Long time between posts. I’m either really busy or really dull.
I was working on some templates today when Dreamweaver CS3 alerted me that it had to close. Since it wasn’t the first time DW decided it doesn’t like my floats, I wasn’t too bothered. I restarted DW but it immediately shut down again. I restarted my PC. Same thing. I shut down my PC completely and tried booting it again. Same thing. I hate Vista.
Instead of quitting early and watching the NCAA’s, I did a Google search. I found lots of generic advice telling me to uninstall everything Adobe, clean the registry, etc. I didn’t think the problem was that serious, so I kept reading and found a blurb talking about a weird 8 KB bug (thanks, David Powers). Apparently, if a file is saved at exactly 8,192 bytes, Dreamweaver will take its toys home. So I opened the directory to see what my latest work file size was. It wasn’t 8 KB, but rather exactly 48 KB. (I know, that’s huge. Don’t blame me, blame the design team. It looks great, though.) I’m no math genius, but I do know that 48 is a multiple of 8. So I opened the file in TextPad and added some commented gibberish and saved. With fingers crossed, I opened DW and it didn’t crash.
There you have it. No thirty minute unintall/reinstall. No registry sweep.
…or so I was told by tech support at Hostway. When a client’s shopping cart (hosted by Hostway) went offline on August 10th, I immediately started a trouble ticket in site admin. It went unanswered for a number of days before I received a follow-up email asking for more info. Another week went by before they told me the issue had been sent upstairs to second level support. Now what you need to realize is that Hostway’s second level support is a very difficult area to penetrate and remaining there is next to impossible. It started when I responded to an email from tech support. Below is the message I submitted this morning using Hostway’s ticket submission tool:
Josh:
I just received this email from you this morning:
Email from Hostway:
Hi there,
We don’t think you understand the request situation.
Our message to you asks you to inquire on a new support ticket when you need to because when you reply to these emails you pull the issue out of advanced technical.
So each time we have sent it up, you have pulled it back down.
Please in the future inquire using Site Control > support > create a new ticket and reference this number, not reply to it.
Hopefully we can solve this for you very soon, thanks, have a good day.
Josh:
This is getting totally ridiculous. If by sending an email to support@hostway.com causes my ticket to be removed from the second-level support system, then the process is seriously flawed. Regardless if that actually happens, I followed your instructions sent to me yesterday to a tee. You didn’t mention anything about opening a new ticket:
Previous Email from Hostway:
We have submitted your message to our second-level support staff for consultation on the matter. We will get back to you as soon as we can with a response.
If you wish to inquire about this issue, please send a NEW email to our support team, and reference the HW number in the subject line.
Josh:
There is NO place to add the HW number to a subject line in your support ticket form. Secondly, you very clearly stated “email.”
I first reported this error on August 10. My clients and I spend close to $4000 a year having Hostway host our sites. We’ve done so for close to six years. I hate to get contentious, but your lack of response coupled with your confusing support system have me very frustrated. My client is losing money and your best effort is to tell me that I’m doing it wrong.
I’m as loyal a customer as any company could want. I badger my friends to shop at Costco, watch DirecTV, and rent movies using Netflix. Hostway used to be on the list.
For those talented bass trombonists living in Dallas (and there are many), the Richardson Symphony is having an audition this September 7 and 8. The rep list hasn’t been posted yet, but all other details can be found here.
The rain never came and the new grill worked great. Noah got to stay up late and watched fireworks — he said they looked like rockets. Here’s hoping that everyone else had a great day. It’s just too bad we’re already back at work…
I’ve decided to finally start adding some audio clips to my site. If you’re not into bass trombone licks and pedal notes, you probably don’t want to click this link.
If you’re like me, you like free stuff. Not only free stuff, but free stuff that makes your life easier, better, more interesting, whatever.
One of the free things I use every day is Gmail. It changed my life over two years ago. Every time I’m forced to open a traditional email app now, I feel like I’ve traded in my Xbox 360 for an Atari 2600. Folders? Give me a break. Thirty entries for a single thread? Added clutter in an already cluttered inbox. If you want searchability, threading, the ability to access your email from anywhere, loads of space, virus protection, then ditch Outlook and get Gmail.
Google docs hasn’t had quite the same impact as Gmail, at least not yet. But it’s getting better thanks to a recent update. Web Worker Daily has a great review of this latest offering, highlighting GD’s strengths and offering up some suggestions to make it better. It doesn’t have everything we need — yet — but hey, it’s free.
This is a video from a Dallas television morning show when they came up to Denton to film the One O’Clock nearly nine years ago. The audio is terrible, but Tom Brantley still sounds great.
My personal site has suffered greatly from my neglect in the past year and a half. During that time I’ve been coding and designing web sites for Decision Counsel, a San Francisco-based strategic professional services firm. Some of our clients include IDG (Network World, Macworld, InfoWorld, DEMO, The Security Standard, et al), LSI, Yoogli, Las Ramblas, Popular Science and more. I am definitely busier than ever, but that’s better than being bored and poor!
I continue to do work on the side and am very excited about the upcoming Edwards relaunch. Recent additions to my portfolio include OSU Trombones, Back Stage DC, ITF2007, Getzen Gazette and a couple of others that I can’t remember at 1 am on Sunday night/Monday morning. I’m also getting ready for complete overhauls of the Griego Mouthpiece, Kagarice Brass and ITA sites.
