XCode and Objective C are not for the faint of heart… oh well at least in some departments like web services and xml parsing. Anyway, there I go little by little learning and learning.
I came across this site last night…yes Friday night…. and I love it!
http://www.xcode-tutorials.com/
No affiliation with these people, just want to recognize when someone does something useful!
One of the most annoying things for me is how dumb the clipboard is (yet at the same time being extremely useful).
Quick scenario to demonstrate my point
- Ctrl C on an email address from a person you are going to write in the next few seconds
- You get distracted, move to a different window and copy paste a file that you need to share in a network drive (more on effective file sharing soon)
- You get back to write the email and you no longer have the text in your clipboard. Ohhhh the humanity!!!! Well, not quite a Hindenburg disaster, but still VERY annoying
Well, it is extremely simple to fix. Download CloudClipX and it will help you keep track of the most recent text’s you’ve added on your clipboard.
Just click on the icon in the task bar and select the entry you want again in your clipboard and you are good to go!
Note: I am not affiliated with SendGrid nor I am trying to make $20 for each referral. I am just a happy customer. I like to point out when other people make products or provide services that add value and make my life simpler (that is the key… MAKE MY LIFE SIMPLER).
Yes, I know. Having your own SMTP is not that hard, or expensive. Also, some services like Google Apps or Godaddy Pop can be used despite the fact that they have daily limits, which sometimes might be a bit low.
Amazon SES ( http://aws.amazon.com/ses/ ) is simple to use and inexpensive, but I found a simple alternative IMHO called SendGrid.
Check it out, just go to www.sendgrid.com and subscribe to it, use your credentials and send. It has some nice features like a dashboard, counters and a few other things without too much fuzz.
And to send the email we just do…
MailMessage mm = new MailMessage(new System.Net.Mail.MailAddress(from, fromName), new System.Net.Mail.MailAddress(to));
// mm.CC.Add(tocc);
//Assign the MailMessage's properties
mm.IsBodyHtml = isHtml;
mm.Subject = subject;
mm.Body = msg;
SmtpClient smtp = new SmtpClient();
smtp.EnableSsl = true;
smtp.Host = "smtp.sendgrid.net";
smtp.Credentials = new System.Net.NetworkCredential(user, pwd);
smtp.Send(mm);
Not that I wouldn’t have guessed if someone asked me, but I think my bias towards Microsoft technologies is kind of noticeable.
However, I never would’ve guessed to what extent until today. Look at my start menu!
Yes… yes… Firefox too… Maybe I am a bit slutty too hahaha
A few days ago I finished reading Steve Krug’s book, Don’t Make Me Think. It is amazing how this guy has been able to summarize so many useful advice in what can be read in a few hours. I believe the architects and designers from big corporations should all read a copy of this book, because in the end a big part of the success of a product lies on whether end users like your product and make it part of your life.
It doesn’t matter who you are, if you don’t design your product well people are not going to use it. Let me show you a few examples:
- Skype vs MSN Live vs Google Chat & Voice: Skype is by far the best product, the lifeline of communications for millions of folks worldwide. The other services have the same features, but Skype by far is better. (Maybe that’s why MS bought it)
- Google Chrome vs Internet Explorer vs Firefox vs Safari: IE might have killed Netscape and others, but Firefox came and showed how it should be done, especially with its big community building add ons. IMHO Chrome is the best, I like it’s speed. Like I said, IE had its prime, but not adhering to standards, being slow, and pretending they were alone was not sustainable. IE 9 is trying to fix this, but only time will tell
- Dropbox vs Live Mesh: in this one Live Mesh tried to present an offering that had everything you need and in doing so made a product so unusable that a simple “have a root folder, drop all your stuff there” approach worked as it fitted for the biggest number of users.
And I can go on and on and on… However I just wanted to point out how sometimes building a great product is only a matter of building it usable. You know the old saying, “Elegant simplicity is the ultimate sophisticaiton“. That’s what I try to do with everything I build in my life.
