Choose your next TV by it's remote control

I recently purchased a new TV. It happens to be an RCA L32HD31R (which I'm happy to explicitly name, because there is no point in protecting the guilty). It's not ultra high-end - it's a fairly run of the mill 32" LCD. It is certainly not meant to be the centerpiece of an impressive home theater. So I have to ask why does RCA think they have to provide a remote control which uses different codes than all that have gone before?

Some small percentage of people might connect their TV directly to an antenna, but the much larger majority use their TV as little more than a display with speakers. They select their channel with a cable box or their Tivo (sorry DVR, we don't want Tivo to become another Klennex/Xerox). What people require is that their TV remote uses standard codes that every universal remote know about. They want exactly 3 functions from the TV remote - on/off, volume, and switch to the DVD input.

Engineers at RCA: Come on, guys. This is not rocket science. You don't have to invent new things. Your jobs is to adopt existing standards. Coming up with a a set of remote codes that is incompatible with previous RCA products - or ANYONE ELSE'S - is an act of hubris. You either think you are smarter than other electrical engineers (trust me, you're not) or that your products are so compellingly awesome that customers will not want to toss your remote in the drawer and use the universal that came with the cable box (trust me, your products are not and the customers will).

CableCards and Truck Rolls - Why?

I'm not really a TV watcher, so I've never bothered with more than basic cable and an old POS VCR for time-shifting. But, my wife religiously follows "So You Think You Can Dance" and is often out on Wednesday evenings, so I succumbed and bought a TiVo last month. I have only good things to say about the TiVo. It does what it is supposed to as a DVR, let's me stream Netflix to it, and a bunch of other stuff.

But, WTF with Cablevision requiring a truck roll to install an M-card in the TiVo. Here is what is required.
1. Plug in the card
2. Wait a while. In this case it was about 45 minutes while the m-card (not the TiVo) required a firmware update.
3. Copy a few numbers off the screen
4. Call a dispatcher and tell them the number

Now, I fully understand how there is no up-channel with the current DOCSIS standard, so the card can't inform CableVision directly that it has bonded with the TiVo. But seriously, do we need a tech to come out and read a few numbers? I get the feeling they keep it difficult to discourage 3rd party boxes as opposed to their own (less flexible) offerings.

How can we fix this?

When you call to ask for the m-card installation, they could offer self-install. For that, they send you a card and a set of instructions which point you do their web site. The site guides you through the procedure (for various DVR models) and leads you to a page where you can enter the numbers. In fact, they could even charge you a $20 activation fee and it would still be cheaper for everyone and more convenient as well.

Should ISPs that break DNS face criminal charges?

I was sitting in my hotel room doing some work this evening and I accidentally followed a link in email to a company internal web site. In a world where the rules of the internet are obeyed, my web browser should have given me a "Page not found" error, because that site is not visible in any way from the outside world. I was not in that world tonight.

Instead, the ISP which this hotel uses has hooked up with OpenDNS (http://www.opendns.com/). OpenDNS does something unforgivably wrong. It lies about not finding the web site and directs your request to it's own servers. The result is that my web browser happily passes the full request to OpenDNS. This request contains a URL which could leak proprietary information.

Now, in my case, this is only corporate information. But, what if I had been an employee of the federal government? I think a judge would have to consider that this might be a violation of section 6 of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (18 USC 1030). It's a question of using incorrect information to get my computer to release information that it otherwise should not.

To be fair, it's not only OpenDNS that does this. I've run into this problem all over the country, in hotels and with residential ISPs. At home, Cablevision does the same thing. They do give you an opportunity to opt-out, but you have to understand the danger of their practice before you would choose that. That's not really enough, business practices should protect people by default, not by option. Comcast is also one of the guilty players in this game, with their "DNS Helper" service. Yeah - big help.

Big Brother is watching your garden grow.

I was amused today to receive a letter from the Village of Great Neck informing me that I was in violate of Chapter 448, Article 1 of the village code. The letter told me I have 10 days to correct the violation or face a fine. So I looked it up on the link the provided
http://ecode360.com/?custId=GR0590

Prohibited growths.

No owner of any land within the Village shall permit noxious weeds, long grass or other rank growths on real property owned by him.

Well that says absolutely nothing. It does not define "noxious", "long", or "rank" in any quantifiable way. It basically leaves it to the discretion of the inspector to decide what is in violation and what is not. So, I guess I'll have a little mosey on down to the village office to clarify the definition of these words - because I would love to hear them say that dandelions are "noxious". Since I refuse to put chemicals down on my lawn (we drink from our aquifers on Long Island), and I don't cut my grass shorter than 3" (because it requires less water that way) it would be interesting to hear if that differs from their definition of civic responsibility.

Pet Peeves about customer support web sites.

The other day I signed up for email bills from my electric company (LIPA).   It's a good thing their business is to deliver power and not sell things over the internet. 

1. The clearly farmed out their customer support web site to Siebel, who's name appears all over the place.   You jump back and forth between domain names to do anything.

2. When you have to enter your account number, you must type it with no spaces or dashes.  On the printed bill, it has dashes.  This is an inexcusable laziness on their part.   You want to allow customers to type something EXACTLY as it is written on the printed form, to reduce the number of support complaints.

3. They don't actually send you the bill as a (PDF) document that you can read and save.   They send you email saying you can read the bill at their site.   This wastes my time, because I certainly am going to use a unique password for their site (*you* don't trust them to not be hacked, do you?) and there is little chance I will remember it from month to month. 

4. Their web site only offers bills in HTML format.  While that is fine to read on line, it is horrible if you want to file it on disk and keep it with your financial records. 

Not that I should single out LIPA for laziness.   They are just one of many companies that don't understand that having a really great* web presence reduces customer support costs.

*great does not mean flash animation.  It means simple, clear pages, that ADA accessible and provide information in a variety of ways, so the customer can decide how to use it.

Please start teaching daily arithmetic in schools again.

At the supermarket yesterday, the cashier had forgot to give the one cent change to the man ahead of me. She had started to ring me up by the time he mentioned it. As she looked around, flustered, trying to figure out how to open the cash drawer without messing things up, I offered to give the man a penny now, and she could then give me one when the drawer opened at the end of my transaction. Everyone seemed happy with that. I gave the man a penny and he went on his wayl

When my items were complete, she said "$26.14".

Me: "OK, but it's really $26.13 because of the penny". I counted out $26.13 and gave it to her.

Cashier: "Can I do that? I still have to give you back the penny." She looked horribly confused by this transaction. She was sort of standing frozen, looking at the money.

Me: "Wait. Here's the extra cent, now it's $26.14". I handed her the penny.

Cashier: "Oh, OK". Puts the money in the drawer, pulls a penny back out and hands it to me. "Thank you."

Me: "You're welcome."

I'm still am wondering how she can even work the cash register.