Category: Business


Capitalism, “Let’s just be friends.”

Filed Under: Business, Politics, Technology, Web Design by admin — Leave a comment
August 30, 2010

I have a 3D TV valued at $3100 (Costco gave it to me for $150). I have 2 pairs of $200 glasses (thankfully came with the TV) that somehow require power to watch the 3D TV that plays the same movie I watched in the theater with non power-requiring-glasses. I have a PlayStation3 valued at $400 or so that supposedly has the capability to play a 3D movie, if one existed that I wanted to watch. I have a subscription to DirecTV that also costs around $100 a month if I want HD (and now 3D) content. Can I watch 3D movies with my current setup? No.

Why?

It’s interesting you should ask… they’ve decided regular HDMI can’t support the 3D signal and so, I now also have to upgrade my $3,000 receiver I got for Christmas a few years ago to be able to process 3D HDMI. Oh it supports normal HDMI, just not 3D HDMI…

I wasn’t silent when they came to tell me I could not sync my iPhone with more than one computer without deleting my music. I wasn’t silent when I plugged said iPhone into an iPhone enabled radio that now doesn’t “support that accessory”. I wasn’t silent when I lost my save progress and my Platinum trophy in Assassin’s Creed II because their servers went down and they’re required to have an internet connection to in order to play.

I’m sick of these cruddy business practices. Isn’t it capitalism’s solution that there should be a great product by an honest and true company that I can support with my hard earned money? Well, the last place I seem to be able to find those companies (like BeyondCompare3, Dwarf Fortress, 37Signals, etc.) is on the internet and even that they want to crud up with a tiered speed structure (thanks Google and Verizon for not being evil).

Am I the only one fed up? Where’s the honest business man supposed to fit into this?  Maybe I’m not loud enough, I’m just not sure how to get any louder.

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Hotmail ignores grandmother and claims no phone support because of non-existent Federal Law

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June 26, 2010

My girlfriend’s grandmother had her email hacked at Hotmail. Locked out and scared she contacted my girlfriend who has tried to go above and beyond to recover and restore her grandmother’s email account. Here is the exchange between my girlfriend and a Microsoft Hotmail agent Alvie:

You are being transferred to another Agent. Please stand by…

Alvie has joined this session!

Connected with Alvie. Your reference number for this chat session is 2380944.

Alvie: Welcome to Microsoft Customer Service chat. How may I help you?

Alvie: This chat service is designed to assist you with site navigation, technical support case submission, and customer service questions. If you need technical support, I can provide you with your support options or help you submit your case to the appropriate support professional who can work with you to resolve your issue.

Kelsey: Hi! I have a question regarding my grandmother’s hotmail account…

Kelsey: She doesn’t understand quite what’s going on, so I am attempting to help fix it for her.

Kelsey: Someone hacked into her email account, and is now spamming people from her contact list.

Kelsey: She cannot regain access to her account.

Kelsey: I have tried several times to change the password for her, but I get an error message every time.

Kelsey: I have even waited the 24 hours before trying again.

Kelsey: All of my information I am using is directly from her, and is accurate.

Kelsey: How can I recover her email account for her?

Alvie: Thank you Kelsey for all this information provided.

Alvie: For Hotmail issues, you may go to our support website that may help this issue resolve on your own. The website that you can go to is support.live.com.

Kelsey: I have tried that site. It has not helped. I need a Customer Service Representative to help resolve this please

Kelsey: That site offers three ways to help recover a compromised account. I have tried all three. None of them have worked.

Alvie: Unfortunately, we do not have phone support for hotmail accounts because it involves very confidential information and Microsoft is prohibited by Federal Law for this type of issues.

Kelsey: So I discovered. They make it impossible to find a person to help!

Kelsey: So if I cannot talk to a real live person, how am I supposed to resolve this??

Alvie: On that site, you can submit an incident online and someone from hotmail team will respond to you within 24 hours.

Kelsey: I tried that. It would not let me complete the report.

Alvie: For those spam mails sent to the contacts of your grandmother. Please tell the recipients of the mail to create a reply email and please cc this email address: abuse@microsoft.com.

Alvie: I am really sorry Kelsey, we don’t have phone support for Hotmail issues.

Kelsey: Why would that help? If I reply, won’t the spammer know that they have found a live email address?

