Archive for August, 2008
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Web 2.0: Good Looking and a Great Personality
Can software make you laugh?
Yes! But for several different reasons.
Sometimes I laugh at software because of how ridiculous it makes it to perform even the most trivial of tasks. There’s an HR portal we have at work, and I always say that if I sat down for a week, with a library stocked full of every HCI [...] -
The Incredible Price-Shifting Squagel, Part II
So I received a [very prompt!] message today from a regional manager at Cosi in response to my earlier request for clarification about bagel prices:
Re: About our menu
Dear Mr. Greenblatt,
I apologize for the confusion and inconsistency you are experiencing regarding the price or our square bagels or squagels. I have researched the pricing and believe [...] -
Treewala: Plant Trees While Getting Smarter
Do you enjoy making your friends feel badly about themselves by explaining to them in very complicated terms how, for example, their choice of tic-tac flavor can have severe environmental impacts on bird migration patterns? Also, do you like saving the earth? Then this is the site for you!
Treewala is a project by an organization [...] -
Cosi Cafe & The Incredible Price-Shifting Squagel
I’m a pretty frequent customer of the Cosi in my building, and most mornings on the way in to work, I pick up a buttered bagel with coffee, and the price is consistently inconsistent. As I’m pretty sure bagel prices do not fluctuate with the price of a barrel of gas, I’m at a loss [...]
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“iBlessing” iPhone App: Oh No You Did Not Just Say That.
I came across a new iPhone app called iBlessing which promises to put all the Jewish blessings at your fingertips, so you’ll “…never fumble or mumble a blessing again!” It’s simple enough: in the Jewish religion, it is traditional to say specific prayers over different kinds of food or for certain special activities (hand washing, [...]
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LifeComm – All Vital Signs Positive for Health-Based MVNO Service?
Qualcomm is backing a health-based MVNO called LifeComm which will is set to be launched some time in September (link to post on Engadget Mobile).
There’s tons of exciting work being done using mobiles to tackle health-related problems in thedeveloping world (Technology, Health and Development is a great resource for news on this), but there are plenty of people [...] -
Using Twitter to Support Making Eco-Conscious Decisions
Kermit the frog once said “It’s not easy being green.”
While he was, of course, referring to having green skin, the same adage holds true today, though the meaning of green has changed since then. If the zeitgeist of our time is not “being green,” then I don’t know what it is. More than ever, individuals [...] -
Terrible Signage on the Chicago Metra
I came across this bit of terrible signage for the Metra train today when I went out to Libertyville for work. Metra is the Chicagoland area’s commuter train; it gets people from downtown to the burbs and back, if you can figure out the signage
This diagram shows how the signs were [...]
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The Ethics of Spam, and Re-Spam
I like to think that I’m sensitive to the negative impact us humans are having on our environment, and thus I try to minimize this impact in all areas of my life where I have the ability to. I’m also very self-righteous when it comes to my rights as a consumer, and very sensitive to [...]
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Our Parents Wrote Letters
A friend of mine, Jake, recently brought up a very interesting point about our parents and their use of cell phones, specifically in the context of contacting us (their children). He hypothesized that perhaps the reason that our parents seem to call us more than we would like, is that they have no idea what [...]
