While I don't aspire to be a statistician, it's clear that a substantial number of folks using VOIP are pleased with the results. To be sure, VOIP is not without its faults. A good number of existing VOIP users were quick to shine the light at the technologies flaws, as well as its strengths. Without further adieu, lets get to the survey results ...
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| It's awesome | |
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| It's as good as a standard phone line | |
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| It's absolutely hideous - tin cans and twine would be better | |
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Folks seem generally happy with their VOIP sytems. Of the "Other" responses, these were among the most interesting:
Sometimes a little barrelish sounding, other time okay. Customers say they get some cutting out.
Generally it is as good or better than regular calls, but when there is a problem it is so unlike normal phone problems that it is very disconcerting. The garbling or hiccups or pops that you get when the connection is not optimal are very odd.
I love it. I have it set to send me a page when someone calls and leaves a message on the number and I can hear the messages at work right thru my browser. I would not go back. I have also taken my phone with me to Internet cafe's and used it. People don't know what to think of it.
Sounds like a good cellphone connection.
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A total bill of $20.55 (that includes taxes) for a local phone line that has all the expensive bells and whistles that Bell has to offer plus unlimited calling in the US and Canada. I especially enjoy calling a friend in Australia once in awhile for three cents a minute.
Dashboard and online management of accounts in one place. Detailed reporting of calls. The ability to have virtual numbers in alternate area codes (I am moving to the country and my area code will change so that my clients will need to dial long distance, so switching to Vonage allows me to look like I'm still downtown when I'm out in farm country.
Ability to check voicemail over the web; cost; I'm not a slave to Ma Bell anymore!
1. The low cost (saving about $100 a month), and all the features like call waiting and call forwarding are included in the package. 2. The option to set up a number in any area code, so you can have a 'virtual' office in any part of the country. 3. Their customer service is actually helpful, and a pleasure to deal with! They work hard to solve any problem.
I love unlimited nationwide calling, the ability to take my line with me whenever I travel, and the simultaneous ring feature that lets me ring my cell phone at the same time as the VoIP line. (By the way, I checked "other"...I'm using Packet8)
Cost, cost, cost.
I am Canadian, using Primus. Other then all the goody features offered at a very reasonable price, what impresses me the most is the absolute dedication and friendleness of the support staff. What a breath of fresh air after dealing with the telephone co.
* All of those features for one low price/ * No hidden extra taxes and charges. * The fact that whenever I get a VM message, I get an e-mail telling me so. * The ability to chack my messages on-line from anywhere. * The "virtual number" feature, whereby, for $5/mth, I have another number, with different area code, that rings on my actual line.
Clarity, price, features, price, clarity! Customer service is generally above-average to great.
Videophone service, ease of setup, ease of use, price (I use Packet8 which is better than any of the choices in this survey...and I researched them all).
Price ... I have the 34.95 plan and save $40/month with the free long distance. Service ... I ordered the service and 3 days later I had the equipment and was talking VOIP 20 minutes later. Beats the S**t out of Qwest service. I have had NO land lines into the house for 6 months and I don't reget it a bit. TIP: I had to replace my single line/handset phones. I bought a Uniden multi handset cordless system and have 3 phones off this system. One at the base station, one in the bedroom and one in my office. Total cost from Costco was $160.
Inability to hook up fax and tivo.
The delay, which averages a half second or less, can sometimes be annoying. It's not as annoying as a "normal" international call bounced through a satellite or two, though. If you're used to the normal compression/decompression delays on digital cell phones, you and VoIP will probably get along just fine. Besides, it usually costs next to nothing to sign up for a service and find out.
There are a few times when the sound quality suffered, but these occasions were minimal. Having to dial one before every number (ok i am being picky)
1.The occaisional call gets dropped...if there's any kind of a blip in the internet a call will get dropped. 2.If the power goes out (I live in the northeast, so it does happen a bit too much), you lose your phones... so have a cell as a backup. 3. You have to dial the area code even for local calls, but you get used to this very quickly. All in all these are very minor things when balanced with the bucks you'll be saving and the overall quality of service... and dealing with the regular phone company was never a walk in the park either.
Defenetley for the high width band user. I've used it for over a year now with a cable internet line. I notice that if I'm downloading a file, and talking at the same time, the conversation is choppy. Vonage has a feature that deals with band with monitoring, and I have to say that I have not used it in order to see if it makes any diference in the quality of call, while downloading a file at the same time.
Not much, I have had it for over a year and it rocks!
Calls fade in and out
The fact that when my internet (cable) connection was out for 2 days, so was my phone service. Although it took VM just as if I wasn't home, and I can change my options, so that the Vonage line forwards to my cell phone, if I want. *I experienced some dropouts for several weeks and no-one could solve it. Vonage thought it was a problem with my Netgear router, but couldn't really suggest how to fix it, although they really tried. It finally cleared up on it's own.
Not IRKS but is a problem ... My cable broadband is limited to 384Kbps and if I am running a torrent which uses even as much as 15KBps the outgoing quality sucks. Incoming is still crystal clear. I understand that you can't suck up all of the bandwidth and expect to have good service. No other complaints .... NONE
I have it set up on my home network and have assigned IP's to everything but i get strange sounds almost like stray data is being sent to the phone as if someone is pushing buttons on the phone itself. Also some people tell me that i sound like a computer talking to them, don't know what the deal is but maybe they will get all the bugs out
Slight hollowness on line, disconnects on long, long distance calls (over hour) probably from network congestion before too long.
Many many thanks to all the kind Gnomies that participated in this survey! You've given me enough solid info to go forward with it ... I'm going to roll the dice on a VOIP system just as soon as I put my current book to bed. Hopefully this week! :)
Computer recycling is a vital topic. Over the years, I've seen my computers become obsolete with disturbing frequency. With operating system and applications increasingly hungry for resources, planned obsolescence is the name of the game. In an ideal world, we wouldn't have to worry about computer recycling ... we'd simply upgrade the components as we rolled along. Alas, it's not always that easy.
You shouldn't just throw out your old computers in the trash--they contain far too many toxic materials. While I know I should get in touch with a computer recycling firm to get rid of a couple of old boxes hanging around ranchero indebto, I've hesitated. Not that I'm a total pack rat, but I do admit to being a little sentimental about some of my computers. Recycling is one option to research, but I'm keen on repurposing my old iron.
I've found good use for a number of my old machines over the years ...
If you're thinking about recycling your old computer, you might consider donation as your first option. The first computer I recycled was donated to my brother's church, somewhere in the late 1980s or early 1990s. It was a AST 80286 desktop PC with a monochrome screen, Hercules graphics, and a 20MB HD ... funny to think how limited it was, but still it was a nifty box in its day. (Anyone remember run-time Windows with PageMaker 1.0?) The folks in the church were grateful to have a computer to run their mailing list. And I was glad to see the trusty old box go to a good cause.
