The Darkest Evil

I have a belief that certain businesses should definitely provide wireless Internet services to it’s clientele. These are businesses where it’s either expected of the business to carry wifi or it’s necessary based on the type of business and/or the clientele served by the business. Keep in mind that most of the businesses listed below provide services to people who MIGHT be travelling. Travellers may find it harder to find specific services in the area for which they are travelling without prior research.

Cafes and Coffee shops - All cafes and coffee shops should provide free wifi services to their clients. In fact, providing wireless Internet service is actually a staple to compete in the coffee shop business. It’s no longer solely based on the flavour of the beverages you serve anymore. But it stands to reason, coffee shops are mainly frequented for their ambience. They are pretty popular with business people and college students alike. There was a coffee shop in Lethbridge, Alberta I went to called the Penny Coffee Shop (I think) and while the hot chocolate was pretty steep on the price, it provided me the power to talk with my lovely Becca. This is invaluable. And I am pretty sure the services were well used by the many college students that walked into and out of the coffee shop.

Long-haul transit services - Companies such as Greyhound and Amtrak should provide wireless internet services simply due to the fact that they are long-haul transit providers. These should generally be provided in their customer lobbies for customers who are waiting copious amounts of time for things such as lay overs or a line change. Like, for an example - when you get to the end of the line for a route like Empire Builder in Portland, Oregon - it would be a great idea to provide wifi services while waiting for a train to take you on the rest of the route. And it would seem that for Amtrak, it would also be feasible to integrate it into the cars. I mean, they have found a way to integrate a snack bar into the transit service - how much harder could this be?

Motels - I don’t care what anyone says about this - wifi in motels is a NECESSITY. It allows you to remain in touch with your loved ones, friends, business associates and family. Therefore, to reduce the level of homesickness, it would definitely be a good idea to integrate wireless services into Motels. Most motels are picking up on this fast - the proof being that the smaller motels like O’Haire Manor Motel and Sherlock Motel in Shelby, Montana. But there are still motels like the nasty biker motel just out of the United States border in Sweetgrass, Montana.

Restaurants - Depending on your location and the nature of your clientele, this could go either way. Most likely, if this is just a family restaurant, this is not really a necessity. If this is a romantic kind of restaurant, you might want to stay as far away from providing wifi as possible. But if you get a lot of business people visiting your restaurant, do them a favour and provide wifi services in your restaurants. Your business will probably be frequented more by business people if you provide great food and a way to show a presentation without necessarily needing it onto their hard drive.

And to everyone else, think about your clientele and their needs carefully and you might find that it would actually be in your best interest to provide wireless internet to your clients.

You know, it’s quite funny that one of the most successful banks in the United States, and the world, has problems with serving it’s personal clients. Wait, that’s not funny at all. I think it’s pretty pathetic, personally. What am I talking about? I called Bank of America today asking them to give me access to $200 that I have in a savings account with them and they refused to help me. Some call centre associates were just terribly unhelpful. And none of them were competent nor willing to listen so they could help me with the problems that I was having. (more…)

So Shush has me doing grunt work that I am not fit to do. I don’t know how I can make this clearer - but I am just going to make this point, yet again: I AM NOT A HANDY MAN! I’d probably wind up breaking more stuff than actually fixing a damn thing. And this isn’t the worst part. The worst part is I will be separated from my loving girlfriend Becca. I already miss talking to her and I wish I was by her side, fully enjoying life. So, instead of being able to talk to her through Instant Messenger - I have to use e-mail and blog entries to let her know how much I love her. (more…)

I hate calling the customer service department of a business. Generally, it means being transferred to the right person/department/whatever more than once, hopefully getting the support you need and tolerating that horrible hold music and “hold advice” that they give. I am going to talk to you about a couple of my pet peeves in how a business runs and hopefully, this will inspire you to run your call centre in a more efficient manner. And know that until I can afford to take these measures, I am not going to run a call centre. In fact, I only give my number out to clients or possibly prospective clients. (more…)

So, the journey of waiting for my MacBook Pro’s power adapter is finally over. Let me retell the epic story because I’d really want a record for my own ranting purposes. On Thursday, I was using the MacBook while sitting on the couch and I noticed that the battery dropped to 10% capacity. So I went back to my room where the power adaptor was and a few moments later, boom. The AC adaptor burned out. So I frantically started to dig around trying to find my AppleCare enrolment number because I knew that I was entitled to a brand new AC adaptor. After numerous hours of searching and searching, I found the AppleCare enrolment number on the CD of software that came with the AppleCare package. (more…)

I’m back at the computer store - for the third time since my MacBook Pro’s AC Adapter fried. You see, I thought I would be able to study the Dharma and become a better buddhist while I am waiting for my MacBook Pro’s AC Adapter to come in the mail. Wrong! You see, recently my roommate is becoming more and more annoying with his accusations that I am stealing his food. WTF? I stole absolutely nothing from that asshole because (a) it is wrong to steal from someone and (b) he has nothing I’d want. In fact, earlier yesterday - he made a false accusation that I stole his Doritos. Wrong! (more…)

Okay, so I called Apple (I am posting this at a local computer store) and basically it will take a few days for me to get my AC adapter. So I should be back on early next week. So stay smexy, m’kay?

Today, I made a few posts on the Pirate Reports forums advocating for Bittorrent and Mr. Howard Spinks took what I said and twisted it into something completely awful. Mr. Spinks does not value the freedom of speech, despite the fact that his clients, Jelsoft and phpFoX, would not be where they are now without the creativity that they gained from the freedom of speech. Freedom of speech is very important in our society and it is what had made countries like Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States so very desirable to live in. The erosion of Freedom of Speech and habeas corpus is the reason that more and more US and UK citizens are immigrating to Canada, where human rights are still being respected. (more…)

I am sick. My nose is stuffy and my nose has been running since I woke up this afternoon at 2pm. I feel like complete shit and it gets worse. My asshole landlord has decided to start a new rule where showers are limited to one 10 minute shower a day. I mean, it really sucks and I am not too happy about it. So if you don’t mind, I am taking the day off because I can’t serve clients effectively today while snot is coming out of my nose and I feel like complete shit. But after today, I am going to cook myself a big hunk of that hamburger meat that I have in the freezer.

I would highly recommend avoiding Alibris as much as you possibly can. I’ve ordered from them in the past and it resulted in some kind of problem. My books didn’t even make it to the address I was using then within their designated time coordinates. Now, I know for a fact that Alibris does not directly sell the books, but rather, they are sold by others, much in the same way that Craigslist or eBay works, but there is one small little problem with their model. There is no dispute service where you can raise a concern directly to the staff at Alibris. No contact information where you can speak one-on-one with a live agent. And the only way that I was able to get a refund was because I raised a complaint with the local Better Business Bureau where Alibris is located. (more…)