Had a look at mintshot yesterday. I *wish* it was tic-tac-toe you played for the minor prizes!

...

So it does indeed come down to who has the most time to waste.

And a high tolerance for mindlessness too ...

Of course, if you pitch at an IT literate audience,…

so when I get put on hold drop the connection into a mode where I can hang up, the exchange plays "I really want to talk to you press '*'" over and over again and when they do my phone rings again .... honestly we all need this

im off…

"Please state your current location."

"Broadway."

"Please state your desired destination."

"Um, Broadway."

"I'm sorry, your current location and destination appear to match. Would you like to revise your travel plan?"

"Well, actually, I'm going from 3756 Broadway to 6736 Broadway. It makes sense – can I just talk to…

Why must you hate on the auldskool preppies, James? Without the penny, what would they put in their penny loafers?

It's not so much that I hate auldskool preppies Jo, more that I hadn't heard of penny loafers. Now that wikipedia has enlightened me, I can point out that apparently…

Have you ever tried to tuck a dollar coin into a g-string?

...My witty rejoinder has been deemed unsuitable for anything but a late night audience ...

Have you ever tried to tuck a dollar coin into a g-string?

If she ain't worth $5 she ain't worth anything!

When introduced, it was an elegant and effective system. 86 places (states and big cities) had 3 digit area codes which were used with 7 digit phone numbers. Calling within a…

Americans believe that a $1 banknote is an essential part of a modern currency

Ahhhh. Well it is. Have you ever tried to tuck a dollar coin into a g-string?

All starts with the refusal of Americans to accept that $1 is not a reasonable denomination for a banknote.

I can't figure out what that sentence means. Too many negatives. Does not compute.

Ok, I'll rephrase.

Americans believe that a $1 banknote is an essential part of a modern currency.…

There's a number…

They make excellent tips for poor service. Maybe that is their purpose, to insult.

All starts with the refusal of Americans to accept that $1 is not a reasonable denomination for a banknote.

I can't figure out what that sentence means. Too many negatives. Does not compute. I just know that my time in NYC was awash with dollar bills, because my friend I…

US payphones are remarkably difficult and confusing to use, relative to most other countries, and I think it revolves around weird things relating to area codes. Or something. Anyway, turns out its much easier to convince someone to lend you their cellphone.

I don't know if it's changed, but when…

And there are groups both for and against the removal of paper dollars and pennies (based on respective commercial interests).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Save_the_Greenback
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coin_Coalition

US payphones are remarkably difficult and confusing to use, relative to most other countries, and I think it revolves around weird things relating to area codes. Or something.

All starts with the refusal of Americans to accept that $1 is not a reasonable denomination for a banknote.

Fortunately my Razr…

I'd had to go through an operator to work out how to use the pay phones (they need area codes, but there are no area codes posted anywhere around)

US payphones are remarkably difficult and confusing to use, relative to most other countries, and I think it revolves around weird…

On my bog-standard Ubuntu box login faces are set up by default. It's up to users to turn on an image. All you have to do as a user is click in the…

*coff* OSX has cutie login icons. N00b.

I stand admonished.

I guess you can probably get them on Linux if you load the ThrustWombat 5.108 build, edit and recompile the kernel reversement module, install Nigel's Window Manager and repurpose the graphics into VRML.

...I have saved that link for you all.

saved it from what?

I was already rather fond of gmail, and then we got hooked up to google via KAREN at work, and the download speed is a near religious experience.

It is time...The Nerds Handbook,
[[http://www.randsinrepose.com/|www.randisrepose.com

merc, that's wonderful. How long have you been saving it up for us?

It is time...The Nerds Handbook,
http://www.randsinrepose.com/

Those lulls in the conversation over dinner? That’s the nerd working on his project in his head.

I've learned to recognise the facial expression. Nonetheless, I'm forwarding the hell out of that link.

No truly geek couple would use XP, especially without a domain controller (the icons, user switch and other cutie stuff only appear in that case).

*coff* OSX has cutie login icons. N00b.

Geek couple commitment?

No truly geek couple would use XP, especially without a domain controller (the icons, user switch and other cutie stuff only appear in that case).

Had a bizarre experience last year when I encountered the public transport autovoice in Vancouver. It really did get quite shitty at me.

"Hello, and welcome to the Greater Vancouver Regional District public transport helpline. Are you wanting…

honestly, is there a better reason for taking a day off if you're a call centre operator?

I have had enough of helpless Xtra call centre operatives. Xtra is reducing its costs, by pushing the costs to its customers, in terms of…

But count 1 – maybe it's the way I speak, but I have managed to get no help whatsoever through the voice recognition – closes was:

"Welcome to Telecom.…

That's not true on either count. I had the pleasure to test it out when Telecom's…

In a past life I temped for 2 weeks on Telecom's 123 service. Anytime I had a question in the too hard basket I dumped the call

They've made it simpler for the helpdesk staff now – you can't get past the voice recognition software (voiced it would seem, by…

And yet I know all these people – and some are quite young and interweb savvy – who share an email address with their honeys. Why?

Not only sharing an email address, but having only one. I need four – work, home, web-based for travelling or for things that I…

Geek couple commitment?

Oh.

I thought you meant this.

I ask that question all the time too, but even more I wonder "why would people ever share an email address?" – the idea of doing that just totally freaks me out.

