a comprehensive guide to internet insecurity

there seem to be some people that are more able to be unlucky than the rest of the world. always at the wrong time at the wrong spot, they run into all kinds of troubles.
the good news are that to compete with their infallible sense of timing you don't need to leave your house anymore. a simple computer with internet connection are already enough (if set up properly) to get yourself attacked, robbed, cheated, etc. Simply follow these instructions.

usability horror

Usually the infamous ticket machines of the german railways serve as prime example for the necessity of increasing usability of software. Today I found another task, which should be even easier than booking a ticket using some piece of software. I wanted to create a photo calendar.

First I went to Rossmann, my usual photo portal. I ordered prints there quite often already, but apparently these guys didn't get their portal right for calendars. After clicking my way through all possible paths, I ended up facing a blank screen instead of a calendar.
So I downloaded their offline client, which did not have an option for choosing one particular system folder for importing the pictures, but drew them automatically from a so called 'standard' app... well, so I imported the pics in that app first and everything seemed to work fine - until I noticed that GREAT feature of determining the starting month of the calendar, with a range from dec 08 to dec 09... so WHAT now if I want my calendar to start with 2010?? no way....
Afterwards I tried Vista Print, uploaded the pictures, cringed at the shipping rates, and wanted to drag some pictures on the appropriate places ... but - hang on - why is the browser window moving as I'm trying to do that???? Maybe some of you know that silly game where you chase a little window over your monitor trying to click one button to close it? Well, their dragging operation worked exactly like that, except that you can't simply corner your browser window to get the picture on the right spot..

So, once again, one notices that just the ability to deploy some fancy piece of software is not enough - it should also enable the user to do what they have to accomplish with it.

downloading...

an old joke from w3schools:

customer: i want to download the internet. do i need a bigger hard drive?

download the internet here

melting chocolate

i'm surprised that it took years for me to commit this stupidity: i absentmindedly placed a chocolate cookie directly next to my notebooks fan...
it WAS an interesting experience (the cookie was actually very tasty) and luckily there was no cloth on the table so the dripping chocolate did not do any harm ;)

over the top - and it's not even April :D

I'm still not completely able to believe THIS - street signs in all US have to be replaced because XING.com now established their brand name?? One would dearly hope that it can't be true, it would be THAT idiotic! Imagine, one would have to patent each and every name or word used on traffic signs, just to prevent one international company from doing the same thing and forcing you to change all your signs (apart from the totally ridiculous nature of the problem it also imposes an considerable strain on the states budgets. and nothing hurts more than HAVING to spend public money on totally useless things in times of serious trouble).
[how right I was about not completely believing! but I guess I should have been even more trusting my intuition :D]

suboptimal service

today i recieved a letter - however, it was not FOR me, but returned to me crumpled, with a warning sign of the post office prompting me to add some 2 and something euro in stamps.. at first i was really startled and confused, as i well had put the higher price (which they just changed). however, as i figured, the envelope had been half a centimeter too tall!! ridiculous, as it was much shorter than it could have been, and also the card inside was quite a bit smaller! so there was not much need to send the letter back in the first place (maybe apart from typical german rule-adhering cult) but what upset me most was that they ruined the card inside by just bending and folding it! that was absolutely unnecessary.
i got so angry that i considered dropping by the post office tomorrow morning and blowing a fuse.. but then, i dont have any time to waste for such a thing! so i measured the letter and found out that taping up the side of the envelope was more than sufficient for following the measurements (which made me think the returning even more ridiculous, they are just sooo greedy, squeezing money out of people at every occasion!)...
i just hope they will deliver it now, as if it comes back a second time i definitely will honour them with a visit..