Me and my Mac

Posts Tagged ‘rant’

Where is WordPress heading? Idiocy to the max!

The devs have some weird ideas lately. And to be honest, while they do a great job, i like Wordpress less and less ever since 2.5 was introduced. Too much automation going on in there. Bah

What the hell is up with autosaving and revisions of posts. Not a bad feature per se, but make it optional please! It clogs up the database making it expand exponentially if you leave the browser open for a while.

And which idiot thought up that plugins should be automatically updated. But didn’t think about the problems it would bring. Many plugins are poorly written. Even more plugins require database additions from time to time. And NO plugin i ever seen has had a proper upgrade script or routine. It has to be done by hand. So, a few months ago when i released Events nearly every week and it required a bunch of new fields for storing that stuff. An automatic update would have been disasterous. As some of my users found out. Obviously because the database didn’t get updated. It had to be done manually. And as many of us know. Adding fields to a database is harder than uploading a few damn files. So while we’re at it. Just upload them your self and use the upgrade instructions the plugin maker provides. It’s makes your life just less annoying.

Another thing. Why can’t Wordpress show proper errors. Sometimes i encounter a plugin that won’t activate. Sometimes i screw up and break my own plugin. All fine. But with the error “A fatal error occured” i don’t know where to look. Give me the original PHP error dammit. And no WP_DEBUG does not work. I tried that and it made apache cry and me frustrated because it generated so much errors i couldn’t even find my own anymore. So no… Just provide proper errors.

Why is the Richtext editor still acting up. It has been around for years. It has been used by millions and still it’s stripped down, broken and useless for anything else than dumb typing of text. most plugins break because of it stripping out tags and stuff. We cannot add forms, we cannot add tables or anything else that requires more than bold or italic text formatting. It sucks!

Why the assumption that we need Windows Livewriter support. Make it optional! I don’t even use Windows. Why include a link to use Turbo on every dashboard page. What is Turbo anyway. Useless, no one uses Google Gears. I much rather have that option in Settings > Misc where i don’t see it.

Blah!

All in all Wordpress isn’t that bad. Truth be told… I still enjoy using Wordpress, most of the time. But some things just piss me off. Especially if they do not work right or make no sense. It’s becoming a fool proof system, which for me, a sort-off nerd, is crazy. I like some things to be done manually, i like to be in control of my own website. It’s getting less and less of that. Even at the point that i need to write plugins to disable the new automated stuff and hack things out to make it work as i like it. Yuk.

Wth is wrong with youngsters these days

Are they just getting more stupid? Twice in a day a dumbfounding encounter is not nothing… It’s amazing really. That such people can get away with it. I mean, come on. Read the following and think by yourself, are they that dumb? Or is there some hint of smartness in me after all. I think what i did today was nothing special yet none of the people helping me today, things they do all day long, did get it right…

Today i want to town to get some things, batteries for a labelwriter and some groceries.

At the first shop the girls at the register asked me what kind of batteries i wanted. So i told her “i need those thin-penlight-ones, called AAA”. Calculating that she might not know what AAA batteries are. She then turned around to the rack of batteries, discovered there were like 4 brands selling the same thing and asked me which brand. I said “whatever is cheap, i need 6 of them” i thought this to be enough information for her to get me the cheapest ones she sells. Varta which come in 6 packs, all other brand were either highly expensive or packed per 4. She then proceeded to grab Duracell batteries, which were more expensive then Varta ones and were in a 4-pack. I frowned and asked what was wrong with the Varta brand. “oh nothing” she said “but you asked for cheap ones”. I then pointed at the price. Varta ones were 4.99 for 6 +2 free (8 in total) and the Duracell ones were 5.89 for 4. She didn’t really get it.

I sighed and told her to get the Varta ones. After the checkout she still had that wondrous look on her face as if she had no clue what just happened. Her co-worker didn’t look to bright either, but atleast she smiled nicely

10 minutes later i was at the supermarket, grabbed the things i needed, went to the checkout, payed and noticed that the wrapping of the meat i bought was torn. I went to the customer service thing and told the girl what was wrong and asked for a new pack of meat. She then looked puzzled at me. I told her again, pointing at the hole in the packaging, that i wanted another pack of meat because this one was broken. “ah, ok, one moment” she replied and went on to give me my money back. While doing that i told her a replacement was fine also since i needed the product later today. I think she didn’t hear me because she was too busy figuring out how the cash register worked. It took 3 of them to figure it out and i got my money back. She handed me a few euros and looked happy with it. I asked her if i could not just get a replacement. Thinking of the mayhem caused if i were to go into the supermarket again and having to explain that everything in my bag was already paid for. She then exclaimed “Ooooh you want another one, i thought you just wanted your money back!” On which i replied; “Ofcourse i want a new one. This one is no good! Why else would i buy it and instantly return the thing.”

