Google’s Gmail is renown for its incredibly intuitive spam filter, that never seems to snag your personal mail and keep your inbox free of bologna.
Well they’ve adaptated that system for detecting important emails. This cute video shows you how.
Thanks for the find Dave Lane.
I know this came out ages ago, but I only just discovered it and I thought it was fun.
I guess United was trying to counter David Carroll’s United Breaks Guitars.
As many have you read in my previous post Tractors on the Highway I had a windshield with two minor nicks and one real bad crack.
My father, who works in the glass industry, recommended Apple Auto Glass on Topsail Rd. Now I’m recommending them to you.
There service was great and they had my vehicle road-worthy in only a couple of hours.
To top it off, they left me with a nice little Apple air freshener for my car as well as an Apple notepad. Such a small gesture made me feel appreciated and like I came out on the winning side of that deal.
And the worksmenship was flawless. I couldn’t even tell it wasn’t my old windshield.
When I got to my car, however, there was a gift left on my windshield from some of my sea gull friends in the area. Not as new and pristine as I was hoping for, but I can hardly blame Apple for that.
I have always had a little pet peeve when it comes to tractors on the highway. I’m mostly referring to front-loaders* and dump trucks, because I pass them every day.
Yesterday while driving to work I was coming up on a dump truck. Not wanting to drive behind because of previous bad experiences (a rock flew up and cracked my windshield on two separate occasions) I began to over take him.
Then I heard a sound I could only describe as a meteor bursting through my car.
It was a rock. And it came from under the dump truck.
Note: This isn't my windshield. I brought my car in to be fixed before I could take a picture.
That’s 3 cracks on my windshield from rocks on the ground that fly up as dump trucks run over them.
The first couple of cracks I chalked up to bad luck. Now I’m really considering how often this must happen to other drivers.
There must be a lot of windshield cracks out there from this same effect.
In fact, I asked my insurance broker out of curiousity if this is a regular claim.
“You wouldn’t even believe how many claims we get.”
Why hasn’t anyone acted to correct this?! Insurance companies are spending a fortune and it’s creating major headache for you and me. Not to mention the safety ramifications of flying rocks while driving.
Obviously the government cannot ban these vehicles from the highway, but surely something can be done to prevent these problems from happening in the future.
This is dangerous. I am a composed driver, but if my mother was behind the wheel when that rock his my car there would have been panic. There could have been an accident on the highway yesterday. The kind that could be avoided.
Perhaps regulating better mud flaps to deflect rogue stones. Perhaps limiting the speed of these trucks to a speed that will not catapult rocks as they drive over them.
Alternatively I could stop using the highway and take a route that takes four times longer but why should I have to drive the long and painful route?
What can we do to fix this problem?
* It came to my attention yesterday that front-loaders, which are always driving along the shoulder of the highway, may not be driving legally (someone told me a vehicle must be able to reach the speed limit to be allowed to use that roadway. Not sure how best to verify this) and that they have to be loaded on a flat-bed truck to be carried on the highway. Consequently when these tractors are givin’er on the shoulder of the road, they are pushing loose stones out on to the highway.
Google has been quick to learn that people either check their email frequently or leave it open all day. So why create a separate website for each application they build when they can make it accessible in people’s email.
And that’s what they did when they developed a phone calling application.
From the convenience of Gmail you an can click a link located in your Chat dialog that will open the dialer to the right.
The rates a cheap but calls within North America are free until the end of 2010.
I tested this out. It ain’t bad.
Unless I get a bill for $0.20. Haha.
Creating GregPike.ca has been a trying and melancholic experience for me. When Columbia Pictures heard my story, they promptly dropped The Social Network story about Mark Zuckerberg and drafted a new story about me.
