Opinions Archives - Page 13 of 30

Need to work with, not against human nature

The below article brought an interesting response from one of my friends:

I’m all for it but it reminds me of the reverse logic gun advocates use when they suggest that giving everyone guns will make sure that no one gets shot.

To which I responded:

Nah, the gun advocates logic is a) theoretical and b) not that nobody will get shot, just that criminals are cowards and will be less likely to do their bad things if *everybody* is armed. Doesn’t really speak to crimes of passion and just plain idiot folk.

The below story seems to be verging on anecdotal (not sure if “road rage” has a clear definition for consistent reporting) but I thought it interesting since it goes with my philosophy of not fighting human nature but rather trying to come up with systems and rules that work with how folks function naturally….

Just like that building (I forget where now) that didn’t bother putting sidewalks and paths around for about a year and then just paved and landscaped around where all the wear marks were. The didn’t waste all their efforts trying to put up fences and signs trying to make people conform to some foreign idea of how people “should” use the space.

What do you think?

“When the speed limit was raised from 55 mph to 70 mph, incidents of aggressive driving dropped to zero.” (detnews.com)

MagicJack – adipiscor, experior, remitto

Also loosely (and probably poorly) translated – To Acquire, To Try, To Return.

I had heard about MagicJack from our local consumer advisor “Clark Howard“. The idea is that you get this USB dongle-like piece of hardware that you plug into your computer, it runs a bit of software that allows your computer to work with it and control a soft phone, and you plug any normal phone into the other end of the MagicJack appliance and you can make calls through your computer and broadband connection for next to nothing.

I had recently switched from AT&T to Comcast and Michelle wanted to have a landline (or equivalent) as she’s got a real bee in her bonnet about using a cell phone when she’s at home.

The MagicJack proposition is pretty simple, you pay $20 (Plus $6.95 s&h) for the dongle-device and then you pay $19.95 a year thereafter for unlimited local and long distance calling thereafter. At least long distance to Canada and within the United States. I didn’t pay too much attention long distance rates to other locales as I seldom call those.

The website is pretty sparse, I suppose that’s a good thing, but it didn’t give me a great sense of permanence. And the video of the kid talking to the MagicJack guy on the main page is just plain creepy.

I have to say the upsell when you’re trying to make the purchase is pretty annoying, it’s on a par with GoDaddy.com. There are about a half dozen screens you need to click through offering you a second MagicJack for X dollars, upgrade NOW for 5 Years at a reduced cost and on and on. But after wading through all that crap you finally can click to have the MagicJack sent to you.

I tried out my unit for about 10 days before I got an RMA off of the website and returned it. The first thing I noticed was that the unit really doesn’t play nice with Google Voice, which I’ve been using for years now and rather like. When you want to add a new phone number to your Google Voice account you get a confirmation number which you are supposed to punch into your phone when the Google Voice system calls you. Through MagicJack I couldn’t hear the Google Voice prompts so I had to just guess at when to type in the confirmation code. This happened for both mine and Michelle’s Google Voice lines as I was setting them up on separate days.

I also had that weird happening where iTunes would only play through my telephone until I rebooted the computer after I had first set up the MagicJack on my system.

If that were the end of it I suppose I would have been OK with it. After all $20 a year for phone service is pretty darned good. But I kind of wanted it to be reliable too.

I found that, about half to a third of the time, I could not pick up my Google Voice calls through the MagicJack phone line. If you’re not familiar with Google Voice, it defaults to a “presentation mode” where, when you pick up the phone, it will announce the caller and give you the option to pick it up, send to voicemail, record or ignore the call. I’d pick up the phone, the call would be announced and then none of my keypresses would be passed through to Google Voice. So I’d quickly need to pick up my cell phone to answer the call.

More frustrating, about one in five calls would end up being just crap. Either I or the other person on the line could not understand the other (it seemed to be one way failing at a time).

Finally, a couple of times during my testing, the MagicJack software simply stopped. No crash, no warning dialog, it just wasn’t running anymore. The first time I was at home and I just unplugged and re-plugged in the dongle-device. But the second time Michelle was home alone and, as far as she was concerned, the phone system just wasn’t working. My computer is always locked by default and it’s not really her forte, nor her desire, to troubleshoot the phone system when she wants to use it.

