Vox

Random photos, because you never know when Vox will let me blog again

A minute to load this second compose window after a 12-hour block. Oh well, have some photos.

   From left to right: an old Hillman Minx in town, another red-light runner, and a giant strawberry.

Still 12 hours to get a compose screen; is the bug spreading?

A surprising thing happened tonight: I could no longer get a compose window at my second Vox account.
   I have done some more neighbour removals (after the clue from Kimmie) to see if it made any difference. While that account is working again, I could not relate the glitch to any particular neighbour. In fact, I have the same neighbours I did prior to the glitch occurring there.
   I tried removing a few more here to see if it made any difference to whether a compose screen would appear. In all cases, it did not. If you are a Voxer who was puzzled why I added you to my neighbourhood today, when you know full well I had added you before, it was down to this experiment.
   This compose window took 12 hours to emerge, so the weeding-out of dormant and departed neighbours yesterday has had no real effect on this account. Removing neighbours added in October 2009 also made no difference.
   I am a stubborn fellow, more so when I know that by solving my problem, we potentially solve Patricia’s and Ninja’s, with their composing-blocks of varying degrees here on Vox. Here’s hoping Six Apart is as willing to get to the bottom of this as I am.

Chrysler goes all arty with Lancia-like Aung San Suu Kyi commercial

Ah, remember the days when Chrysler rested on the words of another Italian guy, Chairman Lee?

1984 Lee Iacocca Chrysler commercial

   Inspirational, and simple. Lido gave US audiences a direct appeal, even if it was hard to believe that the LeBaron GTS could take on BMWs and Mercedes-Benzes.
   Now it has gone all arty. Under Fiat control, it is adapting some commercials from the Italian company. Here’s one that’s being used by its Lancia brand:

Lancia appelle à la libération d'Aung San Suu Kyi

Here’s the Americanized version:

ItaliaspeedTV - Chrysler film dedicated to Aung San Suu Kyi

which is a far cry from the straight-talk of Mr Iacocca. It’s a lot like that ad for Mr Plow on The Simpsons, when Lisa asks Homer, ‘Dad, was that our ad?’
   Homer replies, puzzled, ‘I … don’t … know!’
   We have a Chrysler 300 looking very dated in this commercial, even if I agree with the sentiment. I am not convinced it’ll hold Americans’ attention that this is a new Chrysler and a new beginning.
   I realize Chrysler needs to shift product now before new products arrive, and the quality, apparently, has been improved since the Daimler and Cerberus days. That message, which is pretty important to buyers, doesn’t come across that strongly.
   The aligning of Chrysler to Lancia is not a bad idea. About ten years ago, I wrote that Ford should reconceive Mercury as a sort of American Lancia, so it seems Fiat has a similar idea. It’s just that commercials need not be clones when American consumers have different tastes from European ones.
   Still, does this mean that some day we will see the First Lady of France, Carla Bruni, sell Chryslers?

Spot Lancia Musa with Carla Bruni

The only car that size that Chrysler has is the Dodge Caliber, and it just wouldn’t work (though a Chrysler-badged Lancia Delta might …).

Vox bug note: the compose window still took a quarter-hour to open. The editing window took one hour.

Doctor Who finds life on Mars, then confronts John Simm

Despite still having some compose-window blackouts over a few hours today, December 8 marks the day when Vox has given me 10 compose windows within minutes, a record.
   I’m still not sure which neighbour might be causing the glitch, after Kimmie at Six Apart gave me a clue that it might be someone I was following that began my problems back in October.
   I spent the day deleting dormant and dead accounts, as well as some added in October. While things aren’t perfect, they are better than they were last week, when I had another 24-hour block.
   So it’s time to share a few videos again. I finally watched a recording of the most recent David Tennant Doctor Who special, ‘The Waters of Mars’. (I missed it due to a business trip last week.) I didn’t think it was that great, but since we have two Tennant stories left, I know we are building up to a pretty impressive finalé. There were more references to David Bowie (the Mars base was named after him), which got me thinking about Life on Mars again …

Doctor Who - The Waters of Mars Trailer 1 [HD]

What is exciting is the next special, where it seems John Simm himself will return as the Master.
   Call me old-fashioned, but I still think the Master should have a goatee. Then again, who cares, when it’s our John returning to our screens? I mean, it wasn’t that long ago when the Master was played by Eric Roberts. And John Simm is a better actor than Eric Roberts.

Doctor Who-The End Of Time-New Trailer

Come on, Vox

OK, that still didn’t help—this compose window took a quarter-hour to load. I wish Vox would tell me which account is giving me grief.

Is Vox fixed?

