I am very juvenile

But this on andyroddick.com made me laugh today:

Dear Flickr: Your Customer Service Sucks #flickrfail

Last week my mom was in town as a tourist.  First trip to New York, so she took LOTS of pictures.  Midweek i thought it would be nice to get some pics printed up to give to her to take home, so I ordered a bunch from Flickr.  Total cost of the pictures was about $6, but mom was leaving on Sunday so I paid $20 for next day delivery.  I ordered Wednesday night, and expected the pics by Friday or Saturday  (estimated delivery thing said Friday).

My confirmation email said “Your order has been received and will be completed within 1-2 business days”.  They didn’t mention that it would take up to 48 hours to process before I ordered, only once I’d paid, but no biggie, eh?

My package arrives Monday.  I’ve paid $20 for five day delivery, not very cool, but hey ho such is life I guess.  Then I open the pictures, and half of them look like this:

So I paid $26 for a bunch of images that were ‘currently unavailable’ and five day shipping.

Don’t you check the product before it leaves the warehouse? Wouldn’t even need a human, would just need to scan for images that look like the above AND NOT CHARGE PEOPLE FOR THEM OR SEND THEM TO THEM.

And to add insult to injury, their (I’m assuming outsourced) customer service (flickr@certifiedcustomercare.com) absolutely sucks too.  Waiting ages for responses to emails, only to be told that they told me next day service meant I had to wait 48 hours before they ship.  Haven’t gotten a response on why they sent me a bunch of blank images yet though.

Absolute rubbish. I LOVED flickr up until this experience, but it’s completely destroyed my opinion of the brand. #flickrfail

A list of things I don’t like.

Sometimes people say I’m grumpy. I don’t think I am, it’s just that certain things really annoy me. In no particular order then, here are some things that get my goat:

1. People on the subway who don’t have their ticket ready, then stop in front of the barrier to look for it. HELLO? IF YOU DON’T HAVE YOUR TICKET STAND TO THE SIDE SO THE REST OF US CAN GET THROUGH. Thanks.

2. People on the subway who insist on standing by the door instead of moving in, then look annoyed when I barge into them. I reserve my sharpest elbows for these pond dwellers.

3. Taxi drivers who are off duty yet slow down to ask you through the window where you want to go in case it’s on their way home, when of course it never is. I’ve started saying ‘your house’.

4. When we’re at it, the bloody TVs in NYC taxis too.

5. People who spit in the street. Scum.

6. People who don’t clean up after their dogs. Scum.

7. People who take 15 minutes to sort their coffee out at the milk/napkins/sugar area in Starbucks (with apologies to @iansohn).

8. Emails with ‘let me know if you have any questions’ at the end. Oh right, OK. I do have questions, and I would not have asked them if you hadn’t put that. Thanks.

9. The fact that no matter what @dunkindonuts I order from, anywhere in the city, I have to repeat my ‘milk and no sugar’ instruction no less than three times. I’m considering laminating a little card.  This is the most basic of coffee orders: put milk in it, don’t put sugar in it. I shouldn’t have to repeat it over and over.

10. MySpace.*

*Edit: Ok, to clarify: I mean MySpace auto play music.  Hate it hate it hate it.

Dear Warren Ellis… (or how I got to be blocked on Twitter!)

Tuesday was a landmark day for me: I got my first (known) block on Twitter, meaning that another user clicked the ‘block’ button, preventing me from interacting with them.  Feels kinda weird.  I’m @kaimac on there, in case you were wondering.

How did I come to get blocked, you ask?  Good question.   First, some background….

Some of you may know Warren Ellis, the comic book guy from England who started his career with the legendary Deadline way back when, and has since turned into somewhat of a living legend himself.  He’s written a bunch of super cool stuff, including loads for comic giant, Marvel.

Which brings us to the Disney acquisition of them this week.  They just bought them for $4 billion bucks (gasp!).  Actually a super smart deal from Disney: I have no doubt that they’ll leave well enough alone and just milk the licencing opps rather than trying to change anything creatively.  After all, if it aint broke don’t fix it.

The morning the acquisition was announced, Warren (@Warrenellis) tweeted some pretty funny stuff:

Two of my fave tweets ever, actually, but that’s by the by.  Anyhow, the next day he tweeted this:

which I thought was pretty funny, so feeling a bit sarcastic, replied with:

Not the funniest thing I’ve ever said, but at least a 6/10 I thought. You know, ‘cos he’s talking about severed heads and that’s the last thing Disney would ever want him to talk about, so of course he’s not a sellout, eh?  Haha funny, ya?

To which he replied:

Funny, granted, but also a little over the top.  And then with one cruel click, he blocked me, meaning that I was no long able to follow him on Twitter.  *sniff*. So that’s how I got to be blocked, for the first time ever.  Next time I guess I’ll remember to use the emoticon

Anyhow, @warrenellis: sorry about that. I’m not a loony flamer, was just trying to be funny.  Won’t happen again.  Obviously enough I guess, ‘cos you’ve blocked me. But you get the point. Actually getting blocked has given me an interesting perspective on Twitter’s block feature.  In a nutshell: it’s very broken.  But that’s for another post!

