An interesting scenario: You booked a flight, just checked the last email and you find out through Google that your flight is delayed! What the...?
It was too risky not to go to the airport since I haven't received a confirmation from the airline yet. Also: At the website of the airline
the flight was still listed as usual.
So I went to the airport and... Google was right. The Google Mail entry was accurate. But why? I tried to research it a bit and it seems that Google probably has access to various databases and may gathered the information through other channels.
Another interesting point I read was that some internal emails from the airline may could have forwarded through Gmail causing Google could have get the information through there.
Anyway, it's an interesting scenario. So if you see this information on your account you can assume that there's some truth behind it, but it should be more safe to look for the confirmed delay...
I've been to Japan a few times now and it's every time really impressive how much support their own consoles get in comparison to US rivals from Microsoft...
The numbers speak for themselves: More than 5 million sold PS4 in Japan and only around 80.000 XboxOne! I somewhere read a statistic that even more PS3 are sold than XboxOne's during one of the recent months.
Old games and consoles from their own brands are also still popular and sold in Japan. You see so many stores with still lots of PS1 and PS2 games! Or even older Sega and Nintendo consoles + games. One example of a store in Akihabara in Tokyo is a great example of the situation: Just one shelf with Xbox360, XboxOne and Xbox games and multiple shelves just for old PS1 or PS2 games.
The situation for Microsoft is tough in country of videogames and that shows really how tough it really is!
This new One Piece game is planned to be released in 2018. But if you are in Tokyo and go to the Tokyo Tower you can already play a trial version...
In the Tokyo Tower are a few floors dedicated to One Piece which is why this theme park is called 'Tokyo One Piece Tower'. It has so many attractions related to the anime and it's a must for every fan. Interestingly they also offer visitors to play a trial of the new PS4 Virtual Reality game 'Grand Cruise'.
Once you got the VR glasses and the controller you are told only to use one certain button which is enough to go through the trial. Other players doing the same with you as several seats were prepared. I think there were always eight players at once.
At the beginning you sit on the Thousand Sunny a DenDen Mushi is talking to you before Luffy appears just in front of you. It felt so real.
Then you can select to go in either the kitchen where Chopper and Sanji were or.... in the bed room of Nami and Nico Robin. For some reason Nami approaches you way too close.. ;)
Following that the crew gets attacked by a marine ship. It's yours and the other players job to shoot down all the canons coming from the other ship. You aim with your controller and push the button to shoot - at best early enough.
Luffy and Sanji also show their attacks to block the canons from the opponents easily afterwards. There was also a competition among the players which were divided in teams to check how scored the most.
It was really fun - I actually went there actually twice. Could be an interesting game next year once its full version is released.
But anyway, if you are in Tokyo the next time, you should check it out, not only because of the VR, also for the whole theme park itself.
Google decided to remove the YouTube Editor from its platform - a tool which I used quite often and now is unfortunately another way needed. Let's see what's possible now!
Usually my main purpose to use the YT Editor was to put footage from my GoPro together to cut it correctly afterwards. Therefore I could easily just upload everything to YouTube, set the videos to 'private' and then put them together as I needed them. After the new clips were created, the uploads could be removed.
It helped me to avoid long rendering processes with Sony Vegas and using YouTube for that saved me lots of time! Now I need to find a way to do it offline in a similar less time consuming way...
So I tried combining these mp4 files via command:
copy/b V1.mp4 +V2.mp4
The size of the file changed, but it did not actually append the second file - although it worked with other files before, maybe the GoPro file is too big.
Following that I was looking for another tool which could do that and I found 'MP4 Joiner'. With that tool I could put the mp4 files together which was done in a few minutes before I can upload the new created file to YouTube.
Luckily it's still possible to cut single videos on YouTube by going to 'Video Manager', 'Videos', select the video, dropdown 'Enhancements' and then use 'Trim' as seen in screenshot above.
