My friend Tom Chappell is a fan of psychological tests. Especially if they have anything to do with face blindness.

Well, my turn! I, like most of my co-workers in the computers field, can have moments of awkwardness that a “well-adjusted” person would allegedly never experience. Today, for instance, Tom and I were both anguished by the fact that we couldn’t tell whether a woman we saw at a restaurant was Georgia, who we happen to have known for years!

Ironically, I seem to be doing better at reading people than actually identifying them.

Let’s play: the BBC web site offers an online test that will help you get a better idea of how perceptive you *really* are.
It is at www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/mind/surveys/smiles/

Feel free to post or email me your score!

Thirteen years ago, LSI Logic filed for – and it was granted! – a patent on linked lists. I found out about this on Digg.
I wanted to be sure, so I read and re-read the text of their submission, and no matter how you slice it, that’s multiply-linked lists and nothing else.

This patent, unlike another linked-list-related patent, does not add anything to the concept.

OK, so what’s the big deal? Oh, nothing, apparently the patent system has been broken for quite some time now. But that’s not even what I wanted to talk about here. A real silly patent? Mac Donald’s trying to get the sandwich patented! Take a look: http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=26183&in_page_id=34

This morning, like thousands of other hopefuls, I was ready to play the odds and see if I was able to type fast enough to snatch a $100 Xbox 360 deal.
I was ready. I had my PC on the Amazon page, I had posted in the “clock calibration” thread and read the various advice posted by Amazon employees.

Turns out, I wasn’t able to score the damn thing. But not for the reasons expected. In fact, Amazon simply went down. For more than 10 minutes, all of Amazon was timing out; Their servers were just being overwhelmed. I used a dozen different proxy servers to confirm that it wasn’t just a peering issue.

Of course, when Amazon finally came back to, the deal was sold out.
At first, I thought that it was unforeseen circumstances on Amazon’s end. But browsing the customer discussion threads I quickly realized that it wasn’t that. Actually, Amazon is a monopoly. And as such, they have stopped showing respect for their customers.
What happened this morning was more like the local [insert wealthy character here] throwing gold coins at the beggars outside Sunday morning’s church and watching the stampede with a satisfied smirk on his face.

It’s happened before: (Quoting “Pirate Parrot”)

Trust me if you followed the PS3 launch and what they did to us over there you would see they are a P.O.S I even emailed Jeff Bezos and got a canned response they dont care anything about their customers… They just disappeared our orders without telling us after putting a hold on our funds… Jerks…

And what to make of this? (Quoting I. Rankins)

This was a complete fraud. Some people got through to the server at 10:59am Pacific and it already said sold out before it even was suppose to be offered!

But, in the end, Brandon C. Stordeur summed up the issue:

Depending on where you live, your ISP and traffic determined who won today, which is not random nor fair.

Of course, some people also posted positive comments, putting things in perspective. After all there are children out there dying of hunger, etc.
No argument here. But that’s not the issue I am trying to address here. I am taking exception with a monopoly showing little respect for their customers, and if nobody gives them flack for it, there will not be any motivation for them to change their ways.

Amazon lost customers today, I am not sure that this promo worked out for them in the end.

Last week-end, we’ve finally bought a wine cooler. Fry’s was running a promo for a cooler for $149 after -instant- rebate.
It’s not a top-of-the-line highly technological refrigerator but it can hold 40 bottles and does the trick pretty well. It does not come with a vibration suppression option but we installed it in a carpeted area. And as far as separate climate controlled areas, I have no problem storing whites and reds at the same temperature: 50 degrees (F), which is where their ideal temperature scales overlap.

Tip for a new cooler:

1- Clean up the interior with a wet piece of cloth; clean the grills with liquid soap.

2- That’s all you need: rinse and dry thoroughly…

3- Beauty!

We have the unfortunate luck of being an Adelphia customer whose cable account will eventually be transitioned to Time Warner.
At least we are only using it for Internet!

Today, the LA Times is running a piece on how poorly customers’ transition is being handled: loss of channels, dead internet connection, hateful customer service…

What really takes the cake is yet another dangerous use of bad analogies:
“I would urge customers to consider this like remodeling the kitchen”, (Time Warner spokeswoman) Rockenwagner said.

Of course, a more accurate analogy would be:
“Consider this like sitting quietly in your home, when suddenly a group of contractors comes into your house and, without a word, starts tearing your kitchen down. You’ve never talked to these people, your kitchen was perfectly nice and did not need any remodeling. But it’s ok, quit complaining. You’re getting a new kitchen! It may even be as good as the old one…”

My friend Tom Chappell and I had a short yet interesting conversation on the topic of imitation cheese food.
Tom’s point being that this is a baffling notion. Cheese food is not cheese, at least not to someone who knows about cheese, therefore what constitutes the imitation of an imitation?

I took a look here but unfortunately ended up being even more confused.

My current analysis is that this product’s level of quality must be on par with French singers doing covers of bad American songs.

As you can see, the gear finally fell on top of the poor rubber duck.
Do you notice anything else that is different?

I was getting tired of this blog’s old look, so I’m trying this new one. I know, I know: the gear looks really crappy. I need to spend some time fixing it.

Ooooh.

Well, this is getting better and better.

It now seems that, with their usual level of concern with security, Diebold saved a few pennies by using standard one-key-fits-hundreds-of-minibars-and-file-cabinets keys. Take a look.

According to AP, the Commerce Department has lost 1,137 laptops since 2001, more than 600 of these being “misplaced” by the Census Bureau alone.

I got a letter a month ago from my Worker’s Comp company warning me that one laptop had been stolen and to contact the credit bureaus right away to get a “lock” placed on all future transactions.

What are we supposed to do when we learn that the Census Bureau lost our information, only x 600? Panic?