How to make an ipod stand out of a business card

I was enjoying my lunch today and decided to catch up on a video podcast of some short Dilbert animations when I realized that holding up my ipod touch required an unreasonable amount of effort. I needed a way to balance the device at the correct angle so that I could just sit, enjoy eating, and not have to hold anything.

I decided to engineer a solution out of thin air. I took a business card, made some folds and cuts, and 'Tadahhhh!!!' an ipod touch (or iphone) stand out of a business card. Keep reading for the instructions...


Step 1. Fold a lip on one end of the card. It only has to be wide enough to prevent the device from sliding to the table.
Step 2. Fold what's left of the card in half. This will be the base of the stand. If you were using steel instead of a business card, you could stop now, but as it stands, the ipod is too heavy and squashes the card down. You need supports.

Bell internet now hijacking mistyped domains

I went looking for a domain today for a friend, and as a first check, I simply typed the domain into the address bar. (I changed it for the image grab).

Normally, this would present Firefox's 'Server Not Found' error, OR if formatted like a search, and not a site, then Google would do a 'Feeling lucky' search, thanks to Firefox. Not this time. Because what I typed in 'looked' like a domain name, somewhere in the bowels of my ISP (Bell Internet / Sympatico) they decided to try to HELP me find what I was looking for.


I read about Verizon doing this is the U.S. and actually making money of the ads. There are examples of them hijacking the mistypes for a Yahoo! powered SERP. It's a terrible search result.

So why has Bell followed suit? Money? Brand awareness for those that don't understand what's happening and actually think that it's helping? Who knows, but I don't like it.

Anytime the ISP decides what happens in my browser-- I get nervous. They are the PIPE, and should not try to be smarter. We already know they're shaping traffic, and before today, I just closed my eyes and pretended I didn't know... But now I can't ignore them. Time to start looking for a new ISP--- oh wait, it's them or Rogers. Why hasn't anyone entered this market? (Rhetoric) Why can't some Googley company run some fibre to the curb and give me an internet I deserve! Arrrgh.

Turns out some other nerds like me figured this out a week ago...

How Rogers can improve their company

I was originally going to title this post much more harshly, using some very descriptive and emotional adjectives, but I decided against it, hoping that maybe Rogers has some social media monitoring in place, and they will ultimately pick this up and want to actually solve a problem and make a customer happy.

Yes, my problem with Rogers stems back to my original beef with RIM and their Blackberry, and the same problems I was getting before. RIM's solution was to send me back to the 'store' where I bought my blackberry. Yes, because people who work in the retail stores for Rogers are incredibly skilled and have amazing and unlimited resources to solve highly technical problems.

No, today's post concerns simple customer service design. Specifically 'Live Chat'. I'm sitting here with another JVM error, pissed at RIM, Rogers, and the world, and the Rogers Website has duped me again into thinking they care. I go to the Rogers website, hunt around in the FAQ a little bit, and decide to try the live chat to see if someone working at Rogers has heard of this kind of problem, and can recommend a solution.I fill out the form, which by the way has an EULA a mile long? Why is this? Because they use the same live chat for Mobile, Internet, Cable, etc most likely, they may need to take over my system, take screen shots, etc "to solve my problem". Well great-- except my problem is with a mobile device, and I don't have the option of NOT agreeing to the EULA.
So then, I get one more warning, telling me that now that I've agreed to everything, Rogers technical support may look at my system, etc, and I have to AGREE again with a big button to connect me to live support (Picture above). This is where my blood boils. After all that, Rogers has the balls to tell me the "shop's not open". Sorry, no live support on Sunday. HELLO? This information would have been extremely helpful 15 minutes ago when I started your process, and BEFORE I agreed to all kinds of useless things in your EULA and BEFORE I gave you my phone number and email address, and BEFORE I thought you cared in the least for your customers.



Honestly. Just put this graphic up when someone clicks live chat when the service is unavailable. Don't wait until the end of the process, because now I'm angry about my original problem AND I'm thinking you have no idea how to design an experience flow. Do you not want my business? Am I too much for you because I actually demand a quality product, with quality service?

Rogers Wireless-- I seriously hope you're listening. I hope Nadir Mohamed, new CEO of Rogers, has spent some effort communicating the value of customer service in this world of digital soap-boxes and Consumerist-reading customers.