Jules Says

Is Yahoo! Tech sensuous and obliging?

Some link brought me to an article in "Yahoo! Tech". I had never been there before, but immediately got an offer to take a survey about it. I agreed. I like taking surveys like this - I feel I'm an under-represented demographic :)

Even though I specified that I had never visited before, I was asked my opinion of various features of the site. Bad enough, but look at this page... look at those options! Do people really feel this way about Yahoo! Tech? And aren't the options a bit heavily skewed toward the positive? (Click to enlarge)

Rechargeable USB batteries

I'm always running out of AA batteries. I use them for wireless keyboards, mice, game controlers, remote controls, clocks. I buy the big family-size packs. I don't have to contend with yet another power adapter that eventually ends up in a box with other orphan adapters that render their original devices useless.

Moixa Energy has developed some new battery technology. USBCell is selling their rechargeable USB batteries. They're nicely designed:

• A plastic cap comes off with no trouble, and reattaches with a simple clip.
• The cap is attached with an elastic band, so you don't have to worry about losing it
• There's a light right on the battery, with a simple key that explains Light On means charging, Slow Flash is 90% charged, Light Off is charged.

It took about 30 minutes to charge one up, and it promises to be good for five hours of use. Not a lot, but if I keep a bunch charging in a USB hub, it's not a big deal. They're also available in 9V, AAA, and a few other sizes.

They run a hefty ~$19/pair, but the way I go through batteries, it'll be worth it. There's a 10-pack discount that brings them down to ~$17. And even though they shipped them from the UK to the US, they only charged a couple of bucks for shipping. With the 10-pack, shipping is included in the price. Nice!

Zoho Notebook

Consider this a pre-review. If Zoho Notebook is anywhere near as awesome as this video purports, I've finally found my idea clipping/note-taking/collaboration tool. I didn't realize until I saw this that that's even quite what I need, but I'm psyched to try it. It lets you:

• Create multiple types of content
• Embed any content type
• Publish notebooks, pages, or objects
• Track changes
• Share documents
• Collaborate using an interactive white board

I'll let you know how it goes. Watch the video - it's a great demo. It's just over 5 minutes long.

Update: I started playing with Zoho Notebook - so far, so good. I kept reading about a Firefox Addon that lets you right-click on selected text and automatically send it to your notebook, but I couldn't find a download for it anywhere. I fired off a support note (which I was able to do from right in the notebook - nice) and got a reply within an hour. The link was apprently on the login page, which I wasn't seeing since I was already logged in. Oops! That's the second time I've encountered that weird UI glitch - happened with notifications on PBWiki, too. The quick reply (and apology, believe it or not) was much appreciated. Get the Zoho Notebook Firefox Addon here.

Mac sync magic

Wow, I can't believe I just now discovered this. It's easy - no-brainer easy - to sync your iCal, Contacts, Mail (all accounts & rules), Keychains, and Safari Bookmarks across multiple computers.

Let me back up. I've worked on multiple computers for years. I've always had the problem of certain info living on a desktop computer at home, and different info on my laptop. Email was the worst. Getting mail on both and leaving/deleting from the server from the other is far to cumbersome with any significant mail volume. Back in my PC days, I was never able to get iMap to work for email. I tried numerous times, as did our netops guy, all to no avail. For awhile I was fine using GoToMyPC, which essentially let me work on my desktop remotely from any other computer, even a Mac. (Sadly, they don't have a client for accessing a Mac, but I highly recommend it to all you PC folks).

Then I switched back to Mac. No more remote access. Vine Server is simply too unreliable for me. I guess I've been afraid to try iMap on the Mac - I just didn't want to go through what I went through in the past trying to get it to work. I keep running up against the fact that despite several months back in the Mac world, I still don't expect things on my computer to work as they should. I bumped up against this the other day when I had messed up my font folder. I called several Mac nerd companies looking for immediate help. Finally one of them said "Have you called Apple?". Doh! I simply am not used to thinking that the makers of my system software are available to help me. I even have an AppleCare plan and I still forgot. I called. They fixed my problem in 5 minutes.

