Nick’s Blog

Where I produce content:

http://www.facebook.com/nickpunt

http://www.quora.com/Nick-Punt

Some posts I’ve made recently:

http://www.quora.com/If-given-1-billion-how-would-you-best-improve-U-S-education

http://www.quora.com/What-is-the-need-for-Quora-when-Yahoo!-Answers-has-such-widespread-adoption

http://www.quora.com/How-is-Facebook-building-the-hover-card-feature-in-their-UI

http://www.quora.com/What-do-you-associate-with-a-brand-named-emergent

http://www.quora.com/Why-do-people-do-Foursquare-Who-cares-how-many-badges-you-get

nickpunt Uncategorized

Chat Information Please hold as we route your chat to an Adobe Representative.
Chat Information Welcome to Adobe.com! My name is Ralph. May I assist you with your selection today?
Ralph: Hello, how can I help you?
Visitor: Hey Ralph.
Visitor: I have a company that needs about 3-5 licenses of CS4 Design Premium
Ralph: Hi there.
Visitor: I was wondering what kind of volume discount we can negotiate
Ralph: I’ll be happy to help you with that.
Ralph: May I know whether you are looking for a full version or for an upgrade version?
Visitor: Full
Ralph: May I know, on which platform you would like to install the software on?
Visitor: OSX
Ralph: If you place an order for any number of licenses under Volume Licensing, you will get only one serial number.
Ralph: For example, if you place the order for 10 licenses or 14 licenses, you will get only one serial number.
Ralph: The more you purchase in Volume Licensing, the more discount you will get. Your discounts, if applicable, will be applied in the Shopping Cart
Visitor: ok
Ralph: Would you like to place an order online now?
Visitor: Well I’m wondering what the costs will be, as it affects the number of units I’ll purchase and when
Ralph: Please give me a minute. I will give you the link to add the products to the cart. The more you add to the cart the more discount you will get. The discount will be directly applied to your shopping cart.
Visitor: ok thank you
Visitor: Also I have a question regarding upgrades from CS3 to CS4. I purchased CS3 Design Premium for Windows but I have since switched to Mac. Is there an upgrade path possible for this?
Ralph: Please click here to place an order.
Ralph: Did you get the link?
Ralph: Yes, you can place the order for cross platform upgrade.
Ralph: You have to contact our sales team to place the order for cross platform upgrade.
Visitor: ok thank you
Ralph: Please go ahead with the order process and let me know if you need any help,
Ralph: I’ll stay online while you place the order.
Ralph: Is this okay with you?
Ralph: Please add 1 media to your cart.
Ralph: If you place an order only for the license. You will get only the serial number. To get the software, you have to add the one media to your cart.
Ralph: “Media” refers to the disc a customer can use to download software or can use to “ship the box” or “both”. The cost of one media is $20. You can’t use the media with out a license.
Visitor: Hm… so the discount is only $18 for volume purchases?
Visitor: it seems much more effective for me to go to the apple store and purchase it there
Ralph: We recommend the purchase of Adobe software on our web site.
Ralph: There are many advantages of buying the software on Adobe.com
Ralph: Most importantly, you can be sure that you’re getting authorized software from us.
Ralph: You’ll get free technical support to download, install and fix the errors if any related to software.
Ralph: Since you register your account here, you’ll be notified about free updates or patches when they’re available.
Ralph: You’ll also be notified if there are any promotions or discounts going on.
Ralph: After you purchase the product, you have to register it with Adobe.com. By registering your product you will be eligible for a free gift.
Visitor: Doesn’t this come with a boxed purchase?
Ralph: After you add the license to the cart. You will get the option to choose the media. You can choose the media as download or ship the box or both.
Visitor: Okay thank you Ralph. Given that the discount isn’t worth my purchasing additional units at this time for my company, and my time requirements, it may be best to purchase only copies as I need them locally from the apple store. Were volume discounts greater than 0.95% of purchase price I would have considered a volume purchase. As it stands they’re not getting me to purchase.
Ralph: If you purchase the product from other stores, you can’t be sure that you are getting the authorized software.
Ralph: You will not get all the benefits as mentioned above.
Visitor: From the Apple Store? Seriously?
Ralph: I am sorry, I can’t assure you that you will be getting the authorized software as we don’t have information about other stores.
Visitor: I’m clearly not talking to the right person. Thank you, bye.

nickpunt Uncategorized

Recently, I was complaining to my housemates about how annoying all these bugs were that were flying into our house, and someone should invent a laser that zaps them mid-flight before they could enter. We had a laugh and dismissed it as impractical.

Well, I’m really happy to announce that as of today, someone is doing just that. Scientists who worked on the old 80s anti-missile defense are taking their skills and using them to build high speed lasers, to kill mosquitos and stop the spread of malaria.

I really like this kind of solution because it sidesteps the hazards of traditional solutions like pesticides and genetics, and it doesn’t seem like there’s an easy way for mosquitos to adapt to this new predator. Further, the economics could work in this, as the components are likely available off-the-shelf, and the number of units needed (10 million+) would probably be enough to manufacture nearly at cost. The only challenge would be distribution, an extremely localized problem that is a hurdle to every initiative in the third world. How exactly would you come across to your average tribal leader if you just show up and say this black box keeps disease away? I’m reminded of the Arthur C Clarke quote “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is funding this project and it’s part of their larger vision to get people out of extreme poverty by solving fundamental needs like sanitation, disease prevention, and basic education. Projects like this show they can really think laterally about problems which is an impressive and altogether lacking capability in many large organizations. Here’s Bill Gates’ talk on malaria at the TED conference in February:
Who knows? Maybe historians will look back and point at a little mosquito laser as being a turning point in the struggle to overcome world poverty. Stranger things have happened.

nickpunt Uncategorized nonprofit, offbeat, stuff that matters, technology