Sorry, you have the wrong number

I was watching the news last night and caught this story about the mishandling of medical information. I was interested because privacy issues really interest me in this digital world, and as the story unfolded, I grew increasingly disgusted. Here is what happened:

A nursing home was trying to fax some medical records to a doctor. The records turned up on the fax machine in some woman's house. This "good Samaritan" calls the news to tell them about what happened and she gets an interview on the eleven o'clock news. It turns out that the only difference between the phone number of the intended recipient and this woman is the last digit.

The news story talks about the increase of theft of medical identity and the consequences for the person handling the  information - like loosing their job.

So someone may loose their job because they misdialed the phone? The woman who received the fax could take the time to find the news hotline but couldn't take the time to get the name of the sender off the header of the fax and let them know they had the wrong number; or, worst case, look at the caller id on the fax machine and send a fax back letting them know. Shame on you lady.

Shame on the news organization too for running this - I'll use the term loosely -- news. People dial the wrong number all the time, and it isn't news.

Hook, Line and Sinker

The Mrs. and I were watching TV one night and this commercial came on. In unison, the Mrs. and I exclaim, "I love that song!" Much to the chagrin of the advertiser, the only thing I remember about the ad is the song.

This did work out for Andrew Clark and Allison Moyet, as well as for the members of ABC, I'm sure. Before the show was back on I was logged into iTunes and in my basket were Upstairs at Eric's, Look of Love -- The Very Best of ABC, as well as several other Yaz tunes from a best of compilation. Before the show was over, I had downloaded 30 songs- talk about impulse buying. The commercial got me to iTunes, then the "others who bought this also bought..." section made me go "OH YEAH..."

I've noticed a lot of good music in commercials lately, New Order in The New AT&T (sucks), the Cure for HP just to name a few. I'm wondering if there is really a dual intent here? Are they selling the music as well as the product or service? For me, Hearing "Only You" in that ad was very nostalgic. It had been years since I listened to Yaz, but there was a point in my life when Upstairs at Eric's was the only thing I listened to. Same for ABC. I loved those songs, and they took me back to some really great days! I was compelled to buy, and then buy more.

Remember the Volkswagen commercial back in the '90's? The one where it is just the car driving through the mountains and Clannad's "Harry's Game" playing in the background. When I went to buy Anam it had a sticker on it that said "Contains that music from the Volkswagen commercial." Certainly they experienced a boost in album sales from the national ads.

So I like to think that it was just a coincidence that the music was great for an ad and I went to buy it, and wow, the Internet makes it convenient to do so. The advertising guys are much smarter than I am, and planned every penny I spent that night.

Is it just me

<rant>

Or is entering a date on a web form just stupid? I can type ten digits faster than I can select the year of my birth any day of the week. So who is the idiot who decided that the convention of drop down lists were the appropriate way to enter dates on forms?

From a database standpoint I get it. They need to info to conform to certain standard: the database can see Jan, jan, January, january , and never mind the misspellings, as different entries. So make it numeric and a field for each part. If people use a single digit for the day and month, just give a message back saying you need two digits. This is particularly annoying on a birth date. This becomes more and more annoying the older you get, right, you are always further down on the list. At lease make a combo box so that while I type 1 9 7 1 it auto fills.

/<rant> 

MacBook

Just posting from my new MacBook. :)

YouTube on AppleTV... who cares?

So I read this article yesterday about the update to the AppleTV software that allows you to watch YouTube videos. Not really any YouTube, just those that have been converted to the proper format.

Yeah this is kind of cool, but what about some of the more important things, like broader format support? This is why I sent mine back -- gigabytes of video that the thing wouldn't play. There a plenty of hacks out there to make it play more formats, but unfortunately I'm a PC guy and everything I found to hack mine required a MAC. The other option is to convert those videos into the supported format. Tried that too, and it took about four hours to convert a one hour show, and then it was the size of an iPod screen on my 42" plasma TV. Uh, not acceptable.

So anyway, Apple needs to support standard video formats on AppleTV, just the same as iPod supports standard music formats -- my iPod will happily play an mp3, so why can't ATV play an mpeg?

Besides, I really don't see my family watching TV this way, searching YouTube for something to watch that lasts a few minutes at best...Come on Apple, you can do better than this.

Put the blackberry down and back away slowly...

I know I should love them, and in theory they are a really handy tool. Still, do we need to be so connected that we can't drive home without glancing at our e-mail, or sit through dinner with the family, or have the courtesy to  sit through a meeting without e-mailing the guy across the room?

Worse yet is when someone knows you have it. This seems to entitle them to expect instant responses to their requests. I mean come on, you have anytime anywhere access to your e-mail so you can certainly respond RIGHT NOW.

A couple of weeks ago my boss suggested I get one. My work frequently takes me away from my office, and she feels I should have one to keep in touch.

Boss: You need a blackberry

Me: Not really

Boss: You're away from you desk a lot

Me: Yeah, but I make time throughout the day to check my e-mail. Besides, if something requires my immediate attention, doesn't that merit a phone call?

Boss: I suppose

Me: Another thing. I give better customer service when I am focused on my customer... and not my newest e-mail

Me -- to myself: Please. The last time I checked, I set my own priorities -- not some little black box attached to my hip. This is why I will not have one, fire me if you need to, but keep your crackberry.

 

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Sent from my old fashioned hard wired clunky desktop pc