Oliver Siodmak's Rants & Raves

Over the years I have been involved in the design and development of a lot of different web sites. Part of that design process includes developing error pages to handle errors that either the user or system has produced. While these pages normally follow the branding (see the Maghound.com example below) they rarely exhibit rolling in the isle humor. Smashing Magazine has a great article highlighting some of the more unique and stylish 404 Error pages on the internet.

I missed this back in May 2008 when it was first posted .. but damn if this isn’t the most funny, twisted and disturbed use of a childhood cartoon I’ve ever seen!

The Obama team continues to demonstrate that they recognize the value of the communication and that the internet can be a really powerful channel to help facilitate communication.

Their new website Change.gov publishes news releases, information about the President-elect, Vice President-elect and information about the various individuals Barack Obama has chosen to work with him in the White House. It is also a great place for you to post your ideas to help our country get back on track.

You can also apply for a job in the Obama-Biden administration!

There is nothing more cool that seeing a project you have been working on for over a year finally launch onto the internet for all the world to see. Today Time, Inc. officially launched Maghound, a new magazine membership program.

Unlike traditional subscription services, Maghound allows you to select what magazines you receive each month. You can select from over 227 magazines from all the major publishers with more magazines being made available for selection each month.

I have been beta testing the service since June and it is very refreshing to have the flexibility to change the print magazines I receive from month to month. What’s better is that you can cancel at anytime. Try doing that with a subscription. I highly recommend you check out the service.

Between working all week on site at a client and preparing for Jake’s 5th birthday party, I never had a chance to post the chat transcript of a little trick I pulled on a colleague over instant messaging on April 1st! The team I am working with on my current project and I are sitting in one small room. We had just come back from lunch where we had been discussing the “gullibility” of people we know. When we got back to our computers, I decided to put this theory to the test.

The great thing about IM is that you can continue maintaining a straight face much, much longer than you could if you were attempting to pull this off face to face. If I didn’t have to get back to work I could have probably kept this conversation going for another 20 minutes.

I have changed the names to protect the innocent (and the gullible):

Colleague: Hi there
Me: Hi
Me: Did you know that Sandeep has an illegitimate child with a girl he met in Canada?
Colleague: NO, get out!
Me: Yeah. It slipped out at lunch
Colleague: I just read People at the dr. office and it was about teenage pregnancy 700K
Me: Wow .. That’s high
Colleague: what meeting do you have this afternoon
Colleague: trying to keep track of all interviews we have
Me: At first he didn’t really want to talk about it. It appears she trapped him or something like that
Me: Then she found out he wasn’t a US citizen
Colleague: does he keep in contact with the child?
Colleague: was she Indian?
Me: Canadian French
Me: I think he does. He said its hard because of the distance
Colleague: that’s why you gotta keep protected
Me: Plus, she can’t immigrate to the US because he doesn’t have citizenship
Colleague: are they still dating?
Me: Not sure. I think they only have the kid in common.
Me: The girls name is Avril. Means April in french [Can you tell that I went to an Avril Lavigne concert the week before?]
Colleague: how old is she?
Colleague: I’m sure his parents were not to pleased
Me: 12 YO
Colleague: What?
Me: Not sure if he’s told them
Me: He went to school in Canada before he came to the US
Colleague: isn’t he 25
Colleague: that means he had her at 13
Me: No. He’s older
Colleague: 28
Me: I think that’s why he had to come to the US. His parents disowned him. He’s parents are pretty religious
Me: I think they had an arranged marriage for him. But the girls family called it off.
Colleague: wow
Colleague: you are like the Enquirer
Me: Just goes to show .. you never really know somebody
Colleague: does he give $$ to support
Colleague: so the mother was really young when she had Avril
Me: He went to High School in Canada. They meet at school.
Me: I think they both were very young
Me: I’m sure he helps out
Colleague: I’m getting [my daughter] a chastity belt
Me: Good idea

This exchange has really made me reevaluate how much I can really “trust” a conversation I am having with someone over the internet (via email or IM). Especially when I can’t fully gauge the intent of the message they are sending. My point is this. When I speak with someone face to face, I use body language to judge the validity of what they are telling me. Without that sensory input, I become much more vulnerable and have to “trust” that the information they are communicating to me is the truth. Internet communication relies on a much higher level of trust than I realized before this little experiment.

Of course .. now that people know I like to play pranks over the net .. my trust-worthness has just dropped several points!