Re: Best idea of the week, make that year. Yeah, yeah, I know the year just started

["Chuck Martin" <cm -at- writeforyou -dot- com>]

"Dick Margulis" <margulis -at- fiam -dot- net> wrote in message news:229672 -at- techwr-l -dot-  -dot-  -dot- 
>
> Chuck Martin wrote:
> > I don't see this as "brilliant" at all, but as another case of making
the
> > docs do the garbage collection for bad design.
> >
> > Here's the besic question: Why can't "Microangelo 5.5" be printed on the
> > chrage statement?
> >
> > Answer: It can--if the system designers wanted to.
>
> What makes you think so. This is a third-party biller ecommerce agent
> that handles transactions for many products from many companies. The
> credit card companies (and presumably one or more government agencies)
> require that the identification on the statement is that of the company
> that collected the money, not the company that manufactured the product.
>
> If you bought a suit at a department store, would you want your credit
> card statement to say Nordstrom's or Hickey-Freeman?

I think you've made the point. While large companies may do their own
in-house credit card processing (especially for their own cards), small
companies outsource this function.

If I, say, do as many people from the midwest, other areas of the country,
and around the world call or email Flowers by the Bay to buy bouquets for
the groundbreaking gay couples getting married at San Francisco city hall,
the credit card statement will say "Flowers by the Bay," not the name of the
credit card processing company.

>
>
> >
> > Years and years and years (you get the picture) ago, in my very first
> > programming class (a BASIC class when I was a freshman in high school),
some
> > of the first words out of my teacher's mouth were along the lines of
> > "Computers a dumb. They will do only and exactly and just what you tell
them
> > to do."
> >
> > So this system *could* be designed to print "Microangelo 5.5" on your
charge
> > statement, but it wasn't. We could speculate on the many reasons why it
> > wasn't done this way, but the bottom line is that this eloquently worded
and
> > informative email is nothing more than a Band Aid covering the wound of
> > another bad design.
>
> Piffle!
>
Isn't that a small white plastic ball with holes cut in it?

-- 
--
Chuck Martin
User Assistance & Experience Engineer
twriter "at" sonic "dot" net      www.writeforyou.com

"I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. The day
may come when the courage of Men fail,  when we forsake our friends and
break all bonds of fellowship. But it is not this day! This day, we fight!"
                    - Aragorn

"All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given you."
                    - Gandalf