Teachnology: Comments

Comment on "Memory Making in the Digital Age"

Tue, 29 Mar 2011 22:43:38 -0500

Great ideas, Stevie! I do the bin thing. Wife likes to keep a lot, but she's reduced it down to a few rubbermaid bins. We have a ScanSnap we use to scan a lot of items. The pictures of the miscellaneous stuff is a great idea I plan to implement as well!

- Brian Dusablon

Comment on "User Error"

Thu, 03 Mar 2011 10:30:33 -0500

I think it's important and perhaps essential for technologically sophisticated people to feel like end users--and to remember that feeling. It's one of the few ways to overcome the curse of knowledge.

Certainly many people do misunderstand complex systems (and even simple ones), and that results in lots of work for the customer-support staff. On the other hand, you come across a whiff of arrogance now and then, like the coder working on a business system who said, "If [the end-users] can't understand how to use these entries, they don't deserve them."

Try this thought experiment: imagine telling me the model, make, and year of your car.

Got it?

I'll bet you have in mind something equivalent to "2002 Honda Civic." In other words, the year, make, and model--the reverse of the prompt I gave.

I spent way more time than I like to remember trying to convince a programmer that year/make/model is the default model that ordinary people use for their cars. He'd used model/make/year, but the people working with the system would be collecting information from the general public and entering it into predefined fields.

I'm convinced the programmer had an internal logic at work that made sense to him. All too often, though, that's logic that's never encountered the real world.

Maurice Hamoy of Inset Systems said once, "Watching a videotape of a user interacting with your product can be excruciating. It's like watching a horror movie you've seen before....You know they're heading for big trouble. You want to be able to yell at them, "No! No! Don't go in there! You'll never get out!"

- Dave Ferguson

Comment on "Will it Never End?"

Thu, 04 Nov 2010 21:54:02 -0500

I'm not so sure that relationships built on any particular technology will actually last. Seems a bit shallow to me.

- Zac

Comment on "Foursquare: The Anti-Green App"

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 11:13:35 -0500

I actually had that same thought today while coming in to work...
Its not that I have gone back to a place after forgetting to check in, but I do sometimes find reasons to go out...even if I don't need to.
From now on if I "need" to get out and get my foursquare on....I'll run there! Otherwise, I'm happy to be the one that stays home most nights (to knit).

- HANNAH INZKO

Comment on "Foursquare: The Anti-Green App"

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 11:09:58 -0500

Congratulations. You've just gotten to the point I reached months ago. It occurred to me that, as my points get wiped out each week and we start over, it's too much effort (and money!) to maintain Foursquare activity in that manner. I think I've probably gotten a bit inured since half the time I tried checking in, Foursquare failed in one way or another and I didn't get the points anyway. This is probably the single biggest factor as to why I'm over points; I haven't even looked at the leaderboard in months (seriously). My interest moved to the badges, because at least I get to retain them; however, we are friends with some incredibly hardcore competitors, and sometimes I have to take a step back, shrug, and say, "Whatever." Otherwise, I think it drives me overly batshit crazy--especially because we aren't in an urban area where the opportunities to collect badges are far greater. It helps there are more badges being offered overall, and it helps to let go a bit. I do like playing in a town where there is a lot of Foursquare activity, though; you get to see people moving around locations, and it is actually useful as a friend/activity locator. I believe it'll take quite a while for that to happen here (if ever). As more people start Foursquaring in our area, it also becomes a lot harder to maintain mayorships, so I'm rather selective as to which ones I'll defend to the death (and now that Irving's is mine again, I'm somewhat content). It will be interesting to see how that changes once more businesses offer incentives here. Let's hope that doesn't ratchet up the Foursquare feeding frenzy a bit more. I'm not sure I can survive it. :)

- rb smail

Comment on "User Error"

Sat, 12 Jun 2010 23:03:56 -0500

Years ago I once received an error message of "User Error (what else?)" while trying to enroll in a web-based training course at Penn State. It doesn't get much more arrogant and condescending than that.

- Sarah Cook

Comment on "User Error"

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 20:09:15 -0500

Becuase your "human" and this is a good thing.

