Did Lewis and Clark Complain?
It was just a little over 200 years ago that Lewis and Clark set out from St. Louis following the Louisiana Purchase to find the Northwest Passage. The journey would take more than two years and force the Corps of Exploration to endure two harsh winters. Eventually finding the Pacific Ocean near present day Portland, Oregon.
By contrast, today I find myself following nearly the same path … of course I’m jetting from Raleigh, North Carolina to Seattle, Washington in less then 6 hours, while enjoying movies and internet access at 30,000. I wonder if Lewis and Clark complained as much as we might be inclined to about the hardships for our trip? Of course they had to contend with unforgiving weather and hostile native peoples, but come on we’re dealing with crying babies, spilled drinks, slow internet connections and the occasionally un-friendly stewartesses. So what’s become of us? Has our ability to endure been so diminished?
I mean we can post new blog messages from 30,000 as I’m doing right now. What do we have to complain about? We should be amazed at what we can do!
Blogging from 30,000 Feet, K
New Blog Entry Test
This is a test blog entry from my new MacBook Air using the MacJournal application.
I’m adding a photo from our vacation over Thanksgiving. This photo was added with no sizing changes. How does it appear on the site?
I had to change the image sizes manually so they weren’t fixed larger than the page allows.
k
What would you do if you could not fail?
This is a truly inspiring video from TED done by Regina Dugan from DARPA.
Teleflora – An Epic Social Media #FAIL – Updated!
Three weeks ago red blooded American males were gathered around our TV’s in celebration of that most American event called the Superbowl. The game of course is not only celebrated for the football that will be played, but for the foods that are eaten and the commercials that are run.
Early in the first quarter this ad was played:
Suddenly, hundreds of thousands of men decided they needed to buy flowers for Valentines Day.
Me included, and for the added surcharge you to could “Give” on Valentines Day and make sure your flowers (and chocolates) arrived on the big day.
Fast forward to the big day. I thought it strange that during the day I never got the message from my wife that “The flowers came they are so beautiful ….” instead by the time I got home at 6pm still no flowers. Checked my email nothing from Teleflora about any delays.
But when I checked Twitter there was an explosion of people complaining that Teleflora was emailing them that night and saying that they were not going to be able to deliver their flowers … despite in many cases them being ordered just a few minutes after the airing of their million dollar ad during the Super Bowl.
Screen shots of some of the many complaints that were being aired:
In real time more and more complaints were being added by the second.
It wasn’t in just one place in the country it was happening everywhere.
And all along Teleflora was silent. As a tidal wave of negative publicity was sweeping over Twitter they were silent. And Twitter became a feeding frenzy with links being sent out to media and reporters asking for someone to look into all of the money that Teleflora took from people and never delivered.
I know someone that’s gonna have a tough day. Marvin you should call in sick today, cause you are going to be on BLAST!
So it goes without saying that you should never buy any flowers from Teleflora ever … they can deliver a great Super Bowl ad, but they can’t deliver on the Super Bowl of Flower Days.
Unlike Teleflora every company today has to be monitoring Social Media and when something goes wrong you have to engage.
To see just how big a failure this was, if Teleflora took you money and you didn’t “receive” add your name and order number to the comments section of this blog and we’ll keep a running total of just how many Valentine Days they ruined!
Geek Squad Agent’s Pledge
I’m reading Practically Radical by William C. Taylor and one of the interesting things he mentions is the Geek Squad Agent Pledge. The pledge which each Agent is expected to sign says –
I will:
1. Never violate the trust of one of my clients or disrespect their property.
2. Never say, “I don’t know.” Instead, say “I’ll find out.”
3. Always understand that my client’s time is more valuable than my own.
4. Assume every problem is my fault, unless proven otherwise.
5. Consider my job done only when my client is completely overwhelmed with joy. And instead of assuming they’re happy, I’ll ask them.
6. Keep every promise I make, including this one.
What a simple and powerful statement of their values and beliefs that helps to align their 15,000 agents across the country … who by the way … generate more than $1 Billion in revenue annually.
