thisCassandra

Hip Replacement

My two-year-old (ancient) Thinkpad has never worked reliably. Since spring the keyboard had only worked intermittently (particularly the space-bar, of no great consequence, I know), and it started to switch over to wireless connections that I have set up for the hotels where I have stayed (I have never been able to find and delete these connections), and it randomly shifts one tab to the left or right when I am typing e-mails in Firefox. The machine has always randomly switched: to a mysterious keyboard where if I hit the comma key (with or without the shift key) I get a less-than-sign (I have never been able to figure out how to get the regular keyboard back, so I just give it a time out). Honestly, I have never liked my two-year-old Thinkpad much and, more than that, I distrust it. It has never worked reliably and has never exceeded expectation.

The two-year-old Thinkpad has spent the last four or so months just limping along, so it's time for it to go to the hospital for major surgery - effectively a quadruple bypass and a hip replacement. I don't want to live without a computer while it's gone, so this is a good time to buy another machine. I don't want to use Vista - I resent having to upgrade my already bloated software with even more bloated software, and then finding huge problems with the function of the new versions, or finding that file extensions have changed so files are not compatible with earlier versions - so I've decided to cross over and I have ordered a MacBook.

My new MacBook is part of a back to school promotion at the Bookstore of the university where I work: I get a mid-range machine for a greatly reduced price, and with it I get a free iPod touch and a free Canon colour printer/scanner/copier (rather I pay for them and the companies refund my purchase price - I already have the same printer, but I can sell it or give it away). Who, in the market for a new computer, could say no to such a deal?.

I haven't had regular access to a Mac since moving away from the Friendly Studio more than eight years ago. My ex was and remains a Mac user. I, on the other hand, have had to use PCs for work since December 93 (and still do), so switching back to Mac is a big deal for me. 

The start date of my first official job at my university was October 15, 1990, which was, coincidentally the date that the Mac Classic was released. I didn't start using Mac immediately, but after a few months I started using a Classic that didn't have an internal hard drive. I had a 40 MB external hard drive that I had to turn on before I booted up the machine or the machine wouldn't notice it and I'd have to start all over again. I wonder if the MacBook will have an internal hard drive.

Soon after release date, the Classic II replaced the Classic. It had an internal hard drive (40 MB) and was able to record sound shots. I found a mic and recorded myself saying "Hey, you!" (my signature greeting back then) and used it as the standard warning sound. The Classic II said "Hey, you!" to me every time I did something that it didn't like, which was often. Maybe the MacBook will be able to record sound too.

Both the Classic and the Classic II were monochrome machines, and they were great for word-processing and spreadsheets, simple office stuff, at a slow and steady pace. I am crossing my fingers that the MacBook will have lots of colours and will be able to do all kinds of stuff more quickly and more reliably than the two-year-old Thinkpad.

I liked the two Classics - I trusted them to work as they were expected to, and maybe they even surpassed my expectations. I hope that the MacBook will please me as much as the Classics did.

HOT DRM, BOOHOO

Rupert (the MP3 player, purchased in May 07) came with a promotion from boohoomusic.ca (corporate names have been changed) - 30 free songs if I joined up, free to keep regardless, and I joined. My 30 free songs consisted of pop stuff. It was easy.

I also purchased and downloaded a bunch of songs direct from artists' sites, Creative Commons stuff (no DRM), and uploaded a bunch of albums (5 or so) from my personal CD collection to Jackson Institute (the computer).

I was travelling (LA, San Diego, train home), ten days away from home. About halfway into the train ride home, most of the music wouldn't play. The message was that Boohoo wouldn't let me play the music unless I did the Jackson Institute - Rupert sync weekly. In effect Boohoo had taken some weird ownership of all the music, which I found quite annoying, so I quit Boohoo as soon as I arrived home.

Led by one of the hipper flatmates, I found eh-music, a site that sells obscure-ish music with no DRM, which I joined. I took out a monthly subscription, and I have been happily downloading obscure-ish, unprotected music from them ever since. I have also been happily uploading music from my personal CD collection, and had 20 or so CDs in the library. 

