Positive iPod replacement experience

I love my iPod Classic, and I like to think it loves me too. Unfortunately it didn’t love me enough to accept music anymore, which I think is a major part of its reason for existence. After an evening of fiddling around I had to come to the conclusion it was properly broken and that I had to get it repaired. And that’s when I got depressed.

Most of my experiences with product replacement have been very bad. Angry-letter-writing bad. Making-a-scene-in-the-shop bad. It could be that I lose my cool too quickly when dealing with bored, rude, or dim-witted shop assistants. But I like to think it isn’t my fault really, I just want some proper service. With that in mind I didn’t feel like going through a frustrating when-the-hell-am-I-going-to-get-my-stuff-back process again. This time I skipped dealing with the retailer and went straight to the source.

Contacting Apple was easy, I answered in a couple of standard questions on a web form, added some details, and pressed the send button. They got back to me pretty quickly, the next day I received the package for returning the limb iPod. If I would have been home I could have send it back immediately, now I had to call for someone to pick it up again the next day. In all it took exactly a week for a spanking new iPod to arrive after my initial report of the problem. I’m pleased and impressed. Maybe buying additional Apple Care might not be such a bad idea.

gr.jakko

CLANK! That door is closed… permanently

The office I work in is located in a former Philips headquarters building. An old one, build in 1927, when customs were different from the way we do things now. At that time employees would line up in front of the vault where all the wages were stored to receive their share of the week.

One of those vaults is located on our floor and since there is hardly any use for physical money anymore, it was converted into a meeting room. They left the vault door in, it is an original feature and it looks damn cool, especially when you invite visitors and clang some chains. MUHAHAHAAA.

Now one of my fellow workers (who remains anonymous) managed to close the door in a jammed-shut sort of way. And vault doors are usually built to resist opening when they are closed. I can tell you that it is doing what it was designed to do with excellence. All our video conferencing equipment is inside, I guess at least it is safe.

I can’t help but finding this extremely hilarious. We probably have to call someone to open it again. God, I hope it involves blowtorches.

gr.jakko

Things, task management for clever people

Throughout my computer years I’ve tried many outline, scheduling, calendar, GTD and todo-list applications to help me conquer my organizational woes. And I got rid of every single one of them, the click with my brain just didn’t happen and I was left as chaotic as before.

Now there’s Things, a new kid on the block, and a strange thing has happened: I use it (almost) every day to organize my tasks… for two months already.

Things is a clever little application. Clever in a way that it doesn’t force me too much and gives me room to mess about. You can even use it the Getting Things Done way, if that’s your thing. Now don’t get me started on GTD, it’s absolutely not my thing and I’ve become extremely allergic to anything GTD related. The method itself doesn’t work for me, but that’s not my biggest problem, it’s the whole community that has risen around it. A community almost resembling a bunch of religious zealots, preaching the GTD evangelism. But that’s just me and I’m digressing a bit.

The good thing is, you can use Thing the way you like it. And now there is an update that integrates it with the Leopard system-wide to-do system, so you have access to your tasks in Mail and iCal. Joy!

Things is available as a free Mac-only preview, the final version is going to be released sometime this spring. Go check it out.

gr.jakko

Casino Royale and Devil May Care wallpaper

Just for the heck of it I’ve created two James Bond novel wallpapers. When I say “created” I actually mean “cut up and rearranged.”

The Casino Royale one is taken from the new hardback edition of the Ian Fleming classic and is part of the Centenary Edition Hardback collection. Every book is graced with an awesome cover… very appealing, I’m tempted to collect them all.

The other is from the new Bond novel Devil May Care by Sebastian Faulks.

