Many people know that Facebook’s terms of service limit one account per person. However, many people have multiple accounts (myself included). I have various Facebook accounts to be able to see how much my ‘friends’ and ‘non-friends’ are able to see of my profiles. Some of this profile visibility can be done within your Facebook account but I do not trust Facebook when it comes to their privacy settings.  There are also very valid reasons for not forcing some to use their real name.  Domesticate violence is one example. Having one account per person also makes it difficult for a business because a business account must be linked to a personal one. This creates security issues when trying to grant multiple employees access to their business page on Facebook.

Defining the terms of service to include “use the name your friends, family or co-workers usually call you. “ is asking for trouble. I have been in workplaces where what coworkers call each other would not be appropriate for their online identities. Furthermore, how one is refer to by their mother is often different than friends.

I find it difficult to beleive that Google can not allow both pseudo names and real names on the same account. There are numerous people that use psedunames or handles on Twitter or posting in forums. In most cases a little searching will identify a persons true identity.  According to Google+ Vice President, Bradley Horowitz  ”put your other social names and aliases under nicknames which are searchable according to your Google+ privacy settings.” Why not let Google plus users determine their ‘default’ identity and then decide what other identities are searchable.

I am left to wonder how much of Google’s plans to stall business pages in Google Plus has contributed to this debate. Many of those that complained after being booting from Google Plus for violating the terms of service are professional bloggers. Most of the early entrants to Google Plus are ‘tech people’ and these people can quickly share the experience and failure of Google to build the Social Network 2.0.

While this tactic may silence some the long term backlash against these companies that choose to perform customer service activities with this ‘keep them silent’ attitude will quickly come about

First and foremost, not taking the time to listen to your customers is just poor business practice. Second, it will not take long for people to realize that companies are using these methods to keep people quiet. In many cases those that complain via twitter may do so through other channels as well. It is without a doubt that if this trend continues a website will be started to out the organizations that fail to act on their customers complaints via twitter.

I previously posted a video from a gentlemen in the UK that made an Angry Birds cake for his son’s birthday. Recently, I came across a post on Instructables from a cake artist that shows how to build your own edible angry birds.

I love the idea and the creativity these two individuals have but if I spent that much time creating a  piece of art I could not bring myself to eat it. It is a good thing there are people like Liz from Artisan Cake Company that are masters at developing edible art and are willing to share their secrets.

Image: renjith krishnan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

There are plenty of free email services available to almost anyone that wants one. However, finding one that is professional and available can be difficult. There can also be a problem when you let someone else control and store all your email correspondence. As in many cases where there is a problem there is a Google solution. For this problem that solution is Google Apps.

Google Apps provides email and other services on a domain that you own such as you@yourname.com. While the Google Apps portion of this solution is free (ie: ad supported) you will have to pay for the domain. There are numerous domain registers out there and costs can very. I use Dreamhost in part because one free domain registration is included with a year of webhosting service. You can register a domain but do not have to host a site on that domain. Dreamhost also makes it extremely simple to implement Google Apps on a domain registered with them.

It is important to note that by using Google Apps your email is stored on servers at Google. Therefore, it is important to backup your data incase the Google servers have problems. For this I uses Backupify, another solution that doesn’t require a Master Degree in Information Technology to implement. Backupify, does offer a free Personal plan that lets you backup to 2GB of data.

Another great thing about owning your own domain is that you are no longer dependent on your Internet Service Provider (ISP). You can seek out another ISP and not have to inform all your friends and colleagues that you have a new email address.

Of course there is also the possibility that at some point you may not be happy with Google Apps providing your email services. In this case all you would need to do is backup your email and make a few changes with domain registrar and your email could be running where ever you chose.

The ability to have an email address that you own for life is well worth the investment in owning your own domain.

The TechCrunch article also suggests that Google Ventures will be looking to seek out these start-up referals for none-Google employees in the near future.

[via MobileCruch]

First, your carrier may determine that by porting your number to another service ends your agreement with them. Anyone that is still in a contract may be subject the early termination fee (ETF). With the recent changes in ETFs by carriers this could be several hundred dollars.

Next, you can not to picture messaging with Google Voice. This is probably less of an issue for most people because the trend seems to be to upload pictures to online sharing or social media sites rather than to another phone. Another issue to consider is the lack of support for short codes. These codes that are often used by businesses to register for coupons or contests. Sending a message to a short code from a Google Voice number only returns an error.

