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Dark Patterns
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Link of the day
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I've spoken about this before, although I didn't call it Dark Patterns, I called it "Systematic and Premeditated Incompetence". When I worked for Shaw Cable, and Star Choice Television, (after they were acquired by Shaw Cable) we'd employ any number of "Dirty Techniques" to retain customers. While the company never acknowledged them as such, it was pretty clear what they were up to. At Star Choice, remote customers calling from remote areas on Cell Phones (remote cabins without land line service) were regularly waiting on hold for hours on end. This was 15 years ago, at that time no cell phone could even run an hour. And if by some miracle you, the customer, got through and suggested you wanted to disconnect, well, we weren't "empowered" to do that, we'd have to transfer you, the customer (with another hour or longer holding pattern & circus music specifically designed to encourage you to hang up or go insane) to a special "Saves Team". If you, the customer, at any point hung up or despaired you could be assured that you were still on billing, the company accepted no excuses and took no prisoners...
if you wanted, however, to upgrade or expand your package your call was immediately answered and you were transferred to a priority agent who provided you with swift and prompt service. No upgrading customer ever held for even 2 minutes on a call.
Anyways, apparently the label for this fine behavior is "Dark Patterns", and you can read more about their "tricks" on their website here:
Link: Dark Patterns
Or watch a short youtube video explaining: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxkrdLI6e6M
On the Kaslo - New Denver Pass
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Images
- Hits: 1134
Raining in the valley, but as you get higher there's snow...and more snow...
But a lovely day.
A couple of pictures:
The Town of Scarfolk
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Link of the day
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I visited this site a few years ago - it's been that long? It has. And what seemed then to be a couple of minutes in the future and a couple of steps to the left has already come to pass. The premise is less absurd than prescient.
Link: Scarfolk & Wiki on the Same
Kitsch - Salt and Pepper
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Images
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I had a friend once who wanted me to buy her all the kitschy Salt and Pepper shakers I could find. She was going to open a restaurant. The restaurant never worked out, and I stopped buying them, but since then I've always noticed them.
Thursday, a trip thrifting south through Rossland and Trail - only to discover that the Rossland and Castlegar Hospital Auxiliaries are closed on Thursday (damn!!!) - and, looking longingly through the window of the Rossland shop, there are treasures inside, I can smell them, see them, it's the best thrift shop for a hundred miles, but not today....
Anyways, in one of the ones that was open I discovered someones Salt and Pepper shaker collection. Dozens of them. In every shade of kitsch imaginable.
Collected below for your enjoyment:
Because nothing says "early divorce" like a pair of wedding themed salt-and-pepper shakers. Notice as well the football and pots-and pans themes in the lower edge of the photo.
Hobos and Roosters, Bowling pins and balls, a pair of relatively ordinary glass salt and pepper shakers.
Made in Japan, Jimmy Hendrix? WTF? I have no clue, but I wouldn't want to eat anything sprinkled with that hair. Probably more in the line of "Grandma likes figurines, let's get her this....", as in the abysmally decorative, not at all practical.
A two-part salt-and-pepper poodle, trying to sniff it's own butt...
What can you say? They suggest to me a more traditional Asian aesthetic...
And then there's this. I checked the bottoms to see if they were Hummels. They weren't. Porcelain German kids sitting - when you lift them you see the joke - on the outhouse. Charming. The bears in the back, unglazed bisque, have a bit of cool to them, they hang on the branches of the tree...
And, finally, chipmunk or other forest wildlife in hat/right front. And in the back a trio of skunks with REAL FUR tails and "amusing" sayings on the pedestal. I don't recall the sayings, they really weren't that amusing.
There were more, lots more. Count yourselves lucky.
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