BTW: AS I am writing this post, I bumped into this dialog. I can’t count how many times I’ve said “later” or did the process and it still comes up. This can’t be more annoying!
I read today a great article called The Ballmer Days are Over, in which Ben Brooks describes some of the problems that Microsoft is currently facing. Here is my take on Microsoft:
I used to work as a v- for Microsoft for a few years and then I cofounded a company that provided vendor services for them (7 years total – and already left the company), so I know my way around Microsoft.
I found an extremely interesting article today which talks about why some people love meetings and others hate them, but still go to meetings quite often.
Here is the link:
Another Meeting? Good. Another Chance To Hear Myself Talk
The part that I love is:
David Mazel, a research analyst, thinks people like meetings because “you can stay busy without accomplishing a thing.” He says “having gone to the meeting is the work.”
New rule for me: for every meeting that I have control over, something actionable will come out of it.
New rule #2: avoid meetings that are only to “discuss XYZ” but nothing actionable nor any decision is taken, or that we do a meeting that will just lead to another meeting.
In fewer words, I will make my best not to waste anybodies time nor mine.
So my mic stopped working. I went over all the settings trying to find a mute setting or something. Nothing showed up…
I then connected the apple headphones and the mic worked fine. I was bummed thinking that my iPad mic simply was gone forever. Nope.
Simply restart the iPad by holding the top and home buttons until you get the spinning thingy. Turn it on again. It works!
I don’t recall buying a Microsoft iPad though hahahaha
Esta semana me pase a full racsa. Pues apenas lo hice internet dejo de funcionar casi por completo!!!! Sirve un par de horas al dia.
Raro dado que es el mismo servicio, por el mismo cable modem de amnet y los vecinos que tienen amnet les funciona perfecto. Que pasa?! Sera que amnet esta tratando de joder a Racsa o que Racsa no sabe lo que hacen?
De todas formas, no se como crei que Racsa me iba a dar un buen servicio. Esta un poco mas que deficiente….
Estoy ahora con “full racsa” solo porque Amnet me tenia harto entonces me pase pero hoy que internet ha estado pésimo (llame y me dijeron que había una avería general) me tope con la grata sorpresa de que tratando de llegar a soporte técnico me encontré nada mas con una grabación que me decía que introdujera mi número de cuenta, la cual no sabia y por mas que intente no me dejo hacer nada mas y la grabacion me colgo. Me colgo una grabacion!!!!!
Les mande esta carta hoy:
Yo aprecio y entiendo el hecho de cómo se les simplifica a ustedes la vida si uno les de de una vez de inicio el número de cuenta, pero a nosotros los clientes no nos sirve. Se imagina si tuviera que tener el número cuenta del ice, del AyA, de mi cuenta de internet, de la del gimnasio, de la del banco (tal vez esta si sea importante) y muchas otras para cada tramite que tengo que hacer. Con el número de teléfono o cedula sería mucho más sencillo para uno como cliente para que lo atiendan y al final del día la empresa que mas brilla por su servicio al cliente es aquella que le hace más sencilla la existencia al cliente, que es su razón de ser.
En resumen les recomiendo:
#1 Cuando una persona llega a soporte técnico que la maquina le pregunte el número de cuenta pero que de la opción de que si no la sabe, que apreté * y lo atiende un ser humano
#2 Pregunten por número de teléfono, cedula o número de cuenta. Tomen Amnet como un ejemplo, antes solo preguntaban por número de cuenta pero con el pasar del tiempo ahora más bien solo con el teléfono ya es suficiente. Por qué? Por que el cliente quiere que le hagan la vida más sencilla.
#3 El servicio está bastante malo, estoy teniendo servicio intermitente
#4 Me acaban de decir en soporte técnico que después de enviar un documento, tengo que llamar a confirmar que lo hagan. No es más sencillo que si les mando algo, ustedes nada mas lo hagan y ya? Para que tengo que volver a llamar si acabo de mandar el documento?
En fin, algunas sugerencias.
