If you live or work in a big city, you’ve surely encountered people who are paid to give out flyers or product samples to passers-by. But what amazes me about these street promoters is how much effort they waste on people who are the least likely to even look their way. Here are some signs […]

Whenever I have to spend time shredding stuff that a company sends me, it makes me a little more annoyed at them. Whether or not I have a business relationship with the brand, they’ve taken up my time by sending unwanted crap, or printing far too much detail on their statements and receipts. Here’s some […]

I know that I’m at least five years late to the whole podcasting thing. But given how long the medium has been around, I’m surprised that basic technical issues are still cropping up. And ironically, I’ve noticed these problems in user experience-focused podcasts — precisely the sort of people you would expect to get the […]

Everyone at WireSpring has been working their butts off to get our new FireCast Digital Signage EasyStart product completed. With the initial customer orders shipping next week, I thought it might be fun to talk about some of the businesses that could benefit from the product. These are all places I go to somewhat regularly, […]

I think you can learn a lot about a company’s culture by asking the lowest level, front-line employees how they like their job — or just observing their unspoken behaviors. It might be tempting to assume that the nature of the work outweighs any company to company differences. For instance, working more than a few […]

After some encouragement from my wife, I finally bought an iPod. Granted, it’s a last-generation Shuffle, which is super basic, but that’s all I wanted right now. It’s funny it took me so long to buy one, since I work with software and other technology all day long. Perhaps working with this stuff for a […]

The last few years, I’ve been very impressed with the creativity of corporate “announcements” on April Fool’s Day. Typically, these are intended to garner some press and foster word of mouth through their humor or outlandishness. But I wonder: is there any room for serious announcements on April 1? Frankly, I have no idea how […]

A few days ago, I got a catalog in the mail from a website that I haven’t shopped at in months. On the cover was a prominent offer for “Free shipping”. I quickly scanned the rest of the front and back cover for any further discounts, like a $10 off $50 coupon. No luck. Seeing […]

With all the ads promising to save you money these days, I’m surprised that more companies aren’t talking up the old adage, “A penny saved is a penny earned.” Actually, even those that do take this approach usually fail to point out the best part of it. Specifically, saving a penny is even better than […]

Most of the new construction near me was already close to completion when the financial meltdown hit full boil. Those buildings were so far along that halting work made no sense. However, there’s one building nearby that was only 20 or so stories into the 90 that were planned, leaving a stubby shell of a […]