Digital Meanderings
Meanderings of a coder

I am a developer working on the requirements and design of a large application so I spend a lot of time in meetings. For example, tomorrow I have 2.5 hours when I won’t be in a meeting. This equates to pages upon pages of notes. Some of these notes are minor, some require the application design to be rethought or updated and others require some clarification from the SMEs. As you can imagine scanning through these notes can be onerous. So I’ve developed a low-tech version of tagging.

My meeting tags are very simple icons that I put next to each note or group of notes. They enable me to quickly scan through my notes and grab out what I need to do, what needs to updated or even what questions need to be asked. Below you’ll find examples of my “tags.”

• Exclamation Point enclosed in a square - Important, requires immediate attentions.
• Question Mark enclosed in a square - Requires more information from another developer or a SME.
• Light-bulb enclosed in a circle - An idea for improving something.
• “PM” enclosed in a square - A note to keep for the project’s post-mortem.

There are other icons I use, but this should be enough to get you on your way.

Why not use a computer?
I have yet to find a good note taking application. I could use Word, but I’m pretty anal about how things are formatted, so I would spend too much time formatting and therefore less time paying attention.

Don’t the icons take a lot of time?
Not really. At first, it may take a few extra seconds to draw or remember which icon you use for what, but once you get used to it, it is really quite quick.

A few months ago I visited Mozy Pro, the business version of the popular Mozy online backup company. I was just browsing - looking at specs, checking prices, etc. I decided not to use their services. Today I got an email from someone at Mozy asking if technical difficulties with the site prevented me from signing-up.

Odd thing is - I don’t ever remember giving them any piece of information besides what get’s handed-off while surfing (IP address, etc). I even checked my email accounts - nothing from Mozy except for the email today.

The email, including the headers, looks legit. I wonder how they got my information? Or is this some kind of intrepid spam whereby someone just guesses you visited the site? Anyway, below you’ll find the email.

Hi [Redacted my full name],

I noticed you visited our MozyPro Business sign up page not to long ago, but didn’t complete the transaction. I just wanted to make sure you didn’t have trouble with the website or that there weren’t any additional questions about our company or product.

I don’t know if you had the chance to see, but we recently signed the 2nd largest company in the world, General Electric. The press release is very interesting and informative, and you can check it out at https://www.mozypro.com/mozy_pro/news.

If you have any further questions or concerns regarding our product, my contact info is below and I will be happy to help!

If you are ready to get signed up just follow the link provided below, and I will be able to keep track of your account, get you the 30 day money back guarantee, and take care of you personally if you need anything.

https://www.mozypro.com/ref/[redacted what looks like a referral id]

Thank you,

[Redacted name]

MozyPro Sales Consultant

Office [Redacted number] ext.203

Sales [Redacted number] ext. 203

[Redacted]@berkeleydata.com

https://www.mozypro.com/ref/[redacted what looks like a referral id]