Ask the right question

I was in Sports Basement today picking up a bike tube. As the cashier rang up my puchase, he asked me “Is this your first time at Sports Basement?”. I answered “no.”

What’s wrong with this?

Well, your best customers — your regulars — have to give a negative answer every time.

It would be much better to ask “Have you been to Sports Basement before?”

More people will answer positively. Positive answer == positive frame of mind as you exit the store.

I pointed this out to the cashier, and he agreed. We’ll see what happens next time I’m there.

Odd spam of the week

This went to myself and five our so others. I think she might be trying to book a gig. I’m really not sure.

Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2007 10:15:24 -0500
From: Jane Nicolson <[email protected]>
Subject: hello

HELLO.
MY NAME IS LAURA WILSON AND I AM CURRENTLY IN NEED OF A ROOM..
I WILL LIKE TO KNOW THE DETAILS AND AMOUTN OF THE ROOM,
I WILL BE HAPPY IF U CAN EMAL ME BACK SO THAT WE CAN TALK MORE..
PLS KINDLY EMAIL ME TO MY EMAIL BOX  [email protected] SO THAT WE CAN TALK MORE.
NOTE I CANT READY UR EMAIL IF U EMAIL HOTMAIL

Conservatives in their native environment

The Independent‘s Johann Hari goes on a cruise with readers of the National Review:

A red-faced man who looks like an egg with a moustache glued on grumbles, ” If the Germans think they can take responsibility for the world, I don’t care about German courts. Bomb them.” I begin to witter on about the Pinochet precedent, and Kate snaps, “Treating Don Rumsfeld like Pinochet is disgusting.” Egg Man pounds his fist on the table: ” Treating Pinochet like that is disgusting. Pinochet is a hero. He saved Chile.”

Max Blumenthal checks out the College Republican National Convention:

You fucked with the wrong marine

Ex-Marine, 72, fights off pickpocket:

Bill Barnes says he was scratching off a losing $2 lottery ticket inside a gas station when he felt a hand slip into his front-left pants pocket, where he had $300 in cash.

He immediately grabbed the person’s wrist with his left hand and started throwing punches with his right, landing six or seven blows before a store manager intervened.
…
He’s anything but an easy mark: Barnes served in the Marines, was an accomplished Golden Gloves boxer and retired after 20 years as an iron worker.
…
“There was blood everywhere,” said another manager on duty, Abby Ostrom, 25.

Speaking at WWDC: Bug Reporting Best Practices

At this year’s Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, I’m giving version 2.0 of my Bug Reporting Best Practices talk.

The official blurb:

Bug reports that are complete and reproducible help to isolate known issues in system and application software, making a solution much more likely. Learn the bug reporting best practices that Apple has developed in partnership with our third-party developer community. Observe the key components of a great bug report, and how they could expedite your bugs through our processes. You’ll also learn to apply these practices to your own bug processes.

The sound bite version is “I’m teaching developers how to write bugs.”

It’s Wednesday, June 13 at 9 am in The Marina.

Here are some comments from people who’ve attended my previous talks:

  • “Paul’s presentation style kicks ass.”
  • “Great lively presentation and very interesting content!”
  • “Flows well, Paul is a great presenter!”
  • “Great information.”