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I was having difficulty coming up with something to write this week. In fairness, I’ve been distracted by car woes (and work woes, and woes in general) and my time has been largely occupied. I was submitting another request to MakerBot for an update to a subject when a topic came to me: Help-Desk Auto-Reply Messages.

I’ve been entering tickets with SolarWinds (for Web Help Desk) and Makerbot (for a Replicator 5th Gen) for over a week to get a few issues resolved.  My frustration initially came from SolarWinds.  I entered the support ticket and immediately got a receipt of the ticket in my inbox.  In fairness, I did indicate that the ticket wasn’t a high-priority, nor a rush.  That being said, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect a non-automated answer within a business day.  I entered the ticket on Sept 23 @ 12:11pm.  The ticket stated:

Hello,

We deployed the Solarwinds Linux OVA file to our ESXi infrastructure several years ago. It is running VM Version 7. We recently upgraded to a new ESXi infrastructure. In order to do Snapshots we need to upgrade to VM Version 11.

Is there any problem with upgrading to VM Version 11?

Please let us know. There is no rush.

On Sept 27th at 1:40pm I entered a comment on the ticket asking for an update as to whether or not they were even looking into it.  At this point, I had not received any email other than the automated email.

Finally, on Sept 28th at 8:01pm I received a reply from a tech answering the question for me (hint: it’s ok and I don’t need to be so paranoid about it).

All that being said the time from ticket entry to first response was low if you count the initial “We got your ticket” email that is now automated by 90% of ticketing systems.  The time from ticket entry to first helpful response was absurdly high (over 3 business days).  Again, granted, I said no rush, but some non-automated contact over 5 days (3 business days) is absurd.  Even a simple “I’m looking into this for you” would have kept me appeased.  An automated response: not so much.

Let’s try and keep this in mind when we work on ticketing solutions.  An automated email does not (or should not) count as customer contact.  If you’re including it in your metrics (which some places do, oddly enough) then you’re probably using poor metrics.

I don’t like metrics to begin with, but if you’re going to use them (and I know you will) then some useful ones are:

  • Time from ticket entry to time of first human-contact.
  • Time from ticket entry to time of first feedback (request for more information, request to try steps for a solution) which may be the same as above.
  • Time from ticket entry to time of resolution.
  • Active time spent on the ticket (if you can measure it).
  • Customer feedback on support job.

These seem like the most valuable metrics to me, especially #2, #3, and #5.

For example on a scale of 1-5 (1 being worst, 5 being best) when dealing with Solarwinds:

#1, 2: 1 [Took way too long to hear anything from a human]
#3: 2 [Resolution was achieved quickly and easily]
#4: 5 [Time spent to fix it was minimal]
#5: 3 [Pretty much average considering]

That’s pretty dismal numbers in my book.

MakerBot had different issues. I’ve had two different tickets with them.

The first ticket was to register new warranty to the 3 MakerBot devices.

On the same 1-5 scale for this ticket:

#1, #2: 1 [I heard from them within the day with what they needed from me to get the steps done]
#3: 5 [The full resolution took over 2 weeks due to delays in registering the warranties]
#4: 5 [A lot of waiting time and the system kept trying to auto-close the tickets]
#5: 4 [Dismal]

The second ticket was to get actual support for one of the 3 MakerBot devices.

#1, #2: 1 [I heard from them within the day, they gave me diagnostic steps and information to check]
#3: 2 [Within 2 days the diagnosis was confirmed and parts were shipped]
#4: 2 [2 days is not as great as 1, but well within the overall time frame]
#5: 2 [Good job overall!]

Of course, just my 2 cents.

-M, out

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This week some of you may have heard some bits of utter absurdity regarding a certain manufacturer of laptops and desktops in the news. Yep, once again I’m talking to you about Lenovo. This hurts because I’m a big fan of their hardware. I have a Lenovo Y550p and a U530. I love both of them, they’re workhorses for mobile productivity.

That being said, Lenovo has had more than their fair share of scandals. The most disturbing of which being the man-in-the-middle exploit certificate they were installing on equipment as part of a factory image. Naughty, naughty Lenovo.  There’s an article about this here.

