“Your friendship is a sweet pear, Through the year; and each New Year !! ” By – Dimple Verma

2011 has been a year of change and hardship around the world. From natural disasters to the world’s financial instabilities to regime changes, it has been a whirlwind year for us all.

Change is inevitable in life and hopefully, that change gives us new perspectives on the world at large and our own individual worlds.

Certainly, for me, dealing with a stroke near the end of 2011 gave me a new, and definitely unexpected, perspective on my life! I am slowly recovering – one hand/finger typing is not easy.

As we move forward into 2012 I hope that we can all contribute to bettering our lives and making the lives of those around us just a little bit better.

“On this new year, be someone you yourself can admire; ”
By – Pearl Aman

We all have a great deal of work to do to make this world a little better so begin the New Year of 2012 by looking around you and see what you can do to accomplish this – for yourself, your family, your friends, your community, your nation and the world, in that order!

One of the easiest things to accomplish is giving some one a smile – you would be surprised what a smile can do. It costs you nothing but the return can be great!

“Drop the last year into the silent limbo of the past. Let it go, for it was imperfect, and thank God that it can go.” – Brooks Atkinson

I don’t mean to make lite of the world’s or our individual, problems but change starts with one person believing in something. I have always felt that the way to a better world is to allow people, not governments, to solve problems, for we the people know what will make our lives better. Government is too far removed from the ills of this world and only concerned with perpetuating and growing itself!

One person can change the world around them. All have to do is ‘believe’!

“Do hard work In the time span between new year’s eve and Christmas rather than worrying about your life between Christmas and New year’s eve!!. Cheers to 2012!!” By – Pearl Aman

Want to increase your personal productivity in 2012? Check out this story – http://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/7-steps-to-incredible-personal-productivity.html

My color blindness is a fairly recent problem so I am still dealing with the what, why and how. Likely it’s due to being a diabetic and admittedly, it’s a scary proposition.

So many web sites these days are going for splash, zip and who knows what else. They are designing for their web masters egos not their visitors or readers experiences. While there are those to whom all this flash appeals, most of us just want the information we are searching for. We want it presented in an easy and readable format.

Here are three mistakes I see being made?

1. Many sites are going for very pale color pallets which are a real problem for
me. Everything just sort of ‘fades’ into every thing else.

2. There are sites using proven problem color pallets such as blue letters on a black background. This ‘technique’ has been around for a very long time – well before my diagnosis. While yellow or red letters on black seem to work somewhat better, I am still not a fan of these pallets. Some actually seem to hurt your eyes.

3. I recently received an email newsletter that had a blue background with blue letters. The letters simply faded into the background. Not really readable. Another had a blue background with gray letters – again, not easily viewable.

There may well be sites where all the flash and fizz is enjoyable, such as a movie site but even there it is not appealing to me.

I really and truly believe in black letters on a white background for dispensing the crucial information a web master wants me to know. Logos, headers, etc. aside. as I don’t pay much attention to those particular items.

Web masters need to realize these challenges exist. They should be consulting with folks to minimize them, if they choose to design with other than the usual color pallets. You also need to remember that there may be several types of color blindness your readers may be dealing with. Color vision deficiencies come in varying types and degrees.

On my sites I pretty much try to go for true black on white colors. If I can read something it should pretty much be readable by all.

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This article was prompted by an email exchange with my local library when they sent me an announcement. I had a rough time reading due to the colors used – blue letters on a black background. Article ideas can come from anywhere. This article reprinted by permission of the author.
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Here are some web sites that may provide you a few more insights into dealing with colors for sites that will be viewed by people with variying types of color blindness.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb263953%28v=vs.85%29.aspx Can Color-Blind Users See Your Site?

http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/life/human-biology/colorblindness1.htm

http://colorvisiontesting.com/

I feel and hear in the world every day. There’s too much of it…”! from the movie

‘The Green Mile’.

Me to, John, me to!

Or at least I tried to.

While interfacing with their shopping cart I had constant problems. Eventually I gave up in frustration and exited their website giving the product no more thought.

The following day I logged into my bank account looking for some information and was surprised to see a charge from the website I had been trying to purchase from. In point of fact, there were multiple charges from that website! Their shopping cart had apparently gone a bit crazy, never notifying  me I had completed a purchase.

I immediately contacted the vendor, explained the situation and asked for help. Eventually, after several emails and being made to feel this was my fault, the charges were reversed and the money returned to my account. Except…

Several days later I noticed one charge still in my account. So I contacted the vendor again. I was told in no uncertain terms that according to the terms of the agreement – what agreement? – this charge - for a free trial? – was non-refundable!

Now since I never received anything (no product, no service, no followup, no receipt, no nuthin’) from the site, I was being charged for not buying or receiving anything! Interesting business model, to say the least.

“We are sorry that we never noticed your purchase was never completed”, they said, after I contacted them again! I had told them initially I never received anything from them but It seems they forgot that little mention!

I fully realize that technology can screw up, but when the situation is explained and the customer made to feel the screwup is their fault, you have lost them as a future customer no matter how good your product or service may be!

I’ve seen many photos and videos of activities on the space station but for some reason I was really struck by the clothing the crews were wearing when the STS135 folks boarded the space station. by the casual nature of what they were wearing. I’ve seen this before but this time it ‘registered’ differently in my mind.

