DirectDial: A story of a difficult experience [Updated]

Recently, I tweeted about a nightmare-ish experience while ordering from DirectDial. Given that I was short on details with my tweet, I wanted to take the time to expand on what happened.

Not only was I contacted by DirectDial afterwards - I was asked by Andrew Pailant on Twitter :

I wanted to let you know what happend, how it played out and what I think Directdial needs to do to improve on what seemed to be a number of failures and breakdowns in communication.

2011: A Year of Predictions

You might remember my predictions from last year. This is something I do as a fun aside, just to see how many things I can get right in the coming months. By no means do I have a magical ability to see the future, but I do get things right from time to time. So, sit back an take a look at last year first - I'll go over what I got right, and what I got wrong. After that, I`ll move on to 2012 with a new set of predictions.

Blogs of the past: Cool Windows 2000 utilities: IExpress

I'm back with another blog from the past! This one I would place sometime in 2001 or earlier with an update on May 13, 2004. One of the most amazing facts about this post is that IExpress is still in Windows! This small utility is still included in Windows 7 and I would even expect it to be around when Windows 8 ships. This was one of my more popular posts back in the early 2000's. As always, I will add my own annotations to the blog by way of red text. Enjoy!

If you're like me, one of the first things you do when you get a new application or Operating System installed, you go looking for the small utilities that have been included. I feel your pain if you spend numerous hours scanning the \NTRESKIT directory looking for utility heaven. Your hard drive features a C:\UTILS directory and you obsessively maintain each of the utilities for future use. Among these cool utilities were the HWINFO utility in Windows 95 and the MSCONFIG utility in Windows 98. Included in Windows 2000 and Windows XP is a small utility called IExpress. This utility is generally hidden from users and is actually included in every single distribution of Windows 2000 Professional and Server. I'll tell you what IExpress is, and how you can use this cool utility. Truth be told, I'm still something of a tool-geek :)

Downgrading from Windows 7 to Windows XP

Sometimes Windows 7/Vista is not going to work on the computer you're using. Sometimes you do, indeed, need to drop back to Windows XP. I had such a scenario for a client and the information available from Microsoft was cloudy at best (See, Microsoft IS investing in the cloud!).  In this case, the client was running Windows 7 Professional x64 and required Windows XP for a number of his internal applications. In this article I'll explain what the "obtains and installs Windows XP" process entails and how much it will cost.

Understanding the MLSE purchase by Rogers and Bell

Photograph by: MARK BLINCH, REUTERS

I generally tend to avoid commenting on, or speaking about anything Rogers-related on this blog (for obvious reasons). But, the recent news about Rogers and Bell purchasing an ownership stake in Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment has a considerable amount of folks buzzing. I thought I would throw my two cents into the mix. I didn't want to do this too soon either - having some clarity on the subject would go a long way.

So, if you hadn't heard yet, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan sold it's roughly 80% stake in Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment to BCE Inc., and Rogers Communications Inc. for $1.32-billion. They will both share in the purchase price. This deal is expected to be finalized in the summer of 2012. This deal came together extremely fast - as recently as in the last month (report).

Internet Access in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic

Being that of a geek, or at least one who needs a fairly constant Internet connection to operate Calwell - I am highly interested in the state of Internet access in the towns and cities I travel too. One such location that I often find myself in is Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. Every time I return, the options improve- some times in major ways. Here's  how my recent trip in December 2011 went connection-wise.

Run a Scheduled Task as SYSTEM

Sometimes I come across this stuff accidentally. Sometimes, like this one, it was something I needed and everything I looked at - told me it was possible, then not possible. What was the answer? and was it really possible? What I wanted to do was simply map a drive to a network share as the local SYTEM account of a Windows computer. That, took me down this twisty road that leads me to a definitive answer: Yes, it can be done. Let me show you.

How to: Get a Screenshot with the same hotkey on Mac and Windows

I take lots and lots of screen shots on all the platforms I use. One of the best platforms for screenshots, however, is the Mac. You may know that on the OS X platform, a region-based screenshot is extremely easy to do with a Command-Shift-4 keyboard shortcut. Nothing like that exists on Windows (except for the print screen key). I'll show you how to use a simple utility to recreate that same short cut on Windows.