Various governments in the world are asking Google to curb its images on selective sites. Full article here.
Author: shun
Intelligent Design Not Fit for Classroom
Today a U.S. District Judge rendered the teachings of Intelligent Design unsuitable inappropriate for classrooms in America.
It’s odd for anyone to even consider teaching what clearly belongs to theology and religion in the realm of science. NPR (again) did a very well researched story on the subject matter. And of course, not that I have anything against people of religious faith, but I think politics, religion and everything else should just leave science alone. How sad is it that it took a court to decide what’s science and what’s not. And furthermore, IF the court ruled in favor of the creationists (or the pro-intelligent design camp), where will American scientific creativity and curiosity go? Isn’t exploring the unknown a crucial key to driving technological and scientific advances? By having Intelligent Design in the science curriculum, it’s basically just saying that some things are impossible to find out, and that’s attributed to the Intelligent Design.
Just leave science alone!
Awesome Animes
I finally got to see Appleseed last night (Thanks, Jason!). The whole time I felt like I was watching a hybrid anime of the original Ghost in the Shell, The Matrix and Robotech. I didn’t quite enjoy it as much as I thought I would. I think I enjoyed Ghost in the Sell 2 more than I did Appleseed mainly because of the quality of graphics in Ghost in the Shell 2 (I had trouble following the subtitle while comprehending the rather complicated issues the movie was dealing with).
Nontheless, Appleseed was a pretty cool movie with decent plot lines. I wished the motion capture was more “anime-like”. A lot of it looked “captured” and almost too realistic for the anime-feel of the movie. Jason mentioned something about the toon shade renderer used in the movie, but I didn’t notice anything aweful, just some bad hue choices in a few scenes.
A few days ago I also saw Howl’s Moving Castle with Grace. I think Hayao Miyazaki definitely makes Grace chuckle more than most of the anime directors I like. As much as she enjoyed Howl’s Moving Castle, I think she still prefers Spirited Away and, of course, Totoro. I hope that guy never dies and keeps making more films.
Now I gotta watch Steamboy to satisfy my 2005 anime wishes. Damn it I wish I had money then I can just buy them!
Bath and Body Works Finally Got It!
Three messages later (the first reply completely missed the point; and the second reply made the company look like a jackass), “someone” finally got it…
Um… no, I don’t find the item disappointing. What I find disappointing is the fact that Bath and Body Works does NOT sell refill foaming hand soaps for the dispenser.
This is the second email I received from Bath and Body Works with a reply that’s totally missing the point. Are you guys even reading the emails for its true content? Or are customer emails simply being replied by automatic reply programs that seeks matching keywords?
Best,
Shun Chu
And their reply two days later (on a SUNDAY!!):
Dear Shun,
Thank you for your e-mail regarding our foaming hand soaps. We appreciate your interest in Bath & Body Works.
As a leader in our industry, Bath & Body Works takes great interest and initiative in making changes beneficial to our customers.
We appreciate your suggestion and comment on carrying refills for the foaming hand soap; customer suggestions provide direction for changes in future merchandise and service.
We have forwarded your e-mail on to our Customer Relations Department for further review of your suggestion on making refills available.
Sincerely,
Kristi G.
BathandBodyWorks.com Customer Service
The company really cares about its customers. SO much so that their customer service people work over time and relpy messages on a Sunday. Or it was replied by a machine just as Birgit suspected… Or maybe the place is somewhere in India where it’s cheap to pay them work overtime. But then Alicia says the company has pretty good track record with stuff like that… So I am forced to selectively think that Bath and Body Works has a sophisticated application that parses through emails and reply according to their context. Shweet!
Let the Good Times Roll
We had a good time with Jason and Alicia again tonight. And this time we got to see a picture of Jason that’s totally unrecognizable.
Bryan, for some reason, was not comfortable with them tonight though. He’s seen them before, but he would just blast out crying whenever he sees them being too close to him. That doesn’t really happen when Michelle or Chee-hoi were here. Maybe that was why he cried so hard last time. Maybe Bryan is more used to the plain Asian facial features; their bolder features make his sensitive eyes hurt… Hah hah…
I also got to take out my teapot set today. I have only used that thing maybe 10 times the entire time I’ve owned the set. I oughta use the damn set more often. They cost me a fortune to have them brought over from Taiwan (thanks to J.J.).
