Not that their site is even relevant anymore but the Tucows review team is apparently way understaffed – this is just too funny not to post. Below is a note I received a full 2 1/2 years after submitting our very first product to the Tucows download directory. In short, we were rejected because the download file was no longer there. do ya think? ;-)

from	Sean Tierney 
to	developer@tucows.com
date	Wed, Mar 18, 2009 at 10:46 AM
subject	Re: Reject Letter for JumpBox for the vTiger CRM System

well yes that file was submitted 2.5 years ago. it would be surprising
if any vendor's download was in the same place after that long. if we
resubmit now I can pretty much promise you the file will be in a different
location 2.5 years from now. we'll pass. thanks.

On Wed, Mar 18, 2009 at 7:38 AM,   wrote:
> Dear author,
>
> Thank you for submitting your software for distribution on www.tucows.com.
> Unfortunately, we are unable to accept your program at this time for the
> following reason(s):
>
> 1)  The download file URL was unavailable.
>
> You must provide a direct link to the file you would like us to host.
>
> Please resubmit your program once this issue has been resolved.
> Further information on our policies and review criteria can be
> found in the Author Resource Center.
>
> Thank you for choosing Tucows.
>
> Sincerely,
> The Tucows Review Team

So this is a different kind of hacking and not introspection in the programming sense but here’s a riff that’s been stuck in my head the past few days:

For lack of a better name I’ll call this song “Introspect.” To me it’s about pondering the past year and the feeling of hopefulness for what’s to come this year. What story does it speak to you? Leave a comment.

And Happy New Years everybody. Here’s to knockin’ whatever you do out of the park in ‘09!

Two forces of nature give talks that are a must-watch for anyone who is looking to change the world:

Steve Jobs’ commencement address at Stanford:

Randy Pausch’s farewell speech at Carnegie Mellon:

If you ever have an either/or choice of gaining all the knowledge or all the motivation to do something hard, choose the latter because it ensures you will find the former. Both talks put the daily minutiae of stuff like the post below in perspective and replenish the spirit that they sap. Do yourself a favor and take the next 2hrs of free time that you have and watch both talks. Whatever you’re working towards I cannot think of a more productive way to spend that time. Be warned- you will have a tear by the end of Pausch’s talk.

BONUS: The minute you finish the video, when you have the most possible wind in your sails, take another five to open source your goals.

Ahhh just need to vent here- does anyone using AuthorizeNet share an utter frustration with their support? This is a chat transcript after waiting on hold on their support line for over 2hrs and finally getting through only to be disconnected with a “your call cannot be completed as dialed.” I tried their live help system yesterday leaving a chat window open (of course needed to use a different browser because it continuously popped over what I was trying to do to tell me i was #53 in the support queue). Both times their support rep terminated the session due to inactivity when I finally got through because the window was in the background. Today this lovely exchange – and all I want to do is activate AMEX by giving them our AMEX merchant ID:

Matthew B: Hello Sean! How can I help you today?
Sean Tierney: hi Matt, we need to implement AMEX on our acct. i have a merch
id from them but your knowledgebase says to contact you guys to set it up
Matthew B: Right however,
Matthew B: you would have to call us so we can verify secure information to do that.
Sean Tierney: hehehehh your call queue is even longer than the 30min wait time on
your live help. can you call me at 480.967.5897 and we'll do it now?
Matthew B: Unfortunately I can't call you sorry I wish it was possible.
Sean Tierney: wow. okay. will get in line and wait on hold for an hour again-
hopefully it doesn't disconnect again at the end like it did last time. Sorry to
rant but you guys have some major support issues. should focus less on bringing
in business and more on delivering reasonable support... thanks for your help
Matthew B: You are welcome I apologize for the inconvienience. 

I don’t blame Matt but I don’t buy the “I can’t call you” line either- that would have been the fastest way to resolve the issue and me calling them is less authenticated than them calling the number on the account. Would take all of one minute to resolve in that situation. If anyone at AuthNet is listening- your support is very frustrating. Seriously consider halting all new business until you can figure out how to deliver a reasonable support experience to your paying customers.

Thus concludes my rant.

I just got it.

I’ve been on the fence about getting an edge card for us recently. The people at the Verizon booth at MacWorld were giving away the cards and waiving the activation fee today- that was enough to tip the decision for me. We are getting to the point where we need flawless connectivity at all times when we’re on the road. The new version (USB727) supports their Rev A network and gets theoretical speeds of 3MB down and 1MB up. I’m on it now in the airport in SJC and here’s the actual result I just got via speakeasy:

Not the fastest connection. I was getting 1MB down earlier today but even though the current speed is slow, I’m still stoked. It’s a classic “Innovator’s Solution” instance of “competing against non-consumption”- I’m thrilled to have any access right now.

The VZ Access manager software that comes with it was trivial to setup and it worked right off the bat on Leopard OS. It has some performance diagnostics built into it, although it appears to be over-reporting the speed according to the Speakeasy results:

All in all I’m very happy with this purchase. At $60/mo with 30 days to try it out risk-free and $175 to back out of the two-yr commitment any time after that, it’s worth the price to me at this point to have guaranteed internet access wherever we go. I don’t know how it compares to Sprint’s EVDO network but I vowed 3 years back to never give those guys another dime. So far so good Verizon.