The Internet. A most important invention.

Several years ago, The History Channel had a show about the 100 most important/influential people in history.  From #100 to #10, the people were certainly important to history, people like Freud, Beethoven, Edison.  When they got to the top ten, almost all were philosophers and people of science who changed the world such as Socrates, Mohammed, and Newton.  What initially surprised me was #1, Johannes Gutenberg.  Why?  Their reason was that the invention of movable type and the printing press spread knowledge around the world and into the hands of the masses through books and printed documents.  No single person or invention did more to empower and educate the world. Before Gutenberg, books were hand written or printed with plates both of which were reserved for limited documents because of the difficulty and expense to make them.

Enter the Internet.  Think of how much information you are able to access now with your computer, your phone, your mobile device and/or your TV.  I read articles from any newspaper, watch video from around the world,  arrange travel to anywhere, hold video meetings.  And it's not always important information.  I watch movies and TV shows, look up factoids, socially connect with friends and family over great distances, and on and on.

When you consider how Gutenberg changed information access to the world, hasn't the internet done the same?  You might say there's a lot of garbage and dangerous information on the internet, sure, but the same can be said for books.  Both are mediums that need filtering and monitoring at the personal level, beyond that is censorship.  But the access to information and sharing among people is an undeniable shift in the human experience in our history.

Does No One have Time for the Leap Second?

It seems the short-sighted of the world (the brits, the chinese, and canadians) are leading a move to abolish the leap second.  It's "time" to insert one again soon, but several countries are opposing this necessary time change and even seeking to abolish it permanently.  http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/01/18/time-may-be-up-for-leap-second/

I wrote a very detailed account of the mechanics and reasoning behind the leap second in a post here called Time Out of Mind.  Abolishing the leap second will result in a discrepancy of about 15 seconds over 100 years between our physical time on earth and the atomic clocks.  You let this go and pretty soon, we'll be rounding pi to 3.

O&H Danish - A Unique Experience

There is no shortage of poor customer service experiences to write about, companies that just don't get it.  Well, it is a pleasure to write about one of the best experiences I have ever had with a company, in fact a unique experience.

My neighbor told us about O&H Danish Bakery and their "Kringle" danish product that made a great holiday gift.  So I went on line and ordered one for a relative in FL.  Guaranteed 2-day delivery, it was scheduled to be delivered on the Friday before Christmas.  It was and our relatives raved about how good the Kringle was.  Great product, on-time delivery, but it doesn't end there.

When I got home from my business trip last week, there was a letter from O&H (click on image to the right) stating they were unable to process my credit card, but to avoid inconvenience, they delivered the Kringle anyway.  They simply asked that I call to make fix the credit card payment.  I called the next morning and made a credit card payment.  I sincerely thanked the rep I spoke to.

Wow!  What a great philosophy.  Nearly ever company I can think of would have stopped the order to get the payment first, messed up the holiday gift, and had an unhappy customer (even though it was my fault).  But O&H figures, they're not going to ruin a Christmas gift, or allow the customer to have a bad experience.  Instead they took the chance that most people are honest and will square up their bill.  The potential risk of lost revenue was far outweighed by goodwill and positive word of mouth, not just about the great danish, but a great company.

Bravo!  Cheers!  O&H gets it.  And they now have a very loyal customer.  And I want to tell everyone because this kind of company doesn't come along everyday.  www.ohdanishbakery.com

Isn't Twitter Simply Graffiti with Punctuation?

I've been away from my blog for a couple weeks.  Re-engaging work after the holidays, launching a new product for my company, spending a week at CES in Las Vegas, and building a Facebook site for my aunt's apple business has kept me busy.

I was watching a movie last night called Contagion (horribly too long and uninteresting).  One of the characters was a blogger, wanting to write about the main character of the movie, a global virus.  In the dialog, he was dismissed because he was just a blogger and told "blogging is simply graffiti with punctuation".

Being a blogger and having much experience in the practice, well, I disagree.  However, the statement is accurate but not with regard to blogging, but rather tweating.  I think that Twitter is simply graffiti with punctuation.  Tweats are brief and there generally lack substance.  (By the way, type "tweat" several times and see the freudian type-os.  I've typed "twats" and "teats" just in this paragraph.  Anyway back to Twitter.)  I think Twitter is graffiti.  You're writing on your wall and most people don't really care because they can't decipher what you mean and it doesn't apply to them very often.  That doesn't mean Twitter (or graffiti) is garbage, some graffiti is actually beautiful art, not much, and some is poignant messaging.

And in a one-to-many audience, Twitter is great.  I use Twitter to follow people or groups I find interesting, e.g., Seth MacFarlane, Denis Leary, NatGeo).  When then have something to say, I usually find it interesting.  Twitter is a way for them to talk to a large group of interested people.  Tonight for example, I am watching the Golden Globes, following Ricky Gervais, Giada DeLaurentiis and Lance Ulanoff (editor of Mashable, a great site).  In real time, I'm entertained by the comments while I watch the show.

So while my initial impression of Twitter was negative, Twitter has matured, our use has become better defined and my personal use has become useful and entertaining.  And if you want to follow me on Twitter, simply look up jcapurso or message me on Twitter @jcapurso.  You can also just click the link to the right that says "Follow Me on Twitter".  Back to the Golden Globes.