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Friday, August 22, 2008

The Guardian does LOLCAT:

George Bush LOLCAT

posted by jeev | 11:06 AM |

Monday, July 14, 2008

I got a new iPhone. I admit it, I like those shiny new things, maybe too much. But here's the rub: I stood in line Friday for a total of 9 hours and didn't get a phone. First we were told that the servers had been down earlier, but they were up now, and things would be fine. Then we were told that the activation process, which was supposed to take 10 minutes, was taking, on average, 30 minutes, per customer, and sometimes took as much as 2 hours, but that they would stay open until everyone in line got a phone. Then they announced that maybe not everybody, because the store would have to close at 11, so the people at the very end of the line should probably go home. And then, until the people *not* from the very end of the line who were still left standing just outside the store at 11 PM, when the doors closed, until those people threatened to start a small riot, the best that the store manager could suggest was that we all just come back the next day and stand in line again. In the end, most of us got vouchers to jump the line on Saturday. I did, and I got the phone.

Then yesterday I got an email from Apple - "We want to hear from you. We would appreciate feedback on your experience at the Apple Store so we can make your next visit even better." So I went to the survey website, and I let them hear from me. Given that my ratings were, uh, a little on the low side, the survey asked me whether I would allow someone to call me and follow up. I wasn't thrilled, but I said yes, and told them that they could reach at home after 6. At 3 this afternoon, Roberto from the store called and left a message - I read what you wrote and clearly we dropped the ball. I would really, really appreciate it if you would call me back so that we can talk further.

Okay. So around 6:30, after I got home from work, I called him. Another clerk answered the phone: Roberto was "finishing up with a customer," could he call me back afterwards? Sure. And you can probably guess what follows: I make dinner, I play on the computer, I watch some TV. And no call back. And the problem is *now* I'm not just irritated, I'm mad. It's one thing to think that corporate screw-ups of almost unimaginable proportions have stressed badly prepared twenty-something retail clerks so much that they behave less well than one would hope. But to ask someone for their input, and then to respond at a time when that someone has said that they would not be available, and then to ask them for *more* of their time, and then to blow them off, well, that's just mind-boggling. Fix customer service issues by showing yet more contempt for the customer? Interesting approach.

posted by jeev | 10:52 PM |

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Heart of Gold just came on my Pandora stream, a song I always associate with my friend M, when she was going to school in New York. I stayed with her there in her dorm room when I was on the way to Paris, and she played the song over and over, picking up the needle and dropping it back on the worn piece of vinyl turning on the stereo. An analog world, universes away. We were both impossibly young.

This morning I got an email from her; her mother died last week. There's no way to describe the place her mother had in my life: she was a force of nature, loud and open and opinionated where everyone in my family was tamped down and bottled up. She'd been living in San Francisco recently, but I hadn't been able to see her: M and some of her siblings have had a falling out of almost Balzacian dimensions, and those siblings had taken control of the mother's life as her health failed. And now she's dead. And I am, like Neil Young himself, growing old.

posted by jeev | 10:48 AM |

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

I love visualization tools. Wordle.com has a great one. This is a picture of my del.icio.us tags:

A graphic of delicious tags

posted by jeev | 12:38 PM |

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

In honor of Another Super Tuesday, the battling Nicholsons:

It's an instant Internet world out there, folks.

posted by jeev | 9:56 AM |

Monday, February 25, 2008

I'm pretty sure my father didn't believe that death was inevitable, at least not in his case. Three years ago today he was proved wrong, although there was something in his way of going that suggests a combination of will, petulance, and despair, rather than the sheer force of biological imperative. My parents were married in February and a couple of weeks later I was conceived (they were both 26, ancient for that generation, and anxious to get a move on). What would have been my mother's 83rd birthday was Saturday, and today is the anniversary of Dad's death. In the shortest month of the year.

posted by jeev | 8:12 PM |

Saturday, February 23, 2008

On the McCain story in the New York Times, from Matt Welch, who has written a book on McCain:

posted by jeev | 9:50 AM |

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Obama at Google.

Want to know what specifics he stands for? Take a look.

posted by jeev | 11:10 AM |

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

From Brian Beutler:

The Senate just voted the Intelligence authorization conference package out of the Senate. It included a provision banning the use of waterboarding by universalizing the interrogation tactics in the Army Field Manual. I'm still not exactly sure why most Republicans voted to invoke cloture on the package, but they did. And when it came to the floor, the final tally was 51-45. One of those 45 was the Sultan of Straight Talk, John McCain.

Just so we're clear: McCain was okay with the idea of our guys using waterboarding.

posted by jeev | 3:49 PM |

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Seen Yes We Can? Here's the other side.