Category: Annoyances

This morning I wake up to a phishing email.

No, I didn’t lick on any of the links contained in the email.

It was a good try though and arriving as it did early in the morning I almost fell for it.

The email was talking about one of my domain names and told me that the domain was suspended. This didn’t seem right. It was at this point that I discovered I wasn’t able to log into the hosting system. Which led me to discover that they’d moved all their support functions to the Philippines.

Additionally they’d restructured the login and access to the hosting site, and oh by the way you’re no longer able to look up past invoices.  It was that last bit that made me ask the representative if they’d moved to India. She paused a moment and told me the Philippines. I laughed and told her it figured because there’s a certain way Indian and Asian designed websites are laid out, the policies and procedures are different from the US, and the also have a certain “Feel” that I’ll sometimes pick up on.

It’s not racist! It’s what happens when you have 40 years of dealing with software from programmers the world over. It’s hard to describe, but software seems to reflect the culture of the programmer in subtle ways. It’s something about the way logical and critical thinking skills are built. I’ve theorized that those skills are colored entirely by cultural influences, not where someone went to college. 

Yes 2+2=4 but the logic to derive that answer is a little different.

On Twitter there are videos of Asian folk showing how to multiply really large numbers using a graphical system of vertical and horizontal lines. It works, but is unlike anything I was taught in school. We were taught about carrying a number. This Asian method doesn’t require carrying a number at all.

Same results, different method to get there. I wonder if this system is something derived from the abacus.

We typically never think about math being done differently. As Americans we think 3 x 3 = 9. We know it, most of us were taught to memorize addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division tables up to 12.

Apparently, not all cultures do that, instead they present a system that may be scalable, that always works, and is simple to use. Maybe that’s why Asian kids are so good at math. I cringe at the poor Asian kids being told to show their work, or dealing with math concepts that look like set theory these days. Their parents are going to teach them “The Way” that they were taught and that method probably goes back a thousand years. This new American set theory crap that American parents have so much trouble with, must drive traditional Asian households to the brink of insanity.

After having seen these different problem solving systems demonstrated, I’m more convinced than ever, the subtle nuances I notice about web sites & software is really an artifact of culture. Specifically problem solving and language.

Some of the best HAM radios in the world are designed, manufactured, and programmed in Japan. Their instructions for use and access to features is often very complex and counter intuitive to the American mind. There are things I still can’t do with my HAM Rig. The Rig can do stuff, but getting to the settings to enable this stuff is so counter to my thought process it simply doesn’t program into my brain. It’s something about the way hierarchies are built in my brain versus how they’re built in a Japanese person’s brain. 

It’s not right or wrong either way, it’s just a different structure to navigate. For me, all related settings should be on the same branch of a menu. For a Japanese engineer, that may not be a true or even a logical statement to make, 

I say all of this because at 7 am this morning my brain was processing these issues and while I was trying not to be annoyed, I was getting annoyed. 

There are several things that annoyed me.

I don’t recall being informed that the hosting company was moving offshore. One of the reasons that I chose, and stuck with them was because they were based in America. So much for that idea!

They insisted that I create a 6 digit PIN number to be used when I was speaking with one of their representatives on the phone. “For my safety and security…” Don’t ya know. Oh and that PIN couldn’t have more than 2 numbers that repeated so Sorry anybody that wants to use their birthdate and was born Aug 8 1980. NO! You can’t have the PIN 080880 BAD PERSON!!!!!

I can’t see past invoices nor can I see what the renewal pricing is on a service without starting the renewal process. Uhhh that’s really annoying because I can’t do any comparison shopping. 

Those are just the first things I was confronted with after getting an actual live human being on the phone. Getting past the dubiously “Helpful” Genuine People Personality (Thank You Douglas Adams) robotic phone system was a challenge!

The human navigated me through all their “Improvements” so she was very helpful.

All of this led me to wonder if I wanted to maintain the domain hosting plan that I have at all. It’s an expense that I’m not sure is useful anymore. It’s never been profitable. It was useful for Jerry, I’ve hosted other websites for clients here and it’s provided me a place to have this blog. But now… Perhaps the utility has passed.

I created the blog back when Yahoo? Blogging was free and not censored up the ass. My blogs are mostly words, other blogs  on that blog hosting site were mostly nude pictures. My language, and the occasional nude picture got me in trouble with the censorship squad. That and I often spoke ill of their favored politicians. This was back in the days before Obama even thought of running for President.  After Obama took office for his second term, I was really in trouble. By then I felt pretty betrayed and Hope and Change had become for me, “Change and like it but there’s no Hope to be found here.” I also was saying unkind things about the Taliban so that caught the attention of censors too. 

Doing my own hosting became the only way to say what I wanted to say. Even then, Google and other main search engines made sure my articles never appeared near the top of any search. 

Do I need to keep speaking my mind? Does it matter at all? Is anyone interested in what an old codger like myself might have to say? 

Probably not. If I really need to continue with this blog vanity, there are cheaper methods & providers.

Maybe it’s just time for a lot of changes in my life…