So I’d say that MagicJack is probably worthwhile for a modestly tech-savvy person living alone who leaves their computer on all the time and who hasn’t just simply moved to a cell-phone only existence.

For me, I’ve now re-upped with Vonage and things have been very smooth. Having the dedicated router for the phone (rather than relying on a computer being on) is a big plus. Also, the Vonage connection is rock-solid and I’ve had no problems at all with it working with Google Voice. I don’t install my Vonage router in the prescribed method (cable modem — Vonage Router — Linksys router) because I prefer to keep control over my system directly, so I have my Vonage router plugged into my Linksys WRT54G with DD-WRT firmware and have assigned it a permanent IP AND set the Quality of Service so that the Vonage router gets priority. Haven’t had ANY issues so far…

But, since nobody is perfect, I’ll keep an eye on it for a while 🙂

The unspoken truth about managing geeks

There is so much that I agree with in this article “The unspoken truth about managing geeks” that I can’t stress how much reading it in its entirety would be beneficial for every single manager and above in my (or any) company.

The only two things that I would add are:

1) A manager of an IT team, in my view, also needs to be there to champion causes embraced by the team – often IT workers have little clout in the business / political arena and a good manager nurtures relationships that allow them to gain support for IT driven initiatives. They also need to run interference and protect team members from dreary and pointless reports and statuses demanded by upper management or business units. Allowing IT folks to do what they do best.

2) The view of IT folks is somewhat romanticized and idealized. Just like any group of people, you’ll have many walks of life. The author falls victim – just a bit – to more favorable stereotypes. Even though they are an improvement, they must also be taken with a grain of salt. Not ALL IT folks are keen on finding the best, most efficient way to do something. Some folks’ BS detectors are much better than others, etc. But I think anybody who has actively worked with IT folks knows this and can keep that little grain of salt handy while reading the article.

I can’t believe I’m going to patronize Comcast again :(

After being with AT&T for about 3 years, I find that their U-verse rollout is conflicting with my DSL connectivity. According to a guy I know at AT&T I’m far enough away from the nearest Central Office that they have a special profile for me (anybody my distance from the CO). I’m about 18,000 feet away and that’s apparently a pretty big deal.

As I understand it, this particular profile can cause interference with U-verse transmissions and so I’m being scaled back to some other profile. The long and short of it is that my AT&T DSL keeps dropping which I noted as a problem in my blog a couple of months ago. After verifying that all wires were properly attached to things they needed to be attached to, the tech changed my profile and made a few other soft adjustments and everything settled down and worked perfectly. However, he warned me that this could change at any time. It’s just that he knew that nobody was using U-Verse on my … what do you call it .. trunk? Node? Who knows? So this wouldn’t adversely affect anybody.

This worked great for about a month but, as of yesterday, it seems that the profile has been reset again. This happened once before but then switched back on its own. My little DSL light (on my modem) has been flashing red fairly regularly whenever I want to surf the web. I’m told my best option would be to downgrade my service to a 3 Mbps or possibly some kind of 1 Mbps connection in order to guarantee stability.

So, I checked out Satellite (why does Hughes NOT give you ANY technical details on their site?), Wi-Max (not in my area yet) and looked into various local providers but it appears that I really can only choose between my two duopoly-mates AT&T or Comcast.

Looking on Comcast’s site I saw a plan (“Performance” 15 Mbps down / 3 Mpbs up ) that would be $19.99 / month for the first 6 months and then $42.99 thereafter. Then I found that that deal only applied if you got cable too. So the price otherwise will be a straight $59.99 / month.

I found a deal that offered the same $19.99 *plus* a $125 Amazon gift card but then found that was only for 6 Mbps / maybe 1 Mbps. To get to the “Performance” plan performance I’d end up paying $69.99 / month. Man! Comcast definitely makes sure you will pay every last cent to them even if they offer you a deal, it seems you will repay the offer in spades.

So, I reluctantly went back to the original Comcast site and filled everything in again (I canceled the original order when I found out that the small print prevented me from getting any kind of deal) and found that this time it let me right through. So, for Internet service ONLY I now seem to qualify for $19.99 per month and $42.99 after 6 months. I went so far as to confirm this with the Comcast rep that comes up in chat mode when you submit your order and all seems copacetic.

