Nowadays, when I am done talking to telephone suport of any company, they seem to be trained to go through a long ceremony before letting me go: me: “Thanks, I am all set” They: “Did I solve all your problems”? me: “Yes, thanks” They: “Ok then thanks for calling XXXX” me: “You’re welcome” They: “Thanks and have a good day” me: “Thanks” Question: is it impolite for me to hang up before this whole ceremony is complete? Say “Yes, Thanks” and then hang up? Or am I being a rude, impatient, always in a hurry northeasterner?
I feel really bad for President Obama and I am still a big fan. But. As we all know now, this is a total disaster, on a lot of levels. For first hand experience, I tried to create an account on Healthcare.gov about the middle of October. After several tries I managed to do it. Yesterday I tried to l...
I want to direct your attention ton interesting article about $1 Billion Startups – “Unicorns” – on TechCrunch today. Some myths debunked and others confirmed: > So, we wondered, as we’re a year into our new fund (which doesn’t need to back billion-dollar companies to succeed, but hey, we like to learn): how likely is it for a startup to achieve a billion-dollar valuation? Is there anything we can learn from the mega hits of the past decade, like Facebook, LinkedIn and Workday? (from:Welcome To The Unicorn Club: Learning From Billion-Dollar Startups | TechCrunch🙂
Tim Kreider’s essay could apply as easily to all those people who complain that an iPhone app is not free, or is so so expensive at $5.99. Not too long ago a piece of software would get $99 or $495. Makes you wonder how long Adobe can keep on charging through the nose for Photoshop and Illustrator. ...
Really, this is NO JOKING MATTER > Rep. Upton said that “looking serious and nodding our heads a lot” contributed to the illusion that committee members had even scant comprehension of what was being discussed. “At the end of the day, a lot of it came down to not asking the questions you really wanted to ask,” he said. “Like, ‘What exactly is a Web site?’” (fromCongress Spends Several Hours Pretending to Understand Internet : The New Yorker)
This was a fun read with lots of cool insights. If your blood pressure surges and adrenalin courses through your veins as you approach the big white electronic temple then read on. Here’s an excerpt from: [Retail Therapy: Inside the Apple Store](http://gizmodo.com/retail-therapy-inside-the-apple-sto...
Who knew that a story about behind-the-scenes of a big restaurant could be gripping, but this one is. I guess it’s a combination of a fascinating operation with outstanding writing. Check it out. [22 Hours in Balthazar – NYTimes.com](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/20/magazine/22-hours-in-balthazar....
Amazing story of a great looking product, and awesome demo, on the spot investment of $100,000 and still… It didn’t work. The story was told by Scott Kirsner in the Boston Globe: > “Today, GreenGoose is out of business, and Krejcarek is grappling with $80,000 in credit card debt — his approach...
Fox News debuts bizarre, giant tablets in its outrageous new newsroom | The Verge: > Fox News has just unveiled a breathtakingly ridiculous newsroom, complete with novelty-sized Windows-based touchscreens, a Twitter wall, and a wannabe Minority Report-style display, which it hopes will connect it with generations of viewers who use smartphones and apps.
[](Y.Squarespace.Utils.lightboxAsset()Here’s how folks in Canada are convinced not to buy cigarettes. This is a box of cigarettes that I happened across in an airport in Canada. Pretty gross. yes, I am convinced!
Zegart joins scholars at NSA for rare briefing on spy agency’s woes – CISAC: > CISAC Co-Director Amy Zegart and nine other national security and intelligence scholars were recently invited to the headquarters of the National Security Agency in Fort Meade, Md., for unprecedented talks with high-ranking officials. They discussed cybersecurity, the plummeting public trust in the agency, its relationship with Congress and how to rebuild the agency’s reputation and rethink its program operations.
How much do you want to bet that somewhere someone in this country a malware or other attack is being launched against the new “Obamacare” Web site? I have great sympathy for the team(s) that put up that web site, back end and other support infrastructure for this site...
It is quite amazing (but not surprising) the degree of sophistication, care, and patience these hackers apply. Their engineering and business savvy are at the same level as the best of Google and Amazon. Data Broker Giants Hacked by ID Theft Service — Krebs on Security: > An identity theft service that sells Social Security numbers, birth records, credit and background reports on millions of Americans has infiltrated computers at some of America’s largest consumer and business data aggregators, according to a seven-month investigation by KrebsOnSecurity.
I stumbled across this article while waiting for a meeting to start. It is a bit “inside baseball”, in this case “inside brandeis” but it was revealing to me at least. Students can “shop” for courses for the first two weeks of the term, attending classes and adding and dropping at will during that t...
I just saw that the final “Season” of Mad Men will be delivered in two mini-seasons, 7 episdodes in 2014 and 7 more in 2015. I had this idea for a TV show that has not been done yet. Just like the contrivance of 24 hours is that it occurred over a 24 hour period, in real time, my show, called 30 Ye...
Good news: I looked up what the trade-in value is for my iPhone 4S 32Gig. Much to my pleasant surprise, it’s $195. Almost enough to pay for my new iPhone 5S! Bad news: If I hadn’t stupidly engraved it, the trade-in price would be $220. Word to the wise: Don’t engrave.
](Y.Squarespace.Utils.lightboxAsset()Here’s how folks in Canada are convinced not to buy cigarettes. This is a box of cigarettes that I happened across in an airport in Canada. Pretty gross. yes, I am convinced!