bookmark_borderInternationally Speaking

Just visited the McAfee website and on one of the forms encountered a, shall we say, anomaly presented itself.

I am a patriotic kind of guy, and I’m not in any way anti-American (I’m well aware that the percentage of idiots over there matches the numbers we have here), and when you actually consider what I’m about to tell you isn’t really about patriotism, jingoism or somesuch.

Rather it’s a wonderful piece of bad programming that I’ve seen before, centred around the fact that (at least for the purposes of this discussion) the country I am identified with is known as both the United Kingdom (UK) and Great Britain (GB).

I’m Scottish, and my country is part of Great Britain (which is the main island mass which also includes Wales and England). Add in Northern Ireland and you have the United Kingdom. It confuses me but that isn’t really the issue here.

When selecting my nationality in an online form, invariably I have one option: United Kingdom. On some forms I am delighted to be able to select Scotland, and on others I have to hunt for Great Britain.

However, the McAfee form in question proved a little troubling.

On highlighting the Nationality list, and tapping the U key, I was taken down to Uganda. A few more taps of the DOWN arrow key is usually all that is required to get me to “United Kingdom”. Not this time though, so I clicked the list top expand it, just to make sure I hadn’t keyed too fast but no, there was no United Kingdom.

No problem, I think, I’ll just tap the G key to get me back up the list towards Great Britain. This time I expanded the list first and scrolled down to… hang on… no Great Britain either? Great! Must be an option for Scotland!

Nope.

Somewhat puzzled now I double-checked that there was no entry for Scotland. There wasn’t. United Kingdom? Not listed amongst the rest of the nations of the world that begin with U. Must be Great Britain then?

And there it was, nestled away amongst the Gs. “United Kingdom”.

Now technically I can figure out what has happened, the label which is displayed to the user is “United Kingdom” but the value, on which the list being sorted, is set as “Great Britain”.

I have to wonder if this was tested at all and if so they have missed a fairly obvious set of test cases. If you are a global company then you need to consider these things.

OK, admittedly it is a tiny mistake amongst a large and complex website but it does serve to remind me to take the unhappy path through our own software now and then. I have a tendency to check through screens and processes presuming a lot of knowledge and taking the happy path.

Footnote: I worked for Dr. Solomons for a year before they were purchased by McAfee. One of the projects (ditched by McAfee) concerned a global company update system, during which many long design meetings centred around just this kind of “international” issue. But hey, I’m not bitter that they made me and 250-odd other people redundant almost immediately after they bought us, honest…

bookmark_borderTime flies

Didn’t venture over the door yesterday, not even to put the bins out. Awful weather, cold wind, driving rain, yeuch.

So we stayed in, Louise made some cards, I hacked on with a mockup of a site (one of two on the go at the moment), and gave a little more thought to the seminar on Blogging and Communities I’ve been asked to present at. The initial nerves have subsided and whilst previously I’d been worrying that I wouldn’t be able to fill the 45 minute slot, my main concern now is that 45 minutes may not be long enough!!

Ohh and lest I forget, I’d like to thank mike for his generous help, very much appreciated indeed. I may already have thanked him but if that’s the case, better to thank twice than not at all!

Louise made a very interesting comment the other night, concerning my current employers. She said that I must be enjoying things there because I was working later than usual. And she’s right. Partly because we have a new toy in our department – AuthorIT, a single source publishing tool – and partly because I’m finally getting into the new (upcoming) version of our core product and actually learning new things. Previously I’d been ‘stuck’ on updates to the current, released, products which was proving less than challenging, and more than boring. All’s good now though, our new stuff is bloody smart… but enough of that. I don’t talk about that here!

Rugby yesterday and I thought the Italians were going to do it… until England clicked up a gear and predictability returned. However the game itself wasn’t particularly enthralling, unlike the try-fest that was France vs Ireland. I’m so glad I watched the second half though, as the first half was awful and at times made it hard to believe this was international rugby I was watching.

It’s all looking nicely setup for what could be the deciding game of the tournament – France vs England. Hard one to call for, as ever, if the French get their running game going early then I think England will be in trouble as they are still a little too reliant on their front rows. Then again Wales showed that if you try and go around the front rows, England just drop back and offer a sold white line through which it’s bloody hard to break. Intriguing though it may sound, I’d be less than surprised if the game itself is a boring kick-a-thon. Isn’t it always the way?

Well a long week stretches ahead of me, I’m hoping to get a couple of things out of the road as soon as possible as I’m currently breaking my own rule of “one job at a time”. On the other hand there are opportunities to which you just can’t say no, it’s just unfortunate they’ve all come at the one time. Not that I’m complaining. Honest.

How’s your weekend?

UPDATE: What a cracking game of rugby, open, free-flowing and full of passion. Well done to Wales for a professional performance and well done to the Scotland team for playing with such heart and passion.

bookmark_borderWork, rest and play

The weekend creeps into view. Slowly.

Tomorrow we’re off to Dumbarton to catch up with family; talk about next years holiday with sister-in-law, see if my Mum’s voice has returned to normal, give my sister a big hug*,and find out how my brother-in-law enjoyed New York.

Louise is out on Saturday night so I get the TV/DVD/PS2 to myself. What to watch, what to play (Pro Evo 4 anyone? Errr… yes of course it’s legal m’laud).

Sunday and… well no plans. I’ve got the grass to maim, and some weeding wouldn’t go amiss.

Ohh and there are some international football games going on over the weekend as well. Good luck to Scotland and Wales (only because I reckon we’ll both need it).

Have a good one y’all!

P.S. I’m STILL waiting on some decent suggestions for a TV unit.. awww crap, need to look for one of those at the weekend as well..

* Hassles with her degree course, she has 0.5 of a credit to get and has been accepted back to get it! Yay!

bookmark_borderPride

Bit of a dodgy topic this one, so stick with me.

Tonight, whilst watching the football (yes yes I KNOW!) I’ll be… wait for it… supporting Portugal. In as much a way anyone of ‘neutral observer’ can support a team that is.

Now, this is NOT because they are playing England. No. It is because they are the host nation and I think it keeps the excitement going a bit if they win. I’ve said before, and I’ll say again that France are my team, have been since I was 14 (vague memories of Platini, Tigana and Papin…).

Anyway, this leads on nicely to a bit of a bug-bear, and I know I’m not alone in this.

England. No not the country, nor the people.. well not the vast majority of people anyway. Just the select few who don’t know what England is, where it stops and why singing Rule Britannia is wrong (Britannia was composed of England and Wales).

I’ll be honest, it’s amusing that when the football rolls around the commentators take all of two minutes to mention 1966 (for the game against Switzerland they mentioned it before a ball was kicked!). I’ll quite happily concede that if/when Scotland ever win the World Cup we’ll do exactly the same… roll on 2006!

It’s that whole British vs English thing that gets me. Most notably in athletics where past glories, Alan Wells, Liz McColgan etc, were heralded as great achivements for Britain. Heroic failures of the Scottish athletes within the British team were made clear.

It’s an annoyance, and yes I know England are the largest country in the ‘union’ but I do sometimes get fedup with the “we are bigger than you so shut up and stop bothering us” attitude.

P.S. Don’t worry I know YOU lot are OK, it’s just the rest of them that piss me off.

bookmark_borderOuch

I can’t watch any more… 6-0…

Update: It’s all over. The gulf between the teams was sorely evident, but here’s hoping the future of Scottish football (McFadden, Fletcher, Wilkie…) will be a bit brighter.

Update 2: Bad luck to Wales as well – at least we can all now cheer on England….

bookmark_borderStaid Human

speechtherapy – coming from the rapidly expanding gallery that is labelled “Now why didn’t I think of that…”.

I can sympathise completely with the editorial comment, I’ve been thinking much the same myself. That coupled with the fact that my life isn’t all that interesting (why do you come here?) and I too need to spend more time away from a PC to improve that side of things.

Ohhh and Human Traffic kicked ass (sorry for the Americanism) BIG UP to the Wales club massive!!!! or something….