Alvie: The email address of that spammer will be already blocked from sending emails to those contact lists.

Kelsey: By whom?

Kelsey: And what if I can get my grandmother’s email account back? Will that mean that she will also be blocked from emailing people on her contact list?

Alvie: By hotmail support. It is automatically generated in the system that the email address of that spammer will already be blocked.

Alvie: No. Only the email address or the source of that spam email will be blocked.

Alvie: You can post your question on that site. There is also a forum site at support.live.com

Kelsey: You know, salvaging her email address really isn’t all that important. If I can salvage her contact list though, I could import it into another email provider, like gmail. Do you know if there is a way to do that? To just save her contact list and export it?

Alvie: I am sorry Kelsey, I am not technically trained. I am afraid I could not be able to provide an answer to that question.

Kelsey: Ok. You have clearly tried to help, thank you.

Alvie: You are most welcome. Is there anything else?

Kelsey: Do you know what Federal law it is that prohibits Hotmail from providing phone support?

Alvie: It is a US Federal Law.

Kelsey: Can you please specify which law that is?

Alvie: I am sorry I do not have that specific information.

Kelsey: Who provided you with the information that there was a law at all?

Alvie: There is a law on invasion of privacy, Kelsey and that is in Federal law. Microsoft is not allowed to invade that privacy of our customers.

Kelsey: By providing phone support?

Alvie: Yes Kelsey.

Kelsey: Can you please give me the citation for this US Federal Code?

Alvie: I am sorry I do not have that information here right now.

Alvie: I am sorry we don’t have phone support for hotmail issues.

Kelsey: It seems like there may not actually be a law, right Alvie?

Kelsey: Can you please provide me with a Microsoft Customer Service phone number.

Kelsey: That is the last thing I need today.

Alvie: I cannot agree on you for that matter. I am just following policy here at Microsoft.

Alvie: Sure, the phone number you can call is 1-800-936-5700 option 0. Business hours is from 6 am – 3 pm, PST, Saturday and Sunday.

Kelsey: Ok. That is all.

Alvie: Ok. Thank you for using Microsoft Customer Service chat. Have a great day.

Alvie has left this session!

The session has ended!

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Zappos is looking for talent – in the custom header variables of their website assets

Filed Under: Business, Web Design by admin — 1 Comment
March 22, 2010

Zappos.com has some pretty cool shoes, and let’s be honest, one of the most positive company brand’s to work for since Google. I’ve always been impressed with their business practices: They pay employees to quit. So how do you hire someone who’s a complete web nerd? Put your job application in custom header variables of your website assets:

X-Core-Value: 10. Be Humble
X-Recruiting: If you're reading this, maybe you should be working at Zappos instead. Check out jobs.zappos.com

Who else but Zappos would recruit inside custom header tags?

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Cal Poly: Learn by Deceiving? Or fair turn around…

Filed Under: Business by admin — 1 Comment
April 24, 2009

[Preface: I seem to have a constant need to engage in a conversation with my favorite blogging Realtor Keith Byrd.  Keith, I hope you know I love your blog that's why I read it.  The fact that I disagree with you consistently and need to provide a counter point has nothing to do with your skill as a Realtor or a blogger.]

With Keith’s latest post on Cal Poly’s instruction to have students drag a Realtor through a buying process as a “learn by doing” experience, I’ve found myself wondering about his conclusion: Is this learn by deceiving?  I think it is.  However, I also think it’s fair turn around.  We are now experiencing one of the worst economic down turns due to the fact that multiple professionals did not throw up a red flag during the housing boom.  Instead of doing their due diligence as Realtors and advising their clients that while a home is definitely a great investment, it might not be the best investment for them if they have to take a sub prime mortgage.  Isn’t that also a deception?  Is it fair turn around for students to now use Realtors to learn about a buying process?  I’ve never been a fan of the “eye for an eye” as it usually leaves everyone blind, but I have a hard time staying quiet when the Realtor could attone for their misdeeds by helping out a college student.

We’re destined to make the same mistakes over and over unless we learn from them.  Be the bigger man (or woman) and help the college students out.  Just know they are probably not in the market to buy a home but help them anyway.  This is your chance to stand up and be the bigger person.

