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He Knows, You Know...

Donald Rumsfeld was the United States Secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2006 under President Bush. He is known for many things, but will always be remembered for his statement of an old truism, as quoted -

Posted in Best Practices

The Ultimate Counter to the Exposure Pitch

There are a decent number of stories going around the Internet, many of them recent, about how artists should push back on being asked to work for free. Let me state up front that I agree with this position to the tune of about 80%.

Posted in Best Practices

It's time to nuke password security questions

I'll come right out and say it - password security questions are not only insecure, they're a blatant security hole. They're worse than not being there at all, and for any of a number of reasons.

Posted in ChrisSplaining

Match.com's Fake Problem

Match.com has a fake problem. That is, they have a problem with fake accounts and there is a clear reason why they have, for years, refused to do a single thing about it.

Posted in ChrisSplaining

I'm just here so I don't get fined...

A Nugget of Knowledge

Sunday, 14 October 2018

Writing

I recently signed up for MasterClass, as there were more than just a few people giving courses that I'd love to hear from. I started with Steve Martin's course on comedy. I don't think I learned anything specific that I'd call out, but I did get a solid overview of his thought process and I found it very enlightening. I then took Shonda Rhimes Teaches Writing for Television, and found it even more useful, as I'm working on a television screenplay (don't worry, it's for fun. It's going to suck. But I want to do it).

I'm now on my third course, and have just hit on the first "gold nugget" moment. The course is Aaron Sorkin Teaches Screenwriting, and I'm finding that his viewpoints resonate. Of course, I've been a Sorkin fan for a while. The West Wing remains one of my favorite shows to this day, and his writing consistently impresses me.

The nugget he gave, at least to me, seems like such a simple yet powerful suggestion - he tells the story, in illustrating how an actor should be given room to expand a character, of how Richard Schiff, in playing Toby, wore a wedding ring from the beginning of the pilot. Sorkin said to Schiff that he hadn't envisioned Toby as being married, and asked why Schiff chose to wear the ring. Shiff responded that he didn't know, either, but it gave Sorkin room to find out.

This suggests to me, in writing, to add items like this in my scripts, to allow them to be explored later. Or not. For a television series, there is a lot of room to do this, or let it be a non-issue. Or keep people wondering until the time is right to address it.

Like I said, perhaps this is a small thing, but it really struck me. And made the course worth the price of admission right there.

MasterClass used to cost $90/course. It's now $180/year for all you can watch. To me, that's a heck of a bargain. Not trying to sell anything here (though if you click the link, above, and sign up, I think I get an extra month - I'll buy you a drink :-)), but I'm just really digging MasterClass.

You're Already Connected

Friday, 21 September 2018

Bit.Parts I'm a Developer

When I was in high school, in the 80s, I was part of a group that hacked into corporate voicemail systems so that we young hackers could communicate. Voicemail was pretty obscure then. You could find me, around lunchtime, at the payphone on campus, picking up and leaving messages. (Note for the young, look up "payphone" if you need to).

Around the same time, and for years after that, I also dialed-in to BBSs and made many good friends and had great conversations.

This was the 80s version of "connected" from a technology standpoint.

In the 90s and early 00s, the Internet was ramping up in terms of usage and growing beyond the tech corporations and universities. Even more connectivity.

Today, though? Everyone's online. Everyone has a smart phone with always-connected applications. And in the past decade or so, there's been a significant change that everyone takes for granted today but I rarely see called out: everyone has their connectivity on them at all times and pulls it out and uses it in all but the most rare social situations.

You see people on their phone all the time when, a decade ago, they may have had a newspaper, or a book, or would have just been sitting there taking in the passing landscape. Today, everyone defaults to "jacking in" when there's nothing else to do.

This, right now, is via hand-held devices. This will also change in the next few years, as wearables find an ergonomic niche that works. Things like Google Glass showed a hint of what's to come.

Within five years, everyone will remain connected, but you won't be able to tell.

How society will adapt remains to be seen. It's something I've been thinking about. I have some ideas. Some potentially even start-up-worthy.

Tags:

Does Uber Care? No, I Don't Think So

Monday, 17 September 2018

Bit.Parts

Uber

Uber's new CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, has been all over the media trying to rehabilitate Uber's reputation by telling us that Uber cares and will make things right when they go wrong. This is great spin, but is it really true? If my experience with Uber, lately, is any indication, it's not. It's business as usual at Uber.

Have you ever contacted Uber's customer service? First, you can't do anything except send a message with the app, but even then, you are constrained in your topics and ability to do so. Often, to get someone to read your issue, you have to select an irrelevant topic.

Once making it past that hurdle, you then send your message and wait for the inevitable misunderstood response. I have honestly never sent a message to Uber in which the response was in any way relevant to my actual complaint. Once going back and forth for the better part of a day with Uber, one may get a response that is aligned to the subject, but there's no guarantee there.

In my latest interaction with Uber, I requested a ride while in San Francisco. The app told me the wait would be about 8 minutes, and I waited while watching the car make its way to me. Once it was near, it was clear that the driver was going the wrong way and would never be able to reach my location. Sure enough, as the app was telling me that the driver was arriving, the car disappeared and the app told me that the driver had to cancel. Just like that.

I had to start over, wait another ten minutes and then... same thing. Driver cancelled.

The third time was a charm, some half-hour after I'd requested my first ride.

I contacted Uber and explained the situation and the response to me was that I should be fine, I wasn't charged a cancellation fee.

Wait. What?

I explained that it was the driver who had cancelled and noted that had I cancelled, I would have been charged $5, but when a driver does it, there's no consequence.

The response I received asked me for a screen shot of the $5 charge I incurred.

After going back and forth, I finally managed to explain what happened and was then told that this is the policy and there would be no refund. Not even an apology.

So... Dara? How is this "making it right?"

Tags:

uber complaint gripe get off my lawn

Sleestaq Logo!

Thursday, 06 September 2018

Bit.Parts

The very talented Matt Zanzibar has delivered the logo for Sleestaq, LLC, my new company for all of the web development and properties I'm working on. Much more about all of this to come, along with my new goal of a daily blog entry here at Bit.Parts!