SensoryMetrics

SM friend Tom D’ sent us this fun error dialog! Since Outlook is working so hard at conflict resolution, maybe we could send it to Afghanistan…

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Usability, User Experience

Normally you try to design web pages so that users don’t need to scroll down to view important information or buttons… The site Visuals of the World takes the opposite approach – it’s trying to become the world’s longest page by collecting images from users – it just appends them to the bottom. The thing is nearly 25000 cm long already! It’s a fun idea that is remarkably captivating. Of course an auto-scroll function would save on “thumb-cramps”!

via: BrandFlakes

[tags]Visuals-Of-The-World, scrolling[/tags]

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User Experience scrolling, visuals-of-the-world

There are two ways of ensuring customer loyalty: 1. Provide excellent services so that the customer continually chooses to do business with you, or 2. Lock them in and treat them like inmates if they misbehave. For Microsoft, number 2 is the strategy of choice when it comes to their Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) program. It’s an anti-piracy license validation system that checks you out to make sure you paid for your software. If you haven’t, it locks you out of upgrades, and patches, and disables a few functions. This weekend, Microsoft’s WGA server went down. The impact was that ALL of their customers were treated like common criminals. There have been lots of issues with WGA: false positives, accusations of spyware and turning the MS platform into a time bomb. They even have a blog dedicated to WGA issues. (now there’s fun reading!) The blog’s writer says that he’s disppointed that the WGA crash occurred, yet offers no apology (only excuses as to why keeping this WGA beast up and running is such hard work…)

The main problem with WGA is that it offers absolutely NO VALUE to customers. It only benefits Microsoft. So when the system breaks, the only losers are customers. I guess the “advantage” in WGA refers to Microsoft’s advantage… I wonder why people put up with this attitude.

After reading Alec Saunders’ post this morning it may appear that even die-hard Microsoft fans may be losing faith. Alec quotes ComputerWorld saying that 1 in 6 laptops (correction: SOLD) in the US is now a Mac!

BTW – the terrific pirate graphic by spanish (correction: portuguese – thanks readers!) blogger Freud2004/

[tags]WGA, Microsoft, Apple, loyalty[/tags]

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Business, Pirates, Usability, User Experience Apple, loyalty, Microsoft, WGA

I was forwarded a job listing for a Vancouver-based software startup last week… In the post read “420 Friendly”… huh? Thankfully the Urban Dictionary solved my mystery…

This is a way to express the acceptance of smoking pot or accepting somone who does so, without overtly mentioning pot or marijuana.

[tags]420friendly, urban-dictionary, 404[/tags]

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Business, Web 3.0 404, 420friendly, urban-dictionary

The countdown is on to show off your Apple-geek selves! Tomorrow (August 29th), PodBrix releases a “lego-like” playset featuring the young Woz and Jobs. Pictured circa 1972, Jobs is even dreaming of a future iPhone… It seems these days you can now sell absolutely anything related to Apple and easily get the $40 price tag!

via: Shiny Shiny

[tags]PodBrix, Woz-Jobs, Apple[/tags]

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Business, Gadgets, Long Tail Apple, PodBrix, Woz-Jobs

A lot of people read Seth Godin’s blog – it ranks under 10k in technorati. If you don’t read it – here’s a repost from 2003 that should convince you to bookmark it and buy the books. The post on the scarcity economy is so absolutely right-on. Look at the evolution of social net sites… Sites are getting more segmented, more vertical, more exclusive. It turns out that monitization isn’t from 1 billion users, it’s from 1 million paid subscribers.

The business model hasn’t changed. Today Fax machines are $50 because someone 20 years ago was willing to pay $5000. If you “soft-fax” it’s free.

The same model will apply to internet services. Everything eventually becomes a commodity – if successful.

[tags]seth-godin, monitization[/tags]

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Business, Innovation monitization, seth-godin

Created by a few Australian bloggers, the action day – October 15, 2007 - is meant to unite bloggers in discussing environmental issues from the perspective of their particular expertise. So far there are 2,976 blogs signed up, including SensoryMetrics. Only a month and a half left to think of some posts…

[tags]Blog-Action-Day[/tags]

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Environment blog-action-day

This month’s Goofiest USB gadget award goes to Japanese company Thanko for their USB-powered cooling necktie … I can’t image anyone seriously wearing this thing to work! (maybe to your brother-in-law’s wedding!)

via: everythingusb.com

[tags]usb, gadgets, necktie[/tags]

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Geek Wear, Innovation Gadgets, necktie, usb

So everyone by now knows about disgraced NFL star Michael Vick’s guilty plea for dog fighting. Some Canadian vets around Toronto are using Facebook to hammer home the cruelty to animals message… They’re asking anyone with Vick licensed items (sweatshirts, tees etc) to mail them to them for use as “cage lining”… ouch!

It’s an interesting twist – using social networks to dish out social justice. When America’s Most Wanted first aired, police scoffed at the prospect – now forces around the continent ask their help. Is it inevitable that Facebook communities will help solve crimes? Will these communities turn vigilante?

Meanwhile Mike Vicks official web site is shut down due to bandwidth over-usage… no kidding.

[tags]Vick, dog-fighting, facebook, crime, americas-most-wanted[/tags]

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Web 3.0 americas-most-wanted, crime, dog-fighting, Facebook, Vick

We stumbled upon this eBay store (strangely because this blog was getting referred traffic from it…) It’s a simple new age store selling the usual magic crystals that guarantee you money, love and well-being. No sane individual should go out the door without their crystals on… They also sell variants of hieronymous machines – contraptions designed in the 1940s that emit frequencies that supposedly will bring you happiness, career success, strength, and even reversal of aging. One model, The ARK (pictured here) looks easy enough to use – it just has 6 knobs… not sure if they support Facebook integration…

Obviously it’s pretty easy to doubt the claims of these new age vendors. But it’s a free world and people can believe what they want. I have no issue there. What really bugs me is that the folks behind Life Technology put a TM after every product or phrase in their catalog. To make it even worse, none of these terms have actual applications with the Patent and Trademark Office. So there’s the lie – nothing is actually trademarked… Not even my favourite product The 12 Strand DNA Activation (TM) CD – where by listenning to special sounds will “activate” my DNA to give me energy and protection against disease… who knew my DNA was actually de-activated???

[tags]Life-Technology, alternative-health, new-age, ebay, crystals, trademarks[/tags]

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Business, Gadgets, Long Tail, Pirates, Usability alternative-health, crystals, ebay, Life-Technology, new-age, trademarks