I recently changed domainname, I used to blog on blog.amidala.be but I wanted a domainname that stood out a little bit more. Www.thecowinthemiddle.com is a statement, I just haven’t figured out what statement. But back to the point. Due to the change I lost a lot of hits, links and pagerank points. Because of that I looked into a few tips and tricks to boost your blog, one of them being blog-tagging.

The idea is simpel, tell 5 things about yourself not commonly known and tag 5 persons you know to do the same thing. This will give you an extra 5 backlinks. It’s not only a good way to boost your blog but it looks like fun to.

Here are my facts:

1) My first computer was a tandy TRS-80 computer. You had to write all the code yourself for, but it didn’t have any media to save it to. Power off … program gone.

2) I graduated as an orthopedriast / educator.

3) In highschool I sucked at maths. It could been the teacher that sucked too, can’t recall. But this was the mean reason I didn’t continue informatics in high school.

4) I worked the weekends as a DJ for almost 3 years … in a gay bar. Don’t get met wrong, I’m hetero and I always was. But it was a nice place to work and I have no problems with gays at all! YMCA Powah!! :p

5) I think I have a phobie for needles. The thought of people taking blood of me, sticking a needle into my vains makes my dizzy!!! Nevertheless I have a tattoo and a piercing … go figure! People are strange being.

The 5 persons I tag are:

Timo - http://www.itcrowd.be

Crahan - http://www.n00.be

Jo3ri - http://jo3ri.blogspot.com

Sarah - http://sarah.has.nocreativity.com/blog/

Shane - http://www.cobrapit.be

I thank these 5 brilliant people in advance. I trully hope all of them are into this and I get some response to this.

Last week I ordered a XBOX 360 PRO with 3 games (Viva Pinata, Forza2 and Mass Effect (!)) at Komplett.be
Most of my previous orders there were pretty ok (except for my TomTom, but that was the transport companies fault). I was surprised when 2 days later my XBOX already arrived.
I couldn’t wait to get back from Antwerp to check out my new gaming/media platform. As soon as I opened the box I noticed something wasn’t right … I was missing a HDMI port on my XBOX. Conclusion: this is no XBOX 360 but a XBOX 360 PREMIUM. A quick look at the manufacturing date … oct 2006!!! In terms of technology you can even call this ‘old’ if you ask me. XBOX 360 PRO’s with HDMI came in production on august 2007 (yes I did some homework).

I quickly opened my mail and started a mail to Komplett. I wrote them my situation and asked what I could they would do about it, as I really wanted a XBOX PRO as promoted on their webshop, for the price stated with the games included!
The day after I got a small mail back “Sir, we didn’t say on our website the product has a HDMI port. But if you want you can send in a RMA request and if the product is still in new state you will be refunded”.

Answer: “I’m sorry, but the website didn’t say there was ‘NO’ HDMI port, which you can expect on a ‘new’ XBOX, certainly if it’s sold as a PRO-system. And no I don’t want my money back, I want a XBOX 360 PRO or some kind of compensation for the mistake”.

Their answer: ” Sir … you didn’t tell us if the system is still as new and if you want to file a RMA-request”.
(OMG … they are really avoiding the issue here)

My answer: “The system is still as new, ignoring the opened box, that was already opened by your side already, to add ‘Mass Effect’ to the box (this addition was probably to cover up the old system they wanted to get rid off) and no I don’t want to file a RMA if that means refunding my purchase!”

Their answer: “Your request has been sent to technical support, on approval you will be contacted”.

Today I received a mail from tech-support: “Dear sir, your RMA request has been approved. You can send us back the product with all accessories and after testing on our side you will be refunded”.

GRMBLLll ayyyieeeeee I think they have to much computer-ventilator dust in their eye or something … hell I don’t know, but this isn’t the way I like to be treated as customer.
Normally I’m not all that difficult and would not post anything like this but …

* Not listening to the customer
* Failing to see and admit the error
* Letting me pay for transport for their mistakes
* Not coming up with a proper solution

makes me want to shout ” BAD SUPPORT KOMPLETT … BAD!!!!! “.
Well I guess Komplett orders will be just in worst case scenarios from now on … I’ll find some other supplier for the other orders.
And hell no, I’m not going to RMA that box!!!!

I really hoped to get this uptime over 1 year, but troubles with the collocation service provider probably will not allow this …

Linux scrat.saneprojects.com 2.6.17-10-server #2 SMP Tue Dec 5 22:29:32 UTC 2006 i686

The programs included with the Ubuntu system are free software;
the exact distribution terms for each program are described in the
individual files in /usr/share/doc/*/copyright.

Ubuntu comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by
applicable law.
root@scrat:~# uptime
22:02:41 up 350 days, 8:08, 2 users, load average: 0.35, 0.24, 0.19

Linux manfred 2.6.17-10-generic #2 SMP Tue Dec 5 22:28:26 UTC 2006 i686

The programs included with the Ubuntu system are free software;
the exact distribution terms for each program are described in the
individual files in /usr/share/doc/*/copyright.

Ubuntu comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by
applicable law.
root@ns1:~# uptime
21:55:58 up 316 days, 7:28, 2 users, load average: 0.00, 0.02, 0.00

If they have to go down, I promise to tell you the whole story.

UPDATE: seems they can stay online after all and we are going to make the 1 year uptime *PHEW*

But two is too much!!!!
Everybody has a look-a-like, so they say. And sadly … I must agree. This weekend I found the look-a-like of my colleague, software engineer and Blicbox-blogger. The resemblance was so big I had to take a picture of his second him to prove it, cause I know he wouldn’t believe me anyway. The picture is not 100% perfect and sharp, but I haven’t touched it with any filters, this is the real deal! Timo on the coast of Belgium and Timo2 in Holland/The Kemps.