I replaced that 286 with a Zeos (now Micron) 80386 tower. I rode that horse for a good many years and when it came time to give it a rest, the computer ended up being put out to the proverbial pasture in the basement.
I recycled the 386 in-house, when I pulled it out of storage a couple of years ago to use as the timing computer for the slot car track. (The timing system runs in DOS!). It's still running strong.
Next we come to the 80486 box ... another Zeos. I recall swapping lots of stuff in and out of this one, with video cards aplenty and a processor upgrade. I had leased a Dell Inspiron notebook shortly before the 486 went south, and it too, landed in the basement, where it waits for the proper recycling opportunity.
The Inspiron ended up going back to Dell when its lease was up--laptop disposal problem solved.
Among my Macs, there's one that's ready for the recycler: a dusty old PowerMac 7200. This was an odd critter, one that was problematic to upgrade, back when upgrading made sense. After the 7200 outlived its graphics usefulness, it spent some time as an edutainment test bed. Now it sits, overlooked but not overclocked, keys missing from the keyboard ... dreaming of the days when that startup Bronnng would bring joy to the eyes of the howling wolverines.
If you can't find a local charity that wants your old computer, take a look on the Internet ... there are lots of computer recycling companies that would be glad to take that old box (or old boxes) off your hands.
Life insurance is one of those company perks that we tend to take for granted. Once it's gone, you realize what you're missing.
A while back, I wrote about letting my term life insurance lapse. I still feel bad about it, but then again, I'm still walking around, so I guess I'm ahead. For now. But I know I need to pick up a new term life insurance policy sooner or later. And I'm out here on the Internet, doing research and getting more and more confused every day.
Once upon a time, I worked for an insurance company. Not only was it once upon a time, it was for quite a long time ... over ten years. Scary thought that it is, I spent over a decade toiling away for a big international insurer. I learned a little bit about insurance, mostly through osmosis. But I never considered myself an insurance kinda guy ... quite the opposite, in fact.
Many moons ago, while I was still in the employ of the insurance company, I was out for a leisurely day of shopping with my wife. We were milling about in an antique store when I ran into an old high-school buddy and his new wife. I hadn't seen Dave in years. Dave and I exchanged the obigatory introductions and howyadoins, before the conversation quickly turned to sowhatchadoins.
"I'm working for blah blah blah Insurance Company," I told my friend, sheepishly. "But don't worry, I don't sell the stuff. I only help sell the stuff."
My friend, who always was a bit on the pale side, turns an even whiter shade of pale (as the song goes). I look at him with curious compassion as the color drained from his face and an odd look (despair?) came to his eyes.
I felt like a complete idiot.
"Oh man, Dave," I said, simultaneously putting two and two together as I extracted one foot from my mouth before I inserted the other. "I'm so sorry. You don't sell insurance, do you?"
He nodded the affirmative. It got real quiet.
Not long after that uncomfortable moment, we bid goodbye and I bit my tongue all the way home. I'm pretty sure I ran into Dave once more in all these years, but I can't recall if we discussed my faux pas.
So here I am, more than ten years after that chance encounter. And I need a new term life insurance policy. I know I should just pick up the phone and call my old friend, but still ... I'm out here on the Internet looking for rates, getting more and more confused by the minute.
Web conferencing is one of the most important technologies of our Internet age. Yet too few people take advantage of what web conferencing can offer. Unfortunately, many smaller companies consider the technology to be too expensive. But that's not the case. While many of the larger web conferencing providers are focused on selling high-dollar solutions into large corporations, there are other firms that specialize in serving the needs of smaller firms.
The best web conferencing solutions provide audio and video capabilities, in addition to multiple text chat interfaces. They also allow for application sharing, so you can share a desktop or application window with your conference. And they'll let you show PowerPoint, as well as allow you to draw and write on a virtual white board. Not only that, you'll also have the capability to record your conferences, for streaming playback at a later date.
Here's something you might not know ... you can dip into the web conferencing waters for about thirty bucks a month ...
If you think web conferencing is all about chat and web cams, think again. It goes far beyond that. Web conferencing is a real world tool for applications ranging from sales through technical support.
I set out to do some serious research on the topic of web conferencing last fall, with the intent to write a new book. Alas, the web conferencing book--and the lion share of my research--had to sit on the back burner while I slaved away on other projects. Now that some time is freeing up, I'm turning my sights back on the burgeoning field ... and I'm finding that there's a web conferencing solution for just about every budget.
You might be familiar with the largest provider, WebEx--their big-budget advertising campaigns have established them as the most easily identifiable brand in the space. But there are literally dozens of competitors, including Microsoft (who gained entry by purchasing Placeware), Centra, eBlvd, Macromedia, Raindance, SmileTiger, Sonexis, and Spartacom.
You can divide the web conferencing providers into two camps--those that provide the service out of house (on their servers) and those that allow you to run their software in-house on your servers. Of course, there are advantages and disadvantages to both methods, depending on your company's in-house capabilities and budgets.
Of the providers that focus on smaller clients, eBlvd stands out from the crowd with a plan that starts at just $29 a month for unlimited conferencing.
What's up with Spyware? Who are these devious companies and what do they think gives them the right to install that hideous stuff on my computer? Spyware does some nasty things and while we can all pine and whine and sit around and wait for the government to do something about spyware (and it looks like they may finally get off their duff), we don't have to wait around by sitting on our hands.
We can take action.
Spyware is slimy software that gobbles up bandwidth, computer resources, and (most importantly) personal information without the express knowledge of the user. It's been described as parasitic software, but I feel that description does an injustice to biological parasites. Spyware is often installed with other programs, when it sneaks onto your hard drive. This frequently happens when you're installing peer-to-peer file-sharing software (a.k.a.: Kazaa), and the like ... the spyware installer piggybacks on the installation. It can also be installed with a simple unwitting click in a web browser. (My primary computer had become infested through both methods, thanks to my darling daughter.) :)
Thankfully, there are mighty forces of good to fight the evil spyware tide ...
Spyware is capable of doing lots of heinous work. It can watch what you are typing, where you are going on the Internet, what's on your computer's hard drive, and can even load additional spyware applications. This is nothing less than shameful, appalling, and disgraceful. I can't conceive of many (make that any) situations where it would be proper for a program to gather and send user information without the user's true approval. The practice is devious, underhanded, and downright dastardly, IMHO.
But most importantly, it is entirely preventable. You can use software to detect, remove, and prevent spyware from being loaded onto your computer. I highly recommend that you do so.
The best part is that you don't have to open your wallet to fight spyware. You can download one of the best spyware-fighters for free: Spybot Search & Destroy. If you dig it (and you will), you can make a donation to the developer for their good work. (I just did.)
You can also look to any one of scores of spyware fighters from companies such as McAfee and Lavasoft.