We don't even share the same computer or login let alone an email address. I'm sorry but my…

And yet I know all these people – and some are quite young and interweb savvy – who share an email address with their honeys. Why?

Geek couple commitment?

It's really not that mysterious. It's for mail 'to the couple'. I have one with my wife, and it's used for stuff that's about…

Am I too cynical in thinking that the anti-EFB campaign by the Herald is largely driven by venality, as they stand to lose a lot of advertising dollars in election year if lobby groups rich enough to buy Herald ad space are limited in their spending?

Not at all -…

I ask that question all the time too, but even more I wonder "why would people ever share an email address?" – the idea of doing that just totally freaks me out.

I've also been thinking about this a bit lately. It just seems so weird to share an email…

I'm not really sure that people who can't afford to buy stuff in the first place are a premium advertising audience.

if only someone had realised that before they started spending all their money.......

You over-estimate the market place. Having sold advertising in a previous life I can assure you…

The Herald is getting fairly blatant with its angle.

Early this morning, the main headline was Key stays calm over threats to his life which was replaced by Eden Park upgrade bill rockets but then that was replaced…

I now have two gmail accounts (social and non-work business) which works well except that gmail doesn't allow me to login to both at once. I really don't see why anyone would use anything else.

because downloading via pop3 from their servers can be incredibly slow or stall. I some…

Mintshot did leave me scratching my head for a while until I realised that the customers they are trying to hoodwink are your large corporate marketing teams looking for "quantifiable justification".

That makes sense. There's a vibe out there in ad-land that this internet thing is far too complicated and…

Is there any irony in having that ad at he top of the page?

There's another lovely one at the Herald where they're after a motto that somes up New Zealand and you have to negotiate around a "My Australia ' ad to read them.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/feature/story.cfm?c_id=1501154&objectid=10476000&pnum=4

Mintshot did leave me scratching my head for a while until I realised that the customers they are trying to hoodwink are your large corporate marketing teams looking for "quantifiable justification".

That makes sense. There's a vibe out there in ad-land that this internet thing is far too complicated and…

So it does indeed come down to who has the most time to waste.

And a high tolerance for mindlessness too ...

Then again, pitching a highly-educated high-earning audience hasn't gone so well for us lately, and I've just written a post highly critical of the advertiser we do have…

Undoubtedly Mintshot will gloss over the fact that the database of responses is likely a fair distance from representative…

You play the 'game' for the minor prizes. It's more akin to minesweeper, but with no clues given out when you click a spot. 30 spots on a grid, randomly placed Xs and…

You have to invest massive amounts in hardware and staff time to filter out shit that no one wants, and people hate you when you screw it up, which is absolutely inevitable. Unless people…

Gmail on your own domain?

I don't really see any point having a domain for personal use. They have a couple of downsides – anyone who wants can look your contact details up on whois, and they attract spam. Especially one-off, human generated spam that the spam filter can't block.…

Would I use this as my principal line? I'm not sure. The call quality seems a bit squawky, and certainly isn't a patch on my bangin' Ihug digital phone, which runs over the Wired Country connection.

I thought it's a great deal. Fixed line is basically the same price, but…

I'm not really sure that people who can't afford to buy stuff in the first place are a premium advertising audience.

if only someone had realised that before they started spending all their money.......

With the Xtra deal, I assume that Yahoo pays Telecom to be set up as the default portal for their customers?

The promise of the joint venture was that there was going to be lots of lovely advertising loot via the YahooXtra portal. For various reasons (read the column I…

http://www.stuff.co.nz/blogs/hitlist/2007/11/14/get-your-thinking-caps-on/

I had a personal domain and switched to gmail.

Why do that when you can use Google Apps and have Gmail on your own domain? The advantages are obvious: You get all the stuff you get with Gmail, but you can set up up to 100 accounts for free and…

Why on earth would you use your ISP provided email address for *anything*.

I ask that question all the time too, but even more I wonder "why would people ever share an email address?" – the idea of doing that just totally freaks me out. If I was in a…

Can someone tell me this – what parts of Telecom, other than sales and marketing, aren't outsourced?

GenI – coz it's a Telecom owned outsourcing (anong other things) company.

With the Xtra deal, I assume that Yahoo pays Telecom to be set up as the default portal for their customers?…

I now have two gmail accounts (social and non-work business) which works well except that gmail doesn't allow me to login to both at once. I really don't see why anyone would use anything else. It's even quite classy to use…

https://www.google.com/a/

There's relatively straight forward instructions to setting it up with whomever your domain is through and it means…

Why on earth would you use your ISP provided email address for *anything*.

Because most people don't have the knowledge to set up a hosted domain for mail (or the willingness to pay to keep it registered). I know it's really really easy but it's all relative. And it didn't…

[Ellis] seems to be above the law. The police say they were "disappointed they were not advised." And they do nothing.
The Police weren't "advised" there were a bunch of people running around the bush in the bay of plenty wearing…

You're locking yourself into the ISP if you do that (not to mention that you often can't send mail when not connected via the ISP).

I would hope that those having their ads served through mintsauce or whatever it's called aren't under the…

I've been with Xtra for a few years. Before the Great Xtra Migration debacle, I had received maybe half a dozen spam messages – ever – referring to my penis size, cheap prescription drugs, rolex watches and stay-at-home money…