the cynical customer

Love in the Wild

2011-07-25T11:04:00.000-07:00

This is the first reality show I watch as I got to know about it after reading an article in a newspaper.

Also, I could watch it online at the time and day of my choice otherwise I would not have bothered.

Very interesting idea (you can read more about it: Love In The Wild Fans Magazine & Wikipedia) and I was hooked for a while. However the last episode 4 disappointed me and I realized almost everything was scripted just to make the show more dramatic.

I mean Steele and Erica must have spoken in advance that they would stick together but all the dialogue that was filmed kind of let the viewer believe that Steele will not turn down Jessica . And Erica approaching Ben about a possible switch, come on ?

Not to mention Derek who suggested he might choose Samantha as he likes her. He must have known had he done so, he would have become the most hated man in America for breaking up a couple who was doing so well together. So after all he had no desire to choose Samantha.

However, producers of the show must have known that it would have been too boring showing people’s real intentions. They needed to inject some drama. I even suspect they ‘helped’ Derek win again in order to build up the suspense: “Will he or not choose Samantha ?”

The fact that the horse ran away from Jessica/Jason must have been the only real thing. He must have sensed that the couple did not get along too well (horses like most animals can pick up human emotions and react accordingly).

I might not watch the show again !

Japan trip

2011-07-09T20:28:00.000-07:00

There is nothing cynical about it, just wanted to post it somewhere.

Drank some white water, very curious what it actually was.

Noodles everywhere (instead of a hotdog)

Fascinated by the vending machines

and toilet seats

Nissan Leaf, the electric car (though did not see one on the streets)

wonder what it was for

place for smokers !?!

famous Shinkansen

Criminality is low in Japan but I worried a lot someone would take my shoes especially as the warnings did not help to assuage my fears.

More photos here: Japan

Facebook or the Writing is on the Wall

2011-06-19T17:46:00.000-07:00

Last year I read an article in a local newspaper called ‘Time to unplug from Facebook’.

That made me thinking of setting up an antifacebook site, even if it wouldn’t be named like that.

However, no circle of friends, no chat (there are some good programs out there), no 3rd applications, no walls, no inbox (there is yahoo, gmail, etc.), no groups, and many other no's, only the friends and a diary.

Have it as simple as possible with the main purpose to keep in touch with the friends and the second one as important as the main one not to become addicted.

However, I am sure someone is working on this site at this very moment.

I venture to make a prediction: Facebook will go the way of MySpace in fewer than 3 years.

And what I read some time ago:

We will move on, just as we did from the chat rooms of AOL, without even looking back. When the place is as ethereal as a website, our allegiance is much more abstract than it is to a local pub or gym. We don't live there, we don't know the owner, and we are all the more ready to be incensed by the latest change to a privacy policy, or to learn that every one of our social connections has been sold to the highest corporate bidder.

So it's not that MySpace lost and Facebook won. It's that MySpace won first, and Facebook won next. They'll go down in the same order.
Full article Facebook hype will fade .

And today other article The trouble with Facebook

However according to Inside Facebook, which tracks the site's popularity, there were 100,000 fewer British users in May while over 7 million users ditched their accounts in USA and Canada - the first time the number of users of the site has actually diminished in these countries.

When you're talking about 670 million users worldwide it sounds a bit like a drop in the ocean but CEO Mark Zuckerberg will be wary of this becoming a trend. Trends are what all Internet businesses are built on, after all. While it's too early to tell whether Facebook has peaked in terms of user-base just yet it's clear in my mind that the site has peaked in terms of interest.

Other good reading (the comments too) Facefacts

It is about time I started my social site; the avalanche will start and nothing will be able to stop it (i.e. the demise of Facebook).

Lounge Opening Hours

2011-05-07T18:19:00.000-07:00

The board says the lounge closes at 23:45. It closes in fact at 23:15. When I inquired about the discrepancy as I was being asked to leave at 23:15 and I was told they requested the airport (Vancouver) for 4 years !!! to change the timetable and they have not done it yet.

“What the hell is going on ?”

2011-03-18T20:57:00.000-07:00

They make robots who play soccer, climb stairs, play violin, nano robots, big robots and so on.

How can’t they make a robot that goes through a damaged building ?
Actually it does not have to be a robot but a small flying machine with a camera.