She set of to get me a new pack leaving me waiting with the returned money and it took her 10 whole minutes to return. She kindly explained to me she didn’t find one with the same exact price. Which i think is actually nice of her for trying, but if she knew about pricing she would know that that was not gonna work since the meat is priced per kilogram and thus none of the packs have the exact same price. She continued to explain me that the new pack required additional payment of 10 cents and billed me 10 cents. I looked at her puzzled and paid 10 cents. She went on to wrap up the transaction said goodbye and continued to help other customers. I stood there for almost a minute thinking if she really was that dumb then thought “Fuck all” and walked out. So i will be dining cheap tonight! 5 euros worth of meat for 10 cents… not a bad deal after all!

What is the world going to? We’re certainly doomed if this is not getting any better!

Is my site hard to use or navigate?

It seems a lot of people have trouble finding the right stuff on my site. Or they just are way to lazy to read and thus go through a series of steps which take much more time…

If you’re upgrading a plugin read the damn documentation. If you’re new to the plugins, read the damn documentation also!

Also with every plugin there is a included readme with either instructions or links to instructions! It’s not very hard! And very easy, really!

I spend time on making proper instructions so every idiot can do it. I try to provide detailed steps for everyone to upgrade the plugins you use and yet you do not get it and run to the forums and ask the same over and over again. I know i know. That’s how support works and that’s how life goes. But damn, if you just read my upgrade instructions. I think it’s pretty clear.

If it’s not… I’m sorry, but let me know what’s up. Where do you get stuck or what do you not understand about it? How can i improve it?

Also, on a regular basis i get questions about the capabilities of the plugins. “can it do that, can it do this”.
Let me tell you: If it’s in the features it can, otherwise not.
If you want it to do something that is not listed. Yes, you can place a feature request on the forum. But read the damn feature list and description instead of just running to the forum immediately and ask for things that are very clearly stated on the plugins page or on the FAQ on the forum.

Again, if you have read it. Where is it unclear and how can i improve it?

Asking around has resulted in everyone (so far) thinking my site is really really easy to navigate even if they don’t even use wordpress or have the slightest clue what, for example, the events plugin is they could find the information i asked them to look up. I don’t see why you cannot find it. But hey, that’s just me. So let me know if there is anything you have trouble with.
Or otherwise, read the manuals!

Fucking Deja-vú

Change of management seems to suck! Especially when you don’t seem to fit in “the plan”. And if somehow for no known reasons you make a wrong impression which is entirely the opposite of the truth it gets nasty! Been there, done that… Not up for going through it all over again! It’s only been 3 years or so. Go away!

Honestly!
Let me do my fucking work! If i do it right and there are no complaints (nothing else than some small incidents anyway) leave me be! Go bother someone else… Make yourself useful!

Yea… I’m angry, frustrated, annoyed, moody, irritated (random order) and now also very tired! Tired of constantly having to explain my every move, being watched and checked upon. Being questioned and engaging in talks to defend my “me” and why i’m not the person they have labeled me.

Must … ignore … the … sting!

Do i actually use all of my plugins?

Yes, i do…

Except for EasyBan i actively have all plugins in use to some extent. HiddenMedia was more of a testing thing for shortcode but i use it in one post none the less. Even AdRotate is used. You can see ads on most of the pages and posts promoting my plugins and selling one adspace.
Events has it’s own page and sits in the sidebar right below RandImage.

CustomQuery lies at the plugin managers feet waiting for queries and Worthless Plugin is being useless all day, happily. Currently it’s set to allow you here, but when maintenance is needed i close the site just as easy with AccessQontrol. My support pages show you Alternate Comment Form in action.

So you see… I make good use of most plugins. And you should too!

Death to all news sites reviewing iPhone and related crap!

I’m so tired of reading about every fucking app released on the App Store… How about some real news again. Reviewing scrabble and restaurant finders all week without reporting anything exciting just won’t cut it!
And every mac-”news” site does it! 5 days straight now.

Damn right the App Store is amazing! We get it, move on! Die in a hole! Geez. There are maybe a 1000 apps in the store. Stop reviewing them all!! It’s not news, not a rumor and not worth it! Get a life!

