Suspension Bridge

Took a taxi to Capilano Suspension Bridge Park. We went across the bridge and did the treetop walk. Crossed back across the bridge and did the cliff walk.

Canada Place – Downtown

Went by where our boat will be docked. Walked around the waterfront area and downtown. Ate on a patio with a waterfront view. Walked around and went to Flyover Canada at 6pm.

English Bay

Grabbed a taxi and went to English Bay for sunset. Got a an outdoor seat at the Cactus Club to watch the sun go down. Walked a mile back to the hotel.

Why do I feel like I ordered from Alice’s Restaurant?
Answer: It took longer than the song to order and I ended up having to send lots of pictures with circles and arrows.

Let me start by saying that I have 2 Uber accounts. One for myself and one for work which is on my phone. The reason for this is a long story and involves signing up to be a driver instead of requesting a ride one night.

I decided I needed some Taco Bell. I got my computer, opened Firefox and went to their website and saw that I could get a buy one get one free if I had it delivered with Uber Eats. Sounds good. Let’s place the order. I place the order for two Cheddar Chalupa Boxes, threw in a Bean Chalupa and a few other items. All of which have to be customized for my family.

I finish the order. Click checkout and enter in all the information. That was not so bad. Click Submit.

Retry Button, I click that.

………….. Same result

I did not read the heading but saw that it could be because of ad blocking so let’s redo the whole order in an incognito window.

…………………. Same Result.

Ok, maybe it is the browser. I will try Chrome.

…………………. Same Result.

Oh, it says mobile verification. Let me check back through this process and see if I entered my mobile number. No.

No place to contact support.

Now, I am 20 minutes into ordering something that is 5 mins from my house. I am going to download the mobile app just so I can get this food everyone is waiting on and maybe I can file a support ticket to help Uber Eats out.

Download app, go to Taco Bell and choose the Buy One Get One Free item. It is for a box so you have to add all the items and the customizations. I do that, but it only asks me for the mods once, so now I have 2 of the exact same boxes, but I want beef and my wife wants chicken. Order a second Buy One Get One with Chicken. Now I have 4 boxes on my order. I go and delete one of the beef boxes and one of the chicken boxes.

Click send. Order will be ready in 40 minutes. I have already blown my lunch hour, so lets use that time to try and report my original issue.

In the mean time, since I ordered on my phone, I got an email to my work email address about the order. Let me see if I can fix that.

Screen 1 – Enter Email Address

Screen 2 – Enter Code

I never get an email because as you can see they added the first characters of my email address back to the front of my email address.

Great, now I can report an issue. I reported that I could not change my email address.

Followed by Response from Uber

To which I replied with the following and included the previous screenshots:

This support ticket was actually about this issue. I entered my email address on one screen to change it and the next screen shows the wrong email address. As far as i can tell, this never sent a code to the email address.

You should be aware of the other issues I ran into. This seems the only way I can give feedback. I am limiting my feedback to functionality in your web application and not how hard it was to actually build an order in your iphone application.

This all occurred because I tried to use a computer to place my order. After taking the time to complete the order and the checkout I got the message in the third screenshot. I turned off ad blocking and tried again. Same error message. I then tried a different browser and after entering the entire order again, got the same error. Is there no way to check the device before you waste your time entering the order. I only ended up ordering through the phone app hoping I would get a feedback survey, which I have not. After spending 20 minutes placing a Taco Bell order, you succeeded in getting me to download the app, but I will never use it again.
You will also notice that even though I was using a browser, the error message states that it is a mobile phone verification error.

So I replied again

This has nothing to do with my issue. I am a software developer and I am trying to report some specific issues. Your support system and responses, do not make it very easy.
The main issue was an inability to order using a desktop browser. There is now way to report issues on the website, so I reported a different issue through the iOS app.

And got this reply

Maybe we are getting to a real person. Let me give some more detail along with the original screenshots. Again.

The initial problem is that using two different browsers, I received the same error message preventing me from placing the order on a desktop browser. Even if the error message is correct, you should not get all through the order before telling the user they can not place it. Also the language of the message is misleading, as it refers to a mobile verification error when I am on a desktop and was not asked for a phone number at any point.

I had to download the mobile phone app to even place the order which had it’s own issues.

