Amazon.ca VS Amazon.com

Why is it that the Canadian Amazon site is so terribly sucky, and the US Amazon site is utterly fabulous?  I am constantly irked by the difference in the two, and am thwarded at every turn when trying to get something from the US site.  In fact, at one time i went to the extreme of ordering a nifty thing-a-ma-bob from the US site, having it delivered to a hotel in the US and a travelling compatriot picked it up and brought it back to Canada. Take that, crappy Amazon.ca site.  If I want to buy books, I'm going to damn well buy them from Chapters/Indigo. You want to impress me, even a little, get like your US cousin and get your snappy goods online.



Technorati Tags: Chapters, Amazon, sucky

New York..... Las Vegas

New York..... Las Vegas
Originally uploaded by julebule.

3 days in Vegas.
Somehow 72 hours can feel like 144.

Someone Else is Making Millions in Vegas

And it’s not me… ;-)

But whilst in the land of sun and sin and whatnot, it was pretty obvious that there was money being made, and not only at the gambling tables.

Every 3rd person on the street was on a cell phone, and I’m pretty sure they weren’t locals.  I started imagining all the roaming charges that were getting racked up…… there are a boatload of cell phone providers in Vegas.
But only 2-3 real carriers, the rest are MVNOs….. all those roaming charges falling into 3 real buckets. Mmmmm. Not to mention juicy data transfer charges.

I can’t wait to see the roaming fees on the Wiz’s cell phone…

If you can’t win at the roulette tables, setting up a cell phone service in Vegas will make you money just as fast!


Technorati Tags: Vegas, Cell Phone Roaming Charges

A Quiet Berry Morning

Last night, the wiz says to me “Hmmm, I’m not getting any emails to my berry…. can you send me something so we can test it?”… Badda Bing, I email him. Silence. His berry usually makes an odd “wooshing” sound when it receives a message, some sound akin to a hockey slapshot and a goalie save. It’s the Stanley Cup Finals, who am I to judge? ;-)

Regardless, no sound, no email. The second step - seeing if the email actually hit his gmail box. Sure enough, it was waiting patiently, but it wasn’t being forwarded on to his Berry.  And then we looked harder - the berry network being used was *GSM*. That can’t be good. The Berry adores the GPRS network. GSM smacks of network badness.

And now - a story released by the Toronto Star, indicates that it’s a problem affecting all the Blackberry users in the Western Hemisphere. In a strange turn of events, no info is coming from the carriers, nor from RIM directly, but from a TV station in New York.  Computerworld has a bit more information, but it’s still sketchy.  The fact that a single vendor can impact potentially millions of users is staggering. RIM has got 2 data centres in Canada where the Blackberry Servers talk to all the wee handhelds…. methinks that perhaps they may want to expand upon that setup with a bigger diversity play.

Funny side note: My  Blackberry is humming along just fine, thank you very much….. :-)

TheStar.com - Business - System failure hits BlackBerry

Technorati Tags: Blackberry, Rogers, TELUS, Blackberry Outage

Kameleon's Mobizone - Custom Ad Content via Bluetooth!!

Every month or so, I glean something amazing from Red Herring.
I love analog magazines about technology; there’s just something ironic about it… This month, it was Kameleon. Kameleon is the foundatation for a new wireless app that uses Bluetooth to target specific, localized advertising to mobile users. Imagine, you are walking down the street, and see a neat add for Gap jeans, and you can trigger your phone to interact with the ad, maybe even getting you a 15% off coupon in the deal….
Perhaps you aren’t even paying attention, but you have an account with Shoppers DrugMart, and you pass by one of the bill boards, and it instantly downloads a wee flyer, letting you know you are 58 feet from a Shoppers Drugmart, and your favourite conditioner is on sale.
Of course, there are going to be loads of security risks, allowing everyone and their uncle to send you stuff via Bluetooth… but still - the future of it, married to Kameleon, and Kameleon’s “Mobizone” is certainly exciting.  CBS is already starting to use it at Grand Central Station…
Watch for cell phone carriers to get their nose’s out of joint, as they want to control user content ;-) Uhoh - I say again, it’s going to be “wireless net neutrality”, coming to a cell phone near you….. With Bluetooth, there isn’t even “carrier network” being used, but that’s not going to stop them from whining about it.


