PardonMyFrench

JCP&L Failing At More Than Just Electrical Power

JCP&L or also known as Jersey Central Power and Light is unfortunately my forced power supply company in Long Valley NJ.  This isn't the first time I've been without electrical power and those of you that know me for a long time, know how important electricity is to me. However, this is the first time I'm generally angry with JCP&L and it's not due to the lack of power, it's due to their lack of communication.

OK so quick background.  Hurricane Irene blows into town.  We have electricity - no problem through the night and then through most of the day on Sunday.  The kids and I even went outside to play catch in the afternoon.  Then as I was bragging on Facebook our power went out around 3:30.  It's still out  The only reason you are reading this post is that one of our friends in Long Valley lent us their generator (we had more than one person offer us). We didn't plug in our fridges or freezers because they defrosted on the overnight.   So over 24 hours later still no JCP&L but that's not what has me angry.

What has me angry is the utter lack of communications from this company - specifically this "lack of information, restoration chart".  It's inexcusable in a world of texting, internet, Twitter, and Facebook.  How can a company in 2011, not know these tools exist and they are dirt cheap.  Let's take a look at how awful their communications are:

1. That chart has not been updated.  Does anyone in this state actually believe you have NO RESTORATION INFORMATION?  Of course not.
2. When you cruise Twitter, all there is information on how bad their communication process is.  People are downright angry not due to the lack of power but due to the lack of communication.
3. How about a text messaging program or email program to let me know when you have restoration information.
4. Writing about email, PSE&G who I use for the office building in Union NJ has been emailing me once a day since Irene was bearing down on NJ.  JCP&L - nothing.
5. When you visit their website you see a big graphic regarding the hurricane so clearly someone there thought, hmmm, let's throw up a graphic except the clicks to that graphic bring up useless information including links to useless press releases.
6. Oh back to the "no restoration information" map, when you look at power outages in Long Valley the count is going down which means power is being restored, so clearly, THERE HAS TO BE AN UPDATE OF SOME KIND.
7. So, no Twitter, FB, website updates, email updates and no useful press releases.  All of which are cheap and could probably be handled by existing staff.  So what happens? People call into their call center and this drives up costs and actually creates angry customers who have to sit and listen to hold music.
8. Finally, my last rant, I am sick and tired of being told not to touch a downed power line.  Give me something more useful than that

Seriously JCP&L you have to be better than this.  Communications in the digital world aren't so hard and if I was there, I guarantee you I can make a positive business case just by saving on inbound calls.  Please try to embrace some kind of digital communications before the next power failure.  Imagine what would have happened if there was a real disaster.

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

 

So, I Bought This MacBook Air

As you can see from my last post I was extremely frustrated with Windows and Internet Explorer.  Also, my laptop which was almost 3 years old was nearing the end.  The battery wasn't holding a charge very long (it's my second battery) and when I was in Iowa for a week in became quite apparent to me how slow my laptop had become on bootup.  Plus, one of the folks on the Iowa team had a Macbook Air and I became extremely jealous.

However, I still was reluctant to make the switch.  The Air I wanted plus the Apple Care and tax turned out to be around $2K and that's a big nut to swallow.  Similar (not really) HPs were in the $1300 range.  I went back and forth but my wife decided, that I should test out a MacBook Air so off we went to the Bridgewater NJ Mac store.  

Of course I bought it and after about a week, here's my quick review - BTW if you think this is going to be a Mac Fan Boy post, guess again.  To put this in perspective, I started using a PC in the mid 1980s while in high school - that would be MSDOS.  I've kept my floppy discs from college in a box as a joke for my kids.  I spent countless hours in Hill Center at Rutgers using email in the earliest days of email, I remember downloading photos with a dial up modem that took hours, and while at AT&T I was made a Microsoft rep so I remember installing Windows 1.0, Word 1.0 and Excel 1.0.  Finally, I probably have better Excel skills than about 95% of the users out there...

THE GOOD STUFF FOR AN OLD PC GUY LIKE ME

1. The machine itself is a work of art.  It's light, fast, pretty, I can't say enough good things
2. The battery lasts at least 5 hours of serious work applications
3. Itunes with iPhone and iPad just seem to work better
4. The mouse gestures are awesome - easy to use if you are a heavy iPad/iPhone person
5. The build in apps like iCal, iPhoto, Facetime, contacts, Grab, iChat, and mail are great products
6. The new Lion operating system seems very stable and easy to use.
7. Opening Office docs is easy

THE IT'S HARD TO TEACH AN OLD PC DOG NEW TRICKS SECTION

1. Importing your email is next to impossible if you don't use Outlook. I had to create a Gmail account that I used as an IMAP account on both computers to get some of my archived email over.
2. The compatibility between your old calendar and contacts are also problematic Calendar was handled via Google and Contacts was via iPhone
3. I didn't want to get Office.  It's expensive.  Mail coupled with iCalendar and Contacts is better than Outlook.  Pages and Keynote are superior products but it takes a while to get trained.  Basically, training yourself on those products will take time and commitment - don't fool yourself.
4. And then there's Excel.  I miss it.  Numbers is not as good.  As opposed to Pages and Keynote which seem easy and better Numbers is not.  After a week, I miss Excel, but Microsoft wont let you just buy Excel.  So I'm going to grin and bear it with Numbers for a while.
5. Oh - did I mention CSV files that you download from the internet.  They dont import in Numbers well.  You need to go from Pages and change the commas to tabs and then import it.
6. I miss the backspace button

After a week, the machine is awesome.  It's the best out there.  It does require some level of commitment to make it work - think LONG TERM commitment.  Even an old Windows guy can be off and running but to really get into it, it does require time and effort.  The biggest downer is Numbers.  It shouldn't even be described as a spreadsheet software. The title of the app should just be Numb.

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

I'm Nearing The End with Microsoft Windows

When I browse the internet, my browser of choice is Google Chrome.  It used to be Firefox, but I couldn't stand the updates.  My backup browser is Safari and in third place, a distant third, is Internet Explorer.  In fact, the only time I ever used IE was to login into Microsoft's AdCenter and Atlas.  AdCenter is for managing search campaigns on Bing and Atlas is a third party ad server I use to place ads on specific sites for media buys.  You see Microsoft in their infinite wisdom really only allows IE as the acceptable browser.  AdCenter I can get in with Safari and look around but eventually, I have to use IE.

That was until a week ago.  Internet Explorer just stopped working.   I have no clue why. So after uninstalling it, I tried installing IE 9 and after many times I gave up.  I have no clue why it won't install and Microsoft's knowledgebase is only good for serious gear heads.  I installed update after update and upgraded my DirectX and still nothing.  I must have spent 4 hours and all I kept seeing was IE crapping out and the Blue Screen of install. 

So I gave up.  I used my old computer to login into AdCenter and Atlas and moved on.  

I don't understand the logic of forcing advertisers to use a specific browser to manage ad campaigns.

I dont understand why it is so hard to install Internet Explorer.

I dont understand why the KB solutions are so hard to understand.

I dont understand all of the constant updates.

If I wanted something turnkey that I don't really understand how it works, maybe I should just get a MAC and call it a day.  That's saying a lot for someone that used DOS and remembers Windows 1.0.  Plus, back at AT&T I was voluteered to be a Microsoft sales connection for Office products.

Microsoft, you make it really hard to stay a customer. I think I'm done.

PardonMyFrench,

Eric