My eh-music refresh date is the 24th of each month. For my April download I was a bit late, waiting until about the 10th of May. After I downloaded my new songs to Jackson Institute, I hooked up Rupert II (the third of the MP3 players - it's a long story) which sent the message that it had 1.9 GB remaining, and then the sync started. Something glitched and when the image came back the message read that Rupert II had 4.6 GB remaining; somewhere along the way 2.7 GB of files, all music, had gone missing.

I checked on Rupert II, and the music that was not from eh-music, that is the Boohoo songs and the uploads from the personal CD collection (20 or so CDs), were gone. I checked Jackson Institute, and they were gone from there too. Somehow, everything that had DRM had disappeared without leaving any traces. It was as though they had never been there.

My first I thought was that I might have deleted the tracks, but when I thought it through I remembered that my memory, though growing weaker, has (historically) been very strong; I can remember conversations verbatim, I can remember what people wore and the circumstances surrounding situations, I can remember birthdates and phone numbers, I can remember a lot of stuff in fine detail. My memory is a bit like a two year old hard drive, normally reliable, but a bit flaky. That said, it's not nearly flaky enough that I could delete 2.7 GB of files, all music, and not recall having done so.

Coincidentally, the hard drive (on the two year old computer) has been misbehaving a bit lately, crashing for no reason (clicking on the inbox in gmail), but it is no Hal 9000 (I have been careful not to download any recordings of "Bicycle Built for Two) and it is not yet misbehaved enough that it could/would selectively delete 2.7 GB of files, all music. So what could have happened to that 2.7 GB of files, all music? 

I suspect boohoomusic.ca came after me on the one year anniversary date and deleted all the music files that had any DRM on them. I can't prove this, but what else might it be?

I am grateful for friends and Google is my friend

I am presently up in Whistler, the world renowned resort. I am not resorting, I am working here, doing surprise prevention for a course that we (at work) run every year. Being ever equal parts neurotic, intuitive and clear sighted makes me very good at surprise prevention. Being also ever well-behaved and good at dealing with surprises when they happen makes me a good on-site person.

Tuesday we were traveling: it snowed in Vancouver on Tuesday morning, a lot, six inches. In Vancouver the least bit of snow on the ground results in the city grinding to a halt. My great friend Rob H and I had scheduled to meet at the bus station at 7:30 a.m. to catch the 8 a.m. bus, so I called a taxi at 6:45 a.m. The bus depot is less than 5 taxi minutes away from thisCastle, so, even with the snow, 45 minutes should have been enough time, but apparently it wasn't. Even though I was first on the list in my section, I waited and waited and waited outside and no taxi appeared. I called the taxi company again, but the line was continually busy, busy, busy. I also called the other taxi companies, but their lines were continually busy, busy, busy too. Being ever pessimistic, I started to panic.

There shouldn't really have been a big time panic, because, being ever overly cautious, I had planned to take the bus before the bus before the bus that would get me there on time for the pre-con meeting, but I panicked anyway. The snow was still falling, and it didn't look to me like it was going to stop. Being ever melodramatic I didn't think that I would ever get to the bus depot, so being ever practical I decided to so something useful while I was waiting, and shoveled the walk. Six inches of wet snow is heavy, it was hard work.

Even though traffic was moving fairly normally on Hastings Street I had only seen two taxis drive by in the entire time that I'd been out there, which is not normal. I called the cab companies, but they were ever busy, so I started to approach people on the street, offering to give them twenty dollars to take me and my suitcase to the bus depot. The first person I asked was cleaning snow off his car with a piece of junkmail, and he mumbled, "I don't have any money." I tried to explain that I would give him money, but my Cantonese wasn't good enough, his English wasn't good enough, and he didn't (or wouldn't) understand.  He said he had to go to work in Richmond by 8:30 and he drove away without me. I understand that in our neighbourhood it might not be a good idea to involve yourself with strangers in distress, but really - he was on his way to work in RIchmond, and it wasn't out of his way to take me to the bus depot. Really.

The second person I asked was Vin, the owner of U2, the 9 - 5 grocery store across the street. In a neighbourhood full of grocery stores that are open 20 hours per day, I don't know how U2 survives. Vin is a small Vietnamese man who dotes on his family. I always enjoy watching him deal with his children, especially his son. Vin couldn't help me because he was on his way home to pick up his daughter and take her to school which was in the opposite direction from the bus depot.