I am using a MacBook and a Firefox and Chrome browse

Getting this response

So now I am writing this all down, so I can just reply with:

Uber Eats Fail

Update

On Nov 14th I received a response telling me how to edit my profile.

November 16th: My Reply

I am just trying to help you guys with an issue that prevents ordering on the website. Ordering is the main function of Uber Eats and I would like to help you resolve this issue. Please stop sending me keyword responses and contact me directly.

November 16th: Uber Eats reply

The SEC has played 56 out of conference games this year.  Only 11 of these are against teams from other Power 5 conferences.  The SEC record in these games is 5-6.  The SEC continues to be evaluated by the eye test which appears to take into account past performance.  Here is the eye test:

ACC 1-4
2014/11/29  South Carolina      17  –  Clemson             35 L
2014/11/29  Kentucky            40  –  Louisville          44 L
2014/11/29  Georgia             24  –  Georgia Tech        30 L OT
2014/11/29  Florida             19  –  Florida St          24 L
2014/08/30  Georgia             45  –  Clemson             21 W

Big 12 3-1
2014/09/18  Auburn           20  –  Kansas St        14 W
2014/09/13  Tennessee        10  –  Oklahoma         34 L
2014/09/13  Arkansas         49  –  Texas Tech       28 W
2014/08/30  Alabama          33  –  West Virginia    23 W

Big Ten 1-1
2014/09/20  Missouri         27  –  Indiana          31 L
2014/08/30  LSU              28  –  Wisconsin        24 W

Day 1
Unable to log in due to lack of security questions in step 3 of the create an account process.  CNN is reporting that the application is working in Virginia but then shows me the same bug I am having in Georgia.  I am not alone.

Day 2
See Day 1

Day 3
Security questions are now available. Choose 3 questions and provide answers.  Account created.

Lets login and see what this new system has to offer. Check my email and click on the verification link. Now try to login.
Fail
Maybe I mistyped something so I will try again.
Fail
Ok, Let me use the forgot password link. Maybe I mistyped my password twice during the signup process.
Click the link in the email to reset the password.
Hmmm now what.

Later that same day.

I was able to click the reset link and finally got a page that said it found my account and asked me my 3 security questions.  I answered these and got the above message again but underneath it says that I answered the questions incorrectly.  So far I have entered the password incorrectly twice and incorrectly answered one of my own security questions.  I don’t think so.

Let me try to login again.  Hey look, I got in.

Accept terms and conditions – check

Click the link for family plans – check

Click the apply button – check

ZZZZZZ

System is down.  So close.

Later….

I am in and verifying my information.

Errr.  Fail again.  Now I do not know my current Bank, current car loan, or previous address.

I am returned to the page to enter my address, birthdate and phone number.  Fill out this information again and I am taken to a set of different questions.  Good looks like I know what county I live, my current bank and where I went to High School.

Click next. Agree to disclaimer.  Verify address.  Choose paperless option.  Interesting that this question asks me if I want to use the email address I used to register, which it displays as part of the question.  It then forces me to also enter my email address into 2 form fields, one of which it auto fills for me.  This is of course to verify that entered correctly in the previous steps.  Since I have so many issues typing in things I know, and I have already verified the email address and received the reset email there, this makes total sense.

Moving On.

Oops got my address wrong.  Apparently it should be in all caps.

Now in order to continue, I need to enter a verification question.  This is different than the 3 I had to add in the registration process.

The process is moving along now although I am asked for my social again and I also get a screen with the title of How is Logan Roberts related to Mark, but the actual question says how is Bailey related to Logan.

Trying to print the form and Firefox crashed.

Restart and wait for the login screen.  Login and get

An error occurred while processing your request.

Reference #97.d29774d1.1380827597.2a5fd5b

More time passes by.

I am able to get back in after several errors and begin the signature process that of course ends with an error.

undefined
Error ID:d7c2ef6b-c064-49f4-b9e6-46ad9b94e30d

Undefined is a description of the testing requirements for this website.

Several reloads and clicking the same button produce the same results.

I click the button which says BACK TO REVIEW AND SIGN which takes back to the beginning of this section, but clicking the NEXT takes me to a screen where my only option is BACK TO REVIEW AND SIGN.  Guess I need to log out and log back in.  BRB.

Called the 800 number.

Best experience so far.  Got through immediately and spoke to a very nice representative. Gave her my information and was told that I would need to go through the website.

