Moshe

When Account Numbers Collide

Here's a story from a local institution that had a budget problem. One department found that they always overspent their budget but no one could ever find out why. Eventually a new person joined the staff and decided to solve the mystery, and discovered that the money was leaking out of the department because a completely different department was using it to pay for their office supplies. And how was that possible? It seems that the institution assigned budget numbers in numerical order.

How To Make Prompts Consistent

One of the most important things I do when I write an application is check for consistent prompts. What do we say to the customer? Do we say the same thing everywhere, or do we suddenly change our minds half-way through the application?Here's an example from what I'm working on today. The client supplied the following prompt:

"Press # or say "main menu" at any time during this message to go to the options menu."

Who Else is Listening to Your Customers?

Verizon did something quite remarkable with their new cellular telephones: the phones alert you "as well as anyone else nearby" when you dial the police emergency number. As you might imagine, that's not always a good thing. More precisely, Verizon is implementing a government mandate that cellular phones notify you when they connect to 911. It's a bad idea in the first place, of course, but that's the fault of the FCC. Customers are up in arms.