I get the new service installed on Tuesday (maybe) so we’ll see…

WallyPark – Can’t really figure out their Points

I was reviewing my recent WallyPark receipt from my trip up to Toronto at the end August and could not at all figure out why I didn’t have enough points to cover this trip’s stay.

So I’ve sent them this email. I’m posting this in case anybody else uses them. Take a close look at your receipts. If you’re a member of their “WallyClub” (I know, I know – sounds like a Chevy Chase movie) you have access to every receipt that you’ve paid for their services. Check them out and see if you can make heads or tails of it.

Hi,

My name is Marc Bourassa, I travel only occasionally and have been using your services since you acquired the Atlanta location from Airpark.

Recently, after a 5 day stay I was surprised that I had only 10 points available to me to apply against my balance. So they applied 7 points and I paid the rest.

In reviewing my receipts I can see that, for some reason I *always* seem to have 10 points available to me, no more ever seem to get applied to my balance regardless of my stays.

I’m also having trouble determining why my 3 day & 3 hr stay on 5/4/09 cost me $43.

Why I’m writing:

What I’d like is a review of my charges and point accruals / debits to date – this shouldn’t be that difficult as I have only a dozen transactions.

I’d also recommend that your site be updated to maintain a proper running balance of points. As it is it’s not very user friendly.

Overall I’m pretty satisfied with WallyPark’s services. The shuttles are always available when I’m headed to the airport and I have seldom had to wait for a shuttle when returning from the airport. But I also like to understand what I am going to pay and like to feel that I’m being treated fairly even with incentive plans. Please help me understand where I may be in error or work with me to correct any mistakes that may have been made.

Thanks for looking into this,

Marc

“Severe Weather Alert” being made less useful?

Earlier, on Saturday, I checked the weather using “Yahoo!” as I do any morning and I saw that there was a “Severe Weather Alert”. This is typically a hyperlink, in an attention-getting red font to let me know that a dire weather situation is either in process or approaching. So I clicked on it to read… this…

Severe Weather Alert Marietta

Ignore for now the fact that nobody understands what an “Orange” anything is, what the hell is this doing as a *Severe Weather Alert*? Tell me about flooding, tornadoes, high winds… tell me about *weather*.

I don’t really see why “grandma may be sensitive to the smog” needs to be here. We already have resources that cater to special needs folks and their sensitivities. I know because I check those too. I have allergies and I check the allergy page to see what’s up pollen-wise.

I also disagree with the Severe Weather Alert page being used to indicate that conditions are ripe for a fire to start somewhere in the woods if you’re careless with your matches. I can *kind* of see how it is related to the weather but it’s not really “severe weather” in and of itself is it? Now, once the fire has started, I can see the smoke being blown around becoming part of some kind of weather advisory as it has become part of the local weather system. I’d want to know about fog or smoke impacting my local area. *That* can affect my drive or my plans to go golfing.

We need to stop watering down our systems because they’re handy. Pretty soon we’ll start having those “not even remotely proven to be effective” “Amber Alerts” for child abductions being included in the severe weather alert simply because it is accessed by a localized demographic rather than because it meets the criteria of being actually “weather”.

A lot of systems are created with good intentions and are often quite effective. I *like* the Severe Weather Alert system. It’s when they get hijacked for other purposes because folks are too lazy to put the effort into establishing a new system that they begin to lose their effect.

If I see “Severe Weather Alerts” often and keep finding them to be something not even remotely relevant to that purpose, of course I’m going to start ignoring them and probably get caught with my pants down the next time a severe thunderstorm or a tornado advisory is being published.

Oh and, in spite of my allergies, I completed a 31 mile bicycle ride in this “orange air” and don’t seem to be the worse for it.

Subway, overpricing by accident? Does anybody know?

I was in a Subway restaurant a few weeks ago (July 20), the one in Alpharetta at 131 South Main Street, and decided to split a sub with my wife. We ordered their foot-long Chicken and Bacon Ranch sub, toasted. This is a premium sub that goes for $7 according to their menu. We “make it a meal” for an additional $2 and get a medium drink and potato chips too.

