Petey and Co
I'd only heard that the family dog Pete had a houseguest over last week, until I saw this photo on Flickr of the happy pair relaxing with a few of their favorite pastimes.
June 6, 2006
March 1, 2005
Why I Don't Shop at Stores Any More
Had an experience with Staples tonight that pretty much typifies how I view the purchasing experience these days in terms of bricks & mortar retailers:
- Check on Staples web site that they have item (type of pen) I'm looking for
- Make time to visit store in person, since shipping is excessive on a box of pens alone
- Visit store
- Store is out of stock on item (but they may have it in a few weeks!)
- Go home empty handed
- Order online
The same applies to clothing purchases (chains don't carry "tall" sizes in-store any more), electronics (retail overcharges), photographic equipment (it's cheaper to order online than take the subway to B&H, which is closed on Saturdays as well), and just about everything (even groceries!) Online shopping changes your expectations -- you believe you should be able to find whatever you want immediately (via searching), compare prices instantly, and shop any time you want.
One way online shopping has clearly affected my buying is that I now tend to have a specific item I want. I'm not thinking "box of pens" -- I'm looking for the particular model I'm already used to, because I know I can get it for a particular level of effort. As opposed to the old days, when the time or travel spent searching for that exact SKU would have been an unknown.
Aside from the most impulsive of purchases, or the biggest (cars, houses), physical stores are a losing game for most purchases.
November 26, 2004
Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone
29 lbs of Turkey... couldn't not post it. And in the usual holiday insanity, we also had a baked ham in the on-deck circle.
August 6, 2004
Back to Work
On Monday I start my new job... today I'm reminded of the old Calvin and Hobbes strip: I'd better get busy -- only three days left and I've still got a whole summer's worth of goofing off to do.
May 7, 2004
Yesterday about 140 of
Yesterday about 140 of us from Columbia Business School went upstate for an end-of-year golf outing at Mansion Ridge, a course designed by Jack Nicklaus. Absolutely perfect weather and a great course. The picture above is from the tee on the eighth hole, looking down towards the fairway below.
April 28, 2004
Spring on Campus
As I walked out of my last final exam ever today the Columbia campus was absolutely beautiful. This winter seemed longer than most, but we're being rewarded with a spectacular spring. It's hard to believe two years of graduate school went by so quickly, but I'm not sure I'd be eager to go back to the beginning, either. It was a good run, but it's getting time to move on.
June 14, 2003
Summer Break
The regular readers (hi mom) of this page may have noticed that I haven't been posting the last few weeks. Truth is, I'm absolutely busy with work, to the point that I've just had to put a hold on looking for items to publish. Also, I've had to read my paper on the train rather than online, so that's reducing my ability to comment or post as well. Sorry about that. I guess it's like the TV season - we'll return to regular programming by the Fall.
May 15, 2003
Travel and Miscellany
I'm on the road in Boston today, so I don't have much to post. Just visiting some old friends and checking out a friend's startup company.
After reading an article about the 600+ takes it took to film a new Honda ad, I've been looking for it on television for weeks. I don't know if they're showing it here in the US yet, but there's a web page where you can see Honda's amazing ad. Keep in mind as you watch this that it's mechanical, not computer-generated (except for one or two small details.) We've become inured to the amazing sequence by the increasing dominance of realistic computer animation, but this is still amazing to watch.
April 22, 2003
Kubisoft Ships First Product
Congratulations to my friends (and ex-coworkers) Nate, Feiyu and Issam for their team getting a great new collaborative email system out to market. Yahoo reports that Kubi Software has shipped its first product, Kubi Client.
February 26, 2003
Win a Free Trip to Wales
Enter online to win a free trip to Wales, and help out one of my friends, who designed and implemented the giveaway's web site. Don't know where Wales is? Well, hot damn, there's a site you can visit to learn more!
January 21, 2003
Blockbusted: How to Lose a Customer
I had one of my single worst-ever customer experiences today, dealing with my local Blockbuster store manager. At the start of the month, I rented a video (Men In Black 2, I'm ashamed to say) and returned it the next day. Two weeks later, I got a notice that I'd failed to return the tape, and was being charged $46 in late fees and penalties.
In trying to resolve this reasonably I have:
- Visited the store twice (only to find that none of the employees were "empowered" sufficiently to help me.)
- Called the national toll-free customer support number posted in the store -- it was out of service.
- Spoken to the manager for twenty minutes. She suggested I bring in the tape. I pointed out I didn't have it. She said she didn't have it, so therefore I must.
I gently pointed out that unless she could come up with an alternative compromise or resolution, I would simply decline the credit card charge of $46 and cancel my account. She couldn't even suggest an alternate idea.