Day 4

Try to login

Not Found

The requested URL /serverdown.html was not found.

Day 10

Finally got back in but it looks like all of the previous progress I made is lost.

The process of starting over requires me to login again.  However, the username and password I used to check on my application in the first place, no longer works.

I now have to say it.  What a total fucking steaming pile of shit this website is.  It is one thing to go live with a few glitches, but in the business world people would lose their jobs over a product that was released in this state.

OK, I have come back off the ledge.  Before calling the 800 number again to rip some poor phone operator a new one, I tried to login again.  This time, I get in and can see my application.  I also have 3 notifications that I have notifications.  But I do not see any way to read those.

I click on the application and I get a screen stating that my results are ready.  I click the button which loads  a page asking me to start a new application.  During my foul language tirade, the screen refreshes and takes me to the sign and review portion of my original application.  I wonder how I could have had any results if my application was not finished.

I finish the application.  I get a screen saying my results are ready.  How exciting.  I click the button but all I get is a new blank screen that based on the url is trying to pull a document from a document repository.  Which I am assuming is blank because the identifier that is sent in the url is null.

I decide to try a few other things.  I go back to my main page and I have a new notification with a download link.  I download the document and open it in Adobe.  All of the text is there but the table that the document refers to is not there.

Went to CVS today and finally broke down and got their extracare card.  I was told I could fill out the form in store or do it online.  The form they gave me had 2 cards attached and a sticker, all with the same number.  After 3 attempts to create an account, each attempt ends with an invalid number error.

 

Today I saved $2.97 and wasted 15 minutes of my life.

Website: Lowes.com

They have a wonderful feature where you can search for an item and have it delivered to your local store.  They also have a feature where you can enter your zip code ( which you are constantly asked to do by little pop ups on the site ) and search your local store.  The problem is that once you do this all searches are done at your local store.  So it is impossible to search for something that is not at the local store and have it shipped there.

There are options to change the store, but not any options to remove it entirely.  Since the store is stored as a cookie, closing and reopening the browser does not work.  I could of possibly cleared my cookies, but the only other way around this was to open a new browser ( a new application not a new window ) and do the search that way.

Website Grade: D

A short Story by my son.

A crack of lightning flashed and was followed by a loud boom of thunder.  Our van pulled into the driveway of our new house.  As we got out, I questioned why we bought the house in the first place. It was a real fixer-upper. Most of shingles on the roof were missing and the windows were broken. It was dark out but every once in a while lightning struck, revealing more stuff about the house.  I’m going to live here I thought. No way.  It was bad enough that we moved but now I have to sleep in this dump. Worst of all, nobody lived any were near us. “Freddy come and help your dad take out the boxes”.  I barely heard my mom above the storm.  I wanted to be inside and reading my favorite book, The Vampire’s Revenge. It’s a great book about a guy who gets his blood sucked out by a vampire and tries to stop it with different things that are said to stop a vampire, but in the end all fail. My mom thinks that the book is terrible and thinks I should read books like Tom Sawyer and all that other junk.

My thoughts drifted off when I heard a loud howl that no human could ever make.  “What was that?” I murmured. My dad would probably know.  He studies animals for a living. We moved here because of him. He got a once in a lifetime opportunity to study the wild life in the woods around the house. “Fred, please come here.  Your dad really needs your help,” my mom pleaded. I walked over and started helping my dad.

After spending the whole day unpacking boxes I was wiped out. I fell asleep before I made it to my bed. I was woken late in the night by a loud crash. I ran over to the window to see what had happened. As I looked out through the window, I could see a huge dark object in the dim light.. I ran to get my mother, but came to sudden halt  That’s when I noticed a door that had not been there before.  It was nothing spectacular. It simply had not been there before. I was sure of it because I had seen a really cool picture of a vampire sucking the blood out some British guy right where the door was now.

Any way, I felt the sudden urge to open the door. Inside were dark stairs. Cobwebs littered the ceiling. Each step I took made the stairs groan like a mummy waking up after sleeping for a thousand years. Finally I reached the bottom. My flashlight reveled a tenebrous room full of boxes, and crates of all sizes. In the middle of the room was what looked like a coffin. I walked over to get a better look.  It was definitely a coffin. It had that weird shape, and gold hinges. Yup, it’s definitely a coffin I thought.

