An odd topic on a techie blog, but as a methodical problem solver (a very important trait for a programmer), I was finally able to diagnose and repair a problem that has been bugging me for quite a long while.

I have a Bosch SHX46A05UC dishwasher that I love. It is so quiet that it is difficult to tell the wash cycle is over. Unfortunately the love affair ended when the machine stopped working. It would get stuck in a drain cycle and never leave. A certified Bosch repairman told me that it was the “brain” that had to be replaced and under warranty, it would cost $100. I didn’t believe him so I decided to solve it myself. Turns out there was a lot of water in the base which caused the drain cycle to run continuously. I took it apart (completely) and cleaned it, making sure all connections were secure and tight.

The dishwasher worked for a while after that, but then I began to notice water on the floor after running it more than five or so times. Since it worked for a while (I typically wash dishes by hand) I thought I had fixed the problem. But when the water appeared on the floor, I knew my troubles were not over.

I have the drain hose attached to the garbage disposal but there is no loop above the high water mark and I was getting backwash and “ick” from the garbage disposal that was clogging the drain hose and creating the overflow scenario. I removed the water from the basin, redid the drain hose and again, had success for a while with the water overflow problem.

Eventually, the problem reappeared so I took it apart again and set it up so that I could run the dishwasher out from under the counter. From that vantage I was able to notice where water was dripping into the base.

It really didn’t make sense to me as the water was coming from a solid, one-piece inside cabinet. The problem was I spent too long looking at the same problem and needed a fresh set of eyes and the opportunity to verbalize the problem. I reached out to my beautiful wife who humored me as I explained the problem in some detail. She was able to pinpoint the exact location of the drip (indeed it was from the inside cabinet) and after removing the cabinet
she noticed a pinhole in the inset of the base of the cabinet. Success! Nothing a bit of epoxy can’t cure. And it did.

I’m on my way to loving my dishwasher again!

The (technical) moral of the story: a new set of eyes and the opportunity to explain the problem will often present the solution. The receiver does not need the experience as long as the technician is willing to listen.

I had to replace my XV6700 and of course, it was a new version of WM5 and I did not want to use my backup from Sprite Backup to restore so I had to install from scratch. Unfortunately, I forgot to save my certificates and had issues syncing with ActiveSync.

My configuration is an Exchange 2003 server behind a Linux firewall and an Apache 2.2 front end to Exchange. I’m connecting using https on my XV6700 but when trying to sync with the server, I kept encountering “The security certificate on the server is invalid. Contact your Exchange Server administrator or ISP to install a valid certificate on the server. Support Code: 80072f0d”.

I know my certificate was valid because I generated it myself! It turns out that was the problem – I was not a trusted root authority. Sigh. But that is easily remedied!

To resolve this problem all I needed to do was install my self-created CA signing certificate on the Pocket PC / XV6700. Since I created it on my Linux server, I had to convert it into a form the WM5 understands, in this case a DER encoded binary X.509 certificate. This could be done by importing it into Internet Explorer and then exporting in that format or in a simpler one-step process from the command line:

openssl x509 -in ca.crt -out ca.cer -outform DER

Now, just copy the ca.cer file to the PPC and open it in File Explorer. It will ask you if I want to install the certificate issued by . Clicking yes will import the certificate (that can be view in the Certificates control panel under the Root tab).

Once installed, ActiveSync no longer complains about the certificate and merrily performs it job.

Whew. Easy solution but it certainly took a while to recall!

I’m not a marketing person, but while watching this video on YouTube about a girl toting her addiction to Starbucks really made me think about an interesting marketing medium.

Why not utilize a coupon system over SMS in addition to product placement or promotion to sell products on Internet distributed videos? There are some very bright and creative people out there creating free content for video. Why not entice them to advertise a product and make some money at the same time?

Here’s how it works, using this Starbucks Addict video as an example. Ann (the video’s author) publishes some incredibly witty and clever video that somehow draws thousands or hundreds of thousands of people to watch it. Part of the video advertises Starbucks and there is a coupon offer associated with the video for 10% (or whatever) off.

So far, pretty simple; now to mix in SMS. I saw an article about using your phone as your wallet recently and I put these two ideas together.

Extending the example: to entice both parties to deliver, a single-use coupon code is created that uniquely identifies the offer. A hash is generated that identifies the author of the video, transaction number and expiration date. Of course, the author needs to get a registration key from Starbucks that authorizes the coupon. If the viewer decides they want the coupon, it can be SMS’ed to their phone and stored there. When time comes to use it, the viewer enters the Starbucks and text messages the coupon code to the store which automatically registers the coupon code and credits the video author’s account and also issues the discount for the item. The credit could be a flat fee or a percentange of the item. Everybody wins. The author gets credit for their creative talents, the viewer gets a discount and the product company gets some free advertising. And as a freebie, this method also allows for establishing some excellent metrics by tracking the coupon codes.

This can all be done with existing technology and it would be quite simple to do.