E-mail Undo Feature

This is huge! Those wizards at Google have developed an "undo" feature for Google Mail. Compose a message, hit send, and you have five seconds to click the undo button. If you take no action, the message goes on its way.

I have noticed a similar feature in LinkedIn comment postings. After you compose and send a comment, you have a short period of time to edit it. After the waiting period, your comment is posted and sent out to the community.

I have been a big fan of Google Mail since I switched a couple years ago. Like many, I have several e-mail addresses. Most, but not all, are automatically routed from the original server straight over to Google. It's like magic.

This new undo feature is great. I predict it will become standard in all but the most simple e-mail systems.

Honeymoon in Purdah

I just finished reading a wonderful book about the people of Iran.

Honeymoon in Purdah, by Alison Wearing, 2000, ISBN 0-312-26181-0, available through Amazon.com (I bought my copy at Powell's in Portland).

Here are some notes from the book cover:

With an infectious love of travel, Alison Wearing invites us to journey with her to a country that few Westerners have a chance to see. Honeymoon in Purdah is a book of sketches gathered over the course of her journey in Iran.

Traveling with a male friend, in the guise of a couple on their honeymoon. Wearing set out on her own at every available opportunity. She went looking for what lay beneath the media's representation of Iran and found a country made up of welcoming, curious, warmhearted, ambitious men and women. Through her, we meet the ordinary and extraordinary people of Iran -- those whose lives extend beyond Western news stories of kidnappings, terrorism, veiled women, and Islamic fundamentalism. She introduces us to a gregarious young opium dealer who dreams of America, policemen who bring tea, a stranger waving hello in his pajamas, a playful eight-year-old girl only a year away from the possibility of marriage, and an irrepressible, heroic Anglican minister.

With humor and compassion, Alison Wearing gives Iranians the chance to wander beyond headlines and stereotypes, and in doing so, reveals the poetry of their lives.

They start from Turkey, to Tabriz, to Bandar-e-Azali, to Mashhad, to Zahedan, to Bandar Abbas, to Shiraz, to Esfahan, to Qom, to Tehran, to Turkey! I think I would not enjoy Qom, but the rest of the places all seem very interesting.

AIB Food Safety Audit of Peanut Plant

The New York Times (online) has a story of how third-party registration can result in a false feeling of security:

“The overall food safety level of this facility was considered to be: SUPERIOR,” he concluded in his March 27, 2008, report for his employer, the American Institute of Baking, which performs audits for major food companies. A copy of the audit was obtained by The New York Times.

Unfortunately, the person sent to audit the plant had lots of knowledge in fresh produce, not peanuts.

The reporter did a reasonable job of presenting his case, but had two misunderstandings:

1. Assumption that advance warning results in a worse audit. Worse inspection - yes; worse audit - generally not.
2. Assumption that audits paid by the auditee are somehow tainted. This may have some validity, as some firms just wanting the business (or certificate on the wall) may choose the cheapest and easiest audit firm.

Over the past several days, I have had some conversations with my colleagues about the "quality" of audits in several sectors: financial, food processing, etc. The flaws all seem to have a common root cause:

The auditor(s) did not study and understand the processes they were examining.

There are many reasons for this, but I believe it is the common cause.