30 January 2009

Playmobil Security Check Point



As a frequent traveler for business, not only did the existence of this toy make me say to myself, 'WTF? I've gotta check this out', but the most popular reviews made me laugh out loud. Never again will I pass through a security check point without thinking of this toy. To think that there's a toy modeled after those annoying and reactionary security check points in airports is completely hilarious. (I mean, really, do they make anyone feel safer?) Is there also an interrogation play set to go along with this? My First Guantanamo Bay or My First Camp XRay perhaps? Oh sorry, I guess that's Fisher Price, not Playmobil ;-).

Still, those reviews are not nearly as funny as the most popular review for the children's book The Story About Ping.

12 January 2009

Microsoft Entourage Mangles URLs

Last week we switched the mail server from Zimbra to Exchange (blech!) so I started using Entourage as my mail client (blech!). I'm not a fan of Microsoft software but I've used Entourage before and the experience was good enough - connectivity to the contat list and calendars, etc.

Everything started off OK until I realized that the URLs in the support messages I receive from the support system were mangled. WTF?! Could this really be? Here's an example of what I'm seeing. First, check out the URL below which came from a message received using Entourage:

http://www.company.com/sugarcrm/index.php?action=DetailView=Cases=90e6ce2e-c0d0-8de5-3e9a-491d5af0a8d6

Now check out the URL from the same message in the OWA web ui:

http://www.covalent.net/sugarcrm/index.php?action=DetailView&module=Cases&record=90e6ce2e-c0d0-8de5-3e9a-491d5af0a8d6

Notice that the first URL is missing all of the '&<parameter>' fields in the URL. The only difference with that message is that it was received from Entourage. Totally awesome!

Note that Apple Mail can connect to Exchange servers and it does not mangle URLs - woot!