Introducing Google+ to your friends
I realised today that simply sending somebody a Google+ invite or telling them to go there is not very helpful for most people, they will wonder what it is all about, see very little and probably leave disappointed.
This is not anybody’s fault, just remember that a blank profile is a boring one and wont do much for them but with a few simple steps the beginnings of a profile and some good info may be of help.
I just got an invite to Google+ and I don’t know what to do now…
Most people have a google (gmail) account by now (if you don’t then get one) and you may receive an Invitation from a friend wanting you get into Google+ so where to from here?
Carbon emissions and the big picture – simple
Is global warming happening? Yes
Is global warming caused by humans? Mostly
Is global warming something we can prevent? Maybe
I really want to keep the above simple, it explains the situation and poses the right questions, but let’s look at the answers in more detail…
Yes, global warming is happening. Some island nations are sinking and there is good overall scientific evidence that over the recent 100 years other factors are showing that climate change is real.
If this is being caused by humans (mostly) though is questionable. Again the overall scientific evidence is that over the last 70-100 years CO2 has increased at higher rates than it has at any other previous period of time that we have been able to measure. I am not going to sight some individual factors that may dispute this reality, (more…)
So I had my first motorcycle accident
Leaving from work I travel north up Queen st in Melbourne. It was wet, sprinkling and sleeting a bit and so I did have all the good gear on. The other cars on the road quickly showed that the full moon was out and that I needed to pay all the attention I could.
Queen St like most in the city does get busy, I also have buses pulling in and out, and a lot of centre road parking. This means cars can pull out quickly with low visibility and also turn into them taking a wide run but it also means that (more…)
Customer service WIN #1 – My new ISP
OK, I moved to a new ISP recently, and got some new equipment, router, VOIP phone and all that jazz. All worked a treat and I have been very happy.
The other day, I noticed the charger for the phone was not on (no light) and it wasn’t charging the handset… Soon it was flat. No big deal as there is also a charger in the base router box I got but all the same I want the second charger unit for downstairs.
Me: Called them up
Them: All our operators are busy, we can call you back in 20-27 minutes…
Customer service FAIL #4 – Even just for a coffee
I enter a popular burger shop that has a ‘coffee’ attachment and stand near the register behind another customer currently being served…. and wait a bit… and wait some more…
Her: You want medium coffee? (Handing me one she just made as I entered)
Me: No, I haven’t ordered anything yet
Her: Oh um… Goes back to serving first person
Customer service FAIL #3 – It’s just donuts
It seems to be the formula for customer service these days…
Me: Can I have the dozen assorted and a latte please?
Him: What?
Customer service FAIL #2 – The telecommunications centre
We had a couple of phone bills to pay, and also since I went naked-dsl I also have a nice credit from my old telecoms provider.
I went into the store, half way in a guy with a clip-board decided he needed to ask if I wanted any help, um, just on my way to the service counter to pay some bills. He nicely showed me toward the service counter that I was aiming for (it’s not a big shop and I didn’t expect to need directions or get lost)…
Customer service FAIL #1 – At the cinemas
I went to see a movie last weekend, Avatar in 3D at an IMAX theatre near me. The movie was great, even going up and buying the tickets was all good and fine. I did have to ask about the 3D glasses though, not offered or mentioned until I raised the issue and was told to collect the specs at the door when I came in later for the movie.
OK, all good, so when we returned later and came in we got the glasses and half my tickets back all usual then we went for some munchies.
It seemed to be taking a while for them to server a group of three people in front of me, glad we were early as they seemed to take ages, not to worry, we waited.
Aaaah,the bus
I have been back on the bus this last week while my bike is in for some various repairs, more on that soon. One thing I have noticed though is the sticky bus floors, spilt soft drink left under the seat and very quick to grab your foot and hold it to the floor. There has been no avoiding it, near the driver or up the back, everywhere… Today soon after 7am you would expect some level of cleanliness, a quick mop over these easy-clean vinyl floors would be the least they could do but alas, the government vows not to change the ticket prices until next years election which will surely just be a reason to tighten any budget further and limit cleaning and maitenance even further. Ironically is that during this freeze period they are to release the new miki or myki system which , no doubt will bring pricing variations, the promise must already be null and void or will the new system stll be another two years away? Public Transport sucks because pollies don’t, won’t but should be required to use it.
