Posts from October, 2006

21st October 2006

Creating Passionate Users: Dilbert and the zone of mediocrity

Just read this brilliant and incredibly timely (for me anyway!) post from the always passionate Kathy Sierra.

To avoid the Zone of Mediocrity, you must suspend disbelief.

You must be willing and able to turn off (temporarily) The Voice inside that says, “We’ll never get away with this. People will hate it.” That doesn’t necessarily mean The Voice is wrong, but until you can shut if off, you’re virtually guaranteed to stay with safer, incremental ideas. But remember–”safer” really isn’t safer anymore, unless you’re looking only to avoid criticism. Safe will keep you safely out of the spotlight. If that’s what you want (and sometimes that’s the best approach), then fine. But if not…

(side note: this is somewhat like The Inner Game approach or Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain or any of the other approaches to creativity that get your logical “talking” mind out of the way so all the more useful but non-speaking parts of your brain can get on with the important things you’re trying to accomplish.)

And it’s not just suspending disbelief about what users (or critics) will say… you must also suspend disbelief about what your company will let you do. I first experienced this at Sun, where it was almost impossible to creatively brainstorm about ways to improve things without someone jumping in with, “Yeah, but they’d never let us do that.” End of discussion. End of chance to do something amazing. Every time I do an internal workshop, the partipants are far more negative than when some of those same people are in a public version of my passionate users workshop. By taking them outside their company and having them brainstorm or work on fictional or other people’s projects, their minds are free to move about. I’ve nearly quit doing in-house workshops because the “they’ll never let us do that” syndrome is so strong.

You can’t help users kick ass until your employer lets YOU kick ass.

[Source: Creating Passionate Users: Dilbert and the zone of mediocrity]

It reminded me of the city of Mediocritaxa - well worth a visit.

21st October 2006

Another reason why junk mail is bad for business

Apparently junk mail subsidises the cost of sending a bona fide letter, the price we have to pay, like Google Ads for snail mail (though less intelligently targetted of course).

Every week I receive an inordinate amount of junk mail offering discounts, credit cards with huge credit limits, loans - presumably to pay back the credit cards - claiming I’ve won £1million in a competition - presumably to pay back the loan - or asking me to donate to charity.

It’s bad enough that it’s a waste of paper and other resources.

But the thing that really makes me think about never being a customer to one of these companies is the fact that I can’t just throw the thing in the paper recycling bin.

No, first I have to check it thoroughly and tear out and shred any sections which might contain part of my identity.

So please… Sky, BT, Capital One, Lloyds, Barclaycard… to name but a few… stop wasting my time!

18th October 2006

links for 2006-10-17

16th October 2006

links for 2006-10-15

15th October 2006

How to find the IMEI number on a mobile phone

Key in *#06#

  1. Turn off your handset.
  2. Turn it on again.
  3. Allow the handset to load completely.
  4. Press the following keys one by one: * # 0 6 #
  5. Read the screen. As you press on the last #, a number will appear with the title IMEI number

[...]

If your mobile phone is stolen, call or go to the nearest service center of your mobile network, and give that IMEI number to staff and ask him to block that number for a period of time, so no one can use your mobile phone for any illegal purpose.

Source: WikiHow

This worked on my phone without having to turn if off and on again.

13th October 2006

links for 2006-10-12

12th October 2006

A case for more cycle lanes… if anyone can be bothered…

On Tuesday morning at precisely 8 o’clock I crashed in to the back of a moped on my bicycle. And it hurt.

The moped had just overtaken me and then braked sharply in front of me to turn left at the junction of the Old Kent Road - in the direction of Elephant & Castle - and Surrey Square.

Now if you’re a cyclist you get used to this kind of hazard and normally you have time to cycle round the obstruction. Of course if they thought for a moment they’d realise how utterly stupid and selfish their manoeuvre actually is.

Unfortunately in this instance, my path around the moped was blocked by a light green Renault Kangoo which was moving pretty quickly from the congested right lane to the left lane which was pretty clear in front… apart from me and the moped.

The Renault driver would have had full view of me and the moped and would have been able to anticipate our movements, but didn’t.

So in a split second my reflexes took over. I didn’t overtake as this would have meant colliding with the Renault. Instead I braked as much as I could and crashed in to the back of the moped. There was a loud cracking sound. In fact it sounded more like a car crash. The moped and driver shunted forward. I went over the handle bars and landed on the bit of tarmac now vacated by the moped.

No broken bones, but my hands and right knee were consdierably bloodied from the impact with the Old Kent Road, pieces of which I removed later that morning. Apparently it’s called “road burn” - delightful! Plus mild shock and some muscular aches and pains in neck, back and arms.

So who caused this accident? In the immediate aftermath my anger was directed towards the Renault driver. But since replaying the incident in my head dozens of times, I can’t help feeling that even though I ended up crashing in to the back of him, the moped driver held some responsibility.

The other thing that has struck me, as well as leaving me feeling upset and angry, is that no-one, NOT ONE SINGLE PERSON, stopped to see if I was alright!

That includes the Renault and the moped drivers.

Isn’t it just as illegal to leave the scene of an accident with a bicycle as it is with a car.

That’s right, everyone just carried on as if nothing had happened. Well most of them slowed down a little to gawp.

There’s no wikipedia entry yet for “Bystander apathy” - I guess everyone’s just waiting for someone else to do it.

When I asked on two separate occasions for some passing traffic wardens to call the police, they said that unless I had a registration number from the car or moped there was no point.

So to add insult to injury I really was made to feel like a second-class citizen because I was on a bicycle and not destroying the environment with my carbon-burning car.

As many people have pointed out since, it could have been a lot worse.

I guess I can only hope the other drivers involved have it on their conscience enough to avoid causing this kind of accident in the future.

I’ve had some kind messages from friends and family and I will be back on my bike very soon.

12th October 2006

links for 2006-10-11

11th October 2006

links for 2006-10-10

10th October 2006

links for 2006-10-09

4th October 2006

IBF Live conference blog

David Lucas and Louise Ferguson are blogging the IBF Live conference at the Barbican Centre in London today and tomorrow.

If you have an intranet check out what folk like Luke Tredinnick, James Robertson and Toby Ward are saying about where the world of intranets is at and where it’s heading…

Oh and here’s a picture I took on my phone on the way in today:

Underwater London

4th October 2006

links for 2006-10-03

2nd October 2006

links for 2006-10-01