First and foremost, when someone is on the technical assistance line for your Internet service, talking about your technical support web site just makes them angry. Here’s a hint: If I could get to your damn web site I wouldn’t be on the freaking telephone!!!

Second, it is extremely annoying to remind people that they are on hold every 30 seconds. They know they are hold and the reminders don’t improve their mood.

Three, as there is a menu to work through for every other step along the way, why not give people a choice of audio on hold. Classical music fans could listen to the Ring cycle. Oldies fans could listen to the entire Beatles collection. Fantasy fans could listen to the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy, without fear of interruption.

Just trying to improve your customer service with a little feedback…

Position: 28.2N 64.7W [10 PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: North-Northwest [340°] near 13 mph [20 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 100 mph [160 kph].
Wind Gusts: 120 mph [195 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 345 miles [555 km].
Hurricane Wind Radius: 90 miles [145 km].
Minimum central pressure: 945 mb.

Currently about 285 miles [459 km] South of Bermuda.

The aircraft has found that Igor is slightly weaker than anticipated due to an eyewall replacement cycle.

While the normal drop in strength caused by the eyewall replacement is good news, what is not good news for Bermuda is the failure of Igor to recurve as soon as had been predicted. One of the things about hurricanes that most people don’t realize is that they have four quadrants.

Using an analog clock face, the worst of any storm is found from 12 to 3. The Northeast quadrant has the strongest winds and the longest reach. Up until today, it looked like the storm was going to pass to the east of Bermuda, which meant the 9 to 12, Northwest quadrant would impact the island. That would have reduced the damage considerably.

Even though it doesn’t look like Igor will make a direct hit on Bermuda, a miss to the West is not as good news, as a miss to the East.

A Hurricane Warning is in effect for Bermuda

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]