I opened OttawaBusinessJournal.com this morning for my morning read, and to my surprise, one of their featured (read: sponsored) articles was about having a website that represents your company and not going with a couple cookie cutter templates. Usually these ads are almost entirely dominated by HR firms, law firms and the odd workforce.com article, so I thought I’d take a look. The article was fine, but  in clicking over to the author’s company website, I shuddered.

It was all images and image maps.

{I’ll give you a few seconds to recover.}

I realize that it’s a new company started by a couple of Algonquin graduates, but come on now. Image maps? Tables? There’s no CSS in sight.

OttawaBusinessJournal.com has a pretty big readership from my understanding. I just hope that not too many companies sign on with these guys to find out they have absolutely no keyword density and no accessibility, and they can forget about showing up in search engines.

Boing Boing: Jim Leftwich’s tribute to Rosa Parks

Jim Leftwich says: "I’ve always been moved by Apple’s ad series using people of her stature and courage, and it inspired me to do a tribute to both her and Apple, using their new iPod ad style."

I’m as much for tribute as anyone else, but is this really neccesary? It seems to me as though there are better ways of paying tribute to someone who made history for standing up for what she believed in than placing them in an iPod commercial.  I think somebody’s missing the point. Of course, while we’re at it, why not the iHaveaDream ad with Martin Luther King Jr. listening to the latest Jay-Z track he just bought off iTunes.

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Interestingly enough, the ’super nice apartment’ we saw, was not the same one I moved into, in fact, despite having confirmation on several occasions by the property manager that it would be done in time for me to move in, when i went to move in Sept 1st, it had hardly been touched in 3 weeks.  Last check I had no countertops, no stove, no kitchen cupboards, no bathroom sink or bathroom cupboards or mirror. There are also no covers for the heating vents, and the cable tv outlets were a bit messed up. Rogers couldn’t hook up my internet until the 17th, so I dont have a regular phone line (i miss Vonage) or internet, which makes getting work done somewhat difficult. Hopefully it will all be fixed by friday.

I used to think FedEx was a bit more reliable than Canada’s own Xpresspost, but I’m having some difficulties getting my RMA’d shipment from Digium. I sent them my defective FXS module, almost 2 weeks ago, and surprisingly enough, Xpresspost made it there in no time.  I received delivery confirmation from Xpresspost, and then waited.. and waited some more.. nothing.. So I decided to email Digium to see what the holdup was…. a day later, I get an email saying my package had shipped with a tracking number. That was on Thursday or Wednesday of last week. 

 I’ve been checking my shipment every day since..

What I find strange is that the package apparently left MADISON, AL and hit MISSISSAUGA in no time at all, is held for duties/taxes.. and then… nothing.. (it was the long weekned, thats ok), but then it gets sent to MEMPHIS, TN?? and then back to MISSISSAUGA where its held again for clearance, and then again for duties and taxes? And then it receives 4 Int’l Shipment Releases? I’m confused… Anyone have any clarification for me as to what might be going on?

Update: It seems the package has now found its way to Peterborough’s sorting facility. I expect it this afternoon, if FedEx delivers when I think they do.

Update 2: The package arrived, I installed it, only to find that it still doesn’t work. I’ve opened a support ticket with their technicians, so we’ll so what comes out of it. Also.. it seems I had to pay taxes on it? Is this a regular occurence?  I mean, I paid for the original one.. (and paid taxes+duties)… it was defective, so i sent it back, and they sent me a replacement, and I was charged taxes on that as well? Anyone know what the deal is for something like that?

Update 3: Finally got it working, not sure how it was magic. I installed the latest version of Asterisk@Home and fired it up. It worked, just like that!

What is it with people that call to see if they can change an appointment time or call to check if you still want something and then make up their own assumptions out of thin air?  For instance, for formal, I had ordered a simple corsage at the Loblaws Florist shop (i know, i know..it was the only thing that was open!) anyways, for some reason, they wanted to call me in the morning to make sure I still wanted it (why, i have no idea) and I waited and waited, and there was no call. Around 11:30, I called them to ask if they were able to put it together, and the lady told me that she called, but my voicemail was full, and as a result assumed I went somewhere else to get it. What sort of twisted logic would lead someone to that conclusion?! The last time I had spoken with her, I told her I wanted the flowers…with no indication otherwise, why would someone make baseless assumptions? Would "I didn’t get in touch with you, so I asumed you wanted to buy this bouquet of daisies instead" be something that a rational person would do? I would hope not.. In any case, with 2 hours to spare before the formal, we called a real florist shop, and she threw them together in 25 minutes.

This morning, Trina had a dentist appointment for 12:30. Apparently the secretary had called and left a message asking if it was OK to move her appointment to 12:00.  12:00 wasn’t OK, and Trina didn’t have anytime to respond to the woman, but when she arrived, she woman argued that her appointment was at 12:00 and she had missed it, as she had assumed that without a reply that changing the appointment time was ok.  Where do these people get off assuming that they can just move things around and cancel orders without any confirmation?  I didn’t ask you to change an appointment time, you didn’t OK it with me…so its probably safe to say you shouldn’t change it.  Sometimes I think people just need to think through exactly what they’re doing before they do it.. /rant.