Flickr SXSW 2009 Set

Thanks and see you next year!

I recently had the pleasure of visiting Yosemite to take part in a small photography workshop and had a great time, meeting many people and (of course) seeing amazing sights.  Dave Wyman and Ken Rockwell were the hosts, providing instruction and locations over a 3 day period.  This was my first “official” workshop, having done many photowalks – both organized and not – over the last few years.

I flew to SFO and then drove a rented Ford Escape for the 4.5 hour journey to Yosemite. Trip there was easy enough, although I didn’t get into the park until dark and there was a fair amount of roadwork going on which confused the GPS. I Eventually found Yosemite Lodge, though, and was able to bump into Dave to find out where to meet & when, etc. for the next day.

Day 1 began at 7:30am at Curry Village and was a busy day, heading first to Stoneman Meadow (views of Half Dome and more), a nearby creek and bridges (beautiful reflections in the calm of early morning) before heading out to the Girls Club and Ansel Adams Gallery.  Ken gave a good talk on the fundamentals of shooting landscape photography, going over exposure, color balance, lighting and more.  Ken is an excellent speaker and teacher, with the most important message being “just get out and shoot”.

After Ken’s talk, we headed to the Ansel Adams Gallery and the nearby cemetary, taking numerous pictures along the way.  It was great to mingle with the crowd and compare shots, angles, etc. to see how everyone approached their photography.

The afternoon was spent at El Capitan Meadow, Valley View, Tunnel View, Fern Springs (Yosemite’s smallest waterfall – OK Dave that’s reaching…;)) and the Bridalveil Falls parking lot to see the rainbow that Dave promised, which did show up even though the water was sparse.  We ended the day at the Yosemite Chapel, running a road block and meeting a family of deer to boot.  A bunch of us headed back to Curry Village for pizza and beverages (beer for Dave & I, chocolate milk for Ken).

Day 2 was, for the most part, about driving and finding gas… OK not really but it felt that way.  We started the day heading down to the Merced River for some early morning reflections of Half Dome in the water, and began a slow hike looping around to the Supervisor’s Cabin.  Lots of great views along the way.  After breakfast we headed out to the Foresta Barns, a brief drive outside the park.  Afterwards we continued to drive to Mariposa and the giant Sequoias – right about here is where our car (myself and 3 others) decided gas was a priority, especially since the gas station at our meeting place was closed for renovations.  No problem, an hour out of the way to Oakhurst and we made it back to the Sequoias in time to meet up with everyone else.  Good thing I filled up, too, because after the trees we headed up to Glacier Point, about a 20 mile drive from the Park entrance.  This was the highlight of the day for me, as it (and Washburn Point just before it) offered amazing views of the valley and a straight-on look at Half Dome.  Worth the drive, to say the least.  The day ended with a nice dinner with new friends from California and a late night of viewing pics in Lightroom.

Day 3, the last day (already?) was only scheduled for the morning, but we did manage to see a lot.  We met at the Ahwahnee Hotel for breakfast (the “ritzy” place of Yosemite) and then wandered around the area for new photo ops.  A few of us walked back to the Lodge (at least 3km, I’d say) and met up there for final goodbyes and exchanges of info.  I gave out a few Moo cards to people, I hope they manage to get to my site and read this ;).

As my flight was booked for the next day, I went back to my room for a few hours to relax and then met up with Jay and his wife, plus a very nice couple from Florida (OK guys I need spelling on your names….) for dinner.  Called it a night fairly early to get up at 6 to start heading back to SFO and home.  Long drive but nice weather, then a 3 hour+ wait at the airport for a delayed flight back home.

I have finally managed to upload images to Flickr and Smugmug, so please have a look and leave any comments or questions.  I hope to do more of these in the future.  Thanks again to Dave & Ken – next stop Vancouver, OK guys…? 

PS I have created a group on Flickr called “Autumn Light In Yosemite 2008” for anyone that is on Flickr to post their pictures to.  To use it, join the group (an option on this page) and then upload your pictures as normal.  Select one of your pictures that you would like to submit to the group and select “Send To Group” in your toolbar on the Flickr Page and choose the “Autumn Light in Yosemite 2008″ group.  Optionally, you can also add the tag “AutumnLightInYosemite2008″ as another way of pooling all of these shots together.  Searching for that phrase (no spaces) will return all pictures in Flickr with that tag. E-mail or leave me a comment here if you have any questions at all.

Sorry for the flash pic, but I didn’t get home to see this until the sun started to go down, and I didn’t want to miss the status update.  As you can see from above, we have forms now and the rebar is ready to be placed.  I expect the crew will be back tomorrow to finish up forming and if we go to plan the pour will happen next week.  We’re still looking for things to be done in October and I’ll continue to update you guys.

Renovating is hell.

In order for them to spin it, though, they’ve announced it as a “limited time offer” that expires August 31st.  Honestly I think the (much) more expensive plans will fade into the darkness and this one or one like it will be the real plans for the future.  Rogers couldn’t just change their plans, though.  That’d make them look…well…WRONG.  Funny that.

I was on the phone with Rogers CSR last night for close to an hour discussing options on upgrades etc. and of course this did not come up – but then he probably had no idea it was coming.  What he did tell me, though, is that based on my family plan and the fact that Marilyn had bought a Motorola phone about 6 months ago I am actually not in the Hardware Tier that would allow me to pay the advertised rate for the iPhone.  Apparently the $199/$299 rates are for new customers - you know, the ones that flip from Telco to Telco.  Another brilliant display of customer retention.  To make it even more ridiculous – I’m shortening the conversation considerably – if I pay my current bill now instead the of automatic payment in 2 weeks I would somehow magically then be in the proper hardware tier for the advertised price.  I kid you not.  It never ceases to amaze me how companies try so hard to get new customers yet make their loyal subscribers bend over and take one to get anything.   But that’s another battle to come.

Ironically, a story was leaked yesterday that both Bell and Telus will be charging for incoming SMS messages soon.  $50 says it was a Rogers zealot that leaked it – great attempt at deflection, guys.  But it’s not entirely ridiculous, imho.  That charge is only put through if you do not have a Text Messaging plan of any kind on your line.  Most people that expect SMS messages have a plan of some kind, so they won’t really notice any difference.  Others, tho, can still receive SMS messages – unless the Telcos offer the option to block them.  Clearly, if it’s a spam SMS there’s no way people should have to pay for it, so good luck Bellus on enforcing a charge in that situation.  Rogers, of course, has publicly stated that they’ll never charge for incoming SMS.  You know, because they’re so sweet to their base.

So yes, I’ll be getting a new iPhone with this data plan - hopefully one for Marilyn as well but if not then she’s OK with data + existing iPhone.  Now to try to navigate the no-doubt big line-ups on Friday morning.  Wish me luck.

Finally!  For those that don’t know the drawn-out saga, it has been about 2 years since this idea first began in our brains.  Truth be told, we always wanted some kind of usable garage at our house (there is currently a very narrow single car “closet” attached to the side).  At first we had thought we could build a detached unit, but there was not enough room.  At the end of the planning, a two-car garage became a two-storey addition to the back east end of our home.  Huge job, considering it’s basically a box with a roof.  But we’ll get a nice double garage as well as usable space above it, so hopefully all worth it in the end.  But what a saga so far.

First pass was to get the City of Poco Board to grant us a variance.  As it turns out, our home is zoned perpendicular to its address.  With the lot being essentially wide, not deep, the zoning was actually for the street around the corner from our home, even though our address was at the front of our house.  This turned out to be in our favour, as building the extension would no doubt have been turned down as too close to the rear-lot line.  But thanks to the wacky zoning, our rear-lot line is actually our side-lot line, allowing us to extend much further “backward”.  Long story short, the variance was actually for the side of our home closest to the lane, and for maybe 3 feet.  The Board passed us rather easily so we figured we were well on our way.  That was about 14 months ago.

Then came the permit applications.  HUGE hassle, frankly, and according to our Contractor and Engineer much more difficult than anything they’d ever encountered before.  After MANY back and forths, redrawn and re-submitted plans and even a face-to-face meeting we finally got our Permit late last year.  I won’t get into the details, but our engineer was literally coloring in walls on the plan to appease the City of Poco.  Advice: NEVER build in Poco unless you do it in the dark under a big tarp.

So after winter delays and countless other delays (weather, overbooking by our Contractor, etc.) he finally showed up this morning with a crew and a small digger.  The plan now is to dig the hole, prepare it with gravel and forms, then pour the foundation.  After that I’m guessing we wait a bit then start to actually build.  We hope to be done before the end of August – I’ll keep you posted on the progress, in words and pictures.

Your move.

Dear Peter Anderson, <— yes they spelled my name wrong, gotta love that

Thank you for taking the time to write to us, we appreciate your use of online customer service.