To the students of whichever class this is for: Be honest.  Tell the Realtor what you’re trying to do and hope they are an upstanding human being as well and will help you through the process.  Win win for everyone.

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Typography on the Web: Eff the Foundaries

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April 23, 2009

A rant posted on what a few of us have been thinking in our heads for a long time now.  Piracy seems like the only answer for what seems like a horrendous problem: How do we pay money for quality content?

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Internet advertising rising faster than any other medium in history

Filed Under: Business, Health by admin — 1 Comment
April 15, 2009

Business Insider reported that internet advertising is still rising.  Not just rising but rising faster than any other medium in history no less.  What does this mean for me?  It means I need to get to work on revamping my blog and adding a custom template with all the goodies.  Then add ads.  I want my cut of the pie gosh darn it.  I will admit that I’m normally not one to ask for any kind of interaction from users.  Let alone asking them to click on ads.  But in this economy and as a business man I can’t help but get involved.  Should you as well?  Drop me an email or post in the comments.  It will depend on your business and obviously your website.  At the very least you should be leveraging online advertising to drive traffic to your website.  Whether you can actually make money from the other side (serving ads) is entirely dependant on your business model.

Internet Advertising Dollars

Internet Advertising Dollars

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2009 Top SEO Tips

Filed Under: Business, SEO by admin — Leave a comment
April 9, 2009

SEOMoz did a great overview on SEO takeaways for 2009. I’m still pretty new to what’s in the rabbit hole for SEO so I always try and garner as many tips as I can. My take away tips are listed below:

  • Optimize your press releases (perform keyword research and make sure your title tags are within 65-85 characters; 65 for Google and 85 for Yahoo!)
  • Nowadays Digg is 60% creativity, 40% promotion. Find a frequent Digg user to help give your content a shove.
  • Take some data and present it in an interesting way (like Vince Blackham’s diagram of skateboarding injuries)
  • Protect your personal/business brand
    • Use checkusernames.com to check various social media sites and register your user name across the board
  • 5 main levers affect ‘desired results’:
    • Defined objective
    • Site structure (on-page SEO)
    • Amount/quality of content
    • Power of site (authority)
    • Anchor text utilized
  • To improve overall site ranking/performance, Jeff recommends the following:
    • Build quality content routinely
    • Build a reward system for “quality content” ideas and production
    • Promote your content via many means (social media, PR, etc)
  • To get business from more competitive keywords:
    • Guest blog on other sites and link back to your content
    • Hold a topic-specific contest
    • Build content to answer questions about a topic
    • Use PR/social media to announce new quality content
    • Ensure proper anchor text is in your links
    • Use widgets/badges
    • Perform unique research and publish
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Designer leaves Google after valliant attempt to beautify the giant

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March 21, 2009

I’ll be the first to admit that after I toured Google I was enamored with the lifestyle. They have agave sweetened cola for goodness sake! The food, the speakers, the status – it was very enticing. Ultimately I chose not to move in that direction and went after an entrepreneurial goal instead. Douglas Bowman decided to see if he could right Google’s design ship. It turned out that Google wasn’t just a ship but a giant aircraft carrier and turning it even the minutest degrees was an uphill battle with a headwind and no support.

I applaud Douglas for trying and for taking on something I was going to attempt. I’m a little bit jealous but given the outcome I’m glad you did it instead of me. Congrats and thanks for all the fish!

If you’re curious at all read his short write up on the situation and what came out of it. It was a great read and I can’t say I haven’t run into microcosms of the “engineering debate” within my own experiences. Of course, being an Engineer (CSc/HCI BS) turned designer might give me a slightly different advantage (or disadvantage as the case may be) when dealing with those issues.

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Economic wrap up from Rolling Stone

Filed Under: Business, Politics by admin — 1 Comment
March 20, 2009

My take on it:

This all started with our government providing incentives to game the system. Either through purchasing houses (to get tax breaks) or through manipulating stocks (pay less in taxes). Ultimately, tax, is always an incentive because everyone wants to pay less of it and keep more of their hard earned money. As it is we pay almost half our life away to the government.

