No Business Naming Things

For those that are curious, this is me contact juggling:

After dealing with a VERY helpful Rogers employee on the phone (who took me on my word when I said that I had already tried a restore/reflash - I had) I now have a brand new iPhone coming to me in the post.

I have now been on hold for 40 minutes with Rogers. Thank goodness I have a speaker phone - if I had to be concentrating on holding a handset for that long I am sure I would’ve put it through a wall by now

Edit: after an hour I’ve given up.  I will try again later I guess.

The problem with my iPhone pausing/unpausing songs during playback was unbearable this morning so after getting in I called Rogers customer service. After wading through their system for 5 minutes they told me to call back on a land line. After wading through 5 minutes again they put me through to someone who can’t exactly grasp the problem. This was almost certainly my fault - I am not the most articulate person on the planet, particularly on the phone. After a couple of tries she understands and goes off looking through her database. After another 5 minutes she says that I’d be better off talking to Apple. She forwards my call to them and hangs up. Problem is, Apple technical support isn’t yet open.

*sigh* c’mon guys, you must know when they’re open. Why forward me at all?

So, I’ll be calling Rogers back after 9 so if/when they forward me to Apple again I might actually be able to get somewhere.

Incidentally, the problem was so bad this morning that I couldn’t take more than 5 steps without it pausing. It even skipped tracks a couple of times. When I got in I tried swapping out my Bang and Olufsen headphones for an old pair I had in my desk. Same problem. I then tried a last-gen pair of iPod headphones that I keep for the gym and they worked a lot better. If I REALLY tried I could make it pause but I dont think it’d happen under normal circumstances. What’s more, the connection felt a lot more secure than either my B&O or desk headphones. Hopefully this is something they can correct for without having to send the device in to Apple.

Although particular to gaming cons, this post brings up a good question: what policies do Eclipse conferences espouse that protect (woman) attendees from unwanted interactions? Although I haven’t had my ass groped at EclipseCon I have had some experiences that have left me uncomfortable and a little shaken. I’m not alone here either. I’ve heard stories from at least one other woman attendee relating similar experiences. Being the stubborn loner that I am I never reported them but honestly, if I had wanted to, I’m not sure where I would have reported them too.

Given that we’re typically outnumbered by a very large margin, tech conferences have the potential to be an awkward place for women to be, particularly the shy and introverted ones like me. After a cursory inspection of the EclipseCon and Eclipse Summit websites, I can’t find any policies relating to interpersonal relations (or anything else) whatsoever. Would it be reasonable to expect this from our conference organizers?

I don’t intend this to come off as a flame to either conference or its attendees. The vast, VAST majority of attendees are civil, courteous, intelligent and thoughtful (even Steve) but there is always the possibility of a bad apple. I know from personal experience it would have been reassuring to know there was a policy in place and somewhere to turn if a situation occurred at a conference.

Wow. I downloaded the new Brian Eno/David Byrne collaboration last night. I knew it was going to be good, but I didn’t expect goosebumps or getting weepy for no discernible reason. Holy shit. Do yourself a favour and go buy this album right now.

Edit: It appears David Byrne will be playing in Montreal on October 30th at the Metropolis. Tickets are on sale here.

Thanks to a friend who lives downtown I now know that The Watchmen are coming to town to play on September 19th at Mavericks!!!1!  It’s a week before our wedding, and while we have our trial up-doos scheduled for that day I’m sure it wont be an issue.  EEEE!!!

I honestly don’t know how long I’ve owned this thing.  Whatever segment of my brain that is responsible for measuring time has died and rotted.

Rogers 3G service is… spotty… at best.  At several times throughout the day, the most common being 4:30-5:30 pm, I cannot get data service.  Nope, nada.  It appears to be connected to 3G but any attempt at using Safari or Mail or Facebook will time out.  There are additional times throughout the day where it doesn’t work as well, but that time period seems the most consistent.  It’s not working at the moment nor has it worked for the last 15 minutes or so.  How very frustrating.

I’ve seen a lot of this lately but the following takes it to a whole new level.  C’mon guys, try a little harder

msnbc.com: BREAKING NEWS: Catapult Program Flings Commuters to Work

Find out more at http://breakingnews.msnbc.com

======================================================
See the top news of the day at MSNBC.com, and the latest from Today Show and NBC Nightly News.

=========================================
This e-mail is never sent unsolicited. You have received this MSNBC Breaking News Newsletter
newsletter because you subscribed to it or, someone forwarded it to you.

To remove yourself from the list (or to add yourself to the list if this
message was forwarded to you) simply go to

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36701538, select unsubscribe, enter the
email address receiving this message, and click the Go button.

Microsoft Corporation - One Microsoft Way - Redmond, WA 98052
MSN PRIVACY STATEMENT
http://privacy.msn.com (http://privacy.msn.com/>)

… but a bad time for ME to own a PS3.  October (leading into early November) is shaping up to be a seriously awesome month to be a gamer.  Fallout 3, Little Big Planet, and Bioshock for PS3 all drop within that month - my top three desired games for the year.  Under ideal circumstances I’d find a way to break both of my legs or catch the plague so that I could sequester myself away from the world and gorge on them.  However, much of October will be spent on a train touring Canada for our honeymoon.  I wouldn’t trade this for the world but it does mean I’m going to have to get creative with my time management when I return.  I haven’t put a lot of millage into any of our game machines recently and I’m eager to give them the beats.  The above three games combined with Sam and Max for the Wii (which hits a month previous) should keep me entertained well into 2009.