moebius recursive

I am a bit amazed at the manufactured frenzy that is Black Friday and Cyber Monday. It seems that each year the press does their very best to hype something that really doesn’t have a need to exist any longer (and probably doesn’t for the majority of people).

There really is no reason for people to be pitching tents in front of retailers the day before Thanksgiving so they can be first in line for the big ‘deals’. Is this really more of a social thing than a necessary thing? Do this people not value their own time? Or do they (the sheeple) do it because the press tells them that is what they should do? Are the press trying to justify their repeated (if not specious) claim that the day after Thanksgiving is ‘the busiest shopping day of the year’ when actual facts (something that journalism in this country seems to have only a nodding acquaintance with of late) show that the weekend before Christmas is typically the busiest shopping day. The only thing that I bought on ‘Black Friday’ was a couple of pints at the pub – well away from the shopping mayhem.

The ‘Cyber Monday’ hype is another head scratcher. I could see how this might have been significant a decade ago when most people didn’t have high speed internet connectivity at home and availed themselves of their employer’s internet pipe after returning from Thanksgiving holiday. But now most people *do* have high speed connectivity at home. And not only that, they have high speed connectivity at home the other 364 days of the year as well; so there is no practical need to wait for a specific day to do their online ordering. In fact, quite a few folks I know begin shopping online as early at October to insure that they get the selection they want and have plenty of time to deal with backorders and special orders.

Figure it out folks. Don’t believe the hype.

 

I have been waiting for this trend to catch on for a long, long time. After more than a decade we are only now beginning to shed the vulgarities and visual clutter of the BLINK tag, Flash, animated GIFs, ActiveX, embedded (and auto playing) sound files and Java Applets to start focusing on actually conveying information in a clean and readable way.

The Readable Future

The ability to read uncluttered web pages is going mainstream.

I made the point recently that technical people can avoid, or at least cut down on, ads, sharing buttons, and clutter when reading web pages — they have RSS readers, Instapaper, Readability, Safari’s Reader button, AdBlock, Flipboard, Zite, and so on.

Not all of these technologies were made with the goal of uncluttering web pages, but they have that effect. No app built for reading starts with the premise that the publisher has done an acceptable job.

That premise is, unfortunately, generally correct, and those apps and technologies are becoming more and more popular, particularly with the rise of iPad as a great reading device. (But this isn’t only about iPads, or even mobile.)

Publications shouldn’t ignore this trend.

This trend means that their medley-of-madness designs will increasingly be routed-around, starting with presumably their most-favored readers, the more affluent and technical, but extending to the less-affluent and less-technical until it includes just about everybody.

The future is, one way or another, readable.

 

I recently reacquainted myself with just how bad employees at the AT&T store really are.

I stopped in because my phone (a Samsung Captivate) started behaving bizarrely when it came to WiFi. The issue was that it would take 3-4 attempts at enabling wifi to get it to actually connect to the wifi network. This was reflected in a cycle of “connecting” and “failed” messages. In some cases, I would have to restart the phone. A restart is painful as it takes about 15 minutes for the media scanner to finish doing it’s thing and the phone to be usable again (I am not sure if this might be a symptom of the same problem).

I explained this to the AT&T associate and asked if he had any advice. He snatched the phone out of my hand, looked at the screen and proclaimed ‘that ain’t right’. He then proceeded to pop open the battery door and flick the battery out of the phone. I pointed out that that was not the proper way to shutdown a phone. He looked up at me and grunted then replaced the battery. I reminded him that it was going to be about 15 minutes before the phone was usable; again he responds with a grunt and a ‘that ain’t right’.

After a minute or two he gets impatient and ejects the battery out of the phone WHILE it is still booting up. He squints at the battery ‘to make sure it ain’t a knock off – that causes lots of problems’. Satisfied that it was a ‘real’ battery he places it in the phone again.

While it is booting up he blurts out ‘you probably need to upgrade the firmware in the phone – that’ll fix the problem’. I asked what the ‘issue’ was; he responded with a shrug and a reassurance that the firmware will fix the phone. I then pointed out that I had already updated the firmware and still have the issue. He starts nervously tossing the phone from hand to hand and staring out the window. He then raises the phone to his face and starts poking around in the settings. ‘You got a external memory card installed?’ I said that I did. ‘It is probably that. Yeah. The memory card is corrupt and that is causing the problem’. I asked him to clarify how a bad memory card would effect the wifi and he had nothing. I then pointed out that if the card was corrupt, I wouldn’t be able to read anything from it. Again he shrugs and starts to get an agitated look on his face.

I say to him, if it is a bad memory card then removing it should make the problem go away. Fun boy grunts again, pops the back of the phone and hot ejects the card, while the phone is still powered on. I pointed out to him that if the card wasn’t corrupt before doing ignorant shit like that would contribute to corrupting it. That just got me a side long glance. I asked to speak to the manager; he looks nervously around and says that the manager isn’t in. I ask one of the other employees and they point to the guy on the phone behind the counter. While I wait for the manager to free up, we continue with the diagnostic farce.

Surprise, surprise. With the card out of the phone, the wifi and performance issues persist. He taps the phone on the counter then announces ‘you have installed some software on here that has a virus on it, that is what is causing the problem’. Hmm, now we really are reaching. I point out that I haven’t installed a lot of new apps on the phone and the ones that I have are very well known and were all installed from the android marketplace (in fact, the phone only allows marketplace installs). Nope, definitely a virus. Have to factory reset the phone.

I point out that there are some things on the phone that I would like to backup. He hands me back the phone, steps away and puts both hands up in front of him, palms out. ‘Ain’t nothin else I can do for you ’til you fact-tree reset that phone’. I ask what I do after I fact-tree reset it and it still has a problem. He shrugs and takes another step away. ‘uh, call us…’

The manager finally frees up, so I go tell him about my experience: in the course of my visit, the issue with my phone was 1) fake battery 2)firmware 3)memory card 4)a virus . The manager looks across the room at the guy who was ‘helping’ me, then at the phone, then at me. Silence. Finally he comes up with ‘Um, maybe you should try the reset and see what happens’. And then what? I ask. ‘uh, call us…’

I got home, backed up my phone, factory reset it. Same behavior as before. I am not going to waste any more time with AT&T.