Amazon do you know who you are talking to?
Amazon.com has been a leader in Internet commerce since it’s launch in 1995. Since then with the exception of a few years when the “Internet Bubble” burst it’s march to Internet supremacy has been unquestioned. Today it is the largest online retailer in the world with Staples selling 1/4 as much a Bezos’ baby.
But along the way it might have gotten too big for itself. As evidence I would offer up my recent experience with my new Kindle. First let me tell you about the Kindle.
The Kindle is an amazing device. I thought I would have missed ”the feel” of a book in my hands. Missed the tactile experience of reading, not at all. Reading on the Kindle’s electronic ink screen is a joy. And as you are ready the technology of the Kindle disappears. You can download books directly to your Kindle, make notes and highlights and even share them with your friend through twitter and Facebook. I’ve read two books so far on it and I think I read faster on the Kindle than with the real thing. If you are a reader GET ONE TODAY .
When you are signing in to your Amazon account to buy it though you need to be VERY, VERY careful. As I would find out later… Amazon at some point stopped checking to see if your password is correct. Meaning that if you have an Amazon account with the email address test@kofacts.com and the password of abc123 and you enter the correct email address but a password of abc132 their system doesn’t say wrong password, it just creates a new account with the wrong password, fatfinger it again and you can end up with three amazon accounts all tied to the same email address but with completely different purchases, stored cards, and services.
I found out because I registered my Kindle and a gift card under one password and tied to link my iphone Kindle app under another and couldn’t understand why my books and store credit weren’t showing up on my iPhone. So I tried reregistering my Kindle and lost my purchases (no content on my Kindle) and gift card balance.
I had enough and eventually got to the point where I could have them call me. Which Josh did quickly, he was the one who explained that an account is any email address and password combination and this multiaccount situation can easily occur. It took him 25 minutes to find my purchases, push them back to my Kindle, close the duplicate accounts and ensure the balance of my gift card was found and made available to me.
I cannot believe that an eCommerce vendor that has been open for 15 years would allow this condition to occur. It would seem to me to be alot less problematic to tell someone when they entered a password incorrectly instead of creating a duplicate account. It might prevent some sales, I’ll give you that, but if you are going to start offerring online registration of devices and content then there should only be one version of my account. This is something that they need to fix.
Sync iPhone to Google Calendars
It seemed redudant to me to have a seperate Google Mobile application on my iPhone to see the calendar items from my Google Calendar when the iPhone has a perfectly fine calendar built in. (I would not go so far as it call it perfectly good.) But everytime I’d re-discover this problem, I’d go to iTunes and under the calendar options it repeatedly told me that “No Supported Calendar Application Could be Found”.
So, tonight when this issue again bubbled to the top of mind, I started searching for “What are the Best iPhone Calendar Apps” and “Sync iPhone and Google Calendar” and I came across this webpage:
http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=138740
If you follow these directions and use “gmail” where they say to use “googlemail” it works perfectly. Now my Google Calendars automatically sync with my iPhone. And the best part is …it works for Contacts as well. Give it a try.
Microsoft: A Vision of the Future 2019
A great video showing where the application of technology can take us:
Facebook Readers: You will have to click on the photo to see the video.
The Most Important Reason to Use Facebook!
When I get the chance to log into Facebook (or FB as we Internet elitists call it) I am amazed by the people who are actively using it from Lauren(my wife) who is a prolific blogger/writer on FB to my Mother and Godmother who love to post pictures of Family and friends to share.
But when I look I also see all the folks who are not using it.
Tad is a Bad Mamma-Jamma
I recently spoke to my Sister in Law about FB and asked when she was going to get on so she could share more pictures of my super-cute nephew, Tad. She said she had no plans to get a FB page anytime soon. She wasn’t ruling it out but it would not anytime soon.
