Knaegt, blog.

Amazon email "support"

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:51:00 +0100

I just received this robot-like email reply to a very specific and simple problem:

Dear Customer,

Thank you for contacting Amazon.co.uk Marketplace.

I’m sorry to hear that you have been unable to complete your transaction. As per the information you have provided, I believe that you are trying to place order with one of our registered third-party sellers.

[…]

The email just went on like that and never really answered my question. I sent a reply back rephrasing my simple question:

Thank you for writing to Amazon.co.uk.

We’re sorry. You have written to an e-mail address that cannot accept
incoming e-mail.

Fuckers.

I don’t care about “Thank you” and “Sorry” from a supporter. I just want help.

James Cameron at TED2010

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:31:00 +0100

James Cameron at TED2010:

Surprisingly inspiring talk from a man I knew very little about. Cameron’s curiosity and nerdiness has gotten him a long way and I couldn’t be happier for him. It’s so inspiring to see a man satisfying his curiosity with experiences, that will forever keep him inspired.

Cameron on Titanic:

I went and pitch it [Titanic] to the studio as Romeo and Juliet on a ship. It’s going to be this epic romance, passionate film.

Secretly, what I wanted to do was I wanted to dive to the real wreck of Titanic. That’s why I made the movie.

He goes on to end his talk with this bright quote:

Failure is an option. Fear is not.

Ricky Gervais on Big Think

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 12:47:39 +0100

Ricky Gervais on Big Think:

I just ended up spending my entire morning watching all 18 bits of this Big Think interview with Ricky Gervais. Inspiring and fun. What more do you want?

I particually enjoyed his take on “The Death of Print Newspapers”, because we (us working in the web business) often forget what the actual world is like:

When is that going to happen? [..] What are you talking about? [..] What a strange question…

How to break and "fix" 20M computers in 24h

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 12:40:00 +0100

How to break and "fix" 20M computers in 24h:

When Sony said “We hope to resolve this problem within the next 24 hours.” they really were just waiting for the next day to come so that the issue would correct itself.

"YouTube Puts Another Nail in the IE6 Coffin"

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 21:03:00 +0100

"YouTube Puts Another Nail in the IE6 Coffin":

Hopefully it’ll be the last one.

According to Google, users running IE6 and other old browsers will still be able to watch videos, but will be shown an interstitial, as seen above, to remind them to upgrade every two weeks. Some features will not be available to these users until they upgrade.

"The doormat, the jerk and the lizard brain"

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 12:29:29 +0100

"The doormat, the jerk and the lizard brain":

Great piece by Seth Godin. It’s all about fear - and knowing so.

Not all app stores are created equal

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 01:23:00 +0100

Not all app stores are created equal:

I would be worried if I was an iPhone app developer. Apple might decide any day that YOUR apps are breaking some secret internal policy. The Apple App Store is the only legitimate way to get apps to people’s iPhones so if Apple decides to exclude your app, no one can get it. To me, it must be enormously discouraging to know that Apple might remove your app any day, and that your are in the mercy of some Apple App Store reviewer who might just have a bad day. Further, the fact that developers are left guessing what the policies are, is just ridiculous. Some intern at Apple must have decided it was a good idea to enforce a policy which has not been made public yet. Maybe Apple doesn’t even have a real policy for what gets the thumb up?

In contrast to this, the Android Market Place is just the default source of apps for Android devices. It is entirely possible to download apps directly from websites etc. So even if Google decides to be overly restrictive, you will still be able to sell and distribute your apps on your own.

Youtube's broken UI

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 13:11:18 +0100

Youtube UI trivia:

Which links will change page, interrupting the currently playing video?

The Quicklists feature is brilliant, for instance if you are playing music from youtube at a party, everyone can add their music to the quicklist while the music is playing. Now try clicking “See all ..” at the bottom of the “More from” box on the right. Video interrupted, party guests get mad.

Now, try clicking “Show more” in the comments box - hey the music keeps playing! Now click “Show all comments”

Threadsy

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 11:17:41 +0100

Threadsy:

Threadsy wants to combine all of your email accounts and social networks. I like the concept (and UI) behind Threadsy.

It’s just, I like my email client/Gmail because it’s pure email.

Chrome 4 has Web SQL Database API

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 11:09:55 +0100

Chrome 4 has Web SQL Database API:

Way cool. Safari and Google Gears have had it for a while. The obvious application of this technology is to have working, interactive apps even when you are disconnected. When you reconnect, these apps will synchronize with the cloud. Examples of this already exists: Offline gmail, note apps etc.

However, it seems to have arrived 5 years too late. Flat-rate mobile connectivity is quickly becoming pervasive. In 2-3 years everyone will be always connected.