AIG wrapped up home loans (CDO’s) in ways that hid the risk from investors. CDS’s were created to insure the risk but did not require proof of collateral. Senator Phill Gramm authorized banks to gamble on CDO’s which wasn’t possible before 1999. When things started to crumble Hank Paulson convinced the SEC that nothing was wrong. Hank Paulson becomes head of Treasury and helps bail out his old company Goldman Sacs through AIG. He doesn’t tell anyone about how TARP works or where the money goes. Continue corrupt story plot here…

Original Article

Or for your quick reading pleasure:

Summary

I noticed some of the dollar amounts in the summary aren’t sporting their “billion” or “million” or even “trillion” suffixes so you’ll have to read the main article to get the details.

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18 Marketing Cliche’s

Filed Under: Business, Technology by admin — Leave a comment
March 3, 2009

I’m guilty of a few of these on Fluid Recovery‘s website… oops!  Time to redo the “learn” and “buy” buttons.

1. Results – Simply stating you’ve had “proven results” really means nothing to me. Verbally or visually show me your results and you’ll never have to use that boring word ever again.

2. Quality – This can mean a variety of things to any person who views your copy – you don’t want this to happen. Describe the materials you use or the workmanship that goes into your product or service and you can avoid this word.

3. Guaranteed – this one is only O.K. if you have that legal stuff in place to actually back up your statements, and even then, go ahead and try to be a bit more creative, darnit!

4. Buy - Be subtle here. I’m smart enough to know if you’re selling something. Just remove this word from any copy it may be lurking in. Now.

5. Learn - I work hard enough, don’t make me work harder to view/use/try your product. Yeah, it may actually be a simple task you need to complete before I receive whatever it is that you’re giving, but telling me to “… Learn more about our prices by clicking here…” just sounds too hard. I’ll go somewhere else where I don’t have work to get to the information I’m looking for.

6. Tell – This is an oldie, but goodie. Instead of “telling” me something, “show” me – whether it be with words (yes, well crafted wording can show your point very well), visuals, video, even audio clips. A “telling” example: “We just opened 3 new stores in your area filled with all of the latest goods you’ve been searching all over the city for!” A much more effective way to convey this exact message to me is to show visuals from your newly opened stores with a simple headline stating, “Your search ends here.” Simple, yet effective, don’t you think?

7. Things – Don’t use this word. From this point forward, this word may only be used in IM conversations with your friends. Otherwise, it has no place in your marketing copy. Say exactly what these “things” are – you don’t want me to guess.

8. Stuff - same as above.

9. Money – Again with the subtleties. Everyone knows it takes money to buy things (in most cases), so give me some credit and avoid this obvious little word. (No, you may not replace it with “$,” either).

10. Spend – Your message should be so perfectly tailored that I have a pretty darn good idea of what you’re selling and why I should buy it.

11. Investment – Unless, of course, this word is in the title of your company, using this as a synonym for “prices” does not conceal it’s true meaning. Sorry. Oh, and it makes it sound like what you’re selling/offering is too expensive for me to afford anyways.

12. Kick-butt - The only time this copy may be appropriate is if you’re writing copy for action figures for kids; you’ll likely piss off their parents when the kids start repeating this phrase, too. Stop it.

13. Customer service – “Excellent customer service” just doesn’t mean anything. Yeah, maybe you DO have excellent customer service (think: Zappos.com), but these companies show me exactly what they do that demonstrates their customer service, that’s the difference. So go ahead and gloat about it, but only if you do something so freaking cool that I won’t even think about patronizing any other website because of your customer service policy; but do me a favor and express to me your awesome return policy or amazing checkout process without calling it customer service. Thanks.

14. Integrity – Prove it. Give me case studies, blog pots, scans of hand-written letters from other customers claiming you have this. I don’t believe you.

15. Caring -1 Especially in regards to the overly used and increasingly meaningless, “We care!” slogan, cut it out. If you’re in business and you me as a customer, of course you care. Get more creative, dude.

16. Synergy - Cliche. Overused. Annoying. Enough said.

17. Experienced – How are you experienced? Do you hold a degree in horticulture? Are you trained and certified in the maintaining of desert dwelling flora? Have you worked in landscaping for 23 years? Then tell me so!

18. Successful – Again, how are you successful? To me, success can mean waking up in the morning within an hour of my alarm going off. Show me your success, or I will start to assume; everyone knows what happens when you assume — you make an a** out of Uma Thurman.

Quoted from: InsideForty.

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