Learn Something New in 2014 — 2013 Summary Post

Happy New Year! I want to take this moment to thank my subscribers and guests to my blog over this past year!

This post is my 165th, which is hard to believe. It certainly doesn’t feel like I have written that many articles. Pumping out posts week-after-week requires dedication — thankfully I have not yet lost the passion and I am certainly not running out of material to write about, with a backlog of draft posts waiting to go.

Throughout 2013, I made several changes to this blog including rebranding it “Learn Something New” and focusing more closely on “tips for life”. My goal for 2014 is to continue this trend and find great new technology, share tips for life and of course, the occasional movie review.

If you would like to join in on the fun and receive a weekly helpful article, subscribe here.

I am happy to be celebrating over 50,000 views so far and am looking forward to many more. Getting traffic to a blog is no easy task, as any blogger will tell you. The current threats I have to deal with are changes coming down the line from Google, making it harder for small-time bloggers to obtain organic traffic. I won’t get into the specifics but more than ever it will be important to get subscribers and work to obtain exposure on other blogs.

Thanks again to everyone reading up on my latest rants, reviews and tips!
I will wrap-up this post with a list of some of my favourite posts from 2013, in no particular order:

• Bad Customer Service? Don’t Take No for an Answer!
• How to Get People to Read Your Email: The Australia Email Trick
• Best RSS Feed / News Reader: Feedly Review
• Stop Hitting Snooze & How I Found My Optimal Sleep Duration
• Cash is Horrible, Credit is King
• My Brief Dive into the Darknet — Tor and the Deep Web
• Honourable Mention (technically a 2012 post) — Mint: Personal Finances Mastered

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iPhone Users Listen Up: Keyboard Shortcuts (Autofill) are a Lifesaver!

If you have yet to discover the iPhone’s keyboard shortcuts, you are about to have your mind blown. This function, tucked away in the settings, has two awesome functions: to create shortcuts for strings of text you frequently type, and to serve as a dictionary override. The second use is a best-kept secret, so be sure to read on.

Shortcuts function can be found in Settings > General > Keyboard > Shortcuts

Create Shortcuts for Frequently Typed Items

The primary use of iPhone shortcuts is as their name implies — shortcuts. Simply press the “+” button in the top right and enter the text that you frequently type as the “Phrase” and the shortcut for the autofill as the “Shortcut”. For example, you can enter your address as the phrase and have your email automatically filled in when you type in “myemail” if you set “myemail” as the shortcut (see image). This is particularly useful for those with long emails or for longer phrases like full postal addresses.

Other great uses of shortcuts are:

• Addresses (“myaddress”)
• Phone numbers (“mynumber”)
• Stop texting me, you’re crazy! (“crazyex”)

Create Dictionary Overrides (Particularly Useful for Swear Words)

Do you find it super annoying that Apple tries to strip you of the colourful language you like to use? Worry no more! Simply add a phrase for the word that you don’t want to have autocorrected and leave the shortcut field blank. Voilà! Steve Jobs will no longer try to correct your exclamations to “Duck!”

Of course, this isn’t limited to swearing. If there are any words that you type that are frequently “corrected”, incorrectly, simply add them to your list of shortcuts.

Have you been using the iPhone’s keyboard shortcuts? If so, what are some of the shortcuts you have created?

Bad Customer Service? Don’t Take No for an Answer!

It seems that everyone, except the customer service providers themselves, knows that customer service is terrible these days. Cable companies, telecom monopolies and consumer electronic companies have the worst customer service but the problem exists for the majority of consumer-facing businesses.

So what can you do about bad customer service? For starters, don’t take no for an answer!

