Lost in translation

In English, when reading numbers out loud, one often “chunks” the numbers into smaller groups. For example, when reading the phone number “555-1212,” one would say “five five five, one two one two,” not “five hundred fifty-five, one thousand two hundred and twelve.”

Similarly, one would call Interstate 280 “interstate two eighty,” not “interstate two hundred and eighty.”

Toyota’s Prius GPS does this. It’s an example of good design — speak the language your customers speak.

However, this falls apart when you switch the Prius over to French. Exit 420 becomes exit quatre (4) vingt (20). The problem? In most parts of the French-speaking world, 80 is also pronounced “quatre vingts” (“four twenties”).

In this case, you have to listen to your GPS and read the screen to be sure you take the right exit.

You fucked with the wrong marine, part II

Apparently some people just don’t read the news. Remember, kids: don’t mess with a marine:

A boy in his mid-teens learned Wednesday afternoon that it is not a good idea to try to rob a former U.S. Marine at knifepoint, even if the former Marine is 84 years old, police said today.
…
The man then put his bags on the ground and told the boy that if he stepped closer he would be sorry. When the boy stepped closer, the man kicked him in the groin, knocking him to the sidewalk, Bair said. The ex-Marine picked up his grocery bags and walked home, leaving the boy doubled over, Bair said.

Mac Productivity 101

Here are the tools I mentioned in my Mac Productivity 101 session at the San Fran MusicTech Summit:

Know your instrument

Collaboration

  • SubEthaEdit: collaborative text editor
  • Screen Sharing: built in to Mac OS X Leopard
  • Address Book: built in to Mac OS X
  • Teleport: share one keyboard and mouse between multiple Macs
  • Adium: multi-protocol instant messaging

Audiovisual

Eliminate Distractions

Save Your Ass

The slides

Friendster is a click whore, too

If you tell it to, Friendster helpfully reminds you when your friends’ birthdays are coming up. This is handy for calling them, writing them, or leaving them happy birthday comments on their wall Friendster profile.

Look at the email itself:
friendster birthday reminder

What’s missing? The birthday itself. Instead of building trust with its members by providing them useful information, Friendster, too is nothing but a click whore.

TiVo needs a migration assistant

When you upgrade your TiVo, you lose everything.

Season passes, wish lists, saved thumb ratings, channel configurations — everything. Yes, you can transfer recordings — but only one at a time. It’s a very slow, very manual process.

What TiVo needs is a migration assistant. When you get a new Mac, the Mac OS X setup assistant automagically copies over your applications, network settings, files, user account, password.

After you’ve migrated everything, you log in to your new Mac, just like it was your old Mac. You don’t notice a difference. Just that it’s faster.

What TiVo can learn from the phone company

I recently purchased a TiVo HD. The TiVo was pre-activated, so I didn’t have to activate it on tivo.com.

Before I pass on my old TiVo (a series 2), I want to transfer the programs from it to my new TiVo HD. In order for transfers to work:

  • both DVRs must have active service agreements
  • “allow transfers” must be enabled on tivo.com
  • both DVRs must be associated with the same tivo.com account

For some reason, my new TiVo was associated with the account of the person who ordered it, not my account.

I called TiVo, confirmed a few details, and they sorted everything out.

So, what’s the problem? It requires human intervention. The first time I attempted this process, the TiVo call center was closed. This account transfer should be a self-service option.

When I forget my password for AT&T’s web site, they text me a new one. It’s a pretty smart idea — communicating the secure information out-of-band.

My TiVo should have a unique identifier — other than the service number — that’s only visible from the device itself. Since my TiVo connects to the Internet already, this should be pretty straightforward. Once I enter that information, TiVo can confirm ownership of the box, and transfer it over to my account.