VomitComet

Thought For The Day

2009-11-10T09:43:00.002-05:00

Louis C.K. - Learn to appreciate Technology.

The stuff about hating people with 0's in their numbers is so true...especially if you ever tried to enter a radio contest with a dial phone. I'm not sure how anybody ever won anything. 1..8.........0...........0..........5......3....7...fuck! 1..8.........0...........0......... then you finally get the whole number right and the line is busy! That does explain how they picked be the 9th caller through though, anything higher and all those stations would still be trying to give away Michael Jackson tickets from 1985.

Good Mornin' Kapten!

2009-11-10T09:18:00.000-05:00

Ooo! Something else I can drool over, and maybe something I can afford. Kapsys from France, which has developed the Kapten voice-controled GPS, has partnered with ILA so they can sell it! It sounds pretty cool. It has no screen, so we can for sure use it. It also doubles as an mp3 player. Even sweeter is it only costs about $300 U.S. I think. That is similar to buying one of your off the shelf GPS devices!

But there are some things I need to find out. Can you plan routes in advance? How does it get its maps? Does it have maps for Canada? What's the battery life like? But maybe I should shut up and read Mike May's review of the thing. Granted, Mike May is a competitor, but hey, I might learn some stuff.

I'm such a sucker for gadgets.

This Teacher Is Nuts!

2009-11-10T09:06:00.002-05:00

This teacher sounds like a scary woman. Apparently, Trinda Barocas had an autistic kid in her class. Her classroom assistants say that she didn't want to take him on a field trip because she thought he would misbehave. She knew he had a peanut allergy, so threw a peanut-filled chocolate bar at him, saying that maybe if he ate that, he would be too sick to go on the trip!

I said pardon? Most peanut allergies are pretty severe. That could have killed him!

Luckily the kid didn't eat the bar, but only apparently because he has a fear of unfamiliar foods and didn't recognize the wrapper. The mom is suing and it sounds like she's going for criminal charges. I would have done the charges and the suit in reverse order if I were her, but what do I know?

But that's not all. They say that she used to drag the boy around the classroom, keep him in a tiny cubicle for hours, and other things.

I think the most telling statement is this:

Barocas told state investigators earlier this year that the allegations were false and she did nothing to prevent the boy from attending the field trip, according to a Department of Child Services report provided by Young's attorney.

I dunno, if I was accused of trying to poison a child, I would have said that the reports were false, and I never would have dreamed of giving him something that would have likely killed him. The field trip, at this point, is secondary.

What a frightening thought. The poor little guy couldn't speak, and this was happening to him. I'm glad she doesn't work at the school anymore.

Cell Phone Seminar Archive is Available

2009-11-09T20:38:00.001-05:00

Remember how I mentioned attending a seminar about accessible cell phones? Well, finally, the archive is up! There was lots of cool info in there, and you get to hear my squeaky voice! I ask a couple of questions, and probably clip. Woops. But check out all the info. Here's a tip for fellow blinks. Hang out in the main frame. That's where the slides change. I may watch the archive, because I missed some of the slides due to technical difficulties.

So enjoy, and hope you learn something. There's a whole lot of info there.

RDSP Seminar! Hurry Hurry Hurry!

2009-11-09T20:24:00.001-05:00

I just found out in the nick of time about a cool online seminar for any Canadian who is interested in the RDSP program I mentioned a few months ago.

Citizens with Disabilities of Ontario is putting on the seminar tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. Yeah, definitely nick of time. So if you're also interested, boot it on over here, and quick!

WebAIM Survey Results

2009-11-09T15:46:00.001-05:00

Ooo! Remember that WebAIM survey I mentioned before? Well, the results are comin' in. Thanks R for the lead.

Once I take care of some things, I'm gonna look through the results.