I completely understand the idea that many people share which is that FB is a fad and will quickly be replaced by something else. Does any still use MySpace? But Facebook is MySpace refined. Typical reasons cited for not using Facebook:
-
I don’t want to post information about myself on the Internet. (Certainly valid, but remember FB can’t publish anything you don’t give it, so you are in complete control of this one.)
-
It’s only for Teenagers and Pedophiles. (Frankly a very dated argument, actually Facebook’s fastest growing segement is Women over 55)
-
I don’t have time for it. (That’s right, you probably don’t. I’m not going to lie you will look up from your computer and say “I did what for three hours!”)
But here are the benefits of using Facebook
-
Easily Share Photos, Videos, and News with Friends
-
Reconnect with Friends and Classmates from High School or College
-
Use it for Networking with Colleagues and Business Contacts
-
Kill Hundreds of Hours Playing Mostly Awful Games (Completely Optional)
But perhaps the most important reason to use Facebook is because you are already on it. That’s right your photo is already plastered all over Facebook and it has your name on it. Remember that embarrassing night in college . . . yeah that’s right . . . the one with the leather chaps and the wig . . . it’s on there. You see when your friends use Facebook they post pictures that include you AND they are putting your name on the picture in a process called Tagging.
IF YOU WERE ON FB you would have the chance to Approve or Disapprove that Tag taking your name off of that embarrassing photo, but since your not . . . that photo will have to stay.
So let’s try an experiment. Let’s take my brother, Steve. He is not on Facebook, but look in just a few minutes I’ve pulled all of these photos of him from other profiles.
Photos of Steve on Facebook
Steve has never posted a single photo of himself on Facebook yet he probably has upwards of 20 photos already published.
How many photos of you are already on FB?
So why do you need to be on Facebook . . . .the fact is you are already on it . . . you might as well make it official.
Free Software – No Really
I was reading one of my daily idea generators from a social media blog called Mashable, and between some of the great stories it includes I found an advertisement for something called BizSpark.
I’m not sure why, but I clicked through to see what it was and found an absolutely fantastic new service from Microsoft . . . of all people.
Part of a larger Start Up Support program from Microsoft, BizSpark, provides FREE software development software to startups and businesses that earn less than $1 Million a year.
You can get all of this software for free:
Team Suite (VSTS) with MSDN® Premium subscription
- Microsoft Windows Server® (all editions up to and including Enterprise)
- Microsoft SQL Server® (all editions)
- Microsoft Office SharePoint® Portal Server
- Microsoft System Center
- Microsoft BizTalk® Server
- Microsoft Dynamics® CRM (coming soon)
In addition to the core program offering, BizSpark startups will be eligible for other Microsoft offerings, such as:
- Microsoft Azure™ Services Platform
This new program gives startup businesses access to the software they need to build their business. Talk about a Business Stimulus Plan!
It it amazing what you can find on the web. Perhaps not as alluring as a photo of Amanda Peet, but is she giving away software?
Sure she's cute, but can she program?
No she is not! 
Treat Oil As A Green Initiative
I find it interesting that everyone from my hardware store:
To my credit union:
is encouraging me to Go Green frequently with the same arguement! Replace that broken light bulb with a flouresent . . .every little bit helps . . . turn off your paper statements . . . every little bit helps . . . . replace the gas guzzler with a hybrid . . .every little bit helps. There is this mindset, which is correct in my opinion, that small steps become long walks, and long walks become marches toward progress. Fantastic . . I get it. Rome wasn’t built in a day . . . it’s gonna take years in order for us to realize the value of all of the little efforts but let’s take small steps today so later we can take great leaps. Sign me up . . . .but wait.
Why doesn’t the same go for the exploration of new oil sources? Why doesn’t every little bit help in that scenario? I know it will take some time to fully realize the benefits of additional drilling and expanding our refining capacities but shouldn’t we take the small steps now so we can take great leaps later? Instead we hear we that we shouldn’t waste the time and money, or create the jobs necessary I suppose, to find and drill for more oil because it will be years before we will ever see a drop flow into the gas tanks of Americans. It seems to me that those who oppose drilling for additional oil yet avidly support these incremental Green Initiatives are being dishonest by accepting the “Chinese water torture” methodology for their cause and using the negatives of that same methodology to quell calls for additional domestic oil production.
