Posted "Danceathonic" New Year's Eve epic track to SoundCloud

Wishing everyone a great 2013, now that the world has not ended, with my epic New Year's Eve track "Danceathonic." You can download all 5 minutes of its danceable goodness at https://soundcloud.com/citizenofhalo4/danceathonic

Worst online shopping experience ever ... FutureShop.ca Web-only Sales

What a way to spend Christmas Eve ... in an online queue waiting for the FutureShop.ca Web servers to allow me to conduct a checkout of an item I ordered during this pre-Boxing Day Web-only sale that started at 8 pm EST. I got through the checkout process once and the system was processing my credit card, then failed because it could not connect to another server for a credit card security check. Way to go FutureShop.ca! I phoned their Customer Service and spoke to a very nice young woman who basically could not tell me anything, not even if my credit card had been charged. Her suggestion, which was my conclusion, was to go through the whole process again. We wished each other a Merry Christmas.

On my second round, more errors and an even longer wait in the online queue. I finally get to the order page, put in a different credit card, and the system goes off to process the payment then finally comes back with another error page: "An error occurred while processing your request." Followed by a reference number that's part of the Checkout process URL.

The folks who programmed the system obviously didn't proofread or test the process very thoroughly. On the Queue Status page below the bar that measures your progress in terms of a meaningless percentage the first thing it says is "Once you reach the front of the queue, you'll automatically be taken to the checkout." Actually, that's not true, because when your progress bar reaches 100% a greyed out button turns red and you have to click "Continue Checkout" to go anywhere.

This reminds me of online computing in the 90s. Over 1.5 hours wasted. My first two attempts were in Internet Explorer 9. My third attempt, ongoing as I write, is in Google Chrome, which was noticeably faster up to the Queue Status page.

Success with Google Chrome! Let that be a lesson for me, never try to order anything online with Microsoft Windows' Internet Explorer.

Are you still here or have you transmigrated to another Earthlike world?

It's now officially the End of the World Day according to those who have misinterpreted the Long Count Calendar of the ancient Mayan civilization. Are you still here or do you think you've transmigrated to another Earthlike world that's just like the one and the life you thought you left behind?

Welcome to the end of the world Mayan style

It's supposed to be the end of the world tomorrow Mayan style. Hope you're ready for whatever happens, even if it doesn't. At least it's a Friday. TGIF takes on a whole new meaning.

For more news on the 2012 phenomenon check out those Google News results.

DavidMattion.com and CameraWorkers.DavidMattison.com temporarily down

Update for December 19, 2012

Spoke by phone with the billing people who weren't much help. Checked the site this morning and it's been restored but it's back to version 7 of the software. Time to look for a new Web hosting company.

Original post, December 17, 2012

I just learned this morning, December 17, 2012, that the reason DavidMattison.com and CameraWorkers.DavidMattison.com are inaccessible is due to a hardware failure of the Web server from the hosting company I'm using. I've been trying to get in touch with them as well about a billing issue but their much-vaunted 24/7 live support is not working even during their business hours.

Canadian Photography postage stamps for 2013 unveiled

In Canada Post's Details magazine for January-March 2013 (vol. 22, no. 1), there's a writeup about the new "Canadian Photography" stamp series wherein I'm named as one of the "virtual photography task force" that recommended particular photographs for the stamps (p. 25). I'm very pleased to see that two of my recommendations made the first year: a portrait of an Inuit woman by Geraldine Moodie and a portrait of Yosuf Karsh by Arnaud Maggs. I was one of two consultants from British Columbia. This stamp series is being issued over five years up to 2017 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Canadian Confederation. You can the 2013 issues by  looking through the online Details pages at http://www.canadapost.ca/shop/stamp-collecting/details-january-march-2013.jsf