Archive for September, 2008

Apple’s Excellent Customer Service

Sep 26th

Posted by John Jiang in Thought

Lately, I’ve grown extremely irritant towards anybody who does not show a gesture of “kindness”. Clients at work who do not say “Goodbye” before they hang up, drivers who do not bother stopping at the zebra crossing, random people on the street who are just rude in general. It ticks me off just by thinking about how unthoughtful and rude some people can get at people they don’t even know.

I had to visit the Optus Store twice, call up Optus thrice and sign the same contract twice just to get the name changed on the owner of my iphone plan. Once should be enough. Not to mention it took Optus nearly 4 weeks to actually deliver me the iphone.

This is the conversation I had with the woman at the Optus World Store.

Me: I’m wondering…how many people have actually RECEIVED their iphone?
Woman: What is your number?
Me: Sorry?
Woman: What is your number? So I can check to see if we have it.
Me: (Tells her my number)
Woman: Oh…it’s available now
Me: (WHY THE FUCK HAVE NOT CALLED ME TO COLLECT IT THEN YOU DUMB BITCH?!)
Me: So when was it available?
Woman: Yesterday
Me: (WHY THE FUCK WAS I NOT CALLED YESTERDAY?!)

I tried to get a free iphone case off her to compensate but she just shook her head at me.

About a week after I got my phone I went to the apple store and bought a dock and a $40 dollar case…two month later…the case broke. Just to make it even more ironic, I scratched my iphone sometime between getting my iphone and putting it on. I believe that I scratched the screen putting on the case, perhaps there were some hard dust particles trapped beneath the screen protector which I somehow managed to scrap across the screen.

That said, I was sad, I always tend to get over excited about new technology that I over look taking care of it, I tend to take good care after something once I’ve gotten over it. Unfortunately, it’s during the process of getting over it that I damage it. Once it’s damaged, you hardly ever care about it.

So today, I decided to visit the Apple Store again for two reasons:

  1. See if they can replace/trade it
  2. Purchase some screen protectors

I first tried to replace my broken screen. Took it to the counter and the guy told me the case is not an apple product so they cannot support me, they advised me to email the manufacturer. I thought this was fair enough, but still a bit upset that they couldn’t just help me out with the problem.

I then went up to the second floor to look for screen protectors. There was a Apple techie replacing some cases on the shelves so I decided to give me a chat:

Me: Hi, do you know how to remove scratches from the Iphone screen?
Tech: Hmm…you don’t?
Me: If I did I wouldn’t be asking you…
Tech: No as in…you don’t
Me: Oh…
Tech: Let me see the scratch
Me: *hands over iphone*
Tech: How did you scratch it?
Me: I think I scratched it putting on one of these cases *points to case*
Tech: That’s impossible *takes out pen* Look. *Grabs nearest sample itouch and begins to stab the shit out of it using the pen*
Me: …
Tech: If I can do that to the screen and not scratch it I doubt one of these cases can. Where did you get your iphone?
Me: Optus Store
Tech: Maybe you can talk to them…and possibly get them to replace it…if you’re lucky.

At these point I realised I’ve lost the game. As soon as a techie tells you to call/visit/email some external source, 99% of the time they don’t want to deal with your situation and most likely not want to help.

Me: *sad face*
Tech: Have you got insurance?
Me: Nope…
Tech: You know what, let me talk to one of the technicians upstairs and see what we can do for you.
Me: Sure, thanks
Tech: *walks away*

I honestly wondered if he’ll really be back with anything or it was just one of those “Let me put you on hold whilst I do nothing” sorta thing.

~5 minutes Later~

Tech: We can book you in for a session upstairs
Me: Okay
Tech: *grabs my details* (The computer said that the soonest session was at 4)
Me: …

I can’t really remember what happened next but for some reason he went back upstairs to speak to someone. He came back 5 minutes later again

Tech: Okay we’re going to replace your iPhone
Me: *heart just skipped a beat*
Tech: I’ve talked to one of the people upstairs and we can call it “manufacturing defect” and replace your iphone
Me: That’s great, thanks a lot!
Tech: Come back at 4 for your appointment
Me: Sure, thanks!
*shakes hand*

I ended up going to a net cafe to waste time, I tried getting a game of dota in but…my comp didn’t have the map and nobody was willing to let me download…so I just played Cod4 single player.

Eventually, I went to the Apple Store again and retrieved my iPhone. The only downside was that I lost 5 days worth of SMSes and Pictures since I last synced my iphone with itunes 5 days ago…

I also purchased screen protectors for $20, when I got back home I looked it up on ebay and somebody in Chatswood was selling it for $8 AND it covered both front and back…so I bought that as well.

So in the end I’ve spent around $150 on iphone accessories. I’m in the process of getting $30 back from my “dock extender” and also hopefully I can return the “Nu form” case I purchased off the Apple Store.

All in all, Apple has great customer service.

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Tutorial: xorg Metamodes – Running Fullscreen Games on 1 monitor in a dual display

Sep 23rd

Posted by John Jiang in Tutorial

7 comments

A problem I’ve encountered since setting up dual display using Nvidia Twinview inside linux is that when playing full screen games I run into the problem where:

a) The game tries to run across the two displays but cuts off in the middle, so you only get the game on one monitor whilst your other monitor is naked

or

b) The game runs like it should on the primary monitor…however the window doesn’t capture the mouse and your second monitor is left open

It gets extremely annoying.

One workaround I’ve been using is disabling the second monitor and reenabling it once I’m done. Being a programmer…I thought…there should be a better way! So I googled a bit and found this solution which I will write up, for my own reference in the future should I encounter this problem and for anybody else who might be having the same issue.

