Month: November 2010

The Frustration Of Package Tracking

Are you like me? When you get the number do you check it immediately? The response is always the same whether it’s UPS, FedEx or the Postal Service: We haven’t seen it yet.

I ordered a Roku Sunday night. Don’t worry what it is. It has to come from California. That’s the important part. There is a tracking number, which of course is where the problems arise!

Are you like me? When you get the number do you check it immediately? The response is always the same whether it’s UPS, FedEx or the Postal Service: We haven’t seen it yet.

Then the kabuki dance begins. I check two or three times a day. Why? no clue. This is like pressing the elevator button more than once. It doesn’t help.

Tonight I checked and got the classic tracking response. A step was listed as happening after something that had to have happened before!

Shipment Accepted, November 23, 2010, 5:52 pm, SAN JOSE, CA 95101
Processed through Sort Facility, November 22, 2010, 9:03 pm, SAN JOSE, CA 95101
Electronic Shipping Info Received, November 22, 2010

How could it be processed through the facility before it was accepted? I have no clue. It’s frustrating.

It will get here when it gets here and not a moment sooner… though shouldn’t my paying attention rush it along?

A Few Digital Odds And Ends

I’ve had a few digital ball in-the-air over the past few days. Maybe you were wondering how things turned out?

I’ve had a few digital ball in-the-air over the past few days. Maybe you were wondering how things turned out?

Over the weekend I wrote for advice on a DVP. Don’t know what a DVP is? Join the club. This is ‘the next thing’ in video delivery.

Basically a DVP is a computer that delivers TV programs via the Internet. You can watch HD shows in HD without cable or even a (getting out the smelling salts) TV station.

There is little written about this new category of product. I took a chance and ordered a Roku HD.

Thanks to those who provided advice here and on Facebook. I’ll let you know how it worked out.

Another tech problem I had concerned Stef’s HP laptop. It was shutting down spontaneously!

She shipped it east where I stressed with it then monitored its health. Why was it shutting down? I began to suspect it was overheating then protecting itself. The CPU was showing a core temperature well over 100&#176 Celsius (over 212&#176 Fahrenheit).

Disassembling a laptop is way out of my comfort zone. I farmed that task out. My thought was something was impeding the internal fan.

The laptop is now fine. A small dog and cat’s worth of fur was removed from the fan. It was so clogged it couldn’t turn.

Keeping a laptop on the floor in a house with pets is bad idea! Are you listening Stef?

Finally I spoke to teachers for the Connecticut Association of Schools last night. I used two pieces of technology to make my job easier.

I listened to the anchors at the station with my iPhone and Bluetooth earpiece and our standard ‘dial-a-prayer’ phone line. It was the best sound from the field I’ve had ever! That’s a big deal. It’s tough to have a conversation when the person you’re speaking with is unintelligible. Problem solved!

Even better I brought along a laptop loaded with TeamViewer to run my weather computer. I am a big fan of this software. I was able to see my desktop at work including all the maps I showed on-the-air from our live shot in Southington. Without this addition I’d be flying blind. Amazing!

A Night With The Teachers

Each school represented has some program or activity that makes it special. I suspect the parents and students of those schools don’t totally understand how lucky they are.

I saw the teachers tonight. It’s my annual trip to the Aqua Turf in Southington and the Connecticut Association of School Elementary Program Recognition Banquet.

That’s a mouthful!

I like going because I get to see teachers out of their somewhat restrictive in-school environment. There are no children to be seen! They are relaxed.

The School of the Year (it’s really not called that, but that’s what it is) was the Ivy Drive School in Bristol. They must have brought 100 teachers and administrators. They were loud. They were celebrating. Good for them. Well deserved.

Each school represented has some program or activity that makes it special. I suspect the parents and students of those schools don’t totally understand how lucky they are.

I spent a few minutes thanking the teachers for helping my daughter learn to speak and sound intelligent. That was a grade school takeaway for her. It is among her most valuable assets (and used today on a job interview).

Kids are like putty when at elementary school age. The responsibility placed on these teachers can’t be overemphasized.

The Nigerian Scams Come To Facebook Email

If Facebook is going to get into messaging in a big way as they said last week they need to stop these scams before they hit my inbox. The legacy email providers have already learned how.

I got a Facebook email from Jonas Ugwudekede today. Well, that’s what the return address said. The email was ‘signed’ by Kyrian Madunagu and included a ‘real world’ email link with yet another name. It makes no difference. Most likely none is the real name of the person who sent it.

Though the email offers $40,000,000 the sender really wants to extract cash from me. It’s a ‘419’ or advanced fee scam. Ground zero for these is assumed to be Nigeria. The scam itself is actually older than the Internet! These things used to come via snail mail.

