froosh.ca

Two years ago, a sketchy sales guy came to my door when we lived in Calgary and  conned my wife into signing up for an energy contract that would have cost us a bunch of extra money per year. When we read into the contract we immedietly called and cancelled the contract. I was steaming, and wrote a blog article about Alberta Energy Savings. A year and a half later and the blog article is in the top 10 search results when you search for the companies name.  I’m sure when people are doing research about this company they see my blog post (and the many others as well).   A tech/brand savvy company would join this conversation, try to change our minds, do some kind of damage control. Almost two years, I’ve heard nothing. But you can be sure people looking into this company hear from me through my blog.

There are over 40 comments on that article many are stories larger than the blog post it’s self. The page has become a place for people that are dissatisfied with this company (and some that think people who have been duped are somehow getting what they deserve) to share their feelings and stories. The good news is some of the comments are from people like me that realized what this company was about and had the contract voided before they were unwittingly stuck with insane energy prices. The power of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and social media (blogs) has helped many people (over 500 a month to that article alone) make informed decisions. (though somewhat one sided, my side)

It doesn’t take a web developer to do any of the stuff I describe above, it’s really quite simple. Note: it doesn’t have to be a complaint, happy news in my opinion is better reading…but hey, we have to write what we know right? Just happens when I complain it’s on subjects people are interested in…odd…

How can you make your voice heard?

1. A really easy place to start is with a free wordpress blog, write your articles use all the tags and categories they provide you with. This site uses wordpress though it’s not the free hosted version linked above.

2. Make sure your article (especially the title) contains the words you think people will use to search for your topic, repeat key words (in context, make it readable or people won’t read it).

3. Spread the word, post your blog post to Twitter, Facebook, email it to your friends with a little blurb about what the article says (if they are interested they will read it, if not they can delete it).

4. Wait, it takes time for content to show up in the rankings.

Increasingly the internet is being used by people to voice their opinions about subjects that are of interest to them, if there are people with the same interests, and your content is relevant  your voice can be heard. These instructions are pretty basic, there is a lot more you can do to get your message out there. If you have questions on how you can get your voice heard I’d be happy to help.

I upgraded to iPhone OS 3.0 last week (awesome — cut and paste be praised), and just early this week upgraded from the iPhone 3G to the 3Gs. Part of the OS / iPhone updates was internet tethering. Using tethering allows you to use your cell phone’s data connection to wirelessly connect to the internet from anywhere, it made my commute on the GO train every morning that much more productive. Note: in Europe this is very common, not as common here (yet).

I’ve been messing around with Ruby on Rails of all things (insert geek jabs here) and have decided to do a setup with Apache/MySQL/Rails(Passenger). Basically a lot of geek talk meaning I’ve been spending the week in a command line console typing things like:

sudo env ARCHFLAGS="-arch i386" gem install mysql -- \
  --with-mysql-dir=/usr/local/mysql --with-mysql-lib=/usr/local/mysql/lib \
  --with-mysql-include=/usr/local/mysql/include

Exciting, no? Well in any case…I needed to download a 60MB package from http://www.mysql.com, and I wanted to see how fast the connection really was so I downloaded it on the train. Much to my surprise (and delight) the speed was increadibly fast considering I am connecting to my phone via bluetooth, then over a cellular network and then out to the internet. What kind of speeds did I get? well take a look for yourself:

183KB/Sec…That’s almost as fast as my cable connection at home. I have been finding that download speeds average between 70KB/Sec and 183KB/sec (this is the highest I have seen so far). What does that mean you may (or may not) ask?

a) I better make sure I stay under my 6GB data limit or I’m going to pay a #$#@ load of data charges for overages

b) the iPhone although amazing IMO still can’t do everything my laptop can for now, until now my laptop lacked mobile internet…

c) more games on the go, start work earlier, less need to work at home.

d) I am officially the biggest nerd on the train

e) I can laugh at Scott Kosman and his HTC Nokia phone in Amsterdam and lack of iPhone and lack of tethering.

This is the menu, even if you dine in

Okay so I just went to this new restaurant at King St. and Portland in Toronto. Wow Chicken it’s called. It’s right in between our favorite restaurants here (Craft Burger (awesome), and the sandwich place I don’t know the name of). I have to say the restaurant fell very short of my expectations for a $18 rotisserie combo meal. Here is what I have to say about Wow Rotisserie Chicken:

Wow, if you have chalk boards inside, write something on them. Draw a happy face, whatever.

Wow, the person working the cash should know the menu and how to enter it.

Wow, 10 Billion little bugs inside, okay that’s not the restaurants fault maybe they are everywhere, but hey, while I’m at it.

Wow, it shouldn’t take 30 minutes to get me my food for takeout. As someone with me said “It’s rotisserie, it shouldn’t be made to order.”

Wow, get my order right:

- I ordered a Chicken Breast Deluxe Combo, got a chiken leg,
- I ordered an extra sauce, got only one.
- Menu says Deluxe Combo is Mousse Desert with berries, got the brownie from the other combo

Wow, the stuffed potato, it tasted okay even if it was just potato sour cream and pepper inside.

Wow, the chicken melt someone else ordered, that cheese, maybe next time MELT it.

Wow, can’t say it was even close to tasty.

Wow, can’t say I’ll be going back ever.

Wow, you are nuts if you waste your money there.

On behalf of my friends and family in Calgary I request that “the outside” ceases and desists snowing immediatly.

I mean ge’ez I was just out mowing the lawn for the second time the other day.