About 2 weeks ago, I was asked to answer a survey about a recent shopping trip I made to the Apple store.  Given that part of my company does this kind of work, I'm willing to participate in these surveys, provided they're not too long and that the survey I'm answering doesn't become invalid by my association with a survey company.

It was a relatively innocuous survey, asking me how the staff treated me, what would get me to shop at Apple more regularly, and if I had any suggestions.  This was all fairly common for a post-shopping survey.  As usual, the end of the survey asked if I could be contacted by Apple for further information.  Not expecting to hear anything further, I said yes and provided my cell number.

On Sunday afternoon, my cell rang and it was the store manager from the store I shop at.  There are two remarkable items to note about this call.  The first is that the manager didn't call me for more detail per se, but just to thank me for the information, as "Apple is very interested in making their stores a better place to shop, and are taking these surveys very seriously."  The other interesting bit was that we spoke for the better part of 20 minutes about my experience and the answers I provided. 

Now, this is a store manager who surely is dealing with all sorts of consumer related issues on a busy shopping day (in the last year, I've never been to this store on the weekend without it teeming with potential and actual buyers).  That he called me was a small miracle, but that he actually talked to me was a little more than that.

We talked about my particular issues with the store (not using stantions at the checkout queue, and none closer to my house/work) and my experiences in the store.  I noted that on one trip, my wife and I specifically visited the store to inspect iLife '08 to help us understand if we need to upgrade.  The sales reps were particularly useless.  Sure, iLife had just been introduced the day before, but I expected to be able to roll in to the Apple store and have all of my questions answered by anyone dressed in black.

What the manager said at this point was particularly interesting.  He claimed that because Apple keeps so much information about new products secret, people walking in to the stores often have more information about the product than the store employees do.  He particularly pointed out this being a problem with the release of the iPhone and iLife, in that Apple did not provide any advance training for their sales staff.

His candor shocked me, but not as much as the obvious issue with being overly secretive.  Joe Consumer really needs help from the technically advanced sales staff at these kinds of stores, or else he's going to - at best - be confused about the product, and - at worst - have a bad experience with a product and never purchase it.  Case in point: my wife and I did not upgrade to iLife '08 as the sales staff was unable to provide us with a convincing argument for the cost.

Bravo to Apple for taking the time to understand their customers a little better.  Boos to Apple for being insanely secretive with their products.  In my opinion, Walt Mossberg shouldn't have more information about or experience with a product than the staff in charge with selling it.

I've been looking for a great 15 minute article on how to use LLBLGen for a while.  Although there are plenty of examples on their website, you can spend too much time slogging through them just to get a simple "Hello World" app up and running.

Today I found a (year old) post by Frans Bouma performing a very straightforward step-by-step example on how to create an LLBLGen Pro project.  For anyone who's a newbie at the product, this is a great place to start.

Although Instructables has many great articles on carving pumpkins, it's sometimes hard to determine from the snapshot who is the best or, for that matter, even knows what they're talking about.  Well, if you're willing to shell out $18, you can get 3 shows from Terri Hardin (Ghostbusters, Disney, Universal Studios) at Fugu.com on how to get some amazing results from your giant gourd. 

ExtremePumpkins.com also has lots of ideas, tips and tricks.  I first found that site about a year ago when I came across the "Kerosene Soaked Toilet Paper" video.

On a related note, MyScienceProject.org performed a fun little experiment on how to keep your jack-o'-lantern looking scary as long as possible.  I won't spoil the surprise ending, but I will tell you that smearing white glue all over your pumpkin isn't a good idea for a preservative.

At my shop, we've employed Active Directory (AD) to negotiate access to all of the services available on the network.  Although it can be a headache to set up, it really does make security nice and tidy in the long run.  For example, if you want, you can use your AD to replicate security out to your wireless network adapters via RADIUS.

This weekend, I moved everyone from a POP-based mail server to an Exchange 2007 hosted service.  The move was based on pain we were having with timely delivery of mail, as well as not having a SPAM block on the front-end of the server.  I.e. when I would get email via my phone, it would download 200 pieces of SPAM along with my 15 important emails.  Not a good solution.

Since I made the decision to migrate the company, I chose to be the guinea pig for the migration.  I already had Outlook 2007 running, so I closed Outlook, changed my email account (via the control panel) and walked through the Exchange Autodiscover process without issue.  Once complete, I merged my old PST files and within 30 minutes was up and running.  It was all impossibly simple.

That is, until I started the process in earnest with the other employees.  On the first install, I deleted the existing account, told Outlook I wanted to use Exchange and proceeded through the Autodiscover process.  This time, however, there were various challenge-response boxes (that I didn't recall happening to me) and upon completion, Outlook complained with the following error:

Unable to open your default email folders.  You must connect to your Microsoft Exchange server computer with the current profile before you can synchronize your folders with your offline folder file.

After going through the process a few more times, I realized that the clue I missed was the above-mentioned challenge-response boxes.  When I paid attention, I found that both the local AD and the remote server were looking for authentication tickets.  While I don't know what exactly was happening under the covers, my best guess is that the local network was attempting to pass along networking rights and was failing miserably, as would be expected.

So, if you're having this issue, the resolution is very simple.  When you create a new Exchange email account, do not allow Autodiscover to run by checking the box at the bottom of the first screen that says, "Manually configure server settings or additional server types."

At this point, you'll need the FQDN for the Exchange server and the principal name.  The FQDN you'll use in the first screen you get to after supplying your username, email address and password (as seen at the right).  To set the principal name, click on the "More Settings" button on that next screen, then click on the "Connection" tab, then the "Exchange Proxy Settings..." button.  You will find yourself at a window that will look like the following:

It might be easiest to get one machine to Autodiscover correctly then just copy these settings rather than attempt to wade through your provider's help, but if you have the information handy, it just takes a few seconds and you'll be up and running.

You may also want to experiment with the "On fast networks..." setting.  In my network, it does feel much snappier, and was a suggestion by my host to improve Outlook startup and polling times.

I just got an update from Citibank notifying me of several upgrades being made to their online features.  Among the other items noted, they specified that they will allow you to "request PDFs of your statements as far back as 15 years."  Note to other banks, utilities, and major service providers: please look at what Citibank is doing, and take notes. 

Will I want to see what regrettable purchases I made back in 1992?  Not likely.  However, being able to go back 2, 3 or possibly even 5 years is absolutely understandable.  Although I'm ultimately holding off judgement on their implementation of it (what exactly does "request PDF" mean, exactly?), I applaud Citibank for offering up services that make using their products just that much friendlier.

I mention this because there are many downright horrible online services out there.  As a counterpoint, I offer up my city water online "service."

To log in, I must present my account number and my address.  That's it.  No secret phrase, no user ID.  Anyone who's interested in my payment history need only stake out my mailbox and look for my water bill.   Once in to the super-high-tech system, I'm offered the following information:

Now, here's the magic question: given the above information, how much do I owe at this moment?  $0.00 or $157.12?  Only because I've been using this horrific UI for months do I know the real answer.  (Hint: it's not $0.00.)

The takeaway (as a developer) is this: make sure to have your application reviewed by an unbiased outsider every once in a while, and look to see what the best-of-breed is up to.  Although you may not have the time to implement 15 years of statements, it's obvious that in the above example the developer/developers that created this application never had anyone review the code and/or final product, and may have never even looked to see how other bill presentment applications work.