META Happy New Year 2008: a "best of" 2007 BEST OFs
Let's start by wishing you a prosperous, joyous and all-around successful happy new year! We wish we could join other sites in presenting you with an insightful retrospective; alas, we cannot - we only started a couple of months ago, and we have yet to finalize the "look and feel" of our website.
What we can do, however, is throw you a floating device to help you breath through the "must read" reviews, retrospectives and predictions for the coming year - after all, Wired thinks that information overload will be THE problem for 2008 (1). But where Wired sees a problem, Seth, who just published a new book, sees only opportunities (2).
Established, fast growing sites can and will dazzle you with "best of " lists drawn from their own content. Lifehack, for instance, will bombard you with 70 tips and tricks, all worth reading (3) and if that's too much, Lifehacker has more (4). Confused?!? Well, you'll need to clear your head and gain a new perspective on life. Zen Habits comes to the rescue, with their own "best of" homebrew compilation (5).
If Seth wet your appetite for business news, you might want to jump straight to what the Economist has to say. Until then, our 6th "best of" is a compilation of the best Internet Marketing articles (6); you will find this most useful if you blog for money or if, unlike most internauts for whom the Internet is Pornland, you think of the Web as a still untapped resource. Entertainment is most likely the main driver of Internet searches and tigsource answers that call with a compilation of the best freeware games of 2007 (7).
Two thousand and seven wasn't exactly 1984, but like every year since 2001 it's been marred all over the world by progressive losses of civil rights and particularly of privacy. If that is your concern, you will find 8,9 and 10 particularly troubling. Google is the king of the new world, but the convenience it's showering on its subjects comes with warnings. The more you rely on Google, the more you stand to lose in privacy. Considering that all your email can be so easily stolen, it should come as no surprise to anyone that there are people still using Yahoo for email (11).
Considering how much good press Google has been getting at the expense of Yahoo, you might find that odd. When it comes to oddities, 2007 had its share. Let Reuters quickly walk you through the oddest of them (12). If you'd rather look at photos, find them at Oddrama (13).
One news item the Internet publishers should excel at is technology news, stars and dogs of 2007. In terms of products, Amazon has its unbeatable list of the best (14), but don't be fooled, Amazon has long ago ceased selling only books. If books is what you want to find, look no further than NYT's list (15). Going back to technologies that people actually don't have to make new year's resolutions to use, whether it's websites, products of software programs, you will find them in the next reviews (16-20). As you might expect, Vista is a disappointment, IE7 struggles as well, the iPhone is a resounding success, OLPC is a landmark not so much in adoption but in bringing prices down, the eeepc is its logical companion, Facebook and Digg are the social marvels of the Internet (at the expense of myspace and reddit, respectively) and the solid-state hard-disks would've taken over the world were it not for their high price and, more importantly, their limited size (18).
Youtube is as dumb as most of us, but there is light at the end of the tunnel (21) - also, have a look at the videos grouped in the right-hand column, they are rather dense :)
IBM takes a stab of reading their crystal ball (22), predicting an intelligent grid where we get to plug in intelligent machines named Lenovo and purchase Chinese intellectual products through through IBM's intelligent brokerage. From IBM to open source there is a minimal leap to make (23, 24). Open source software (affectionately known as FOSS, because it is most of all FREE) is what people who are smart and cheap use. There is this thing called Linux that was supposed to take over the world, but it has yet to do so in real, significant numbers.
You might think that the FOSS controversies and politics do not matter since they do not translate even in the rapidly depreciating USD. In that case, the Economist, our fav publication, has a forward looking analysis of the markets in 2008 (25) and also a look a 3 technology predictions for 2008 (27). Don't miss the article on charts, you'll enjoy it even (or especially) if you've never tried technical analysis!
IT Canada World looks at the tech startups to watch for 2008 (29); if you think that it's their technology that makes them special, you're right - here's a retrospective look at the breakthroughs of 2007 (30). Some are simply amazing and it's hard to believe they happened all in the same year: we can make stem cells from the skin, we can make Type O blood using enzymes / bacteria and we find out that female chimpanzees can make spears for hunting.
With so many achievements behind, 2008, the year of the Rat, is hard to beat the good old 2007, but it surely will :)
Once again, a Happy New Year!
