Sunday, March 28, 2010

If I was less of a procrastinator I wouldn't need technology... but alas, I am.


I've gotten myself pretty backlogged (in both work and personal life) over the last few weeks, and I have no one to blame but myself. Luckily for me, I've has a great week technology wise and I should be able to use my "electronic crutches" to help me get back on track!

On Thursday I brought in my work computer to get the external backup software looked at. Luckily for me, the gentleman working on it was extremely helpful. He realized almost right away that my duocore laptop was somehow set to only work on one processor! To be honest, I had no idea that could even be done... I knew that software may not take advantage of the duocore, but the processor was literally working at half capacity. I was annoyed that i didn't know to look for this myself, but frankly I was ecstatic that my poor little HP had hope of running faster than molasses on a cold day in Quebec... and this was just the beginning!


 Friday I did manage to upgrade to Office 2007 which is a VERY welcome change to my work technology experience. I'm still waiting on my license for OneNote 2007, but that should be ready to go when I get in tomorrow morning. These new software packages alone are going to make my life substantially better and easier to keep myself organized. As to why I'm upgrading to 2007 software in mid 2010, I think I've already covered the issues with large corporate systems in a previous post.

As I sit here now, its a dreary Sunday afternoon, so it's not so bad that I've let my work week creep into my weekend. I'm sure my weekend has creeped into my work week someone, hence the backlog situation I'm in now. My current task is to organized a multi-tiered project across a number of organizations. For this I wanted to create a fancy timeline I could share with people, but honestly after some searching I couldn't find something that suited my needs. I found tons of templates based in Excel or Word, but frankly, I can put one of those together easily. I also found some really awesome looking web-based timelines like this (but this would not allow me to include sensitive information in the timeline as its outside the company firewall), as well as some software based packages, both free and paid (I almost shelled out the 50 bucks!). To be honest, I couldn't find exactly what I was looking for, so maybe it doesn't exist!

After wasting a couple hours doing that, I realized that I really just needed a simple project management package similar to Microsoft project, but without all of the bells/whistles/costs. Creating/managing a simple task chart was all I needed. I'll save the whole story, but I looked through a bunch of options including Gantt Project, but after downloading and trying it out, I realized its export features were too limited for my liking. I eventually settled with Openproj, which is probably way to powerful/complex for what I need, but it seems fairly intuitive, and its license allows anyone to use it for personal or business use so it's safe from any "not for commercial use" warnings. It still doesn't have perfect Excel export features, but I can at least get the task list and key dates copied over to Excel to share with colleagues.

Most importantly though, it should help me keep all of my various project tasks organized.

I'm hoping that by this upcoming weekend I'll have my work life fully organized via OneNote, so I'll likely have some opinions to share on that. :)

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Last.fm is pretty cool if your are an audiophile... could use a better UI

I signed up for Last.fm today and I've been pretty impressed so far in terms of music selection. 

Think of lastfm like a mashup of Facebook and MySpace music profiles. As you may or may not know, management at MySpace has been shifting around (read leaving) quite a bit lately, so that could potentially help people make the switch from MySpace... we can only hope.

Either way, it was easy to set up lastfm and import my library, but i must say I think the user experience leaves one wanting. I downloaded the built in tool (with a cool name like Scrobbler who could resist?) and it automatically shares my itunes playlists with my profile... easy! However I wish it there was a button to just "play all" from an album instead of having to listen to the radio channel... maybe I'm just doing something wrong, but when I look up Dr. Dre and I want to listen to a certain album, thats pretty much what I'm there for.

I also don't like how when you leave the radio station on it automatically adds the songs to you last played, even if you skip it.... maybe this is just something I need to turn off. :p

Anyways, overall it's a pretty cool site and a great way to expand your musical horizon


ps: My gf just decided she's going to start her own blog, she just needs a topic... more to come on that!




Tuesday, March 16, 2010

When Your New Shirt Doesn't Fit... Just Go Back To Bed (Attempt 2)

**Warning- This is a total nerd rage post. :)**

I should have known today was going to be a doozy… I woke up to try on my brand new shirt from Burlington Coat Factory (a steal at $9.98 I thought) only to find out I grabbed the wrong size… way to go Tyhurst.

I brushed it off, as it was only 10 bucks, plus I was able to get some sweet deals on some sandals, a belt, and a shower bag that are working for me just perfectly! I then headed off to work and my training session first thing in the morning everything was running smoothly. The guy giving the training, a sales guy turned IT department kind of fellow, commented on how unusual it was to have no technical difficulties at all for a training session such as this.

So, picture this… it’s 8am, your shirt didn’t fit, and your meeting is about to start without IT difficulties… trust me, this had bad omen written all over it.