After Vin refused my request, the panic started to set in seriously - it was 8:30 a.m., I had missed the first planned bus and was aiming for the 9:45 a.m. bus, but there was no sign of my taxi. I had been waiting more than an hour and a half, so I did what I never want to do: I called a friend who is between jobs and asked for help. She came to my rescue and drove me to the bus depot getting me there with twenty minutes to spare. I gave her a chocolate bar and $50 for helping me.

The bus ride wasn't exciting (this is a very good thing), and we made it up here with plenty of time to spare. I have stayed here, at the Chateau, several times (all for work), and each time I have been disappointed by the lack of cleanliness of the rooms. The surrounds are grand, but grungy.

Our meetings are in Frontenac A and B, two of the main conference rooms here. I sit outside of the rooms at a table, and I have to entertain myself. This is not so easy to do without a functional internet connection.

Since arriving, I've been having problems connecting my computer to the wireless hub here; the message from the computer was that the radio was set to off in the Bios setup and I didn't know what that meant. I tried and tried and tried again, but nothing was working for me. At the point when the computer started cycling through the several windows that I had open, flashing one second each, I gave up and started walking around a bit.

In Frontenac C, the third conference room, was a noisy party. Four hundred or so mostly younger-than-middle-aged, mostly Asian, mostly male people in winter resort gear. They are many more than our one hundred and twenty, and they are having way more fun than we are. They have at least seven security guards with them, five in uniform and at least two in plain clothes. I actually didn't know who or what they were, until I went over there to see why they were making so much noise.

When I saw their signage: Google Northwest Ski Party, I thought of the computer issues I was having. I approached and the two plain clothes security guys near the door questioned me. I explained my computer issue, and one of them said, I know how to do this, and came with me and showed me the switch to turn the wireless transponder back on. He didn't know what was with the cycling and flashing windows, but that was easy.

I asked my hero what he did with Google and he told me that he was the head of security in Mountain View California. Gee, at Google even the security people are handy with computers.

tC's Adventures With TV, Part 2

Why don't I pick up when the universe drops hints?

Some time after the great cable hook up, I went to Best Buy where I bought a small television for my room. It was one of those cheap TVs, and from time to time when the channel was changed (using the remote), the set would tune into the new channel, but also keep sending the signal from the previous channel, so you'd be watching and hearing your show with the show that you were watching behind, but still there. This only happened once in a while, but still, it shouldn't have been happening at all. So I took it back to get it fixed.

I explained the tuning problem to the clerk, and added that there was a small problem with the sound being slightly uneven sometimes, but clearly stating that the main problem was with the tuning. She took the cheap TV away, and found out that I was able to purchase a loaner unit, but I had to buy open-box. The set I chose was a Toshiba set, larger than mine.

When I got the open box set home, I noticed two things wrong: first I'd been charged the full price, and second there was no remote control. I called Best Buy the next day and spoke with the floor manager from the evening previous. He refunded the price difference, and found a remote control for me.

I went to pick it up on the way home from work, and when I got it home I found that it didn't work. I changed the batteries and tried again, but still nothing.

I tried the remote from the Toshiba TV from upstairs (the one that replaced the other cheap TV) and it worked somewhat; it was able to change channels but not to run the DVD player. I figured I could use it until I got the correct one from Best Buy.

I called again, and another Toshiba remote was found for me. I went to pick it up the next day, and it also didn't work. I even took it apart and tried to find some broken connection, but wasn't able to. I didn't want to explain again and ask for a third remote control, so I figured I would get a remote that worked to change channels on the TV upstairs, and use the remote from the TV upstairs on the TV downstairs. The next day I went to the Future Shop and bought a universal remote that was able to change channels on the TV upstairs.

Two weeks later I got a phone call from Best Buy repair depot asking me to explain the problems with the sound. I explained to them that the real problem was with the tuning, and the repair guy said that there was no notation of that problem on the repair ticket. I explained the tuning problem again, and the repair guy said that he'd look into it.

