Codes
If you can figure out what they're for, you can have them:
HPCKJ7-N2Y9-CMWVKW-EVFV-B8H2E4
FWCX29-8YKK-JXHHE9-8CH9-E82TZ4
PCP88R-7YK6-4YGHT6-KGET-EE4EPE
MCH7CB-EEMF-XRWCX4-PG4R-4PWP84
An HTC DoA: Part 5
Continued from Part 4 (read from the beginning).
I took a trip to the UK at the beginning of the month, and when I returned on the 13th immediately checked my credit card statement. I wasn't surprised to see that the refund still hadn't been processed (now past the 14-business-day cut-off mark for credit card refunds). I called HTC yet again, and after a bit of hold time was given some good-ish news.
The agent confirmed that yes, HTC's warehouse had received my phone and they had accepted it. However, someone at said-warehouse hadn't closed the ticket in their system which prevented the refund from being processed. I was promised that the ticket would once again be escalated and that the escalations team would get the warehouse to close the ticket and things would get moving again.
I asked if HTC would compensate me for the interest accrued on my credit card from having this charge sitting on it for nearly two months, but was told they wouldn't do anything. It was worth asking about, though.
So, on Tuesday the 17th I once again checked my credit card statement and there it was! A line item showing a credit for the DoA Nexus One. Although I wasn't happy with the time it took to deal with the issue, and the interest charges that built up from it, I was ready to put the issue to bed.
And then I got the following email from HTC:
Dear Laslow,
Thank you for using HTC Customer Service. We want to make your next visit even better and would like your feedback. If you haven't already done so please help us improve by taking a quick survey on your experience using HTC Customer Service.
Thank you very much for your time. Be sure to visit us online at http://www.htc.com to read the latest announcements and check out our newly released products.
We are unable to receive replies to this email account. Please visit us at http://www.htc.com if you have any questions or need further assistance.
Sincerely,
HTC
I couldn't pass it up. I filled out the survey and was completely honest about the experience I had with trying to get a refund for a DoA unit and how ridiculous that I had to choose that route in the first place, rather than having the option to simply get a new, non-refurbished replacement like American customers. I submitted it, and then completely forgot about it.
This morning, while I was off rebuilding a borked IPCop box, HTC left me a voice mail message that went something like this:
Good morning Mr. Laslow. My name <redacted> from HTC, and I'm just calling to follow up on your return. I am very, very sorry that it took so long to process your refund. I'm also very sorry that you received a DoA unit in the first place. If you need any further assistance with this, please call us at 866-449-8358. Once again, we appreciate your business and are very sorry about this whole thing.
I was stunned; I never expected to hear back from HTC at all. I'm not, however, surprised by the fact that they simply apologized rather than offering some form of compensation (be it an accessory, a t-shirt, anything really). Regardless, I'm happy that this is over and I can finally end the tale of an HTC DoA.
Short: Hide Twitter’s “Who To Follow” ‘Feature’
One of the reasons I deleted my Facebook account
was because of all of the useless 'features' they threw in, one of which was a box suggesting who to be friends with. Well, Twitter recently added a similar feature called 'Who To Follow" that suggest people you should follow based on people that are followed by the people you follow. Right.
Well, fortunately this 'feature' is easy to disable if you use Firefox or Google Chrome. Simply install the Adblock Plus extension for Firefox (or Adblock for Chrome), subscribe to a filter list, and then manually add the following filter:
twitter.com###recommended_users
Done! No more "Who To Follow" box!
Hidden Messages in Twitter Trending Topics
I've always suspected that there were hidden messages in Twitter's trending topics, and today I found a perfect example via the Canadian trends:
The order wasn't edited - only the boxes and snarky comments added.
Fixed: Can’t Resize Uploaded Images in WordPress
Here's one with an easy fix. If you've just installed WordPress on your server and can upload images but WordPress doesn't let you resize them in the same form, SSH in to your server and do the following:
yum install php-gd
service httpd restart
And you're done! ...At least, as long as you're using an RHEL-compatible Linux distro. If not, use your package manager of choice, or manually find and load the php-gd extension!