I'm dreaming of a Lake Tahoe hotel. Not just any old joint, but a four diamond AAA place: Harrah's Lake Tahoe hotel. And I'm not dreaming about going there any old time, oh no ... I'm thinking of the weekend of September 30th through October 2nd, you got it: GNOMEDEX 4.0 ... when Harrah's Lake Tahoe hotel will be bursting at the seams with Gnomies ...
I've got to confess. I've never been to a GNOMEDEX. And although I've never actually been to Lake Tahoe either, I did just fly through the area for a conference in the gloriously gritty city of Reno. While the conference was wonderful, I kept thinking how much nicer it would have been if it were held in a hotel in Tahoe ... which got me thinking ...
I better get off my duff and reserve my room, before the hotel is booked. While you might want to shop around a bit first, it looks like Chris has lined up some great rates.
Here's some info I've cribbed from the conference website: Call 800.455.4770 to book your room and tell them code S09GNOM (You must say ZERO and not "O") and you must say you are booking a room at Harveys in the Harrah's complex and your rooms will be only $79, $79 and $149.
These rates represent massive reductions in the regular room prices.
After looking around, this sounds like a pretty good deal to me! Especially after I checked out the info from Harrah's website. The rooms in the Lake Tower are huge and the suites sound absolutely fabulous ... not that I'm planning on staying in a suite, mind you ... but if I just happen to hit that loose slot or a hot table ...
Hey, I can dream, can't I?
Speaking of suites and Lake Tahoe hotels, the cabbie that drove me from Reno to the airport had some outrageous stories to tell about Frank Sinatra, back in the day ... but you won't catch me writing about it ... after all, I'm from Joisey. I know better ... ;)
I'm not an Internet mortgage lead, but you wouldn't know that by my inbox. Each day, Eudora is stuffed with offers. Some of those offers are looking to sell me Internet mortgage leads, while others are working me like I'm an Internet mortgage lead.
Clearly, the mortgage industry is hungry for leads ... but I'm not one of them. Lead generation is an interesting topic, indeed ... and there seems to be more than a bit of monkey business involved. What's most interesting (to me, at least) is the connection between the unsolicited commercial email shilling for mortgage leads and the companies that sell them.
I pine to charter a private jet ... especially after just getting back from Reno on a red eye early this morning. I spent what seemed like all night in the air (and in the airport). Seeing that there are no direct flights from Reno to Joisey, there are no alternatives other then spending half the day in transit. Private jet charter would be so much easier ... and I'm convinced ... the day will come that it will become a reality.
I've been doing a good bit of research into the subject of private jet charter. So much so, that I'm considering it as a topic for a new book ... and since my current book is nearly wrapped up ...
You gotta love online degrees. Or not. The array of educational (and quasi-educational) institutions that offer online degrees never ceases to amaze me. It's not hard to understand why the field of online education is so hot ... folks are pressed for time and the institutions are happy to press for cash, er, provide the service. Whether you're looking to complete your MBA or get your MSCE, the choices abound.
Like anything else, there are good and bad online educational institutions (or those that would pass for educational institutions). Separating the scrupulous from the unscrupulous is one of the first steps in the journey. You want to be sure that you invest your online education dollars wisely. And for that, I cannot give any specific recommendations ... but I can clue you into something that looks pretty shaky ...
I just received (yet another) piece of unsolicited commercial email (yeah, that canned luncheon meat). Check this out:
Celebrate your LIFE- ACHIEMENTS (sic) with a University Degree or Diploma. Get the recognition for what you already know! Awards can also be granted for the purpose of honoring those who exemplify the ideals of Higher Education through their significant achievements and contributions to business and society in their respective geographic area. You can also be evaluated for a Doctorate in any field, or Masters of Business Administration, without a previous university education provided you can show proof of extensive experience in any field related to civil service, business administration, management, finance, healthcare, military, etc.
This from an entity calling itself Fast Track College, boasting to have been in business since 1957. Is the Fast Track College legitimate? I can't pass judgement on that, but I can say that the advertisement merely clicked through to a form on a most unconvincing web site.
Truth be told, there ARE plenty of colleges and universities that offer online degrees to those pressed for time. Many of them are legitimate. Just ask "Dr." John Gray, the Mars and Venus author (and no relationship to me, thank you) ... ;)
I've written about payday loans a couple of times lately and I've been doing a good bit of reading about the subject of payday loans. But I've yet to read something that makes me comfortable with the practice. While a payday loan might help someone out, it's just as likely to get someone else caught in a cycle of excessive interest payments.
You might recall that this all started out when my eleven year old daughter received an offer for a payday loan. I was dumbfounded.
I went Googling for information on payday loans, and right at the top of the results, I found a most interesting page from our friends at the FTC. If this isn't enough to make the red lights flash, I don't know what else would ...
| "I just need enough cash to tide The ads are on the radio, television, the Internet, even in the mail. They refer to payday loans - which come at a very high price. Check cashers, finance companies and others are making small, short-term, high-rate loans that go by a variety of names: payday loans, cash advance loans, check advance loans, post-dated check loans or deferred deposit check loans. Usually, a borrower writes a personal check payable to the lender for the amount he or she wishes to borrow plus a fee. The company gives the borrower the amount of the check minus the fee. Fees charged for payday loans are usually a percentage of the face value of the check or a fee charged per amount borrowed - say, for every $50 or $100 loaned. And, if you extend or "roll-over" the loan - say for another two weeks - you will pay the fees for each extension. Under the Truth in Lending Act, the cost of payday loans - like other types of credit - must be disclosed. Among other information, you must receive, in writing, the finance charge (a dollar amount) and the annual percentage rate or APR (the cost of credit on a yearly basis). A cash advance loan secured by a personal check - such as a payday loan - is very expensive credit. Let's say you write a personal check for $115 to borrow $100 for up to 14 days. The check casher or payday lender agrees to hold the check until your next payday. At that time, depending on the particular plan, the lender deposits the check, you redeem the check by paying the $115 in cash, or you roll-over the check by paying a fee to extend the loan for another two weeks. In this example, the cost of the initial loan is a $15 finance charge and 391 percent APR. If you roll-over the loan three times, the finance charge would climb to $60 to borrow $100. Alternatives to Payday Loans There are other options. Consider the possibilities before choosing a payday loan:
To Complain/For More Information If you believe a lender has violated the Truth in Lending Act, file a complaint with the FTC. The FTC works for the consumer to prevent fraudulent, deceptive and unfair business practices in the marketplace and to provide information to help consumers spot, stop and avoid them. To file a complaint or to get free information on consumer issues, visit www.ftc.gov or call toll-free, 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357); TTY: 1-866-653-4261. The FTC enters Internet, telemarketing, identity theft and other fraud-related complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure, online database available to hundreds of civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad. (from http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/pdayalrt.htm) |
LCD projector rental is a lifesaver for road warriors and internal presenters alike. Whether you need a LCD projector in a far flung locale or just some place local, renting the projector can be your ticket to presentation success. But you need to be careful about the contracts you sign ... all LCD projector rental contracts are not created equal.
