No posts in the past few days as I have been very sick. Spent most of Friday and all of Saturday in bed, staring at the ceiling in some sort of stupor, with a very sore throat, headache, and dizzyness. Spent like 4 hours at the walk in clinic on Sunday, where they took various throat swabs and blood tests, none of which lead to anything. I did however almost feignt during the proceedings. They wouldn't let me drive home though, so I had to wait for someone to come and pick me up. Once my ride arrived they decided to do another set of tests where they took my blood pressure sitting, standing and lying down. Which wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't for the fact that I was so very very cold, and they wouldn't let me put my sweatshirt on between tests. Came home with antibiotics, water and popsicles. I've spent Sunday untill now in basically the same state (so very cold, sore throat -> cough), getting no more than two hours of continuous sleep per night.


I think I'm finally on the mend though, as I might have gotten like four hours of sleep last night, which is way cool.


No spell check today sorry.


Oh, and if you are into role playing, go bid on my GURPS collection. I bought most of those books because they were interesting to read, I've never actually used the system, go figgure.

This is something pretty new I think. People create 'lists' for 'listmania' at amazon.com, and name the list like "Get $25 FREE playing Poker Online at xxxxxx.com". Clicking on the link brings you to a list of poker books (you can't make your list link outside of Amazon), but they are likely betting on people being willing to type the URL in themselves.


You can take a look at an example of this SPAM, just promise me you wont actually sign up for it.


Yet another way spam has infiltrated an otherwise very useful service.

Okay, well, if you haven't read the previous posts on my cooling related adventures, you might want to read parts 1& 2 now (or, if you really don't care, just click on one of the pretty pictures on the left, or heck, an interesting looking ads a little lower down on the left side).


I ended up taking what seemed to be some good advice and replacing my 'free with purchase' CPU fan, and picked up a Thermaltake CPU heatsink & fan which was recommended by a good friend of mine. This seems to have done a great deal of good work. I can now play World of Warcraft with the case closed for hours on end. The adjustable fan speed allows me to keep it pretty quiet while I am working (basic text editing), and speed it up a bunch while I am gaming, it all works pretty well.


Then I go out and read stories like these with quotes like these:

See, my Chrome Orb had been cooling my Duron 800 quite well until the heat wave hit, and suddenly Motherboard Monitor was reporting 46 degrees Celsius CPU temperature. Having read the articles about how AMD motherboards could grossly miscalculate the temperature, I was worried that the temp could be much higher than MBM reported.

See now, I am still generally playing in the 50s, and this guy is talking about 46 being pretty bad. So, now I am thinking I need to take at least one more step.


This whole ducting possibility has been mentioned at least one of the useful comments I have received, and on that page I just linked. It seems to be sounding better and better. According to MBM5, it is currently 34C in my case, which is probably at least 10C warmer than the ambient temperature in my room. So if I can get that cooler room air directly to my CPU, I should see a drastic reduction in CPU temperature. Alternatively, if I can get the hot air from my CPU right out of the case, I should be able to reduce internal and CPU temperatures. I worry about trying to shove more hot air out the back of the case because it will end up just wrapping around the case and getting sucked back in through the side fan (remember the case is in a relatively enclosed desk unit). This leaves me either exhausting the hot air out the front of the case, cutting a new hole in the side of the case for direct intake to the CPU fan or directing one of the existing side case fans directly onto the CPU fan. Other ideas?


Taking a quick gander into my case informs me that the CPU fan currently sucks air from the heatsink, and pushes it into the case, is this easily reversed? Or should I stick with ideas that involve getting that air right out of the case?


To be honest, the idea of just cutting a new hole in the side of my case and sticking some sort of a directional nozzle on it (pointing to the rear) is growing on me. Though more extreme ideas like cutting a hole in the top and creating some sort of a custom air sucking front end on it do still seem cool, possibly more long term though.


Any suggestions? Comments?

Overall, I like Google News, it gives me a quick snap shot of a couple of the big stories circling the globe at any particular moment. That being said however, I do have a big problem with it: The pictures shown with stories are rarely the one linked to that exact headline. To put it another way, Google News frequently shows the headline from one news source, immediately adjacent to an image from a completely different source. This occasionally has weird consequences, as shown below.




Here we see the headline discusses the Sony PSP, the image to its left however is a Nintendo DS. The images often catch my eye, so I click on the link for the story, only to find the image isnÂ’t on that page at all. This is an issue I think Google needs to address before they bring their news aggregation service out of Beta.


Yes, I am aware the images themselves are also links to their source, but I still find the positioning horribly incongruent.