It started raining heavily as Jason and Alicia were leaving. I love rain… so long as I don’t have to be soaked in it. I find the dripping sound on the ground soothing. This is the only time I like water (and drinking it, showering in it and toilet flushing with it), other than that, I am with my cats on this one — water sucks… getting wet sucks even more.
Bath and Body Works Doesn’t Care About What Consumers Think
After a stupid robotic reply that missed my point from Bath and Body Works, I wrote back and made sure they got my point. The email was shorter. So maybe this time someone at the busy profit-making Bath and Body Works WOULD read it:
Original Message Follows:
————————
Thank you for your reply to my concern. However the subject matter is a bit off topic as to what my real concern was. My concern was the fact that Bath and Body Works does not offer any kind of refill options or
alternatives to any of its liquid or foaming hand soap bottles. None. By not making refill an option to consumers like me, I have to throw away/recycle a perfectly working dispenser I other wise wouldn’t have to
throw away if Bath and Body Works sells some kind of refill kit so that I can continue using your nicely designed and perfectly functioning foaming soap dispenser.I appreciate the response.
Best regards,
Shun Chu
And the next day, I got another reply which makes it apparent that my email was handled by some kind of email keyword matching software with calculated pre-formated replies. Well, that algorithm is still not good enough:
Dear Shun,
Thank you for your e-mail regarding refills for our liquid soap dispensers. We regret that you found this item to be disappointing.
We are committed to maintaining the highest level of quality and excellence with our merchandise. We assure you that your comments will be shared with our Customer Relations Division.
Sincerely,
Serena M.
BathandBodyWorks.com Customer Service
WTF! It made me feel like I was talking to an airhead. Either those two customer service reps Bath and Body Works hired were just clueless or those email replies were sent by a machine. God damn it! Why is this so stupid?!
Reclaim Memory from Firefox
I still keep an eye on the browsers, even though now I have 1GB of RAM installed, for their memory leaks. Firefox and Safari are nortorious for leaking memory when too many tabs are open for too long. But thanks to this blog, there’s now a way to reclaim unused memory space back from Firefox:
If you minimize Firefox, it will (automagically) reclaim memory that it’s no longer using.
IT WORKS! Firefox was using 180+MB of RAM even though only 3 tabs were open at the time. By simply minimizing the window, the memory usage went down to just above 110MB. Nuts.
But seriously, a browser that requires 100+MB of RAM to run is just crazy. When Firefox is first launched, it only takes about 85MB of RAM. It creeps up as more and more tabs are opened/closed… etc. And the longer you run Firefox in one shot straight, the more memory it will take up over time. The same issue applies to Safari. But at least now there’s a work around for Firefox.
Damn you, Apple Safari team.
Over 10,000 People Served
Haven’t read the site stats for a couple of weeks. And surprise, surprise… I just got a little over 10,000 unique visits! But the real number should’ve been a lot higher than that, maybe as high as 20,000 unique visits since I posted Steve Jobs’ speech back in June.
Corporate Reply from Bath and Body Works
I wrote about Bath and Body Works’ lack of liquid hand soap refill kits before. In fact, I excercised my power as a consumer and wrote them about the matter.
To: customerservice@bathandbodyworks.com
From: *****@gmail.com
Subject: Retail Stores Comments/QuestionsOrder Number:
Name: Shun Chu
Phone Number: 408.***.****Wrote: To whom this may concern:
While my wife and I admire the fine quality of your products, I was stunned to have found out that Bath & Body Works does NOT make any kind of refill kit for all of your liquid and foaming hand soap products!! I am particularly disappointed with the fact that wonderfully designed foaming hand soap dispensers are going to waste when they are still in perfect working conditions.
For a major company like Bath & Body Works under the umbrella of Limited Brands, I was hoping BBW would do more to help the recycling efforts in curbing volumes of perfectly working liquid/foaming hand soap bottles going into landfills.
