I'm on the hunt for another email client for Windows.
Here are my requirements:
1. It must be graphical, client-based. (Web-based is too slow; terminal apps require too much thinking and I like my cut and paste.)
2. It must support IMAP
3. It must support multiple accounts and allow sending from either
4. It must not only check the IMAP Inbox, but also IMAP folders for new messages. I do server-side filtering into multiple folders.
5. It must use subscriptions to IMAP folders; it shouldn't just display them all.
6. It should be able to group by thread
7. It must be able to hide IMAP messages marked for deletion
8. It must render HTML in messages.
9. It must have a 3-pane interface, with folders on the side, messages at the top, and message preview below
10. It must auto-mark messages as read after viewing in the preview window for a few seconds (customizable)
11. It must allow different filtering/grouping display by folder.
12. It must allow sorting by date, most recent at the top
13. It must allow me to define the folder names for sent-mail and drafts
14. It must allow setting of the IMAP folder root.
Some nice to haves:
- Free would be nice, but this is something that's important enough to me that I'd be willing to drop $50 or so.
- Redirect and bouce features sure are handy.
- Spell checking (pretty standard these days). This helps keep me from looking stupid.
- Signatures based on account
- A good find command. Apple Mail's incremental search is pretty nice.
Outlook Express (Windows) falls down on #11 and has this problem where it will show there are messages in a folder but when I open it, none are there. It seems to have problems downloading them. Other than that, it's pretty well-designed and powerful.
I used Outlook XP for a while, but it was very slow and clunkly, at least for IMAP. Outlook Express is way faster.
Apple Mail is pretty good, except for #5 and it's kinda slow. It also doesn't do #4 automatically except on startup or if you "Synchronize" the account.
Outlook Express allows you to subscribe to folders, but you can't say don't check this folder unless I open it. The interface looks like you can do that, but it doesn't work. This is important because there are thousands of messages in my sent-mail folder and it takes a while for the imap server to check for new messages. I still want to have that folder in my list though.
Last week I tried Mozilla and then Thunderbird. Both seemed to have a lot of options, but they were really slow and it didn't support #4, an absolute necessity.
Everytime a new version of Eudora comes out I try it out and everytime I'm dissapointed. At least this time it didn't delete all my mail. Eudora is a mess of historical interfaces. I never found it intuitive, especially for IMAP. The one feature I really like from Eudora that I can't find in other clients is default domain for sending mail. '@yahoo-inc.com' is a real pain to type.
The best email client I've used was Claris Emailer back in the day. They really understood what users wanted. So much that subsequent versions of Outlook Express for the Mac were based on Emailer's interface after Apple killed Emailer. (I saw the product requirements when I worked at Microsoft.) It didn't support IMAP, but I those were the days before I used IMAP, so that wasn't a problem.
I'm sure others won't agree with my requirements, but this is how I use email. And since it's probably the application I spend the most time in, it's pretty relevent to my productivity.
Anybody have any good suggestions?
I bought this swanky new Dell 20" LCD monitor a month ago. When I first got it, I plugged it in to the DVI port on my PowerMac G4 and it worked like magic. It was so clear and large at 1600 x 1200. Then I rebooted for whatever reason and I noticed that my resolution had dropped to 1280 x 1024, which doesn't look great since it's a non-native resolution. Worse, the monitor preference panel wouldn't allow to me select any other resolution or bit depth.
I searched around the web and found a couple of solutions on MacOSXHints. One was to try the SwitchRes X utility. This didn't seem to work at all. I had no options for changing the resolution. Maybe this only works with analog monitors. DVI is too smart for its own good. The other solution was really simple - turn the monitor off when you reboot. The machine won't know what to use as the default resolution, so it will will just give you all the standard options. It turns out that this is what happened when I first installed the monitor since I didn't turn off the machine; I just plugged it in. If I hadn't done that, I'd probably still be scratching my head trying to figure out how to get the thing to run at 1600 x 1200.
It didn't seem to matter if I turned off the monitor or not. The only thing that worked was to physically unplug the monitor cable from the back of the machine which involves a lot of fumbling around in an area I can't reach very well.
I thought I would see if OS 9 would work better. I switched the boot to OS 9 and rebooted. It's so long since I've seen OS 9. I can't even remember the last time I had to start Classic mode. Well, part-way into the OS 9 boot, my monitor showed a lot of horizontal lines and got stuck. I hit the reset button to restart. It bonged and started up, then rebooted itself again, which is usually what it does after it decides to reset the PRAM. Then it started up again and uh oh - blinking question mark. It can't find anything to boot from.