Two months later I hadn't heard from Best Buy so I called. I was told that my set had been there for quite some time, and the repair depot had not been able to find anything wrong with it, and that it was ready to be picked up.

So I packed up the loaner TV, including the remote, and took it back and picked up the cheap TV. At the store I noticed that the Toshiba TV model that I'd bought as a loaner was on sale for the same price as the open box unit that I'd bought as a loaner. I'd liked the set a lot, so I bought the new one and took it home.

When I got home I realized that I'd included the remote from the TV upstairs in the box with the loaner unit, and not the broken one. So the next day I had to go back to the store and explain the situation and beg them to let me exchange my remote in the open box unit (still on the shelf, fortunately) for the broken remote.

I had to wait for the clerk to ask a manager, but I was able to exchange the remotes.

All the remotes work, all the TVs work, everything works except for one thing...

tC's Adventures With TV, Part 1

Or why don't I just listen when the universe gives me hints?

For years I did not have a television. Or I had a television, but no cable. For years (1989 to 2004) I had an old tv without a remote that used to belong to Anna. I may have kept it without her permission (though I probably would have returned it if she'd asked - not that I'm trying to justify my actions, but there you go). The tv from Anna without cable was able to get two not very interesting channels, so I didn't watch it. Between January 2000 (when I moved away from Rob/Bob (my ex) and May 2004 (when I moved to thisCastle and left it with Miss Pat) I turned it on exactly twice: once on 11 Sept 2001 - I was on vacation from work, and I'd woken to the sounds of a female CBC announcer (Sheila Rogers, I think) saying "The World Trade Centre just fell down" and I wasn't able to figure out what she meant, so I turned on the tv and saw tape of the World Trade Center, airplanes, smoke, no more World Trade Center on apparent repeat - then again in 2002 to watch the Canadian Men's Hockey team win gold against the US Men's Hockey team. I didn't watch a lot of tv back then.

Soon after the first set of roomers (Gail and Sachie) moved in I bought a used television with a dvd player. Even though it was a cheap tv, the woman who had originally owned it had invested in an extended warranty for it. She bought it in January of 2005, I bought it from her in May 2005, but I still didn't get cable. We mostly  (Gail really) just used it as a DVD player.

Then we got high speed cable internet. Gail and Sachie moved on, and Stuart, Barbara and Erin moved in. In September I found out that I was eligible for the student special pricing, full cable with free installation bundled with high speed internet for pennies more than the internet alone. So I made the call:

1) Organize cable guy for Saturday morning;

2) Tell flatmates about Saturday morning.

Saturday

3) Cable guy arrives;

4) Cable guy refuses to test a cable line to see if it’s live, I insist, because I know what things are like in the house. He’s right, it’s live;

5) One flatmate is still sleeping and doesn’t want cable anyway;

6) Cable guy can’t figure out why the only live line upstairs is in the living room, even though the other rooms are wired;

7) Cable guy gets on the phone;

8) Cable guy and I find the junction box in a closet, and he hooks up all the lines in the second floor;

9) Sleeping flatmate refuses to let the cable guy into her room to find the cable and prepare the hookup;

10) Cable is hooked up;

11) Cable guy leaves after giving me the stuff to prepare the cable in the room of the flatmate who doesn’t want cable;

12) We move the cable modem and wireless router to the outlet downstairs;

13) We try to hook up a VCR and lose the audio on the tv;

14) We all lose internet;

15) Internet is fixed on some but not all computers so we move the modem and router back upstairs;

16) Internet now works on all computers except that of the flatmate who didn’t want cable;

17) We work on the TV for several hours and discover that the audio works if we’re running a DVD or a VCR, or if we use the VCR as the tuner and watch tv on line in, but if we use the tv as the tuner, no audio;

18) Phone call to Future Shop tech support who give a number for Citizen (the brand of the tv);

19) While on phone with Future Shop tech support, change name on extended warranty to mine, not Sally Meares (from whom the set was purchased);

20) Phone call to Citizen, phone tree informs me that the website is CMBA.com;

21) Check CMBA.com and discover that Citizen makes printers and there is no info re. TVs on the website;

