Disgusting...3 Year Old Searched by the TSA

I'm not sure how you feel about National Security, but something tells me that this 3 year old didn't pose much of a threat. You can see the video here.

It literally made me sick to my stomach to see it.

I don't know the details, and all we are doing is taking this reporter's word for it, but this just seems disgusting.

The next question is, or perhaps should be, when will all of the media backlash force the TSA to reexamine these new x-ray machines?  How will they decided what constitutes too much?

If you'd like another story, read this account of the man who refused the new x-ray machines and the "groping".

What a world we live in.

-B

Samsung Galaxy Tab

Gizmodo and Apple don't get along, something about Gizmodo paying for stolen Apple property. The Galaxy Tab is out. Gizmodo has every reason to speak highly of it because it is the first tablet device to give the iPad a real run for its money.

They trashed every part of it. Notably:

There is no way to not feel like a total dorkface while typing on this thing. In portrait, it’s like tapping on a massive, nerdy phone. In landscape, it’s just dumb. You still have to thumb type, only you’re stretching out further, and text entry swallows up the entire screen. Swype might be dandy on a phone, but on a seven-inch screen it doesn’t work so well—you have to travel a lot further to sketch out words. In other words, you get the worst of a phone’s input problems—amplified.

In the places where Samsung tries to make the Tab feel more like a tablet than a big phone, it’s not afraid to borrow liberally from what Apple’s done on the iPad. The music app (a huge improvement over the standard Android player) bears an uncanny resemblance to the iPad’s iPod app, while the faux-realness of the Calendar, Contacts and Memo apps feel like Chinatown knockoffs of Cupertino software.

And the best:

This thing is just a mess. It’s like a tablet drunkenly hooked up with a phone, and then took the fetus swimming in a Superfund cleanup site. The browser is miserable, at least when Flash is enabled. It goes catatonic, scrolling is laggy, and it can get laughably bad. When better browsing is half the reason to go for a larger screen, that’s insanity. Not only does it use a stupid proprietary charging/syncing cable, It won’t charge when you plug it into a laptop. (Update: It’s not a proprietary cable, but good luck borrowing one from a friend.) Neither of the cameras are anything to write home about (sample photos/video here). Costing $599 off-contract is embarrassing when the iPad starts at $499. (Update: Fair point, the iPad 3G starts at $629. But it’s got a bigger screen, and this thing still sucks.)

Sounds great. I'm in line to buy it already.

-B

Macs Are Too Expensive...

My how the world is changing.

PCs, especially historically, were compared based on technical specs. An awful lot of PCs have been sold to people who never even looked at the enclosure — only the specs. That’s not how the game is played in consumer electronics. Nobody knows what kind of CPU they have in their phones. (Where by “nobody”, I mean “no regular people”.) Apple doesn’t even publish CPU specs for iOS devices, nor publish how much RAM they contain.

With computers, again, it’s fair to say that the typical Mac costs more than the typical Windows PC. That’s not true for mobile devices, which means Apple gets to compete mostly on factors like design, user experience, and branding. In short, the nascent mobile computing market has much more in common with the traditional consumer electronics market than it does with the PC industry,1 and that works very much in Apple’s favor. ★

I have purchased four iPhones and an iPad.  I have never personally purchased my own Mac.  Both of mine have been paid for by my parents or family and Allison bought hers herself.  I'm holding out on this one in hopes it'll get me through a few more years.

[Thanks to John Gruber for this article]

-B

 

White iPhone 4

Please excuse the harsh language in this clip and know that it may not be safe for all listeners in all situations. Most of the language is bleeped out. I thought it was hilarious.

Background: Apple announced the iPhone 4 in two colors. When it came to market, only black was available. They have recently announced that the White iPhone 4 will not available until next summer. Many many people are upset.

