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Review: Great Wolf Resort, Grand Mound, WA

I recently had the chance to stay for a weekend at the new Great Wolf Resort at Grand Mound, WA.

For a weekend, the place is pretty good. There’s lots of things to do for kids up to about mid-teens. Unfortunately, there’s not a lot to keep adults entertained or to even visit again. It’s a water park, with a hotel and conference center attached.

Exit 88, off of Interstate 5, must have been a simple truck stop up until this project was set in motion. There was the requisite greasy spoon/diner, the shiny new gas station/McDonalds, the feeling of emptiness outside of a half-mile radius of the freeway…

Anyways, back to the resort itself. I liked the hotel and room amenities. We stayed in a "KidCabin" room, which provides a cabin-like facade for the bunkbed and daybed. The room was large, with a hide-away bed, queen-size and the cabin, it could sleep up to 7 people. We had a slight issue with some wetness around the refrigerator, but we just laid a towel over the wetspot and carried on.

One neat feature was the wrist bracelet that performed double duty as room key and room-charge card.

The room’s safe, which has become a high-priority item for me when traveling, was mounted on the wall near the door, vertically. This made it awkward at best to put a computer into it. We ended up only putting small valuables such as our jewelry, wallets and small electronics in it.

The hotel contains a buffet, which was poor in my opinion. The food was not very good, and the service was lousy. The other food amenities were a Pizza Hut, a little snack bar by the pools, and an ice cream/sweets counter. There was one lounge-looking area, but I didn’t get to try it.

There is also a MagiQuest game for the kids to interact with objects laid out in the first 5 floors of the 8-floor hotel. Note: if you go, avoid rooms numbered less than xx10 on the first five floors! The game was kind of fun, especially for a 6-year-old boy, and we did a lot of stairclimbing as the elevators were so slow. Maybe MQ is really an exercise program!

The water park was fun, but there isn’t a whole lot there after you’ve explored for a day or two. The kiddie pool had one piece of non-functioning equipment, but it did have two slides. The wave pool alternated between large "fun" waves and smaller "bobbing" waves. There were long stretches between the waves too, which diminished the fun. There was a climbing structure leading to the two large slides, which featured a 1000 gallon bucket that filled every 5 or so minutes and tipped over, dumping water on the structure below.

I didn’t get to try the soaking tub, because it was small and filled early and nobody seemed to leave it. Nor did I try the three inner-tube slides, though my son had a blast on them.

The last water feature was a "recreation pool" that ranged from 3 feet to 5 feet depth. Unfortunately, it was so crowded most times, that unless you were a tiny tyke, you wouldn’t be able to swim more than 4-5 yards at a time.

The safety equipment was decent and there were plenty of lifeguards on hand to keep everybody safe. Towels and deck chairs aplenty.

So overall, I thought Great Wolf was fine for a weekend getaway. I wouldn’t spend more than 3 days/nights there in any circumstance. Rack rates were kind of expensive, though local employers (Boeing, Microsoft, etc) have discounts available to them. A lot of activities seemed to carry a separate charge, from the teen club to the spa, from the daylockers to the MagiQuest game.

My rating: 6.5 out of 10 and don’t stay longer than a couple of days

Comic Stop Redmond Town Center: I won’t be back

As a long-time comics fan since first reading my stepbrothers’ silver age books many many years ago, I have tried to make at least a modest effort to visit and put my dollars to work in "Eastside" comic book shops. Psycho5, Xanadu, even the Barnes & Noble and the magazine stand at Crossroads mall, to name a few.

Since switching to Mile High Comics years ago, my subscriptions have dwindled and I no longer read any of the issues that come in my shipments. This is sad, but as a part of my childhood, I treasure my comics and I do try to keep in touch with what’s going on in the Marvel Universe.

On hearing that Comic Stop, a well-regarded comic book store located in North Seattle, would be opening a store in Redmond Town Center, I was excited. While I no longer have lots of spare cash to pour into books, I still like to visit the shops and buy things that strike my fancy.

I’ve visited the new store in Redmond Town Center four times.

The first time, the store was closed due to the Emerald City ComiCon. Fair enough. I stopped by on a bad day.

The second time, the store was open, but the proprietor was playing some kind of PC game and didn’t pay much attention to me as I browsed. Normally, I like benign neglect like this, as I don’t like being watched as I browse the shelves. I purchased a couple of books and eventually had a short conversation with the proprietor.

The third time, the guy had moved down to the recesses of the street level of Redmond Town Center (a mistake IMHO) next to Sweet Factory. I knew this would be happening, from my conversation in the second visit. Again, he was gaming, but I needed to check out some Olivier Coipel art, so I bought a few books, and a single trading card that I needed to complete a set. We chatted a bit about the trading cards. Purchasing things had become cumbersome, as there was a new sign posted saying that credit card purchases would incur a 5% fee due to "circumstances beyond our control".

As the son of a merchant that takes credit cards, I know that Visa/Mastercard do not allow surcharges like this, and beyond that, it has been proven through behavioral studies, that people shopping with credit cards buy more than those paying with cash. Since I’m a credit card carrier, I rarely have much cash on me, so I was limited to buying only 3 books and the trading card.

