Welcome to my tech corner on the web!

This is my tech blog, here you’ll find my thoughts on emerging technologies, things I like or not! I’ll try where possible to include podcasts.

You’re welcome to agree or disagree with anything I write about – freedom of speech welcome – All I ask is that you keep the comments civil!

Have fun, and if you want click on the about me link for more information on my technical background.

5 ways to be a better programmer

To me the definition of a better programmer is one who writes code that produces the desired result with less errors.

Some people might define a good programmer as one that has a vast understanding of programming languages and concepts, while this is true this definition can only take you so far – ultimately ALL programs are written to perform a function and as error free as possible.

If the average programmer had an infinite amount of time for testing and deployment then almost ALL code would be released error free, but obviously all projects were due yesterday and usually we’re developing under less than perfect conditions, and at times pushing ourselves to the max to achieve the desired outcome. Besides this the industry is generally not that concerned with deep or stress testing applications and at times your rushed out code is just expected to work.

Here are some things you can do that will improve your overall effectiveness as a programmer (these are not language specific techniques and can be applied to just about ANY programmer, including YOU)

1. Get a second opinion: In the old days it was taught that a developer should read a considerable amount, and search the internet as much as possible prior to asking colleagues. I’ve even read surveys from those times where developers actually felt embarrassed to ask questions to fellow developers in the fear that they might come off looking inexperienced. I would say shed that fear, and the good news is you also don’t need to pester those you work with, enter the era of www.stackoverflow.com, if you don’t have an account create one immediately, its almost mandatory for a modern age developer to be using and contributing to Stackoverflow.  Stackoverflow WILL make you a better developer, and by using it, You directly contribute to the collective knowledge of all things programming related.
2. Don’t trust your own code: Be highly suspicious of your own code. Every error in your application is almost always a direct result of your own code. View all code with suspicion, never think about any function as simple. Don’t think to yourself – “I’ll write a quick function to send an email” or “I’ll just quickly append this line of text to the end of that file” or “I’ll very quickly insert into this or that table”. You have to start thinking. Stop coding for a minute, and think things through. Every time you write a function, think “What could go wrong”, then convert this to – “What WILL go wrong”. That little append method you wrote might expect a file to actually exist, or that file could be locked. That database might be offline, that email server might be undergoing maintenance. Assume nothing, except that every function you write is inducing more possibilities for error, and its your job not only to write the function, but to eliminate as much of this error drag that WILL be caused, to the best of your ability each and every time. Start thinking of functions as in code / error drag ratios. Don’t write a function unless you are certain you can almost eliminate ANY error drag induced. It should really surprise you, after you’ve done this and your application ends up with a logical error in production.
3. Think and relax: This might not always be possible, but where ever possible exercise your right to be relaxed on the job. I’m not suggesting you take hours off to play network games. What I am saying is, each time you are about to write a function or a piece of code, enter into the development of this function with a clear mind. If you need time to think things over, do exactly that. Don’t cave in to pressure from management to “look busy programming”. It’s acceptable to be sitting at your desk just thinking things though, if it helps you visualize, get some writing equipment, not on the PC and make notes, and draw diagrams, or open up notepad and run through some real use cases. If you take 50 minutes in the hour to think things through, and 10 minutes to implement your idea, even though it might not be finished, its still overall WAY more effective than thinking for 2-3 minutes, and then implementing something in 20 minutes, job done – go home, and then get a support call the next day -1 repution for You, Your Company, Your Product. When you code, you should be coding at the speed of a dinosaur, but your mind should be thinking at the speed of light. The text you are typing is coming out slow, but its quality, because you’re focused on the bigger picture, what your code is going, how it will affect the users, how that one line will prevent support calls, how that function you’ve added will mean your code deploys without you having to be there, the list continues. As a developer you should have a lot of considerations in your mind when you code.
4. Modernize: If you started coding 10 years ago, then its likely your language/s of choice have seen a vast number of improvements or language enhancements. Stuff you used to write a function for years ago, is now an inbuilt language feature. Before you might have needed 10 lines of code to accomplish something that now only takes 1 line of code. Its your right as a developer to receive skill enhancement benefits while on the job, but so few companies actually offer any tangible skill improvement programs. If you were a Soccer player, most of your time on the job would involve training. As a developer you’re expected to know your job upfront, with very little emphasis on upgrading your existing skills. I’ll cut it short, You are the only one who can make your skill improvement happen, and you need to do this gradually and build it into your every day life. Don’t just write a function doing it the old way, take the time out (yes even if that means at times digressing for an hour or 2) to up skill. Use Stackoverflow or Google and find what is best current practice for the way you do things. Tell your employer that you are actively developing your skills, or that you are researching an improved way to implement if they are curious. Don’t push management to provide you with training, in my experience nothing good has ever come of it.
5. Always push for more testing: This might not directly improve your coding skills, but it does go a long way in terms of PR. If functionality you’ve been working on hasn’t undergone ANY testing, then you need to explicitly emphasize this. Don’t release something and say that its ready, complete or done, if it hasn’t been tested. When I say tested, I mean thrashed by someone other than you, who can try and extract as much errors or usability issues as possible. I’ve written this article to be as practical as possible, because of this, I will assume you don’t have a team of 5 testers just waiting to take over your code for testing, and you don’t have ANY real testing in place in your organization. You need to mention this EVERY SINGLE TIME you release something, because its something non technical members of your team very quickly forget. Hand over functionality always under the clause that it needs to be tested. If no testing is possible, then you’ve covered your base when errors do come back (and they will). The point is always make the point known that you are indeed a man short (the tester), this goes a long way in protecting your reputation as a developer, because the sad reality is not enough testing ever takes place, and if you don’t make others aware of this, you’ll end up just looking like a 2nd grade developer when issues happen.

