Posts (page 2)

This is a crosspost from hello! yoshi

Ok, so as I'm sure everyone knows by now, AOL has now made their services free. Now, I'm probably one of the biggest skeptics of anything that is free. I mean there's nothing free, right? That's right folks, it's the old saying: "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch."

So my friend decided to do it. Sure, I'll let her go ahead and do it. Then I'll see what it's like. She had a champ of a time. She said it was easy and painless. The person she talked to on live aol help was great.

So. I go ahead and try. Holy cow. I didn't have to wait in the queue very long. But the conversation. The conversation was painful folks.

Welcome Yoshi ... Connecting to server. Please wait... Hello, Yoshi. Welcome to Live Billing Support. Yoshi stated the question or problem as: I have questions about the free aol for broadband..

AOL: I am pleased to meet you, Yoshi -=)

  AOL: Thank you for your interest in the new AOL Price Plan for members using high speed connection. It's an exciting new time of change at AOL.

Me: hi! 

Me: i just have some questions about the service

AOL: Please go ahead with your questions.

Me: will all the services that we use on aol continue to be free? like the safety and security center, radio on aol with xm, etc 

Me: oh and You've got pictures. stuff like that.

AOL: I will be glad to provide the answer to your inquiry. 

AOL: Changing to any of our new AOL price plans will not only keep all the AOL features you are currently enjoying, but you will enjoy as well the exclusive broadband features, programming, and content via your separate high-speed connection.

Me: right, i already have the bring your own plan thing connecting via broadband connection 

Me: will the computer checkup also be available free?

AOL: Yes, that is correct. 

AOL: the only difference is that, 

AOL: One thing I'd like to let you know is that your Free AOL doesn't include customer support.

Me: ok, i'm fine with that. this may be the first time i've ever used support. :) 

Me: so when I convert over, it takes place immediately?

AOL: Yes, you are correct.

Me: Ok, I'd love to convert over to the free plan. When will i see it reflected in billing?

AOL: To switch to our Special Pricing Plans, please call our Member Services directly at 1-888-265-8003 toll free and our representatives will be there to assist you with your request.

Me: i thought i could change to the new plan through live billing support

AOL: While I fully understand your concern, we do not have the access here at Live Help to change your price plan to the free AOL offered as special. It is for this reason we need you to call us directly. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Me: Ok, well, my friend already did this through live help.

AOL: I understand your concern.

Me: Ok, I guess I have no alternative then.

AOL: Please hold while I review this for you. 

AOL: Thank you for holding, 

AOL: We do not determine the eligibility of members who will receive the offer. The offer goes to a small group which our system randomly selects.

  AOL: So does the members who come online requesting for such service plan.

Me: isn't this offer available to everyone? according to the news release. 

Me: I'm not entirely sure I understand you. I thought the free AOL available for everyone?

AOL: I understand. I am sorry, in as much as I would like to provide you the information about the announcement I am unable to. As of now we do not have the concrete and factual information to relay to our members

Me: ok, that's ok, thank you, and i guess i'll talk to someone else.

AOL: To switch to our Special Pricing Plans, please call our Member Services directly at 1-888-265-8003 toll free and our representatives will be there to assist you with your request.

Me: Thank you!

Just as a few notes. I had to wait at least 30 seconds to 1 minute for each response. While I am pretty laid back, waiting for someone to type that out, especially a customer service rep that obviously should be able to type very fast, was excruciatingly painful. I just want to say that as an ex-tier 2 tech support person for a very large ISP (as if that really meant anything to anyone).

Obviously I'm just going to wait in the queue on live help again. I'm certainly not going to hold on AOL phone lines today. Not today of all days when the wait is probably horrible. If that scenario turns out to be crazy, I'll post that one too.

What's your cell phone's ringtone? What made you pick it?

My current ringtone is the disco ringtone that comes by default on my phone. :) It was easy, that's why I picked that one, and it's kinda cool. :)

According to this article at University of Toronto, it's not. From the article:

With 80% of Canadian teenagers using instant messaging and adopting its unique linguistic shorthand, many teachers and parents are concerned about the mediums potential to corrupt kids grammar. But instant messaging doesn't deserve its bad reputation as a spoiler of syntax, suggests a new study from the University of Toronto.

