Jeep is iconic but “crap”?
From: Will Duderstadt
Thought you guys would enjoy a retort to the Jeep being called “crap” in an MIT publication: Branding Lessons from Jeep: Designed For A Purpose.
He recognizes that the look, feel, and design of a Jeep is iconic, but fails to see those traits are only responsible for a fraction of its status. The Jeep has become an icon because you aren’t just buying a steel tub with removable doors, you are buying into an experience, an adventure, a lifestyle.
Now, the average Joe never says to himself, “Gosh, I wish I could take the doors off my BMW 750i”. But ask the next fella you see in a Jeep what summer means, and “top down, doors off” is going to rate very high on that list.
Dyson Airblade
From: Paul Campbell
With your previous Dyson posts, I thought you might be interested in the Dyson Airblade [hand dryer for bathrooms] – apparently it’s a rip of an earlier model from mitsubishi, but I “experienced” it tonight and it was a trip!
Blogged about it here: The Dyson Airblade – out XLing the XLerator
The device works by shooting a thin stream of air ( apparently .3 mm ) at 400mph. It claimed my hands would be dry in 10 seconds, but it took far less than that. The other bonus was that because you put your hands in rather than under, there’s no pool of water underneath.
Modern design lessons from ancient architecture
From: Josh Clark
I just got back from my first trip to Greece, and I spent a lot of time scrambling among ancient ruins. I was surprised and delighted to find that the Acropolis held some very 37signals-y lessons in design, and I figured I’d share…
The Acropolis turns out to be an object lesson in design subtlety within the scope of a colossal project. It’s a 2500-year-old example of clever user-experience design, where quietly considered design flourishes abound.
As a guy whose working materials are modern bits and bytes, I found the marble-and-limestone structures of 25 centuries ago to be inspring. My visit to the Acropolis gave me a renewed sense in the importance of getting the quiet parts of design right, that there’s real value in taking time and care to create a sense of calm order and symmetry in your creations. The details matter.
For what it’s worth, I thought you might enjoy my blog write-up about it.
Penultimate?
From: Ben Sekulowicz
First Direct, (a UK based online bank owned by HSBC) use the following within their two-part log in process, (along with security question).
Please enter the 4th, penultimate and last characters from your electronic password…
How many users will know what penultimate is, really?
Have an interesting link, story, or screenshot for Signal vs. Noise? Contact svn [at] 37signals [dot] com.
Bob
on 31 Jul 07Someone correct if I’m wrong, but I think “penultimate” is much more commontly used in the UK than in America.
brad
on 31 Jul 07Better yet is “antepenultimate” (next-to-next-to-last).
And yes, Jeep is iconic but crap just the way Volkswagen is iconic but crap. Great design, second-rate construction and repair record.
Land-Rovers are iconic but crap too. When I owned a couple of 1970s-era Land Rovers I realized why they’re made so easy to work on: they’re always breaking down. When I sold mine I told my housemate: “I want a more reliable car,” and he said, “what could be more reliable than your Land-Rover? It’s always sitting in the garage in pieces, right where you left it. It’s always there for you.”
Nick
on 31 Jul 07I just returned from a holiday in Baja. We flew into San Diego and rented a car. They were out of the compact that we requested so they ‘upgraded’ us to a Jeep Liberty. We spent a week in this thing and I think it’s exactly the oposite of my impression of a Jeep—this utility vehicle is awkward in every way … there’s nothing utilitarian about this pile o’crap. The rear passenger compartment is uber uncomfortable to get in and out of (and I only weigh 130lbs!), the window controls are rough and hurt my finger everytime I used it, the driver seat sits up tall which made my head rub the ceiling, when you pop the back window STAND BACK because it will hit you in the face … I can go on and on. This vehicle is not worthy of the Jeep name.
carlivar
on 31 Jul 07Jeep achieved perfection with this model in the late 1940’s. It’s been downhill from there.
Geoff
on 31 Jul 07Carlivar, I take exception to that. My 1984 Jeep Scambler is the perfect Jeep. But you are right, the Jeepster is one fine general purpose vehicle.
American motors sold Jeep to Chrysler in the mid 80s. That’s when the wheels fell off. Now they are prissy vehicles with computers, airbags, and air conditioning—nothing like the Jeep of yesteryear.
The branding guys may have understood, but Jeep didn’t. Jeep IS top down/doors off. All the manufacturers did was bring back the round headlights. Now you have to pull out a wrench to take the doors off a Wrangler. Sad.
The slogan used to be “The Sun Never Sets On The Mighty Jeep.” Can that still be said?
Chris
on 31 Jul 07Should anyone who dosen’t know the meaning of penultimate be trusted using online banking? Perhaps it’s there as an intelligence test. In the UK banks still pay out for the mistakes of their customers using online banking.
Phil McThomas
on 31 Jul 07There’s an unusual cultural gap between the UK and the US – almost everyone in the UK will know what ‘penultimate’ means and almost no-one in US seems to.