But back to iMap. I went upstairs. First I tried to change my existing mailboxes to iMap. No go - I had to set up new mailboxes. I did so. It worked. I came out to my patio and did the same thing. It worked. Then I discovered the little option at the bottom of the mail preferences window: Synchronize with other computers using .Mac. I did so. It worked. I ran back upstairs and did the same thing. It worked!

There was one surprisingly cryptic dialog message along the way - I got this for several sync operations. I was really surprised - I rarely encounter poorly-written dialog boxes in Mac software. Or am I being blinded by the light?

30 minutes after deciding to tackle iMap, I not only can now get my mail on either computer without losing it on the other, I have access to all my appointments and contacts, so I can sync with my Treo (using The Missing Sync) while I'm out of town :)

I'm having one of those "I'm so glad to be back on a Mac" days.

LOGO doesn’t want me to watch their new show

This morning's New York Times had an article about a new show called The Big Gay Sketch Show. It airs on Logo, MTV Network's gay- and lesbian-themed cable channel. The show looks like a hoot, and I've always loved sketch comedy.

“One cast member, Kate McKinnon, portrays everyone from Heidi Klum to Rachael Ray to an original character named Fitzwilliam, a nasty little British boy who yearns to be a nasty little British girl.”

I had no idea if I could even get Logo. I went to the Austin Time Warner channel listings, and saw that Logo is indeed available here, so I wandered over to LogoOnline to get on their mailing list.

I was surprised to see that the Big Gay Sketch Show wasn’t featured on the front page - I'm sure they knew the article was coming out today. I realized later that it was one of 4 shows featured in rotation on the home page. Still, it should be heavily promoted today.

Back to that mailing. Where do I sign up? I could find no such place. I was stunned to realize there was nowhere for me to sign up for a newsletter of any kind. If there was, it was way too buried.

I decided to contact them. I want this show, and this network, to succeed. And I’m pretty sure they and their advertisers would like to have me as a viewer.

So I found the Contact Us button, and was presented with this screen (click to enlarge). Wow! They want my birth date, income, sexual identity, and ethnicity before I send them feedback? I haven't seen anyone make this flagrant a usability 101 error in quite some time. Normally I’d simply leave the site, but I really wanted to contact them. I wrote the following note:

I saw the article about the Big Gay Sketch Show in the NYT today. I got online, and was thrilled to discover that I get LOGO. I immediately came to your website. LOGO is on channel 261 here in Austin - I rarely channel surf that high, so my first thought in visiting your site was that I wanted to sign up for the newsletter, so I'd be reminded to watch the show. I was kind of astonished to realize there's no such thing (or if there is, it's way to buried). Your site looks nice, but your making some very basic usability errors, and are missing all kinds of opportunities for creating buzz. I’m sure you're on a limited budget, but I’m pretty certain you could drastically increase your viewership with some smart, inexpensive changes.

I do a lot of this for a living (I run vpchat.com, blog at juliegomoll.typepad.com, and do consulting on social media/web 2.0 strategy). I'd be happy to discuss some of this with you.

I'm so glad you’re here - I wish you all the best,

Julie Gomoll

There at the bottom of the form was a checkbox where I could opt in to their newsletter. So they do have a newsletter! It's even more unacceptable, then, that it's not featured on the front page. So I checked the box, and clicked Submit.

I got a “please enter all required fields” error message. What?! I filled in all the required fields, even my income. What could I possibly have missed?

My response was too long. Wow, these folks really don’t want me to watch their new show, do they?

Update: I did not end up on their mailing list after getting the request for more information. I have since re-entered my info, and pointed them here for my comments.

4.28 Update: Even though I successfully completed their form, I have heard nothing from LOGO. Not even an auto-responder :(

 

Best 404 page ever

I hate getting ugly 404 errors. When I went to a file-not-found page on Twitter, I got this instead. Not only is it amusing, it's helpful. What a novel idea!

Don't Click It!

It may not be as spectacular as Jeff Han's multitouch interface, but Don't Click It! is an interesting interface experiment. With the exception of a single link on the front page, the entire site can be navigated without clicking the mouse. Shown at left is their tongue-in-cheek product - the mouse cover that causes pain while clicking.