So many things happening, so few details shared with the masses. I’m going to be consolodating a number of my ‘online’ things into a few places. Google+, This blog, and my blog at the RASC will hold most everything. Tumblr is a pain, and I’ve got too many accounts etc. to manage. A number get attention, but not all of them, and not all at once.

Let’s see what 2012 brings.

I’m confused. My device is in the list of ‘compatible’ phones – but your downloader says ‘Not available in your Country’ ?

Are you KIDDING me?

Lets get real here folks. If you’ll release a product in the over-litigious US and A, why would you not service the larger HALF of the continent? (*geographically speaking of course)

Grrrrr. I know it’s not a copyright issue, since the iPhone app has been out for a year or more. So what is it?

I presented a look at the new abilities we have as a collective society to share photography with our friends, our families and the world. More than a ‘how-to’ – it was a ‘why aren’t you?’. With the number of tools available just by looking for them, you can for little or no cost share digital images with the world or your parents and children.

The event was held at the Overtime Grill downtown as an ‘early-lunch’ session, with a bunch of presentations held in an informal, and fairly dynamic environment. We were punching up slides, wirelessly mic’d and able to move around the room a bit. Truly a unique experience.

Particularly for this cat – who gets nervous talking to an office full of co-workers.

Speaking to a group of people is one of those things that scares most people. We’ll all attend something like this – but to contribute by presenting a slide deck is a potential well beyond terrifying. But it shouldn’t be. I know full well that when I -do- I can be successful, but getting from “should I…” to “I’m doing” can be a big hurdle. Like, incredible hulk big. Kilimanjaro big. Iceberg big.

So – if you think you can do, but need a push, drive yourself. I took the opportunity because I fear presenting. Only by doing will I ever pass that fear and grow. So – I did it. I’m not perfect, I’m not a presenter by nature, but I am social. This became a room full of friends, and I’m glad they were a part of it.

So – Quexa really was about life for me. Technology life, social life, personal life.

If you are visiting because you attended and want to learn more about the topic I presented on – I’m so honoured. Drop me an email at gscratch@gmail.com (after you leave a comment below!) and I’d be happy to chat with you. Even better, if you are able, a google hangout session is great for face to face over the internet.

David, I appreciate your insistence that I take part. It means the world to me to have these opportunities to share, and to grow. That’s really what Quexa is all about though, isn’t it?

Sign up to learn more about Quexa at www.quexa.ca – perhaps you can take the microphone at the next event!

Shooting time lapse video has been made a piece of cake thanks to the DSLR. Here is a quick how-to on how to shoot time lapse video with your DSLR.

1. Setup

Setting up for the timelapse is a surprisingly complicated affair. No – it’s not difficult in the intellectual sense, but it ceratinly is in the “I better remember to do all of these silly things…” sense.

Anything that can impact exposure through the course of the image (as controlled by the camera of course) needs to be considered. My shortlist when setting the camera up (after placing it on a sturdy tripod that is protected from tripping or a breeze:

• Manually Focus Scene as desired, and switch OFF Autofocus.
• Select the White balace for the scene. Do NOT use ‘auto’ as changes to the scene will cause your colour to shift through the timelapse! Select the option that makes the most sense. Daylight, cloud, indoor etc.
• Ensure that if you have an “Auto power off” function that it is set to longer than your frame interval – or off altogether.
• If you CAN, set your “Display” off so that you aren’t paying battery power to display information when you aren’t watching for the next two hours…
• Last but not least, set your image size and quality to just exceed the maximum for HD quality video. 1080p video is 1920 x 1080 pixels, so for most DSLR’s over 10 megapixels, you can use the lowest JPG quality (as long as it’s bigger), in fine or superfine mode. This should allow over 1250 images minimum on a 2gb card.

2. Exposure Control
Now that you’ve got the camera set up – you’ll need to work over your exposure. Over the course of time, your exposure will be subject to change. Clouds, sunlight, shadow, angle – whatever may move in your scene can impact exposure. You’ve got two choices. Let the camera deal with it – which will provide exposure changes from frame to frame, or go manual.