And finally – above all else take errors very seriously and fix them ASAP, its ok to have some error drag (bugs) in your application. No one I’ve ever met has ever got to the point where they can release a perfect program that’s 100% error free, but what is more important is how quickly and effectively you deal with these errors when they occur, this includes your turn around time, and your initial ability to trap, log and notify these errors.

Say goodbye to Mininova

This post affects 6/10 people on this planet, because roughly 6/10 people are either directly downloading and distributing illegal content on the internet, or are just getting stuff for free they should be paying for.

In the latest in the clamp down on piracy, we’ve seen Mininova been given the ultimatum to either clear out all illegal content from their search index, or they’ll simply get shut down. Naturally Mininova complied and so you can no longer search for free programs, movies, games, HD rips, or anything of that nature from them. Mininova are just 1 in many Bittorrent distribution sites that are getting rapidly shut down, while Thepiratebay might still have some online presence, they too are facing pressure, and slowly closing their doors.

It seems the war on piracy is making huge leaps forward in eradicating illegal content via the bitTorrent (P2P) protocol. I would imagine that other services offering direct downloads (RapidShare) or newsgroup downloads (UseNext) will too soon be feeling real pressure to legalize.

Is this all a bad thing?

I would say I am not terribly sad to see these services being eradicated. If anything this extermination can’t come soon enough. Human nature is as such, people will get away with what they can. But once they can no longer get away with it any longer they adapt, and order is restored. Before you flame me just yet for this point of view, read on.

The more legal channels (no not TV channels but outlet channels) there are for movies, games and other entertainment media, lets not forget educational media, the more competition there is is the market place. As legal purchases rise, more companies emerge into these profitable arenas, and eventually the prices drop, because that is how economics works (supply and demand). Still you might be thinking nothing beats free?

While this is where you wrong, because free can only be sustainable for so long. If a platform simply is not profitable enough it can get boycotted. PC gamers are already feeling this effect. Many game companies refuse to target the PC platform, because of the high rates of piracy.

I would say lessons need to be learnt. The public will not stop pirating on their own, and so because of this need these mechanisms taken out of their control. Like in the same way – people will not stop smoking, what they really need is to ban the sale of cigarettes, might sound Nazi, but I can promise you in the long term, people would be happier because of this.  On the flip side, Movie Studios, Music Producers, all artists involved need to tone down a bit, and provide the public with realistic pricing for entertainment material.

This whole sector needs to also start realizing that there are people who live outside of economically stable areas and outside of the US / Euro zone. Vast hordes of people would also like a piece of this entertainment action, but you can’t expect for example Eastern Europeans or Indians to be out buying a BD Disk once a week, when it costs 1/10 or 1/5 of their monthly income. You must understand these people don’t exactly have a moral dilemma pirating when they see John Travolta’s private Lear Jet collection, to these people the industry is rich enough, and they almost feel like they have a right to get that item for free as part of a rebellion to bring the prices down.

I’ve always said it, and I’ll say it again, if you want to stop the piracy – start by bringing the prices down, and make US and UK material readily available for the middle class outside of economically active zones.  Still we see most of the bigger names in the entertainment industry clearly do not understand this, neither are they suffering. The piracy continues, but this brings me to my next point.

