It’s been a blah kind of day, I’m feeling the worse I’ve felt all week. My sinuses hurt and my nose wont stop running. Beyond that I’m still feeling pretty good, and though I didn’t do everything that I wanted to do today I do do a lot. What I didn’t do was blog. So I find myself looking at the clock as the day winds down trying to come up with a post. Once again I think I’ll settle for a stump. A short update on my health and that of the families.
Enough about me on to the family, Melissa is on the mend, she seems much better today, and so do the kids. So with a bit of luck we will have a healthy family this week. I have some exciting news about Jacob’s development, but I want to do it justice so I’ll probably come in a post later in the week. In fact It looks like I’m going to have an interesting week of posts, with a bit about family, and a bit on some of my geeky pursuits. So stay tuned.
It’s been a long week. The kids have been sick to varying degrees all week and so has Melissa. So far I have managed to get by with just a nagging headache and a stuffy nose. Whether that’s luck of the double dose of Multi-vitamins I’ve been taking I can’t tell you. What I can tell you is that it’s been a long week. With both kids having late nights on more then one occasion over the week and so as the healthy one I find my sleep impacted and so tonight I found myself tire and more interested in vegging in front of a video game then coding or writing. So what you have is this short late post. I hope to do better tomorrow.
When did it become accepted practice to penalize loyalty? It seems that companies are more interested in the people who aren’t there customers then there customers. This trend has been bothering me for years its all around us. Banks offer rewards for moving your account, cell phone companies offer better prices and bonus services to new subscribers.
Where is the reward for loyal customers. I have been with my bank now for over ten years in that time the have raised my rates reduced my service and I never got a reward. Right now my bank has a promotion you can get up to $250 for opening a new account plus sign up some additional services. Of course I’m not able to get it.
The fine Print reads: This offer is available to individuals 19 years of age or older who open a new Personal Canadian Dollar Chequing Account by December 31, 2009. Individuals who have an existing Chequing Account or had one that was closed after August 1, 2009 are not eligible for this offer
So I ask you why should I say loyal to my bank if they have more interest in getting new customers then supporting there existing customers? It’s not just the banks, a couple of years ago when The Wife’s cell phone contract was up we went to her carrier to see what phones they had to offer. The best deal they would give her, with her signing up for a new 3 year contract was $200 off the cost of the phone. They phone she wanted was $300 or $400. So we were looking at at least $100 for her pink phone. A new customer would have been able to get it for either free, or $50. So she changed carriers.
So I ask why do we as consumers let companies do this. Why don’t we stand up and say we the loyal customers deserve to be reward. Or should we just become nomads, jumping from service to service looking for the best rewards.
2 weeks ago I set out a new personal goal, a goal of writing some software. Today I had hoped to share a version of that software. Unfortunately there are 2 things keeping me from doing that. First the site I plan on distributing my software on is still in development. Second I’m still waiting for the API key my application uses to be approved for users other then me.
Till that time I’m moving onto my second project. I’m still trying to decide if I should revisit the TTC data, do a WPF interface for my unreleased Ping.fm client or go another way and work on software to run software.geekwithkids.com
As always I’d be interested in any suggestions from my readers. If there is an application you’d like to have, I’d be happy to have a go at programming it. Just drop me a comment with any suggestions. If I don’t get to it this week, there is always next time.
Over the last 2 weeks I’ve been working on a little program for use with the Ping.FM servers*. It’s been a fun process but I’ve been doing it mostly by the seat of my pants. I have an idea of what I want the application to do and I’m writing it. It’s not a complicated application, but the further along in development it goes I’m finding it harder to manage both it’s over all vision and the things that I need to do with it. Where there are bugs, what I’ve done and what’s left.
So I’ve been looking at different solutions online, but I’ve ran into a problem. All the solutions seem like too much work, specially when I’m the only developer. I also know from my attempts to add new tools for project management, they are useless unless the whole team is on board. Somehow that hasn’t been easier when it’s a team of just me. I’m thinking about using a software repository like Subversion or Git for my code and perhaps which ever service I choose for that will provide me with some basic project management.