So to summarize: Create a big video file and cut in on YouTube - but of course only if it's for files which should just be on YouTube in raw format.
That's the workaround which works for me. If you have a better idea, just leave a comment and let me know :)
Being in IT support you often end up sending tickets to other groups if the issue goes beyond your responsibilities and/or your permissions. And it unfortunately happens that you get the ticket back with an excuse...
5: 'Login on another computer'
If the basic troubleshooting goes nowhere (uninstalling software, clearing software profile like for MS Office software, repair mode,...) you need get the suggestion to check it with a login from another colleagues computer...
4: 'Please create a new profile'
If it works, it could make sense to recreate the Windows profile on the involved computer. The issue could disappear if it's caused by something wrong in your profile.
3: 'Please explain the user he has to reinstall (Zero Touch Installation)'
This is the solution if the actual solution is either to tough or tedious to find. Unfortunately the bigger the company or the IT environment is the less affordable is it to spend hours and hours of attempting to find a solution.
From the view of a technician it's kind of frustrating for not being able or allowed to investigate for a proper solution. Instead of that you`re are just telling the user that`s a quicker and safer to reinstall.
2: 'Please send it to a group who can solve the issue'
That one is actually really funny. The group which received a ticket where they are expected to be responsible for sent the ticket back telling to send it to a group who can solve it.
It´s a really amusing way to tell that you are no idea yourself. But on the other hand you can sure put the whole structure in questions since now it can take a while for a ticket to end up at the correct team... (=> 'ping pong ticket').
1: 'Out of scope'
That's basically the same than the previous one, except this sounds more professional saying something like 'We are not responsible for this (and we don`t know who is...)'.
Conclusion:
Personally, such big companies with big structures cause this kind of ticket handling and solving of issues. Sometimes it's probably better to have a smaller environment to overlook where you can handle stuff right away instead of looking for who is responsible or avoiding further investigation...
While doing technical IT support in a call center you sometimes face some interesting scenarios, here are a few worth mentioning:
"Is your laptop connected via cable or WiFi?"
- "Yes, the WiFi cable is connected."
It was actually both, but the user was just talking about the cable.
Or another one from another case: "Yes, the WiFi is connected with the cable..."
"Hi, I was forwarded by the ****** Bank and I need a new PIN for my credit card, I would suggest I just start with giving you my credit card number..."
- "Wait, wait,... We are only supporting employees of a certain company and don´t deal with credit cards."
The moment I missed the chance getting lots of money. Like "Ok, can you also give me your security code and the expiration date?" xD #MissedOpportunities
"So I´d like to put my phone down on the table now since I drank too much tea before..."
The user´s way to tell me that she needs to go to the toilet while I was recreating the ost file of the user´s Outlook profile...
"Ok, I need to check this internally if I should confirm clicking on this link. Thanks. Bye."
User denied confirming to download a setup file from an internal server with a 172.16.XXX.XXX address. (see screenshot above)
"Let me explain the following steps to recreate the Outlook ost file: [...], to delete the old ost files, you need to close Skype before and..." (Call stopped)
Well, the user did close Skype while I was explaining the process... so therefore, call stopped :D
Maybe also stuff your get to hear as usual, nothing new...:
"Yesterday it still worked..."
"I didn`t do anything different..."
"I tried that already.." (apparently not...xD)
"I forgot my password...."
...
Ok, now it`s getting old. Maybe some more another time. But still, as Howard Wolowitz would say: "There's two kinds of people in this world. Those who call tech support and those who make fun of the people who call tech support."
You want to listen to your mp3 files and just get the error message 'The file format is not supported'? Here's why!
If you are using the LG K5 you get to a point where the local storage is getting close.
To make up at least a little more space you may try to disable some Google services like Google Play Movies.
Interestingly, the internal music player is some sort of connection to Google Play Music. Therefore as soon as you disable this Google app you can no longer listen to mp3 files! So that´s a service you need to let keep running.
So... just let it run...