UPDATE (Jan 1): Hangover alert! We forgot to include Michael Geist's excellent A to Z review of the year in law & technology, 2007 Darwin Award Winners or even the 2007 memorable quote list with video!!Sources
Corrections
20080126 - readmore + clean-up
Fac(eboo)k off, Canadian Pornking!
Just like pop will eat itself, Facebook will one day self-destruct (2). Until then, it's getting an ever increasing mind-share and implicitly expanding media coverage. In the last salvo in this war for our brainspace, we learn that Facebook is taking a Canadian porn site to court over alleged attempts to steal private details of users(1).
The lawsuit names Istra Holdings Inc., the numbered company affiliated with SlickCash, and defendants Brian Fabian and Josh Raskin as either "residing or working" at the same Toronto address. The SlickCash website boasts that its partners have been "involved in every facet of the online adult industry" since 1999. The suit also names Ming Wu and six other defendants whose identities remain unknown. The amended complaint was filed last Wednesday after Facebook was granted court orders in Canada forcing Internet service providers Rogers Communications and Look Communications to divulge subscriber information.
Obviously, it's great to hear that the two ISPs, Look and Rogers have actually upheld the privacy of a user, no matter who they were or what they've done. After all, the allegations have yet to be proven in court. We can only hope that they do the same with all such requests and are not using this as a PR opportunity. As for PR, it is unlikely IMHO that Facebook will recover at least the money spent on trial from that numbered corporation even if they win, which if true, suggests that the trial itself is rather demonstrative - although clearly necessary and a step in the right direction. Almost since its inception, Facebook faced significant criticism regarding its privacy policies. The following video clip has been around for more than 1 year and is alleging a nefarious connection between Facebook and CIA / NSA.Facebook and Privacy
Facebook had its share of privacy woes, perhaps far more than any other Web 2.0 outfit. It started with persistent allegations of connections to CIA. This is not as outlandish as it may seem. CIA has an official policy, launched in the previous decade, of cooperation with private corporations and of active involvement in the private sector. It only makes sense that they do this, as that is the most efficient way of spending the taxpayer's dollars.
Some of the privacy issues the Facebook users identify are not always valid. Nonetheless, the Beacon system is a little too intrusive for anybody who delves into the details.Facebook vs. Myspace
It's hard to believe today that Myspace was once mightier than Facebook. Facebook has become cooler long time ago and has been growing much faster. It seems that Facebook users are more educated, usually university students and graduates, whereas Myspace addresses the lower end of the spectrum.Advertising on Facebook
With its increasing popularity, Facebook has become a great advertising medium.
Facebook is now a microuniverse on its own.Sources
Corrections
none so far!
Massive, unfixed security flaw at Passport Canada
We just learned about a very serious security flaw in the Passport Canada website accepting online applications. Other people's information can be easily accessed by simply applying for a passport and then altering characters in your browser's address bar. The flaw was discovered by Jamie Laning, an IT worker at Algonquin Automotive, in Huntsville, Ontario. The available data includes SINs, driver's licence numbers, mailing addresses, business and phone numbers, federal ID card numbers and even a firearms licence number. Says Carlisle Adams, professor at U of O:
This is exactly how identity theft happens. If you want to take out a mortgage, for example, this is the type of information the bank is going to ask for to make sure you're really the person you're claiming to be. Then all of a sudden there's a mortgage in someone else's name.Although Mr. Laning alerted Passport Canada of the problem last week and the site was suspended through yesterday, the problem has not been fixed, despite Passport Canada's claim to the contrary. While the security flaw in itself is not the most terrible thing, it is deeply unsettling to learn that Passport Canada was unable to fix it within one week, that it deceptively claimed it fixed it and that Canadian law does not even require disclosure of privacy breaches. This means that there may be many more security breaches that happen but we do not know about them, unless somebody makes a FOF request.
The security breach follows two significant events concerning personal information. On Nov. 21, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson introduced legislation making it an offence to obtain, possess or traffic in people's identity information for the purposes of committing a crime. Just two days earlier, Britain's tax and customs service announced it had lost disks containing banking and personal data of 25 million people."I think it's very clear that a strong, mandatory security-breach law is long overdue in this country and it's cases like these that highlight it," said Michael Geist, a law professor at the University of Ottawa.This is not the first negative media report to hit Passport Canada. Only a couple of months ago, Canadian Press issued the following:
Canadian law does not require organizations to disclose when they've suffered security breaches. In the United States the majority of states have enacted legislation requiring organizations to disclose security breaches within a specified period of time.
