Online Shopping Web Site Usability Adventures!

Since it seems that all I ever post here any more, however infrequently, are complaints about various things...here's another one now!

Some years back I bought a reconditioned 300 watt AC power inverter. This was back in a time when such things were pretty expensive. Despite the fact that it had obvious signs of use when it finally arrived and a cheap sleeve bearing cooling fan that lasted about a month before it started to sound like a lawn mower, it lasted a good long time. It even survived some downright abusive situations, like the time I used it to power a big metal bladed Lakewood box fan to try and move even a little air through a stifling hot outdoor pavilion.

All good things must come to an end and so it was with this inverter. I plugged it in one day and popped the cigarette lighter fuse in my truck. I then plugged it into the other lighter socket and popped its fuse. So much for that, something finally died. I probably could have fixed it, though as a rule I dislike fiddling with electronics that employ hazardous voltages and operating frequencies.

A couple of years went before I decided that it was finally time to replace my inverter. I'd been getting along fine without it, but SiriusXM satellite radio finally seemed desperate enough to get my business. You might be asking what any of this has to do with a power inverter, and the answer is simple: I bought a Delphi SkyFi 2 XM radio receiver at a garage sale some years back. It came with a car dock, cassette shell adapter and a magnetic antenna. I wanted to use it at home, so I went to price the "home" dock package only to find that it was right around the "highway robbery" mark. I did finally come across a reasonably priced home use kit and bought that.

You guessed it. Somewhere between then and now, I lost the car power adapter and dock. I was able to put my hands right on the antenna, in the place I expected to find it. It's more of those darn helpful people moving my stuff around, I tell you.

Rather than pay an extortionate amount of money for another car dock (which would serve to flush mine out of hiding), I decided to just use the home dock in my truck. It has a wall wart for power, one with a somewhat unusual voltage output. The simple solution was to just borrow my brother's 75 watt power inverter! That was fine for a few days and then I decided to renew my search for another inverter instead of mooching his.

Where to buy it? I suppose there are tons of great cheap choices on places like Amazon.com and eBay is probably teeming with cheap options from sellers located overseas. I decided to buy it from an actual bricks-and-mortar store, and a big store like Meijer seemed as good of a bet as any. The question then becomes: "does Meijer actually carry power inverters in store?" and the answer is "of course they do". So, naturally, a quick trip to the Meijer web site should turn something up.

This is where it all went so terribly wrong. To drill down through the Meijer web site requires that you choose a category. Both "Garden and Patio" and "Electronics" seemed like logical enough choices. Things start to look a bit grim when the sub-categories are presented, as none of them fit what I'm looking for. How about Electronics? Nope, nothing promising there. Maybe it's in the Automotive department? Where IS the automotive portion of the web site? Oh, there it is, under "Home", and "Home Improvement". Okay, that's at least plausible enough. There's a sub-sub category labeled "Car Electronics". Maybe now we're getting somewhere?

Car Electronics has remote starters, in-dash/in-car entertainment systems (remember when these were called "radios"?), radar detectors, FM transmitters, MP3 players with FM transmitters, inspection cameras (!!), and even GPS antennas. There isn't a single inverter to be seen. Now what? The answer is a little further down, under "Power Inverters, Chargers and Jump Starters". Or at least that's what you might think. There are (finally!) power inverters to be seen, and some of them are definitely candidates for my shopping list, but NONE of them are available in store!

I know, what with having been there in the past, that Meijer DOES carry power inverters in store. Never mind what year this is, I'll get in my truck, drive to the store, and hope that the options they do have are worth considering. (I might hear you say "what do you care, if you were going to visit an actual store to buy one?" ... to which I say, "that's irrelevant, this stuff should just WORK".)

And right there it was, not more than ten feet from the car radio display...a 200 watt VOT brand inverter equipped with a bonus 2100mA (!!!!) USB port!

Here are the morals and lessons to be learned from this particular story:

1. Does your web site make it easy to find things where customers would actually look for them? If not, it's broken. Fix it.

