QR Codes are two-dimensional machine readable images.  Much like normal barcodes, such as UPC codes, but with a much higher density of information, and significant redundancy/error correction.  Any simple text can be encoded in a QR Code and then read by a machine using a scanner or camera.

When I was doing some research on QR Codes I found they can be used for other purposes such as encoding VCARDs. VCARD files are simple contact or address book files saved as plain text.  Most address book applications can save and open VCARD files with ease.  Many QR scanner applications recognize QR codes with VCARDs as the encoded text.

So, when I was designing my most recent personal business card I though it would be a neat idea to include a QR encoded VCARD on them.

The first step was getting a VCARD.  Unfortunately this was not an easy task. Although there is a standard for VCARDs, most software applications interpret the standard differently, especially as related to the phone number.  It is worth mentioning that if too much information is in the VCARD text, the QR Code will get denser, and thus harder for phones to read.  Through some trial and error, I ended up with this VCARD:

BEGIN:VCARD
N;LANGUAGE=en-us:Hayes;Ed
EMAIL;INTERNET:ed@edhayes.us
TEL;CELL:440-263-4420
URL:http://www.edhayes.us
ADR:;;;CHICAGO;IL;;
END:VCARD

Any decent QR encoding software should be able to encode this.  I used the one available at http://invx.com/code.  Make sure the encoder encodes the text as the QR code, rather than encoding a URL that directs the user to a page displaying the text.

Finally I placed the encoded QR code image on my business card.   Now, when I give my card to someone, they can scan it with their phone, and my contact gets added to their address book.  Not only does this ensure that there are no typos, it’s much easier for the user to enter my contact information by scanning an image rather than typing on a tiny keyboard.

The iSetup module worked pretty well in our proof of concept testing.  But we ran into a problem when we started migrating our multi organization/business unit configurations. We have multiple business units because we are sharing the instance with another division at our company. Migrating configurations with iSetup brings all the ORGs and sites along with each configuration, however we only wanted our division’s configurations migrated.  To solve the problem, we started editing the exported XML before loading it into the new instance.

Editing XML is relatively time consuming and prone to error when editing in a text editor compared to a program designed to edit XML.  We tried to use the free Microsoft XML Notepad 2007, however, loading the exported files was causing iSetup to fail on upload.  I found the problem and solved it as described below.

Conditions

• Oracle iSetup module in Oracle E-Business suite R12
• XML Documents edited by Microsoft XML Notepad 2007

Symptoms

• iSetup reports error when uploading edited XML files
• Log file as seen here:

oracle.xml.parser.v2.XMLParseException: Start of root element expected.
at oracle.xml.parser.v2.XMLError.flushErrors1(XMLError.java:320)
at oracle.xml.parser.v2.NonValidatingParser.parseRootElement(NonValidatingParser.java:341)

at oracle.xml.parser.v2.NonValidatingParser.parseDocument(NonValidatingParser.java:303)
at oracle.xml.parser.v2.XMLParser.parse(XMLParser.java:205)
at oracle.apps.az.r12.api.BC4JAPI.createAPIEntityItems(BC4JAPI.java:330)
at oracle.apps.az.r12.extractor.cpserver.UploaderContextImpl.validateExtract(UploaderContextImpl.java:170)
at oracle.apps.az.r12.extractor.cpserver.UploaderContextImpl.upload(UploaderContextImpl.java:105)
at oracle.apps.az.r12.extractor.cpserver.UploaderCp.runProgram(UploaderCp.java:74)
at oracle.apps.fnd.cp.request.Run.main(Run.java:157)

Solution

1. Download extraction ZIP file generated by Oracle iSetup
2. Extract ZIP file to your computer
3. Edit and save extracted XML file in Microsoft XML Notepad
4. Open saved file in Notepad (Text Editor)
5. Save As ASNI encoding
6. Replace existing file within original ZIP file
   1. ZIP file compression levels and algorithms must reamin intact
   2. 7-ZIP supports replacing files within an existing file using drag and drop functionality
7. Upload updated ZIP file to Oracle iSetup as a new extraction.
8. Load extraction into source instance

Conclusion

I started doing my tax return with H&R Block online last week.  Upon visiting the site, I clicked on the “Start Now” under the FREE edition.  As returning user, I entered my username and password and clicked log-in.  Suddenly, I was thrown into the Premium service, without warning.   Thirty minutes went by as I tried to search the FAQ, support, and rest of the internet for a way to switch back to the free edition.