If you are looking for consistency and ‘natural’ appearance, You are best to expose the scene manually, using the metering as a guide. Shoot a frame, and decide if you want to over or underexpose now, for better exposure later. Check the aperture and shutter settings from your favourite shot, and hop into manual mode, setting the exposure to match.

Take another frame, confirming your choice of white balance. You are going to be babysitting this rig for the next few hours without touching – so make sure you’re happy now.

As a side note – if you are looking at shooting a scene with people, animals, or other moving objects, and you’re shooting 6 or 10 frames a minute (or more) consider using a slow shutter speed to blur the motion in the frames just a tad. It will reduce the jerkiness of frame changes (visually anyway) by adding a ‘blurred’ component.

3. Timing exposures
Video for the desktop is produced in one of two formats:
Digital Video at 30 frames per second, or Cinema at just shy of 24 frames per second.

Knowing what style you want to use for your output video, you now need to determine the intervals of your frames. The more frequent the frames are shot, the less time will elapse over the course of your final movie. If you have an idea of what you want to shoot, and how long you want the resulting video to be follow the math to determine what intervals to follow. (Assume we’re outputting digital video at 30 frames / second.

I’d like to shoot 1.5 hours of sunset and have it last 15 seconds on screen.

15 sec of video = 15 x 30 = 900 frames
1.5 hours = 60x60x1.5 = 5400 seconds
5400 / 900 = 6 seconds

In this case, your sunset will require 6 second intervals between shots, for a total of 900 frames, which at 30 frames a second is 15 seconds of video.

Yes. 900 frames.

Shall we say this again? 900 frames.

Why am I beating this point to death? How many exposures do YOUR batteries last? Have some spares handy.

4. Shooting (Timer / Intervalometer Manual
Now the hard or easy or expensive part. How do you trigger the exposures? At a minimum, you’ll be sitting with a watch, clicking a cable release on your intervals. Some SLR’s have the ‘interval’ feature, though they are few and far between. Most manufacturers of serious DSLR’s (Canon, Nikon, Pentax) offer a higher end cable release (like the Canon TC80-N3) which run for around $200-300. Please note – cheaper asian versions exist. Your mileage with these may vary. Wires on mine broke on the first cold night I used it.

For Canon Powershot and 400D users, the latest firmware hacks add this functionality to the camera along with some other cool features. Again – your mileage may vary, but personally I’m thrilled with the hack on my XTi.

5. Creating video from the stills
For Mac and Windows OS’s there are a number of packages that do this job. For Mac, Quicktime Pro will create a full quality MOV file from raw frames of JPG, at one frame per second. Similarly you can use “iMovie HD” by importing photos with a length of 0:01 (0 Minutes, 1 frame) to a project, and exporting it as DV to your movie editor of choice (if that isn’t iMovie HD).

Windows Movie maker also supports the import of stills at 1 frame per image. You’ll need to be comfortable with your video package, but my quess is – you are or you wouldn’t be looking at this How-To.

Import – edit – do your worst – then, share it!

6. Sharing your output.
Only a short bit here – share your work! The more you share and get comments on, the better you’ll get at this technique. Practice it – use it – and most of all, add it to you bag of tricks for when you’ve just gotta have something cool in your video.

You can share on a number of sources. YouTube.com, Vimeo.com, Facebook, Flickr – there are dozens of options.

Just do it!

Like Charlie Sheen says: “Nike’s slogan isn’t ‘Just Try It’….”

If you use this tutorial, and want to share your sucesses (or failures) just drop me a comment!

Cheers!

I’ve had a few things that really bug me about the camera.

Limited ISO
Coming from a background of photography with 35mm SLR’s, I found that the move to digital with the rebel left me cold for ISO choices. Sure – I could select 100 to 1600 iso – but where was the 3200, or 6400 choices? I had those in the silver world with specialty films, or specialty processing. DSLR? Nope. Was it the CMOS that was limited? Well, in part.

Long Exposures
So – why with the joy of CMOS and software – am I limited to a 30 second exposure? More specifically, why am I limited to having to buy a $100 or $300 remote cord?

Exposure Options
With the incredible control over exposure offered by the metering systems in the new DSLRs – why is there no ability to use the centre spot for exposure control? Spot metering can be a very valuable option. Where is it?

