Today i cancelled my account with AudioBook rental club Jiggerbug having exhausted their entire business section of downloadable audio books. For over a year i was a very happy customer and would consider re-joining if they expanded their library.
Today however they did surprise me however. Customers are unable to cancel their account online, and have to make the international call during their business hours (ok so i don’t have a problem with international calls I own a telecom business which gives free international calls) still the time difference is inconvienient. I was a touch surprised you couldn’t just do this online, if i could it would make it easrier to just have suspended the account and re-join. Where’s the customer focus in that?
So where to go next to continue what is a very convenient way of learning. Maybe Audible.co.uk?
On the news this evening they were talking about how bosses should “reach out” to potential employees on social networking web sites such as Bebo according to ISME. I’m surprised a little that this is news to anyone! Anyone that thinks they are talking from behind a screen when they talk openly anywhere online and it’s saying something about people just by them thinking that way. We should all realise by now we are traceable by our IP address.
Bebo has an option to be “private” which makes you unaccessable via search engines, if you’re in anyway shady or like to talk about being lax at work, this option is for you. On the other hand, which wasn’t mentioned in the news, its yet another means to impress employers (or customers /clients). I have no problems with my businesses, customer or suppliers reading anything i say online. I wouldn’t say anything in text that i wouldn’t say to someones face. But there are means to impress online. Think how many service providers /products you’ve discovered as a result of blogs?
I think this focus on social networking sites will in due course become less weighted in the decision making program. In the coming down turn in Ireland, many smart people will end up competing for new jobs. The smart ones could easily set up ‘staged’ blogs, bebo or facebook sites. Think about it, how easy would it be to set up an account and send it messages that imply you are the most hard working stand up employee known to man; and since its apparent “third party” info its semingly more credible. Enter the two edged sword for vetting employees.
Aqua Lung are releasing a second album according to the press release with their last single “Pressure Suit”, Not mad about that track in particular, but was crazy about their first album and will be very keen to get a copy of the second. Here’s the track that first got me hooked:
Fierce Angel is due to release this years Beach Angel on the 13th of this month. Being a big fan of Mark Doyles taste in music and his compilations i’m quite excited about it. It promises to be packed with jems.
Here’s the Tracklistings:
Disc 1
Kwame Drevon & Frankie Boissey – Everybody Wants To Rule The World Clique Feat Robina – Reasons (EK’S Angelic 12″) Wamdue Project Feat Heather Johnson – Washes Over Me (Wamdue Main Mix) Fac15 Feat Cathi O – Twisted By The Pool (Beach Angel ’07 12″) Miguel Migs – So Far (Album Mix) Latrice Barnet – Illuminate (Original 12″ Mix) Jephete Guillame Pres AK – Shining Your Way (Shining Main Vocal) Ananda Project – Universal Love (Jay J’s Shifted Up Mix) Danny Campbell – Answer My Prayer (Candy Apple Mix) Peyton – Holiday (EK’s Getaway 12″) Kaskade – Never Ending (Extended Mix)
Disc 2
Wamdue Project – Forgiveness (Beach Angel ’07 Mix) Bonnie Bailey – Safe (Eric Kupper 2007 Remix) Samantha James – Rise (Eric Kupper Mix) Belle – Surfacing (Rize & 7th Heaven Remix) Freemasons – Pacific (12″ Mix) Eighteen Feat Stephanie Mills – (You’re Putting ) A Rush On Me Cerrone VS Sweet Connection – Misunderstanding (Original Club Mix) James Kakande – You You You (Alex Gaudino & Jerma Mix) Albert Cabrera Feat Alex Cartana – Dig The Vibes (Original) Locktown Feat Alexandra Prince – Alive(12″ Original Mix) Bassmonkeys Feat Naomi Marsh – The Answer (Eric Kupper Mix)
Disc 3
Negrocan – Cada Vez (Grant Nelson Vocal) Dubtribe Soundsystem – Do It Now (Knee Deep Club Mix) Masters At Work Pres India – To Be In Love (Knee Deep Re-Edit) Junior Jack – E Samba (Rasmus Faber’s Cancao De Nega Mix) Etherfox – The Whirled You Live (Sixty Six Mix) Rasmus Faber feat Emily McEwan – Ever After (Rasmus Faber Main Mix) Armand Van Helden Presents – Everytime I Feel It (Richard Grey Mix) Salome De Bahia – Outro Lugar (Cutee B & Julian Jabre Mix) Mambana – Libre (Axwell Vocal Mix) Gadjo Feat Alexandra Prince – So Many Times (Original 12″ Mix) Afro Medusa – Pasilda (Original 12″ Mix)
[Disk three are oldies but goodies, Cada Vez really brings me back to the old Nova days of doing my “Drive Time” Radio show in a sweltering studio on a summer afternoon]
Also this years EsVive album is yet again the sound track to my summer, only leaving my car for the occasional BBQ beach party. I’d highly recommend it!
