Tag: rants

new policy on spam

It’s my blog, and I get to determine what is spam and what is not. The latest round of human-generated spam is getting past the automated spamblocks because the comments look valid. They’re natural language, often on topic, and occasionally even interesting or insightful – or relevant to the post being spammed.

I’m using a few WordPress plugins to help ease the pain, but for the love of Xenu, this bullshit should not be necessary.

But, if I think a comment is spam, I reserve the right to nuke it. Or to remove the URL and leave the comment in place. It’s my blog, and I’m sick and tired of people crapping on it in order to game google. PFO.

Hotels and Price Gouging

We’re working on a project with some folks at the CHR, and they are travelling to a conference to present their courses and talk about the process. Part of that presentation will be a live demo of the Moodle-powered site and some of the cool Breeze content we put together for them.

The hotel (which shall remain unnamed for now) sent them a sheet, asking what technical services they would like for their 1 hour presentation. Included in that sheet was this portion, listing the costs per service:

starwood price gouging

I had to resize it to fit here, so it’s a bit hard to read, but the basics are:

  • Internet connection (wired): $350
  • Internet connection (wireless): $350
  • Telephone: $175

If that’s not the definition of price gouging, I don’t know what is. That’s insane. Their internet charges, according to these rates, would be over $10,500 per month. And that’s in Canadian money, not that whimpy US stuff!

I could almost see how they could justify these rates if the conference was some hodey-dodey high flying billionaire’s club meeting, or maybe a Web 2.0 pre-bubble-bursting lovefest. But this is a medical education conference.

If I had to pay $350 to have an internet connection during a presentation, I just plain and simple wouldn’t do it. But these folks have committed to giving a live demo, and the only way to do that is to grab some ankle and ask for more.

Is MyDropBox.com Vaporware?

We’ve been looking at MyDropBox.com, trying to gather more info about their “Peer Re:Mark” peer review building block for Blackboard. It sounds rather interesting, and we’d love to try it out to evaluate for use on campus. The technology has become secondary, though, because the company has been completely unresponsive through the communication channels they provide on their website. I can only assume that the company is no longer viable, and/or that the product is vapour.

Patti tried contacting them 2 weeks ago for more information. She patiently filled out the form on their website, hoping to get some additional information about the product, maybe a demo, and perhaps a quote for deploying it on campus. No response.

So, I decided to see if maybe they were just blowing off peons, and only responding to “important” sounding people. So, I promoted myself to “Vice President, Educational Technology” here at UCalgary, and filled in the form myself. Several days later… No response. I guess I need to demote myself back down to “Lowly EdTech Geek”, but I kinda like the ring of VP-EdTech…

Anyway, here’s a clue for MyDropBox, who apparently don’t respond to the only communication channel they provide on their own website. When people are contacting you, asking for more information, probably trying to give you money, it’s a Good Idea™ to at least send an autoresponse email. It’s an Even Better Idea™ to actually, oh, I don’t know… RESPOND to the people who are most likely to give your company money.

Drupal Pet Peeve: Loose InputFormat Control

I screwed up in a big way on one of our higher profile Drupal sites. I had configured the default inputformat to include PHP execution, because there are a whole bunch of pages on the site that need to be able to execute PHP, and that was the easiest way to get it done. I was lazy, and didn’t follow best practices. And it resulted in a pretty open security hole, where anyone could create an account and then execute their own PHP (to do stuff like promote their account to Admin, delete the database, send emails, launch ICBMs…). Not cool.

Why was I so sloppy? Basically, I forgot that I’d left user registration open. The site is supposed to be a closed ecosystem, but with user registration enabled, it ain’t.

What I should have done was create a separate “über-inputformat” that included PHP execution, and was only available to admin users on the site. I would then have a separate, more limited inputformat as the default, perhaps with html tag filtering, as well. But here’s where I got lazy – there is no way for me to say “I know that ‘n00b’ is the default format, but I only ever want to use ‘über-inputformat’ so don’t make me choose each and every time I create a node”. Having more than one inputformat available causes the display of a new “input format” control in the node authoring form, and users have to first understand wtf that means, and then they have to figure out why they’d want to choose any of the available options. And if you’re creating a whole bunch of nodes with PHP in them, you have to remember to change each and every one to the “über-inputformat” inputformat, or the code won’t execute. pita.