I'll agree.

I'm not sure exactly what the "unique linguistic shorthand" is, besides "LOL" or "OMG" or "BRB" (those are ones I use), but you know what, it's as simple as this: They're typed, not spoken the way they are written.

Think about it. LOL means "laughing out loud". In which case, really, I'm not going to say "LOL", i'm going to literally laugh out loud. (let's forget that Sarah, Jennifer Love Hewitt's character from Party of Five said "LOL" literally to Bailey.) I don't think I've ever said "BRB" either. Although I might have used that in a jokingly manner. But usually if I say that, it will be more along the lines of mimic-ing Arnold as I say (in Arnold's voice) "I'll be back."

I think teachers and parents are underestimating their children's intelligence. While there are some linguistic shorthand that might be spoken, I often think of those as slang, and as such, should still be ok to use.

What it all really comes down to is simple. There's the way you should talk, and there's the way you really talk. After high school and college, how many people are really going to correct your grammar talking in an everyday situation? I think I can count them on one hand. And no, one of them isn't my 9th grade english teacher.

1. Group Blog - great idea. the best way to go. I saw a few group blogs, and thought, "whoa. that's what I should have done is set up a group blog." Next year, WDS will most likely be doing that. The only thing that I think blogathon needs is the ability to have multiple sponsors.

2. Lot's of snacks. Although I have to admit that I ate quite a bit of food. But you know, when you're sitting there, it helps.

3. Moblogging. Moblogging is the bomb when it comes to blogathon I think. First of all, it's easy with your phone. (unless you type a long entry.) And it's kinda fun to see the progress of the 24 hours. My plan next year is to definitely have the first post be a pic of me, and the last post a pic of me. That way there's a definitely before and after scenario. :)

4. Another thought I had was videoblogging. Perhaps by next year, vlogging will be a lot easier to do (and I mean easy for me.)

5. A plan for the last hours of the blogathon. While the plan of no plan was good for the beginning and middle of the blogathon, at the last few hours of the blogathon, having no plan really kinda sucked, as you start to lose focus, and well, run out of ideas. So not having a plan is good to start with, but having a plan to end with is good. I'm up for any ideas for next year folks. :P

6. Methods to get sponsors. I need to have them. Prizes were good, and trivia was good. Those were not only fun, but it also gave an opportunity for people to interact with the site. I'll have to consider these things, and suggestions are always welcome.

7. More audience participation. While entries about interesting facts is good and makes for great content, sometimes, there's just no audience participation. Comments help quite a bit. And it gives a feeling of "wow, people are actually reading my stupid crap." My wife said to me the other day, "wow, look you've got comments on all your entries." I beamed and like a dork, i said, "Sweeet!" (think napoleon dynamite)

So there you have it, some of my observations and mental notes to myself about blogathon 2007. You have any suggestions? Comment away!

Ok, so Daniel said it would be awesome if there was a way to crosspost into Vox. Wordpress does it right?

Well, fortunately for Daniel, I'm always up for something new. So this post is an official test post to test out my Vox extension.

If you see this post, you should also be able to see it as a crosspost over at my Vox page.

Ok, so come to find out, Vox has yet to have an API. What does this mean to us?

This means that creating a crossposter for Expression Engine will require much change AFTER Vox has been released. Essentially, it will be the same as LiveJournal (since, LJ is run by the same folks, Six Apart).

So there you have it. This is actually crossposted from WP, using the great WP plugin.

Essentially, the best (and currently only) way to crosspost is to just have EE send the entry to the moblog email for vox. Well. that's an easy extension.

Well, this is my first entry here on Vox. I wasn't even sure if I really needed a Vox profile, but Daniel sent me an invitation, and you know, I'm a joiner. So I joined. And here I am!

My goal will be to set up a method to crosspost from EE to vox. Should be interesting and fun!