Passport Canada is reporting continued long delays in processing mailed-in passport applications, despite a streamlined renewal process and hundreds of new employees. And there is concern those delays will only get longer as the busy winter travel season approaches.It now takes a minimum of six weeks to get a passport through the mail; two weeks longer than the agency's benchmark of four weeks.The way our secretive, inept government works, we would not be surprised if Mr. Laning would be charged with terrorism. It is much easier to find a scapegoat than hiring a knowledgeable IT security firm and have the problem fixed.
And that doesn't include the time it takes to get applications and documents through Canada Post.
UPDATE: Brian Masse (NDP) raised this issue in Question Period and Minister Maxime Bernier was told by CEO Gérard Cossette that the website is now "among the most secure".
IT Business published an article citing concerns that the privacy breach will lead to ID theft.
Source: Passport applicant finds massive privacy breach, Globe and Mail Read More to See the Light...
Private domain registration
Put simply, private domain registration refers to the ability to protect your private info when registering a website or domain name (a domain name is, for instance, ConsumedConsumer.org). Normally, when you register this name, it is available for anyone to search and display using a whois query, unless you take special precautions and register it privately. Spammers have spam bots (computers or programs designed to automate spamming) that harvest this data and dump it in a database that is then used to spam you. If you register it privately, your own name, address, email and phone number are protected. Instead, your webhost will publish their corporate contact info and will handle all legal communication on your behalf. This is one more way you can reduce spam, or unneeded commercial "communication".
Ever since GoDaddy started offering private domain registrations, a "host" of webhosts followed suit. The terms of the webhost I used to purchase my domain name are not that amazing: too many disclaimers, but unfortunately, this is pretty much standard in the industry. In particular, I am concerned that costs may escalate out of control and I may not hear in time of a potential lawsuit or DMCA takedown notice or similar legal document. Hopefully, it will all work out. :)
Here is the full text of the license:
License
TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR
PRIVATE DOMAIN NAME REGISTRATION
By ordering Private Domain Name Registration Services from 1&1 Internet, Inc. ("1&1"), you ("you" or "Customer") agree to the terms and conditions set forth herein. The provisions contained in these Terms and Conditions for Private Domain Name Registration (the "Agreement") incorporate and are supplemental to 1&1's General Terms and Conditions (the "1&1 GT&C"), by which you are also bound, to the extent they are not modified by this Agreement.
1. SUBJECT OF THE AGREEMENT
The Agreement governs the provision of Private Domain Name Registration Services (the “Services”) to the Customer by 1&1. The Services comprise the registration and renewal of domain names using contact information provided by 1&1, as described below, which information will appear in the public WHOIS database on your behalf.
2. SERVICES PROVIDED
2.1
1&1 will acquire a Second-Level Domain Name ("Private Domain Name"), on your behalf, assuming that the Domain Name you request is available for registration. 1&1 will not own any Private Domain Name registered on your behalf under this Section. Any costs incurred by 1&1 to obtain and/or maintain the Private Domain Name on your behalf shall be charged to you by 1&1. Private Domain Names may not be transferred. The toplevel domain .us may not be registered as a Private Domain Name.
2.2
You authorize and direct 1&1 to display alternate contact information in the public WHOIS database, including names, postal address, phone number, and email address, as more particularly outlined below.
2.3
You authorize and direct 1&1 to process communications directed to you at the contact information displayed in the public WHOIS database as follows:
2.3.1
An e-mail alias pointing to your 1&1 account will be created once you have purchased the Services, and that e-mail address will be displayed in the public WHOIS database. Messages received at the e-mail address posted in the public WHOIS database for your Private Domain Name will be forwarded to the e-mail address associated with your account name or to another e-mail address, in accordance with the preferences you set in the 1&1 Control Panel. Disabling the Services will delete this e-mail address and remove it from the WHOIS database. Once an e-mail address is removed from the public WHOIS database it will no longer be a valid e-mail address for the receipt of messages. You acknowledge that you may not receive messages sent such e-mail address once the Services are disabled.