This is the first time I’ve gotten a ‘419’ via Facebook.

To the scammer knowing my Facebook name is more valuable than knowing my regular email address. Facebook has some personal information and links to my friends you can’t easily get elsewhere.

If Facebook is going to get into messaging in a big way as they said last week they need to stop these scams before they hit my inbox. The legacy email providers have already learned how. For Facebook to have any credibility they’ve got to step up too… right now.

Pizza With A Side Of Guilt

Pepe’s versus Sally’s is like Mets versus Yankees, Jets versus Giants, Geno’s versus Pat’s, Coke versus Pepsi. Either choice is good, but lovers of one don’t stray to the other. Sacrelege!

For over 25 years when I’ve had pizza on Wooster Street I’ve gone to Sally’s. I have been loyal. Last night I cheated! Last night Helaine and I along with our friends Bob and Karen went to Pepe’s.

If you’re not from New Haven this elevation of pizza joints might not make sense. Pepe’s versus Sally’s is like Mets versus Yankees, Jets versus Giants, Geno’s versus Pat’s, Coke versus Pepsi. Either choice is good, but lovers of one don’t stray to the other. Sacrelege!

Last night’s gastronomic straying started when I met Sue, a friend of Sonia Baghdady’s and a waitress at Pepe’s. It was Sue’s encouragement that brought us a few blocks farther down Wooster.

Helaine and I drove into New Haven planning on meeting our dinner partners at 7:30 PM. I got a text message a few minutes later and a link to a Glympse tracking map.

Because I’m Bob’s friend I didn’t include the documentary proof he was doing 80 mph on I-95 as he buzzed through Branford. This shot getting on the “Q” Bridge had him down to 62 mph and still more than 10 minutes away.

Luckily time wasn’t of the essence. We walked into Pepe’s chilly and hungry.

As ponytailed Billy took our order Sue changed from waitress to docent! She recounted with pride the story of Frank Pepe, how he went from immigrant baker to pizza evangelist.

The story was good, but I know the real secret to Pepe and Sally’s success: the oven!

A Wooster Street pizza is cooked in a 650 degree coal fired brick oven. This combination of coal and brick keeps the oven’s temperature hot and nearly constant. A pizza oven doesn’t turn on-and-off like your oven at home. In fact these pizza ovens are never turned off. They are fired and hot 24/7!

Each year for a week Sally’s and Pepe’s both shut down. I thought it was because of vacation, but Sue said it was for maintenance on the ovens. They take three days to cool down and another three to get back to temperature!

How was the pizza? How sweet is heaven? Amazing. The crust is thin. The sauce tasty without overpowering the toppings. We had one pie red and the other white.

After dinner I spent some time walking back into the kitchen and saying hello to everyone. As with much of Wooster Street Pepe’s is a family business. More importantly it’s run like a family business. Much of the waitstaff have been carrying hot pies to customers for decades.

I still felt guilty about the whole thing, but pizza is the universal guilt solvent.

Need Your Advice On Roku/Boxee/Apple TV/Google TV

Do you have one of these Roku, Boxee, AppleTV, GoogleTV kind of devices? Do you like it? Do you recommend it? What else will I need?

It’s been a while since I had a TV in my office. Without it I’m usually driven to the family room where I play on my laptop, watch TV and snack incessantly.

That snacking’s got to stop!

With that in mind I went out and bought a new TV to bring me back upstairs at night. It’s a 32″ LCD HD model and it was under $300. From a historical perspective that’s a crazy price for what you get. Next year it will probably be less!

I don’t have a DVR or HD service for the set so I went online and checked Comcast’s prices. Then I checked with my friend Peter.

“What about Roku?” he asked.

I tried to sound savvy, but it was obvious I’m not. There’s a whole class of little computers like Roku that bring shows on the Internet directly to a TV. Though they claim to provide access to thousands of programs it’s obvious you’ll need to subscribe to a service to make the box worthwhile.

I don’t know what to do and so, again, I turn to you dear readers for some advice. Do you have one of these Roku, Boxee, AppleTV, GoogleTV kind of devices? Do you like it? Do you recommend it? What else will I need?

I am like a babe in the woods right now. Help set me straight.

Google Voice Is Almost Good Enough

I have no clue how it can be sustained for free, but I’m not claiming to be the smart guy here. I fly coach. The Google founders have a large luxurious jet.

I got an email from a friend yesterday. What was that thing where she could send text messages but not use her cellphone? The answer is Google Voice. It’s an interesting product that does a lot and stops short in a few functions that would make it a killer!

As with most of what Google does I’m not sure why they do this or where their money is made. It’s offered for free.