Or perhaps I’ll continue to work with my random text files and entries in my Google calendar. Do anyone out there have some recommendations?
*Hope to have a version available for people to download on Monday, just doing some more testing and waiting for a production key.
Tomorrow is supposed to be the TTC Riders Strike. A response to the proposed fair hikes. Riders are frustrated with an increase that could see our fairs raise to 3 a ride and increase the cost of a monthly pass to $126. So they plan a boycott to show the TTC how we feel. But I don’t see the point. A one day boycott wont hurt the TTC it will hurt the boycotters who need the TTC to get to work. It wont get the TTC funding to cover the operating expenses. Sure it will show the TTC that people don’t like fair hikes, but they know that. They aren’t doing it because they want to.
The problem is our Transit system is underfunded. The city needs a provincial and federal government that supports transit and not just splashy projects that they can point to at election time to say, see we care about transit. We’ve got a subway extension, and multiple Light Rail extensions planned for our city, all funded by multiple levels of government, but none of these improvements include increased funding for operating the increased capacity. Sure the city needs to expand it’s service and maybe the new subway to Vaughan (link) will actually get enough riders to justify the 2.6 billion dollars. I’m also a fan of Transit City, bringing dedicate light rail lines to more of the city is good, but what good is it if we’ll have to pay $5 to ride because nobody thought about increasing the funding to TTC to run it.
I understand that people want something to change, but you need to pick a better target the the TTC fair box. It’s the political machine that is the problem. They are content to make big gestures with big photo ops but when it come time to make sure that your bus arrives on time and it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg to ride forget about it. There aren’t any photo ops for operating expenses.
The people that know me, know that I’m a bit of a transit freak. It’s an obsession of mine that doesn’t get onto my blog often, but every now and then something happens that makes me want to post about it.
Today that’s a video I found on a great site for people using transit in Toronto, MyTTC.ca The only knock I have against the site is I’m not sure how often the scheduling data is updated. When I was comparing it to some schedules the other day it seemed off. It’s still a fascinating site, and if the OpenTO includes Transit information it could become indispensible.
November a new month, time to get a new focus. I am very pleased that I was able to post everyday in October and hope to keep that going through November right on till the new year. Once I reach Jan 01 2010 I will take a look back and decide if I want to keep the posting every day or go to a different schedule. Of course I am participating in both National Blog Posting Month and National Blog Writing Month in the month of November but really I would be posting every day with or without them.
For November I’ve decided that I want an additional challenge. I’ve been considering different challenges I could set for my self. I thought about Nanowrimo but I don’t think I have time or the inspiration to do it. Also one of the great things about Nanowrimo was the events, and I know I Don’t have time to get to many if any of them. So since writing fiction isn’t for me right now and I’m already committed to writing my blog that leaves either programming or something entirely new.
Today was a bit of a relaxing day… It started early, Jacob didn’t seem to care that we set the clocks back during the night, but at least Violet seemed to sleep a little later. So for a while before the women woke up, it was a tired Daddy and energetic little hanging out. It was a nice morning, though both Melissa and Violet joined us pretty early, before the adjusted 9am. Being Sunday Jacob wanted to go to church, he really likes Sunday school plus he enjoys singing in the church during Communion.
Melissa and I might have headed to church this fine morning, but we had plans to see our friends and their 1 month old. So instead of brining Jacob with use for a visit with friends, he went to church with his Nan, something they do together regularly. Between the TTC adventure to get there, the Sunday school and singing while there, plus any fun they get to afterwards its quite an exciting day for our little guy.
We had a nice visit with friend sand returned to a slipping child. We spent the rest of the day just relaxing. A nice way to end the weekend and begin the new month. I have a lot of plans for the new moths, plans I had thought about kicking off today, but as the day turned into one of relocation, I’ve decided to put off my big November plans until tomorrow. After all Monday seem like a better day to start something new then Sunday.
