Washii Ponderings

Make believe...that it is real-believe

28 August, 2009

“What’s the point of saying things like that to me?” Pt. 2

Filed under: 'Nets — Washii @ 3:43 pm

So, I got a response from Microsoft regarding “What’s the point of saying things like that to me?”

Here follows the reply:
>>
Hello,

Thank you for contacting Microsoft Customer Service.

This is regarding the Service Request SRX1109907523ID.

We have received a reply from our colleagues and they have stated that Microsoft does not use BitTorrent or other P2P as an official distribution vehicle for Microsoft products.

If you have any additional questions or concerns, please write back to us.

Thank you,

(name removed)
Microsoft Customer Service Representative

If you have any feedback about your Online Customer Service experience, please send it to my manager, (name removed), by clicking the link below.
>>

Talk about not seeing the forest for the frickin’ trees.

Yeah, I sent feedback. Here it is:
>>
Subject: I wasn’t asking about P2P or BitTorrent!

The answer I got in this case makes no sense whatsoever. I wasn’t asking for Microsoft-authorized BitTorrents or P2P, since I know they won’t happen until they get their heads out of somewhere.

What I _was_ asking for is publically available file verification hashes on your files, especially the large ones like the Windows 7 RC DVD ISO! If I keep the ISO on a computer, I want to ensure it has the proper MD5, SHA-1 or SHA-512 hash.

The only time that BitTorrent even comes up is when mentioning that I had to find a site which DID have the hash around. They just happened to be uploading .torrents of the x86 and x64 ISOs to a particular BitTorrent site and helpfully posted the hashes for the full downloads from Microsoft (and, yes, I DID download the ISO from Microsoft).

I should not have to rely on a third party for something as simple as file verification hashes, especially on files >50-100MB. There is a very good reason that most Linux distributions have an MD5 or other verification file hash side-by-side to the download links.
>>

19 August, 2009

“What’s the point of saying things like that to me?”

Filed under: 'Nets — Washii @ 1:28 am

So, I just downloaded the Windows 7 RC DVD ISO from Microsoft, since the download links go dead on Thursday (2009-Aug-20). Figured I’d grab a copy to play with in VirtualBox until March or June.

After I downloaded it, I wanted to ensure I had a bit-for-bit perfect copy, something a torrent would have provided me, of course. So, I quickly searched Google and grabbed an MD5 given with some torrents uploaded to The Pirate Bay.

Okay, good, the MD5 passed. So, since I had the bug up my bum now, why not go pester Microsoft a little bit about adding MD5 hashes for all their files?

I got to the Microsoft Help and Support page, entered ‘file hash’ in the ‘Ask our Automated Customer Service Agent’ search bar and clicked ‘Ask’

Here’s what I got in the pop-up ‘chat’:

>>>>
Guest: file hash

Ask Customer Service: It seems I may be having trouble answering your question. I am available to assist with common customer service issues. For questions about error messages, technical issues, and how-to articles, visit our product solution centers by selecting your product.

Guest: provide file verification hashes with downloads MD5 SHA-1 SHA-512

Ask Customer Service: What’s the point of saying things like that to me?
>>>>

Err..what? Automated Customer Service FAIL.

(A crude PDF of the conversation is available by request.)

The text I sent to Microsoft on the ‘e-mail customer service’ page I had to dig for with that automated agent will follow, but first, want to know what is awesome? The header for the page is: “E-mail this converstation to a Customer Service Support Agent”

That’s directly copy-pasted. They allowed a misspelling like ‘converstation’ onto a production contact page!

Here’s the text I sent them:
>>>>
_Please_ provide publically-available MD5/SHA-1/SHA-512 file hashes for your downloadable files! I just downloaded the Windows 7 RC from Microsoft before the download links are pulled on 2009-Aug-20.

After I downloaded it, I wanted to ensure I had a mostly _bit-for-bit_ copy, and had to resort to a blog post of somebody uploading torrents for x86 and x64 to a notorious BitTorrent tracker. Thankfully, they also listed the ‘true’ MD5s there, which matched the ISO I downloaded directly from Microsoft.