Price is perhaps the biggest and most obvious difference in LCD projector rental contracts. It's up to you to read the contract carefully to watch for low-ball offers that end up costing you more in the long run. While the price should be primarily dependent upon the type of LCD projector you rent, you need to know exactly what you are renting ... there are wide variations in projector capabilities and construction. You need to pick the right unit for your needs.
The size and weight of the LCD projector may be a factor if you have to lug the unit from location-to-location. If you're carrying it in your luggage on the plane, you're likely to be most interested in the smaller and lighter units. If the unit is being shipped into and out of the presentation location, the size and weight are far less of a factor.
LCD projector brightness--measured in lumens--is crucial. Make sure that the unit you choose will provide enough lumens to do the job. If you go for an inexpensive projector with inadequate lumens for the room environment, you and (more importantly) your audience will be most unhappy.
Repair/Replacement policies are quite important. LCDs and other parts can fail. Consequently, you want to know that your LCD projector rental supplier can get you up and running ASAP. This is one area where the local provider has a distinct advantage over a competitor that is thousands of miles away.
Sound can be a big factor. If you're like me, you'll want the quietest projector you can find. Nobody likes a noisy fan. But it doesn't stop there ... heat, remote controls, and carrying cases are other important attributes to take into consideration.
LCD projector rental may or may not be for you.
In some cases, you may be far better off purchasing a unit ... it largely depends on the amount of use. Nonetheless, iif you're thinking of purchasing a LCD projector, you may want to try out a variety of rental units from InFocus, Panasonic, Sony, HP, Toshiba, and ViewSonic first ... to see which best suits your needs.
Don't forget to look at the LCD projectors from Dell and Gatway, as well ...
It's not hard to find Macromedia Flash Training -- there are lots of different sources. But it can be tough to find the right kind of training. Some folks think that books are the best form of Flash training. Other folks feel that the best Flash training can only be had in a classroom setting. My opinion falls somewhere in the middle.
While I'm a big fan of the Flash format, I'm often frustrated by the program itself. Part of that frustration is due to the fact that Flash is such a monumental program. There are lots of facets, plenty of nooks and crannies, and lots of places for newbies to fall through the cracks. Flash training is not to be taken lightly. You can't be a completely casual user and expect success.
I've never had the luxury of tradional classroom Flash training, although I often wish I did.
I learned the basic principles of animation through spending a good bit of time with two masters of the craft. Back in 2001, I had the good fortune of co-authoring "The Art of Cartooning With Flash" with Gary Leib and John Kuramoto, the geniuses behind Twinkle and the animators of the 2003 Sundance-winning film, American Splendor. John was the driving force behind writing the book, while Gary knocked out the most fabulous illustrations ... they did the lion's share of the writing ... I merely helped bring all that great stuff to the printed page.
In the process of researching and writing the book, I was most fortunate to have sat in on a couple of seminar sessions that John ran at the Twinkle studio. Those sessions hammered home the principles of classic cartoon animation and how they related to Flash. I could not have dreamed of getting a better introduction, with cartoons shown in the context of Flash training.
It's the animation that I love, but it's the scripting that I need ...
While I don't aspire to be a mega-Flash scripter, I know I need to know a whole lot more about the code than I do now. I've thought about classroom Flash training for scripting, but I just can't shell out the coin at the moment ... that's one of the downsides of being an independent ... there's no fat corporate education budget ... and I miss those days ...
If I was still working for the corporation, I'd be vacuuming in all of the classroom Flash training I could find ... on the company's dime, of course ... ;)
In the years since I built my greenhouse garden shed, I've never looked back. Building the greenhouse portion was relatively easy. With a plan designed for this express purpose, plexiglass merely replaces the plywood for the south facing saltbox roof.
A simple open cedar potting shelf runs the full width of the shed, underneath the greenhouse window. I built the potting shelf from scratch with 2x2 cedar lumber. I didn't work from plans, rather I sketched out the shelf and improvised along the way, using scraps of lumber left over from the initial construction of the shed.
The greenhouse heats up quite well, but I'm a couple of weeks late and a couple of weeks away from moving the tomato and pepper seedlings out to the greenhouse. I want to keep them in the studio until the danger of frost has largely past.
I wish I had more floorspace, but hey, that's always an excuse for expansion, or perhaps to build a new structure. One day I hope to build a nice big post and beam barn to house the trusty old John Deere STX 38, the Troy-Bilt Pony Garden Tiller, and my decrepit array of garden tools ...
Speaking of the Pony, I finally got the chance to get out and till the garden today. The snow peas are a bit late going in, but better late than never!
If you need to bring a new stream of customers to your business, there's no better place to start than the Internet. With lead generation one of the Web's killer apps, it doesn't take long to start bringing in a crowd. It's entirely possible to start a basic Internet lead generation campaign in less than a day. No other medium offers the same immediacy ... done right, it's like turning on a tap with hot and cold running water (er, customers).
Traditional campaigns often start with lists of magazine subscribers. If you have a business that sells products for dogs, for instance, you might rent a list of dog enthusiast magazine subscribers. If you sell widgets, you might chase the readers of Widget Monthly or Widget World.
Internet lead generation changed the game.
Nowadays, you can opt for any one of a number of approaches. You can run a lead generation campaign on your own or with the help of a company that specializes in creating or providing leads.
If you run your own campaign, you'll probably consider using Google's AdWords or Yahoo's Overture to place "pay-per-click" advertisements in the search engines. The clickthru on these advertisements should land on a page that's designed to provide the visitor with information about your goods or services, as it captures the visitor's specific information.
If you lack the time or expertise in lead generation, you can turn to companies that offer solutions all the way up to a fully turn-key approach. There are plenty of them out there. While I can't offer any specific recommendations, you'd do best to look around.
But powerful though it may be, the Internet lead generation process is ripe with abuses. Ethical lead generation is the right way to go, in both the long and short run. You only need to look at your inbox to see the horrid excess of unsolicited commercial mail. Suffice to say, you don't want to go that route ... lest you do your company irreparable harm.
Run your Internet lead generation right, and you will be rewarded ... run it wrong, and you'll suffer the consequences ... ;)
Whether you're selling your company's services or shopping for a brand new ride, everyone loves a well-designed and nicely printed color brochure. And with the ubiquitous nature of the desktop computer, the ability to print color brochures has fallen into the hands of the masses.
Historically speaking, this hasn't been the case for long ...
The advent of the Apple Macintosh and Adobe PostScript in the late 1980's forever changed the field of printing and publishing. The mystical and arcane world of the graphic arts opened up a whole new world of design and production. Nowadays, your design can go right from your computer, through the Internet, to the color brochure printer. As someone that lived through (and wrote about) the printing revolution, I can say that few folks thought (way back when), that this would ever be possible.
If you're thinking of designing your own color brochure, with your primary motivation being the money you think you'll save, I'd like to suggest that you take some time to consider the consequences. As fast as it can happen, designing and preparing a brochure for print is not a task to be taken lightly ...
