But like others who find the notion of an “upgrade” for buying the most recent model an interesting term….. apparently the pirates known as AT&T want to Ssssssuck more money out of the Apple love.

I went to check how I could buy an iPhone. The “early upgrade” fee of $18 which is really $36 which is really $236 if you are a sap who owns a 3G.

That $299 iPhone 3GS will cost me $499. It is explained really clearly:

As a valued AT&T customer, AT&T can offer you an early iPhone upgrade with a new 2-yr commitment and an $18 upgrade fee. You may qualify for a standard iPhone upgrade on 01/19/2010.

In the spirit of Tom Woodard, I am close captioning this for the AT&T impaired…

As a valued AT&T customer Yep, we value zinging you with fees, AT&T can offer you an early iPhone upgrade with a new 2-yr commitment and an $18 upgrade fee Whoops, we forgot to mention that extra $18 other fee, the 100% gravy on top of gravy fee. And oh yeah, as a “valued” customer, once you get to step 5 you will find that the phone that costs $299 for people who bought an older phone costs you $499 although you bought a $399 phone last year. You may qualify for a standard iPhone upgrade on 01/19/2010. Yep, and if you think you can pawn off your 3G phone, dream on..

I’ll be waiting until my indentured service to AT&T hits the 18 month mark in January. While my work pays for my phone, and I could have them pay the extra hit– it just seems wrong. Maybe I’ll change my mind, wont be the first time, and really it is maybe and extra $30 a month to get a newer better phone faster?

But.

It just seems wrong

In the meantime, I am sharing my list of desired features that maybe they will get around to by January 2010.

• A better way to manage handoff/switch off of 3G/wireless connectivity. I’d really like some way from any screen to turn on/off wireless. I can best describe it by what happens when I travel to the Phoenix airport. I park at long term parking, and on the bus to the terminal I usually am checking mail, twitter etc. As I pass terminals 4 and 3, my phone picks up the free airport wireless, but using it requires an authentication login (passing through 3 questions and a button). The wireless network gets in the way. The same is entering a space where the main public networks are all locked. Maybe a wireless connection option that will only look for public/open networks?? The bottom line, I end up having to go to Settings — Wireless continually to turn on and off wireless. I’d like to do this from the menubar of any screen.
• Apple prides itself on UI but the UI for managing my app screens is worse than something Microsoft might give us. Managing the arrangement of apps by sliding around on the phone screen is sheer torture. It is in new way a fun or desirable activity. I want a graphic tool, maybe in iTunes, to organize and manage my app icons. I want to be able to easily group them so I can find things. I have 6 panes now of random apps. If I add a new one, it might take me 15 minutes to make room and slide things around to fit in a sensible place. Give us a GUI app organizer editor!
• Let me customize the keyboard Some apps change the keyboard- Safari gives you a “.com” on the keyboard. I’d like to customize more common keys for the way *I* work, not the way an app designer thinks I should. Typing URLs is just plain super tedium, only to be relieved slightly when we get cut ‘n paste. Some entry fields are “smart” like in the Contacts when it knows how to capitalize and accept things like zipcodes, but web site fields want to capitalize email and URL fields? Yech.

I’d write more but I am tired and defeated. Tell me how groovy the 3GS is, but I will be “S” less til released from the shackles in January.

One can hardly read a twitter stream these days without tripping over a boat load of hash tags (for those knot sure of what twitter is or what hash tags are, please go check out Oprah or some other oracle, I am not feeling like explaining everything…).

First of all, I completely get, grok, and am on board with the desire, the reason for hash tags. Twitter as is, lacks anything in its architecture to allow cross grouping oh content. And hash tags do fill that purpose, though IMHO rather awkwardly.

But before going there, I again wonder about our cranial capacity to keep track of hash tags. Event ones are of course short lived. I have been gaming them, toying with them for a while but creating what I call #totalUselessAndRidiculous tags. Just for the fun of it. Just to through a spanner in the works.

captioned for Stephen Downes who hates screen shots of tweets…

Bumps in the cloud? My Gmail reports Server Error. Coincidently, my water is turned off as well. What’s going on? #paranoidConspiracyTheory

@sridgway Indeed— is not all water supply dependent on clouds? #RideThehydrologicCycle Today is a gangbuster of #MeanlinglessHashTrashTags

Why do I do that? It’s because I am a smart***.