Our natural gas, oil and coal reserves are sufficient to significantly reduce our dependency on foriegn oil and the moment that the world beleives that the United States is going to start taking that seriously the rules of the game have been changed. The United States is the largest consumer of OPEC oil, if tomorrow President Bush standing with John McCain and Barak Obama announced that the United States was going to begin the exploration and recovery of energy sources throughout the United States and its territorial waters coupled with investements in improved fuel efficiency, and coal liquification OPEC would have to react or watch it’s best customer turn to the seller in their own backyard. Even though a single drop will not have been produced yet, the public announcement of our willingness to do what is necessary would create change.
So America start drilling, because every little bit helps!
WordPress Under Siege
So . . . . right after Obama finishes his speech his millions of supporters all run to post their warm and fuzzies on WordPress and bring down the site:
If you wondered what the role of the new media is going to be during this election or what impact it’s going to have just check this out. This election is going to be very different than anything we have seen in the past!
Spring Cleaning Your MySpace Page . . The Contest!
Please for the love of God update your Myspace page. It’s spring, update your lay out, your status update, your profile song, your pictures . . .anything.
Do you still have those photos of you at the Halloween Party on your myspace page? It’s time to update them. Your friends care about you, all except for Tom, they want to know what you are doing.
Let’s have a contest. Post a reply showing your original MySpace page and your updated one. Let’s see who can create the most improved MySpace page. Then send this blog to your friends and challenge them!
Kris
Idea Generators for This Week – 3/16/2008
News Updates and Articles for 3/17/2008
Interesting Articles from This Week – Idea Generators
Preserve Your Time – This article appeared in the N and O this weekend and has some novel ideas about managing your time at work.
A Lesson From Apple: How to Make Users Fall In Love With You – Discussion of Apple’s design principles and link to their development guidlines for the iPhone
The Connected Generation – The idea of Presence in business communications.
Latest Facebook Application Pays Users - A new feature in Facebooks allows you to profit by recommending products to your online group of friends.
Part II: YouTube.com and the Presidential Election
YouTube.com and The Presidential Election Part II
So you will recall our plan to review the number of “channel” views for the major presidential candidates on YouTube.com. Each of the campaigns has a dedicated channel on YouTube where all of their election videos are uploaded and made available to the public. In Part I we established our baseline and now a week later we can see who is gaining momentum from the online video perspecitive.
|
Candidate |
Party |
Views 12/17/2007 |
Views 12/26/2007 |
# Growth |
% Growth |
| Barrack Obama |
D |
11,454,594 |
11,485,494 |
30,900 |
0.27% |
|
Ron Paul |
R |
6,413,367 |
6,487,426 |
74,059 |
1.15% |
|
Hillary Clinton |
D |
1,132,922 |
1,155,400 |
22,478 |
1.98% |
|
Rudy Guiliani |
R |
781,791 |
792,099 |
10,308 |
1.32% |
|
John Edwards |
D |
721,953 |
731,288 |
9,335 |
1.29% |
| John McCain |
R |
541,783 |
549,497 |
7,624 |
1.41% |
| Mike Huckabee |
R |
344,667 |
372,505 |
27,838 |
8.08% |
During the last 9 days it’s clear that both Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee have been gaining momentum on their video channels. Ron Paul had the largest growth in numbers with 74,000+ new views (40% of traffic across all candidates) . But Mike Huckabee had by far the largest percentage of growth with more than 8% of his total views coming in the last 9 days. Much of his growth can be attributed to his “controversial” Christmas commercial where critics saw a “floating cross” in a bookcase. A video which has not been posted, BY THE CAMPAIGN, on YouTube. So lot’s of people came looking but all they got was a lot of standard campaign video offerrings. Nice Move!
