Recent Code Releases
Domino’s Channels Nixon
Posted by clifgriffin in General on January 11th, 2010
Domino’s is currently pushing a new advertising campaign that attempts to own some of the criticism they’ve received. The advert uses a combination of focus group poll participants, twitter users, and food reviewers to demonstrate that they are aware people have had issues with their pizza quality and that they are making key changes in response to this.
While I commend their effort to own criticism and improve their product, I believe their commercials may have the opposite effect they are intended to have.
Just like Nixon’s famous defense “I am not a crook” left people feeling sure that he was indeed actually a crook, saying “Our pizza doesn’t take like cardboard anymore” may leave people suspicious that it actually does. The new advertisements may lead people to associate the criticism with their product instead of associating it with their generous response.
There are other reasons this may backfire as well. It is reasonable to assume that a company with 9,000 stores and yearly revenue that surpasses $1 Billion is liked by at least a certain segment of the population. Clearly not everyone is unsatisfied with their product or they would not be able to make money at all, let alone pay for apologetic national ad campaigns.
For those of us who never thought to dislike Domino’s, we now have reasonable cause for concern. This is a bit like a husband assuring his unknowing wife that starting now he will no longer cheat on her. We could certainly forgive the wife for being concerned about formerly secret past sins and not sufficiently comforted by her husband’s new commitment.
Lastly, fast food lives in a special, hypocritical place in our cultural soul. We all eat it. We all portend to loath it. From Domino’s perspective, they should worry about whether people consistently return for more pizza…not what they say about it afterwards. As a national fast food chain, you have to abide these contradictions. Just keep cashing the checks. People are more honest with their wallets than with their conscience easing tweets.
Just my two cents.
Installing Office 2010 x64 along side Office 2007 x86
Posted by clifgriffin in Technology on January 5th, 2010
If you have Office 2007 or prior products installed and you try to install Office 2010, you receive a fun error message warning you that this is not possible and that you must uninstall all Office 2007 products before proceeding. Fortunately, there is a bit of a work around.
While you do have to uninstall all Office 2007 products to proceed with the installation, you can selectively reinstall them afterwards. I did this for Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007, as we are not ready to migrate our forms to 2010.
There is one limitation: You can’t install Outlook 2010 next to Outlook 2007. It will simply not work. Only one version of Outlook can be installed and Office 2010 will make Outlook 2010 that version.
A few iPhone first impressions.
Posted by clifgriffin in Technology on December 17th, 2009
I finally made the jump to the heavy weight champion of the smart phone world, the iPhone. After admiring the device mostly from afar for years, I was slightly concerned that in the end the phone would be unable to live up to the hype. So far, that has not been the case. In no particular order, here are a few thoughts from my first few days using the phone. I will be focusing mostly on what I did not expect.
1. It was easier to setup Microsoft Exchange on the iPhone than it is on Windows Mobile.
Which is just pathetic, Microsoft. For some reason, I imagined that setting up exchange was going to be a pain as many 3rd party implementations are, but the process was an absolute breeze. It just worked.
2. I multi-task better on the iPhone than Windows Mobile.
The iPhone may restrict you to one application at a time, but the fact that virtually all applications open again to the same place you left them mostly hides this. I have no problems going from app to app…I’m accomplishing more and the fact that the programs are not simultaneously running is insignificant.
3. The battery life is excellent.
If there is a technical spec that seems to be erroneous or blatantly dishonest, it is usually battery life. I have found the iPhone, specs aside, easily makes it through a whole day of moderate usage. Considering my HTC Touch Pro could barley make it past 1PM, this is a huge improvement. I suspect that my overall battery life will decrease by 20% as I use the phone more, but so far…I’m very pleased.
4. Edge is slow, but not that slow.
I can tell I’m not on 3G, but the fact that the actual software is so responsive and quick decreases the effect of the smaller bandwidth. Plus, the iPhone makes connecting to Wifi natural and effortless, so most of the time I do not have to rely on AT&T for my data at all. Safari is a speed champ. After using Pocket Internet Explorer and Opera for years, I will gladly give up a little bandwidth.
5. Typing is really easy, actually.
In the past I have veered away from touch screen only phones because of a lingering suspicion that this would be a more frustrating, more inaccurate way to type. Using HTC’s touch keyboard relieved some of my fears, but in no way did I expect to be this accurate this quickly on the iPhone’s touch keyboard. The larger screen real estate and extremely accurate auto correction make me much faster than I was on the physical slide out keyboard on the Touch Pro. That’s pretty cool!
6. Voice quality is fantastic.
Compared to my last two phones, the voice quality on the iPhone is superb. Even with AT&Ts spotty coverage, I’ve yet to drop a call. (Though I haven’t made many either.)
So there’s six things that I love, how about dislikes? There’s only a few.
- Apple’s application reviews.
While there are many apps for the iPhone that have no Windows counter part, there are also some fairly basic ones that are unavailable for the iPhone solely because Apple won’t approve them. LAME. - Noise alerts for new e-mails in subfolders other than my inbox.
I can’t seem to turn them off. - Vibration is a bit difficult to feel in my pocket.
Though I think it will improve as I get used to the phone. - AT&T’s coverage is truly awful.
Worst I’ve seen in Lynchburg, VA by far. There are several places in town where I can barely get 1 bar of coverage.
That’s all I can think of at the moment. Overall I love it. I will definitely stick with this phone (and its future updates) if my experience continues to be this positive.
What if someone else invented Google Wave?
Posted by clifgriffin in Technology on October 28th, 2009
I’ve had Google Wave for a few weeks now. Thanks to invites, the majority of people I contact regularly now have Wave as well.
And, it’s pretty cool without a doubt. There are a lot of good ideas and useful scenarios, bugs aside.
This being said, I can’t help but ask the question: What if someone else invented Google Wave?
I can’t help but think that Google Wave’s reputation as “revolutionary” is largely due to the word Google. Nothing Google Wave does is particularly revolutionary by itself. All of the technologies they have implemented are in wide usage around the Internet. It isn’t an idea that, if put before a group of web developers, they would respond “It can’t be done.” (but, of course, it is worth noting that until this point it hadn’t been done)
I suspect that if another, smaller entity put together a product like this it would not be taken seriously on its own merits. The fact is, if anyone at all has a chance at “reinventing e-mail”, it’s Google. I also suspect that the gradual roll out is in part an effort to drum up excitement that is only possible when there is an air of exclusivity. Where users not only have access, but they are granted the lofty notions of privilege.
The potential effectiveness of Google Wave as a sequel to e-mail are far from being realized at the moment. There are so few ways to interact with wave outside of a browser (if you don’t have an iPhone or Android phone) and while the protocol and API are at least partially available, the time when large providers put their weight behind it is a long way off, if it ever happens.
My intent is not to take away from what Google has accomplished. Certainly these features, in this configuration are novel, but perhaps their true novelty and usefulness are being overstated because we are predisposed to love what Google does?
Anyway, that’s my two cents.
Recent Comments