June 30, 2004 12:01 AM

Broken: South African emergency sign

Mario sends this sign he saw while travelling through South Africa. It is advertising an emergency telephone which is 174 kilometers away.

June 29, 2004 12:01 AM

Broken: Transparent glass warning sign

Molly Stevens writes:

This store has a glass door so that customers can see inside. They seem to have had some problems with it, and placed this sign right in the middle of the door. It reads, "Caution! Please watch out! Glass door is Transparent!" Something is broken here.

June 28, 2004 12:01 AM

Broken: Fire Exit... in the ceiling

Charlotte Gonella writes:

I took this pic when on a duty trip to one of our offices in Zagreb, Croatia. The fire exit is about 8 feet above floor level, and there are no access instructions. Not sure how this would help in the event of a fire, and gladly I didn't have to find out!

June 25, 2004 12:01 AM

Broken: Amazon.com and LATimes.com forms

For the final day of Seth Godin Week at This Is Broken (to celebrate our one-year anniversary, having launched with Seth's original idea) we have two entries from Seth today.

First - Seth points out that Amazon.com solicited feedback from customers, promising $5 to anyone who completed the survey. Only one problem, as Seth writes:

So, I visit the site (above) and discover not one or three or ten multiple choice questions.

Sixty three.

What sort of person sits still for 63 multiple choice questions?

How scientific is the feedback if it's only from the people who answer 63 questions?

What concrete action can Amazon take with all this finely tuned statistical nonsense?

Read Seth's original post on Amazon's survey.

Second - Seth writes about the LATimes.com signup form, excerpted below:

Seth writes:

Notice that the box ISN'T checked. That's the universal symbol for, "We're honest and we want genuine permission from you before we send you stuff by email. So if you want it, please check here."

I was glad to see that. But then I read the text. It says that the UNchecked box means that they WILL send you spam unless you affirmatively CHECK it to say you DON'T want it. (Even without the ALL CAPS I'm adding, it's still confusing.)

So, let's be clear here: In order to ensure its future in a world where everyone is online, one of the great newspapers on the planet is relying on second order trickery (because ordinary opt out isn't nefarious enough). Do you really think they're building much of an asset here? Can you imagine that three years from now the publisher is going to say, "I'm sure glad we tricked a million people into having no leg to stand on when we busily spam them!" Hardly.

See Seth's original post on the LATimes form.

June 24, 2004 12:01 AM

Broken: Airport chair

Seth Godin writes:

Here’s the chair you must sit on. It doesn’t move. Time to pain: 8 minutes.

June 23, 2004 12:01 AM

Broken: Airport monitor

Seth Godin writes more about the airport computer from yesterday's post:

Here’s the screen. It’s about 10 inches from top to bottom. The top 30% is used for... nothing. A useless border and giant buttons. This means you spend less time online.

June 22, 2004 12:01 PM

Broken: Airport keyboard

Seth Godin writes:

Here’s the keyboard from the standalone machine the airport uses to provide internet access. You pay by the minute. Yet the keyboard is awkward, sticky and overbuilt, as if it were going to be located in a prison or something. So you type as little as possible, reducing their revenue. If they used, say, a $29 useful keyboard, they might have to replace it once a month. Time to payback? One day.

June 21, 2004 12:01 AM

Broken: Airport wifi

This week marks the one-year anniversary of This Is Broken!

Thanks to Seth Godin, who gave me the idea for This Is Broken a year ago. As a thanks to him, we're celebrating Seth Godin Week on This Is Broken - all five posts this week came from Seth!

Monday through Thursday's posts took place in Trudeau Airport in Montreal on April 19, 2004.

Seth Godin writes:

TV in the airport is free. They pay for cable and for screens, but they realize that the cost of charging someone to watch it is prohibitive and sort of stupid. Yet they charge for wifi. Dumb. Why isn’t wifi as important an amenity as windows or TV?

June 18, 2004 12:25 AM

Broken: Library sign

Logan Ingalls writes:

A friend of mine took this picture in the Bethel Public Library in Bethel, CT. I'd love to say something more about it, but, hey there's nothing much more to say.

June 17, 2004 12:01 AM

Broken: Register.com's submit to cancel

Evan Williams, founder of Blogger, writes the following in a recent blog post:

Register.com automatically charges your credit card when your domains are up for renew. The email notifying you that your credit card has been charged contains a link for cancelling the charge, which bring you this page, which says, "To cancel this order, simply click Submit." Clicking Cancel, on the other hand, will cancel your cancellation request, thereby submitting your order.

ps - I hate to simply criticize without considering how I would solve the problem myself. So, without too much thought, how about, "Are you sure you want to cancel this domain? YES / NO."

Or something to that effect.

June 16, 2004 12:01 AM

Broken: Albertson's Supermarket Keytags

Dave Price writes:

I left my keys in the ignition of my moterscooter outside of a large office building in Denver, Colorado. A well-meaning security guard at the building took the keys off the bike and brought them inside. Fortunately, I had a spare set.

