DesignWell

While setting up DSL through SBC, I read the fine print (like the $90 termination fee and asked about free packages that the operator had no idea about). They waived the installation cost of $47 also–just for me complaining about it, so that’s $17/month for DSL. You can’t beat that. I also accidently called the swicher a router and the sales lady became confused.

I am looking into a checking account at the First Internet Bank of Indiana. Yes, they have no storefront, it is only on the Internet, but they have nice rates. They have four times (1.25% and 2%, respectively) what my current rates are on my checking and savings accounts at my current bank. My brother-in-law has been a client of theirs for many years now.

Which leads me to my final thought, why are bank employees so happy? Yes, it’s their job to be hospitable, but they seem to be a little happier than other customer service people at other businesses.

–Stephen M. James
www.smjdesign.com

In an effort to deter music piracy, Sony has asked users to install programs that cannot be uninstalled without serious technical knowledge. A matter of fact, there are only a few ways to detect the rootkit program. Users are asked to install a media player for one of the thousands of “content-protected” CDs. This media player then installs what I would classify as spyware. Erasing the program’s files will disable one’s CD-ROM drive (yes, I hear that it will just disapear!).

Read more info on this at the Washington Post or listen to this podcast from GRC.

–Stephen M. James
www.smjdesign.com

Every so often it’s good to review the basics. The magazine, Before & After, is great at pointing out the obvious–not that it’s useless. Far from it, here are a few simple PDFs to get a sense of their bi-monthly issues.

What’s the right type face?
Design a logo of letters
How to design small calendars
How to Find the Perfect Color
Design a Mini-Book

–Stephen M. James
www.smjdesign.com

Anyone that has a wireless network needs to listen to this podcast or read this transcript. It’s from the people that brought us the port sniffer, Shields Up. It discusses the weaknesses of first generation encryption (WEP), MAC address filtering, and not broadcasting your network’s SSID. The conclusion? It’s all pretty useless to the average hacker with a sniffer program.

If you are an open (non-encrypted) hotspot like a Starbucks, then you should only browse as if someone was looking over your shoulder the whole time. Never buy something while at an open hotspot. The lock (SSL) in the address bar won’t mean much over insecure wireless. Also, if you share your wireless network with everyone (oh, you are so nice!) and a user (a complete stranger) uses it to break the law, you might be accountable.

If you do need security at a hotspot, subscribe to something like a VPN from HotSptVPN ($10-$15) or Anonymizer ($30) for less than a dollar a day.

–Stephen M. James
www.smjdesign.com

I have yet to read any of them, but I found some free more literature on branding. The company Interbrand has some posts on the topic. They sound manifesto-like.

–Stephen M. James
www.smjdesign.com

–Stephen M. James
www.smjdesign.com

I just read this great article at I, Cringley that hypothesized the collateral problems that come with the network being the computer.

Excerpts:

“My point here is that we’re entering another period of Internet exuberance. Yes, a lot has changed since 1999, but it’s amazing how many of the ideas being pushed are the SAME ideas, just empowered now by dark fiber, cheap broadband, and six years of Moore’s Law. And this time I think it will actually work and the Internet will change even more than it has the ways we live and work. But it isn’t going to come easy and it isn’t going to come cheap.”

“NOW we know why Google bought those 30 acres on the Columbia River in Oregon right next to a generating station from the Bonneville Power Administration.”

–Stephen M. James
www.smjdesign.com

Does your company need a Design Audit?

–Stephen M. James
www.smjdesign.com

Scouring blogs for “your brand” is like watching people giving feedback without them knowing. Explicitly sent email or reply cards are much more like focus groups. The people want you to know directly and who it was from.

Technorati is a blog search engine with a few more benefits. It can keep track of certain words for you, for instance your name or your company, by adding these to your watchlist. When someone mentions a well-known person on his or her blog, that person can find out what he or she had to say about the famous person (or organization).

–Stephen M. James
www.smjdesign.com

Brand Gap, The: How to Bridge the Distance Between Business Strategy and Design
by Marty Neumeier (AIGA Press)

I recommend this book. I wouldn’t buy it though due to how short it is, especially with the PDF that you can get that covers the major themes. It’s more like caffeine than vitamins.

The fact that the first page spread is of the Nike Swoosh with the caption ?¢‚Ǩ?ìThis is not a brand?¢‚Ǩ¬ù in Latin, should illuminate what type of book this is. It?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s more bullets than in-depth reading, but the author explicitly states that this book was purposely written as an hour or less read.

Neumeier defines a brand as “A brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service, or company.” Thus a brand is not something that a company can actually create. It can influence it, but it can?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t hand it to the consumer on a platter intact. He states that customers don?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t want a logical, rational feature-based sales pitch and that they want a brand that they trust. He discusses the ills of focus groups and the pros of quick prototyping. This leans into the area of thin slicing that Malcolm Gladwell discusses in Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. After all that this what this whole book is thin-slicing.

Minor discretions
Neumeier says that ?¢‚Ǩ?ìMost people like clicking–they just hate waiting.?¢‚Ǩ¬ù I would say that people don?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t mind clicking if they believe that you are giving them what they want. Nobody wants to get off the interstate at the wrong exit and have to try to get back on the main road.

The author states that Amazon (page 140) lost 31% of its brand value in try to extend its online book niche into an online ?¢‚Ǩ?ìbookmusiccameracomputerappliancebabyfurnituretoy?¢‚Ǩ¬ù niche. Maybe it?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s because the book was written in 2003, but I haven?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t thought of Amazon as a book-only company for many years. I see it as an everything-store–like Walmart.com, Ebay.com, Half.com, or Overstock.com. This means that he is right in stating the brand is rather meaningless in connection with the product. What?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s the brand value of all those companies? These brands easily come to my mind when I consider buying something on the Internet. Amazon has become a storefront for small businesses everywhere to do business under their umbrella. I bought some really great shirts the other day from some guy in Pennsylvania–of course these are commodities, but I personally feel safer buying through Amazon.com than from a random website. I am also a left-brain shopper who reads the fine print on the generic and name brand medications to see which one has 5% and which one has 9% of the active ingredient.

The included recommended readings at the ending are an excellent addition. From the PDF at NewRiders.com, it appears that Neumeier has got onto the Godin’s IdeaVirus theme.

You can download the The Brand Gap PDF from my site, smjdesign.

–Stephen M. James
www.smjdesign.com