Other observations would include the fact that Hillary has the largest % growth among major Democratic candidates with a robust 1.98% growth in the last 9 days, maybe the “Hillary I Know” campaign is getting the message out. While Obama’s numbers lead Demorcrats . . . but he only showed a meager 0.27% growth rate.
Keep tuned to KoFacts.com and we’ll revist their YouTube.com traffic reports just prior to the Iowa Caucus in 8 days.
kris
Merry Christm . . . .ohh is that a Wii?
So I finally got a chance to play with a Wii . . . and it kicked my butt!
The end of the year can be a very stressful time for those in business. Beyond trying to ensure your customers are having a happy holiday season, it’s also when you are trying, sometimes in vain, to close out your projects which are due that year . . . while you are planning for your projects in the next year. Our business is no different, so we decided to throw a luncheon for our staff to say thank you for an incredible year and to take a bit of breather during this hectic time.
Being an IT organization, the organizers also came up with the great idea of setting up a Nintendo Wii and a LCD Projector so the guests could have a little entertainment while they noshed on holiday treats. This was my first experience with a Wii. In the rare instance when I get a chance to play a computer game, I’ll choose a first person shooter or the latest edition of Madden!
First, four of us played the bowling game together and bowled an entire 10 frame game. I was amazed how sensitive the controllers were and how using a little bit of english you could positively, on negatively, affect that roll of the ball.
We all got very into setting up our shots and using a flick of the wrist to add side to side action on each roll. In short is was absolutely addictive. Just like real bowling we were chearing strikes and spares and challenging each other with beer frames. It was a blast. And interestingly enough I scored near my real bowling average, 115.
Next we switched to boxing. Now I love boxing. I’ve been a boxing fan since I was 12 and I would stay up late to watch Mike Tyson obliterate opponents on HBO Boxing. Every boxing game I’ve played up to the point, sucked! So you might say I was going to be a hardsell on this game. Again I was very pleasantly surprised. The controllers gave a pretty good representation of the bobbing and weaving that I was trying to do. There was some latency in the actually punches but overall it was a great experience.
So I boxed three fights, which I won 2, and the hook was sunk. Now I really want to get a Wii . . . .that was until the next morning. I’m sure it was the vigorous punching but the next morning I could barely move my shooulders, triceps, and lats. I felt like I had done the best arm and shoulder work out in years. I was sore for two days . . . . I mean it sincerely . . . I loved it. Imaging a gaming system that is this much fun and provides you the type of work out you’ve needed. I can’t wait till I can convince Lauren that we need to get one of these.
Merry Christmas and if you got one of these from Santa . . call me!
kris
Next Up . . Another Tech Bubble?
As the reminents of the real estate bubble float back down to earth and well intentioned friends discuss the value or harm of freezing interest rates for those who are over extended.
It’s time to turn our attention to the next bubble . . . .could it be tech’s turn again?
Let’s hope not. I’ve gotta sell my Google stock first.
Kris
No More Travel For Me a Google Maps Tour . . .
So I’ve just come off a whirlwind tour of America for the purpose of reviewing datacenters for a new business venture we’ll be launching. In a matter of two and a half weeks I’ve visited: Las Vegas (7 Days), Los Angeles (4 Days), Portland 2 Days, Washington DC (2 Days), and Boston (2 Days). I am done. I swear right here and now that I will not visit more than two places in a 30 days timeframe again.
But while this travel was exhausting it got me thinking about how much travel I’ve done in my 16 years of professional work. And while I’m certainly no traveling sales man I’ve seen alot of cities in the US and some I’d even like to visit again. In order to see all of the places I’ve traveled to I wanted to put together a online map that I could use to track my travel. So I went to Google and used the “My Maps” feature to create my own online map.
While this map is very basic, I wanted to create a map with small push pins in the places I’ve visited. Using My Maps I created a new map called My Travel and after searching for each of the cities I wanted to mark I could right click and place a placemark on the map and fill in some information about that spot. You can even link to online photos of the area which I will tackle in an upcoming blog post. But here is the net result:
As you can tell this service also allows you to publish your map for your visitors to see and find you. You could easily use this on your site to create an online guide to your locations or points of interest.
