Hey Apple

Apple puts a blue icon next to items you haven't opened since you downloaded them or since you updated them.  That's all well and good, especially if you automatically update your apps.  Only I don't do that.

They should have also used a red or green dot to let you know if there are apps ready to be updated.

Great Sense of Humor, @Atlassian

I love this error screen from Atlassian.  I always wondered what their logo was - a table? A chalice? A torch? A stylized X? A victorious person?

Turns out it is a person and the filename tells me his name is Charlie.  What a fun little treat for when we break the system.

Lessons from @Amazon (A Work-Related Post)

I'm a big fan of Amazon. I try to do most of my shopping there. It's usually quick, easy, competitively priced. When I do a book review, I link to my Amazon Affiliate account. (Not that any of you ever click on it.) So I end up writing about Amazon a lot. Not because I mean to be critical, because they offer so many examples of what to do and not to do.

So here's two recent things we can learn from.

#1: An email subscription oops.

I recently somehow got subscribed to Amazon.com.br's email list and that was a pain because I don't speak Portuguese so it was complicated trying to figure out how to unsubscribe without unsubscribing from all Amazon emails.


Lesson: How's your email program? Are you regularly auditing? Are you making it easy to understand what a subscriber is subscribed to? Do you offer enough granularity in order for people to stop specific mailings without unsubscribing from everything?

Week 31 (Final)

Sunday evening - A non-typical day, ended up working past dinner without closing out the week. Which means very little for the new week's start, but quite a bit done today.

• Total planned: 240 completed
• Sunday: 36 completed, 1 postponed (25 planned)
• Monday: 33 completed, 1 postponed (28 29 planned)
• Tuesday: 28 completed, 6 postponed (29 32 31 planned)
• Wednesday: 29 completed, 6 postponed (27 29 34 planned)
• Thursday: 13 completed (25 28 35 planned)
• Friday: 28 completed, 11 postponed (20 21 22 23 25 planned
• Saturday: 34 completed, 26!!! postponed (30 32 43 planned)
• Sunday: 39 completed, 10 incomplete (21 26 28 27 29 46 planned)
• Nice to have (this week): 28 23 24 16 15 remaining
• Less critical nice to have: 135 133 132 128 remaining
• Reading: Allegiant - 220/526 (42% completed)
• Reading: The Lacey Confession (100% completed)
• Reading: The Elements of Typographical Style (100% completed)
• Reading: Consumer Reports Oct. 2013 (100% completed)
• Calories tracked and under goal: Sunday & Monday & Tuesday & Wednesday & Friday

Book Review: The End of the Wasp Season

The End of the Wasp Season by Denise Mina

When I last left Alex Morrow in Still Midnight (My Review), I wasn't entirely sure what I thought. I had struggled a little with the book, but I was still intrigued.

I'm glad I stuck with it.  Wasp picks up a little while after Midnight with Alex about five-months pregnant with twins. The things I didn't like so much about Midnight weren't as noticable - the amount of cursing - far, far less; the villains - more interesting.  As we begin Wasp, a crime is committed. We know who was involved, but we don't know why or exactly who did it.  We follow the criminals as they go about their lives after the crime, we follow the police as they close in on the criminals, and we follow others who we, as readers, know aren't guilty, waiting for the police to catch up to where we are. I read in the acknowledgements that the author struggled a little with the second half of the book and there are some interesting random pieces that take awhile to come together and if not deus ex machina, they are at least some lucky breaks.  But it's a good story with good character development and a satisfying ending.

Worth Repeating: Julian Treasure (@juliantreasure)

Video:


Why architects need to use their ears -- Because of poor acoustics, students in classrooms miss 50 percent of what their teachers say and patients in hospitals have trouble sleeping because they continually feel stressed. Julian Treasure sounds a call to action for designers to pay attention to the “invisible architecture” of sound. More on TED.com...

Feed Sift

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Skyscraper Slums: Insider Tour of World’s Tallest Tent City - This is fascinating, video is totally worth watching. (WebUrbanist)

-2-

Disney Research makes paper cool again by turning it into a generator - This is pretty neat. Another short video worth watching. (Engadget)

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