Author Archives: jik

Turning off startup animation and sound on an HTC Windows Mobile phone (AT&T 8525)

After AT&T acquired Cingular, they released a software upgrade for the 8525, one of their Windows Mobile devices. In the upgrade, they added an extraordinarily annoying boot-time animation to the phone. When you power on, you see an animated picture of the Cingular “flying bars” and then the AT&T logo. It wouldn’t bo so bad… Read More »

Coining a new phrase

While discussing with my wife a product which is so poorly designed that it’s an absolute marvel that it made it to into manufacturing: “The team that designed this was definitely a few monkeys short of infinity.”

Why not to donate to The March of Dimes

On November 26, I contacted The March of Dimes through a form on their Web site, asking them to remove me from their postal mailing list. (This was not because of a specific grievance against The March of Dimes; I’m trying to get us removed from all mailing lists to reduce wasted time dealing with… Read More »

Bad customer service is bad for business

Shortly after I went after Sprint for horrendously bad customer service, their CEO stepped down as the company was about to announce yet another bad quarter. Shortly after I went after Motorola for horrendously bad customer service and deceptive marketing, their CEO was replaced after the company announced another bad quarter. This is not coincidence.