Thoughts On HMV Digital

2009-11-09T15:11:00.001-05:00

I finally got around to trying out theHMV digital downloads storeIwroteabout last week, and the verdict is that aside from a couple of problems, it's pretty great. Here are a few observations.

we'll start with the selection. It looks good. to test it out I went searching for some of the albums that I either haven't been able to find on CD at any of the stores online or otherwise that I usually buy from or things that I would have to be insane to buy at the prices those places were charging. Everything I've looked for so far has been available at reasonable prices. The most expensive thing I've found would set me back $10.99. Not too shabby.

Since we're kind of talking about pricing already, let's officially start its paragraph. The store will let you buy either singles or entire albums. Every individual track I've come across so far is 99 cents, which is pretty standard and fair. I assume that at some point there may be more or less expensive ones since albums seem to be priced variably. The usual price for a whole album looks to be $9.99 no matter what the bitrate is. I can see this perhaps pissing some people off and justifiably so, because it's kind of not fair to pay the same cost for something encoded at 320 as you do for something in 192. fortunately for me that's not been one of those things that's ever bothered me too much. As long as it sounds decent, I'm fine. But it might be nice to consider a pricing scheme based on quality. the higher the bitrate, the more you pay.

The site, at least with JAWS 10, is quite easy to use. The layout is simple to understand and in no time at all I was getting the hang of it. Previewing a track or an album is easy if you want to hear clips before you buy. All you have to do is push a preview button. I know that might sound stupid to a lot of the sighted folks, but you'd be amazed what a dickdance it can be to hear previews on some sites when the cute little speaker icons aren't labelled "cute little speaker icon." The only problem I found with this is that there appears to be no way to make it stop, so if you're previewing something loud, you're waiting until the music is done before you can keep shopping because there's no hearing JAWS over some of that stuff.

My only gripe with the layout isn't even really a gripe with the layout, and I'm not quite sure how widespread it is. Sometimes when you search for an album, you get multiple results that appear to be identical and you have to click through to the album page and scan the information there looking for details about what makes this one different from the one right above it. If there's a graphical clue, it doesn't translate. Alt tags or some other kind of description that tells you that X is the deluxe edition and that Y is the one with all of the cursing removed would make things so much easier. buying the wrong version of a CD is one of those things that annoys me to no end when it happens, so a way to prevent it from happening would be appreciated.

The order process was also amazingly simple. I was a little nervous for a second when I tried to add the first album to my basket and the screen didn't look like it changed, but then I figured out that unlike most shopping carts you aren't taken to a new page when you add something, you just stay where you are. If you want to make sure something added, there's a basket heading that has all of your stuff listed under it. Once I got what I came for and created an account, I was able to check out super fast because they didn't need my full address. All I needed to enter was my name, my postal code and my credit card number. Nice to see a company not taking more info than they need. I was also pleasantly surprised to find no sales taxes added to the purchase. Maybe I'm not up on my Canadian tax law, but that was pretty damn cool and I hope it continues. Not holding my breath, but hey.

Another cool feature is the ability to gift an album to somebody during checkout. I can see myself using this a whole lot over Christmas. Everybody wants to turn their CD's into mp3's anyway, so why not skip the middleman? Plus I have a few friends who I sometimes end up mailing presents to and essentially paying shipping twice on the same thing is stupid, so this rules the earth. You can set dates up to a year in advance and the site will email the recipient to let them know that they've got a present waiting and how they can collect it.

Now we get to my one major complaint. The HMV download manager is utterly useless access wise. I see unlabeled buttons and a few menu options I can't figure out what to do with and nothing more. Unfortunately if you want to download all of your stuff at once, that's the only way to do it. There's no zipped copy of full albums like onCDBaby,so unable to use the manager, I was stuck downloading my songs 1 by 1 into folders I had to make. Click, save, repeat. At least I was able to do it that way unlike some places where the manager software is the only way to go, but that irritated me. I made sure to mention that in the feedback survey I filled out at the end, and if any of you use the site I'd love it if you could please do the same thing.

I think that's about everything. Over all it looks like a fantastic service that's going to make me go broke, and I would most certainly recommend it to all of our Canadian readers.