Technorati Tags: Bluetooth, Mobizone, Kameleon

The Loud and Angry Voices of Wireless Users in Canada

What started off as as whisper is now turning into a dull roar about the cost of Canadian cell phone service.  Mark Goldberg has been kicking the ball around for a while, but now there are a slew ot teammates to take a pass.
Ryan at BlogTO
Jay at Radiant Core
Jeremy Latham
Sam Lu at GoSammy

These guys all seem to be relating to an article written by Thomas Purves which compares Canadian wireless services to that of a 3rd world country. That may be a pretty bold statement, intended to entice exactly the kind of reaction that is being received.  He’s got some great stats about the cost of using wireless data transfer. His call to arms just may entice the quiet, Canadian public to ruffle feathers with their wireless providers. I would imagine that this sort of stir is going to cause some stress to folks who measure mobile ARPU (average revenue per user)… i can hear the sound of Mobile Golden Egg cracking….

What’s next with wireless?  Well, if the stir over net neutrality is any indication……and data transfer is soon going to “clog up” the wireless networks, carriers will have to enforce “Quality of Service” levels, and applications will fall off the network.  You thought your cell phone bill was high last year?  Just wait till next year.  The huge marketing push over the past few years to increase data use is going to blow up, when carriers realize people are sending silly UTUBE videos to each other’s cell phones.

Technorati Tags: Canadian Cellular Service, wireless, Thomas Purves, net neutrality, Canada, UTUBE

Taking Voicemail for Granted

It’s an easy thing to overlook, the complexity of voicemail. That wee little application that means so very much to us all. When it’s a missing piece, it’s hard to find a suitable replacement on a short schedule.  With all the new voice services upstarts, you would think it’s also an easy application to outsource, and you would be wrong.  No one really sells voice mail as a stand alone service, certainly not as a residential service.  There are a couple of companies doing SOHO Voicemail outsourcing in Canada - GotVMail.com is advertised on the radio, and is geared to small offices that don’t have PBXs, but want to look and feel bigger. Unite is also geared for office requirements, but I haven’t been able to find a wholesale voice mail service provider for residential use. (I see a niche market!!!)Now I’ve got to build it ;-) Special thanks to Alec and Jon for answering my queries over an  Easter long weekend, you guys rock.


Technorati Tags: residential voice mail, wholesale voice mail

OMG - Someone to Do My Stuff?

I was accidentally attracted to an ad on My Digital Life's site...
A little, attractive blinking square, offering for someone else to do my stuff.... of course, I had to click it. Who wouldn't?

On first glance, it looks like a task trading site; you get someone to do something you don't really want to do, and you take on someone else's task that they don't find interesting, but you *do*..... hmmm... Their tagline? "Outsource Your Life"..... You can also simply just pay people to do your tasks - and there's an auction for different kinds of tasks.... it's hard to say, what with absolutely no quality control, that this sort of application will really be able to take off.... but wow. The idea is innovative. Now if only I had time to post a task to have someone try out "Do My Stuff", to see if it's really worth it ;-)

DoMyStuff.com - Main Menu

Technorati Tags: Do My Stuff

Deadwood in My RSS Reader

Thursday Rant (is it really Thursday already!?)
I've got a fairly extensive RSS reader (you know I love Google Personal Pages).  There are days, not unlike today, when I get up, slip through 3 coffees and go through what's new and exciting and bizarro in my reader.  Today's a bit different.  I'm realizing that I'm carrying quite a few blogs that just aren't staying current.  They're not writing, they're not updating, they're not even saying why they're not updating.  I'm loyal.  You've got to have radio silence for quite a while before I dump you back into the soup.  I'm tenacious.  I've invested weeks and months in reading you, I'm not going to throw away all that invested time recklessly.

But now, I've got to admit, I've got deadwood. It's time to do some culling, some burning off, and some planting of seedlings.

Anyone have any suggestions on what blogs would be great additions?


Technorati Tags: RSS Deadwood, blog culling

Who's Movin' On Up? Facebook!