I also inquired about a specific title and was told to come back in two days, as a new issue of that title would be arriving.

Today was the scheduled arrival day and I stopped into the store at about 11:20am. The shipment had arrived, and the guy was stocking some books. I mentioned that I had come in because he told me that my title would be arriving. He acknowledged me, but said he hadn’t gotten to my title yet. Fair enough.

What happened next boggled my mind! I began browsing the books on display, to allow him some time to dig through his boxes for my title. I also picked up a magazine that I would have bought. Instead of going through his shipment to find my title, he plodded through the boxes as they were packed, checking them off along the way. I kept browsing and began to grow impatient. I even caught him reading a book he was unpacking!

After seeing him read books instead of unpacking his shipment, I headed to the counter to wait, in a hinting, subtle way to say "find my title dammit" Unfortunately, he didn’t get the hint and continued plodding through the boxes as they were packed. Needless to say, this made me mad, so I put back the magazine and headed toward the door. I paused briefly to give him a chance to talk to me, or call out or something, but nothing was said.

With nobody in the store but me and the proprietor, knowing that I was there for a specific title, he chose to ignore my needs and to unpack his boxes in the order in which they were packed. I even had cash in my pocket, ready to buy my $25 or so worth of books, but he didn’t want my business enough to say "Hey, wait a sec, let me find that title in these boxes for you" In times like these, where discretionary dollars are harder and harder to come by, Comic Stop Redmond Town Center doesn’t give a damn about customer service, they don’t respect my time when I come in, and they don’t project any kind of professionalism when it comes to greeting walk-ins (potential customers!)

You’ll get no more business from me, Comic Stop Redmond Town Center. And I hope that this blog posting helps save a few more foolish people from visiting your shop and suffering the same treatment I received.

eBay store

Yup, I’ve take the (tiny) plunge and set up an eBay store.

The intention is to complement the Queen Anne PC/Data business. Not only can I sell off all of my and my friends’ treasures (!), but I can also sell on behalf of others on consignment.

With these tough economic times, we all have a few extra items gathering dust in the garage, or we have games/books/CDs that are no longer being played.

Come check it out at http://stores.ebay.com/YourBuyingBuddy

Engineers and cats

Thank you Sarah Lacy, for introducing me to this video.

Engineers and Cats…The Two Life-Forms I Spend Too Much Time With!

…and now back to preparing for re-entry into retirement.

Microsoft engineering credibility at stake

http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2008/06/10/microsoft-bernstein-trims-outlook-for-vista-adoption/

"(DiBona) asserts that “it is now critical for MSFT to inform and educate IT professionals involved in the Vista decision in order to reinvigorate enterprise interest in the OS.” But he cautions that “amid mounting evidence that the product’s reputation has been badly tarnished and that there are looming usability and satisfaction issues…continued assertions that everything is fine with Vista will not only fail to bolster the upgrade cycle but also could serve to damage management’s credibility and the interests of MSFT’s shareholders.”

Well, isn’t that a fine how-do-you-do. Nineteen months after Vista’s release and still, Microsoft management is covering their ears and shouting "La La La, I don’t hear you" to the Windows customer base.

Windows 7 is not an exception to the need for more transparency. In fact, based on what we know of third-party and OEM development in the Vista cycle, Windows 7 development should be *more* open and exposed than Vista development was. Alas, the command-and-control atmosphere in place today make certain that any engineer who doesn’t toe the Windows PR line gets pink-slipped.

Unlike Intel’s "tick-tock" processor roadmap, Microsoft’s inability to make hard engineering choices early in the project is dooming the project. Of the three important project constraints, time, "resources" and quality, Microsoft appears to be choosing time and resources and letting quality go.

Based on Steve Ballmer’s published comments that five years is too long between releases, Windows 7 is sure to be released "on-time" in 2010 or even in 2009 if speculation is to be believed. This tactic is sure to pay off when management is able to argue plausible deniability as the new offering is sure to disappoint if the only new feature offered is Windows Touch Technology v2.

In order to maintain or even regain some credibility, Microsoft Windows engineering management must:

• round up third-party support. The driver situation for Vista was horrible
• properly set the public’s expectations of Windows 7. Vista was touted as the next coming, while in reality, we in engineering knew that the only user-centric improvements were superficial. The main attraction was that Vista is more secure and has improved reliability. Security and reliability are qualities that customers say they want, but won’t actually pay for.
• achieve a bang-for-buck value on marketing that is somewhere above zero. Somehow, despite spending $500M, public opinion has not been swayed in the least. Do you even remember a Vista advertisement, much less think positively on it?
• simplify the user choices. Does the world really need so many Vista SKUs? There are actually seven SKUs if you include Business, Enterprise and Starter. So many SKUs makes testing the product much more complex.

Aspersions aside, Vista did not take five years to develop. We famously "reset" two years into the project (August 2004), which means that Vista was actually a more typical three-year development cycle. I’m proud of my contributions and of the Windows team’s achievement. For Vista, we "rebuilt the plane in-flight" of the largest ongoing engineering project in the world and successfully shipped.