Early this week we heard news of Lenovo’s new laptop line being so locked down that you wouldn’t be able to install Linux on it. These rumors were quickly confirmed as mostly-true: you -can- run Linux so long as it boots UEFI (most do these days). You cannot (easily) install it though because the UEFI settings force the drives into a hardware raid that there is no Linux driver for (yet). That means you’re relegated to Windows and Live-CD booting of Linux. Sad trombone.  I was initially turned on to this story via a Reddit thread here.

Lenovo was quick to say that it’s a factor of their agreement with Microsoft to sell it as a Microsoft certified device. They claimed that it needed to be a Windows only device or it would not be certifiable. Microsoft quickly chimed in and said: no way, that’s not part of our requirements.

Hanlon’s Razor teaches: “Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.”. Whether it was malicious intent on Lenovo’s part, or stupidity on the CSR’s part is yet to be seen.

It’s frustrating to see from the sidelines though. At some point Lenovo should release a driver (hopefully not a binary blob) for the RAID which will make Linux happy. If they don’t, I’m sure SOMEONE will.

This is a scary direction for devices, OS designers, and technology in general to be going. I stick with custom-built PCs (outside of laptops and smartphones of course, though I anxiously await the arrival of the first modular smartphones) specifically for the flexibility that this allows. I am not bound to buying a super high end device if all I need is a machine with a beefy video card. Conversely if I need to crunch big numbers I do not need to buy a box with a massive video card, just lots of RAM and a fast CPU. There is no such flexibility for vendors to provide these features. It’s more economical to provide 3-4 base models with minimal modularity.

My fear is that PC land will rapidly approach Apple-esque levels of lockdown: you cannot run (easily) anything other than an Apple OS. You can install Windows but as far as I know you need to install Apple OS first and initiate the install via their tools.

I think hardware designers, manufacturers, re-sellers and OS designers need to take a clear step back and evaluate what they’re potentially doing to tyevPC ecosystem, before it is too late.

-M, out.

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Not in the method you might expect.

I’m talking about realizing when you’re capable of doing work that people want to charge you for, and thus doing it yourself in order to be more cost efficient.

As with most things: there’s a story here.

On Monday 9/5 I started hearing a loud screeching from my car when I was driving.  It’s happened before, so I ignored it until I got to work, figuring it would go away.  By the time I drove home from work that day, the sound had largely subsided.

On 9/6, the sound came back.  This cat and mouse game continued until I got fed up and called the dealer on 9/12 and said I’d like them to do some diagnostic service.  They agreed, and scheduled me for 9/15.  On 9/13 my car decided to all but quit on me.  Thankfully, I was able to get it to the dealer.

They came back and said:

Here’s the deal: to get you out the door, you need new belts.  Fine, do it, I need to get out the door.

That being said: Your AC system needs a recharge (I agreed) and dye (I agreed again).   They wanted to do brakes and rotors for the front tires.  I already knew they were needed, and the parts were already ordered.  I passed.

Then comes the real kicker: the ball joint on my drivers side is shot and needs replacement ASAP.  They quote me $500.  I balk.  With good reason.

A 5 minute google search (and RockAuto search) reveals the part is $40 shipped, and is all of 3 bolts.  I balked for a reason.  I can handle 3 bolts.  My guess is you can too.  The process is:

  1. Park car and put on parking brake.
  2. Jack car up on one side.
  3. Remove wheel.
  4. Loosen bolt attaching control arm ball joint to the wheel hub.
  5. Loosen remaining two bolts.
  6. Remove.
  7. Reinstall new part in opposite order.
  8. Torque bolts to manufacture specs.

I balked hard, because this to me seems like… An hours worth of work for ME, with hand tools, and no lift.  For them? 20 minutes.  Tops.

The part (for them) is ~$150.  The Alignment is $100.  That means labor and shop fees was $250.  For 20 minutes of work.

Seriously.

I went to Rock Auto and bought both driver and passenger control arms for $80 shipped.

I got them in a day.

I went and bought impact tools to make my life easy.

So now here’s the cost/comparison.

Dealer:

  • Control Arm, Driver’s Side
    • $395.00
  • Control Arm, Passenger’s Side
    • $395.00
  • Alignment
    • $100.00
  • AC Recharge + Dye
    • $139.00
  • Brakes & Rotors, Driver’s and Passenger’s Side
    • $375.00
  • Belts
    • $199.00
  • Total:
    • $1,603.00
  • Total, with Tax:
    • $1,715.21

What I paid:

  • Dealer:
    • AC Recharge + Dye
      • $139.00
    • Belts
      • $199.00
    • Total:
      • $338.00
    • Total, with Tax:
      • $352.08
  • Control Arm (Driver & Passenger), Brakes & Rotors (Driver & Passenger)
    • $238.07
  • Impact Socket Set from Harbor Freight
    • $48.11
  • Craftsman Impact Wrench Set
    • $70.22
  • 5-Year Alignment (PepBoys)
    • $125.00
  • Total:
    • $833.48

Savings: $1,715.21 – $833.48 = … $881.73

I saved over half.  OVER.  Half.