This question would have not been put and if yes the answer would have been given without too much delay.

Performance Review is Bad

2011-03-11T10:30:00.000-08:00

Link (no affiliate) to the book .

This post should be under a 'cynical employee' blog, but the truth is that there are not too many things at my current work to be cynical about.

I'd have to count on the visitors with their own stories to have at least a post per week whick it would not happen as ususally I am the only visitor of this blog, not to mention that any prospective employer would not look favorably to the owner of such a blog.

Some quotes from a very good article about performance reviews:

At two of the companies I've worked for, the most stressful time of year was the twice-yearly performance review period. For some reason, the Juno HR department and the Microsoft HR department must have copied their performance review system out of the same Dilbertesque management book, because both programs worked exactly the same way.

Performance reviews were stressful for a couple of reasons. Many of my friends, especially the ones whose talents were very significant but didn't show up on the traditional scales, tended to get lousy performance reviews.

The effect of reviews on morale is lopsided: while negative reviews hurt morale a lot, positive reviews have no effect on morale or productivity.

Full article Incentive Pay Considered Harmful by Joe Spolsky

@charliesheen

2011-03-03T06:26:00.000-08:00

That's crazy ! 1 million followers in 24 hours !

I have just created an account only for the purpose of following him. I actually had an account set up some 4 months ago that I never used so I did not know the name/password.

There were 1,...,277 followers first time I accessed the account and I thought I'd be ... 278 but some other 200 joined the list in the meantime.
Now I will do other screenshot to see how much it has increased in 10 minutes.

Approximate 2,400 increase

And after some 1 hour

Satisfaction guaranteed

2011-02-14T19:13:00.000-08:00

"Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back". Would the dog communicate to the handler he did not like it ?

Facebook or the Writing is on the Wall

2011-02-06T17:01:00.000-08:00

Last year I read an article in a local newspaper called ‘Time to unplug from Facebook’.

That made me thinking of setting up an antifacebook site, even if it wouldn’t be named like that.

However, no circle of friends, no chat (there are some good programs out there), no 3rd applications, no walls, no inbox (there is yahoo, gmail, etc.), no groups, and many other no's, only the friends and a diary.

Have it as simple as possible with the main purpose to keep in touch with the friends and the second one as important as the main one not to become addicted. And no ads, be like Facebook in its infancy.

However, I am sure someone is working on this site at this very moment.

I venture to make a prediction: Facebook will go the way of MySpace in fewer than 3 years.

And what I read recently:

We will move on, just as we did from the chat rooms of AOL, without even looking back. When the place is as ethereal as a website, our allegiance is much more abstract than it is to a local pub or gym. We don't live there, we don't know the owner, and we are all the more ready to be incensed by the latest change to a privacy policy, or to learn that every one of our social connections has been sold to the highest corporate bidder.

So it's not that MySpace lost and Facebook won. It's that MySpace won first, and Facebook won next. They'll go down in the same order.
Full article 'Facebook hype will fade' here.

Also, this post by a very smart guy, who quit Facebook some 1 month ago:
The sub-titles from his post:

Facebook communication is mostly low-priority noise.
Impulse sharing comes with a price.
Friends lose their individuality and become part of a collective.
Facebook creates a false and unsatisfying sense of socializing.
Facebook is computer interaction, not human interaction.
A friend isn’t necessarily a “friend”.
Facebook is ruled by addicts.
Facebook is lazy socialization.
Facebook is an expensive way to increase visibility.

you can pull it off. Enough has Facebook stolen your thunder and engineers. Buy the domain friends.net (so not .com because it will not be a commercial site) and set it up based on the ideas from above, a social site only for keeping in touch.
Have your employees join the site (kind of work obligation) and give anyone else who opens an account a Starbucks coupon for 3 coffees (for him and her/his 2 friends).

And the avalanche will start and nothing will be able to stop it.

Eat Pray Love

2011-01-21T17:43:00.000-08:00

Nothing to be cynical about this book, no wonder it has been a best seller for so long (for over 200 weeks as a New York Times paperback nonfiction bestseller).

She has talent, the way she masters the words. I would have not been able to come with something like that:

“My head shimmered in a reverb of sound, the way an indoor swimming pool seems to echo interminably with sounds and shouts, even after the kindergarteners have gone home for the day."

However, I would write my own book: 'Living in the 10 poorest countries'.
No, it would be too harsh, nobody would read it and I would not be able to live there.

What about a book: 'Living in the seven smallest countries'.

They are:

1. Vatican City
Can one just rent an apartment there ? I do no think so, it is so small the entire country does not have a single street address ! So I'll try to live as close as possible.
2. Monaco
3. Nauru
4. Tuvalu
5. San Marino
6. Liechtenstein
7. Marshall Islands

However too many small islands so I would replace them .
Tuvalu with either Seychelles or Maldives and instead of Marshall Islands I would live in Bhutan.
The Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan is the only nation that puts happiness at the core of public policy. I am dead curious, are people happy there ?

Vatican would take care of the 'Pray' part.
'Eat' would be easy as I am not a fussy eater.
'Love' in the sense people think of would be more difficult, but I would find it and apply it in a generic sense.

Treehugger Juice - Tahitian Limes and Sicilian Lemons

2010-11-27T17:27:00.000-08:00

They say that the limes are from Tahiti and the lemons from Sicily and moreover organic too.

I somehow did not believe this so I sent an e-mail to the company asking them to confirm the ingredients are from those 2 islands and which farms.
No answer yet and I have sent 2 e-mails.

Conclusion: very likely the juice is not made from Tahitian limes and Sicilian lemons and now I doubt whether they are organic either.

Note:
The images of the islands are from Wikimedia: Sicily, Tahiti.

Anti Stress

2010-10-30T18:00:00.000-07:00

SISU B Stress and its price gave me lots of stress I could say as the pills did not work as I would have expected; they had no noticeable effect.

Some 10 years ago I found a brand Vitalia for B complex vitamins that were 1000% RDA.
They were like a drug. I remember I was waking up at 4 am to go to work, I would take a pill and I would not feel any tiredness.
I was so relaxed, calm, peaceful and carefree. And I took care not to take the vitamin every day as not to have the body got too used to it and not have the same effect.

This brand disappeared and I have been looking for a similar 1000% RDA B complex vitamin without any success.

Sunscreens dangerous

2010-10-25T17:52:00.000-07:00

I knew it. You want to protect against the harmful sun radiations and you get sick of something else.
I mean putting every day some chemical substances on your face it is bound to have some side effects in the long term. They must have tested it but no test can look into what would happen if someone used a sunscreen for 20 years.

And what brand was in the photo (from a Globe and Mail article) ?
Aveeno that I had 3, being such a good deal when I bought them.

Paranoid as I am, I am thinking: "Did they know that the article was coming so this is the reason they put the Aveeno on sale ?"

May be suitable for horses

2010-09-20T20:34:00.000-07:00

House suitable for horses !?!

Domain registry

2010-09-14T06:22:00.000-07:00

What a nerve ?
1 year - $40
2 years - $70 / 35 per year
5 years - $160 / 32 per year
I wonder whether anyone takes up this offer.
It is like $20/year on other sites.
And they spend money on stamp, paper and envelope to send this 'offer'.

Energy Teas: Yerba Mate vs. Rishi Tea (Pu-erh Ginger)

2010-08-15T13:23:00.000-07:00

The label says:
"The indigenous tribal people of Brazil make an energizing social beverage by infusing the dried Yerba Mate leaves in water. They have been drinking Yerba Mate instead of coffee for many generations and believe that sharing this herbal tea induces mental clarity and stamina."

I tried it and I felt neither mental clarity nor stamina. Those people are not stressed like me and they sleep well, of course it works for them.

But the Rishi tea does deliver. I feel more refreshed, same boost like after a coffee.

Sleep number bed

2010-07-18T13:12:00.000-07:00

I had big hopes in this bed. I was imaging a life where I would wake up every morning fully rested and refreshed.

I just had to select the right number (how firm or soft the bed can inflate) by testing a few nights and that's it.

It did not make any difference as far as I no longer bother with setting any number.

And as a matter of fact I would have been very surprised to make a difference.
I suppose this bed is very expensive but as one spends in bed around 1/3 of their life the price should be no object and everyone or most people should have this kind bed in their bedrooms.

