“Wishing I knew how to explain the hex color I want in terms of Benjamin Moore naming scheme to my house painters.”
Latest adventures…
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The Buzz Machine: (Mostly) Mobile Apps Edition
At the moment, there are so many fabulous apps and websites I’m spending my life discovering, I just don’t have the time to write about all of them. So here’s a short snapshot of some of this wonderful stuff.
- Google Reader Mobile: Until recently, I was smugly using NetNewsWire for RSS reading. However, when I started regularly using two laptops to read my RSS, I realised NNW was doing a very poor job of synchronizing the read and flagged items. Having given Google Reader a try in the past, I thought I’d give it a second chance – being web-based, it was bound to be better in terms of synched content on both computers. At the same time, I received a brand new N95 phone and needed a mobile RSS reader, for which Google Reader Mobile does a great job. AND at the same time, Google announced Gears, allowing for offline use. So long story short, I think I’m in love with Google Reader!
- Wapedia: Wikipedia is the answer to all pub quiz questions, but unfortunately, sneaking your laptop into the pub quiz might get you noticed and promptly punished (See what we do to cheaters at pub quizzers). Wapedia is the best mobile version of Wikipedia around, so while I can’t guarantee you won’t get caught and publicly shamed for cheating, you’ll look like the smartest quiz buff around until then!
- Youtube Mobile: It’s finally happened. YouTube had a holding page on m.youtube.com for the past few weeks, but the curtain has now been lifted. According to Engadget Mobile, “several hundred” videos – the editors’ picks – are available for mobile viewing, and you can’t log in with your username to view your subscriptions, but it’ll happen, all in due time, I’m sure. Go on, go have a look at m.youtube.com and kiss your productive afternoon goodbye!
- Facebook Mobile: I’m thrilled to see that the Facebook team have done a good job of their mobile version, available at m.facebook.com. They’ve really picked up the essence of the service, providing the most useful features on the mobile site, without weighing it down with the stuff that can wait until you’re back at the desktop. Another addiction going mobile.
- Skitch: Ok this one isn’t a mobile app, but it’s too good to pass. I can’t find the words to describe Skitch. It’s a screenshot, image editing app that’s currently in beta, and having had it for a few days, I now wonder how I ever lived without it. It makes the resizing, annotating and upload process SO incredibly easy! I’m not sure how/where I’ll get invites, but if I find where my invites are, let me know if you’d like one. (Otherwise, add plasq as a Twitter friend. Plasqy sockpuppet occasionally feels generous and sends invites around.)
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Nightmare clients
A “funny because it’s true” article on nightmare web design clients by MB Web Design, which I thought I’d share to amuse those friends of mine who are also mad enough to have their own design, development or digital agency of some sort.
On the similar topic of difficult clients, Freelance Switch’s “12 breeds of client and how to work with them” is also a good read.
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Jaw droppingly cool viral video
Every online corp is trying to jump onto the viral video and user generated content bandwagon these days. Most of them fall off the wagon with a few scratches and a bruised ego, but the occasional one succeeds.
Will It Blend was a great example of a viral campaign that succeeded massively on YouTube, one of the first in fact. Yielding many whiny wishes from my husband that “if we lived in the US, he would definitely be buying one of their food-blenders-with-a-lawnmower-engine”, the aim of the campaign was to show quite how powerful that engine is.The latest campaign that impressed me is in fact for an American illusionist called Criss Angel and his (probably lame) A&E tv show. Rather than opt for a one-size-fits-all viral video, it’s been done through the use of a vast number of pre-recorded cut scenes, which are stranded together based on the customisation your friend has done. No explanation is as good as seeing it for yourself, so here, go try it (and freak your friends out).
There’s no doubt in my mind that the idea is based on Burger King’s Subservient Chicken from 2004, but the Criss Angel video, while simple, is well executed and fits his style.
If the bar continues to be raised for viral videos and this kind of funky stuff continues to be created, then roll on the bandwagon!
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Give poor customer service, pay the price
These days, so many companies skimp on customer service, hiring teenage-bots who can’t make decisions in-store or outsourcing to a call centre that’s so disconnected from reality, there’s no hope of finding help there. And inevitably, it results in unhappy customers.