Which brings me to D’Arcy’s Drupal Pet Peeve #2: Loose inputformat control. You can say which is the default, and then EVERYONE gets to use that. Then, you can add on other additional and optional inputformats, and enable them only for specific roles. But you can’t say that “n00b” is the only available inputformat for anonymous and authenticated users, and that “basic” is the only available inputformat for “members” and that “über-inputformat” is the inputformat to be used by default by admins.

As a corollary to Pet Peeve #2: TinyMCE ignores inputformats. If I have an inputformat configured with PHP execution, TinyMCE is completely happy to try to provide an editor for that, obliviously clobbering the code within the node. You have to go to your account and (temporarily) disable TinyMCE rich text editing before editing any node with PHP in it. It’d be really nice if you could tell TinyMCE to NOT kick in on certain inputformats…

Drupal pet peeve: cron.php

I hate that I have to manually (or scriptedly) call cron.php for every Drupal site I run. Even for multiple Drupal sites on the same server in a multisite configuration. Yes, there are ways to automate it, but eventually they fail. I just manually called cron.php on one of our main sites, after realizing it had silently failed for the last 32 weeks. Hundreds of reminder emails are being sent out now, for events that were held months ago. Yes, there are modules to have cron.php called periodically (poor man’s cron…) but they’re flakey at best, and risky at worst (there is a chance of overlapping cron.php calls if the timing is just right).

Anyway, there endeth the rant. D’Arcy’s Drupal Pet Peeve #1: cron.php

Political Faux Pas

On Monday, I attended a memorial for a family member that passed away recently (part of the reason I was in a bit of a funk during Northern Voice). It was the culmination of a long illness, but was still a shock.

At the memorial, a friend of hers stood up to say some words. Not a bad speech, and a nice gesture. They had met while working to pass some legislation to protect self employed individuals in the province. I talked with him after the service, at the reception upstairs. And then he did something that really unsettled me. He handed me his card. He is a politician, working he crowd for support. I saw him handing out cards around the room, making sure to talk to everyone at every table.

At the time, it didn't bother me too much. He was a friend of the deceased, trying to make contact with other friends and family members.

But, the more I think about it, the more incensed I get. Dude. You're handing out BUSINESS CARDS at a MEMORIAL??? I don't care if you're the freaking widower. That's just plain and simple NOT COOL. I don't care if you're a politician, a salesman, or a dotcom billionaire. Using a family memorial to work the crowd to gather support (no matter how subtly done) is a huge faux pas in my book.

I was asked by several people during the reception about the "guy handing out cards" – people were surprised that anyone would have the gall to do that. I'm stunned. Even though I could never bring myself to vote Progressive Conservative in the next provincial election, I will not be able to vote Liberal either. If this is the type of person selected by the Liberal party of Alberta, it isn't a good sign.

Not cool, Len. Not cool. 

On Monday, I attended a memorial for a family member that passed away recently (part of the reason I was in a bit of a funk during Northern Voice). It was the culmination of a long illness, but was still a shock.

At the memorial, a friend of hers stood up to say some words. Not a bad speech, and a nice gesture. They had met while working to pass some legislation to protect self employed individuals in the province. I talked with him after the service, at the reception upstairs. And then he did something that really unsettled me. He handed me his card. He is a politician, working he crowd for support. I saw him handing out cards around the room, making sure to talk to everyone at every table.

At the time, it didn't bother me too much. He was a friend of the deceased, trying to make contact with other friends and family members.

But, the more I think about it, the more incensed I get. Dude. You're handing out BUSINESS CARDS at a MEMORIAL??? I don't care if you're the freaking widower. That's just plain and simple NOT COOL. I don't care if you're a politician, a salesman, or a dotcom billionaire. Using a family memorial to work the crowd to gather support (no matter how subtly done) is a huge faux pas in my book.

I was asked by several people during the reception about the "guy handing out cards" – people were surprised that anyone would have the gall to do that. I'm stunned. Even though I could never bring myself to vote Progressive Conservative in the next provincial election, I will not be able to vote Liberal either. If this is the type of person selected by the Liberal party of Alberta, it isn't a good sign.

Not cool, Len. Not cool. 

Revenue Canada Netfile website only available during office hours?

I just tried to file my GST payment for the quarter, using the GST Netfile website. I figured it’d be the easiest way to do it, with the whole process taking maybe 5 minutes. I’m trying to be a responsible little consultant, filing proper papers and paying The Man to let me do it.