Here is the trailer for the upcoming movie about GregPike.ca
Written and Produced by GregPike.ca
Shot, Directed, and Edited by Phil Hogan
Starring…
Greg Pike.ca as GregPike.ca
Nicole Kieley
Ashley Kieley
Kevin Noseworthy
Phil Hogan
Mark Denine
Christopher “Grubbie” Penney
Mark “Magic Man” Webber as JT
Nerissa James
Also featuring…
Jennifer Dawson
Megan Murphy
Vanessa Linehan
The smokers at Gushue Hall
And special thanks to Denine for throwing an impromptu party for a couple quick shots.
The recent surge in 3-D movies has had somewhat of a polarizing effect on movie-goers. Many think it is the next step in the movie-watching experience and feel that every movie should (and will be) 3-D. Others find it annoying and view it a nothing more an a gimmicky fad that will peak then quickly die off…..kind of the same way 3-D movies did back in the late 70s/early 80s. 3D is a fine enough fixture for SOME movies, provided it plays up that angle with the audience. Otherwise why the heck would it need to be in 3D? Piranha seems to have been made people that feel the same way, as this is a movie 100% made for 3D fans.
Piranha isn’t so much a movie as it is a piece 3D entertainment. It’s heavily reliant on the constant bombardment of various things flying out of the screen at the viewer. But here’s the problem: It wasn’t in 3D. Not really. While the screen was blurry without the glasses on and clear as a bell with them, the vast majority of the time the full 3D effect wasn’t there. Things flew towards the screen, but rarely ‘out of’ the screen. Several scenes passed, with shots clearly intended to capitalize on the 3D effect, with no result. If it hadn’t been for the 6 or 7 actual 3D imagines that somehow sneaked into the movie I would have assumed a defective pair of glasses or some newly developed eye condition were to blame. It was so confusing that I had to confirm with other people in the theater after the movie was over, all of whom agreed things that seemed intended to be 3D simply weren’t.
Regardless of the reasoning, Piranha 3D certainly suffers with the 3D removed. The movie is so heavily focused on the 3D-based gags of having stuff fly out of the screen or zip right by the viewers face that there isn’t really much effort put into the story…or the dialogue….or the acting. So when that element of the movie is removed it all basically falls apart. Its a movie centered around a fun gimmick, which is fine and the basic attraction to the movie to begin with, but without that crutch it really isn’t even watchable.
The acting doesn’t keep the movie afloat either, no pun intended…okay, maybe a little intended. Jerry O’Connell does a pretty good job as the cocky idiot character, which is right in his wheel-house, and even manages to pull a few laughs out of a scrip that was clearly (and probably rightfully so) focused more on the ‘gag’ side of things as opposed to actual dialogue. Elizabeth Shue does a decent job and Ving Rhames adequately plays the one character he plays in every movie he’s in. Adam Scott ( probably best known as the arrogant brother of Will Ferrell in Step Brothers) actually comes across as someone that could be a decent addition in an action movie, doing a nice job with the very limited role he’s given. After this however, the acting quality really drops off.
The young ‘lead’ character of Jake Forester is played by Steven R. McQueen, who has about as much charm and charisma as a glass of milk. Skim milk at that. The object of Jake’s affection , Kelly, is played by Jessica Szohr, who is equally bad. From here the remaining cast is filled out by a model turn-actor, a porn-star, and 2 horrible child actors. There are some pretty cool cameos in movie, but again, without the distracting influence of that longed-for 3D effect, these cameos just serve as reminds of what actual actors are like in movies.
It is totally unfair to judge a movie like Piranha 3D viewed in anything but 3D. It is not a movie that is simply cooler with it, but rather totally and completely depended upon and tailor made for it. And the movie certainly appeared as though it would have been extremely fun had that 3rd dimension in viewing been there. A lot of fun. But whether it is due to a failure in the production of the movie or some type of malfunction with the projectors of the theater the movie’s 3D capabilities were seriously flawed, leaving Piranha as little more than a bad, but not horrible movie that goes a bit over the top with the surplus of gore and nudity ( yeah, who would have thought that was actually even possible?).
4.5 out of 10
(with potential to be a 7 out of 10 if viewed properly)
Andy Porter
This video says a lot of incredibly interesting stuff about what motivates employees in the workplace. The conclusions it draws are not necessarily what you would expect, particularly when it comes to monetary rewards.