After restarting a few more times and trying to start with the 'x' key down and intentionally reseting the PRAM, it still wouldn't boot. I stuck in the Jaguar install disk and got that going, but there's no option there to reset the startup folder. I tried booting from my OS 9.1 disk, but apparently it doesn't understand HFS+ or something because it wouldn't mount 2 of my 3 disks. Hmm, problem. How do I start up this machine? Tried some more disks, but most of them won't boot my particular G4. Luckily I had gotten a cheap version of Norton Utilties a while back and that one seemed to boot up OK. I was then able to use it run the Startup Disk control panel and set it to startup in OS X. I rebooted again and breathed a sigh of relief as OS X booted cleanly.
It's still very annoying to have to unplug my monitor everytime I reboot and Safari and the Finder are crashing often, which I don't think happens at 1280 x 1024. Another option is to try my DVI to VGA converter, but then what's the point of having a DVI monitor?
I think Apple is punishing me for saving $1000 and not buying one of their monitors. Grrrr. I wasn't planning on buying 10.3, but if it fixes this problem, it might be worth it.
Who am I kidding? I may last a month or two, but there's no way I'm going to be able to permanently resist buying the latest version OS X.
When I was growing up in New Hampshire, I used to go hiking a lot with a group of friends. One of our running jokes was to announce that we had to go "due North", which always meant up the mountain, no matter what direction it really was. I'm not sure why it was so funny, but it was.
Last night my Anne and me were watching Star Trek Enterprise because for some reason, this is one of the shows we agree on. (Sidenote: have you noticed that they jazzed up the theme song a little bit this season? They sped it up a bit and added some drums. It's still pretty melancholy, but what do you expect from Diane Warren? It could only be worse if Celine Dion was singing it. OK, it isn't quite Deep Space Nine depressing, but it's up there.)
The whole crew seems like they need some sort of group anger management therapy session this season. The captain is torturing people and they're all making brash decisions go after the Xindii, some new race that burned a big hole through Florida in an act of galactic 'terrorism'. Now Enterprise is sent on a mission to find these Xindii and I assume bomb the hell out of them. Sound familiar?
Anyway, the captain is barking his usual obvious reactive commands:
Ensign: They're hacking into our computer!
Captain: Block them!
Then maybe all this anger gets him confused because he says this:
Captain: Change our course 22 degrees North!
Umm, North? What exactly is North way out in outer space? If you haven't been paying attention "North" is defined as the direction towards Earth's North Pole or usually as we measure it, towards a particularly magnetically attractive area of earth someone near the North pole.
So how exactly do you define North in outer space? If they're using Earth's notion, then any direction is going to be directly back to Earth for a few light years.
'Years' have their own set of problems too. What planet? Why should Earth be the definition?
I hope we never encounter beings from another planet. Integration is going to be a bitch. We can't even get computers with different software running on them to work properly together. How are we going to get machines made by different species working together?
I know, SOAP!!
"Because in `Terminator' we always had powerful women. If she takes it the wrong way, it's not my fault."
-- Arnold Schwarzenneger on his comment to Arianna Huffington during last night's debate when he said "I just realized that I have a perfect part for you in `Terminator 4.'"
You've got to at least give this guy credit for his sense of humor.
We spent a while trying to find something like this last week as time is running out to send in our absentee ballots for the CA recall. KQED (which seems to be the only thing I listen to these days) has a vote by issue quiz you can use to vote on the candidates based on their responses on critical issues. After listening to the debate last night, I could see some of the candidates through their responses, but it was still an informative exercise. Take the quiz.
All my boulter.com mail is bouncing right now. The hurricane cut the power to the mail server, which lives in Maryland. Hopefully the power will be restored in the next few days. In the meantime, I can be reached at bowtah@yahoo.com.
Arrrr, today is Talk like a Pirate Day! Why? Well, I'm not sure, but you can read about it for yourself. NPR also ran an inteview with Dave Barry about it.
So the California recall election might be postponed due to problems with punchcard ballots in some districts. Punchcards are the "modern" equivalent of hieroglyphics. It's been decades since anyone has seriously used a computer that needed punchcards, why are do we still have them to elect our officials?
Some districts aren't even sure if they can manage a March election because they still haven't figured out how to get 135 names on the ballot.
