Eight-Thousander - The Mountain Post - and Mountaineering

Hi All,

We have a tall order for today's post....I recently found that there are very, very few mountains that are over 8,000 meters. Finding this out got me thinking that this might be an interesting topic for this reference blog! As a matter of fact, there are only 14 of them on the planet.  Click on this link to see the names of the 14 mountains. 

Interestingly enough,  there are very, very few people who have climbed each of these 8,000 meter peaks.  Click here for a list of them as well - courtesy of Wikipedia.

For more information on one of the worlds most famous moutaineers, click on this link to learn more about Reinhold Messner - an Italian who people have called the greatest mountain climber in history. 

For some of the most amazing mountaineering pictures, click on this link - from Bing Images. Imagine how these pictures would look on your computer desktop!

Finally, we have lots of  books on mountain climbing at the library.  Witness some of the more interesting titles like, 'No Way down: Life and Death on K2', 'Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations - One School at a Time', 'Top of the World: Climbing Mount Everest' and 'A Mountain Too Far: a Father's Search for Meaning in the Climbing Death of His Son'.

And while this isn't the same thing as mountain climbing, readers can click on this link - which will take you to the Nassau Hiking and Outdoor Club.  It might start you on the long climb to mountain climbing - and perhaps to an even greater appreciation of nature!

Enjoy the mountain climbing links!

Regards,
Stu

Customer Service - Getting What You Want...

Hi All,

Now that the holiday season is fast approaching, customer service is something that consumers might want to think about - a bit at least.  This blog entry will discuss ways to get better customer service - and it might help you save time and money during the upcoming holiday season....

We've all been there...you purchase something at a retailer and for whatever reason, you need to return it. However, for any number of reasons (perhaps you lost the receipt, you are returning the item after the specified period of time you had to return the item, a surly cashier doesn't know how to process the return or the line is too long and the retailer won't let you return the item or....you get the idea) the retailer won't let you return said item.

What recourse do you have?

Indeed, great question.  Click on this link and you'll connect to an article from Yahoo! Finance's section on 'Financially Fit'.  Entitled '3 Ways to Get Your Customer Service Complaint Resolved' the article emphasizes that customers 'Shouldn't go all social media on your prey just yet'.  Which essentially means don't post on your Facebook page or Twitter stream your tale of retail woe. 

Next up is some good advice in most any situation, 'Always keep your anger in check'.  Good advice, especially since there is always a time and place to 'emphatically voice your opinion' at a future date....

Finally, the third piece of advice the article posits is 'Flattery will get you everywhere'.  In this section, terms like polite, nice, empathy are liberally sprinkled throughout the article.  Great advice...and intelligent, and easy to try.

For an article that supports the Yahoo! Finance article discussed above, click on this link.  Entitled 'How To Get Better Customer Service' the article from WikiHow - To Do Anything (which, in itself is a very helpful website) discusses ways to, well, get better customers service. 

Some of the advice is common sense - treating retail and customer service employees is common sense, as is not saying 'the customer is always right'.  Other things like calling employees stupid or incompetent are not helpful either - and of course, refrain from striking employees. 

Some of the less obvious pieces of advice include 'not telling the employee how to do their job', and trying to have the money ready before you reach the checkout counter. 

Lest you think that all customer service is going to the dogs, click on this article that is entitled, 'Could It Be? Customer Service is Supposedly Getting Better'.  The article comes from the December 11th, 2012 issue of time Magazine and is an interesting read. Hopefully you won't have to use any of the tactics discussed in the other two article in order to get stellar customer service during this upcoming holiday season.

Regards, and here's to a customer friendly, return-free, holiday season.
Stu

What to Do on Halloween 2013 on Long Island?

Hi All,

Today is Halloween and here is a list of fun things to do with kids and/or adults this afternoon and tonight to celebrate Halloween.

Click on this link for Halloween parties on Long Island -note that the list is for adults only.  From ExploreLI.com comes this link to the Halloween Horror House in Franklin Square.  And if you like the previous link, you just might like this link to Carved Pumpkins Around the World - courtesy of Newsday.

And what would Halloween be without a list of haunted houses?  Indeed, it just wouldn't be a 'real' Halloween.  Thus, the next link - to Long Island Haunted Houses.

So....for kids, one of the best parts of Halloween is the 'Trick or Treating'.  Click on this next link for a list of Halloween Events for Kids on Long Island.  This is a very, very kid friendly list!

Finally, click on this link to learn how to carve a really great pumpkin!  Note that the link is an animation for kids to carve a pumpkin on a computer. It is very cute and very kid friendly.   For a real video on how to carve a real pumpkin, click on this link from YouTube.

Okay, one last link.  This one is a top ten list of favorite candy received for Halloween. List is from USAToday and is from October 27th, 2013 - talk about current!

