Posts filed under 'Technology'
Yesterday at a closing session of SxSW Bruce Sterling mentioned that Viacom is suing Google. Instead of being interested in the suit I wanted to find out who Viacom owned and if I liked their content.
I stumbled upon the CJR or Columbia Journalism Review. I haven’t really perused this site since the last election where I found them to be a great neutral resource for me to judge if Rupert Murdoch owned organizations were truly being partial and how the press process works.
Columbia Journalism Review article called Before Jon Stewart.
June 12th, 2007
Today is the last day of SxSW’s Interactive portion of the conference in Austin, TX. This is my last evening in Austin and I’d like to try something other than BBQ or meat, but I digress. Today is the day I finally felt that the conference was worthwhile despite the poor quality panels and presentations with exciting titles.
Maybe the reason the conference is moving me now as a designer is the movie screening of Helvetica. I realized how everybody in the world is now a designer or thinks of themselves as a designer. I used to be offended by this and ask them why would you think you’re a designer? Well today I realize that with digital cameras an amateur phototog can now take the equivalent of 10 rolls of film in one sitting and not have to develop the film. In graduate school my professor would applaud us when we came up with 3-5 printable shots per 27 shot rolls. We would have to buy film, take the time to develop the film, and then print them.
Today with the Canon and Nikon SLRs from the lower end models to the high end ones anybody can take the 27 shots in a minute. The more you shoot the better you get. We are now all photographers. Soon as the tools become easier we will all be filmmakers and sketchers. (e.g. JumpCut or SketchUp) Nobody has a single identity anymore.
I have been hanging on to the idea that people fit in buckets and you have to be a generalist and specialist to do your job and do it well. In this world of SxSW attendees this does not hold true. Everybody is a generalist and yet a specialist at the same time. The goal seems to be talk to everybody like you know what you’re saying, but do what you do very well to make yourself different.
Conclusion: I did not learn anything at the conference about design that I did not already know. I had many good conversations that made me question the way I think about design and how to interact with the interface. There are no answers, but always keep yourself open to new ideas.
March 13th, 2007
I wrote this really comprehensive objective post and WordPress ate it. Now you’re going to be stuck with the non-objective two minute summary.
Problem 1: I ordered a product through buy.com and google checkout on Nov. 7th. I have not received my order and google has already charged me. Today is Nov. 30th.
Problem 2: I can’t check my order status through buy.com, the vendor who is supplying the merchandise, instead I have to go through my sucky gmail account and reply to the email confirmation.
Disclaimer: I am not a google hater or Yahoo! lover, but it’s wrong for a business to take your money, and not give you your order. It is also bad user experience for the vendor, buy.com in this case, to have google checkout ruin the experience of a loyal customer.
Other vendors and buy.com in the past have given refunds or partial refunds for delayed or unfulfillable orders. Instead with google checkout I am stuck viewing and discussing my order issues through my gmail account and then searching on buy.com for the product info and current product availability status. For the less advanced user and loyal customers how is buy.com to know when there is a problem?
December 1st, 2006
It’s been over a month now since my first post regarding Skype free to any landline in the US and Canada. I am still thoroughly convinced that the promotion is a lie or laden with so many special terms and conditions that nobody really gets a free call.
I have yet to get a free call although I’ve tried at different hours, to different numbers, from different accounts, etc. You name it I probably tried it. Skype stil has not replied to my support request via their billing system. You might say “maybe you didn’t put Skype on your approved whitelist and the emails are going to spam.” NOT! I still get payment information from Skype but no responses to any of my questions.
Why do I find this process offense and disappointing?
1) I pay for Skype (why I still use them will be the topic of a future post)
2) I pay for Skype
3) I have used and paid for over $50 of phone calls on Skype, and I’ve only sent them two emails regarding account crediting problems.
4) They took my money and they took it in a way that was contrary to their marketing.
5) They lied.
July 27th, 2006
I am an avid Skype user, but I find their marketing to be misleading. They say free calls to North American landlines, but I have yet to get credit back or get free calls. I’ve looked for free calls, but I keep getting money deducted. This is a copy of my third support request to Skype. The first two have gone unanswered. Let’s see what happens with the third. Feel free to send me feedback about your experience with this.
Hi,
This is my third try to ask how the north american calls for free. We keep getting deducted skype credit for our north american calls.
boo skype. please respond this time.
Yu Shan
Let’s see what they say. BTW Skype team I just encouraged three new users of Skype North America yesterday and they love you but not your prices.
July 6th, 2006