Back in the good ol’ days, I recall being told “Please a customer, they’ll tell at most 7 people. Anger a customer, and they’ll tell 21 people.” That was pre-blog. We all know that, with the cozy little designer soapboxes we call blogs, we can now amplify that message. Seven becomes a few dozen, and 21 becomes many thousands. I should know, I gave Red Letter Days its fair share of bad press a couple of years ago.
Jackie Huba of Church of the Customer recounts the events of the past few days where Terry Heaton buys a $269 digital camera to find out the box is empty once he gets home. CompUSA tried to play dumb with him, refusing to refund his money and saying he should’ve checked the box before going home, but Terry broadcasted his experience and, while he didn’t manage to get the attention of anyone with half a brain at CompUSA the day of his complaint, promptly got the attention of thousands of Diggers, BoingBoing readers and FoxNews readers.
Terry’s short but eventful past few days in more details here.
If you’re part of your company’s marketing team, and even if you aren’t, is YOUR company doing everything it can to keep customers happy? If not, make it your job to remind those in charge that without customers, there’s no business happening, so treat ’em well!
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A feeling that isn't so nice…
Finding your childhood bully on Facebook. Nope, not going to add that one to my friends list, that’s for sure.
Flashback to around 1990. Nine years old, a bit naive, with very big hair:
He was throwing 1 cent candy in his friends’ mouths, said “I’ll give you one too, but you’ve got to catch it!” and promptly throws one of those small watch batteries down my throat, causing me to nearly puke while choking it out. He probably thought he was very clever and funny, but I still think he’s a total tw*t, and would definitely kick him in the shins if I saw him again.However, I bet if I saw his profile, it would say he still works at McDonalds and lives in his mom’s basement. That’s karma enough for me.
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I nearly cried…
I saw this crashed Ferrari this morning on the way to work, and we stopped to take a snap of it. It was a sad sight, nearly brought tears to my eyes… but then I realised it was light gold. Who on Earth gets a light gold Ferrari?!
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To all festival-goers
Are you the kind of person who goes to Glasto every year? Do you like putting your wellies on and wading around the mud? Or are you more likely to be seen at the Proms in September, sitting on a picnic blanket with Pimms and strawberries?
Are you going to Apple Expo or SXSW? (lucky bastard) Are you hoping to snap a pic of Jobs showing his humanity by needing to blow his nose like us mere mortals?
Or are you somewhere else in the world, about to attend some other musical, techy or cultural event sometime this summer?
If you are going to some cool events this summer, have a reasonably good mobile camera phone and fancy snapping a few shots, drop me an email or leave a comment and I’ll explain in greater details! It’s fun, it’s easy and it might make you a bit of pocket money.
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Five reasons Facebook is probably worth paying attention to
A few weeks ago, Facebook wasn’t really on my radar. I knew it was a slightly-less-young version of MySpace, but didn’t think much of it, and didn’t know more than a handful of people using it.But somehow, it must’ve hit critical mass in the past few weeks, because this has all changed very quickly!
Five reasons Facebook is probably worth paying attention to
- You find out your sister has a new boyfriend through one of her Facebook updates;
- You manage to find your favourite childhood babysitter’s Facebook profile, and turns out she has a 2 year old boy;
- Your teenage cousin who’s made herself scarce at family parties in the past few years decides to actually acknowledge you and write on your Wall;
- You read your two best developer friends’ Twitters and find out they’re both developing their own proof of concept Facebook application;
- Out of nowhere, old acquaintances email you to find out if you’re on Facebook (because then they don’t feel so guilty for not having asked how you were doing for the past few years).
I still feel that Facebook only brings a perceived sense of proximity and closeness, but it’s better than nothing and it’s been a fun ride so far. Fifty-eight friends in just over a week, including some people I haven’t spoken to in years, not bad going!
Once the Friends Reunited generation catches on to Facebook, it’ll most likely go through another huge bout of growth since, as I understand it, there is a cost to be put in contact with friends you’ve found on Friends Reunited. Why pay when there’s a clean, lean alternative like Facebook?
that canadian girl 