I have earned a reputation amongst those who know me for my ability to get what I want and my strategy is simple: if you have been legitimately wronged or have received terrible customer service, pull out your guns and get ready to do battle. Here is a quick breakdown of my top secret “process”:

1. Determine whether or not the fight is worth it. You will certainly cost yourself some time so make sure you are fighting for something more than $5. Fighting on principle may be acceptable.
2. Determine your “leverage” or the amount you were “harmed”. The more arguments you have the better your chances of getting what you want. Only one legitimate argument should be necessary to win.
3. Consider the amount you stand to gain and convert it to an hourly wage for motivation. Yes, it sucks to fight with agents on the phone for an hour, but if it nets you $100, then it was a very good use of your time ($100/hr “wage”)
   • My personal best is 8 month’s of free internet because they missed several setup appointments over 2 weeks (It took over an hour to get what I requested but it saved my student household approx. $800)
4. Explain your situation to the agent in a clear and concise manner, outlining your arguments. Wait for them to offer you something and if they do not, make a specific request (1 month free, a refund etc.) Prepare for a “no”.
5. If you get a “no”, quickly reiterate your arguments and stand your ground.
6. If you still get a no, immediately request to speak to a manager. No need to waste much time with a useless rep.
7. If they say “sure, but the manager will tell you the same thing”, ignore the rep and request to speak to the manager.
8. Repeat your arguments to the manager. This is where things get intense. Do not take no for an answer and sternly request retribution/reimbursement etc.
9. Still getting a no? Grow a pair and dig-in! Now’s not the time to let up.
10. Remember, there is always someone that can help you, even if the rep and manager say that they can’t. Ask to speak with someone who can help you if the manager won’t. Many companies have separate teams to deal with persistent customers. Reaching them is your end goal if the manager is useless.
11. Stress that they are wasting your time as well as their own and costing the company money by spending so much time with you on the phone. Threaten to cancel your services, if necessary. Use social media as leverage (last resort).
12. Get what you want!

Going through this process takes practice but one thing is for sure, you will certainly show weakness if you are not dedicated to getting what you want. If you’re not truly upset, do not follow this process and live with the situation. If you are truly upset, use it! I have a near perfect record in dealing with customer service departments simply because I am persistent, offer coherent arguments, express real pain and ask for specific solutions.

Companies on the customer service shit-list:

• GoodLife Fitness – see GoodLife Fitness Sucks
• Warrior Dash (Red Frog Events)
• Microsoft Store
• Bell, historically. Though they have improved greatly
• Dell

The bottom line is, bad customer service has unfortunately become the norm, forcing you to fight for what they deserve. Whatever you do, don’t take no for an answer.

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Teach Your Children the Most Important Language: Code

Parent’s always want the best for their children; whether it is private school, language immersion or special extracurricular activities. In Canada, for example, French immersion is very common to ensure that children grow up to be bilingual.

Being bilingual has many advantages, particularly for countries with multiple primary languages like Canada, but these advantages pale in comparison to the advantages of learning the global language of code.

Essays and literature are not translated internationally easily, unlike code. A well-written program or application can be used globally with only small modifications to the interface. More importantly, however, because of the increased prevalence of technology, those that know how to code will find success more readily in today’s world than those that do not.

Learning to code should become a priority, and education should begin at a very young age. According to J. Paul Gibson, a computer scientist at the University of Ireland, “Children aged from 5-11 have so much potential for learning about algorithms and computation that it would be a shame to wait until they are teenagers before we teach them the foundations”. Gibson found that older students (18 or 19 years old) struggled to learn the concepts of programming compared to much younger students. This applies to technology-use in general, not just programming.

Teach your children how to code and use technology!

Gibson’s insights may seem obvious to some  — that people learn things easier, and more wholly, as children — but to many it is still frowned upon to introduce children to technology at a young age. There is a delicate balance between allowing your children to learn technology, and allowing them to get lost in it, but you absolutely have to try. I would argue that it is better to have your children “get lost” in technology then for them to never “find it”.

The argument is simple:

• Technology is becoming a very big part of everyday life, globally
• Knowing how to interact with technology, including learning to code, is important to play a role in the new world economy as a result of this global transformation
• Coding is much easier to learn as children
• Therefore, teach your children how to code and use technology!

