September 2004

A bad slasher reprise

September 9, 2004

Electronic Data Systems chief Michael Jordan announced Thursday that a total of 20,000-25,000 jobs will be eliminated over the next two years (including 5,000 already slashed). The move comes as the company tries to attempt a death spiral. This summer Moody's downgraded the outsourcing behemoth's stock to junk status. It is pretty certain that they will find any way possible to cut the experienced people who once made the company successful in deference to cheaper labor.

Check Engine: Emissions Workshop!

September 8, 2004

The Passat spent another day in the shop. The final determination - unknown problem. They checked it high and low, hooked it up to the computer and couldn't find anything wrong. So I went to pick it up and take it to the Volkswagen dealer sometime soon. I'd also asked them to look at the oil sender because the wires had been weak and broken. Volkswagen's buy extra parts plan starts with an oil pressure sender unit that has unreasonably fragile connections, and worse yet no way to fix it. They made a way and attached the dangling wires. I thanked the shop guys and got in the car to leave. Amazingly there was NO check engine light. It would appear that a broken wire to the oil sender is reported by saying there is an emissions problem. Who would know... I wonder if a flat tire is reported as an electrical problem.

Elk Mountain Volkswagen, Glenwood Springs, Colorado

September 7, 2004

It never ceases to amaze me how some businesses don't understand that a positive customer experience can be well worth a small inconvenience. We stopped at a place that is clueless about customer service today. Elk Mountain Volkswagen (the other half of Elk Mountain Audi) in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. Arriving at 8:00 when the service department opened the first thing they needed to know is if we had an appointment. We didn't and the appointments apparently hadn't shown up yet (there was not a single other customer in sight). I explained we had a check engine light and emissions workshop needed and how long wold it take to have it hooked up to the computer and see what the diagnostic codes reveal. For this task (which takes less than 5 minutes) the would be happy to do it if we'd leave the car all morning. So a person who would pay $80 for 5 minutes of work is turned away while the mechanics cool their heels waiting for the previously scheduled appointments to show up. No wonder Volkswagen dealers have such outstanding reputations.

SMTP intercept

September 6, 2004

Just spent some time working on reconfiguration of one of the SMTP servers I run. The odd thing was that even the tests that should fail went through without a hitch. So I dug into the logs a bit further and found no record of any of the messages I was sending, either good or bad. So I looked at the headers and it appears the ISP for the hotel is doing NAT port redirection of all outbound connections on port 25. It's a practice that is convenient for guests but may pose both an opening for spammers to stop by and use the connection as well as annoyance for people who don't like third parties unwittingly intercepting their mail.

Passat problems

September 5, 2004

Four days and a thousand miles after getting the Passat back from having its timing belt replaced, heads machined and all new valves the check engine "Emissions Workshop!" light comes on.... Of course it's Sunday on a holiday weekend and we're a thousand miles from home. Several sites on the net suggest things such as a problem with a vacuum line, not having the gas cap tight or a misfire. Maybe it needs plugs... the annoying thing is it's impossible to tell. From now until Tuesday morning when the shops open up we're clueless.

So somebody should come up with a tool that will plug in to the car and give mere mortals the readout. Bonus points to somebody who makes one that is a small LED or LCD display that can be mounted near the dash instrument cluster.

Traveling internet

September 4, 2004

Dave Winer has been writing recently about wanting hotels to show when they have wireless. I agree completely. It's amazing that "data port" is listed but free internet doesn't even make the long text description of hotels.

For the record the Quality Inn in Fort Collins, Colo. has a great free high-speed wireless connection.

Another good place to look for internet connections, either wired or wireless, is public libraries and university libraries. Colorado State University and University of Nevada, Las Vegas both have free public internet in their libraries.

Solutions for non-mounting disk in OS X 10.3.5

September 4, 2004

Solution for non-mounting disk images We previously reported issues with Disk Utility being able to mount disk images. Users upgrading to Mac OS X 10.3.5 are receiving various errors, including "- 536870208" when attempting to do so.

Now MacFixIt reader Theodore Lyman has received a workaround from Apple that, in his case, allows disk images to once again work properly:

"Tech support was unable to resolve this immediately after having me go back to my base system i.e. no cards, extra memory etc. Also as I mentioned, Disk Utility would not create images either, giving the same error message. What was also unusual about this was that there was no option for the size of the disk image as there usually was. the pull down was gone.

"Solution - after about 24 hours, an Apple tech called me back with this solution - which did work.

"From the /System/Library remove the following files - "Extensions.kextcache", "Extensions.mkext", and the folder "com.apple.kernalcaches"

"I then was told to run sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions (in the Terminal) to reset the cache info."

Regional differences

September 3, 2004

It's interesting being back in Fort Collins this weekend. 13 hours plus a time change door to door. It is much greener here. The colors are just gorgeous across I-70. Many times in the past few years when we've made the trip at this time of year we've flown so it's been a while since the beautiful colors had been on our agenda. Hopefully the trip back will accord more time to stop and enjoy the scenery.

Right on

September 2, 2004

Dave Winer says we need to focus more attention on the Republican (Bush Administration) flip-flops. Absolutely. He mentions the campaign promise not to go nation building. More than $80 billion later we know that was the talk with no action. Others on the list include "Mission Accomplished" and then joking about the lies we told the world about the need to go into Iraq. The commitment to hunt the terrorists who perpetrated 9-11 and then putting it on the back burner to pursue a personal vendetta.

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