Yeeaaargh!! I hate Samsung so much right now! I hate Samsung so much right now! Aaaarch!

I’ve been the proud owner of a Samsung D900 for a couple of months now and have somehow convinced myself that the beautiful industrial design[1] made up for the poorly designed user interface[2].

But now the fucking crap software that Shamshung choose to ship with it (PC Studio 3) simply refuses to download any photos from the fucker.

And how’s this for an error message:

Phone Error

That’s it! Fucking phone error! No error code, no entry in Windows Event Viewer, not even a frickin’ text log file.

So I did the right thing, I upgraded from version 3.0.1 to 3.1.1 and duely tried again. Phone Error.
I switched to the Bluetooth connection rather than USB): Phone Error.
I uninstalled and re-installed 3.0.1 and switched to Bluetooth: Phone Error.
I trawled the GSM forums proposed by Google: Phone Error.
You get the idea.

I’ve written a serious amount of software over the last 8 years and can confidently say that good error logging is not hard to do. This is totally inexcusable and shit!

I’m seriously contemplating selling it and going back to a Nokia – despite the bad rep. that the Symbian OS has been developing in more recent models.

There’s only one thing left to do for me to exact revenge on Samsung en masse – unleash my mad The Gimp skillz!

Samsung Must Diee!

If all the bad karma captured in the above image doesn’t make their worldwide sales drop almost instantly I would be very surprised.
I shall sit back and wait for the cautionary announcement on their next quarter profits.

hmmm… why do I not feel any better?

[1] Which really is excellent – especially the slide action.
[2] Which requires up to 4 button presses to send a text message.

Tomorrow is the Two Oceans Marathon and with it the No Oceans half marathon.
It’s the most important race of the year (11 000 entrants in the half marathon this year) and I’m worried.
I’ve been trying to shake the flu for more than a week now and this has really messed with my training. Two weeks ago I would have said that I would without doubt break 90 minutes (my goal[1]) this year – but now I’m not really sure.
I don’t want to be stupid and harm my long term health, but for fuck’s sake – it’s the Oceans, this is what we train towards.

It’s a magnificent course (profile below) – a real killer that starts alongside the Liesbeeck river in Newlands and works its way up to Rhodes drive at the top of Southern Cross and then on to the top gate of Kirstenbosch and down to UCT; a climb of 160 meters. And it’s fast.

Go legs go, or not – the reality will be as it is.

Update: I’m happy to say that the race rocked. It was one of the most difficult I’ve done (really hard in places) but I finished in 88 minutes and had a fantastic time.

[1] For the Two Oceans specifically. A few weeks ago I did reach my other goal for this year, which was to go below 85 minutes for a half. So I do have that.

Autumn has arrived in just the last few days – Monday actually.
There’s a distinct change in the air in the mornings and evenings.

We’ve had a fantastic Summer (relatively wet, not too windy) and I am reminded of how I feel the same way about the major seasons every year.
Towards the end of one season, say Winter, it gets to where I’ve just had enough of it and count the daily increments toward Spring. At the end of summer the same thing – counting the indications that Autumn and Winter are closing in.

Somehow I thought that because this year’s Summer has been such a good one that I wouldn’t despair of its continuing – and I haven’t.
But when, on Monday morning, I recognised the Autumn air I was glad to have it return.

Welcome Autumn and Winter! It’ll be wet and cold and dark, but on some nites the silent fog will roll in from the sea.

I’m back from the wurk conference and now need a break from product roadmaps and strategic clients.
Spending 3 days with salesmen will do that to you.
But, our demonstration was well received and I do think that we’ll gain a lot of momentum in the non-US market from this.

right now – sleep.

Kids alright
Gardens

Keep your mind tidy – throw away your TV
Gardens

Gun
Rondebosch

Missing 3-3-07
Rondebosch

Smile – It’s Free!
Gardens