Open Letter to Marissa Mayer

Dear Marissa,

I admire you as a leader, and I respect the fact that you are able to both operate at an executive level as well as roll up your proverbial sleeves and code.  It is because I think you are receptive to feedback that I am writing to you to share some thoughts about a few of your Yahoo assets that I've used for many years.

First, Yahoo Mail. I love the fact that I have unlimited storage space on Yahoo Mail. Because I often send and receive photos through email, the unlimited storage is probably the main reason I maintain my Yahoo Mail account. The other reason is that you've done a pretty darn good job with the spam filter. But let me offer some constructive criticism as well. You're trying to do too much with Yahoo Mail. The conversation threading is nice, but sometimes it is hard for me to follow which part of the thread I am reading and which item in the thread an action (e.g., delete) applies to, and so I have disabled the threading option. You're also getting too cute with the web page preview function when you paste a link in an email. Don't do this by default, I almost never want it. Rather, let me mouse over the link and let me expand the link into a preview. Otherwise you're just getting in my way. Another suggestion I have is to speed up the sending and receiving of email messages. With other email clients like Gmail, incoming and outgoing messages are processed within seconds, whereas with Yahoo Mail, it almost always takes minutes.  Oh, and today you prevented me from sending an email altogether because you thought *I* was sending spam. I was sending a link to myself to remind me to read it later. Here's the message I received from Yahoo Mail:

So I did add some text and tried to re-send, but I got the same message again. I added even more text and resent, but again I received the same message.  Eventually I gave up and used my trusty Gmail account instead.  Gmail lets me get stuff done--it does a great job at performing core email functions very well.  I wish Yahoo Mail could do the same thing reliably, but today it falls noticeably short.

Next let's talk about Yahoo Sports. I used to use Yahoo Mail almost exclusively to follow my favorite college and professional teams.  But now you've tried to "fancy up" the site and in the process have reduced its usability.  For example, when looking at a team's complete score history, you list the scores and put the higher score in bold, but it's hard to tell if MY team won or lost, especially since my team flip flops from the right side to left side depending on whether it was a home or away game. You used to put "W" or "L" in a column so I could easily tell, but now you make me work to figure it out.  Bring back the W/L column please! Also, you've peppered the pages with ridiculous ads. I know that you need revenue to sustain your business, but could you at least make the ads less intrusive? It used to be that your ads were clearly offset to the top or sides of a page, but now you have listings of your stories (each with a photo and caption) with ads embedded within the listings. It simply feels less professional, and I don't enjoy your Sports pages as much so I visit other sports sites more frequently now.

Oh, I almost forgot to address Yahoo Search. Ironically, the reason I almost forgot to provide feedback is because I almost never use it. I'm not sure what algorithms you use for your search engine, but for the exact same search criteria, I usually find Google's search engine to deliver more relevant results, especially if I'm looking for something highly specific or esoteric. I get the sense that you are trying to differentiate Yahoo from Google by making Yahoo more of a content company at heart than Google which is more of a search company. However, I think you actually draw a lot of attention away from search. Even though www.yahoo.com has a search bar at the top, one's attention is directed toward the photos and stories farther down the page.  And although you have search.yahoo.com dedicated to search, I never go there, and I would suspect that few others do either.

Finally, I'd like to conclude with comments about Yahoo Weather. Frankly I think you nailed it. Both the web site and your mobile app do things very nicely--that is, to provide the current weather and the forecast. I like your use of local images for the background as well as the Monthly Trends and Sun & Moon information boxes. And you've partnered nicely with weather.com for the extended forecast.

I know that I'm just 1 user, but my recommendation would be to provide a better user experience with Mail and Sports. Let's not get too cute with features and functions. Make sure you've covered the basics and implemented them well. Then if you want to add frills, make them options that people can toggle on/off as they please, but don't thrust upon your users things that they may never want to see or use. Best wishes with the turnaround of Yahoo.

Sincerely,

Digital Daddy in L.A.

Hard Drive Erasure

Are you thinking of donating or recycling an old computer? Better make sure you first erase (or "wipe" or "format") your data. While simply deleting all of your files is one approach, it is not very secure. Did you know that when you delete a file, the contents of the file remain on your hard drive? In fact, deleting a file simply modifies the directory that references the location of the file contents and tells the directory that the space is available to be re-used. That's why if you accidentally delete a file, it is often possible to un-delete the file. But if you delete a file and then save a lot of other information to the hard drive, then chances are that new information may have over-written the same physical location where your deleted file had previously resided, thereby making it far more difficult (but not necessarily impossible) to recover. That is the basis for a variety of hard drive wiping algorithms. In fact, the more times you over-write previous data, the more difficult it is to recover that data in a meaningful way.

In this post, I will address some simple ways to erase hard drives on Windows and Macintosh systems. Needless to say (but I'll say it anyway), make sure you have backed up any information that you intend to keep before wiping your hard drive. Then after you've verified that you've backed up the desired data, check again. Are you sure now? OK, then consider making 2 or more backup copies because when it comes to preserving data, redundancy is a good thing. Are you totally sure now? Just checking. Once you apply one of these techniques, your data will be gone forever. Alright, on with the discussion.

First, a discussion about wiping methods. The quickest method is a 1-pass erase where you simply write zeros over the entire hard drive. While this is far better than simply deleting your files, it is theoretically possible to apply forensic technology to examine the residual magnetic properties of your hard drive and recover the overwritten data. So as long as you're going down this route, you might as well go for at least a 3-pass erase, where most algorithms write a 10101010 pattern on the first pass, followed by a 01010101 pattern on the second pass, and then a random pattern on the third pass.  For the paranoid, there is also a 7-pass option. For the extreme paranoid, there is a 35-pass (Gutmann method) option--geez, what kind of data do you have on your hard drive to need this? Nevermind, I don't want to know. The 3-pass option takes (you guessed it) 3 times as long as the 1-pass option, and the 7-pass option takes... ahem, you get the point. So depending on how large your hard drive is, be prepared to leave it running for a long time (eg, hours or even days depending on how hard drive size and number of passes).

On Windows operating systems, I recommend using an application called Darik's Boot and Nuke (DBAN). A free download is available at www.dban.org. Simply retrieve the latest version and burn it to a CD or DVD. Then boot your machine to the DBAN CD or DVD. Depending on what machine and operating system you have, you might be able to set a target boot destination or get into the machine BIOS by pressing a certain key or key combination upon startup. From there, you can select the wiping method. There are 1-pass, 3-pass, 7-pass, 35-pass, and other options. When finished, you can install an operating system on your hard drive if desired.

On Macintosh operating systems, if you have a recent operating system (e.g., OS X 10.10 Yosemite and OS X 10.9 Mavericks) simply restart your Mac and hold down the Command and R keys. At the menu, select Disk Utility, select the hard drive, and click the Erase tab. You'll have options for 1-pass (Zero Out Data), 7-pass, and 35-pass wipes. After the drive is erased, you'll have the option to re-install the operating system. For older Mac operating systems, you should have an installation DVD or CD that came with your computer. Boot into the DVD or CD (depending on your machine, you may have to hold down a different key or key combination to boot into the CD/DVD drive) to access Disk Utility and erase away.

Well, there you have it. Hopefully these approaches will keep your personal information secure. By the way, if the above methods are too complex or time-consuming for your taste, the alternative is to just smash your hard drive with a hammer--it is probably a faster method and definitely way more fun, but the recipient of your old computer will not have a functioning machine. :-) If you have other recommendations for wiping Windows and Macintosh computers, leave a comment below!