Joel on Software lays out his company’s recipe for customer service that parallels our own Zing approach. How very uplifting to read about other IT groups focusing on the user!

#2 is hilarious yet practical, giving customers a graceful exit out of a user-error problem.

Of all his steps, this one really caught my eye:
#8 Give customer service people a career path

Here at Fog Creek, customer support is just the first year of a three-year management training program that includes a master’s degree in technology management at Columbia University.

Now that’s commitment to customer service!

Dell’s IdeaStorm takes feedback and suggestions from the Dell user community and allows them to promote the ones they like and demote the ones they don’t.

Ultra wide, ultra mail-able, and ultra unlike any envelope you’ve used before.

At just 11×17 inches this envelope this is truly a breakthrough design.

Are you a huge nerd with a sharp sense of style? Then these ASCII art curtains by Dutch designer Nienke Sybrandy would the perfect addition to your abode. ASCII art is like geek impressionist painting: from afar you see a complete image, but up close you see all the tiny strokes (in this case printable characters) that make up the image. If the term hasn’t been coined already, I’d like to call this “geek chic.”