A notice to all drivers:
If it's not foggy, don't drive around with your fog lights on. It's annoying.
If it's dark, turn on your headlights. It's not rocket science.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Dumbing down technology
So, I was at office depot getting some ink for my printer and I overhear a conversation between a worker and a customer that goes something like this:
Customer: "I want to buy this cat5 cable, but do I need this one, or the cat6 cable?"
Worker: "Your computer will automatically adjust itself to use the cat5 cable if it is cat6 capable"
When I hear this, I think to myself one of two things just happened:
1) The worker knows full well that to explain the practical difference between cat5 and cat6 cable would probably confuse the customer more than help, and he has carefully choosen words that will help solve the customer's problem, not necessarily answer his question.
2) The worker has no f***ing clue what he's talking about.
I used to think that #2 was the norm, but I think more and more the tech people at those stores at least know something.
Anyway, my point here is that sometimes to help ignorant people you have to dumb down the topic, sometimes to the point where it isn't technically acurate. Now all I need is a some kind of signal that I can use to notify workers that I'm in the "I know what I'm talking about" group - maybe a thinkgeek shirt or a secret handshake or something.
Customer: "I want to buy this cat5 cable, but do I need this one, or the cat6 cable?"
Worker: "Your computer will automatically adjust itself to use the cat5 cable if it is cat6 capable"
When I hear this, I think to myself one of two things just happened:
1) The worker knows full well that to explain the practical difference between cat5 and cat6 cable would probably confuse the customer more than help, and he has carefully choosen words that will help solve the customer's problem, not necessarily answer his question.
2) The worker has no f***ing clue what he's talking about.
I used to think that #2 was the norm, but I think more and more the tech people at those stores at least know something.
Anyway, my point here is that sometimes to help ignorant people you have to dumb down the topic, sometimes to the point where it isn't technically acurate. Now all I need is a some kind of signal that I can use to notify workers that I'm in the "I know what I'm talking about" group - maybe a thinkgeek shirt or a secret handshake or something.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Yesterday on my way home from work I was following a new Ford Mustang and I noticed an interesting thing. The taillights of the new model mimic the 3-section taillights of the late 60's models. What I noticed was that when the driver stepped on the brakes, all 3 sections did not light up all at once, but rather the inner-most light turned on, followed by the middle, then the outer-most. The delay between them was pretty short, so the effect was subtle, but I thought that was a pretty cool accent.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Justin's new blog
Not sure what I'm ever going to blog about, but every now and then I have something to say, so I decided to create an account before somebody stole my name.
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