RT @RonJeffries: @laurieontech just received the dreaded Dear [FNAME}, email :)

just received the dreaded

Dear [FNAME},

email :)

— Ron Jeffries (@RonJeffries) June 26, 2019

from Twitter https://twitter.com/J0e3gan

LinkedIn Error Preventing Addition of Courses Recently https://t.co/tVmgv96R74

LinkedIn Error Preventing Addition of Courses Recently https://t.co/tVmgv96R74

— Joe Egan (@J0e3gan) February 21, 2019

from Twitter https://twitter.com/J0e3gan

Amazon Not So Prime

Amazon, I tried Prime with Instant Video for nearly 30 days; it was cool...until an update to AIV on my PS3 (over a week ago) left it the only thing on my PS3 that will not respond to controller input.

Update to the app to fix the problem?  Nope.  Support pages or forums that make it clear how to resolve the problem - even roll back to the previous version of AIV?  Nope.  Will I then be continuing with Prime?  Nope. :}

MS Events Crash Android

I wonder why msevents.microsoft.com consistently forces my Android phone's browser to close.  I just wanted to register for a May 3 webcast on the go. :P

This copy of Windows is not genuine? What!?

OK.  This is it.  I've patiently worked through many Windows Vista annoyances since blogging about my initial, positive impression of the OS; and I haven't terribly minded.  Linux taught me to put up with a lot I guess, but that is another post – with regard to Vista and Linux. 😉  Now I am downright angry, though.

Tonight I came home and expected to continue fixing a bug for work.  All I needed was Vista's VPN and RDP clients – nothing more.  Well, not even that much works tonight because Vista tells me that my copy of Windows is not genuine!

I've read about this issue on Slashdot – caused by a recent (stealth) Windows update or simply updating a driver as I recall – but never figured it would happen to me.  To be clear, the experience absolutely sucks. (...technical term for a "Was I just mugged?" customer experience, Microsoft.)

What to do?  Well, I got so sick of Vista's 15-minute, likely-infinite loop of "Windows must be reinstalled to activate", logging in, and repeating that I'm running my Dell XPS's diagnostics for a calming distraction. 🤦‍♂️  ...pretty sad.

However this plays out, I'll definitely share the Vista "experience" that awaits me!

Doubling Gmail Contact Groups?

Now that I've been using Gmail for a while, I generally love it; but I've encountered a persistent, annoying issue with contact groups and wonder whether someone has tamed it.

Basically, my contacts' displayed groups frequently double:

If I select affected contacts and "remove" their duplicate groups, they return to displaying their groups normally - for a while. Within a day or two, they – though I'm not positive the exact same contacts are involved – return to doubly displaying their groups. Frankly, this doubling affects more of my contacts than not.

Any ideas, Gmailers?

Flashbacks to Hotmail

I'm pretty new to Gmail, and already I'm having flashbacks to Hotmail. For the last hour I've been greeted by:

We're sorry, but Gmail is temporarily unavailable. We're currently working to fix the problem -- please try logging in to your account in a few minutes.

So much for a few minutes. Isn't SaaS great? At least in the good old days I could call my ISP or hit my Exchange server. ;-)