Ask a Question: Get An Answer
Have you ever asked a question and didn't like the answer?
You've heard it said that a lawyer doesn't ask a question to which they don't already know the answer. There's a reason. Sometimes we can't handle the truth.
A woman doesn't ask if she looks fat in these jeans because she wants the truth – she is looking for words of affirmation. By asking a question, we become vulnerable to the one from which we asked the question.
And yet it is important to know the truth. For with the truth we can take action. Many years ago as a Regional Manager for Pearle Vision I would conduct phone surveys as part of a business review. I called 25 recent customers and asked about their experience. I hated those calls and yet the answers were beneficial for my business.
I would ask about the service, their perception of the value versus the price and if they would return and/or refer us to their friends. Most callers were kind but there were a few that used the questions as an opportunity to vent. It was those honest callers that provided the most valuable information; knowledge that I could then act upon to improve my business.
That didn't make hearing the answers any easier. I recently asked a question. The answer has permanently altered my view of the future. Not so good. But at least I know.
Although in our head we may know the answer, once asked, the answer has to be dealt with. There is a reason lawyers only ask questions to which they know the answer. Sometimes surprises are not a good thing.
However, if you really want to know what people think of you, what customers think of your business, you have to ask – even if the answer is painful to hear.
So when was the last time you asked your customers what you could do differently?
Deborah Chaddock Brown
Professional Writer, queen of Query
AllWrite Ink
Communications | admin | 30 April 2007 |
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By derek, May 8, 2007 @ 12:32 pm
what is the difference between price determined and price determining
By suyog, February 12, 2010 @ 2:55 am
hello friends
i m working on a project in which i need to download a .csv file from the link http://download.finance.yahoo.com/d/quotes.csv?s=RHT,MSFT,NOVL&f=sl1c1d1t1ohgv&e=.csv
the link itself is a download link. well the problem is i need this thing to be done using java programming. the program must download the file after every predefined time interval. also the program must download the file in background without notifying the user.
also i m working at a place where my internet connection is through a proxy server having following specification
ip: 10.1.1.254
port number: 8080
also it requires basic authentication having plaintext username and password (for ex: username: abc password: xyz). the program must bypass this proxy and do the work specified
i tried the program as shown below but it gives the error http status 407. the error code specifies authentication failure although the username and password specified are correct. please help me out…..
import java.net.HttpURLConnection;
import java.net.URL;
import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.io.IOException;
import sun.misc.*;
public class getXML
{
public static String encode (String source)
{
BASE64Encoder enc = new sun.misc.BASE64Encoder();
return(enc.encode(source.getBytes()));
}
public static void main(String args[])
{
try {
System.setProperty(“http.proxyHost”, “10.1.1.254″);
System.setProperty(“http.proxyPort”, “8080″);
URL ourURL = new URL(“http://download.finance.yahoo.com/d/quotes.csv?s=RHT,MSFT,NOVL&f=sl1c1d1&e=.csv”); //Coding Forums RSS Feed
HttpURLConnection huc = (HttpURLConnection)ourURL.openConnection();
sun.misc.BASE64Encoder encoder = new sun.misc.BASE64Encoder();
//String encodedUserPwd =encoder.encode(“10.1.1.254\\jadhao.khushal:sharmilee”);
huc.setRequestProperty(“Authorization”, “Basic ” + encode(“jadhao.khushal:sharmilee”));
//huc.setRequestProperty(“Proxy-Authorization”, “Basic ” + encodedUserPwd);
//String encoded = new String(Base64.base64Encode(new String(“khushal.jadhao:sharmilee”).getBytes()));
//huc.setRequestProperty(“Proxy-Authorization”, “Basic ” + encoded);
huc.setRequestMethod(“GET”);
huc.setRequestProperty(“User-Agent”, “Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; JVM)”);
huc.setRequestProperty(“Pragma”, “no-cache”);
huc.connect();
BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(huc.getInputStream()));
String line = null;
while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null) {
// Either do your parsing here, or append it to a StringBuffer for later use
}
}
catch(IOException ioe)
{
ioe.printStackTrace();
}
catch(Exception e)
{
System.err.println(“General Exception ” + e);
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}