Here it is, straight out:
If you produce a poorly designed brochure, the money you (might think you) save will be far outweighed by the ultimate costs. I've been in the design trenches for over twenty years. I've seen the same mistakes made by inexperienced designers being made over and over. And I've seen far too many printed brochures get rerun because of easily avoidable (and expensive!) errors.
The first stop for the burgeoning designer with a project in mind: hook up with an excellent brochure printer while you are still in the planning stage. Let the printer know what you need and what you hope to spend, keeping in mind that your needs and budget may be far out of line. If you have a good account exec, they will help you get the job done right.
I learned an old adage early in my design career.
There are three things to consider when comparing print bids: price, quality, and speed. You should only expect to get two out of those three. All bids, and all printers are not equal.
Decide which pair are most important to you, whether it's price and speed, price and quality, or quality and speed ... and let your brochure printing company know what you expect.
I'm giving serious consideration to switching to a Voice Over IP (VOIP) telephone solution.
VOIP? While the acronym may sound frightening, it's really quite simple: VOIP is a broadband phone service. With VOIP, your telephone calls take place over your Internet connection, rather the standard phone lines. Voice Over IP is strictly a high-speed technology, and is intended to be run through a cable modem, DSL line, T1 or other broadband connection.
After meeting the annual April 15th rush to file, I sat down and looked at what I had paid out over the last year for my telephone bills. As I tallied up the charges, it became clear that I had the chance to shave some costs by switching my studio line from a conventional phone line over to VOIP. Now I have to admit that my curiosity was brought on by Madison Avenue. It's hard to miss the television and Internet ads for Vonage.
So I've set out to learn as much as I can before making the plunge ...
Vonage seems to be the leading contender in the field. Their most inexpensive plan starts at $14.99 per month, with their premium residential plan (with unlimited calls within the USA and Canada) weighing in at $34.95. With those numbers, it's certain that I'll save on my monthly bill, as the least I've spent on my phone services over the last year has been just over $40 per month. While there's also a small business unlimited plan for $49.99 per month with a fax line included, I'm not sure I need to go to that expense. (I unplugged my fax and disconnected my fax line last year and haven't looked back.)
It's about more than saving money.
Unlimited calling is an awesome feature, but I'm just as interested in the freebies that are thrown into the deal: caller ID, voicemail, call waiting-forwarding-transfer ... and the Holy Grail ... free three-way calling. There are other cool perks, too ... you can even pick your own area code.
But this isn't a decision that I'll make on a whim. I'm going to do my research ... With AT&T's recent roll out of their CallVantage service, competition in the field is starting to heat up. I want to take a close look at VoicePulse, and Packet8, too.
If you're using or considering a VOIP service like Vonage, I'd love to hear from you. I've set up a quick survey for you to register your experiences with Voice Over IP ... after the survey's run, I'll post the results for all to see.
Click here to take quick survey on VOIP
It's heart-warming to know that outsourced call center and outsourced IT workers in third-world countries can now work in cubicles and get paid acceptable wages derived from American corporations, at the cost of American jobs.
But here's something to think about ...
What happens when terrorist organizations infiltrate the overseas outsourcing companies? Are there checks and measures in place to prevent unscrupulous individuals and organizations from misdirecting personal data from the call centers and sabotaging code in the IT shops? What heinous leaks will we find out (or not find out) about months or years from now?
Who's to say that it hasn't happened already?
I'm all for exporting culture, Coca-Cola, and Levis. America's entertainment, food, and clothing industry might stand to gain from educating, feeding, and clothing the folks in the overseas call centers ... but can anyone guess how much of the content consumed by those workers is, in fact, pirated? Perhaps those staunch defenders of overseas outsourcing might stroll to the bazaar and see if the DVD movies, software, and clothing is authentic.
And oh yeah ... Levi's aren't made in America anymore ... if only the company created a marketing campaign around a line of "Made In The USA" jeans, perhaps they could open a factory on these shores again.
Here's another wild take on how IT outsourcing might actually help America ...
How about taxing the daylights out of the offshore outsourcing companies to pay for enhancements to the FBI, CIA, and NSA to deal with this increased threat ... then we might be onto something.
Hmmmm ... a way for the pols to have both eggs in their basket (rather than on their face) and eat them, too.
Spring at Ranchero Indebto means rain. And lots of it. Lots of rain, inevitably, means that I'll start ranting and raving about basement waterproofing, again.
It seems like every time I think I have the handle on waterproofing my basement, a storm rolls through to dump three inches of rain on my parade. While this last storm hasn't left three inches of water in my basement, it's done more than a little to dampen my spirits, eternal basement optimist that I am.
When we first visited ranchero indebto (before signing on the dotted line of lifelong indebto-ness), I looked the previous owner straight in the eyes and asked, "say, how's the basement? Is it dry" His reply indicated that it was. Now either he's a great poker player, I'm a lousy poker player, or there was a cataclysmic event that went unnoticed by the US Geological Surveyors ...
For if by chance it was dry before he sold it to us, it surely hasn't been dry since.
Over the years, I've done a bunch of things to try to waterproof the basement, but none have done the ultimate trick. Many a time I feel there's been an improvement, but there's nothing quite like swabbing out your basement, lemmetellya ... who would have ever thought that a giant squeegee would be your best friend?
Nonetheless, I have a few things to try before I resort to calling a basement waterproofing service ... I'll look around ... and I'll continue to read up ... as I squeegee my brains out ...
I've been thinking about this prepaid cell phone thing. While initially I was opposed to it, I've been wavering.
After my daughter ran up my wife's cell phone bill with her incessant instant messaging, I was livid. Nevertheless, I kept my cool. That absurd $150 charge will buy us a whole lot of laundry service.
But as I wrote, T-Mobile was no help. In a month (when the contract is up), that cell phone will be no more. It's quite amazing, seeing how hard the cell phone providers fight for customers, that they wouldn't make any effort, whatsoever.
I heard from one kind reader, who shared a similar tale of woe. His story ended on an upbeat note, however, as Verizon played a happy tune and slashed his overage charges. T-Mobile, on the other hand, plays a cheezy whaa whaaaa whaaaaa whaaaaaa monophonic ringtone.
So while a prepaid cell phone might not work for me, I'm hoping that it works for my daughter. Most importantly, I'm hoping that it teaches her the value of money. If she's completely responsible for paying for airtime, she'll pay attention to the river of cash that's flowing out of her pocketbook.
Or so we can hope ... :)
When it comes to huge trade show exhibits, few shows rival the New York Auto Show. Whether it's a $440,000 Porsche or a one of kind Shelby Cobra spinning around on a giant platter, is there anything more gorgeous you could see displayed in a trade show?
The boy and I took a ferry ride into the city to catch the NY Auto Show on Saturday and I'm still overwhelmed by all of the beautiful cars and fabulous exhibits.