All this in mind, and being the software geek that I am, I wondered if anyone had ‘hacked’ the DSLR. Boy was I shocked. One key item that I found? Number of times the shutter has fired on my Rebel.

ReleaseCount: 16786

Yep – Over 16,000 Exposures on this camera. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Important URLS to have handy:

Firmware updates from Canon JP: http://web.canon.jp/imaging/eosdigital3/e4kr3_firmware-e.html#T4

Making Hack Cards – With a Mac:
http://www.zenoshrdlu.com/macboot/macboot.html

Hack Installation:
http://code.google.com/p/400plus/wiki/FirmwareHackInstallation

Now – I’m not going to give you a guide to this tool. That would be foolhardy. The process can mess you up – but I can tell you with comfort, on my XTi (400d) I was able, with my Mac – to do the full install in under 10 minutes, by following the 400plus guide at code.google.com (the ‘Hack installation’ url above.)

Features I now have?

• 100 to 3200 ISO in 1/3 step increments (as opposed to full step 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600 – I now have access to 100, 125, 160, 200, 280, 320, 400, etc…etc…etc..
• Intervalometer – Unlimited exposures with 1-101 second pauses. (With 1 button to kick it off)
• Self timer custom from 3-10 seconds
• Auto bracketed exposures (up to 7 either side, by AV or EV methods – EV being IDEAL for full range HDR photography…mmmm…)
• A FUNCTIONAL Spot meter (spot based on lens used of course)
• Exposure compensation up to 6 stops, flash comp to 6 stops.

Worth it? So far.

I believe in paying for product that I choose to use, and I don’t wish to pay for product that I don’t want or choose to support.

The CRTC (Canadian Radio and Telecommunications Commission) has been appointed by the Government of Canada to act as a ‘watchdog’ or ‘overseer’ of Canadian Telecommunication.

Typically, they have been responsible for maintaining ethical standards, Canadian Content standards, and regulating the ‘wild west’ of radio and television offerings. For the most part – they’ve done a fair job in this regard. Though unpopular is a pleasant way to describe some of their decisions – most have been made with the intent of being ‘best’ for Canadians.

The recent drive to ‘regulate’ pricing of INTERNET service however seems to be putting the CRTC at significant odds with the desires of Canadians.

A recent decision by the CRTC to allow bandwidth capping (though the name alone is misleading) has polarized consumers.

Canadian internet services have been provided for many years under a “unlimited (but fair) use, at a prescribed ‘rate’ or ‘speed’ of delivery.

As the speed quotient has increased with high speed delivery options, the providers (Bell, Telus, Rogers, Shaw – whomever) have desired the ability to charge additional fees beyond ‘base’ data quantities.

The result – you can have download speeds of 19 megabits / sec, but if you exceed 25 GB of data a month, you’ll pay X$ per GB more.

Simply put – you are paying for the pipe already – that’s what we are charged for. The ability to pay by data amount, now suggests that these parties are not concerned with throughput (ensuring how many bytes / second you are paying for) but how many bytes (yes… electrical impulses) you are consuming, regardless of the impact to their ability to serve the ‘speed’ you pay for – because your 25 GB served off peak – is virtually UNNOTICED over their network infrastructure.

The CAPS are serving to add financial buffer for oversold peak bandwidth at the providers network head-end, and to protect their bottom line as more Canadians seek and pay for alternative sources of media and content – like Hulu, YouTube, and Netflix.

If I pay for a telephone line, I pay for it to be there when I want it, however much I want it. Not for 30 minutes a month, and if I use it more I must pay a hefty ‘overuse’ fee.

I pay to have access to a 19mb DSL line. I expect that when I use it – I’ll have a max throughput of 19mb, a minimum upload of 256k/sec and a minimum download rate of something reasonable – during peak times.

I did not, and do not subscribe to the service on the basis of unwarranted caps on usage however, because my fee covers the cost of the channel I subscribe to.

All of this aside I could perhaps accept a cap on data, with overage charges, if competition (real, honest, healthy competition) existed. Sadly, as the climate of technology in Canada has been defined by government subsidy to the big 3 (4) telecom giants, the ability for ‘new’ players or competitors in the telecom space just isn’t possible in Canada.

