It’s hard to believe that its been two months since I’ve lasted posted.

Grad school has kept me busy, but it’s been enjoyable. What I’ve come to realize over the past week is that I’ve dropped the editing of my photos from over the summer and creating a diary of the trip.

The impetus for the thought – Ken Burns’ series on the National Parks. Another outstanding series from him. I love watching the imagery and the narrative on the background stories behind the parks. You have to shake your head and wonder why the citizens of Wyoming didn’t want to protect this –

Oxbow Bend at Sunset

I’ve recently started to use Twitter and I keep getting questions from friends as to why…

So here are the things I like about Twitter -

• Ability to follow “leaders” in a given field. For example, during the Tour de France, I can see quick updates from Lance Armstrong, Levi Leipheimer, and many other direct participants in the race. Within photography, Scott Kelby, Joe McNally, their assistants, and many more leaders and influencers post worthwhile things to read on a regular basis.
• Ability to send those leaders messages directly. They then have the opportunity to read/scan “fan” email very quickly. They can create a community without having to involve others
• Dynamic creation of communities such as during the 2nd Annual Worldwide Photowalk, where participants can post related messages by simply adding a special “tag” to their messages(tweets).
• Having a character limit of 140 characters forces messages to be short and to the point.
• Ability for “news” to be reported first from the masses of users around the globe. Remember the photo from the US Airways crash in early 2009? Came from Twitter first

Here’s what intrigues me and I’d like to research -

• How communities are created
• How trends spread
• Determining a person’s interests from whom they follow and the content of their posts
• Figuring out the degrees of separation within the Twitter community as a whole. (ie, the Kevin Bacon game)

And, yes, there are things that I really don’t like -

• Individuals who post inane things like “Heading to the post office”, “going on a photowalk”, “eating dinner with the family”, etc. If you’re message isn’t going to be have value or having meaning to others than don’t post it.
• Individuals who take advantage of communities to sell their products or direct traffic to their sites/blogs

Of course, Letterman always has his say….

Update (25 July 2009): Twitter posted Twitter 101 for Business this past week.

I was talking a look at power adapters for my phone and laptop from iGo. I’ve had one of their adapters for over 3 years and my wife has had one even longer. Although my model is no longer available, I can still buy tips and accessories, which is very good. The only real complaint I’ve had over the years is that Radio Shack, who is one of their primary distributors, does no sell laptop tips in their stores.

As I was leaving the page, a little chat window came up with the following conversation:
Megan Says: Hey wait! We hate to see you go. So just this once we’d like to offer you 10% OFF for making your purchase today at iGo.com! CLICK HERE to take advantage of this amazing offer!
Megan Says: Just type ‘HI’ or ‘Hello’ in the space below to let me know you are there.
Megan Says: From notebooks to mobile phones to digital cameras and mp3 devices…iGo charges them ALL!
Megan Says: Whenever you are ready, just type ‘HI’ or ‘HELLO’ and we can get started…
You: Hi
Megan Says: Hi, thanks for chatting with me today… CLICK HERE to take advantage of this amazing offer!
Megan Says: Power all of your electronics with ONE iGo adapter!
Megan Says: Our patented tip technology allows a single iGo adapter to rapidly charge all your gadgets using interchangeable tips. These tips automatically configure to ensure each device gets the precise amount of power it requires.
Megan Says: Don’t wait any longer and remember when you order today you will receive 10% OFF! CLICK HERE to take advantage of this amazing offer!
You: I’ve got an old one already. Was looking at what I needed to do to update for a dell studio 1535 as well as an iPhone.
Megan Says: We’d like to offer you 10% OFF for making your purchase today at iGo.com! CLICK HERE to take advantage of this amazing offer!

Megan – thanks for answering my question. You were too kind.