People are convinced that we should switch to slightly more modern methods of voting, like touch screens. Why stop there? It's time for online voting.
Last week, I renewed my car registration online. I do all my banking online. I work for a site that handles billions of pageviews and handles complicated transactions. I heard today that most college applications are submitted online. (That's probably a good thing as finding a typewriter to fill out those forms is getting pretty hard!) It's time that we are allowed to vote online too.
What about fraud and "hacking" of the voting system? What about handling capacity? We already have systems that have solved this problem. eBay, Amazon and Yahoo are just a few of the sites who successfully deal with this problem everyday, not to mention all the financial institutions that are online. As long as the state goverment doesn't try to build this system themselves,and gets some reputable consulting firm to build it, and someone else to audit the hell out of it, it should be fine.
Online voting would also be cheaper and increase voter turnout. We sent in our application for absentee ballots last week. We're not actually going to be away, but it's more convenient to vote by mail then than to find the nearest polling place, wait in line and try to figure out whatever hokey voting system they've implemented. The state of California spent 60 cents for each of us to send us our ballot. That doesn't count the cost of the paper, processing or the original form they sent us so we could get our ballots. How much would it cost to process an online ballot? One cent, maybe 2?
Online ballots would also allow you to make an informed decision in the the voting booth. What if you could read as much as you wanted about each candidate before you decided to vote? Right now you get their age, hometown and occupation on the ballot. All that does is encourage people to vote down party lines.
With online voting you could even have voting more often. Why wait six months for referendum vote when you could have it next week?
What about people who don't have computers or internet access? Most libraries have decent internet access these days. Polling places could still be set up which would just be a temporary computer lab. I think they'd be a lot less trafficed though as online voting is just so much more convenient. Heck, I'd rather get online at Kinko's or a coffee shop and vote between checking email than go find a polling place.
Of course online voting doesn't even need to be a requirement. We could allow both ways for a while.
It's time for change in our antiquated voting system and while we're doing it, we might as well use 21st century technology.
Won't you help a Swede out? They've got all the lingonberries and meatballs they can stomach, but no Slurpees! Help bring Slurpees to Scandanavia!
Two years ago today, I got on the first flight out of L.A. after the airport was reopened. It was quite an experience. I didn't have a blog back then, so I thought I would commemorate the anniversary with posting the essay I wrote a few days after our flight.
Our flight was scheduled for Thursday afternoon. We had planned to fly from LA to Pittsburgh, make a connection to Hartford, then rent a car for the week and a half, leaving the next Sunday from BWI. We had two weddings, one this weekend in upstate NY and the other in Virginia the next weekend.
After Tuesday's incidents, we were pretty sure we weren't going to make the first wedding, and maybe not the second. We called the airline several times to discuss our options for rescheduling or refunds, our last call being on Wednesday night. At that time they confirmed that all US Airways flights for Wednesday were cancelled, despite what it said on the website. So we went to bed sure that we weren't going anywhere for probably a week and we didn't pack.
On Thursday morning, my wife Anne called her friends and family back east on the way to work to tell them that she wouldn't make the wedding. When I woke up later, I immediately checked the news and heard that flights would be resuming at 12pm PST. So I immediately called the airline and they said that my flight would indeed fly. I called Anne and discussed if we thought it would be safe. We weren't sure, but in the meantime, the second leg of our flight was cancelled, so I changed it to fly into Albany instead of Hartford. I picked up Anne at work and we began to pack, though we still weren't sure what we were going to do. At one point, she didn't want to go but eventually I convinced her - only to start doubting if it was such a good idea myself.
The airline was telling us that we should be there 2 1/2 hours before our 1:35 flight. This was complicated by the fact that the airport wasn't supposed to open until noon. This was all very disconcerting. We weren't sure how we were going to get into the airport, if we would miss our flight of not. If we caught the flight, would it be scary? If we caught that flight, would we make the connection in Pittsburgh? We still needed to rebook our car in Albany and figure out where we would stay that night. I dug a friend in Albany's new address and phone number and rebooked the car.
At this point we were all packed and rebooked, but we still weren't sure if we were going to actually go or not. Our parents had all pleaded with us NOT to go in days previous, but it would be disappointing not to go and miss a vacation! I argued that you'd have to be a pretty bold hijacker to go out and try to hijack a plane when everyone was looking for you and all your "buddies" were all either dead or fled the country. But we were still pretty nervous about going. We stared at each other for a few minutes, each of us wanting the other to make final decision. I paced and swore at myself. It didn't help.