- Vince Verbeke

Comment on "Nerd Thunderdome: Five Bloggers Enter, One Blogger Leaves"

Mon, 31 May 2010 23:19:16 -0500

Your blogs always have alot of really up to date info. Where do you come up with this? Just saying you are very creative. Thanks again

- Jose Moskovitz

Comment on "Last Day"

Wed, 26 May 2010 09:15:29 -0500

Outreach pays me to wear pants. The rest I do for free.

- Max Spiegel

Comment on "Love to Hate, or Hate to Love? The Power of Social Media"

Sun, 16 May 2010 18:42:31 -0500

Wow, thats pretty neat that they do that! I've used comcast in the past and had issues, but I never even considered that they might be active on twitter... Makes you think, what a job! Paid to twitter: it sounds like one of those twitter spams! lol

- Robin Alley

Comment on "Love to Hate, or Hate to Love? The Power of Social Media"

Sat, 15 May 2010 00:40:01 -0500

Bravo, @comcastbonnie!

"It's one thing to listen to what your customers want. It's another thing to care enough about them to do something about it."

(The came from something I saw on a video that @bevinhernandez shared with me.)

- Tara Tallman

Comment on "Love to Hate, or Hate to Love? The Power of Social Media"

Thu, 13 May 2010 10:48:28 -0500

Comcast would be a great candidate for the "Undercover Boss" show. I'm sure there are awesome people on the other end of the phone lines (or Twitter lines!) who are friendly and happy to help. I was a telemarketer for years - I understand how difficult a job customer service and phone interactions can be. Unfortunately there are so many corporate-level practices and policies that make it difficult to experience the friendly, personal attention on a consistent basis. I'm glad that Twitter has made things a little easier! I'll have to remember that in three months when I move and have to change/transfer my service!

- Sandy

Comment on "Love to Hate, or Hate to Love? The Power of Social Media"

Wed, 12 May 2010 21:10:35 -0500

It's because I

Glad you're thrilled with things, and super happy to "meet" you!

-B

- Comcast Bonnie

Comment on "On Planning"

Wed, 12 May 2010 12:15:45 -0500

I'd have to suggest not fearing the use of "analog". I'm facing similar planning and scheduling nightmares, so I just printed out blank calendars for the next few months. That way, for the next few days, I can make notes as I work from all the sources needing my planning efforts. Then, I'll "digitize" what I need to so planning assistants, like electronic calendars and smartphones can keep me informed and reminded.

I feel like I've got a better handle on what will need to be done when, so I can stop worrying about future things and take care of what needs attention now.

- Neal Cross

Comment on "Will it Never End?"

Wed, 05 May 2010 14:54:35 -0500

Smells like a plot to ensure new generations of Apple fanatics. :)

- Neal Cross

Comment on "Will it Never End?"

Wed, 05 May 2010 14:03:10 -0500

http://mashable.com/2010/05/05/cupidtino/

Late May or early June Jason. And yes, there will be an app for that.

"Cupidtino is projected to launch in June 2010, and it’ll be (surprise) available exclusively on Apple desktops, with some location-based social apps for the iPhone and iPad in the works. We’ll believe it when we see it."

- Misty Patcyk

Comment on "Will it Never End?"

Wed, 05 May 2010 13:47:02 -0500

Is there an App for it? cause if there isn't.. ohh my, not like pissing off the wrong crowd.

- Jason Heffner

Comment on "Droidless"

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 17:20:50 -0500

You better have that Droid on the south ridge by morning, or there'll be hell to pay!

- Brian Panulla

Comment on "Some Thoughts on Identity"

Wed, 21 Apr 2010 08:59:07 -0500

What would I do? I'd probably be shocked at first and then amazed by the freedom from the attachment that I had to the 'self.' As long as you can remember that it's a transient 'self' I think the online aspects of our lives are okay. When you define yourself by a digital life (and trust me, I've been there) is when it become problematic.

- Jim

Comment on "Social Media? Break a Leg!"

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 11:39:59 -0500

Just wanted to say that I found this post, and the comments, very interesting to read.

And isn't that the jist of it? Be interesting. Don't be boring. TMI is interesting. I'm a big fan of TMI.

- Tara Tallman