Behold, the parody:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d09yWG2fSBg&]

-B

Creativity in Worship...and Why We Are Wrong

One of the things that I find myself thinking about a lot (at times, too much) is the actual experience of a worship service. I try my best to attend a variety of services and even participate in as much as possible in many different roles. I think it's because of the incredible amount of emotion that is called forth when people gather together to give praise to God that I am so drawn to it. A good worship service (no matter the style) evokes the emotions in a way that allows God to enter into the worshiper's heart. This is why we place things of the utmost importance (baptism, communion, etc) inside of these services. These times that we get together as a body of Christ are the times when we connect and grow together. They are important.

As I have mentioned several times, I was a child of the "contemporary movement". You know, guitars, keyboards, drums, lights, and gyms instead of sanctuaries.

It was my definition of church.

Because of this, we rehearsed music, dramas, transitions, and the like in order to create an experience that flowed well.

Those of us who still participate in this practice today get accused of making this experience a form of "entertainment". Like going to a movie theater. For a while, I nodded my head and bought into their arguments. I go to school with many of them.

They were, and still are, wrong.

The argument, as I best understand it, has to do with whether or not church should be entertaining. To them, if church is something that you can go to, enjoy, be anonymous, and not have to commit to, something is wrong. And...the argument is that this new form of worship enables this attitude toward worship and church. It was a fair argument because of the naming of the services. My home church growing up called the service, the "Seeker Service". The name implied that the real Christians, those no longer "seeking", went to another service. As if us Christians aren't always seeking. This implication wasn't the intention though. To outsiders, it may have seemed so.

The other half of the argument was the stupid part. Whether or not they admitted it, they just didn't like this form of worship. So the whole "holier than thou" mindset was a good way to argue against it instead of admitting that it worked.

I sang with the Duke Divinity Gospel choir the other day.

I have sung in worship services since before I can remember. I have led worship for big groups, small groups, in contemporary style, and sung in choirs in traditional services. I have even lead hymns from the guitar.

But I have never really sung in the tradition of the African American Church. One of the things that I noticed was the flow of the service. We sang our songs and the congregation followed along as well as they could. The songs went on for a long time, and involved both the choir and directors interacting with one another. The lead soloist lead us through "Sanctuary" and used techniques to interact with the congregation so that they were "along for the ride". It was awesome.

My realization: the service was truly creative. One of the songs we sang had two parts. The director lead us through it, showing us what to sing, when. There was no sort of "Verse, Chorus" outline prior to the service. It required him to interact with us and us with him. It required him to interact with the congregation.

It required creation to happen.

My belief is that God created us to be creative and I TRULY think that he is OFFENDED when we don't use those talents and gifts inside of our worship services.

Many advocates of traditional worship would argue that their organist is creative. He or she probably is. Many of them would argue that those who write the music for their services is creative. He or she probably is. Many of them would argue that their pastor is very creative. And then their friend sitting next to them (also an advocate) would elbow them in the side because they know that it isn't true.

But in that argument, they would argue against being even more creative in a contemporary setting. Why? Because they don't like it, it makes them uncomfortable, or it's hurting the attendance of their services.

Today I was reminded of what creativity in worship can include. These are pictures from a man who calls himself a "worship VJ" and uses software from Renewed Vision (primarily PropPresenter and ProVideoPlayer) to portray an immersive experience behind the musicians that are leading in worship. You can follow him on twitter at @worshipvj or his site at worshipvj.com

I think that this use of technology and creativity only adds to an experience that helps to connect those who participate, to God.

Lots of people disagree with me.

Again, I believe them to be wrong. I think God rejoices when we use the gifts he has given us to praise him in new ways.

If, somehow, this requires that the lights to have to come down, and that techniques that we used to only see either in movies or theaters have to be used, so be it. This is church. We should be incorporating the brilliance of God's creation in our ongoings before anyone else. And yet we don't. Because we are concerned about tradition.

And because we are wrong.

Let's rejoice in the variety of worship forms. Let's rejoice in creativity no matter where is appears. Let's rejoice in what God is doing in our churches, no matter their "style", and invite others to partake and experience it as well.

-B

**Apologies to those who got the preprocessed notification of this via email. My fat fingers accidentally hit the Publish button and there was no going back**

TMobile Calls Out the iPhone.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KmfXupi9cg&] ...or AT&T.