Jeep had the singularly most impressive exhibit at the show, which took over the tent-roofed steel building annex that abuts the Javits Center. While there were a good number of diversions, such as Jeep video games, classic Jeepsters, a stage with live bands, and a cool Jeep Rescue concept car, the centerpiece of the Jeep exhibit was about the coolest thing I'd ever seen at a trade show:
An indoor off-road track.
Showgoers could drive a Wrangler, Grand Cherokee, or Liberty around an intense little track, complete with lots of fun tricks and traps, including a water hazard and a rather steep hillclimb. Mud and rocks abounded. We didn't want to wait for an hour in line, so we skipped it.
Now I'm kicking myself.
Inside the main hall, the Ford exhibit seemed to have the biggest buzz, with the one of a kind Shelby Cobra (the one featured on Rides), the retro Ford Bronco concept (complete with a nitrous tank, of all things), the stunning production Ford GT, and the nostalgically-designed 2005 Mustang.
I took one look at the orange Mach 1 Mustang and fell victim to an episode of automotive flashback.
Unfortunately, the new Pontiac GTO had to be the biggest disappointment of the show. If John Delorean was dead, he'd be rolling over in his grave. The new Aussie-sourced GTO may have a nice interior and plenty of horsepower under the hood, but it was completely devoid of charm. There was no instantly discernable sign that this was, in fact, a GTO.
Slapping on some emblems just doesn't cut it.
I can only hope that the automotive aftermarket will come to the GTO's rescue ... this car sorely needs a new nose, hood, and tail lights ... at the very least. If these goodies fail to surface by the time the SEMA trade show rolls around, rest assured, the nails will be put in the GTO's coffin, once again.
That is, if gas doesn't hit $3.00 a gallon, first ...
Take a look at the calendar ... this is the week to get that tax return done!
No matter how many times I promise (to myself) that I'll get the tax return finished early, it always seems to come down to the first two weeks of April. And this year is no exception. April 15th looms and my tax return has yet to roll out of the printer.
Thankfully, my tax return preparation chores are just about complete. I need to chase down a couple of figures from the bank and I'll be ready to file, with days to spare before the deadline. Thank heavens for TurboTax! I remember the days before tax return software, but not fondly. Once upon a time in the East, in the days before the advent of TurboTax, I prepared my return by hand. It was a grueling task.
And then there was the year that I went to a tax return preparation center ... things were complicated that year. As I recall, it was the year we bought our first house, and I was overwhelmed with all of the extra figures. So I sought the advice of professionals. Or what I thought would be professionals ...
We rolled into the storefront with our shoe box full of paperwork, to be greeted by a preparer who seemed even younger than were were (and we were still pretty young back then). I recall that this did not give me a feeling of confidence. On the contrary, it gave me a feeling that was quite the opposite of that portrayed in the tax preparation company's television commercials.
It seemed like the preparer had recently taken a step up from flipping burgers.
The preparer did an acceptable job on the tax return, I suppose. But the fee we paid to have the preparation done seemed unreasonable. When we walked out of there, wallets all the lighter, I vowed to take a better path in subsequent years.
I discovered TurboTax the next spring... and have been a satisfied TurboTax user ever since. While I've considered other software packages over the years (such as TaxCut), I haven't had the real urge to switch.
While I opt to buy the TurboTax CD every year, I am intrigued by the companies (including Intuit) that offer tax return preparation over the Internet. That's a pretty cool idea, IMHO. If you haven't started your tax return yet, you still have time to get it done. At the very least, an online tax preparation service can save you a trip out to the store ...
Call me crazy, but back in the days when all I had was a skinny little pipe, I used to dream about having a big fat T1 line run to ranchero indebto. I'd lay awake (or almost awake) at night, dreaming about the speed and freedom I'd have with a serious connection.
A T1 Internet connection to a house?
It's not folly, not whatsoever. If you're serious about running a business online, whether it's out of your home or a more formal business location, a T1 hookup is the real deal. (Back in the heyday, I wrote an article about a guy with four T-1 lines running into his home!)
There's no question that T1 lines cost a whole lot more than other connections. To those that have the big pipe, it's worth it. But how much more? It all depends on what they're selling ...
You'll see companies advertising T1 Internet connections for as low as $350 bucks per month. After my experience, I've learned that the low-priced offers may not be what they appear to be. The ultimate cost of a T1 hookup depends on a number of factors, most importantly the type of connection and cost of the local loop. (There seems to be a good bit of action in the fractional and integrated T1 areas.)
Bottom line: you've got to look around.
I started researching T1s a few years back (before I got my dish--which I've just dumped). I called MCI (don't laugh), Sprint (as they're our local phoneco), and one or two other firms. After checking around, the best quote I got was $800 per month. (Which was, and still is, way out of my league.) I mentioned the quote to my buddies and they thought the price was high ... but it all came down to geography and the cost of the local loop.
Now here's where we get to the odd part of the story ...
No sooner do I get off the line with one of the T1 providers when, lo and behold, an unmarked white van pulls up to the curb in front of my house. I didn't think that much of this when it happened. It just looked like a sub-contractor for the phoneco, tv, or electric company. The guy fiddled around by the underground utility boxes for a while and sped off.
Later that day, I walked up to the bus stop to get the kids off the school bus. When I looked down at the street in front of my house, I saw some new cryptic markings on the asphalt.
Much to my amazement, "T-1" was spray-painted on the street, with an arrow pointing towards ranchero indebto.
I had hoped to shoot a digital photo of it this morning, to post with this article. But when I walked out to the curb, I found that the marking has faded away with time.
While I didn't end up with a T1 line, that doesn't mean I stopped dreaming about the increased level of customer support that I would have received ... it was a recurring dream when I had the satellite connection and it continues today, with the new hookup ...
I'll admit it ... I've only stayed in a South Beach Hotel for one night. Yep, just one night ... but what a night. And what a hotel.
Wind back to the first leg of the Rising Tour ... and to the longest road trip we've ever taken to a show (yep, even longer than the Cleveland pilgrimage). We flew to Miami and spent a few days lounging about in the Keys before heading north to catch the show.
Friends of ours recommended the Loews Miami Beach Hotel in South Beach. It was perhaps the best hotel recommendation we've ever had. The Loews is marvelous. Expensive sure, but worth it. Expensive hotels are one of my weaknesses. FWIW, I'd rather not travel than travel cheap. Consequently, most of the time I end up not traveling.
The pool attendents at the Loews South Beach will spray you down with Evian water for a (not so modest) fee. The German tourists aren't that modest on the beach, mind you. And the frozen blender drinks at the hotel's poolside bar? Get ready to take out a home equity loan. But mmmmmm glllllll ... are they good.
The show, of course, was awesome. While the sound was spotty in the first part of the show, it soon cleared up. But how could you rank a show with Dion, Bono, Dave Stewart, and the story how Miami Steve came to be named Miami Steve?
