Web 2.0 - What the heck is it? An idea? A belief? A movement? A purpose? All of the above? Who knows and who cares as long as VC's pay big bucks for "Web 2.0" features :-P
Can't think of the next big Web 2.0 idea? This may help:
Web Two Point Oh!
These are actual conversations with various travel agents. Pretty funny. Makes me think of that scene from Austin Powers when Dr. Evil says, "Why must I be surrounded by friggin idiots?!"
I had someone ask for an aisle seat so that his or her hair wouldn't get messed up by being near the window.
A client called in inquiring about a package to Hawaii. After going over all the cost info, she asked, "Would it be cheaper to fly to California and then take the train to Hawaii?"
I got a call from a woman who wanted to go to Capetown. I started to explain the length of the flight and the passport information when she interrupted me with "I'm not trying to make you look stupid, but Capetown is in Massachusetts. "Without trying to make her look like the stupid one, I calmly explained, "Capecod is in Massachusetts, Capetown is in Africa." Her response ... click.
A man called, furious about a Florida package we did. I asked what was wrong with the vacation in Orlando. He said he was expecting an ocean-view room. I tried to explain that is not possible, since Orlando is in the middle of the state. He replied, "Don't lie to me. I looked on the map and Florida is a very thin state."
I got a call from a man who asked, "Is it possible to see England from Canada?" I said, "No." He said "But they look so close on the map."
Another man called and asked if he could rent a car in Dallas. When I pulled up the reservation, I noticed he had a 1-hour lay over in Dallas. When I asked him why he wanted to rent a car, he said, "I heard Dallas was a big airport, and I need a car to drive between the gates to save time."
A nice lady just called. She needed to know how it was possible that her flight from Detroit left at 8:20am and got into Chicago at 8:33am. I tried to explain that Michigan was an hour ahead of llinois, but she could not understand the concept of time zones. Finally I told her the plane went very fast, and she bought that!
A woman called and asked, "Do airlines put your physical description on your bag so they know who's luggage belongs to who?" I said, "No, why do you ask?" She replied, "Well, when I checked in with the airline, they put a tag on my luggage that said FAT, and I'm overweight, is there any connection?" After putting her on hold for a minute while I "looked into it" (I was actually laughing) I came back and explained the city code for Fresno is FAT, and that the airline was just putting a destination tag on her luggage.
I just got off the phone with a man who asked, "How do I know which plane to get on?" I asked him what exactly he meant, which he replied, "I was told my flight number is 823, but none of these darn planes have numbers on them."
A woman called and said, "I need to fly to Pepsi-cola on one of those computer planes." I asked if she meant to fly to Pensacola on a commuter plane. She said, "Yeah, whatever."
A businessman called and had a question about the documents he needed in order to fly to China. After a lengthy discussion about passports, I reminded him he needed a visa. "Oh no I don't, I've been to China many times and never had to have one of those." I double checked and sure enough, his stay required a visa. When I told him this he said, "Look, I've been to China four times and every time they have accepted my American Express."
A woman called to make reservations, "I want to go from Chicago to Hippopotamus, New York" The agent was at a loss for words. Finally, the agent: "Are you sure that's the name of the town?" "Yes, what flights do you have?" replied the customer. After some searching, the agent came back with, "I'm sorry, ma'am, I've looked up every airport code in the country and can't find a Hippopotamus anywhere." The customer retorted, "Oh don't be silly. Everyone knows where it is. Check your map!" The agent scoured a map of the state of New York and finally offered, "You don't mean Buffalo, do you?" "That's it! I knew it was a big animal!"
I've had the boring Google Home page set as my default homepage on my browser for years now. It really doesn't make any sense if you think about it. I have the Google Toolbar installed. Firefox has the Search box in the upper right corner of the browser AND you can simply type in any search term in the location field and it'll use Google to find the best match for you.
So earlier this week I decided to set my homepage to something else. Something a bit more interesting. Sure, a news site would be a good choice, but I get enough of the news at work when I'm riding up the elevator and on my way to the kitchen to get some tea (and snacks!)
So what did I decide to set my homepage to? Why, the most interesting link imaginable:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
A virtually unlimited source of knowledge and information at my fingertips. I've learned so much already. I think I'm almost ready for Jeopardy!
Whoa! Look who's back after a couple of months. Me! Yea, been busy with work and life. Moved to the big city. Been having less time to blog and more time socializing and all that good stuff. Don't have much to report on right now, but check this out just for fun:
Go ahead, make one yourself. It's fun fun fun!
Spell with Flickr
[via: Fak3r's Blog]
Here is a fun little puzzle for those who enjoy solving puzzles. Supposedly it was created by Einstein and only 2% of the world population can solve it. Not so sure about that, but here it is anyway...
[via http://www.coudal.com/thefish.php]
There are five houses in a row in different colors. In each house lives a person with a different nationality. The five owners drink a different drink, smoke a different brand of cigar and keep a different pet, one of which is a Walleye Pike.
The question is-- who owns the fish?
Hints:
There are no tricks, pure logic will get you the correct answer. And yes, there is enough information to arrive at the one and only correct answer.
Yes, I was able to find the answer. I will reveal it in a few days. Have fun! and don't cheat and look it up on Google or something. It's really not that hard (assuming I am right :-P )