Start with a Glossary

Often when starting a new project in web development participants gain a lot of proprietary knowledge about a new subject, and distribute this knowledge inefficiently.

It has been my experience that when starting a new project, it may benefit the team to start building a glossary. Many companies have their own proprietary language they use internally and this language has no usage or meaning outside of their company. Talking to others about the project, will leave them confused without a knowledge of this vernacular, and leave you scrambling to define obscure terms.

Even if you never show your client the glossary, build it for yourself and anyone else working on the project. If by chance you quit, those who pick up on the project will have a great reference tool.

The Stickiness of Religion

I recently watched a documentary on the Amish titled “The Devil’s Playground“, and was amazed at the retention rate of Amish children after taking their Rumspringa; about 80%. This made me think. Over the main religions, which have the greatest stickiness or retention rate? Here is a little anonymous poll that I hope will help me answer this question.

Please tweet this or pass it along via email.

Take the POLL!

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MacBook is Sharp

Has anyone else noticed how the edges of the Macbook are seriously sharp? It literally cuts into your wrists. There have been reports of this for a long time. I cannot understand why Apple would not address this long ago. It’s bad enough that the laptop nearly melts your flesh. Apple could at least soften the plastic edges.

Hopefully this will be addressed in the next release.

The Perfect Case

I’ve bought many cases throughout my life and regretted many choices. After much travel and general observation, I have put together this little article to help in choosing the right case.

Wear and Tear

Make sure the edges are plastic or very hard leather. I had noticed on a friends bag that the edges were not plastic. The case was constructed of cloth and after very little usage, the bottom was totally shredded. It is especially important to have a hard plastic on the bottom.

Is it Sitable?

I don’t think that people really think about this when shopping for a case. In many situations at airports, bus stops, or subways, you may find yourself sitting for long periods of time, and chairs may not always be available. Sure you can sit on the ground, but there may be situations where you don’t want to get dirty. A good case with a strong frame makes for a great chair when you are really tired. Make sure that you can balance yourself on it also.

Size

Make sure that your bag size fits with your size needs. If you want to use it for airline carry on, make sure it fits within airline size regulations. If you are buying a case for a laptop, make sure it is big enough to hold your computer. The 17″ Macbook Pro is a monster in size, and will not fit in many brief cases.

Heavy Duty

Inspect framing of your bag before purchase. Chances are, if you check a bag at an airport, it’s going to get tossed around like a rag doll. Buying a bag with a strong frame and heavy duty plastic edging with help with this greatly. This will also help with the aforementioned sitable factor.

Portability

Anyone who has gone to Europe knows that many of the streets are old world cobbled style. Pulling a bag with large wheels can help ease the pains of navigating cobbled streets. I have yet to see a good design for a suitcase that has a wheel base greated than 4 inches. Perhaps a savvy industrial designer will be inspired from this post and make one.

Storage

The storage factor goes without saying. Make sure that your case has as many or as little compartments to meet your needs.

The Death of Print

Unused Phone Books

After a recent visit to the mail boxes I noticed the pile of phone books that no one seems to want or care about. A month later they are still there.

This makes me wonder. How much longer will phone companies continue to pour time and energy into producing these archaic things? When will they finally wake up and say, “These things take way too much time to produce, and no one reads them.”

In a previous job, the company for which I worked would produce multiple catalogs for a rather large product line including 100,000+ product numbers. Some of these catalogs would take years to produce. There was intense review process to make sure that everything was correct, and this all took a ridiculous amount of time. By the time the catalog went to press, many on the part numbers or measurements would be incorrect, rendering the catalog about as useful as a paperweight. I can only image how complex the design process would be for something like Yellow Pages or a company like McMaster-Carr even with an automated process.

I can’t predict when, but print will die or slowly become relegated to the art world. The integration of wireless devices like smart phones and Amazons Kindle® are going to eat away at the print businesses. I’ve already seen many campaigns from paper companies pushing the greatness of paper. It is interesting to see how businesses are pushing paper to stay alive.

Inevitably as we see a decline in the baby boomer generation, wi-max becomes available, and wireless devices become more affordable, I can see the need for print to be less and less.

When do you think print will become obselete?

UPDATE » 2008/09/17
Its Official. Print is dead.

Wasted Phonebooks