North America is already falling behind when it comes to producing strong programmers, mathematicians and scientists. Programming, like education in general, is still viewed as “nerdy”, so many students avoid the subject. The reality is that, nerdy or not, the technology sector produces some of the most lucrative careers — much better than flipping burgers for the rest of your life.

Of course, parents always have to balance their children’s interaction with technology with other activities like sports, social activities and outdoor fun, but introducing technology and coding to children early is vital to their success in the ever-changing world of technology.

Best RSS Reader / News Feed: Feedly Review

There was a time, eons ago, when people got all of their news from two primary sources: newspapers and television. Although I remember that time, the world had already moved on by the time I was an adult and I do not miss it.

These days, there are interesting articles spread out across thousands of blogs and sites across the internet.

The question is: how do you consolidate your favourite news sources for daily consumption?

The answer is: Feedly!

Feedly is an RSS-reader, a type of news aggregator, that uses the RSS web feed standard. Don’t be scared by the tech-speak, Feedly is very easy to use. Simply install the addon and search for your favourite sites and blogs that support RSS (most do) and Feedly will automatically check those sites for new content and present them to you in a visually appealing way.

You can think of it as your own personal newspaper / magazine for the web and since you don’t need to visit those sites manually anymore, it can help you clean up that pile of bookmarks you have in your browser.

You don’t have to follow strictly news sources, of course. I follow a variety of content such as:

• Blogs (Science, Technology, Business, Sports etc.)
• Web Comics (Perfect for lunch breaks)
• News (Science, Technology, Business etc.)

Feedly is available across devices (desktop, Android, iOS) and automatically keeps everything in sync. It’s perfect for reading up during lunch or digesting articles on your phone whenever you have some downtime. I swear by it.

I have been using Feedly for several years now and, although I have tried other RSS-readers, I have always stuck with Feedly because it is simple, convenient and it just works. Feedly allows you to search for sources directly from their search bar — for example, typing in “Wired” to automatically pull up any Wired magazine site and blog feeds  — as well as allowing you to manually add RSS feeds.

For those new to RSS, adding feeds manually, while not necessary in most cases, is very easy. Simply visit your favourite site or blog, look for an RSS icon or text, and copy and paste the feed URL that typically looks something like:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/smbc-comics/PvLb?format=xml

You may have to click through a secondary FeedBurner page if the feed was setup that way and click “View feed XML”. To keep it simple, however, just search using Feedly’s search box and you should be able to immediately add all but the most obscure feeds.

If you aren’t already a devoted Feedly fan like me, give it a shout and let me know what you think!

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How to Use Google Maps to Map a Run

Everyone uses Google Maps. It is one of the most pervasive applications out there for finding your way around. What many people don’t know is that Google Maps can be used not just for mapping car and transit routes but can also be used for mapping bike trails and running courses.

There are ways to use Google Maps to map a run itself, however, I found the easiest way to accomplish this was to use a tool called Google Map Pedometer. Google Map Pedometer extends Google Maps to make it very easy to map a route. I’ll take you through the steps:

1. Type in a location on the location bar to get to the area you want to create a route for.
2. Double click to add a pointer to the map where you would like to begin your route.
3. Double click to add another point further on in your route.
4. You can undo the last point you placed or reset the whole route altogether, if you make a mistake.
5. You can then opt to save your route.

That’s it! It is super simple and intuitive. Other important things to note is that it automatically keeps track of the distance you have mapped in either miles or kilometers; perfect for map out a 5KM run or a half marathon if you so choose.

One thing that I found was particularly impressive (just a feature of Google Maps, I presume) is the ability to plot a route through bike paths and trails as well as roads (see the main blog post image). Google Maps is now very impressive for mapping areas other than roads too.

