How not to disable an account
So over Thanksgiving vacation we had some weird transactions on our debit card and our bank advised us to "hot card" our account and get new card numbers assigned. Because we did this almost at the same time that our cards were expiring we threw their card provisioning system into a corner case and it took multiple mailings, multiple bank visits and about a month to finally get new cards.
Because we had new cards all our auto billing info needed to be updated. I did that once we finally got the cards but during that month of debit cardlessness our cable bill was due and I paid it with our one real credit card we keep for when we do online transactions with sites we don't implicitly trust. All our other bills still send us paper versions even though we auto pay (dumb) so we just paid those in the interim with old fashioned checks.
Fast forward two months. I'm up at 5:30am working on my own projects and all the sudden all my connections drop and when I go to load a webpage I get redirected to a Comcast page saying I need to install their client software. I've been a customer in the same location for seven years and I run my cable connection through a couple of routers before it gets to any client machines. I don't need client software.
I go and reboot the entire network chain starting with a hard reset of my cable modem. No luck. Still getting the client install page. Luckily one of my neighbors has an unsecured wifi connection and I'm able to google the page name that Comcast is providing and I see various forum entries attributing it to malware or TOS violations or billing problems. Hmmm. Billing problems. I go check the physical mail that Comcast sent me earlier in this week. Its a nice white envelope that they always send, usually filled with ads about upgrading. I open it. Nice big red letters on the letter inside with an account disconnection notice. Oops.
Five minutes later after a call on my cell phone (we have voip at home so that went out with the cable) and a reboot of my network chain I'm back online.
So I know I'm 95% in the wrong here. I should have paid attention and seen that Comcast was not auto debiting us. But here is the 5% that Comcast could have done:
- Put in big red letters "IMPORTANT ACCOUNT NOTICE" on the outside of the plain while envelope. After getting ads for seven years I don't even bother opening mail from Comcast anymore.
- Once my account was way overdue grab say every 100 non-referrer http requests and insert an interstitial page notifying me that my account was overdue. Maybe they can't do that and maintain common carrier status?
- When they finally cut the service, change the Comcast page from "install client software" or "Your account was disconnected, don't worry you can have it back in 2 minutes if you call this number" OR even better - allow me to login to comcast.com and let me pay it there.
Is that too unreasonable?
Zero Friction Account Setup
I'm working on a new web service and I'm trying to allow the user to get deep into using the service without giving any personally identifying info. I've been advocating other people do this so I need to walk the talk.
I like how StackOverflow animates top of page divs to give status change updates to your account. I'm going to combine that with a cookie based automatic user account generation to allow people to instantly start using the service but keep asking the user to add their personal info.
We'll see if actual users like it.
Using DailyMile.com
A few months ago I saw an auto generated post from a friend on Facebook announcing his latest run. One click later and I was on dailymile.com, a social network site with tools to enable you to add running routes and post runs.
I'm not a great runner but I do run. I may in fact be the slowest runner posting on dailymile. I used the site for a while but then over the 2009 holidays I got out of the habit of running. A couple of months pass. I keep seeing posts from people on dailymile. I start feeling guilty. I'm now back to running and I just posted my last (slow) run on dailymile.
I guess focused social media sites can implant guilt pods.
New personal schedule
So I've been on a new personal schedule for the last couple of days. I've just moved my office back to its own room in the last couple of days so I can start getting up earlier without waking my wife. Turns out she is waking up with me too anyway 
Here is my new schedule:
4:30 - 5:00 Wake up, get dressed and go for 20 minute run
5:00 - 7:00 Work on my personal projects
7:00 - 8:30 Family time. Make breakfast, help get kids ready for the day, sometimes take them to school
8:30 - 9:00 Shower and get ready for work
9:00 - 5:00 Work
5:00 - 8:00 Family time. Dinner and go for walk with the kids.
8:00 - 9:00 Husband time.
9:00 - 9:15 Do todo list for the next day to get stuff out of my head
9:15 - 9:30 Beddy-by
Its only in the last couple of years that I've figured out that I'm a morning person. I think that getting older (I'm 38) I just don't need as much sleep. My dad always got up at 5am and when I was a kid I thought he was crazy. Maybe I'm just crazy now.
Blog Redux
This blog is mainly here just to allow me to easily upload random content. If you dear reader find it interesting more power to you.