Category: product complaints

if Gmail had been designed by Microsoft

On By Rick McIn Google, product complaints, product endorsementsLeave a comment

A humorous post laying out some of the reasons I am switching from Microsoft Hotmal to Google Gmail:

Today I want to ponder the question: what if Microsoft, not Google, had created Gmail? What would be the differences in that web mail client for users today? What if we apply some of the same design rules that brought us Hotmail, for instance?

What If Gmail Had Been Designed by Microsoft?

5.png

The new Hotmail Live (or whatever it is called) is crappy.

But, to be fair, Gmail is not all that much better. No one has yet designed a web mail interface I like. Gmail is best of the worst.

Gmail has the best SPAM filter. That’s the main reason I will be switching.

ripped off on high-speed internet?

On By Rick McIn internet, product complaints, TVLeave a comment

CBC TV Marketplace did a brilliant investigation into how little of the promised “unlimited way fast” internet speed you actually get.

They compared the 4 major providers in Toronto. Certainly, I thought, hated TELUS would be worst. …

Actually, Bell was by far worst.

Are you getting the high-speed internet you’re paying for?

When the telephone and cable companies are trying to sell you internet access, speed is everything. Some promise speeds of “up to 8Mbps.” Some go as high as “up to 25Mbps.” But how well do they explain what those numbers mean?

Pay attention to two small but important words: “up to.” Sometimes they can be a shorthand way of saying “up to a theoretical maximum speed you may not actually experience, because your wires are old, or you have a lot of neighbours sharing the connection, or because we’re still upgrading our equipment in your area.”

You can see the TV show on-line: CBC.ca – Marketplace

Safari v Opera v Camino v Flock v Firefox 3

On By Rick McIn Apple, product complaints, product endorsementsLeave a comment

I know enough about the internet to use any browser. If I have a problem, I open the page in another. Normally I have two browsers open at any given time.

But what’s the BEST browser?

I would love to say that Safari (Apple) and Internet Explorer 7 (Microsoft) should be avoided. That they both come undermined with corporate agenda.

Internet Explorer 7 does suck worst of all browsers, in my opinion. Happily they do not make a Mac version.

I try to avoid Safari too. Yet it’s quite good. I don’t understand why Apple has not integrated all their other proprietary software (more like Flock). If they did, I’d probably use it.

I should recommend those browsers built and improved by volunteers. Non-profit organizations including Firefox and Camino. Their only motivation is to build a better browser.

In fact, Camino has been my primary browser. Then Firefox. Next Safari and Opera.

I did some testing on a new MacBook Pro:

Safari vs Firefox 3 vs Opera vs Camino vs Flock

I simultaneously streamed high resolution video on each. One hogged CPU badly. Firefox 3.0b1 (beta). Firefox has been criticized for memory leak for a while.

Firefox is GONE. At least until they fix that problem.

Now … there is one feature critical to me that has not caught on with the general public. FULL PAGE ZOOM of text, images and video simultaneously. I’m ticked off at the number of websites that post tiny font and tiny thumbnail images.

Only 3 of these browsers ZOOM properly: IE7, Opera and Firefox 3.

operalogo.gifSince IE7 and Firefox are disqualified, I will be switching to Opera as my primary browser.

That’s just me, on a new Mac. Your experience may be quite different.

I may try Flock as my second browser. Perhaps the one I use to blog. Or Camino, which has been best for me over the past year.

Safari vs Firefox 3 vs Opera vs Camino vs Flock

Comparison of web browsers – Wikipedia

Canon is dead to me

On By Rick McIn dead to me, product complaintsLeave a comment

I got irked 25yrs ago after problems with a JVC warranty. Customer service back then was almost always terrible.

I never bought anything from JVC again. And never will.

Now Canon is dead to me too.

Despite consistently good reviews on-line, my Canon Elura series camcorder was a dud. Most of the trouble involved the mechanism ejecting tapes.

I had some warranty problems with it too.

My advice is to buy Sony. Or Panasonic.

Shun Canon if you can.

book – All the Pretty Horses

On By Rick McIn books, product complaints, travel, travel MexicoLeave a comment

For some reason I thought I’d like All the Pretty Horses, the award winning novel by Cormac Mccarthy.

That would be wrong.

… The plot is simple enough. John Grady Cole, a 16-year-old dispossessed Texan, crosses the Rio Grande into Mexico in 1949, accompanied by his pal Lacey Rawlins. The two precocious horsemen pick up a sidekick–a laughable but deadly marksman named Jimmy Blevins–encounter various adventures on their way south and finally arrive at a paradisiacal hacienda where Cole falls into an ill-fated romance. …

The writing is excellent. But the plot plods and has nothing more to redeem it than tired “folk wisdom of uneducated cowboys” cuteness. The last time that engaged me, Clint Eastwood was a young man.

Thumbs down.

All the Pretty Horses

All the Pretty Horses

I bought it as an audio book. But since no one has (yet) come up with a convincing enough neologism to claim the prize, I cannot VERBalize what I did with Pretty Horses.