Giving up, I called their support phone number.  The gentlemen I spoke to asked for my e-mail address and birth date to verify my account. He verified that I was in a  premium account, but was unable to tell me how I got to the premium section without paying or how to get back to a free account, making sure I did not have to pay later.  It sounded like he was a complete novice.  I must have spent 20 minutes on the phone with H&R Block cycling between representative confusion and hold music.

Frustrated, I asked for the gentleman’s supervisor.  He requested my Social Security Number in order to verify my account.  Why would I be asked for my Social Security Number when requesting a supervisor?  And why now, not before.   That made absolutely no sense to me.  I refused to divulge the information as it served no purpose, and I had already been verified.

I was about to be late to a Fit-Core class at my gym, so I thanked the gentlemen and hung up.

Now, a week later, I am trying once again to start working on my tax return.  I login, and see this message:

H&R Block Online 2010 Screen Capture

What am I supposed to do? Was this proof-read at all?

• The explanation makes no sense to me
• There appears to be internal-use-only jargon and/or industry acronyms within the explanation
• What is this newsletter they are describing?
• What are the implications, other than price, for switching?
• Will my tax data be deleted either way?
• There is a space before a period within the explanation

I think it’s time to file with TurboTax Free edition.

**UPDATE**

Upon publishing this post, an automated Tweet went out on twitter, and I quickly got a response from H&R Block. I responded with my phone number a and the best time to call which they acknowledged.  Promptly, at the time I specified, I got a call back from H&R Block!  Within ten minutes H&R Block had apologized and solved my problem!

I would have liked to thank H&R Block for their quick response, but it is hard to do that when I had to go through all of this just to solve a problem that shouldn’t have happened in the first place.  Furthermore:  their initial line of support should have been able to solve this just as quick!

I read an article written by John C. Dvorak posted on MarketWatch about Foxconn;  I thought it was quite interesting and worth a read.

From what friends have told me and from most reports it is “essentially a steel mill on one end and computers come out of the other end.”

Read More: Foxconn’s troubles expose China’s woes

Last Saturday I was trying to print a simple postage label for a package I wanted to ship.  All I wanted was a shipping label.  I thought it would take me five minutes at USPS.com, but it turns out a pot-roast cooks in less time that it takes to print a shipping label!  After using their sites, I have come to the conclusion that the United States Postal Service (USPS) and United Parcel Service (UPS) go through very little, if any, user acceptance testing.  FedEx isn’t much better; I did get a label in 10 minutes, but their rates are significantly higher than I was willing to pay.  Here are the pains I felt while navigating though the websites of the three major United States shippers.

United States Postal Service

The trouble at USPS.com started when I was signing up for an account.  The United States Postal Service’s website requires a “strong” password, which MUST include:

• A minimum of 8 characters
• At least 1 uppercase letter
• At least 1 lowercase letter
• At least 1 number

Special characters are not accepted.  The passwords “Sprite$%2” or “uisk28s5x” would not be accepted, but “Password1” would.  Which do you believe is more secure?  After signing up, I navigated to the shipping label creation page.

The “from” address, “to” address, and package information was all on the same page.  This made it impossible for a form filler to work correctly, which really pushes my buttons! For those of you who are unfamiliar with form fillers, they are tools that allow you to fill in web forms with the click of a button.  For example, I can say “fill the form with Ed Hayes data” and it will fill in my name, address, and most other personal information a form asks for.  I can also have it fill in my credit card data if I wanted.

I could not get past the screen of where I was supposed to enter the “to” and “from” shipping addresses!  The only error I received was “the address is not valid.”  I have no idea why; it gave no details on why the address was invalid. I ended up closing the window and opening it again. That seemed to solve the problem.  Go figure.

Continuing, I added my payment method with my form filler and got to the point where I was supposed to be able to print the shipping label.  I clicked the print button, and nothing happened.