World Cup 2010

2010-07-12T20:29:00.000-07:00

It has just finished and again the same debates about using instant replay, goal-line technology and extra referees. I remember it started with Maradona’s hand of God in 1986 and I am sure there had been calls for change before (after all television has been around for 50-60 years). 24 years have passed and nothing has changed.

I would make the following change as well: only the first team from each group would qualify further. This way we would not have a game like Spain – Chile with its last 10 minutes that were a real torture as no-one really wanted to play knowing they both qualified. Every WC seems to have this kind of a game where no-one wants to take any risks. What only if the team on the first position had qualified ? We would not have had that kind of no-game.

And we should have other 2 groups 4 teams each; more games, more fun and no excuse for having a bad day (like in the knock-out stages).

We would have had the following groups:

Group 1
Uruguay
Argentina
United States
Germany

Group 2
Netherlands
Paraguay
Brazil
Spain

First 2 teams in each group would play the semifinals and that’s it.
We would have had a more exciting World Cup.

And as a concluding note statistics showed that Spain also became the first team to win to World Cup having scored the least number of goals with only eight in seven matches.
However, they won FIFA Fair Play award that is highly laudable and a good enough reason they deserved to win the cup. And they played well, not exceptionally but well. Personally I would have liked the Netherlands to win as to make-up for the lost 2 finals when they played 'Total Football'.

High bacterial rates found in bottled water

2010-05-25T20:53:00.000-07:00

Now, you can not trust even the bottled water. And it was one of the things I buy I trust most.

Montreal-based C-crest Laboratories Inc. conducted the research after a company employee complained of a foul taste and illness after drinking some bottled water.

The U.S. bacterial limit is no more than 500 colony-forming units of bacteria per millimetre of water. The Canadian test samples showed results of more than 50,000 heterotrophic units.

Health Canada hasn't set a safe bacterial limit for bottled water.

Researchers from the lab gathered samples of several major brands of bottled water from Montreal stores and tested the bacterial levels.

They also tested samples of Canadian tap water and found the levels around 170 colony-forming units per millimetre of water well below what was found in the bottled water.

We want names. We as consumers demand names.
Who are they ? Who did not pass the tests ?

Full article here.
Disclaimer: Photo from Wikimedia Commons, nothing to do with the tested brands (had to put a no copyright photo)

iPad contest

2010-05-20T21:34:00.000-07:00

"I’m going to be giving away an iPad to a lucky reader. Specifically, a 16GB WiFi iPad. The good news is that you can earn up to 15 entries into this contest."

It's being run on the site http://wheredoesallmymoneygo.com

Samsung Sports Camcorder

2010-05-15T19:41:00.000-07:00

The model is SC-X300, it cost me around $500 about 2 years ago and I bought it mainly for the external camera.

The camcorder was smaller than I had expected but the external lens bigger but there was anything else similar on the market.

The quality of the video was not too good but it served my purpose that was to record hands free while biking, skiing or zip lining (did it only once).

Now Samsung discontinued its production and as I far as I know even if there are many small camcorders on the markets none of them have external lens.

Doesn't anyone see a market here ? Record hands free while doing sport activities.

Hair on the Towel

2010-04-26T19:33:00.000-07:00

Another 4 star hotel. I seem to attract these things so I should stop recording them.

Hope it does not get worse and it stays at the same level.

Art of Shaving

2010-04-05T19:18:00.000-07:00

Quite expensive, around $28 for 75 ml, but no need to check it in while flying :).

Is it worth it ?

I do not really know, initially I thought it is all natural, must have read somewhere, but they do not say this on the label.

Only that they use high quality botanical ingredients and 100% pure essential oils. And this is not all natural.

Canceled Credit Card

2010-03-22T19:55:00.000-07:00

They canceled my credit card because it had been used in a compromised terminal. They said they tried to call me beforehand but they could not get hold of me so I had the unpleasant surprise my CC stopped working.

I was curious what terminal or at least which city but they couldn't tell me.

Why don't they do like Dinners ? E-mail alerts, so simple and useful; now I no longer worry whether they have received or not the payment.

It cannot be a difficult thing to implement.

Economies of scale

2010-03-17T17:30:00.000-07:00

Hotel Radisson in Winnipeg

The card says "You will receive weekday delivery of USA Today."