After doing some research, it appears Dial and Johnson+Johnson seem to be taking the lead in that area. I am so sorry that we will be using their refillable bottles until BBW addresses this problem.
My family loves using your products. But we love the environment a little more. Sorry.
Best Regards,
Shun Chu
Impressively, their turn around time on replying to consumer concerns was incredibly fast — the next day!
Dear Shun,
Thank you for you email regarding the recycling of our product packaging. We will be happy to address your concern.
We value our reputation for excellent customer service, and always take great interest and initiative in making changes which are beneficial to our customers.
At Bath & Body Works, we share your concern for protecting the environment. After thoroughly investigating trash handling in all 50 states, we found that the best overall plan for recycling is local disposal. In many communities the trash is recycled by burning to create energy, which saves other precious fuels like oil and gas. Waste disposal experts show that by converting waste to energy, the amount of waste going to a landfill is reduced by 90%, which eliminates 99% of the air pollution.
Previously, Bath & Body Works had to use another container with packing materials and as many as three trucks burning gasoline and emitting pollution to get to the recycling plant in Tennessee. All that extra gasoline usage and exhaust pollution was wasteful and bad for our environment. We found a better more earth friendly way to recycle our bottles locally.
We appreciate your comments and take them seriously. In fact, customer suggestions and comments often provide direction for future offerings in our stores and online.
Sincerely,
Tiera W.
BathandBodyWorks.com Customer Service
Visit www.BathandBodyWorks.com
As impressive as the response time was, the subject matter was completely off topic. I suspect it was simply a template and matter of copying and pasting in that particular reply to me. How disappointing.
Apple Could Become More Valuable than Microsoft
Um, right… But thanks anyway, Murdza.
Excerpt from this article:
Cody Willard is the manager of a hedge fund and the author of the Telecom Connection, an investment newsletter. He is also a headliner on TheStreet.com, writes for Razor Magazine, VON Magazine and the Financial Times, is a frequent featured guest on CNBC and has been quoted in many publications, including the New York Post and the Hollywood Reporter.
Willard writes for TheStreet.com, “with Apple having blown by Oracle in market cap already, I wonder how much longer before it catches Cisco. Then Intel. Then Microsoft? Let me go ahead and be the one to throw it out there first: I wouldn’t be shocked to see Apple more valuable than Microsoft sometime in 2007. What a mind-blowing thing to think to ponder.”
“Apple’s market cap has gone from $6 billion to $60 billion in the past two and a half years. Can it keep running? If the company delivers the growth it looks like it will: heck yes it can keep running. I’m sticking with it, although I have trimmed the exposure in the past few weeks, as I’ve noted on the site.”
Some stats according to MacDaily News:
Apple’s market value is currently $59,888,758,930, thanks to recent profit-taking. Dell’s, for one example we’re keeping a very close eye on in relation to Apple for obvious reasons, is currently $78,182,273,298. Microsoft’s current market value stands at $287,850,410,220.
Underdogs can always dream of being the top dog.
Coupons for Loyalty
Ever since I started to notice Bath & Body Works’ lack of refill programs on foaming soaps, I started looking at alternative companies that DO make refills for foaming soap bottles. Dial and Johnson+Johnson happen to make them.
So I wrote Dial to compliment them for doing the right thing (on that one product anyway). By hearing from consumers like me, however few of us there are), I was hoping they’d continue down that path with future products.
A few days later, I received a thank-you letter from Dial along with discount coupons on the product (and other products) that I specifically wrote them about. Very thoughtful and considerate move considering how big the company is.
So… Bath & Body Works (and companies under the Limited brand… Victoria’s Secret, Express… etc.) is out; Dial and the Johnson family of products are in.
Memory Upgrade
Finally got those 2 sticks of 512MB RAM I ordered from Small Dog Electronics in Vermont. I have had my PowerBook for over three years and it’s worked flawlessly (can’t say that about a 3-year-old PC running Windows). But ever since the upgrade to Mac OSX Tiger, it’s been a bit sluggish running a few “big” apps simultaneously.
Having more memory is a beautiful thing.
“I” want a memory upgrade.