STS135 Crew Boards The Space Station

Except for the weightlessness, it was as if friends or family were just coming to your house for a backyard barbecue or a swim or to watch your vacation movies or…

I thought, ‘maybe that is why we have such a laize faire attitude regarding space exploration’. It seems so ‘ordinary’.

At my age I can only vicariously experience space exploration, knowing I will never realize my dream of exploring our magnificent universe (I think I believe in reincarnation so maybe in my next life)

I guess that’s why I so enjoy space operas. They give me a view of a life I will never know but maybe my grandson will as he grows up.

I believe in the space station and the science performed there. I also believe there is a place in space for robotic exploration as well as for manned flights, I also believe man is destined to continue our search of the frontiers of space. It is part of our nature.

I know, space exploration is an expensive, and often dangerous, enterprise. And we have a myriad of ‘costly’ problems that need to be solved on this little Blue Gem we call home.

I pray that we don’t abandon this frontier. That we develop more engineers and scientist with a view to space and the exploration there of.

The Jedi’s Grandpa

From the crew of STS135: “The Journey Continues…” – Hopefully

It is the day we honor the Birthday of this United States of America as well as the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.

Happy Fourth of July 2011

While this has become a day for picnics, family celebrations, great fireworks displays (hopefully) and also time off work – four day holiday, yeah – we need to take time to the remember sacrifices it took over the decades to form this Great Country. And those sacrifices that continue to be made to keep what we have built!

This is a country where the individual decides his own destiny, something much of the worlds peoples want for themselves.

I believe in this country, that it was formed to show the world what is possible if people just want it bad enough.

No we are not perfect but we evolve in the struggle to attain perfection. I don’t want perfection, for perfection means there is nothing else left, but I want to us continue to strive for that perfection!

Take some time this weekend to read some of the words in our Founding Documents – there is a great deal of wisdom there.

Health warnings aside I like a good hamburger or hot dog or… once in a while!

I recall the first time I had take out from In-N-Out Burger. They do make a great burger by the way! I set the bag down on the middle bench in my truck and went on my way – Big mistake! Got home and discovered the burger was only half wrapped and had leaked through the bag.

I contacted In-N-Out Burger, explained the situation to them and asked the question; “why not a full wrap”?. Long story short, they were happy to send me a couple coupons as a thank you for writing, but they were not changing their practices.

Result: I do only ‘eat-in’ at their sites; no more take out. Carl’s Jr. also does a half wrap but then they put a full wrap on their burger – so no leaks!

Another problem is the way some places pack their take out burgers. Instead of setting them flat in the bag they place them on their side. What this means is by the time you get home the ingredients all shift/fall down into a big, gloppy pile instead of remaining in a nice flat gloppy pile!

Both the above firms do the side ways thing, as well do many others. I know, it’s likely saving them money on the bag space – using smaller bags.

A while back I noticed some fast food places were asking how much creamer I wanted in my coffee. That irritated me. As an adult I am perfectly capable of creaming my own coffee. This was/is another ‘cost saving’ measure I am sure – making sure those little half-n-half containers weren’t wasted but…

These are not major issues but they point out that most firms are not interested in changing their practices, even when problems are pointed out to them. Customer Service means going that extra mile in relation to your customers and listening when they talk to you.

They know folks don’t really care how they are treated or more likely, won’t be interested enough to call them on things like this.

Why Does Customer Service Suck?

http://youtu.be/8SyJTJfqhWM

I believe in Customer Service, in treating the customer as you would be treated – sort of a modified ‘Golden Rule‘!

The last fourteen years of my working existence were spent with UCSC and everything I did was with Customer Service in mind. No matter what my working title was at UCSC – or for that matter at Fairchild; Ampex; Digital Equipment; Xerox; or… – it always meant serving my customer, whether internal or external.

Recently I had issues with my DSL service going away. In dealing with this I was shunted from one person to another, each one giving me a different story.

It took two weeks to get my service back and at this point I still do not have an explanation as to why I was disconnected in the first place!

Oh, during this time my phone service also went away – one minute dial tone, the next no dial tone! With the company trying to put the blame on me for using a digital phone set!

News Flash: Same problem with an analog set We are now into the second month of this yo yo service. I have finally ignored local and gone to Corporate to solve this.

Bad Customer Service and Mr. Bean

When a customer service issue came to me at UCSC, and at any other of my employers over the years, I followed it through to resolution, even if I was not the arbiter of that resolution. I owned the problem all the way to the end making sure the customer was satisfied!

And though the problem was not always settled in a manner the customer would have liked – customers were not always right, they knew they received the best attention they could have hoped for. I also tried to give them resources they could use to try for more satisfaction.

Today companies, like government, are getting way to big - can you say Monopoly? They no longer care about the individual and problems being foisted upon them.

Having my father pass away at a very early age, there is much I couldn’t learn from him. At the time of his passing, an uncle tried to step in and provide guidance to my brother and I. He was a good man,

Unfortunately, he also passed shortly thereafter, giving my brother and I sort of double shock.

So mom picked up the pieces and did the best she could with the circumstances given her.

And she did very well – we turned out pretty good! Still I wish we could have gotten to know dad better.

So relish the time you have with your dad and other loved ones, for you never know when they will have finished their work and depart.

* A Very Happy Father’s Day To All *

PS: Lost my Internet connection so didn’t post till Monday