//beconfused

Saw this at the Media Temple blog:

Update: April 8, 2008

We would like to extend our thanks for the continued understanding and patience of all of our customers affected by this incident. In an effort to bring you up to date we would like to share where we stand at this time.

Through internal testing and the continuing evaluation of our systems, (mt) Media Temple has concluded that the recent availability and latency problems of the (gs) Grid-Service product are related to segments of our current storage architecture.

Some time ago, we brought online additional storage resources to alleviate anticipated pressure points. Although we did see some very positive short-term improvements, things did not scale as far as our original projections showed. In order to meet these demands we are currently preparing additional hardware resources, to be completed and in place later today. Over the next few days and weeks, we will be rebalancing the storage load onto these new resources.

We would like all of our customers impacted by this to understand that we’re doing our best to provide a service that in no way exhibits the behavior you are currently seeing. This is our top priority and we are acting accordingly. Whenever possible, we’ve been able to minimize the length of time your service has been affected. Unfortunately, this has resulted in the small service interruptions that you have likely experienced during the course of this incident.

This System Status posting will continue to provide timely updates that have meaningful, useful information. Until such time we respectfully ask that any support requests that you have attached to this incident stay open. We promise to provide updates to this System Status blog, and notify any users that have submitted a support request related to these events. These two channels are currently the most effective way we can communicate vital information to our clients.

So no refund? Hahaa…

Media Temple has been hit by numerous issues recently. Things are responding slow. A couple of times I just lose my patience and went to bed. I hope things will be okay soon.

[By the way, I just upgraded to WordPress 2.5. It perks me up looking at the new interface, it's beautiful. I saw many comments complaining about the colors, the interface and the bugs. Perhaps I'm a little more forgiving here. I really love the colors and the interface! Not really loving the bugs though. Still a splendid job by the WordPress dev team. It's a work of art.]

I’m spending quite a bit of time on university assignments and now I’m sitting in front of the computer wondering if everything really that worth it. Is gaining that little bit extra mark that worth it. The deadline is January 2, 2008.

I have assignments for e-business, Java and a computing course.

My e-business module is quite screwed. I can’t really put things to words. I know how things work roughly here and there, the lessons are interesting, concepts are quite refreshing generally. Unfortunately it is a quarter filled with common-sense knowledge. They are trying to document common-sense step-by-step which is wasting lots of time and trees.

They had this thing called general system analysis process where they cleverly broken down the analyzation process into 4 steps:

1. Defining the problem
2. Describing the situation in enough depth
3. Designing potential improvements
4. Deciding what to do

But isn’t this just normal thought process? Just like, I am late for work. So I start thinking why I am late for work and I realized it’s because I miss my bus. And next time I’ll reach the bus stop earlier. I decide to wake earlier to go take a bus.

I’m just amazed how they can break a thinking process into a flow diagram.

Okay, enough ranting. I’ll go finish up my e-business assignment now. I’ve finished the Java assignment already, that’s something to be relieved about at least.

It’s just driving me nuts, shopping malls are all playing Christmas carols and it’s really starting to get annoying. They’ve played this much of kids singing through the speakers in the toilet. I hear kids singing loud and clear in the cubicle. So annoying till it actually made the hand-dryer machine sound like music to me.

I don’t know if it’s just me, the music seemed louder too. When is Christmas going to end? To me, Christmas seemed more like the time to earn quick bucks, just tons of marketing and discounts all around.

This week I had 4 text messages sent at my sleeping hours:

1. 3:41 AM
2. 4:05 AM
3. 4:38 AM
4. 4:43 AM

Erm… I am starting to wonder if people think I don’t sleep or something. Seriously, it’s quite inconsiderate to text me at those timings. I get awoken by my phone’s vibration, I didn’t set a ring tone even. I am all fine with people texting stuff that are important.

BUT all the four messages are sent by 3 different people request me to send this and that, a reminder to bring my camera to school to lend him, and 2 others to ask for phone numbers of other people. They’re asking for favors in the wee hours of the morning and none are particularly urgent. What are they thinking? Have they even considered I might have woke up just to entertain their messages.

I usually sleep at 2 AM, so be nice and don’t message me till morning. Ahh, like they would read my blog like that.

[On a side note: My friend was telling me that liver repair starts at 12 AM and stops at 3 AM in the morning. Any comments on how true that could be?]

