Archive for the ‘IT’ Category
MacBook Pro Battery
January 23rd, 2009I bought a new MacBook Pro in May 2007. By August 2008, after I had taken it back to the Genius Bar at the Apple Store in Regent Street three times for various problems, I noticed the battery life was down to about an hour.
In September it developed an irritating little quirk. After about 10 minutes with the battery still in the 80th percentile it shut down without warning. This became more than irritating, but I didn’t really have the time or inclination to schlep down to Regent Street again so soon.
I put up with it, leaving it plugged in all the time, and when I needed a portable computer I used the old PowerBook G4, which was a very fine machine.
Finally I could stand it no longer, and on Monday I went online to the Apple store to see about a replacement battery.
First shock was the price — £97. That’s $135. That’s a lot of money. Then I noticed the reviews. 102 reviewers had given this battery one star out of five. There was a chorus of protest about the quality and durability of the MacBook Pro battery. Clearly Apple had bogged this one, and from the chatter on the site they had stuck their corporate fingers in their ears and were going La-La-La very loudly.
I rang the Apple Store. A very nice chap whose accent I could barely understand tried valiantly to help me for about 20 minutes, before giving up and suggesting I took it to the Apple Store in Regent Street.
So I booked an appointment with the Genius Bar for Thursday, the earliest available time from Monday. I told the Genius I had a battery problem, and that he may already have heard about it. He grimaced. I opened up the machine and it ran for just over a minute before shutting down without warning.
He carried out a few diagnostic tests, shrugged, and gave me a brand new replacement battery. No charge.
The computer was nine months past its warranty.
The battery (made by Sony) may be crap, but the Apple service was absolutely superb. No fuss, no quibble, just a new battery.
Nearly full marks to Apple. If only it hadn’t happened in the first place.
Data Protection
January 20th, 2009
by Gwyn Headley
Managing Director
The Data Protection Act is another great law like Helf ‘n’ Saiftay — you can use it to hide behind, use it offensively, obstructively or aggressively. Or all four. It is a Godsend to the sort of mindset that seems to run through half the population.
Don’t you know there’s a war on?
I was only doing my job.
I’m alright, Jack.
It’s more than my job’s worth
Computer says no.
Now they have the law on their side, and it’s infinitely adaptable. I’ve been calling some photographic companies recently on the phone — a shocking enough tactic nowadays, given the silence that lies heavy over most offices today — and the reactions have been varied, to say the least.
Look, I’m guilty of this myself. The smaller the company, the more guarded and suspicious the response. People ring up fotoLibra and say “Can I speak to the managing director or the owner of the company please” and frankly that’s as far as they get. We always apologise before we put the phone down, because that’s how we were brought up.
Some of them have done a little research. “Can I speak to Miz Gwine Heeedlee please?” Depending on how mindless the caller sounds, I either switch to basso profundo — s p e a k i n g ? — or warily ask who is calling. At the moment the calls are about water coolers or investment plans.
But the boot is on the other foot when it’s me making the calls. I’ve got something they should be interested in. The default state is that they’re not, of course, and it’s a tough barrier to break down. The big problem is getting through to the right people.
First there’s the voicemail barrier. Speaking to someone is never one of the options. As soon as I hear voicemail kicking in, I hit Nought, which usually gets me the operator. Here comes the operator barrier. If you have a name, there’s firstly the tone of disbelief, as if you’ve asked to speak to Pol Pot or Robert Mugabe, then the suspicion that he left the company late last century.
Then the Data Protection Act kicks in. “I’m sorry, we’re not allowed to give out names.” What am I going to do with them? Make voodoo dolls?
If you’re lucky, you might be allowed to get through to a department in the company.
The person who picks up the phone at this stage is one of two people. Either it’s the trainee managing director, on her way up through the glass ceiling, or the deputy assistant’s secretary’s temp’s daughter, who happens to be eating her McDonald’s by the phone.
The TMD is a whirlwind of efficiency, all instant comprehension, ‘right’ being the most crucial word in her vocabulary, barking out rapid fire instructions and leaving you bathing in a warm glow of efficiency. Nothing at all will happen.
The temp’s daughter will not know what to do. You run through your pathetic spiel, trying to rid yourself of the mental image of a golden retriever listening to Wittgenstein. At the end, there’s a silence. “Err, yurrr. Can you send us an email?” Nothing at all will happen.
I do what’s wanted anyway. Then I follow up. Sometimes I strike gold. The largest company I spoke to listened to what I had to say, said “That sounds great, but you need to speak to Jerome. Here’s his mobile number.”
I’m too awed to call.
Microsoft — doncha jus’ love them?
December 23rd, 2008I needed to delete a Section Break in MS Word. It wouldn’t do it in any intuitive manner, so I went to Microsoft Help.
And this is what it told me:
To delete a section break
If your keyboard does not have a DELETE key, hold down SHIFT and press the right arrow key, and then press DELETE.
Hey, thanks!
Cheerio Neil!
