Scott Bradford: Off on a Tangent

The Most Annoying (and Successful) Pitch-Man

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Everybody who watches TV for more than 15 minutes in a week, particularly if some of that time is on Cable/Satillite networks, knows Billy Mays. He’s the guy who sells gimmicky ‘As Seen On TV’ junk like Oxi-Clean, Orange Glo, the Awesome Auger, and more by screaming at you. Personally I find his pitching style abrasive and annoying, and will avoid buying products he has pitched even more than I generally avoid ‘As Seen On TV’ junk. According to The Washington Post though, he is actually extremely successful at what he does. Mays is one of the most sought-after pitch-men in the television universe.

I really don’t get why these ‘As Seen On TV’ companies insist on annoying people—Billy Mays’s yelling to sell hundreds of products and Vince Offer’s condescending pitch for the ShamWow towels—rather than the traditional style of simply showing the product and why it’s better than the alternatives. I don’t buy from companies that don’t treat me like a rational, practical, intelligent person.

The strangest part is not that these companies resort to these pitches, since they have done it throughout the history of television. The strangest part is that it works, and people buy these products based solely on the annoying sales pitch of a paid advertiser. Invariably, independent research reveals that these products don’t work. On the rare occasion that they do work and do represent a novel solution to a problem, they quickly begin appearing in real retailers or established, trustworthy companies begin producing similar products. That’s when I start buying.

Replacing the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard

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The Filesystem Hierarchy Standard is probably something you’ve never heard of, but if you spend a lot of time on Linux or Mac systems (especially in a command line) you’ve probably run across it now and then. The FHS establishes a general directory structure for operating systems, largely based on ancient UNIX ideas. Read about it at the Wikipedia link above and see if you, as a normal human being, can make any sense of it.

Ultimately, the FHS is far more confusing than it is useful. I can navigate around it pretty well simply because I understand it after years of using it, but most user-facing operating systems avoid exposing their users to it lest they get lost (details below).

The folks over as OSNews have an interesting piece about the FHS and its problems, and GoboLinux which is the only somewhat-major Linux distribution to deviate drastically from the FHS. Personally I have very limited experience with GoboLinux, since I’m very comfortable with Ubuntu as my distro of choice, but I absolutely applaud the effort to move to a better Linux filesystem structure.

Read more . . .

Caution: Hot Surface

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So, Melissa wanted to do some ‘Restaurant Week’ thing where you go to fancy, expensive restaurants and pay slightly-less fancy, slightly-less expensive prices. We went to the Melting Pot this evening, which is a fondue chain with a location right down the road in Reston.

It was pretty good, for fondue. Personally I love fondue as a home dish, but I’m not sure I get the point of paying to cook your own food. It was a nice evening out though, and I have to admit it was very good, fancy fondue.

We also got warned about 50 times total not to touch the clearly-labeled hot surface in the middle of the table. Funny, the printed warning, red light, and common sense didn’t give it away. Got to love living in a litigious society. There were no warnings printed on the other hot object at the table, pictured.

Flawed Concept: Security Through Annoyance

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Electronic security is important. Like we have grown to accept intrusive airport security as part of a valid effort to protect travelers from getting blown up by Islamic fascists and other terrorists, we have also grown to accept passwords, PIN numbers, verification codes, CAPTCHAs, and more in the name of electronic security. In this Internet age, you are more likely than ever to be a victim of credit-ruining identity theft. These inconveniences help to protect you.

Electronic security is also important for the government and businesses. Having worked on Department of Defense web sites, one of which including private (though non-classified) information, I’m well aware of the precautions taken on the systems side. DoD sites have to pass the Defense Information Assurance Certification and Accreditation Process (DIACAP), be compliant with the DoD Public Key Infrastructure, and more. When you combine all of this with web browsers and servers that support SSL encryption and rational user account/access policies, it’s pretty tough for bad guys to get information they shouldn’t have access to.

The problem is that increasing security—at least when it directly inconveniences the user—comes with diminishing returns. Extreme security requirements (like those often mandated in government settings) often result in a less secure technological infrastructure.

Read more . . .

Taking a Nice Little Vacation

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As many of you are probably aware, I’ve been employed for some time as a Web Content Manager on Department of Defense web sites. With a couple of diversions here and there, including an unceremonious work stoppage in the first week of this February due to contractual goofiness and some more-recent diversions, that’s been What I Do™ since August 2004. The contract I’ve been working on most all that time ended Friday, and the new award was given to a different company.

The new project I’ll be taking on starts with a training period on the 25th, so I’ve got a nice, empty, unexpected vacation week. That’s especially nice, since I like to have a little breathing room to decompress between jobs/projects. It’ll also give me a chance to do some biking when there are fewer people out on the trails, and maybe goof around with some web site stuff and watch some DVDs. It’ll be a nice change of pace to have a week with essentially nothing to do, especially after spending the last five-months-or-so completely swamped on an understaffed team.

Anyway, other than that it’s mostly just your average stuff. I finally got Melissa to join me on a bike ride today (just a short, easy one to start her off with ;-)) Been doing a lot of reading. All-in-all things are going pretty well!

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Posted in: Life

Scott Bradford is a writer and technologist who has been putting his opinions online since 1995. He believes in three inviolable human rights: life, liberty, and property. He is a Catholic Christian who worships the trinitarian God described in the Nicene Creed. Scott is a husband, nerd, pet lover, and AMC/Jeep enthusiast with a B.S. degree in public administration from George Mason University.