In your recent e-mail you have informed us that you are unhappy with the plans made public for the iPhone.

We do appreciate your feedback because this is very important for Rogers to hear comments, opinions and suggestions from our Valued Customers.
This feedback is used to create ideas for new products, services, policies and procedures in the future.

Please be aware that the plans unveiled were Voice and Data Plans designed specifically for the iPhone. At this time, all pricing and plans that will be available for the iPhone have yet to be finalized; however, a customer may use iPhone 3G on their existing voice plan and add a separate data plan.

We are pleased to have been able to address your inquiry. If you have further questions don?t hesitate to reply to this email or contact us at
1-888-764-3771 (24/7).

For future reference with respect to this e-mail, please quote reference number xxxxxxxxx.

Regards,
Laura G.
Rogers Online Customer Service

http://www.rogers.com

Note the bold type above (I added the bold, for the record). It appears that the cage has been rattled by the masses, perhaps. Hopefully Rogers/Fido rethinks things a bit and comes around to a more flexible (and hopefully more generous) set of options. So Rogers is now basically saying that the 4 voice/data combos offered were merely “value packages” and not the only packages available to iPhone users. This seems, to me, to be a backpedal.  If these were merely options why not say so from the beginning?  Why come out with what have become strongly contentious offerings if in fact they were just options? Personally, I think they screwed up bigtime and are now realizing it.

It gives me some cause for hope for Rogers to show some movement, but I guess we’ll wait and see what happens. Keep the petitions going tho…. at last check close to 25,000 signatures on one petition alone makes a huge statement for customer service.

I would say least response is probably accurate in this case, too. The e-mail has a strong generic ring to it, and the general message is “this is priced well” and “you don’t know how you’ll use your iPhone as well as we know, so we are looking out for you”.  Sure.  I call bullshit, of course.  Anyhow, here is their response verbatim: 

Dear Peter Andersen,

Thank you for taking the time to write to us, we appreciate your use of online customer service.

In your recent email, you have informed us that you are dissatisfied with the price of our iPhone plans.

Rogers has designed a pricing structure that offers high-value, flexible voice and data packages so that Canadians can make the most of their
iPhone 3G experience.

The majority of carriers offering iPhone 3G worldwide do not have unlimited plans for this device. Some carriers have implemented a soft cap so the plan isnt truly unlimited. For example, in France the soft cap is 500MB where we have a plan that includes 4 times that amount in your bucket. Unlimited plans could end up costing you more for what you don’t use.

Based on reports that the average usage for the first generation iPhone was less than 100MB per month, our iPhone 3G plans more than accommodate the vast majority of customers. Rogers and Fido customers get 4 times the data on our $60 entry level plan (400 MB) and 20 times the data on our most comprehensive plan.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

We are pleased to have been able to address your inquiry. For additional information please visit our website at www.rogers.com. You are a valued customer and we thank you for your business.

For future email correspondence with respect to this e-mail, please quote reference number 38959100

Regards,
Grant C.
Rogers Online Customer Service

http://www.rogers.com

And mine back:

Thank you for your reply. As I’m sure you are receiving many complaints about your announced plans, I totally understand the generic nature of it.

I respectfully disagree with the definition of “high-value” in your response, as I do not feel value is being received. A lot of this is due to the fact that the restricted data plans are being bundled with voice minutes as well. There is a definite “low voice, low data” combination going on here which implies that customers must buy more of one to get more of the other. I certainly hope this is not the case. One point I was making in my message was that I felt that the data option should be a value-add, not an integral part of a plan. I see no reason why Rogers/Fido cannot structure their pricing in this way. Again, when comparing to AT&T (which I feel is the only legitimate comparison) their voice plans are separate from data. Add to this the fact that they have a single option for data and not only does it make the choice a simpler one but it also greatly simplifies their billing and monitoring – something I would have thought Rogers/Fido would have taken into consideration. $30/month gives a customer unlimited data, regardless of how much AT&T “thinks” a customer may use. They have no need to monitor the consumption or to tier pricing. This is a win-win for both sides, imho, since a) the customer has a simple decision to make – data or not – and AT&T has a simple plan to administer. If you are correct that most people use <100mb of data, then Rogers would be in a profitable situation from this type of pricing as well and it poses no risk (risk is the only thing I can assume is stopping Rogers from offering unlimited data).