Logon Server Unavailable Error
I came back from vacation the other day to find that some computers on our primary domain (example.local) were unable to access shares on a secondary domain (test.local) located in another building, accessed via a wireless link). When attempting to open the share (or just browse to the Domain Controller), the following error would appear:
"There are currently no logon servers available to service the logon request."
Google'ing did no good, as there were only vague references to DNS issues and WINS servers (the later of which we don't use). As nothing had changed in the environment recently, I was at a bit of a loss. I could ping the DC (Homer) in question, and even RDP to it, but I couldn't for the life of me access the share. NSLOOKUP behaved normally, but then I had a thought -- the DC that I couldn't access was also acting as a DNS server (the primary one for test.local) with example.local as a Secondary Zone (which, of course, contained the DNS entries for the computers that were having trouble accessing the secondary domain). When I loaded the DNS manager and clicked on that zone, I was immediately greeted with an error stating the following:
Turns out, there *was* a DNS problem!
The problem was that I had removed a DNS server over a year ago and it was still referenced as the primary DNS server for this zone. For some reason, the Windows DNS service had just now decided this was a problem and stopped grabbing copies of the zone from the functional secondary DNS server.
To fix this, I simply right-clicked on the zone, chose Properties, and then removed the offending server IP from the General tab and updated with the correct servers and order. As soon as I finished, the computers had no trouble accessing that DC again. Magic!
Solution: Mouse Cursor in Windows 7 Disappears
I reinstalled Windows 7 on my MSI Wind U123 today because of a number of problems with sound input and PulseAudio on Fedora 13 that I couldn't be buggered to fix. After the install, I ran Windows Update as normal, rebooted, and then noticed that my mouse cursor was gone. I could still click around and select things, so I knew the mouse was working, however I couldn't see it.
Searching Google proved worse than useless. The two best solutions listed were to either enable pointer tails (annoying) or lower the hardware acceleration level on your video card. Although true that both of these options will work, they both suck.
The real fix? Install the correct video drivers. As it turns out, when I ran Windows Update I accidentally selected the Intel Graphics driver update, which caused the problem. After downloading and installing the correct driver direct from Intel the cursor suddenly reappeared. Magic!
TL;DR Version: If your mouse cursor disappears, go to your video card manufacturer's website and get the drivers from them.
Short: Microsoft Hints at MSE Support in WHS
I received an email today welcoming me to the Microsoft Security Essentials beta (which is odd, as I've been in the MSE beta since it was first launched), as the following paragraph jumped out at me as I skimmed it:
Notice to Windows® Home Server customers: Microsoft Security Essentials Beta is not supported on Windows Home Server (WHS). Beta testers who have installed Microsoft Security Essentials Beta on WHS should consider uninstalling Microsoft Security Essentials Beta to avoid potential incompatibility problems. Those who plan to beta test Microsoft Security Essentials Beta unsupported on WHS should wait until the next Windows Home Server update rollup currently scheduled to occur on or about September 1, 2010.
Emphasis mine. It's not a lot to go on, but Microsoft may finally be officially adding support for their own anti-virus product to Windows Home Server. In the words of Jeremy Clarkson, "Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!"
Wish: Preload Map Data on Maps App for Android
While driving back from the Scottish Highlands to the South of England, I noticed something annoying about the Maps application for Android - when you pick out a route via the 'Directions' feature, all is well and good until you enter an area with no cell reception. At this point, you're screwed.
I know it's impossible to expect Google to preload hundreds of megabytes of map data on to your phone (you know, those pesky storage restrictions and all), but how about this: after Maps provides the directions for your route in text form, and you click 'Show on map', Maps could pop up an option (this could also be a configurable setting) asking if you want to preload map data.
My crappy mock-up of the prompt made on my netbook with a trackpad.
If you choose yes, it downloads the map data from Google's servers for the planned route and caches it to your SD card. If existing map data is present that overlaps, it uses that after checking to make sure it's up-to-date.
