The Hot Iron

Monday, May 14, 2007

MyBlogLog Changes Coming

Do you have a MyBlogLog account?  It wasn’t until shortly after I started this blog that I created one.  For me, MyBlogLog is a community and a way of connecting myself to bloggers – learning of others and informing others of my own.  Others I am sure have other definitions, but the increased traffic to my site as I traverse MyBlogLog proves my point.

I was unable to make the SOBcon conference this past weekend here in Chicago due to a prior commitment, but there have been plenty written on it.  One announcement came from the new community manager of MyBlogLog, which is now owned by Yahoo!  Fellow Chicago blogger and Internet analyst David Dalka was at SOBcon and reported that MyBlogLog will be rebranding, getting a redesign and other features which will seek to expand its market.  Yahoo! is also seeking input and suggestions, which is also welcome to hear.

Monday, April 30, 2007

Palm Tells Customers to Talk to the Hand

If you own a Palm Treo 680, or any other model, you may want to check the CD that came with your device and make sure that it works.  If so, make a backup copy of your CD and keep it in a safe place, as you won’t be able to get a replacement copy.

Every year I completely rebuild my PC – stripping off all files and reinstalling Windows and all software individually.  I do this because I need to, as my machine starts chugging to a crawl and this complete refresh allows me to use a clean and fast running PC.  One of the first programs I installed was the Palm Desktop and sync software, necessary for moving files from my Treo to my PC and synchronizing all calendar and contact information.  When I put in the CD for the Palm Desktop that came with my Treo, my PC couldn’t read it.  Shocked, I tried it on a number of other PCs at the office, and none could read it.  I then went to the Palm Web site and downloaded a copy of the Palm Desktop and installed it, synced and had all of my data in place, or so I thought.

The version of the Palm Desktop that came on the CD is a more advanced version that what I could get online, and upon further check I could not even download this advanced version from their Web site!  I first discovered this as media files – photos and videos – that I took with the camera function of the Treo were not on my PC after a sync.

I then went back to Palm’s Web site and submitted a help request to have them send me a new CD, and they responded that they do not have replacement CDs, told me to download and install the less advanced version and acknowledged that it would not sync media files.  The message concluded that they wanted to be sure this issue was resolved, they would be sending me a satisfaction survey, and that I was not allowed to post their response on any public forum.

So I responded that this was unacceptable, and that I am awaiting a replacement CD.  I am being courteous and not posting their verbatim message, and of course I have yet to receive the survey.  In the meantime, does anyone out there have a Treo 680 and may have a CD for it that they could copy from me?  Of course, I would be willing to bet that doing so violates the license of the software, but this violation is nothing compared to what Palm has done to me.

Friday, April 20, 2007

The Path to Likemind

This morning I participated in a dynamic discussion for the first meeting of likemind.chi.  What is likemind you ask?  I asked myself the same question when I heard about it, and this video by the founders of likemind explains it well.

And as I am the closest one to the meeting spot at Intelligencia Coffee on Randolph and Wabash, I was there late, however I was one of the last to leave.  I met some interesting people and as we sipped our coffee, we exchanged ideas on branding, blogging and swag.

How I heard about this event is almost as interesting.  The blog of one of my clients was mentioned on the PSFK blog.  After finding this blog interesting, I started reading its feed and heard about Likemind, as it was started by one of the people of PSFK.  A sequence of events that had a fantastic result.

And to think that people were meeting today all over the world with the same common goal.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Bad Captcha

If you have ordered something online or posted a comment to a blog, you have seen captcha.  It was originally developed as a method prevent robots from automatically submitting forms on a Web site by requiring a person to visually view text in an image and enter its value in the form, something a robot should not be able to do.

Where it has a noble purpose to prevent bogus information going to a Web site owner, it is a roadblock to someone who is visually impaired using a form.  And as you can see from the example I grabbed from a Chicago-based Web site, it can be hard for those who do not have any visual impediments to decipher.

I made a decision to not use captcha on The Hot Iron or on Dunkirk Systems’ Web site.  I do have logic in the forms to try to thwart bogus submissions, but they still get through.  Comment moderation is enabled on this blog, requiring me to approve a message.  Where this slows down legitimate comments from going live, not to mention more work on my part, it provides a better user experience for you the reader.  This I value more than deleting a few offers for pills and watches.

As for the Web site I took this captcha example from… their privacy policy and Web site copy did not make it clear what was to be done with the information submitted using the form, so it was another strike against be using it.

Friday, April 13, 2007

Another Successful TECH cocktail Event

Last night was TECH cocktail 4, a quarterly networking event in Chicago that has developed a reputation for being a fun and of high quality.  I have personally attended three of them, and I believe this was the best so far.  The venue was easily accessible near Wrigley Field and public transportation as well as in its vast size to give plenty of room to move, and the diversity of the attendees, from those deeply immersed in technology to those on the periphery.

It was nice to catch up with colleagues that I don’t see often enough, such as Mike Carruth of Digital Bootcamp, Peter Meyers from Tminus2 and debabblog, David Dalka and Tom Sherman of WindyBits.  I also had the opportunity to meet two people in person I have up to then only communicated with online – Jason Jacobsohn of Networking Insight and Joe Piekarz of timeXchange.