Here are some of the key elements I took away from this talk.
Money incentives work well to promote great behavior when the actions are purely motor-driven. That is jobs like hammering nails or cleaning hospital rooms.Social media and blogging have made good customer service imperative in ways that many business owners still don’t understand.
I have not done near enough articles on customers service, good or bad, since starting my blog, but of the businesses I’ve covered check out how well my blog ranks on Google.
Google Search: Kilmory Resort
Google Search: Marble Zip Tours
Google Search: Jungle Jims George St.
Google Search: Vogue Optical
This shows the importance of offering good service. I am just one person. Imagine all the comments on Facebook and tweets on Twitter. And blogs posts that are buried through all these Google results.
So listen up businesses! Do a good job on customer service and your customers will advocate on your behalf.
Poor service is inevitable and I am sure most of your customers understand that, but how you manage that service once it has been reported will be the difference between a customer’s good experience and a customer’s bad experience.
And customers love to chat about bad experience.
Back in 2008 while promoting “Live Free or Die Hard” a rather rude interviewer asked Bruce Willis if he felt it was a bit silly that actors such as himself and 80s-action icons were back doing action movies now that they were ‘advancing in age’. Willis, who is known for being one of the smoothest and coolest actors around, just grinned at the guy and in a very dismissive fashion stated : “if these newer guys could do it right we wouldn’t have to come back and show ‘em how its really done”. Like everything in life, if you want something done right, you get the right people for the job. And when it comes to actions movies, there are few people better suited for that job that Sylvester Stallone.
Stallone brings action back to its glorious 80s roots in The Expendables. This movie is the definition of ‘action-packed’. The explosions are massive and frequent, the guns are over-sized and loud, and the body count is too numerous to tally. Continuing along the action-movie check-list, there are plenty of great, cheesy lines, delivered perfectly with tongue planted firmly in check. Some occasional miss the mark giving a real ‘groan’ moment but it really is a situation where the good far out weighs the bad.
The collection of actors in this movie reads like a who’s who in the action movie catalog. Starting with Stallone and Jason Statham as the lead duo of the Expendable group. The back and forth between Stallone’s Barney Ross character and Statham’s Lee Christmas really powers the movie whenever things aren’t blowing up. Classic action stars like Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren are paired with relatively new additions to the action genre such as Terry Crews, wrestler-turned actor (Steve Austin), and a MMA legend turn-actor (Randy Couture) making the movie more than adequately set for the action side of things.
Aside from the obivous action requirment, the cast all do a good jobs in their respective roles. In particular Li is used well for a bit of comedic relief when he isn’t moving at near mach speed in some crazy action sequence. Micky Rouke is thrown in not so much for his action cv but rather simply because the guy can act. He’s the perfect fit as the the character ‘Tool’, who’s basically the Bosley-type character that brokers the various contracts out to The Expendables. Eric Roberts does a good job in the bad-guy role of James Munroe, making the character so cocky and dislikeable that you find yourself fighting the urge to get up and punch the screen whenever his face is displayed. Cameo’s by action legends Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger are just icing on the cake.
The fighting scenes deserve special mention. While there is plenty of top-notch explosions and cool looking vechicals and guns, the fighting in this movie is what puts it over the top. Ever fight scene is perfectly done, playing to the strength of the actors involved. You want to see Stallone in a knock-down drag-em out fight? Done. Want to see Statham masterfully take on a group of punks and beat the tar out of them will having the same cool expression on his face the whole time? Done. Jet Li kicking someone 80 times in 1 second and flying around like a monkey? Dolph Lundgren as a powerhouse brute? Couture doing MMA moves? Austin brawling? Done. Fans of the violence in some of the more hardcore 80s action movies well appreicate these fights, as some of them are just plain graphic.
The Expendables is 100% as packaged: Great retro action movie entertainment. Action-packed, funny, exciting, and most importantly, fun. Simply put, this is how actions movies are meant to be.
8 out of 10
