the dotmatrix project

Modern day art by YouTube user, blimvisible:

They made a statue of us
And it put it on a mountain top
Now tourists come and stare at us
Blow bubbles with their gum
Take photographs for fun, for fun

They’ll name a city after us
And later say it’s all our fault
Then they’ll give us a talking to
Then they’ll give us a talking to
Because they’ve got years of experience
We’re living in a den of thieves
Rummaging for answers in the pages
We’re living in a den of thieves
And it’s contagious
And it’s contagious
And it’s contagious
And it’s contagious

We wear our scarves just like a noose
But not ’cause we want eternal sleep
And though our parts are slightly used
New ones are slave labor you can keep

We’re living in a den of thieves
Rummaging for answers in the pages
We’re living in a den of thieves
And it’s contagious
And it’s contagious
And it’s contagious
And it’s contagious

They made a statue of us
They made a statue of us
The tourists come and stare at us
The sculptor’s marble sends regards
They made a statue of us
They made a statue of us
Our noses have begun to rust
We’re living in a den of thieves
Rummaging for answers in the pages
Were living in a den of thieves

And it’s contagious
And it’s contagious
And it’s contagious
And it’s contagious
And it’s contagious
And it’s contagious
And it’s contagious
And it’s contagious

If you’re interested in understanding more about how our world is shifting from the center to the edges in terms of connectivity, exposure, the distribution of ideas and other major cultural shifts, check out Dr. Michael Wesch’s presentation at the Library of Congress entitled, An anthropological introduction to YouTube.

Dr. Wesch’s more famous videos, The Machine is Us/ing Us and Information R/evolution, are worth a watch as well.

(via Robert Patterson)

First of all, I messed up. There’s no two ways about it.

A bunch of local clients I picked up last year had their email accounts hosted on a service called DNS Made Easy. I had never heard of it before, so after reviewing the service and finding the mail client and admin interface severely lacking in both features and solid UX Design, I began switching my clients over to Google Apps, one by one.

Mistake #1: I should’ve spent an entire weekend and transferred them all at once.

Why?

My last client on DNS Made Easy called me today in a panic. Apparently, his email account stopped working without notice. So I hopped online, logged into the DNS Made Easy admin account and found that, apparently, the account was overdue for a re-up since July 15th — two weeks ago.

Mistake #2: I didn’t change the settings I inherited to employ an auto-reup. With my schedule the way it is, that wasn’t smart.

So, earlier today, I paid for another year of service ($100 +), hoping to have the account turned back on so my guy could access his old emails. After waiting 30 minutes with the login continuing to misfire, I contacted their customer service to see what was up.

Apparently, DNS Made Easy kills email accounts and all their data — with no chance for reinstatement — once too much time goes by without a response to their re-up emails. But I hadn’t received any of those emails… wtf?

Mistake #3: For some reason, I had set my contact email address at DNS Made Easy to my old Yahoo account — something I never do elsewhere — so I never received their re-up notices.

Apparently, they’ve been trying to contact me since late May.

Now I’m kicking myself pretty hard. I messed up with not setting auto-reup, I provided a bad contact email address and I delayed the move to Google Apps because, well, quite simply life has been pretty busy lately.

All that’s on me.

So I replied to Kate, the customer service person on the other end of my email thread, and asked her very politely if it was possible to pull the account “out of the trash” and this is the response I received:

I have asked the administrators to try to find anything that they can but they are stating because the account was so past due the account was permanently removed.

Would you like me to issue you a refund? Otherwise if you let us know the passwords you want we can reset up the accounts for your user.

The “permanent” part of her response threw me for a loop. I mean, is there a non-permanent state? And what would a historically on-time paying client have to do to get that instead? So I responded as such:

yes, i would like a refund.

also, i understand that it was my fault that you couldn’t get in touch with me via email , but i’m pretty damn dismayed that:

1. an active email account was shut down without trying an alternative method of contact. you do have my physical address. for what reason, i’ve no idea.
2. in this day and age, with moore’s law creating storage business models left and right, i’m shocked that you didn’t simply put a freeze on the account. my client called me today. if you simply froze the account, we would’ve been back in business this afternoon.