So what do you think…  should I have been blocked?  Fair enough ‘cos I was such an idiot, or an over-reaction?

Update @ 10.30 EST, 4/9:  Ha! Warren just unblocked me. @iansohn is taking the credit.

Steely Dan – Crowdsourcing Their Set List

Steely Dan are playing a bunch of nights at the newly renovated Beacon Theatre on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.  That in itself is pretty cool, but what’s especially interesting though is that for certain nights, including tonight, ticket holders for the show pick the set list.

Anyone who bought a ticket in advance of the show had the opportunity to vote on what songs the band plays. Top choices made it in to the set list.  Excellent, no?  They might be old fogeys, but they’re moving with the times, crowdsourcing what they play. Love it.

Also, Donald Fagan is responsible for one of the coolest album covers ever, and is, imho, one of the coolest people to ever walk this earth.

Anyhow, interesting trend that we’re going to see more of.  If I’m going to see a show, why shouldn’t I be able to participate in some way?  Would be cool to see Fagan on stage with his iPhone, asking for folks to @ him requests.  Or having people critique the show, or even just chatting (tweeting) with folks up in the nose bleeds.  Project the iPhone onto the screens and you’re away!  Ok, bit far fetched for two fellas in their 60s, but you get the idea

Now all that remains to be seen is whether I can rustle up a ticket or not. Waked past the line yesterday and it was like Jerry Garcia had risen from the dead and sent his disciples to the Upper West Side. Splendid

I am going to the driving range today

For the first time in over a year.  It’s not going to be pretty: if you’re at Chelsea Pier tonight and you see an English guy (me), keep your wits about you.  I have the unique ability to fire a golf ball in any one of 360 different directions with no warning whatsoever. It’s pretty special.  Don’t think you’ll be safe standing behind me, either. 

Update later.

Update:  That was excellent.  I wasn’t nearly as bad as  I expected (I really suck as a golfer, but have fun trying which is the main thing).  A few shocking shanks, but a few sweet shots too. Weird to be hitting balls onto a pier surrounded by water, very different to what I’m used to.

I’d forgotten how amazing it feels when you catch it perfectly.  Awesome.  Going back tomorrow, hehe

http://brightkite.com/objects/2982583c046d11de969d003048c10834

Twitter: To Auto DM/Auto Follow or Not?

Twitter is suddenly really popular.  Had you noticed?  Everybody from Shaq to my mom (true story) is on there now. As with anything that becomes popular, the level of noise has increased dramatically.  Lots of folks trying to tell you how to get rich quick, or share awesome marketing secrets with you.  Don’t know about you, but I’ve had my fill of awesome marketing secrets.  I like Twitter because it sparks conversations:  I connect with people I find interesting. I goof around a bit, I network a bit, I share bits and pieces of my life (personal and professional), and vice versa. Above all though it’s authentic:  there are real people on the end of the tweets.

And so to the issue of Auto DMs.  For those that don’t know, a DM is a “Direct Message”,  a Twitter message that goes only to one person (i.e. is not visible on the public stream).  Kindof like a mini email sent just to you.  There are sites out there that will let you send one automatically, meaning that if I follow you on Twitter, the site recognizes that and automatically sends you a message.

They’ve been quite a hot topic on Twitter lately, with a lot of folks on there having a pretty vehement dislike of them, myself included. The reasoning is that Twitter is a very personal, conversation driven platform, so ‘faking it’ by sending an automatic canned message (e.g ‘thank you for following me, looking forward to connecting with you’) is disengenuous.  Much better to send a personal message (either DM or @) when the mood takes you, rather than automating it.  After all, how interested in me are you if you’re sending me the exact same message you send everyone else who follows you?  I’ve gotten auto DMs with broken links in them (great promotion, huh?), and ones with too much text that just cut off mid sentence.  Those ones make me feel really special.

I feel the same way about auto-following folks.  You can use those same applications to recognize when somebody has followed you, and immediately recipricate. Again, there’s no value here:  I want you to follow me because you’re interested/engaged/amused by what I have to say, not as a de facto, tit for tat thing.  If you automatically follow me because I’ve followed you, you’re doing it for the wrong reasons. Follow me because I’m interesting, not to return a favor.

Full disclosure here:  I briefly used an auto responder out of laziness for a while on @kaimoviereviews – all it said was ‘thanks for following, I take requests’ – figured I should let people know they could ask me to review movies, but after giving it a little more thought I realized that if they were interested enough to follow, they’d be interested enough to read my profile or click the link (or DM/@ me) and find out for themselves.

So what’s your take on the automation thing.  Big deal, or not so much?  Do  yo u follow everyone who follows you, or are you more selective?

@kaimac
@kaimoviereviews 

The Keene Act & You (1977): Watchmen Movie Lands March 6th

17 Days.

Brilliant Duane Reade Valentine’s Day Promotion

Because nothing says ‘love’ like ‘I bought some shampoo’, right?

http://www.duanereade.com/ff09/

Origami Millennium Falcon – YES!