And speaking of trashing hash tags, read how Nicholas Carr looks down his lucid and mind boggling nose at what is being called “hashmobs” — people who instead of assembling in a real place to do something (Flashmobs) just gather around some recent hash tag, jumping in with 140 characters of pseudo action.

The members of a hashmob gather, virtually, around a particular hashtag by labeling each of their tweets with said hashtag and then following the resulting hashtag tweet stream. Hashmobbers don’t have to subject themselves to the weather, and they don’t actually have to be in proximity to any other physical being. A hashmob is a purely avatarian mob, though it is every bit as prone to the rapid cultivation of mass hysteria as a nonavatarian mob.

Ew.

Of course, Carr is a #RealBigTimeAuthorTooBusyToBeBotheredWithBlogComments so we must…. never mind.

But now to the hack part. Hash tags are a pure hack. If twitter had some foresight, they might have created a real tagging structure, where the tags are not messily embedded with the content (besides the point that tagging your content takes away from your space for content). They are not microcontent-able. They are glommed on.

Hash tags though do provide a great service for aggregating, searching, etc. I like and use them. I am not against them. I am not against them. I am not against them. I am not against them.

But at some level, IMHO, they are silly and another, they are a wretched sloppy implementation of a workable tagging environment.

Tag this post #________________________________________ (c’mon commenters, unlike the Rough Type, which seems not rough enough, my blog is always open to distracting comments, so fill in my blanks)

Good gravy, if you are going to send me spam-mail, at least make it a worthy effort? This one “Your Tax Refund” from supposedly the “Canada Revenue Agency” makes those Kenyan inheritances and dutch lottos seem legit. I really expected more from Canadian Spam, and I am way disappointed in this attempt.

After the last anual calculations of your fiscal activity we have determined that you are eligible to receive a tax refund of $475.20

From 2009, we process refunds through your VISA / Mastercard Please fill the form below and e-mail it to canadarevenueagency@minister.com or simply reply it from this curent e-mail !

First Name:
Last Name:
Address:
City:
Province:
Postal Code:
Home Phone Number:
Mother’s Maiden Name:
Date of Birth:
Social Insurance Number:
Credit/Debit Card Number:
Expiration date [ MM/YYYY ] :
Card Verification Code:
Card Signature/ATM PIN:
Bank Name:

We are asking for your personal information to ensure we access the correct account, enabling us to provide the tax return. Internal Revenue Code Section 6105 allows us to request your Social Insurance Number, Credit/Debit Card number, Expiration Date, Cvv Code ( located on the back of your card ) and ATM PIN CODE for use in maintaining and accessing tax return information.
If you do not enter complete and valid information we cannot provide tax return.

Worm Regards,
Canada Revenue Agency

Oh, you so had me, at “Worm Regards”!

I am ready to send you my credit card number, PIN, security code, mother’s maiden name just cause you threw the name of a US IRS code at me! How convincing!

C’mon Canada, you better step up your spam, the Nigerians are laughing there arses off at you.

An amazing side result of this post is discovering how often a certain previous US President is tagged as “idiot” in flickr. And they scoff at the wisdom of crowds!

Yes, I never liked the Owl’s cheap answer, and always thought the number of licks to get to the center of a Tootsle Pop was a few orders of magnitude higher. Even the FAQ cops out (What kind of FAQ does not provide an A?):

How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?
It depends on a variety of factors such as the size of your mouth, the amount of saliva, etc. Basically, the world may never know.

If you go the wiki route, you get variable answers from 1 to 10,000.

So this answer is not really fixed, and it gets more complex given the trend of product downsizing, where companies maintain a trend of charging more for a product yet shrinking it’s size, weight, number, etc.

Today I got a shock. Being diabetic, I don’t eat candy much, but in times of low blood sugar, I reach for it. I had a Tootsie Pop I picked up from a hotel recently, and was dum founded when I saw how puny the ball of candy was!

I can swear it was twice as big as a kid, bigger than a nickel for sure.

At this rate, I bet that owl is right, as there is hardly any candy, and you may not even be able to identify the microscopic tootsie roll inside.

And for more signs of how pathetic advertising has become, how un-original, the updated version of the commercial does nothing but set the plot on cheesy 3D animation:

Downsizing to the left of me, lame commercials to the right, here I am….

