Jounce

You might think accomplished, well-known web folks would know how to give feedback/bug reports constructively. You would be wrong.

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 07:32:59 +0000

You might think accomplished, well-known web folks would know how to give feedback/bug reports constructively. You would be wrong.

@jessabean They look great. Looks like it was a fun and beautiful time :)

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:37:57 +0000

@jessabean They look great. Looks like it was a fun and beautiful time :)

@livlab I'm a fan of Webfaction. They're pretty no-nonsense, support a lot of stuff, and I've always gotten decent support from them.

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:00:06 +0000

@livlab I'm a fan of Webfaction. They're pretty no-nonsense, support a lot of stuff, and I've always gotten decent support from them.

@jw you should know that there are a great many @viget folks who actively use @gowalla. Not just @jacksonfox and myself ;)

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:22:03 +0000

@jw you should know that there are a great many @viget folks who actively use @gowalla. Not just @jacksonfox and myself ;)

By the way, don't let this optimism fool you. I could kill you with the edge of my keyboard at any moment. Just like Raiden.

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:24:35 +0000

By the way, don't let this optimism fool you. I could kill you with the edge of my keyboard at any moment. Just like Raiden.

Being positive and realistic is a skill you have to practice. It is not the product of luck, talent, or circumstance.

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:26:42 +0000

Being positive and realistic is a skill you have to practice. It is not the product of luck, talent, or circumstance.

The Incompetence of American Airlines & The Fate of Mr. X

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:02:38 +0000

Dustin Curtis:

A FEW MONTHS AGO, I wrote an article expressing my displeasure with American Airlines‘ hideous online presence. I also spent some time mocking up a redesigned version of their website. To my surprise, the head of user experience at AA.com emailed me an amazing response describing some of the design problems faced in large corporations. You should read my original article here and the response from Mr. X here. An hour after I posted the response, American Airlines fired Mr. X.

One one hand, he violated his NDA, which is generally a bad thing and sometimes worth termination. On the other hand, the fact that what he said was even covered by an NDA is a bit absurd. The biggest secret he might have revealed was forthcoming transparency into fares and sales policies — and that’s only a shocking announcement if you often fly AA.

In any event, the firing of this guy is sure to hurt AA more than his post could have.

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@reagent I've been a fan of fios the last eight months or so. Don't think I've had a real outage, and it's certainly fast.

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:15:31 +0000

@reagent I've been a fan of fios the last eight months or so. Don't think I've had a real outage, and it's certainly fast.

@afischer Hah, I've had it for a year, it's not a big beard by any stretch, and I guess it initially took two or three weeks or so.

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:21:59 +0000

@afischer Hah, I've had it for a year, it's not a big beard by any stretch, and I guess it initially took two or three weeks or so.

Back from talking at middle school career day. Among questions: "How long did your beard take to grow?" and "Know any famous people?"

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:56:06 +0000

Back from talking at middle school career day. Among questions: "How long did your beard take to grow?" and "Know any famous people?"

The ability to keep your mouth shut when appropriate can be an incredibly valuable character trait. Like, seriously, charge your friends.

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:53:46 +0000

The ability to keep your mouth shut when appropriate can be an incredibly valuable character trait. Like, seriously, charge your friends.

@vanderwal Hah, where indeed.

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:33:16 +0000

@vanderwal Hah, where indeed.

I've got an idea for a pretty decent product, but it's too big to do solo, and I don't have the resources. Frustration.

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:01:06 +0000

I've got an idea for a pretty decent product, but it's too big to do solo, and I don't have the resources. Frustration.

Five Major Identity Schemes, and How to Decide

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:41:22 +0000

A quick post I wrote for the Viget UX blog on five major identity schemes, how they’re used effectively, and how to go about working out a scheme for your product:

The key to choosing a system is balancing the needs for the contributor’s privacy against the skepticism of the consumers. In Yelp’s case, a pseudonymous identity system might lead some to think that many reviews of local restaurants are being posted by the restaurant staff itself. That might still be the case, but at least it’s discouraged by the emphasis on abstracted real names. In Facebook’s case, privacy in terms of identity isn’t really necessary for people who are supposed to know each other anyway. For a forum dealing with sensitive topics like disgruntled workers, relationships, or medical issues, anonymity might be crucial to creating a safe haven for people to share their thoughts.

It’s easy to overlook, and can be tough to change later…

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The Meaning of Information Technology

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:36:10 +0000

Nick Kallen, one of the Twitter Engineers:

Human beings need to understand one another in terms of primordial intimacies because man has no other tools for understanding the solicitations of man. But if the size of the world no is on longer amenable to intimacy technologies, then mankind must invent information technologies that rehumanize the world. Thus the proliferation of social software on the web. The reification of the social graph in Friendster; the Facebook Newsfeed and the Twitter; and the Foursquare all serve this one purpose: to rehumanize an inhumane world.

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Had some folks from China trying to take out poor lil' old jounce.net through a pure-ftpd exploit. No need for ftp these days anyway...

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:25:50 +0000

Had some folks from China trying to take out poor lil' old jounce.net through a pure-ftpd exploit. No need for ftp these days anyway...

