I saw Star Trek today and was given a little treat as I walked into the theater.

I used Fandango. I bought the tickets online, and then printed them using Fandango’s machine stationed in the movie theater lobby. Instead of getting the usual ticket and receipt, I was given this little extra:

It was a ticket for Watchmen! Not only is Watchmen out of theaters, but the date the movie was intended to be shown was March 9th. If you look closely, on the bottom of each stub, you’ll see a printing date of May 29th — way past the showing date.

So the question is: Did Fandango’s machine erroneously print me an extra ticket, leading to this little tidbit? Or did I pay for a ticket I never picked up?

The world may never know.

Not only does the Google Earth plugin let me know it’s not supported in my environment, but it provides me with a link to more information. All in all, I think it’s beautiful.

My coworker said it’s like applauding the chef for washing his hands, as if there’s an expectation that all software should tell you such information. To me, it feels more like the chef personally apologizing for not having the linguine — and then telling me when to come back later!

More importantly, it’s almost as if I have a relationship with the company.

When I see error messages like these, it presents a level of polish that even on my first impression suggests a quality product. As a user, I appreciate it.

I’ve been doing a little introspection on my work habits lately and I’ve noticed how they differ in different settings.

For instance, I’m starting to find that in many cases, I would rather walk over to a local expert in my office than search for what I’m looking for on Google. The local expert is usually within my vicinity, many times in the same room, but Google is always right there, right at my computer. My question is: Am I a technical extrovert — a fancy name for a social butterfly in a field of (stereotypically) moths; or am I habitually lazy, consistently bugging the person who knows?

I would rationalize myself as an extrovert, and it turns out Myers-Briggs would too. But lazy?

Some habits at work are:

• Ask someone before searching Google.
• Walk to the person who will know the answer rather than talk over AIM or IRC.
• Talk to people in meetings (or spontaneously create them) instead of use email.
• Take notes on paper because I will forget many of my coworker’s “quick fixes,” like what command to use, or how to use it.

Put those in contrast with my habits at home:

• Google my error messages extensively.
• Research how to solve my specific task.
• Try out my hypotheses or find examples.
• In many ways, learn by doing.

And put that in contrast with my undergraduate career:

• Remember every word the professor said, taking notes that I probably won’t read.
• Learn by doing, especially when given specific homework assignments.

Is the difference in behavior the time pressure of the work environment? The effect of having knowledgeable people directly in my vicinity? An attribute of my extroversion? The result of having an authority figure?

I don’t know. And whatever it is, it’s ingrained, because I don’t think about it — or, I have to work to think about it when in context. But maybe that’s why they call it work.

Regardless. It’s clear I’d rather walk and talk than sit and research.

It’s beautiful. Take a look.

I got to it using Fandango’s search box in the top right hand corner twice in a row. The first time I searched for something that returned no results (try “Court St.”, as if you want to search for a theater on Court St.). The second time I used the box to search for something else, like “Star Trek”.

Not a huge error, but I’m always a fan of professional error messages.

I received this one in my mail box today. Well done. Pulled on both my Barack and anti-spam heartstrings.

Subject: Good News

United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC) In Affiliation With Barack Obama Campaign to Assist Scammed Individuals In The Settlement Of Disputes Through Intercontinental Bank plc .

Attention:

How are you today? Hope all is well with you and your family?You may not understand why this mail came to you but kindly read for your perusal and follow the giving procedures for your claim.

The United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC) was created in 1991 as a subsidiary organ of the UN Security Council. Its mandate is to process claims and pay compensation for losses and damage suffered as a direct result of Internet Fraud.

We have been having a confederation meeting for the passed 7 months which ended 2 weeks ago with the then secretary to the UNITED NATIONS. This meeting was first held on the 8th of April 2003. You can view this page for your perusal.

(http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2003/ik344.doc.htm).

This email is directed to all the people that have been scammed in all parts of the world, the UNITED NATIONS in affiliation with Barack Obama Campaign have agreed to compensate them with categorical payment sum of US$ 150,000 each. In its decision 17 of 24 March 2006, the Governing Council established basic principles for the distribution of compensation payments to successful claimants.

This decision was made two months before the resolution of the first instalment of claims before the Commission.

As stated in the Secretary-General’s report of 2 May 2006,it was anticipated that the value of approved awards would far exceed the resources available in the Compensation Fund at any given time.

The Governing Council therefore devised a mechanism for the allocation of available funds to successful claimants that gave priority to the three urgent categories of claims and which, within each category, would give equal treatment to similarly situated claims. Only when each successful claimant in categories “A”,”B”and “C” had been paid an initial amount up to US$2,500 would payments commence for claims in other categories. Accordingly,the  first phase of payment involved an initial payment of US$2,500 to each successful individual claimant in categories “A” and “C”.

However,for humanitarian reasons, all category”B”claims will be paid in full of a total US$150,000. A total of US$3,252,337,997.09 was made available to 1,498,119 successful individual claimants in categories “A”, “B” and “C” under the first phase of payments.

This includes every foreign contractor that may have not received their contract sum, and people that have had an unfinished transaction or international businesses that failed due to Government problems etc. We found your name in our list and that is why you are receiving this email notification.

You are advised to contact Dr Erastus Akingbola of Intercontinental Bank plc , as he is our representative in Nigeria, contact him immediately for your approved bank draft of USD$150,000.

This funds are in a Bank Draft for security purpose, so he will send it to you and you can cash it in any bank of your choice.Therefore, you should send him your full Name, telephone number and your correct mailing address where you want him to send the Draft to you.

Contact Dr Erastus Akingbola immediately for your Bank Draft

Person to Contact: Dr Erastus Akingbola
Email: e.akingbola01@gmail.com
Phone: +234 80246 55800

Thanks and God bless you and your family. Hoping to hear from you as soon as you cash your Bank Draft.

Making the world a better place.

RegardsBan Ki-Moon.

(UN Secretary-General)

http://www.un.org/sg/

* Emphasis added.