Obscene name, originally uploaded by Bob Goyetche.

My son got a Webkinz stuffed animal for his birthday.. There’s a code you use to go to a website and join an online world with all kinds of games, and probably opportunities to spend mom & dad’s hard-earned money. Unless, of course, you have an OBSCENE name like Simon.

So my wife Cat calls customer service, and gets told it’s a bug – any name with “mon” in it gets blocked out.

Bugs happen, I have several friends who make a living fixing bugs. Bugs shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, it’s how they are handled that sets your company apart.

In this case, we get told it’s a bug (duh!). That’s it, that’s all. No offer to help. The customer service rep didn’t offer to create the account, the obviously simpler way was to give our child a new name.

While it’s not the end of the world, if you notice in a few months that you can’t find any kids named Monicas, Simon, or Damon – you’ll know why.

How is your company dealing with its bugs?

thumbs up, originally uploaded by TheTruthAbout….

So a few weeks ago I told you about my “compatible” cheap-o Macbook Pro battery.. Here’s how it’s going..

• Really well.

After several cycles, I’m getting around 3 hours a charge, which seems to me is about what I was getting with the genuine Apple battery when it was new. I could probably get more time if I tweaked the settings more, but I’m picky about things like seeing my screen.

In conclusion, $60 well spent so far, and the Mac doesn’t seem to know the difference.

They wave, from  Bob’s flickrstream.

Leaving Montreal last week on business, I heard some passengers giggling and happened to look outside as we pulled away from the terminal. There was the Westjet ground crew, smiling and waving us on our way.

Westjet people are known to be somewhat more smiley than the sourpusses at our other airlines (especially Air-don’t-bother-me-Canada).. but what this really shows how even roles that may not be considered “customer-facing” actually are.

Is this a policy at Westjet? or just something the employees do for fun? I didn’t see them doing this in Edmonton, so maybe it’s a local thing.

One thing I know for sure, the people on my side of the plane took off with smiles on their faces, and may remember those waves the next time they book a flight. I know I’ll remember that I can give my money to friendly people, or to people I am bothering because I happen to be their client.

How much does NOT waving cost?

Light therapy thingie, originally uploaded by Bob Goyetche.

At the insistence of my wonderful wife Cat (who’s beside me as I type this) I picked one of these up today (disclosure: with my own money at a freaking store, shaddap).. .. It’s a Philips “Golite BLU” , and it’s small enough to follow me on my travels, and to use in my office..

The idea behind it is that the light can help fight the “Winter Blues”…. The last few winters have been a challenge for me, with the short days, and working in an office that lets in almost no natural light to begin with.. I’ve heard good experiences from friends about this.. so I figured I’d give it a shot.. The Amazon and other reviews seem quite positive – and I’ve not read about any really harmful side effects..

I like the fact that it’s pretty much as unobtrusive as far as glaring blue lights go, and it’s rechargeable, as is pretty much everything nowadays..

Have you tried something like this?

So I went to the Apple.ca store, and saw that they’re asking cdn$160 (!) for a new battery. Looking at ebay, I saw many “compatible” batteries ranging in price from $60 to $110.. Even if the cheap battery lasts only a year, I could still end up ahead, so I decided to try one out. Despite the availablilty of these things, I found rather few first hand accounts I could trust, so here’s my experience, maybe it will help you…

I bought a generic replacement from Canadian-based seller “laptopwebsavings” for $60 (Shipped!). It took 2 days to get here, which is awesome. So far, so good.

Let’s see what we’ve got here :

Came in a box, not a sock :

looks similar, but the inside “shell” isn’t metal, and it’s much lighter ..

the lights are somewhat different….

Let’s see it and the Apple battery side-by-side :

The finish is a different texture, and the charge-test button isn’t as shiny..

But, it fit well into my dirty-smudge-enhanced by flash MBP

Let’s power up and see what the Mac itself thinks…

Charging, not a bad sign, and it seems to think it’s a Sony battery, like the original

So far, so good.. It’s charging, there’s no smoke or flames yet, and the mac is not abnormally warm or misbehaving.. I’ll let it charge up and see what kind of efforts I can get from this battery..

Update : Further results & impressions here

20080301chalk, originally uploaded by noaha.

I was chatting with some friends today, and I was describing a session from Bitnorth ‘08 where some teenagers were brought in to be a panel to be questioned by the attendees.

We had lots of questions for these “digital natives“, and while I expected some of the answers (ie: radio’s irrelevant, email is for old people etc..).. it did make me think about the skills we “older” people carry that are, in reality, just cluttering our heads.

I started listening to music on vinyl on a toy record player shaped like a bug that looked like this:

ladybug record player

It was a crazy design that put the speaker right under the surface of the record being played. But, I learned how to listen to music on that, and pretty much any turntable I used afterward followed the same basic mode of operation. Some skills were acquired (Setting the right speed, placing the needle at the right point to hear the chosen song, not bouncing on the ground too hard lest the record skip, etc..).. These skills transferred well onto my more “grownup” turntables, but they are all completely useless with my iPod.