Web app speed-ups could become another consequence of this tech. Often the interactivity that exists in apps today requires a round-trip to a server - and while server hardware gets cheaper for the minute, the speed of light is not going to change any time soon. In other words, latency is not going to improve significantly.

As browsers become more powerful, more can be done client side, making for less requests to servers and making apps will feel much more responsive, improving the overall web-experience.

From Wired’s TED 2010 coverage: Microsoft one-upped...

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 12:25:22 +0100

From Wired’s TED 2010 coverage:

Microsoft one-upped Google’s Street View application on Thursday when the software giant debuted some new features for its revamped Bing Maps application, taking panoramic views indoors.

And even more interesting:

A second application, Streetside Photos, datamines geo-tagged Creative Commons photos at Flickr to incorporate them into the Streetside imagery. Multiple photos of the same locations can be layered to view a location over time. Streetside Photos is only available for Seattle, San Francisco and Vancouver, British Columbia, right now.

Google to offer 1GB pr/sec broadband

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 09:20:10 +0100

Google to offer 1GB pr/sec broadband:

If you want anything done, you have to do it yourself.

Big Think interview with Jason Fried. Eternally inspiring, that...

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 10:16:21 +0100

Big Think interview with Jason Fried. Eternally inspiring, that man.

Kevin Rose on Google Buzz

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 09:45:52 +0100

Kevin Rose on Google Buzz:

I haven’t got access to Google Buzz, but I’m pretty sure I second the thoughts of Kevin Rose:

Google announced Buzz today, a photo/videos/link/status sharing service. The big news here isn’t really the functionality of ~~Pownce~~ Buzz, but that Google is boldly integrating this directly into Gmail - essentially taking the product from zero to millions of users in a matter of hours.

He continues:

It sounds stupid, but you need a simple url for public profiles, http://google.com/profiles/kevinrose is a mouthful. Imagine a CNN host trying to plug their profile and having to say “google dot com slash profiles slash larry king”, can we just have google.com/larryking? (side note: /profile/kevinrose should redirect to /profiles/kevinrose not 404)

Speaking of public profiles, this entire page needs to be redesigned. Adding custom backgrounds and a design that feels a little less utilitarian would be a good start.

This auto-friend stuff is just straight confusing. I get it, but just because I’ve emailed with someone a few times doesn’t mean I want to auto-follow them. Where is the setting to turn this off?

Is there an option to prevent the Buzz(es?, i?) from coming directly into my inbox? When Buzz starts feeling like a task (email), that bothers me.

Where is the ‘Compose Buzz’ link? Only within the Buzz tab? Can an email be converted to a Buzz? Having Buzz in my inbox but no way to compose a Buzz from my inbox seems odd.

TV show: How to Make It in America

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 10:41:00 +0100

TV show: How to Make It in America:

HBO launches series on young entrepreneurs:

If you ever doubted that it’s incredibly hip to be a young entrepreneur these days, consider that HBO is about to launch a new Entouragesque series about the travails of aspiring young business owners.

Suck it FLASH

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 00:13:14 +0100

If there is one thing I hate more than Flash, then it HAS be to be Internet Explorer. Now, however, it seems they have teamed up to make everyone’s life miserable.

For instance, with HTML5, you can do beautiful things like http://mugtug.com/sketchpad/ is. The fabulous (yeah, that word)

While we are in knee-deep in the HTML5 talk, why don’t the mugtug guys pair their very nice

Facebook introducing email?

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 14:06:00 +0100

Facebook introducing email?:

Compared to Google Wave, Facebook would be changing the email environment where Google is changing email itself.

Flash crash

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 13:00:00 +0100

Flash crash:

Clicking above will crash Flash. The bug is 17 months old:

This page exploits a bug that I reported to Adobe in September 2008, and has affected every release of Flash on every platform since then. Despite numerous email exchanges with the Flash product manager about the bug, the bug report being hidden from the public for “security” reasons, and Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch’s claims otherwise, it continues to be an issue.

iPhone App: Sleep Cycle

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 14:49:00 +0100

iPhone App: Sleep Cycle:

The Sleep Cycle alarm clock is a bio-alarm clock that analyzes your sleep patterns and wakes you when you are in the lightest sleep phase.

Price: $1.

Mike Monteiro: The iPad isn’t the future of computing; it’s a...

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 09:10:00 +0100

Mike Monteiro:

The iPad isn’t the future of computing; it’s a replacement for computing.
For some, this is very true, and the audience is massive. E.g. people who never understood (or cared for) Windows/OS X. However, I don’t think multitasking and some sort of open file system will spoil the “computing replacement”. At best it’ll win everybody over.

(Image from link above)