Probably a long shot that something like this could ever be implemented, but it would make life for those using their Android device as a Sat Nav so much easier, especially if you're going on a long trip.
The Non-Existent State of IPv6 in Canada
Over the last few days I've been attempting to gather information on IPv6 in Canada, and so far the news is grim. Why am I looking in to it? Well, there have been a number of articles posted lately about the impending end of available IPv4 addresses and the sorry state of IPv6 addoption, and I wanted to check in on my local ISPs and see if any of them are preparing for this. The short answer? No.
My region has two primary ISPs - Telus and Shaw Cable. I did a quick Google search to see if either had made any announcements about IPv6 readiness, and I ended up with no relevant results. In fact, a search of "IPv6" on the domain shaw.ca only returns results on user hosted pages. Searching Google for "IPv6 Telus" only comes up with one close match - this PDF document that's basically a beginners guide to IPv6.
So, I opened a ticket with my ISP (Shaw), and tweeted at their customer care guys. I also tweeted at Telus' customer care. Here's what I got back.
Telus tweeted back pretty quickly:
@laslow We don't have any news on implementation of IPv6. It would make sense that everyone will switch eventually. -Trevor @TELUSSupport
I replied, and they came back with this:
@laslow We'll try and help where we can but no real info on this. Hope your day goes well!
Well, that was rather uninformative.
Sean from Shaw Customer Care also replied rather quickly on Twitter:
@laslow hey man, no word on IPv6 yet, hopefully sometime in the near future though.
Shortly after, I received the following reply to the ticket that I opened with Shaw:
Hello [Laslow],
This is [Agent], thank you for your e-mail.
At this time there is no set date that IPv6 will start to be used. As soon as address’s have ran out with IPv4 then everything would be switched over to the IPv6. Kind of like how in B.C. not including the lower mainland we have been using the area code 250 for years. There are no longer numbers available with the 250 area code so they moved to 778 area codes. It will be similar to this when IPv6 is released, sorry we have no further information for you at this time on this.
So in short, Shaw's plans are to wait until they've run out addresses, and then worry about what to do next. I don't know about you, but I'm definitely feeling more confident that Shaw will be able to connect me to IPv6-only services in the next, you know, ten years or so.
Honestly, though, there are a number of ISPs in the states that already have public IPv6 tests available (Comcast, for example) - why is Canada so far behind?
If anyone reading this works for Telus or Shaw and has more information on their progress towards IPv6, please leave a comment or send me a tweet - It would be nice to know if there are at least plans in place rather than just a sense of "we'll cross that bridge when we get there".
Support
Hosted By:
TDRevolution
If you've found this site useful, consider donating to help cover my hosting costs:
Twitter Feed
- I might try and skip out of work early and stop by the sorting centre and hope they can have a look for me. #YouNeverKnow 1 hour ago
- Apparently Purolator has to attempt delivery first before they'll hold it which means my mobo gets to sit for three days #firstworldproblems 1 hour ago
- Just called Purolator. Yes the package will get in this afternoon (it might already be here, actually), however they won't let me pick it up 1 hour ago
- Damn stat holidays, anyways. 1 hour ago
- My @Newegg order just left #kamloops, which is less than an hour away, but means that I likely won't be getting it until Tuesday 1 hour ago
Tags
Categories
- "It's a Feature" (24)
- Android (22)
- Apple (10)
- Beta Testing (10)
- Gaming (11)
- Google (16)
- Hack (7)
- Hardware (34)
- howto (22)
- IDNK (1)
- iPhone (9)
- Linux (13)
- Makes Sense (8)
- Meta (15)
- Microsoft (34)
- Networking (7)
- Non-Tech (14)
- OS X (4)
- photography (2)
- Rants (28)
- Scripts (3)
- Servers (16)
- Short (36)
- Software (28)
- Support (28)
- Tales from Support (11)
- Tomfoolery (10)
- Troubleshooting (49)
- Twitter (6)
- Virtualization (1)
- Windows (11)
- Windows 7 Beta (7)
- Writing (1)
- Xbox 360 (3)