Sausage Rolls

I've been experimenting with sausage rolls recently. They get eaten quickly around here, which gives plenty of opportunities to try stuff out.

This is my current recipe:

• 250g minced pork (I got mine from The Ginger Pig)
• 2 medium sized apples (I used a couple of old Pink Ladies that were hanging about suspiciously)
• 1 large onion (mine happened to be a French pink one)
• 3 large cloves of garlic
• 20 twists of pepper
• 3 tsp sea salt flakes (Maldon worked well)
• Plus puff pastry.

Chop the onion and apple very finely, probably with some kind of machine (I use this, which works OK). Mix with all the other ingredients, then put in puff pastry. I use the easy-roll stuff, leaving more time to play with the flavours. Splash some milk on top to help with browning, then 25mins at 200 degrees C should wrap things up.

I'm pretty happy with this recipe, but keen to improve. The apple seemed like an odd idea at first, but it really helped to make them lighter and more interesting. What next? I'd like to incorporate the almost caramelised taste of the outside of a roast pork joint. I'm considering flash frying lumps of pork in something sweet like honey or soy, then mincing so that the process above starts with a mix of soft/raw meat and sweet crispy meat.

After that, maybe I'll try putting small bits of crackling in the mix. A little crunch might complement the softness of pork nicely. Yum.

Mirona reckons I should add in thyme leaves. Other suggestions welcome.

Twitter is too complex

Twitter is often described as simple. And it is, compared to services like Facebook and Last.fm. Simplicity is usually a Good Thing in a web service. The simpler the service the easier it is to build, maintain and grow. Potential users understand the service quicker, and they ask fewer support questions. Investors will get the idea quicker, too. The efforts of the team are more focused, so they're likely to make a better service. If your users want more features, that's not a problem either. The web is designed to be good at linking to other external services which can provide them.

Despite the compliments, I don't think Twitter is simple enough. As an example, let's consider the process of making Twitter friends:

There's one main friend-making operation in Twitter - 'following'. If I follow you I receive your messages. if I 'unfollow' you I stop receiving them. Seems pretty simple? Well, because it works both ways this one operation still creates 4 states that our relationship can be in (no relationship, I follow you/you don't follow me, you follow me/I don't follow you, and finally we both follow each other), and 8 ways that we can move between those states. With care, that much is possible to explain to the user, as well as to engineer in a simply and scalable way. It would also be possible to build a simple API, allowing other developers to easily add data, and value, to your service.

But Twitter does not stop there. They've allowed two further operations. If you don't like the look of me, then you can 'block' me, which means I don't receive any more messages about you. You can also choose to protect your messages, which means that I only see your messages if you 'approve' me. Those seem like sensible features, and they are common elsewhere.

The problem is that those two new operations have doubled the complexity of the system. They introduced at least 3 new states and 10 new ways of moving between states. (Twitter does not describe exactly how the system works in their documents, and I lose the ability to count exactly without spending hours creating and playing with test accounts). Every one of those new states and transitions will create some confused users, support calls, and rack up engineering hours. Developers using the API will either keep their applications very simple, or encounter unexpected errors and headaches.

I'll bet that the return on investment for these extra features is poor:

Few users protect their messages, and arguably those people would be better off on Facebook or similar services with strong privacy features. Users with protected updates are probably worth less to Twitter too, because there will be restrictions on how their data can be used.

'Blocking' seems essential, but I'd argue that a separate 'report spam' button and the existing 'unfollow' button are just as good. Worst of all, once these features have been added it is very hard to remove them.

As a regular user, and also as an occasional API user, I hope that developers of the next generation of web services keep their systems even simpler. It's better for everyone that way.

BA Stupidity

I'm upset today that airlines still refuse to correct customer's honest mistakes. I posted the message below here on the rather fantastic Get Satisfaction. I'll post the follow-up I receive.

No way to correct booking mistakes

I made a mistake yesterday, booking a codeshare flight operated by Iberia, rather than a British Airways-operated sector. With all the fluff about travel insurance upsells and carbon offsetting it was a fairly easy mistake to make, but it was my mistake.

I called BA back less than 24 hours later, hoping to change to an earlier or later BA-operated flight, but was told this would cost £40 per passenger - no exceptions. Apparently the carrier operating the flight is immaterial. This seems a bit hypocritical when they spend money on stuff like this.

I'm a loyal BA customer. I choose them over budget carriers despite a considerable price difference because I value the in-flight service. I don't take that view about many full-fat carriers, and certainly not about Iberia.

Countries in drop down lists

Many websites need to ask users which country they come from, and use a drop-down list of countries to collect the information. If, like me, you come from the "United Kingdom", these forms are often a pain to fill in. The process should be easy, because there is a standard list of countries called ISO 3166. This list contains official names (notified by the country to the UN Secretary General, no less), and is ordered alphabetically.

With the standard list I can hit "U" 4 times to get "United Kingdom". "Uganda , "Ukraine" and "United Arab Emirates" skip right by. This short-cut needs to be learned, but it will work internationally. Those who have not learned the short-cut can find their country in the place they expect it.

The problem: Websites often mess with the country list.

For example:

• By changing the name of my country. I have to find "Great Britain", or even England. Time-consuming and not helpful. Did the site owner think I was going to read the full list to pick the best option?
• By sticking United States at the top. In some software (particularly mobile device browsers) this means I can't just hit "U" to scan through the countries. The non-alphabetical order confuses things.
• By also sticking "United Kingdom" at the top. If the "U" key still works, I often spin right past United Kingdom and have to go round again.

A simple request: If you want an international audience stick to the standard list.

No changes, please. Unless you're the UN Secretary General.

A perspective on my writing

A little something for a Friday afternoon. With thanks to Ashok and wordle.net