I was just online submitting a trouble ticket to a company and while entering the information a bunch of knowledge base articles started popping up underneath the web based input form. One of them had the answer to my question so I didn't even need to submit the ticket. This is the best implementation of an online help desk that I've seen yet. Most of the time I'll skip over reviewing the FAQ or online knowledge base because they are typically useless to search and get the info anyway. But this was a nice way to present it.
Looks like they are using Kayako Help Desk stuff.
Category: General
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I used to be able to recommend Velocity Server (who was recently bought by DataPoint) as a pretty decent Virtual Private Server (VPS) provider. That is no longer the case. It seems that whenever they were taken over by DataPoint mass incompetence has taken over. We used to deal with a few very competent people at Velocity Server but that is no longer.
Its almost impossible to get someone to get back to you from there now. The billing department emails have a phone number stamped on them that doesn't exist anymore. I've left a number of voice mails and even tech support apparently has asked someone to call me back (nothing). Although someone from another department called me back (I think it may have been one of the principals from the old Velocity Server).
The last straw that broke the camels back was when they mistakenly deleted the wrong VPS on me. Instead of killing one that I no longer required they killed the one that was working nicely leaving me holding the bag. I made it very very clear which one to delete. Further, I had just paid an invoice that morning on the one they deleted.
The moral of the story is, don't deal with these guys. Customer service is pretty much non-existent at this point.
Category: General
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I've noticed an alarming increase in false positives being detected by Google Apps For Domains GMail spam detection. It is so bad actually that I'd rather turn off GMail spam detection altogether. My own service SimpleFilter does a much much better job at spam detection and so much less false positive that I have to begin thinking about not using Google Apps GMail for my domains now. They really should allow one to turn on or off the spam filtering or at least some sort of basic options.
I've been using Google Apps For Domains with most of my domains for a while now. See here.
Category: General
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Having some of this Gretzky field sense myself, if I may say so, I think they are a bit off base in this article. At least in the examples given they don't apply to Gretzky's field sense whatsoever in my opinion. For the tennis and volleyball examples, one is training on being able to predict trajectory by watching directly and picking up on various clues. Also, with the Australian rules football example, I believe this is completely backwards as to how Gretzky and similar players in hockey process information.
From my own experience and the way I understand how Gretzky processes information, it basically comes from experience and the ability to track 3-4 other players (maybe more if you count the other team) simultaneously as to their predicted movement on the ice. This comes from being able to process what one would do if you were in their shoes without the need to look at them or focus on them. When I play with players that approach the game very very similarly to myself I have an extremely good idea exactly where they are going to be on the ice at any given time. I know what they are going to do if I cut one way or the other. I know what they are going to do if a defender moves a certain way. I don't need to glance at them or assess the field.
Category: General
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From Orbitcast:
Andretti Green Racing's partnership with XM Satellite Radio has more to do than just
talk shows and
sponsorships. AGR used XM WX Weather for up-to-the-second intelligence during
the rain-soaked Indy 500 as part of their arsenal of tech tools.
While
other teams were relying on local weather forecasts to layout their
strategies, AGR was using streaming real-time weather data delivered
trackside to their team computers.
Well, not quite. Although they might have had this data they certainly didn't make good use of it. I watched the Indy 500 and I was pulling up weather data from various online weather sites. It was obvious to me that they wouldn't finish this race without rain coming in big time for a second time and ending the race. With AGR having 3 cars up front I would have definitely left at least 2 if not 3 of them out there running instead of pulling them into the pits. The decision to bring them into the pits cost them dearly if you ask me.
Category: General
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I've been using the YUI (Yahoo User Interface) Library for a while now and had a need for a pretty complicated table/grid and decided to give their DataTable a try. It is still in beta and probably why I ran into a few quirks and bugs I just couldn't work around. So I gave ActiveWidgets a try and have been really pleased with it so far. Seems to be nicely designed and although I also ran into a few quirks it was very easy to work around them. Definitely seems to be worth the dollars rather than spending the time getting YUI working. I fully expect YUI to work nicely down the road but I can't wait for it right now.
Category: General
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The update to Google Analytics seems to be really slick. Checkout the blog post about it here.
Category: General
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Interesting:
The Securities and
Exchange Commission this morning suspended trading in the securities of
35 companies that have been the subject of recent and repeated spam
email campaigns (see examples).
The trading suspensions – the most ever aimed at spammed companies –
were ordered because of questions regarding the adequacy and accuracy
of information about the companies.
Category: General · Spam
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Michael Geist has the full blog post here:
If true, this form of network interference – implemented with virtually
no transparency and now affecting basic Internet services such as email
– demonstrates why a dedicated consumer complaints commission is a good
start, but a place to complain is not enough. The solution lies in
creating mandatory net neutrality provisions to ensure that essential
communications tools such as email are not surreptitiously degraded.
Category: General · Rogers Cable Internet
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Excellent post by Justin on why SAV isn't that useful in fighting spam:
Some view this as a useful anti-spam technique. In my opinion, it’s not.
Spam/anti-spam is an adversarial “game”. Whenever you’re considering anti-spam
techniques, it’s important to bear in mind game theory, and the possible
countermeasures that spammers will respond with. Before SAV became prevalent,
spam was often sent using entirely fake sender data; hence the initial attractiveness of SAV. Once SAV became worth
evading, the spammers needed to find “real” sender addresses to evade it. And
where’s the obvious place to find real addresses? On the list of target addresses
they’re spamming!
Category: General · Spam
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