Clarence Magazine

Bringo (a.k.a. nophonetrees.com) is the new site in town that aims to eliminate annoying customer phone tree waits. With Bringo, say goodbye to having to wait in a customer service queue to speak to a person that can help you with your problem.

Clement Wang (left) is the Principal & co-founder. Mark Grazman (right) is the Principal & co-founder.

Read more about them at their blog here.

How did the Bringo idea come into fruition?

This was really a case of identifying a problem that people faced and figuring out a way of solving that problem. We had started building a telephony platform, and were brainstorming ideas on how we could make our web/telephony integration technology useful for users. Poorly-designed automated phone trees were an everyday annoyance that frustrated me personally. As we started to talk about the idea through ourselves and among friends, it was clear that there was a lot of pent-up frustration out there.

Once we went live, we got a flood of users and overwhelmingly positive feedback. We seem to have struck a nerve where technology can really help improve people’s daily lives. Our users are incredibly active and eager to share their experiences , which has really helped us evolve our service and our plans. Based on this great response from users and others in the technology world, we plan to keep expanding Bringo and nophonetrees.com to helping make life easier.

Can you please tell us a bit about the process of how Bringo generates its category and alphabetical list of companies? Are users able to make suggestions to add-on to that list or is it strictly determined by Bringo?

We take our lead completely from our users. It never fails to surprise us how passionately people feel about this issue, and how much they’re willing to contribute feedback on what works and what doesn’t. While we did the initial legwork of seeding the categories and many of the companies on the site, we’re constantly adding new vendors based on requests from users – that is the number one request we get. We take feedback after each call is made, and love it when users contact us through the site. It’s how we stay relevant and useful to the community.

Can you give us a ballpark figure of the costs involved in getting Bringo off the ground? Are there any cost-saving avenues you could recommend to our readers?

To date, we’ve funded ourselves through our own funds and a fantastic set of angel investors (see our advisory board bios). Our largest investment has been into our proprietary telephony back-end and web integration which we’ll use for nophonetrees.com and several other initiatives.

From the marketing side, we have been very disciplined about our spending using word-of-mouth marketing (especially through the blogging community) has proven very effective. Certainly, we may have grown faster had we had a million-dollar marketing budget, but our approach has been effective thus far. Also, it has allowed us to grow with our user-base, incorporating their feedback, and increasing the stability and usability of the site as word has gotten out.

Does Bringo have any intentions on creating a mobile version anytime soon, sort of like a Tellme for eliminating phone trees on the go?

Mobile is certainly in our long-range plans. We think this will be a killer application for many of the things that we enable. The TellMe model is one possibility, although we haven’t yet decided on the exact form factor this will take on.

What is your long-term vision for Bringo?

We’re in the business of taking the best of web and mobile technology and marrying it with telephone to make things easier and more efficient for users. We have several new products under development, and are in conversations with some large industry players. Particularly, we are focused in the health care space where there is so much frustration and confusion that Bringo can help address. In a few years, we hope to be leaders in using our technology to make life easier for consumers across a number of industries.

Message to leave with:

At Bringo, we’re committed to providing our users with the best way to find and connect to the right person or business. We invite your readers to visit us at nophonetrees to use the service to save time and frustration, and also provide feedback on the site. We’ve gotten a lot of momentum just from listening to our users, and solving their problems so help us make our service the best it can be.

This meme is similar to one that I posted a couple of weeks ago, and because this is a lazy, Good Friday, well, I thought I would alter it to deal with another one of those interesting cultural phenomenon… gaming.

1. Name a game that you’ve played for over 100 hours or beaten 5 times of more.

Final Fantasy III(which was really VI)-Both, Chrono Trigger(beat 10 times), GTA:SA(more than 100 hours), NCAA Football 2000(25 seasons, every 12-14 games a year at about 1 hour a game…. you do the math) and Europa Universalis II.

2. Name a game that you’ve been Captain Ahab-obsessed with beating, but it eludes you like that White Whale.

Time Lord for the NES… I’ve come close so many times, but it beat me back every time.

3. Name a company or franchise that would make you more likely to play a game.

If Rockstar makes it, I will usually give it a go as they do excellent work.

4. Name an company/franchise that has burned some bridges for you.

Tiburon, makes of Madden really pissed me off when they removed custom playbooks from the franchise mode of that series. The lost me then.

5. Name a game that you can and do quote from.

Grand Theft Auto, of course. Time Splitters: Future Perfect(It’s time to SPLIT!) and Red Dead Revolver/Gun.

