A subscription for everyone, if the price is right

subscription-fatigue

I previously wrote here about subscription fatigue, and the challenges of people controlling budgets with an ever-growing array of subscription options.  About two weeks ago I began a new round of audits to make sure I wasn’t paying for something I hadn’t been using as of late, and terminated a couple of subscriptions I could no longer justify. Continue reading

Finding the mother lode of Atari games

atari

It’s been an urban legend that Atari, having gone nuts mass producing catridges in the expectation they’d sell way more than they did, dumped a ton of them in a landfill and covered them over, with the hopes people wouldn’t realize what they’d done. A documentary crew went back, and sure enough, they were able to unearth proof that the cartridges were in a New Mexico landfill for decades. Continue reading

What’s in a name? For customer service, everything

s-larson

One of the areas of the company I work for has a customer service-driven model that requires dedicated focus and checking of emails/answering phones. I was talking with someone who was answering emails and signing them without a name, and I commented that we should consider the Citibank approach and just make someone up. Continue reading

Powdered alcohol draws attention, ire

palcahol

This just seems like it’s asking for it: A company has received approval to bring a line of powered alcohol to market in the coming months, which is supposed to make creating mixed drinks either, but in an era of Four Loko and other drinks that had unintended side effects, I can only imagine what this could do. Continue reading

High speed fiber in New York still a pipe dream for many

fiber-optic-cable

With the infrastructure of New York being as old as it is, it’s probably no surprise that much of it is aging. Indeed, I’ve mentioned here the challenges the city has faced in other areas of that category, but I was a bit surprised, although I’m not sure I should’ve been, to learn that when it comes to wiring the city with modern fiber optics for high-speed internet and the like, challenges persist as well. Continue reading

The story behind the iconic Windows XP “Bliss” photo

windows-xp-bliss

Windows XP finally, after more than a decade, reached end of life earlier this week, finally marking the end of a storied operating system that, despite a few early hiccups and a couple of major security issues that, by Service Pack 2, stabilized the OS and ensured its longevity. Continue reading

New York City, before and after

freedom-tower

New York as a city has certainly evolved, even has it retains much of the charm over the years that’s made it a place people have yearned to arrive at and thrive. A Huffington Post article, however, shows some of the inevitable change that happens when smaller businesses get replaced with larger ones, as the city ever changes, in a piece highlighting photos taken by James and Karla Murray for a new book, “STORE FRONT.” Continue reading

Amazon Smile lets you support charities through your purchases

amazon-smile

I’ve said it here on the blog a few times now: Amazon really seems to have its eye on making experiences superior for customers. Yet one of their more intriguing efforts is something I didn’t know about for nearly six months, until this week: Amazon Smile will donate a small percentage of the money you spend on qualifying items to the charity of your choice. Continue reading

Can using the right font save the government money?

ink-costs

Have you ever given thought to what fonts you use to print, and whether your choice of Comic Sans or Impact might lead to higher costs?  One teenager evaluated the costs of various inks and then applied it to the federal government’s spending, and determined that just by changing fonts the federal government alone could save more than $100 million a year. On ink. Continue reading