2. Does your web site contain a catalog of every item that is in one of your physical stores? Somewhere you probably have a database of the items in your store, even if it's nothing more than a list of what items correspond to what UPC codes and what the prices are.

3. Does your web site provide relevant content? Hint: When I'm thinking of shopping inyour actual store, I don't care or even want to know what is available "online" only. Truth be told I'm not visiting your site to see things that are sold online only. If I wanted that, I'd be shopping at a retailer whose presence is exclusively online! I also don't care about items available through "preferred partners" or sellers who are not affiliated with your business. Advertising of that sort is just plain stupid and incongruent with your line of business, considering that it is for your competition! (The Meijer site didn't exhibit this behavior that I could see*, yet plenty of other sites do.)

By the way, Google finds the VOT inverter I ended up buying on the Meijer web site. (That link will probably break with time.) As of this writing, the product is categorized under "Online Sale > Clearance > Home Improvement - Clearance". If someone actually has to resort to using an external search engine to find what the functions on your own site should be able to guide them towards, guess what? Your web site is broken. Fix it!

I should have purchased that inverter somewhere else.

Stay tuned for my next episode, where I might talk about what should be done to deal with the bozos who feel it is appropriate (note I said "appropriate", not "legal") to hold up a checkout lane in a busy store for ages while they pay their bill not only in exact change, but with the smallest denomination coins possible.

Random Grumping

Dear Xanga: How's about telling me the REAL reason why your editor won't accept my post, instead of saying "sign in error".

Grump, grump, grump. Let's hope another browser does the trick...

There's this thing called a NEST thermostat...

...and apparently, it's just the best thing since sliced bread. Now, let me temper that a bit. There have been a lot of "best things" since sliced bread. Yet sliced bread is the one that people still use in the analogy. Many of those "best things" have been found to have pitfalls serious enough that the old way really was better.

Forgive me, because I'm going to sound grumpy throughout this review...

With that out of the way...NEST is a startup run by some ex-Apple Computer (yes, I call them by their old name) employees. They have brought to market this new and improved, maybe even magical thermostat that's supposed to spend a week "observing" your household to learn your occupancy and temperature setting habits. The thermostats appear to have been selling well, to say the least. NEST couldn't keep them in stock for a while, and I guess (as of this writing) that there is still a line of people waiting to get theirs.

I didn't buy one. While I suspect I will get majorly grilled for having an unpopular opinion here, I've got to say that I don't appreciate frilly-froo-froo "green" stuff. The galumphing green greenies (apologies to Stan and Jan Berenstain) have managed to ruin almost everything. Cars, home appliances, light bulbs, many other things...you name it, the new replacements just don't seem as "green" to me in any practical sense. I own a 40 year old refrigerator that cools better on R12 than any modern fridge I've seen with "green" refrigerant. You think a modern fridge will last forty years? I don't, and I've got some experience along those lines. These goofy front-loading washing machines seem to have depressingly short lifetimes, compared to an old "inefficient" Maytag that would run for 30, 40 or maybe more years without much in the way of maintenance. Which, when the numbers were crunched, only produced a significant difference in terms of water use!

To (loosely) quote the BOFH..."a real computer would have a hole in the front to shove trees into and a hole in the back for smoke to come out".

Sorry. I got a bit distracted there. I have no shortage of obnoxious options. Back to this thermostat. My dad actually bought one at the suggestion of one of my brothers. He installed it and set it up the other day.

Since NEST was founded by some ex-Apple employees, I'll preface this by saying that there is a reason why Apple is who and where they are. While some of their decisions are controversial and their computers not necessarily at the forefront of performance, Apple does generally produce equipment that just works. In my advancing age (29 as of this writing), I'm starting to care about that bold part more and more. Engineering's a difficult process, but there are some things that ought to be obvious when testing a product.

The NEST thermostat can connect to a wireless computer network for added functionality. It's supposed to even go so far as to upload collected data to the "cloud" that all of the cool kids use today, where you can view it from a special web page or even control your thermostat. Cool idea, huh?

