After almost 2 whole years I figured it was time Quoperative got a facelift.  Technically I figured it was about time for a facelift a year ago and I spent what seemed like months (most likely because it was months) trying to get the blog posts on the home page to lay out like perfectly-formatted newspaper columns.  After fucking around and trying to get it to work about a hundred different ways I gave up and set my sights a bit lower.  The way I see it, why shoot for the stars when you don’t have to?  That’s become my new mantra.

So just so you know… the homepage (cleverly labeled ‘fresh’ in the menu) now includes my blog posts, flickr photos, artwork and tweets — all intertwined chronologically into a continuous river of Steve… wow!

I also updated my work and posted a couple of paintings I did in the summer (photographed horribly by yours truly).

Ok, so Chris doesn’t NEEEEEED an iPhone but he really dropped the ball on his latest smartphone purchase, opting for the poster child for why it’s important to test products before releasing them: the Blackberry Storm.  Yes, and it’s been downhill ever since he got it.  And yes, he really regrets buying the iPhone “wannabe” instead of an actual iPhone.

So I took pity on the guy and we hatched a micro-site to help him raise the money to a) get out of his current contract with Bell and b) purchase a new iPhone.  Sounds suspicious, you think to yourself.  Why give some wanker money for buying a shit phone?  Good point.

Here’s the deal: you give Chris a little money towards getting the iPhone and he’ll give you something in return — he’ll smash the hell out of his Storm in whatever ridiculous way his supporters (i.e. you) suggest and videotape for all of the interweb to enjoy. I think it’s worth a small contribution.

It takes a real visionary organization to deliver — on top of complete and utter incompetence in helping a customer with their problem — service that makes the customer feel like a moron for not understanding the ins and outs of running a business based on drop shipping.  Obviously when I want to cancel my order with you, Tiger Direct, it’s my responsibility as the customer to cancel it with the anonymous drop shipper as well.  Why didn’t I think of that? Thankfully, the gentleman I spoke to in customer service was only too happy to deliver this message in a completely unnecessarily rude and condescending manner. Reminding me yet again why I’m just not smart enough to be working in a call centre. Boy, I wish I had gotten that young man’s name.  I would have loved to have included it here.

So, Tiger Direct… the ball is in your court.  Contact me if you’d like to salvage this blunder.

Check out this screencast posted last week to see Stephen Wolfram take Wolfram Alpha for a little test drive and show off what it can do.

Ok, fine… it probably won’t *kill* Google, but considering that people are turning to Google more and more to look up dinky facts and definitions because it’s such a damn good search engine, Wolfram Alpha stands a good chance of biting a serious chunk out of Google’s mind share when it comes to settling useless trivia disputes.

This is such a totally fresh and radical approach to using the internet — I can’t imagine this not having a massive impact on the everyday user in the next 3-5 years.