Call me crazy on this one, but there are some big corporate names included as victims of this one–doesn’t anybody think about the implications of their actions? Haven’t we all gotten E-mails that have “do not reply” addresses or E-mails where somebody hits “reply all” by mistake? Put them together and you have this! This has got to be one of the best tactical-media-projects-that-should-have-been of all time!

In addition to the obvious infrastructure tie, I think it’s interesting to look at the brands (i.e. companies) that are behind our daily lives. That’s infrastructure itself. Of course, it’s from Europe where they have a broader view of what’s behind the scenes, and they aren’t afraid to bring it out into the open…

(Though you can’t see the brands due to Monocle’s subscription requirement, know it’s mostly Siemens and other European companies. No surprise… but do pick up Monocle if you see it!)

Problem one: American Apparel. They have nice products; they are well made, in America with supposedly sweat-shop free labor. “It’s consumption you can feel good about.” I asked for a blue velour top of theirs for Christmas. I got it, but it was a little too big. I decided to take it back to the local A.A. retail store that is ~1 mile from my home to get a small instead.

When I went in (with the receipt, by the way), the clerk told me they could not accept returns of products ordered through the website. “We’re two separate companies. We don’t take returns from the online store. They have to be sent back to the online store returns department.” Are you kidding? “Two separate companies?” WTF? But it gets better…

Today, I get an E-mail that my return has been received by the returns processing center. Rad. The disposition of my return? Backordered. The replacement item is backordered!?!? So let me get this straight: customers can’t return products ordered from the online store to the local retail store (even though every other store allows this), *and* they want me to waste my time, money and fuel sending something back to California (when they are probably going to send another back to my local store eventually to restock), *and* they are going to waste fuel, money and time of theirs sending me something (from California) I could have picked up less than one mile from my home? Wow. That’s a lot of inefficiencies–and it frustrates customers. Seems like a no-win on everybody’s part. The fix is really easy, too.

Physically, it was in good shape–but it looked “manufactured” and untouched by any human. Intellectually, I think we all know the items we buy are not made just for us–but we like to think so. I think we all yearn for the sense that a product is perfect for (just) us and somehow “special”. That “necessary illusion” is broken when you receive merchandise with tracking barcodes and protective plastic wrappers still on them. When a company like Urban Outfitters tries so hard to make shopping an “experience” (in their retail stores), why do they break the experience this way? I guess the alternative is to remove the wrappers and risk damage during shipping, but how about tissue paper? Or branded wrapping? Isn’t consumption supposed to feel *good*?

Next, I found this script. Not only is it simpler, but it also downloads the source for you. Perfect! It seems to work–below is my modified version, however, that is a little less “finicky” about where it is run from, and properly cleans up after itself. Of course, you need to change the second and third lines of the script to suit your needs.

I hope this saves somebody some aggravation…

#!/bin/bash

BLOGDIR=”/home/jmaki/webopticon.com”
SITEURL=”http://www.webopticon.com”

echo Updating Wordpress in $BLOGDIR
cd $BLOGDIR
cd ..

echo 1. downloading latest build
wget -q http://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz

echo 2. unpacking latest build
tar zxf latest.tar.gz
cd wordpress/

echo 3. replacing old files with fresh ones
tar cf - . | (cd $BLOGDIR; tar xf -)

echo 4. updating your blog
wget -q -O - ${SITEURL}/wp-admin/upgrade.php?step=1 > /dev/null

echo 5. removing unneeded files and directories
cd ..
rm -f latest.tar.gz
rm -rf wordpress

echo 6. all done !

I don’t know all of the back story, but when you go into the building, what clearly used to be an “anchor store” is now a home loan bank customer service center, and what used to be smaller stores off the main concourse are now mostly telecom companies, one of which was my destination: switch and data. Even the kiosks and platers from the building’s former retail life remain untouched–everything is “dated” in appearance; the building empty and quiet.

The Pittsburgh Business Times printed an article back in 2000 on the building’s transformation from a mall to an office space, and termed the facility a “telecom hotel”. Evidently, (and not surprisingly) the building’s manager has had a hard time finding companies that want to locate in the mall. Instead, they’ve found a eager and willing audience in telecommunications companies. Reasons cited in the article for their interest include the cement architecture of the building and its close proximity to the power grid, both important to companies looking to keep computers cool, protected and running 24/7/365.

What I also find interesting, and not mentioned in the article, is the necessity of fiber optic links to run a telecom company in today’s global age. Conveniently, and perhaps one of its failings as a retail mall, there is a major freeway (I-279) and multiple railroad tracks just south of the mall (map). These imposing rights of way may cut off the mall from the rest of downtown, but they also usually carry fiber optics (freeways and railroads usually being places safe from digging). The mall’s close proximity to the office towers that house Pittsburgh’s (few) large multi-national companies make the mall a more cost-effective, but still convenient place to keep associated communications and IT equipment.

