Random Syntax

A pleasant experience of proactive customer support for Safari Books via twitter

Aneesha — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 08:31:34 +0000

I sometimes express angst via my @aneesha twitter account, never thinking that anybody takes notice of what I choose to complain about. I was surprised to realize that the @safaribooks does indeed listen. The story begins with me being given access to a book I really wanted to read via Safari Books Online. In all honestly, I could not get comfortable with reading the book via the web-interface that Safari Books provides. It was hard to scroll between pages, the font rendering was blurry, and I needed to be online while I read the book. This all gave me a headache which prompted me to tweet - “Safari books - your web-based e-book reader with crappy font rendering has given me a headache.” Not my best articulation of a problem but I have an excuse - I had a headache. I really did not think this feedback would go any further but the next day @safaribooks replied with “@aneesha A headache is no good at all. I will share your feedback with our product management team.”. Now that’s pretty impressive and proactive customer support. …which gets even better when I then receive an email from customer support wanting further details of my issues. So thank you Safari Books for actively seeking to improve your product and monitoring sentiment via twitter feeds even though I wonder how you got my email address.

When will Lady Gaga have her "Like A Prayer" moment?

Aneesha — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 11:02:52 +0000

Madonna blond or Madonna brunette? Madonna started her career as a blond and though her style changed between the "Like A Virgin" to "True Blue" albums, it was not until "Like A Prayer" that we really got the power brunette look. I sense a "Like A Prayer" moment coming for Lady Gaga soon….. Just a matter of time….

The start of something big……

Aneesha — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 00:07:39 +0000

It is quite inspiring to view the early paper based sketches of popular web apps such as Flickr, Twitter and Vimeo. Everything has to start somewhere….

If the Teacher is a DJ then Just Dance

Aneesha — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 12:11:01 +0000

I like the "rip-mix-burn" Teacher as a DJ metaphor proposed by "Iterating Towards Openness". I promise to refrain from changing the lyrics of Just Dance to match this concept, but I will tell you that, "I’ve had a little bit too much…", is actually "… a little bit too much of boring lectures". So remember to Strike A Pose!

Follow me on Twitter

Aneesha — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 10:43:15 +0000

More and more I am posting little snippets to Twitter. Follow me: My username is aneesha

I am also thinking about using Twitter as a storytelling platform. Look out for a micro story called Escape. Its coming, I promise.

Export Wiki Content to an IMS Content Package

Aneesha — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 12:06:24 +0000

WikiEducator can export a collection of Wiki pages to an IMS content package, which can then be imported into Blackboard (or any other LMS). This is a great feature! Learning content can be authored collaboratively and versioned prior to be loaded into an LMS. Ah but should the LMS not support this by default? Wondering whether this is a feature Confluence could also support?

It took the US 22 Weeks to Just Dance!!!

Aneesha — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 08:21:41 +0000

Yay! Just Dance by Lady Gaga is finally No 1 in the US. Great song, but I’d thought the US would not notice a pop song, and as the song had not charted initially I had all but given up. ……but slowly and surely Just Dance climbed to No 1 over a 22 week period, totally powered the by reflections from all the disco balls in the video. I can’t be happier for Lady Gaga to crack both the US and UK markets. Just Dance is tipped to be No 1 in the UK this week. The US and UK are behind - Australia having already embraced "The Fame" for most of 2008.

… And Lady Gaga celebrated the No 1 single by singing with a live band on the Tonight show (Jay Leno) with an electronic glove thingy and skin colored pantyhose. Oh wait, was that origami she was wearing????

The END for Dr Dobb’s Journal as we know it!

Aneesha — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 11:20:04 +0000

I got a chance over the Xmas break to pack and throw out a lot of outdated computing magazines. Deciding which magazine to keep and which to throw out, was easy. I kept anything of algorithmic importance. Essentially this means that I kept just about every copy of Dr Dobb’s Journal that I had ever purchased. I was quite sad, to read today that Dr Dobb’s Journal is no longer a publication of its own - it will now be a section in InformationWeek.

If I ever need to convert content for import into Blackboard again?????

Aneesha — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 11:08:08 +0000

…… I am going to build the converter with a genetic algorithm, sit back and watch it evolve! This idea is inspired by Genetic Algorithm in Python to Generate File Converters.

Are you becoming a Zombie because you are Micromanaged?

Aneesha — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 11:01:40 +0000

Interesting and accurate post’s from both Coding Horror and Kathy Sierra on Micromanagement. It is true that micromanagement creates staff that are neither able to creatively problem solve. The other end of the spectrum is intelligent staff slowly being drained of brain cells due to continuous micromanagement. My advise to anybody being micromanaged to to move on as quickly as possible!