-sean coon

Being that the work I do for my local clients is what I consider to be community service — compared to my primary gigs in the design world — I was much more upset that my guy lost his emails than me losing the re-up fee from today, especially because I was absolutely guilty of human error.

But I couldn’t get past the fact that the policy at DNS Made Easy seemed pretty damn archaic. I mean, no attempts at contacting the account holder — one that has always paid on time and who’s account is active on a semi-daily basis — in an alternative manner before hard deleting the account?

I didn’t expect a postcard in the mail with a hint of perfume and a royal invite to write them a check, but such a drastic no tolerance policy — without attempting a call or notice by mail — feels, dare I say, spiteful?

Well, this is the response I just received from Kate:

Wow…. Spent hours trying to help you today. Offered you a refund even though we have a zero refund policy and this is the attitude you give me?!?!?!

> 1. an active email account was shut down without trying an alternative
> method of contact. you do have my physical address. for what reason, i’ve no
> idea.

Are you joking me? You expect us to send you personal letters by mail? For an account of your size? Should we fly to your house also and knock on your door? Should I call your whole family also and let them know you are late paying your bill?
Please…. this obviously is not a business for you.

> 2. in this day and age, with moore’s law creating storage
> business models left and right, i’m shocked that you didn’t
> simply put a freeze on the account. my client called me today. if you simply
> froze the account, we would’ve been back in business this afternoon.

It was frozen for 4 days then removed. Not our fault that your client noticed after it was removed. Not our fault if you give us your free yahoo account to check your emails. Not our fault you do not check your free email’s spam box.

Since you made a list for me, here is a list for you.

1. Don’t use your free yahoo email account for hobby / business. Did you tell your friend / client that is why you lost all of their email?
2. Learn to write down when your services expire. You are lucky we gave you over 2 weeks. Most providers shut you down much sooner.
3. Always pay your bills on time.
4. Don’t be rude to people that have tried to help you for free…. Eventually no one will try to help you.

Please let us know if you have any additional questions, concerns, or comments regarding this ticket.

-Kate
DNS Made Easy Sales / Support
sales@dnsmadeeasy.com

Please let us know if our response did not answer your question. To reply to this ticket you can do so by email (just reply) or by the support site.

Nice. Apparently, my use of the word “you” in my last email was taken by Kate as something personal, and not aimed towards the policy of her company. That wouldn’t have happened if I were able to call DNS Made Easy, but their business model is that I have to pay for that pleasure.

So now I have the market on human error and being a stupid shit… and DNS Made Easy is perfection in motion.

Fun. I just tried to log into my shell account, and it’s now been deactivated.

No, not spiteful at all.

What a wonderful way to wind down an evening.

Historia de un Letrero (The Story of a Sign)

Submitted to the Short Film Online Competition, Cannes 2008
Director: Alonso Alvarez Barreda

UPDATE: After I connected with Alonso on Facebook, he wrote back something I thought pertinent for sharing here:

[...] I always wanted to make this film because I believe in the power of the story, I always thought that it was worth telling it, because I really believe that it carries within a message of love, peace and above all, hope. [...]

Thanks again for the film, Alonso.

(via Jason Pierce)

Talent.

[...] I’d neva hit a girl, but I’d shake the shit out of you. [...]

Edge.

(via Ill Doctrine)

(via Matt)

its 5:21am.
and i don’t know how to cry anymore.
that shit depresses me to no end.
seriously.
this aint some being mellowdramtic to be mellowdramatic shit.
i want to cry.
i was taught long ago that if i enter this game of constant competition
and competitiveness and dog eat dogness and getting your soul sucked
and 25 hour workdays and long un-approving looks in the mirror and anxiety and constant judgment — i better numb the shit outta myself.

[...]

Read on…

Previously.

(via The Carters Take The South)