Rants

Feedback and why you shouldn't believe it.....

Matt Little — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:21:00 GMT

Feedback should be open, fair and based upon your true impression of a situation combined with evidence to justify your conclusions.

It is therefore annoying that, having bought something from an Amazon Marketplace seller and left negative feedback about their lack of communication when I complained, I received an email apologising (or rather explaining why it wasn't their fault) and offering me 10% of the purchase price back if I removed the negative feedback.

Interestingly, the seller didn't dispute the feedback, just asked that I delete it for a ~~bribe~~ partial refund.

Doesn't an approach such as that make the 99% 'good' feedback rating fairly irrelevant and pointless?

Accident Claim Helplines

Matt Little — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:41:00 GMT

You've seen the "Accident Claim Helpline" adverts on TV, haven't you?

Well, I saw one today where a woman remembered the time that she walked through reception at her work and slipped on some water. Her knee "really hurt" (cue pictures of someone grimacing and holding leg) whilst explaining that her "immediate thought was" ....

Can you guess? Did she think "my knee might be badly damaged"? No, you're wrong.

Did she think "I hope this pain goes away"? No, you're wrong.

Her immediate thought was "I hope that it isn't too expensive...." - for medical care? - no, her first thought was apparently "I hope that it isn't too expensive to claim for this".

Yes, next time you hurt yourself and feel excruciating pain, battle thorough the tears and immediately consider the cheapest claims helpline before you do anything else.

How depressing.

Jeans are Trousers

Matt Little — Thu, 14 May 2009 10:32:00 GMT

Since when were jeans not trousers?

Apparently since GAP stared offering 30% off trousers, but that doesn't include jeans as "they aren't trousers". Cotton trousers, linen trousers and tracksuit-type trousers are all trousers, jut not jeans.

Does that seem odd? I know that we don't often refer to jeans are "trousers", but they are trousers!

Call Data Analysis

Matt Little — Fri, 23 May 2008 12:43:00 GMT

I got a rubbish text message through from my mobile provider today offering my Travel Information at 75 pence per minute.

Although it might seem like an irresistible offer (not), I thought I could probably manage without any more 'useful' offers from them so replied with 'STOP'. Of course that didn't work (universal stop code? not that universal apparently).

So I called the mobile company and asked if they could possibly remove me from the wonderful offers that they keep sending me. They did so and told me that I had been removed from marketing via:

email
text
MMS
post
data call analysis

What was that last one? Monitoring my calls for, I am guessing, marketing reasons.

I don't ever remember that being clearly brought to my attention....

I've heard of thinking big, but this guy is an idiot....

Matt Little — Thu, 01 May 2008 12:17:00 GMT

Someone wants to cash a duff cheque to get some money. How much could you get away with without raising suspicion? $100, $1000, $10 000, maybe even $100 000?

No, think big. Think $360 billion big. Wally.

Story here.

Sony Camera Drivers and XP Pro x64

Matt Little — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 10:30:00 GMT

If you have XP Pro 64 bit edition (x64) and can't get your Sony Digital Camera working, there is a (not so) good reason.

When you plug the camera in, it is recognised as a "Sony Digital Camera". Windows doesn't know what to do with this hardware. If you were running 32 bit XP, a driver file would explain that the device should be treated as a disk drive.

In x64, there is no such file to explain the link. Sony can't be bothered to produce drivers for x64, so you are in trouble. This nice forum here has written their own driver. To install, you'll have to switch off the 'signed driver check' though.

Now, why couldn't Sony do that?

Not Every Switch/Maestro Card has an Issue Number

Matt Little — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 14:21:00 GMT

... when will websites start accepting that not every Switch/Maestro card has an issue numnber? I know for a fact that a couple of the largest banks in the UK issue cards without issue numbers on them.

So why make it a mandatory field when you try to buy something on a webiste? I'm looking at you FlyBe!

Snow On Cars

Matt Little — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 09:48:00 GMT

It has been snowing here over the past 24 hours. It was snowing last night, so people knew about it before they went to bed and yet, despite that, people don't bother to clear the snow from their cars before they leave the house.

A few things:

Driving with a car-roof-sized slab of snow 10 cm deep on top of the car is dangerous as it will come off at speed and 10 kg of snow hitting the road/car behind could cause a crash
Having lights on is useless unless you have removed the snow covering them
Having an A4-sized gap in the snow on your front screen or just clearing a football sized gap in the condensation on the window and leaving all other windows covered in snow is not enough to drive safely.
Doing normal speeds and leaving a couple nano-metres between you and the car in front is stupid
Approaching a turning at normal speeds when the road that you are turning into has 10 cm of snow on it is stupid
Trying to get up a snow-covered hill in first gear and wondering why you aren't moving and what that burning rubber smell is - stupid too.

Enough said. Thank you.

We are all doomed - it is official, the UK can't do maths

Matt Little — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 15:26:00 GMT

Which is lower: -10 or -20?

-20 of course, unless you are someone who buys lottery tickets - see this story for proof.

"The 23-year-old, who said she had left school without a maths GCSE, said: "On one of my cards it said I had to find temperatures lower than -8. The numbers I uncovered were -6 and -7 so I thought I had won, and so did the woman in the shop. But when she scanned the card the machine said I hadn't.

"I phoned Camelot and they fobbed me off with some story that -6 is higher - not lower - than -8 but I'm not having it. "

"I'm not having it"? Having what? A clue about how to count?

Lifetime warranty - for what exactly?

Matt Little — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 16:48:00 GMT

I bought some gloves today (well, it is cold) and they came with a 'Lifetime Warranty'. Cool. If you read the small print, it guarantees the materials and workmanship in normal use. OK, fair. It does not cover improper care (?) or accidents. Fair enough.

It also does not cover "natural breakdown of materials over extended time and use" What on earth does it cover then if it doesn't cover the materials falling to bits over time?

Can anyone help me with that one?