martinopia.com

Für alle, die wie ich häufig deutschsprachige Bücher kaufen hier ein Hinweis auf die aktuelle Exlibris Promotion:

Im Mai können sämtliche deutschsprachigen Titel bei Exlibris mit 30% Rabatt – und dies erst noch versandkostenfrei – bestellt werden. Gerade für teure juristische oder IT-Literatur eine gute Gelegenheit, sich günstig einzudecken. Und wer über diesen Link bestellt, unterstützt sogar noch martinopia.com

In diesem Sinne: Möge die Buchpreisbindung da bleiben, wo sie hingehört – in der Versenkung!

After some days of response time today I got an “answer” from Apple regarding my account paymant problem:

They just sent me the same two links to two non-related FAQ entries than they showed me automatically before I could fill in the contact form on the support sites. Obviously they did not even read what my problem was about (that I entered my new credit card information twice but that this information simply does not find the way in the Apple systems).

Apple – you build great computers, you brought us the iPod, you brougth style in our digital lifestyle – but please hire some smart web developers really able to build and run services like Mobile Me. It’s so annoying for customers having to contact you 10 times to reslove a simple problem!

As a long-time .mac-User I was never really happy with the range of functionality Apple offered to its .mac-customers. Imho – compared to Yahoo, Google or any other local provider – the price for Apples service was always too high and there were always too much functions missing. But still – I used my private .mac-Email for quite some time and the service was more or less working.

Some weeks ago I got an email by Apple that they plan to convert all .mac accounts to their new Mobile Me service – with more functions and a totally redesigned web client for my emails. Considering the fact that I still hope to get one of these new 3G iPhones as soon as Swisscom is ready again to deliver, I was especially pleased about the tight integration with Apples phone platform. So that was nice news and we old customers even got an additional “me.com”-mail address..

So the day came and Apple switched the .mac platform to the Mobile Me platform. The mail did not work anymore for hours.. well, it’s my private mail, so I was not that worried about it and knowing that it’s not a 2-man-company but Apple taking care of the service, I was pretty sure, that some hours later everything will shine again. But one day later – still no access to my mail (maybe that theoretically in the meantime it would have been possible to login, but actually I’m not hitting my reload button every 30seconds). So I decided to contact the Apple Support (phone 0848 000 132 in Switzerland). After some nice but pretty long music I was told that they have no idea about what’s going on with the Mobile Me platform and that Mobile Me is supported only by email – which is pretty interesting to support a non-functional email service by providing support only by email. Well happy enough I contacted them with my Yahoo hosted martinopia.com mail address (which is also my contact address for administration purposes by Apple)… and some hours later I even got an email.. that my credit card was expired and they could not charge for the service.

Well that’s customer oriented! Loyal as I am I immediatly updated my credit card information online (all but the mail service worked) – obviously without success. In the meantime I got a standard email sent to all customers that some 1% of the customers are temporarily experiencing some problems with their mail and will get some 30days extra for free but the problem was finally sorted out. Indeed the mail worked again and I was confident that the Apple world is fine again…

Till this morning – no mail access. In my account they still complain about a non working credit card.. so I called again the support to check if there was a problem with my account because of the missing credit card information.. they told my that they “understand my problem” but that I have to contact them by email (which I did twice without any personal response).

I really can’t understand why Apple launched such an unstable product. If it doesn’t work stable why not switch back the old customers to the old – but working – platform? Why pushing advertimsnts with “Exchange for the rest of us”? Obviously “Exchange for the rest of us” means “no mail at all”.. perhaps that’s the real vision behind all that hassle? A real power user don’t use mail at all…

Till this vision will become reality I would strongly suggest to avoid Mobile Me for new customers till Apple really takes care about both – customer service and service level quality.

Of course I keep my word and hereby I pull attention of the wide audience of this blog towards todays Firefox 3 Download Day:

Please spread the word too, sharpen your laser swords and help making Firefox 3 the most successful release ever in the battle against the empire.

Für eine neue Blog Seite rund um Ruby on Rails war ich auf der Suche nach einigen schönen Bildern einer Lokomotive, bzw. eines Zuges. Was liegt als Schweizer näher, als nach Bildern von Zugskompositionen der Schweizer Bundesbahnen SBB zu suchen? Gesagt – getan und ohne böses zu denken starte ich eine Bild-Suchanfrage nach dem unverfänglichen Begriff “SBB”. Die erste Resultatseite hat mich dann doch etwas erstaunt:

Natürlich lässt sich dies mit der “SafeSearch” Option verhindern, doch seien wir ehrlich – wer hat die schon eingeschaltet? Die Konklusion der Geschichte: zarte Seelen sollten von Google Image Search wohl besser die Finger lassen, für alle anderen bietet die Stichwort-Suche SBB eine unerwartete Ãœberraschung an einem trüben Arbeitsnachmittag und auf Google wartet noch eine Menge Arbeit auf dem Weg zu einer wirklich überzeugenden Bildersuche.

Nachdem die Schweizerische Gesellschaft für die Rechte der Urheber musikalischer Werke SUISA in ihrem FAQ für Musik-Nutzer explizit ausführt, dass “nach überwiegender Meinung das Downloaden in der Schweiz auch ohne Zustimmung der Rechtsinhaber erlaubt ist, selbst wenn das Angebot illegal ist”, sofern dabei kein Peer-To-Peer Programm zum Einsatz komme (da bei solchen Programmen ja automatisch auch ein Upload stattfinde), ist es mir eine besondere Freude an dieser Stelle auf eine – völlig legale – Download-Möglichkeit für Musik hinzuweisen, die an Komfort all die Peer2Peer-Angebote wie eMule oder auch Torrents ohnehin in den Schatten stellt: Yahoo! Music China: music.cn.yahoo.com

Ein Sinologie-Studium kann man sich dabei getrost sparen – mit etwas Phantasie findet man auch als Europäer zuverlässig und schnell selbst Höhepunkte der europäischen Popmusik-Kultur wie Modern Talkings “You’re my heart, you’re my soul” – sofort zum Download bereit.
Ich für meine Seite werde wohl auch weiterhin dem iTunes Music Store treu bleiben – für all diejenigen, die eine komfortable – und vor allem von der SUISA als völlig legal erklärte Möglichkeit suchen, kostenlos Musik zu laden, werden wohl schon bald zu treuen Fans von Yahoo! China werden… Viel Spass!