I'm sorry. That's a pretty bloody lame title. And I'll also forgive you if you didn't read my previous post on this subject... which had such a clever title that I can't find it either!
Every so often, though, I read something that makes me wonder: why did the writer go into business at all?
Last week we received a flyer from a realtor whom I'll call "John Doe". John obviously is pretty good at selling homes- after all, he's been in business for over 10 years with the same firm in the same office (we'll say he works for "Acme"). So, with a proven track record of solid business acumen and a professionally written and laid out color flyer, why would I do business with him?
I wouldn't. Why? He's got a winning smile, a good track record, and a really nice flyer.
Why? Because of his amateur, second-string personal email address- johndoe477@hotmail.com.
R U pulling my leg?
I'm sorry, but this is one of those things that just get me going. This IS the 21st Century, after all. And unless you're the only game in town, I'm not going to contact someone who has a throwaway email address- that's no way to run a business. So, my advice to the SOHO and SMB readers who may see this is this: get a domain that has your name in it. Give everyone in the firm a standardized email address, like john.doe@acme.com or jane.doe@acme.com. If your web presence is lame or nonexistent, hire a designer. Trust me on the website- believe it or not, I have "webmaster" in my list of credentials.
(Pause for effect)
Most readers will not know me personally, but on my best of days, I have trouble even spelling HTML. I'm kidding, of course. Just a bit. For example, if I see the tag <!DOCTYPE html> at the top of a page, I know I'm looking at an HTML 5 page. I also know how to recognize and change colors, as well as edit text and import or delete images. I told you that so I could tell you this: don't hire me or anyone like me to manage your online presence. There are pros out there who will do it better and for a fair price. If your business is your livelihood, you owe it to yourself.
But please do it.
Speaking of addresses, data and names, I'd like to share one more pet peeve. I don't consider pride to be a major fault of mine, but when it comes to business, please take the time to spell my name correctly... and get the city I live in right. The city I live in is a suburb of Chicago, with a population of approximately 60,000. It has three ZIP codes, one of which is shared by a village that is 1/15 our size and is strongly mob connected. I cannot tell you how INSULTING it is to get a piece of mail addressed to me, with the proper ZIP code and +4, but with that other village's name on it. Mail like this goes DIRECTLY to the garbage.
I work in an industry very closely associated with direct mail; most of our business is from folks doing direct mail. Every day, I look at mail data, and am constantly reminded of the old programming axiom GIGO (garbage in, garbage out). However, from a personal perspective, I tend to scrutinize the mail we receive at home... and Jennifer has also taken an interest in it. The USPS (United States Postal Service) depends on direct mail, but does not often see fit to enforce its own regulations. I see so much direct mail that is so out of spec that it really IS junk mail, and yet the USPS just accepts the money for the postage rather than enforcing its regulations.
That's not my beef, though.
Even though we live in a 24*7 world, take the time to get stuff right. Get the easy (data) stuff right- for example, it's spelled Coeur D'Alene. not Coeur Dalene. It's not <frigging> rocket science, folks. Then, when you get the easy stuff right, spell my name correctly- at least get my gender right! My name is a little long, and in an address block is often truncated. How about just truncating it to a standard, shortened (nickname?) name rather than just arbitrarily chopping letters off?
Okay, I'm putting the soapbox away now.
Data: 42 (my personal database project) is inching along. I got some data entry done over the last week, and did a few table upgrades. I think I'm currently up to seven complete CD entries, and quite honestly the last one was a bear!
I'm not a huge Elvis Presley fan, but I picked up a SEALED copy of his 30 #1 Hits CD from our local Goodwill store a few months ago for a buck (1USD). When I first built the table for CDs, I had included seventeen track titles. I knew I'd need more, as classical music tends to have LOTS of tracks. The Elvis CD, though, has thirty tracks, so I added thirteen tracks to the table, only to realize that there is one unnumbered track at the end! In unrelated database news, I added 885 pieces to my Lego collection, courtesy of the Amazon Prime sale on the 12th. As I was thinking about Lego and the database, I decided to only include Lego part numbers for parts that I actually possess.
