Software, Fitness, and Gaming – Jesse Warden

Blog

  • Blockbuster Shady Marketing

    The article is titled “Blockbuster dropping late fees as of Jan. 1“. If you read the article, though, all they’re doing is extending the due-date by 6 weeks, at which point, they charge you the same amount of money. If you do the math, what a typical customer ends up paying in late fee’s after 6 weeks accounts to the cost of the movie anyway. The $300 million dollar loss is probably because the restocking fee isn’t that high. Now, as a consumer I can no longer stem the blood loss by returning the tape early, and avoiding any further late fee’s. All I have to do is return it before my 6 days are up, and I can avoid paying the restocking fee.

    I’ve had a chip on my shoulder against this company ever since they threatened me with legal action when I was 18. It feels good now to sink back into my anti-establishment teenage tirade, almost like I’m getting revenge at the company who was legitamtely upset at me for losing their copy of Tomb Raider for Playstation. This was coupled hearing a co-worker couldn’t get a mortage for his house until he resolved an outstanding late fee from Blockbuster on his credit.

    Blockbuster is losing revenue to Netflix, and I guess they feel it is because people like me chose Netflix over them because the cost of movies the way Netflix does it is far cheaper then the known late fees I will be charged at Blockbuster. That’s not the only reason. Blockbuster had some shady practices because of their monopoly. Their late fee’s and prices grew and grew over the years, far suprassing the 3% economy, and their customer service was a joke; they were always rude in some way if I ever had a problem, or wanted to open a new membership at a new store. Their lack of store to store connectivity was astounding… until I read Zeh’s comment at MossyBlog, and it all made sense.

    Not only is their company technically imcopetent (keep in mind they were the ONLY company I heard about haveing Y2K problems January 1st, 2000 on the news), but so is their staff. I want to go back in time and say to one rude encounter I had after waiting for 20 minutes to discuss a problem with my account back in ’97, “Your just mad your not coding HTML for 100k a year, bee-oootch!!!!”

    It kind of sucks that their fixin’ to purchase Hollywood Video too. I went to them so I could publicly not support Blockbuster… but now they’re buying it too. Course, the late-fee’s are the same on my wallet…

    I remember camping out at the MovieTime in Richmond, Virginia for hours at a time, waiting for whatever customer to return some new Nintendo game I wanted to try since the cashier would tell me it was due that day.

    Screw that, I’ll just automate it, pay the difference, and end up saving money and heartache in the long run. Karma’s a bitch, Blockbuster.

    Blockbuster Article

    Via her majesty.

  • Subway Toasts Too Late

    Quizno’s had a really cool ad a year ago. It was based off of the Moon Song video. Those of us in the know when we saw it, loved it. Here was a company embracing my demographic’s area of entertainment so much so that they were willing to look like freaks of nature by airing such a weird and out there commercial… which was an adaptation of something weird and out there.

    Well, it appears 11 months later Subway has responded (I think). This may be old news to some, but keep in mind I live out in a remote area. I was asked if I wanted my sub “toasted”.

    “…sure!” I replied with a slight start and an attenuation at the end of my response. I had never been asked that before, although I eat Subway at least once a week. Upon asking when they started doing it, they lady replied, “…about a month ago, nationwide. It’s in response to Quizno’s.”

    ‘In response’? It takes you 11 months to install toasters into Subway stores nationwide, and instruct the personnel how long to leave a sandwhich in it? Can I bungie jump using the red tape? It just goes to show how successful a good sandwhich can be with little marketing. They’d p@wn if their response time was faster, and they went on the offensive.

    Subway’s site title starts with “Official” whereas Quizno’s starts with their name. Quizno’s has Flash on the front page too, whereas Subway does not.

    Anyway, the sub was good toasted.

  • Captivate: How to Use the Accordion Component in Flash MX 2004

    This Captivate tutorial will show you how to use the Accordion component in Flash MX 2004. I hope it helps!

    How to Use the Accordion Component

    I also added a new category, “Tutorials”. I’ll work on adding a feed specific for it.

  • Prevent Blogspam in MoveableType using Flash

    This solution works like a Captcha test in that the Perl for your comments is looking for a specific variable equaling a specific phrase. Unlike Captcha, the user doesn’t have to enter in anything; Flash merely holds the variable and it’s value, and when the user submits their comment, it sends if off with the rest. When Perl sees that variable, just like Captcha, it’ll allow the comment to go through. Spammers cannot look at your website and “see” the variable in an attempt to modify their code; it’s hidden in the SWF.

    This solution is extremely effective at spam bots who hit your mt-comments.cgi file directly.

    1. Download MTgotoAndComment – English | French

    2. Open the FLA in the Source folder in Flash MX or Flash MX 2004. Open the Library. Open the “StefClasses” folder. The first component, “MTgotoAndComment”; edit the symbol. Click the “:: AS ::” layer, and go to line 28 in your actions window. Add a new line via hitting the Return key. You’ll know your in the right spot if you see this line of code:

    this.blogURL = _root.blogURL;

    Add this line of code:

    this.secretvar = "makeupweirdwordsand1111";

    You’ll want to make up, and remember, your own word with #’s in it. This is the word of power that the blogspammers will never see ’cause it’s buried deep in this SWF.

    3. Now, go to line 101 and add this line of code on a newline:

    this.fields.push({name:"secretvar", type:"hidden", req:true});

    4. Complile the FLA; a new form.swf will be placed in the Source folder. Upload that form.swf to your site in place of the one they give you.

    5. Now, the Perl. Navigate to the “Comments.pm” file in your MoveableType installation. It’s something along the lines of:

    moveabletype/lib/MT/App/Comments.pm

    Make a backup of the file.

    6. Open the file in any text editor. In MT 3.121, go to line 247. You want to add the code I give you AFTER this block of code:

    if (!$q->param('text')) {
    return $app->handle_error($app->translate("Comment text is required."));
    }

    Go to a free line after that code, hit return twice to give yourself some room, and add the bot-blocker-code-of-wonder +3:

    # JXL hack start
    #
    unless($q->param('secretvar') eq 'makeupweirdwords11111') {
    return $app->handle_error($app->translate(
    "Sorry, please try again."));
    }
    #
    # JXL hack ends

    Basically, if the POST to your comments does not contain the secret variable with the correct variable, they’ll be sent to your MT Error template and show that text in bold. While it’s tempting to write obsenities, I wouldn’t just in case someone friendly accidentally goes there.

    Save the changes to the Comments.pm, and upload back to your site (make sure you have a backup!).

    You done, sucka!