Where I am most concerned about this regulatory move is that it sets us (as consumers) up for the next layer of consumer gouging. Usage Based Billing.

Once that language is ingrained, it is only a short hop to telecom / internet providers selling ‘content’, billed at unique rates. Facebook? Why that’s included, but if you use Linked in – it’s .20 cents a megabyte. Need to search? Yahoo is free, because we ‘signed a deal’ with them, but Google is .5 cents a search. Don’t think this is possible? Really? Take a look at smart-phone ‘mobile’ contracts. Social media included in base rates, but ‘web’ access is billed ‘extra’?

Netflix? Oh – that’s 5$ a GB, but for only 22$/Month you can get your TV from us…

This is the fight of Net Neutrality. Pay for the pipe, not the content.

The content is provided by thousands of other companies… they are in competition with each other already. Now, we add a competitive layer that says “No matter how good your product, or offering, or support from your consumers, my Telco didn’t do a deal with you, so you are out a percentage of your subscribers.”

Entrepreneurs take note, because the stifling of product, market and innovation is mere footsteps away.

The ‘Internet’ is not telephone service. It’s not a rental car.

The internet is much more akin to the Radio of the 1920′s – where it was free, available, and required only your commitment to own the hardware to receive it. It was up to content creators to vie for your attention, until television came along. Radio’s evolution to satellite only reinforces that if you want to sell the connection you’d better have a better, or at least competitive product ready and waiting.

So – to Tony Clement, MP – good on you for standing up to the CRTC for Canadian consumers. Good on you for forcing the CRTC to find other ways to support our technology and allow consumers to choose, but please, don’t stop with this one single battle.

We must find a way to ensure that Canadians have their place among the worlds leaders for freedom and availability to service, without the unreasonable costs levied by geographically non-competitive market giants.

For more information:

The Cost of Bandwidth – Canada versus US/UK/JP
OpenMedia.ca’s Stop the Meter Campaign
Strombo on OpenMedia and Metered Internet
CBC Explains UBB

I’ve learned a few things being a casual user of a Blackberry.

1. BB Messenger is handy, and effective if you have a large business contact base that uses it. I don’t.
2. BB Messenger is great for telling you messages have been received, and read. I don’t always want people to know that. Just because I read your urgent BBM doesn’t mean I will respond in kind – I set my schedule, not e-messages.
3. Wifi is slow to connect, apps are slow, browsing is slow. When apps are fast, it is only in the speed at which they either lock up, or crash.
4. If you’re a mac user, supply your own lube. You’re gonna take it the hard way.

I decided that the value to me of having social media apps that work, with interfaces that are convenient and functional was worth the price of having a sim card and phone number for the iPhone. 55$ gets me a full month of my browsing, nerding, social media, and phone functionality.

In 2 days – I’m thrilled with the choice. 15mb of data, and I know why I wanted the iPhone so badly. It just works for me. The device is a GPS, or a phone, or a camera, or a laptop – you choose. It has redefined my use of all things internets.

I can get used to this…

He brings no new thinking to the table on how to improve processes, efficiency or the schedule for making the oil-sands sustainable nor does he bring an alternate mechanism for the production of energy that will retain the livelihoods his rhetoric will take away.

I haven’t seen footage of Cameron flying in a helicopter over the coal ash spill into the Emory River in Tennessee. I haven’t seen him investigating the fracking processes in the Marcellus Shale formations in Pennsylvania. He hasn’t publicly spoken about the BP deep-water spill. He didn’t speak out about Centralia PA, which is still on fire. Since 1910, when 375 million gallons of oil filled the landscape in Kern County, and perhaps before, the United States has had it’s own running list of energy related environmental disasters. Three mile island, Love Canal, Hanford, or the PG and E debacle of Erin Brockovich fame – the list goes on.

As energy sectors grow, they make mistakes. We learn, and continually improve processes. Though the Alberta Native community has been directly impacted by the history of extraction in Fort McMurray, they are a handful amongst the millions worldwide who have suffered as a result of big business and energy.

I’ve said it before. The oil-sands are a dirty, painful, expensive business. But they are the business of Alberta. No Albertan would say that they are proud of the environmental impacts of oil-sands development. We can say however that we are proud to be working hard, raising our families well, and learning from our mistakes. Time will dictate the the end-game impacts to the landscape, and give us the opportunity to do better.

