Buy(t-me).com
I want to meet the genius who designed and implemented the shopping cart mechanism at Buy.com. I'd duct tape him to a chair, hang one of those cartoon hammers over his head, held by a rope, then put a candle under the rope burning it away. Then I'd give a guy a keyboard and tell him he had five minutes to buy something, anything, at www.buy.com.
What would cause me to wish a cartoon death on a probably-overworked programmer?
Try a quality online sales experience like this:
Receive special email offer from www.buy.com.
Click on the offer.
See a desirable item.
Click on the buy now button.
See your cart with the desirable item in it.
Click on checkout now.
See the page refresh and then dump you back into view cart.
Click on the checkout now button several hundred times, taking many different paths to it and marvel that you always end up back in the view cart.
Empty your browser cache, log back in and do it all over again.
Try dismissing the horrible credit card offer.
Oooo, no cigar.
Try creating a new account.
Oooo, no special offer.
Try emailing tech support.
Hold breath waiting for reply.
Stop holding breath and go back to view cart.
Notice that the list of items in the cart includes 2 "special offers" at a price of 0$ each.
In desperation, delete the special offers.
Click checkout now.
Continue the checkout process, unburdened by those indecipherable special offers.
Dream up cartoon death for programmer.
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Scaryguy is Wired
Actually, scary guy is unwired. Wicked unwired. Devices on hand include Sony Vaio PCG 7D2L w/integrated wireless, Verizon Motorola Q EVDO Windows Mobile 5 phone, Sanyo 8200 ... and of course the required 30G video iPod.
I have the Verizon unlimited data plan at 100+ per month, accounts at t-mobile (starbucks), and some other godforsaken hotspot operator so that I can work with one of my collaborators at HIS favorite coffee shop. On land I have comcast internet, a couple of personal boxes at a cut rate local colo house and another batch of company boxes at the same place.
Running a virtual sw dev organization with no fixed office space is a challenge, and an expensive one. With the combination of the EVDO phone and the hotspot accounts I can work almost anywhere, anytime, but it's been tough getting there.
The biggest roadblock right now is the pathetically limited battery life of the Vaio. 2 hours is standard, but 3 is pretty much unheard of and I always find myself scanning for outlets wherever I go. Kinda freaks out the bartenders at my favorite watering holes.
Picture this - a big guy in shorts and sneakers with a three day growth, indifferent haircut, 2 cell phones clipped to his belt and an iPod growing out of his ears, carrying a Santa-sized portable bag looking under the bar and all the tables for 'something'. Definitely not the hostess's definition of a 'good day at Chilis'.
The other roadblock is the lack of processing power in the Vaio, or conversely the resource hoggishness of Visual Studio 2005. I have a C++ project with a few dozen files and it takes a good 5 minutes to rebuild. Shouldn't work that way.
Actually, scary guy is unwired. Wicked unwired. Devices on hand include Sony Vaio PCG 7D2L w/integrated wireless, Verizon Motorola Q EVDO Windows Mobile 5 phone, Sanyo 8200 ... and of course the required 30G video iPod.
I have the Verizon unlimited data plan at 100+ per month, accounts at t-mobile (starbucks), and some other godforsaken hotspot operator so that I can work with one of my collaborators at HIS favorite coffee shop. On land I have comcast internet, a couple of personal boxes at a cut rate local colo house and another batch of company boxes at the same place.
Running a virtual sw dev organization with no fixed office space is a challenge, and an expensive one. With the combination of the EVDO phone and the hotspot accounts I can work almost anywhere, anytime, but it's been tough getting there.
The biggest roadblock right now is the pathetically limited battery life of the Vaio. 2 hours is standard, but 3 is pretty much unheard of and I always find myself scanning for outlets wherever I go. Kinda freaks out the bartenders at my favorite watering holes.
Picture this - a big guy in shorts and sneakers with a three day growth, indifferent haircut, 2 cell phones clipped to his belt and an iPod growing out of his ears, carrying a Santa-sized portable bag looking under the bar and all the tables for 'something'. Definitely not the hostess's definition of a 'good day at Chilis'.
The other roadblock is the lack of processing power in the Vaio, or conversely the resource hoggishness of Visual Studio 2005. I have a C++ project with a few dozen files and it takes a good 5 minutes to rebuild. Shouldn't work that way.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)