If any of you buy things, I'd love to know what you think,and I'd love to know about any tips or tricks you discover that might make things even better.

Walking Accidents Survey

2009-11-09T14:38:00.000-05:00

Here comes another survey. I completed it, and the only weird thing about it is the question repeats itself when you're looking at the first choice. Really...really...annoying. But other than that, it was a pretty simple survey.

I could be wrong, but I think the people doing the survey don't quite understand blind folks and mobility aids. They don't seem to understand that over your lifetime of travelling, you may have used different mobility aids. Thankfully, they seem to have big text boxes where I can write and explain it all. I wrote a few creative responses. I hope they enjoy them.

Anyway, here's their snippet. It appears you only have to be 18 and legally blind.

If you are blind or legally blind, we need your help! We are conducting a survey about the walking habits of persons with visual impairments. All who participate in the survey by December 15th will have a chance to win one of two $100 Amazon gift cards. You can participate online or by phone. The online survey can be taken by visiting: http://surveymonkey.com/walking

If you prefer to take the survey by phone, please call us at 831-459-1479 or
email us at manduchi@soe.ucsc.edu">

About us: we are two Professors of Computer Engineering at the University of California, Santa Cruz. We do research on Assistive Technology for persons with visual impairment. Your participation in this survey would help us better direct our research in the area of mobility. Your personal information (name, email address or phone number) will never be disclosed to anybody.

Roberto Manduchi, manduchi@soe.ucsc.edu,
831-459-1479

Sri Kurniawan, srikur@soe.ucsc.edu,
831-459-1037

So if you want to help, you know what to do.

I'm So Awesome

2009-11-09T09:35:00.000-05:00

Let me tell you just how awesome I am.

ThatUno gamethat Carin and I love so much...I just got totally schooled by it. Yeah, I got shut out by the computer. 522 Points to 226 points to 143 points to 0.

I cannot tell you how proud I am.

The Desk Of Death

2009-11-09T09:15:00.000-05:00

Eek. A company has made a desk to attach to your steering wheel. Yeah, I had to link to it so you'd believe me. Here's the description.

Introducing the AutoExec WM-01 Wheelmate Steering Wheel Desk Tray - Gray - , featured in our Other Vehicle Parts department. This product generally ships within 2 business day(s) from Pinellas Park, Florida, and weighs 2 pound(s). Attaches to your steering wheel for easy access to a writing and drink storage surface. The Go Office Wheel Mate Steering Wheel Desk is flat for writing and perfect for lunch or a snack. This Go Office Wheel Mate Steering Wheel Desk stores neatly in your car when used with the larger Auto Exec Laptop Car Desk. For safety reasons, never use this product while driving. Easily convert your car into your personal automobile office with the Wheel Mate car desk by MobileOffice.

They had to say the "never use this product while driving" thing, but you bet there are people who will.

Did He Not Light Up Her Life Enough?

2009-11-09T09:01:00.001-05:00

It's not often that a woman goes in the do it yourself files,
but I believe Daria Woods belongs there, wouldn't you say?

When the male victim went outside to avoid further assault, he told officers, a naked Woods ran outside to attempt to attack him again, but ultimately grabbed his keys from him and walked back inside, where she began to touch herself with a jar of mayonnaise and a flashlight.

What the? All I can say is don't let her make you a salad or a sandwich ever again.

Here Come The "Worse" And "Sickness" of For Better Or Worse and In Sickness and In Health

2009-11-09T08:50:00.001-05:00

It has gotta suck for Julie Boyde, who after getting married, discovered she was allergic to her new husband's sperm. She found this out on her wedding night. They even tried doing something similar to allergy shots to treat her, but it didn't work. So if they decide to raise any kids, they'll have to adopt them.

Things You Didn't Know About The War

2009-11-08T15:32:00.002-05:00

Hitler was a German football coach, Auschwitz was a World War II theme park and the Holocaust was a post-war celebration.All this according to a survey of UK school kids between the ages of 9 and 15 who also don't seem to know when Remembrance Day is.

