OK, so it's not useful NOW...
Added to “utility/enhancements.rb”…
class String
#Uses Windows Speech API to speak string.
def speak
require 'win32/sapi5'
Win32::SpVoice.new.Speak(self.to_s)
end
end
99.downto(1) {|n| "#{n} bottles of beer on the wall".speak}MiniMe's back!
Dell doesn’t mess around on repairs. I stalled forever before requesting service on the Inspiron laptop, ‘cause I figured it would be gone for 4 weeks and come back with a note saying “could not find problem” and nothing repaired.
Nope - they sent a box to pack it in, DHL shipping prepaid, it was at the depot the day after we sent it, and on its way back to us a day after that. Dunno if they reproduced the error successfully (the keyboard was sending code “141” repeatedly, which basically only interfered with Alt-Tabbing), but they replaced the keyboard regardless. Diana just tested it, and everything’s working. (So it really was the hardware; I was starting to doubt myself.)
Anyway, except for the scripted tech support, Dell gets a big thumbs-up on customer service. (And Acer, whose Aspire died on us one month out of warranty, still gets the finger.)
Read more...A face made for radio...
Went to a local geek event a few weeks back, and suddenly found myself being pulled aside for a podcast they record every week.
I of course took the chance to plug Zyps, but the conversation was broad-ranging, and wound up being a good summary of everything I’ve been up to the last few months.
Read more...State sponsors of tourism...
We’re finally sending updates to the vendor en masse, and there aren’t many errors, but the ones that do come up are interesting… For example, the spec has this phrase:
[We] will enforce U.S. Sanctions as required by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). OFAC prohibits U.S. companies and citizens from doing business with certain sanctioned countries (such as Cuba, Iran, Iraq, North Korea and Syria), organizations, and individuals deemed to be acting on behalf of, or located in, certain sanctioned countries, terrorism sponsoring organizations and individuals, and international narcotics traffickers.
I didn’t concern myself with this much, as I doubted my own company would be doing business with anyone in North Korea. So I was surprised when this error came back…
This property record has been rejected due to it being located in an OFAC sanctioned country.
…for a customer in the Cayman Islands. I think the vendor needs to update their database…
Read more...Just got an RMA for the Tivo HD...
Cox’s stupid Scientific Atlanta cable cards won’t sync with it, and even the people who got theirs working start missing shows every 2 weeks and have to reboot (unacceptable after the smooth operation we’ve had with our Series 2).
No release date announced for a fix, and it looks like Scientific Atlanta is the one that needs to produce it. (But gee, don’t they have their own DVR now? Wonder how quickly they’ll move to fix the problems their competitor is having?)
Read more...