Frustration! Sorry, I’m feeling the need to rant. One thing I really hate about Spring in Norfolk, VA is the rain. Especially thunderstorms. It would seem the utility folks in this area don’t find it prudent to run utility wiring underground. Every time there is a thunderstorm in my neighborhood, I intermittently loose my cable connection because my power briefly goes out. When I say briefly, I mean less than a second but enough that I lose my Internet connection. In the last half-hour I’ve lost my connection at least 6 times since I started counting. I cannot stress how much I’ve really grown to dislike this city since I’ve moved here almost five years ago. I have a friend living in the DC area and she keeps trying to lure me up that way. I think I’m going to have to ask about how “sturdy” the utilities are up there.

At the end of last year I had some issues with a client. It was decided we would end our client/designer “relationship.” During the project I delivered to the client 3 wireframes and 3 concept designs with revisions. After a wireframe was decided upon and design concepts created the client changed their mind about the direction of the design and wanted new wireframes and concept designs which were not within the scope of the original contract. This is when we decided to end our “relationship.”

Within all my signed contracts I have a clause for non-refundable deposit, which is 30% of the project costs. I do this so if I do wireframes and concept designs and then the client changes their mind, I don’t get screwed for free work… or so I thought. I have been using Google Checkout for my payments mostly because it was free for an introductory time period. The client was none too happy when they requested the deposit back and I referred them to the signed contract. They then threatened small claims court and I said “Go ahead, we have the signed contract and I have the work I did to back it up.” When they realized that wasn’t going to get their deposit back, they initiated a dispute through Google Checkout. Google contacted me asking for my side of things so I sent a copy of the signed contract plus the wireframes and concept designs. Four months later, Google decided in favor of the client and $1000+ was withdrawn from my checking account.

It would seem to me that Google doesn’t give a rat’s ass about signed agreements or work delivered and I got screwed well and good. There doesn’t seem to be a way for me to dispute their decision and at this point my only recourse is small claims court and my blog. As I’m sure happens in most cases like this I just want to be rid of this awful client (which is why we parted ways in the first place) and be done with it. However, I will never be using Google Checkout again for online payments. As a matter of fact, I don’t know that I’ll ever accept online payments again for services if this is what I can expect for support from the payment collection provider. I’m sure it will be an inconvenience for some clients but I will not take the risk again of doing work for nothing, those days stopped for me long ago.

So I made the mistake of assuming upgrading my Mac to the newest OS, Leopard, would be as standard as any other update. Boy, was I ever wrong. Now my Mac is having a slumber party at my local Apple Store in the capable (?) hands of their ‘Geniuses.’ Sadly, I knew the problem going in but only after I totally disabled my laptop. I told my local ‘Genius’ what I’d researched the problem being. Apparently my local Apple Store doesn’t keep test RAM on hand for older machines because, and I quote, ‘We give it away.’ That screws me well and good, doesn’t it?

It would seem that while installing the Leopard OS, it does some very stringent testing on the RAM. I looked at all the specs and my Powerbook PC met them but what Apple doesn’t state on their site is that Leopard has some issues with non-OEM RAM. In other words, if you have non-Apple RAM installed on your machine, you may not be able to install Leopard. The current solution from the ‘Geniuses’ is to use another machine to install Leopard from. So the lesson here is to make sure you have some OEM RAM in case you need it to install Leopard because it’s not very forgiving during installation. Rumor has it once installed, there are no problems. Funny how that works. Unfortunately, it has left me without a work machine for two days (and counting).

I now find myself considering a back-up machine. I have this PC I’m posting from but I’ll be damned if I use it for work other than site testing. If I do decide to get a ‘back-up’ Mac, I don’t know what I’ll get. I like not having a desktop machine and all that goes with that. I like the footprint of working solely from a laptop. So I guess I find myself a second laptop that will gather dust in case an emergency comes up. Of course, I guess if I weren’t so PC-phobic, it would be cheaper to purchase software for that machine. However, typing that sentence made my skin crawl, so I don’t know how that will go over.

Suggestions? Insults? Wanna poke fun???? Oh yeah, another lesson I learned from this whole ordeal is to do more regular client file back-ups. Like, have them on my laptop and my portable HD. *Smacks forehead!*

Yesterday I launched the redesign of my business site, Pop Stalin Design. Gone is the “Illustrated” look and in place is, in my opinion, a better organized site. If you find any links on the blog not working, please let me know.

The site isn’t completely finished at this point, I still need to complete the portfolio page but other than that, it was an exercise in patience. I’m sure I’m also going to lose some of my SEO ranking but I figured what potential clients needed to know was going to be placed on the front page.