Somehow, when this is rung up it costs $10.70. So I point this out to the manager and she checks the menu and sees that this is obviously not right, apologizes and refunds me the difference. She also says something about how she’s not sure why the computer is doing this but she’ll get it taken care of.

Yesterday, we went back to Subway and ordered the same meal again (I am really a sucker for that sub) and, lo and behold, the same situation. Again I pointed it out and this time there was no question just a “Gee, you’re right, it’s still wrong.”. The manager remembered me from last time and told me they had no control over the pricing in the computer but that she’ll notify “head office” again.

Am I being cynical here in believing that Subway is overcharging on a premium item because they know that they *can*? How carefully do you check your change or the price when you are at a fast food restaurant?

Don’t get me wrong, the employees were very polite and there was never any question about what I should be paying for the sub. But it seems to me that such a glaring error is something that would be addressed quickly.

Does anybody know of any other Subway overcharging? Is this an isolated thing at an isolated store or is this something a bit more widespread. Given that they claim that pricing is set centrally I should think that all the Subway restaurants in a certain area (presumably throughout Alpharetta at least) would share the same pricing tables and, hence, will all be charging the wrong price.

Let me know…

If you make it more efficient, people will use more of it

It’s just human nature. It’s not a bad thing, but it *is* something that we really need to wrap our heads around.

When we make predictions regarding the consumption or saving of resources, they always seem to be straight-line, single factor predictions. Yet time and again we see that, when you make things more efficient people will find new and innovative uses for them that will ultimately either wash out the savings or end up consuming greater quantities thereof.

In a book that I read back in October of 2006, “The Bottomless Well: The Twilight of Fuel, the Virtue of Waste, and Why We Will Never Run Out of Energy“ by Peter Huber & Mark Miles they argue this theory quite convincingly.

It was with some amusement then, that I read this article in “thecarconnection.com” (Hybrid Drivers More Ticket- and Accident-Prone) where, in establishing the context for the article they point out that recreational (read “discretionary”) driving by hybrid owners is about 25% greater than by non-hybrid owners.

I’m not sure if this would be because folks who drive more tend to buy hybrids or if it’s that folks who drive hybrids tend to rationalize extra driving due to their reduced per-mile fuel consumption. The reality is probably a combination of those factors plus others that I haven’t even considered.

The reality is that human psychology is not easily predictable and you can pretty much guarantee that you *can’t* guarantee what effects changes in policy or technology will have when you have people involved in the mix. And any artificial influences (legislation) had better be crafted in such a way as to be able to accommodate that reality and respond flexibly when the unintended consequences do eventually manifest.

Holy water ban to halt swine flu

It’s too bad they don’t have some kind of, I dunno, supernatural power available to them that could help them resist…

Holy water ban to halt swine flu

Say… does anybody understand why it’s OK to skip drinking the blood o’ Christ now? If you subscribe to transubstantiation shouldn’t the wine be… well… sterile?
And if it’s OK now.. why not all the time? These shortcuts could really save money in the long run.

Hey! I won! Cameradojo.com contest

The day after my birthday I was listening to one of my podcasts when I heard my name mentioned as one of the winners of their most recent contest. It turns out I won Cameradojo’s third prize of a Lensbaby Composer! This is a very well regarded lens in photographic circles, it lets you do some pretty cool things in-camera. Most notably being able to have a spot (apparently ANY spot) in your image crisply focused while keeping the rest of the image in a pleasing blur.

I knew immediately that this was something well beyond my abilities to take advantage of. So I shot a quick note to the guy who runs the Cameradojo podcast (Kerry Garrison) to see if the fellow who won the fifth prize, a Think Tank Backpack (just click the “Backpacks” image), would be willing to make a like-for-like swap. I presume Think Tank Photo would be offering their least expensive offering so I figured I was trading a $270 cool lens for a $140 utilitarian backpack, something I would have much more use in my situation. Maybe a bad deal by some folks’ reckoning but it’s more important to me to have stuff I’ll use than to have stuff ’cause it’s valuable.

I wasn’t sure what to expect, but Kerry did go that extra mile and contacted the other winner on my behalf and, no surprising, he agreed to the swap.

So now I’m waiting for the new backpack to arrive! I’m looking forward to having something made to protect my camera instead of my current system of using a normal backpack and padding things rather haphazardly with various cloths.