The Daily Grind 391

Slim pickings this morning, I'm afraid. Except for a rant.

Software

• Joy, the spammers seem to have found a way to get past Outlook 2003's image-blocking. <img border=0 width=424 height=390 id="_x0000_i1025" src="cid:image001.jpg@01C44C33.A417E910"> Came right through. Bastards. IANA says cid is a content identifier, whatever the heck that is.

Hardware

• Mom'n baby extension cord - Well off my usual beaten track, but too strange to pass up. I think I'd end up with nightmares if I actually had one of these things in my house, though. (via Gizmodo)

Information

• Threat Modeling - MSDN has started collecting resources on this important area of software security. (via Christa Carpentiere)

Rants

• HP/Compaq Loses Another Customer Due To Lousy Customer Service - Namely, me. Here's the story: I've got a Jornada 567 PocketPC. That's a couple of years old, but still a perfectly functional piece of hardware even if it is out of warranty. Or rather, it would be perfectly functional except that the battery pack leaked internally, making it incapable of holding a charge and spotwelding the battery to the back of the unit. Well, I decided it was worth a hundred bucks or whatever to get this corrected so I could return the unit to service, so I called the out-of-warranty service phone number. Twenty minutes of conversation with the two outsourced drones (sorry, but "Tom" and "Bill" both had thick Indian subcontinent accents) established that this just wasn't going to happen. "Tom" got out of the picture quickly; he heard "Jornada" and switched the call to "a more experienced technician." "Bill" started to take my information, but we stalled at the point where he wanted the serial number of the unit. If you know the Jornada, you know that the serial number is underneath the battery pack, and hence was inaccessible to me. "Bill" simply couldn't comprehend this. Some more conversation established:
  • He couldn't/wouldn't do anything without a serial number. This included not being willing to tell me what the options for service would be if I magically could come up with the serial number.
  • He would not switch me to a more experienced technician (I asked point-blank and he refused).
  • He would not switch me to his supervisor (I asked point-blank and he refused).
  • He didn't care if I stayed a customer of HP/Compaq or not (yes, he said so in so many words).
  That was the point at which I hung up and sent off an e-mail to Carly Fiorina (or at least to the Web site feedback address that claims to get to her office, though I'm sure she will never read it) pointing out what a lousy way this was to run a business. The very best face I can put on this is that HP/Compaq monitors so few of the outsourced calls that the techs feel they can blow off customers with impunity. But in any case, this treatment is enough to move me from an occasional purchaser of their gear to someone who's never going to put any more money into the company coffers. Pity, as I rather like our networked HP printer.
  And if this story gets linked around the blogosphere a bit, it wouldn't break my heart.

  Update: See The Daily Grind 394 for followup from HP on this issue.

Mike Gunderloy is the lead developer for Larkware and author of numerous books and articles on programming topics.

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