taint.org: Justin Mason’s Weblog

• Dabble DB : looks like a web-based version of good old Filemaker
  (tags: dabble-db databases web db spreadsheets analytics groupware)

• retrocomputing hackers reminisce about the 1541 diskette drive : skip to the comment thread, it’s fantastic. I used to know lots of this stuff (via Donncha)
  (tags: via:donncha commodore-64 hacks 1541 disks copy-protection drm hardware hacking history retro c64)

• MPLC racketeering Irish playschools : the ‘Motion Picture Licensing Company’ sent a letter to 2,500 Irish playschools, demanding a fee of EUR3 per child to cover license fees for the kids watching DVDs. However, it seems they themselves hadn’t registered as required by law, so were acting illegally in issuing demands… oh the irony
  (tags: mplc racketeering law ireland dvds movies mpaa licensing copyright legal children kindergarten playschools)

• Komplett’s new Dublin pick-up point is open : routing around the Irish couriers and An Post’s brokenness by allowing customers to pick up their items directly. a shame this is necessary
  (tags: an-post delivery couriers dublin ireland komplett components pc hardware)

Tags: 1541, an-post, analytics, c64, children, commodore-64, components, copy-protection, copyright, couriers, dabble-db, databases, db, delivery, disks, drm, dublin, dvds, groupware, hacking, hacks, hardware, history, ireland, kindergarten, komplett, law, legal, licensing, movies, mpaa, mplc, pc, playschools, racketeering, retro, spreadsheets, via:donncha, web

I’m waiting for a replacement battery from Dell, covered under warranty. Dell service have been great, but UPS, not so much…

On Monday (25th June), after a little back-and-forth to establish that the battery was faulty, I got a mail from Dell saying:

The Part (Battery) will be with you tomorrow pre 17:00 (Next Business Day). Please note that you will require to return the faulty part at the same point of time, the courier person would not be delivering the part until you return the defective part.

Great! That’s good warranty service. I’m happy.

So I wait… and wait. Finally, 2 days later, today (Wednesday 27th), at 17:45, a courier appears to pick up the faulty part. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have the replacement with him.

I go online to see what’s up via online tracking, and see this:

Location	Date	Local Time	Description
DUBLIN, IE	27/06/2007	16:41	A CORRECT STREET NAME IS NEEDED FOR DELIVERY. UPS IS ATTEMPTING TO OBTAIN THIS INFORMATION
	27/06/2007	4:13	IN-TRANSIT SCAN
	27/06/2007	4:12	IMPORT SCAN
DUBLIN, IE	26/06/2007	18:31	IMPORT SCAN
	26/06/2007	5:59	IMPORT SCAN
	26/06/2007	5:58	OUT FOR DELIVERY
	26/06/2007	3:59	ARRIVAL SCAN
KOELN (COLOGNE), DE	26/06/2007	4:39	DEPARTURE SCAN
	26/06/2007	4:14	DEPARTURE SCAN
HERKENBOSCH, NL	25/06/2007	10:09	ORIGIN SCAN
NL	25/06/2007	14:02	BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED

So, what, the street name is “INCORRECT” despite one UPS driver having no problem? I suspect someone just couldn’t be arsed.

I rang up UPS, provided a hint, and it seems the delivery is now rescheduled for Friday. So much for “next business day” delivery! Lucky the laptop works on AC without the battery, otherwise I’d be quite annoyed.

I wonder if I can provide feedback to Dell about this? There’s a possibility they might switch courier company if they get enough complaints about crappy service. It also makes me wonder if there’s any decent international parcel delivery service in Ireland. At least UPS haven’t yet required me to schlep over to a “local” depot 5 miles away to pick up the package myself, like An Post does…

Tags: an-post, couriers, delivery, ireland, post, postage, suckage, ups, ups-suck

I don’t know what’s going on with An Post, the Irish postal service, these days — I’ve been having some pretty bad luck with them.

For my birthday, I was lucky enough to be given a Thingamagoop — it took a while (hey, they’re hand-made) but was shipped on Nov 7th from the US. Bleep Labs accidentally shipped me two, apparently, but only one has arrived — on Nov 16th, 9 days after shipping. The other one’s still AWOL nearly a month later.

I then ordered something from Sendit.com on Nov 17th, as a birthday gift for Nov 30th. It was shipped from their Belfast offices on Nov 18th, and still hasn’t arrived to date. Sendit were champs, however, and refunded the purchase as soon as I rang them on the 30th (I’d recommend their services, no problem).

Finally, SpamAssassin was lucky enough to win a Linux New Media Award 2006 for ‘Best Linux-based Anti-spam Solution’ — nifty! As part of this, a (physical) trophy is apparently winging its way from Germany, and was apparently shipped on November 27th. Guess what: no sign.

In other words, in the past month, 75% of the parcels sent to me seem to have gone AWOL. All I can do is hope that they’ve just been delayed, rather than suffer a worse fate. In particular, I hope that trophy turns up — it’s the only physical award we’ve ever received :(

Can anyone think of a good avenue to track these down? The website seems pretty negative, and what I’ve heard seems to be along the lines of ‘turn up at the sorting depot, cross your fingers, and see if they’ve been misdelivered’. Ick.

Tags: an-post, dublin, ireland, post