My Auntie G. and Uncle G. were creative when setting up the speed dial on their cell phones. For instance, when they want to call home they just choose "Anybody Home" from their speed dial list. I am also on their speed dial list as "Andy", which puts me just above their home in the list.
Occasionally, at odd hours we will get a call from one of them and depending on who calls and who answers we may get a "Hi honey" or "oops, wrong number" which causes a bit of confusion on our end. This morning we received one of those calls.
After the initial confusing call my Auntie G. called back to let us know that it was her that had called. She was calling Uncle G. to let him know that she saw a funny bumper sticker on a Smartcar. It read "Actual Size". Donna and I got a good laugh and are now anxiously awaiting our next wake-up call. We may be startled when we get the call, but then it ends up putting a smile on our face the rest of the day.
I love my Auntie G. and Uncle G.!
9/23/09
7/11/09
Panama Day 2 - Panama Canal
Today's adventure was a trip through half of the canal. We started out in Gamboa and ended up in the Pacific. We learned a lot about the canal and Panama's future plans for the canal.
They are building a new canal that can accommodate larger boats. This canal will parallel the original canal. Below is a pic of some large equipment working on this new construction. They plan to have the new canal finished in 2014, 100 years after the original canal.
Here are some pix of the first
They use these vehicles on tracks to help move large ships through the locks.
This is the final locks we passed through. The birds in the air have learned that when the fresh water spills out into the salt water the fish all die and then they can just scoop them up.
This is a view of the locks as we head out into the Pacific.
This ship is used to dredge the banks in preparation for the new canal.
This is a picture of the "Bridge of the Americas". Apparently this road can take one all the way to Alaska.
They are building a new canal that can accommodate larger boats. This canal will parallel the original canal. Below is a pic of some large equipment working on this new construction. They plan to have the new canal finished in 2014, 100 years after the original canal.
Here are some pix of the first
They use these vehicles on tracks to help move large ships through the locks.
This is the final locks we passed through. The birds in the air have learned that when the fresh water spills out into the salt water the fish all die and then they can just scoop them up.
This is a view of the locks as we head out into the Pacific.
This ship is used to dredge the banks in preparation for the new canal.
This is a picture of the "Bridge of the Americas". Apparently this road can take one all the way to Alaska.
7/10/09
Panama Day 1
Greetings from Panama! I hope to post a bit every day of the trip.
Even though we arrived yesterday, today is our first official day in Panama. The trip here was exhausting and 13 hours long. Everybody was extremely tired.
Today we spent most of the day in the ocean.
Here are some pix of the house where we are staying.
One of the most interesting things I have learned so far is how cashews grow. We have a a cashew tree in the yard and they are growing now (I think it is toward the end of the season though). The nut actually grows beneath a large fruit kind of shaped like an apple.
Even though we arrived yesterday, today is our first official day in Panama. The trip here was exhausting and 13 hours long. Everybody was extremely tired.
Today we spent most of the day in the ocean.
Here are some pix of the house where we are staying.
One of the most interesting things I have learned so far is how cashews grow. We have a a cashew tree in the yard and they are growing now (I think it is toward the end of the season though). The nut actually grows beneath a large fruit kind of shaped like an apple.
6/29/09
Customer Service
I posted the following as an IdeaStorm on Dell's site and decided to repost here:
Customer Service
For a lot of companies those two words mean a great deal. After dealing with Dell customer support over the past few weeks my impression is that Dell doesn't have a single clue as to what even the most basic definition of Customer Service is. (btw - here's a hint: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_service)
In my specific example an order I placed has been delayed twice. My first interaction with Customer Service was to determine what was causing the delay (i.e. display shortage, processor shortage, etc...) so I could ascertain whether or not I wanted to cancel the existing order and purchase another machine with a different display/processor. Time was a bit of a factor as the purchase is a gift.
My second interaction (after receiving the second delay notice) was to inquire about receiving some kind of discount for the inconvenience of having my order delayed for over two weeks. I will admit that after my very disappointing first encounter I did not have a tremendous amount of patience, but I did remain calm. The response to my request was met with three different phone transfers that I am certain landed me in the same exact call center. This gave me the sneaking suspicion that their tactic is to transfer customers around enough times to give us the false sense that we are actually getting somewhere. When I finally say I have had enough and that I need to speak with someone that has the authority to make decisions about discounts/refunds I am told that there is no such person as Dell does not offer any form of compensation period. Now I know that compensation can be a rarity with large corporations, but customers at least like to feel that our voice is being heard.
Needless to say, this is my very last financial transaction with Dell. Now when I am approached by friends and co-workers regarding computer recommendations one of the questions I will have to ask them is "How important to you is Customer Service?". Unfortunately there is nothing Dell can now do for this customer, but I hope for the sake of future customers they take a good, hard look at their current practices.
Sincerely,
Andy D.
For a lot of companies those two words mean a great deal. After dealing with Dell customer support over the past few weeks my impression is that Dell doesn't have a single clue as to what even the most basic definition of Customer Service is. (btw - here's a hint: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_service)
In my specific example an order I placed has been delayed twice. My first interaction with Customer Service was to determine what was causing the delay (i.e. display shortage, processor shortage, etc...) so I could ascertain whether or not I wanted to cancel the existing order and purchase another machine with a different display/processor. Time was a bit of a factor as the purchase is a gift.
My second interaction (after receiving the second delay notice) was to inquire about receiving some kind of discount for the inconvenience of having my order delayed for over two weeks. I will admit that after my very disappointing first encounter I did not have a tremendous amount of patience, but I did remain calm. The response to my request was met with three different phone transfers that I am certain landed me in the same exact call center. This gave me the sneaking suspicion that their tactic is to transfer customers around enough times to give us the false sense that we are actually getting somewhere. When I finally say I have had enough and that I need to speak with someone that has the authority to make decisions about discounts/refunds I am told that there is no such person as Dell does not offer any form of compensation period. Now I know that compensation can be a rarity with large corporations, but customers at least like to feel that our voice is being heard.
Needless to say, this is my very last financial transaction with Dell. Now when I am approached by friends and co-workers regarding computer recommendations one of the questions I will have to ask them is "How important to you is Customer Service?". Unfortunately there is nothing Dell can now do for this customer, but I hope for the sake of future customers they take a good, hard look at their current practices.
Sincerely,
Andy D.
5/9/09
People Helping Robots
Interesting story about people helping robots traverse Washington Square Park in NY.
5/6/09
Amazing Use of a Chalkboard
I was blown away by this creative use of chalk boards.
Firekites - AUTUMN STORY - chalk animation from Lucinda Schreiber on Vimeo.
4/29/09
Fishbot
I had read about the phenomenon about a year ago, but had never fallen victim to it. For those of you unfamiliar with fishbotting it is when a bot takes two unsuspecting individuals, gives them new "fish" names (I was OilyCoho on the other end) and puts them in a chat window together. It produced an interesting conversation and once we realized what had happened we moved to our real IM accounts and continued the conversation further. I am not sure what instigated me getting fishbotted but it was fun and I learned a new knock-knock joke!
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