Curiouser and Curiouser!

Curiouser and Curiouser! on rant http://matt.blogs.it/ RSS feed for topic rant Copyright 2006 Matt Mower Squib/0.1 self@mattmower.com self@mattmower.com en-gb Disgusted with Symantec Tue, 06 Aug 2002 10:53:10 +0100 [Editors note: I have now edited this post for language and content] I think this is my first blogrant but I am disgusted by Symantec's idea of customer service. Like so many companies these days they hide any mention of a telephone number on their website.  I have one of their products though so I can find the customer service number in the manual.  I don't want customer service, I want pre-sales, but that's the only number available.  Why don't I use their web forms?  I need to wrap this up today. So I call the number and then hold, and hold, and hold for 27 minutes until I can't listen to the message telling me about how great their web site is.  I was going to hold on just so I could vent the considerable bile I had accumulated at a human being, however in a lucid moment I realised that wasn't going to give me satisfaction.  They don't pay these people enough to care. And that's just it, I guess what Symantec are saying is "We have a shiny but useless web self service system like every other anonymous corporation.  If that's not good enough then you can go screw yourself!" My last company was in the CRM market.   Unless their selling a Mercedes or 30" Sony WEGA the only message you hear from customers now is "do it cheaper, screw the customer."  I guess that's why my company was failling, we were trying to improve live interaction.  It's not a space that vendors care about. I hate this new world of anonymous companies.  The web site should be their, it should be informative.  But if all you can offer me is another empty self service channel I shall take my business to a smaller vendor, that still cares about it's customers and whether they are happy.   http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00000253.html Something else to get angry about Mon, 02 Sep 2002 15:20:16 +0100 <A href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/08/30/national/main520314.shtml">CBS News</A>: "Support for the First Amendment has eroded significantly since Sept 11 and nearly half of Americans now think the constitutional amendment on free speech goes too far in the rights it guarantees, according to a new poll." [<A href="http://www.scripting.com/">Scripting News</A>] <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> » There is only one word that seems out of place in that quote:  think about it.</BLOCKQUOTE> http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00000481.html Goddamn dialogs Wed, 25 Sep 2002 15:47:03 +0100 What is it with Microsoft?  Do they have some special internal version where everything always work? Every time you get an error in any application is pops up in a dialog box.  What do you do with it?  Well you copy it from the dialog and then paste it into an email, or support form or some such don't you?  Don't you?  That would be the easy thing to do wouldn't it. So why on earth don't standard dialogs always allow copy of all visible text!!! http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00000599.html What a crock of shit Thu, 26 Sep 2002 14:57:23 +0100 So, ever since I installed Service Pack 1 for Windows XP <UL> <LI>Outlook 2002 runs painfully slowly.  Where it used to be fine, now it takes 4-5 seconds after I click a message before it appears in the preview pane.  Clicking multiple messages to delete spam also takes 2-3 seconds each. <LI>My start bar menus now flicker.  Even when the mouse is stationary I can see it flickering like it's constantly redrawing the menu. <LI>Same thing for all my context menus.. Bah! <LI>My QuickCam software crashes and I can't undock any more because "Your camera cannot be stopped.  Please try later"  Yeah, right.</LI></UL> So the net result of my upgrade? <UL> <LI>I have a new, more invasive license <LI>I have a machine that is slower and less reliable</LI></UL> Well thanks for fucking nothing you M$crosoft shitheads. I declare XP1 to be spam! http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00000610.html Hasty hasty Thu, 26 Sep 2002 20:38:34 +0100 Addendum to my previous rant about XP & SP1.  I was hasty and I hereby apologize to all the Microsoft shitheads I may have offended with that piece. It looks like the flickering menu's and outlook performance issues were related to a piece of software I started testing about the same time as I went to SP1.  We had a .DLL issue that caused a bit of a hiccup. So the net result of SP1 is, instead, only a more invasive licence and not being able to undock my laptop anymore. So, well done Microsoft.  Good job! http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00000614.html So angry Tue, 08 Oct 2002 12:25:35 +0100 <A href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/middle_east/2309027.stm">Sharon hails 'successful' Gaza raid</A>. Israel's prime minister defends an army operation which killed 14 Palestinians¸ shrugging off international condemnation. [<A href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/default.stm">BBC News | WORLD</A>] <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> » Okay, I don't understand all the issues. I can't claim to have fully appreciated all the claims, counter-claims, greviances and disputes. But just get the fuck outta their country! PAX [Addendum to the above rant: I see a Jewish settler has been killed in an apparent reprisal.  I really should stop reading about the Middle East, it makes my head spin.  I should probably stop commenting on it too.]</BLOCKQUOTE> http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00000672.html Buddy can you spare a cruise missile? Tue, 04 Mar 2003 08:17:35 +0000 <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <A href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/uk_politics/2816923.stm">Brown 'to pledge' more war cash</A>. Chancellor Gordon Brown is expected to say on Tuesday that he is prepared to set aside even more money for a possible war in Iraq. [<A href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/rss/091/newsonline/uk/index.xml">BBC News | UK | UK Edition</A>]</BLOCKQUOTE> I'm glad to know that, in the midst of a growing depression, our government has made provision for all the arms dealers and arms manufacturers to weather the storm. http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00001251.html