2.3.2
1&1’s corporate address will be the postal address displayed in the public WHOIS database for the Private Domain Name. You hereby authorize 1&1 to receive, sort, open, forward, and destroy any and all mail sent to 1&1 on your behalf in its sole discretion. Third class and "junk" mail will be discarded upon receipt or returned to the sender unopened. First-class mail and mail received via certified mail or courier, including but not limited to Federal Express, United Parcel Services, and similar services, will be opened and all such mail that can be scanned will be scanned and sent to you via the e-mail address associated with the 1&1 account for the Private Domain Name. You acknowledge that you will have five (5) calendar days from the date such mail is sent to you via e-mail to request in writing that a copy of such scanned mail be forwarded to you via postal mail. You acknowledge that unless you direct us otherwise in writing within such five (5) calendar day period, all such mail will be destroyed five (5) calendar days after a scanned copy is sent to you via e-mail. All mail that is unable to be scanned will be forwarded to you at your expense at the postal address associated with the account for the applicable domain name.
2.3.3
1&1 reserves the right to charge you for, and you are responsible for paying, all fees and costs associated with 1&1 forwarding postal mail. 1&1 further reserves the right to charge an administrative charge of $5.00 per item forwarded. You authorize 1&1 to apply any such charges to your credit card pursuant to the 1&1 GT&C.
2.3.4
A telephone number will be displayed in the public WHOIS database for the Private Domain Name which will be answered by a voice mail system. Callers will be informed of how to contact you using the information displayed in the public WHOIS database, however, they will not be able to leave messages.
2.4
You hereby waive any and all claims arising from your failure to receive communications directed to your domain name contact information displayed in the public WHOIS database but not forwarded to you by 1&1. You acknowledge and agree that you will not receive all communications sent to you at the contact information listed in the public WHOIS database. You further acknowledge and agree that 1&1 disclaims any and all loss or liability that may result from your use of the Services and/or your failure to receive important correspondence sent to you at the contact information displayed in the public WHOIS database, including, but not limited to, legal notices or UDRP complaints.
3. Warranties and Indemnification
3.1.
You warrant that the contact information you have provided to 1&1 is and will remain accurate. You agree that you will inform 1&1 within fifteen (15) calendar days of the change of your name, mailing address, email address, telephone or telefax number.
3.2.
You warrant to 1&1 that any Domain Name you may seek to register through 1&1 does not violate the rights of any third party, in particular trademark rights, and that you have taken reasonable steps, including but not limited to searches of the applicable state and federal trademark registries, to assure that this is the case.
3.3.
You agree to indemnify and hold harmless 1&1, its officers, directors, employees and agents, with respect to any and all damages, losses, claims or expenses incurred with respect to or arising out of claims of third parties concerning your use of the Services or the Private Domain Name.
3.4.
You acknowledge and agree that 1&1 has the absolute right and power, as it deems necessary in its sole discretion, without providing notice and without any liability to you whatsoever, to (1) reveal to third parties the contact information provided by you to 1&1 in connection with the account for the applicable domain name, (2) populate the public WHOIS database with your name, primary postal address, e-mail address and/or telephone number as provided by you to 1&1, or (3) terminate your subscription to the Services:
3.4.1
if, in 1&1’s sole discretion, you violate the terms of the 1&1 GT&C;
3.4.2
if any third party claims that the domain name violates or infringes a third party's trademark, trade name or other legal rights, whether or not such claim is valid;
3.4.3
to comply with ICANN policies or requirements, including but not limited to the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP)
3.4.3
to comply with any applicable laws, government rules or requirements, subpoenas, court orders, requests of law enforcement or government agencies; or
3.4.4
if any third party threatens legal action against 1&1 that is related in any way, directly or indirectly, to the domain name, or claims that you are using the domain name registration in a manner that violates any law, rule or regulation, or is otherwise illegal or violative of a third party's legal rights.
3.5.
ALL 1&1 SERVICES ARE PROVIDED TO YOU ON AN "AS IS" BASIS, AND WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
4. Dispute Resolution
4.1.
This Agreement shall be interpreted under the laws of the State of Pennsylvania, without regard to any conflict of laws provisions. Any claim, dispute or controversy with respect to, in connection with or arising out of this Agreement shall be subject to and decided by arbitration in the City of Philadelphia, County of Philadelphia, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, by a panel of three arbitrators chosen in accordance with terms of the 1&1 GT&C.