Same idea with communications, I learned to use a phone using a rotary dial phone, even learned how to dial a rotary pay phone by tapping the “hang up” button, and those skills are completely incompatible with my Blackberry.

So there’s my head, still holding onto these skills in the hope that one day I may use them again. It’s quite unlikely, but I feel that somehow, holding on to these skills may in fact keep new ones at bay, or at least taint them with prejudice they don’t merit.

I think this need for unlearning carries into all aspects of life.. Just because one girlfriend broke your heart doesn’t mean the next one will, yet often the next one will “pay” for the other’s transgressions. In business, experience can often be a hindrance to innovation, because the “I’ve seen this before” mentality kicks in, and we end up making decisions not on what we see now, but what we saw before.  Some of that is good of course, which is why experienced people are better paid than newbies, but there’s a lot to be said for the ability to turn on your “newbieness” and judge situations without prejudice.

So, while a method to “unlearn” method would be nice (though it too would have to be learned), I think we can accomplish a lot of this just by realizing that we’re carrying baggage, and try to not let all past experience forge future decisions.

It’s as close as we can come to unlearning,

There are a lot of people that will tell you that after a conference, the first things you need to do are arrange all the business cards, enter the contact information in whatever address book you use, follow them on twitter, subscribe to their blog, and etc.etc…yada, yada, ummm yada.  If you’re a business, go with that, and deal with that information the way your social media expert told you – (there’s more too, I tell ya) but if you’re a human, you have a different set of responsibilities.

(You can still do all that good stuff up top, it’s all good advice really, but I want you to start before that.)

The first thing you need to do is to give people a reason to KEEP interacting with you. Sure, in person, at a great event like Podcamp Montreal with the great parties, and the dancing, and the laughing and the kumbaya and the what-not, it seemed like those people were your close friends, and a bond was created.

You don’t want to mess that up!

In the physical space of the conference, clanging your beer glasses together was the way you signaled to your new friend “Hey, I think you’re ok”… Now that your sober, and you aren’t in the same space, you need to bring that sentiment here online.

Talk about them or what they talk about on your blog, link to them, or  write on their facebook wall, or comment on their blog..  ENGAGE them here in the whatever-o-sphere. This is key to building a real relationship/friendship.

Another good way to build the relationship is to actively share content back, that could be as simple as updating your blog (or facebook or twitter or whatever) regularly, so they get a sense of what’s going on in your world.  They might even learn from you, or, you never know, they might even be able to help you.

If you don’t live in the same city, chances are you may only see these people at the next event, so I think it’s a good idea to reinforce the link you established while dicussing how the pizza in your town is just the best and how dare they put the cheese on top of the pepperoni here the ignorant bastards. Build that relationship online though, and that person becomes a real part of your personal network, and unless they’re really creepy, good things come from knowing good people.

So there are my post-conference suggestions, you have any for me?

IMG_5922, featurung Julien Smith, CC Chapman and  Bob Goyetche.

Oh sure, there are Podcamp rules, guides, and I’m pretty sure there’s a book being written about it.

To me, Podcamp is about friends. Not SEO, not making money on twitter. It’s about connecting with PEOPLE, enjoying each other’s company, and having a good time.

Considering how anti-social social media has become, take the time to make some friends this weekend, and connect with people.

RSS feeds can’t hug you because they’re happy to see you.

Ambulance, originally uploaded by MPD01605.

We’re only a few days away from Podcamp Montreal!!  What are you waiting for? Go. Register. Now.

This year, I’ll be co-presenting with ‘Monsieur Quebec Balado’ Sylvain Grand’maison for a fun interactive and bilingual session we call ‘Dr. Balado’ or ‘Dr. Podcast’

Your podcast isn’t feeling too well? We have the cure. If you have issues with platforms, plugins, equipement, software, tools or content, we can help. This is a unique opportunity to share and learn with two podcasting veterans.

This will be all Q&A, no slides, but we’ll have a computer hooked up so we can walk through solutions. Bring your questions, your answers, and a pen in case you learn something.

Join us, this will be fun!

Woo!, originally uploaded by Bob Goyetche.

Julien and Chris’ Trust Agents is enjoying a well-deserved run on the best-seller lists. Couldn’t happen to guys more suited to write about a topic, unless of course you include :

Six Pixels of Separation, originally uploaded by Bob Goyetche.

Mitch Joel’s been a rockstar of social media to me since I first met him at Podcamp Boston what seems like 100 years ago. I’m so pumped to see this one hit the bookstores, and I just know it’s going to be a big hit too..

So, what’s a guy to do when his friends are not only publishing, but have taken all the choice topics?

I’d like to pre-announce MY new book :

My new book!, originally uploaded by Bob Goyetche.

“There are assholes on Twitter” will be a deep dive look into the world of people who think they can convince others of their superiority, 140 characters at a time. It will shock and amaze you.. Keep an eye out for it!