After realizing I was not coming to get my keys, the guard decided the best way to get them to me was to bring them to an Albertson's Supermarket, because my keychain had a preferred customer keytag, which read:

"IF KEYS ARE FOUND, PLEASE RETURN TO NEAREST ALBERTSON'S STORE"

I wound up going to two different Albertson's stores before I got my keys back, and in both of the stores, the "Lost and Found Box" contained 20-30 keychains.

While I am not concerned with the abuse of demographics assocated with preferred customer cards, I do find the "please return to" statement misleading, as the the store clearly does not care enough about their customers to try to return their missing property.

I should note that from time to time Alberston's does have little banners at the checkout stand reminding me that I will automatically be enterred into a drawing to win a vacation cruise, or similar prize, when I use my preferred customer card; I wonder how they plan to notify me when I win.

June 15, 2004 12:01 AM

Broken: Czech escalator sign

Michal Altair Valasek writes:

I saw these signs in a subway in Prague, Czech Republic.

The left sign says: "The escalator is started automatically by stepping on
it."

The right sign says: "No entry to a stopped escalator."

June 14, 2004 12:01 AM

Broken: Virgin train cabinets

David Hawdale writes:

Travelling down from Manchester UK to London on the new Virgin trains, I saw this strange sight: a refreshments bag being used to hold together the two doors of the cooler compartments.

These fast Pendelino trains are designed to tilt as they take curves to allow increases in speed unachievable by straight upright trains. But when they tilt, the cooler doors spring open, banging into unsuspecting travellers waiting in line for their chocolate chip cookies.

June 11, 2004 12:01 AM

Broken: Baby changing table sign

Chris Lee writes:

I saw this above the baby-changing table in a public restroom. It's not the best icon/signage design... it's rather creepy.

June 10, 2004 12:01 AM

Broken: Handicapped parking in Rhode Island

 Elliot Ciora sends two photos of obstructed handicapped parking spots in Rhode Island.

The first is located in the parking lot of a Brooks Drugs in Pawtucket. The handicapped parking sign has been moved so far into the parking space that nobody can park there.

The second is at The East Side Market Place in Providence. Straight ahead and to the right is Epoch Assisted living, whose residents use the handicapped parking spaces, when they haven't been plowed over with snow.

Update June 10: Elliot Ciora writes in to say: "Brooks has moved the signs so that the spaces are now open for use, allowing for the use of those spaces!"

June 9, 2004 12:01 AM

Broken: Albertson's supermarket cart sign

Alexander Passmoore writes:

Here is a picture of a sign so misplaced, it's funny. In the parking lot of an Albertson's supermarket in San Francisco, I looked around for the place to return my shopping cart. Low and behold, I found the sign, but there was a problem. It was squarely on top of the roof. Do they expect me to shoot grappling hooks up there and raise the cart with pulleys? Apparently, there was actually a parking lot up there.

June 8, 2004 12:01 AM

Broken: T-Mobile coverage map

Adam Codega writes:

The colors for T-Mobile service and T-Mobile roaming service on their coverage maps are noticeable similar, to say the least. This is obviously not a mistake. You can check your city, here.

June 7, 2004 12:01 AM

Broken: Drug bottles

Kevin Speicher sends an article from CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), Drug error kills 2 Alberta hospital patients. Excerpt:

Health officials in Calgary issued an emotional public apology Thursday to the relatives of two patients who died after receiving the wrong drugs during dialysis...Both compounds were purchased from the same company and had identically shaped bottles and similar packaging. ...The health region said it's taken steps to prevent a similar tragedy, such as marking potassium chloride with bright green labels and storing it in secure areas.

June 4, 2004 12:01 AM

Broken: Macy's confirmation email

Phil Terry sends in the confirmation email Macy's sent him after he ordered a $150 gift card. Note how the email doesn't describe what he ordered in words a customer understands:

Thank you for shopping at Macys.com.
Your order is currently being processed. The details of your order are listed below.

Macys.com Order# 198175693

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION	REQUESTED	AVAILABLE	SHIP DATE
EGC-MCDADSTD03	1	1	03/05/2004

.
.
.

Sincerely,

Macys.com Customer Service
http://www.Macys.com
MacysMailDesk@FDS.Com
1-800-289-6229
Our office hours are Mon - Sat 9am to 6pm, Sunday 11am to 7pm

June 3, 2004 12:01 AM

Broken: San Francisco street name spelling

J Scott Hester writes:

On most street corners in San Francisco the name of the cross streets are stamped in the concrete near the edge of curb. This picture is of the Northeast corner of Sanchez and 18th Streets. The name "Sanchez" is spelled correctly on the street sign, but incorrectly (as "Sanches") in the concrete below.

June 2, 2004 12:01 AM

Broken: Microsoft Windows file move

J Nelson Chadderdon writes:

This screenshot is from my Windows 2000 computer. I was copying a single file copy, which was around 5MB large, between 2 computers sitting 10 feet apart. Both computers were connected by ethernet to my local area network. Notice the status window reads, "1118478 Minutes Remaining."

June 1, 2004 12:01 AM

Broken: Yahoo! automatic keyword tagging

Steve Hoffman writes:

This is a screenshot from the "Launch Music on Yahoo!" website. The website displays an article concerning Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). However, the image is of Sebastian Bach, former Skid Row frontman! This is what happens when automatic keyword tagging goes wrong....horribly, horribly wrong!