4.2.
1&1 may without advance notice amend this Agreement or the from time to time, and will do so by posting the new Agreement on the 1&1 website in place of the old. Each and every such amendment shall be become effective immediately for all pre-existing and future accounts. It is your responsibility to periodically check the 1&1 website for updates of this Agreement.
Here is their domain price list:
1&1 gives you the opportunity to secure your preferred name as your own address. Don't miss your chance!
1&1 currently offers 11 different top level domains (TLDs) to register, and we will be extending the registration service to offer you further domain addresses.
The TLDs we offer are .com, .us, .net, .org, .info, .name, .mobi, .biz, .tv, .cc and .ws , which are international and help you to reach the largest possible viewing audience.
Domain Price List
Domain Price (US$)* Type Example
.com $6.99/year
(flat rate) Generic domain www.domain-of-your-choice.com
.us $6.99/year
(flat rate) United States of America www.domain-of-your-choice.us
.net $6.99/year
(flat rate) Generic domain www.domain-of-your-choice.net
.org $6.99/year
(flat rate) Organizations and clubs www.domain-of-your-choice.org
.info $6.99/year
(flat rate) Information www.domain-of-your-choice.info
.name $6.99/year
(flat rate) Generic personal domain www.domain-of-your-choice.name
.biz $2.99**
(flat rate) Generic business domain www.domain-of-your-choice.biz
.tv $29.99/year
(flat rate) Tuvalu (television) www.domain-of-your-choice.tv
.cc $19.99/year
(flat rate) Cocos (Keeling) Islands www.domain-of-your-choice.cc
.ws $8.99/year
(flat rate) Samoa (website) www.domain-of-your-choice.ws
.mobi $19.99/year
(flat rate) Mobile content www.domain-of-your-choice.mobi
* Each domain additionally added to your contract has a minimum term of 1 year and will be charged for this period in advance.
** $2.99 for the first year, after that the regular price of $8.99 applies. Offer is limited to new orders and a number of 25 domains per customer and package.
Echoes:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/09/17/go_daddy_offers_anonymous_domain/
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum25/3548.htm Read More to See the Light...
Monkeys for Nothing You Get Chimps for Free I
Money for nothin' was perhaps the first British MTV success. The channel had just launched and they needed some cool videos to go with their song, so they persuaded Knopfler to go with this idea. In the first days of the British MTV, this video was playing non-stop and although today the animation appears a bit crude, back then it was hailed as revolutionary. And so was the very concept of a video clip in the symbolic 1984. It was the start of a new era, the start of a new consumption channel, a channel that was going to fundamentally change the music business.
Blogging for money is also a relatively new business. Although it's been around for a few years, today it seems that everybody wants in. You can find articles about professional blogging (or "blogging for money" as everybody knows it) on Microsoft (How to make money from your blog: 5 tips), Washington Post (Make Money off Your Blog), CNN (Business 2.0: Blogging for Dollars), O'Reilly (Blogging for Dollars: Giving Rise to the Professional Blogger) and others. Tellingly, the New York Times compares this fad to an addiction (For Some, The Blogging Never Stops) :) Even the Economist has started blogs, which is a radical change for a publication that's not a daily. Apart from the attention of established new media outfits, there are clear signs that the blogging revolution is far from over. Although Technorati has been around forever, search engines, including Google, have recently launched "blogging search". The Internet market research clearinghouses (Alexa, Netcraft, Compete, ComScore, Hitwise, Nielsen//NetRatings, Netcraft, Ranking.com, and Quantcast) seem to also indicate blogs' increasing mind share.
Another very clear sign that blogging is a profession in its own right is the appearance of blogs dedicated to this very phenomenon. There are two major blogs dominating the landscape, and gathering the lion share of the traffic: Steve Pavlina's blog (SP) and ProBlogger (PB). While Steve Pavlina is dedicated to self-improving and as such is more general, PB has a bevy of articles about blogging for money. I've read a few from SP, and to me they seem mostly "inspirational" but short on substance or things that I did not already know. By contrast, PB is far more task and detail oriented. I suppose SP makes his readers feel good but without really offering anything visionary or mind-blowing, in much the same way a motivational speaker uplifts her audience. You could combine reading SP for inspiration and read PB for the technical perspective.
