Month: January 2007

Why does classmates.com advertise on Facebook?

Post ImageI have been spending far too much time on Facebook lately, so I couldn’t help but notice the vertical banner ads for classmates.com that appear on the site. And I can’t figure out why they bother. I mean, I signed up for classmates.com probably six years ago, and never visited the site again.

Well until this week, when I went back to see if it still sucked (so I suppose you could argue their advertisement worked to an extent). And yes, it does still suck. I understand why there are two gas stations on every corner, and why you can usually find a Wendy’s or Burger King wherever there is a McDonald’s. They have really similar offerings. Is this the case with Facebook and classmates.com? I don’t think so.

Facebook and classmates.com just might be the best examples of Web 2.0 and Web 1.0, respectively.

They are almost polar opposites. Facebook is clean and fast. Classmates.com pages are slower and cluttered. Facebook is entirely free, while classmates.com is primarily a premium service. Facebook has features like photos, blogs, and mobile support. Classmates.com has message boards and biographies. Facebook is new and hip, classmates.com is old and tired.

It seems to me that at their core, the two services serve the same purpose: connecting people with friends (and especially classmates). In my opinion, Facebook does a much better job. It’s easier, and costs nothing. Classmates.com appears to be quite successful though, so I wonder if people use the two in different ways.

If they are in fact used for the same purpose, then I wonder if advertising on Facebook is at all effective for classmates.com. I can’t imagine it would be, but perhaps I’m missing something here.

Meth Coffee

Post ImageCould they not come up with another name? Will people actually buy this coffee simply because it has the word “meth” in its name? I found this via Agenda Inc., in a post titled “First Cocaine energy drink, now Meth Coffee.” That about sums it up – what in the world is going on with the marketing industry!

If you’re just trying it for the first time, don’t throw back five cups like regular coffee. Ease into it. Have a little. Feel the rush, the euphoria, the smooth-edged high. Then go for more, if you want. Yeah, get into it. Make a dance up…program in assembly language…write your first novel…plot to overrule the planet.

Of course, as the About page points out:

CONTAINS NO ACTUAL METHAMPHETAMINES, I.E., CRANK, GLASS, SPEED, CRYSTAL, BATU, SHABU, MABU, CRACKHOO, ETC. PRODUCT NOT WARRANTED TO CURE ECZEMA, EDEMA, ACNE, CONSTIPATION, TOURETTE’S, OR GUM DISEASE.

Thanks for clearing that up. For a second there I thought I could actually get coffee with meth in it!

What’s next, the XTC Hamburger?!

Read: Meth Coffee

Mark Cuban on Suits

Post ImageI was quite interested to read Mark Cuban’s latest post in which he explains why he doesn’t wear a suit. I suppose this could have been on my five things post, but I have to admit, I don’t like wearing a suit either. I wear one when it is “appropriate” obviously, but I’ve never quite gotten it. As Mark says:

Exactly what purpose does a suit serve ? Why in the world are so many people required to wear a suit to work ? Do the clothes make the man or woman in the western world today ? Does wearing a tie make us work harder or smarter ? Is this a conspiracy by the clothing, fabric or dry cleaning industry to take our money ?

Or are we all just lemmings following a standard we all know makes zero sense, but we follow because we are afraid not to ?

There are two things I don’t like about suits. First, they aren’t exactly the most comfortable things to wear. Second, the only purpose they seem to serve is to make everyone look the same. And that kinda sucks. As a society, I think it’s safe to say we’re beyond the need for assimilation, and we now value individuality. Where does a suit fit into that? It doesn’t.

Of course Mark has an advantage over the rest of us. If he doesn’t wear a suit, it doesn’t matter, he’s still rich, no one is going to fire him. What if I hadn’t worn a suit to the business plan competitions? We probably would not have won, that’s what.

Perhaps the only thing I like about wearing a suit is that it makes me look older.

Read: Mark Cuban

Which color do you like?