With all the insanity around the growth in Facebook (have you been ‘booked” yet?), it’s worth mentioning that it’s still only got about 10% market share, with MySpace having the bulk of the weight still.  That being said, the trend to move towards Facebook is growing quickly.  Since I signed up (yes, I know), there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t have friend requests from people that I know. It’s addictive. I’ve even bought gifts.(yes, I really know)

There’s some considerable room for growth, of course.  I like Facebook because it’s not a blog, where MySpace is sort of blogging for newbies (sorry MySpace folks)…. I like the updates, the format, the fact that this blog post will automatically pop into my Facebook profile as soon as I click submit. I like how easy it is to find people, and how simple it is to keep people away.  Privacy is still important.

Enhancements:

• more mobile features would  be good
• a twittr-like widget would be interesting and more instant than messages and pokes…..
• How about a recommendation widget? If you can’t believe your friends, who CAN you rely on for the best takeout thai?

What would YOU add to Facebook?



Buzz Canuck has some interesting stats between MySpace and Facebook which will surprise you.

Buzz Canuck: Social Network Shifts - If MySpace and YouTube are the Established Heavyweights, Who are the Rising Challengers to the 2.0 Throne?

Technorati Tags: Facebook, MySpace, Buzz Canuck

Canada is Always 3rd, Almost

Pet Peeve:
Sites who have significant amounts of "drop downage" lists to help populate a form.
Country: Canada - you can either scroll like the Dickens, or tap the "C" key. 3 times - Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada. Screw it up - the 4th tap lands you in Cape Verde - and then the adventure to find Canada begins again.

I am loving the sites that list Canada as the first tap - it's like they've circumvented the whole alphabetical order, if only to make more sense.
really.


Technorati Tags: Canada, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde

The Rogers VISION

I wish I had some indepth witty details, a good scoop, or even gossip. But Mark tells it all, and there isn’t all that much to tell yet, unless you want to read the press release. William Shatner helped launch Rogers’ New VISION…. Live Video on cell phones, (aka mobile video calling services) and yes, that includes video calls from your cell.  The Man of Silver has more details, and even a snappy photo of Capt’n Kirk in a demo. Check the Rogers’ site for their launch info…

I mentioned it to someone a few minutes ago, and their first question: how the heck are you going to hold the phone to your ear, and not get a close up of your eardrums?

It’s not an unreasonable question… :-)



Technorati Tags: Rogers VISION, William Shatner, Mobile Video Calling

Scribefire Takes Over for Performancing Blog Editor!

Wow!  I like surprises.  I tend to use Performancing as my blog editor when I'm trying to do neat things.  It blends right in with Flock and with Firefox.  It's lovely for Technorati tags, and it understands my piglatin html for when I want to be particular about where my images go.

Sometime today Performancing turned into ScribeFire. I suppose it's all got to do with PayperPost and Performancing, and the fact that PayPerPost didn't take on the Performancing Blog editor component. I'm glad that the blog editor has been reincarnated as ScribeFire. YAY! :-) Now if only they would automate the "pings" options :-)

Technorati Tags: ScribeFire, Performancing

What the Heck Happened This Weekend?

I can't tell if it's been a nutty "everyone outside all weekend" type of weekend, or if some unexplained technical backfire happened, but my logs seem to indicated that my traffic dropped 80% over the past 2 days.

It's freaking me OUT! :-\


Technorati Tags: traffic, weekend

Collateral Damages at Allstream

The past few weeks has seem some pretty significant folks leave the Allstream ranks in search of greener pastures.  It’s like spring cleaning for the career, perhaps. It’s  a little bit odd, considering the good feedback I’m hearing  externally about  how Allstream is  performing with customers. They’ve had  some great wins in the marketplace, and good announcements in the press. I had thought the ship was turning. Perhaps externally, the skies are blue, but internally the outlook remains stormy?  Whatever the case, at this rate of change, the re-greening of Allstream is progressing rapidly.


Technorati Tags: Allstream

Participatory Consumerism

Almost daily I'm encountering situations that are blog worthy - if only from a "consumer - give some feedback or warn others" kind of way.  Whether it's the jerk sales guy at a vw dealership who (shall remain nameless) completely insulted me when I told him I'd just gotten a Toyota Matrix instead of another Jetta, to the amazing service at a local restaurant.

There are quite a few "local" participatory consumerism websites, alas, very few of them are related to Canada.  Techcrunch has just highlighted streetadvisor, but that's still not Canadian specific.  Linked In has another add-on for references and feedback in your area, but still, that's not highly visible to the publc at large....