It’d be an ironic turn of fate for something that may have killed the building’s original purpose to be the thing that saves it from the wrecking ball. It also just proves that when you have an asset (especially a tangible one), there is always both an audience and a way to present that asset to that audience, that can turn the asset into a sustainable, revenue generating part of your organization. “It’s all in the presentation…”

I couldn’t find much–at least not detailed, not vector, and the data was never free. But come to find out, you can buy this high-quality, detailed data. It’s very expensive, but it seems there are (otherwise) no obstacles in terms of getting it. That is, you don’t need to be a government or telecom company to look at it. The prospects also look unfortunately bleak for using an FOIA request to get it from public records which might contain the data.

One commercial data provider kindly gives you a sample map from their product to see the level of detail they provide. The area of focus for the sample? Washington DC. How handy. And I thought this stuff was hard to get because of the “terrorism risk”? Just another way corporate control over what-should-be-public-information makes private companies tons of money… sigh.

Today, I tracked the status of my repair with Apple’s repair status page, and noticed my machine was delivered at ~10 AM to the Apple Store. I went there at ~1:30 PM, and asked if I could pick it up. The person at the Apple store said they hadn’t unpacked it yet, and that they would call me when it’s ready. “Probably today, maybe tomorrow”. I told them it had to be today.

I went home, and just as I was walking up the stairs, I get a call. The machine is ready. I could have waited in the store if I had known they would be that quick, but I dutifully went back to pick it up–I want my computer back!

When I finally got it back, (to my horror) I found they replaced the logic board. For the second time. No joke. And, to top it off, they didn’t repair any of the cosmetic damage, as John and I agreed. WTF Apple?

Apple has now agreed to give me a new machine. But seriously, did it have to be this painful? What’s going on at Apple? Will they learn from *this* experience? Maybe the price of the new laptop will open their ears… I doubt it.

When I finally received the machine back, I found that only the “logic board” was replaced–even though my screen (or its cabling) was the defective component. I thought they knew what they were doing, and proceeded to use the machine hoping never to see the screen problem crop up again. Well, sure enough–it came back. Exactly as before.

I took the machine back to the Apple Store, and they said the same thing the first two “geniuses” did: it was probably a display cabling issue. “Why wasn’t the display cable replaced, then?” I asked. They couldn’t be sure; the repairs are done in Texas at the “depot”.

My machine has been anything but reliable, with multiple independent components failing. Obviously, the machine (and the plant it was made in) has quality problems–especially with ribbon cables. I asked what they could do for me to ensure this was one of the last times I showed up here for repairs. They told me, until my machine kept coming in for the same issue, nothing; I’d be sent out for repair this time (free of charge, “of course”), but no new machine for me. The “genius” even had the audacity to tell me, “this type of thing is to be expected with first generation products”. Gee, thanks. I didn’t know the “geniuses” served as gatekeepers for Apple repair service. I thought they were my advocate? I did pay for AppleCare, right?

I balked, and asked to speak to John, the manager at Apple Store Shadyside. He was really understanding, and listened to me politely, and then agreed to fix some cosmetic damage on my machine free of charge (a $500 value) in exchange for my time and trouble. By now I’ve literally gotten a new machine piece by piece, but why Apple couldn’t just cut their losses, and please me as a customer the first time, by replacing the defective machine, I’m not sure.

I think the real mark of a good organization, however, is to find out if they “learn”. Standards that indicate a “learning organization” come in many forms: the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) from CMU, ISO’s 9000 series standards and others. Essentially I want to know, if somebody comes in with the same issue as me, will Apple take what they found out from my machine and apply it to that case?

If somebody comes in with a machine that turns off randomly, will they check the battery cable instead of making the customer come back multiple times for diagnosis (as they did with me)? Will Apple change their store policies to ensure machines don’t stay in the store for two days to be “rediagnosed”, only to eventually be sent out for a non-relevant repair? Is it typical for Apple to replace non-relevant parts? Are these repairs even tracked?

I’m not sure if Apple has any internal knowledge sharing system or analysis procedures, but if there are any Apple techs reading this, please chime in with some answers. Is Apple a “learning organization?”

I took it completely apart (you need a Torx driver to do so), soaked any plastic pieces I could in vinegar water and wiped the rest with the same. I ordered the two replacement parts for ~$30, and put the thing back together. It ran! Sure enough, the canister fulled with hair and dirt as I moved it around the floor. What do you know? Resurrected from the trash to achieve vacuuming greatness once again…

But one question remained: is the Dyson really better than any other “standard” vacuum? Consumer Reports says “no.” But I wanted to try a simple experiment myself. If I vacuum the floor with my regular vacuum, a Sharp “Twin Power” vacuum, and then vacuum with the “much better” Dyson, will I get a significant amount of additional dirt that the Sharp missed?