22) Send e-mail to Citizen to ask if the company makes TVs;

Sunday

23) Keep on trying to figure out this problem, try every combination and permutation of buttons or remote and wiring, but no success;

24) Call Rob/Bob (my ex) who is an A/V god, and open with “I’m turning into my mother. I can’t get the TV and vcr working together.” He is kind enough to tell me that I’m not turning into my mother and that the TV might have been set on SAP somehow and to reset it, but has no suggestions as to how to do this;

25) I spend a lot of time trying to find a way to reset the SAP function;

Monday

26) E-mail from Citizen letting me know that the company that sells Citizen electronics is called Jutan International;

27) websearch - Jutan international does not yet have a website, but does have a home page, which has contact phone number;

Tuesday

28) Send e-mail to and leave a phone message with the service department of Jutan International;

29) Call Future Shop extended warranty tech support to talk to them again, let them know that Citizen and Jutan are different companies. They give me the address and phone number of the service company in this area;

30) Ask Future Shop extended warranty tech support if they actually do tech support. They tell me that their job consists of giving the phone numbers for the manufacturers and contacting the service depots to okay repair jobs;

31) Fuss further with the set-up, still doesn’t work;

32) Play phone tag with the service guy at Jutan International;

33) Call the service company - their phone is not in service, so I assume that the company is out of business;

34) Watch Amazing Race with one of the flatmates;

 

Wednesday

35) Call Future Shop extended warranty to let them know that the service company is out of business. They say that they will try and contact the company by e-mail then get back to me in a few hours (they do not);

36) Call Future Shop to see if they have a manual - No.;

37) Service guy sends an e-mail suggesting that we push the audio button (or the SAP button or the MTS button) repeatedly (which we have done);

38) We try to push the audio button repeatedly, but no change;

39) We e-mail back suggesting that we send a digital image of the remote so he can see which one we have;

40) Jutan service guy sends back an e-mail agreeing with my suggestion;

41) Watch Martha Stewart, The Apprentice with one of the flatmates;

42) Jutan service guy calls and shows me a heretofore unknown menu which is of no help to our situation;

43) Jutan service guy suggests that I run the auto channel memory function;

44) No difference;

45) Jutan service guy says “There’s something wrong with the set”, he knows that the service company in Richmond is gone and gives me the address for a service company in Surrey

46) I think about it and don’t want to drive all the way to Surrey (twice) so call the Future Shop;

47) The clerk I speak with tells me that if I bring the set to the store they will arrange to have it shipped to the service depot and delivered back to the store and that I can purchase another TV and return it when I get mine back, which is the first constructive suggestion anyone has made so far;

48) Bring TV to Future Shop for shipping to the repair depot;

49) The extended warranty is still in the name of Sally M. I ask the clerk to change it to my name, he refuses. I ask again, he still refuses and tells me that it will be done next time I come in. Unfortunately the phone number is Sally’s number and I force the clerk to put my phone number on the paperwork. He tells me that I will get a phone call when the set comes in;

50) I buy another (temporary) set and bring it home and hook it up;

51) Everything works. Watch a few minutes of Jerry Springer while preparing lunch;

52) When I get home from my day, one of the flatmates is watching Survivor;

53) Later we watch Donald Trump The Apprentice;

Sunday two weeks later

54) Haven’t heard from Future Shop so call and ask about my set. The clerk tells me that it is repaired (something has been soldered) and is on its way back to the shop. They will call when it arrives;

Tuesday nine days later

55) I have a vehicle and figure that the set must have arrived at the store, so call to see if I can pick it up. Unfortunately I don’t have the receipt with me. The clerk tells me that I need the receipt but if the repair had been set up in my name, I would just need identification. I debate with the clerk that I should be able to pick it up because it should have been in my name, as I had asked it to be, but she refuses. I talk to the manager and explain that my name is on the extended warranty in the national database and that I had asked for it to be put in my name on the store database, but the clerk had refused. He tells some other clerk to call the tech support and find out if the story is true;

56) I get a phone call from the Future Shop telling me that my name is now on the extended warranty in the store and that I can pick up the set with just identification. Unfortunately I don’t have time so leave it until later;