6. Name a game soundtrack that you know all of the lyrics to, or one that you bought after hearing it in the game.

I own the soundtrack to Wipeout(no real lyrics to know for that anyway) and I know the lyrics to every song on Gran Turismo 2.

7. Name a game that everybody should just shut up about already.

God of War… it is good, but it’s not THAT good.

8. Name a game that you would recommend everyone play.

Red Dead Revolver is a underappreciated gem and The Peace Keepers from the SNES was also overlooked.

9. Name a game that you dominate.

I went undefeated for a 7 season period in NCAA Football 2000.

10. Name a game that you initially hated, but grew to love upon giving it a second chance.

Definitely SOCOM… I didn’t get how anyone would find that frustrating game fun… and then I played SOCOM 3, and now I love them all.

11. Favorite arcade games?
Xain’d Sleena, Super Dodge Ball and Spy Hunter

12. Ever used something you learned in a game in a real life situation?

From Flying Dragon, I figured out how to flip/throw someone over my shoulder, and that you have to admit, is pretty cool for something gleaned from a NES game.

13. Name a game that you keep meaning to try but just haven’t yet gotten around to it.

I want to try Shadow of the Colossus and I still need to play Bully

14. Ever taken a game back because it sucked?

I took Madden 2006 back because they took out that aforementioned feature I referred to earlier.

15. Name a game that made you cry because of the story/characters(and not out of frustration).

After my grandmother died, there is a scene in Final Fantasy VI that made me cry involving Cid, Celes and an island. If you played it, you probably know what scene I am talking about.

16. Do you own games that you’ve never played(this includes games that you’ve bought, put in the machine and played once or twice)?

I played Half Life and The Thing from the PS2 twice a piece.

17. What older games would you like to see a new version/sequel of?

Super Dodge Ball(I would pay so much money for this), River City Ransom, Guardian Heroes and Gun Griffon.

18. Did you ever own a weird peripheral(Dance pads/faux guitars included)?

I had R.O.B. the robot and the power glove… I think the answer to that is yes.

19. What’s your favorite/preferred genre of game?

I am a rather balanced game player, though I do have quite a few shooters… I used to be a RPG fan, but now, not so much. I own a lot of sports games too.

20. What’s the first game you remember playing on a console?

Centipede on the Atari(it was really a Gemini system, but it is the same difference really).

21. What are some of the worst games you’ve ever played?

Raiders of the Lost Ark, M*A*S*H for the Atari and Taboo for the NES

22. What is the weirdest game you enjoyed?

The easy choice for this is Katamari Damacy/We Love Katamari

23. What is the scariest gamimg moment you’ve experienced?

The first time I saw the Giant Baby in Zombies Ate My Neighbors. Tension has played a big part in some of my greatest game moments throughout the years.

24. Have the games you wanted as a kid been made yet?

I wanted a driving game where you could decide which way you were going to go at any time in an urban environment… and we all know how that turned out, don’t we.

Tags: grand theft auto, meme, flying dragon, zombies, giant baby, super dodge ball, river city ransom, video games, socom, final fantasy, chrono trigger, rockstar, madden, red dead revolver, god of war, gran turismo, time splitters

“Hackers have stolen the personal details of thousands of donors to a Christian charity Web site and tried to extort money from the victims. U.K. charity Aid to the Church in Need admitted on December 12 that its online security systems had been breached by hackers.”

Hackers grab donor info from U.K. charity | CNET News.com

Ever since I read Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World in High School, I have noticed the world becoming closer to the nightmarish world he envisioned. There was a drug called “Soma” that made everybody happy - the government issued these tablets to all citizens to make them more compliant.

I just heard on the radio that ATMs are being set up to dispense prescription drugs. I didn’t listen long enough to check out the veracity of the source, but I would not be surprised. Even Huxley had human beings dispensing his panacea.

I also heard a rumor on the radio (see article) that Prozac is being found in our nation’s water supply in greater amounts everyday. People are not too good at metabolizing some drugs like Prozac, so a certain amount goes into the water supply from elimination. Prozac is not particularly bio-degradable. So it winds up in our drinking water, and pretty soon everybody is “on Prozac.”

I can’t watch TV anymore without some actor dressed up in a doctor’s uniform, usually white coat and stethoscope, reading an entire drug information insert with great gravitas, and ending his speech with the solemn words: “ask your doctor if clavix shmaviks is for you”. I will throw my shoe at the TV if I see this guy again.