I don't know what drove the final decision. It may have been the momentum of the last few hours, the spirit that seemed to be spreading about not letting ourselves be defeated, or maybe I'm just stubborn. We decided to go. It remained to be seen how stupid I would be. I called a cab and 15 minutes later we were off to the airport.
At 11:30, the airport was still closed. The cab waited in line to talk to some parking enforcement guy who finally told us that we couldn't drive into the airport. We had to go to one of the off-airport lots where we could take a shuttle bus in. We had been to these lots many times before, but suddenly we didn't remember where they were. We followed another cab and found our way to parking lot C, just outside the airport.
As we pulled up the curb beside the parking lot, people started to approach the car, apparently trying to hire the cab to go somewhere else than parking lot C. This was not a good sign. We unloaded anyway. Hey, we got this far, we have to keep going.
As we looked out into the parking lot, we saw something we had never seen before in this lot - hundreds, maybe thousands of people just standing there, bags in tow. We walked closer to discover that the line that ended at the depot wrapped around several times before we could get to the end of it. Like sheep, we got in line and stood in the noontime sun.
Since I moved to LA two and half years ago, I've come to one conclusion about the people there - they're all snotty, superficial snobs. But the people we started to talk with in line weren't like that. They were all in pretty good moods considering the situation, laughing at the absurdity of the whole thing, acknowledging that there were people on the other side of the country that it much worse that people stranded in a parking lot. Then I realized why - these people weren't from LA.! They were all people stranded here from other places, trying desperately to get home. They must have thought us crazy when we told them that we lived here and we didn't HAVE to get on a plane - we wanted to!
The shuttle buses lined up weren't letting people on yet and the line was growing. I joked to Anne that no hijacker would wait in a line this long! The rumor was that they would start moving people at noon. They were letting a few people that worked at the airport on the bus, but the rest of us were just standing there. I was nervous and didn't stand there for long; I took short walks around to get my mind off things.
A half-hour later, some police arrived. They started to try move people back, apparently off the street so the buses could start to get through. A note about moving a line of people several hundred feet long - start at the furthest end. These cops did not do that. They insisted that the people in front move first, which quickly frustrated them since they couldn't move without the people behind them moving. So everyone was yelling at people behind them, telling them to move back, mostly because the people in front of them told them the same thing. Eventually this worked and we moved 50 feet back or so. Once we finished moving this distance, the cops then insisted we move an additional three hundred feet back! By this time, they had gotten out their bullhorns so the people in the back had some idea of what they had to do. We waited for a few more minutes until the cops explained that someone had left their bags when they moved back and now they had to check the bag for a bomb before we could all go back.
By this time, the news crews had arrived and they were wandering around, putting cameras in people's faces. They were stuck on one woman in the front of the line who was screaming loudly but incorently about getting people to move back. Everyone was laughing at her.
We had been out there an hour by now, and we were thinking that even if we got to the terminal, there was no way we'd make our flight. Some people were distributing sunscreen. Noon came and passed and while we had heard one plane's engines on the tarmac, we saw nothing take off.
Suddenly the cops announced that the bag was OK and in a few minutes they were going to allow us to move forward. We had two options, they explained; we could wait for the line of shuttle buses, or we would walk to the airport, a 3/4 mile walk. Considering the huge crowd, we thought the walk would be our best bet.
The cops tore down the yellow police line tape and huge wave of people rushed towards the parking lot exit and the shuttle buses. It reminded me of the Doo-Da parade they have each year. It's a parade where people dress up and carry themselves on strange vehicles like hospital beds. Only in this parade, everyone had different types of luggage and they were all in an incredible hurry.
We zig-zagged across the parking lot and then funneled out of the exit to the street. Some people weren't as patient and were throwing their bags and then themselves over a 4-foot cement wall. We crossed the street and started heading up the elevated ramp that brings people over Sepulveda Boulevard to the Airport. It was a very odd sight. This swarm of people was climbing up the ramp, into the street toward the airport. Some people stopped to take out their cameras. No doubt they wanted to capture a memory of this incredible sight - people actually walking somewhere in LA!
We were going as fast as our rolling luggage would go and as fast as the people in front of us's rolling luggage would go. Police cars kept going by, yelling at people to stay on the sidewalk. People did, but only when the cop was right next to them. We caught up to one poor guy who was drenched with sweat. His suitcase didn't have wheels and it looked heavy. He stopped to heave it onto his shoulder and lumbered on.
