for a replacement! Go Apple Australia again!) so any day now I fully expect it to explode on me. Joy. If anyone else out there in the Australian internetland has had a similar experience, add to the comments: it would be good to get a body of evidence for us all to take to the consumer commission!
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08.25.06
Posted in rants, tech at 8:17 am by stickupkid
Well, the Java blogs are afroth (digged, even) over Tom Ball’s post on Java.net asking ‘Is writing code a Career Limiting Move?’. Once again, kids, it seems that we might be missing the point a little.
See, CLM’s (or “Career Limiting Moves”, as Tom calls them) really only matter if you are inclined to embed yourself in the slow crawl up a corporate ladder (as so many Java guys are prone to these days). Yes, if you want to rise within a company from the Java coder to the CIO at some point you have to show ability to manage, lead, understand conflicting objectives, market trends, run projects, etc, etc. In other words, learn and display the skills necessary to do the job of CIO.
However, that doesn’t mean you have to stop coding to advance your career - just that you have to do so if you want to rise through the management ranks in a management-centric culture.
There are alternatives. For example, if you want to keep coding, come up with a cool idea, code it, and launch it to the world. You can keep on coding, without ever needing to learn about management - you can hire people to manage for you! Before you start complaining about having to stop coding, consider alternatives to being a wage slave.
Remember, beautiful code is out there.
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