Facebook’s wikipedia spam

Business / Customer Service / Marketing / Technology / Websites

Facebook is clearly a web super-power, so why do they insist on spamming Facebook with duplicate business pages that business owners can’t claim? The spam I’m talking about are the countless wikipedia pages that were imported a few years ago. wikipedia is notorious for untrustworthy content and endless edit-wars between subject matter experts and wikipedia trolls. NPR even did a story on the edit-wars. So why does Facebook force the content on users? What’s worse than being forced to view garbage content is that these pages can’t be …

Audio cues in podcasts

Business / Phones / Podcasting / Software / Technology

With smartphones being a regular part of most people’s lives and podcasts becoming more popular as in-car entertainment, advertising needs to catch up with the technology a bit. I often hear ads that are interesting enough to want to look up, but if I’m driving I can’t pull up a website or even take a note, so I need to really want to remember what the ad was about to recall it later. So instead, what about an app that would listen for audio cues and pull up …

Target’s streaming service baits and switches?

Business / Customer Service / Technology / Video

This evening I rented Atlas Shrugged Part III in HD ($5.99) from Target’s streaming service, “TargetTicket.com”. When I tried to watch it, the only option I got was SD. So… what’s the deal Target? And you can’t give the excuse of ‘oh your download speeds weren’t fast enough’, because the speed test I ran before starting the video shows 108Mbps. FAR more than is needed to stream HD on Netflix even. Bait and switch.   Atlas Shrugged Part III: Who is John Galt? Addendum: I submitted a trouble …

Kaiser has the worst customer service

Business / Customer Service / Reviews

Kaiser Permanente has given the most frustrating and disappointing service I’ve ever received. And that includes phone and cable companies. I’m a single male, 38-40 years old, with past medical history of diverticulitis, but otherwise no issues. I’m not one of those people who run to the doctor because I have the sniffles or a stomach ache. I don’t go see the doctor because I bumped my elbow and it still hurts after a day. I DO go to the doctor when there’s something wrong. Something that won’t …

Firearm barcodes

Business / Hardware / Technology

I just noticed that Smith & Wesson is doing 2D Data Matrix barcodes on some of their pistols. As a geek, I find this interesting for a few reasons. First, basic inventory tracking at the factory and second, to help reduce the ability to fake modify gun serial numbers. As with most gun issues, this will have zero impact on criminals. If they want to change a serial number, they’ll spend the time and money to do it – or, they just don’t care and they’ll use a …

Mobile card readers… for the laptop

Business / Customer Service / Hardware / Software / Technology

Mobile phone card readers have become more popular in recent years because they’re small and easy to use for swiping a payment cards while away from a retail location. There are at least half-a-dozen readers out there that you can get for free from the various payment processors. That’s because the readers are extremely inexpensive to produce – and that’s because they are very simple devices. They read the non-encrypted data on the magnetic stripe of your card. The other day I was sitting with a friend who …

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