Archive for the ‘rants’ Category

Google Bug When Searching Using “Specific date range”

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

Just came across this bug when using Google’s “Specific date range” search option …

Showing a Google Bug in<br /> their Date Search

Google allows a number of ways to filter via their “Show Options” link above the standard search results. Clicking “Show Options” opens a column on the left with more options including the ability to specify a date range. Notice their suggested date format (dd/m/yyyy) and the date format I am using in my example search following the suggested same date/month order. Oops!

Google is localising the suggested date format but not handling the localised input.

On the right you can see using m/dd/yy it works fine.

(And no – no different if I use yyyy instead of yy).

Posted in random, rants, usability | No Comments »

Bugs in WS_FTP after Multiple Versions

Wednesday, August 20th, 2008

Update: I watered this down after someone from Ipswitch contacted me interested in resolving the issues. I will post progress.

I use WS_FTP by Ipswitch as an FTP client partly just through habit and the issues with migrating a bunch of accounts across to new software. There are some continuing issues with the software that bug the hell out of me.

These have been there multiple versions and I have seen these issues on multiple computers (XP and Vista).

  1. When using “Link Folders” and moving through directories and where the directories are not present on the client machine (and being created by the software) at some point the software can lose track of the link and link the wrong directory on the client machine. If you are not paying attention you end up with a bunch of folders you will need to delete.
  2. A similar issue – after uploading a file the current directory will change on the client or server. If you don’t spot this it is very easy to overwrite a file (think index.php!).
  3. Occasionally the software will crash completely when trying to delete a folder on the client.

I will list any other issues I come across here. Maybe someone will take notice and respond.

Posted in rants, tools | No Comments »

Stop Apple Software Update trying to install Safari all the freakin time …

Wednesday, August 6th, 2008

Update – one more thing while I remember. What is the use of an update utility that ignores your previous preferences? Why do I get a Quicktime link in the Quick Launch area every time it updates? As a rule I have found Apple’s software to be miles behind their hardware in usability and intuitiveness. Why is that?

Don’t want Safari? Apple wants you to want it and obscures the way to stop this.

Found this information on a forum somewhere …

1. Run Apple Software Update (there is probably link in your start menu somewhere)
2. Check for updates so you can see the Safari option.
3. Highlight Safari (I had to click the checkbox as well).
4. Choose Tools from the top menu.
5. Click Ignore Selected Updates.

In theory the software shouldn’t check for it again.

Posted in random, rants | 4 Comments »

Amazon’s Seller Central SOAP API

Tuesday, July 15th, 2008

Very disappointing experience working with Amazon.com’s Seller Central APIs. Their documentation is frankly very bad. Undocumented and incorrectly documented aspects will make the curve to get this working unnecassarily steep. Their support is not responsive. The forums are not overly helpful although you can see similar issues coming up. Disappointing for such a large and groundbreaking web-based company, especially as they are looking to promote their Web Services infrastructure to developers.

The comments in this article are very accurate of my thoughts/experience implementing Amazon’s Seller Central SOAP API using PHP (they are using Java) …

My time getting to the ‘hello world’ stage on this interface was measured in days vs minutes for pretty much every other system I have worked with.

Good notes on implementing Amazon’s Seller Central SOAP API

That article should help anyone regardless of the particular language they are using to do this. It helped me with one important final aspect that was undocumented by Amazon.

For more specific notes on doing this with PHP check out the last chapter of this book …

The Web Developer’s Guide To Amazon E-Commerce Service

A couple of key things in there will overcome issues with the particular way the Amazon SOAP server works. There will still be problems – but that will get you much of the way.

Note: don’t waste your time with Amazon AIM. As the article above mentions, unless you have an old account migrated from Amazon’s Marketplace system it will only work to download reports – it will not allow adding or updating products.

Posted in amazon, coding, php, rants | 1 Comment »

Microsoft Outlook 2007 Sucks at HTML email

Thursday, May 1st, 2008

Microsoft – why don’t you just disable HTML email in Outlook 2007 rather than implement it so badly?

It now uses Microsoft Word’s rendering engine. The interesting thing is what happens when you forward on an email. You can view the source in Outlook which hides the transformations it is applying – but it isn’t until you forward it and view the source of that email that you can see what trash it is converting it too.

Why should I have to revert to using a table to create a simple border round a block of text when this should be able to be achieved with a div and css?

According to this list of what isn’t supported at Sitepoint (Microsoft Breaks HTML Email Rendering in Outlook 2007) …

no support for background images (HTML or CSS)
no support for forms
no support for Flash, or other plugins
no support for CSS floats
no support for replacing bullets with images in unordered lists
no support for CSS positioning
no support for animated GIFs

you can add inconsistent support for most everything else!

Posted in css, design, email, html, rants | 1 Comment »

Network Solutions Sucks A S S

Wednesday, April 30th, 2008

I have always thought they were overpriced and annoying to deal with – but over the last couple of days I have seen two clients utterly confused by the way Network Solutions tastes names when you check availability. Wonder why when you go to another registrar why you can’t get the domain – that is because Network Solutions has taken it (they release it after 4 days supposedly). Anyway – they are being sued – but they are still doing the practice with the goal of protecting their clients! Or is that confuse – or is that stifle competition?

They are not the only registrar that does this – but they suck the most anyway.

read more | digg story

Posted in domains, rants | No Comments »

F*** New Zealand Telecom and F*** Central Government for Slow Internet in New Zealand

Sunday, March 16th, 2008

Slightly annoyed about crap upload speeds in New Zealand.

Telecom was gifted a monopoly on infrastructure for telecommunications. They have sat on the infrastructure, screwing consumers and businesses for years with bad internet.

Central Government gives lips service to New Zealand’s future as a knowledge economy but have only recently put real pressure on Telecom.

Internet in New Zealand is an embarassment (paying $20/hour in a downtown-Auckland hotel for dial-up speeds) and a drain on the productivity of all business. I have heard visitors to New Zealand from Europe or the United States laugh at our slow speeds and high pricing. They haven’t even heard of caps on traffic. These people are not all IT professionals.

So again … F*** New Zealand Telecom and F*** Central Government for Slow Internet in New Zealand.

Posted in internet, new zealand, rants | No Comments »