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Ukraine War Diary

The world is a tiny place of intimacy that informs a greater expanse of suffering. My new friend, Alexander Grushchansky, lives in Ukraine. Before the war he was a jeweler. Now he fires a machine gun. Alexander is also an NFT Artist who raises money with his Art to help pay for the fight against Putin’s illegal war. Alexander and I became friends through his Art, and we have subsequently stayed in communication via Discord where we have held public conversations about the war, and shared private thoughts about the real meaning of a war on a people. Here is Alexander’s story, in diary form, in his own words, processed through translation software. Embedded video was also uploaded by Alexander for publication. All of this is to set forth to tell the truth about what’s really happening in Ukraine, right here, right now.

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When Google Burps, We Swallow

Yesterday, I was checking out the “new and improved” Google Now feature on my iPhone, and when I pulled up the weather card, I was met with this remarkable temperature:  125 degrees in the light rain in Jersey City at 11:18 in the morning.

What?

Huh!

I quickly checked my other favorite weather site — forecast.io — on my iPad, and learned the actual temperature in Jersey City was a balmy, but humid, 75 degrees with scattered rain.  A 50 degree bogus increase in temperature is a really bad result from a company you pay to trust.

It was a little alarming to see how bluntly and boldly Google Now delivered the absolutely wrong — and dangerous! — temperature.  Sure, mistakes happen, but there was no subsequent notification, or even acknowledgement later, that the 125 degree temperature was a hiccough in the Google world — and that should concern us all.

When Google burps, we all involuntarily swallow.

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The Art of Conditional Pre-Tipping

Getting good service can be a difficult problem in our indecent, modern, world.  One way of guaranteeing good service is to provide a cash tip to the person assisting you.  In restaurants and in service bays where you are well-known, tipping helps get you good service; but what do you do with the incidental worker you may only see one time, like a moving company team, or a repairman?  How can you make sure they’ll get the job done to your satisfaction within your time requirement window?  Conditional Pre-Tipping is one method I use to ensure excellent, one-off, service.

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When Bad Customer Service Stares You in the Face

When a company does you a disservice, they most often if they are a decent company offer an apology and then try to do something to correct the error. When Elizabeth, Chaim Yosef and I were in Florida recently, we encountered a sort of bad customer service that just kept on compounding itself until I had to stare at the offending party and think to myself, “How is it possible that this person was given a job like this?”

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Why I Chose Verizon FiOS over Time-Warner Cable

When I first moved into my apartment in Kew Gardens, I got all of the utilities set up and prepared for the very important step of choosing an internet provider. I then found out that I had exactly one choice for a provider of high speed internet and that was Time Warner. I called them and got the best deal that they had at the time for internet access and television, and signed a two year contract with a guarantee for no increase in price.

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The FCC Serves the Deaf-Blind in the 21st Century

We received terrific news last week from the FCC that they are spending a lot of time and money to guarantee the Deaf-Blind will be included in the current century.

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at&t Exploits the Flock by Marking the Spot

If you have an iPhone, you know the new Verizon advertising push humiliating at&t for their lousy 3G coverage is well-earned and deserved. 
Yesterday, at&t released a fascinating app for the iPhone — Mark the Spot — that lets every iPhone user on their network precisely report problem network areas and spotting cellular coverage.  Thank you, Verizon, for pressing at&t into finally doing the right thing… even if it’s three years too late.

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