Hence, I am here to tell you the tale of the Alltel Pirates and how they have me chained to their brig. Oh how foolish I was to fall for their ship!

Mock up of Alltel.com site plus pirate face from cc licensed flickr photo Pirate Phobia.

In summary:

• The wireless internet service my organization pays monthly fees for has failed to connect, repeatedly disconnected, or has been wrongly turned off over the last 2 months in such places as Houston, Orlando, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego. We pay for a service not delivered.
• Multiple calls to tech support have failed to fix the issue and in the latest round, their advanced technical support claims that the equipment sold to me at an Alltel store, that worked fine for 4 months, is not supported in my Mac OS X computer. This is in conflict with the manufacturers own specs. So they sold me service and equipment they cannot support.
• According to their “retention department” any termination of service will result in my organization being charged a $200 termination fee.

Once more, we have paid for a service not delivered and we must pay to get out of the contract. A contract is an agreement, where I agree to pay (which has been done) for a service to be delivered (which has not been done). I should not have to pay to break a contract that Alltel has not fulfilled.

So instead, I wish to take them down via the power of the internet and social networking. Tell everyone you know NOT to sign up for ANY Alltel service. Spread the word.

With that, a tale of pirates…

In my work for NMC, I travel alot, and so I could have net access from the road, airports, and to save on those nasty hotel internet fees, I signed up for a mobole wireless internet plan from the Alltel store in Scottsdale. I took my MacBookPro laptop with me, and was assured that the Franklin CDU550 was compatible, which it clearly is according to the manufacturer’s own web site. At the store, they provided me printouts of the set up instructions from the EVDOInfo.com web site.

It was rather easy to set up and worked quite well for the first few months. I gave it a ,lot of praise and recommended the service to others:

I used it around Phoenix, up at my home in Strawberry (a remote town 90 miles north of the city) on trips to San Francisco, Austin, San Antonio, even in Vancouver Canada.

In March of 2008, I was in Austin for a meeting, and the wireless signal in our hotel was too weak, so I attempted to use my Alltel card. For more than 10 times in a row, the authentication failed. I spoke to someone in tech support, who saw that my account had been “suspended” and transferred me to someone in the account department. This first person claimed my account was being held for “excessive roaming charges” which made no sense as my plan was a national one. Now at the 35 minute mark into trying to figure this out, this woman claimed I would have to go to an Alltel store to have ti fixed. this was ridiculous, as I was in a different city, had no transportation. I hung up and called back and got a different representative, who did more investigation. Apparently, there was a “miscommuncation” with the Sprint tower (where I was apparently Alltel uses the Sprint network). This woman activated my account, and told me how my office could get credit for the $300 zing coming on my bill.

It worked okay for the rest of the trip.

Later in the month, I was in San Francisco for a short meeting, and in the lobby of my hotel near Union Square, my connection disconnected my right in the middle of a file upload, and lost all of my work. I was unable to reconnect in 8 more attempts. The tech I got at 10pm told me there were “issues” with timing out from using the Spring network, but I would have to call back in daytime to speak to their advanced tech support.

So Alltel provides limited tech support.

On a longer trip in April, I was unable to connect in Orlanda. The tech I spoke there, mentioned for the first time a “PRL” file which contains a list of the towers the card uses. If I was on a PC he could fix it, but as I was on a Mac, he said I’d have to be in my home area. Another city where I had no Alltel access.

On the way from Orlando to LA, I had a plane change in Houston. Here too, my attempts to connect failed. I was watching another guy on a Mac enjoying no problem connectivity on his Verizon connection. that evening in LA, again I could not get a reliable connection. I paid for hotel internet because I had to get work done. it also did not work in San Diego.

For two months that my company has paid for national wireless service that claims:

Alltel Wireless Internet gives you fast wireless access to the Web and your corporate network from the convenience of your laptop or smartphone.

Whether you’re using a smart phone or your laptop with your phone as a modem or a data card, staying connected has never been easier.

On their phone, the hold messages talk about their national network. Hereps the news– Alltel does not have a national network. They have patches and leach off of Sprint’s network (and they do that poorly).

I want out of my plan. I have not gotten the service they have charged for. So I called them today. I got to tech support. The first guy kept telling my to “open the Quick Access app from your Windows toolbar, press control D” and it took 3 times for me to say, “I am on a mac, there is no software”. While explaining the problem, I tried 5 times to connect and each time was disconnected a little over a minute into the connnection. He transferred me to an “advanced” technician. After I explained the situation again, he asked for my account information, and while waiting for him to look it up, I was disconnected on the phone.