… “ristened” … GAK.

currency exchange rates – TD bank

On By Rick McIn economics, product complaints4 Comments

Yesterday I exchanged US dollars for Canadian at my bank …
US$800 = CAD$756.08

The rate was .9451 at TD Canada Trust.

When I check on the web …

XE.com gives me 773.023 CAD

oanda.com gives me 774.768

Yahoo Finance gives me 773.2

What’s with that TD? Why the difference?

I guess I will shop around for exchange rates next time.

==== reply from my query to TD:

Hello Rick McCharles,

…

Please be advised there is a spread on all exchange rates. As such, the exchange rate to purchase or withdraw US Dollars (or purchase an item in US Dollars) would always be different from the exchange rate used at the exact same time to sell US Dollars (or make a payment). You can see this spread in the listing of exchange rates at the link below. There is a difference between the rates used for the same currency depending on whether the individual is buying or selling the currency.

http://www.tdcommercialbanking.com/tradefinance/rates.jsp

As well, exchange rates are extremely volatile. The rate of the American dollar will vary several times throughout a day. As such, it is undoubted that the exchange rate that you received at the time of the exchange would be widely different from the exchange rates at another time of the day. …

Rebecca Wilson
Internet Correspondence Representative

heard of Windows Live Spaces?

On By Rick McIn internet, product complaintsLeave a comment

One of the Microsoft Team in charge called it .. the World’s Most Popular Social Networking Site.

Funny, I did not know Windows Live Spaces existed.

Here’s the post:

… You might quibble with the title of this blog post but it is hard to argue that Blogger is a social networking site by any definition of the term. When it comes to reach, no social networking site impacts as many users as Windows Live Spaces.

Of course, unique users aren’t the only metric Web sites are judged against and I’m sure there are many out there who will be quick to point out other charts that show our user engagement is lower than average which is a fair point. …

Dare Obasanjo aka Carnage4Life – Windows Live Spaces: World’s Most Popular Social Networking Site

It got me to go check out Windows Live Spaces (another terrible name, by the way, Microsoft). Turned out I have an account. Here’s my WLS page:

windows-live.jpg

I even have 24 “friend invites”, all SPAM.

So, because I have a Microsoft Hotmail account, I have a WLS page. And this guy — Dare Obasanjo (hmm, He is the son of the former President of Nigeria) — counts me a member though I’ve never used it.

You can call me “low engagement member”, alright.

Windows Live Spaces looks terrible, by the way, compared with Facebook.

book – A Thousand Splendid Suns

On By Rick McIn books, product complaints, product endorsementsLeave a comment

I had mixed feelings while reading the second novel by Khaled Hosseini of Kite Runner fame and infamy.

Certainly it’s not as strong as Kite Runner.

I bought the audio book anyway because the subject is so important to me: the plight of Islamic women.

Too bad Hosseini is so predictably sentimental. From the New York Times, MICHIKO KAKUTANI:

And like its predecessor, it features some embarrassingly hokey scenes that feel as if they were lifted from a B movie, and some genuinely heart-wrenching scenes that help redeem the overall story.

It could be a fantastic book, but isn’t.

Yet, I will likely still read Hosseini’s next book. And watch the inevitably successful movies adapted from them.

I guess I’m hooked.

A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns

movie – Kite Runner – delayed

On By Rick McIn books, Islam, movies, product complaints, product endorsementsLeave a comment

I read the book. Here was my review then:

Kahled Hosseini – The Kite Runner. 2003. Books set in Afghanistan are hot in 2006. This critically acclaimed example is a great eye-opener for those who do not know that part of the world, like myself. It is intense. Painful to read. It reminded me of A Separate Peace, by Knowles. By the last page, however, I was disappointed. Far too cliché and predictable. It is lame in the way formulaic TV movies are lame.

Still, I am very keen to see this important movie.

Author Khaled Hosseini has come out in support of a decision to delay the film version of his novel The Kite Runner over fears for the stars’ safety.

Studio Paramount Vantage has put the film back by six weeks, after three young Afghan actors said they could be targeted over a homosexual rape scene.

The studio has also arranged for three families to go and live abroad.

Hosseini said he “applauded” the decision. “Afghanistan has become a pretty violent place,” he added.

The overall message of the film is tolerance, love, friendship and forgiveness …

“If the boys and their families think there is a reasonable risk of threat to them, then you have to take all of the steps that you can to make sure they are okay,” he told the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper.

“I applaud the studio for delaying the release of the film even though it goes against whatever commercial wisdom there is.”

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Kite Runner author supports delay

To see the movie trailer click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Amazon.com MP3 – not in Canada

On By Rick McIn music, product complaintsLeave a comment

Just went to download a song from the highly touted new DRM-free Amazon digital music store: Amazon.com MP3 Downloads

The Amazon software downloaded to my Mac. No problem.

But Amazon knew that my credit card was Canadian. And the service is not yet available in Canada.

Blast.

I had even given them an address in the USA. It did not work.

Same thing happened to Emru Townsend of PC Magazine:

(I was) piqued that this limitation wasn’t made clear before I started browsing — and Amazon isn’t the only online vendor guilty of this time-wasting oversight.

In Digital Music, Multinationals Are Often Provincial