Archive for the ‘Rant’ Category

Uniservity’s cLc is such a piece of shit

Tuesday, May 17th, 2011

Uniservity’s cLc is such a piece of shit. Does anybody actually use it as a learning platform? Seriously, I spend more time fighting its stupid predefined CSS rules, ‘WYSIWYG’ editor and auto HTML ‘cleanup’ (of perfectly valid HTML, I hasten to add) in in order to get the content displayed properly than I do actually creating the content in the first place.

I don’t know why anyone would, of their own free will, decide to use it as a VLE, let alone using it to host their website as we do now. We’re starting to roll out Moodle which is just so much easier to use, as well as having access to the code which makes it easier to modify/expand where neccessary. Just need to find a decent CMS and move the website over, and we’ll be free! (Well, technically free, but someone signed up to another three years of service last year without consulting me, so we’ll still be paying for it.)

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Globet’s Customer Serivce

Tuesday, August 10th, 2010

Well, that was a ‘great’ customer service experience for me. I requested a withdrawal from my Globet account on the 3rd of August. It was only for a small sum (<£80), to be paid via Moneybookers. Withdrawals are 'immediate', with the caveat that they need to be confirmed first, and the confirmation takes an unspecified length of time.

I had a live chat discussion on Sunday night, and was told to call their accounts department during the week to enquire as to the status of my withdrawal, I couldn't get any further information at the time because the department was closed.

I called this morning and was informed that nobody was available in the accounts department, but I should call back this afternoon.

So I called back this afternoon, and spoke to a woman who obviously didn't want to talk to me. She was rude and completely unhelpful from the start, informing me that nobody was available in the accounts department but she couldn't tell me when anyone would be; also there wasn't a manager available who could possibly help me. The accounts department has no direct line, nor do any of the managers. After audibly sighing, she told me to call back later or send a message through the website and then hung up. This was after 6 minutes, for a call which I was on hold for over half the time.

Now I've had the misfortune of working customer service as part of a previous job. I know what it's like speaking to a customer who treats you like a piece of shit and am all times polite, although persistent. Globet can proudly say their customer service is on the same level as Dell, although I'm not sure that is anything to be proud of.

This will certainly be the last time that I use Globet, and I still have one more withdrawal for which I'll probably have to repeat the same procedure.

On the plus side, they sent me my first withdrawal less then 10 minutes after getting off the phone with them. Quite surprising considering considering there was nobody in the accounts department.

Edit: Received second withdrawal.

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Discrimination

Monday, October 2nd, 2006

From 1 October 2006, new laws protect workers from age discrimination. The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations make it illegal for employers to discriminate against employees, trainees or job seekers because of their age and ensure that all workers, regardless of age, have the same rights in terms of training and promotion

Employment Equality (Age) Regulations

From everything that I’ve read, this law seems to be aimed at preventing discrimination against older people. OK, that’s great, but what about younger people? I’m currently looking for a job, and about half of the positions I’ve looked at have contained something in reference to experience. Who is least likely to have experience? School leavers, for instance.

In society’s effort to give everybody an equal opportunity, have we in fact begun to discriminate against the majority? I’m sure that this law and laws like this were written/passed with the best of intentions, but combine political correctness with the complete incompetence of the government, and they only seem to shift the discrimination from one group to another. And, like laws to ‘prevent terrorism’ and ‘protect the children’, who wants to be the person who objects to them?

This story comes to mind when talking about discrimination. The guy was refused the position because of the colour of his skin as a result of a law which was supposed to prevent discrimination. Isn’t that the fucking definition of discrimination? But, he was white, so it must be OK?

Don’t get me wrong, I have the greatest respect for Nelson Mandela, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King and anybody who has stood up for the right to be treated as equals. I think that discrimination on any grounds (race, gender, religion, age, sexual orientation, etc… ) is a disgusting practice, but it seems to me that most laws actually seem to have the adverse effect, and end up discriminating against the majority. In most situations, the above traits are irrelevant, and should not be considered. However, there are positions where certain traits are advantageous. I am hardly suited to becoming a priest, and anybody to suggest otherwise is a moron. If I am refused that position simply because I am not religious, is that discrimination? I would say no, but it would not surprise me if I could sue the church for turning me down because of that. And damn it, if everybody else gets an equal opportunity, I want one too!

I’m a white, agnostic, heterosexual male aged 18-35. Is it actually possible for me to be discriminated against? In the eyes of the law, I suspect not.

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Warner to push ‘Music DVDs’

Saturday, August 5th, 2006

Wall Street Journal article

Are they trying to encourage consumers to break the law?

My budget for anything is rather limited. Most of my music is downloaded through eMusic or AllofMP3. I have no problem with paying £5 per month for a subscription to eMusic, even if I only download one album a month the cost of the subscription is less than what it would cost to purchase that album in a physical form. If the album isn’t available on eMusic, I’ll download it from AllofMP3. I do occasionally purchase CDs, from artists whose music has either been recommended from a friend, or I’ve downloaded from AllofMP3.

As a Linux user, I already have to break the DRM every time I play a DVD. While I am not sure if this is against the law in the UK, it is certainly a violation of the DMCA. Now they want to add the same copy protection to music? I listen to most of my music on my PC or an MP3 player which means I would have to rip the tracks, breaking the law in the process. According to the Wall Street Journal article there will be pre ripped tracks on the DVD, but these will be ‘essentially identical’ to those downloadable from iTunes, which probably includes the DRM. There is no iTunes for Linux, and I’m not willing to switch back to Windows or get a Mac, so again I’ll end up breaking the law should I have to convert these into a usable format. Whatever I do, I’m going to end up breaking the law, so why not just download the music illegally
anyway?

This makes me wonder, is the music industry trying to move to a new business model of suing it’s customers?

Of course, this new format will also have to be more expensive than current CDs.

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