The last thing I want to do is invest time in an application that no one else is using to get/give consumer feedback.  Maybe that's the reason why no single application has really taken off?


Mark: is there anything Canadian on its way that resembles what I'm looking for?




Technorati Tags: participatory consumerism, Techcrunch, LinkedIn, streetadvisor, Mark Evans

Why Local Search is Going to be HOT

On Monday I had to get my Jetta to "any" local VW dealer as the lease was minutes away from expiring. I did my homework the night before, had emailed myself the closest dealership, and the map to get there, just in case. Lo and behold, the leasing manager wasn't available at that particular dealership, and I was sent away.
 "No problem", I thought. I popped open the browser in my Blackberry, and went to the VW Canada site to find out where there were other dealerships. Uhoh. Too many scripts on the VW website, it wouldn't load in my berry browser. Plan B: Google VW dealerships. BAD news, I got 97 results.Even Google Local didn't work very well in the berry browser. I was panicked. I had to resort to Plan C, and no one likes Plan C: Return to the original dealership and ask them for information on where the *other* dealerships were.  Oh, and could they give me the phone numbers as well? How 1996.

Michael O'Connor, over at Uninstalled is raving about a nifty new local search too. ZipLocal is hoping to quell that nauseous feeling you get when you need to find something within a proximity area.  It's brand new, so don't be surprised if there are still a few bugs to work out (it couldn't tell me about Toyota dealerships in Aurora, but I'm not giving up hope.)

As local searching becomes more relevant and focused, it's going to be THE must have app on a mobile browser. I swear.

PS The pain and anguish of trying to surf and search for something important in a mobile browsers is significant.  What happened to the good old days when web masters created shadow sites that could be viewed with ANY old crap browser?  On Monday, I couldn't get to vw.ca but nor could I use the Toyota Canada site either.  Sure, sites can be optimized for a specific browser platform, but by geeze, i should be able to see a bare bones rendition in the most basic browser, even if it's only text.  As local search grows, mobile browsing demand grows.  Web masters need to remember that mobile browser users are people too ;-) 



Technorati Tags: Local Search, ZipLocal, Uninstalled

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Violence and Blogging - Cyber Bullying of the 21st Century?

I’ve been following Kathy Sierra’s remarkable account of the harassment, threats and unbelievably bad behavior she’s had to dodge over the past few weeks, and in some of the comments left around the blogosphere, it sounds like she’s not the only one who has become a victim.

Cyberspace is abuzz. Matthew Ingram takes an interesting anonymous angle.  I don’t think that the freedom of anonymity allows people’s basest cruelty to emerge. There seems to be an ever growing trend of adult cyber bullies emerging from the darkness. Folks who enjoy sharing caustic commentary at the expense of others. Folks who are entirely too smart, folks who could be doing so very much more with their time and their brain cells.  Unfortunately, on the ‘net there are roaming gangs who feed off each other’s commentary, and are addicted to the adrenaline rush of creating drama out of nothing, usually at the expense of others….

Take a look at Ed Lee at Blogging Me Blogging You - he touches on the bully aspect as well, but encourages folks to not be afraid of the “Morlocks”… that wading into the proverbial blogging soup is worth the risk. The folks at IP Democracy are also talking about cyber bullying.

It sounds so grade 10, it’s disappointing that these people are all *growed up*.


Technorati Tags: cyber bullies, Kathy Sierra

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Proactive Blogging

Holy Cats, this is something that I think about all the time; usually when I find myself in situations where I should be doing something more productive (like when I'm sitting in traffic).  I find myself writing articles in my head, waiting for lights to change. Of course, the ideas and words and images are out the window by the time I get out of the car. I need a voice recorder to capture all the ideas you guys are missing out on ;-)

But it looks like the Blogger Lounge has got it all figured out! George has 300 articles all ready to go!!  I need some of what he's having. :-)

An Entire Year of High Quality Posts | Blogger Lounge

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Technorati Tags: Blogger Lounge, Proactive Blogging

Korean Grillhouse

Korean Grillhouse
Originally uploaded by julebule.

Nothing says love like taking your honey to an all you can eat bbq….


Technorati Tags: Korean Grillhouse