The results: not really. The Dyson did pick up an additional amount of hair, but I’m not sure it’s enough to warrant spending $400. Consumer Reports says to buy a Kenmore–it’s the best value for the money, according to them. Frankly, I was appalled at how flimsy the Dyson was. Everything on it is plastic. For $400, I wanted to see at least some cheap metal. On top of that, it has *stickers* on it for various notices/warnings. Stickers? Come on, Dyson. I thought the construction left much to be desired. The only innovation I see on the Dyson is the clear dust bin. It’s surely been imitated by every other manufacturer, and it gives you the thought of, “Wow, that was in my carpet?” Previous vacuums assumed you didn’t want to see the dirt, and hid it in a disposable bag. Props to Dyson for figuring out that a clear dust bin sells millions of vacuums.

Back to the test, look at the pictures for yourself, then look at YouTube and Google for others who debate the matter. If it doesn’t help you buy a better vacuum, at least it’s good for a laugh…

I started creating my map by modifying an example I found on the OpenLayers site. It had a reference to TIGER data already in it, so I could see the streets of Pittsburgh. TIGER data is the stuff from the Census Bureau. It’s free, since it’s US Government created, but it’s also horribly out of date–Three Rivers Stadium is still in there; it was demolished in February of 2001. Many streets were also labeled incorrectly.

I continued by adding a layer from Pennsylvania’s PAMAP program; satellite imagery that is much more current. I found this data through PASDA, an excellent resource for Pennsylvania spatial data, by the way. Kudos to Pennsylvania for releasing this imagery (I guess they have to?)–it’s “Google Maps quality” (i.e. the high-resolution stuff you used to pay big money for), but free of watermarks and free to access via WMS. They even have the entire state covered.

One caveat I ran into while adding the data to my OpenLayers map was finding the “layer name”. I didn’t specify this correctly at first, and instead of satellite tiles, I got a stretched image that said “bad layer name” or some such thing. The solution was to get the WMS metadata and look at it to find the layer name. In my case, the WMS service was at this URL, so I needed to request this URL (note the extra parameters at the end), and look at the resulting XML for the “Layer” elements. In each of those there is a name attribute–that is the name you need to use when initializing WMS object. Considering all this, my call to the constructor ended up being (all one line):

var wms_pamap = new OpenLayers.Layer.WMS( “PAMAP High-Res Imagery”, “http://maps.pasda.psu.edu/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap?Servicename=PAMAP_AerialPhotography”, {layers: ‘2545811822′ }, {numZoomLevels: 16});

Getting the satellite data on there, I had a pretty full-featured map. Next was to add the path of my ride. I had this in KML already, since I had previously visualized this data in Google Earth. I added the layer with OpenLayers’ KML support, but I found a problem–a bug in OpenLayers prevented KML data from displaying correctly when the files were large. The issue had been partially addressed by somebody else–I finished the job, and submitted a patch (still needs unit tests).

I finished up the map by writing a simple JavaScript function to take data from a static data structure I hand-populated, and create markers from them on the map. Each marker annotated a point where I saw a spike in the recorded gas or noise levels along my ride.

The final map’s files are available here for you to download and see. In the end, I think the map came out nicely–given more time and more familiarity with the framework, I hope to make the line representing my ride vary in color or size to indicate the level of gas or noise present there. But it’s a prototype.

The promise of OpenLayers seems really great–a portable, open source, client-side, web-based spatial data viewer. Given the increasing popularity of spatial data and mapping in general, I think this will be very useful for those wishing to provide or collect data to/from the public. You could use Google Maps to do this, yes, but who knows when Google might start putting strategic ads on your maps? Besides, it’s Google. Don’t they control enough information already?

The only caveats with OpenLayers I ran into were the complexity of OpenLayers and its API (it’s *really* full-featured), and the variability in the quality of WMS servers. OpenLayers delivers on its end of the bargain–it visualizes data available through a WMS. Unfortunately, however, WMS servers have no such uniform code of good behavior. The PAMAP data, for instance, kept going in and out on a Friday night. Perhaps I was accessing it during the server’s maintenance window? I also tried to add a layer of projected ozone concentrations from the NOAA, but that WMS didn’t respond at all. This sort of issue brings up an important caveat in the age of distributed computing: differences in the availability of resources, bandwidth and care taken when managing the machines that serve you implies risk if you begin to rely upon them for your operations. At least Google has an incentive (a financial one) to keep their machines running; the state of Pennsylvania? Well, I don’t know… they do try, I guess.