Many (if not most) companies that deal with customers online have implemented some sort of automated ticket system these days. Generally one is asked to fill out some sort of online form, some specific solutions are suggested (either generically or based on keywords in your query), the ticket is submitted, and finally the user is given some sort of a tracking number or link. I (unlike many of my associates) donÂ’t really have a problem with this system, though this may be based in my years of experience in customer support. I see the solutions (or value adds) provided by this type of solution:

1. Customers are reminded that the solution to many problems (maybe even theirs!) are available immediately, on that very same website


2. The support system has the opportunity to query the user on a few key points, often overlooked when sending an email to a support@ address (OS, Version, ram, cpu speed, etc). Regardless of the messages provided on the page indicating who to mail for support, this information will likely not be included in an initial query.


3. Customers are given a method to update their support request after the fact. Often users resolve the problem on their own in the window between requesting support and the initial response. That resolution may negate the need for a response, or require a response to a new (previously unknown) problem. This updating after the fact is nearly impossible to accomplish in a timely manner with standard FIFO handling of support email


4. Customers can easily enquire as to the status of their ticket without generating additional workload for the support team. The automated system can provide information either queue status, or general support volume (‘Support volume is light, we should be able to respond to the majority of tickets within 12hrs’ or ‘We are currently receiving a large volume of support requests it may take up to 72hrs to respond to your ticket’). With traditional FIFO email handling any request for an update would likely be read after the initial query was responded to.


5. The state based nature of a ticket helps avoid confusion on the part of the support team, as to who is responding to any particular item, or whether a response has already been sent. Occasionally when dealing with support via email I would forward a support message to a co-worker (seeking to expand my knowledge enough to answer the given question), at which point I would file the message, expecting to receive a timely response, which would ‘re-open’ the situation for me. If the co-worker neglected to respond, or explained the situation in a more casual manner (e.g. over lunch) the original request could fall through the cracks.

All that being said, speaking with associates, friends and family, there are several shortcomings to many ticket based support systems that have irritated the world at large.

• Pigeon holed problem options. Most, if not all ticket systems I have seen require you to select your problem type from a series of drop downs. This causes great confusion and consternation for people whose problems donÂ’t fit into one of those neat little categories, or when their problems spans multiple possible choices.


• Confusing problem options. Invariably, when asked to select my problem type, I am given a series of options, generally either only one or a few words each. Several of these options will use technical terms. These short descriptions, combined with language the user is likely either unfamiliar or barely familiar with combine to present a slew of very similar options, none of which sounds quite right.
  
• Long, multi-page forms. Several systems involve answering many questions on a series of pages. Not only does this multi-page system require re-loading a new page every few seconds, but, they also generally suffer from the pigeon holing problem mentioned above. These can compound to lead the user through a tree of pages, abandoning them on a branch far from anything even remotely sounding like their problem.


• Purposefully obfuscated contact options. Many (if not most) support sites make you jump through a series of hoops before they even let you start filling out the support form. Thus ensuring that you not only navigate the support section of the site, but also read the FAQs and run a search. Many users (myself included) will search the site before seeking a contact link, only to find our diligence will be punished by being forced to repeat the same steps within the support system.

I of course, have a few suggestions on how to deal with these problems.

• Pigeon Holed Problems. Always supply an ‘OtherÂ’ option. Users need a quick escape when the available options donÂ’t describe their problem, or they donÂ’t understand the options provided.


• Confusing problem options. Dealing with these really requires a two pronged attack. First, sit the techie down with a non-techie, have the techie describe the problem in a few short sentences (avoiding using the words he/she would like to use in the description) then have the non-techie choose the option. Next, offer possible symptoms with each option. For example under ‘Problems Connecting to the internetÂ’ you could list ‘Cant send emailÂ’ or ‘Cant view web pagesÂ’. This ends up being a large amount of information, you can either get creative with your javascript, or switch to radio buttons for this part.


• Long, multi-page forms. Condense your forms into a single page, and replace question trees with either javascript usage, or intelligent form design. The more questions you ask, the more likely it is that the user will get them wrong anyways, creating even more work when the wrong person gets the ticket. Also consider how often the information is actually used, I canÂ’t remember the last time I answered a question in which the amount of RAM the user had was actually relevant. If it isnÂ’t needed more than 80% of the time, donÂ’t ask.


• Obfuscated support links. The solution to this problem is simple, stop hiding the contact page. Forcing users to jump through searches and FAQs to find the real link at the bottom of some page isnÂ’t going to help. Users who searched for the answer before looking for the contact link will just get ticked off, and those who didnÂ’t donÂ’t arenÂ’t going to read those pages anyways. When implementing this sort of system corporations likely realized that their support volume decreased, this is in fact a bad thing. You are annoying customers, who gave up looking for the answer. This has several immediate consequences: They will not purchase updates in the future, they will not recommend your product to friends, and they will likely speak poorly of your product if given the chance. These are lost sales dollars

What are your thoughts?