Tmobile, in desperation to not become irrelevant, has done a substantial amount of work in the areas of expanding their network and trying to keep up with the Droid phones of Verizon.

If, however, a deal was in the works to bring the iPhone to TMobile (something I think they would definitely go for) they probably would not have released this commercial.

If you have ever used FaceTime, you know how easy it is and how well it works with a good wifi connection. You also know that when you get a weaker wifi connection or a slower one, the video quality and framerate becomes embarrassingly bad. The iPhone, too, has apps approved on the App store that allow a user to video call via 3G services. The quality is nothing in comparison to FaceTime. Not even close. Slow connections=poor experience.

Besides, every single carrier has moved away from the "unlimited" data model. If you think you have unlimited, you were either grandfathered in or there is a cap and you didn't read the fine print. It would not be necessary to remind you of how much data off of a 3G or 4G network the phone would use to video chat.

Waiting until the kinks can be worked out hasn't seemed to hurt Apple.

-B

It's the Little Things That Matter...

...like being able to send the tweet you just wrote. It would be easy if the button were...accessible.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v21qlAfAiIo&]

Brilliant Google, just brilliant.

You can have your very own one of these for like $400. Well worth every penny, I say.

-B

Cleverness Isn't All There Is...

For the most part, Windows Phone 7 has had great reviews. Below lies the fundamental difference between how Apple looks at things and how the rest of the industry does. Google and Microsoft often adopt new features in their products because they are "cool" and that the fact that you can do them is clever. Apple has not worked to integrate social media into their OS(instead allowing others to do so through their own third party apps) because the reality is that a synced Address Book with Facebook friends, Gmail contacts, etc don't always work well together. The different sources think of the term "friend" in many different ways.

What makes it worse, though, is when an OS tries to implement it. In example, read below (from Engadget's Windows Phone 7 review):

Windows Phone 7 doesn’t have “contacts,” per se — it has a People hub, and there’s quite a difference. This is a thoroughly social platform, and it doesn’t really seek to make any sort of differentiation between people you talk to / text / email, those you just casually observe, and those with whom you’re “friends” in name only. For typical email accounts — Gmail, Hotmail, Exchange — you’re given the option to sync calendars, contacts, email, and in some cases, photos. That’s perfect — the way you want it to work — but it isn’t consistent throughout the phone. For example, once your Facebook account gets added, everything gets added to the phone. And when a contact of yours uploads a photo, that image appears in your photo hub whether you like it or not. That means, for example, that your Pictures app could have a bunch of shots of your ex’s aunt’s new boyfriend’s dog in it (more on that in a bit), and there’s not a whole lot you can do to stop that behavior without completely removing your Facebook account from the phone. With Exchange or Gmail, this strategy is probably fine in most cases — contact sync is one of the main reasons you use Exchange ActiveSync. But seriously, Facebook is another matter altogether.

Just imagine, if inside my address book, where I scroll through to find a person to text or call, there was all of the people I follow on twitter and the 2,000 something friends on Facebook, their activity and everything in the way of me remembering their phone number.

Something tells me that a separate app for each function is far less annoying than scrolling through meaningless info you don't care about just to accomplish a simple task.

-B

UPDATE: Another Example:

The first thing you notice when you open the Marketplace is that aside from apps, you’ve got music and games as available categories, whereas iOS breaks music and applications out into separate stores, and Android leaves music to third-party providers like Amazon. Swiping to the left takes you to the Featured page of the Marketplace, which oddly mixes up both music and applications into a single view — kind of an interesting way to keep people looking at everything Microsoft has to sell without trying to send users’ attentions to two (or more) completely unrelated places. Unfortunately, that same mixture happens for searches in the marketplace too, meaning that you’ll get mostly song and album info when you’re looking for something like The Harvest. Microsoft needs to give users a way to sort apps from music, because search is completely unwieldy as it stands right now.

The Sad Reality of Gadgetry

In the midst of Apple's MacBook Air update yesterday, they silently updated the MacBook Pro upgradeability. Whenever this happens, I like to do some math about what my next computer might cost. Gazelle.com is one of the more popular computer buyers who buy used computers.  The idea is that they buy your old laptop, iPhone, gadget from you.  They send you a box, you put it in there, they erase your data and send you a check.

I couldn't get enough for my old iPhone to make it worth it. I decided to try my MacBook Pro.

Given, my Macbook Pro is a 2006, but it still runs like a monster, I've taken REALLY good care of it (very few scratches, etc) and it has a brand new hard drive and battery in it. My quote is below:

 

Here's the problem: the computer is worth more than that to me.

If I were to get rid of my machine, I would need enough to purchase a new one.  I couldn't even get the cheapest iPad for that. For the record, the 64GB (the biggest one) iPod sells for $399.

In case you wondered which laptop I would get (and hence why I haven't...check out the price):

If someone would give me the $4,656.00 for my current MacBook Pro, I'd sell.

 

-B

Apple Quarterly Earnings

Like the typical publicly traded companies, Apple hosts an earnings call every quarter to announce revenue and the like. Typically, these are interesting but not phenomenally breathtaking because they rarely announce anything that is unexpected or whatever. You can listen to this entirely here. What's most interesting, the man himself showed up on the call today. Steve had some interesting things to say as well. He came out, claimed the superiority of Apple and then shot down anything and everything Android. He also provided some insight into the future of the tablet market.

Some of my favorites (as paraphrased by MacRumors):

I couldn't help dropping by for our first $20+ billion quarter.

What about Google? Apple activates 275,000 iOS devices per day, sometimes over 300,000. Unfortunately, no solid data on how many Android handsets shipped per quarter. Gartner says 10 million in June quarter, and we wait to see whether iPhone or Android won in the most recent quarter.

Discussing Google claiming Android is "open". We find this disingenuous. Android is fragmented.

"TwitterDeck" (probably TweetDeck) revealed that it had to contend with over 100 different versions of Android in developing its app. Compare to Apple with two different versions.

Amazon, Vodafone, and Verizon have announced creating their own Android app stores. A mess for users and developers. Contrast with Apple's integrated App Store.

Commenting on avalanche of tablets heading to market. Just a handful of credible entrants. Almost all use 7" screen, compared to iPad at nearly 10" screen. 7" screen is only 45% as large as iPad's screen. Hold an iPad in portrait view and draw a horizontal line halfway down. What's left is a 7" screen...too small. There are clear limits to how close elements can be on the screen before users can't touch accurately. We believe 10-inch screen is minimum necessary.

All of these tablets are using Android, but Google is telling them it isn't ready for tablets and to wait until next year.

Q: How do you think about the iPad opportunity a year or two down the road in terms of size of business? A: Jobs: iPad is clearly going to affect notebook computers. It's a question of when, not if. Already seeing tremendous interest from education, and surprisingly, business. We haven't been pushing it with businesses, but they're tearing it out of our hands. We've got a tiger by the tail.

Q: Could iPad be second-biggest business behind iPhone? A: Jobs: I try to report, not predict. But it's already outselling Macs.

Q: You are the tablet market right now. Like RIMM with the smartphone, can you hold onto market share? A: Jobs: We have a hard time seeing the strategies of our competitors. They're not matching us in pricing, and lack of Flash doesn't seem to be causing us difficulties. We're out to win this one.

Q: Steve, you believe Apple should be able to outship Android when looking at all devices. What are the key risks you are managing? A: Our goal is to be the best. We're not the biggest...that's Nokia. We admire them, but don't aspire to be them. We want to make the best devices. Android is our biggest competitor. They outshipped us in the June quarter when we were caught in a transition, and we'll see about the September quarter. We'll be competing with them for quite some time, but we have very different approaches and we believe in ours. We think that's the winning approach in the end.

Q: Aspirations for iPhone and iPad? Looking for a Mac-like model of lower market with higher prices and quality or iPod-like market dominance and low pricing? A: Jobs: Nokia makes $50 handsets. We don't know how to make great handsets at that price. So our goal is to make great breakthrough products but also drive costs down. As you know, we have low share in phones, and high share in tablets. But we don't think about it that way. We're not not making a 7-inch tablet because we don't want to hit a lower price point. We're just believe it's too small to hit the user experience people want. When we make decisions, it's not about cost, it's about value when you factor in the software. We're all about the best products at aggressive prices.