While I cannot provide an argument to your findings to date (as I do not have the information you have), I strongly disagree that such low consumption rates will continue. The iPhone is a social media tool in addition to a phone. With the opening of the App Store on July 11th, more and more applications will be available to iPhone users, and more and more of these applications will be very data-centric. Tools such as Qik and Shozu have already shown popularity with video sharing, not to mention the already-available YouTube on the iPhone. Any type of video streaming or sharing will result in a large increase in data use for any customer, one that will easily surpass your lower level data tiers (and for what it’s worth, my guess as to why people have not used more video to date or exceeded 100mb on average is simply because your EDGE network can’t handle it). I feel that Rogers/Fido not recognizing the imminent nature of these data use increases is short-sighted.

Requiring that users lock in to a 3 year plan and restricting them to this pricing tier is also short-sighted as data consumption will no doubt change in the coming months, nevermind the coming years. People will feel restricted now and forced to spend increasing amounts of money on data later.

I strongly feel that Rogers/Fido should adopt a similar pricing plan to your neighbor AT&T. Data should be a feature, not comparative to voice, and should be a single-price, all or nothing choice. $30/month is competitive, but frankly I would understand and adopt even a slightly higher rate if it would afford me the ability to use an iPhone in a way that it is intended.

I have thought a lot about why Rogers is pricing in the way that they are.  If the above message is sincere (hold your laughter until the end) then they feel that most people don’t have a concept of what unlimited data is and that they want to offer value-priced versions of data packages so that people feel they are not being overcharged.  This would be true if the prices being offered weren’t already excessive to start with, nevermind restrictive.  $60/month for the minimum plan offers 400mb of data along with 150 minutes of voice.  This is a very low amount on both counts, especially the voice data.  Keep in mind that this voice data, as priced, is applied for ANY call prior to 9pm on a weekday.  That basically means that you have 5 minutes a day of voice usage.  In current times, this is laughable.  Add to the fact that the $60/month charge is closer to $95 after surcharges and taxes, it’s a pretty high premium to pay.  They are basically saying we’ll give you the lowest data tier of 400mb which is “huge” by their definition but in order to get that you are limited to 150 minutes of real-world voice time.  Want more voice time?  Well, pay more and heck we’ll throw in a trickle more data.

In the past Rogers has split these bundles and has offered things a la carte (typically for more $) so this may be the case here as well.  However they make no mention of this and as such the 4 announced pricing plans are what have to be taken as truth.  And if this is truth, it’s robbery.  Want more voice time on your iPhone?  You have to pay for more data time as well.  Want more data?  You have to pay for more voice time as well.  But hey, want earlier evenings?  That’ll cost you $20/month because we’re going to make you take a handful of “features” with it that would otherwise be unsellable on their own.  Have a nice day.

It’s also yet unknown what will happen to the 1st gen iPhones.  On two counts – first what Rogers intends to do with them in terms of what is offered and/or what is allowed, and second what the 2.0 firmware upgrade will do to them.  If the best case is true and Rogers allows the phones (and 2.0 doesn’t lock them down solid), then what data plan will be available?  Currently it appears to be a $30/300mb plan.  Compared to my existing $10/10mb plan (I kid you not) this is a “bargain” but it’s still robbery.

Time will tell I guess.  And I’m hoping that Rogers is actually listening to the no doubt thousands of complaints they are receiving on a daily basis.  The current online community is nothing if not revolutionary, something I’m sure Rogers is now discovering.

Having just announced their new “high value” iPhone voice/data plans in preparation for the July 11th launch, Rogers has managed to completely disappoint once again.  Not only have they charged excessive rates for small amounts of data, they have LIMITED that data to low numbers.  An unlimited data plan simply does not exist, even though they have existed in the past for other (lesser) phones.  They have adjusted their rates so that we no longer are violated with $.05/kb charges, but even at the new levels the rates are, well, ridiculous.  In a nutshell, if you want an iPhone you are going to be paying at least $60/month.  $60 a month for a very stunted plan of 150 voice minutes, “free” evenings and weekends (if your evenings start at 9pm that is) and a whopping 400mb of data.  Oh, and you can send a whole 75 SMS messages as well.  On a phone that oozes text messaging and data.

But not to worry, if you want “more”, you can bump it up in small increments all the way to a lovely $115 a month.  That’ll give you 800 minutes of voice, 2gb of data and 300 SMS messages.  But you’re still living in the 9pm evening world, unless of course you want to kick in another $20/month for a “value pack”.