But, the business end of the NetFile website is actually unavailable outside of regular office hours. I don’t think they back the website with a database. It must actually fire off submissions directly to the desk of an overworked civil servant. Probably for security reasons, they don’t even hook the website up to a printer, where the pages could safely stack up in someone’s inbox. Nope. They just flash the numbers at someone in realtime. Maybe there’s a cool Wall Street ticker wrapping around the internet call centre or something.

Regardless, here’s what the website says now:

GST Netfile error

It’s comforting to know that the revenue collection system of a country with 30 million people is turned off when someone isn’t at their desk. How do they schedule potty breaks for the website monitors?

More ways to serve you, indeed.

Hello, Revenue Canada? I’m trying to give you money. Cough up for a database server already. Oh, wait. The last database built by our federal government wound up costing us over a billion dollars. Give me a shout. I’ll build you one for half that.

I just tried to file my GST payment for the quarter, using the GST Netfile website. I figured it’d be the easiest way to do it, with the whole process taking maybe 5 minutes. I’m trying to be a responsible little consultant, filing proper papers and paying The Man to let me do it.

But, the business end of the NetFile website is actually unavailable outside of regular office hours. I don’t think they back the website with a database. It must actually fire off submissions directly to the desk of an overworked civil servant. Probably for security reasons, they don’t even hook the website up to a printer, where the pages could safely stack up in someone’s inbox. Nope. They just flash the numbers at someone in realtime. Maybe there’s a cool Wall Street ticker wrapping around the internet call centre or something.

Regardless, here’s what the website says now:

GST Netfile error

It’s comforting to know that the revenue collection system of a country with 30 million people is turned off when someone isn’t at their desk. How do they schedule potty breaks for the website monitors?

More ways to serve you, indeed.

Hello, Revenue Canada? I’m trying to give you money. Cough up for a database server already. Oh, wait. The last database built by our federal government wound up costing us over a billion dollars. Give me a shout. I’ll build you one for half that.

Apkakkallli: PFO!

Dear Apkakkallli spammer,

P. F. O.

You are not going to win. I will not let you vandalize my blog. Get a clue. Your 24,712 (and counting) attempts recently have all failed. Every. Single. One. Move along. Or, better yet, get a job (or a life). All you’re succeeding in doing is wasting my time, and the resources of my server. And in pissing me off, which guarantees that you will not succeed here.

You may as well point your spambot zombie farm somewhere else – or better yet, decommission it, rather than inflicting your inane Google-powered vandalism on other people. I count over 800,000 references to Apkakkalli in Google right now, including a handful of old spamments that temporarily snuck through onto my blog. And that’s with duplicates removed, so the total count of your spamments is likely in the millions. That’s a LOT of spam you’ve foisted on the blogosphere. I really hope that Karma comes back to you. Really soon.

If you’re ever in Calgary, give me a shout. I’d love to, er, buy you a coffee or something. Yeah. That’s it. A coffee…

Dear Apkakkallli spammer,

P. F. O.

You are not going to win. I will not let you vandalize my blog. Get a clue. Your 24,712 (and counting) attempts recently have all failed. Every. Single. One. Move along. Or, better yet, get a job (or a life). All you’re succeeding in doing is wasting my time, and the resources of my server. And in pissing me off, which guarantees that you will not succeed here.

You may as well point your spambot zombie farm somewhere else – or better yet, decommission it, rather than inflicting your inane Google-powered vandalism on other people. I count over 800,000 references to Apkakkalli in Google right now, including a handful of old spamments that temporarily snuck through onto my blog. And that’s with duplicates removed, so the total count of your spamments is likely in the millions. That’s a LOT of spam you’ve foisted on the blogosphere. I really hope that Karma comes back to you. Really soon.

If you’re ever in Calgary, give me a shout. I’d love to, er, buy you a coffee or something. Yeah. That’s it. A coffee…

Canon Canada’s Rebate Program Sucks

I bought my Canon Digital Rebel XT back in June, with the timing of the purchase a direct result of Canon Canada‘s $100 rebate offer. I bought the camera at that time specifically because of the additional rebate. Otherwise, I would have likely held off a month or two, probably waiting for the release of the XTi. (an aside on the timing – I actually jumped the gun, buying the camera 2 weeks too early to be eligible for $400 back from work, so actually lost $500 in rebates and benefits because of the timing – that’s almost half the price of the camera)

5 months later, and Canon still hasn’t made good on the rebate. I’ve been in touch with their support folks, who passed me off to a 1-800 number and website for a separate rebate fulfillment firm “The Rebate Company“. Classy. So, I try calling the number, which only works during normal business hours. Except that’s when I work, too. So, should I be calling them from the company phone? The Rebate Company website is useless. I go through the motions, and they claim to have no record of my claim. My word against theirs. Black’s Photography can’t help me because it’s a Canon program. Canon can’t help me because it’s a Rebate Company program. The Rebate Company is just not helping.