The entertainment industry have the philosophy that – “We’re selling 10 now, if we eradicate piracy, people will be forced to buy, and so we’ll sell 100″. This is not exactly true, until the prices drop, most people will cut down severely on their now doses of entertainment material. In person trading (making copies for friends) has been going on for decades, and so far there is no way to eliminate this completely, other than doing away with the ability to have local copies of material.

Why am I fairly happy about all of this?

Because I believe we’re living in a time when the average person is misinformed. Misinformed or simply uninformed about world events and what exactly is going on with our planet. The general population is misinformed because they’re living in the free entertainment era, they’re coming home from work, watching DVD’s or playing XBox games. The average person does not read enough, and is an easy target for media brain washing, and new world order compliance.

Most people are naive enough to think that the US president actually has power, that just 1 man and his staff run a country. Most people have not heard of the Bilderberg Group, Trilateral Commission, neither do they know that the US presidency is run by bankers.The reason why they don’t know any of this is because they’re too enriched with all this free entertainment media floating around and its a great distraction. Take away the freedom to pirate, and the overall awareness of facts will increase as people find better more wholesome ways to invest their time.

Some food for thought!

Microsoft Security Essentials, why it’s less than perfect

MSE (Microsoft Security Essentials) did get some very good reviews, and overall it’s not a bad anti-virus and spy-ware package. It has a native 64bit version and its free, and does provide adequate protection for the average user who doesn’t wonder off onto stay sites, or use cracked software. But I wouldn’t call it an ideal package for novice users.

1. It has a serious usability flaw: The program does not automatically update itself. This means that the green systray icon turns red, and requires the user to manually update this. Now if there is one thing we should all know about usability, something the MSE team strangely don’t know, is that novice users can be scared or weary of anything relating to a virus, including the use of the anti-virus software. You see, when you ask a novice user to “update your anti-virus software”, the novice user might not, because they are too afraid to do something wrong. As far as they’re concerned something is already wrong, and they’re already worried, and who can blame them, the AV product 2-3 times a week is telling them – your system could be at risk. If you’re an advanced user, it’s just plain annoying, and makes no sense at all. AV product knows its out of date, knows where to get the update from, knows that by not updating it’s putting your system at risk, but it just sits there knowing all of this, expecting you to manually update it. Bottom line – never run this product on anything that is unattended. If you’ve installed this on your wife’s PC or your 60 year old mother, who uses the computer for the odd email, then expect to get a call every time the AV out dates, and you’ll get asked – “Something is wrong, what should I do?”, even if its clear to you, it’s certainly not clear to the notice.
2. The real-time protection is hackable even by a script kiddy. In hacking terms, the script kiddy is a very entry-level hacker, and also very common. Anyone with a devious nature and a bit of programming knowledge can become a script kiddy, and a decent AV product should at least protect you against the layer of attacks coming from such a low skilled group of for lack of a better word – “hackers”. Anti virus packages typically provide you with 2 levels of protection, one of these is real-time, which means, files are scanned for viruses before you execute them, when a file is finished downloading, when a file arrives in your inbox, etc. Real time scanning is not exactly state of the art, its been around for a long time, and I would consider it essential given the high number of threats coming in from email and internet browsing and downloading. So why do I say its very easily hackable? Well here is a fact that may shock/surprise you. Once real-time scanning is enabled in MSE, all you need to do to turn it off is overwhelm it. This is because once MSE becomes overwhelmed it automatically shuts down real-time scanning. So what does this mean? All a hacker needs to do to shut down your real-time scanning is somehow get a file onto your computer (yes even the very virus, but it could also be a completely harmless file) that confuses the real-time scanning engine, either by (a) containing too many files (innocent or not) (b) script files (even in smallish doses, and even innocent) and ladies and gentlemen your MSE real-time virus scanning will turn itself off, and your system will become unresponsive.
3. Based on the above point MSE HATES PHP. PHP is a scripting language that programmers use to create business applications for the web. MSE treats all script files as potential threats, and so when confronted with the .php extension MSE deep scans the script, however…. MSE does not have the intelligence to detect potential threats in PHP files, instead what happens is MSE locks up, real-time scanning gets disabled, all this happens after explorer crashes, and restarts. Even if you might not in danger of getting hacked that very second, it’s still extremely annoying for anyone running PHP scripts for legitimate purposes.

