Another one of my coworker’s whiteboards digitized. This one focuses on how QR codes are popping up everywhere. First it was restaurants and now they can be found in everything from grocery stores to hardware warehouses. Soon people will be placing QR codes on the backs of their cars instead of using long web addresses and maybe even panhandlers will now have Paypal accounts in order to collect their donations.

Smart phones and mobile computing sure have made our lives more connected.

Original (Click picture for bigger one):

Modified:

Above is another creation from Barbara Hullett her original artwork is on the right with my vectorization on the left.

This drawing was inspired by the recent weather events and modern times. The recent weather events are also known as the biggest let down in weather this century. Several counties around the triad called off school in anticipation of Snowmageddon and nothing showed up until well into the evening. Facebook and Twitter were both on fire with scowls of angry parents telling the school board and the weathermen that they had waisted their precious PTO.

I myself even got caught up in the hype staying home Monday and working remotely.

Hope all you stay warm and enjoy the imagery.
David Bates

I was recently shocked when I went through my news-feed to find that thousands of birds were falling out of the sky and thousands of fish near the same town were floating up on-shore. I couldn’t believe that they didn’t immediately issue a warning for the area asking people to stay indoors, or even a “Don’t touch the birds” broadcast. The clean up crews that entered the town wore total protective suits including air filters but left the regular townsfolk to fend for themselves. Almost like a scene directly from “The Crazies” where the whole town become infected because action wasn’t taken to separate the towns people and test them.

The conclusion that the birds died from stress due to fireworks is completely ridiculous. Especially given that fish died as well. I just am baffled how casual this whole situation was dealt with and thought I should jot it down.

Thanks for reading
David Bates

History: This is for a small church website that my friend developed as a favor. The barrage of bad customer service started with a simple inquiry to downgrade his service, renew for another year, and when his current contract ran out. I am going to post the full transaction below but have a few excerpts that I would like to highlight showing the gall that these folks have:

From 3sHost.com:
"if you are not going to renew it is your decision but please do not blame
us later"

"Now we are asking please backup your files & please do not renew your account because such customers like you are really waste of time & money"

Now I have seen a lot of customer support disasters in my time but this one takes the cake.
Needless to say my friend will be finding another hosting provider.

The initial email that started this chain of events:
"Dear customer,
To renew your hosting account, please Copy & paste the FULL link below
Link hidden for obvious reasons
Kind Regards,
3SHost.com Sales Team
Sales@3SHost.com"

Friend Wrote:
"I would actually like to renew at the "Medium" Windows hosting level,
since I don't use any features beyond what it offers. Will you please send me
a bill for that? Also, will you please verify when my current contract
runs out, what date this renewal will expire?

Thanks"


Needless to say they went back and forth. My friend always simply asking about the renewal. He has since switched host.

Full transaction to come I didn’t realize how much work it was to annonymize something…

Experiment: To blow a balloon up with the cold stuff from a compressed air bottle.

Need:
Compressed Air bottle
Bowl of hot water
Balloon
Gloves or winterized fingers

How to do it: