Wilbur Corncob's Blog November Archive

Free Publicity or Big Time Idiots?

By Wilbur Corncob at 11/28/07 11:25

We have a number of directories people can use for promoting their websites. Like most directories it can get pretty boring. Page after page of websites listed, hopefully with some sense of order.

We decided to make things a bit flashier. People can optionally complete an interview we publish on a related (topic wise) blog. The interview is designed to dig a little bit into the website and the people behind it.

The goal is that after someone's read the interview and clicks through to the website they'll already feel a little bit at home there. We have lots of questions and don't require them all to be answered. At least enough to interest someone in your website.

Read more: Free Publicity or Big Time Idiots? [click]

Tags: free publicity • dumb people • interviews • wasting time •
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How the BBB Tortures Customers and Denies Access to those Outside the USA

Today I had occassion to contact the Better Business Bureau (BBB) through their online complaint form.

I found part of the process completely frustration and for an organization dedicated to helping consumers beyond comprehension.

It's a simple thing really, the entry box for your phone number. One might expect to enter a phone number like (212) 555-1212 or 212-555-1212 for readability, compared to say 2125551212 which is error prone to boot.

My problem when a bit further, being outside the USA my phone number including country code is 11 digits, without the country code 8. Neither computes, nor does putting a + to indicate an international number.

The only response I got was the "brilliant" error message: "Enter numbers only ########## no ( or -".

The completely absurd part of it is that its one line of perl and probably the same in PHP to simply filter out the spaces, dashes and the like.

I would hope the BBB did better in their interaction with consumers!

Why I didn't Buy a Boombox or Mini Component this Weekend

I am not one to spend too much time shopping. However, our DVD player ("home theater*") blew up. Bang and a little poof of smoke. It was made by RCA and had just a one year warranty. It was a bit too expensive so I am not anxious to buy a replacement or end up paying almost what it cost to have it repaired.

The truth is we don't really a new DVD player because we have a compound entertainment system. A TV Tuner that feeds the LCD Monitor and a Computer that feeds sound and video to the TV Tuner. The TV Tuner used to feed the audio to the DVD Player for nice sound.

Read more: Why I didn't Buy a Boombox or Mini Component this Weekend [click]