I have no clue how it can be sustained for free, but I’m not claiming to be the smart guy here. I fly coach. The Google founders have a large luxurious jet.

Google Voice starts simply by giving you a new, additional phone number. The number itself can be in your local area code or nearly anywhere else.

I got one for Stef with a Southern California area code with the thought she’d give it out and look local while Google Voice would sneakily (and freely) transfer the calls to her 203 cellphone. As far as I know she’s never used it.

The number comes with sophisticated voicemail which automatically transcribes messages to text and forwards them to you as a text message or email. The transcription is horrendous, but usually usable. The voice message is preserved just in case.

The Google Voice account can be set up to ring many separate phones from any incoming call. It would be nice if my friends with home, work and cell numbers used one Google Voice number. Instead of hunting them down all their phones would ring! So far none have used this–including me.

Like a cell phone Google Voice can be used for texting. If your cellphone has a data plan you no longer need a separate texting plan. It only handles text, not pictures. Too bad. I don’t know anyone who’s dropped their text plan for Google Voice’s free service even though it can be used from cellphones and computers.

All these things work. They work work reasonably well. Why aren’t they used? Is GV too kludgy… still lacking enough integration to make it an easy decision? Maybe. It still looks like a service designed by engineers for engineers.

Recently Google Voice released (and Apple finally accepted) an app to bring GV to iPhones. It was an immediate install for me!

It’s pretty slick, but every time you make a call through Google Voice it connects by first dialing through your cell account. Why doesn’t the Google Voice app use VOIP&#185? This one simple step could alter the cellphone landscape forever. You could buy a cellphone with a data plan only and no minutes or text plan.

Google Voice has loads of potential, but seems flawed in execution. Maybe that’s Google’s want. Maybe they don’t want it to be more popular than they’re capable of handling. More likely they’re showing what happens when a company gets big and products must satisfy too many managers and departments.

The difference between good and great isn’t that large, but it’s enough to inhibit use. Google Voice is good, not great.

&#185 – VOIP is voice over Internet protocol. It simply means calls are originated through the Internet and enter the ‘normal’ phone network late in the game. VOIP calls are data and shouldn’t use allotted cell call minutes.

You’re Nobody If You Don’t Die In The Times

Dr. Sandage was a man of towering passions and many moods, and for years, you weren’t anybody in astronomy if he had not stopped speaking to you.

I read the obituaries in the New York Times nearly every day. Unlike a local paper the Times is geographically agnostic with obits reserved solely for the accomplished. The Times obituaries introduce me to lots of people who weren’t necessarily famous–like Dr. Allan Sandage. He died this past weekend.

Dr. Sandage was an accomplished astronomer who spent the bulk of his adult life trying to ascertain the value of the Hubble constant. This single number allows astronomers to estimate the age of the universe. He was a prolific author with over 500 scholarly papers published under his name.

That’s not why I’m writing this!

What I like best about Allan Sandage is summed up in this one sentence from Times writer Dennis Overbye’s masterfully poignant obituary:

Dr. Sandage was a man of towering passions and many moods, and for years, you weren’t anybody in astronomy if he had not stopped speaking to you.

Wow. I feel sorry he didn’t stick around long enough to read that. He probably would have agreed. It’s a helluva way to be remembered.

Backing The Car In Changes Everything

Backing out is for wimps! I’m a real man now. I am a badass.

I had my windshield replaced a few weeks ago. To make things easier for the technician I backed into the garage instead just pulling straight in. With that one act I’m a changed man!

“It looks like you’re in the Bat Cave,” Helaine noticed.

She’s right. With the car pointing toward the door all I can think of is squealing tires and burning rubber! I’m now positioned for a quick getaway should the Commissioner call.

Backing out is for wimps! I’m a real man now. I am a badass.

Pretty Pictures Can Lie!

Winter does not play by summer’s rules. Today only looks pretty.

Winter does not play by summer’s rules. Today only looks pretty. It is decidedly not!

The really cold weather is still ahead, but the groundwork has been laid.

It’s Not That I Don’t Trust Facebook… OK, I Don’t

I’m not talking about posts in bad taste, but scams and links to viruses which pop up on my wall like dandelions in the spring! Facebook seems slow in stopping these

Facebook announced their new messaging plan yesterday. On the face of it it sounds great. Unified messaging without regard to platform.

That’s my clumsy way of saying what Facebook’s Joel Seligstein wrote:

Today I’m excited to announce the next evolution of Messages. You decide how you want to talk to your friends: via SMS, chat, email or Messages. They will receive your message through whatever medium or device is convenient for them, and you can both have a conversation in real time. You shouldn’t have to remember who prefers IM over email or worry about which technology to use. Simply choose their name and type a message.

