Tag Archives: Rant

Umbuchen bei British… (oder auch nicht)

Bin genervt von British Airways. 3 Flüge innerhalb von 6 Std gehen von Washington nach London, ich bekomme den
letzten. Würde aber immer noch um 13.35 statt um 16.05 in London
abfliegen können, denn da geht ein früherer Flug und ich komme schon um
10 Uhr an. Wollte also auf den früheren Umbuchen.

Habe es versucht:

  • Beim Einchecken: Er hat meine Tasche genommen und gesagt, ich soll zum
    Ticket sales Schalter gehen.
  • Beim Ticket sales Schalter: Er hat gesagt, ich hätte nich einchecken
    dürfen und ich müsste meine Tasche zurückholen lassen. Dann hat er
    nachgeguckt und hat gesagt, es wäre sowieso kein Platz mehr frei in
    keinem der Flieger.
  • In der Washington, DC Lounge von British Airways am
    Serviceschalter. Er sagt, er könnte nichts machen, ich solle
    1-800-AIRWAYS anrufen.
  • Bei 1-800-AIRWAYS: 40 Minuten in der Klassikmusikwarteschleife
    gehangen, dann aufgegeben. SUCKERS! Ansage, dass ich online alles
    ändern könne.
  • Auf der BA Webpage: Kann meinen Flug nicht online ändern, da ich bei
    Expedia gebucht habe. Kann allerdings den Flug von London->ZRH
    kaufen. Nur noch Businessclass, 1200CHF eine Richtung.
  • Bei der Hotline des British Airways Executive Club. Bin innerhalb von
    10 Sek drangekommen (lohnt sich doch):
    Es wäre nur noch Business frei. Sage ich, "weiss ich, will upgraden".
    Ein upgrade von LON->ZRH kostet 9000 Flugmeilen, ich habe 35000
    Meilen. Sie sagt, ich kann aber keine Teilstrecken upgraden, ich könne
    nur den gesamten Weg von den USA nach Zürich auf Businessclass
    upgraden, und dass kostet 50000 Meilen! (Ein Freiflug innerhalb Eropas
    kostet 23000 Meilen).
  • Aufgegeben, ich komme also nach wie vor um 19.00 in ZRH an, mit einem
    Aufenthalt von 6 Stunden in London. Die werde ich in der Lounge arm
    fressen! 🙁

Updating Windows

Attention: this is a rather technical and geeky narrative of my last interaction with Windows. If you don’t find that exciting feel free to skip it :-).

I need to run a program that only runs on Windows, so I install Windows XP on a virtual machine. (No need to Vista or 7 and no license for that either) I let it upgrade via the windows update thingie because security upgrades are good, right?

Oh my, there are so many ways why I want to run away from that machine right away (perhaps and hopefully things are smoother on Windows 7).

I start the "Windows update" through the control panel which opens Internet Explorer 6 with the URL http://update.microsoft.com which redirects to http://www.update.microsoft.com/windowsupdate/v6/default.aspx?ln=en-us
ARRG? That Url looks scarier than what mosts Nigerians send me. Microsoft I don’t care what you do internally, but if you must update my operating system in a horribly insecure webbrowser use at least URL rewriting to keep my URL simple. That looks geekier and more ameateurish than what all Linux communists, err, hobbyists ever produced (cough cough).

It downloads a few updates and after a reboot downloads a few more and after a reboot I open it again. It "Checks for available updates" about 20 minutes during which a small shield appears in my systray icon that tells me after 20 minutes "Downloading updates 5%". 5% of what? The webpage is still checking for available updates and what the heck has it done in these 20 minutes on an insanely fast Internetconnection. Playing Minesweeper?

After 20 Minutes I am presented with 76 critical high priority updates representing a download of 300-something MB (which on my linux box takes feeled 5 minutes to download). While it starts downloading update "1 of 76" in a dialog box, the shield at the bottom as already downloaded "Updates 10%"? Huh? There does not seem to be a possibility to get further information from that shield thingie. Those Windows high priority updates trickle in at a rate of perhaps 1 every 10 minutes now, again on an insanely fast University Internet connection. Where is the update.windows.com server hosted, on a server in Steve Ballmers closet? And why do I connect to http:// and not https:// all the time for critical updates, when every phishing 101 tutorial tells me not to trust these links. And that Windows update "application" looks very much like a regular webpage that could easily be spoofed with a faked DNS entry, man-in-the-middle attacks or what else. I assume Windows does check for the authenticity of downloaded packages, I really hope it does.

Funny, that dialog box has a progress bar that goes from 0 to 100 with "preparing for download" (preparing for download takes about 3 minutes, so it must be pretty exhausting) and often it immediately shows "verifying download". At other times, no preparation seems necessary and it just gets stuck "Downloading". All in all the progress bar flashes forth and back, being essentially useless. Apple got that one right.