Q: Where is your primary advantage in tablets? A: Jobs: We've designed everything from batteries to enclosures, and we've learned a lot from our prior experience. We know how to design and build in an efficient way. Others will have to source components from middlemen, while we design our own and build them directly.

The only issue with these paraphrases is that they don't quite exhibit the passion in his voice when he talked about these things. Wow. Give it a listen.

Whatever you say, it all seems to be working so far.

-B

GUI and NUI

One of the cool things about going to school is that there always other stuff going on around you.  Mostly for free, usually for really cheap.  The other day I found out that Craig Mundie, Microsoft's Chief Research and Strategy Officer was coming to demo the "new ways that humans will be interacting with computers with a 3D demo.". I keep up with technology and some of the strides being made(and told myself that this had to be  their new Kinect) so I decided that I had to be there. After making the 15 minute trek from Duke Divinity to the Fuqua School of Business, I found my way(just in time I might add) to the auditorium that he was presenting in.  If you aren't a geek and don't keep up with techie things, you'll be interested to know that Microsoft Kinect (code named Project Natal) is a new way to interact with computers through the use of motions and gestures tracked by an incredible camera that not only recognizes your body, but can ignore unintended gestures as well. Think of it as the Wii without a controller.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ET6PqZtYd4] The large point that Craig made was not one of the technology behind it (though it was pretty cool) but was more centered around the idea of why a device like this is needed.

When the original Macintosh was released, the breakthrough in the consumer market was one of the GUI, or graphical user interface.  It was now possible to use a system of icons to convey a message, and made computers usable to the general public. You no longer needed to learn code in order to interact with the device. It was, in its truest form, revolutionary.

The point that Craig made was that the trend has moved from the GUI to NUI, or natural user interface. Does this system use graphics still? Of course. However, there is no longer a mouse and a keyboard, you tell the machine what to do by using voice commands and physical hand movements.  In a way, it seems more...natural.

This occurred to me last night when Allie and I were out to dinner and observed a mother with several children.  One child was in her lap, using her iPad to play a game.  One was across the table with her iPhone, supposedly doing the same.  The kids seemed, as far as I the creep across the restaurant could tell, to be able to entertain themselves VERY easily by just tapping on what they wanted to do. They saw the icon, they clicked it. If you think about it, it's brilliant. They didn't have to realize that funny shaped thing next to the computer moved a cursor.  They didn't have to find that cursor on the screen, move it around and then search a menu for what they wanted.  They found the icon, tapped on it, and were off. Its like taking the graphical interface to the next level. It's what Steve refers to as "magical" about the iPad.

This is the difference that Android and the iPhone have made in the mobile market. No longer did you have to scroll through menus with directional keys or navigate through menus with a ton of buttons or scroll wheels.  Oh wait, I guess Android still requires that. No longer did you have to worry about having a stylus with you wherever you go (or losing it).

Sure, the Microsoft Kinect is more advanced in many ways than the interactions with the iPad, but it is the same concept.  Perhaps computers don't have to be so complicated.  It should be relatively easy to do whatever you need to do, as quickly as possible.

It's not perfect yet.  Apple hasn't quite seemed to figure out how to make it easy to manage lots of applications while maintaining the the simplicity. The new folders function seems to help, but isn't perfect. The Microsoft Kinect works well (from the few minutes that I got to play with it) but the gestures have to be large and intentional in order to be recognized and consequently must often be repeated.

But. Imagine a world in the future when yo walk up to the table at a restaurant and the menu is a part of the table.  You point to what you want and it expands to show you the options for preparation. That is already happening in man restaurants around the world with Microsoft's Surface. Imagine never having to touch a cell phone while driving. Ever. And yet it can still be used to make calls hands free and navigate. That is already happening in many cars.

