by Sue Horner | Mar 21, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
There surely is proper etiquette for visiting the dying, and I recently had an occasion to try to figure it out. My elderly neighbour, a widowed Scot in his eighties, knew he was dying of cancer and had just been moved to Ian Anderson House. This is a warm, homey...
by Sue Horner | Mar 17, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Did you know that there is another “holiday season” approaching? I know this because a weekend flyer from a local grocery store mentions it several times. It was a little puzzling, at first, because it’s March. The only “holiday season”...
by Sue Horner | Mar 12, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Jakob Nielsen’s latest post on usability pointed to an interesting article on cellphone “function fatigue.” The USA Today article reports: “Manufacturers have become so enamored of cool features — including cameras, recording devices and...
by Sue Horner | Mar 7, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Here’s another tale from the customer service (or should I say, disservice) files, this one from my internet service provider. I was away for five days, and I mean AWAY — no laptop, tablet, not even a cell phone. My voice mail message was clear that I was out of...
by Sue Horner | Feb 27, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
E-newsletters and blogs have a lot in common, as Nick Usborne describes (in an e-newsletter about writing; subscribe here): 1. Good newsletters and blogs seek to engage your attention at a personal level. 2. Good newsletters and blogs both deliver timely information....
by Sue Horner | Feb 24, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
If you want to read a refreshing perspective on customer service, read “Seven steps to remarkable customer service” by Joel Spolsky, a software developer in New York City. Reading what his company does about customer service made me want to buy the software, and I...
by Sue Horner | Feb 23, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Ragan Communications’ free monthly newsletter, Grapevine (“Tips and tactics from the world of corporate communications”), shares a beef of mine this issue. Among the tips in a story called “What do you want from a Web site?” is avoiding my pet peeve: downloadable...
by Sue Horner | Feb 18, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
My 20-year-old son is home from university for reading week, and I notice that every time he takes the car out, he changes the radio to CD mode. He says it’s because he has no patience for radio. Two reasons: The stations don’t often play what he wants to...
by Sue Horner | Feb 12, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Now here’s a word you don’t run across very often: bedeguar. I had to search many places to find out it means “a gall produced on rosebushes,” gall being a type of fungus. Looking at that definition, you might be surprised to find out the word was not used in a...
by Sue Horner | Feb 8, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Just had to share another book that recently showed up at my local library (I was 29th on the “hold” list!): Nora Ephron’s I Feel Bad About My Neck and Other Thoughts on Being a Woman. I had read an excerpt in a magazine and found it hugely funny,...
