One of the inclinations that web designers have to fight with clients about is the use of gratuitous animation on websites. The client request is usually worded something like “could you jazz that up a bit?” and usually what they want to see is their logo spinning around in 3D. This is almost always a bad idea, mostly because such trinkets do little or nothing to enhance the web experience, and quickly become distracting and annoying.
There are, of course, a few exceptions to this rule and one I came across today is on the front page of Tim Hortons, pictured in part here. This little pouring-coffee animation is a perfect illustration for their front page, and a rare beneficial use of animated graphics.

We’ve had an Island Tel single business line for 4 or 5 years now. The monthly fee for the line is $54.25, which includes the line and two “custom calling features” — call display and distinctive ring.
Interestingly enough, I was able to convert this to a “Centrex” line this afternoon. The result? I have exactly the same phone number, phone, and features. But my month rate is $43.80. In other words, I save $10.45 and don’t lose anything.
If you run a small business, perhaps you should call the Island Tel business office (1-800-565-4287) and do the same.
By the way, the business office people I dealt with were very friendly, efficient and helpful.

Like many people on the Island, we’re struggling with keeping water out of our basement (thankfully we don’t have the 6 or 7 feet that some people do — including the unfortunate lads a Sumner Plumbing, who sold all their sump pumps before stashing one for their own basement!).
Every sump pump, it seems, needs a check valve, which is simply a plastic doo-hickey that screws into the pump; it has a trap door which opens one way only, which prevents water that’s being pumped out from flowing back in.
However, for some reason check valves are something you have to buy extra, on top of your sump pump purchase. Every sump pump needs a check valve, so you’d think, logically, that they would be included in the package. But they are not.
So today here in Charlottetown we are in the troubling and frustrating situation of having too many sump pumps and not enough check valves. Canadian Tire, for example, has its shelves literally lined with many varieties of sump pump. I would hazard a guess that there were at least 500 of them ready and waiting when I visited this morning.
But as of 4:30 p.m. today, Canadian Tire has no check valves. Nor does Home Hardware. Nor Schurman’s. In fact, the word on the street is that there are no check valves left in Charlottetown.
How could this happen?
There was an inordinate amount of snow this winter. Everyone in our hardware community knew this. Indeed that’s probably why Canadian Tire’s shelves are lined with sump pumps.
But where are the check valves? Is the assumption that every house has a couple squirreled away for a soggy day, like fuses atop the fuse box?
I am perplexed by this odd system failure.
Thankfully, spurred on by a generational tick which infused my DNA with water removal savvy, I was able to rip the check valve off the old failing sump pump and graft it on to the shiny new one I purchased today. With that baby running flat out, and me on snow shovel feeding the newly-dug sump pump cavity with a steady stream of water, I was able, in the post ER glow late this evening, to take the water in our basement from 5 inches down to 2 inches.
It is now time for sleep. I am afraid that when I get up in the morning I will awake to a world where locks are sold without keys, frying pans without handles and keyboards without keys (or at least without the keys D through L).
ave a oo nit.

Just a small update on the Island Tel technical support debacle I suffered last week, and reported in detail on this page.
Other than a brief and cordial note from an account rep at Island Tel, I received no other communication from the company on my problems: no follow-up, no apology, no “how can we serve you better the next time?”. Nothing. (Should I send them a collection of Tom Peters’ books?)
Eastlink reports that they’ll be ready to serve my area “sometime in the next couple of weeks” (I should hope so, given the proliferation of their fibre-laying trucks in the neighbourhood last week!).
I got an call and email from a Qwest sales rep earlier this week trying to sell me data services. Much to my surprise, when I asked about services to PEI (which are usually missing from U.S.-based providers’ offerings), he reported that they could sell me bandwidth right now via frame relay, and in May or June via ATM. Of course they might just be reselling for the telephone company. We’ll see.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this entire episode is that just about everyone I know — and a few I’ve just met — ended up reading my tale of woe. Unprompted. Lots of people at the CBC. Lots of people in my neighbourhood, at the Farmer’s Market, and somewhere in the ether via email. Somehow, more than anything else I’ve written here, my experiences seemed to have a viral quality.
Attention Island Tel: wouldn’t it be better having people around town — your customers — talking about what great service you offer? Good service stories work virally too. I’d be happy to post anything you might offer in your defence here.
End of story.

Prince Edward Island is a very compact place, both physically and socially. As a result, the diversity of experiences one can have on any given day is unusually vast. Today was no exception.
Our friend Catherine Hennessey is to receive the Order of Canada on May 31. Orders from Rideau Hall are for ladies to wear a long dress. Catherine, while certain fashionable in spirit, doesn’t have many long dresses in her oeuvre. And so new clothes must be sourced.
Tonight on my way to work I happened to drop in at Catherine’s resuscitated mansion on Syndey Street, where I accidentally joined the ebullient Dolly Hennessey [no relation] in an evaluation of Catherine’s current long gown options.
Candidate one was a lime green three part affair. Formal, vaguely uncomfortable looking (but perhaps in a manner appropriate for the occasion?), it consisted of a long skirt, short-sleeved stop, and senatorial jacket. Certainly the most formal possibility. And the greatest distance from “every day”.
Dress number two was out of the running from first viewing. A Martha Stewartesque casual affair seemingly constructed from T-shirt fabric. My only thought was “good for Miami Beach, bad for Rideau Hall.”
Number three, nearest perhaps to Catherine’s own tastes, said Dolly, was a lightly exotic leopard-print (not really leopard, I suppose — more like “autumn leaves”) one-piece dress with some sort of neck-surrounding sash. A nice dress, but again, not appropriate for the occasion.
So there we were: forced to choose between Elizabeth Dole, Martha Stewart, and, well, everyday Catherine Hennessey.
And at that moment of supreme indecision, Catherine emerged wearing a wonderful top, just the perfect balance of formal and personal. It’s a duotone brown-shaded striped top, with alternating matte and sheen stripes. It needs a long skirt (black crepe, thought Dolly). But this can easily be found, it was decided.
And so there we go. Watch Newsworld on May 31 to see the final decision.

Kudos to Island Tel for placing a complete set of Tariffs online. One of the things you can learn there is that if you lose a Princess telephone, it will cost you a $36 “set loss charge”. Great reading.

The Aliant division of Bell Canada released its 2000 Annual Report last week. One of the more curious images in the report can be found on page 46 (and is highlighted to the right) — a lithe male dancer performing some sort of rhythmic move with a dollar sign. Given that the page summarizes the Consolidated Balance Sheets for the company, one has once to conclude that Aliant is dancing with money.

One of the more interesting facts that comes out in the report is that (to quote from page 27): “Effective April 27, 2000, Bell Canada and BCE Inc. (BCE) together increased their investment in Aliant from 42% to 53%.”

This week on Off the Beaten Track on CBC Main Street we talked about KPIG. You can listen to the feature [RealAudio required].

It used to be able that if you dialed 611 on an Island Tel-connected local telephone, you would hear a voice telling you the telephone number for that telephone. This has changed: dialing this number now gets you customer service for Island Tel Mobility. To find the number for your telephone line, you now need to dial 999-3333.

Disclaimer: if this behaviour changes in the future and your phone catches on fire, or gives you an electric shock, or otherwise causes adversity, we cannot be held responsible. Sorry

The magazine Toronto Life used to have a restaurant review feature which consisted entirely of a graphic of a restaurant receipt, with margin notes added. In this spirit, here’s a review of our dinner at Myron’s this evening: