GrokBlok

I hate to be a dick about it, but I needed help installing an EV SSL certificate, so I went to the certifying authorities website and tried to find some articles or tutorials. No dice, poorly documented, inaccurate. They had a feature that let me “chat” realtime with one of their customer support folks. Perhaps I’m really missing something major, but I think this is absolutely terrible.

Malcolm: Hi!!

Malcolm: How can I assist you?

you: i'm trying to install an EV certificate on Apache

you: running Ubuntu

Malcolm: Ok.

you: i'm getting an error in IE7 only

Malcolm: can I have your order#

you: sure: #1234567

Malcolm: Please wait.

you: sure

Malcolm: I did installation check from our end, it seems that the root and intermediate certificates are not installed properly.

Malcolm: please install the root and intermediate certificates.

you: ok, there aren't _any_ instructions anywhere on how to do that

Malcolm: Please wait.

Malcolm: Please go through the below link.

Malcolm: https://support.nameprotected.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=264&nav=0,1,88

you: i've done all that

you: the site works with ssl in every browser BUT IE7

you: it has to do with EV portion

you: your documentation is woefully inadequate

Malcolm: Ok. Please send mail to support@nameprotected.com. We will solve your query.

you: I HAVE

Malcolm: Can I have your ticket number.

you: #987654321

Malcolm: Please wait.

you: what i'm saying is that your documents that i keep getting referred to are not clear

you: on how to install a EV certificate whether it be root or intermediate

Malcolm: Please wait.

Malcolm: could you please tell, at which place you are getting error

Malcolm: while installing the certificate.

you: I'm getting an error in IE7 when attempting to go to the page... it says that the certificate is not validly signed

you: no error in firefox or safari

you: to install the EV certificate, i downloaded the EV-Auto Enhancer for your website and used it as the SSLCertChainFile instead of the one you sent to, as directed by your site

you: for/from

Malcolm: Please go throgh the below link for evssl auto enhancer

Malcolm: https://support.nameprotected.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=1076&nav=0,1,82

you: perhaps you're not listening to me

you: I'VE ALREADY DONE THAT

you: please do not send another link to your documentation as it is completely incomplete

you: do you have a phone support center?

Malcolm: Phone Support will be available on Monday - Friday around 9am - 5pm GMT

Malcolm:

Malcolm: US + 1.555.1212

you: ok, so i've downloaded the file and have it set as the value for SSLCertificateChainFile

you: it's still not working

Malcolm: I have checked your domain in IE7

Malcolm: its working without  any error

you: with a green bar?

Malcolm: Yes.

you: to indicate EV SSL?

Malcolm: Yes.

you: try again because i'm getting certificate error:navigation blocked

Malcolm: Please wait.

you: do i need to rename the file to what my original ca-bundle was called?

Malcolm: No.

Malcolm: Now am getting error.

you: k

Malcolm: the error because root and intermediate certificates are not installed properly

you: you already said that

you: then you sent me a link

Malcolm: Yes.

you: which was followed

you: then i get the error

you: which is the root which is the intermediate?

Malcolm: Send your query to support@nameprotectedcom. We will escalate to our next level support

Malcolm: ca bundle file

you: you're killing me

Malcolm: I apologize for the inconvenience caused. send mail to us. We will escalate to next level support and solve your query.

you: great!!!!! thanks for all your help!

Malcolm: Welcome!!

Am I completely missing it?

So, it would appear that the Rails trademark discussion isn’t quite over. On the 27th of July, Dr. Nic Williams registered a trademark for:

• Educational publications, namely, training manuals in the field of information technology
• Dissemination of advertising, scheduling and managing of training courses and programs for others via a global computer
• Arranging professional workshop and training courses

This is in addition to the one originally filed by David Heinemeier Hansson about the usage of Ruby on Rails in Computer software, namely, software framework for developing web applications. Apparently, that one isn’t completely through the door, yet.

What does all this mean? 1) Patent and trademark law seems completely jacked up in the US. 2) It means that the name of a thing is valuable, not the thing itself.

For those of you thinking about filing a trademark on your service, let me ask a question. Are you a great Rails developer, or are you a great developer who uses Rails?

Here’s a hot tip fresh off-the-press. If you’re an Ubuntu user you know that even Feisty Fawn comes with 1.8.5. If you want to get the latest Ruby release, 1.8.6, beware, there’s an issue with Readline support when you compile Ruby. Readline is a command line processing tool.

  sudo apt-get install libreadline5 libreadline5-dev

I’m not voluteering, but I’d still like the Ubuntu maintainers and Ruby package maintainers to work a little more closely.

• General Instructions on Green Programming
• Expressica writes about what to do if you’ve already compiled ruby

no such file to load 'net/https'

Huh? It turns out that since I’m using the Deprec gem, I did not have libopenssl-ruby debian package installed. A little apt-get tom foolery and we’re back up and running. Here’s my point though… I really wish that the Ubuntu camp and the Ruby camp would get together. I’m no OS architect, but it seems to me that it shouldn’t be a completely different ecosystem between the two. I love Gems and I love apt-get, I just wish they would work together.

Why does it seem like these people are always so uptight about you installing anything on “their” machines? I realize that the majority of their day is spent trying to help the most computer illiterate people figure out why IE won’t do this or that, but I promise you that I will never call them for support. If they hate their jobs so much, just go ahead and become a developer, or system administrator. I’m not saying that they aren’t valuable and necessary workers, but the future tells me that desktop support is a new entrant into “blue-collar” work.

I recently have attempted to get a desktop computer to go along with nice laptop in order to demo some things for my users internally. By their reaction, you would have thought that I was asking to setup a datacenter in the bathroom. I guess that’s what I get for being an outsider.