Because of these 3 points, I’m slowly loosing my patience with this otherwise average product. It did during my initial review look like a viable option for those of us running Win7 64bit, but now I must conclude it’s not designed for the power user in mind.

Preview your web pages in IE (6,7,8)

The market has long been screaming for a way to test multiple versions of Internet Explorer on the same installation of windows.

Along comes Microsoft Expression Blend 3 Super Preview (free download),  which claims to be able to test your pages in IE 6, 7 and 8 all on the same machine, and without installing previous versions, the paid version can even do Firefox.

Now I know a lot of the web development community are excited by this product, but I personally am not too sure this app will find its way into my list of useful web development tools.

This product is free for a reason. I can’t see this as a viable option really for a serious HTML handcoder / Javascripter.

So what exactly is wrong with it. It starts off looking really good, the installer is clean, and the app has a decent enough interface.

1. Its too slow. It takes so long to load pages into the preview it goes against the flow of the way I design. This is to make small changes, save and check in each browser. This way when an issue comes up I can correct it without having to rewrite too much code. Unfortunately during testing, I found that a refresh could take up to 40 seconds per page on my live site. I am constantly saving and checking and so this product would just drive me crazy with all the wait time.
2. I guess the main reason I dislike it: Its called super preview, but it doesn’t give you a live preview option, where you can click around and test the functionality of your site. It only loads a static view and after that the JS or dynamic content cannot be checked, unfortunately.

So if you really want to know how to test in IE 6, 7 or 8. Here are some options for you.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/574463/running-ie6-ie7-and-ie8-on-the-same-machine

What’s up with Swine Flu H1N1

I remember about 2 years ago I took a flight when the media first started hooking onto Swine Flu, and already at this stage I noticed a fair amount of people wearing masks, to protect themselves from infection. Back then I had my reservations, and recently we’ve been getting bombarded by the Media about the threat of this new deadly strain of flu (H1N1) and how we should all get vaccinated.

So I decided I would do some research because next week the country I live in Czech Republic will begin vaccinations. For starters 10% of the general population of Czech will receive a vaccine.

In my studies which really didn’t take long – I’ve realized there are 2 ways to consider H1N1.

1. What the media are telling you
2. What the statistics are telling you

I prefer to go with the statistics.

If you ask the average person – “Do you feel in danger of dying of the flu?”and yes I mean the normal kind – most people would laugh at you, and say “No the chances of me dying of the flu are rare, and there are plenty of ways to treat flu, should I get sick.”

But if you ask the same person who actively watches the news – “Are you afraid of contracting the Swine Flu H1N1 strain, most people will tell you “Sure its deadly, and I’m afraid of it, I don’t want to use public transport, and I’m worried I might catch it from someone at work or while out shopping.”

Lets just for a minute here look at who exactly is dying of what? For statistics I will use the US, because the US is an easy country to find information about.

The Flu

source : An estimated 100,000 hospitalizations and about 20,000 deaths occur each year from the flu or its complications. (http://www.wrongdiagnosis.com/f/flu/deaths.htm)

Each flu season is unique, but it is estimated that, on average, approximately 5% to 20% of U.S. residents get the flu, and more than 200,000 persons are hospitalized for flu-related complications each year. About 36,000 Americans die on average per year from the complications of flu.(http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/qa/disease.htm)

N1H1

H1N1 Deaths Reach Over 1,000 in U.S. (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,569392,00.html)

Nearly 5,000 people have reportedly died from swine flu since it emerged this year and developed into a global epidemic (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/10/23/health/main5413623.shtml)

Now wait, hang on a second…. surely an epidemic means that H1N1 is actually killing more people than regular flu? Surely it means its taking over, and surely it means that if you get it you’re likely to die?

Well lets look at another quote :

“Many millions” of Americans have had swine flu so far, according to an estimate he gave at a Friday press conference. The government doesn’t test everyone to confirm swine flu so it doesn’t have an exact count. (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,569392,00.html)

Something smells funny, and its not the swines!

European scientists and health authorities are facing angry questions about why H1N1 flu has not caused death and destruction on the scale first feared, and they need to respond deftly to ensure public support.

Accusations are flying in British and French media that the pandemic has been “hyped” by medical researchers to further their own cause, boost research grants and line the pockets of drug companies.

Britain’s Independent newspaper this week asked “Pandemic? What Pandemic?” (http://www.foodconsumer.org/newsite/Non-food/Disease/major_victory_with_swine_flu_scandal_191120090720.html)

These are just a few things I’ve found in my research. I think one thing people always tend to lack is perspective, especially when all you ever hear when you turn on the news is more reports about Swine flu deaths, but the perception is misleading.

