If you haven’t heard of MAPLight.org before, here’s what they do (which is fantastic): MAPLight.org, a groundbreaking public database, illuminates the connection between campaign donations and legislative votes in unprecedented ways. Elected officials collect large sums of money to run their campaigns, and they often pay back campaign contributors with special access and favorable laws. …
Author Archives: paulschreiber
Hey Chase bank — 1995 called, they want their user agreement back
Buried in my Amazon Chase Visa “This E-Sign Disclosure and Consent” was this gem: Hardware and Software Requirements. In order to access, view, respond to, and retain electronic Communications that we make available to you, you must have: an Internet browser (Microsoft ® Windows 95 or higher, Windows NT 4.0 or higher with Microsoft Internet …
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I’d rather you be right
Jeff Ello wrote an interesting article for Computerworld about managing geeks. Here’s the heart of it: While everyone would like to work for a nice person who is always right, IT pros will prefer a jerk who is always right over a nice person who is always wrong. Wrong creates unnecessary work, impossible situations and …
Contact information for Hertz customer relations
Need to write Hertz customer service (customer relations)? Their contact information was hard to track down (they appear to have moved, and even the BBB data is confusing). The Hertz Corporation PO Box 26120 Oklahoma City, OK 73126-0120 888-777-6095 x4036 405-290-2899 fax [email protected]
The US Congress doesn’t understand the Internet
Recently, I received an email from Nancy Pelosi: Apparently no one explained to her (despite representing Internet central), that scanning your letterhead and pasting it in to your email is a bad idea. It looks worse when it’s on a funny angle. Having text as images this must be some sort of ADA violation. Finally, …
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Don’t hire Judi Newberry
Who needs an “SEO Mavin” anyway?
Awesome healthcare roundup: lower costs, better quality
Health Beat has a terrific roundup of health care new: Physicians and hospital leaders in Cedar Rapids began by counting how many CAT scans they were doing, only to find that in just one year 52,000 scans were done in a community of 300,000 people. “I was embarrassed for us,†confides Jim Levett, a cardiac …
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Garrison Keillor on golf
Via Mark Hurst: Garrison Keillor on golf: The socially redeeming aspect of golf lies in the vast number of lawyers and bankers and managers who play it, and when you think of the damage they would do if they were at the job instead, you can see why golf courses are a wise investment for …
Delta can’t count
There are seven continents. But who’s counting?
SXSW Interactive Panel Proposal: Abort? Retry? Failwhale? Making Error Messages Suck Less
I’ve proposed a panel for SXSW Interactive: Abort? Retry? Failwhale? Making Error Messages Suck Less. Here’s how I described it: An unknown error occurred. Call your system administrator. Abort/retry/fail? Bad errors are everywhere. Sure, complain on twitter. But how do we fix them? Through hilarious examples, we’ll explore the 12 ways errors fail us. Then, …