News You Can Bruise for 2005 September 21

Permalink [Comments] (17) Wed Sep 21 2005 22:54:

If I were to have business cards made, what should I put on them? I was thinking some little template on the back that would be useful to people.
Comments:

Posted by Kevan at Thu Sep 22 2005 07:45

Hm, what do you mean by "template"? A tickbox table they or you can fill in to remind them what you talked about and why they should contact you? Or some dinosaur outlines to draw around with a pen?

Posted by Sean Neakums at Thu Sep 22 2005 08:03

How about the C operator precendence table? I'm a lifelong defensive parenthesiser, and I want to change.

Posted by Leonard at Thu Sep 22 2005 08:35

Either one, leaning towards the dinosaur outlines. I was thinking of doing a blank one-panel comic and filling in the dialogue at runtime.

Posted by Brendan at Thu Sep 22 2005 08:57

Hold a poll and pick the top ten really good, really short NYCB entries.

Posted by Sean Neakums at Thu Sep 22 2005 09:09

"News You Can Peruse (While Waiting For The Shockwave Of The Recently-Detonated Sun To Intersect With The Orbit Of The Earth)".

Posted by pedro at Thu Sep 22 2005 10:01

I like the cartoon idea -- find two 50s office worker dudes or something, and give them both empty speech bubbles. Then either you can leave them blank, or you can fill them in.

"Hey, thanks for the interview!"

"You're welcome, Leonard!"

Or maybe "Did you know that * is always evaluated before +?"

"No, I did not!"

Posted by Susie at Thu Sep 22 2005 10:10

It is probably expensive to print on the back of business cards. But I would definitely vote for something you can draw on, or something funny. We have business cards left with us all the time (as the receptionist) and I draw on them if they lie around too long.

Posted by Adam Vandenberg at Thu Sep 22 2005 10:43

Consider leaving it blank, or at least using a very light color; the back of a business card is SACRED SPACE for notes. Like, say, giving someone your super-secret home phone number.

Posted by mike at Thu Sep 22 2005 10:44

going with the "something fun" idea, how about some sort of puzzle/coded message?

Posted by Kevan at Thu Sep 22 2005 10:56

An RFK foil scratchcard.

Posted by pedro at Thu Sep 22 2005 11:20

DeCSS sourcecode.

You can't underestimate the power of being relevant in today's business environment.

Posted by Nathaniel at Thu Sep 22 2005 17:26

You could be a bit retro and go with a ciphersaber.

Posted by Aaron Swartz at Thu Sep 22 2005 18:05

I think a customer service evaluation survey is your best bet. "On a scale of 1 (unsatisfactory) to 5 (very satisfactory), how would you rate Leonard's ability to work current events into the conversation?"

Posted by Ian Bicking at Thu Sep 22 2005 20:53

See this site (and the sites it links to): http://www.nedbatchelder.com/text/cardcube.html

Posted by Jack Masters at Sat Sep 24 2005 16:44

put red spots on the back, and when they ask you what they are say "i spilled my pasghetti :("

that, or put another business card text on it that says you're a murderer, and black it out. Make it look like you were too cheap to get new business cards and just printed new text on the back.

Posted by jcoab brenedese at Sun Sep 25 2005 03:53

at one point my grandmother's neighbor died, and having no relatives of his own, the task of dealing with his stuff somehow got pawned off on my mother and me, despite the fact that we never knew him. pretty much the only thing i kept was a 1940s business card for some insurance agent, on the back of which was a two part cartoon. in the first part a cat is yowling on some fence somewhere. in the second panel he's proudly waking down the street followed by a litter of kittens. sandwiching the pictures along the top and bottom is the sentance "YOU GOTTA MAKE CALLS / IF YOU WANT TO GET RESULTS". crude but effective. i can scan this if you want.

Posted by Kevan at Thu Sep 29 2005 18:29

The Top-Trumps style things at egocards.com would be quite good if they didn't look so embarrassing. ("Make your business card stand out in someone's wallet by having a giant cartoon superhero on it, so that they'll be self-conscious about other people seeing it, and throw it away.")

Some terrible metagame where you win if you collect the business cards of a group of your friends might be amusing. Or a box on the back with CCG abilities. I've been meaning to get some printed myself, actually...

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