It's changing our world as we know it. It will be interesting to see how it changes in the future.  This is our world.

 

-B

iPad Competition

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAaez_4m9mQ&hd=1] Looks pretty good to me.  7 inches.  Pairs with 3G on a blackberry.  Says that the web browsing is "uncompromised".  It's based on webkit (an Apple project) so we shall see.  Ever since the iPhone, Blackberry has been behind in web browsing.  We don't know prices yet but for blackberry lovers, this could be a cool device.  It would interesting to give it a try.  The Galaxy Tab (an Android creation by Samsung) looks to give the iPad a run for its money too, but the pricing (as rumored so far) looks like it may hurt sales.

Any thoughts?

-B

September 16th, Customer Service, NC State, and False Advertising.

I know, I know, it's after midnight. It's not September 16th anywmore.  But, this was going to happen either way. If you don't like the Apple stuff, keep reading.  This post isn't about Apple. I don't usually like to post about my day either, but this is simply necessary.  You get a tootsie roll pop if you make it all the way to the end.  Think of it as a narrative, you'll enjoy it more.

On September 16th, 1985 Steve Jobs was forced out of his leadership role at Apple Computer Inc.

On September 16th, 1997 Steve Jobs came back to Apple Computer Inc.

He was there for seven years, gone for 12, back for 13. Wired has a good article on it here.

Everyone knows I love Apple.  But here is why I love Apple: they care about user experience.  They have a great place to get your computer fixed.  Their customer support is outstanding and always getting better. Play with their devices, you'll know that they care about user experience. I have come to not be able tolerate paying for something and not getting the experience that was designed. Read on.

Let me tell you about MY September 16th.  The day began. My new hard drive for my laptop came in the mail yesterday.  I copied everything over and put it in the machine this morning.  I didn't lose any screws (there were 27 minuscule ones), and the machine booted up (faster than before I might add) after everything went back together.  Huge success.  It really feel almost like a new machine.  I finalized my installation of the beta version of iOS 4.2 on my iPad.  It's awesome.

Today started out well.

I had one class, it went great and then I came home to read some before heading the NC State vs. Cincinnati game here in Raleigh.

Here is how that process works: If you want a parking pass (the stadium is off campus) you have to stand in line at a certain time during the week to get one.  They are free, but not unlimited by any means.  Allie stood in line for about a half an hour for ours.  We had some friends going with us, so they rode in my car.

Now, these parking passes. They're made of cheaper paper type cardboard material.  Not quite as study as card stock...but almost.  They hang from your mirror (or at least they say that you should hang them).  At the bottom of the pass is a perforated section with a coupon for $10 off of Jiffy Lube.

We had done this before. Last game, we tore off the jiffy lube coupon and they directed us into the parking lot.  Traffic sucked but it was no big deal.  To add, last game we were in line and I saw the guy taking the passes, ripping off the coupons, pocketing them, and then sending the people on their way. Not to be outsmarted, this week I tore off my coupon just like I had before.

So we got to the lot.

And I held up the pass.

And the man asked if we had been in yet, I told him no.  He asked where the coupon was.  I showed it to him.  He told me that THEY have to rip it off. I told him that he could have it. He said I'd need to turn around and leave.  I asked him why. He said that they have a policy that they have to rip it off.

Then he said "TURN HIM AROUND!"

I pulled up a little bit to see if I could talk to the other guy about this ridiculousness.

He yelled again, "TURN HIM AROUND!!!!" **I thought we usually referred to inanimate objects as females**

I asked where I was supposed to park.

He shrugged and said, "You need to leave now"

**Let me pause and say that I was trying to hold my temper. I can't stand disrespect. He was beyond rude in his dealing with the situation.**

The parking pass did not say anything ANYWHERE about not ripping off the coupon.  I mean, it's a coupon.  Why wouldn't you rip it off?

I stopped the car, almost got out and pointed out once more that he could have the coupon and that it shouldn't matter.  The fact that I had the coupon meant that I hadn't been there yet.

He told me to leave again.

I complied. But no one in the car was happy.