It is strange that Google hasn’t developed these tools yet given how useful they are. Then again, I suppose Google has other things to worry about — like mapping the globe. No big deal.

Give it a try. I know it will personally be my go-to site for any running routes I create going forward. Did you find it easy to use?

Map Pedometer | http://www.mappedometer.com/

Monitor & Track Your Sleep — Sleep Cycle App Review

Lifehacker is my go-to choice for daily life improvements and a little while ago they wrote a great article about the most popular sleep tracking app — Sleep Cycle.

Sleep Cycle is a great, and affordable, app that allows you to monitor and track your sleep over time. Sleep Cycle will track your stages of sleep based on your movement throughout the night in order to wake you up at an optimal point in the morning.

For the uninitiated, maintaining a proper sleep cycle is very important to feeling good throughout the day. Alarm clocks wake you up abruptly and in an unnatural way. This can make you feel tired and generally bad throughout the day. Sleep Cycle attempts to avoid this by waking you up at a natural point in your sleep cycle — when you are already partially awake, instead of when you are in a deep sleep.

To explain exactly how the app is able to accomplish this, I turn to their website directly:

Sleep Cycle alarm clock is able to use the accelerometer in your iPhone to monitor your movement and determine which sleep phase you are in. Sleep Cycle then uses a 30 minute alarm window that ends at your set alarm time and wakes you in your lightest sleep phase. Click here for the full explanation

My own experience with the app has been great. I’ve been using it for a couple weeks and so far I have found it effective. It seems to track my sleep well and wakes me up at a decent time. The soft sounds it uses to wake you up is much better than my previous jarring alarm which helps a lot. It also seems to help me feel better when I get up.

My only complaint about the app is that the optimal window to ensure you wake up nicely is 30 mins, which is a pretty big window. It’s not directly the app’s fault but my optimal wake time seems to be almost a full 30 minutes earlier than I need to get up. It is difficult to get out of bed when you know you don’t have to be up for another half-hour. My best mornings have been when my alarm wakes me up naturally 10-15 mins in advance. Then it is easy to get out of bed because going back to sleep is not as alluring.

Overall, the app is fantastic and worth a shot whether you feel particularly tired in the morning or not. For only $0.99, it isn’t much of a gamble.

How to Get People to Read Your Email: The Australia Email Trick

Email used to be an extremely valuable tool for communicating crucial information but has dramatically lost value over the past decade. In a time-poor society with shrinking attention spans, emails have been devalued and are quickly becoming everyday annoyances that are largely ignored.

Sales and marketing professionals are all too aware of this issue, and it serves to make their jobs more difficult with each passing day. This is an issue that affects everyone, as I am sure everyone has experienced the lack of professionalism when they don’t receive a response to an email they have sent. Today I share with you a trick: The Australia Email.

My job as Marketing Manager (it’s a misnomer, I wear many hats) requires me to interact with particularly time-poor individuals — usually business owners and controllers — to discuss the prospect of implementing ERP Software. In almost all cases they have reached out to me, so I am not cold calling, and yet I see a serious lack of professionalism on a daily basis: they just won’t return my emails.

Typically, I will leave a voicemail and send an email, leave a number of days in-between and then repeat the process once or twice. After that point the opportunity is pretty much dead in the water, however, before moving on I always send out my “Australia email”.

It goes something like this:

Subject: Impromptu Trip to Australia?

Hi Steve,

I haven’t heard from you in several weeks.

Are you busy exploring another continent?

Amazingly, the vast majority of the time I have sent this email I have suddenly received a response. The obvious lesson here is that you need to find a way to cut through the noise. The more subtle lesson: find an interesting way to call people out on their lack of professionalism.

Stop Hitting Snooze & How I Found My Optimal Sleep Duration

Most people probably have understand that hitting the snooze button and wasting their day away is not a very productive practice. What most people do not know, however, is just how bad snoozing actually is.