My parents are getting a new vehicle in the next month or so, and I think I have convinced them that the 2007 Honda CR-V is the way to go. They liked the Pilot, but it’s a little bigger and a little worse on gas. Anyway, they are trying to decide on colors, so how about some help? Which of these do you like:

  
  

They are: Royal Blue Pearl, Glacier Blue, Tea Green, Nighthawk Black Pearl & Whistler Silver, Tango Red, and Borrego Beige. You can see a few more photos here.

I like the Borrego Beige, Glacier Blue, and Tea Green myself.

I realize the photos look kind of desolate (the weather kinda sucked in Edmonton today) but let’s be honest, my parents live in Yellowknife – it’s like that all the time! Heh, just kidding, it can be a very nice place, as you can see here. Just think how sharp a CR-V would look in that shot!

So, which do you like?

Read: 2007 CR-V Photos

Txt Msg Troubles on Telus

Post ImageI guess you could say I’m a bit of a text messaging addict. It’s a very useful technology, and I try to make the most of it. So when something went wrong on Saturday that prevented me from receiving messages, I almost went crazy! In the morning, Dickson had sent me a message. Throughout the day I continued to get the same message, over and over, until I stopped receiving messages altogether around 6 PM.

I called Telus today to get it fixed, and after a quick phone call, everything was back to normal (I then received 23 text messages and 3 voice mails all at once). The lady that helped me was very friendly, and certainly seemed to know what she was doing. I asked her what went wrong, and this is what she said:

Sometimes if you are sent two messages at the same time, it causes problems with the queue. I was able to send two test messages to your phone that cleared up the jam.

Now I can only assume that she was trying to answer my question in layman’s terms, but still, doesn’t that sound like an odd reason? I mean what is the point of having a queue in the first place? The queue is there so that messages can be sent reliably, even if they are sent at the same time!

I’m really kind of curious about how the system works now. I also wonder if Telus is using an in-house system or a solution provided by a third party. Either way, it seems some improvements could be made!

Also: I should note that there was absolutely no wait time to talk to someone (minus the stupid speech recognition menu which took a couple minutes). This is a BIG improvement for Telus…normally you have to wait forever!

Notes for 1/14/2007

Here are my weekly notes:

  • We finally launched an update to Podcast Spot on Wednesday, as Dickson explains. We’ll be turning on new features starting this week.
  • This article is interesting, to say the least. Shows you how out of touch the older generations can be.
  • Sure the fact that Beckham is going to play in the U.S. is big news, but it’s not like it was totally unexpected. The move makes excellent business sense for all parties involved.
  • It seems strange to me that Microsoft would be so flippant about the Zune having gaming capabilities in the next 18 months. I doubt the Zune will play games. It’ll be a new device if anything.
  • I forget where I came across this link, but CNN has a story about CBC’s “Little Mosque on the Prairie”. I haven’t seen the show yet, but it sounds funny.
  • My Dad is back to blogging again! One of the things he has been posting is fairly detailed recaps of Oiler games.

Engadget Numbers and Misconceptions

Post ImageAs you probably know, Engadget is one of my favorite blogs. I read it all the time because I know I’ll find something new and interesting. And as last Tuesday proved, I’m not the only one who reads Engadget! It has been widely reported that Engadget had 10 million page views that day (with CES and the Steve Jobs keynote going on). Managing editor Ryan Block says the numbers were actually higher than that, and sets a few things straight:

Again, we quoted that traffic was “into 8 figures”, counting the rest of the Engadget network (Mobile, HD, Japanese, Chinese, and Spanish) and that’s even more still. I’m not going to discuss numbers, but I was very proud of what we accomplished, and I’d have been proud if we only did 10m.

He also says they had increased uniques, suffered absolutely no downtime, and attributed most of the reliability and performance to WIN’s Blogsmith platform. Whatever the actual details, it’s clear that Engadget did amazingly well on Tuesday.

Congrats to Ryan and team, and keep it up!

