Tag: NaBloPoMo 2013

Posted on
by

Usually when I get an envelope labeled “Important information about your account” it turns out to be a set of balance transfer checks, sent hoping I’ll use them to put more money on my credit card. It’s about my account, sure, but neither important nor information.

This one takes the cake, though:

Important information about your account! (Just kidding.)

It claims to be “Important information about your Verizon Internet service,” implying…but carefully not actually claiming that it’s from Verizon. It turns out to be an ad for Time Warner Cable. I suppose it is information, since it does tell you about TWC’s service, but it doesn’t actually say anything about Verizon’s service…and it certainly doesn’t say anything about my service plan, which it does claim to be about.

The fact that it’s addressed to “Current Resident” makes me wonder whether they would have sent me the same mailing even if I had their service.

Posted on
by

There’s an old children’s joke that goes like this:

“Did you know the word gullible isn’t in the dictionary?”

Then when the other child goes to look it up, you laugh at them for believing you.

On the face of it, it’s a lesson in not believing everything you hear.

But when it comes down to it, the child who goes to look it up isn’t necessarily being gullible; he or she is doing research to confirm their expectations. Yes, gullible should be in there, but let’s make sure. Once you’ve seen a number of dictionaries that all have gullible in them, you can safely ignore the next person who claims that it’s missing, and insist that they put up their evidence.

That’s science.

The child who says, “Really?” and then goes around repeating it? He’s the one who needs a lesson in skepticism.

So the next time someone sends along a bizarre “fact,” especially one intended to spur you to action…dig a little deeper. Sometimes all it takes is two minutes of fact checking to save your credibility. You don’t want to get known as the guy who really did think gullible wasn’t in the dictionary…over and over and over again.

Posted on
by

Last night I had to do some late-night laundry, and when I went in to move clothes from the washer to the dryer, I noticed water on the floor. My first thought: Great, the washing machine’s busted. On opening it, though, it looked like it had at least drained fine. So I checked the closet for the water heater.

Bingo: A fine jet of water spraying out the side of one of the pipes.

So I got out some duct tape, figuring it could block the leak for a few hours, and notified the landlord so he could call a plumber.

It was dripping again by the time I finished writing the text. Maybe it would have worked if I’d been able to shut off the water to that pipe before putting the tape on, but my plumbing expertise is…rather limited. I didn’t want to mess things up any more than I had to.

But I did know that you don’t want water puddling on your floor, even if it’s a concrete laundry room floor, so I put a container down to catch the drips (now that it was only drips). It was full by the time I came back for the clothes.

Then I noticed the wall vent near the damaged pipe. There was a small hole in the screen to allow an overflow pipe to run outside, and it was a few inches below the bottom of the pipe that the hot water was trickling down.

Lightbulb moment: Cut a Pringles can in half and make a trough to channel the water out through the vent and into the planter outside.

Problem: I don’t think I’ve bought a can of Pringles in over a decade.

Solution: A paper towel roll lined with foil.

I actually ended up using several toilet paper rolls taped together end to end, but it worked: The spit-and-baling-wire contraption diverted the water outside, keeping it from flooding any worse until the plumber arrived.

Yeah, it’s best to fix something right. But sometimes you need to patch it now and fix it right later.

Trickling Out

Posted on
by

I’ve written about the trouble with using mobile apps in dead zones before, so I’m happy to see that I’m not the only one thinking about the problem. Hoodie wants to design for offline first, and is starting a discussion project around the issue.

Offline reading is an obvious application. Most eBook readers handle that just fine, though it’s easy because you spend a lot of time in each book so it doesn’t need to predict what you’ll read next. It would be great if Feedly would sync new articles for offline reading. Heck, I’d like it if Chrome on Android would let me re-open recent pages when the connection dies.

Beyond reading, many actions can be handled offline too. Kindle will sync your notes and highlights. GMail will let you read, write, label, archive, delete, and even send messages without a network connection. All your actions are queued up for the next sync.

There’s no reason this approach can’t be taken with other communications apps for messages that don’t require an immediate response, even with services like Facebook and Twitter. Short notes of the “don’t forget to pick up milk” variety. Observations. Uploads to Dropbox. Photos going to Instagram or Flickr. Buffer would be perfect for this, since you’re not expecting the post to go out immediately in the first place. It shouldn’t give you an “Unable to buffer” error, it should just save it for later.

I’d like to be able to do work in a place where there’s no connection, have that work persist, and fire things off as I finish them instead of having to come back to all of them the next time I’m within range of a cell tower or a coffee shop with wifi. I’d also like to be able to post in the moment, hit “Send,” and move on with my life, instead of having to hang onto that extra context in my mind as I walk around.