For those that have not yet discovered Lifehacker, I highly recommend taking a look. Lifehacker, as the name implies, is a series of blogs that aim to help you “hack your life” through tips and tricks with your everyday motions.

Lifehacker recently posted an article why you should stop hitting the snooze button with a link to a great summary video on the dangers of snoozing. To briefly summarize: snoozing is bad!

Perhaps you have already determined this yourself, or perhaps you are about to discover something that will dramatically change your life. I, for one, can admit to the fact that I used to snooze A LOT. What I didn’t realize was how much it was affecting me each day. As it turns out, snoozing can dramatically impact your brain in a very real and chemical way that can reverberate throughout your entire day.

When snoozing multiple times, I used to feel very groggy throughout the day and never felt that my mind was truly “on”. Interestingly, on the days that I “lost sleep” because I had to get up early for something I always felt amazing. It turns out 2 things were happening:

1. I discovered that snoozing was taking a toll on me mentally. On the days that I snoozed several times I was much more tired than the days when I was forced to get up immediately.

2. I was sleeping too much.

I had always heard that the magical number for sleep was 8 hours, so I tried to get 8 hours of sleep each night. The problem was that I was still feeling really tired most days — yet on the days that I lost sleep I felt more awake. At the time I attributed this to being “over-tired”. I figured that I felt great because I was simply over-tired, however as I later discovered, I only need 6-7 hours of sleep!

I’m sure many of you reading this post have found their optimal sleep duration, but if you feel groggy or “out-of-it” fairly frequently, it may be time to try reducing your sleep (or increasing it if you sleep less than 6 hours). Many people would be surprised to find out that they only need 6 or 7 hours to function at their maximum potential.

Take it from me, someone that took forever to come to this conclusion — stop snoozing and experiment with 6 or 7 hours of sleep and see if it has the same profound effect on your as it did me.

Cold Can Help You Burn Fat and Lose Weight (Seriously), New Studies Suggest

According to a series of scientific studies springing up across the United States, keeping cold may cause you to burn additional calories and allow you to lose weight. A recent article in Wired, “Tapping the Power of Cold to Lose Weight“, describes the medical race that has begun to take advantage of this theory.

The concept is simple: all day long, whether you are awake or asleep, your body is burning calories to keep itself warm. So, in theory, the colder your environment, the harder your body has to work to maintain a constant body temperature —burning more calories and fat to accomplish this.

I say “in theory” but a number of studies now suggest that there is a close correlation between body temperature and on-going calorie burning. The most brilliant thing about the concept is how simple it is. How the body regulates heat is fairly well understood, so it is surprising that it took this long for the idea of using cold temperatures to burn additional calories to come to light.

Pharmaceutical companies are now working diligently to develop drugs that will invoke the physiological processes involved in keeping the body warm. It is believed that BAT (brown adipose tissue), a special type of fat that is involved in converting fat to energy, can be influenced to increase fat burning. Drugs are now being developed to trigger BAT processes and increase the amount of BAT an individual has.

Ray Cronise, a former NASA material scientist, is the man behind the movement. He formulated his “cold weight loss” theory after investigating Michael Phelps. Phelps is known to consume 12,000 calories a day and yet did not gain weight in doing so. Many people believed it was because of his exercise routine but despite Phelps’ rigorous training, it did not explain how he was able to burn off 12,000 calories a day (more than 6 times more than the average man). Ray believes it is because he trains in the water which lowers his body temperature, contributing to an above-average calorie burn.

Ray has since put his theory to the test by trying to keep his environment cold as much as possible, day and night. He was able to shed 27 pounds in 6 weeks by incorporating cold treatment into his exercise and calorie-restriction routine.

Ray and other scientists throughout the U.S. are now actively studying the affects of cold on the body as it relates to weight loss, as well as how BAT plays into the equation. For the fat nations of the world, where the U.S. is truly #1, this cold therapy may be exactly what the doctor ordered.