I clicked the link that said “it didn’t print correctly” and was brought back to my shipping label cart.  I tried to go back do it again.  Although most of my data was saved, I was asked to type in my credit card CID code again.  It got quite annoying typing in this code repeatedly as I was troubleshooting. I tried three or four times to print the label, but was not able to do so, and I never got an error.  Furthermore, I didn’t see anything saying my browser or operating system was invalid or that I have to disable pop-up blockers.

I gave up and headed to UPS.com.

UPS

As luck would have it, my UPS account had expired.  For some unknown reason, UPS accounts expire after a few months of non-use. That is ridiculous. I had to start from scratch.

I got to the point where I typed my package information.  Like the USPS, they wanted me to fill out all the package information on one page. Once again, I couldn’t use my form filler.  I got pretty sick of typing in all the data over and over again.

Every time I did something with a drop down box, it would reload the page. I hate when sties have pages reload only to present the user with an updated set of options.  Every time the page reloads, the page position gets changed and it really aggravates me. A few lines of AJAX code would solve that problem and update data dynamically without page refreshes.

I went to choose the payment information, and couldn’t find a credit card choice.  For a second I was under the impression they didn’t accept credit cards as forms of payment.  I thought I would see what “Use  Payment Card” was, assuming it could be the credit card option, and I was right.  Why doesn’t UPS use the industry standard phrase “Credit Card?”  I pushed my “fill form with Chase Freedom” button.  And the data appeared to be entered correctly. I clicked next.

The page came back with errors.  It said my payment method expiration date was invalid. Looks like my form filler failed me! I corrected the dates and clicked submit again. This time my CID was missing!  UPS cleared the field each page load; very aggravating!  They should keep the data if the user is expected to fix an error. I corrected the errors, filled in the CID, and continued.

When I got to the package dimensions page, somehow I ended up with 10 packages to edit.  How did that happen? I never said I had 10 packages. I started to delete each package, which required a confirmations and page reloads.

I got so aggravated at the entire UPS process, I went to FedEx.com.

It turns out my form filler filled the package quantity with a 10 assuming that was the expiration date field.  Who do I blame for that problem?

Federal Express

The FedEx experience was significantly better, but still rather frustrating.  Just like USPS and UPS, they had the “to” and “from” address forms on one page.  Again, my form filler wouldn’t work, I had to type it all in by hand.

Another part of the form asked when I wanted my package picked up.  It was filled with the current date; a Saturday.  After filling in the credit card data by hand, and submitting the form, the page returned an error.  Saturday was not a valid date for ground shipments.  A bit annoying; why would they default to an invalid date?

When I went to change it, I found the text box didn’t allow manual typing!  I had to use their stupid calendar! What is the deal with all this crap?? I fixed the date error and pushed submit.

The page came back with another error!  My CID field was blanked out!  You can imagine how thrilled I was about that. Although the experience was painful, I got to the point where I saw my shipping label relatively quickly compared to what I went through at USPS.com and UPS.com!  Come to think of it, I never got to that point on the prior sites.

I was so happy! But, I realized I never saw how much it I was going to be paying.  Before I confirmed the transaction, I clicked on the “view receipt” and was in shock!  My little 6x3x3 package at 1 pound would cost $10 to ship.  Not acceptable. FedEx almost got my money, their site actually worked decent enough to get a label out!  But their price was too high.

I gave up on FedEx and said “maybe I have to install Adobe Acrobat Reader on my computer for USPS.com to work.”  I gave that a shot.

Back to USPS

I installed Adobe Acrobat Reader.  Still, USPS could not show me a label. I tried printing the label on my PC.  To my amazement, it worked! I found out, after chatting with a USPS representative, I had to correct some settings in FireFox:

• Open Firefox
• Click on Firefox next to the Apple logo in the upper left hand corner of your computer screen
• Click on preferences in the drop down menu
• Click on the Applications tab on the right hand side of the screen
• Click on Portable Document Format or “PDF” for short on the drop down menu
• Click on the drop down menu on the right hand side of Portable Document Format or “PDF”
• Click on “Other” in the drop down menu
• Click on and select “Adobe Reader”
• The drop down menu should now read open with Adobe Reader
• Completely close Firefox
• Reopen Firefox and print out the label

None of this was displayed on their website.  Why not just allow the user to download a simple PDF instead of going through that process?  I would be willing to bet that most users couldn’t even follow that process to completion.