Basic marketing: the economic value of a customer is generally many times greater than the value of a single transaction. It's never worth losing a customer over $46, when the lifetime value of their purchases is probably $500 or more.
Our local store definitely acts like they have no competition. But I'll be buying my movie rentals off Time Warner Cable's excellent new digital cable video-on-demand channels rather than having to wait for the DVD to be in stock at Blockbuster, and deal with their minimum-IQ staff.
All of this reminds me about Blockbuster's lame class-action settlement regarding inappropriate late return fees back in 2001. Blockbuster settled 23 suits for a total of $423 million, but they got to pay it out mainly as coupons on futher rentals... what a joke.
October 9, 2002
Golf!
Sunday, several unlucky victims played 18-holes of golf with me as part of the Columbia Business School tourney. No casualties, except for a golf cart fender. It has been noted, however, that the picture at left shows I'm winding up enough for two drives on a single swing.
It's obvious that this is a game that's evolved to particularly appeal to middle-aged men living in the suburbs. There's little if any actual physical effort, given that you drive from shot to shot in a cart -- much like suburban life in general. And it's the only sport I've seen you can playing in Dockers (TM) while drinking beer (that was delivered to you on the course, no less.)
Maybe we need an urban version -- you walk from each hole to another (with a subway between particulary remote spots.) Plus, if do try to use a cart, there's no place to park it.
August 21, 2002
Back To School
Yesterday was Tom's first day back at school. It seems that no matter how old you get, you are still forced to do group activities during orientation that make you feel like you're back in kindergarten. Since I'm still working, I'll just live vicariously through him until it's my turn to go back to school...or until his midterms come up in a couple of weeks.
June 28, 2002
Michael Stipe's Revenge
I've been ripping my CD collection again... trying to get some more value out of what's been sitting in a milk crate at home. And damnit, I really like R.E.M., or at least their album Automatic for the People (1992). So sue me.
June 24, 2002
Out on the River
This city boy had a ball whitewater rafting in Eastern Pennsylvania down the Lehigh River. After the compulsory deliverance jokes we had a really nice day of floating and the occasional rapids, with a picnic lunch on the banks at mid-day. The digital camera begged out (something about seasickness and not knowing how to swim) so I plunked down $9 for a waterproof disposable... I should have a photo or two tomorrow when one photographer posts his shots online, and my own in a week or two.
June 17, 2002
My Dog has Aim
My sister's dog Petey has AIM... you can reach him at "Petey Karlo".
May 10, 2002
Seperated at Birth?
My father (circa 1975) versus Jakob Nielsen, usability guru, web celebrity and author of useit.com. The difference? My dad changed his haircut 20 years ago. Still, the implications are horrifying when you've got these genes running around in your cells.
This comparison occured to me while working on a new article on photo retouching for The Pixel Foundry.
May 6, 2002
Weekend Around Town
Any weekend where I end up on Delancey Street three times, on three days, was likely interesting (although next weekend promises more excitement, since I'll be in Shanghai.) Friday night I was in the Bowery Ballroom watching new band Hot Socky perform... it was all right. Their music seemed to be a funny mix of 80's hard rock and the Beatles, but it worked most of the time. I think they need to change the order of their set a little -- the crowd didn't seem to respond so well to the way they came out right away with some of their most high-energy stuff. Saturday, I ended up a block away at Smithfield (a bar) squeezed into the back near the DJ at the tail end of someone's birthday party... and finally, on Sunday, it was a large dinner group of friends at Sammy's Roumanian Steakhouse, on Chrystie near Delancey. I'll have to put my own photos of that online shortly.
Sunday also reminded me how small New York can be. At the Asian-Pacific heritage fair (I think that's the name) on Sunday, I ran into about 5 people I knew, and saw several more I recognized. Amazing that happens so often in a city of millions.
April 30, 2002
Hamburgers & Spice
Tonight, it's hamburgers. After spending 2 hours yesterday making a vegetarian Indian dinner, we need some protein tonight...and no, none of those protein shakes on my kitchen counter will do.
Oh, a word of advice -- meals that require 7 different spices don't necessarily taste better than simple salted and peppered burgers. I will, however, search for new recipes that will require a trip down the "weird food aisle" (as Tom would put it) at the supermarket.
April 2, 2002
If You Can't Beat Them...
If You Can't Beat Them... Kudo's to my friend Stef for finishing the New Zealand Triathlon. He didn't win, but he managed to finish in a notable position, regardless. Check out his results by going to Ironman Live and scrolling all the way to the bottom of the chart. He finished just a few minutes before the maximum time cut-off. I wonder if anyone was cut off for taking too long, after 16 hours of effort... that would suck.