The one thing you learn well reading SP's blog is the fine art of keeping your readers' eyeballs glued to the screen without exploding them or burning them out. Unfortunatley, this is an art I am unlikely to ever master. I am too opinionated. Even though it may not seem that way, writing this kind of articles takes a lot of self-control and focus, and I'm not sure I have that in the required quantity. I spent a few hours reading some of their very many articles (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21), only to realise at the end that I haven't really learned anything new; this could very well be because I've been working in IT since the 90's, but a total newbie would probably find something new to learn in there. I don't think I could emulate SP's style, and even if I could, I would get no satisfaction, no matter how much money I'd be making (and that's unlikely anyway). So as a result, I've decided to remove columnar banner ads from my blogs.
Read More to See the Light...Google (Mail) Hacks
Googling Google posts about a hidden Gmail operator that lets you restrict your messages to a certain language. It is hidden for a good reason - the automatic detection is not perfect, so not all messages are labeled correctly.
How does it work? If I search for lang:ru or lang:Russian or language:Russian, I'll find some of the messages that contain Russian text, which in my case, are all spam. This lang operator can of course be combined with other operators.
How would you use it? My main desire would be the ability to block Russian and Chinese spam, which seems to get through only too often. Gmail could provide an option to automatically translate messages written in a language you don't know and add many other useful features from web search (spelling suggestions, query expansion, search refinements).
Love Google! Give them your eyeballs! :)
Echoes of the WGA strike
Now in its second week, the Writers' Guild of America strike is what has kept many TV viewers from their favourite shows. The bone of contention is now compensation for web content, with WGA making some rather audacious demands, such as a percentage of non-skippable ad revenue. Here's the YouTube clip Not The Daily Show, With Some Writer:
There's no way we can hide it: we love the writers and the work that they do. We fully support their struggle.
Web Investigative Journalism
Although it missed Paul Jay's Independent World News television (perhaps because it's not fully operational yet), SplashCast has an interesting listing of web-based investigative journalism outfits and how they make their money. Here's the short list:
- Democracy Now!, a work of historic proportions, daily 1h broadcast funded by donations and filmed in NYC
- Alive in Baghdad the streets of Baghdad - solicit donations
- Alive in Mexico made by Small World News, just like the Baghdad show
- Talking Points Memo TV liberal political blog paid for by Next New Networks, which raised 8 million in venture capital
- Collateral News low-budget production by "irksome" Philly based Woodshop Films, who also make commercial video production;
The rest are "honourable mentions"
- Journeyman Pictures self-described as "London’s leading independent distributor of topical news features"
- People of the Web from Kevin Sites of the Hote Zone series
- Hot Air with Michelle Malkin "offensive content" (?)
- LinkTV "don't understand it, but it looks good" :)
Some other sources not mentioned in the SplashCastMedia review (I haven't read them all, but I provide them here:
- AlterNet - http://www.alternet.org/
- Guerilla News Network - http://gnn.tv/
- Indymedia - http://www.indymedia.org/
- The Other News - http://www.theothernews.com/
- What Really Happened - http://whatreallyhappened.com/ (censored by PayPal in 2003)
- Independent News
- More links
Another good article connected to this subject is Wikipedia's article on Citizen Journalism.
A la prochaine! Read More to See the Light...
Another strange Bell experience
I think among Canada's telecommunications monopolies, Bell Canada is the benevolent, customer oriented giant (while Rogers is the ugly duckling). Yet now and again, Bell Canada's customer service manages to disappoint.
Today I sent the Executive Office team the following message:
I am hereby requesting a cancellation of my Sympatico Internet account, a refund of any money charged for Internet services, and I am withdrawing permission to charge my credit card for Internet services effective immediately. I consider your failure to provide Internet services as agreed a breach of contract.
I ordered Total Internet 1Mbps over the Internet. The service was supposed to be activated on August 14, 2007. My repeated attempts to obtain a connection with the 2wire modem failed on every time.
On August 15 I attempted to contact Bell CS over the Internet, but the Bell CSR sugested I contact Sympatico then disconnected. I then tried to contact Sympatico CS over the Internet, but I received no response (see attached screen capture). The application forced me to use Internet Explorer, the most insecure browser available on the Windows platform, as it did not work with either Opera or Firefox. I then called 310-SURF and spoke to Abdul, who stated that they did not have any information in file, so I had to give it to him over the phone. He stated that the service will be available in about 2 days. He also mentioned that the line is not able to reach the stated speed, but will be at around 60% of 1Mbps.