I’m getting the itch to stay in the Es Vive hotel now…
CheapChat Irelands access number 0818 27 27 74 was down. This is due to technical problems and although the technical guys are working flat out at fixing it, i’d imagine it will take a few more days. For now i suggest using our 1520 932 904 instead of the 0818 272 774 number to access all our national rate numbers this will connect to all. However this will cost 15c/per min, instead of the 8c peak/ 5c off-peak as usuall.
I apologise to all my customer and appreciate all the e-mails that have come in. Also i have been blown away by the supportive nature of the e-mails, I haven’t had one negative comment one as of yet dispite how badly i feel about the service being down for our regular users. Clearly we have incredible customers.
On the news today it stated that “the Irish stock market taking a serious blow (by loosing 8.6 Billion Euro) was distracting conversations from the usual debates about the property market”.
Surely these two occurances are completely correlated! The banks took the brunt of the hit and this, as well as being linked to the american banking issues, its because they are so at risk to the property market. People still think that property will level off! Which frankly isn’t possible, who would invest in property that has no probability of gains or cashflow. IMO Its more likely to be a swift and devastating crash (20-40%) and a slow recovery.
It got me thinking why is this property market crash anticipated to take so long? The reason the Stock market droped so quick is cause it’s being dealt with by professionals who make logical decisions based on fact, figures and no emotions. On the other hand, the investment sector of the irish property market is less detached to the investment vehicle. Would you hold on to shares if you were certain that the price would go down over the next two years?? What if your dividends were due to go down too cause the rental market will be following the property market? You’d sell right??
Here’s the facts – Our population is aging, some of the immigrant workers that were here to facilitate to construction boom are no longer needed. They’ll move to England to facilitate the building requirements for the olympics there or somewhere where they’re skills are required! The prices of property are exceptionally over stated – first time buyers can’t afford property on a standard wage. The people that own a major share of small property investments are paye employee’s with one or two properties as a passive investment. These investors bought in under advice of others and based on past market preformance – something a sophisticated investor would never do.
Was happy yesterday to recieve a letter saying that i now only have to file Vat returns every 4 months in opposed to every 2. I think this is a great step forward from the Irish Gov. The Bureaucracy of business compliance is a major problem for small and start up businesses. Paying Vat both personal and corportate, can be very time consuming from filing little reciepts and trying to collect expenses reciepts (from employees) then setting aside otherwise productive time to keep everything in order is a pain. While i think having to do so is not a bad thing at all, business needs to be kept in order. The time constraints and frequency was problematic. Big pat on the back for the guys in revenue on this matter.
As many people have been mentioning Spam in the last while has been on the massive increase and its really getting annoying. Today i had 33 blog post spams, 147 spam emails (in my inbox) and 6 trojan viruses in emails. Surely outlook can do better? Does spamming really work for these people? Surely if they focused their efforts else where they could be more productive.
One of the big hitters in the Electro house field Spiller – All alone got the go ahead on eye industries records and is now under Ministry of Sound. Its only a warm up track for the gigs i play but a nice one to listen to out in the sunshine or on a beach, great summer vibe to it and very well produced!