Hmmm.

I called back and asked for the department that can end my contract. This is the “rentention” departmentm which is really “detention” because you cannot get out. The first guy said I could end my contract but would have to pay a $200 termination fee. I reiterated that I was not provided the service I paid for and that it seemed grossly unfair that I have to pay to end a contract that Alltel had not provided. He said, “those are the terms.”

Please connect me with someone higher up on the food chain. “They cannot do anything beyond what I described”. Please connect me anyhow. More wait. More happy music on hold. This time I got Omar. I told Omar the whole tale. He asked what it would take to keep my a customer. I said, ‘nothing, I dont want to be one. I want out on my contract.’ He said I’d have to pay, but he tried to convince me the tech department could fix the problem.

How recursive!

I explained I had already been cut off once today, and asked if he would take my number in case it happened again. He said he had it from caller id. I transferred me. I waited, heard some hold music, and… got disconnected again.

I am now at an hour wasted.

I call the main Alltel number and zap the 0 button repeatedly until I get a human. Jennifer. I let her know upfront she is dealing with the most angry Alltel customer. She is the first compassionate voice, I hear her typing notes. She says she cannot promise that I can escape my contract. She says she will stay on the line and connects me… back to tech support. I tell the story for the fifth time. Ronnie is the first person wo says he knows what to do, that he can “push” the PRL data to my connection (which has amazingly stayed on for 20 minutes). He is typing away and tells me it will take 15 minutes.

I am not optimistic.

He asks me if I can standy by, and a few minutes later he returns and says… the device I am using is not compatible with the Mac OS.

This is most interesting, as (a) it was the equipment sold to me by an Alltel store; and (b) for an incomaptible device, it worked great for 4 months, and was working right then. I asked him to put in the notes that the device I was sold was incompatible as justification for escaping my contract. I was then transferred.. to the retention department where again I got the $200 speech.

its now almost 2 hours since I called. I ask for the highest possible person in the department, and again am told that “no one can wave the $200 fee.”

Bullshit.

I hang up, and start over again to the main number. I request Jennifer, but the new person claims she can help me. I tell the story again. I let her know I am livid. She starts saying I need to talk to tech support. I say no. They cannot support me. I demand to speak to a person who can make the decision to terminate my contract w/o a fee. She said that is not possible. I again explain, in halting voice, the definition of a contract– an agreement on both parts to pay a fee for a service provided. No service.. no fee. Now I am yelling loudly. Very loudly.

This does not really work.

I demand to speak to person who has some authority. She says she will…. and transfers me to tech support.

I gave up. I wasted two hours.

So I am done trying to get Alltel’s rubber band network to work or for the inept tech support to provide tech support. The only thing I will accept at this point is a termination of the contract and I am not paying any fees. I want to use a real wireless network like Verizon– hey Verizon, if you can help me escape Alltel, I will become a walking, blogging advertisement for you– get red of the “Can you hear me now geek” and sign up the CogDog spokesman.

It cannot be legal for Alltel to charge to end a contract which they have not fulfilled.

So I want everyone to spread the word about the nasty smelly evil pirates named Alltel. Let ‘em know they cant get away with grinding individuals under their giant wheels. They have played with me and I have had enough. I am going to pull out every stop I have, call in every tech favor, get some publicity, reach out to every social network, to bring Alltel down.

Please help me escape the heavy chains that Alltel has placed upon me. Set me free. And burn their ship down.

Alltel Jail Update Apr 25: What the heck I tried their email customer support:

My wireless internet has not worked in 2 months; with frequent disconnects, lack of ability to connect in Orlando, Houston, San Diego, Los Angeles, and my home in Arizona. Your technical support has been unable to fix te problem as they are telling me that my Franklin USB wireless devices is not compatible with my Mas OSX computer *** DESPITE THE FACT THAT IT WORKED FINE FOR 4 MONTHS and THAT YOUR STORE SOLD IT TO ME ***

I spoke to 9 people today, got disconnected 3 times w/o a call back, and your “Retention” department is claiming that I cannot get out of my contract w/o paying a $200 fee.