At times Anne or I would end up in front or behind each other by several people. We looked back or forward to the other occasionally to make sure we still could find each other, but it was clear neither of us were slowing down for the other. The goal was to reach the ticket counter at all costs. The other would catch up.
Thankfully US Airways was in the first terminal and we got there quickly. It didn't seem as long as 3/4 mile, but it was hot out and by the time we actually reached the lines at the counter we were exhausted. I thought we had moved pretty quickly, but there was still a long line ahead of us. Our flight to Pittsburgh was still there on the board, as well an earlier flight to Philadelphia.
Now, if nothing else, we felt like we had accomplished something by actually getting to the airport. The walk over was looney, but we made it and we seemed to actually have a shot at getting somewhere today. The worries of being hijacked were displaced, if only momentarily, with the hope that we might catch a flight at all.
They were calling people out of line to check in for Philadelphia, which was supposed to leave an hour before us. It was the first flight out on US Airways from LAX, possibly the first of any airline from LAX. We had some time to rethink our plans while in line. Our goal was to be in Newburgh, NY on Friday night. Pittsburgh-Albany would get us there if we made our connection, but that was a big if. If the Albany flight was cancelled, we could rent a car from Pittsburgh, stay overnight, and do the 6-7 hour drive the next day. Not much fun, but possible. We had some good friends in Philadelphia though and that's a lot closer to Newburgh than Pittsburgh. I pestered an agent until she told me that there were seats available on the Philadelphia flight. We could try to go standby to Philly, and still take the Pittsburgh flight if we had to. We switched lines and prepared to take our third itinerary of the day.
The board said that the 12:20 Philly flight was still on-time, but it was already past 1. We waited in line and made it to the counter. The agent was in a surprisingly good mood considering the frantic work happening all around. We emphatically denied that we carrying anything given to us by unknown persons and she proceeded to try to get us on the Philly flight.
Since she was in a good mood, we asked her how safe she thought the flight would be, realizing that we may have to face actually getting on a plane in a few minutes. Her answer wasn't very encouraging. She said that you can't stop people who really want to hijack planes. They had tiny knives. "How are you going to stop that??" she said. She did seem to think that airlines had gotten lax about security though and that these recent incidents would force them to at least get as secure as international flights.
After a few minutes of staring down and banging keys, she announced that we had confirmed seats on the Philly flight. We were simultaneously amazed and terrified. But again, we had gone this far, why not go further? If it got too scary, we could always just turn around and go home. We headed up the stairs to the metal detectors. The checked our IDs against our tickets and passed us through. They used wands to search us and padded down our ankles. The hijackers had strapped their knives to their ankles. They searched Anne's backpack and made us open up my toiletries bag. The hijackers had used razors to make other knives. We passed security and headed toward the gate. They were already announcing boarding.
We quickly pulled out cell phones and called our parents to tell them which flight we were on and our friend in Philly and another in LA. We were glad that no one was home and we just left messages. They surely would have tried to convince us not to go. But we were this far, so we went on. After we hung up, we got in line to board the plane.
As I was in line, I couldn't help but look around at the people about to get on the plane with me. Did any of them look suspicious? Certainly I would have thought twice if I saw a few Arab men in line. Would it be worse to be racist or potentially dead? Luckily we didn't have much time and we got on the plane.
It was clear that the plane wasn't very full. All the people we talked to were trying as hard as they could to get out of LA and get back home. I felt selfish for trying to go on a vacation. We talked to a flight attendant to settle ourselves. She denied ever having to deal with a terrorist incident. She mentioned that they couldn't have hot meals anymore since they required metal knives. We joked about a strict "no sporks allowed!" policy. Overall, she was pretty happy to be at work and seemed calm. That was good.
Soon the plane finished loading and a confident-sounding captain came on the intercom, talking about how long the flight would be and what the weather was like. Everything was going to be good, he said. The plane had been well maintained. It looked like a newer 757, which was also good. I thought about the fact that all of the planes on Tuesday had crashed within an hour or so of take off. I thought that would be our critical hour as well. The captain announced we were next to takeoff. When he said 'next,' I hoped he didn't mean 'first.'
As we sped down the runway, I thought about what I would do if the plane were hijacked. I gave up when I realized that I didn't have a clue. I doubt any of the people on Tuesday did either. The plane seemed to race down the runway for a long time. "Pull up!" I thought. Finally it did. Anne clutched my clammy hand and worried to me aloud about how loud it seemed. I assured her that it was just because we were in the back of the plane. We were now aloft and the plane banked left hard to make a U-turn away from the Pacific. Even this seemed disconcerting. I picked up some boring reading and tried to forget I was on a plane. All the decisions had been made now. I was definitely headed East.
