Unsuck-It.com

Unsuck-It.comA team of graphic designers at San Francisco design studio Mule had had enough of obfuscating corporate jargon, and decided to demystify those annoying phrases, allusions and metaphors commonly heard by anyone working in a “cube farm” (Unsucked: an office containing many cubicles). Unsuck-It.com works like any online dictionary. Enter a phrase, such as “idea shower” (Unsucked: using your imagination), “dog’s breakfast” (mess), or “low-hanging fruit” (easy goal), and it is instantly “unsucked” in simple English.

If your phrase is not in the database, a “you define it” button appears allowing you to be the douchebag jargonist and provide your own definition, and of course, you must use it in a sentence. I searched for “paper tiger,” which is frequently abused by the tech industry. Alas, it was not in the database, so I unsucked it. It means, “something that appears threatening but is not,” or more commonly, “its bark is worse than its bite.” Used in a sentence: “Organizations often make investment decisions on the basis of tight budgets and business cases that are actually paper tigers.”

I urge you to share the Unsuck-It link with all your d-bag friends.

Hotel photo fake-outs

Amateur photographers/contributors to the hotel review website The Oyster visit luxury hotels worldwide to serve as consumer watchdogs. Are the hotels’ own websites, public relations materials and brochures accurately portraying their accommodations? Numerous side-by-side photo comparisons prove otherwise.

Some examples are subtle, while other photos clearly appear doctored, are the victim of the stylist, or are shot through the lens of obfuscation. Examples include missing room accoutrements, crashers of “private” beach weddings, rooms with an unintended view, hot tub-sized pools cropped to appear larger, crowded beaches rather than tranquil views, or traffic signals and signposts removed from exterior façade shots.

The point of Oyster’s posts is to keep hoteliers honest, and to provide real-life visual documentation to augment typical hotel reviews, so its members “can see the truth before they book.”