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media commentary

Aug 05 2010

Dear Google: It Ain’t a Free Trial If You Charge Me

By media commentary

I have been a Google brand advocate for over a decade. Fell on their search engine like a starving dog when it launched in beta in ’98 (even then, they really were better than everybody else), and have enthusiastically jumped in on all their web-based tools as they’ve rolled out. Since I switched to an Android-powered phone recently, and am trying to find the right tools to sync my Outlook contacts (almost 2K) with both my Droid and Google Contacts – backups to the backups, always available – I decided to investigate Google Apps. Their Premier (paid) Edition looked like it was worth a try. And they offer a 30-day free trial. Or at least they say they do. I signed up for the free trial. They asked for my credit card number, and I gave it – I’ve taken advantage of many free trial offers the same way. I use it, if I like it, I stay and pay. If I don’t like it, I cancel during the trial period. Has always been easy…until Google Apps. I was concerned when I saw a charge appear on my credit card account online almost instantaneously after I signed up for the “free” trial. How is it free if you’re charging me for it? I followed the “Support” thread in an attempt to find why they’d charged me. This is all I got: In case you can’t make out the text at the bottom, it says that even though it looks like I was charged, I wasn’t. I beg to differ. $50 that has been taken out of my account is $50 I don’t have access to – which sounds like “charging” to me. I canceled the trial immediately. The charge IS STILL ON MY ACCOUNT ALMOST 36 HOURS LATER. Trying to…

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Jul 28 2010

Are Afghan Papers the 21st Century’s Pentagon Papers?

By media commentary, PR

Daily Beast’s lead story today reveals that the Justice Dept. and the Pentagon have expanded their investigation of Bradley Manning, the US Army analyst who handed over what I’m calling the Afghan Papers to Wikileaks. As someone who is, um, experienced enough to remember the Pentagon Papers dust-up in 1967 when the war in Vietnam was ramping up, and the DoD and White House were – to call a spade a spade – flat-out lying to the American people about the US military expansion and operations in southeast Asia, I feel compelled to make this observation: Democracy requires truth. Truth is the enemy of politics. Those forces will be forever set in opposition, which means that, from time to time, the blood – or freedom – of patriots must be sacrificed on the altar of that truth. Nothing I have read about Manning gives me the impression that he was looking for any kind of recognition or compensation from leaking the Afghan Papers. According to his friends, this kid – and he is a kid, under 25 years old (Ellsberg was 35 when he leaked the Pentagon Papers) – was hugely conflicted about what he observed on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan, and what he saw reported further up the chain. As our adventure in the sand continues in Afghanistan and Iraq, in aid of a purpose that I don’t think anyone has a clear grip on, I find myself thinking that Bradley Manning has more cojones – and courage – than anyone in the Pentagon. One of his fellow soldiers, posting anonymously on Daily Beast, tellingly says that the Afghan campaign is called The Ocho (inspired by one of my favorite movies, Dodge Ball) by troops on the ground, and is thought to be an exercise in futility…

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Mar 15 2010

The Powerful + Multifaceted Story That Is Temple Grandin

By media commentary

Temple Grandin is a cross-species hero. Her appearance at TED makes me wonder: what took them so long to invite her? Her work with animals, particularly in the design of slaughterhouses, revolutionized the cattle industry. As an autistic, she is the living representation of what’s possible with what she calls “unique minds” – her passion is in direct opposition to the standardization that has strangled education in the US for decades. The current economic landscape is driving school systems toward more standardization as budgets get slashed, particularly for the subjects that engage outlier minds: shop, art, music. Einstein was likely an autistic-spectrum mind – probably Asperger Syndrome – so what does it mean for innovative thinking in our society that we’re taking non-standardized minds and forcing them down paths that will cut them off from their ability to think in new ways? Sounds like the essence of cruelty. In fact, it’s intellectual slaughter. We’re forcing kids down chutes, prodding them toward the end of the track – in this case, a high school diploma, not a killing bolt to the forehead, but how many minds are killed by the proc What can we do? Fight to keep visual and verbal arts in the curriculum for public schools, for one. Another would be to consider a 2nd or retirement career in the classroom, particularly if you’re a scientist or artist. Be an innovative thinker yourself. That’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it…

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