Category: daily life

Power Shower

daily life economy marketing

Orwellian, isn’t that what you call it?

What happened? Some bean counters at Best Western figured out how much money gets spent on heating water for the guest showers. Probably a fair bit, since BW Hotels operates 320,000 rooms globally.

So let’s put in those water-saving devices.

Yes, actually taking a shower is pretty much impossible now. Your body still gets wet. Somewhat, in some places. But forget about mundane actions like washing the soap away from the skin. That measly drip coming out of the device will not do that. Water is an essential feature of taking a shower.

BW Hotels think that this is not a given.

The amazing thing is, that somebody thought to put up a sign reading:

Dear Guest,
Please be
advised that
this shower is
equipped
with a gentle,
“Rainwater”
style head.
It is not a
“Power” shower

Now we know. It is not a bug, it is a feature. Bugs are unintentional. This one very much is intentional. And it sucks. Really badly.

So, if I have the choice to stay in a Best Western or in any other establishment I know what to do.

Trying to reframe what is normal into something special, that got replaced by something special, is evil. Intentional, and I will not support it.

The TV in the room was from 2011. A lot has happened in TV tech since then.

once in a while

art daily life technology

I miss it that I am no longer in LA. This looks like a building worth looking at for instance.

Iowa is not around the corner. I have never been. During my American decades I did not look at much of the country at all. But pre Covid it would have been much easier to have a look at IH tractors than it would be now. And it seems that they dissolve the museum by the end of the year.

Other things I miss? People, of course, and In-n-out. Warm weather that does not end when August ends will be another thing. Coming to think of it: It will be a tough winter: no where to fly to escape the cold.

First world problems I guess.

all things end

daily life misc

some end well

Vesterby glasses: awesome

daily life

I really like my Vesterby frames.

When I needed spare parts I got in touch, and they sent them right away and to the address where I would be.

Awesome service. I can only recommend them: Vesterby

robo phone phishing

daily life malware technology

3rd robo phishing call in as many days.
Today it spoofed my own number as it’s caller ID
and pretended to be AT&T. Telling me to enter
the last 4 of my social. Their scheme was that
my account had been “flagged”. Entering
false four digits prompted in a “flag has been removed”
message. So that people easier forget. I wonder what
people want to do with the combination of my
phone number and the last 4 of my social.

It is frightening to think that they might a have a success
rate in the double digit percentages with this scheme.

Lufthansa “NONSTOP messing with YOU”

daily life

Lufthansa is on their 8th strike in 2014. If you are affected this is how it looks like:

An email arrives that the final leg of flight got cancelled 24 hours before departure.
Logging in to the website suggests to get a train ticket.
Trying to do so results in a generic failure.
Phone lines are not being answered by Lufthansa in Germany or the US.
At 6am there is another email informs you that the outbound flight is also cancelled.
Phone lines still don't work.
The web interface says to contact phone numbers that have not been answered in the last 20 hours.
The phone numbers tell you to check the web.

I hate this guy

daily life technology

Working on some code which is from 1992. Amazing fact number one is that the bits did not rot. Still compiles like a charm. But I really really hate the guy who wrote it. I know that back in the day storage was an issue. Things needed to be a bit more optimized than today. But having it all come down to a line like:


pos1 = ((*(*(l+x)+y)));

feels a bit outdated. Sure, it still works. Couple of comments could have been nice. Those extra brackets barely make up for it. I think the best thing that the author of those lines did, was not to get under a bus or die in any other way: I would not be here in that case.

“Fight Club” in 2013

communication daily life economy history internet marketing media politics

Watching “Fight Club” again today is a strange and very interesting experience.

So much has changed since the book / film came out. It is clearly set in a different epoch.

Its character ‘Tyler Durden’ says:

God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables;
slaves with white collars.  Advertising has us chasing cars
and clothes, working jobs  we hate so we can buy shit we don't need.

…

We've all been raised on television to believe
that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods,
and rock stars.

But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact.
And we're very, very pissed off.

It seemed fitting at the time. What happened since then?

Many of those jobs are gone. People in that slice of society
make less money today. Sometimes even in absolute dollars.
Certainly corrected for inflation. In the same time the share
of the upper sliver of society on the other end of the wealth
distribution has nothing but exploded.

So why seems the portrayed unrest even further removed
from reality than less than a score years ago?

The answer might lie in the proliferation of computer games and the Internet
during that time.

Both soak up all that extra male testosterone and time that would
otherwise find not much constructive application in the world of 2013.

Oh, and it looked absolutely awesome. I miss movies shot on film.

fun to work with great companies

daily life economy

Moving is not fun. I used Bevery Hills Transfer and Storage before and things worked really well.

When I recently had to plan a move I was delighted that they still around. And everything was as perfect as it can be.

It makes such a difference if one knows that there are actual people who care about the job. I think that this kind of attitude can be found if the size of the company matches the task: If they are too small then stretched resources might make things inflexible. If a company gets too large people often stop caring. Since they do the big company starts to treat their people and customers like cattle. Prodding them into the flow via a byzantine set of rules and call centers.

Luckily Bevery Hills Transfer and Storage is the right size, and the people do care. That makes moving almost fun.

There are probably other companies out there that do a good job as well. Those I just don’t know. These people I have a great experience with. So they are the ones that I will call for my next move. And I am happy that I found them back in the day.

Delta online flight booking

daily life

One would think that Delta would know by now how to run an online booking system.

Seems not to be the case.

Just booked a flight. In the end the system told me that I took to long and that I should start over.

Bummer.

But I did.

Succeeded the second time.

When I checked my credit card statement I saw both the failed and the successful one on there.

The credit card company could not help.

Delta eventually credited the redundant flight. So they claim. It takes “7 to 10 business days” to charge this back.

Spent 1 hour with them on the phone to undo this.

I don’t need something complicated. I am just looking to buy a flight. Online. And maybe in one attempt.

This has been a seriously underwhelming experience. I think that “Delta” should start setting money aside to do a “Pacbell”.

Rebranding is probably gonna cheaper than trying to increase customer service or getting their systems to work properly and
to regain customers back the old fashioned way.