Checksum Arcanius

The one thing that really really bugs me about Google Calendar is the apostrophe s. Case in point, I inserted “Jeana’s Wedding,” and later searched for “Jeana,” which was not found. What in the world were they thinking? And is this the case with all Google search technology? Worst Feature Ever.

I’ve decided to try using Google Calendar anyway, and just try to use words that I might search for in the future, taking care not to use apostrophes. However, with everything else they have going on, how did they miss this?

Oh, and in case you didn’t know, Jeana is getting married.

I hate Gmail’s new hover box with a passion. I am one who likes to hover my mouse over the text I’m reading, such as the sender and subject of a message recently recieved. However, when I do this on gmail, a big, ugly box appears right over the test I’m trying to read, ruining the whole experience.

The addition of chat I could also care less about, but at least it can be minimized down to about a 100×30 pixel sub-window on the left side of my screen. The boxes, however, are nasty and don’t seem to go away.

What do the rest of you think?

UPDATE — RETRACTION
Adorama has agreed to refund the $15 for shipping, and pointed out to me that the auction does mention that the item pcitured may not be the same as the item shipped. As a result, I feel strongly that a retraction of my accusation and an apology is in order. While I looked again at the page for anything like this before writing, I managed to miss that clause. Adorama has truly impressed me with their willingness to refund the money — I had truly given up and was just going through the “due dilligence” motions before filing negative feedback. However, they responded productively and I have to give them a lot of credit for that.

I will keep the post below, just to remind me that I shouldn’t judge too quickly (wasn’t I supposed to learn that during the Super Bowl?)

I have had bad luck with my online purchases recently. A couple months ago, I made the mistake of purchasing some laptop power adapters from Priority Electronics. Last month, I made the mistake of purchasing a camera from Adorama over Ebay.

Now, the Adorama Camera Company (ebay id adorwin) has a hugely positive feedback score — over 5000 positive, with a low percentage of negative feedbacks. I thought I was safe. Unfortunately, I was wrong.

“Take a look, good condition and works fine. Please see photos and place a bid. Has eye control. Good luck, no reserve. ” the ad boldly stated. I had been flirting with the idea of purchasing the same camera without eye control from a local seller for aout $100. On Ebay, I was able to get it for $80, shipped. I thought I would be happy. The camera arrived, bare bones as expected, and I began using it the next day after picking up (expensive) batteries at Radio Shack.

In attempting to become familar with the camera, I noticed that some of the icons below the left dial were rubbed off. Since the camera came with no manual, I would have to surf the net to find out exactly what those icons were. I was, however, undeterred. After all, everything went fine… until that first evening, then I turned the camera on and it reported “no battery.”

Strange, I thought. On the other hand, ocasionally on my Rebel G, a low battery icon will show up when the camera is cold. However, the camera wasn’t cold, and this was showing No battery left. I cycled power a few times, and then the camera came back to life. That left me undaunted, but I soon ran into another problem: after taking a picture, the viewfinder remained blank. Upon further investiagtion, it became clear that the mirror was not returning after the picture. Cycling the camera’s power resolved this issue. However, at this point it was clear to me that I had a defective camera.

So I began a little more in-depth research. I double checked the ebay listing to make sure that I hadn’t missed anything. Sure enough, the ad said that the camera worked fine. And it included this photo:

I quickly compared that photo to my camera, and came to the unhappy realization that I had just become the victim a bait-and-switch routine. Here are some pictures I took of the camera sent to me before I sent it back:

If you look closely at the left dial, you will see that the icons that are missing in the pictures I took are very much present in Adorama’s photo. They had cheated me. The images below highlight the area in question:

Had I simply recieved a intermittently broken camera, I would hae been very understanding. Adorama has, after all (about three weeks later), returned my money, except for shipping costs. I understand that they can’t catch every intermittent problem, so I am willing to deal with that. However, the icon business convinced me that they had intentionally shipped me a camera other than the one advertised. So now the shipping costs kinda piss me off, a lot. I’m out $21 bucks — $15 to get it here, $6 to get it back — and Adorama gets that $15, and the camera, and a lot of my time and energy is wasted.

Thus this blog, and thus the fact that I am about to leave Adorama a hugely negative feedback. Likely, it will hurt me more than it hurts them — they have a +5000 rating and I have a +2 rating. However, I would be remiss in my Ebay duties were I to let this fraud go unchallenged. So I will take the hit and let the world know what Adorama can do to you.

Microsoft has just upped the ante again in what has, for me, become the most interesting battle between Google and Microsoft yet: displaying ariel photography. This time, Microsoft’s Windows Live Local provides “Birds Eye” views of (from what I have seen so far) much of King County, and perhaps other places as well. The Bird’s Eye views differ from regular ariel photography in that they are much higher resolution, and intentionally at an angle — so a North-facing view is significiantly different than a south-facing view. The images produced are truly incredible:

Red Square (Univeristy of Washington)

Where I will be in about 30 minutes (Chem Library, UW)

More later, class calls.

I decided I’d finally release Bernzilla Comments, the WordPress plug-in that I first mentioned a little while back. While writing up the page about it, I realized that it wasn’t very customizable in its present form, but I could very easily make it more so. So I spent about an hour removing dead code and rewriting the function so that it would be much easier to fit it to other blogs. I like the result.

Go check it out, and feel free to use it on your own site, or modify it to suit your purposes!

My apologies if this story comes out somewhat hashed up — it came out in pieces. If its really bad, I might fix it up later…

Ok, so my experience isn’t as horrible as Thomas Hawk’s recent story. I never had anyone threaten me, yell at me, swear at me, or try to sell me additional unwanted merchandise. However, my monthlong wait for two laptop power adapters that I ordered at Priority Electronics I think deserves it own posting.

On November 2nd, 2005, at about 1:50 am (if the clock on my camera is to be trusted, but that sounds right), the power adapter that came with my laptop, “Kleinoscope,” gave up the ghost…
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I guess two years is the lifespan of consumer electronics in my posession. Yesterday, during a tour of the UW‘s steam power plant (quite the contraption!), I pulled out my Canon Powershot S45, only to be dismayed by a cracked LCD screen. This means that the best part of digital photography — instant gratification — is now completely missing from the experience. Furthermore, without the LCD screen, the camera’s settings are unknowable and it becomes pretty much useless outside of the automatic setting. This means no more creative pictures like the one below, which has been one of my favorite uses of this camera. :-(
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