Alltel has failed to provide the service in their contract that I have paid for. YOU have failed the terms of your contract. YOU are NOT supporting equiopment YOU sold me when I signed your contract. I REFUSE to pay to pay any fee and ASK that you come to your senses before I begin a media and legal campaign. On the way are letters ot the Better Business Bureau, the Arizona Corporate Commission, and the Attorney General’s office.

So far, I have spent well over 6 hours of my work time trying to get customer service, and I have gotten none. This is your last chance to do the right thing.

And wow, a response today from James C:

Alan,

I apologize for the problems you’re having. If you want to work to resolve the technical issues, you can contact our support line at 800-255-8351. If you wish to cancel your service, you can talk to our retention group at the same number.

Thank you,

Alltel Data Technical Support

So the Alltel Jail is built frfrom the exact same bricks, stacked on top of the prisoners one at a time. “You cannot escape Alltel! There is no escape! We will continue to respond with the same responses over and over and over and over…”

Next up– perhaps time for some Turboing twitterbution to Rubaiyat Shatner

Alltel Jail Update Apr 25 4:00 PM: No food or water in the Alltel Jail. I must be crazy, but I have an idea. If they can only support this wireless card on a PC, I will test it out on my Windows Vista machine. I installed the software, and tried 12 times to connect, each time failing authentication with “PPP Control Link Terminated”.

SO I call Alltel Tech Support. I am at level one, and explain the problem. The first gal is nice, takes my account info, and then says, she cannot help me, so I am sent to another level. Here, I again have to provde my account info, and explain the problem. She walks me through all kinds of things on my network, modem settings. We actually get it to connect but it immediately disconnects me. We spent 35 minutes trying settings, waiting while she checks with other techs, and she apologizes and transfers me to someone in ther network data center.

For the third time, I have to provide my account info, explain the problem. This person says he is checking, then says nothing, but I hear tapping in the background. Five minutes go by in silence… and I realzie I have been disconnected.

This is the 4th time in 2 days that Allrel tech support has disconnected me in the middle of a support call.

So I call back. Like chutes and ladders, I am level one. I explain the problem, and then go to level 2. I explain I have been cut off from the previous technician and ask if they can call back if I get disconnected. He says they are discouraged from making callbacks because of their call volume. Let me get this correct- Alltel Support will not follow up with a customer who has waited an hour for serivice because Alltel’s phones (and they are telecom provider!) fails. He clicks around, looks up some things, asks for my zip code location, and tells me it is an issue of being between Alltel and Sprint towers.

So here is the deal. Alltel advertises their nation-wide network- but they aren’t nationwide. The do handoffs to/from Spring. Tech number 5 today could not help, so I went to number 6. Gave my account again. Explained the situation again. The first thing I had to do was to shut off my Norton. OMG, there are actually no controls to exit that program! None! I had to disable my non Windows services and reboot. We tried connecting again and I got dumped. Now he suggested downgradiing my PRL file which he emailed to me. He talked me through getting that data to my card.

And 90 minutes later, the damn ting actually worked in my PeeCee.

But this is not the issue.

I pay for a nationwide service that is not reliable- if I am in area that relies on Sprint, my connection can bounce and be cut off.

Help! Get me out of Alltel Jail! Please I want Verizon! I will lavish praise on Verizon! They have a network! I have seen it on TV. Please, Verizon, rescue me.

Alltel Jail Update Apr 28 9:00 AM: While I languish in Alltel Jail, my spirits are lifted high by the efforts of my friends, who have tried to lob some reason to the Alltel customer support, who seem readily enabled to lob back their stone wall efforts of canned non-caring responses.

Check out the letters and it seems plain that there is no appreciation of what the acronym MIT means among the Alltel front lines.

Alltel Jail Update Apr 29 10:15 AM: The black pirate ship is not even flinching. They are winning by the sheer dead weight of their ship. They can afford to ignore customers.

Eve worse for my case, I must admit after the last tech support person I spoke to (this was number 8 in 2 days, including 3 disconnections while waiting for tech support), the darn thing seems to be working as it did when I first got it. The connect time is now about 15 seconds, where last week ti was well over a minute, and I have logged on easily from Austin.

This changes nothing from my feeling of being jailed. Alltel took my monthly payment for 2 months, where their service did not work in 5 major cities, where only 1 out of 15 tech people I spoke to could even provide a solution, where 2 tech people stopped their offer of support because they wrongly told me the equipment they sold me was not compatible with the Mac OS, and not one person offered to even considered as a possibility that I might be freed from a contract that Alltel did not hold up their end of services.

Yet, I have a gripe. It’s the menus that are supposed to make it easy to be moving around my Googlespace. For the longest time, there were no menus in Google Reader. Then a few weeks ago, Reader just disappeared from all menus.

But lately I am just looking at these menus, static, and saying, “Boy are you dumb.” Let’s say I start in Gmail…

I have top links to Calendar, Documents, Photos, Reader, and Web. Ok, I use all of these regularly except Photos. Five out of six is good. So I go to Calendar:

Okay, same choices, the active one changes, not too bad. It makes sense. But now if I look up something on Google Maps:

Huh, now my top choices are Web, Images, News, Shopping, and Gmail. Woah. I ony use 2 of thee regularly — and get the same 2 out of 6 menus on my iGoogle:

These 4 menu choices are useless appendages on my Google Experience, as functional as a third nipple (well that may not be the best metaphor, but it is fun to write). And worse, on a UI perspective, they change with different GoogleApps, which is bad design form

If GoogleApps were smart, they would know the apps I use the most, and present them to me on the top all the time, in consistent places, and provide the lesser used ones in the drop list under “more”.

And if they could not manage “smart”, they could be “nice” or “customized” meaning my Google Preferences would allow me to identify the 6 GoogleApps I use the most to have them appear on the top menu.

Demand more from your interface, otherwise you get Mr Clippy.

Just set up your blog so users have to create accounts and log in to post a comment. Heck, they already have 50 gazillion accounts, what is one more? And by the time the poor fools actually wade through a registration form, wait for an email.. they have forgotten what they wanted to criticize you on! And, for an extra added, evil twist.. never email them the password!

Brilliant!

You will be free of readers in no time.

I just had this lovely experience and could not wait to pull out the canine teeth…

Okay, so this post on “Henry Jenkins on Emerging Technologies” parrots the list of topics from the 2008 NMC Horizon Report. But the author has a beef we keep hearing:

No mention of games and virtual worlds? Jenkins notes that “…the presenters, and some of the attendees, signaled some disappointment that Virtual Worlds did not make the final cut this year, suggesting that there is still some disagreement about their viability and long-term impact on education.”

Disclaimer- I work for NMC and participate in the process.

Okay, if anyone does their homework, they might see that virtual worlds was on the shortlist for this year. But more notably, the purpose of the Horizon Report is not to ID every possible technology, but the top 2 as researched and voted by the advisory board. And hold the runaway train, virtual worlds were on the 2-3 horizon in the 2007 Horizon Report, as was Massively Multiplayer Educational Gaming for the 3-4 year horizon. And educational games were on the mid and far horizon going back to 2004 and 2005… stuff stays on the horizon, even if it is not in a report the following year- is that so hard to see?

In a general summary, 2007 saw a lot of growth in virtual worlds, almost that it became less on the horizon, and moved up rather quickly. On the other hand, there were not significant major developments or changes in this space to somehow write something different from 2007… there are hints of this to come maybe this year with more virtual world platforms becoming viable and developments in the metaverse or grid concepts.

If you want a big crystal ball that includes everything, go hop on a Gartner Hype curve. The Horizon report does play the prediction game- as Paul Saffo writes

Predicting is about certainly, and forecasting is about appreciating uncertainty. Forecasting gives decision makers to act in the face of uncertainty.

So for one more time, just because something from the 2007 report, put on a horizon out to 2009-2010, does not lose that place because it was not highlighted in 2008.

So remember bloggers, you will have more time and fewer bothersome comments if you make it frustratingly impossible to post a comment. For whatever that is worth.

But the cart is getting ahead of the dog and we are barreling down a steep grade…

I was excited (and distracted from my morning off computer tasks) to find that the fabulous, my most favorite, set of flickr Interesting Snippet photos from Lynnette Webb is available as a book from LuLu (yes, mine has been ordered!) and I read that proceeds got to charity.

This all started when I was looking for the set to use as an example for a Bryan Alexander blog pst comment, so via Google I found she had a domain listed for http://www.interestingsnippets.com that leads to her “hub” with not only the flickr photos, but a tumblr thing and delicious bookmarks. But at the bottom was a LinkedIn badge, and I thought I would use it and maybe express my thanks for her work.

