I find it interesting that my most-prized and most-used application is probably the one with the fewest licensed users. It's interesting, as well, that despite the fact that I use Tinderbox every day to take notes at work and add snippets to my commonplace book (SpiderWeb), as well as post erratically to my weblog, I very rarely tap into more than a smidgeon of the extraordinary power offered up by this tool. Indeed, I feel sometimes as if I'm betraying Tinderbox and its architect by keeping the greater part of its functionality under wraps, which is why I'm so pleased to have been able to leverage some of its more powerful features in the service of a key organizational goal. It's all the more satisfying when, after first considering other tools that, at first glance, seem a more obvious choice for the task at hand, one realizes that, not only can Tinderbox handle the entirety of the task more easily than these other tools, but it also offers a specific feature that simply knocks the other contenders out of the ring.

With conventional tools, one is presented with a basic paradigm, along with a manual that catalogs most every capability of the tool, as well as various practical applications of its functionality; if a specific feature you need isn't available, you're out of luck (or at least until the next update to the app, if you're lucky). With Tinderbox, on the other hand, the manual says very little about what one might do with the tool, and after some initial frustration, one begins to grasp that the very notion of describing how to apply the tool is antithetical to the ethos that underlies its reason for being; indeed, providing a roadmap would serve only to circumscribe the landscape that can be traversed. Occasionally, the architect of Tinderbox, Eastgate's Mark Bernstein, will discover some capability that even he was unaware of, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who wonders if Tinderbox isn't evolving on its own before our very eyes without any human intervention! It's that deep (in case you're wondering, it's fairly common for Tinderboxers to wax rhapsodic about the application in moments such as this...).

So, back to the task at hand: I work for a large technology company that, like many others, is attempting to transition as much of its support structure as possible from the phone to the web. This is beneficial to the company and to customers alike, as web-based support can be both cheaper and more convenient. Since we take great pride in the quality of our support, we would prefer to pull customers to the web by providing an extraordinary web experience, as opposed to unilaterally making it more difficult for them to contact us via phone. The way we hope to do this is by making highly targeted modifications to our website and then measuring the number of people who are resolving specific issues on the web versus those who are finding resolution by speaking or chatting with a phone agent.

Tomorrow (or the next day...): Tinderbox: it's a database, it's an outliner, it's a search engine, it's a mind-mapper, it's a desert topping! Ok, ok, it's not a desert topping...

Christmas comes early to Texas! And no, I don't mean the temperature (which hit 106 today)...

Boy, it seems like a lot of my posts are simply referrals to Digby; he, Billmon, and Mark Bernstein are, to me, a sort of triumvirate of wise alchemists who can be counted on to distill the essence of a situation from an amalgam of ideas, currents, and events.

In this case, Digby warns us to look upon some of the sensationalist narratives coming out of New Orleans with a jaundiced eye. I think the time is ripe for a nationwide viewing of To Kill a Mockingbird.

When I was little kid, I had a somewhat offbeat sense of humor that didn't always translate into something my other little friends readily understood, and in trying to explain to them why I thought some silly thing I had said was actually funny, I would use a term I made up (or at least thought I had made up): "dumbfunny" ("c'mon, Jeff! Don't you get it? It's dumbfunny!").

Today, I'd probably use the term "droll" or possibly even "absurd." In any event, I thought I'd link to a blog that epitomizes "dumbfunny" to me: Playaz Ball. It's really just so stupid that it's funny. Who knows how long the author can continue to mine this lode? All I know is that I'll laugh every time, despite myself; heck, I'll even add it to the blogroll...

In reading the linked article (How Costco Became the Anti-Wal-Mart), I'm beset with two strong emotions:

1. Gratitude that someone in the business world is making money while treating employees with the respect that all humans deserve.

2. Horror at the remarks of the Wall Street analysts quoted in the article. How have our collective values gotten twisted to this degree? How can these analysts go home and resist the urge to blow their brains out?

Update: my bad-- neglected to cite my own source (Daily Kos) for this story...

If you aren't much for politics and you haven't really been following the whole Valerie Plame/Wilson thing, here's a pretty good place to start: Eight Days in July. Although he doesn't provide a comprehensive litany of the myriad abuses perpetrated by the Bushies, the incomparable Frank Rich makes it quite plain why even the most politically apathetic among us need to care about how this all pans out.

Per Billmon, who links to this article in The Sunday Times of London, the Bush administration has been negotiating with the Iraqi insurgents. This is especially ironic, given Karl Rove's recent remarks condemning so-called "liberals" for wanting to coddle the enemy. It'll be interesting to see if our own media have the spine to follow up on this new info...

Digby-- read it and weep...

"In the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility ... it would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation."

In contrast to Doug Miller, who eagerly awaits delivery of Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger), I actually have the software, but can't install due to SPSS' legendary recalcitrance with respect to support of the Mac platform. SPSS "hopes to see" a Tiger compatibility update in the future, but gives no indication as to when or if that will actually happen. I've tested it on a different system, and it won't even launch; since I require SPSS in my daily work, it means that I'll simply have to sit by while all of the "cool kids" get to enjoy Spotlight, Automator, and Dashboard without me.

Not fair!!

;-)