You’ve probably heard the expression “five nine reliability,” which is shorthand for saying that a product, Web site, service, application, or whatever is fully functional 99.999% of the time, the equivalent of less than six minutes of downtime per year. Most Web sites don’t need to achieve that level of reliability. However, when you’re in… Read More: National Grid gets 66.666% confused with 99.999% »
(This is not a typical post for my blog. Those of you who aren’t Jewish can feel free to skip it.) My bar mitzvah was December 18, 1982, the second Shabbat of Hanukah, parashat Miketz. Each year on the anniversary of my bar mitzvah, I read part of the Torah reading (the first four aliyot… Read More: Thoughts on Miketz for 5771 »
Apparently it’s “big companies that can’t keep their Web sites up in the middle of the day” week. Yesterday, Citizens Bank online banking was down for over two hours. Today, National Grid’s main US Web site and online account management site are both down:
I’ve added Not Invented Here to my comics aggregator. Enjoy!
At 9:45am on a weekday:
For those of you who use my comics aggregator, please note that the charming folks at GoComics.com mucked with their site again, possibly to make aggregators like mine more difficult to implement (they want your eyeballs and your clicks on their ads!), and I’ve just fixed the aggregator to compensate for their changes, so their… Read More: GoComics fixed in comics aggregator »
My wife still uses a Virgin Mobile prepaid phone, despite our previous run-in with their rampant stupidity (we stuck with them because they solved our problem in the end). Unfortunately, their stupidity is on parade again. My wife’s account is configured to auto-topup, i.e., every time her balance drops below $5, they’re supposed to automatically… Read More: Virgin Mobile Auto-Topup broken for months »
The Citizens Bank Web site recently added a new feature: bill payees can be put into groups. When you first visit the “Add/Manage Groups” page, it looks like this: The first stupid UI decision should be obvious after a moment’s thought. Once you’ve set up your groups, you will rarely if ever create new ones,… Read More: Terrible UI Design of the Day »
Last July, when we were preparing for our trip to Israel, I called Citizens Bank and asked this simple question: “What is the least expensive way for me to get Israeli sheqels out of my Citizens Bank checking account?” In response, the customer service representative told me the following: The fee for withdrawing currency from… Read More: Bye Bye, Citizens Bank »
UPDATE [August 30, 2011]: Tony Mitchell has threatened to sue me for criticizing him on my blog. Read all the details here, and please consider chipping in a few bucks to help cover my legal defense. Thanks! Dear Mr. Mitchell, A few months ago, I posted a voicemail message my wife and I received from your… Read More: An open letter to Tony Mitchell »