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Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Adjustable Collars in Men's Dress Shirts

I've bought men's pants that have an adjustable waistband, to handle those little fluctuations in girth. Seems like an easy, obvious extension to put a little spandex into the necks of dress shirts.

Boring, Mandatory, Computer-Based Corporate Training

I'm at a new company, so I have to go through the excruciatingly tedious, mandatory, brain-cell-wasting-through-boredom online training for all the predictable topics. You could take them with the volume off. Rule #1: whenever an "All of the Above" answer is provided, it will always be the correct answer. Another rule: in the sexual harassment segment, when you are asked which of the employees gave the right answer, it will never, ever be the middle-aged white guy. I hate it when they slow you down by delaying the materialization of the "next" button.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Google Detail Missed: Root Words and Sub-Strings

In so many ways, Google search hits all the little details--hyphens and other spaces between words, mis-spellings. But they seem to completely ignore root words. Search for "computer" when your target contains "computers", and you come up empty. Same thing with numbers: "quality" instead of "quality1", and you lose.

This problem gets me surprisingly often. I notice it most when searching my own Gmail, because in those cases, I KNOW the item is there to be found, and that prompts me to pay attention and refine my search till I get it right.

An unusal miss for Google.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

JargonWatch: Deep Dive

Definition: to delve deeply into a timely subject, particularly one that appears to be becoming increasingly important or pressing.

Example: we've spent the last 3 days preparing for the deep dive the CIO asked for on our budget overruns.

Assessment: an unobjectionable and grammatically inoffensive employment of a reasonable metaphor.

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Overpriced Polycom Speakerphones


How did Polycom ever get its iPod-like mindshare monopoly on business-quality conference room speakerphones? I mean, they work well, and get extra points for design coolness, but why are they worth $300 per unit?!