Five Firefox Features and Four Functions to not Forget…
Firefox is the browser of choice by the people in-the-know, but it’s best feature is that it allows a multitude of add-ons or plug-ins that can help your regular experience of the net and how useful the browser itself can be made.
Of course customisations are just that, a personal selection of changes that you, the individual might want to make so this list is by no means definitive of what you must have, but commonly, for web surfers, I expect these will be of benefit to you.
| The Features | The Functions | |
The First Google Chrome Experience
On my way in this morning, on the bus I checked, after all the reports still no sign of Google Chrome, it was supposed to be here but alas noting to look forward to on my last day in at work before some much needed holidays.
I have been reading about this new browser for the last couple of days, and most of the development was delivered in a 35 page story in comic form detailing all the ideas and processes that lead to the new program. It interested me and I couldn’t wait for the release today.
Then I got to my desk, one more check… Wow, the page is now there and the program is ready for download. So that’s exactly what I preceded to do and my first are impressions are as follows…
Beat that train, Peddle that bus
What a liberty…
The Connex group who has the primary contract for running metropolitan railways services here in Melbourne, after months of discussing options on how to ferry more passengers, after amending their timetables to help just a little, who back-stepped on rejecting bicycles on trains, who haven’t yet delivered on their promise to remove seats and call commuters land sardines, have now come up with a brilliant plan to make rail commuting a wondrous thing…
They are going to change the seat covers.
Yes, bright new seat covers to some 43,000 seats are going to make the conditions better. No more sitting on torn seats, or ones with holes, they will now be comfortable, at least to those who can actually get a seat, we still have many more standing-sardine commuters yet to satisfy. Perhaps some new floor coverings for those on their feet?
Why are people so unkind?
Yes, I am an IT geek, I work for a web development area and with a range of IT services behind me. I have come from various fields of client services, support and sales and I think over the years I have pretty much seen it all, heard much of it and thought, until today that I could not be surprised much any more, but alas, I was wrong, or more specifically, excellent, I was wrong.
A request came to our group, as a part of a web team, asking that…
“A person put a typo in some correspondence and they want to redirect viewers from the web site address avc.com.au/section to abc.com.au/section”
Leave me alone Safari
I reluctantly caved in today and did the iTunes and Quicktime update that the Adobe update software has been bugging me about for a while now.
Big downloads later and some screen refreshes, all the software that I never use updated.
The updater asked if I wanted to restart, thanks Adobe, this is why I upgraded to Vista so I didn’t have to restart after every application update, and since I am in the middle of doing other things, no I don’t want to restart thanks. Cancel is my option (what ever happened to Yes and No answers to simple questions?), and off goes the program, checking for other updates…
What? Didn’t we just go through this?
Oh yeah, I forgot, another reminder about installing Safari 3.1.1.
No, I don’t want this software, I have unchecked it before, I have IE and I have Firefox thanks, I don’t need another 23Mb of unused crap on my hard disk that I will eventually need to update.
But what got me even more today was the description of this item (See Pic).
OK, looks a little broken, and if they can’t make a read-about-me text file work in their recently updated updater then how can the application be trusted?
Look Apple, I don’t want this program, I don’t even want iTunes, I need quicktime only because I have a great olympus camera that records in mov format.
Like the DOJ said to Microsoft, “The People don’t want all these other things included or else you will deemed to be anti-competitive”!
How can one company get away with this when another can not, and has already been convicted and sentenced for doing exactly the same thing?
So now I uncheck the Safari item, the Install button goes gray leaving me with just the ‘Quit’ option. Apple, please add another option for me…
‘Leave Me Alone’ – Save my options and my preferences and close the program so that I am never bothered by your application based spam again please. Is that too much to ask?
More bus stories of despair
I do love a good blog, a chance to get things from my chest. If I took it all on board I would be six feet under by now. Sometimes it’s just frustrating and there is nobody to tell, nobody that will listen and even rarer is anybody that can help.
