When Vista was released, many Windows XP users resisted assimilation. Microsoft tried to force Windows XP into an early grave. Then recanted as businesses resisted due to many issues that I won’t cover in this post. Most people who did upgrade later wished they had avoided all the headaches.
» Read more: Windows 7 has been released, what are your plans?
Posts Tagged ‘Observations’
Windows 7 has been released, what are your plans?
October 23rd, 2009
16 essential life skills students should know before leaving high school
October 14th, 2009Here is my list of things that every able bodied student should know before leaving high school. Some of these are obvious and many of these life skills are being taught one way or another in most schools today. However, I occasionally hear or see examples of people who have slipped through the cracks and haven’t learned these essential life skills. These are the life skills in my opinion that every student should know before leaving high school. » Read more: 16 essential life skills students should know before leaving high school
Store layout and traffic patterns affect sales
October 6th, 2009Some of you might be saying, well of course Store layout and traffic patterns affect sales. I usually think of store layout in terms of placing items where you want your customer to be. But, I never really thought about how a store layout can affect foot traffic until, I saw it with my own eyes. Of course this was a simulation in a Facebook application called Café World.
Café World allows you to layout your own Café. You place the stove where the cook prepares the food, where the serving tables are and where the customers eat. If you have a good layout, the cook is efficient, the waiters & waitresses can clean and serve efficiently and customers will get seated and served in a timely fashion. If your customers are happy, then they tell other customers about it and more customers come. If the customer walks in, but doesn’t see anywhere to sit, they grow impatient and leave unhappy. If the customer walks in and sits down but isn’t served within a reasonable time, they walk out unhappy.
It’s interesting to note that changing the placement of a door, table, chair or even a serving table can dramatically change traffic patterns either for good or bad.
Another interesting thing, is a layout that works for light traffic doesn’t always work well when it gets really busy. Customers have to wait longer and grow more impatient.
I’m sure the larger restaurants, grocery and department stores do traffic flow studies, but I wonder if they do foot traffic simulations like this to see how traffic changes when fixture placement changes.
Life Lessons in FarmTown
August 17th, 2009
FarmTown Logo
FarmTown is a Facebook application that encourages community and healthy competition. I personally put off playing it for a long time, but I had so many gifts from friends and family that I finally decided to give it a try. I found that it wasn’t a total waste of time as I thought it would be. My wife and I just started playing it not too long ago. Some of our relatives are way up there in the experience level and have upgraded their farms to the point that they have fun hiring others to do the work for them; they are enjoying the good life. We were showing off our farms to our grand-daughter and were showing her how the plowing, sowing and harvesting works. I actually think it could be a little educational without its players realizing it. She thought it was really cool. I showed them how they could make money in a short amount of time by working other people’s farms while you’re waiting for your crops to grow. Later on my wife said, you know this game might have some good lessons in there for her.
I thought about it for awhile and I agreed. There are some lessons to be learned, I will enumerate a few.
Some lessons learned:
- Money management
- It takes money to make money, if you haven’t reserved some cash for emergencies, you might miss out on future opportunities.
- It costs money for a equipment (water hose, rake,gloves)
- It costs money to plow
- It costs money for seed
- It costs money to hire others
- Money does not grow on trees, but you can earn it by harvesting trees
- Money is the fruit of your labor
- If you want to expand your operation or have more things, you need to earn more money
- It takes money to make money, if you haven’t reserved some cash for emergencies, you might miss out on future opportunities.
- Good things come to those who wait.
- Some of those crops grow really slowly.
- But when the harvest finally comes in, you can reap the rewards.
- Better things come to those who are not idle while they’re waiting.
- If you have some time to kill, why not hire yourself out while you’re waiting on your crops.
- Experience counts
- As you increase in experience, you get to do more cool things
- You have access to better things
- Teamwork (manpower) gets a physical task done more quickly
- Of course one person can do it all by themselves, but there’s more fun in numbers
- And while you’re at it, you can practice outsourcing the mundane stuff, while you do the fun stuff
- Hard work and persistence pays off
- Hanging in there while looking for a job
- Growing your skills to get to the next level
- In the end you gain some personal satisfaction that you’ve reached the top
- If you procrastinate, your harvest could go to waste
- Timing is important
Observations:
- I noticed that the Marketplace is kind of like the real life job market.
- A crowd of people all trying to get the attention of a potential employer
- Many of them frustrated, because they cannot get a job quick enough.
- It’s a chance to practice your social skills
- It’s a chance to practice some Personal Marketing
- Notice when you’re in the Marketplace, how desperate some people sound; don’t be one of them. There are other ways to stand out in the crowd.
FarmTown does consume some time, just make sure it’s your spare time, not prime time with your family. Unless of course they’re playing it with you.
