Phishing for numbers

Please sign-in by entering the grid numbers corresponding to your previously selected pattern (and indicate which site you believe you are signing in to. Not that we don't ourselves know, we're just testing you)

Contextual reputation metrics

I received an invite to connect from a friend - this time from TripIt - the online travel organizer (which I love).

Presumably to encourage me to accept, the invite includes the phrase

X has traveled 31,102 km to 9 locations

Well that's good, cuz there is absolutely no way I would friend-up with anybody below the 30k threshold.

Vertical networks like TripIt of course have an advantage over horizontal networks in being able to offer such metrics  - all they have to offer is # connections.

 

I swear this was not a set-up

Eve's insight notwithstanding, I've seen no better application of Venn than this from my 7 yr-old daughter

Just think what she could have accomplished with some saran wrap....

Worth a try right?

Open letter to my (lazy ass) neighbours

Dear neighbour, 


Hey no, let me pick that litter up for you. Yes I know it fell out from the garbage cans you placed at the bottom of your driveway 2 days ago and is technically still on your driveway but, still, let me get it. I know you are far too busy being important for such matters - I'm more than happy to help.

Pardon me, what's that? Toilet paper? Sure, here it is. Can I help you with that too?

Sincerely yours

Paul

p.s. I have my dog pee on your lawn.

Sensing a meme

Just in the last few days, I've noticed two different ad campaigns (one for a coffee, another for a travel broker) that go something like this

'In these tough times, we decided not to spend money on a glitzy and expensive ad. Instead we made this cheap ad and used the money to do X '

where X is something altruistic or green.

It would seem that marketing research shows that the recently laid off find ostentatious and frivolous commercials offensive - go figure.

I can see an IdP trying it

'In these tough times, we decided not to spend money on an expensive identity proofing process.....'

Drinks, keys, and computers

It seems a safe time for me to report that my MyVidoop image grid categories were drinks, keys/locks, and computers. K, B, and E in the below.

You might have even already guessed that (I'd guess I wasn't unique in the industry to make those choices)

 

 

Hmm, online access .... Now there's a thought

Hartford Canada does not give individual investors online access to their accounts.

I played the 'user-centric card' in my complaint

Can you please explain why I am not given online access to my account? Is it that Hartford believes I am insufficiently intelligent or financially educated to understand the numbers? Must my advisor interpret them for me?

Their response

Thank you for your inquiry regarding online access for investors.

We are in the process of building our online presence and are investigating
how we can enhance our site to make it more useful to investors. Online
account access is one of several enhancements we are investigating

Well yes, allowing access is definitely one option for making the site more useful. Perhaps deprecate the flashing text and animated gifs as well?

I hope the fund managers show more insight and vision that does the Hartford CIO.

My technical analysis is showing a strong sell signal.