@jtnt tempting. wouldn't want to upset @davetroy with such shenanigans, though :)

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:50:06 +0000

@jtnt tempting. wouldn't want to upset @davetroy with such shenanigans, though :)

@ayemarr most people do even less. just be glad that you have The Fear, so at least you'll always be one step ahead.

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:46:24 +0000

@ayemarr most people do even less. just be glad that you have The Fear, so at least you'll always be one step ahead.

@jtnt I'd have loved to, but never heard back about my application. Sadness.

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:41:22 +0000

@jtnt I'd have loved to, but never heard back about my application. Sadness.

I'm finding my respect for someone tends to be inversely proportional to their concern for their twitter follower list.

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:27:36 +0000

I'm finding my respect for someone tends to be inversely proportional to their concern for their twitter follower list.

Congratulations to many of my former coworkers at Grassroots for their acquisition by Edelman today! http://j.mp/R1ZU0

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:33:05 +0000

Congratulations to many of my former coworkers at Grassroots for their acquisition by Edelman today! http://j.mp/R1ZU0

Why do we have an IMG element?

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:23:16 +0000

Mark Pilgrim traces the conversations that resulted in the IMG tag, with lots of interesting conclusions and observations mixed in. I won’t give away the ending, but here’s one important takeaway:

HTML has always been a conversation between browser makers, authors, standards wonks, and other people who just showed up and liked to talk about angle brackets. Most of the successful versions of HTML have been “retro-specs,” catching up to the world while simultaneously trying to nudge it in the right direction. Anyone who tells you that HTML should be kept “pure” (presumably by ignoring browser makers, or ignoring authors, or both) is simply misinformed. HTML has never been pure, and all attempts to purify it have been spectacular failures, matched only by the attempts to replace it.

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TV Finds That a Mortal Foe, the DVR, Is Really a Best Friend

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:19:16 +0000

Not only are DVRs not killing TV advertising, but more folks are watching shows because of them, and many of those people are too lazy to skip commercials:

Almost across the board, the gains for playback are growing. The best preseason estimate for the current season, said David F. Poltrack, the chief research officer for CBS, was about a 1 percent increase from playback over the live program for the networks combined. Instead, many are in the range of 7 to 12 percent, with some shows having increases of more than 20 percent when DVR ratings are added. The four networks together are averaging a 10 percent increase.

Of course, as with almost all such things so far, digital media isn’t actually killing a business, just threatening one particular model, revealing another more profitable model.

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Received a mighty-fine four-pack of Allagash White, my favorite brew, from @therealmig. Unnecessary, but very much appreciated.

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:06:02 +0000

Received a mighty-fine four-pack of Allagash White, my favorite brew, from @therealmig. Unnecessary, but very much appreciated.

Seems my dog has allergies. The last vestiges of her steroid treatment will be her new nickname: A-Rod.

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:17:01 +0000

Seems my dog has allergies. The last vestiges of her steroid treatment will be her new nickname: A-Rod.

I was hoping Feliz would pull off a hit, but I didn't see that coming. #phillies

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 23:20:30 +0000

I was hoping Feliz would pull off a hit, but I didn't see that coming. #phillies

@neagle I'd think the specific heat for soda would be fairly close to that of water. Not sure though, so good question.

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:28:22 +0000

@neagle I'd think the specific heat for soda would be fairly close to that of water. Not sure though, so good question.

@neagle I feel that way about soda, actually. The pressure of the can keeps it perfectly, albeit slightly, cool imho.

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:13:31 +0000

@neagle I feel that way about soda, actually. The pressure of the can keeps it perfectly, albeit slightly, cool imho.

Not sure I'm getting the magic mouse excitement. When was the last time Apple made a really great mouse that lasted more than two months?

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:05:52 +0000

Not sure I'm getting the magic mouse excitement. When was the last time Apple made a really great mouse that lasted more than two months?

@jw sure, but they're on by default for everyone else too, so I'll think twice before checking in anywhere.

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 07:51:16 +0000

@jw sure, but they're on by default for everyone else too, so I'll think twice before checking in anywhere.

Bummer. @Gowalla got annoying overnight. Notifications are now on by default, and it'll definitely change how I use it.

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 07:00:32 +0000

Bummer. @Gowalla got annoying overnight. Notifications are now on by default, and it'll definitely change how I use it.

@Yoni that's better than getting "Mike" ... I'm always thinking "there's a reason why it's M. Jackson, not Michael J." plus your #2

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:11:45 +0000

@Yoni that's better than getting "Mike" ... I'm always thinking "there's a reason why it's M. Jackson, not Michael J." plus your #2

@cjoh Perhaps. My only solace is that I'm the least paranoid member of my household.

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:41:17 +0000

@cjoh Perhaps. My only solace is that I'm the least paranoid member of my household.

@cjoh is apparently now my number one enemy, or at least his friends are ;)

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:27:46 +0000

@cjoh is apparently now my number one enemy, or at least his friends are ;)

Two things bugging me today: trying to do real work in omnigraffle on my laptop's 13" screen, and people who use work-specific IM accounts.

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 09:57:33 +0000

Two things bugging me today: trying to do real work in omnigraffle on my laptop's 13" screen, and people who use work-specific IM accounts.