Thankyou google for messing my photos

Don't know what it is with the blogger servers or google servers, but my last  blog entry had all 7 photos properly displaying when I first  saved the post. Despite my best efforts, though I updated 5 of the photos they still aren't displaying.

This is recent. The past month or so I notice if I go back to old posts, half of the photos are missing. GREAT JOB GOOGLE.

I choose to put my photos using blogger and you lost half of them, or you aren't able to display half of them suddenly due to "errors".

Good job!

Alternatively the fault could be with Mozilla, as I mostly browse with Firefox and SeaMonkey!

Google takes no chances with people now.

Last August I saw the google car in front of where I work and stood there as it rolled by and even took a shot of the car as it went by. 

This morning for fun I looked in front of company on street view, and the parking lot shows I just arrived, as my Suzuki is one of the last cars parked, but the image they have for the sidewalk of the building is from 2011, where there is no one walking.

I guess after all the complaints they have from people, those at google edit out any random person left in their images. Besides I guess it makes for a better image for people to see details if there isn't a bunch of people walking around.

So Google makes photos auto-awesome?

So Google took this photo and made it into auto-awesome.

It's a little weird to see the sun and the snow...

I'm not sure how I feel about this feature

Targeted ads

They might think targeted ads work, but I don't see them working with people like me.

I happened to go to the Bushtakah website about 2 months ago to check something out. Now every single webpage I go to that has ads shows me a Bushtukah ad, almost all the time.   Thing is, their website has nothing I want to buy and I can guarantee you that I will never go to their website again, especially after seeing it EVERY FUCKING DAY for the past 2 months as a google ad.

I don't get to see ads of clothing stores as often as the Bushtukah ad.  I can go to Old Navy, Maison Simons, Smart Set, Suzy Shier,  H&M, Forever 21, American Eagle Outfitters, and a few other sites to check out dresses and never do their ads spam me as much or much at all.

Let me tell you I buy clothes far more often then I buy "cycling gear" which is Bushtukah's main business. I buy the occasional camping gear when I pass through Ottawa, but their website sucks.

Oh and I researched an MP3 player a month ago, and for the next couple of weeks I kept seeing the one I bought as an ad - how helpful is that in making a sale?  I already bought it and am using it. Showing it to me every day won't make me go out and buy 20 more.

Good luck with the targeted ads. And Bushtukah, enjoy wasting cash on those targeted ads.

Android apps

I've had an Android for over a year and I'm just slowly finding applications for it that I'm finding useful. When I first got my Android, most of the applications I installed, I thought might be useful and then I never used them. So I uninstalled many of them. 

Recently I've been looking for an application that helps me find stores when I'm somewhere I'm not familiar with. The Google "Local" is good for restaurants, and bars but not so good for finding a shoe store for instance.  Sure I can find an application that tells me where all walmart stores or all Canadian tire stores are, but I don't want 2000 apps, one per store,  I want just one that will help me find stores that are withing walking distance when I'm somewhere. 

I installed "Point Inside". It's an application that will help you navigate inside most large Malls and Airports. I used it the first time at Carrefour laval yesterday and it worked well. I came in by a door I don't usually use, and wanted to find American Eagle Outfitters.  I opened the application, it showed me a map of Carrefour Laval and and pointed where the American eagle was and I was able to find the location of the American Eagle and use it to navigate. Didn't have to find a map and figure out where I was.  Sadly it only works for large Malls.  But I'm happy to say it finds malls in Halifax, Moncton, Saint-Johns, and Fredericton.

I also love my Canadian Tire application. Especially since you can use it to scan items at the store and find it it's regular price.  I took off the IKEA application. It was like having a catalog on my phone it wasn't that helpful. Besides I rarely go to Ikea more then twice a year. I go to Canadian Tire far more often and when I go camping, I can find the nearest Canadian Tire on my route. 

GasBuddy is a great application as well. It points to you all the closest gas stations to you and how much their gas is. When in Montreal, most of the time I don't want to drive to find cheap gas, but when I'm on the road, it's helpful to know I don't have to stop at the first one I see, that there is another one down the road with better prices.