If every smoking related death where reported worldwide we would have Around 5.4 million deaths a year worldwide.

How many people have died from H1N1 worldwide – nearly 5000

Drinking : 2 million a year vs H1N1 5000

Car accidents : 1.2 million a year

Child birth complications: More than 2 million babies and mothers die worldwide each year from childbirth complications.

Yes – people still drink, people still smoke, and you can still buy these products at nearly every shop in every country on this planet. Mothers still have birth, and people are born, however its worth noting at time of writing you are 400 times more likely to die at birth than dying from H1N1.

Think about that next time you shudder in fear from media panic.

Is adapting early taboo?

I’m a developer who uses Microsoft technology, I have been for over 10 years, and have been a Windows user since 3.1 and before that MS DOS. Before I used DOS, I owned a ZX-Spectrum that was a small home computer with a whole 48k of memory.

When I reflect over these computing years, I have to say something has changed in the way we perceive new products, particularly if they’re Microsoft products. In the early days, any computing progress was welcomed and at times only a select few got access to new and emerging Betas. Things certainly have changed.

Microsoft lately release beta versions into the wild, and people like me adapt and start using them. I had Vista when it was called Longhorn and barely even worked. I used asp.net when it was still called asp+, I had the offical RTM Windows 7 2 months before it launched in New York. I now have Google Wave, and I’m experimenting with Visual Studio 2010.

Companies release beta versions to the public because of 2 main reasons.

1. Companies like Microsoft realized that beta versions of their product were getting leaked, because the technically minded wanted more insight into up and coming products. Technically minded people are great at surveying a product, and identifying missing features or finding bugs.
2. The deadline for any product is always yesterday, and its nearly impossible to catch and trap all bugs. Its also expensive to pay testers

Testers are a rare breed in all my development experience I have never worked on any product that has been tested to death. If anything most products only undergo about 3-5% of the testing that they should go through. This is why people like Jeff Atwood say – All software sucks. So if we don’t test our products who will? Well usually the client ends up taking on some of this testing, no one admits this though, and the customer ends up just being a frustrated user who reports the odd bug. But why not get software specialists to test products? Along comes Betas – essentially what Microsoft are saying is – HERE GUYS PLEASE TEST OUR PRODUCT!

Not that this is a bad thing – because for this testing service you do get early access to a product that you might otherwise have to wait an extended period of time for. I don’t mind any of this, of course you can always look at it dogmatically and think – “Why should I be testing for them?” The answer is you shouldn’t be, but if you don’t, you can be sure there are 1000’s of other developers out there willing to dedicate their time, so you can be sure this release model is here to stay, and its already become the standard of how software is released.

From a Microsoft point of view – I don’t think they fired their testers in exchange for free beta adapters. I don’t think they had great testing capacity in the first place – hence events like a blue screen of death at the Win98 launch or the utterly useless demonstration of speech recognition that shipped with Vista. So this new model can only benefit the end user.

What I do have a problem with is the negative attitude I face in the industry when wanting to adapt early. The .net framework is the best example I can think of. Version 4 is on the horizon but it seems most companies are still afraid of anything above v2. In my experience I’ve had to really struggle to get guys using v3.1 or v3.5 and because of this, in the time I’ve been using v2 I’ve lost out on all that new experience, and sad to say my LINQ is nearly non existent. Now v4 is coming out, and so all I say is “here we go again”.

Learn as much v4 cool stuff as you want, grab that VS2010 Beta and peek at the cool new language features in C#, but is it really helpful? you can be sure us early adapters will just get frowned at for another 2 years before prudent IT departments stop being afraid of it and brand it as safe to use.

So this is the frustration in being an early adapter, you get into new tech early, and end up having no real use for it until its been screened by the most anal retentive and gets globally accepted. Rinse repeat.

Win 7 Breaks VPN Clients

If you’re like me, you’re already a huge fan of Windows 7. Its simply the best OS Microsoft have produced to date. But as good an operating system that it is, it has one serious draw back. Most existing VPN clients don’t work with it.

In my line of work I use 2 custom VPN clients at the moment, and there simply isn’t a work around to get these clients working, except for running XP Mode.

Microsoft assure that VPN client vendors are upgrading their software to work with Win 7, so future versions should be fine, but at this very minute, if you’re using VPN on a daily basis, then be aware of this issue, more information can be found here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd787668%28WS.10%29.aspx

Playing chess drunk, its not a bad idea

Once in a while, every club player needs to drop his inhibitions. Here is an example why : http://www.screencast.com/t/8Yc6dlwF9

If you want to end up in bad positions, PLAY DRUNK!

If you want to test your skill at getting out of these positions – PLAY DRUNK…

enough said, enjoy the vid

A programmers attempt at designing

We all know programmers are not designers, but sometimes a programmer is forced to push out a design. The fact is a web application developer often has to work closely with web designers, and their influence is bound to rub off.

You rub my back I’ll rub yours

Most programmers have friends who design, and it should be possible for designers and programmers to share their skills in an on going way so that programmers never have to think about design, in exchange they offer their programming services to designers. However in theory this simply doesn’t work out.

The fact is most designers simply do not require the full blown efforts of a developer most of the time. Most designers require some server functionality here and there, but typically this functionality can be found somewhere in an easy to implement script found using Google. Yes we’re talking about stuff like contact us forms, etc.

Another thing to consider is that most highly experienced designers are short on time. Every single designer I know, is always busy with some or other freelance project, and typically they get paid for this. Senior designers also have nothing to prove, they don’t need to beg your attentiion and so are not highly motivated unless there are some real incentives on the table. It’s a bit of a catch 22, because a less experienced designer might be willing to assist, but the end result can also end up being questionable.

Design as a framework is less reusable too, in comparison to programming. Sure some elements of the design can be reused, but designs should be distinguishable, and the web is also fashionable, what looked good last year, looks old school by today’s standards. I would say, because of this, each design is a custom piece of work, so the designer is less likely to get any inadvertent kick backs from this, than a programmer for example, writing an open source fully reusable library.

Because of these issues, I have been encouraged lately to help myself, and I decided to knock up a design for a small charting business based in Knysna, South Africa. I managed to complete this design and implementation in 5 hours, while the site is not 100% complete, it at least does give an example of what a programmer is capable of, when he/she commits to the situation at hand.

Now I was not completely in the dark, and I had input from an experienced designer, but I am proud to say most of what you see there is my work. The idea here is not to point you in the direction of a perfect design, but simply something that’s functional as some inspiration to you, if you are a programmer, before you say – I don’t design or I can’t design, have a look : http://www.jjsfishingcharters.com/default.htm

Why do I blog complaints?

Its an honest question and I’ll try give you an honest answer.

Q: Do I blog complaints as a form of tech nerd revenge?

A: The way I see it, I blog as a last , last , last resort, after having tried everything to resolve a situation with any Mega Corp. And I have to say a great deal of the time, my issue is resolved in a timely and expected manner.  But when its not (rare) or when I feel like I am falling prey to some or other cheap and dirty trick, I have no problem blogging about it, not really as a revenge tactic, but this is what I love about Word Press, anyone who is using Google has a chance to land on one of your blog posts. The way I see it , if that person happens to be looking for a public warning about a certain company or consumer product, and I’ve managed to give an unbiased account, and help someone else from making a mistake, then that is the outcome I want to achieve.

Q: How effective is complaints blogging?

A: Very effective, more effective than you would imagine. Michael’s Techbox is a rather small niche market tech site, with only a few dedicated readers, most of the readers of this site are all here for a reason, to find information. Even though its a small site, with a small following (around 100 reads a day) I’ve had some very positive feedback from my complaint related blog posts. Including Microsoft staff taking my suggestions seriously. I’ve had GoDaddy support staff personally contact after reading my blog post and provide me with better than average customer support. I’ve once had a serious complaint about Sony, and someone else in the community read this complaint and assisted me in finding a solution I had long given up on. More importantly I’ve had many people thank me for the warnings.

Ultimately why do I blog my complaints?

1. To create public awareness, but mainly there is a huge gap in our unspoken justice system. Mega corps mass produce, and typically things go well, but when things do not go well, the mega corp typically treats you as a powerless entity and knows very well that if you’re not going to buy this product, there are 100 other consumers who will. I blog complaints for everyone who has ever been in a frustrating situation with a Mega Corp, in the hope that by creating enough public awareness, products get enhanced, service gets better, and word of mouth gets out there, when a complaint is justified.

Recently I read a story about a lady who leased a car, had it stolen, insurance paid the leasing company full value of the car, however now they are demanding an additional full payment of the total value of the vehicle, and because they’re a mega corp, they’re getting away with it legally. In this case how else can the man on the street fight back? How other than blogging! Happy reading.