Explaining the "Other" Thing

Sometimes people go into way too much detail about why they can't make something.  This would work fine:

 

"Sorry, I won't be able to make lunch.  I have an important meeting that came up last minute."

 

Being nice, you might add:

 

"Sorry, I won't be able to make lunch.  I have an important meeting that came up last minute.  I really wanted to make it – I'd skip this meeting if I didn't have to make it.  I'll make it up to you…"

 

Something along those lines – letting the other person know that lunch was important to you and that you aren't just snubbing them – seems well called for.  But sometimes you get:

 

"Sorry, I won't be able to make lunch.  I have an important meeting that came up last minute.  I really wanted to make it – I'd skip this meeting if I didn't have to make it.  We're weren't supposed to have it – the whole deal was off the table but then Jim got a call from the guys over at More Important Than Lunch, Inc. and they suddenly want to discuss it again.  So Jim calls me and is like, 'Chris, we're talking to them in 15 minutes.' And Jim's really concerned because More Important Than Lunch could like bring in so much revenue and . . ."

 

And what was an apologetic explanation turns into a detailed description of just how important/interesting the "Other" thing is.  It's another way the fact that people like talking about themselves trickles into typical situations.  We've probably all done it.

Nineth

It should be spelled "Nineth" not Ninth...well...maybe people would then say "Nine - eth"

A *little* legal stuff?

I think we're going a little overboard here with "Loopt".  I remember Phil and I actually did a project along these lines for an Info Sci class - we called it "Linkables" (had a bit more to do with social networking).  Obviously we didn't actually create it - we just put together the idea for it and designed a possible interface (it was a design-oriented class).  And I think we even thought more about privacy issues that Loopt:

I ACCEPT; A little legal stuff before you finish! Loopt shows your phone's current geo-location to Loopt friends (even when the Loopt app is not open). Click ACCEPT to consent to: (a) the use, display, & disclosure of your phone's location to provide Loopt to you & your Loopt friends, geo-tag your messages & content, and otherwise as in Loopt's Privacy Notice; (b) receive text messages; (c) pay carrier data, messaging, & other charges or fees from Loopt usage; and (d) Loopt's TERMS OF USE & PRIVACY NOTICE, which is a binding contract between you and Loopt.

Yeah, you know, just a little legal notice that all your "friends" will know exactly where your phone is even when you're not running our application.  Ridiculous.  Combine this with using Twitter and you life is literally public.

Cleverest Headline of the Day

The "iPocalypse"

WordPerfect is far from Perfect

Maybe I'm just used to Word, but each little difference is really annoying me.  All the Word shortcuts seem to make more sense - basic things I want to do are not possible or I have to switch them.  Bullets/Numbering is stupid, footnote shortcut key needed to be inserted (which required far too many menu clicks to do), the track changes thing is way worse than Word, control+delete and control+backspace are not as intuitive, Word Perfect has already crashed on me a few times (maybe just my computer - but everything has run fast and fine), etc.  Even the fact that the default cursor is ready to place a tabbed space wherever I click is stupid.

Oh, and it won't open separate documents in the taskbar like with Word (they're separate documents within the program).  So, unlike with Word where I can alt-tab my way through open documents, I have to point and click at the bottom of the program.  There's probably a way to switch but a) it should not be that by default and b) if I can't figure it out in a minute or so then it's stupid.

This is like the only-pro Microsoft thing I'll write - Word is far better than WordPerfect.  I'm sure there are plenty of pros about WP that I don't know about, but for basic document stuff that I and everyone else at the office is doing, why don't we just use Word?  Not to mention everyone else in the entire universe does - even if WP was slightly better than Word, that compatability issue alone should justify using Word.

Ironic

Google News headlines right next to each other:

Zambian President Mwanawasa Is Alive, Government Says (Update1) Bloomberg
Zambian president Mwanawasa dies in Paris hospital Times Online