Monday, August 25, 2008
Walk the Walk?
So, I was getting ready to write a nice blog entry about how my laptop
took a poo this weekend, and right before I logged on to my blog the
power went out at our office.
If
you've ever lost power in a server room than you know that an immense
amount of beeping and blinking goes on. It's quite nerveracking but
I've been through it before so no
biggie (it's really a big biggie, but I feel cooler telling you that
it's no biggie because I'm a veteran of power-loss problems).
Like a good backup company should, all of our
backup batteries and systems worked like a charm. The only thing that
isn't working right now is the AC in my office, which makes perfect
sense to me in some type of philosophical way.
Now back to my
laptop. It was working fine on Friday and I went to turn it on
Saturday morning and it said, "Windows had encountered a problem
communicating with a device... error status is 0xc00000e9...". So I
run the Dell Diagnositics and it tells me that my "DST Short Status
Test Failed"
What
the heck is DST Short Status Test? Don't worry, I had no idea either.
It's a Drive Short Test, or a hard drive test and mine failed. So, my
hard drive and all of the data on it went bye-bye. I've got to give
Dell their proper accolades though because I told them what my screen
said and they told me I'd have a new hard drive by Tuesday. It took
five minutes. Nice work, Dell!
But the big questions is, "So, Jeff, did you lose all of your data? Are you the cobbler with no shoes?"
Don't
worry I have a proper backup, and better yet, I even have a backup
laptop so I was backup up and running in no time. The most important
thing though is that if you have a proper backup then your computer
shooting sparks while the power goes out doesn't have to be a
heart-wrenching experience.
Take it from me, I know.
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Thursday, August 21, 2008
Articles that I enjoyed and birthdays galore
Monday, August 11, 2008
Whole New Look with Something Missing
Our website has been revamped yet again and I like it more than ever. Heck, I absolutely love it. It conveys our message better than ever and really shows what ION does.
Now, you may be asking, "What is missing?"
The shopping cart. And now you're asking, "But Jeff, how are you going to sell you product if you don't have a way for people to buy it on your site?" I'll give you a couple options to choose from:
A) Shopping carts are out of style and if people want to buy our software we will trust them to send us a check.
B) We're waiting for Google's new Google-Think-Buy application whereby when you think you want to buy something it automatically charges your credit card.
C) We only sell direct through our Partners and do this because we want to continue to show our Partners how valuable our relationship is.
If you chose C, then you're correct; however, if you chose A or B, you're the type of person that's fun to have a drink with.
If you're interested in purchasing ION you can still contact us and we'll give you all the info you need, then we'll be sure to put you in contact with one of our partners when you want to buy.
I'd like to thank Rick Tashman for his helpful insight on these matters as well as a delicious lunch at Fogo De Chao earlier today. I highly recommend it.
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Monday, August 04, 2008
Net Neutrality
I don't know if you know what Net Neutrality is but you definitely should. Now I'm not one to get preachy or political (well, at least on my business blog) but I am all for spreading information. The more information we have the better decisions we can make.
The quick and dirty that you need to know is that the Internet was created as a neutral platform. It means that everyone has a shot to be recognized regardless of their size, or location, or -- most importantly -- wealth. You can search for electronics stores near you and find a cool Mom & Pop shop as well as Best Buy, the Internet doesn't discriminate.
There are some out there that see a huge opportunity to make the Internet a non-neutral, or revenue-powered platform. Basically, companies with the funds to pay will be more recognized on the web. Worse yet, the smaller companies that don't have the funds may not even be accessible through the web. Not cool.
So, get educated and be sure to get your voice out there if you have an opinion.
Here's a good site to check out if you want more info:
www.SaveTheInternet.com
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Tuesday, July 29, 2008
WALL-E
Just a quick note... If you haven't seen WALL-E, well, you need to. Truly a genius film when you consider that it's completely entertaining and that there is no english (just robot-ish) spoken in the first 45 minutes.
Enjoy!
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Monday, July 28, 2008
The Ascii Group
I'd like to thank Alan Weinberger as well as Doug Young of the Ascii
group for meeting with Colin, Larry and me last week. We presented our
data center solution to Alan and the revenue benefits to SMB IT Firms. I think the potential really hit home.
If you're with a small to mid-size IT Firm you should definitely look into the Ascii Group. They're the largest network of VAR's in the world and they present quite a few benefits, such as insurance, to your business.
Thanks for checking in.
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Tuesday, July 15, 2008
We can't solve this problem...
My mother will just love the fact that I put this video up. Thank goodness we're not in the home services business.
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Sunday, July 13, 2008
Why do businesses ruin coupons?
Let me ask you a question:
Have you ever received a coupon or a free offer and when you go to redeem it you end up having to pay? I know it's happened to all of us. Here's my latest story:
Every friday (at least) the Universe Point guys go Cobb's Creek to play some golf. We recently found out that if we register to their little member clubie thingie for every five times we play the course we get one free play. To that, we said a collective, "Cool!". Didn't cost us anything to sign up either.
So, after five rounds I get my free pass and two weekends ago I went to redeem it. Now, when I hand the clerk my free pass, she turns to me and says, "That'll be seventeen dollars."
"Uh, I thought it was a free pass."
"Well, you still have to pay the cart fee."
"I'll just walk then."
"You can't walk, you have to pay the cart fee."
"How much would it be if I didn't have the free pass?"
"Twenty-one dollars."
"Wow, that's one expensive free pass."
Because I'm a business owner I tend to analyze things from a business point of view. So I couldn't stop asking myself, "Why would you give away a free pass and then charge your customer?" It had the exact opposite effect that it was supposed to. If you had told me it was a coupon for 20% off, I would have been happy, but instead, I'm mad because my free play is $17 more expensive than it should be.
Bottom line people, don't lie or trick your customers. It just doesn't pay.
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Tuesday, July 08, 2008
I Pinch
In response to Lisa's comment on the post before this one, here's the "I Pinch" commercial:
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