Damage report

Things went wrong yesterday ater coming back from the CLUG meeting at the UCT.
First my one PC was dead. My second PC and my father's television were on, which meant there was a power failure, since both were supposed to be off.
The dead PC is still dead, it had lots of dust, the Power Supply might have blown again.

After that discovery the toilet sewage pipe was blocked again. It was blocked last week already. It turns out, that the place where the five toilet pipes come together has got a hole at the bottom, where toliet paper gets stuck. Fortunately only the toliet paper get stuck and not the stinky stuff.

After cleaning out that mess, I had a long fight with my modem from the dead PC. The modem used to have problems where the ine wasn't always picked up properly. A few years ago, its speaker died as well. In Linux the modem was easier to control, in Windows I just had a major fight with it last night. After finally managing to dial out, the hardware always dropped the line. This means I need to finally get a new modem.

B. K. E.

Finally things are beginning to happen

After a long time of waiting for various companies (six months), various companies are now finally starting to do what I asked them to do, hopefully these things will be completed before the deadline in August, especially since that deadline cannot be extended.

B. K. E.

Getting more stock for a business before a deadline

For my own home based business I am trying to get some extra sock in before a big event in August this year. Most suppliers either don't ship to most countries, or they are also waiting for stock, or both. Many do not even bother to reply to enquiries and their websites are very vague when it comes to where exactly they do ship to. Others do mention on their website that they ship to various countries, but after placing an order it turns out that they do no do that and they don't bother sending an email to mention that small detail.

Then there are those companies that use stalling techniques which go on indefinitely with promises that they are getting stock and other things.

How do these companies ever want to sell anything?
They can just as well close down if they do not want to sell what they are trying to sell as well as giving no or a terrible service.

To all those annoying companies out there: If you are not trying to sell anything via the internet, then get rid of your online shop on your website!

B. K. E.

The end of June bank account blues

It seems like there are still a lot of people who haven't verified their bank account details yet. End of June 2004 is the cut-off date and anyone not having verified their residential details will have his/her bank account frozen. The topic is already causing heat and bank queues. The banks make an effort to make the process smoother, they have to get the details since the government decided so due for the sake of reducing illegal activities. Next month a lot of people will probably cause some major heat when their accounts are frozen, so I do not want to be inside any bank within at least the first week after end of this month (June 2004).

B. K. E.

Bank Dilema Number Next

The previous bank issue has finally been sorted out, this was related to my small costume rental business which still will take a while to get properly going. Last Saturday I went to the next bank for confirming my residential details due to a new govermnment legislation where everybody needs to confirm their residential details or get their bank account locked.

The fact that this is a convenience to most people and that few actually know about this is yet another major annoyance. Those that do not confirm their details will get some bad shockwaves at the individual bank branches. A lot of hot air will be vented soon and people are annoyed about the whole verification process.

B. K. E.

Mad Duck Disease

Mad duck disease is least remembered by those who have forgotten it. As the name states, it includes duck. Not to be confused with the existing cow variant.

B. K. E.

Foreign contacts

Today I was in contact with friends of mine in Germany and Taiwan, while I am in South Africa. Somebody from Germany is coming here for a student exchange programme and he needed advice for cell phone usage here.
My friend in Taiwan wants to send me a music CD, it would be interesting to see just what that CD is. If the address of her is still the same, then I can send her a nice looking postcard but the postage costs are high.

B. K. E.

Advertising agencies

Costume renting issues: Today I was contacted by an advertising agency which was looking for a black Gorilla suit. I only have a black Gorilla mask available, but no costume. The closest costume I have available is a Chewbacca costume, of which the colour isn't black, and the mask does not look like a Gorilla.
These specialised queries are always a problem, since it is a matter of very close, but yet too far.
I still need to expand on the womens range of costumes, but there is the problem of what to get and what size should it be.

B. K. E.

Business stalling techniques

A business from which I ordered some products in January still hasn't sent me the products and they know it. Whenever I asked once a month, then they said that they are still waiting for a big shipment which is still being held up by customs.
I have sent a demand for an explanation and the mention about cancelling the order if I haven't gotten a decent answer by this Friday (11 June 2004). If still nothing happened by then, then I will make sure that various business rating websites get to hear about this. These stalling techniques cannot go on!

B. K. E.

Business contact details adjustments

Last week I found out yet again, that somebody tried to phone me on my home number, when my website clearly stated, that the number is for after office hours or they should leave a message. The other contact options are the feedback form, email and SMS.
Maybe the information is still not clear enough and website adjustments need to be done.

B. K. E.

USB Flash drive data corruption

As part of an ongoign experiment with a 64MB USB Flash drive, I am still testing wether data corruption occurs when the drive gets filled using the FAT32 file system. On the original FAT file system, there seemd to have been some problems. Maybe the drive was just lying in the shelf for a long time.