Sorry, widescreen only. I’m a mac-head.

gr.jakko

 

Devil May Care, the new James Bond

There’s a thing that chocolate cookies and James Bond novels have in common: they are both guilty pleasures of mine. I shouldn’t like them so much, but I do… and I’m a bit ashamed of it. Like I wouldn’t eat a whole package of chocolate cookies during my train commute, I wouldn’t read a James Bond novel in plain sight of my fellow commuters. I’d feel too self-conscious to take in any of the words. Both cookies and novels should be consumed in the privacy of your own home, preferably on a comfortable chair with a nice cup of tea. And now my embarrassment levels are going to be tested again, there is a new James Bond novel coming out, and I’m pre-ordering.

On 28 May 2008 it’s Ian Flemings 100th birthday and on that day Devil May Care by Sebastian Faulks is released, a brand new James Bond novel. And praise the lord, it is situated during the Cold War. Those communists make damn good fictional bad-guys.

Thank god there is a semi naked chick on the cover, that will make my commute so much easier.

gr.jakko

Our family went 1-UP

One week ago our little daughter Ashling was born. So I’ll expect the Responsible Citizen Badge to arrive by mail any day now. With two kids we’ve got a higher than average family size. Yes, we’re taking an active role in trying to stop the trend of the ageing population, rescueing our pensions at the same time. We should be rewarded for that.

Mother and child are doing excellent. So do big brother and dad. Although dad’s a bit tired and has this continuous whining headache in the back of his head.

I wasn’t going to post a picture of the baby, because usually the only people who care are the parents and most babies look alike anyway. At least from my guy perspective they do.

But she’s so cute and I just can’t help myself.

gr.jakko

The Kite Runner… sigh

By bullying and psychological manipulations my wife finally got me to pick up The Kite Runner… the book, not the movie. I really didn’t feel like reading this particular book. My wife liked it, and that’s a big part of the reason I didn’t want to read it. We don’t share the same taste in books. Mine can handle dragons, hers doesn’t.

As the open-minded-person that I am, I put the damn thing in my bag and started reading it this morning on my way to work. I’ve read a couple of chapters, can’t say it really grabbed me yet. So far I’ve only read setup, setup and some more setup. Nothing happening there, not even a decent dialogue between two people. I fear it is going to take a lot of effort to plough through this thing.

Could be that my literary interests don’t exceed those of a twelve year old.

Some books I’ve finished recently that I did like:

• Stephen Fry – Moab Is My Washpot (Beautiful prose, funny, very personal)
• Diana Wynne Jones – Howl’s Moving Castle (Enchanting, charming)
• Neil Gaiman – American Gods (bombastic, couldn’t put it down)

gr.jakko

Lovely spring

The wind stirs the acorn leaves and gently cools my skin
I put my feet up and rest my head, it is all so heavy
The bench is too small but I don’t care for now
My eyes follow the floating dandelion seeds
Buzzing of bees and alcohol fills my head
I start to drift away

Someone lights a barbeque
I can smell the petroleum
My son is bored, I have to get up
The bench is too small anyway, my neck aches

gr.jakko

Pastry Passion… the game

In a couple of days the latest game I’ve been working on as a game designer is going to be released fresh out the oven. Pastry Passion, filled with cream, sugar, and chocolaty goodness. Help out Henri the pastry chef and make the most exquisite pastries of Paris. It will be your daily dose of fun calories.

I’m very proud of this one, we had a lot of fun creating the game.

Checkout the game site at www.pastrypassion.co.uk and get a sweet taste of screenshots and wallpapers.

Bon appétit.

gr.jakko

The most annoying song ever

And there I was, thinking that Girl I’m Gonna Miss You by zeitgeist-band Milli Vanilly was the most annoying song ever. And if you saying that it was cool at the time, you are wrong my friend. You are so, so, so, wrong [shakes head, and look disapproving]. That’s like saying smoking crack was cool at the time.

Turns out Milli Vanilli was not responsible for delivering the most annoying song ever. I was wrong. And, my wrongness is now scientifically proven.

After careful research, the most annoying song was constructed. Head over to this Wired article, put on some headphones, sit back and let it hit you.

It is bad, but kinda in a cool way.

Sorry Rob, Fab… another thing we can’t give you credit for.

gr.jakko