Creakkkk, the coffin slowly opened. I jumped back in horror. A pale white hand reached out of the coffin, pushing the top off. Inside was a ghastly man. He wore black pants, black shoes, a white shirt and a cape over it.  His bones creaked as he got up. His teeth caught the gleam of my flashlight revealing two sets of fangs. “”Hello, he said to me in a low creepy voice. I stepped back. “You look so tasty,” he said in the same voice. Then he lunged. I sidestepped and ran

towards the door. I ran up the steps so fast they didn’t’ have time to groan. I twisted the doorknob but got stopped short because the door was locked. “Help!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. No answer. Suddenly I heard the groans of the stairs as the man slowly walked up .He had a confident smile as if he had just won a gold medal. “Help!” I wailed. “Somebody please help me!” Again there was no reply.  He walked closer. Closer and closer he walked until he was right next to me. “What do you want?” I sputtered. “Your blood!” he answered back.  And with one swift movement he had it.

Interesting article written in 1999

Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage Lending

By STEVEN A. HOLMES
Published: September 30, 1999

WASHINGTON, Sept. 29— In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers, the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other lenders.

The action, which will begin as a pilot program involving 24 banks in 15 markets — including the New York metropolitan region — will encourage those banks to extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit is generally not good enough to qualify for conventional loans. Fannie Mae officials say they hope to make it a nationwide program by next spring.

Fannie Mae, the nation’s biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits.

In addition, banks, thrift institutions and mortgage companies have been pressing Fannie Mae to help them make more loans to so-called subprime borrowers. These borrowers whose incomes, credit ratings and savings are not good enough to qualify for conventional loans, can only get loans from finance companies that charge much higher interest rates — anywhere from three to four percentage points higher than conventional loans.

”Fannie Mae has expanded home ownership for millions of families in the 1990’s by reducing down payment requirements,” said Franklin D. Raines, Fannie Mae’s chairman and chief executive officer. ”Yet there remain too many borrowers whose credit is just a notch below what our underwriting has required who have been relegated to paying significantly higher mortgage rates in the so-called subprime market.”

Demographic information on these borrowers is sketchy. But at least one study indicates that 18 percent of the loans in the subprime market went to black borrowers, compared to 5 per cent of loans in the conventional loan market.

In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980’s.

”From the perspective of many people, including me, this is another thrift industry growing up around us,” said Peter Wallison a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. ”If they fail, the government will have to step up and bail them out the way it stepped up and bailed out the thrift industry.”

Under Fannie Mae’s pilot program, consumers who qualify can secure a mortgage with an interest rate one percentage point above that of a conventional, 30-year fixed rate mortgage of less than $240,000 — a rate that currently averages about 7.76 per cent. If the borrower makes his or her monthly payments on time for two years, the one percentage point premium is dropped.

Fannie Mae, the nation’s biggest underwriter of home mortgages, does not lend money directly to consumers. Instead, it purchases loans that banks make on what is called the secondary market. By expanding the type of loans that it will buy, Fannie Mae is hoping to spur banks to make more loans to people with less-than-stellar credit ratings.

Fannie Mae officials stress that the new mortgages will be extended to all potential borrowers who can qualify for a mortgage. But they add that the move is intended in part to increase the number of minority and low income home owners who tend to have worse credit ratings than non-Hispanic whites.

Home ownership has, in fact, exploded among minorities during the economic boom of the 1990’s. The number of mortgages extended to Hispanic applicants jumped by 87.2 per cent from 1993 to 1998, according to Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. During that same period the number of African Americans who got mortgages to buy a home increased by 71.9 per cent and the number of Asian Americans by 46.3 per cent.

In contrast, the number of non-Hispanic whites who received loans for homes increased by 31.2 per cent.

Despite these gains, home ownership rates for minorities continue to lag behind non-Hispanic whites, in part because blacks and Hispanics in particular tend to have on average worse credit ratings.

In July, the Department of Housing and Urban Development proposed that by the year 2001, 50 percent of Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s portfolio be made up of loans to low and moderate-income borrowers. Last year, 44 percent of the loans Fannie Mae purchased were from these groups.

The change in policy also comes at the same time that HUD is investigating allegations of racial discrimination in the automated underwriting systems used by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to determine the credit-worthiness of credit applicants.

Right now