Take for instance another wonderful bus trip last night. The weather here is turning colder and at last a bit wetter, it’s getting into winter and that makes public transport all the more uncomfortable.
Transport timetables are out the window
I think they are making it up as they go along, I reported earlier that it is often seen that a busy and delayed bus will be caught up by the next one, particularly in peak times, and I can sort of understand how it can happen, however the other night, when I got to my stop after work there was already a bus there waiting to go. A bit unusual but this sometimes happens, they sometimes start their run from my stop, other ones come by from down the hill and fly by, but never ever running on time or to any schedule that I can find.
Gas/Petrol, Litres/Gallons and all the conversions…
Today I saw a story that people in the US might be going to pay up to $4.00 per gallon for gas (or petrol as we know it). That seemed to be rather a lot but on further reading I found this was a future peak forecast, not unlikely but some time away in the near future. The full story is here.
For us in Australia, this price comparison between $US/Gallon and Our $AU/Litre is hard to judge. We are paying now upward (and over sometimes) $1.50/Litre for petrol (or Gas) and off-hand we have no comparative concept of what that equates to, so I did some calculations…
At last some changes, public transport improves
No sooner do I write on the problems of our public transport, it gets an actual nudge on the side of improvement. After all this time, a new schedule will be rolled out, from later this month toward the rest of the year introducing new and extra runs increasing services in real terms and also changing the route some of the services take when they get to the city, avoiding the loop and making the journey a bit quicker. Check the whole story.
These are real changes that will improve the situation, for many of our branches the train serves delivers people to.
A Scam for every generation
The young ones, they know it all. Another generation goes out ready to face the world, they don’t need advice, they don’t want the benefit of our experience, and once again, just like us a decade ago, they get scammed, taken to the cleaners and ripped off.
It happens to every generation, in a slightly different form, if there’s one thing that I can assure you that will happen to my children, is that they will get scammed. Naive and ready to part with their money for a fairy tale without a moments thought, or with too much intension to get rich quick, it will happen to them.
This might help you with watch to watch out for…
Is it worth paying more?
Well yeah, if you get good value, but is that a real value or a perceived value?
Given the opportunity, spending a little more can really make it better, the quality of some things can be determined by what you spend and where you buy it from.
This all came about a few years ago when my wife and I went on a holiday and used some available frequent flyer points to get nice business class tickets. My wife used to travel a lot and she is a princess so getting the upgrade for some extra luxury is a must. We got to the airport on the day and I naturally dragged myself toward the long(ish) queue at the check-in desk like all the other sheep. My darling wife then tapped me on the shoulder and reminded me of our
Marriage Madness
I am getting older…
That’s no secret
And along this path I am encountering new things that I didnt experience before…
That’s no surpise.
Alcahol seems to have this strange effect the next day now, more specifically the next morning, this horrible thing called a hangover makes me all slow and sore after a night of fun. The older I get the more I experience of life, medical things, family things, generally life experiences to which I was previously oblivious, and now sometimes thankfull for it.
Unfortunatley, aside from my parents, I suddenly am experiencing the horrible issues of divorce, not myself thankfully, my friends and family seem to be venturing into this unfortunate and terrible process of seperation in their lives. I watch from the sides, not sure what to do, not sure even what to say, and totally at a loss as to be able to help.
So now a good friend has been told that he is about to get a divorce, it wasnt his idea you see, it came from left field (where his wife hangs out) and told him it was the case. These things are hard to recover from, almost impossible to retract, change or avoid once they are out there. So this is the start of something that I have seen before and know where its leading to.
New Names
It is interesting how, because of political correctness, terrorism or some other perceived reason in life, things need to be renamed to make them more palatable or more accurate in their title.
Sometimes it is to make ones self more important, changing the title of a job title from cleaner to sanitation coordinator, from Manager to CEO. Sometimes it is because of that political correctness thing I mentioned above, from Actress to Actor or from manhole to person-hole.
These things could be seen as ridiculous and I understand that many of them are, unless in your in the seat of that change, then to you, it is very important.
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