The rhetoric and negative press will not stop these operations. They are necessary to supply our dependence on fossil fuels. Sadly these eco-terrorist and celebrity incursions to our energy business are putting hard working families out of work.

When the primary exports of a region are made unsalable, there is a moral and ethical impact. This business exists today. We’re not doing impact studies before shovels hit dirt. In the long term, what is more important – finding sustainable measures to retain working families while improving the environmental impact of our activities, or shutting them down as a result of greenpeace politics, leaving gaping holes in the earth and unemployed labour in the midst of a destroyed economy?

Simple clashes of personality, mis-communication, or a difference of opinion on ethical matters can create great friction. When groups are involved, even more so. Those with influence can turn the tables and create traction without significant effort, and the end result is a game that turns into a nightmare.

Empire Avenue was billed as a place where you could take stock of your social media wealth by assigning value to it. You could buy and sell stock in your friends, with the ultimate goal of conglomerating content, and ranking players (social media users) with a stock price, and wealth.

The system was used as we anticipated in early beta cycles. Players used the system in it’s gaming context, seeking wealth and a place on the leader-boards because that’s the best way to get exposure to your feeds, blogs, twitter-stream, and messages.

That gaming, in an unregulated (or lightly-regulated) system permitted users who saw the opportunity for exposure to exploit the system (is it a game?) to get visibility. That irked a number of folks, some justified, some unjustified.

Formations of user groups akin to guilds placed power players in visible groups. That was and is unnerving for some users. Some exploitative plays may have been made by small groups of two or three, but a spotlight was cast on anyone associating with these power players.

Insinuations of wrongdoing – with some basis in fact, though without a breach of terms created cause for a witch-hunt. While there may have been initial transgressions either real or perceived, the weaknesses in the buy-sell system permitted abuse (and by abuse I mean permitted, but frowned upon) and the ability to unduly impact share price and stock value. If of course the system is about social media networking and influence, and not a game.

For a system with it’s sights set on displaying social value within a game context, the game controls behaviour – not social media ‘value’. What was billed as buying and selling your friends became buying and selling faceless and nameless accounts for profit.

This ‘game’ aspect coupled with the influx of thousands of new users brought a large group of players to the table with little value in a social media context, but great smarts with respect to making the system bend to their desire. For most this was a short trip to the top of the leader-boards.

After 3 months, I’m a 40$ stock. For a large number of ‘players’ 3 days can produce 60$ stocks with no content, and limited social engagement. How? Many of these are hollow buy-sell accounts with hundreds of investors, and no content. These are the real manipulators of the market.

Now take those real people, content drivers, sharers and social media users with a bent for gaming – who have used the system given to them to get to the leader-boards or for some – the top. Anyone who felt done-wrong had blogs and supposition to place blame on a dark-hat group of 11. Nearly all of the 11 are real people, with real blogs, real businesses, and real reputations.

Because of (pick any one or more) ego, greed, jealousy, wit, mirth, analysis, game strategy, a bad stomach, or any of a hundred other reasons, many of the users saw one group as the instigator. The nexus of all that was evil on the Avenue. Every time their stock was liquidated, it was the 11. Every time their price fell, it must have been the 11. But the system didn’t discriminate – a sell is a sell – and they are not reported by name.

Unless someone had timed screen shots of buys, and timed shots of sells to validate ‘shareholders then’ against ‘shareholders now’ there would be no guarantee of identification.

Worse – even if the share sell was legitimately one of the 11 (we have some wealth and therefore own a lot of shares) without direct questions and answers subjective thinking came up with the reason for a sell.

Couple the frustrating drops to a persons stock value (ego) with a scapegoat and you’ve got a recipe for out-of-game mudslinging. But is it out of game?

As a social media aggregator, on Empire Avenue the users blogs, twitter, facebook and other feeds propagate the system. An angry remark on twitter is posted to the Avenue. Is it in game, or out of game?

Once twitter became a venue for discord – the game became real. Allegations of cheating, ‘cartel’ behaviour and ethics left the arena of game, and entered the tools that we use on a daily basis to work, network, and earn.

