Category: Uncategorized Page 34 of 76

If you’ve been annoyed because you’re missing your daily dose of The Daily Show (like me) you might be interested in this video from the striking writers about what they want.

This is a good use of the medium. The video is short, snappy and lays the issues out in a clear fashion, with plenty of graphics to back up their points. Anyone looking for advice on how to put together a presentation that works should take note.

What I can’t understand is how the issues in this strike have been allowed to go on for so long. It was almost 20 years ago that the writers agreed to give up a significant part of their share of the home video pie, to help get the business going. Now, 20 years later, everyone agrees that what’s happened to them is unfair and should be fixed. But during all this time, the writers’ share of those revenues hasn’t changed. Why didn’t anyone from the big companies ever say “This is silly and needs to be fixed”? Seems like a no-brainer to me, but then, I often thing that common sense should prevail. Silly me.

If you support the writers, head over to UnitedHollywood.com to see their blog, or sign their petition.

Remember the Spinning Dancer graphic that I posted about a couple of weeks ago?

Well, it turns out that while it’s an interesting illusion (see the comments on that post), it’s scientific validity is in some question.

Some minds a great deal more learned than mine spent time on the illusion and came up with interesting results. It seems the linkages between which way the dancer appears to be spinning and which side of your brain is dominant are not so clear cut. In fact, they may be wrong.

Over at the Freakonomics blog, Steven Levitt used his readers to conduct some statistical analysis. His results would seem to indicate that the confusion might stem from the initial article mixing up the hemispheres — by stating right, when they meant left, or something like that.

As a follow-up, Levitt points to a post at Sciencline.org by Jeremy Hu, which goes into a lot more depth on the whole Spinning Dancer issue, and casts further doubt on the validity of the whole thing.

I’m not sure whether any of this is of value to us, but I am intrigued by what some very smart people can come up with when they look at an animated graphic on a website. Most of us look at it and say “cool” while they come up with a whole theory about what it might mean – or not mean. I guess that’s why I’m not an academic.

“Facebook is the ‘It’ company of 2007” says FastCompany magazine.

In their November, 2007 issue, now available online, writer Ellen McGirt takes a look at this rising tech company, which is certainly the darling of the moment. If you’ve been hearing about Facebook but you aren’t sure what all the fuss is about, give it a read.

Last week, Microsoft paid $240 million for just 1.6% of the company, which means (according to Microsoft) the value of the company is about $15 billion. Which is crazy, according to some (or maybe all) analysts, notably John Dvorak, who thinks Microsoft is nuts.

FastCompany (and I’m sure plenty of other sites as well) also has an interesting look at the relationship between Microsoft and Facebook and why they might have done this deal.

Whatever the true value of the company, there’s no denying how popular the social networking site has become. Heck, even I have an account there and a lot of my colleagues do as well. Although it started out as a place for college kids, its wide open now and being used by people of all ages.

What’s interesting is that unlike some other sites, such as MySpace, Facebook seems to have captured the imagination of business types, who are using it as a business tool.

But is Facebook really leading a revolution or is it just the flavour of the month, like Friendster or other social networking sites that have gone before it. They all ruled the roost at one point, but faded as new players came along.

Personally, I think there’s something different going on now. What’s happening is that these sites are starting to figure out how to work with each other, so that you don’t have to recreate yourself each time you join a new one. It’s early yet, but I think that the ability to follow the activities of people you know as they go about their daily lives is something that we’ll come to expect.

What about you? Are you using Facebook, or Twitter, or some other service that keeps you up to date with what your friends are doing, and let’s them know what you’re up to? Do you want to participate in something like that?

Whether Facebook or the other sites out there now are the ones that end up sticking is an open question. But what seems clear is that the connected world we’re living in today is a reality that isn’t going to go away.

By the way, you can follow me on Twitter or Facebook (membership required) or LinkedIn or Flickr or MyRagan (again, membership required) or…well, you get the idea.

