Zune on Windows-7 sucks
When Windows 7 was available to use (as a MSDN subscriber), I installed the Ultimate edition. Things were slow to get fully running (hardware), but eventually people updated drivers and I'm a happy camper.
About a month ago my Zune (30GB) stopped working. If I looked at hardware, it was there, but not working properly. So I uninstall, clean the registry, reboot, install new software, and go through the detect sequence. I've done this dozens of times, hoping that something kicks in and the hardware (made by Microsoft) is recognized by Windows 7 (made by Microsoft).
But no. I get this every time.
So. Microsoft, want to fix your stupid software drivers?
Here's the funny part. We've tried this on two laptops, a desktop and a netbook. Everything but the Netbook gave us the same install error. Right now I'm running three Zune loads (different devices) from my Netbook. The cheapest device of them all.
Microsoft Fail!
PS: If I sound pissed it is because I am.
The bible does not work well in an eBook format
The first book I bought after purchasing my Kindle2 was an NIV version of the Bible. Today I went in and submitted a review, which I must say, was not very positive. Even as I typed the review I became aware of the fact that perhaps it was not the book that failed as much as the platform. Then again, people need to know that their normal use pattern will need to change or they should stick with the traditional paper version.
CC @goXunuReviews on Flickr
Did the hardware vendor, in this case Amazon, fail to fully understand how certain books are used and thus provide the ability for the author to implement? Or was it that the author simply didn't go through the necessary work in order to properly catalog and tie the proper metadata/hierarchy/taxonomy?
My biggest gripe is the ability to find book chapter:verse reference through the "find" feature. Most times, if you are in a study or attending church, people will reference something like "John 16:28" and expect that you can find it pretty quickly. If you do this within this book, you will not find anything. That on top of the failure of a navigation structure, means to find the "John 16:28" takes 35 separate actions on my part:
- Click menu button
- Select "Table of Contents" (may have to use joystick)
- Push (down on stick)
- Use joystick (down 7 times)
- Push (down on stick)
- Select "John" by using joystick (down 6 times)
- Select "16" (down on stick 4 down, 2 right)
- Push (down on stick)
- Select "28" by using joystick (down 4 times, right 7 times)
- Push (down on stick)
So what now? You are in the book of John, chapter 16 verse 28, do you actually have any indication that you are there? Of course not. There is no context awareness as to where you are within the body of a book (best example is chapter), only the display of what word or character count (and percent complete), indicated as "Locations". You cannot jump ahead to each chapter without navigating back to the Table of Contents and hoping that the chapter is listed. This same problem carries over into search results; no indication of what book chapter:verse the item was located in.
I hope that as Amazon looks at the next multi-touch version of the Kindle(3?), that they include a better taxonomy awareness, allowing for a higher level of navigation and usability.
If I had designed a software application that required 35 actions to perform a task my Human Factors Engineering team would hang me up.
They can do better.
Now I am excited to see how my bible study uses a new live-blogging, live-sharing, live-questioning approach during sermons and studies from http://www.youversion.com (about). Imagine reading scripture together at the same time, on a web-enabled device, listening to the sermon over the web, and being able to ask questions during it that the pastor answers (live). This has potential.
Is this a new support model from Cox Communications?
I have been a customer of theirs for nearly 15 years now in the East Phoenix Valley. What started with cable eventually grew into internet and eventually digital phone. Since becoming a customer I've seen their support model grow and the ability to actually talk to someone who works for Cox dwindle and fade. Even today, most of the support you receive (phone or at your home) is actually provided by a third party contractor working for Cox.
For the last several years I've noticed a degradation in the quality of my internet service at home. The funny part is that they started charging me more for a higher-speed service. So after getting tired of speeds ranging from 0.2 to 3.0 Mbps, I decided to do some research and discovered that I indeed had a higher limit service (that I was paying for) but I needed to upgrade my modem.
What? You mean you upgraded my service, charged me more, and never told me I needed to get a different, newer, modem to take advantage of the faster speeds? Yes sir, if you buy a DOCSIS 2.0 (or higher) modem, you will see faster speeds since we see nothing wrong with your line.
Now I have no issue in buying a new modem to support speeds that were 3-5 times faster than what I was getting with my old one, but....could you possibly tell me? Why charge me for a service that you knew (based on down the wire diagnostics) that I wasn't using? Shady? Perhaps.
So, I upgraded and my speeds now began to peak around 12 Mbps (down) and my up speeds were bouncing off of the 3 Mbps (about a 10x increase).
I was happy.
That was until recently; I've noticed performance start to shift and degrade at sporadic times during the day. Sometimes everything would be humming along and I would get kicked offline. So I would pick up the phone and there would be no dial tone.
Yup, internet and phone offline. Good thing my T-Mobile service is more reliable than my Cox systems.
So I was a tad upset and posted a less than nice tweet to Twitter:
Cox service sucks. Making me really question having hpone and internet with the same company. (source)
Since this was more of a venting exercise I thought nothing of it until I received a public reply:
@CoxTech1? Want to help? Stop my Internet and Phone from going down at the same time. Glad my cellular service isn't at that level. (source)
This began a hailstorm of responses using direct messaging inside Twitter, a total of 10 back and forth messages, resulting in my tweet:
Super impressed that @CoxTech1 is taking the time to troubleshoot via Twitter (source)
Needless to say, I used Twitter to send some IP information, modem MAC address and some other data which resulted in a line diagnostic and appointment for today. At 8:45 am, End2End Technologies (for Cox) came by, did some in-home inspection and tightened all connections at the street, house. He also noticed some line noise and added some filters to address.
Is my problem solved? Until it's a regular business day and everyone is home cruising the web (around 6 pm), I can't tell.
Although, I am impressed. But they should know, I don't use their lame TV service, I have HD-Dish with my super dual DVR.
 Before Service |
 After Service |
The real test will be if it stays solid. Then again, bouncing against a real server in a really connected city, gives me significantly different results.
After Service, to LA