A frustrating day on the Avenue became a public humiliation in a twitter stream, or blog. More frustrating in that social media followers who are unfamiliar with Empire Avenue could misconstrue statements relating to the game as relating to real business or persona. What started as a frustration in ‘game’ play suddenly has the ability to directly impact our work and daily life. For many casual social media users, their investment online is limited for others though it is as important as the office we walk into every day.

Many of us who started on the Avenue as a means to tie social streams together, find now that anonymity is the only way to play the game, giving up the social value. Those who may have started on the Avenue with a desire to be anonymous have through an attempt to play the game exposed themselves. In a rare but notable segment players have created completely ‘Empire Avenue’ personas – including their personality, blogs, and twitter streams. The nature of social media is that to gain any personal value beyond ego by sharing yourself you must choose to share genuinely. To play a game like empire avenue, we must accept that some players will not stomach the frustration and ‘hurt’ from in-game activity and will allow it to spill out into the streets of real life.

So – what are the implications to use of social media? When you don’t have a game in the way, social media is a powerful tool. Like face to face relationships, we don’t all agree on things but we rarely shout obscenities at each other. Differences of opinion become speaking points and discussions arise. In rare cases, those differences may require severance of these connections, but for the most part – we’re civil. Unless of course we aren’t genuine. When you combine a game where status is a figurehead of the ecosystem, and success requires a social and psychological investment, prepare to get slammed publicly if you step on a few people while climbing to the top.

From the beginning, I’ve played the game of Empire Avenue as myself. I’ve not done anything out of character, nor jumped on a bandwagon to take anyone out of the game. I’ve played with integrity. I can say that and feel good about it. I know full well that many will take issue with that. They will claim that I was belligerent, cruel, and vicious, and that due to my associations I was mean, targeted for profit, sold out of spite, attempted to trigger crashes, and so on and so on and so on.

I can say with conviction, even when I had been blocked, lumped into mystical groups of hated elite and called rude and ignorant – I still didn’t sell to harm, or organize such things despite the insistence of others that I must have been doing so.

I’ve had fun at others expense, yes. I’ve been defensive when I believe that someone is being unreasonable, or has been unnecessarily harsh in game, or in the real world. I have always acted with an eye to the potential impact to their lives. I’ve never insulted someone’s skills, claimed that they were unprofessional, that they weren’t trustworthy or otherwise sought to belittle ones character (“elitist douchebag”?), though I have done so at their caricatures. I’ve poked fun at mythical creatures, sought out canned meat products made from them, and used them to express humour. Some of that has been taken in stride, some has been taken as a personal attack. Sadly, some have invested so much in their virtual persona, that attacks on the persona are considered personal.

When it comes to social media, even those who produce content online behind a veil of anonymity may have value, but does their caricature have the same responsibility to the truth? To integrity? I would suggest no. When the face of a person in the social sphere exists only in the context of the game, who’s existence is fundamentally a construction of the game or the internet in general – are they real?

When you can google a players name find their employer, see pictures of their children and see who they interact with on a daily basis, are they different from a construction? From the ‘fake’ game players whose online persona has no ties to real life? For these constructs, no matter the investment made to create them, they have no risks associated with starting battles. They merely take a few bruises to their digital ego. Those they attack however, take it in their credibility, career associations, and the value of their very name.

can you people just drop it? Use the site to enjoy networking with others and finding new content

@EvolveTom via Twitter (EA PR Guy)

We’d love to Tom, but we’re so buried in buy and sell notices, stock price alterations, leaderboards, buy-me messages and ‘game’ statistics, that content doesn’t exist – not when you are required to jockey for position just to be seen.

Some say that to withdraw from a game when being bullied is giving up and that it equates to lying down and accepting the assertions. I disagree. When pushed to the point where every word, every plea for sanity, every request to just think about what accusations, assertions and inventions are being spread results in venom and personal attacks in the real world, rather than the ‘game’ world – then I’d rather part company, because the very attempt to bring sanity to a discussion is met with the face of an anonymous player who isn’t accountable to anyone but their online persona.