I went back to try to find parking on the street somewhere.  A long way away, we found half a spot and squeezed the Jeep in. Throughout this endeavor, my loving wife was calling the number on the parking pass which was labeled "Parking Problems? Call 919-***-****"  She yelled pretty extensively.  Evidently they only deal with towing, not parking problems.  Cool.  Hence, false advertising.

As we were walking toward the stadium, I stopped to ask one of the other attendants if they had a manager or boss.  One of the guys laughed and told me they did. I asked if I could speak to them and explained the situation and the frustration. He agreed, if that's going to be a policy, it should explicitly say somewhere that the coupon cannot be torn off.  (It's worth noting that later we found out that they had been returning the coupons to the pass holders.  So....the guy turned us away even though we had a pass because we...ripped it and he didn't get to?) I asked him if he would say something to leadership because the rule is dumb and needs to be explained if its going to be enforced.  We thanked him and walked on. Success.

Followed by failure.  Of course this put us in the stadium after kick off.  this was especially true for me.  I forgot my ticket in the car throughout this entire fiasco.  Allie's had already been scanned, so she went in, got her hand stamped for North End Zone student section (they told her that I could get a North End stamp when I got back).  I walked the 25 minutes back to the car, got my ticket, and walked the 25 minutes back. I got into the stadium, went to get stamped, and...South End Zone.  When we asked why, we got a "sorry, you're out of luck answer, you two will have to sit at different ends."  Real cool.  My ticket was $25 and it was getting to be well worth it.

Experience, experience. In case you were wondering, NC State Football has no customer service line.  No complaints process.  No way to prove that their policies are silly or don't work.  No compassion for any situation from those working.

I blame it all on the guy who wanted desperately to get my coupon for Jiffy Lube.

We ended up walking around the stadium until the guy patrolling the section our friends were in left.  We went up and watched the second half with them.

It was a good game.  But not a good experience.

I hope someone involved with this endeavor reads this. It's hard to please everyone at a situation as big as a college football game broadcast on ESPN. But, generally, GOOD policies and genuine servants who just wish to accomplish their job without pissing anyone off help with this project.

I've done a little customer service as an RA and in my role as a Support Member at Warren Willis camp. It's hard work dealing with people who are on edge. I get that.

But I also believe in pleasing the customer. Because if you please them, they're happy, they'll come back, and your business will succeed.

College football will always be successful. So customer service is obviously not a priority. Obviously.

If you ever work in customer service, try to do better than this guy.  I hate, no, "strongly dislike" him.

He's probably good to go with oil changes for the foreseeable future though.

September 16th, 1985 sucked for Steve Jobs.

September 16th, 2010 ended up sucking for me too.

-B

A New Way to Nano

I bet you thought that I would write about the Apple event today. You were right.

If you want to check out the new iPods, Apple TV, and iTunes, hit up Apple.com

Some thoughts:

The one thing that I didn't like today was the phrasing of the advertising of the new nano. A new way to nano? Really? I think that's dumb.

I'll give you a dollar if you buy the new iPod touch so we can FaceTime.

Apple TV looked dumb until I saw netflix and AirPlay. If Airplay works that well, it's worth every penny.

Why would anyone buy a shuffle when the nano is that much better?

Steve said that they updated every iPod. He forgot about the iPod classic.

Apple never streams events live. Today they did. I was in class.

What if you could install apps for iPod nano from iTunes? Would the small screen be usable?

Why are HD movie rentals still $5? Hollywood is ridiculous.

Having the abc app for iPad on apple tv would be great. Even though are commercials. I would much rather watch commercials than pay $1 each episode.

Finally printing is coming to the iPad. That should have been included from the start.

The graphics on that game they demoed were incredible. I just downloaded the free demo.

Ping might be cool, but only time will tell. At what point will we have to stop keeping up with so many social networks?

iTunes app updated on my phone without a download from the app store. If apple allowed third party developers to update their apps like that, the world would change. And pigs would be flying.

Check out Airplay. It was by far the best thing announced.

Some days I wish my iPhone had a clip on it like the nano and shuffle.

Peace

-B