So I Got This New Computer . . .What Software Do I Need?
If you have anything to do with computers you will eventually hear this question. Most of the time the people asking this question are most concerned with security and what programs they need to purchase to protect their new investement.
If you get this question try this answer on for size:
“Security is the most important concern. If you have the new security program called Mine Sweeper you’ll be completly protected. Mine Sweeper scans your system for malware and it allows you to search your hard drive sector by sector. Routers show up as flags and the numbers around them are you IP Address. If the system finds a virus during your search it will show up as a mine, you should immediately reboot your PC and start your scan again.”
Obviously that is not true — I feel obligated to mention it because I can see my less informed readers continually rebooting their PC and then I’ll get the next question . . . Can you take a look at my PC?
So what software should you have on your new PC or Laptop? The good news is the list is getting smaller and smaller because an increasing number of applications are now accessible via the web. But for those apps which you must download I’ve compiled this list and may update from time to time as new products come out on the market. Other good news is that all of these downloads are FREE.
1. Mozilla’s Firefox – Link
Firefox is an open source web browser, like Internet Explorer, but runs without hogging all of your available memory, without exposing all of IE’s security vulnerabilities, and without annoying error messages.
2. Mozilla’s Thunderbird – Link
Next to surfing the web the next most common use of a computer is Email. Thunderbird is a flexible email program that allows you to link to all of your email accounts into a single program.
3. Google Pack – Link
This site on Google allows you to download lots of programs that are important. It bundles them together and gives you a single point to download all of these programs. When you go to the site you can choose which programs to put in your bundle I consider these to be important and or very useful.
Norton Security Scan and Spyware Doctor will keep you computer safe from viruses and malware.
Adobe Reader will allow you to view PDF documents on the web.
Picasa allows you to store and organize photos into albums
And Star Office is a complete office productivity suite just like Microsoft Office, except without the $400 price tag.
Best of all, all of these programs are free!
Adding these programs to your PC and getting rid of all the vendor trialware it came with will ensure that you and your new PC operate well for many years to come.
Please let me know if you’ve used this advice by leaving a comment or if you have another must have application let me know.
Where Are The Proud Geeks . . . .What Happened to You?
So let me get this straight . . . .the iPhone comes out and a small number of dedicated AppleFans proudly and very publicly shell out $599 for the product and now they’re bitching that Apple dropped the price to increase business. Isn’t this how technology works? Early adopters pay extraordinary prices so they can be the first one on the block to have the product. They typically then proceed to tell everyone what they bought and often how much they spent for it . . . .wait could that be why they are upset?
They spent so much time flashing their iPhone around to impress their fellow technophiles and now Apple has lowered the cost and their “exclusivity” or cache is lost. Many people instead of being impressed by their $599 purchase will instead take them for fools for spending so much so early.
So with one announcement from Apple they went from “well-off” connected technophiles to fools. I guess that would piss me off too. But whining about the price cut is not going to help your case, now it just makes you look desperate. If $200 is really going to make a difference to you then YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE BOUGHT THE iPHONE!
Build Your Own News Feed – Right Now
Perhaps the most visible result of the Internet’s world wide use is the explosion of information that is being published by everyone from News Corp to . . .well people like us . . . .bloggers. I beleive that this overload of information has forced most of us to specialize or narrow our interests. this could also be the result of us getting older. If we do narrow our interests as we mature then this deluge of information becomes increasingly more oppressive. How can you keep up with the news you need or want to know about like your hobbies, your employer, or your neighborhood when there is so much information to sort through to find the nuggets you want? The answer, dear reader, is to create your own news feed. It’s actually suprisingly easy and you can do it in less than 5 minutes.
Let’s pretend that I have an interest in Coin Collecting but I’m soooo busy with my collection that I can’t possibly sift through the vast amount of drivel on net to hear what the US Mint is doing. . . this sounds like a great idea for a news feed.
