Defeating the purpose

Sometimes I just don’t understand people.

At the grocery store, I usually use a self checkout machine. Nothing against people; I just prefer machines in many cases. And I got freaked out at Trader Joe’s where the friendly cashier was commenting on everyone’s purchases. Machines don’t make me self-conscious.

Anyway, another thing I don’t do is cash. It’s clunky, dirty, and obsolete. I use a credit card. So when I check out, I have to sign one of those electronic signature pads with a stylus. But about a week ago, the styli disappeared from the pads. Someone (or some people) had yanked them from the cords and stolen them. What a ridiculous thing to steal. It’s nearly worthless beyond signing electronic pads. I guess that since thieves aren’t generally smart enough to get a job, it’s not surprising that they would end up stealing something useless. The funny thing is, if someone really did want a stylus, they could probably just ask someone at the front desk of Palm’s world headquarters, which is within walking distance of the store. But no matter the reason for the theft, I am now still terribly inconvenienced every time I check out. Nothing works besides the stylus… I’ve tried my finger and the metal clip on the end of the cord which used to hold the stylus. Nothing. This frustrating since I know that any little scribble will satisfy the machine. So, what I have to do is ask a human cashier to borrow the last remaining stylus, completely defeating the purpose of self-checkout.

What to do if WordPress is deleting your YouTube embeds

Ok, finally, I think I figured this out. Recently, I read a security tip suggesting that I shouldn’t use my administrator account when I’m doing normal writing to the blog. So, I instead starting writing posts from an “author” account. Well, according to some fool, embeds fall outside of the restricted HTML that authors are allowed to use. A simple warning dialog would have saved me from so much frustration! Anyway, I’ve now promoted myself to an “editor,” so hopefully you should see me getting a strike below:

RSS – A more efficient way to waste your time online

If you already use an RSS reader, go ahead and skip this one. If you don’t know what RSS is, read on. Actually, forget reading, just watch this video from Common Craft:

Got it? Instead of wasting your time going through all of your bookmarks each day, not knowing if you’ll find anything new or not, you just check your RSS reader to see what’s new. It’s like email… you only check your inbox; you don’t check the “sent” folder of each of your friends to see if they’ve sent anything to you.

I did a presentation on this in school, but unfortunately it’s on my old computer which I don’t feel like plugging in right now. Common Craft fortunately says it about the way I like to explain it, so no worries.

When it comes to RSS readers, I used to use NetNewsWire, which is Mac-only. I’d just leave it running in the background all day (with no open windows), and whenever I got a new message, the Dock icon would update, just like Mail does for new emails (and now even RSS feeds, if you choose to show them in your inbox). I could even browse the headlines just by right-clicking on the Dock, without cluttering my screen with another open window. There was no time wasted checking for new items; I’d only interact with it if I knew there was something new. If you only follow a few sites, there’s not even really a need for a separate application; you can use Live Bookmarks in Firefox or simply bookmark an RSS feed in Safari. They’ll let you know what’s new.

About a year ago, I stopped using NetNewsWire and started using Google Reader (disclaimer) instead. The main reason behind this was that I now use multiple computers (including an iPhone) each day, so I needed an online solution that would keep the read/unread status of each item in sync across machines. I always have a web browser open, so the fact that it’s web-based isn’t really a problem, but I do miss the Dock icon functionality.

Oh, and my feed? It’s right here: http://www.thewysz.com/wyszdom/feed/

The Olympics are in August?

With the amount of coverage the Olympics are getting recently, I assumed that the games were starting sometime in the next couple of weeks. However, I just saw a promo flash up on the screen that said something about August. So I looked it up, and confirmed that the 2008 Olympics don’t begin until August 8th.

This is almost as bad as the election that they’ve been covering for 4 years. I’m so numb to the buzz that if I didn’t vote by mail, I’d be afraid that Election Day would come and go before I noticed.

Stop annoying me

I figured that since so many companies think it’s okay to annoy me, it’s time to dedicate an entire category of my blog to Annoying Marketing.

From today’s mailbox…

As you can see, while the item was addressed to “Valued California Resident,” (spam spam spam!) it was marked as “official business” (possibly important) so I decided to open it.

Envelope with \"OFFICIAL BUSINESS\" printed on it.

As soon as I opened it, I knew it was junk. A fake check. “This is not a check” is a term that in annoying marketer language means “Ha! Tricked you! We got you to look at our offer!”

This is not a check.

The best part about this fake check was how much trouble they went through to make it look like a real check. They implemented security features including microprinting.

Thanks a lot, unnamed big company of which I am already a customer, (they could have addressed me by name!), you just annoyed me.

Future Eyes

I usually wear contacts, but recently I’ve started wearing glasses on a more regular basis. One of the reasons I like wearing them is that they are the kind that automatically turn into sunglasses when necessary. I’m a sucker for little tricks like that, especially since whenever it happens I remember that commercial from a few years ago that described the lenses as being from the future. My contacts don’t get darker, but it would be cool if they did. After contacts, the next step would be to go beyond laser correction and make it so a person’s own eyes automatically block UV rays. That would be so cool.

Speaking of laser correction, I think it’s a neat idea, but unfortunately I’ve been told that I have large pupils so I’m not a great candidate. Also, I’d want to have it done outside of California, because it would be scary if there was an earthquake during the procedure.