I decided to try this again to see what would happen …

Rachel Says: Hey! CLICK HERE to receive 10% OFF with your order right now!
Rachel Says: Just type ‘HI’ or ‘Hello’ in the space below to let me know you are there.
You: Hi
You: How is your day, Rachel?
Rachel Says: This amazing offer is only available through this chat and for a limited time. CLICK HERE to take advantage of this deal.
Rachel Says: Hi, thanks for chatting with me today… CLICK HERE to take advantage of this amazing offer!
Rachel Says: Power all of your electronics with ONE iGo adapter!
You: Rachel, does the iGo dual power accessory work with the Juice 70?
Rachel Says: Our patented tip technology allows a single iGo adapter to rapidly charge all your gadgets using interchangeable tips. These tips automatically configure to ensure each device gets the precise amount of power it requires.
Rachel Says: We’d like to offer you 10% OFF for making your purchase today at iGo.com! CLICK HERE to take advantage of this amazing offer!
Rachel Says: Don’t wait any longer and remember when you order today you will receive 10% OFF! CLICK HERE to take advantage of this amazing offer!
You: What tip would you recommend for an iPhone?
Rachel Says: We’d like to offer you 10% OFF for making your purchase today at iGo.com! CLICK HERE to take advantage of this amazing offer!
You: Is that your picture on the right side on the window, here?
You: you have lovely hair and beautiful eyes.
Rachel Says: I’m sorry, I do not have information on all our products, I just have the ability to offer you this discount. For more questions or information, please call us at (888) 205 0093 or CLICK HERE to contact customer service.
Rachel Says: Keep in mind that if you order right now you will receive 10% OFF! CLICK HERE at checkout to take advantage of this amazing offer!
You: Are you really there?
Rachel Says: I’m still here. what can I help you wth?

And then one more conversation with Megan -
Megan Says: Hey wait! We hate to see you go. So just this once we’d like to offer you 10% OFF for making your purchase today at iGo.com! CLICK HERE to take advantage of this amazing offer!
You: Are you really there?
Megan Says: I’m still here. what can I help you wth?
You: what tip do I need with an iPhone
Megan Says: I’m sorry, I do not have information on all our products, I just have the ability to offer you this discount. For more questions or information, please call us at (888) 205 0093 or CLICK HERE to contact customer service.
You: ok. Thank you.
You: Have a good day.
Megan Says: This amazing offer is only available through this chat and for a limited time. CLICK HERE to take advantage of this deal.
Megan Says: Okay great. CLICK HERE to take advantage of this amazing offer!
You: would you like to go to dinner, tonight?
Megan Says: Keep in mind that if you order right now you will receive 10% OFF! CLICK HERE at checkout to take advantage of this amazing offer!
You: I take it, that’s a no?
Megan Says: Remember, this offer for 10% OFF is available through this chat only and for a limited time. It may not be available tomorrow. CLICK HERE to take advantage of this amazing offer!

Their website does have a timing mechanism so you can’t experience chat within x minutes of the last one. However, if you are going to provide this functionality, make it so a real human that can jump in to the conversation and provide real customer service. (Or, find a really good AI conversation tool.) There is a nice delay on the agent conversations so that it appears like someone is actually typing.

Recieved an “interesting” credit card offer from Visa (or some supplier there of), for the “Black Visa Card”.

Carbon-fiber, conceirge services, and high credit limits available to the just %1 of the U.S. population eligible to have the card.

The fine print: $495 annual feed.  

Just like all of the other credit card offers I receive, this one quickly found the trash.

Yes, but not nearly as much as the report $4.5 billion would led you to believe.  Here are their one-time earnings used to make that number:

• $1.9 billion pretax gain on the sale of shares in China Construction Bank
• $2.2 billion from an adjustment to the value of structured notes at Merrill

Things not mentioned in the headlines:

• Credit card division lost $1.8 billion
• Mortgage division lost $500 million
• $6.4 billion added to reserves to cover future losses

Who’s next up in this game?   From this morning’s performance in the stock market, investors aren’t happy playing…

According to the headline of this New York Times article, they did.

But on closer inspection, their $1.6 billion profit came from a 1-time charge of $2.7 billion.   So in reality, the company actually had $1.1 billion in less cash (i.e., money out the door) than they had at the start of the quarter.

It’s these types of games that need to stop.

I finally decided to cancel my American Express Delta SkyMiles yesterday. After evaluating my current spending and travel plans, I didn’t feel it make sense to continue to pay $95 annually for the privilege of using the card.

One of things that surprised me was the customer service rep made no effort to eliminate the fee for a year, just trying to talk me into keeping the card. Even that effort wasn’t that strong …

From some random place on the internet. Felt it was worth sharing …

The Primer

If you publish a vendor’s site that has just declared bankruptcy prior to the list being published?

RitzCamera appears #67 on this list – http://www.web100.com/photo-100

What’s even more shameful is how much higher it appears ahead of couple serious camera stores such as B&H (#89) and Adorama(#100).

With the auto bailout completely stalled in Congress and rumors of bankruptcy discussions anew for General Motors, the overseas markets are all currently down 4-5%.  

I’m not really sure what to think here.  Personallly, I’m against the bailouts – someone is going to have to eventually pay for it.  However, there are millions of jobs at stake.  My ultimatum to the UAW wasn’t necessary to take a significant pay cut, but rather change your anachronist rules.  They have forced GM and the other automakers to be far inefficient.