However I’d like to issue a warning to all Male’s who may be considering Rainbow Light, Just Once, Men’s One Multivitamin. It tastes awful! Now I know all vitamins taste awful but you know how when you smell something you can associate it with a taste (and vs.), well this vitamin tastes like DOG FOOD! I kid you not.

I expressed this perplexing issue to my wife to which she replied “well I guess men are like dogs”! — I took artistic liberty with that!

When I walked into the AT&T store the lady who handled my problem was very kind but a total idiot when it came to customer service. After explaining my issues to her (very nicely) she responded with, “Well I’m not the Internet”.

Me: “Well duh sweetheart” was all I could eek out. I’m not talking about the “Internet” in general! I’m talking about AT&T.

So Dear Massive Corporation (AT&T, ToysRUs, etc),

I think it’s about time you educate your employees that even if they have nothing to do with your online or offline deals, they represent your company. When I go to an AT&T store I’m expecting to talk to someone who can represent your company in a courteous, factual, understandable and helpful manner. I understand that the deals that you can get online aren’t the same as at your store, but instead of talking to me like I don’t know what the hell I’m doing, why don’t you just try to help me out instead of denying your connections?

Sincerely,

An average everyday customer.

Not only do I find this to be a major waste in regards to the amount of shipping they charged me, a total of $9. But there’s an excessive waste of paper involved here to. I understand that this may very well be the smallest box with their logo on it available at their warehouse, but if I were management at FCPGroton I’d find a way to get some smaller boxes and achieve:

1. A “green” reputation
2. More competitive shipping rates over their competitor iPdUSA (who also shipped me a box the same size with an ignition switch only in it and a lot of junk paper).

I recently experienced some severe down time with Layeredtech and Tweeted and ranted about it. Eventually after a month after the incident I got 1 month free hosting. A token amount for the amount of downtime they caused me.

Now I’ve got some criticism to level at ING Direct (a post coming soon), but I’m left thinking how much does it actually avail to “smear” a company publicly. I think in many ways it is important because it takes time to clean up a image online. And as much as companies don’t like it, if you search “ING Direct reviews” and you see some crummy reviews cropping up, you lose business.

Companies should know that when they shaft their publics, they deserve to be shafted in return. The one thing companies should do is engage their publics directly and in the initiated forum, instead of going quiet and retreating into their shells. This will show folks that they are actually sincere about improving their performance and services. By not engaging your publics, you only make yourself look worse.

• I’m going to begin deploying some Exchange/Sharepoint solutions on our network and wanted to see how it really affects our end users.
• I need to do some page layout over the next months and Linux does not have a good solution for this.

So my Windows 7 OS runs my mail and all tasks and I have Linux now solely as my development center. I’m working on a write up of the difficulties moving from Linux back to Windows 7 as well as the positives.

The one real nasty aspect of moving to Windows 7 is my bluetooth doesn’t work. I’ve tried everything outside of installing the 30-day trial Toshiba BT Stack to no avail. I can’t get any of my bluetooth devices to properly connect. I’m runing on an Asus G1S so if anyone has ideas of how to get bluetooth running properly. LMK.

And a rant against ASUS, for a laptop that came with Windows Vista, and was for gamers/high end users it seems logical to release Windows 7 drivers!!!

I asked her if this was something new that just started and if she had any flyers or literature that would address this issue. The conversation became quite interesting:

Clerk: “That requirement has been around for years, we use machines to read the address.”

Me: “So do you have any flyers that state that the way I’m doing it is wrong?”

Clerk: “No it’s just we prefer it the other way”

Me: “So you won’t accept my mail if it’s not dead center and landscape oriented?”

Clerk: “We just prefer it as it makes our job easier”

Me: “So what you are saying is since you don’t want to manually sort my mail I need to redo all my envelopes and receipts? If you give me something from the USPS that I have to change it I will but not for convenience sake that’s what I pay for.”

Clerk: “I don’t want to have this conversation anymore”

You can probably deduct my opinion, without me ranting.

An event like this becomes so important in people’s minds to the point that we forget about those around the world fighting & dying for a myriad of causes. Loss of life continues to happen all around us and some of it you never hear about, or even worse grow numb to hearing about over and over again. (When’s the last time you noted the death toll from a suicide bombing in Iraq?)

I was reminded of the following song written by Michael Fogarty and Chris Jung, and sung by Marianna Buhring. No matter what circumstances a life that is snuffed out, is a loss for someone.

Not Just One Life

Song © 2009 Aurora Productions. Used by permission.

Lyrics

Not Just One Life
Lyrics by Michael Fogarty, Chris Jung.
Music by Michael Fogarty.
Sung by Marianna Buhring.

Intro
Yeah
It’s not just one life.

Verse 1
On a cold dark night on a city street,
She hears a shot, then running feet.
Her heart pounds as she runs down to see,
She cries, ”Don’t let it be!” Yeah!
Reaching down, she holds him near,
She calls his name, but no answer she hears.
Gone are the hopes,
The love and care of all those years,
Only left are the tears.

Chorus 1
No, it’s not just one life,
Not just one out of millions,
It’s somebody’s father or mother or child.
No, it’s not just one life, stop! It’s somebody’s loved one
(Can’t you feel the pain?)
That’s been taken away. (Can’t you feel the pain?)

Verse 2
On a war-torn street with smoke-filled skies,
A shot rings out; a nother one dies.
Off in the distance, a young boy cries,
“Don’t let it be! Please don’t let it be daddy!”
One more dead, is that all it means?
Is it just another image on the TV screen?
Or the loss of the hopes,
The love and care of all those years,
Who will wipe his tears?

Chorus 2
Woh, it’s not just one life,
Not just one out of millions,
It’s somebody’s father or mother or child.
No, it’s not just one life, stop!
It’s somebody’s loved one.

Bridge
Every life is special to someone,
Behind every life is a story of love, yeah.

Chorus 3
Oh, it’s not just one life,
Not just one out of mil lions,
It’s somebody’s lover or mother or child.
No, it’s not just one life,

Chorus 4
Not just one life.
It’s somebody’s father or mother or child.
No, it’s not just one life, stop!
It’s somebody’s loved one.
(Not just one life.) No-o-o …

On the other side of the spectrum, when I was in Seattle for SMX Advanced, I had some great curry at a small Thai restaurant called Buddha Bell – not far from Bell Harbor International Conference Center. Highly recommended.

• Terrible uptime
• Ticket / Support time can exceed days
• When you try to close an account with them – they won’t close it until you get nasty with them on the phone.

The real kicker though is when I asked them to please send me a letter in writing stating that my accounts had been closed. I received an envelope in the mail with a sticky note stating my accounts had been closed. Wasn’t even signed.

6 months later I’m on the phone with them again, trying to cancel our account, apparently I didn’t specify this one!!!