Even innocent all - American things like Coca Cola are suspicious. The artificial sweetener (Nutrasweet) in diet sodas is OK to imbibe according to the FDA. But when it gets into your body at a temperature of 98.6, it breaks down into poisonous components like formaldehyde and some other brain tumor - inducing chemical. Drinking more than one carbonated soda a day increase your chances of getting type 2 diabetes by 80%. Again, I can’t corroborate.

I have a hard time believing that doctors don’t get kickbacks from the drug companies for prescribing drugs. I can’t prove they do, but it seems that all doctors do is see patients for 5 minutes and prescribe drugs. It seems there is a symptom - cloaking drug for every disease, but very few drugs actually cure anything.

The government “powers that be” warn us about bird flu and then order millions of doses of Tamiflu Anti-Virus Capsules, which may not have any effect whatsoever on bird flu and may even kill you. Meanwhile, we find that Rumsfeld or other high-ranking government official has a blind trust which invests heavily in the manufacturer’s of Tamiflu. The following claim does not sound either scientific or comforting:

It has been suggested that higher doses and longer durations of therapy should be used for treatment of patients with H5N1-type influenza A virus infection (avian influenza). It has been found that the standard recommended dose incompletely suppresses viral replication in at least some patients with H5N1 influenza, rendering therapy ineffective and increasing the risk of viral resistance. (de Jong et al., 2005)

Well, I’m OK now. I seem to feel so much better now, getting all that off my chest. I am experiencing some dizziness and disorientation, which my doctors say are normal side-effects. Let me take a break. It’s time to take my afternoon cocktail of six different blood pressure meds!

Happy Fourth of July to all of PuppetVision’s American readers! Here’s your Independence Day Puppet Web Series Round-Up:

99 Acre Woods
The 99 Acre Woods gang wishes their American brothers and sisters and Happy Independence day and a happy 4 day of the seventh month of the year to everybody else.

dotBoom
Jason, needing resolution with his father, travels to the other side of the country to have a chat with the old man. At the same time, back in the office, Joni has some unsurprisingly sudden news.

Jigsaw
The fourth and final installment in Jigsaw’s “behind the scenes” series takes a look at how Jigsaw gets edited.

The Rag (show)
Former U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle needs your helpe.

The Wippets
Barff continues his quest to find his hero Theodore Tugboat.

World Wild Web TV
Vinny the Rat hosts the hazardous game show “Cute, Cuddly or Angry?”

A big box of bison bladders, similar to the kind George Catlin used to store his paints.

Kriston sent this:

If his brush stroke doesn't tip you off, his subject matter will. And if by the subject matter you can't tell that George Catlin's paintings were done in the field, then seeing his buffalo bladder paint skeins will put all doubt from mind.

Catlin is the subject of the "A La Cart Art" program at SAAM this weekend. In conjunction with the National Museum of the American Indian's National Powwow  across the street at the Verizon Center, materials representing those that Catlin would have used to paint his naturalist works while traveling in the West will be out for you to look at and touch. One of those objects is a bison bladder—which Catlin used to store his paints.

Update: The cart will be in our galleries from 1 - 4 on Saturday, and it will be out again from 1 - 4 on Sunday if demand is high.

George Catlin, Buffalo Bladder, National Powwow, National Museum of the American Indian, American Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum

Would you like to see a cat fight? Just ask two cancer researchers whether hormone replacement therapy (HRT) causes cancer. This question certainly provoked several arguments in the medical community this week.The first feud started once a report in the New England Journal of Medicine linked the decline in breast cancer rates in 2003 to reduced usage of hormone replacement therapy.After that announcement, the International Menopause Society (IMS) attacked the reports credibility by pointing out shortcomings like a transient decrease in breast cancer incidence was observed also around 19879. And so for the IMS, the ultimate cause of cancer remains questionable-not a definite HRT side effect.The next tiff to take place over HRT happened once The Lancet unveiled findings from the One Million Women Study. The United Kingdom-based study followed almost 950,000 postmenopausal women for five years to investigate the link between ovarian cancer incidence and HRT usage.According to the researchers, women who use HRT are at an increased risk of both incident and fatal ovarian cancer. Then in true fighter spirit, the International Menopause Society discredited this HRT study as well. This time the IMS argued that the Lancet study skewed its numbers and that such ill-derived results, will inevitably cause further unnecessary distress to the many women who are benefiting from HRT.It appears the struggles over the safeness of hormone replacement therapy will endure ad infinitum. Meanwhile, should adults continue to use hormone replacement therapy in the mist of possible cancer risks?If eradicating wrinkles and maintaining your skins elasticity as long as possible are important to you, then hormone replacement therapy will help you to meet this goal.For example, postmenopausal women who use hormone therapy for five years or less typically had fewer wrinkles and firmer skin than women who opted not to use the treatment.Similarly, a study in the journal Dermatology recommended using hormone replacement therapy to counteract the natural loss of facial tissue, or plumpness, which occurs with aging.Moreover, results from the First National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey discovered the after examining nearly 3,800 postmenopausal women, those using hormone replacement therapy had significantly less wrinkling and skin dryness.While hormone replacement therapy may sound like a cosmetic redeemer, the battle over the safeness of this controversial therapy continues on a number of fronts. You have your choice of natural, synthetic and bioidentical hormones. Likewise, you have passionate professionals evangelizing the virtues and evils of every variation of estrogen.Ultimately, the choice to use hormone replacement therapy resides with you the consumer, your health history and your budget. Because, while you are busy browsing over hormones, researchers will still debate whether you are taking cancerous risks or slowing the aging process.Sources:
Beral, Valerie; Million Women Study Collaborators. Ovarian cancer and hormone replacement therapy in the Million Women Study. The Lancet Early Online Publication; April 19, 2007.Dunn, LB; M Damesyn, AA Moore, DB Reuben & GA Greendale. Does estrogen prevent skin aging? Results from the First National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES I). Archives of Dermatology; March 1997, vol 133, no 3, pp 339 - 342.International Menopause Society. IMS Reaction to Report on Breast Cancer Incidence in 2003 in US. April 17, 2007.International Menopause Society. Response to Lancet Paper on Ovarian Cancer in the Million Women Study. April 18, 2007.Ravdin, Peter M et al. The Decrease in Breast-Cancer Incidence in 2003 in the United States. New England Journal of Medicine; April 19, 2007 vol 356, no 16, pp 1670-1674.Sator, Paul-G; Jolanta B Schmidt, Thomas Rabe & Christos C Zouboulis. Skin aging and sex hormones in women clinical perspectives for intervention by hormone replacement therapy. Experimental Dermatology; December 2004, vol 13, no 4, pg 36-40.Wolff, Erin F; Deepak Narayan & Hugh S Taylor. Long-term effects of hormone therapy on skin rigidity and wrinkles. Fertility and Sterility; August 2005, vol 84, no 2, pp 285-288.Naweko Nicole Dial San-Joyz founded Noixia, a San Diego based research firm dedicated to helping people intelligently, safely and affordably enhance their image by offering custom skin solutions to people with acne scars on the face and body. San-Joyz She has appeared on radio stations, in newspapers and on TV shows across the United States promoting beauty through health consciousness. Anyone seeking to enhance their image and remove acne scarring can find custom, clinically proven solutions at Noixia.com.Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Naweko__San-JoyzFda Approved Penis Enlarging Pill
Penis Enlargement Pills Fda Approved
Small Cock Penis Dick
Men Using A Penis Pump
Penie Pills Hackensack
Pemile Enhancement
Penis Piills Joliet
Where Can I Grow A 10 Inch Penis
Bigger Penuses
Penis Pills Pump
Overcoming Sexual Performance Anxiety
Exersizes To Increase Penis Size
Premature Ejaculation Masterbation Before
Make Your Penis Bigger By Using Home Remedy
Male Sexual Health Articles Penis Anatomy
Sex Tips Free
Penis Vacuum Pump Instauration
Average Teenage Penis Girth
Penis Piills Greensboro
Penis Surgery For Girth Before And After Pictures
Premature Ejaculation Men In Their 30s
Abbys Sexual Health Premature Ejaculation
Penis Pump Recall Envelope
Sex Tips For Married Couples
Videos Clips Of Penis Pumps
Tips On Getting Back Your Ex
Get A Harder Penus
Cock Bigger Exercise
Treat Penis Curvature
Penis Hanging Weights
How To Make Your Dick Look Bigger
What Must I Do To Make My Penis Grow
Tips On How To Have Oral Sex
Penis Snlargement Pill Wausau
Premature Ejaculation Vermont
What Are Possible Options If Your Penis Is Too Small
Techniques To Make Penis Bigger
Implant Penis Pump
Penis Enhancement Methods
Jelqing Before And After Pics
Penis Excersices To Increase Size
Health Information Erection Problem
Cheap Herbsl Penis Enhancement
Penus Stretch
About Herbal Penis Enhancement
Get Your Penis Size Increase
Most Effective Penis Enhancement
Small Penis Fucked
Enlargement Penis Stretching Rating
Penis Pump Photo