I treat security fixes with a little more concern but really, it’s just annoying me that the WordPress upgrading process is quite a hassle. I know I know, you just upload the files and that’s all. But to load up my FTP program to do that - just too much of a hassle.

Every piece of web application should be able to receive updates easily. Today I’m upgrading WordPress, tomorrow I’ll be probably upgrading phpBB, the next day, probably CakePHP. It’s just too difficult to manage.

I was thinking that the PHP module may perhaps include some sort of an easy update function that all web applications can use. Developers just have to generate an XML file of the files that have been changed and a PHP function can just run to download all the files in a tmp folder and deploy it quickly.

Anyway, these are the updated files from WordPress 2.2.2 to 2.2.3:

• tags/2.2.3/wp-includes/default-filters.php (1 diff)
• tags/2.2.3/wp-includes/plugin.php (4 diffs)
• tags/2.2.3/wp-includes/query.php (3 diffs)
• tags/2.2.3/wp-includes/formatting.php (2 diffs)
• tags/2.2.3/wp-includes/feed-rss2-comments.php (2 diffs)
• tags/2.2.3/wp-includes/rewrite.php (1 diff)
• tags/2.2.3/wp-includes/version.php (1 diff)
• tags/2.2.3/wp-includes/pluggable.php (1 diff)
• tags/2.2.3/wp-includes/widgets.php (2 diffs)
• tags/2.2.3/wp-includes/rss.php (2 diffs)
• tags/2.2.3/wp-includes/vars.php (1 diff)
• tags/2.2.3/xmlrpc.php (2 diffs)
• tags/2.2.3/wp-mail.php (1 diff)
• tags/2.2.3/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php (1 diff)
• tags/2.2.3/wp-admin/admin-functions.php (2 diffs)
• tags/2.2.3/wp-admin/rtl.css (6 diffs)
• tags/2.2.3/wp-admin/options.php (1 diff)
• tags/2.2.3/wp-admin/install-rtl.css (1 diff)
• tags/2.2.3/wp-admin/widgets-rtl.css (1 diff)

You can download the new WordPress here. By the way, WordPress 2.3 is rolling out on September 24. So look out for it.

[via WordPress dev blog]

I was searching through CASE (Consumer Association of Singapore) with Google and I found this little section where they tell you some CASE tales. One of which goes this way:

A consumer had been using a set of kitchenware from a direct sales company for several years, but then received a phone call from a lady, asking for permission to send personnel to her flat to check the kitchenware. She agreed, thinking that she was calling from the company. The ‘technician’ that came to her flat told her that the kitchenware was defective, and not safe for cooking food. She was ‘persuaded’ to purchase a new set of kitchenware (and paid S$1,000 as deposit), which she later found out, was from another direct sales company instead. She approached CASE for assistance and advice.

CASE wrote in on behalf of the consumer to the 2nd direct sales company, citing that it had violated the Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act, by making misleading/false claims, and by not informing her of the 3-day cooling-off period. The vendor eventually made a partial refund of S$800 to the consumer. (Source: CASE)

(more…)

My mother just got cheated by some salesperson and is to pay $3200 for a wok and 6 lame designer pots that she doesn’t need. I’m sorry I’m just fucking pissed with the 2 salesladies.

They came to our house at 2, my mother let them in and it was a prearranged meeting. They gotten hold of our contact because my mother bought pots and pans from them 30 years ago. Can you believe it? Thirty years ago! God hasn’t created me that time.

And today, they came and start introducing. I have nothing against them trying to sell a product. They talked till 5. I was a little afraid that my mother would buy the product so I went to check on her.

Me: What are you selling?
She: A set of pots and woks, they win a Red Dot Design award and… (I don’t remember what she said, she talked for 5 minutes while I was eating an egg tart.)
Me: How much does it cost?
She: Oh, you can’t buy it.
Me: (puzzled) So why are you here?
She: I am here to conduct a survey.
Me: No, you’re selling something. How much does it cost?
She: You cannot buy this outside one. This set is exclusive.
Me: So how much does it cost? (I was feeling so what-the-fuck that time.)
She: This one is only available because your mother is a customer and she bought another set of pots and pans 30 years ago. She can trade in and get these new set of pots and woks in an exclusive deal.
Me: How much? (By then I am losing my patience.)
She: 3000-plus.

Conduct a survey. My ass. This type of sales tactic I see before like a hundred times. I left the house and my mother convinced me that she would not buy it. And guess what, my brother just informed me my mother decided to purchase it. (more…)