So to sum up, this tutorial will allow you to play a fullscreen game on ONE monitor in a dual display setup.

  1. Open up a terminal
  2. First we should probably backup your xorg.conf just type ‘sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.backup’
  3. Type ‘sudo vim /etc/X11/xorg.conf’ Replace vim with your text editor of choice
  4. Scroll down until you see the “Screen” block for your PRIMARY monitor. It should look something like this:

    Section "Screen"
    Identifier "Screen0"
    Device "Videocard0"
    Monitor "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth 24
    Option "TwinView" "1"
    Option "TwinViewXineramaInfoOrder" "DFP-0"
    Option "metamodes" "CRT: 1280x1024 +1680+0, DFP: 1680x1050 +0+0"
    EndSection
  5. On the second last line which contains the word “metamodes” you’ll need to change it to this:

    Option "metamodes" "CRT: 1280x1024 +1680+0, DFP: 1680x1050 +0+0"; DFP: 1280x1024 +0+0,NULL"

    Replace 1280×1024 by the resolution of the game that you play on. However, EVERYBODY’s xorg.conf file will be different, make sure you adhere to the formatting of your file.
  6. Reboot your computer or simply press CTRL+ALT+BACKSPACE to restart X
  7. Open the game you wish to play and hopefully everything is working

Feel free to post any problems you may have after following this tutorial and I’ll try my best to help.

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Tutorial: Hamachi (with GUI) in Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron

Sep 18th

Posted by John Jiang in Tutorial

8 comments

Hamachi is a freeware application that initiates a virtual private network (VPN) between peers. This is extremely useful for initiating applications such as games over the Local Area Network (LAN).

For more information click here

This Tutorial is for setting up Hamachi with a gui based interface (optional) in Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron.

  1. Download Hamachi
  2. Extract it somewhere
  3. Open up a terminal and CD into the directory
  4. Run ‘make install’ or ‘sudo make install’ to install hamachi
  5. Run hamachi-init to generate crypto identity
  6. Download and Run hamachi-gui – x86 or AMD64

You’re done! Simple! Hamachi-gui should be under your list of applications now or simply run hamachi-gui inside terminal.

If you feel more comfortable at the terminal, here are some commands you can use to setup hamachi manually.

  • Run ‘hamachi start’ to launch Hamachi daemon.
  • Run ‘hamachi login’ to put the daemon online and to create an account.
  • Run ‘hamachi join <network>’ to join the network.
  • Run ‘hamachi go-online <network>’ to go online in the network.
  • Run ‘hamachi get-nicks’ to download network memberlist
  • Run ‘hamachi list’ to list network members and their status.
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Geek VS Geek

Sep 12th

Posted by John Jiang in Rant

3 comments

There’s one thing common amongst geeks, the need to be right…amongst other geeks.

You put a geek in an unfamiliar circle and they will twiddle their thumbs, and possibly do nothing else but think about how much better they are. They’ll try and make it seem like they know something, and desperately try and put together something they read on the internet or heard from a fellow geek just to impress this group of outsiders.

Put a geek in a circle of geeks, however, you will find an argument will erupt within 5 minutes as everybody attempts to become the “alpha” geek. The geek that knows everything about everything. What I’ve noticed personally that within geek circles…surprisingly…it’s not so much about putting through a logical argument…it’s more about putting through what others perceive to be a logical argument. One common technique is begging the question…”it must be true because wikipedia says so”.

Even with the internet being literally EVERYWHERE, geeks fail to lookup supporting cases for their argument until the very last minute. This phenomenon probably occurs due to the fact that geeks like to prove that their are correct on their own accord rather than using secondary sources to prove their point. Some things can only be proved by demonstration.

Such great debates like the Aeroplane-Treadmill argument have caused hundred page long threads developing on forums. Arguments, counter-arguments, counter-counter-arguments were brought forward but nobody actually put it to the test. Perhaps people just enjoy a great debate where the whole aim is to shut the other person down. If a conclusion was drawn, they’d have to think up of something else.

Perhaps its not a characteristic of geeks but that of humanity. The need to be correct. Maybe we just all need to loosen up a bit, admit to the fact that we may actually be wrong.

Take a look at the Michelson–Morley experiment. They tested the existance of the Aether for 50 years. You’d think after the first 10 years of experimentation, they would have just given up and thought of something else, but there would always be somebody else to carry on the legacy.

Here’s a note to all the geeks out there, before starting any argument, be prepared to be wrong, that way you won’t act like such a jerk.

Edit: 15/09/08

Yes, yes, Mythbusters conducted the Aeroplane-Treadmill theory, I was just highlighting that people are lazy and prefer to just sit on their lazy asses. I probably should have added that it was tested, just search for it on youtube.

To save some trouble, here’s the video.

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Room 101 is now…shut.

Sep 10th

Posted by John Jiang in WCEXO

2 comments

It is with great sadness that I will be shutting the door to Room 101. No more rants…no moe ambiguous blogs. No more hidden messges…
…
…
…
…
at least…
…
not here.

Hello World!

Sep 9th

Posted by John Jiang in Other

2 comments

Welcome to my new blog!

You will find…rants, thoughts, tutorials, advice, humour, sarcasm and hopefully it’ll entertain you long enough before you jump to another webpage of greater interest.

Take your time, read my blog, if you feel generous, post a comment!

You will notice new things being added/edited/removed frequently as I am still settling down. If you have any suggestions for a theme feel free to point me to one!

Anywho, I’m outie…catch you round.