I continued on through my day messaging my gf via text message and updating my twitter. Of course, I wasn’t getting many responses today because my gf had a big exam, so I knew she was focused on that. Most of the day at work went off without a hitch… another indication of awful things to come!! :p

Eventually I get back to the hotel after a quick break for lunch and then I realize that the internet isn’t working NOR are my texts/tweets going out from my cell. Not a big deal, I’ll do some work offline and then hopefully the net will come back up. Did that till about 8pm… still no dice.

This is when the story started going downhill. I hadn’t heard from my gf and I wasn’t able to check Facebook so I figured I’d shell out the $3 for the international call on my cell phone to give her a call and check in. Sure enough, she was still alive, but as I was on the cell phone clock, we didn’t get a chance to talk long.

So, I head out to dinner to try this Brazillian steak place (www.boinabraza.com). I had been by this place on several occasions on my previous trips to Cincinnati, but I had never went in to try it. I finally decided to take the plunge, but to be honest, I wasn’t ready for the bill I was about to get. I got the special, which was absolutely delicious, I had some lamb, some filet mignon, some breaded parmesan pork loins, as well as a large salad with mashed potatoes. The food and service was great, but so was the bill… let’s just say this one will have come out of the Tyhurst personal budget and not the travel budget… and I’m not going back for a while. lol

So dinner was bittersweet, but it continued to get worse as I came back to the hotel… I asked the front desk about the internet situation… no change.

They gave me a code to use in the “business center” aka The Closet with 5 computers attached to credit card readers that doesn’t have any climate control. I fumbled with the code for about 5 minutes, but it was clear that the number of digits on the tag I was given did not match the number of digits I had to enter to get internet access! The gentleman beside me was equally confused so I decided to ask the front desk for help. Of course they gave us the wrong codes so once they sorted that out we were good to go. I only had 15 minutes of time (how ghetto) so I quickly checked my facebook and decided I’d use the rest of the time to write a blog post about how I can’t live without the internet and my smartphone (This was attempt 1). Wouldn’t it be my luck that as soon as I go to publish it (3 minutes still remaining on the clock), the internet on those computers conked out and I lost my post. At that point I said “screw this” and stomped upstairs irritated as hell.

Luckily for me, I have an amazing gf who always knows how to take my mind of things. We spent an hour debating the merits of statistics courses at the masters level (trust me, this was not the best choice of debates), but it served the purpose nonetheless. Then, when I realized my mistake of focusing on the stats thing too much, we had a good discussion on social policy relating to the homeless. Again, probably not the greatest topic, but I don’t think either of us thought about stats during this time. :D

I began writing Attempt 2 of this blog post in a word document, but as it stands it’s 11:47pm, my internet is back on, and I have to get up at 4:30am in order to catch my plane.

SO, the only thing left to do is publish this bad boy, go to sleep, and hope that the shirt I put on tomorrow fits, because if it doesn’t, I’m just going to go back to bed.

Monday, March 15, 2010

Knowing Your Customer (And The Consequences of Not Doing So)


For those of you who don't know, it was my Birthday on Friday. No big deal really, as I celebrated the weekend before, but the story I'm about to tell you really needs some context in order for me to not look like a prick!

Picture this: It's a Friday, it's your birthday. You have just worked a full day (even though you had planned on ducking out a bit early :D) and you are sitting at home getting ready for a great night to yourself. Normally on your birthday you want to be around other people, but you have to leave at 5am on Sunday morning to catch a plane for a business trip, so you've decided to take it easy and have a night off.

Now imagine that as you are talking to your girlfriend via text message and chatting with some friends online, you receive a phone call from an unknown number At first you ignore it because you don't know the number, but who knows, the three beers you already have in you convince you that phone call could be your next ticket to stardom. You'll never know if you don't answer! Well, this is where the fun begins....

This nice young gentleman was on the other end of the line from "Scotialife", which I'm assuming is some subsidiary of Scotiabank, although that comes into question later. This young man skipped right past the small talk and began what I considered to be a fairly hard sell on some life insurance products. He talked about how awful it would be if I passed and left nothing to my loved ones, touted the features of the great products he had to offer, and after what seemed like 3-5 minutes of his continuous talking, he asked "Would you like to enroll in this program Mr. Tyhurst?" (or something to that effect).

Before i describe my response, I want to give this guy kudos. Telemarketing is a thankless job, but someone has got to do it. He was polite, relatively enthusiastic, and definitely knew some great responses to my objections. Unfortunately for him, I don't think he was equipped with the tools necessary in order to satisfy my needs. That being said, here's how it went (paraphrased from memory):

Me: No thank you, I am not interested.


Telemarketer: I completely understand Mr. Tyhurst, may I ask why you are not interested?


Me: Well really there are two issues here. First of all, I already have a very solid life insurance plan through my job at one of Canada's 50 Best companies. But second of all, I'm concerned about the way you were selling me this product. I'm in sales, and generally when you talk to a customer, you ask them what they are looking for from you, not what you can ram down their throat in the minimal amount of time you have with them. (I'm sure the beers may have made this language a bit more colourful... but it was my birthday... gimme a break!)