Rather write an in depth report on how sucky telecom providers are treating customers who want the damn iPhone and cannot get it due to unfair or plain stupid Terms of service and idiotic agreements. Now that would be something new to write about… yeah TUAW and Macworld and Ars (and the rest!). You suck lately!!

iTunes App Store mumbling

Bitchin’ about the App Store… yea not all news and articles can be positive…

Why is everything in multiple categories? It’s confusing and rubbish… It appears there is like a million things in there and its a lot of the same in every category… For example, any music related game is also in the music category. Personally i think games should not be in the music category even if it were Guitar Hero itself… No matter how music related it is. It’s a game and games have their own category.

Another thing i noticed is the sheer amount of things that are not free. Not that i expected everything to be free but it can amount to quite some expenses even if you just want to try a few things. I didn’t see a demo period for any of the apps i looked at.

For the time being i didn’t buy anything and i won’t until i get my iPhone… Which i ordered on friday, not at T-mobile since they didn’t have any, so i ordered one at my work easier and faster.

I hope to try some apps real soon i saw some nice ones but they were for the iPhone, like using the camera and stuff. Or using GPS functions the iPod lacks…

Other than that i didn’t see anything new yet in the software, but i didn’t look very hard yet.

Why does this sound so wrong?

I know Internet Explorer (IE) is a shitty browser… Atleast, in my experience it wasn’t so bad but it handles code a bit weird. Not following standards and all that. We (most) know this already. IE7 is no better and that one looks even ugly.

But that’s no reason to cut the majority of the market loose from your website by ‘not supporting the browser’. And if you do, why should that feel great? Knowing that you cripple your site for maybe 60% of the internet users. It’s bullshit!

I came across this on a website earlier today and it made me frown on that site. The guy who operates that site claims to be a webdeveloper too. I would never hire him just for the reason he decides IE6 is not worth it…

Bollocks!

Gmail is teh suck!

Why is there an “All mail” folder that keeps EVERY FUCKING MESSAGE i write, draft and delete.
What’s the point of deleting a message if its not deleted?
What’s the point of a spam folder when it’s kept in there?
Why is that stupid thing there in the first place…

When i delete a message in my mail application i want it to be gone, when i delete my spam mails from the “spam” box i want them to be fucking removed and not moved to the “all mail” folder on the Gmail webinterface.

When i write a message it does not have to save a copy of the mail with every letter i type…
Yes Gmail keeps all those too. When i browse the online thing some mails are in there a hundred times and when i compare them to see what’s up it’s the very same message but every time with one added character or word depending on how fast i was typing.

Currently i have over a 100MB, that’s in my case like 3000 messages, of emails in my Gmail account and i want to save maybe 20 messages of them. The rest is rubbish!

Yes i can delete them from the webinterface and the mails are gone. But i want the IMAP protocol to do that and not go into the webinterface and sift trough 3000+ messages to see which i want to keep and which can be deleted. It’s madness. I never use the damn webinterface i use OSX Mail.

Fuck no i care not about deleted message and hell no i don’t want to keep the Calvin & Hobbes comic i get every day. When i click delete i mean delete. And when i click “junk” i mean it’s junk and thus can be removed… So remove them already when i click it.

*argh!!*

Invasion of the idiots… A true story!

As you might know i work for Technical Support by phone for an AASP. Some days the phone is full of idiots and total brainfucks.

Varying from:
“my computer makes a ticking noise” (while its the enter key being stuck and the computer chimes, and thus doesn’t tick) to “my new wireless keyboard has no ‘return’ key” to “what’s the area code i have to fill in at registration”

It’s getting worse and worse…. Clueless sheep! That’s what they are!

People calling me having no clue what to do or why but won’t believe me when i say they never configured their Airport base stations and thus could never have used it. While they just saw they were on the wrong wifi network maybe for weeks and had to switch to “another” [their own] network in order to configure their airport… They say it’s impossible that they were on the wrong network all this time “because it always worked fine”. Meanwhile the settings clearly indicate the device wasn’t working. Don’t call me if you don’t believe me!

Why are people so hardheaded and thick that they cannot be a little more creative so that when at registration it says “i don’t want to try .Mac now” they know that if they click that they do not get .Mac. There is no need to call me to ask what that means…
Also when you are setting up your email address and it asks for an optional description. Why is it so hard to understand that you can leave it empty and if not, that it is a description and thus not important what you fill in there. Just something to recognize the thing by.

Get a GameBoy, it’s real easy, and go play Mario or something….

While i understand that people new to computers or Macs do not know what they are doing or not fully understand each option. Perfectly fine, thats why i have this job. But this is ridiculous!