September 23rd, 2008
by Gwyn Headley
Managing Director
Next to me, Yvonne, Llinos and of course Jacqui, Neil has been our longest serving staffer. So it was sad to see him stride off to exciting new challenges last Friday. He’s been with us for nearly three years, joining us part time while he was still at Uni, then coming on board as soon as he graduated.
We’ve been lucky to have him. He’s highly intelligent and competent, he swims in the Ocean of Common Sense every day, and he was damn good at his job. We didn’t want to lose him, but you can’t argue with a 300% salary hike.
Mind you, everyone in his new Soho-based office is allegedly bald; whether by choice or design we can’t say. It’s probably stress. We find the office cat does much to relieve the load.
Bodoni using Neil’s desk as a motorway
Hang about — he told me he was a dog lover. Maybe that’s why he left?
Anyway Damien, our new Technical Development Manager, is settling in well. Thanks to him, fotoLibra members and buyers can now riffle through collections and lightboxes of image previews with speed and ease.
And the cat loves him.
Welcome to Damien
August 21st, 2008
by Gwyn Headley
Managing Director
We’ve been looking for good staff (we’re ALWAYS looking for good staff) and when we advertised for a LAMP developer recently (see earlier blog posting) we were inundated with calls from agents, despite the ads clearly stating NO AGENTS.
So I was quite pleased when one called this morning. I told him “We’ve already employed someone; thank you for ignoring our request and calling. We found him through Gumtree.”
He was scathing. “What, has he just walked off the boat?”
“Actually, yes he has,” I grinned. He’s French, with a Master’s degree in computing. And in the forty minute test Neil set for all the applicants, Damien wrote by far the most elegant and economical code.
So we’re happy, and we hope he’ll be happy. The only downside I can see is that he got his new computer today and horror of horrors, it’s running Windows Vista. Ach-y-fi.
LAMP Developer
August 5th, 2008
by Gwyn Headley
Managing Director
I’m going to have to give up listening to BBC Radio 4 because when they’re not banging on about Islam they’re telling us how the government is going to have to come and shoot us all to prevent us dying of hunger and clogging up the streets during the total meltdown of the world economy. It’s mildly depressing.
While everyone is still in the process of melting down, fotoLibra is employing more staff. We’re always looking for great sales people, but at the moment we’re particularly searching for a really hot LAMP developer.
So we advertised in all the right places, and specified in the ads NO AGENCIES. We’ve had about 40 replies, 15 from people wanting to work in the UK and 25 from employment agencies.
Either they can’t read, or they are ignoring our request.
Before we placed the ads, we actually went to an agency specialising in such placements. We approached Them. They sent us a really nice young man. We put him in front of a computer for a coding test and it was clear he was troubled by the sight of a keyboard. The CV his agency sent us said he had 5 years LAMP experience. We asked him what LAMP stood for. He hadn’t got a clue*.
Another agency applicant said he had 25 years’ experience with PHP, a computer scripting language which was created by a Greenlander (really!) in 1995. That makes it 13 years old.
We got badly bitten in our dealings with a recruitment agency last year. We wanted a sales manager, and I felt that a specialist picture library recruitment agency would be the best bet. Boy, was I wrong. The chap we got was really charming and had a red-hot and hugely relevant CV. He was also the best of the bunch we saw. And in the brief time he was with us, Airbus Industrie sold fourteen times as many A-380s as he sold images. He sold one, to be precise. But, as we had agreed, the agency got very well paid. That was truly a pound of flesh.
So NO AGENCIES. Of course we will be delighted to see the people they are offering us, on the following conditions:
1. No fee
2. Applicants know something about the job they’ve been applied for
Send ’em on!
*Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP. The four major disciplines required to maintain and develop the fotoLibra website.
Safari & FileChucker
March 26th, 2008
by Gwyn Headley
Managing Director
Safari v. 3.1 was launched today, and for some reason Apple failed to consult fotoLibra during its development.
After the problems everyone had with our new FileChucker upload system and Safari 3.0.4 you’d have thought they’d have been all over us like a rash of hives. But no, they went their own sweet way without consultation.
And you know what? It still works! You can use our FileChucker with the new Safari without worrying. Alles klar, as we like to say in Frankfurt.
Safari issue resolved
March 19th, 2008
by Gwyn Headley
Managing Director
It’s taken a while, but it was a little bit out of our hands.
When we launched the new FileChucker upload system in fotoLibra Version 4.0 in December, we’d thoroughly tested it on all browser platforms. That day (it seems to me) Apple ‘upgraded’ its Safari browser to version 3.0.4.
It did everything it did before, except it wouldn’t work with FileChucker. I don’t know if many of you have experience working for a small company and trying to get through to a mega company to get them to change something that’s not going to benefit them at all? It’s quite hard.
Anyway, we’ve rewritten the code and we’re happy to announce that FileChucker now works superbly on all platforms, including Safari.
Our Support team now have nothing to do. It was the only question they were ever asked.