The Google maps on my phone are great too. I've not needed to buy a GPS unit because between the google maps and the GPS on the phone it really helps you navigate.  Even when I get no cell reception, so map cannot update close up but  I can still get my location. When we canoed around Lac Sorcier, I hadn't realized we'd crossed the entire lake. The GPS showed me we had. I have the google Star map, though I've yet to use it. Will have to remember to use it next time I'm stargazing :)

And for when I'm bored in a train station, there's the Savage Love app.  I can read his advice all day and all night. Nothing more entertaining then a gay columnist with an open mind, and no nonsense  sex advice. 

I won't talk about the Facebook application except that it's probably the app I use the most.  Especially since I like checking in.  As for ease of use, and stability well I won't say much. I find it unstable at best. But it's free and I don't have to use it. 

The other application I've been using is called "Shopping lists". This is the 2nd or third app I try using for making lists to not forget items when shopping. I'm not sure how much I like it or how much I've used it. I think last time I needed a list I wrote it on the back of an envelope. 
 

Quality of products go down as quantity goes up

The race to get your product out of the door faster to be the first with a product out to get the share of the market is making for very sloppy products.  I've been noticing that big companies like Microsoft, Apple, google, release products way too early without having fixed most of the problems.

One of hte biggest problems I've been noticing of late, is poor support for larger fonts. And here's the amusing part, the western world is full of baby boomers, who now all suffer from from presbyopia.


Last night blogger forced their new interface on me and the size of fonts I was using in firefox made me run into a plethora of bugs that made blogging a real PITA.  Today as I squint to write this in a smaller font size, I'm not running into 1001 bugs.

I have to admit though, being a QA specialist for the past 20 years, no one ever tests anything other then in small fonts in Windows [with the exception of me that is].  It's obvious when you use large fonts with some apps. Never mind the new "extra large fonts" in windows 7. 

I remember years ago, we wanted to develop a product with high DPI, where we were going to use an extra large font. I believe it was 150 DPI [small is 96 DPI and large is 120 DPI] or maybe even larger, and I did some research for them.   I remember finding that most applications did not function well in such large font sizes, and that developing a product to support such font sizes was just going to be nightmarish because we would get blamed for the fact 3rd party software was not functioning well with fonts that large.

And I bet most people who do QA aren't in the age group who need to use larger fonts so they never think about it.

And for the record I'm not anymore impressed with Windows 8 now then I was back in June. I also have no desire to own any apple products!

Google ads targetted but is it helpful?

I made an internet purchase a month ago of the Rafters brand "Antigua" sandals I was pining for and had them shipped to my friends mom in New Jersey while she was vacationing there.  This is how I got around the fact they could not be shipped or found in Canada.

Also recently I upgraded my cell phone to a Smartphone, with Fido, the mobile carrier I've been with for 11 years now.

So now on half of the web pages I visit, I get ads for the Antigua sandals I have purchased and for joining FIDO.  Isn't Google missing the point?

I own the 3 new pairs of sandals I seen 50 ads for SINCE I BOUGHT THEM and I've been a FIDO client for 11 years.  No matter how many more times I see these ads I'm not going to buy any more products from these companies since I already have what I wanted from them!!!!

It's like preaching to the choir!!!

UGLY Black google bar

Sometime in the past day this ugly black bar appeared on top of my nice personalized iGoogle page. I like it just as it is. I really dislike this toolbar. It's distracting. 

But here's the thing, I have yet to find  a way to disable the damn thing. Despite using Firefox 5.0 and installing greasemonkey and installing this script I found here and still I have the ugly black bar. UGH.  I mean it's one thing added a new feature. It's another thing to just impose something like that.  I just want it disabled. Otherwise I won't be using the Google search so much anymore. 

I'm not any more impressed with the white one that appeared on my G-mail either. Like lets make a way for users to turn this stuff off if we want to.  Has it not occurred to anyone but me that several layers of tabs and pull down just makes it to chaotic for some people.  I don't need another layer of menu's and pull downs. I'm already over stimulated as it is. 

Users should have options of turning off features they don't like. It shouldn't be in your face .