Il Fornello Restaurant Review

by Nameslave Posted on 26 November 2006

With 10 years of history, 9 locations throughout the GTA, and a decent website (at ilfornello.com), so I thought Il Fornello was a well managed restaurant chain. WRONG!

I went to their Richmond Hill location yesterday (Saturday) for their weekend buffet brunch. And although their published hours start at 11:30 AM, their door was locked as of 11:35 AM. Fine, it’s only 5 minutes, so I went to the nearby Chapters/Indigo for a quick browse. Not really that nearby, had to drive a block away. And when I turned around their corners, I could clearly see staffers inside, probably preparing for the opening.

I returned at 11:55 AM, and guess what? The door was still locked! Now you may think they have not updated their hours on their corporate website, and they actually open at noon instead. NO! I called on Friday and specifically asked for their weekend buffet brunch AND confirmed when it started (at 11:30 AM). After all, it’s BRUNCH, which means breakfast + lunch.

I didn’t have their phone number at hand, so I went back home (fortunately, it’s only 5 minutes away), and got it from the web. Called them, and was told they were opened A COUPLE OF MINUTES AGO.

Whether I still went there, or if their food is good is not the question here. Their management sucks. I don’t blame the kitchen staff who were late in preparing the food for the brunch, I won’t even blame the other waiters who showed up late. It’s the MANAGER‘s fault. HE (or she) should be reprimanded. If a restaurant cannot even open its door for a weekend brunch at noon (i.e. more than half an hour late), they better cancel that for good. And if the corporate head office was not able to maintain a high level of service quality, they should rethink operating at so many locations.

By the way, this is probably NOT an isolated incident, because when I called, there was no apology, and that staffer sounded like it’s no big deal. ;p

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Why people still buy cheap hosting??

by Nameslave Posted on 5 August 2005

You may have read stories from people having their website down for well over a week, or the so-called “host” (who turns out to be a high school or even elementary school kid) simply vanishes from the face of earth, but why do people still sign up with them??

Every logical mind KNOWS that it’s not possible to run a hosting BUSINESS (yes, business; unless it’s some kids earning snacks or flash cards) on a couple of dollars per month REGARDLESS OF DISK SPACE AND BANDWIDTH, not to say those who ask for a few dollars per YEAR!! :shocked: Reason? Any reliable host would have to take into consideration SUPPORT. Yes, support, and it costs. For clients, esp. newbies, to submit a ticket (forget about phone calls) every other months, and your few dollars are gone. So how could they survive?? EVERYBODY KNOWS THAT, but my question is: why do people still waste their time and go with those cheap hosting, only to switch everything over in a few months’ time! Just curious.

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In memory of Zhao Ziyang (1919 – 2005)

by Nameslave Posted on 17 January 2005

Even though he had his share of personal mistakes, Zhao Ziyang (赵紫阳) would still be remembered as a good premier who rose from a highly acclaimed provincial official who “fed” Sichuan and stood up not only for the Open Door and Reform policy but also finally for what was right during the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989.

Good bye, comrade!

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Why would anyone register a .CA with Register.com??

by Nameslave Posted on 26 November 2004

Why on earth would anyone register a .CA domains with Register.com, which does NOT allow just *any* modification on-line (incl. contact info and nameservers). The only way to do that is to call them, spell out the changes, and they’ll send that via their ticket system, so you could acknowledge it. Can you believe it? And they are not even a CIRA-certified registrar (reselling for Webnames.ca)!

Not me, of course. I just signed up a client for web design and hosting, and her previous webmaster was stupid enough to use Register.com for a .CA, even when he is also Canadian. So I wasted an extra couple of hours, first talking to Register.com’s silly support personnel (one of them insisted that their “not up-to-date” record is authoritative instead of the official CIRA whois), then transferring it out, and finally changing the registrant field back to the rightful owner (that stupid ex-webmaster even used his name to register the domain back then, so so professional!). Damn it!

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Hemera Image Express

by Nameslave Posted on 11 November 2004

Hemera which once acquired Corel‘s stock image collection and still owns AbleStock sent me 2 e-mail yesterday and today.

The first (sent Nov 10) sells their 1-month subscription (of 500,000+ royalty free images) for $9.99 (originally priced at $29.95) as a limited time offer (good till Nov 12).

Then just now I got a second e-mail, telling me that they have the “best deal yet”: for $6.99, you’ll get the same stuff, and once again, for a limited time (till Nov 15).

I almost fell for the first offer, now should I go for the second, cheaper one? Or will they have a third offer tomorrow, for something like $1.99? LOL!

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Registrar forgot to renew their own domain

by Nameslave Posted on 2 October 2003

Shhh … don’t tell anybody else:

DreamHost, the host that I’ve been using for more than 4 years, was down yesterday morning (I guess probably from the early hours). Its domain actually resolved to Verisign‘s much hated Site Finder! A few hours later, I got an e-mail from them saying that “due to a problem renewing our dreamhost.com domain registration, it lapsed today”. Can you believe this?

The irony is: they are actually an ICANN-accredited registrar themselves, under the name Domainitron and are also the registry manager of .la!! Someone is going to be spanked for not transferring their OWN domain away from NetSol, which they are still using. LOL!

Having said that, they are really a bunch of very nice guys.

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Hostway: what’s wrong?

by Nameslave Posted on 27 February 2003

I just got a new website re-design/maintenance deal of which the previous webmaster had it set up at Hostway. I got the user name and password to their sitecontrol.com interface with no problem. But when I want to update the domain name registration info (there is a typo in the physical address and the Admin Contact e-mail might not work), it turns out that Hostway is NOT up to what they have been paid for.

To start with, I am VERY familiar with domain names. But apparently, the previous webmaster who helped set up my new client’s website is not: he paid Hostway $52.30 for 2 years of domain registration. And a look at the whois reveals that they are actually reselling OpenSRS/Tucows.

Okay, that’s fine for me since I am not the one who paid; the problem is: contrary to what’s mentioned in their generic support e-mail template, I cannot manage or modify my client’s domain registration info either through their sitecontrol.com interface or by calling their support. Unlike most other OpenSRS/Tucows resellers who give out login combos for clients to manage their domains, Hostway is managing the domain registration for their clients.

So when I ask to update my client’s e-mail which is listed as the Admin Contact, they just point me to OpenSRS/Tucows. My question is: why are they charging $52.30 for a 2-year registration and does NOT provide any support at all?

Now with the existing Admin Contact e-mail not working, I’ll have to ask my client to fax OpenSRS/Tucows an authorization on a company letterhead. This takes more than a couple of persons (clerical work, you know) and at least a week to turn around. And Hostway is listing themselves as the Technical Contact … puh!

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