After 3 hours of downloading it got 66% of my downloads, but hey, I need to leave office really soon now and I hit cancel. After another 20 minutes, the dialog box is still there but I really need to head home now, so I pull the plug. The next day it restarts with 66% download (and on all subsequent attempts as well), and it stays at 66%… for hours and hours. I tried 3 days and one day I gave it 6 hours in a row. "Downloading 66%". At that point I kill my virtual image and start afresh (fresh installs in a virtual images are only a file copy, luckily.)

A fresh install has been downloading 8 out of 76 updates successfully now (after about 1 hour download time) and I’ll keep you posted if it ever finishes. The app I need, has not yet been installed as it requires some updated Windows component. UUURG.

Admittedly, Win XP is obsolete and Win7 is presumably way…way better.

Mehr Spass mit der deutschen Bahn

Nach meinem Kurzbesuch in Goettingen und Eschwege bin ich mit dem Zug nach Zuerich zurueckgefahren. Nach zwei puenktlichen Cantuszuegen, der erste DB Zug ab Fulda: ausgefallen wegen Triebkopfstoerung. Der empfohlene Zug hatte 17 Minuten Verspaetungen, daher haette ich den Anschluss in Frankfurt eigentlich nicht bekommen,… wenn der Zug ab Frankfurt nicht auch 30 Minuten Verspaetung gehabt haette.

Daher in Basel mit 30 Minuten Verspaetung angekommen, der SBB Zug hat nicht gewartet, aber ein puenktlicher TGV. Dann mit der SBB auf die Minute genau nach hause gefahren. Ich weiss warum in den Bahnhoefen die Puenktlichkeitsstatistiktafeln wieder abmontiert wurden.

StatusOn timeDelayedCancelledTimeliness
__15min30min  
Deutsche Bahn01110%
Cantus2000100%
SNCF (TGV)1000100%
SBB1000100% (nicht erwischt)
ZVV1000100%

Und was das Geschaeftsgebaren angeht: Vor 6 Monaten Kuendigungsschreiben meiner Bahncard an die Bahn geschickt. Jetzt neue Bahncard mit Rechnung bekommen. Die naechste Kuendigung geht per Eischreiben ein. In der Schweiz wird keine zwanghafte Autoverlaengerung betrieben. Sucks!

United Airlines and my luggage love each other

United and my luggage like each other so much they just could not depart. My 50 hour trip from Frankfurt to Seattle was quite horrible, but I cannot blame United for this. Neither volcanoes nor US immigration are under their control (the only thing I could blame was a complete lack of information on how to proceed after a missed connection). But what I can blame them for is the horrible way of dealing with luggage…

Stranded in Washington DC, United Airlines rebooked me on a flight to Seattle via San Francisco and when I arrived there with a mere 17h delay they had managed to lose my Backpack. It had neither come with me nor arrived before me. There is no human being to ask about what should be done, the United baggage service counters are all deserted and replaced by 2 terminals. I had my baggage tag scanned, and it could tell me that my luggage was "in transit" with a as of yet unknown location. Not knowing how long it would take, I checked the option that I would pick up my luggage and gave them a cell phone number I bought for this purpose. I was supposed to be contacted when the luggage was there.

When I checked the status (over the Internet) a few hours later, it was still in "unknown location" and I tried to call their luggage service number to get a drop off at my home arranged. Oh horror, another machine, a language recognition computer that asked me for my lost baggage identifier. I was supposed to spell it with common names so he could understand it. What common first name with an "X" does the US have, please? Back to the Internet, checking the "alpha", "bravo", "charlie" alphabet. No luck, after a few trials he gave up and had me say the city where I filed the lost luggage report. Either my non-native English is worse than I thought or the machine, after a few dozen trials he still did not get that I was shouting "Seattle" into my phone repeatedly (having done that in public space, I must have looked like a complete idiot to bystanders). Despite being a 1-1800 number, calling it from my prepaid cell from the bus was not free, and having spent about $10 on unsuccessful calls with the United luggage service machine, I gave up. After some search, I found a "luggage" contact form on the web and filled in a contact address at which the luggage should be dropped and went to sleep.

9 hours later, the Internet status told me the luggage had arrived and showed a "contact time frame". Which had already passed without anyone trying to contact me. Neither did the delivery address show up in the Internet status page. So I did the 2 hour trip to the airport this morning in order to fetch it. No human being at the baggage claim, and –oh horror– today the computer terminal did not even recognize my baggage tag anymore, neither could it find my lost luggage report when entering flight number, last name and all that. All it did was print out a sheet of paper, saying that it could not find my luggage report number and that I should ask an agent. Right, an agent. Who is where? There are no human beings anymore, and no signs where I could find some.

It took me quite a long time of searching in the airport terminal (2 floors up, somewhere) to find a United customer service counter (there are no signs pointing to it from anywhere). And after some waiting she looked in her computer to tell me that the luggage is already waiting in some room and went to fetch it for me. Only 56h after my departure was I reunited with my Rucksack!!! No one from United had ever tried to contact my on my contact cell phone number up to then and I had received no answer on my web contact form query.