The web was built on standards, why not use them?  Why complicate the process?  It may make things easier for some users, but on the flipside, it makes the process impossible to complete for other users.  USPS doesn’t work with Apple Safari; there goes that entire client base. Why does it not work on Safari?  Because USPS most likely wanted to eliminate one step, and since most users use Internet Explorer, they designed their solution around that.

How it should have gone

All of these sites have many things going on that should have been weeded out with some simple user acceptance testing. If I was operating a shipping company, I would make sure the label printing potion of my company’s site had the following requirements:

Passwords should not be restricted

If a user is restricted to a complicated password, they will write the password down on a piece of paper or in an unprotected document on their computer.  This would completely negate any security the site was attempting to create.  Usually users have a few passwords they tend to use, which are easy for them to remember, and fit the majority of password complication requirements.  Let them use those.

The excuse that the server does not accept special characters is not an acceptable excuse either.  For one, the database should allow any number and type of characters in that tables field.  Furthermore, the site should be hashing passwords, not storing them in plain text where the database variable type may not accommodate special characters.

Data entering

Each section of the process should have its own page. This idea accomplishes many goals; it simplifies page development, it simplifies database insert statements, it conforms to browser navigation standards, it makes the process simpler for the user, and it allows the user to use form fillers.

All of these sections should have their own pages including a unique page for:

• Account creation (username, password, email) or Login
• From Address
• To Address
• Package Information and Service Type
• Shopping Cart, with option to loop prior 4 pages for additional packages
• Payment information
• Order Verification
• Printing the label

After the order is complete, and ready to be printed, the user should be given options to select print with PDF or via HTML.  If printed through PDF, the user should be able to click a link that directly links to the server-generated PDF file.  If utilizing the HTML version, the user would be able to print via the browsers printing function.  Each label should be presented as a separate image.  Modern browsers will make sure images stay intact, and not be split between pages. Any browser/operating system configuration could handle either label printing process.

The moral of the story

Make it simple, and use standards.  All other things being equal, if your process is the simplest, fastest, and easiest for each and every customer to complete, your company will be the preferred choice for all consumers.

Example 1: The Grocery Game

The Grocery Game is a service that informs their customers on how to combine coupons and promotions, at a variety of grocery stores, in order to get the best deal possible.  They distribute updates on a weekly basis to paying customers.  Here is a screen shot from an E-mail they recently sent me encouraging me to sign up.

Since when does $2 divided by 3 equal $0.55?  I would think their E-mail marketing would go through a more vigorous editorial review then their product.  If their marketing is inaccurate, how accurate is their service I would pay for? Or if this is a screen shot of the actual service, I now know that I would be paying for something that was not correct.  After seeing this, I could never trust the company.

Example 2: JBoss

I recently received an E-mail newsletter from a local consulting firm that my friend works for. They mentioned “JBoss” in the newsletter many times, so I thought I would do some research into what JBoss was.  I was browsing RedHat’s website and found this example comparing the cost savings JBoss provides compared to IBM WebSphere and Oracle SOA Suite.  I thought I would play around with the tool a bit. Check out these calculations:

I don’t see how 20% of  $212,800 is $212,800.  Am I missing something?

It appears as though they were going to add up the column and have a Total License Cost like they had in the first column.  But, in year two and three, they all add up to $0.

Both of these errors impact the savings calculation shown on the bottom of the tool.  If RedHat’s savings tool doesn’t work, why would I trust the service they are selling with my company’s data?

I recently rearranged furniture in my condo.  Doing so required me to use the wireless 802.11 G network on my iMac.  I was not too thrilled with the solution; media transfers to my Tivo were extremely slow, and the connection was not as reliable as the hardwired one I had become accustomed to.

I remembered that my condo had many phone jacks throughout, so I thought I would research how my builder wired my unit, and maybe change the phone jacks to Ethernet jacks. Worse case scenario, I could at least get one 100 Mb connection from my iMac on one wall, to my Tivo under the TV on the other wall.

