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michael_scheibe's comments

michael_scheibe | 15 years ago | on: Gmail’s Permanent Failure: Only Humans Can Build Software For Humans

Your statements are valid, but I'm not that concerned with the character of the OP or the exact details of his situation.

The point I'm trying to make is that Google could have done a lot more to prevent situations like this with very little extra cost to them. Sure, technically Google doesn't owe this guy anything, but I think there is a lack of empathy on Google's part here and it's one of the reasons they are struggling with social.

michael_scheibe | 15 years ago | on: Gmail’s Permanent Failure: Only Humans Can Build Software For Humans

I can't understand the overwhelmingly negative response to the OP here and on TC. From a purely logical point of view sure, he should have opted for auto-renew or at the least noticed the expiration mail. However, that's precisely the argument in the article, Google is logical and lacks a human point of view.

Consider:

1) Google only sent one renewal notification email for what is obviously a critical service.

2) Some people distrust auto-renewing subscriptions (like me). I've used services that didn't realize my credit card was going to expire and gave me no warning before they cut me off. I'd rather receive a clear and concise notice email.

Human things Google could have done:

1) Sent a 1 month, 1 week and 24 hour notice.

2) Put a renewal notification in the Gmail UI. There is a system for this already to occasionally confirm your alternate email address etc.

3) Give a 7 day grace period after your subscription expires.

4) Respond with a transient full inbox failure, instead of a permanent failure which cause all sorts of havoc.

5) Put an explanation next to auto-renew option saying they will send you a email notices if your credit card might expire.

The OP in this case is somewhat technical and should have known better, but if this had happened to my mom, my grandparents or my girlfriend then I would say the blame falls squarely with Google for lack of UX due diligence.

michael_scheibe | 15 years ago | on: Ask HN: tips for working with Mac OS X without using the mouse? (RSI)

This shortcut is genius. In TextMate for example, you can type the first few letters of a project and open it near instantly if it's still in your recently opened list. It's one of my biggest productivity differentiators in OS X. You should all try it.

I think it's enabled by default on Snow Leopard (not on Leopard). You'll find it under Setting > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Application Shortcuts > Show Help menu.

michael_scheibe | 15 years ago | on: Things I've Learned from Traveling Around the World for Three Years

Yes, the proportion of US residents traveling overseas is probably lower than other developed nations. UK residents for example made 47 million[1] air trips in 2009 vs. 39 million[2] for US citizens. However the argument that fear is the primary cause is misguided. Consider:

1. If you live in the UK and you want sunny weather or a ski trip, you'll need to go elsewhere in Europe. If you live in the US, you can probably get away with a local flight.

2. It's easier to justify and amortize the time to travel to a far-off destination for Europeans who have double the number of vacation days. South Africa is a 22-30 hour trip from the US, the number of US tourists is on the low end[3]#, while US tourists to Brazil are 2nd only to tourists from neighboring Argentina[4].

[1] http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_transport/trave... p. 90

[2] http://www.tinet.ita.doc.gov/view/m-2009-O-001/index.html

[3] http://www.southafrica.net/sat/action/media/downloadFile?med...

[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism_in_Brazil

# Anecdotally, I notice more North American tourists in Cape Town than other nationalities, although this may have more to do with the volume of the average American voice.

michael_scheibe | 15 years ago | on: Nature thinks we could safely wipe mosquitoes off the face of the earth.

I also used to assume that getting rid of a disease like malaria would cause populations to sky rocket in developing nations.

Fortunately, this line of thinking is wrong. There is a great TED talk by Hans Rosling on global population growth that shows increased child survival rates result in smaller families and more prosperous nations.

See http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_on_global_population_g...

michael_scheibe | 16 years ago | on: Ask HN: Who is Hiring?

Eventbrite - San Francisco (conveniently a block from the Caltrain station).

We are Sequoia backed and have grown substantially over the past year. Our US Alexa ranking is around 500 now: http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/eventbrite.com

We have openings for back-end, front-end, Android, analytics, DBA, user experience, design and more. Culture fit is really important and we are looking for people who can help us grow and delight our users.

On the backend we work primarily with Python and Django.

See http://www.eventbrite.com/ and http://www.eventbrite.com/jobs

michael_scheibe | 16 years ago | on: ASKHN: Django OR Rails

I've worked with Rails and Django and they are both excellent choices.

As others have said, try some tutorials for each to get a feel.

Django Tutorial: http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.2/

Rails Guides: http://guides.rails.info/getting_started.html

The soon to be released Rails 3 looks excellent, so I would personally use that over Django 1.2.

Also, the Rails community is a bit more organized as everyone uses GitHub, so there are some fantastic and well maintained gems that can help you speed through your development.

Rails Resources:

http://ruby5.envylabs.com/ - Great podcast discussing recent developments in the Ruby/Rails community.

http://ruby-toolbox.com/ - Overview of gems by category. Great to figure out what people are using for pagination or search or whatever.

http://railscasts.com/ - Screencasts covering new gems and Rails features.

http://railsconf.blip.tv - Videos from the latest RailsConf, if you want to get a feel for the community.

Django Resources:

http://djangodose.com/ - Good Django podcasts. There is one for the community stuff, and one for the newest features of Django trunk.

http://djangocon.blip.tv/ - DjangoCon, check it out for the same reasons as RailsConf.

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