NBC in Dallas ran a piece called “Airlines Rethinking Customer Care. In the piece, they talk about airlines using customer data to personalize the customer experience. Yawn. Places like OpenTable and Wyndham have been doing this for years. Great restaurants kept detailed notes on their best customers with pen and paper. The anonymous talking head …
Category Archives: miscellaneous
Weirdest spam I’ve seen in a while
HOWTO deploy PHP sites with Capistrano 2
When I learned Ruby on Rails, I found out about Capistrano. This whole automated deployment thing seemed pretty neat. But then my Rails project finished, and I was back to working on a PHP site. There I was, coding along in naive bliss. Then I started working on voteforchange.com for the Obama Campaign. Nick and …
why design matters
“No graphic in human history has saved so many lives in africa and asia.” — Nicholas Kristof, The New York Times
Why not to attend Harvard Business School
LinkedIn tells me Fact: Harvard Business School graduates have 58 connections each (average) I have 270, and it didn’t cost me $83,000.
The traveller’s lament
In 2007, I visited many cities — including Los Angeles, San Diego, Austin, Boston, Washington, DC, New York and Toronto. I used the transit systems in the last four and, of course, the San Francisco bay area. Over time, a few questions emerged: Why do I have to have a different card for each city? …
Finish this sentence
If I’m the smartest guy in the room…
From asshat to spork
Everyone’s favorite lexicographer — Erin McKean — had a great piece in the New York Times last Sunday. In her article, she dives in to the Oxford English Corpus, explaining how we migrate (north), who we chide (the president) and what’s edible (fungi and seaweed, among others).
Thumbs up to the iPod UI team
Newer-model iPods give this message when you attempt to connect them to a computer via FireWire: FireWire connections are not supported. To transfer songs, connect the USB cable to dismiss. This demonstrates key elements of a good error message: A reason for the error Suggested corrective action Sure beats “connection failed, -2819,” doesn’t it?
The Tuxedo Travels
My friend Doug and his buddy Heath have embarked on The Tuxedo Travels — a four-month trip by “two fools who barely know each other” from Hong Kong to London entirely overland, wearing only tuxedos. Of course, they’re blogging the whole thing.