The first hour passed pretty quickly. I devoured the cold chicken salad. I hate cold chicken, but I was unable to eat anything the whole morning, so I was thankful for it. I passed on the movie and pulled out some more reading. It was still boring. Thankfully most of the flight was the same.
About an half-hour before we landed, we hit the worst turbulence I have ever experienced as we passed through a storm. The plane had several sudden violent shakes. I closed the windows next to me to try to ignore the lightning flashes. The violent shaking was harder to ignore. It passed in a few minutes though and we landed safely. I felt like clapping. When the captain announced we had arrived in Philadelphia, everyone did.
We passed along our blankets and pillows to woman who was sitting in front of us. She was trying to get to Manchester and had missed her connection. I had spent a night in the Philadelphia airport myself once. It's neither comfortable, dark, nor quiet. We wished her luck.
As soon as the plane was parked, everyone including the both of us whipped out our cell phones and called the same people we called immediately before we boarded the plane. My Dad was happy to hear from me. Anne's Mom apparently was a wreck.
Our friend in Philly had gotten our message and left a message while we were in the air that she would meet us at the airport, or as close as she could, since they weren't allowing unticketed people at the actual gates. She was there. The airport seemed very empty. While we waited to pick up our bags, I used a phone to cancel our second car reservation in Albany.
We drove home to our friend's house outside Philadelphia. We heard about the news of the day, including that a few more Arab men had been arrested in New York for carrying knives onto a plane. While this was all reported later as exaggerated and mostly false, I felt like we had dodged a bullet. We were happy that we didn't have another plane to get on because we probably wouldn't have gotten on it.
I don't think I had ever been so happy to be in Philadelphia. I don't think that it really mattered that it was Philadelphia versus Albany versus Pittsburgh. It was more that I was anywhere safe was relieving. I was so happy, I didn't believe it was real. I thought I must have been dreaming. In reality, I was surely dead after another hijacking.
As I laid in bed, Tom Brokaw still babbling on in the background, I remembered an old trick I had once learned to determine if I was dreaming. Look at something, look away, and then look back at it. If you're dreaming it will change between the two looks. I looked down a hallway, closed my eyes, then slowly opened them again. It looked the same. I wasn't dreaming. The hallway didn't change, but in the last few days, it seemed like everything else did.
That's really weird for Silicon Valley. It's been so long since I've seen it rain here that I've almost forgotten what rain looks like.
In New England everyone watches the weather religiously. They plan outdoor events and pray that it will be nice out that day. Large events like graduations always have an indoor venue reserved in case it looks like it's going to rain.
Here I've pretty much forgotten that weather happens. Every day here is the same - a little overcast in the morining, then it burns off and its nice all day with few if any clouds and no humidity. Sure it gets a little colder in the winter, but you barely need a jacket.
Anyway, I'm enjoying the rain. I like the smell and the shine coming off the streets. Maybe I'll go out for a walk and pretend I'm back in New England.
Last weekend at the Mountain View Art and Wine festival, they had something I've never seen before - sponsored restrooms. The Charmin "Ultra Potty Palooza" was there, which is a 18-wheeler sized trailer with about 20 individual restrooms in it. There were big plasma screens showing Charmin commercials and playing the Charmin 'theme song'. Apparently they've ditched the baby for this cartoon bear now. Funny, I thought bears didn't need restrooms.
It kind of looked like one of those haunted house rides you see at fairs, except the ride was inside you.
This was so weird that I had to try it. I had to wait in line for a while to get in. A bunch of young Charmin representatives escorted you to the nearest available restroom. It was about the size of a airplane bathroom inside, but with a higher ceiling. Near the ceiling was another monitor playing commercials. You had your choice of Charmin Ultra or Charmin Ultra Plus with Aloe and to dry your hands from the small sink was a big ol' roll of Bounty. I don't normally think of toilet paper as the kind of product that you can 'sample', but the Charmin folks found a way to do it. I'll admit, it was better than your typical port-o-potty.
"Murphy's revenge: The more reliable you make a system, the longer it will take you to figure out what's wrong when it breaks." - Sean Donelan
...but I don't think if I was here, this would be on the top of my list of priorities.