I don’t know if we can pronounce Vox fixed, but this is the seventh compose window this morning. It took about a minute to come up.
   I’ve had so many of these temporary successes getting the compose screen, only to find that I am barred from composing for another day afterwards. However, I might have reason to say that the glitches are becoming a thing of the past.
   Earlier today, Kimmie at Six Apart responded to a thread to say that the error was caused by someone I am following. So, I spent this morning removing all dead Vox accounts among my neighbourhood. I then removed those that had not updated since December 2008 (an arbitrary month I chose), with the exception of people I knew. I got several compose windows within minutes, but I still got two of these, which meant the problem did not lie with those accounts:

Vox compose screen

   Taking Kimmie’s clue about a neighbour who might have caused this, I began removing people I started following in October 2009. There were two gentlemen with photo blogs whom I removed, and since then, the compose window has come up, though not as quickly as I would like. (To those two guys: sorry, it’s nothing personal.)
   I wonder how many hours I have spent on this since October 28, but I think we are finally getting to the bottom of it.
   It’s still a Vox bug, in my opinion—why would the mere act of following someone, which is something that Vox is programmed for, create a problem? The answer of ‘Because it just does’ is not good enough.
   Event A (following certain neighbours) has triggered Event B (“don’t load the compose window for this guy!”) but they haven’t come across why or how the two are linked.
   I’ve told Patricia and Ninja of what the error might be, so hopefully we’ve fixed things not just for me, but two other Voxers.
   And there should now be a record of this bug and its resolution, which is one great thing about the internet.
   Well, let’s hope it was a resolution. If not, then at least we are narrowing down on the cause of the glitch. But I wonder if we would have got this far if I hadn’t pestered Daisy to the extent that I did (poor Daisy!).

This morning’s third compose window

Hmm, is it fixed? It still took a minute or two for the compose window to come up, but that’s better than hours (or days). It came up by itself, without refreshes. Are more recent neighbours safe?
   I’m heading over to tell Patricia on her Facebook what Kimmie told me, and see if this helps her.
   Though if it were the mere act of following a neighbour on Vox that started this whole bug, then what does it say about that Voxer? And why should the rest of us who are innocent be dragged down with someone with a troublesome account?
   It’s still a Vox bug, but at least we can get to the bottom of it (eventually).

If old Voxers are wondering why they aren’t in my neighbourhood

Removing dead accounts didn’t work, so I removed all Voxers from my neighbourhood who have not blogged since the end of 2008. I made exceptions for those whom I know either personally or got to know well over the internet, although those folks who have moved on out of Vox were also removed. Though I am still sceptical that this compose window wasn’t a fluke …
   We will soon know after a little more testing, but it looks like I am coming to the end of my hassles on Vox after nearly two months.
   The next step is to see whom I might have begun to follow around October 2009 if the 28th of the month was when I began experiencing “the block”.

Six Apart’s Kimmie gives a clue

If you’ve been following the ‘Forced into it’ thread at my other Vox blog, you’ll find that Six Apart does have yet another person who cares! Kimmie responded today and identified that I might be following someone in my neighbourhood that has caused the block (in composing posts—thanks, Kimmie). I’ve just removed all dead accounts in my neighbourhood and admittedly, I just got this compose window in a regular time. (Though as I have seen all too often since October 28, these have always been flukes.)
   However, since we’ve narrowed down the likely glitch, I am feeling a bit more confident that this blog is back. Look out for a second post, assuming the dead-neighbour theory is right.
   If not, I will have to go through the neighbour list and see who might be a spammer whom Vox doesn’t like, and remove them next.

If I haven’t “neighboured” you from the new place

The compose screen is still taking hours to a full day to load on Vox, which means they still have not fixed their very serious glitch that is locking out a growing number of users. (Patricia Volonakis Davis was locked out by September, and my troubles began on October 28.) If I haven’t “neighboured” or “friended” you from lucire.vox.com, please know it was an oversight as I skimmed pages of existing neighbours very quickly to make the new URL a “home”. In such a case, please feel free to “neighbour” me first and I will reciprocate if I know you.
   As of December 4, here was how Vox’s reliability looked:

   Yellow signifies the days when things were normal. Pink represents the days when I had partial access (waiting typically hours for the compose window to show). Red days were the ones where Vox blocked me completely from making any new posts.
   I’ve since had a 24-hour period (over the 4th and 5th) where I was locked out of this blog again, and was forced to the new location (and on to Tumblr, which is the one service that has gained from Six Apart’s failings).
   Patricia was emailing Vox with her problems for ages, to no avail. I know now how she felt, even if I did have Daisy batting on my side and referring on all my information. She seems to be the only person at Six Apart who cares.