Several years ago on a business trip to Amsterdam, I was offered a book by the hotel I was staying at. The book was about the hotel and area where I was staying, and I gladly accepted it and it sat on my bookshelf until now. So why would I keep such a book? Now I know.

The book is titled “Be Our Guest! All about Jan Toebaxman, Holland and the Dutch.” The hotel I stayed in was called the Golden Tulip Jan Tabak – Golden Tulip is a hotel chain and Jan Tabak is a version of the name Jan Toebaxman, or Joe Tobaccoman in English. It tells the story about the original hotel built near the site back in the 1600’s, as well as the story of the innkeeper and the region where it is outside of Amsterdam.

Did I have any takeaways from this 47-page book? Of course! My greatest takeaway is that there are stories to be told. From stories of individuals to families to businesses and cities, there are surely many stories never documented in some form, and thus lost over the generations. It is not until years later this is usually found, and the recreation of the stories from other stories takes some great effort. Telling a story, no matter how small, adds to the conversation of life and society.

Another takeaway is you can sell through telling your story. If I had more time on that trip this book pointed out small towns and sights to see in those towns. The book itself had little mention about the present-day hotel itself, but in selling on the area, it would be top of mind to stay at this hotel if I wanted to visit this area again.

A final takeaway is receiving this book was unexpected. The only other hotel I have been in that had a book or story of any kind was a Marriott hotel, where I found a copy of the Marriott family and hotel chain story. This was years ago, and I don’t even know if they distribute the books in hotel rooms anymore. Usually the “reading materials” in a hotel room are sales pitches or the Gideons Bible, and some hotels don’t offer the latter anymore. This book was a pleasant surprise, even though it took a while for me to read it.

As I pass along a book after I read it, I will send this book to the first person who posts a comment stating they would like it. Don’t leave your address, as I will email you outside of the blog for it. And there’s no obligation to visit The Netherlands either, though I highly recommend it. The hotel is still there, but is now NH Jan Tabak.

Book Take-Aways • Diversions • (2) Comments • Permalink

Diversions • (1) Comments • Permalink

A colleague of mine is hoping to take an ASP.NET class in Chicago from June 3 to 6, 2008. The class only needs 2 people to take place, and so far he is the only person enrolled. As he is coming into the Windy City to take this class, he asked me to promote this in hopes of finding someone to take the class.

If this is something of interest to you, please contact me by posting a comment here at The Hot Iron and I will contact you off the blog. If this is not something of interest, please pass along if you know someone who may be interested in the training.

Thanks in advance, and I hope the power of the blogs can support my colleague!

Technology • (3) Comments • Permalink

Imagine having a product you sell that people want, yet you create one they don’t, then decide to pull the one they want from the market? If you need an example of this, you need not look beyond Microsoft and its promotion of Windows Vista and pending threat to remove Windows XP from the shelf.

To many, Windows XP is all they need for their PC’s operating system. Finally, after years of enduring with issues with various Windows versions, a stable and reliable version exists in XP. Well, as stable and reliable as Windows can be, I guess. But this hasn’t held back the people in Redmond, Washington from selling Vista, an unstable and bloated operating system that has more incompatibilities that Democrats and Republicans. As a result, people have denounced it and have refused to upgrade to Vista. Since some of these people are the key technology decision-makers in Corporate America, traction is gaining in extending the life and support for XP.

InfoWorld Magazine is running a petition to save Windows XP. I have signed it myself, and if you are a fan of XP, I recommend you signing it as well. Whether or not it will make a difference, it is a way to show the size of the resistance.

Sign the Save Windows XP petition!

Business • Technology • (0) Comments • Permalink

Have you ever had a problem with a Web site? Notice how I did not ask for a show of hands, otherwise there would be a lot of arms in the air right now. When you encountered this error, what did you do? Did you call the company, or try to contact them via email or the contact form on their Web site?

As someone who spends most all of my days on the Web, I encounter many. If I do find an error or something out of the ordinary, sometimes I report it. I say sometimes as when I do, I am often confronted with the sounds of crickets on the other end of the phone, get an automated, generic response or something that contains words but is not necessarily a sentence.

Why is this? There are many contributing factors to this, including the typical siloing of functions within a company, the fact that who answer the phone or check the email from the Web site has no knowledge or way to process such a contact, and the Web site being accessed may be managed by a third-party or other entity outside the company and there are no lines of communication in place. Where these are all realistic scenarios, they do absolutely nothing to serve those actually use the Web site, otherwise known as paying customers.

As an Internet consultant and Web developer, I work closely with my clients and sometimes directly to their customers to resolve any issues with a Web site solution I have provided them. When I do get such a report, I check to ensure the following 4 questions are addressed:

• Who are they – their computer, operating system, browser, Internet connection speed and any programs that may be running while they are accessing the Web site
• What are they doing – the Web site they were accessing, including any and all links and where they linked from, and how they got to this point
• What happened – as much detail as possible, including a written or verbal description and screenshots
• What did they expect to happen – this is always helpful as it could be a case of mistaken expectations, or it could be they knew what was supposed to happen and it didn’t work that way

Generally people are willing to provide this information, especially if they are treated with courtesy and respect. Armed with this knowledge, a troubleshooting path can be put together rather quickly and hopefully a resolution is close at hand. That is, if you take the time to do your best to support the Web site user.

Business • Technology • (0) Comments • Permalink