Enjoy the links and the Trick or Treating.
Regards,
Stu

What Bird is That?

Hi All,

Fall is a great time of year to go bird watching on Long Island. Its one of the things that I've always wanted to do a bit more of - but, unfortunately - haven't been able to find the time to do.  However...when I do take a hike or a walk, I am much more aware of my bird surroundings now....

So, whether I'm walking on the newly constructed boardwalk in Long Beach or hiking a trail in Massapequa, I look up at the trees and see....birds.  Which is the topic of this blog post.

One of the many, many quality birding websites available on the web is called 'What Bird?'.  Click link to visit the site. And oh...what a site it is! 

Like many other websites What Bird? has a few tabs at the top of the page. Some of the more important tabs include 'Search', 'Browser', 'Expert', 'Forum' and 'Help'.

The 'Search' tab is a wonderfully intuitive way for users to discover 'What bird it is that they are looking for' by letting users sort through different birds by attribute groups.  Attribute groups enable the user to sift through scores of birds by various basic criteria like location, shape, size, prominent color, primary color, habitat, bill shape, bill lenght, wing shape, order, family, conservation status and song pattern (live!). 

Other attribute groups that users can search from include pattern, head, body, flight, illustrations and scientific name. Note that once the various attributes are specified, the results of the search appear at the top of the page.  Users have the option to viewing the bird results by text or by icons (thumbnail pictures of the birds).
The thumbnail pictures of the birds can be expanded so users can view a larger scale picture of the bird.  Along with a larger picture comes an overview/summary of the bird, information about the birds' range and habitat, a list of 'interesting facts' about the particular bird, a range map, and links to 'Similar Birds'.

At this point, users can scroll to the top of the page where they can more information from tabs entitled, 'Species Overview', 'Identification', 'Behavior' and 'Portrait'. 

The previously mentioned identification tab has comprehensive information about the body of the bird: specifically the length of the bird, weight, size, primary color, under/upperparts, back pattern, belly pattern and breast pattern. There is also a comprehensive information about the head of the bird: specifically the bill shape, eye color, head pattern, crown color, forehead color, nape/throat/cere color as well.

The previously mentioned behavior tab has comprehensive information about each birds' breeding/nesting characteristics, foraging/feeding habits and vocalization information. 

****************

WhatBird also has a tab on the homepage where users can enter a forum and either read or partake in comprehensive and detailed discussions with other birding enthusiasts.  Forums are free and include topics as varied as 'Help Me Identify a Bird', 'Birds and Birding', 'Backyard Birds, Feeders, Food'. Other topics in the forum section include, 'Articles on Birding', 'Comments on Specific Birds'.

Because of the comprehensive nature of WhatBird and the ease with which a user can navigate through the site, readers and users can appreciate why I think this is a good quality, easy-to-use birding website.

Enjoy your birding and the website.

Regards,
Stu

Back Up Your Data...in a Cloud!

Hi All,

Those of you who are reading this are at least somewhat computer proficient...and that's a good thing. Most of the time in this blog I like to write about interesting topics that are somewhat - at least tangentially -related to the library and 'things library related'...

So.....you might have heard horror stories about people who didn't back up data...and then lost it all when a computer got fried, or when a surge protector didn't protect the computer from a power surge...   Well, things like this can and do happen and not to sound to parental...it does make sense to back up your data.  Heck, at least back up your essential files on a flash drive.

But the real focus on today's blog entry is 'cloud backup websites'.  What the heck is that you ask?  Simple, these are websites that users can log on to (first you'll need to create a username and password) and upload and save your important files to....

There are many, many 'cloud backup websites' available for customers to subscribe to.  Some of the better known sites include ZipCloud, DropBox and LiveDrive.

For the most part the prices run between $3-$10 per month and readers can see a fairly good summary of cloud backup services on the site 'Top 10 Best Online Backup.com'. Top 10 Backups links to virtually all of the cloud backup sites on the left side of the screen - and and it helps you decide which cloud based backup service is best suited to your individual needs.  Users would be well advised to read users posted reviews of the various backup sites on the Top 10 Backups...the reviews are informative and current.

Also notable on the site is the easy-to-read chart on the homepage which has the name of the backup service, the price (per month), how much storage is available to users, score and user reviews. Score is made up of user reviews in categories like value for money, reliability, support, features and storage space.  In addition, user reviews have reviewers' names and the date of the review.

Users can also do comparisons of the various services using a tab at the top of the homepage - or you can just click on this link - it'll take you directly to the comparison page. 

Not a bad site to start you on your way to decide what online backup service to use.

Enjoy the security of having your important data backed up! It feels great - trust me...

Regards,
Stu