martinopia « martinopia.com

February 20, 2009

The search challenge

Filed under: Netzwelt — Tags: Search, Semantic Web — martinopia @ 11:09 pm

As some of the readers of this blog know I am also working on projects in the field of search and semantic search. So I eagerly had a look at the Miiget project for a new people search engine.

As one can see in the query above also very sophisticated solutions have their limits: the query for GÃ¼nther Beckstein, former Minister-President of Bavaria in Germany, is linked to Adolf Hitler. I’m sure that’s not what was intended.
But besides limitations like that the Miiget project is pretty impressive.

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February 4, 2009

Advertising on Google Main Page

Filed under: Netzwelt — Tags: Search — martinopia @ 6:49 pm

Google seems to say goodbye to its longterm strategy of clear and clean startpages. I don’t like that at all and I am using more and more the very clean interface of Yahoo! Search (not the Yahoo! Portal site – the clean search part). On the Mac there is even a very cool toolbar add on: Inquisitor

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January 21, 2009

Good luck, Mr. President!

Filed under: Weltenlauf — Tags: Politics — martinopia @ 8:14 pm

The US has a new president and it’s part of democracy to wish a new leader good luck and enthusiasm to do a great job – espescially in these difficult times. Let’s hope Obama will deliver what he promised.

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November 19, 2008

When simple things become a luxury – let’s build some toilets!

Filed under: Weltenlauf — martinopia @ 2:31 pm

Flush toilets have become such a standard part of our lifes that we cannot even imagine that the majority of the world population does not have access to even modest sanitation facilities.

The first time I became really aware of that fact was when I read Kishore Mahbubanis new book where he mentioned in a side note that the moment of the arrival of a flush toilet was “the date when his life entered the modern world”.

Today is World Toilet Day 2008 – so let’s help bringing some dignity to the life of thousands by helping the World Toilet Organization installing some flush toilets around the world. Just click HERE to open the donation form..

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September 17, 2008

Let’s improve our iPhones: vote now

Filed under: Gadgets — Tags: Apple, iPhone — martinopia @ 9:03 am

If you like your iPhone as well but the autocorrection makes you feel crazy as it does to me then it’s time to act now: sign the disable-the-autocorrection-online-petition.

Perhaps the swiss way of solving problems by democracy helps making the iPhone an even better device – without autocorrection 😉

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August 12, 2008

Customer service experiences in one day: Swisscom top – Cablecom flop

Filed under: Uncategorized — martinopia @ 4:09 pm

Today I seem to have been in contact with customer service reps from two planets: After one hour of normal working on my PC with internet connection suddenly my Internet connection by Cablecom was broken. As always in situations like that I disconnected both – the cablemodem and my Zyxel router from the power suppy for around one minute and reconnected then.. well for this time that did not help, so I contacted Cablecom on their help line. After a music listening happening of more than 20 minutes the phone was finally picked up by a Cablecom employee who of course wanted to disconnect and reconnect the cablemodem.. 😉 Well, after some time he found out that my cablemodem was “not active”.. the reason for that: they sent me a new cablemodem today. And because of some “optimizations in their processes” they had to disactivate my old (and still working) cablemodem in the moment when they sent out the new one. Knowing exactly that so I will have no internet access till the new cablemodem arrives. The sales rep even gave me a tracking number for that parcel – but that tracking number seems to be incorrect or the modem was never sent out – at least the Swiss Post which is supposed to be in charge for delivering the parcel does not know about that number.

After having asked if there is no alternative to get internet access till I get the new modem – e.g. by reactivating the old modem and waiting for one week with activating the new one – I was told that was not possible. Also my sorrows that I’m unable to work without internet connection just did not interest Cablecom at all. They sent out a new cablemodem which is active – so there is no reason for them to act in any further form to help their customers.. hmm.. I was pretty upset, but what should one do.. I needed a solution..

So I went to Swisscom to buy an Internet Unlimited USB card to access the internet by UMTS. Within less then 20 minutes I had a new mobile contract with such a UMTS/GPRS/Edge-card to access the internet anywhere I am for really cheap prices (I couldn’t believe how cheap mobile internet has become in Switzerland). But even better – when I was in the Swisscom shop I asked for my reserved iPhone which they managed that I got my new iPhone today – although I was not on top of the waiting list – but more about that in an upcoming post.

Being back on my PC I wanted to install my new Mobile USB card – which did not work (I got a connection error). So I had a kind of dÃÂ©ja-vu regarding not working internet connections on the same day but still contacted the helpline, for this time the one of Swisscom. After less than 2 minutes I was talking to a help agent who could not solve the problem immediately. So another after one more minute of music I was talking to a *real* competent tech supporter who checked all possible options. After he did not recognize the problem at first sight he proposed to check internally and to call back later. Well – to be honest, after my Cablecom experience I was already planning to pass my day drinking Starbucks coffees and using their WLAN… but how wrong I was – less then two hours later I got a call back and my connection was and is working.. That is customer service how it should be..

