7/30/2007

eBay Bidders Go Even More Crazy

I guess we have known this for a long time already, but this weekend I had a special example of how crazy bidders can get.

The "usual" degree of craziness makes people buy items at eBay at a higher price than they would pay if they did some very basic research on some pricing portals. I have grown somewhat used to this by now.

This weekend I saw people bid for a used sports watch; they ended up paying more than for a brand new one also selling on eBay. They were the same models and the auctions were only 2 hours apart from each other.

With such people around, bidding is no fun any more. But watching is! :-)

7/27/2007

Majority of German Managers Do Not Get a Bonus

According to a survey by Stepstone, 58% of German managers have never gotten a bonus for successful work. I found this information in this article (German).

I really doubt this - I do not know a single manager to whom this would apply, including myself. So where does this information come from? Maybe the people who have (or take, anyway) the time to reply to this kind of surveys never deserved a bonus for successful work?

Having said that, I have to add that I am a critic of bonuses - of course I like getting them (who would not?), but I'd say they have no or even negative effects from all that I have seen. There is a really good book on how bonus systems can make your employees' efforts deteriorate: "Measuring Performance in Organisations". For those who want to set up bonus schemes, this book should imho be made mandatory.

7/26/2007

How to Make Pandora.com Work From Any Location

Recently pandora.com had to limit access to their music to US residents. This is done via the client's IP address.

I know many people outside the US who love Pandora (including me ;-)), so I played around a little with proxies.

Proxies usually have the disadvantage that they slow down network traffic, so even if you get it to work, the music will be disrupted. But there is FoxyProxy to the rescue: just install this add-on in Firefox (if you are using IE, sorry guys, but you had a bad deal from the start!), then configure it to use any US-based proxy (hope you know how to find one) for all URLs starting with "http://www.pandora.com/". This will make the UI of Pandora load slowly, but once it is loaded, the music is streamed from a different URL, which does not go through the proxy and on which Pandora does not check the client's IP address.

Happy listening!

7/21/2007

How to Use Your BlackBerry 8100 (aka Pearl) as a GPRS Modem

These instructions will make your BB work as a GPRS modem for T-Mobile in Germany.
When I followed instruction I had found on the web, I ended up with this message: "PPP link control protocol was terminated". So I experimented myself and found that it works for me as follows:
  1. install BlackBerry Device Manager (usually together with BB Desktop Manager), you'll find it on the disc supplied with your BB, or just grab the latest version from their support pages
  2. make sure that your BB Device Manager is running (the easiest way to start it is to start BB Desktop Manager)
  3. do not use the modem that was installed by BB software!
  4. look in Windows Device Manager (Start - Settings - Control Panel - System - Hardware - Device Manager) under Ports (COM & LPT) for the port that your BB is using (there will be two ports, for me it was COM6 and COM7)
  5. go to Start - Settings - Control Panel - Phone and Modem Options
  6. create a new modem (choose Add, select Don't detect my modem ... , press Next, select Standard 33600 bps Modem (this is the important part, it is not full speed, but later the modem will nevertheless work at full speed), press Next and connect your modem to your BB port(s). If you connect it to multiple ports, there will be multiple modems in the end - no harm done, but I only connected it to the first port
  7. create a new network connection: Start - Settings - Network Connections - New Connection Wizard. Press Next, select Connect to the Internet, press Next, choose Set up my connection manually, press Next, choose Connect using a dial-up modem, press Next, select your new modem from the list (choose both if you associated your modem with both BB ports), press Next, name your connection, press Next, enter *99# for the phone number, press Next, choose whichever option you prefer, press Next, leave username and password blank, uncheck Use this account name ... and also uncheck Make this the default internet connection, press Next, press Finish
  8. you can now connect to the internet using your new connection. When prompted for username and password, just leave them blank.

I found some advice stating that I should enter an initialization string for my modem such as +cdgcont=1,"IP","internet.t-d1.de and use "td1" as the username and "gprs" as the password. I found this is not needed. The main trick seems to be with not using the standard modem but the lower speed one.

If you find a more simple way to do this, please let me know and I will be happy to update this post. I am sure your fellow BB users will appreciate your help.

7/12/2007

Service der Deutschen Bahn

Das ist wieder ein schönes Beispiel, wie Service in Deutschland funktioniert: kürzlich habe ich meine Sporttasche im Zug liegengelassen. Auf www.bahn.de konnte man eine Verlustmeldung abgeben, was ich auch direkt getan habe. Gehört habe ich natürlich nichts.

Aber dafür gibt es ja eine Service-Nummer, die man anrufen kann, und die nur 59 cent pro Minute (!) kostet. Nach nur 2 Minuten Ansage und Musik kam ich schon zu einem "Agenten" durch.

Die Informationen beschränkten sich leider auf "wir haben nichts gefunden, es wurde noch nichts gemeldet". Bei dem "Service Center" handelt es sich nach Auskunft des "Agenten" um eine Zentralstelle, die Kontakt mit den lokalen Fundbüros der Bahn aufnimmt. Ich wüßte ja, in welchem Fundbüro meine Tasche sein müßte, aber dieses kann ich nicht direkt anrufen, alles muß über die (teure) Zentrale gehen.

Bekomme ich automatisch eine Benachrichtigung, wenn die Tasche gefunden wird? Nein. Warum, Sie haben doch meine Daten über die Verlustmeldung? Schon, aber wenn in der Tasche keine Angaben zu Ihrer Person sind, melden wir uns nicht. Ich muß also wieder anrufen? Genau. - So macht man Geld.

Fazit des Gesprächs, das um die 2 Euro gekostet haben dürfte: nichts, null, nada.

Danke, Deutsche Bahn, für einen wertlosen aber kostenpflichtigen Service!

Edit am 16. Juli: In der Zentrale geben sie die Nummer zwar nicht heraus, aber nach einigem Suchen habe ich die Nummer des Funbüros der Bahn in München herausgefunden - dort können sie die Verlustmeldung ebenfalls abfragen und Auskunft erteilen - und dies zu einem normalen Telefontarif!

Edit am 30. Juli: Inzwischen habe ich erfahren, daß Gegenstände aus Regionalbahnen nicht an die Zentrale in Wuppertal gehen, sondern z. B. in Augsburg gesammelt werden. Bei meiner Verlustmedung hatte ich den Zug angegeben, also warum sagt mir die Zentrale das eigentlich nicht gleich?
Gefunden wurde auch dort leider nichts, aber das hätte auch bei einem guten Service passieren können.
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