I guess when President Bush askedis our children learning,the answer am no even though he thinks that childrens do learn.

Trixie-Related Ramblings

2009-11-08T15:31:00.002-05:00

Here comes some more Trixie-related stuff. I don't know if this post is quite long enough for R to sit back and put her feet up and read, but it's longer than that other wee one I wrote.

There are two things Trixie does right now that are mildly annoying. Hopefully I can get one of them stopped, and the other one will work itself out. She has this thing for not really giving her best shot at relieving when I give her a chance before a long route. Then, just when we're at a place where there's no possible place to pull over and relieve, she goes "Oh, we're going for a big walk? I've changed my mind. I have to go now." It makes me think of all those kids' stories of the kids who say "I don't have to pee." until you put their snowsuit on.

I don't understand why she doesn't get the hint. I mean, I'm wearing my backpack and a kibble pouch. I don't put those things on when we go out to visit the piddle zone. Sometimes it's not at regular pee time, and we know how much that little doggy clock is working, so you'd think, if she were logical, she would go hmmm. We're gonna go somewhere. I should at least try. But she'll just stand there and look straight ahead, not even sniffing. Then we'll set off, and you can just tell she has to go pee.

The other thing is she has gotten a wee bit lax in her pole-targeting skills. She finds the pole, but doesn't just hold her nose near the button so I can follow it up. Oh no. She starts sniffing the base of the pole, going around the pole, bla bla bla. I think that one is a monster of my own creation, so I think I can easily put a stop to that one. But it's just gotten really obvious right now.

You know, a while back, I thought about asking Chuck when he came to see me if he could teach me the clicker. But now that I hear more about it, I don't know if I'm talented enough to use it right. I mean, it sounds like you have to target the behaviour with such precision for it to work. I don't know if I have that level of accuracy. I guess we'll find out, probably years and years later when it's time for me to get a new dog. Unless of course, Trix lives forever, hahah!

Trix had her first peeing accident in the house! Whaaat? Trixter? Pee in the house? No damn way. But I think I know why. It was that time that bigger dog was here. I think the two of them had a drinking contest because the next day, when I looked at the water, it was way lower than it should have been. Combine that with the excitement and running around, and I think the poor pooch exploded. But Trixie felt so guilty. She did it, and then hung her head and went to each of us as if to say "Please forgive me!" I cleaned up and there doesn't seem to have been a stain or smell, so we're all good. Silly Trixter. You don't have to compete with the big dogs and then run with them.

As I prepare to write this next paragraph, I realize I'm talking about dog-relieving issues a lot in here. What's up with that? I just read about a doohicker that has the potential to be cool. It's a relieving harness, or toileting harness, whatever floats your boat.

Basically, somehow, a bag fits onto it, and it's belted around your dog's belly/back legs area somehow. The description of how to put it on confuses the hell out of me, but maybe if I laid eyes on one, I would understand. Basically you fasten belt to dog and then bag to belt and when doggy craps or pees, it goes in the bag. This could have come in handy when Trix had that run-in with the bone and, well, things were very very soft and difficult to pick up.

My thing is I think it would have to be like the booties. You either do this every time you relieve poocho, or never. I can't imagine Trixie being down with having something weird strapped to her belly area. I'm afraid she'd never go. I guess I'd do like that other lady did and start off with just the belt and get her used to that, and one time when I know she'd have to go poop, put the bag on.

I can't decide if I want to get one of those. It might be handy in the winter when it's hard to find poop in the snow, and it's slippery and hard to get to it...and sometimes she becomes a bit of a walk and pooper in the winter. They only cost 10 bucks, so it wouldn't really break the bank. The only annoying part is getting Trix measured, because the lady who makes these things makes each harness individually. But at least I know where to find them if I decide to go with it. Hey, it might come in handy if I ever went on a cruise or something.