The numerous joys of motherhood…… no 10,423

This morning Olivia was laying on her Daddy’s chest as he lay on the bed and tried to make her giggle. She obviously wasn’t impressed as she vomited on his face. In her defence she missed his mouth by about an inch and it trickled down his cheek and down his back. Luckily he saw the funny side and we both collapsed into laughter. As Daddy M said at the time comedy is tragedy mixed with timing.

What makes this a joy of motherhood rather than fatherhood…the fact that it didn’t happen to me:)
Get these articles sent to your RSS reader: http://t-9months.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Here’s the standings for Week 72:

1 - Seth’s Blog - 9,676 (-81)(LW - 1)
2 - Gaping Void - 3,607 (-29)(LW - 2)
3 - Duct Tape Marketing - 2,507 (-17)(LW - 3)
4 - Logic + Emotion - 1,225 (-3)(LW - 4)
5 - Search Engine Guide - 1,106 (-45)(LW - 5)
6 - Diva Marketing - 1,054 (-4)(LW - 6)
7 - What’s Next - 1,049 (-9)(LW - 6)
8 - Daily Fix - 1,016 (-10)(LW -
9 - Drew’s Marketing Minute - 769 (-14)(LW - 9)
10 - Influential Marketing - 762 (-15)(LW - 10)
11 - Converstations - 741(-21)(LW - 11)
12 - Church of the Customer - 725 (-1)(LW - 12)
13 - Jaffe Juice - 687 (-9)(LW - 13)
14 - The Viral Garden - 646 (-11)(LW - 14)
15 - Marketing Roadmaps - 564 (+2)(LW - 17)
16 - Brand Autopsy - 559 (-37)(LW - 15)
17 - Branding and Marketing - 557 (-20)(LW - 16)
18 - Servant of Chaos - 527 (-16)(LW - 18)
19 - Conversation Agent - 523 (-7)(LW - 20)
20 - Customers Rock! - 522 (-9)(LW - 19)
21 - Marketing Headhunter - 521 (No Change)(LW - 21)
22 - Coolzor - 495 (No Change)(LW - 22)
23 - CK’s Blog - 452 (-14)(LW - 23)
24 - Experience Curve - 437 (LW - UR)
25 - Hee-Haw Marketing - 420 (-17)(LW - 24)

A reminder that the Top 25 Marketing Blogs are ranked according to the number of sites/blogs linking to each, according to Technorati. The number you see after the blog name is how many sites/blogs Technorati claims have linked to the blog in the last 6 months. After that number is a positive or negative number, and this represents how many links the blog gained or lost from last week’s Top 25. The final stat tells you what position the blog held in the Top 25 Last Week (LW). If you see this; (LW - UR), it means the blog wasn’t ranked last week.

Marketing Roadmaps continues a herculean comeback in the Top 25 this week. After being a charter member of the Top 25, the blog spent over a year out of the countdown, but now has rocketed all the way up to the Top 15, and shows no signs of slowing down. Other than Marketing Roadmaps, most of the other blogs were again down this week, although it seems that the number of links each blog is shedding is getting smaller.

Experience Curve was the lone new entry in this week’s Top 25.

Next update is next Wednesday.

Technorati Tags:
The Viral Garden, Marketing, Top 25 Marketing Blogs

Email Me

I’ve noticed that people treat strangers differently over here. It’s not so much in the people you walk past on the street (although if you catch eyes with another guy, a thumbs up is always exchanged), but more with people you interact with for a few moments. I’ve seen the difference with waiters, hotel owners, taxi cab drivers, even ferry boat drivers.
The friends I am traveling with are extremely friendly, and always ready to talk, so they may be an extreme example of this, but on a milder scale I think there is a difference here in general.
It’s evident in what they say, and the tone of voice. They treat these new entrants in their lives like old friends.
One of my friend was sick yesterday, and a local nurse came to the hotel room to help out with an IV. Patricia greeted the nurse by name, and said “Oh, Joanna, can you believe this situation?” The response and following conversation was so casual and informal. It was as if the nurse was immediately part of a community, or family.
I’ve already bought some souvenirs to take home with me from my trip, but above all things, I hope I can take home this culture of familiarity.