A few days later I called again, but this time I spoke to a CSR with a strong accent, who, after placing me on hold and asking me to reboot the modem, told me that her tool does not allow her to activate the modem, but it will eventually be activated.
To this date, the modem does not connect to the CO, and the DSL light keeps blinking. Furthermore, I received an email about my Sympatico bill being available but I could not access it on your website.
While I am willing to pay $20/month of that service, I cannot pay $20/month for wasting time troubleshooting a connection that was supposed to work long time ago.
I am disappointed in the service I received from Sympatico, as I had expected at the very least for the service to be activated as claimed in the email sent August 8.
-
I also attached this photo:
I immediately got an automated response:
Thank you for emailing Bell Canada’s Executive Care Solution Centre.
We value your comments, and your concerns are important to us.
Your matter will be reviewed and someone will get back to you within 2 business days.
Thank you for your loyalty to Bell.
Bell Canada’s Executive Care Solution Centre
Hopefully, this matter, will be resolved soon.
Wunderbar Bell Experience
I recently called Bell Canada at 416-310-BELL to make some small changes to my account. It was 7:22pm, and their phone centre was called, so I tried doing those changes on the website. But - whaddyaknow! - I couldn't, so I just tried my luck with an Internet chat. Here it is:
Thank you for your patience an online representative will be with you shortly. Your wait time is approximately 21.
All of our online representatives are currently assisting other customers. Thanks for your patience. An online representative will be with your shortly. All of our online representatives are currently assisting other customers. Thanks for your patience. An online representative will be with your shortly. All of our online representatives are currently assisting other customers. Thanks for your patience. An online representative will be with your shortly. All of our online representatives are currently assisting other customers. Thanks for your patience. An online representative will be with your shortly. All of our online representatives are currently assisting other customers. Thanks for your patience. An online representative will be with your shortly. All of our online representatives are currently assisting other customers. Thanks for your patience. An online representative will be with your shortly. Welcome to bell.ca! You are chatting with Jean-Mary S. To assist you, may I please have your name and residential phone number with area code?
Jean-Mary S: I haven't heard from you. Do you wish to continue the chat?
you: hello
you: i have a question regarding extension call answer
you: i'm on the 6-flex plan and would like to replace phone maintenance with extension call answer is that possible?
you: hello
Jean-Mary S: Sure, I can definitely help you with that.
Jean-Mary S: For this please call us at 310-2355
Jean-Mary S: And we will help you, we can not do this online
you: i need to konw first if i can make the replacement, since phone maint. has restrictions on changing
Jean-Mary S: I don't have the answer please call at the phone number please
you: ??? what is then "Jean-Mary S: Sure, I can definitely help you with that. "???
Jean-Mary S: I mean I can help you but for the home phone service, please contact BEll, because I don't have this information online, sorry
As you can see, after I waited on-line for almost 30 minutes, and after being told that "sure, I can help you with that", she essentially told me to call 310-BELL, which was not possible at that time anyway. I gave the chat service a 2, bell a 5 or 6 and the rep a 4, for the following reasons:
- the waiting time was far too long, especially considering that the phone centre was closed
- although courteous, thoughtful and carefule, the chat representative was completely useless
- this seems to be a design issue rather than a problem with the rep, who seemed genuinely willing to help, but did not have the tools to do so
Information Architecture > Data Warehousing > An invisible abomination
Information Architecture > Data Warehousing > An invisible abomination
Nebu (meaning "gold" in Egyptian) is a company with a sneaky product. It enables ISPs to surreptitiously insert ads in webpages they serve to their customers transparently. This means that they can do so without the knowledge or consent of either their customer or the content provider. Obviously, this product can be misused, but it can also be used to provide advertising supported Internet access far better than NetZero used to. Put to good use, it has the potential to divert more advertising dollars and bring to the limelight more obscure sites, to the detriment of the sites with the lion share of eyeballs.
That's an interesting development at a time when the net neutrality debate rages on.
These guys' lawyers stand to make a lot of money. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if this was not somehow started by lawyers. :)