–Now I have to nitpick:
First, if I make a request on the ‘Automated Customer Service Agent,’ and that request is “provide file verification hashes with downloads MD5 SHA-1 SHA-512,” the Automated Agent _better damn well NOT_ reply with “What’s the point of saying things like that to me?” and then ask me in the same ‘breath’ if that answered my question.
My blog post about that is here: http://washii.110mb.com/blog/?p=185
I also made a crude PDF of the chat.
>>>>

However, the text box was character locked, something they failed to mention on that page. Here’s what I actually wanted to send them:
>>>>
_Please_ provide publically-available MD5/SHA-1/SHA-512 file hashes for your downloadable files! I just downloaded the Windows 7 RC from Microsoft before the download links are pulled on 2009-Aug-20.

After I downloaded it, I wanted to ensure I had a mostly _bit-for-bit_ copy, and had to resort to a blog post of somebody uploading torrents for x86 and x64 to a notorious BitTorrent tracker. Thankfully, they also listed the ‘true’ MD5s there, which matched the ISO I downloaded directly from Microsoft.

Now I have to nitpick:
First, if I make a request on the ‘Automated Customer Service Agent,’ and that request is “provide file verification hashes with downloads MD5 SHA-1 SHA-512,” the Automated Agent _better damn well NOT_ reply with “What’s the point of saying things like that to me?” and then ask me in the same ‘breath’ if that answered my question.
As shown in the ‘Questions submitted’ text, I mentioned I was going to blog about it. That post is available here: http://washii.110mb.com/blog/?p=185 (A stand-alone WordPress installation).
I also made a crude PDF of the chat with the Automated Agent which I will try to keep for perpetuity.

Second, on this ‘e-mail a customer service support agent page (https://support.microsoft.com/contactus/emailcontact.aspx), ‘conversation’ is spelled wrong in the header.
It should be
“E-mail this conversation to a Customer Service Support Agent”
and not
“E-mail this converstation to a Customer Service Support Agent”

I make that error too, but it’s really awful that got into production.
>>>>

18 August, 2009

Parents Billed for Children Missing School

Filed under: Life — Washii @ 2:10 am

I was reading through my backlog of Raymond Chen’s The Old New Thing when I finally got to this article: Parents billed when kids miss school

The article reminded me of, I believe, Sophomore year high school, where I’d built up a small number of parental-excused absences. Near the end of the year, we received a notice from the school that if I had one or two more absences, excused or no, I would be sent to truancy court at the county seat (which is an annoying length away from the largest city in the county).

So, because I had some excused absences build up over the course of the school year (dentistry, orthodontia, a few other things) and was easily maintaining a grade average of B or more, I would be sent to truancy court.

Y’know, I wonder. Would they have made me ’skip’ school to go to truancy court for having too many excused absences? At least that one would be government excused, I suppose.

23 June, 2009

Thoughts from the Matrix (..of Thoughts) 1

Filed under: Life — Washii @ 1:51 am

I was pondering the old question “Do you use sex-specific honorifics with peace officers?” (Sir vs. Sir and Ma’am) when I remembered a Dear Abby I read a while back (yes, I read Dear Abby. It’s amusing) (also, yes, I just decided to ponder about this out of the blue..matrix of thoughts, get the title?).

Some woman was absolutely adamant that “Ma’am” was short for “Mammy,” an old term used for the family ‘nanny’ slave during slavery. Judging by the letter, this woman was into her early middle age.

She would admonish anybody who called her “Ma’am,” saying it related to slavery (and even admonished if it was used on others around her, judging by the vitriol of the published letter). How this woman could have made it as far as to have ‘Dear Abby’ tell her she was absolutely mistaken boggles my mind.

“Ma’am” has nothing to do with “Mammy,” it’s shortened “Madam(e).” How do you get into your adult life without knowing this?

The woman wrote in asking ‘Abby’ to tell the world what “Ma’am” stood for. Apparently without this woman herself ever checking a dictionary. Webster’s even.

I truly wish common sense was a whole lot more common.

16 May, 2009

Make Your Day? Crock of Bullshit.

Filed under: Life — Washii @ 5:45 pm

Recently on the Wenatchee CraigsList ‘Rants and Raves’ have been some rants about Make Your Day in the Wenatchee School District.

Interestingly, I’ve been thinking about MYD off and on recently (past 8-10 months). All negative. I experienced the Make Your Day system at the old Eastmont Junior High, 8th and 9th grades. It consisted of the 6 periods, each worth 45 points (possibly 50). The last 5-10 minutes of each period was relegated to the time where you assigned yourself points for the period (and the teacher asked each student about the number). That in itself was a complete waste of time.