Not to forget the stack of business cards from people I met for the first time I will be following up with.  My only regret from the night was not meeting the founders of the event, Frank Gruber and Eric Olson.  Now I have an agenda item for TECH cocktail 5.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Yahoo Points Forgotten and Now Gone

Last week I got an email from Yahoo telling me their points program, Yahoo Points, was being discontinued as of June 30, 2007 and if I do not redeem my points as of that date, I will lose them.

My first reaction to this was, “Yahoo Points?” I had to think back as to when I may have earned or redeemed these points.  After logging into the Points site and looking at my points history, it has been 4 years, so no wonder I forgot.  This took me back to a time when buying online through Yahoo Shopping was a preferred way for me, as Yahoo’s buyer protection was leading-edge at the time.  Today I am buying more through Amazon and eBay and I can’t remember the last time I bought something through Yahoo.  Another way to earn points was with your Yahoo credit card.

It looks like Yahoo has already stripped most of the functionality from the site, including some cascading style sheets.  I have a couple hundred points in my account, but you need a minimum of 1,000 points to redeem anything – even a charity donation.  So they will sit there and wither and die; another victim of the Darwinism of the Internet.

Monday, April 09, 2007

What’s a Vonage Customer To Do?

If you use Vonage for your telephone service or you follow the tech community, you may be aware of the court battle they are having with Verizon.  In short, the courts have ruled that Vonage has been using Verizon’s patented technology and not paying for it.  The courts have ruled in favor of Verizon and ordered Vonage to pay $58 million.  This article from the Chicago Tribune sums up the case so far and a court stay allowing Vonage to remain in business.

As a Vonage customer, I am undecided on what to do next.  I am a content customer of the Internet telephony company, as I have never been really pleased with their service.  To begin with, it took over 4 months for Vonage to transfer my phone number from SBC, then the name of the local phone provider now called AT&T.  There were many outages early on as well, where I would lose phone service for hours or even days.  Occasionally, voice mail and three-way calling do not work.  However when it does work, I get a clear signal and email notification I received a voice mail message.

Last week the courts wanted Vonage to stop signing up new customers, and as I write this they have a stay of that order.  That would choke incoming funds to the company, or as some may say good money after bad.  Unclear is what the 2 million plus current customers have for options.  Can I easily move my phone number away from Vonage?  If so, what other telephony options do I have?  Sorry AT&T – there was a reason why I wanted to leave you in the first place, and it’s still there!

Right now I am taking a wait and see approach.  I doubt that any court would shut down the service before its customers were able to go elsewhere.  Well, I hope that would be the case.  Do you have Vonage, and what are you thinking?

Thursday, April 05, 2007

Beware Unsolicited Invoices for Your Domain Name

Earlier I had posted about knowing who manages your domain names.  I would like to build on this by adding being aware of solicitations that appear to be invoices for domain name renewals or services.

Recently the mail has increased with what appears to be an invoice for the renewal of a domain name or for Web site services such as search engine submissions.  These usually come by US Mail, but are now starting to come by email.  Where they look like an invoice, they are in actuality a solicitation, and further inspection will show small print to that effect.  The hopes of these scam artists is to trick you into moving your domain name to them or to pay for services you may not want.

In that original post I said there is a big business around domain names.  You can register domain names with any number of sources.  My business Dunkirk Systems is a reseller of domain names, and all domain names are registered through ICANN-accredited domain name registrars.  Asking a person or entity for their business is not deceptive or unethical itself, but it can be in the way it is executed.

If you receive such an invoice letter or email, verify who it is from.  Contact whomever you have your domain names registered through to verify if the invoice is legitimate or not.  If you do get a letter or have any questions, please post a comment here – I am more than willing to help!

Monday, April 02, 2007

92 - 1 - 100+

After taking a long weekend away from the computer (note PC, not Treo for email) I went back to check on the status of The Hot Iron and see if anyone posted any comments while I was away.  While I checked this information, I also caught up on reading blogs that I subscribe to.

Here are my results:

• 92 comments posted since last Thursday morning
• 1 legitimate comment (thanks Adam!) meaning 91 were pure spam
• 100+ new blog posts were in my Google Reader, as it only displays accurate numbers under 99.  For some reason, they can’t count in Mountain View

Where my blog is new and I am not expecting zillions of hits and comments, getting them from the far-away spammers was not a welcome after the weekend.  As I do have moderating turned on, these were only my problem and did not impact any readers.

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Twitter Has Inspired Me

One of the largest consumption of my time, next to delivering Internet solutions to my clients, is following the news and trends in the Internet space.  It is tough to keep up with all that is new, some of those things more relevant or interesting than others.  Twitter has been in the headlines since the recent South by Southwest (SXSW) conference.  I won’t rehash what Twitter is, and fellow Chicagoan Andy Wibbels wrote this good overview of Twitter.

To me, the fact that someone will care about what I am doing right now, the core of Twitter, is as much fascinating as it is odd.  However, when I hear of new services or gizmos such as Twitter, I tend to think of more practical implications.  Perhaps knowing what I have been doing all day, at the end of the day, would help in accounting for my time?  And in addition to logging what I am doing, could I also log what I just did or notes on something I need to do?  Could an application like this replace scraps of paper and sticky notes all over my desk?

Twitter has inspired me in this regard.  But I won’t be using the application itself, as I don’t want the world to know what I have been doing all day.  A small enhancement to an existing custom Web application could just do the trick.  I’ll let you know how this plays out.