Nieuwe dubbeldekkers van de NS
De NS presenteert vandaag haar nieuwe dubbeldekkers en het Parool heeft er een foto-reportage van. Ik heb nog nooit zo'n schone trein gezien, maar wussap met al dat goud? De plee lijkt wel een bordeel toilet uit de jaren tachtig met opgeplakte gouden letters om aan te geven waar je je 'jas' moet hangen?
Apple Care Support Centre
Last week I had this rather surreal telephone conversation with an employee at the Dutch Apple Care Support Centre. It was regarding my recently purchased iPad which appeared to have a dead pixel. After spending ten minutes on hold at the cost of €0,10/min, I was connected to "Mick". Now I have often spoken to very friendly, competent and patient Apple Care employees, but Mick rubbed me the wrong way from the start with his incessant interruptions and patronizing tone of voice. This is more or less how our conversation went:
Blog has been quiet
And this is why... I had a son, Luka. Born on December 5th 2008. So I'm still enjoying him and not actually getting that much time at the computer. A good excuse for a netbook so i can couchsurf 
LOLCatz
I have started making my own LOLCatz... you likes dem?
moar funny pictures
moar funny pictures
moar funny pictures
Begrijp jij het?
Nederlands is wellicht niet mijn sterkste taal - maar ligt het feit dat ik deze reclameborden van Praxis niet begrijp aan mij of aan mijn 'gebrekkig' Nederlands?
Microsoft Strikes Back
In an attempt to heal some of the damage done to the image of PC's by Apple's "I'm a PC and I'm a Mac" adverts, Microsoft has embarked upon a new advertising campaign. Their concept is to kill the stereotype of a PC user as a clueless nerd in a brown suit. To be honest, I think this is a pretty good response to the Apple ads - but I'm still sticking with Apple.
By the way, the actor that portrays the PC in the Mac ads is actually a Mac user in real life.
Slow Times
Some years ago there were a few days during which I noticed that I wasn't receiving as much snailmail as I was used to. In fact, I think I didn't receive any mail for a couple of days at all. This prompted me to test the system, just as you do when you suspect your e-mail may be having intermittent problems - you send yourself a message.
But this was analog mail, snailmail, the real deal - so I sent myself a letter. Is that very sad of me? It feels like a kind of loser-ish thing to do, but is it really any different from sending yourself an e-mail? Yes, I suppose it is if you actually write a little note to put inside the envelope congratulating yourself on receiving the letter. But think about it, you can't do lasdj lkajsdas etyralksdja alsdj laksjd alsd in a handwritten letter - it's just not the same.
The letter arrived the very next day and even though I had written it myself, I still felt a brief thrill at the sight of a hand-written envelope with my name on it on the dusty doormat. The thrill was soon replaced by mild embarassment when I realized the lull in post coming through my letterbox was simply due to the fact that nobody had sent me anything. There was no sudden pile of delayed letters desperate to reach me, no concerned phonecalls about where I was and why I wasn't replying to correspondence. There simply was no correspondence. I was forced to accept the fact that I'd just been unpopular there for a while.
I write this because I have recently noticed a lull in my e-mail correspondence. Not that I am not receiving mails, but because all is quiet on the reply front... is there anybody out there?
Incompetent Companies
It really does seem like there are more incompetent companies out there than competent ones. I have recently been frustrated by a variety of incompetencies ranging from minor irritations to major problems with, for example, my website.
In the previous post I wrote about Hosting Zoom and how their service unfortunately declined rapidly since they introduced their so-called "Failover Hosting" some months ago. "Failover" sounds a little ambiguous, but I think it's supposed to encourage a feeling of well-being and security in clients. Nothing could be further from the truth as Hosting Zoom over-sold space on their servers resulting in error after error and unreachable sites. That's incompetent company number 1.
Then there's a less serious, but still annoying issue I have with the bi-monthly Dutch technology/gadget magazine, Bright. I subscribed to the magazine soon after it first appeared, just over a year ago. Single issues purchased in shops cost € 4,99 and a I paid €25 for 6 issues in a year. However, they keep selling the magazine at a reduced price of € 2,99 in the shops now, so I worked out that as a subscriber I'm paying more. That's not the way it's supposed to be, right? On writing to them it took a few reminder mails to hear anything back and then eventually they offered to reimburse me € 5,50 so I get a year's subscription for € 19,50. Very nice of them - only it's been three weeks and they have still not reimbursed me. More reminders to follow I suppose.
Another little gripe would be Canon.. I'll write about them in a separate post...
Postzegel Conspiracy
It's a conspiracy! Zoals bij zoveel dingen. Maar dit neem ik TNT echt kwalijk. Het is al erg genoeg dat ze de prijs van een standaard potzegel van € 0,39 naar € 0,44 hebben verhoogd, maar tenminste verkopen ze daar € 0,05 postzegels apart voor (opwaardeerzegels of zo). Maar de prijs van een brief frankeren naar buiten Europa is nu € 0,89. Met twee postzegels van € 0,44 red je het dus net niet en postzegels van € 0,01 bestaan niet (€ 0,02 wél trouwens). En je mag ook niet minder dan 10 postzegels tegelijk kopen. Waarom is er geen opstand geweest? Grrr...
Nu moet je ook nog extra betalen voor garantiepost (€ 8,45) als je zeker wilt weten dat je brief de volgende dag aankomt al heb je die netjes vóór 18:00 in de rode oranje brievenbus gedeponeerd. Vroeger kon je er vanuitgaan dat je brief de volgende dag zou aankomen, behalve rond de kerst misschien.
Waarom hebben we toegelaten dat het postbedrijf geprivatiseerd werd? Zelfs in Amerika is postbezorging een zaak van de overheid. Ik weet dat ik hier een beetje laat mee kom, maar toch.
Merel Nominated for the PANL Awards
Merel got through two rounds (more than 1040 photos were entered in the competitition) and has been nominated for the 17th PANL awards (Photographic Competition). The winners will be announced in March 2008. Meanwhile, you can see her latest work on her site: Merel Zwart Photography.