Do you have swine flu?

Have a pretty bad cough? Think you may have the swine flu? If so, there is a very easy way to determine if you have the swine flu or if you have the regular flu this season. To determine if you have swine flu or the regular flu you must listen carefully to your cough. Watch the video to hear the difference in the regular cough and the swine flu cough.

*This statement has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This video is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease

Mmmm

. . . my wife makes good pie!

Enough said.

Finally!

*Photo Credit washingtonpost.com

From the moment Google announced that they would be offering a mobile OS, Android, I've been waiting for it to come to Sprint. As of right now the only Android based handset in the US is on T-mobile—don't want to switch—but this will soon change.

Now this doesn't mean that I'll switch right away, I can't really. But I plan on it when I can.

Now, I know that some of you realize the value of having a phone that is connected to the internet, but for those of you who are skeptical let me give you my reasons for why it is so great to have this functionality.

Besides the obvious automatic backup of data, the internet-connected smart phone is worth more than just internet browsing (nice but hardly a killer app). The real value is in the apps that sync with the internet. Let me give you an example:

With my current phone, I have a ledger that helps me track the amount we have in our bank account and other financial accounts. So long as I don't forget to add an entry, it stays up-to-date. It's a great reference when I have my phone—but if I've got my phone with me my wife can't reference it at all. This is the real value of internet-connected phones. If I had and app that kept my ledger like now, and uploaded the information to a secure account online, then Cindy could view it at her whim. Even better would be if she had a smart phone of her own and could link it with the same ledger, then, even on the go, she would be as up-to-date as I am.

You can see the value of this with other applications for work, home, and other uses I'm sure. But, alas, it is pricey and until we are no longer college students (and probably longer) or the price comes down a lot then we will be waiting.

Bing.com vs Microsoft

So I was reading the daily Dilbert strip this morning when I saw this ad.

This ad made me laugh, I realize that bing.com is Microsoft's new search engine, but this ad really makes it look like bing.com is a laptop manufacturer and they are comparing their new bright shinny laptop with an old, shattered, broken down Microsoft PC.

I realize that Microsoft is trying advertise the fact that you can compare multiple laptops on bing.com, but to me it looks like bing.com and Microsoft are two different companies and that bing.com is using some negative advertising against Microsoft. They shouldn't have put the two logos in separate corners, that's what makes them look like their competing.

What does it look like to you?

DO NOT REPLY

We all get them from online merchants and services, social networking sites, blogs, email lists, and news feeds, even local senators, the list goes on: the NO_REPLY@somewhere.com.

For most of my email existence, I haven't given it much thought. I think I did ask myself why companies did that at first, but I've grown to accept it. But today, after receiving an email from a do not reply email address from a company I think has otherwise great customer service, I asked myself what the purpose of the practice was.

I think that most companies do it so that they control the flow of communication—but shouldn't they try to help customers out in anyway possible? Why force the customer to go through the extra steps of filling out yet another form to contact, or re-contact, a company. Why not just allow them to click the reply button, they wouldn't have to put in their case IDs (because they're already there) or re-describe the issue and what's been done (the email has achieved all that info).

Now I'm sure that there are some good reasons for it, though at the moment I can't think of any, but I'm beginning to wonder if it is a good business practice.

What do you think? (Please reply.)