So let’s see how long I have to work on that Mobile solution because of Cablecoms incompentence..

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July 24, 2008

Obama mass hysteria in Europe

Filed under: Weltenlauf — Tags: Politics — martinopia @ 8:47 pm

These days catch phrases like “yes, we can” or “hope” of Obamas 08 campaign seem to let so-called liberal Europeans forget about what it’s all about. Why bother with critical distance and evaluating what would be the best next US president from a European point of view – when the world can be that easy: the good guy = Obama vs the bad guy = Bush/McCain. Most of all those “yes, we can” singing german students cheering their new pop star Obama just ignore the fact that John McCain differs from Mr Bush as Mr Obama differs from Bill Clinton. The real question – which choice would be the best for the US and Europe in particular or if Obama could deliver, as the Economist asked some weeks ago – seems not to interest anybody.

I just don’t see what makes all these people so sure that Obama could deliver. Who would handle a new wave of terror best, who will strengthen the US economy again, who will stabilize the US dollar – all these questions are essential for the prosperity of Europe in the next years – but besides “hope” and “yes, we can” I have not heard many answers to the cheering masses from Mr. Obama. I don’t say he can’t but there is still a lot of work to the deliver clear answers why Mr Obama would be the better choice.

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Apple Mobile Me support: it’s even worse than I thought

Filed under: Netzwelt — martinopia @ 6:46 am

After some days of response time today I got an “answer” from Apple regarding my account paymant problem:

They just sent me the same two links to two non-related FAQ entries than they showed me automatically before I could fill in the contact form on the support sites. Obviously they did not even read what my problem was about (that I entered my new credit card information twice but that this information simply does not find the way in the Apple systems).

Apple – you build great computers, you brought us the iPod, you brougth style in our digital lifestyle – but please hire some smart web developers really able to build and run services like Mobile Me. It’s so annoying for customers having to contact you 10 times to reslove a simple problem!

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July 22, 2008

Mobile Me service desaster

Filed under: Netzwelt — martinopia @ 12:25 pm

As a long-time .mac-User I was never really happy with the range of functionality Apple offered to its .mac-customers. Imho – compared to Yahoo, Google or any other local provider – the price for Apples service was always too high and there were always too much functions missing. But still – I used my private .mac-Email for quite some time and the service was more or less working.

Some weeks ago I gotÃ an email by Apple that they plan to convert all .mac accounts to their new Mobile Me service – with more functions and a totally redesigned web client for my emails. Considering the fact that I still hope to get one of these new 3G iPhones as soon as Swisscom is ready again to deliver, I was especially pleased about the tight integration with Apples phone platform. So that was nice news and we old customers even got an additional “me.com”-mail address..

So the day came and Apple switched the .mac platform to the Mobile Me platform. The mail did not work anymore for hours.. well, it’s my private mail, so I was not that worried about it and knowing that it’s not a 2-man-company but Apple taking care of the service, I was pretty sure, that some hours later everything will shine again. But one day later – still no access to my mail (maybe that theoretically in the meantime it would have been possible to login, but actually I’m not hitting my reload button every 30seconds). So I decided to contact the Apple SupportÃ (phone 0848 000 132 in Switzerland). After some nice but pretty long music I was told that they have no idea about what’s going on with the Mobile Me platform and that Mobile Me is supported only by email – which is pretty interesting to support a non-functional email service by providing support only by email. Well happy enough I contacted them with my Yahoo hosted martinopia.com mail address (which is also my contact address for administration purposes by Apple)… and some hours later I even got an email.. that my credit card was expired and they could not charge for the service.

Well that’s customer oriented! Loyal as I am I immediatly updated my credit card information online (all but the mail service worked) – obviously without success. In the meantime I got a standard email sent to all customers that some 1% of the customers are temporarily experiencing some problems with their mail and will get some 30days extra for free but the problem was finally sorted out. Indeed the mail worked again and I was confident that the Apple world is fine again…

Till this morning – no mail access. In my account they still complain about a non working credit card.. so I called again the support to check if there was a problem with my account because of the missing credit card information.. they told my that they “understand my problem” but that I have to contact them by email (which I did twice without any personal response).

I really can’t understand why Apple launched such an unstable product. If it doesn’t work stable why not switch back the old customers to the old – but working – platform? Why pushing advertimsnts with “Exchange for the rest of us”? Obviously “Exchange for the rest of us” means “no mail at all”.. perhaps that’s the real vision behind all that hassle? A real power user don’t use mail at all…

Till this vision will become reality I would strongly suggest to avoid Mobile Me for new customers till Apple really takes care about both – customer service and service level quality.

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