Solution

Turns out, the builder did a remarkably robust job with the wiring!  He used Cat5 cabling and all connections went to the closet! What a blessing!

I replaced all the wall plates with new versions and terminate the cat5 cables with Ethernet keystones.  I then created a small little networking area in my laundry closet.  Luckily, the builder also wired the cable lines to the same location he put the phone wiring. I was able to tap into the cable line right where I terminated the Ethernet in the closet.

After some cable crimping and wall mounting I was set!  My cable modem and router were hidden in my laundry closet, with hard wired Gigabit capable Ethernet jacks throughout my condo.  Pretty slick! And all under $15.

Next Step: Gigabit 802.11 N router!

Here is a quick “1-minute” formatting improvement.

Original

Improved

The improved segment is easier to read; looking cleaner, better structured, and more professional.  I made five improvements, each of which made a dramatic difference.

• Move the date below the “Top Headlines” title -> cleaner look.
• Used an Un-ordered list instead of inline, text bullets -> cleaner look.
• Decreased quantity of words in each headline -> no wrapping text.
• Standardized text sizes -> all headlines match, cleaner look.
• Used Blagojevich’s real last name, not slang -> improved professionalism.

One of my clients caught a virus on her computer this last week.  In an attempt to correct the problem, she installed Norton Antivirus 2010 before doing a full system scan using the boot disk.  The first time she rebooted the computer, she got into a logon logoff loop; after entering her login information and submitting it, Windows XP would automatically logoff the account.  It was at this point she contacted me and I came to help her solve the problem.  [See the bottom of this post for the solution]

I was stumped rather quickly after many internet searches.  I could tell the solution would not be easy.  The logon logoff loop persisted in all versions of safe mode; I was unable to access a command prompt.  I ran the bootable Norton CD and cleaned any remaining viruses off the machine; that didn’t solve the problem. My attempts to rename or copy files from another working machine, using a Windows Repair Console, did not solve the problem either.

Before telling my client I could not fix the problem, I called Norton to see if they could help me. Norton’s support was unacceptable, they could not help me.  I documented Norton’s inadequate support in a separate post.

I brought the computer to Best Buy, where my client originally purchased the Norton product.  I talked with the Geek Squad agent for a while, and we came to the same conclusion, a Windows Reinstall was most likely necessary.  I told my client I could do this at a fraction of the cost Best Buy would charge.

I attempted one last time to save the instillation of Windows, and returned to the internet once more.  I quickly realized I had managed to miss one of the possible solutions; fixing the registry.  I originally did not try this because I was unable to access Regedit.  This time, however, I brought some blank CDs and a copy of Windows XP Professional SP2 so that I could create a BartPE disk.  Using that disk I was able to open the local machine’s software registry hive and solve the problem.  My client’s computer booted successfully, and everything was as good as it was pre virus infection.

I learned two lessons with this service call:

• Run a full system scan prior to an Antivirus instillation; the scan provided on the bootable CD.
  • The Bootable Norton CD will download new virus definitions automatically if the machine is connected to a LAN.
  • Installing Norton on an infected machine could possibly cause damage.
• Come to all clients with all the tools at your disposal.  Even the tools you don’t think you will need.

Conditions

A Windows XP Professional machine was infected with several viruses.  Norton Antivirus 2010 was installed prior to a full system scan.

Symptoms

After rebooting, the system enters a logon logoff (or login logoff) loop; unable to get to the desktop. Safe mode will not work.

Solution

1. Boot from BartPE disk (Download and creation instructions for BartPE)
2. Open Regedit
3. Select the HKEY_USERS hive
4. Click File and choose Load Hive
5. Open the SOFTWARE  registry hive, likely located in:
   C:\Windows\System32\Config\SOFTWARE (Note: No filename extension)
6. Give the Hive a name: MyLocalHive
7. Navigate to:
   HKEY_USERS\MyLocalHive\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
8. Validate the value for the Userinit string equals:
   C:\Windows\System32\Userinit.exe, (Note: comma should be there)
9. The preceding string and value may be missing and must be added
10. Close Regedit and reboot the machine

Solution Credit: MVPS.org