See you online.
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Social Media, Facebook

I’ve run into a problem with Expedia.ca, a company I’ve used before without any issues.

And if you’re planning on booking a trip with these guys, you might want to think twice about that. At least wait until you read the rest of this post.

Yesterday, I received a notice from them about an itinerary change to the tickets I’ve booked for my daughter’s trip from Tampa to Victoria in December.

The email was marked urgent and said:

Dear Expedia.ca Customer,

We have received notice from US Airways that they have:
* Updated the arrival time for 1 of your flights
* Updated the departure time for 1 of your flights.

It is important that we speak to you as soon as possible to review changes from the carrier so that we can discuss alternatives. Please contact us at 1-888-EXPEDIA (1-888-397-3342) or from outside North America at +1-613-780-1386 .

That seems pretty clear. So I picked up the phone and spent the next two hours on hold, waiting for a representative. No luck.

While I was waiting, I checked their website and saw this note:

Customer service improvements underway

We’re currently receiving a large volume of telephone and e-mail inquiries. As a result, your call wait time or e-mail response time will be longer than usual. We’re working hard to improve service capacity as soon as possible; in the meantime, we appreciate your understanding – and your patience.

Oh, Oh. Sounds ominous.

This morning, I called in early. But it made no difference. I left the line open with the music playing…and waited. A couple of hours later, I took the dogs out for a walk. When I returned, I was still on hold. Now, it’s a few hours later and still nothing. I’ve also emailed their support group, without any reply.

Apparently, I’m not the only one having troubles with this company.

I found a website called MyExpediaExperience.com that was put up by a guy in Ontario. It’s a litany of frustration.

And over at the Canadian Forums on TripAdvisor.com, there’s more stories from angry and frustrated Expedia.ca customers, who are all having the same issues with not being able to get through to anyone at the company.

The problems seem to date from September and are still continuing. Several people say they’ve complained to the better business bureau and various consumer organizations, but there’s no reports of what’s come of that.

What’s missing in all of this is any response from Expedia. They haven’t said anything in any of these forums, nor is there any explanation on their website, beyond the notice above. They obviously are suffering from some serious issues, but without any explanations, their reputation is taking a pounding.

And with the busy holiday season coming up, they’re going to be run right out of business if they don’t pull their act together.

UPDATE — Shortly after I wrote the note above, I found a way to get around the line-up and it worked. I saw a posting that recommended NOT pushing any buttons on your phone after you connect to the 1-888 number. Just wait…and sure enough, I was connected within about 10 minutes.

Good news, right? Wrong.

I spoke to a nice young woman who checked the file and said it looked like there were some minor changes to the schedule, but nothing to worry about. (I had already figured that out by checking the flight info with United Airways myself.)

After taking all my information and confirming the changes, she came back on the line and told me that she couldn’t actually make the changes — that needs to be done by the “Change” department. Was I willing to wait on hold while she transferred my call?

“Will I have to wait for hours again just to get through?” I wondered.

“I don’t know,” she replied.

“You do realize that I’ve been trying to get through for two days? I don’t really want to do that again, you understand. Will I be placed in the main queue or transferred internally?”

“Oh, it will be internal. And I’m sorry about the wait. We are experiencing a heavy call volume and we’re trying to rectify the problem.”

Well, at least she was sticking to the key messages, even if she couldn’t do anything.

Give me a break. She was very apologetic, but unable to offer any alternative. So I went back on hold yet again.

That’s where I am right now. On hold again…I’ll update this post if I ever do get this resolved…

UPDATE 2: I still haven’t got through to anyone. I tried for awhile again this morning but I had to leave for Vancouver. Looks like this ticket may remain unconfirmed…for awhile anyway. Hopefully, someone will respond to email at some point.

UPDATE 3A while after the previous update, I did get an email from someone at Expedia. They asked me to provide them with a phone number, so someone could call me back. I sent them the number, but I never did hear back from them. Strange way of doing business.

Technorati Tags:
customer service, reputation, Expedia.ca