The Perils of Online Documents
Don’t get this when working with Excel… sigh.
Filed under: Google Docs | Leave a Comment
New Toy!
I’ve officially dumped AT&T (#ATT) and moved on to much greener pastures in the cell phone world. I picked up the new Palm Pre Plus which was on sale for $75. The phone absolutely rocks. Is much different than my iPhone, and has taken getting used to the “gesture” movements where you open, close and select various applications. I went with the wifi HotSpot package, which although expensive at $40 additional dollars per month (for 5gb of data transfer) should be the perfect solution for the times when we’re in tough to reach places. Prime reason is that we enjoy spending time at our sister’s house which is located in a remote area near Winter Park, CO. The place is a skiing/mountain biking/hiking mecca, but has the limits of a split phone line: maximum connection on a dial-up line is 26kbps. Unless you’re loading up google.com, it’s an absolute nightmare. The only option beyond that was Hughes satellite internet at $80/month which comes with severely limited upload speeds. The hotspot will alleviate that, but letting the phone act as a wifi hotspot for up to 5 devices thru Verizon’s 3G network. Bonus number one. I just took my “remote office” to another level.
I tested it out from our home in Denver, and it worked great – connected to the network on my MacBook Pro, and opened up the NY Times website – came up in a jiffy. Here’s to working from the park!
The camera is great – and comes with a flash as well. In addition, it has a built in video camera which takes pretty decent movies.
I was able to set both my Gmail and Godaddy IMAP email up without a hitch, and in fact this was much easier than it was on the iPhone.
All in all, I’m pretty happy to have made the switch. The phone is much easier to pocket since it’s shorter & more compact than the iphone. It’s easy to use, and has everything I need and then some – especially the wifi HotSpot app! Don’t let the door hit you on the way out, AT&T. I’m not going to miss your horrific customer service and spotty network coverage one single bit.
Filed under: palm pre plus, verizon | Leave a Comment
The New Corporate Oligarchy Era
I’m learning quickly how much power and how little service these new mega-corporations are going to provide in the future – and it seems to be getting exponentially WORSE.
I’ve had two run-ins in the last month, first with ADT Security Systems (#ADT for all you twits), next with AT&T (#ATT) – which I’ve had many an issue with in the last few years.
We have had an ADT alarm system on our house for over 3 years, paying them approximately $37/month. The issue was initially my fault – I forgot to send payment to our city in order to renew a required alarm permit, necessary should I want the police/fire/medical to respond to an alarm event. Good enough. I needed to re-apply for the permit, so I called ADT in November of last year and asked them to send me the permit so I could send this back in. Nothing arrived. I asked again in December. Nothing. January, and again, nothing. I called them on February 16th and asked to speak with a supervisor – after the initial representative told me that I should have received the permit application and didn’t know why I had not. The supervisor gets on the phone and tells me “she doesn’t know why the previous 4 reps told me that they would send this out – that it wasn’t something they would or could do. That it had to be sent by the local installation office (which you can not contact, because they don’t offer any local #’s). I told her “get me a permit in 7 days, and give me a 3-month refund on my account or I will cancel my service”. Her response? “We can’t do that”. Goodbye ADT.
Next Corporate piggy: AT&T.
I don’t get a single bar of service at my “remote office”, which is also my Aunt’s house in Santa Fe, NM. I spend at least a month every year down there, working remotely while tending to the needs of the aunt, who is 85 years old & suffered a stroke last April. AT&T’s service has improved in our Denver neighborhood, but not downtown when you attend any big event at either Coors Field, the Pepsi Center, etc… Can’t make a call, send a text or get online – at all. I called them today to complain that I didn’t get service in Santa Fe, and the initial rep’s response was “we’re showing EXCELLENT service down in that location (after I even gave her the physical address). My brother, my wife and another I know with AT&T don’t get a single bar there either, you have to physically climb up on the roof of the house to get service, and that’s spotty at best. I told her this – and said that “regardless of what her little map said”, the service was non-existent and that I wanted the $80 early termination fee waived because of this. Her response: I can’t do that. My response back: supervisor, please. The supervisor came on the line and after I explained my predicament had the BALLS (even for a woman!) to tell me that they DON’T GUARANTEE SERVICE IN THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS. Are. You. Kidding. Me? So all of these ads in which you claim to have the most coverage nationwide, and maps you place online “claiming” service – those are all blatant LIES!
New Motto – AT&T: We’re a 100% deceptive snake oil sales company!®©™
100%, no questions asked consumer fraud. But because of the gargantuan size of this corporate behemoth, and fact that they spy on average Americans for the feds (fact, look it up), nothing can or will be done.
I’m beyond disgusted with the level of service these pigs provide. And the fact is, with deregulation, etc… you really don’t have a choice. You, Mr. and Mrs. consumer, must bend over and take it up the balloon knot without complaint. You will obey. OBEY.
Filed under: ADT, corporate america | Leave a Comment
STIHL – Autumn Calendar
one of those things that makes me feel so creatively insufficient (next to reading Communication Arts or aperture mag)
Filed under: creativity | Leave a Comment
How Twitter and Facebook Make Us More Productive: Studies that accuse social networks of reducing productivity assume that time spent microblogging is time strictly wasted. But that betrays an ignorance of the creative process. Humans weren’t designed to maintain a constant focus on assigned tasks. We need periodic breaks to relieve our conscious minds of the pressure to perform — pressure that can lock us into a single mode of thinking. Musing about something else for a while can clear away the mental detritus, letting us see an issue through fresh eyes, a process that creativity researchers call incubation. “People are more successful if we force them to move away from a problem or distract them temporarily,” observe the authors of Creativity and the Mind, a landmark text in the psychology and neuroscience of creativity. They found that regular breaks enhance problem-solving skills significantly, in part by making it easier for workers to sift through their memories in search of relevant clues.
(Via Wired)
Filed under: social media | Leave a Comment
IE 6 Funeral
IE6 Funeral: About time.
Filed under: microsoft sucks my skinny white A$$ | Leave a Comment
Case Study – Choosing a Marketing Plan: Traditional or Social Media? : THE CHALLENGE To develop a cost-effective and efficient marketing strategy to promote the company and its new brand, E. P. Carrillo, while building on the family’s legacy.
(Via NY Times)
Filed under: social media | Leave a Comment
IE6 users to be evicted from Gmail, Google Calendar: Late last week, Google announced it will phase out old browser support next month on Google Docs and Google Sites. The search giant also sent out an e-mail to Google Apps administrators to warn them of the date, as well as tell them something it did not disclose publicly last week: Gmail and Calendar are next on the IE6 support kill list
Good riddance
Filed under: microsoft sucks my skinny white A$$ | Leave a Comment
German government warns against using MS Explorer
The warning applies to versions 6, 7 and 8 of Internet Explorer
The German government has warned web users to find an alternative browser to Internet Explorer to protect security.
The warning from the Federal Office for Information Security comes after Microsoft admitted IE was the weak link in recent attacks on Google’s systems.
Filed under: microsoft sucks my skinny white A$$ | Leave a Comment
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- IE 6 Funeral
- Case Study – Choosing a Marketing Plan: Traditional or Social Media?
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