All things considered, I'd rather spend a night in a splendid South Beach hotel then in my yard barn. Of course, a weekend in a nice South Beach hotel would cost more then that yard barn ...
I love cheap domain name registration. Absolutely love it. When I have a wacky idea for a new domain name, I don't hesitate. I register it. But it wasn't always that way ...
I recall an incident back in the tail of the boom days, when the Internet-fueled economy was still roaring along with strong expectations. I'm sitting in a local bar, having lunch with a couple of friends, and the conversation turns to domain name registration. "I just had the most insanely great idea for a new domain," I blurted.
"What is it?" my friends asked. "C'mon man, let it out!"
"I don't know if I'm gunna do it," I replied. "I'm not that crazy about throwing thirty five bucks out on a whim for the domain registration."
"The heck with that," my friend replied. "What's the domain name, already?"
"Another stupid dot com," I answered.
"Huh?"
"It's another stupid dot com," I said, with a straight face.
"What is this, Abbott and Costello's "Who's on First" routine?"
"No man, it's anotherstupid.com. I want to register the A N O T H E R S T U P I D DOT C O M domain."
"Bwahahahahaha, that's awesome!"
Now maybe we were just a little too loud in the bar. All I know is that the domain was available before we met for lunch. And by the time I mustered up enough steam to register the domain name, it was gone gone gone.
Someone else had registered my brilliantly stupid domain name.
Looking at the WHOIS data, it's unlikely that the person that registered the domain overheard our conversation in the bar. But maybe one of his friends did.
The moral of our story today is:
a) when you have an idea for a new domain name, keep your trap shut in public
b) use a cheap domain name registration service, throw down your bet, and don't think twice about it.
c) don't forget about the .net and other domain name variations, with and without hyphens
Your website is nowhere if it can't be found.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of fine-tuning a website in order for it to rank well in the search engine results. For we all know, the better your site shows in the search engines, the more traffic you'll see hitting your pages. Scads of companies promise that they'll bring your website more traffic through better search engine rankings. But how do you separate the real deals from the scams? While some companies approach this with a methodical, almost scientific technique, others practice bad voodoo. And that bad voodoo can do your site more harm than good.
The field of search engine optimization is in constant flux. Each change in the search engine algorithms or changes in the business structure bring a reshuffling of the results. Whether it's Google tweaking their algorithm, like the infamous "Florida" update or Yahoo kicking out Google's search results in favor of its own spiders, change is a constant. While some firms hire search engine optimization companies to keep them on top of the stack, others handle the chores in house.
So how do you choose which search engine optimization route to take?
Lets start with the time versus money question ... quite simply, if you have a qualified person on staff, but no funds to look outside, think inside. If you have the funds but lack a qualified employee, think outside.
Search engine optimization is an important task, and is not to be taken lightly. You shouldn't expect a $99 solution to deliver $100,000 worth of results. But that's not to say that you have to spend a huge amount of money to make things work. Just know that those companies that seem to offer an incredible bargain most likely do not. Go the cheap route with search engine optimization and you'll get exactly what you didn't pay for: poor results.
I'm a strong believer in creating clean websites--ones that spider well, play no tricks, and do all that they can to make their content attractive to the search engines. I limit the amount of fancy HTML and JavaScript. I use Flash sparingly and never bury my content inside of Flash files.
And FWIW, I seem to get decent results (knock wood). But I don't work hard at it. I just put my content out there and let the spiders do the work they were built to do.
If you or your search engine optimization company try to play tricks on the spiders, they will eventually get caught. The tricks may work for a while, but it's only a matter of time until the algorithms are tweaked to penalize the trickery.
My best, most basic advice is to focus on your content. If you're interviewing search engine optimization specialists, you'll do well to see how they approach this. A clean and ethical approach to search engine optimization is the smart way to go in the long run.
So what's the upshot of all the brouhaha over my soon-to-be twelve-year-old daughter's cell phone dilemma?
She ends up with her own cell phone. How this makes sense, I'm not really sure. But she strolls into my studio tonight and says "I bought this prepaid cell phone at Target tonight. Is that okay, dad?" I was more than a bit stunned. "You bought a what?" I asked. "A prepaid cell phone," she replied. "Oh goody, a prepaid cell phone. How about each month I take a bunch of twenty dollar bills out to the driveway, I douse them in gasoline, and we light them on fire and dance around like drunken idiots, just for kicks?"
It's preposterous. A twelve-year-old does not need a cell phone.
Not even a prepaid cell phone. But you know what? It's not worth getting bent out of shape about. If she wants a prepaid cell phone, that's fine. I won't pay a stinking dime for it. If she wants to waste her money on it, that's absolutely fine. Speaking of dimes, that's what it costs per outgoing text message. A dime. Incoming messages are free, but outgoing messages are a dime.
Heaven is a place where there is plenty of cold beer at a reasonable price and there are no #&%@! cell phones.
Amen.
Update 4/12 - More on the Prepaid Cell Phone
Sometimes I worry about wireless security. Shortly thereafter, I proceed to worrying about something else.
Wireless security is an important issue, but like most folks, once I plugged my wireless router in and got it working, I stopped thinking about it. We've gone hog wild installing wireless networks in our homes and businesses. But have we thought enough about the security of those wireless networks? I'll admit it, I haven't. But I'm lucky to live on a cul-du-sac in an area that's still relatively rural. If someone were to war-drive my street, looking for an open wireless connection, I'd notice them. If I happened to be home. Or awake.
Of course, If we lived on a busier street, I might not notice.
So last week, when I was in one of those "thinking about wireless security" moods, I decided to do a little research into the subject. I called a fellow geekbook author, Dori Smith to chat about protecting my home network.
Dori has penned many fine geekbooks, including the best-selling JavaScript for the World Wide Web: Visual QuickStart Guide, which she co-authored with her husband, Tom Negrino. I wanted to talk to Dori about one of her most recent books, Mac OS X Unwired (which she also co-authored with Tom), as I run a mixed network of PCs and Macs here at ranchero indebto.
Dori's first wireless network security advice: turn on WEP.
WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) is the data encryption technology built into the 802.11 standard. It is intended to keep the bad guys out of your wireless network and to prevent them from listening in and grabbing your data. The intent being that your wireless network should have a similar level of security as your wired network.
"Security junkies will put down WEP, but it takes a lot of time to crack it," said Dori. "Someone would have to site outside your house for quite some time. Is someone really going to spend all that time and effort just to get into your Quicken files?" As Dori explained it, while there is no simple 1-2-3 crack with WEP, it is not 100 percent secure. The steps you take to turn on WEP depends upon your specific computer and router. But they're steps well taken.
If you want to share your connection with your neighbors across the way, it's best to check your ISP service agreement to make sure that you are not in violation of the terms."It's amazing how many people don't lock down their networks," said Dori. "They want to provide free access to everyone. While they lock down their local machine, they leave the network open." It's important to note that although some ISPs are okay with this, some view it as a contract violation.