Canon, I love the camera. I’ve taken almost 5000 shots (about 1000 per month). I’ve been recommending Canon cameras to everyone who asks. I’m planning more purchases (lenses, flashes, etc…). But I’ll be staying far, far away from the rebate program. It’s false advertising when they don’t deliver.

I bought my Canon Digital Rebel XT back in June, with the timing of the purchase a direct result of Canon Canada‘s $100 rebate offer. I bought the camera at that time specifically because of the additional rebate. Otherwise, I would have likely held off a month or two, probably waiting for the release of the XTi. (an aside on the timing – I actually jumped the gun, buying the camera 2 weeks too early to be eligible for $400 back from work, so actually lost $500 in rebates and benefits because of the timing – that’s almost half the price of the camera)

5 months later, and Canon still hasn’t made good on the rebate. I’ve been in touch with their support folks, who passed me off to a 1-800 number and website for a separate rebate fulfillment firm “The Rebate Company“. Classy. So, I try calling the number, which only works during normal business hours. Except that’s when I work, too. So, should I be calling them from the company phone? The Rebate Company website is useless. I go through the motions, and they claim to have no record of my claim. My word against theirs. Black’s Photography can’t help me because it’s a Canon program. Canon can’t help me because it’s a Rebate Company program. The Rebate Company is just not helping.

Canon, I love the camera. I’ve taken almost 5000 shots (about 1000 per month). I’ve been recommending Canon cameras to everyone who asks. I’m planning more purchases (lenses, flashes, etc…). But I’ll be staying far, far away from the rebate program. It’s false advertising when they don’t deliver.

Well, THAT didn’t last long…

We launched the new website the other day, after many weeks/months of planning and implementing. It’s only about half-way to what the Big Vision is for where we wanted to go, but it’s still much better than what we had. I’ve received a lot of feedback (blog comments, IMs, emails, Ouija messages), and every single comment has been extremely positive. It’s a well designed, (relatively) well structured site that is an order of magnitude more usable than what we had before.

But we’re going to have to step back, due to complaints From Above. Usability and design aside, it’s caused a lot of gnashing of teeth and wringing of hands, because we weren’t 100% faithful to the official style guide. Optics trumps usability and innovation.

I’m not sure if I’m going to get spanked for saying anything public about this. It’s just so frustrating, having been a part of a long, exhausting redesign and reimplementation process, only to have users and observers love it (yay! that was the goal) and The Man (ironic, in this case) telling us to knock it off, or else.

In the short term (i.e., for the weekend) we’ve just tweaked the front page. But it looks like we’re going to have to shelve the design, and migrate to the somewhat more limiting official template.

ps. to the spamass that’s been hammering my site all day long, PFO, you pathetic leech. this is not the day for that crap.

We launched the new website the other day, after many weeks/months of planning and implementing. It’s only about half-way to what the Big Vision is for where we wanted to go, but it’s still much better than what we had. I’ve received a lot of feedback (blog comments, IMs, emails, Ouija messages), and every single comment has been extremely positive. It’s a well designed, (relatively) well structured site that is an order of magnitude more usable than what we had before.

But we’re going to have to step back, due to complaints From Above. Usability and design aside, it’s caused a lot of gnashing of teeth and wringing of hands, because we weren’t 100% faithful to the official style guide. Optics trumps usability and innovation.

I’m not sure if I’m going to get spanked for saying anything public about this. It’s just so frustrating, having been a part of a long, exhausting redesign and reimplementation process, only to have users and observers love it (yay! that was the goal) and The Man (ironic, in this case) telling us to knock it off, or else.

In the short term (i.e., for the weekend) we’ve just tweaked the front page. But it looks like we’re going to have to shelve the design, and migrate to the somewhat more limiting official template.

ps. to the spamass that’s been hammering my site all day long, PFO, you pathetic leech. this is not the day for that crap.