It's about time for another bath for the booboo dog. I wonder if she'll purposely fail to remember where the door to the groomer's is. Devil dog. She has realized that when we go to the vet, resistance is futile, so she doesn't avoid the door anymore. Wooo! I'm so happy that snow hasn't already started. I was worried about having to take her somewhere and bathe her when it's bloody cold outside. So yea! We dodged a bullet there.

I'm trying to decide whether I want to try and see if I can figure out how to express her anal glands. Gees! Poop? Anal glands? What is with me today. Can I not think of something else to talk about? Well I did mention bathing her and sniffing poles and clicker, so I guess that counts. I read a pretty good description of how to do it, but it's whether I think I have the guts to do it, and I don't want to hurt her either. Maybe the groomer where I take her to bathe her will show me how. Then again, she wouldn't want to be robbed of business. But I'm already bathing her myself, so...we'll see.

Trixie is happy the weather has gotten nice again. I think she's like the rest of us, trying to enjoy it while she can. We had a big flexi run in a bunch of leaves yesterday. She seemed to enjoy the sniff-fest.

And that's about it. There, R, ya got your Trixie fix. *Grins*.

United Breaks Guitars and Carin Breaks Blogs

2009-11-08T13:39:00.003-05:00

If you were going through our labels this morning, and wondered what the hell happened to the advocacy label, the answer is I broke it! Thankfully I have now fixed it, and all is well in the land of the blog.

It all started innocently enough. I was debating changing our whole internet label to say series of tubes. So I selected the entire internet label. Then I started scrolling through the label actions box. I got to a thing that said "new label." I got very excited. I chose it! But then, Internet Explorer didn't like that a scripted window came up in which I had to write information, which would be the new label. I understand its fears, scripts can be bad news. But I told it it was ok, and not to worry its pretty little head. Then, I tried to move to find the scripted window, and...click! Every post that was labeled "Internet" had been slapped with "Advocacy!" Ug!

So then, I had to go picking through the internet label one by one, because some posts in there *did* deserve an advocacy tag. Yuck.

Long story short, I'm not sure if I'm going to change that label to say "series of tubes". I don't know if the slight ha ha factor would be worth it. But then again, at least I don't have to do that to the news label or something. *Faint*.

I Don't Think The Christmas Cards Will Stop After 40 Days and 40 Nights...

2009-11-08T08:51:00.003-05:00

Dear family of Noah Biorkman:

I realize that you love your son and you want to do for him what seems like a simple request. But...you may regret what you have done. I know the families of Christopher Bedgood and Craig Shergold will tell you that asking for cards over the internet is kind of like asking for a wish from the monkey's paw. Oh you get your wish, but at a high price.

I hope your little guy gets well, or if he doesn't, goes peacefully. But what I really hope is that he doesn't get his wish for christmas cards, at least not from the internet. If he does, you may never have peace.

See, contrary to what others may think, I do have a heart.

We've Got Ourselves A Winning Streak

2009-11-08T07:25:00.002-05:00

Leafs 5, Wings 1.

I can't comment much on how the game was since for the second time in less than a week I was dropped by a headache and ended up sleeping through most of it. I think it's a sports hating headache because last time this happened it took me out for most of the final game of the World Series. I won't complain too much about that one since it's not like I needed to see it anyway (FUCKING YANKEES!!), but it would have been nice to see the Red Wings get pounded because that's always enjoyable, not to mention Phil Kessel's first goal as a Leaf because how many of those is he ever going to have? I saw the highlight, but it's not the same.

Next up for Toronto is the Minnesota Wild. They're not exactly lighting the world on fire so there's a pretty solid chance that with the Leafs playing like a team that's trying to win that the streak could hit 3. Surely the playoffs can't be far behind?

I Made Another Song

2009-11-08T00:00:00.001-05:00

Well, I've made another silly little song bit for that show I was talking about, and this one needs an explanation.