That's it for now, fellow datacampers. As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
Showing posts with label Amazon Prime. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Amazon Prime. Show all posts
Sunday, July 24, 2016
Saturday, July 2, 2016
Music from The Boss- digital and otherwise
Just when you think you had something figured out, the economy throws you a curve ball.
Case in point: music. Specifically, digital music.
Like many folks of my generation, I have music on cassette or LP that I do not have a digital copy of. This leaves me a few options. I can try to find it on the resale market, or I can bite the bullet and purchase a digital copy.
I've gotten lucky on the resale market occasionally. However, when I'm in search of a specific album, I often hit the digital catalogs. Case in point:
Darkness On The Edge Of Town, by Bruce Springsteen.
I once had a manager (at Schaak Electronics, in the Brickyard Mall in Chicago) named Mike who was a HYUGE fan of The Boss. Me... not so much. I've never been much of a fan of celebrities who espouse causes, and Bruce happens to be one of those. But... the guy has made some great music. Darkness On The Edge Of Town and Born To Run are probably his best albums (IMHO), and they deserve a place in any rock music collection. Born To Run is probably the "better", more "hit-worthy" of the two, but Darkness has an honest, less polished, raw quality, which is surprising as it came out after Born To Run. However, I digress.
I had some money in my Google Play account and I thought this would be a good thing to use it on. For $8.99 (USD) I could buy the MP3 from Google, or $9.99 from Amazon. However...
For $6.99, I could get the CD from Amazon, and because I have a Prime membership, I got the MP3 version for free. Born To Run cost me a bit more, and did not have the download option, but I'm pretty much set as far as classic Bruce Springsteen essentials go.
When I'm not buying music on Amazon or Google Play, I like to visit our local Goodwill store. Its a fantastic place to fill holes in one's music collection, if you don't mind wading through absolute chaos- a CD typically sells for a dollar.
That's all for now. To all of my readers in the U.S.A., have a happy and safe 4th. I hope to do some data entry and database work this weekend- with any luck, I should have some speeds and feeds to report soon!
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
Case in point: music. Specifically, digital music.
Like many folks of my generation, I have music on cassette or LP that I do not have a digital copy of. This leaves me a few options. I can try to find it on the resale market, or I can bite the bullet and purchase a digital copy.
I've gotten lucky on the resale market occasionally. However, when I'm in search of a specific album, I often hit the digital catalogs. Case in point:
Darkness On The Edge Of Town, by Bruce Springsteen.
I once had a manager (at Schaak Electronics, in the Brickyard Mall in Chicago) named Mike who was a HYUGE fan of The Boss. Me... not so much. I've never been much of a fan of celebrities who espouse causes, and Bruce happens to be one of those. But... the guy has made some great music. Darkness On The Edge Of Town and Born To Run are probably his best albums (IMHO), and they deserve a place in any rock music collection. Born To Run is probably the "better", more "hit-worthy" of the two, but Darkness has an honest, less polished, raw quality, which is surprising as it came out after Born To Run. However, I digress.
I had some money in my Google Play account and I thought this would be a good thing to use it on. For $8.99 (USD) I could buy the MP3 from Google, or $9.99 from Amazon. However...For $6.99, I could get the CD from Amazon, and because I have a Prime membership, I got the MP3 version for free. Born To Run cost me a bit more, and did not have the download option, but I'm pretty much set as far as classic Bruce Springsteen essentials go.
When I'm not buying music on Amazon or Google Play, I like to visit our local Goodwill store. Its a fantastic place to fill holes in one's music collection, if you don't mind wading through absolute chaos- a CD typically sells for a dollar.
That's all for now. To all of my readers in the U.S.A., have a happy and safe 4th. I hope to do some data entry and database work this weekend- with any luck, I should have some speeds and feeds to report soon!
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
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