57) Unhook temporary set and take it to the Future Shop. I put it on the counter and before I allow the clerk to ring the return through I insist that we find a way to check and make sure the set is working. We find a cable hookup and we get a signal. I turn the volume up to 60 (as far as it goes) and say - It’s still broken, it should be louder than that. The male clerk who has helped up hook up the cable tells me that it’s like that because of the open space. I tell him it shouldn’t be like that. I find the channel that all the other sets around are on and put it on that channel. I put the sound up again and discover static. I say it isn’t supposed to sound like that. He agrees;

58) The original clerk (F) and I return to the Customer Service Desk to complete more paperwork - The Future Shop returning the set to me and me dropping off the set for repair. The extended warranty is still in the name of Sally M;

59) While I am at the counter I notice that there is an overwhelming smell of perfume whenever one of the clerks (F) walks past. I see her pick up my temporary set and put it on the floor;

60) I take the temporary set back to the car. It is now, having been handled by the heavily scented clerk, heavily scented, and I have one of the allergy free cars. Not so good;

One month later

61) I haven't heard from the Future Shop, so I call them and ask about my TV. The extended warranty is still in the name of Sally M, but the repair is in mine, so it isn't too hard to find the information: my TV is to be replaced because it would be too expensive to fix.

62) Because it is still under the manufacturer's warranty, Future Shop extended warranty has not yet taken effect and so all I get is a credit for the amount of the original sale plus part of the extended warranty cost;

63) I return the loaner tv and buy another, this time a name brand.

Recap: every time I called the Future Shop to talk about the tv they couldn't find any information about me, and insisted that the extended warranty was in the name of the previous owner. I had spoken to people at three levels of the Future Shop bureaucracy, each of whom had taken my information and claimed to have updated the Future Shop database to reflect the change in ownership on the cheap TV. It got increasingly frustrating dealing with this.

The other frustrating issue was having to deal with the clerks and repair people who didn't seem to believe that I could possibly know anything about electronics, and couldn't possibly know whether or not the sound was broken on my own TV.

Such Joy in Techville

The MP3 player that I bought this afternoon seemed to have been working okay earlier (though I was never able to get the user's manual to open up on the computer), but now I can't get the screen to light up and I can't get the thing to turn off. It goes back tomorrow.

I have to say that I haven't been happy with much of the electronic technology that I've bought in the last year or so (except for the camera - though even it has its problems). It seems that it all starts out working, but stops working soon after I get it. That said, I often believe that the equipment, when I get it, isn't working as it should be, and it turns out that I'm right. Am I being psychic or am I being hard on equipment? I don't know.

The True Cameron believed that I created an electrical field that shot out sparks and fried technology. Sometimes I think he was right.

The HTML course that I thought started today actually starts next week. Last time I tried to take this course, the organizers sent an e-mail saying it was on Wednesday evenings, but it was on Tuesdays. I missed the first of three four-hour classes, so there didn't seem much point in continuing. What is it with me and that course?

Last evening's cheesecake date with M was okay, a bit awkward at the onset, but I put some effort into keeping myself calm and centred, and pitching my voice to draw in the listener, and that seemed to work, at least I felt fine, which is 90% of the battle. On parting, there was a suggestion that we should do it again, and another hug, neither instigated by me.

While I waited for the bus, there was thunder, loud thunder and lots of it. So is it a romance? Maybe a little, but I don't know yet. Friendship is more likely than romance.

My mother's bypass surgery was today, and her cardiologist is pleased with the results; the improved circulation in her feet is already noticeable. This is a good thing, and I'm relieved.

Remotes and Nincom-puters

The half empty version: I went back to Best Buy where I was able to trade the non-working remote for another that should have worked, but didn't. I spent some quantity of quality time taking it apart to see if I could find any obvious breaks in the circuit that I could just solder, but didn't see any. I wasn't able to find the multi-meter so wasn't able to do much testing, just a few Rube Goldberg-esque rigged up temperature tests, and figured the thing was working, just not with that tv. Drat.

Maybe I need to buy another multi-meter.

