Archive for the 'internet' Category

Logitech online store: haunted

Shaky Logitech I have wanted to buy a keyboard with Bulgarian layout for a while, and as you can imagine, you don’t find these in the local FNAC or Vandenborre. So when I saw that the Logitech site allowed purchasing online, of such exotic items like a Bulgarian keyboard, I quickly ordered one. However, the experience has been unsatisfactory:

  • First try: I order the keyboard, do the checkout procedure, pay with credit-card and get an immediate reaction: purchase OK, shipment will follow soon. Wow, that’s slick. Several days later, UPS passes by my front door while I’m not there, they say, the package is signed off by a certain “Korenberg” and I get an email: delivery OK. Slight alarm bell: I know no “Korenberg” living at my appartment. When I get home this is confirmed: no one in the building knows anyone by that name. Keyboard is in the twilight zone. I file complaint with Logitech, they propose refund, I accept, I’m still waiting for confirmation. But, I still need a BG keyboard.
  • Second try: I order another keyboard and try to pay with my credit card. Twice I give my credit card details, press “Process” and get redirected to the same check-out page, without any notion of whether or not my order is accepted. I check the “order history”, see that my recent purchase is not there and decide to give up on credit cards.
  • I select “bank payment” and finish checkout. They tell me what bank account I should pay on (one of Bibit), and with which message. I do the payment, see that the number message is not a structured number (”gestructureerde mededeling”) and put it in the normal message box. Since then, nothing. Has Bibit recognized the money as the payment for Logitech? No idea. Has Logitech started fulfillment? I guess not.
  • I visit the Logitech web site again, checking out the Squeezebox, and decide to test the checkout system again. I put a Squeezebox in my shopping cart. When I go to the customer care, I fly from shop.logitech.com (where I am logged in) to logitech-nl-emea.custhelp.com (which looks the same, but where another login is necessary, because both accounts aren’t linked, apparently). There I get into an eternal redirection loop, with an infinite number of “&cl=BE,nl” adding themselves to the URL.
  • I try to break out of that loop by going back to the shopping cart page. For some reason my shopping cart now contains 2 Squeezeboxes instead of one. That’s it , I’ve had it.

Bottom line: this online shop of theirs is as trustworthy as Lindsay Lohan saying she’s gonna stop drinking. I buy online a lot from shops like Amazon and Pixmania, so I think I’m qualified to say that their shopping application stinks. I’m gonna wait until next week for reply on the second purchase, if there’s none, I’m cancelling that order, and I’m never shopping with Logitech again.

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed or receive updates via email. Thanks for visiting!

What American accent do you have?

What American accent do you have? (Best version so far)
Midland
(”Midland” is not necessarily the same thing as “Midwest”)
The default, lowest-common-denominator American accent that newscasters try to imitate. Since it’s a neutral accent, just because you have a Midland accent doesn’t mean you’re from the Midland.
Personality Test Results
Click Here to Take This Quiz
Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

Oh Lord won’t you buy me …

I’m a Mercedes SLK!

You appreciate the finer things in life. You have a split personality - wild or conservative, depending on your mood. Wherever you go, you like to travel first class. Luxury, style, and fun - who could ask for more?

Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

via Clo and Ine

.eu domain speculation

When the .eu domains became available to the general public, I decided I did not want forret.eu. That means that the domain was available to be grabbed by someone else, and indeed it has been. I received the following email today:
.EU domains businessmodel
This has all the professional charm of the mafia offering “protection”. The guy hides behind the Gmail of Luxembourg, kmail.lu . A DNS search shows me that KJ stands for Kurt Janusch from G-1 Ltd, 175-177 Newland Avenue, HU5 2EP, Hull UK. His name also shows up in a Eurid dispute (Eurid is the registrar that manages the .eu domains), but with an address in Germany. In another dispute with Altova, he is considered to have registered a domain name “without rights or legitimate interest in the name and in bad faith”.

Further, there were almost 3,000 other eu. domain names registered and offered for sale by the same “seller”, Mr. Kurt Janusch who, nevertheless, acts on behalf of various companies in this regard

Mr. Janusch is what they call a “domain squatter” or cybersquatter. He is of the same moral fiber as US counterparts like Jeff Burgar and John Zuccarini (the latter has been arrested).

Bring a scarce resource onto the market and what do you get: speculation. This is one of the reasons why Bob Parsons from GoDaddy refers to the launch of .eu domains as the .EU Landrush fiasco.

I am Spiderman

Your results:
You are Spider-Man

Spider-Man
80%
Superman
70%
Iron Man
60%
Robin
55%
Supergirl
50%
Wonder Woman
50%
Green Lantern
50%
The Flash
45%
Hulk
40%
Batman
25%
Catwoman
25%
You are intelligent, witty,
a bit geeky and have great
power and responsibility.


Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz

via Clo

B-list blogger

B-List Blogger
via Ine and Clo

Our customers are the perverts, not us

Cain Ransbottyn, de opperpooier van het InternetIn the newspaper De Morgen this weekend, there was a full page article about a successful Belgian internet entrepreneur: Cain Ransbottyn.

Cain is the founder and CEO of Realroot, hoster of a large collection of high-bandwidth, and often NSFW, websites - including Zattevrienden, Zattemadammen, Wijfzonderlijf, Gallerygalore and Thisislife. He is known for being a shrewd business man and not the most subtle of conversationalists. But the way he speaks about his pr0n-consuming users in this article sets a new high for self-confessed customer contempt.
Continue reading ‘Our customers are the perverts, not us’

More globalisation, please

A while back I bought the whole suite of Edward Tufte books: “The visual display of quantitative data“, “Envisioning Information” and “Visual Explanations“.

Today my copy of “Beautiful evidence” arrived in the mail. Actually a Belgian Post employee came to drop it off, because I had to pay 10 euro douane/customs. For a book of $52, that is an unpleasant extra 25%.

Beautiful Evidence: by Edward Tufte

The legislation that was printed on the back of the receipt states that any item from outside the EU, with a value higher than 22 euro, or not conform to ’small letter mail of non-commercial kind’ (up to 45 euro), or containing goods from outside the EU should be presented to customs. Standard fee: 10 euro. I have just ordered a t-shirt from SomaFM ($50), I wonder what customs will think of that.

Continue reading ‘More globalisation, please’