Tuesday, May 27, 2003

Thinking about avoiding Canada Toronto Again Listed as City With Spreading SARS Cases. "The World Health Organization restored Toronto today to its list of places where severe acute respiratory syndrome is spreading, after the announcement of a fresh outbreak of the disease here. The W.H.O. decision came less than two weeks after Toronto was removed from its list, and just as Canada's largest city was beginning to recover from a serious blow to its economy. However, the W.H.O. stopped short of issuing a travel advisory." [New York Times: Health] Tammy and I are schedule to take a road trip out east near the end of June and to come back through Canada and Toronto.  I'm having second thoughts again... so does that make them third thoughts? 10:53:32 PM    comment []  trackback []

Turning a no sale into feedback. "Capturing Demand: A Win-Win Situation. Yeah, we all know that Amazon does a lot of things right, but here's an especially great one that demonstrates their industry-leading dedication to the customer: They "stock" products that don't even exist. And I'm not talking about a book that's planned, but not yet released... I'm talking about a product that simply doesn't exist ("The studio is not currently producing this title on DVD"). So, rather than saying "no results found" when I search for "Microcosmos DVD" (like bn.com does), they send me to a dedicated page that allows me to sign up to be notified when the product is released (which will hopefully lead to a sale for Amazon). And, even better than that, they encourage me to sign up by letting me know that when I sign up, I'm also "voting for this release" (they'll let the studio know how many customers are waiting for this title -- hopefully encouraging the studio to bring the product to market). Amazon is the best at creating win-win situations. Got any other examples of these sorts of win-wins?"  [via Signal vs. Noise] The voting is a nice touch.  I wonder if Amazon actually sends this data on to the media / product producer? 10:26:23 PM    comment []  trackback []

Book review John Murray: A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies On a whim I picked up John Murray’s debut collection of short stories, a few short notes about tropical butterflies, a few months ago. Each of the eight stories contains a brutally honest tale dealing with relationships of loss and love, obsession with detail and vocation, and the human condition. Murray himself is a trained doctor and his attention to detail is reflected in his descriptive settings but also in his characters. Set throughout the world, his exotic settings range from India and Africa to Iowa. It is easy to be drawn into characters whose lives depend on scientific order and crave love and adventure. This is not a light read and none of the stories are sugar coated. Murray isn’t afraid to remind his reader that not all stories end happily. 8:56:09 PM    comment []  trackback []