B. K. E.

PC and Mac gaming issues

Today (Friday) I saw how Diablo 2 looks like on the Mac. Since I do not know how the standard Diablo 2 without the Lord of Destruction (LOD) expansion pack looks like, it seemed a bit very different. The expansion pack also adds a new resolution to the game plus two new characters and new items. Monday should prove very interesting indeed.

B. K. E.

Costume renting

Today I told a friend of mine in Johannesburg about my small home based costume renting business. He was laughing about the story where somebody was looking for a chicken suit so that his girlfriend wouldn't recognise him. It is very amazing to hear what kind of requests are sometimes coming. Unfortunately I do not have anything chicken related in my costume or mask collection, and I have only seen expensive ones for sale. Very soon I will have to update that website again. I have been delaying that image gallery, due to lack of decent images, and no inspiration on a nice layout.

B. K. E.

Gamer's Nightmare

Dear Stupid Game Developer...

Could you please be so kind and stop putting a CD check into every game during startup, since I am not prepared to risk damaging my valueable original game CD in my CDROM drive. A full installation is supposed to stop having to read from the CD. It is so much much to watch how a game chokes and croakes just because I have to wait for the CDROM drive to spin up to speed just to read something tiny and then it spins down again. This is utter stupidity. SO. . . For every game I buy, I need to check the version number, download various patches, since the out of the box game doesn't actualyl work due to bugs, then I have to go and search all over to find a NOCD (no CD!!!) fix of the patched executable. And while you are at it, please get rid of the ten thousand and one startup animations and logos, since they really piss me off! A game plastered with those does not deserve to be played, since those thigns already heighten the annoyance factor and the loading time before the main menu was even sighted. Those of-so-nice video clips which try to hide how terrible the gameplay really is do not always do any good. If a game is fun, then I will play it, otherwise it can remain on the shelf.
Since we are on the shelf topic... those prices are too high, which are a major incentive not to buy a game. Since the high prices reduce sales and increase piracy, of course then the prices are pushed up again to counter piracy. Rushed games also do no good, jsut like havign to register a game is bad as well, since not everybody does have the required expertise to do that, and not evrybody does have an internet connection which is in any case needed to get patches before the game is even started since it won't work otherwise.

Signed
B. K. E. (the horrible)

Banking blues

Today I tried to transfer a bit of money overseas to a film studio from which I had ordered something. To bypass long queues at the bank and to get easieer parking, I went during my lunch break, knowing that I would have to spend up to ten minutes to find parking back at the office.
Due to the new laws where everybody has to confirm their contact details in writing before end of June, because of money laundering and terorrism and other things, etc, etc, I did that as well.
After waiting in the queue, I waited quite a while since the person helping me with the transfer had to ask questions everywhere. After half an hour I finally found out that I need to get more exact contact details.
All I was trying to do was to pay for a realistic looking human mask which I want to wear underneath a costume at an upcoming costume party so that my face is not recognisable since everbody always wants to take my obvious mask of to see who I am. Those people shoudl make an effort dressing up as well, then they wouldn't be jealous of other people and se how they look like.
Two years ago I went to that big event as Batman, last year I heard two afterwards about it, this year I didn't decide yet what to go as and it depends on the theme (once I know that). Mabe I will go again as Batman.

B. K. E.

The concept of "Nothing happening soon!" explained

The basis and simplicity of the above named concept relies on the presence of everyday factors:
delays
more delays
laziness
...and anything related to the above.

Too many things take a lot more time than needed, and because of that a lot of things planned do not actually happen. For example, somebody ows you money, which that person in turn still has to get from somebody else, or there are transportation problems which do tend to happen for various reasons. This same pattern occurs everywhere in life which is most noted as having to wait for what should in theory be quick.

Practical example: I was giving a friend of mine a lift the other day, and he had to get a phone number from his sister who phoned him about the number. Instead of giving him the number during that honecall, I ended up dropping him of there to get the number, and I had to wait for him to come back to the car. Instead of him just getting the number at the door, his sister still wanted to talk to him about many things, when she knew from the phone call that he doesn't have time for that kind of thing. Because of the talking that could have waited until a few days later, a lot of valuable time was wasted and both of us were tired due to work related stress and ong working hours.

Example number next: Clients that cannot make up their mind. Something is recommended to the clients, and the client want something else, then the work is done. Weeks later they say that they never wanted what was done, so in many occasions they end up back with what was proposed originally. The delays to get feedback from the client are yet another concern, since that can also easily take a week or more, even when they wanted the project done urgently and before a specific date.

B. K. E.