Coining a new phrase
While discussing with my wife a product which is so poorly designed that it’s an absolute marvel that it made it to into manufacturing: “The team that designed this was definitely a few monkeys short of infinity.”
Category Archives: Ramblings
Bad customer service is bad for business
Shortly after I went after Sprint for horrendously bad customer service, their CEO stepped down as the company was about to announce yet another bad quarter. Shortly after I went after Motorola for horrendously bad customer service and deceptive marketing, their CEO was replaced after the company announced another bad quarter. This is not coincidence.
People unclear on the history of religions
Seen in a posting on-line from someone discussing the positive impact of taking regular breaks from one’s day-to-day routine: “I guess Jesus knew what he was doing calling for the observance of the Sabbath…” *sigh*
Why I was almost late to work this morning
Continuing the theme of the day… I coded and submitted an enhancement to INN’s “makehistory” program to support throttling by load average, so that my computer at home won’t be completely hosed for a half hour after every unclean shutdown and restart while makehistory rebuilds my news history file.
Would you buy from these people?
Seen this morning on a truck which claimed to be from a company called “Assorted Stone & Cabinet”: “COVER CONNETICUT & MASSECHUSETTE” There was also a lot of Chinese writing on the truck, so one might reasonably assume that the company is owned by people who are not native English speakers. Nevertheless, maybe they could… Read More »
Computers that feel pleasure
Apparently, the United States Postal Service has made a remarkable breakthrough in artificial intelligence. This evening, I bought stamps from an USPS Automated Postal Center (APC) kiosk. As I was leaving after completing my purchase, the kiosk bid me farewell with the following message: “It was my pleasure to serve you.” Remarkable!
FCC still can’t figure out what the hell to do about junk faxes
I previously wrote about this in November 2005. Things have not improved. My newest attempt to shake things up:
“The No Asshole Rule”
I recently won a contest at www.trenchmice.com, and one of the prizes I received was the recently released book by Robert I. Sutton, Ph.D., The No Asshole Rule — Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One that Isn’t. It’s a fabulous book, and one I heartily recommend.
Why bother to quantify a problem if you don’t intend to solve it?
I just left a job, with plans to start a new one in two weeks. On my last day, I was given a “Separation From Service Exit Interview” form to fill out if I wished to do so. The form has a series of ten questions in which I am asked to rate various aspects… Read More »
Elly Kulesza: Parenting skills aren’t the problem
The news media and the net are awash in opinions about Gerry and Julie Kulesza, the couple whose 3-year-old daughter Elly threw such a tantrum before take-off on an AirTran flight that the airline removed them from the flight.