Posts Tagged ‘Things I Like’
Posted on April 1, 2009 - by Justin Hartman
Shift happens
OK, so I had all these thoughts about the video embedded below and I really wanted to go into detail to explain the context, where it came from, what it means for me (and you) but in the end I’ve decided to just embed it and let you make up your own mind. I have little doubt that if you haven’t seen this yet you’ll absolutely love it. I hope that it helps shift your perception…
If you’ve watched it and want some background info I suggest you read the following links.
Posted on January 30, 2009 - by Justin Hartman
Schenker Logistics – a brilliant ORM example
Last Friday I posted a video titled “What happens to fragile boxes?” in which I managed to capture some boxes being mishandled by a delivery person at Schenker Logistics.
While I wasn’t expecting a response from the post in question I was extremely impressed when I received an email from Sean Carolan the operations manager for Schenker in South Africa on Tuesday.
Hi Justin
I am the operations manager for Schenker in South Africa. One of my colleagues in Germany sent me the link to your blog (what happens to fragile boxes).
I cannot view the clip, but judging from the text it did not look good, and I would like to get to the bottom of it and address the relevant driver/staff member regarding this.
Please could you send me the clip in, as well as advise in which area this delivery was taking place (and the time)?
We train our staff, and try and enforce good practices throughout the delivery process, and when incidents like these go by ‘unnoticed’ it is good that we do get feedback.
I immediately responded and sent all the relevant details to Sean who then, it seems, went on a fact finding mission and managed to get to the bottom of things.
Just this morning however I received another email, this time from Andrew Dinnie – General Manager of the Western Cape, in which he tries to address some of the comments in the post. I thought it relevant to post some of his remarks in the email as it addresses the issues quite nicely.
The delivery was a scheduled delivery to BMW parts dealership in Town. The boxes on the video which were planned for that delivery are robust automotive parts not TV screens. They happened to be very light (5-6kg’s) and hence the proceeding method of handling. We do not condone the method and have already addressed this issue with all our handling staff. We are fortunate that to date there are no recorded damages and we have confirmed with this dealership that they maintain their support for our services.
I would also like to remark on a comment made on your blog by Sean Nieuwoudt, who is incorrect when he says that our east London branch is under liquidation. It is 100% owned by DB Schenker and continues to trade healthily, as in the past.
Now I’m no rocket scientist nor am I a specialist in online reputation management (ORM) but the way in which Schenker Logistics handled this situation is exceptional. By all accounts this measly blog doesn’t attract a massive readership and it would have been easy for the guys at Schenker to simply ignore this yet they decided to tackle the issue head on.
Tim Shier, marketing manager for both Quirk eMarketing and BrandsEye, recently wrote about the SAA ORM crisis in which he details 10 points for companies to consider when dealing with ORM. I’m not sure is Schenker knowingly knew what they were doing but they’ve done a sterling job at managing their online reputation by dealing with this somewhat minor issue.
Posted on August 19, 2008 - by Justin Hartman
Last.fm’s Awesome New Functionality
I have a four year old. He loves music. The only problem is he loves listening to his music on my iPhone. The net result of this has been a complete dominance of kids music on my Last.fm profile. I think the graph below illustrates my point.
Now prior to the new look Last.fm site there was no way to actually ban or remove artists from your profile. I asked other Last.fm connections if this could be done but alas, there was little hope of cleaning my profile up.
The great news is that all thanks to this…
…My Last.fm profile now looks like this:
Thank you Last.fm for giving me this much needed functionality!!!
Posted on October 16, 2007 - by Justin Hartman
Can Bolton Deventer win us the World Cup?
Gregor and I have created this awesome game for The Times! I’m hooked.
Brought to you by The Times
Grab the embed code for your site below.
<div><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" quality="high" src="http://data.pictogame.com/gc/gc.swf" width="410" height="340" allowFullScreen="true" flashvars="gameId=oHeEPEXPmceB" name="flashContainer644787388"></embed>
<div style="width:410px; text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.pictogame.com/create.php?from_blog=1&template=13" target="_blank"><strong>Make games</strong></a> | <a href="http://www.pictogame.com/game.php?from_blog=1&game=3Y4go0BpLpvt" target="_blank">Share</a> | <a href="http://www.pictogame.com/gallery.php?from_blog=1" target="_blank" title="play free online games" >Play free online games</a> | <a href="http://www.pictogame.com/?from_blog=1" target="_blank" title="user generated games" rel="tag">User Generated Games @ Pictogame</a></div></div>
<br /><br />
Brought to you by <a href="http://www.thetimes.co.za/">The Times</a>
Posted on October 10, 2007 - by Justin Hartman
How to pack your clothes. No, seriously!
This was found on OneBag.com and I wish I had found this before packing my suit and heading off to Cape Town.
Posted on August 16, 2007 - by Justin Hartman
The best design application in the world
Wondering who owns the best design application? Find out below.
Posted on June 27, 2007 - by Justin Hartman
Videos of the snow in Johannesburg
If you missed it then you seriously lost out. At around 12:00 on Wednesday morning the snow started to fall in Johannesburg for the first time in around 26 years. In fact the last time I saw snow in Johannesburg I was only 2 years old.
With the downfall of the snow I managed to capture three really cool videos. They’ve been uploaded to Twac and I’ve included the final video below so you can see just how thick it came down.
There is also more. Here are the links to the three different clips taken at almost half hour intervals:
You can also view some pictures I took of the snowfall by visiting this link.
WOW – what fun this was, if not a little cold!!!
Posted on May 24, 2007 - by Justin Hartman
Show me the Gatorlove
Some things just tickle my fancy but I have to admit Gatorlove is really blowing my hair back! It’s such a simple yet cool new feature to Afrigator and I can already see the benefit of having Gatorlove on the site.
Nic very kindly exposed this new feature this morning and Stiaan has done a cool post on it as well. Then of course there is the Afrigator Blog which shows this new feature in great detail.
But I’ll highlight exactly what Gatorlove is all about:
Gatorlove shows you just how much love you are getting from other Afrigator users in the Afrosphere by outlining how many blog posts and blog sites link to yours. If you login to Afrigator and click on the Dashboard link you will now see a list of your sites showing you your Gatorlove.
We have very cool plans for Gatorlove and this is really only the beginning so watch this space for further announcements!
Posted on May 9, 2007 - by Justin Hartman
Shirley, Goodness and Mercy
So last night I did something I haven’t done in more than six years – I went to the theater. Zane Meas of 7de Laan and Twac fame stars in the lead role of a beautiful coming of age story set in the coloured community of Riverlea called Shirley, Goodness and Mercy.
The play is a touching and vibrant account of acclaimed South African writer, Chris van Wyk and is based on the book of the same name. The theatre version of Shirley, Goodness and Mercy has been adapted by director Janice Honeyman to capture Van Wyk’s love of storytelling and the wonder of a child’s inquisitive mind in stifling and oppressive circumstances.
I have certainly forgotten just how powerful theater can be and the play captured my imagination from almost the very first line. It’s wonderfully entertaining and Christo Davids, who plays the young Chris Van Wyk, was absolutely brilliant in his role. In fairness though each and every member of the cast were amazing and I take my hats off to their performances last night.
I think I may just have to do this more often.
Posted on March 29, 2007 - by Justin Hartman
The Cleaners Revenge
So there’s this really cool clip I came across yesterday on the Twac website which I thought I have to share with you. It lacks a little plot and is a little silly but the technique is brilliant. The clip below was shot using still photos and more than 450 pics were taken to create this effect. The result – brilliant!
I am the MD and co-founder of 