I’m not sure how many times I’ve looked at this page without seeing this typo:
I assume that:
“Create a signature that automatically added to your emails”
is suppose to read:
“Create a signature that is automatically added to your emails”
I always find it surprising to find typos on a major site like Yahoo.
Yet another example of bad web programming. I was researching the subject of cancer and followed a link on a government site that gets me to this page:
I think its fine to print debugging information to the screen when a website is under development, but on a live site, I think the error messages should try to be more helpful. Perhaps the error message can suggest the average speed it takes the site’s sysadmins to fix problems of this time. Or the error message can suggest that the visitor go get the page out of the Google cache. Even the cutesy error message that Stikipad used was more reassuring than this.
Shelley Powers once wrote that she wouldn’t use an online service unless she was sure of the exit route:
I won’t use a hosted web service like Typepad or weblogs.com. It’s too easy for them to decide that you’re ‘violating’ terms of service, and next thing you know, all your weblog entries are gone. I saw this with wordpress.com in the recent events that caused so much discussion: in fact, I would strongly recommend against using wordpress.com because of this–the service is too easily influenced by public opinion.
I don’t use either my Yahoo or Gmail mail accounts. Regardless of whether I can get a copy of my email locally, if I decide to not use either account I have no way of ‘redirecting’ email addresses from either of these to the email address I want to use. (Or if there is a way, I’m not aware of it.) Getting a copy of my data is not an exit strategy–it’s an export strategy. An exit strategy is one where you can blow off the service and not suffer long-term consequences. A ‘bad’ email address is definitely a long-term consequence*.
A few months ago we started using Stikipad to get ourselves organized. We started using the site under conditions that were close to an emergency - we had a web site that was past its deadline, and we were trying to regain control over a situation that had become chaotic. We began to post bug reports and notes to ourselves. Stikipad was useful to us as an easy-to-use online notepad, which we could use informally. It helped that it also had certain wiki features - it kept track of who made each edit, and it allowed us to revert changes when we made mistakes in editing.
Since then, we’ve started listing all the hours that we work on there. This data is vital for when we send out invoices to our clients. Also, all of the long, complicated to-do lists, for each project we’ve been working on, are all on there. We did not realize how important the site had become to us - we’d set up a quick, free account as a simple way to organize one project, but our use of Stikipad has grown so that lately it has been central to the way we schedule our time.
For the last three days, when we go to the site, the only thing we get is this error page:
The whole entire site has been down. You could not start a new account, nor reach any of the pages on our account, nor even reach the “Support” page. We all kept trying, at different times during Friday, Saturday and Sunday. There was no way into the site.
The site just came back to life tonight. But we are planning on giving it up. We feel we can’t trust it anymore. There has been no word on the Stikipad blog about what just happened. Their silence does not inspire confidence in us.
Stikipad does have an export option, which we could use religiously to keep our data safe. I blame myself for not already automating a daily download of this data. I’m fixing this particular oversight tonight. All the same, Stikipad can’t value our most vital data to the same extent we can, so it is perhaps best if we keep that data on our own server, and make the multiple backups of that data which we feel is needed.
I’ve already written about my troubles with Sprint. So I was, of course, interested to read this article about big job cuts at Sprint:
Sprint, the No. 3 wireless carrier behind AT&T (T) and Verizon Wireless (VZ), has struggled since it merged with Nextel in 2005. The $70 billion merger, engineered by Hesse’s predecessor, Gary Forsee, was supposed to create a wireless behemoth that could steamroll the competition while pushing boundaries in wireless.
Instead, Sprint stumbled as it tried to blend starkly different cultures of the two companies while trying to reconcile their incompatible wireless technologies.
Sprint wound up alienating customers, who bolted by the thousands. Sprint’s dismal performance eventually cost Forsee his job. Hesse, a former AT&T executive with long ties to wireless, was recruited from a Sprint spinoff, Embarq, to replace him.
Dawson says it’s not too late to save Sprint, a grand name in global telecommunications. “But they need to make some big changes and do it quickly.
“The challenge for them is to figure out how to save the Nextel customers,” and move them to Sprint’s network “rather than let them walk out the door,” Dawson says.
Actually, they should worrry about losing their Sprint customers. I’m a Sprint customer, and I’m frustrated that their automated bill paying service keeps telling me “You do not have an account with Sprint.”
 Yes, that is a broken image link on the Microsoft website (I hit refresh a few times and it was still there). Ironically, the page is talking about a new technique for debugging.
Part of what is becoming a continuing series on the subject of broken web pages.
Well, maybe “broken” is too strong a word. The CSS failed to load. Which happens sometimes. Which is part of why semantic markup is important. How much does the user experience survive the lack of style sheets? This from the front page of Old Navy:
Just curious, but does anyone know some common reasons why the CSS files might fail to load?
Also curious about the marketing. The front page of the site is aimed entirely at women. Do women buy clothes online more than men?