Beginners
Go To Google
When you arrive on Google’s home page check the upper left corner for the link to News – click it.
When you click the link, the page will refresh to show you the top stories of the day. Enter the topic, person, or business you want to keep track of. For mine I’ll enter the US Mint.
After you click search Google returns all of the new stories about the topic, person, or organization you entered.
If you are satisfied with the results and would like to get new articles that match your search term via email, click the “News Alerts” link on the left hand side.
Here you can provide the email address that you’d like to have the notifications sent to and choose how frequently you’d like to be notified of a matching story.
Now if any news article or press release comes out about your topic you’ll receive and email notification with a link to the latest. Talk about being in the loop!
Intermediate
After you have tested your search terms in Google’s news portal click the RSS link just below the News Alerts link on the left hand side.
The page will show the RSS feed with Google’s stylesheet.
Copy the URL and you can now use this in any RSS reader that you are comfortable with. iGoogle, MyYahoo, NetVibes, etc. I used the exact same process to create a custom feed for news about my employer and added it to my NetVibes page. (see below)
This is really easy to setup and can keep you “in the know”.
- Kris
Another Application Moves to the Cloud
If you are a technophile at all, you will regularly have a need to diagram systems, networks, databases, or work-flows. For many years this functionally has been the domain of the very powerful and very expensive Visio program from Microsoft.
Fortunately someone has decided to liberate us from the licensing Goliath that is Microsoft by creating a Web 2.0 version of Visio called Gliffy . . .it can be found at http://www.gliffy.com
Gliffy allows users to create professional images online, collaborate with other desingated people or keep them private for your records alone.
Here is a very simple example that I created showing my home network:
The interface is exceptionally easy to use and there are a variety of shape groups you can choose from. This is great piece of software, I have not doubt they will soon be picked up by Google and added to their suite of products.
Once you have created your image online you can link to it or embed it in your website or blog:
Is is a pretty cool site.
Know Your Product!
So I recently took an old Pentium II 660 MHZ PC and rebuilt it into a Ubuntu (Linux) machine for the boys to use. The process was not without it’s pitfalls but it worked in the end. The only thing they need a PC for is to connect to the Internet so they can visit Disney.com,Nick Jr.com, and Thomas the Tank Engine.com. So the first thing I had to do after standing up the new PC is go shopping for a wireless card to add to the machine.
So I proceed to OfficeMax around the corner from my house and they have two, a LinkSys and a D-Link WDA-1320 Wireless G Desktop Adapter. Neither mentioned support for Linux on the packaging. so I grabbed my cell phone from the store and called the tech support line written on the outside of the D-Link product. The call was answered very quickly by a young man. I advised him that I wasn’t a customer yet but wanted to know if I could use the WDA-1320 on my Ubuntu/Linux machine . . I heard him clicking some keys and he responded “No it’s not supported by that card”. I told him thank you and hung up.
I cannot tell you why, perhaps it is my new found confidence in the open source market, but I decided I would go ahead and purchase it anyway.
As it turns out the D-Link WDA-1320 is one of the very best wireless cards you can get for Ubuntu/Linux. One quick search when I got home turned up hundreds of testimonials about how easy the card was to install on Unbuntu/Linux. Mine was installed and running in less than 5 minutes. It makes me wonder how many customers may be asking the same thing and getting bad information. In fact, D-Link’s website to this day says the card requires Windows XP or Windows 2000.
As leaders, we must be on the lookout for employees who do not know the capabilities of our systems, products and teams. We must frequently engage in a process of idea sharing with our teams to ensure everyone knows what they/we can do. Otherwise, like D-Link, we may be selling ourselves short.
Hi, My name is Kris Kovacs and welcome to KoFacts my blog about everyday leadership, management, technology, politics, scouting and other fun stuff. I have a diverse background in financial services and information technology so the topics I cover tend to be applicable to business and IT. Thanks for stopping by. Please subscribe to my blog or bookmark it and visit often.
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