I’ve tried to defend myself, my actions and my associations. I’ve not tried to make excuses for others. But I also tire of trying to teach people to think for themselves before placing blame. To do their own investigations, and make their own decisions before acting.

Social media and ego are tough enough to manage. When you mix that combination with a leader-board and significant time investment in a game – accountability and integrity blur into transactions. On a scale, from complete constructs of game to heavily invested social media users there is a wide range of accountability. At any point on that scale there is a level of willingness to accept risk and integrity.

For many of us, it’s apparent that we are in an environment where our competitors (this is a game isn’t it – or is it?) do not share our definitions of tolerable interaction. As a result we must either reduce our interaction or create distance from our real life social media investments to protect ourselves. Hardly the environment that Empire Avenue was supposed to foster.

Now – to suggest it’s been a rosy relationship would be silly. Why just last christmas, we had an outage of a few days, which required a call for support. During that call, we found out that we were paying 45$ a month for service they were selling for 14$. After a retro credit, new hardware and a few support issues, we got back online and the world was good.

A few weeks ago, we looked at our satellite bills, phone / internet etc. and decided now was the time to combine. I’ve been unhappy with Shaw Direct satellite for some time, particularly with respect to their programming changes on paid premium stuff. No more. We dumped it because Telus had an offer for us to add TV to our communications package and save us a few bucks (30+) a month, and get us a multi-tv PVR. Great thing if you have kids… seriously.

We called Monday, but it was going to take 4 days to get someone in. Ok… fair enough. Thursday AM they’d call with an ETA.

It was a rough ETA. Sometime between 8am and 4pm. At 3:30 after waiting around ALL day, the Mrs. called Telus. Unimpressed, she threatened to cancel, as the installer called. He arrived at 20 after 4. She grilled him hard. He only got the work order at 2pm though – so hardly his fault, but he wasn’t impressed with a 2pm callout for a 3-5 hour install.

We muddled through, got things installed, and he was out by 6:30.

Now the service, picture, etc. is pretty par for the course. Everything was installed, PVR working, recording – doing what we paid for.

At 8pm – the screen of all of our TV’s went black. Still had the program guide, but no picture. Couldn’t even play back PVR’d stuff – local to the box! What the hell… Browser refresh… nope. No internet.

Ok. I’ve been through this, downstairs, reboot modem. Nada.

Hello Telus support.

For 55 minutes, I worked with “Andy” to switch on / switch off, read back lights, refresh browser pages, dance in voodoo circles, talk to NOC techs, and generally praise Gaia. Nothing. (It was during this period that cycling the power on our ‘new’ modem caused our Alarm system to freak out and go into trouble mode with a failed telco-connection.)

We can get a tech to you on the 23rd he says.

Whuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuaat?

I’ve had the service for 2 hours, and you’re telling me I can now not have TV/Network/Web for the weekend?

Do YOU have a 4 year old ‘Andy’?

I escalated, and there was no manager on duty to assist. I was offered an escalation call next day…. that would be tomorrow. So I’m now screwed for at LEAST a day because I upgraded from the competition? Doesn’t that rub ya the wrong way? Sure did me.

Ok. I can live a NIGHT without web (yikes!) but it can be done.

After an hour I hung up the phone pissed off.

At this point, I called @lancetay to tell him what happened. Livid doesn’t even begin to describe my mood…

Still chatting with Lance, and telling him to send a few pointed tweets on my behalf, I refreshed the page on my browser again. I got an error dialog regarding gmail ssl certificates. I’m like – huh? The browser is getting a router screen screaming about bypass due to lack of internet, but I’m getting an SSL dialog?

OK, Cancel, OK, Cancel…. and out of the blue, a page loads on my screen. Power off and power on the PVR again… guess what. Yep. It worked.

So I ask this question: If you sell a product like Telus TV – wouldn’t it make sense to A) Admit to network issues when they exist. and
B) Have processes to test up and downstream instead of a 30 minute ‘which lights are blinking?’ assessment.

Lastly, If I find out that the SSL dialog actually HAD something to do with this – I’m gonna get some black hat boys to hammer telus a new one….

Sadly, takes no skill or experience with a product to sell it. To support it is a whole other story. No matter what you are selling, make sure your customers have an out if there is a problem. THAT will keep them coming back.