PanNotes

Most Jamaicans living in the corporate area are accustomed to having running water in their taps to use at their disposal. Barring the occasional occurrence of natural disasters such as hurricanes that can cause brief disruptions in the quality of the water, corporate area residents generally enjoy unrestricted access to relatively clean water. This, however, is no longer the case. An extended period of drought has led to the depletion of the reservoirs and dams that service the corporate area, resulting in water restrictions that are impinging upon the comfort zone of many Kingstonians.

Pictures are truly worth 1,000 words…in this case they’re probably worth MILLIONS.

I don’t know cars, but this Benz struck gold. Don’t think we’ll ever see one in Jamaica though!

These are photos of the 2010 2011 Mercedes Benz SL600. “The 12-cylinder engine offers impressive performance without any ratting or squeaks at even at peak speeds. The 2010 2011 SL600 is capable of achieving 0 to 12 in just 4.7 seconds,” according to allautoreviews.com.

Why are businesses raising prices in a recession when they should be lowering them to stimulate sales. It is the most annoying thing. Our guess is that they are foolishly trying to make up in mark up what they are losing in volume.

We have seen this obscene stiffing of customers at restaurants, supermarkets, fruit and vegetable markets, and the hardware, clothing and haberdashery stores.

The service industries are no different.

I’m so happy Jamaican companies have caught on to the social media wave. It is truly the way forward! So far it’s been bringing big benefits to consumers. Digicel’s Facebook page offers credit giveaways regularly. That’s exciting, because it’s like participating in a sweepstakes right at your computer and getting the prize immediately too! Besides credit giveaways there are other prizes such as mobile phones. Now isn’t that sweet?

Working on an old Apple iMac G3/333 this week brought back memories of what computing was like ten years ago. We had decommissioned the machine, a pretty Strawberry “retro futuristic” all-in-one case design with a 15-inch “crystal clear” CRT display.

The Strawberry sat next to a Mac Plus as display and conversation pieces in Panmedia’s office. It did get conversation sometimes, especially from young people who had never even seen that model.

Well it’s that time of year again- when eating out is in. After one year of waiting I’m so happy that Restaurant Week is finally here. 

For those who don’t know, RW is a one-week event where participating restaurants offer a discounted price for a three course meal. This year there are six price categories this year: Epicurean ($3,500), Delectable ($3,000), Dine and Dance ($3,000), Savory ($1,600), High Rollers ($1,600) and Tasty ($1,350). You can find more information on menus and dates on yuhrate.

People pull out smart phones so often these days it seems like everyone has one. Calls are the least of it, most people are using them for browsing, sending mails, research and status updates on popular social networking sites like facebook and twitter.

Digicel has scored again with its new television game show ‘Deal or No Deal’ aired last Wednesday. I caught the show midway through and decided to continue watching, first because there was nothing else interesting on cable and then I realized the show was gripping. I was praying every time a case was chosen the contestant would win big.

Jamaicans complain often about the government not sharing information. People want to know what is going on, when it’s going on, and who it’s going on with.

Well, that’s where social media comes in. SM tools can be a minute by minute contact point between the government and the people. There are sooo many things they can do, such as starting a YouTube channel to broadcast special news and events that have been filmed but not shown in full on television stations. Government ministers can also do timely video updates on their ministry and upload to YouTube and facebook and link on twitter.

Fingerprint security is usually associated with high security organizations, not something as bland as the retail store. But a Jamaican software development company has changed all that, and added a first for the region.