Open connections are commonplace. "I was visiting a friend in Manhattan and she still has dial up," said Dori. "I walked around her flat and found five different networks, three of which were open to the public. "I just sat down on her couch and suddenly had access." The big question is how many of those open networks were willingly open and how may were unwittingly open.
WEP isn't the last word in wireless security. WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) is a newer standard than WEP. It was created to improve upon the features in WEP. WPA provides a higher level of data encryption, as well as user authentication. Upgrading to WPA doesn't necessarily mean that you'll have to buy a new router ... you may be able to upgrade your router to use WPA, via a software update.
I'm looking for a new cell phone plan ...
Last week, I wrote about the unfortunate results when my daughter discovered that she could use Mom's cell phone to instant message with AIM. Unfortunate = $150 cell phone bill ... Okay, so to be exact, it was $147.95 in usage charges, plus another $16.33 in taxes, surcharges, and assessments. With this particular cell phone plan, instant messaging is ticking nightmare.
With my fingers crossed (just for luck), I called T-Mobile's customer service line to see if they might be able to show me some kindness. After piloting through T-Mobile's voice mail system, I was connected to a T-Mobile customer service rep. I explained the situation to Stephanie, who patiently listened to every word of my pathetic story of cell phone plan abuse.
Finally, she said, "hold on a few minutes and let me see what I can do."
After sitting on hold for what seemed like twenty minutes Stephanie came back on and kindly explained that she couldn't fix the problem.
"I even talked to my expert and they can't do anything," she said.
Now I'm not sure what an expert is (in this case), but I wasn't really happy about whatever this expert was expert in. I can tell you that the expert was successful in one thing ... shortening my timespan as a T-Mobile customer.
Stephanie was very pleasant, but the only thing she said she could offer was two add-ons to the existing cell phone plan that would allow for either 300 or 1000 text messages per month on the phone. These add-ons cost $2.99 or $6.99, respectively.
Not only could T-Mobile not do anything about fixing the bill, they couldn't do anything to shut off instant messaging on that phone. That's putrid, IMHO.
So, seeing as how that phone is only one month away from its one-year anniversary, I'm shopping for a new cell phone plan. One that won't bury us in instant messaging charges.
When Stephanie asked if there was anything else she could do (since she wasn't allowed to do anything in the first place), I said yup, I need help with my T-Mobile Sidekick, since it hadn't booted in over a week.
Stephanie transferred me to another department, where lo and behold, another (much more helpful) Stephanie got my Sidekick booting. (So that's what the reset button is for!). I've been pretty happy with my Sidekick over the last year and a half. The service plan is excellent ... all you can eat data for $39.95 ... including unlimited text messaging, email, web browsing, and AIM.
The second Stephanie also mentioned that she could put our other phone into a T-Zone service plan ... something different than what the first Stephanie offered. She also said that I could individually block incoming messages to avoid those five cent per message charges.
It's all too confusing!
My Sidekick service plan is super simple. I dig it. But the service plan on the other phone just seems like it was engineered to dupe unsuspecting folks out of their hard earned cash. Why should the phone company act like a casino? Especially when it's so easy to jump from one cell phone company to another.
Update 4/5 - More on the Cell Phone Kid
Aside from the infamous Monty Python skit, have you ever met anyone that actually likes spam? Not me. I've looked forward to ditching my spammed-out email account for ages. Switching from my old email address (which I've had since the dotcom boom) to a new address has allowed me to significantly cut down on the amount of spam in my mailbox.
It's a liberating experience to leave all that spam behind, lemmetellya.
There's still a good bit of spam finding its way through, however, so I'm in search of a good spam filter solution. While I want to install a spam filter to work with my email program, Eudora, I'm presently trying out MailWasher to stop spam before it's downloaded from my mailserver. I'm not sure if I'll stick with MailWasher, but for now, it's helping me to more easily manage the flow of spam.
There's one potentially nasty part of MailWasher, however ...
Out of the box, MailWasher appears to be setup to generates bounce messages. Folks tell me that's not a good thing to do ... especially when those bounce messages land in the mailboxes of the unsuspecting ... as happens when the return address has been forged. So while I've been using MailWasher with some success, I have it set up to forgoe the Bounce option.
Once things settle down, I'm going to take a look getting Eudora to do a better job of filtering out the spam, perhaps with the aid of Spamnix or another solution.
Speaking of spam ...
Are you by chance in search of the perfect gift for someone that hates spam?
Look no further than the Institute for Spam and Internet Public Policy's (ISIPP) Slam a Spammer Store! You'll find a whole bunch of fun stuff, including those sassy "Make Love, Not Spam" boxer shorts and camisole tops, super-caffinated "Make Coffee, Not Spam" coffee mugs and coasters, and my personal favorite, the "Slam a Spammer" t-shirt.
The ISIPP provides information and consulting about spam, email, and Internet issues, and is the sponsor of the national Spam and the Law conference. Their new ISIPP Accreditation Database (IADB) is intended to allow the email that's supposed to get through get delivered, without getting caught in overzealous spam filters.
"What is unique about IADB, among other things, is that it is the first DNS-queryable database which provides the kind of fact-based data that it does," explains ISIPP President and CEO, Anne Mitchell. "We don't tell ISPs "you should accept email from this sender because we say so" We tell ISPs "this organization has good mailing practices, they are known to us, they publish SPF records, participate in Bonded Sender, or whatever the case may be, and the ISPs and other receivers make their email acceptance or rejection decisions based on that data."
Makes good sense to me. I'm all for the legitimate mail making its way through ... while the spam gets caught in the filters ...
I've wanted a DSL Internet connection for the longest time. Unfortunately, I still can't get DSL service run to ranchero indebto. At the time I installed my satellite Internet connection, DSL wasn't an option in my town ... all we had was a one-way cable system that used a conventional modem and phoneline for the upstream traffic. I wasn't keen on that idea, so I went with the two-way satellite.
Over time, our local phone company began to roll out DSL. Unfortunately, the old ranch happened to be just a bit too far from the phone company's CO. With DSL, the distance you are from the central office can determine what type of DSL you can get, and most importantly, whether you can get DSL at all ...
Now I've been working on the web for long enough that I can remember actually wanting an ISDN line, scary thought that it is. Back in the heyday's of the late 90's it always seemed like DSL service was going to be just a few months away. At one point, a DSL provider had even signed me up to install service here, but they failed to do their research before sending the contract.
While DSL is available in our municipality, our local phone company has dragged its feet about bringing the service to this end of town. Their glacial movement has been chilled, no doubt, by the improvements to our local cable company's system. Now that our local cable provider offers 3MBs standard and 5MBs as an option, DSL is less and less attractive. On the other hand, the lower price of DSL service is still compelling.
DSL comes in different flavors:
While I'm now content with my new cable modem, once upon a time, I actually considered running a T1 line to the house ... I'll write more about that this week ...