I used it in a newsletter when I first came to the US and got a constant ribbing for it subsequently. I became ‘penultimate guy’.
Karl N
on 31 Jul 07Penultimate’s a great word, precisely because many people don’t know it.
wa
on 31 Jul 07“the Acropolis held some very 37signals-y lessons in design”...wow you 37signals guys are old!
Giles Bowkett
on 31 Jul 07Please enter the 4th, penultimate and last characters from your electronic password…
How many users will know what penultimate is, really?
In England? All of them.
Nick
on 31 Jul 07Not only do we all know what penultimate means over here, but it’s also a good security question for two reasons, as 1) it doesn’t reveal the length of the password and 2) it is more user friendly—it is mentally easier to work out the second last letter of the password, than to be asked for the 8th, which relies on me counting through the letters or knowing my password is 9 letters long.
Michael Houghton
on 31 Jul 07Perhaps not absolutely everyone here knows what ‘penultimate’ means, but I’d be quite surprised if more than a handful of First Direct’s customer base didn’t.
It’s a word in very common use (on the BBC for example), in (real) football terminology, and it’s in the title of a Lemony Snicket (children’s story) book.
Sam
on 31 Jul 07If you studied English at school when you were 15 you should know what penultimate is…
Dave
on 01 Aug 07The Dyson still has a problem it shares with all hot-air dryers: when I make a trip to the restroom during allergy season, there’s no way to blow my nose on it.
Paper towels are not used solely for drying hands.
eric
on 01 Aug 07Sorry, my primal instinct kicks in and I’m too leery of sticking my hands into something called a “blade”. Maybe too many wood chipper horror stories while growing up or something.
Ben Sekulowicz
on 01 Aug 07Regarding Penultimate – Its not that its a commonly understood word or not, its just not the simplest langauge you could use. Regardless of how long your password is, the simeplest, least confusing manner of asking for letters is numerically.
Its all well and good using nice and proper language, but if you can simplify a process by simplifying your copy it, you should.
John Topley
on 01 Aug 07We recently got those XLerator hand dryers installed at work and I hate them! They are so violent that they almost blow the skin from your hands. Even worse is the deafening noise they make. I shudder to think how much electricity they consume.
GeeIWonder
on 01 Aug 07The low tolerances involved actually are a design feature of some vehicles. Ridiculously high tolerances don’t always make sense. It’s not a coincidence that people do Paris-Dakar in Jeeps and Land-Rovers, or that real people without massive support crews tend to bike across deserts and continents on steel bikes rather than aluminum or composites. When your frame cracks, anyone from a car shop to a blacksmith can repair it.
BTW, I always thought Jeep became an icon for largely the same reasons motorbikes and, more recently, Hummers have. Some ironic combination of rebellion and indoctrination.
GeeIWonder
on 01 Aug 07Who wants to stick their hands in anything? Isn’t it sort of a universal truth in public restrooms that the less surfaces you’re likely to touch with your hands, the better?
Tom
on 01 Aug 07Unfortunately, my boss seems to think that “penultimate” means something like “the ultimate ultimate” or “even more ultimate than ultimate” (Yes, I know that makes no sense). I’ve heard her use it that way in meetings three of four times now. This being the U.S., as others have noted, there were probably not many people in the room who even noticed. I’m just trying to figure out how to tell her politely. She not stupid, but somehow she’s gotten this stuck in her head.
GeeIWonder
on 01 Aug 07Tom, next meeting be sure to slip the three words “nec plus ultra” in there at one point. ;)
Stuart
on 01 Aug 07When I saw the Dyson hand-driers at Gatwick Airport here in the UK I shed a little tear inside. I first experienced Mitsubishi’s brilliant version in Japan five years ago and thought “maybe I should try and get these sold back home”. But I didn’t so I can’t retire quite yet ;)
Of course, in Japan you don’t need paper towels to blow your nose, you use your hands (not in public).
Brad Greenlee
on 01 Aug 07I hope the First Direct login process is not an indication that they are storing your password in plaintext (vs. a hash). They could just be keeping it around long enough after you log in to run this test, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they’re just storing it as is. Scary.
Dave Dash
on 01 Aug 07The problem with the airblade is your putting your hands into a device with the word “blade” in it. While it works great, they really should change the name to something that sounds safe.
Adam
on 01 Aug 07I’m with Dave on the benefits of the paper towel. They are also quite helpful cleaning the occasional beverage spill in public places.
Chris Shepherd
on 02 Aug 07I live in the UK, and to me, using the word penultimate is really strange to mix in with numbers. It feels like a completely different way of thinking when you’ve got your secret number in your head.
I don’t think it’s just a question of whether you know the meaning of penultimate, I think it unnecessarily stops you from your train of thought when your going with 2nd, 4th and penultimate… Just think it’s unnecessary. I’m preeetty sure that more people will know what 5th means.
This discussion is closed.