You back there with the privacy hat on, yeah you, hush it. Not that I don't think what you're saying is important, just bear with me on this.

Well, my wireless network is like most others by way of the fact that it's secured with WPA2 encryption and a (fiendishly long, I suppose) WPA2 key. It's already a chore (instead of writing "bitch", as part of an effort not to sound too crabby or rude here) to input this key on mobile devices. The NEST thermostat can only accept input via its rotating dial. There is an onscreen keyboard that can be switched to enter small letters, capitals, numbers and punctuation. Which I dutifully did, though I'm getting ahead of myself here.

At first, the thermostat wouldn't even see my wireless network. I'm not hiding my SSID, nor is there any lack of network signal strength. Every wireless device I own can use the wireless network reliably in every room of this big old house, and most can use it outside to at least my driveway. What gives? Well, finally, my network showed up. And I entered the WPA2 security key, all 60 some characters of it.

And NEST, it said uh-uh. "Failed to connect to network" was all its round display offered for an explanation. To add insult to injury, it didn't even have the decency to wait a bit, or you know, make me at least think that it would connect to the network. Even if it was only deliberately inserted wait states, I'd be placated by the illusion that it was at least trying.

But you know, I'm human and while my uptime (measured as years of lifetime) should be better than most any computer, I do make mistakes. Dutifully, I keyed the WPA2 key in again. This takes a tortuously long time to complete, and it's the first thing that is seriously wrong with this thermostat. There really needs to be a way to "plant" wireless network info into devices like the NEST. So why hasn't it been done?

The usual way to do this might be through a wired network connection, or maybe even through a USB memory device. NEST has a USB port, so why can't I hook up a memory device to that port and have it read in a text file containing my wireless configuration? Or, though it would be asinine unless the software were cross platform, why I can't I run a software program to set this info over USB and then stick the thermostat to the wall? I'd settle for the ability to attach a keyboard to the thing and enter the info that way.

Well, I tried another tack. I set up an ad-hoc network (as opposed to infrastructure) on my Macbook and tried to connect to that. NEST wasn't having any of that, and its only response was the brusque error message "Failed to connect to network". If this were my thermostat, I'd have seriously considered delivering a response via baseball bat, as the vindictive, spiteful, bad tempered person I can be.

I had another idea. Turn off security on my wireless network, risk all those hard core criminals breaking in, and join the thermostat to my network temporarily. Surely, thought I, it's got an onboard web server that I could hit, configure it properly (in case I'm still making a typing--or is that wheeling--error) and then re-enable security on my wireless network.

NEST doesn't have a built in web server. Not to put too fine of a point on it, but why the heck not? It's got an ARM CPU, a gob of RAM, what would seem like plenty of flash memory...and yet it can't devote any of that to having even a minimal configuration interface onboard? What year is this?

Oh, but it did download a software update. Mind you, while you can see it downloading the update, there's no obvious way that I found to tell it "stop now, and apply the update". (It did so a short while after downloading, but I think I only got lucky there.) My hope springs eternal, but v2.0 of the software was no better about connecting to my secured wireless network.

I've given up on it at this point. I did restart it a few times. I don't know, or care why the NEST refuses to connect to my wireless network. All I know is that it's too hard to set up, and doesn't work even after multiple tries.

Along the way, I've noticed that the NEST thermostat appears to lack CPU power or something. Maybe the code isn't well optimized. Again, don't know--shouldn't have to care. I've had it ignore input clicks and rotation of its wheel.

I'm posting this rant mainly to get it out of my system. I do hear that the nice folks at NEST have contacted people in response to articles, so maybe that'll happen here. I'd like to talk about my thoughts with someone there, though I don't have enough desire to sit through what I think will only be a maddening technical support experience. If you're with NEST and want to shoot me an e-mail...it's right here.

And while I'm at it, just to close things up...what is up with that display? It would be nice to have the option--like every other thermostat in the world--to have the display constantly lit, though probably at reduced brightness to avoid wearing it out so fast.