Great, except I don’t trust Facebook.

I think Facebook does a terrible job of policing what its members post. I’m not talking about posts in bad taste, but scams and links to viruses which pop up on my wall like dandelions in the spring! Facebook seems slow in stopping these. With Facebook mail that problem will only get worse.

Facebook also drops the ball in policing the apps that run on its platform. Clicking a Facebook link shouldn’t lead to a scam, but it often does.

Beyond that Facebook has played fast-and-loose with privacy. Their money is made by selling your eyeballs! You are not Facebook’s customer and your concerns will always fall behind those who send cash Facebook’s way.

With a half billion members Facebook could become the Internet equivalent of too big to fail! We might be forced to put up with their shortcomings.

At the moment I will look warily at making Facebook the gatekeeper for my messages.

The Penguin And I Are Fighting… Again

You might be wondering why I run Linux if it is sometimes a little difficult to deal with? I don’t know, but I suspect it’s like a geek’s medal of honor.

This will be short. I am not of good spirit. I am fighting with the Penguin–my euphemism for Linux.

Last week I attempted to install a little hardware addition to the Ubuntu Linux computer I use as my desktop at work. It didn’t work and I gave up trying!

Trying to get back to where I’d begun I uninstalled the new software I’d added to the machine. Bad move!

Today when the machine wasn’t working quite right I rebooted only to find the Internet was nowhere to be found! I probably had uninstalled the software that controls Internet access. The only way to reinstall is to go on the Internet to get the files.

Oops! no Internet.

My only simple choice is to reinstall the operating system from the ground up.

I backed up my customized files to a pen drive, burned a disk and am in the midst of watching screen-after-screen of Ubuntu promotion as new bits fill up the hard drive. Before I leave work tonight the machine will be up and running again.

You might be wondering why I run Linux if it is sometimes a little difficult to deal with? I don’t know, but I suspect it’s like a geek’s medal of honor.

Tallulah Goes Home After I Take A Few More Photos

It seems easy to be a dog. You eat. You rest. You poop. You piddle. Tallulah’s mastered all of those.

Tallulah’s gone. Tracey was here around 1:00 PM to fetch her.

There are high maintenance dogs. Tallulah’s not one. She’s was as tough to deal with as the afghan she lounged on.

“She’s much easier than you,” Helaine added.

It seems easy to be a dog. You eat. You rest. You poop. You piddle. Tallulah’s mastered all of those.

Speaking of those last two Tallulah might have some horse or possibly elephant blood in her! Need I say more?

Here are the last of my photos. She’s still a great model.

Is There A Silver Lining To The Carnival Splendor Debacle?

I’m an unlikely person to write something good that’s come from this incident, but I will!

By now you know about the conversion of the Carnival Splendor from a cruise ship to raft after a fire in the engine room. Right after it happened I piled on by pointing out Carnival does everything possible to only be American when convenient or cheaper. That opinion hasn’t changed.

I’m an unlikely person to write something good that’s come from this incident, but I will!

You may have noticed as the passengers exited the ship they were in pretty good spirits. There haven’t been panels of disgruntled cruisers appearing on cable news or shows like Nightline. Why not?

Trust me, if they were there they’d be on TV!

So what made this disaster different from airline passengers being stranded on the runway?

The fire happened. That is a given. However, from that moment on Carnival’s crew did everything right.

The lesson to be learned is you’re judged by your intentions more than the result. It was obvious to everyone on board what Carnival’s intentions were: Make the best of a horrendous situation.

Bad customer service could have killed the Carnival brand. I suspect it will end up relatively unscathed.

Some of my opinions on this incident have been formed after reading John Heald’s blog. He is the Cruise Director on the Splendor and the liaison between the ship’s captain and the passengers. I can’t recommend it enough. It is an incredibly compelling read.

He says it’s an unvarnished recounting. It reads that way.

The following is going to be my honest and open account of what happened. It will be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth because that is what I always write here and this particular blog thingy must be no different. And besides…….that is what our President and CEO Gerry Cahill told me to write when I met with him today. – John Heald

Just below this entry I’ve embedded a YouTube video (the video is worthless, but the audio is clear) from the ‘all hands’ meeting hold onboard the Splendor once the passengers were gone. It is obviously being held after a job well done by a company that’s appreciative.

Why did the fire happen? We won’t know for a while. You have to hope it isn’t because corners were cut.

However, when new textbooks on customer service are written Carnival will surely deserve their own chapter.

Tallulah: Speed Eating Dog! (video)

In case you don’t already know, Tallulah is the speed eating dog!

Tallulah has already participated in two still photos sessions and now she’s on video! In case you don’t already know, Tallulah is the speed eating dog!