Friday, June 24, 2011
Friday, June 10, 2011
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Upgrades from Hell
Tech companies are in a never-ending process of upgrading and improving. The problem, for me, is that the upgrades often lead to loss of quality. So often, these companies upgrade their wares, and take away features that users have become very fond of.
The outcry is often very loud. But I think it’s a problem that can be solved rather easily. Public relations is a lost art with tech and media companies.
Social media, and in particular, Facebook, seem to be upgrading at a frenzied pace these days. The downside is, there are enormous downtimes when the updates take place and the upgrades often leave users of their API’s out in the cold. As I write this, HootSuite and Tweetdeck seem to be unable to access Facebook . I can’t claim to be an expert on every app out there, but I can assume there are others sitting on the sidelines.
Some of the changes at Facebook over the past year have been met with the usual backlash. Of course that comes from the people who are unhappy, and it can seem like there is a major outcry, but we have to remember there are a lot of people who don’t complain because they are happy. Silence isn’t always golden.
The major key with these upgrades is that when they fail, which is quite often, the companies involved should simply let the users know. Seems simple enough to me.
Facebook was able to overtake MySpace simply because the folks at MySpace didn’t seem to care about their users. The MySpace interface became a total mess which seemed primarily interested in shoving ads in every nook and cranny. When there were problems, no one at MySpace ever seemed to care about updating progress with the users. Twitter is fairly unique in that it at least tries to communicate with users about problems. One cannot realistically expect any company to communicate directly with every user, so Twitter’s efforts are exemplary. Facebook is a money-making machine for the time being, so they can afford to be a little cavalier. Their primary focus will be the advertisers, and that’s a fact.
I believe things would go a lot more smoothly if companies simply advised clients of the impending upgrades. Tell them what the upgrade is intended to do. Tell the clients what is happening when there are inevitable problems.
Life with internet infrastructure is never going to be easy. Communication in times of trouble would be.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
A Little Baseball Trivia
Who were four Canadian-born MLB pitchers to win 100+games
Data from Baseball Almanac
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Science
So I helped with a school science project. We studied fleas and ticks.
They hide in the weeds, the bushes, the carpet, just about anywhere. They will pounce on, and suck the blood of, anything that comes within view. Their life is all about living off others, and we didn't figure out what purpose they actually serve in the world. They don't seem to contribute anything else.
We did notice that the same results can be said about the Paparazzi. Odd.
They hide in the weeds, the bushes, the carpet, just about anywhere. They will pounce on, and suck the blood of, anything that comes within view. Their life is all about living off others, and we didn't figure out what purpose they actually serve in the world. They don't seem to contribute anything else.
We did notice that the same results can be said about the Paparazzi. Odd.
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