As the world develops, and technology gets better, will we forget the essence of relations between two people: how to serve? I live in Indonesia right now, which is probably the service capital of the world. Not necessarily in terms of expertise, and certainly not in terms of quality of goods (despite having some of… Read More »
Service at Amazon, the great online store I’ve dealt with for years, is either declining or getting selective. A friend of mine in Indonesia placed an order on June 19, received confirmation the same day, and then…. nothing. She queried the order twice, and I’ve queried it once, without any response. The bank hasn’t received any… Read More »
Here’s how Russians and other scammers are getting their illicit gains back home. The BBC website reports on a scam where (probably Russian) scammers are posting job ads claiming to be charities looking for people to forward donations made by hi-tech firms. Those responding to the job ads — usually for something like a “correspondence… Read More »
Are we liberated by technology, or its captive? I love my handphone and I congratulate myself, as I’m checking my email in the middle of some dusty Indonesian kampung, that I have harnessed technology and not the other way round. But sometimes I wonder. A recent poll by Siemens callled the Mobile Lifestyle Survey (no… Read More »
Newsweek takes a look (via TechDirt) at a future Internet controlled by corporations and governments through Digital Rights Management, secure chips and micropayments. It’s an interesting article, and makes me ponder some interesting supplementary questions: Are spammers, for example, the enemy of ordinary Internet folk, or virtual Robin Hoods eluding corporate control of the web?… Read More »