Steve and I were eating breakfast and he had an old episode of the show on. The part we got to when we were sitting there was this whole discussion of how Dave Batista's bald head apparently looks like a giant turtle. I don't know how a bald head looks like a giant turtle, but if I could see Batista, they seem to think I would understand.

So anyway, Steve and I looked at each other, and said, "There's a song in here somewhere." So we thought and we thought. We thought about the Ninja Turtles theme song, but it just didn't seem to flesh out right. Steve and I were each busily trying to come up with turtle songs, when it came to me! The duck and cover song! It would work perfectly...and without further delay, I give you...Dave the Turtle!

That was hard, but amazingly, I got it done quicker than I thought. Enjoy. And if anyone can find a picture of Batista that you are sure makes him look like a giant turtle, please send it to us.

My Milkshake Brings Out The Rage In The Customers And They're Like, You Can Do Better Than That. I Could Teach You, But Instead I'll Throw It At You

2009-11-07T15:00:00.002-05:00

Ok, it's time for a tale of...let's spin the wheel of alliteration...milkshake misadventure. Yeah, that'll do nicely.

Today I give you the story of an unidentified 48-year old man who just wanted a cool, refreshing shake. To satisfy his craving, he decided to head to an area Dairy Queen drive-through and order one.

Unfortunately, what he got was not to his liking because really, who wants to break multiple blood vessels trying to suck a too thick shake through a straw?

Unlike most of us however, our hero was not willing to just deal and wait a few minutes for it to thin out and then get on with life. Instead, he came into the store and no doubt politely explained to the clerk on duty that he was not content with the viscosity of the current offering and requested that another be prepared, which it was.

Attempt 2 as happens on days when nothing is going one's way was also not to his liking, so in keeping with the tradition of not acting like the rest of us, he decided to teach the young punk behind the counter a thing or 2 about proper technique by doing what you would come to expect from a food-related post on Vomit Comet andchucking that sumbitch right back at him and leaving.

fortunately he was quickly tracked down and cited for simple assault.

Good on the kid who took the throw for pressing the charges. so many people decide not to when somebody apologizes to them and I've never understood why. Unless somebody really hates your guts they're going to apologize when a policeman and the threat of fines or jail is hanging over their head,so the apology is meaningless and nobody learns anything.

Calling All Code Monkeys

2009-11-07T14:02:00.003-05:00

I don't know if we have any web developers reading, but if there are any, maybe you could help me out. What is the difference between the Shockwave Flashon this page and the Shockwave flash on this one or this one? I mean, how is it coded? The last two, I don't even see the button, even though apparently they are glaringly obvious to everyone else. In the case of the article on hybrid cars, I was able to pick the link out of the source code...but I may not always be so lucky.

But I would love to know what the difference is in the code so I could tell those with the crappy kind of flash how to fix it. As of now all I can say is "I can't see the button." But I need to know why I can't see the button.

For The First Time In A While, It's Stupid Joke Time!

2009-11-07T10:25:00.003-05:00

You can thank Brad for these. You can also feel free to substitute the word thank for whatever you'd like.

*Q: What's the difference between a hormone and an enzyme?
A: You can't hear an enzyme.

*A golf club walks into a local bar and asks the barman for a pint of beer, but the barman refuses to serve him.

"Why not," asks the golf club.

"You'll be driving later," replies the bartender.

Gannon Update

2009-11-07T10:13:00.002-05:00

They found Gannon they found Gannon they found Gannon!

I'm so happy I could dance. I guess the family that scooped him up when he was wandering around saw an article in the news about him being missing and returned him to the raiser.

Yea!

Customer Depreciation Event

2009-11-07T09:18:00.002-05:00

It's that time of year again. That time of the year when Rogers rolls out their Rogers Customer Appreciation contest, it's inaccessible, I get mad, and blog what happens when phone and email reps hear about it. Bla bla bla.

