Competition for the IPad?

Blackberry introduced their product to compete with the Ipad this week. Click the link to read about it in USA Today.

Check it out on YouTube:

Happy Birthday! The real anniversary was earlier in September, 12 years ago. However, they celebrate their birthday at various times throughout the month September each year. The cake image is what you will see if you Google something today (along with the millions and millions of Google searches performed every day).

I am just waiting for the verb "Google" to make it into the dictionary. Have you tried Googling yourself? It is probably something you should do periodically to see what is on the Web about YOU!

Any ideas why this retail establishment is shutting its doors? I am not sure why there is so much confusion about the apostrophe. In its most basic definition, it is used to take the place of missing letters (in a contraction) or to show ownership. Why is it used here?

Drive-thru Technology...

I learned something very interesting from a student in class this week (thanks Stephanie)...Check this out. Personally, I cannot imagine how this can be cost effective. I am not sure what the benefit is except controlling customer service at the drive-thru on a corporate level instead of store by store and shift by shift. It is not yet a company wide policy, but it is happening in various parts of the US.

http://www.tasteofaloha.com/blog/observations/fast-food/jack-in-the-box-drive-thru-outsourcing-to-the-philippines/

Last spring I drove through a McDonald's drive thru and learned that the greeting was a prerecorded message welcoming me to the restaurant and encouraging me to purchase their promotional item. I found that offensive...again, I don't think it costs that much for the drive-thru employee to greet the customer. I can't imagine that it is that difficult to find employees that can be friendly to customers via a microphone and speaker. The only benefit I can see is that the message is consistent across all customers, and maybe they are tracking how successful it is to promote an item in a drive-thru greeting.

Food for thought...next time you enter a drive-thru, ask the greeter what the weather is like. If they don't answer you, they might be computerized. If they have no idea, then they might be on the other side of the world.

Currency Less than a Penny?

Sorry about the glare, but that isn't as bad as the misuse of the decimal point and cents sign.

In an era where there has been consideration to getting rid of the penny, I don't know how a national convenience store chain could expect a coin worth a partial penny.

I'd suggest going inside with a penny to buy a Big Gulp and tell them to keep the change, but I doubt anyone working there would understand. They'd probably have you arrested for shop lifting.