Read: Ryan Block

Outlook 2007 HTML rendering is crippled

Post ImageThe more I learn about it, the more Outlook 2007 continues to suck. First it was problems with downloading POP email, and now David Greiner tells us that HTML rendering in Outlook 2007 uses the Word engine rather than Internet Explorer:

Imagine for a second that the new version of IE7 killed off the majority of CSS support and only allowed table based layouts. The web design world would be up in arms! Well, that’s exactly what the new version of Outlook does to email designers.

You can see a full list of what is and isn’t supported at MSDN.

David wonders why Microsoft has done this, and suggests security, consistent rendering, and “they hate us” as possible explanations. I suspect security is the main reason, but like David points out, IE7 is a big step foward in security! They should just require use of IE7’s rendering engine.

So what does this mean for the average user?

All it means is that a lot of HTML emails in Outlook will be garbled and difficult to read. Nothing more, nothing less.

That sucks, especially since IE7 is pretty darn good at CSS rendering. And to be clear, it doesn’t matter if you think the world should only use text-based email. HTML email is not going to go away, and if Outlook is going to render it, I’d rather it do so correctly.

Read: Campaign Monitor

Shopping Malls: Canada vs. China

Post ImageQuick – which shopping mall is the world’s largest? If you said Edmonton’s own West Edmonton Mall, you’d be wrong. Despite holding the title for two decades, WEM is now number six on the list. A building boom in Asia has landed that continent nine of the world’s ten largest malls (the article says eight, but Wikipedia says nine):

Just three years ago, the top 10 list would have included a pair of popular California destinations—South Coast Plaza in Cost Mesa and Del Amo Fashion Center in Los Angeles—along with the famed Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn.

Here in North America the shopping mall is kind of passé, replaced by big box shopping centres like South Edmonton Common. A logical question to ask, then, is if the shopping malls in Asia will one day be seen as passé?

I think probably not. It seems to me there are two main differences between North America and Asia (when it comes to the importance of shopping malls). The first is population density – in Canada it is a mere 3.2 people per square kilometer, and in China it is 137 people per square kilometer (and these numbers are probably even more different if you look at just urban areas). There is clearly more space in Canada to build big box stores. In China, perhaps the shopping mall makes more sense because it is a more efficient use of space.

The second difference is in transportation. More families in North America own a vehicle (or two) than families in Asia do. This is changing, to be sure, as the income levels of countries like China and Thailand continue to rise. If you have lots of cars, it’s easier to drive to big box stores. The large number of vehicles in North America has probably helped the switch from malls to big box stores.

The first difference (population density) is more important than the second (transportation), in my opinion. Even though more Asian families will have vehicles in the future, the problem of population density will probably only worsen. For that reason, I would guess that shopping malls will continue to be important in Asia for a very long time.

As for the future of malls like West Ed, I am not sure. They seem to be doing okay for now, even if growth isn’t what it used to be, but that may change in the future. I think shopping malls in North America will probably have to reinvent themselves one day to stay competitive.

Read: USA Today

Education is about grading – and that sucks

Post ImageIt is no secret that I have a lot of issues with our education system. I think there are lots of things that could be done better, especially fixing this:

“All through school, from kindergarten up, you were taught that mistakes are a bad thing. You were downgraded for the mistakes that you made.

It is perfectly apparent from what [schools] do in examinations where errors are identified, [that] education is not about learning. It is about grading. Because if they were interested in learning, they would give you the same examination back a week later, to see if you had corrected your mistakes. But they’re not interested in that, they’re interested in giving you a grade.

So it is impressed on you, mistakes are a bad thing. [Ed: And learning by making mistakes is a bad thing.]”

– Russell Ackoff Talk, ISSS Cancun 2005, 49th Meeting

Experience should confirm that some of the most important lessons you learn in life come after making a mistake. Too bad the education system doesn’t feel the same way.

Note that in the above quote he doesn’t mention teachers, just schools. I know there are a lot of teachers who would rather help students learn than simply assign them a grade, but their jobs depend on assigning marks. And unfortunately, I think too many teachers put this fact (that they need to produce good test scores) ahead of the educational well-being of their students. For more on this, you should definitely read the first chapter of the wonderful Freakonomics.

Read: Nivi