A good friend of mine introduced me to a little site called engadget. Engadget is technophile’s dream playground. Want to know about the buzz going on within the tech industry, then engadget is your site. You’ll hear about new product introductions before their introduced. It’s updated every day with tons of tech products…I am at a loss for words.
A Slingbox is a TV streaming device that enables consumers to remotely view their cable, satellite, or personal video recorder (PVR) programming from an Internet-enabled computer with a broadband Internet connection. It is produced by Sling Media, Inc of San Mateo, California.
So this evening I received a telephone call from Rogers introducing me to their new home phone service. They asked me a number of questions including ‘Is your home phone service with Bell?”, they asked me which services I currently subscribed to.
They then proceeded to tell me that they could offer me 6 services and long distance within Canada for 5 cents/minute for $41.95, I would be able to keep my same telephone number, and the quality of service wouldn’t change. I told them I wasn’t interested, they told me there would be substantial cost savings, what they didn’t know is that cost wasn’t factor in my decision to switch carriers. I asked them what differentiated their service from Bell’s, they told me price.
I told them that I was happy with Bell, and that I have all of my other services with Bell. I also told them I know that Bell’s customer service is great, they then responded with ‘We have 24hr customer service’, and I then proceeded with asking how do I know that you have good customer service (the call centre rep was very good) and she told me that she has had both Bell and Rogers and that Rogers customer service is as good if not better than Bell.
I then brought up the objection of no longer having ‘One Bill’ – this was obstacle she couldn’t ovecome. She basically told me that its just another piece of paper, with different colours on it. HAHAHAHA.
She then tried to convince me that cheaper was better…and that I could use the savings to go on a trip or buy a new car. Honestly, she said this to me. Let me tell you, if by switching to Rogers Home Phone I would save enough money to buy a new car…where’s the dotted line? This was far from the case.
I then told them that I had a feature that converted my voicemail to e-mail…they had no clue as to what I was talking about, I spent a couple of minutes explaining it to them. At first she said she had a similar feature, she put me on hold and then put me on the phone with her supervisor. Her supervisor told me initially that any service I currently had with Bell I could have with Rogers so I once again asked her if they had voicemail to e-mail capabilities as this is a feature I use everyday. After being put on hold once again, the original rep got back on the phone and told me that she apologized for taking so much of my time and they didn’t have the service. She made no further attempt to sell me the service.
In all I spent about 16 minutes on the phone with Rogers. At the end of it what did Rogers accomplish – not much. I probably just cost them a whole bunch of money!
I love you tube…especially since I’m a self proclaimed Big Brother Allstars addict. For those of you who can’t seem to get enough of the program, You Tube has tons of bb7 content available only online.
Janelle – Her and Dr. Will get it on (hehehe…just kidding)
IPTV – And so with Vista comes the dream of IPTV. I wrote awhile back that I was ‘suped’ up over getting a Vista Media Centre PC with the hope that it would lunch in Fall’06, but it’s old news in the industry that the Vista launch has been delayed to the first quarter of 2007.
That being said, Telcos around the world are gearing up for the launch of the next generation television service based on Microsoft’s IPTV edition platform. In fact, AT&T has already commercially launched an IPTV service using Microsoft’s platform, marketed as ‘u-verse’.
And so I wait for Vista to launch. Over the weekend I watched a biography on Bill Gates on the tube. What a smart and resilient man Mr. Gates is.
The first day of school our professor introduced himself and challenged us to get to know someone we didn’t already know. I stood up to look around when a gentle hand touched my shoulder.
I turned around to find a wrinkled, little old lady beaming up at me with a smile that lit up her entire being.
She said, “Hi handsome. My name is Rose.
I’m eighty-seven years old. Can I give you a hug?”
I laughed and enthusiastically responded, “Of course you may!” and she gave me a giant squeeze.
“Why are you in college at such a young, innocent age?” I asked.
She jokingly replied, “I’m here to meet a rich husband, get married, and have a couple of kids…”
“No seriously,” I asked. I was curious what may have motivated her to be taking on this challenge at her age.
“I always dreamed of having a college education and now I’m getting one!” she told me.
After class we walked to the student union building and shared a chocolate milkshake.
We became instant friends. Every day for the next three months we would leave class together and talk nonstop. I was always mesmerized listening to this “time machine” as she shared her wisdom and experience with me.
Over the course of the year, Rose became a campus icon and she easily made friends wherever she went.
She loved to dress up and she reveled in the attention bestowed upon her from the other students. She was living it up.
At! the end of the semester we invited Rose to speak at our football banquet.
I’ll never forget what she taught us. She was introduced and stepped up to the podium As she began to deliver her prepared speech, she dropped her three by five cards on the floor.
Frustrated and a little embarrassed she leaned into the microphone and simply said, “I’m sorry I’m so jittery. I gave up beer for Lent and this whiskey is killing me! I’ll never get my speech back in order so let me just tell you what I know.”
(this cracked me up!)
As we laughed she cleared her throat and began, “We do not stop playing because we are old; we grow old because we stop playing.
There are only four secrets to staying young, being happy, and achieving success. You have to laugh and find humor every day. You’ve got to have a dream. When you lose your dreams, you die.
We have so many people walking around who are dead and don’t even know it!
There is a huge difference between growing older and growing up.
If you are nineteen years old and lie in bed for one full year and don’t do one productive thing, you will turn twenty years old. If I am eighty-seven years old and stay in bed for a year and never do anything I will turn eighty-eight.
Anybody can grow older. That doesn’t take any talent or ability. The idea is to grow up by always finding opportunity in change. Have no regrets.
The elderly usually don’t have regrets for what we did, but rather for things we did not do. The only people who fear death are those with regrets.”
She concluded her speech by courageously singing “The Rose.”
She challenged each of us to study the lyrics and live them out in our daily lives.
At the year’s end Rose finished the college degree she had begun all those years ago.
One week after graduation Rose died peacefully in her sleep.
Over two thousand college students attended her funeral in tribute to the wonderful woman who taught by example that it’s never too late to be all you can possibly be.
When you finish reading this, please send this peaceful word of advice to your friends and family, they’ll really enjoy it!
REMEMBER, GROWING OLDER IS MANDATORY. GROWING UP IS OPTIONAL.
We make a Living by what we get, We make a Life by what we give.
So today Companhia Vale do Rio Doce tabled its offer to acquire INCO, in an all cash deal that would create one of the three largest diversified mining companies in the world. Headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, CVRD is a multinational corporation with its operations spanning across 4 continents and 17 countries.
On another note, Brazil IT, an effort by several Brazilian IT services and solutions providers to open up a world of opportunities in your front-yard, is the future of near-shore outsourcing for companies committed to gaining competitiveness by reducing costs, while working with highly qualified IT developers within the same time zone and cultural boundaries. Brazil is one of the world’s largest economies and its growing IT market is currently estimated at over US$10 billion dollars.
Brazil’s largest telco company is Telemar
