I’m usually quite critical of the flyers I receive in the mail, since they generally do a poor job of conveying the offer and making it easy to take action on it. However, one flyer I received a few days ago managed to do everything right. In particular, the flyer included:  – A separate coupon […]

A few days ago, I saw a rather strange name flash by on our caller ID. The text simply said “Server Room”, without any indication of the caller’s name or their company name. Assuming their organization isn’t actually called “Server Room”, I’m guessing that their outbound caller ID is configured incorrectly. In other words, while […]

When you’re packing a box that’s going to be shipped somewhere, or designing a product package, there’s a very simple test to verify that you’ve done your job correctly. Shake the box, and listen whether the contents are moving around. If they move a lot, there’s a significant chance that they’ll be damaged in transit. […]

I’ve read several articles lately that mention how the federal and state governments “own” all the wild animals that live within their borders. On some level, this makes sense, since animals might be considered a natural resource that is subject to public or private ownership. However, there’s a key element missing from this equation: control. […]

Last week, I got a flyer in the mail from a new pizza place. The flyer was fairly well-designed, and tried to convey that the restaurant was authentic, locally-owned, and not touristy. That last point seemed especially important, since virtually every Chicago pizza place is a big time tourist trap, and a restaurant catering to […]

While helping to put together some test equipment for the office, I needed to locate a good deal on four identical monitors that met certain specifications. I searched all the usual sites, and found a great price at one of our favorite vendors. However, when we went to complete the purchase, we hit a brick […]

A couple of days ago, I needed to update my credit card info on a particular website. Finding the right page for this task was easy enough. And the interface looked straightforward, too: just the boxes you’d expect for the card number and expiration date, plus buttons for Save and Cancel. However, one aspect of […]

Last weekend, I went through an almost comical series of steps to refill a prescription: – Step 1: Show up at the pharmacy to pick up the prescription — only to have the pharmacist tell me there are no refills left. – Step 2: Go home, locate the new prescription slip that I squirreled away […]