Now in LinkedIn I can get to her profile and then try the logic of “Add Lynette to Your Network”. Seeing the list of options (note these screenshots say “Kirk” because I finally managed to get LinkedIn and needed to snap the original screen).

And being honest, I click the “I Don’t Know Lynette (or Kirk or Stella or Frederica or …)” and compose my message of introduction.

And what do I get for making that choice?

I get slapped across the snout, sent away, and whatever I wrote is gone!

So here is the interface crime- if something is not an option, than don’t put it on the stinking form! That is just so stoooopid.

If you call this nitpicking, on one hand you are right. Her email was available on another page, which is all one needs to get past the LinkedIn Red Alert screen. And this is the whole crux of linked in- you cannot make a connection without knowing someone’s email.

I think I can sniff the logic as people in LinkedIn are surmised to not want links from strangers, after all, if anyone can create a connection via a social network, what do you really have? (Facebook!)

But interfaces like this destroy the user experience and sap ones patience with a web site or service. Dont play monkey games with your interface as it is your only face to a web site visitor, and slaps in the snout leave a deep impression.

More LinkedIn spanking likely to come in the future. Easy target.

Spotting spam sometimes takes some detection, but other times its a simple matter of:

* is the comment relevant to the blog post subject? I wrote the darn thing, so I can sure tell the difference
* is the comment hoisting a link to another site, which has no relevance either to the blog post

So I get one that tries to be “clever” in declaring that it is not spam. But it fails on both accounts. Spam is spam and it goes back in the can.

When I write a blog post about my first effort of doing a daily flickr photo post, does it take a nuclear physicist (not that it should) to see that a comment offering tips on improving my blog search rank is spam-a-palooza? Take the test yourself, and then toss their URL into your blacklist (the URL is re-qritten so a to not give it any google rank points:

Author : dan (IP: 66.32.107.177 , user-1120qth.dsl.mindspring.com)
E-mail : get_recruited@yahoo.com
Whois : http://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl?queryinput=66.32.107.177
Comment:
Dear Blogger:

This is for your information and is not intended as a spam post.

Find out how you can promote your blog and/or website at no cost (really!) at:

http :// college dash scholarships dot com/free_website_promotion_program.htm

You’ll learn how I achieved #1 rankings for my websites in Google, Yahoo, and MSN.

The program is absolutely without cost and it really works.

See the proof at:

http :// college dash scholarships dot com/free_website_promotion_program.htm

Best Wishes,
Dan

Well, Dan-no, this is pure spam in my book. So your IP and your web site link college dash scholarships dot com is blacklisted on my site so it automatically goes into the dung heap out back. I encourage others to do so, an shall follow this up with a report to Google.

Hey Dan! Best wishes yourself, ’cause I plan on never seeing your cruft again. Ciao!

Last week when i was so idly bored (by choice) I was watching late night TV, and there were two different ads for things like “Gut Buster” or “Pilates Plus” – those ones where people are so obviously and disgustedly 6-pack abs fit they dont need devices to get in shape- flash by these charts that claim, “227% More Efficiency” or “190% more effective”… and than never say what they are compared to or how.

But that’s TV, it is aimed at the PT Barnum crowd.

Yet, I find the same crud in my inbox. I usually ignore the requests for “LinkedIn” connections or Plaxo requests until I get to a night I am so bored (beyond the boredom of watching network TV, really rock bottom boredom), and I then might go in and clear the decks on those social network effects.

I’ve knocked LinkedIn around a lot in the past and remain mostly un-enamored, but give some credit for a few improvements here and there; nonetheless, the overriding reason to link in linked in is to increase the number of linkedin links one has. I’m non-plussed at social networking sites that exist for nothing more than connecting.

So in their notices, someone on the LinkedIn marketing or spam department decided to make the notices more “human” like by added random phrases at the bottom, and here’s one that made me cough up a fur ball:

More likely than what? Getting hit in the schnoz by a flying carp? Throwing a resume out a window? How does one prove/disprove such a point? My data, with 107 connections, suggest I should be 74 more likely to have received a job offer (so far, not that I am looking, is zero). Am I an abberation? Am I not gaming the game right?

My point is not just to blindly read stats and “facts” without questioning them severely. And question why some entity would cloud their message with stat-crud.