I guess that I would have had the right to get reimbursement for the t-shirt and underwear I had to buy in order to have any clothes at all. But I am just so happy to have my luggage back, that I don’t want to bother with calling the luggage computer again and trying him to tell that I want my money back. I suppose that is the strategy United actively pursues with those lost luggage marathons.

Bruno Frey möchte Studiengebühren erhöhen (für Deutsche)

Der berühmteste Ökonom der Schweiz hat in den Schweizer Nachrichten vorgeschlagen, die Studiengebühren für deutsche Studierende als Vergeltungsmassnahme für Deutschlands Ankauf illegaler Bankdaten zu erhöhen. Dieser Artikel bringt einige Hintergründe und auch sonst interessante Zahlen dazu.

Die SVP hat natürlich den Vorschlag gleich aufgegriffen und möchte "dafür eintreten, dass die Massnahme gleich von der dem Bund gehörenden ETH umgesetzt werde."

Was soll ich dazu sagen? Ich kann nur hoffen dass dieses Quote aus dem Zusammenhang gerissen ist, denn andernfalls kann ich mir so eine Aussage nicht vorstellen.

Übrigens: In 2008 waren 1,990 Schweizer an deutschen Hochschulen eingeschrieben, während derzeit 8’628 Deutsche in der Schweiz studieren. Dann studieren bei 7.54 Million Schweizern gegenüber 82.3 Millionen Deutschen 0.26‰ aller Schweizer in Deutschland und 0.1‰ aller Deutschen in der Schweiz.

Postfinance.ch

Mein Konto ist bei der Postfinance. Normalerweise bin ich zufrieden mit dem Service, meistens benutze ich nur Internetbanking. Allerdings haben sie dieses Wochenende schon zum zweiten Mal von Freitag abend bis Sonntag abend bis 22:00 “Wartungsarbeiten”. Ich komme nur am Wochenende zum Banking und einfach das gesamte Wochenende den Service lahmzulegen ist mehr als unprofessionell.

Jetzt um 22:00 darf ich wieder meine Geheimzahlen eintippen, dann bekomme ich ein:

“Systemstörung: Ihre Transaktion kann im Moment nicht ausgeführt werden. Wir setzen alles daran, die Störung so schnell wie möglich zu beheben undentschuldigen uns für die Unannehmlichkeiten.”

Genervt…

Matrix 3

Today a couple of colleagues and I went to the movies to see the premiere of Matrix 3. I loved the first part but was severely disappointed by the second. The third part…

… is equally dissappointing. The ‘coolness’ of the actors is gone, they appear to be more like frightened game.  Read more or go read the (German) review on this movie in the Spiegel.

What I loved about the first part is that the story was not easy to grip, but once you’ve got it everything made sense and was consistent in itself. The second and third part definitly lack this consistency leaving too many questions open. The ‘oracle’ is an annoying character, she’s still a cookie baking woman telling nothing really and we still don’t really get who or what she is.

The deal Neo cuts with the machine ‘Godness’ sounds like Neo was bamboozled, paying with his life for a temporary peace. Anybody noticed that he merely saved the lifes of his remaining co-‘Zionists’? What’s with all the millions of people still grown by the machines to feed their energy hunger? Wasn’t it the vision to free them? Now the majority of mankind is still doomed to a life at the needle. Darn, seems like mankind should have send another negotiator!

A nice aspect is agent Smith (intruding the real world) which appears a lot cooler than all others. And even he is not really a success (we’ve already seen in the second part that he can multiplicate and is able to overtake people so nothing too new here). The only nice twist is the irony that by taking over Neo, the machine Godess was able to kill Agent Smith through killing Neo. But heck, what virus can be destroyed by destroying a mere copy of it. That would mean the end of anti-virus-software companies!

The camera is nice but not as innovative as in the first movie. I would even dare to say that things look a lot more artificial and you can tell that it comes straight out of the rendering computer.

I also wonder what the creators mean by the more or less subtle allusions to Christian and Jewish (+ some Hindu in this film ?) religion? I mean, calling the city ‘Zion’ would even give the dimmest person a hint, wouldn’t it? And when Neo walks in the robot city, blinded yet still seeing everything in a golden light, his steps ripple on the surface like if he would walk on water. Man, doesn’t remind me of somebody I’ve heard of?

Swiss traveler club

I changed my “Qualiflyer” membership into a “Swiss Frequent Flyer” one. This took 6 e-mails and three days. After a week I got a nice plastic card with my name on it… but no PIN to log in :-(! After calling to the hotline, they told me that they would send me one, it would take up to two weeks! Oh my God, don’t they have some automated processes there? (Besides, they had managed to get my address wrong into their system). IDIOTS

Update: By 2006 this has been converted to the Lufthansa miles’n more system.
Update 2009-07-07: I just rediscovered this blog post and find it interesting that I disliked their customer service even back then. By the way, my colleague Stefan Haefliger had even much more horrible experiences in getting his card (it took several months).