People that get on in this world

The people that get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them.

~George Bernard Shaw

A long Tail

A few close friends have asked me what's the point of my blog - why am I doing this?

A few reasons, here are some;

A Place to Share Ideas is for sharing things that catch my attention, humor me and are worth talking about. I'll tease and provoke. I probably enrich you with some half useful information somehow too.

I wanted a place to share ideas where you can comment, enter discussion and provoke me if you want to. It's also about something permanent that I care about - a 'tail' that will last forever. Content is mashed from news and blogs and sometimes original.

I do it because I never could before, I was unaware of the technology that makes it so easy. If you know me personally, you know my passion for new ideas, different (better) ways of doing things and that I allow good ideas to change me (for the better mostly) then I talk about them TALK, TALK, TALK! Here, you can have your say too and yes, it was a hubcap.

Seth is one switched on cookie. This is the short end of what will be a long tail.

PAY FOR USE

New Zealand's answer to ebay 'Trademe' charge $1.99+tax per minute for ph support via a 0900 ph number.

Today, I reluctantly called the number. I needed to move a pin locating my parents property for sale on Google maps. It was showing the property was in the ocean miles away right on the Interislander ferry route.

After two rings a local sounding guy answered - after two rings! We fixed and confirmed the problem fix in less than three minutes.

Compare this to:
I called my telco with a question, waited 45mins and got disconnected. I called again, another 35mins pass. I explain what just happened and without empathy are told to call someone else and confirm the problem isn't theirs and call back.

A friend of mine called the same telco out of business hours with an issue. He went through the interactive voice recordings and spoke clearly into the voice recognition only end with a recording saying 'all our customer service are busy right now, please call back later' - disconnected.

If the telco offered me a pay for use service I'd be happy for it. When I need it I'd pay. 1.5 hours of my time is worth a lot and now I resent them for wasting my time. Imagine, they could charge me to fix their problem.....

Question: If you need service would you pay or rather see the call centre costs built into the price you pay?

Who is dis Nikki?

A real tear jerker with a few real oh no! moments.



As our world gets smaller and more transparent and people are more connected than ever before there is less room for the Raj and more for the dj snake to undo the untrue. A great example of what I'm sure is more to come.

So what happened to Jasmine, Raj and Nikki? I reckon Raj went up shit-creek in a barbed-wire canoe - without a paddle! As for Jasmine and Nikki I heard a rumor they were seen discussing the problem here.

Any ideas?

Stop on Red Signal and The Big Mac

Driver parks on 'stop on red signal' - Wellington Airport

When we work to the status quo - we don't have to think a lot. We do as we're told and the job gets done - everyone is happy. There's little room for change, until someone does something like seek a cheeky place to park the car. On the 'stop on red signal' (please post culprits name or email address in comments below)

Jim Delligatti - one of Ray Crocs' earliest MacDonald's franchise holders didn't do what he was told. He experimented and invented a new burger - The Big Mac. He went one step further and put it on the menu.

Lucky for him the burger was a hit and was rolled out to the other restaurants in 1968. It's well known worldwide and often used as a symbol of American capitalism. The Economist has used it as a reference point to determine the cost of living in different countries — the Big Mac Index — since it is so widely available and is comparable across markets. This index is sometimes referred to as Burgernomics.

I'm not suggesting you run the next red light you see or eat burgers, but to be mindful that what you are asked or shown to do isn't always what is wanted from you. Sure, your boss wants you to do your job, but she also wants you to find something new, a better way of doing things, be a champion and bring change for the better even if she didn't ask you to. What could you do?