Although this has little to do with UX, it was one of Time’s best websites 07. Cancer under 40? You’re not alone.

I’ve been a Wachovia checking customer (before that First Union) for about 10 years, and I’ve always been content with it. I never had anything great to say, but there were a lot of ATMs available, some decent online features, and in general it met my checking account needs.

Recently, however, I’ve had a number of poor CS-related experiences and am in the process of looking for another bank. I do 100% of my banking online and at ATMs, so I am looking for the bank with the best (and cheapest) online features, as well as a competitive fee policy for ATM use.

If you are an online banker like me and think you have a good provider, post a comment below. I’m considering major banks like Commerce and PNC as well as online-only banks like ING. Any suggestions are welcome!

So the other night I met up with a few old friends, and we all swapped phone numbers. Unbelievably, my friend Kally’s number uses the exact same digits as mine — basically, if my number was 123-4564, hers would be 132-5446.

What are the odds of that??? And these are cell phones — back when we used home phones with the same first 3 digits (i.e. everyone in town is 687), this may have been more common, but nowadays, this seems pretty out of the ordinary.

… just like Hasselhoff and The Hooters.

Ok, just kidding, but it is fun to see someone across the pond give me a shout.

I think we sometimes take the internet for granted. I’m sure I do. It’s part of everyday life, but the ease of access to information has become something we expect; it no longer suprises and delights us each and every day. (OK, so I can’t really speak for everyone, but I feel confident in this generalization).

Recently I got back in contact with an old, old friend of mine — my best pal from grade school in Newton, MA. I moved out of Mass. in high school, and while I tried to keep up with friends over the years, it hasn’t really happened like we said it would (big shocker there). I have talked with this guy occasionally over the years, but the email address I had for him was at a job he no longer has. I did, however, happen to mention his name in a blog post of mine a while back, and either through an ego search or a friend, he came across this post and emailed me. Had this not happened, there’s a pretty good chance I never would have talked with him again.

Isn’t the internet wonderful?

Every convert has one… here’s mine:

It was july of 2000 - I was in New York City to see the culmination of a 2-year odyssey that was the Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band reunion tour. My collegiate pal Hank (from DC) and I (from Philly) travelled up to see the last two shows of the 5-night stand. We met up with this other guy from college, known only as “Shoats”, (because his shoes were as big as boats), who I didn’t really keep in touch with anymore but knew realatively well back in the day.

When we arrived I was introduced to this girl, a friend of Shoats’, called “Swish”, who was also heading to the show. She was one of those mysterious girls who may have been appealing or attractive, but I can’t say for sure. After the show, a bunch of us went back to Swish’s pad to add a few more beers on top of the too many we’d already had, and ended up crashing there that night. To this day there are two things I rememeber about Swish’s apartment: 1) it was the most disgusting apartment I’ve ever set foot in, and 2) she had TiVo. Read the rest of this entry »