Telemarketer: Mr. Tyhurst, just so you know, there are many different options to our coverage, and the on I am offering you is not meant to replace your current plan, but supplement it for that extra protection for your family.


Me (acting interested just to see how he would handle it): Ok, I see what you mean, but I still don't think I'm interested.


Telemarketer: *He explains here for about another minute on the free $2000 of coverage I can get for 3 years without paying. As I'm hearing him talk, I'm thinking to myself "What the hell would I do with $2000 if I croak? And do I really want an insurance plan for $2000 that I didn't even ask for... sounds sketchy* Mr. Tyhurst, if you would like to take advantage of this offer? All that I would need would be your home address.


Me: *Now the red flags are going off, so I try to have a bit more fun* You know what, I could definitely be interested in that, however, I would like to receive the information by email. If I give you my email can you send me all the info?


Telemarketer: Sorry sir, but we do not give out that information via email.


Me: Can I get it on the Scotiabank website?


Telemarketer: Not on the Scotiabank site sir, you can access it at www.Scotialife.com

**The conversation went on for about another minute or so, with no sale closed, no information gained from me, and only a 3rd party website communicated via phone (which I have not visited). I had also requested that they do not contact me via phone anymore. Overall, I'd say the mission was a failure on his part**

Now, I'd like to do a short summary of the things that were so wrong with this call:
-All of the background stuff made me a grumpy bear to talk to on the phone. That's just how it was.

-These guys actually called me like a week before while I was at work, and I asked them to call back at 6pm
that night when I was home. I asked for that time because thats when I wanted it, not a week later on a friday at 6pm.

-Didn't ask me a single question until 3-5 minutes into the call. (How the heck was he supposed to know what to sell me?)

-Offering a free product ($2000 for 3 years) that I didn't particularly find any value in, ESPECIALLY if I have to give some 3rd party my address.

-Speaking of 3rd parties, Scotiabank clearly shit the bed here because they are either selling off my information (this guy had my cell phone #) OR this is actually a subsidiary of Scotiabank, but they don't give them access to my birthday, address, etc. The fact that this guy didn't have my address indicated to me that they were not part of Scotiabank and I sure as hell wasn't going to give them that information so they can send me more crap in the mail.

-They cannot send me any product details via email. What year are we living in? They expect me to accept some free insurance product over the phone without reading all of the fine print. Does this actually work on people?!? This blew me away.

Lesson of the day: Ask your customers about what they are looking for... it will go miles. If he was genuinely interested in what I wanted, he would have either already known it was my birthday, or found out so through conversation (trust me, I'm happy to share this info). If he would have found out it was my birthday he could have spun the whole conversation about life insurance and related it to my birthday and how every year it becomes more and more important to protect my loved ones. Then when I told him I was already covered, he could have pointed out some of the additional benefits that his product could have offered to supplement this plan... too bad he didn't get that far.

Monday, March 8, 2010

Life is kind of like meeting Johnny Reid in an airport....

except life will never serenade you!

I just couldn't resist weaving this picture into my post today:

My father sent me this pic of one of my previous managers at Rankin Construction and Johnny Reid at the Toronto airport, and somehow I really related to it. Let's set aside the fact that I had no idea who this guy was (Thanks Wikipedia!), but lets focus on how life is a lot like meeting an obscure celebrity in an airport:

-An airport is the embodiment of organized chaos.... you can barely find a spot at the bathroom stall but at the end of the day, after all of the pat downs, bad airport food, and sitting on the runway for 2 hours, you wind up with an interesting story and hopefully meet some cool people.

-Another thing that makes this metaphor on life relevant is that you never know when an opportunity might walk right past you, so you need to be hyper aware of your surroundings.... you might never know when Johnny Reid is going to walk by and give you a once in a lifetime moment.

-Consider that some people could care less if they met Johnny Reid or not... and most people probably wouldn't have even spotted him. The important part is that everybody has a different opportunity they are looking for in life. Just like one mans trash is another mans treasure, one persons Johnny Reid is just another dude at the airport, and thats okay.

-Even if it's not your dream moment, enjoy the moment for what it is worth. I'm sure our friend from Rankin wasn't waiting for his whole life to get this picture, but since he did, it's pretty cool. I know this feeling personally... I was involved in some work which required actresses and I saw one of the women I worked with on the television buying fishsticks.... it wasn't a defining moment of my life, but it was kind of cool to say "hey, I met her". Life is never going to be perfect, but you might as well make the most of the cards you are dealt.

-Life is all about people. You could go through all of the airports in the world twenty times over, but if there would no people there, they would be lifeless. Airports are the same as life... people are what make your life rich, not the money you have. In our world of fast paced social media and business deals it can be easy to forget this!

I'll leave you with this thought:

Connect with your fellow man. Do it often and with passion. It doesn't matter whether its a conversation with a stranger, a blog post, a telephone call, or a simple hello to a colleague when you come in to the office. If you do this, you'll be rich in more ways than one.