zengar

When the RIAA decided to sue everybody and their grandmother (literally) for filesharing, we wondered how they missed seeing the public relations backlash it would cause.

When Amazon.com decided to remotely remove the e-book of George Orwell's 1984 from customer's Kindles, we wondered how they failed to recognize that the irony of the situation would make sure the incident was reported on far and wide.

And now (Edit: okay, apparently this article is from back in March, but my argument stands) when the New York Insurance Department tells a doctor that he is charging too little for his services, well given the current emphasis on health care reform, how can they not realize how this will go over in the court of public opinion.


Please note, I'm not saying anything about the legal rights or responsibilities in any of these cases, merely that they should have been able to see the writing on the wall and had some sort of plan in place to try and deal with the fallout.

In this day and age the concept of a "combo meal" ought not still be a mystery to a middle-aged person, especially after five minutes of attempted explanation. Furthermore, "sales tax" ought not to come as a nasty shock that provokes an argument. (not the same person, but the next one in line) I give a pass to the person who wanted to know what was in the chili cheese fries and wouldn't accept "chili, cheese, and french fries" as an answer. I understand about food allergies, even though that doesn't make things any easier for the cashier and this guy never said anything that indicates that was the case here.

I'm thoroughly impressed that the cashier got through those twenty minutes without once using any synonyms of the word "moron," and I was happy to see that I wasn't the only one after that in line who tried to be particularly polite to make up for those who came before us.

I came across http://www.metagifted.org/ as a result of a conversation with a True Believer™. Sorry, rather make that "self proclaimed 'Indigo Child'". This stuff makes scientology look good. Here's one skeptical overview, and I can almost guarantee that anyone who would be reading livejournal in the first place can find something absurd that isn't mentioned in this report within 5 minutes.


Hell, it even makes the Church of the Sub-Genius seem like a viable and well thought out religion.

A month ago I posted about a sign that annoyed me. Well today I encountered a new billboard in the same campaign. This one had none of the features that so irritated me about the other, but makes up for their lack with a complete lack of content.

MY FRIEND DOESN'T
KNOW HER WORDS
HELP ME GRADUATE
(background picture of a bearded black man, early twenties at a guess)


Maybe it's supposed to be a haiku? I really hope whoever came up with these didn't get payed a whole lot to do so.

Today I broke down and gave in to the rave reviews that Portal has been receiving everywhere. I have not played it yet, or even installed it, so that is not what this post is about.

What this post is about is that while I was purchasing said game, I had to stop a CompUSA employee from selling a desktop internal DVD drive to a lady with a laptop. She was completely clueless on this whole "technology" thing and her accent was quite heavy, but she had brought the computer in question with her. Not only did I save them several tech support calls and an angry customer but, judging by the price tags and my memory of purchasing cost at my previous job, I probable also made them an additional 10 dollars of profit by steering them to the next shelf over. Why do companies like this think they can hire people with this little knowledge, not provide them with the necessary training, and think it won't effect their bottom line?

I encountered a poster today that annoys me, probably too much. the message of the sign was, verbatim, "If I graduate, it's like a part of my mom makes it too." I can't count the problems with this if it was supposed to be a professionally done thing, as it's production values implied.

Lets start with the fact that it backs the idea that parents unhappy with their own achievements should try to live vicariously through their children. Then there's the fact that it sets up the idea of graduation as a goal in and of itself, without any indication of why it would be desirable. Further, it not only reinforces the notion that men are not primary caregivers, but also that it is not a rewarding role. The picture involved is of a mother and son, so the message isn't one of feminist uplift, as I tried to think in search of a defense for this poster. Then there are all the little problems like how the use of the word "if" subtly and subliminally undermines their entire presentation.

This all leaves out the main problem the poster has: Their intended audience is going to take one look at that big block o' words with the picture as a fuzzy backdrop, and simply ignore it. There's also the fact that it was in english and within the borders of chinatown, but that's a separate issue. I'm sure that it was part of a larger project, and at least some of them were posted in places where my primary objection would hold sway.

Maybe the people behind this were trying to save money by designing it them selves, because I'm used to ad agencies knowing at least as much psychology as I do. I mean, I'm a computer geek. If even I have a better understanding of human nature than these people, I don't hold out much hope for their success rate.