Oh. Yeah. I almost forgot. The NEST support site, well...it sucks. I don't want to watch a video when I'm sitting in the hallway trying to troubleshoot a thermostat with an attitude almost as bad as mine. I want...help, surprisingly enough!

Maybe I'll post more when I see how well it's learning process does in a week? For now, that is all.

What happened one year ago...

Gosh, it's been a long time since I've said anything on this blog. It's been a little over a year. (And I also see that Xanga's weblog editor has gotten no better about handling double-spacing properly.)

I guess I ought to bring you all up to date. You see, around February of 2011, the United States government thoughtlessly (senselessly?) knocked my--and many other--innocent web sites offline. All of us had one thing in common...we used the FreeDNS service and its top-level domain mooo.com. Our servers were still running as usual (and often on dynamic IPs), but any attempt to access them through friendly names resulted in a chilling notice appearing.

There was an enormous outcry from the Internet community and about three days later, just as quietly as the malicious act had come, it was gone. Yet it put off quite a buzz in the Internet community and covered by the technology press. Oh yes, it was covered left and right. My thoroughly-incensed screed (an entry or two below) was quoted in many of the articles.

And yet, what really struck me about this was the fact that, outside of the technology press and its reporting, I seemed to be the one user of mooo.com who cared enough to get on his soapbox and start massively chewing out the midget-minds who'd done this. So, what all happened between then and now? Let's recap:

1. I was contacted by at least two organizations with the potential of finding me legal representation and starting a case against the US government. The Electronic Frontier Foundation and another organization whose name I have forgotten both contacted me via e-mail. The unnamed organization just stopped responding after a few back-and-forth e-mails between myself and them. I had a phone conversation with counsel from the EFF, and then nothing happened. It all just kind of disappeared, without any sense of closure. As much as I respect and support the EFF, I can't tell that they ever followed through with anything.

(And no, I'm not one of those sue-happy bastards who wanted a big payout. I couldn't care less about money. What I wanted was to make nothing less than an indelible point. Or at least try to. I would have testified in any court if it meant the possibility of nailing those SOBs to the wall, and reminding them just why we have a constitution that guarantees due process and the presumption of innocence.)

2. Caro.net--who seemingly went through a bankruptcy around October 2011 (!!!!)--contacted me and asked me to take the blog entry down, or at least remove their name from it. They claimed to have received death threats and attacks to their network. That's not cool at all, folks. Don't do that.

My contact with Caro.net suggested that they never knew what their network was being used for. You can believe it or not--personally, I do not--and it sure seems VERY irresponsible to sell hosting services without knowing who is buying or what they are doing, no? Someone might take down part of your network as part of an ill-planned "save the children" scheme! (I don't say.)

3. Life has gone back to normal, I guess. Yeah, don't laugh. After the bad press was gone, and the sites restored, I guess that was it.

I probably shouldn't complain, as I don't think much, if any, lasting damage was done.

What have I learned from all of this? Be vigilant, folks. Get involved in your government as much as you can, and have time for.

And oh yeah, in case you were wondering. Our lovely government is still abusing its powers and pulling similar stunts with other web sites.

There's something I'd like to make perfectly clear...

This is yet another update to the whole mooo.com fiasco/saga/unfortunate series of events. If you don't know what I'm talking about, please read more in the blog postings below.

However, I'd like to get a moment of your time before you continue. While I've never heard anything back from my letter to John Morton at ICE, I was contacted by someone within CaroNet who told me that they were unaware of what their services were being used for when people started to attack their network and threaten their business.

Frankly, I don't know that I believe all that. But that is immaterial to what I'm discussing here. When I made my first posting about the whole ICE issue, I clearly stated that I did not want anyone to engage in illegal, dangerous or retaliatory behavior. Yet I was contacted by CaroNet because people have attacked their computer systems and threatened them. Please do not do this. If you have a beef with the CaroNet business or think they acted in error, please don't do anything illegal and don't threaten or attack their systems. Keep any action you take on the right side of the law.

Thank you for your attention, and again, I ask that you not retaliate against CaroNet in by way of illegal or abusive action. So please don't do that.