Anthony Gill of the University of Washington hosts a great podcast called Research on Religion. This week, he’s airing a discussion he had with me about The End of Secularism. I have rarely faced such a skilled questioner. The process reminded me a little of my dissertation defense. The product is pretty entertaining if you care about things like how church and state fit together, especially since Anthony is the kind of professor who wears cowboy hats and rides around in gigantic pick up trucks (in other words, not boring).
Monthly Archives: May 2012
Random Thoughts on Heaven . . .
I once dreamed that I died and woke up at a big softball game.
It was heaven.
And Hillary Clinton was there.
We were both surprised to see each other.
Random Thoughts on Heaven . . .
I once dreamed that I died and woke up at a big softball game.
It was heaven.
And Hillary Clinton was there.
We were both surprised to see each other.
The Crime of Our Age
This evening I took in the mild, early summer weather and watched a group of 20 or so children play baseball. Some of them sat in wheelchairs or had braces on their legs. Others needed help because of mental ailments, deafness, or blindness. Adults and teenagers mixed in with the kids on the field giving both assistance and encouragement. A man with a microphone sat behind home plate and announced the children’s names as they came up to bat and rounded the bases. It is always a pleasant way to spend a couple of hours, watching people love those who need it most, seeing young people with special needs being supported.
On this occasion, I noticed a conversation happening in sign language off to my left. A middle-aged mom signed and spoke to her daughter who was waiting in line for a turn at bat. The girl had Down Syndrome. She displayed a fun-loving personality as she bantered with her mother, signing rapidly. Her mother kept telling her to be sure to use a particular bat when she got to the plate. The girl made a sign back at her mother that clearly meant something like, “Yak, yak, yak.” It was impish and funny.
As my wife and I watched the exchange, I said to her, “It’s a terrible crime, you know.”
She responded, “You mean about the genetic screening and the abortions?”
“Yes,” I said.
The Trials of Parenthood (Music Edition)
Last night, I put Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys on my car stereo.
My son, Andrew, said, “I don’t like country music.”
I manfully restrained myself from slaying him.
Why Gmail Killed Yahoo Mail
Around 2004, I had been a dedicated user of Yahoo’s email system for four years or so. It had solved the problem all email users had at the time, which was that if you switched internet providers or changed institutions, you had to make a difficult transition to a totally new email address. Instead of all that, you could have a Yahoo address (or a Hotmail address) and keep it forever. All your friends could remember that address and never get lost when you switched jobs or internet providers. It was fantastic.
But then an old friend wrote me and told me he was trying out Google’s new email product. I wasn’t really interested, but I did like how his address was with gmail.com. Gmail seemed nicely understated relative to the yahoo.com addresses. I don’t think it would have succeeded as quickly or as well if Google had been selling an address ending in google.com. Gmail offered an escape from telling people they could write you at YAHOO.com. It just sounded stupid. (Too late, Yahoo offered up Ymail.)
Two things really moved the dial. The one that caused me to switch was the realization, after playing around with gmail, that I could get to my emails with at least one less click with Gmail than I could with Yahoo. Yahoo made you sign in, then look at a summary screen, then get to your inbox. Gmail signed you in and went straight to the inbox. Yahoo may have been maximizing clicks for metrics purposes, but they were doing it at my expense. Gmail got me to my email faster. That was decisive.
The second thing was the search function that has kept me an avid user and raving fan of Gmail for the last seven years. Gmail doesn’t really need folders and subfolders (though it offers labeling) because you can find ANYTHING. If you can remember just a few key words in any email you are trying to find, Gmail will deliver it. Yahoo supposedly did the same, but there is a reason we all ended up moving to search with Google. It is simply superior.
Companies should remember his much: It was the convenience and speed that got me. It was the rich features that kept me. If Yahoo hadn’t maximized its clicks at my expense, I’d probably still be ignorant of Gmail’s awesomeness. Gmail satisfied my agenda first.
