Hugo’s blog

I just figured out something which might have been obvious to everybody with a Mac but me, but as it took me a while, I thought I’d record it.

In order to use F1, F2, etc. as function keys on a PowerBook, which by default do special functions such as adjusting the brightness of the screen, one has to hit Fn+F1, Fn+F2, etc.

Now that I know it, the Fn key kinda hints it, but that wasn’t obvious to me.

“Amusant.” Je viens de voir un reportage sur l’exploitation de stagiaires dans certaines entreprises dans Capital. Certaines images du reportage en caméra caché m’avaient paru familières, et pour cause : c’est l’entreprise qui est en face de chez moi.

Je ne suis qu’à moitié surpris. Je voyais en effet toujours beaucoup de jeunes sur le trottoir le matin, et également toujours beaucoup de nouvelles têtes, ce qui m’avait paru bizarre. J’ai donc maintenant la réponse : cette entreprise emploie des stagiaires pour leur faire faire des boulots de recruteur et de consultants, leur donnant beaucoup (trop) de responsabilités très vite, et leur imposant des obligations de résultats, jusqu’à ce qu’ils craquent.

Après quelques recherches sur le Web, j’ai découvert que le nom affiché sur les bureaux est apparemment une espèce de couverture. En effet, m’étant posé des questions sur cette entreprise, j’étais allé voir leur site Web, et ils avaient l’air de s’occuper de logistique pour des évennement étudiant. Après avoir vu le reportage, en regardant de plus près, j’ai trouvé des annonces sur le Web pour une société de conseil à la même adresse, qui n’a pas d’enseigne visible pour ce petit local. Cela explique aussi pourquoi les stagiaires travaillant pour le cabinet sont parqués au sous-sol.

Avec quelques autres recherches sur le Web, j’ai effectivement trouvé un stage pour Chargé d’étude marketing en stage de 3 à 6 mois à temps complet”pour un salaire de 300€ par an (j’imagine que c’est une erreur, que c’est en fait 300€ par mois).

Je vais regarder cette enseigne d’un œil différent dorénavant.

I just recovered the entire content of a formatted SD Card with Zero Assumption Digital Image Recovery, which is going to make the owners of the card very happy. I have to say that I am very impressed by this little freeware utility: I basically pressed the Proceed button and it worked like a charm.

I have tried a number of uploaders for Flickr on my Mac and it seems that only jUploadr is robust enough to upload more than 10 photos without an error.

The cool thing is that jUploadr is a Java application so it also works on my Linux desktop.

I’m really wondering what people are using to reliably upload pictures to Flickr?

Pour une fois, une entrée en français.

Je suis allé voir Cali à l’Olympia mercredi soir.

Il y a un peu plus d’un an, j’avais vu Cali au Bataclan, heureux comme un gamin sur scène, allant dans la foule, et je me suis dit : dès qu’il sera une star, ca sera fini tout ça.

Un an et demi plus tard, dans une salle plus grande, sur des béquilles parce qu’il s’était bousillé le ménisque, Bruno Caliciuri était toujours là avec un plaisir visible, toujours ébahi et joyeux par la communion avec le public, sautant sur une jambe partout pendant 2h30, et se faisant porter par la foule dans toute la salle, jusque tout en haut du balcon, sans passer par les escaliers.

Les versions live de ses chansons sont superbes, et l’ambiance qu’il met dans la salle est magnifique. Bref, un concert de Cali, c’est vraiment génial, et on a vraiment l’impression de vivre une aventure avec le groupe plutot que de simplement regarder des musiciens jouer de la bonne musique.

On a également eu droit à trois invités surprise : Steve Wickham, Daniel Darc et Mathieu Chedid. Bref, une excellente soirée.

One and a half days after giving my computer to UPS, I have it back from the UK via DHL with a brand new hard drive. I am very impressed by the speed at which the repair was done. Woohoo!

20 days after I first called AppleCare about my hard drive problem (roughly half of the time that I spent actually using the computer since I got it), my laptop is on its way to the repair center! Let’s open up some Champagne to celebrate.

UPS tried to deliver the box to put my PowerBook in again today. And delivered it to the wrong address. Again. And the same one, too.

This is pretty amazing. On Wednesday, they deliver the box to the wrong address. On Thursday, I tell them that they delivered the box to the wrong address. On Friday, they try to deliver the box again, to the wrong address, I assume. I let them know that I haven’t seen anybody, which should have made them wonder how they didn’t find somebody at the delivery address, when there was somebody. But no, not at all. On Monday, they deliver the box to the same friggin’ wrong address one more time. At least they are persistent.

When I called them, they said that there must have been labels on the box that were misleading. And they are unable to help me quickly.

I then get a call from the person at the wrong address, who found my cell phone on the label. Funny the things you find when you actually read the label on the box: my address (the right one), my name (the right one), my door code, my cellphone number (I really didn’t trust them, so I thought I would put all they needed to get a hold of me; not enough it seems; I need to have my picture on it, next time).

So I walked 30 minutes to get the box from them, quickly before UPS could get their hands on it and deliver it there again. I mean, they did it three times already, why would they deliver it at my place next time.

The label was on the box, printed with a computer, with no typos, all the necessary information. And I live in Paris, in an apartment building easy to find too. I am still looking around for the candid camera in my apartment.

The place that had it was an AppleCare repair centre. I am wondering haw much of this mess was caused solely by UPS.

Amazingly, it only took them 45 minutes to come and collect my laptop once I called them. And they even came to my place rather than to the other place! Incredible.

So my laptop is on its way to the UK. The question that we’re all asking is: when it’s sent back to me, how long will it take to get to my door?

Just when you thought it could not get worse…

Place to the debate on whether using white phosphorus was legal or not. Maybe next we can have a debate on whether invading a country is… oh, wait a minute, we already had this one, and the results were not very satisfying.

Saddam Hussein did not want the UN inspectors to check for WMD. Well, George Bush didn’t do better with Guantanamo.

The story continues. 2.5 weeks after having asked AppleCare to pick up my PowerBook for repair, it’s still on my desk.

UPS delivered the (third) box I was supposed to put my PowerBook in to the wrong address and had somebody with a completely different name sign for it two days ago. I called them yesterday, they did not apologize, and said that the box would be in my hands today.

So, as I really want to have my PowerBook repaired ASAP, I made sure that I didn’t miss the UPS delivery guy today. At 6pm, as I still have not seen anybody, I check their Web site, and surprise:

18 Nov 2005 at 17:50: THE RECEIVER WAS UNAVAILABLE TO SIGN ON THE 1ST DELIVERY ATTEMPT. A 2ND DELIVERY ATTEMPT WILL BE MADE

Of course, I have no slip in my mailbox saying that a delivery attempt was made.

I called them promptly to ask What the #$&%?!, but as it’s now after 6pm, UPS is closed for the day, well, closed for the week.

So I guess that there is now no chance that I will have my laptop for my Montreal trip. I can’t wait for UPS to call me back on Monday so that I can let them know what I think about the quality of the service they provide.

Soon I’ll be looking at replacing my hard drive myself. I’ll be voiding the warranty for sure, but at this point, I am starting to wonder if it will make any difference.