So yesterday I get the email saying that Rogers would like to thank me for being a valued customer and give me a gift. Why sure, I'll take something for free from a company that likes to raise rates all the time and bug me to get Rogers Home Phone. So I go to the site. First, I'm all excited. I'm so excited I could dance! All the flash buttons are labeled, and it's not just a big fat title and nothing else. I think maybe this year I'll have good news.

I click the english button. Woo! It moves! I get really, really excited. I click the button that says open your gift...and...nothing happens. Drat! Foiled again. I try pressing enter, space, simulating a mouse click, sweet dick all occurs. So hi ho, hi ho, it's off to the phone we go.

And this is when things get real interesting. I asked the dude if he could help me enter into the Rogers Customer Appreciation contest since the site was inaccessible to me. I sloooowed down and told him about blindness, and screenreaders, and how we don't use a mouse, and how I can't click the magic button, bla bla bla. This was too much information for the poor fellow. First off, he wasn't even aware of the contest! He was convinced I was being scammed...until I gave him the link. Finally, he came around to the fact that there was a contest. Then he said no, I can't do this, because I'm not allowed to enter contests. I told him I'm not asking *him* to enter the contest, I'm asking him to help *me* enter the contest. He could not understand. He kept telling me I should go to a rogers store and maybe they'd do it, or...

...

maybe I could ask someone to come do it for me.

Cue that cartoon noise where they light a fuse near dynamite. Hiss-bang!

To anyone who is a customer service representative, let me save you from experienceing some serious wrath. Don't whip that one out, ok? If I'm calling you, I obviously don't have someone handy who could do what I'm asking you to do. Not all blind people live with sighted folk, or sometimes the sighted folk aren't around when they need something. I understand tech support reps saying it in the case of "Is there someone around who can tell me what lights are on on the modem?" I get that. But if I'm calling in to say that I can't interact with your website, I obviously don't have ready eyeballs who can come interact with it for me. If I did, I wouldn't be calling, now would I? I'd just say "Hey Bob, click this here button, would ya?"

Poor customer service Brian. In one second, all the rage of fighting about the inaccessibility of the Rogers's site came out as if fired from a cannon. I ended up saying that if I had eyeballs on demand, would I be calling him? I would have to wait for someone to come over and do it for me, and most people have better things to do than help me click a button on a website that should be accessible because they're a business and they have several blind customers with talking phones...and....oh poor Brian. Poor poor Brian. He still wouldn't even think of talking to a supervisor to get approval to help a customer, ya know, because that would be customer *service*. He even whipped out the "I could get fired. I have kids at home..." as if I was asking him to sell heroin for me. Give me a damn break. If you get approval, you won't get fired. Use some brain cells and think outside the box...oh yeah, they train that out of you.

After I told him I'm sorry for getting mad, just I've been bringing these access issues up for years, and I always get the same "we'll escalate that" line but things are never made good, I got a little upset when I was told that I would have to wait for someone to help me, like my money wasn't good enough to get service. I whipped out some logic. I asked him why he couldn't do this for me if our call was being recorded. If it was being recorded, there would be a copy of me saying "help me enter this contest" which would coincide with your computer entering the contest. It would be all good. He said not all calls are recorded. I said fine then. How can a store employee do it? They will have even less proof than you that I asked them to, and I'm sure their machine is just as tightly monitored. Then he started to stammer. I don't know if they'd do it. I just thought they could. I said so I could go all the way down there, just to enter in a contest I might add, only to be turned away? I asked him why he couldn't just ask his boss, get approval, click my button, and resolve the reason for my call today? Damn! I didn't say those words, but I should have, since they liked to whip that one out at the end of the call.