Yeah, my time is involved in my way, but honestly: assuming it takes me an hour to do each control arm, an hour to do the brakes, and an hour in waiting for the alignment: That’s $200 an hour I’m paying myself.

And that is damn impressive.

Plus, I get to keep the tools! 😀

How I’m Feeling:

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As some may know, I love to fish.  Absolutely love it.  I’m not amazing at it, but I’m not horrible at it either.  Last year, every time I went out I caught SOMETHING.  Maybe not a keeper, but definitely brought a fish up, took a picture, measured it, and put it back in the water.

All that being said, other than my two trips to the Manasquan Inlet this year, I’ve had pretty crummy luck.  I didn’t catch many fish at all this year.  All my usual fishing spots were taken.  Even when I went to Michigan I didn’t get so much as a bite.  It was a very frustrating year.  I honestly began to question any ability at fishing I thought I had.  It all started when I broke my main fishing rod.  Everything went downhill from there (between using a hand me down,

Until yesterday.

Yesterday was perfect.  Joe and I got to spot near Kingston and did some fishing in the Millstone River around 6:30am.  Joe and his dad had fished that spot a lot, a long time ago.  He said there were carp, catfish, even some bass.  We’d been to this spot twice before today this year, and caught barely anything.  Last year we had better luck at that spot, but this year it felt dried up and empty.  Yesterday turned it around.

Following some advice from r/fishing I went out equipped and intending on catching panfish (sunnies, crappies, rock bass, etc) on a light cast line, while setting up my (new!) main rod for it’s maiden fishing trip for catfish.

Success!

After casting my main rod out (with hot dogs) I turned my attention to second light rod.  I put some Gulp Hawg on a small hook with a bobber waited.  Within a minute, I saw the bobber dip. And dip again.  And then took off.  I yanked in hard, and felt resistance.  Fishie!   I reeled it in, and was thrilled to see an 8″ crappie on the end of the line.   It wasn’t the one in this picture (which is maybe 6″) but nevertheless, here’s an example.  We initially thought it was a rock bass, but it was a white crappie in hindsight.

2016-09-04 07.16.30

Mission accomplished.  I was happy.  I caught a fish.  I put it back in the water and could have walked away happy at that point.

The Millstone had other plans.

Ring, ring, ring.  The bell on my main line began to jingle.  I ran over, yanked (not hard enough) and felt resistance.  I began to reel in.  The resistance disappeared.  Fish gone. Bait gone.  Sad.

I put more hot dog on the hook, cast off, and went back to the other line.

I cast, and within a minute: a sunnie.

2016-09-04 08.25.41

It was an even better day.  This continued for about two hours, before even the crappies and sunnies stopped biting.  Oh well.  I decided to give the main line some attention.  As much as I enjoyed hearing the bell ring and find no fish on the end of it, I was getting tired of it.

I cast with fresh hot dogs, and waited.  I was standing around talking with Joe when I felt a tug.  It went away immediately.  A minute later, another tug.  I yanked hard on the rod, and felt a twang.  The line stayed taught.  The line started to move.  I had a fish.  I started reeling in.  It took about 2 minutes to pull it in.  I got tangled in Joe’s line.  He grabbed the net.

2016-09-04 09.37.37

Catfish!

3lb, 18″ catfish.  That’s going in the keeper bucket.

It’s now in the fridge.  Well, it’s filets are in the fridge anyway.

Things picked up right after then.  Joe switched to the Gulp Hawg and caught some crappie and some sunnie too.

When all was said and done we had caught:

  • 4 Crappie (3 for me!)
  • 15 Sunnie (7 for me!)
  • 1 Catfish (that one was mine!)
  • 2 Hooks (all Joe)
  • 1 Branch (that one was mine haha)
  • 1 Clamshell (all Joe)

What a great day, a great way to end the summer, and a great way to spend the Labor Day weekend.

-M, out