Better yet, the teacher or other students may challenge the number of points you gave yourself according to your classroom conduct. In my experience, this rarely ever happened, as we were already scrambling for time to get to our next class in the five minute break between periods.
At the last class of the day, the teacher would also generally ask you if you ‘made your day,’ meaning that you weren’t off the ‘perfect’ goal by more than 12-15 or so points. If you didn’t make your day, the rule was supposed to be that you went to a Step Four (read on for what that entailed). I doubt that was ever really followed, since it didn’t take much to lie about whether or not you made the day.

I don’t believe I ever failed to make my day. And that is being absolutely truthful.

My favorite (and only? can’t remember) experience was being put on Steps because I refused to go up front to a projector and answer a problem.

So, what did this do? Well, first, that teacher and I were already antagonistic. We never liked each other. So, no real difference there. Second, I had to sit out of the class for ten minutes or so, until the teacher had ‘time’ and could interrupt the lesson to come take me off steps. So, that was ten minutes where, as part of my ‘punishment,’ my learning was being retarded, as well as the others in the class because of an interrupted curriculum. (This was the only instructor in my entire academic career that I felt ever posed as a real antagonist. Still don’t have any good thoughts about them to this day.)

In an instance of a rant on Craigslist, one mother recounted how she had to leave work to attend her child’s Step Four (mandatory meeting with parent(s), teacher and school administration) because of gum chewing. She had to explain to her boss why she had to leave work: because the school administration was a bunch of dipshits, requiring her to attend a meeting because of gum chewing. An awful crime, that.

Good job, Make Your Day folks! All you’ve done is retard already poor learning in the American school systems. Pat yourselves on the back and give yourselves 50 points for this period!

22 April, 2009

Anime o’ The Day: Shikabane Hime

Filed under: Anime and Manga — Washii @ 4:39 pm

(lit. Corpse Princess)

So. This is horridly out of date, though I really haven’t been watching much anime lately. Hoping to change this soon. Currently 19 of 25 episodes down, having started the 18th of April.

Currently watching this on Joost (series direct link). It’s the official Funimation sub, which has worked out a little better than I expected. Wonder how bad a dub would be, though.

Second-Tier Canon

Filed under: Anime and Manga — Washii @ 4:36 pm

I found out what this means today (within a few seconds of being introduced to the concept)…at least, in regards to Neon Genesis Evangelion:

“trustworthy unless in conflict with the show itself”.

Huh. Canonicity stuff is fun.

(Source – AnimeNation Forums, re: NGE2)

Identity Theft? By Bullheaded Prosecutors

Filed under: 'Nets — Washii @ 11:14 am

I was watching The Today Show this morning, where they interviewed a lady whom was a retired VP from Wells Fargo. Several years back, her wallet was stolen while on a trip to San Francisco. (Link – Story at the San Francisco Chronicle)

She did all the right things: filed reports with the police and her bank, canceled the credit cards, filed fraud alerts with the credit agencies. Some time passes. Then, police call to tell her she would be arrested for felony fraud.

The police came to her home, arrested her and walked her out in front of all her neighbors, handcuffed. She was arrested for 19 counts of felony fraud and some other ‘identify theft’-related crimes. The identity theft victim became the suspect.

For over half a year she fought in court. Turns out she was fully arraigned because her handwriting (from a handwriting test) was so similar to the handwriting on checks cashed by a specific woman who pulled over 60,000 dollars from various Well Fargo customers. That included this lady’s bank account. The DAs never inspected her banking or phone records, and it took those months to even fingerprint any of the checks, even though they fingerprinted her within days of being arrested.

Shocker? None of the checks had this lady’s fingerprints on them. The DA dropped the charges on grounds of insufficient evidence to convict. The police detectives publicly stated to the newspapers that they still believed this woman should go to jail. She’s a prime suspect only because her handwriting was similar to that on the fraudulent checks.

And the justice system…it isn’t corrupt? This woman is now attempting to be reimbursed some of the $50,000 she paid to her attorneys; money that some puny DA, with absolutely no evidence, essentially defrauded of her. That leaves out roughly $20,000 that Wells Fargo had to reimburse for cashing out the fraudulent checks. And they probably only did that because she was a retired VP.

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