That said, Windows can do better. The public is saying "show-me". From what I’ve seen so far, they’re headed for disappointment.

Why Live search sucks so bad

This was a real email thread at work today.

I think this thread is yet more evidence that
a) MSFT ain’t what she used to be (passionate people doing great things)
b) I made the right decision to "retire"
c) GOOG has nothing to fear from MSFT

From: Live Search engineer
Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2008 11:57 AM
To: non-DL recipients
Subject: RE: Windows Live Messenger for Windows Mobile

I didn’t say I wanted "politically correct words" but a modicum of politeness wouldn’t hurt anyone here.

I would ask you to look at the search product we had in June of 2007 and the product we have now and I defy you to tell me no improvement is visible. Your attitude is ridiculous.  I’m as competitive as anyone and I want to leap ahead of Google and be the best at everything but this is, as you say, the real world and these things take time — just because you send feedback doesn’t mean that the result will be fixed tomorrow.  I send feedback to the IE team and it takes another year for it to see a release, but I don’t feel that gives me carte blanche to call them assholes and babies and unresponsive and useless.

I’ve never seen anyone here turn feedback down, though I do see people try to manage expectations.  We don’t add definitives willy-nilly, and we track every piece of feedback we get on the product and target categorical issues for fixes.  I’m not sure what else it is you expect to get back.

From: me
Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2008 11:51 AM
To: non-DL recipients
Subject: RE: Windows Live Messenger for Windows Mobile

That’s nice and all <Live Search engineer>, but this is the real world. Grow up.

Crap is the euphemism for what I really feel about your product.

You want only politically correct words? How about no words?

The search team has historically done a real nice job of turning feedback down and making supporters like myself into enemies.

Holier than thou? Improve your product, then come talking to me about holier than thou.

From: Live Search engineer
Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2008 11:47 AM
To: non-DL recipients
Subject: RE: Windows Live Messenger for Windows Mobile

Sorry fellas, but I need to say this too:

<soapbox>

Did it ever occur to you that human beings also work on live search and aren’t perfect?  That perhaps throwing out phrases like "don’t jerk [me] around with crap" (I see crap here multiple times) might be just a bit rude and unnecessary? We’re sorry we don’t have the six+ year head start Google has and that our results aren’t perfect every time for every query you make.  People are working tirelessly on this product though, and constant smatterings on a wide alias that the product is "crap" are wholly unnecessary.  Your DSAT feedback is critical, but the holier than thou attitude is not.
</soapbox>

From: me
Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2008 11:39 AM
To: big Distribution List at work
Cc:
Subject: RE: Windows Live Messenger for Windows Mobile

MSN Messenger Mobile is #1 on the “related searches” stack on the right side of Live search.

<soapbox>

Honestly, I don’t know why, as a user, I still even try to give Live Search feedback, when the competition gives me what I want.

I mean really, the “your search looked like these other searches” philosophy has got to go.

Pure indexing works. Don’t jerk people around with the predictive crap.

</soapbox>

From: 
Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2008 11:29 AM
To: big Distribution List at work
Cc:
Subject: RE: Windows Live Messenger for Windows Mobile

Well, er… give that feedback on the searchchallenge site….

From: 
Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2008 11:26 AM
To: big Distribution List at work
Cc: 
Subject: RE: Windows Live Messenger for Windows Mobile

I’m guessing that <redacted> put the quotes in the email to show the query string, and didn’t actually put the quotes in the query.

Live search returning that result way down at #6 is a crap result.  Once I realized it wasn’t #1 I started visually scanning the returned content for a boldfaced “messenger” and didn’t even see that.  Yes, it’s in the quoted page title—I just wasn’t looking there.

It’s a totally crappy result.

Google nails it.  Even with quotes their top result is good, even if it’s for the Yahoo messenger.

From: me
Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2008 11:14 AM
To: big Distribution List at work
Cc: 
Subject: RE: Windows Live Messenger for Windows Mobile

Because you searched for a phrase (used quotes).

Phrase-based searching on Live.com is just plain broken. Always has been, always will be???

I cannot ever search for anything on Live because I am invariably looking for a phrase, whether it’s error codes, or pop culture.

However, searching for Messenger Mobile does bring results. It appears to be #6.

http://searchchallenge/results.aspx?lse=Windows+Live&rse=Google&q=messenger+mobile

From: 
Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2008 10:54 AM
To: big Distribution List at work
Subject: RE: Windows Live Messenger for Windows Mobile

…and this demonstrates my frustration with Live Search.  Why isn’t this page the top hit when I search for “Messenger Mobile” on Microsoft.com?

From: 
Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2008 10:48 AM
To: big Distribution List at work
Subject: RE: Windows Live Messenger for Windows Mobile

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/software/default.mspx

Click on Windows Live for Windows Mobile link….

From: 
Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2008 10:44 AM
To: big Distribution List at work
Subject: Windows Live Messenger for Windows Mobile

I remember seeing a demo a while ago of a Messenger client that works on Windows Mobile phone.  Where can I install this?  I am not seeing it on <redacted> download site.