I currently have a plan that gives me 450 minutes and 10mb of data (yes their plans are that screwed up).  This costs me in the neighborhood of $75/month when all is said and done.  For me to go to the “new” plan I’d really have to go to the $100/month option as the $75/month option is only 300 minutes but oh so much data at 750mb… you do know I’m being sarcastic right?  Just checking…

AT&T in the US provides data packages as simple $30 or $45 per month addendums to a voice plan.  That’s UNLIMITED data for $30 or $45 per month (I’ll qualify that the $45 is not relevant as it is an Enterprise plan, so say $30).  Voice plans from AT&T vary, but if I was to try to match Rogers pricing it’d be as follows:

*  AT&T’s starter plan is 450 minutes per month, so think $69.99 but you get a lot more for the money
** Includes the $30/month data plan
*** Includes the $30/month data plan and is actually 900 minutes per month

This provides unlimited data on top of being priced lower .  It should also be noted that AT&T never charges roaming or long distance within the US and has rollover minutes, something that Rogers can’t even comprehend.

So what does this tell us?  OK, fair enough that AT&T has a huge customer base compared to Canada.  This is not relevant – their pricing is what it is because of competition, not because of customer count.  They actually have competition in the GSM wireless space – Rogers/Fido does not.  This allows Rogers/Fido to attack the consumer with impunity, gouging away and quietly saying “what are you going to do about it, go to the other GSM company?”.

It’s not only infuriating.  It is a sad commentary on how controlled our country’s wireless business is.  There is a non-competition bureau, I know it’s out there somewhere, yet monopolies continue to exist and thrive.  It is not a fair statement to say that Bell, Telus and Rogers/Fido (among others) play on equal ground.  They don’t.  Rogers/Fido stands alone in its ability to provide GSM services to Canada.  This is a monopoly and as such they can pull money from our pockets at any rate they choose.

I did at least send an e-mail to Rogers to tell them how I felt.  Consider this an Open Letter to Rogers Wireless:

Rogers Wireless
Giant Monopoly Ave.

To whom it may concern,

I have just read your proposed voice/data pricing for the upcoming iPhone launch and wanted to say I am extremely disappointed with your plans.  I am not completely opposed to the pricing (although it definitely could be lower), however I would have hoped that unlimited data was at least an option and that it was in line with what AT&T in the US has adopted in order to provide quality service to their customers.  Instead, you have elected to continually charge high rates for and limit something that should be a low-cost add-on feature.  Seeing “unlimited browsing” functionality on lesser phones for very little cost (eg. $7/month at your sister company Fido) does not help to alleviate the sensation that Rogers/Fido are taking advantage of what will no doubt be a popular product launch.  If other wireless companies can offer unlimited data for a reasonable rate why is that Rogers/Fido cannot – or chooses not to?  I don’t believe it to be a technical issue as you tout your network to be the best in the country, so I’m very curious to know what sets this phone apart from others that have much more reasonable data rates. I sincerely feel this will strongly limit your expected sales of the iPhone.  I also personally look at this as a retention issue.  I am a long-term customer that continually pays ~$200/month for my wireless services and was looking forward to taking what I felt was a big step forward in wireless and data services by not only purchasing an iPhone from Rogers but electing to renew my contract as required.  Instead, I’m being told that this new product will a) be expensive to use and b) be limited in a way that it was not meant to be.  By adopting both of these guidelines you have caused me to not only reconsider my purchase but to reconsider my relationship with Rogers as well.  I hope that you will consider retention an issue – not only for myself but for what will no doubt be many others that are disappointed with this offering.  Please contact me at your convenience if you feel my retention warrants further discussion. 

Sincerely,

Pissed.

 

Got this response:

Thank you for your inquiry.  Due to an increase in email volume, it may take us up to 5 business days to respond to your email.  We apologize for this inconvenience.

Ah, karma.  It’s a bitch after all.

Linkage:

• Rogers.com iPhone voice/data pricing
• Rogers.com Contact Us page
• Competition bureau Enquiry/Complaint form (thanks Chris Magnusson!)
• John Biehler’s article

Great to see, especially the Coast Reporter article which appeared on the front page of their Arts & Entertainment section. In fact the full page is the article and photos (less the ads at the bottom). Kudos to Carole Rubin for writing a nice article and requesting my photos for submission!

Also ‘grats out to my brother, Chris Andersen, for writing the article in the Local. Nice job considering you were running on about 2 hours sleep after, oh I don’t know, putting together the entire festival.

I hope to do a lot more of these, of course, including the Pender Harbour Jazz Festival in September. Should be a blast.