I told him that I find it high irony that the site designed to appreciate customers isn't designed so all customers can interact with it and be appreciated. Then poor little Brian made another mistake that he shouldn't have. He said, "Well, we can't taylor the site for everyone." This is what I should have said, and I kick myself for not saying it. If you were working in a store, and a person in a wheelchair came to the door and couldn't get in the store, would you actually look them in the face and say "Sorry about your luck, but we can't make the entrance work for everyone?" No. You would help them get what they needed. But I didn't. I just explained that I wasn't wanting the site to look nice for me, I was wanting to have the ability to actually interact with it. I also said that I can interact with most of the internet, which I am sure is set up for the majority of users, so Rogers wouldn't have to break their site to make it work. All they would have to do is consult a few people who know about web accessibility, and all would live in harmony.

Then I may have taught him a little something, but I'm not sure. I told him to place his computer's focus on the "open your gift" button and press enter and see what happens. Nothing did. I told him that's what I'm dealing with. It's not that it looks ugly. It's that I can't use it. He got all sad and said "Oh. Hmmm. I never knew you could press enter on things on the computer." Then he transferred me to tech support and said maybe they'd know what to do. I told him likely not, but maybe we could work something out.

I got a very nice woman, whose name eludes me, on tech support. I explained it again, and of course the poor woman couldn't offer any more insight. But what she did do was speak to her supervisor and get approval to help me fill out the contest. I ended up donating my gift to the United Way because I won either a new release movie or game rental, a magazine subscription, or a skin for my cell phone. The magazine or the skin were out, and I just couldn't see myself renting a movie just because most new releases suck these days. But damn it, I participated in the contest, which was what I wanted. Thank you, nice tech support lady.

I told both she and Brian about the site. I said I commend them for actually labeling the Flash this year. But I asked if she could pass on that it still doesn't work with screenreaders. I said I have told them for years, and it's gotten me nowhere, so maybe if the message came from inside, it would be received better. I didn't know.

I know most people think I'm crazy for going this far to enter in a contest. But it's not the contest, it's the fact that the site doesn't work, and this design could potentially spread to the main site. And it's the fact that they don't care enough to fix it even though I'm sure they could, and I'm paying them good money, just like the rest of the world. It's not like I pay them in blindy bucks that aren't worth as much as ordinary bucks.

Here's a note to Rogers and every other company. If you really value my feedback, show it. Do something about the accessibility of your services in whatever form they take, especially when someone brings up a problem. Don't tell me that you value my feedback and then do nothing. It's like the old saying. Actions speak louder than words. It's easy to tell me that you value my feedback. If you showed me, I would actually believe it.

Does This Mean I Can't Make Fun Of Nickelback Anymore?

2009-11-07T08:59:00.003-05:00

It probably doesn't because they're still Nickelback and haven't put out something truly good in almost a decade now, but they've got a bit of competition in the wow, this is the same damn song category.

In case you don't remember the How You Remind Me Of Some Day song,this is how I remind you.

Now with that fresh in your brain, have a listen to what happens when Tone Loc's "Wild Thing" and "Funky Cold Medina"become one.

Edit: Here's that mp3 we promised.

Yes, other than the lyrics and a couple notes here and there, they are exactly the same song. I think the Nickelback thing might even be a little less ridiculous because at least with that one whoever made it had to speed things up slightly to make it work and it still came out like a tiny bit of a mess. This on the other hand...all I can do is marvel at the genius of anyone who can sell the same thing over and over to people who don't realize it.

A Maple Leaf Milestone

2009-11-07T07:06:00.000-05:00

Today is a good day. As of last night, the Leafs are no longer the dirt worst team in the NHL. That honour now belongs to the Carolina Hurricanes.Leafs 3, Hurricanes 2.

It wasn't the prettiest thing I've ever seen, but a win's a win and I'll take it. I'm not sure if this win speaks more to how much the Leafs are improving or how god awful Carolina is though. At times especially early in the game when they were down by 2 it looked like they were starting to get discouraged and I was worried they'd go back to that let's just stand here and let everybody skate through us strategy that worked so well at the start of the year, but thankfully things picked up as time went on.

Now it's time to hope for the start of a winning streak tonight in Detroit. If Phil Kessel who has been playing his ass off can put a couple of his half million shots on net *in* the net, we might just have a chance.