The half full version: The remote from the tv in the living room works with this tv, so If I want to watch tv I can use the living room remote (though not too remotely) until I get a universal remote. It's much too painful to change channels manually, so maybe I won't watch tv at all.

Something I noticed today: one of the databases that I have to use is designed so that if you click on a button to get a piece of information, another screen or box will open with the required information, but it will be unreadable because the cursor icon will be covering the important information.

I'm thinking of adopting a bunny, maybe one of those that end up in the SPCA a month or so after Easter, kind of like the chocolate bunnies and eggs that go on sale the day after Easter. Leftover rabbit. Past the best before date. No longer so desirable as they were.

Frustrated and Grumpy: IT Can Stand For IdioT

Where I work a new system has been installed for requesting changes to the telephone system and for requesting the billing reports for telephones. I am the person who has done this stuff and will continue to do this stuff for our department.

In order to get access to the new system, I had to submit all the paperwork I'd already submitted to get my initial access, plus get the departmental director to okay everything again. This was done some months ago. Then last week, I had to attend a 2 and a half hour training course on using the system. I didn't pay attention to the boring guy who was training us; I doodled and left early.

A couple days ago I went to log in to the new system to download the billings. There was a quick reference sheet on logging in. I looked at it and noticed there was no mention of the URL. It would be a much quicker reference guide if the URL appeared somewhere on it.

I found my way to the website by fumbling around, and when I tried to log in I got an error message that I was not authorized to enter the site. I called in and asked for help, and the woman I spoke with asked me to submit all my paperwork yet again. She tried to make me get the director to send a signed memo again, but I argued her of it. She told me that I would be hooked up as soon as I submitted the paperwork. So I submitted the paperwork again.

The next time I checked, I still wasn't authorized, so I called back, and the person I'd spoken with earlier was out on her break, so I left a message with the fellow who had answered. She never called me back.

I tried again today, and I still wasn't able to log in, so I called again and the same fellow answered the phone as had taken the message last time I called. He told me it looked as though I should have been able to log in to the system, so I tried again, told him the error message I received (again), left another message and hung up. The fellow who had led the training session called back and it took a half an hour, but he got it figured out and I was able to log in.

After logging in, it didn't take me long (less than a minute) to figure out how the system worked. There isn't that much to it: you can request changes to the phone system and you can download billing reports. It isn't that difficult. They thought it would take 2 and a half hours for us to learn this well enough to go off and make a go of it on our own. Such faith they have in us.

The reports I need are our departmental phone bills. The phones are charged to many individuals in many different ways, and we have to distribute the billing information on individual pages to these individuals. Some individuals have several phones that are billed to them. These people usually want to know which charges accrue to which phones, and, you know what? Phones are most easily identifiable by their numbers.

Anyway, I downloaded the billing report and I looked at the list of charges, and I noticed that there is nowhere any mention of which phone number a charge belongs to; the only identifier is a subscriber name and a subscriber number (the latter is information that only IT services uses). I tried to correlate the list of phones and charges to the printed list of numbers and charges that appeared in the reports that IT services used to distribute, but the old list is sorted by subscriber last name and the new list is sorted by subscriber ID. No good. Then I noticed another problem: it's a thirty page report and the period of the report, for example, July 2006, appears only on the first page.

So I called IT services again, to ask if there's any way to have the numbers appear on the reports, and  I'm told that I have to go to the HTML version of the page, and find the pull down list of subscriber names, and click on the individual names and the details will come up, including the number being charged.

I tried this for the first subscriber name, and a new document with the number and billing details appeared. Unfortunately there is no way to save this document, so there is no way to e-mail this information to people. So I printed it out, and it turned out to be a multi-page document which showed the phone number, but didn't show the period of the report.

When I closed the details document, I noticed that the cursor in the pull down list had moved back to the top of the subscriber list, so I have to scroll through the subscriber list and find the next name on the list, then click on it to look at the billing details. Our list contains more than a hundred names, and it is a bit tedious to have to scroll down through the list to the subscriber whose billing details report I want to print. Could the cursor not just sit where it was before the click?

I'm feeling a bit annoyed with this whole fiasco. I want to know who designs this garbage. And why? And what price are they paid for having done this? And what price are they paying? Idiots.