Category Archives: Rants

Getting My License in Silicon Valley

You would think that, in Silicon Valley, a few computers would be involved in getting your license. The DMV system here is, however, quite low tech. Basically you go there, and this is the process:

  1. arrive at the DMV, in a residential neighborhood in a bad area of town
  2. circle the parking lot for 15 minutes trying to park
  3. spend 10 minutes figuring out where to wait for step 4
  4. wait in line
  5. take a number (from a person, although it was printed by a queue machine) and a form
  6. wait in the waiting area for an indeterminate amount of time while filling out your form
  7. when your number is called, go to a counter
  8. answer some questions, take a paper
  9. wait in line
  10. get your picture taken, take another paper
  11. wait in line
  12. more questions, take a written test form
  13. fill out the test form (you can miss 6 for an out-of-state transfer)
  14. wait in line
  15. give them the test form, answer more questions, get a temporary license paper
  16. wait up to four weeks to receive your new license, since they don’t print them on-site

How I yearn for the technology of Kansas, Tennessee, and Ohio. Wait. Don’t we live in Silicon Valley? I can’t wait for the fun times that are sure to follow when we try to transfer our vehicle registrations to California and get license plates.

Burden of Proof

Good evening, T-Mobile, and welcome to my training class. Today, we’ll talk about the concept of “burden of proof” and how it applies to your business.

Let’s take a purely hypothetical example: A man’s bill is showing a “One Time Charge” of $178.24. He calls to dispute the charge. Upon whom does the burden of proof in this lie?

  1. The customer must prove that he doesn’t owe the company money.
  2. The company must prove that the customer does owe the company money.

If you chose (b) then you are correct! If you’re going to try charging your customer a “One Time Charge”, you, the company must prove why the customer owes you that money.

Thank you, have a nice day.

No Thanks, and Leaky Cups

I went to Mysore and Hassan over the weekend. Very cool stuff. Indians drive completely insane.

Many many many people try to sell you things if you look like a tourist in India. I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve said “No Thanks”. I’ll put the pictures online when I get home.

On another note, paper cups in India tend to be leaky. I’ve had two today that drip from the bottom seal. Ramesh had one at lunch that squirted. :)

The Same Old Exercise

OK, let’s take a look at typical usage and requirements first:

Typical Usage and Requirements:

  • Your customers will visit maybe once a month.
  • They’ll make a single payment, maybe more, and leave.
  • Once a year or so they’ll want to get forms for filing taxes.
  • Payments can only be made, new loans can’t be requested.
  • Your customers may have loans in someone else’s SSN which they’d like to make payments on. (With permission.)

It seems like Sallie Mae tries to make their website as hard to use as possible. The most frustrating part is: They require a “secure” password for an account. Part of their definition of “secure” is “never used before”, which is the real crux of the problem.

Every time I go to their website, I can’t remember my password, because the previous time I was there, I had to reset it because I couldn’t remember it, because their system requires you to use a password that you’ve never used before, and it has to have all of the other typical “secure” requirements. And of course, every time I go there, a month has passed since I last set the password.

I find this kind of odd considering that if someone was to get access to your login on Sallie Mae, most likely the worst thing they could do is make payments on your student loans, which would certainly be appreciated. :)

Maybe I should start writing my password down on a Post-It and sticking it on the bottom of my keyboard. :)

On another note, they provide no easy way to make payments on both of my loans, because one is in my father’s name. It seems like it would make sense to allow linking of one loan to another SSN in order to let the person with that SSN make payments online. I can make payments over the phone, so why not?