Tuesday, November 25, 2008

A miracle



So if you bet that it would take 33 days and three tries as the correct answer on how long it would take UPS to get the above piece of software to us then congratulations, you win the prize.

It is, of course, a complete joke that it took this long and I still pray for the demise of the company. Even the guys at Canada Post were mocking them as useless. And yes, there might be some lingering rivalry between the two. But really, no one on the comments section of my previous post had anything nice to say about them. Nor am I the only person in the north having problems with them.

About the only good thing that might come from this is the possibility that in a few weeks time another copy of the same software might magically show up. But that's assuming UPS gets their act together, so I'm high skeptical.

Oh, and on a passingly related note, heard an interesting piece of gossip from St. John's way. There's a rumour going around that Future Shop is on the verge of folding up shop. I find that hard to believe and especially right before Christmas, but there it is. Has anyone else heard anything similar?

Last Five
1. Man-sized wreath - REM
2. The well and the lighthouse - The Arcade Fire
3. Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da - The Beatles
4. Pastures of plenty - Allison Krauss and Union Station
5. Jesus gonna be here (live) - Tom Waits*

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

TB.. check out this link re Future Shop

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5hZfQofwZydxRnJg11bQL7PzcWxkQ

towniebastard said...

Yeah, that makes sense. I'm not saying Future Shop across Canada does as well as the one in St. John's, but it would have surprised me if it closed.

I was talking to an employee at the store when I was back in town last month and they were looking at putting up a new, larger building in Stavanger Drive. So they seem to be sticking around.

But I think post-Christmas might be a bloodbath for several major chains if things remain as grim as they look.

Anonymous said...

don't open the software!

Return it and download Open Office for free - same functionality - works equally well with mac.

openoffice.org

and no, I don't work for them.

towniebastard said...

Believe me, I've tried. But it just doesn't play well with the type of files that Cathy deals with on a regular basis. I've tried Open Office and Mac's word processing program on Cathy's computer and she doesn't like either of them. She likes MS Word. So I'd rather have a program she's comfortable with on her computer than one I have to try and figure out and explain to her.

Of course, I say this now. MS Word 2008 could be a disaster once I try to install it.

Adam Snider said...

I highly doubt that Future Shop is closing. They've just opened a new one here in Edmonton that's so big it's got it's own Apple Store inside.

Anonymous said...

Ahhh "hi"...hmmm...yeah..I just wanted to go ahead and say you can put that back into the UPS delivery system. We were looking forward to that final copy. Looks like it got to its destination in error.

- your fellow citizens in any major Canadian city that starts with an "I" will be most grateful

Trace said...

I'm with you and Cathy on the subject of Open Office. I've worked with it on a daily basis and it sucks.

towniebastard said...

I remember researching an article for a story I was thinking of working on, about why more governments didn't use programs like OpenOffice as it would safe millions in licencing fees to companies like Microsoft. Or even what Google is working on right now.

And maybe it gets there at some point in the future, but those program still don't feel right, at least to me. I had OpenOffice installed on my computer, but eventually deleted it because I found it too frustrating. Maybe the kinks are worked out now, but I'm in no hurry to switch from my slightly older version of MS Word, which works just fine.