I enjoyed the latest Harry Potter movie
August 15th, 2009Five Bucks
My wife and I went to the movies today to see “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.” We went to the Kerasotes Showplace Theatres. Our tickets were only $5. Kerasotes has a special deal called the “Five Buck Club“ The only requirement to join is to give them an email address and a mailing address. Once you provide them with this information, they will send a membership card in the mail and you will get a emails regarding feature films that are coming within a few days of the movie’s release. You will also get a periodic email notifying you of movies that have gone to the “Five Buck Club” These are films that no matter when they’re being shown, if you can produce a Five Buck Club membership card and $5 you will receive a ticket of admittance. So, if you have two people and two membership cards and $10 a couple can go to the movies for not too much money.
Kerasotes Theatre
The theatre has stadium seating with very comfortable high back rocking seats. It seems to me that every row is placed in such a way that you can view the screen from anywhere in the theatre. No worries about tall people sitting in front of you. The elevation between rows is pretty generous. They use digital video technology for all of their theatres. Every time I visit the theatres the experience has been great. Once a movie is no longer the feature film it moves from the primary theatre to one of the smaller ones. This is when the “Five Buck Club” kicks in. The members gain access to these movies for only $5.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Don’t worry, there aren’t any spoilers in this article. I just wanted to say a few words about expectations and disappointment. When you shell out $10 per person for a movie, not to mention popcorn, etc. You might have more expectations than if you only spent $5 per person. Maybe they expect too much from a sequel, I don’t know. Some people I know said it wasn’t worth the price they paid to watch the movie. They gave some reasons I’m not going to share because I don’t want to ruin the movie for you. I will say that maybe part of their disappointment came from spending too much for the movie.
Why I wasn’t disappointed
I usually wait until a movie has gone to DVD and then rent and watch it using Netflix. However, every once in a while there are films that I think should be seen on the big screen. Especially if they have lots of action scenes. I think all the Harry Potter movies should be seen on the big screen. If I had to pay more than $5, I probably wouldn’t have seen it. I would have waited for the movie to be released on DVD like I usually do. But because of the “Five Buck Club” I can afford to watch more films like Harry Potter on the big screen. So, I was just happy to get out and enjoy the theatre and see the characters develop on the big screen.
BTW: I plan to purchase this film sometime after it’s released on DVD.
Till next time, see the movie and Judge for yourself.
User interface reboot
June 25th, 2009During my career as a software engineer I have been frustrated most by user interface design of consumer electronics.
My biggest pet peeve is when a device is partially functional. The user interface appears to be running or kind of running, you can touch a button or touch the screen or click on a remote control and see some response, but it’s obvious that the device is not really performing the requested task. It’s stuck somewhere waiting for an event that may or may not happen. The old “race condition” has reared it’s ugly head. What caused it? WIll it ever get out of that condition? Who knows? Apparently the code doesn’t have a watchdog timer to catch this condition.
I don’t mean to pick on TiVo because I really do love my DVR. My experience is still fresh in my mind, so that’s why I’m using it. They do use some kind of watchdog timer, because when it hangs for a period of time, the TiVo will reboot by itself. The only thing, I wish they had designed into the unit was a reset/shutdown button or at least an on/off switch in the power supply. Computer manufacturers do it, TiVo is basically a computer with a specific purpose. There are two ways to force a reboot of a TiVo. The first way, if the menus are functional is to choose reboot in the setup menu. The other way to force a reboot on a TiVo is to cycle the power. There isn’t a switch on the device, so the power plug must be unplugged, then plugged in again. I agree, it might be admitting that problems do occur, but at least their customers would not be so irritated whenever a problem required a reboot.
I have had to do this with some DVD players as well. Something happened when a DVD was inserted and it never quite recovered. The buttons became unresponsive and the only way to fix it was to cycle power on the unit. Of course that meant unplugging the device, then plugging it in again. We grew tired of this behavior and ended up recycling it.
Handheld devices aren’t much better. Many handheld devices don’t seem to have a reset buttons on them. When there is one, I have been very grateful when I needed to use it. In most cases, when something does go wrong, you are required to cycle power by removing the battery, then waiting for 30 seconds, then replacing the battery. This works in most cases, but what about the case where you have a built-in battery with an external power source. If you’re lucky it was designed to reboot when the power button is held down during the display on event. I am just suggesting that perhaps software designers should add a menu item in system settings or diagnostics mode that would allow the user to reboot their device. The payoff would be huge and result in less customer frustration.
Till next time, don’t forget your users’ when you design the product
Kittens inspire almost everybody
June 19th, 2009
Mouse and Bob
A few months ago we had some kittens abandoned in our backyard. The mother was nowhere to be found, so we sprang into action. We took care of those kittens.
We bottle fed them, until they could eat solid food.
We washed them and helped them learn how to go potty. Sorry about the potty language.
I don’t know if these are typical kitten traits, but this is what I’ve noticed.
A few observations about kittens:
- They inspire older cats to play like kittens again
- They share their love as soon as they see you
- Their love is unconditional
- They are full of energy
- They learn quckly to submit to authority – we have a few older cats
- They are curious about everything
- They are easily entertained by anything
- They are fearless
- They love to play
Bob strikes a pose
Yes, Bob has a short tail. She was born that way.
Till next time, I’ll be cuddling with Bob.