Finally, the ability to port your number out could be an issue. The Google Voice forums have comments from some that have been able to accomplish this task. However, the level of success and amount of frustration in doing so has varied. If you port your number to Google you are relying on them to maintain your number on their mostly free service. While we all like paying little or nothing for the services we use there is something to be said for expecting a certain level of service when you are paying a for a service you receive.

According to the recent headlines the internet is going to run out of addresses in the near future. Evidently the founders of the internet did not realize that 4.3 billion addresses would not be enough. It is hard for anyone to image 4.3 billion of anything let alone a bunch of connected electronic devices. According to a CNET article one of founding father’s of the internet, Vint Cerf, is taking the blame.

Currently, most devices on the internet utlize Internet Protocol version four (IPv4). Version four of the Internet Protocol used to assign addresses to various devices is done using a four 8-bit numbers system, or 32 bits in total. This current system uses a dot-decimal notation that indicates an address assigned to a device such as 174.16.254.5. Not to worry there is a solution, change the way addresses are assigned on the internet.

Version six of the Internet Protocol or IPv6 uses uses four 32-bit numbers, or 128 bits in total to assign addresses. This create 3.403×1038 unique addresses. The only problem is IPv6 does not work with IPv4. The data used by either version of the protocol  will still travel the same internet but a system running version 6 can not talk to a system running version 4 without a translator in the middle. This translator known in the industry as a tunnel broker would allow a device using IPv4 to communicate with IPv6 devices. This tunneling is going to be a key part of being able to access content in the future.

This transition is similar to paper checks as a form of payment. Paper checks were a great convince for a number of years but they just are not very practical in today’s world. However, some people just will not embrace newer technology so there must be some backwards compatibly. We can only hope that out Internet Service Providers don’t become the old lady at the supermarket that fails to embrace the benefits of modern technology and still has to dig the checkbook out of her purse.

It appears that Lexmark has developed a solution to my problem.

I see a new Lexmark All-in-one in my future.

I first established service with 8×8 in March of 2005 and had virtually no trouble with the service the entire time. However, within the based few months they cancelled the 500 minute Freedom Choice residential plan that I had and automatically upgraded me to their unlimited plan. Of course this also meant an increase in the monthly fee. At the time this occurred I looked at the company’s own residential forums and discovered that many people felt that 8×8 was simply trying to focus on their business VOIP services.

The new monthly fee was too much for me to see the value in the service 8×8 was providing. After a little research I stumbled upon Call Centric and tried the service to make sure it would meet my needs.

When I called 8×8 to cancel my service I could not belief the response I got. The rep informed me that I could go to a 500 minute plan and they would give me a free month of service. I asked why they bothered to cancel the 500 minute residential plan only to offer for those ready to cancel. The rep informed me that the email sent out when they dropped the 500 minute suggest that people call in with concerns.

Here is the text from the email I recieved:

Dear Valued Customer,

8×8 will be discontinuing the Freedom Choice plan, and effective June 1, 2009, your plan will be changed to:

8×8 Freedom Unlimited Plan – $24.99/month

Freedom Unlimited offers unlimited local and long distance calling in the US and Canada, plus unlimited in-network calling to other 8×8 subscribers worldwide, low International calling rates and powerful calling features.

Remember, when you subscribe to 8×8, you not only enjoy huge savings on local and long distance phone calls, you also receive an abundance of calling features including in your calling plan at no extra charge:

Voicemail to Email Notification
Caller ID with Name
Caller ID Blocking
Anonymous Call Blocking
Call Waiting
Call Waiting Disable
Call Waiting ID
Follow Me, Find Me
Simultaneous Ringing
7-Digit Local Dialing
Network Unavailable Forwarding
Call Return
Call Forwarding
Three-Way Calling
Online Account Management And Billing
Do Not Disturb
Phone-Based Call Management

We appreciate your continued business and thank you for being an 8×8 customer. If you have any questions, please call Customer Service at 1-888-898-8733.

Sincerely,
The 8×8 Billing Department

There is nothing in this email that made me belief that calling in to complain about price would get me back to the old price I was paying.

Since I had already ported my number to Call Centric it was pointless to try to port it back to 8×8 to revert to my old calling plan. It is also important to note that this 500 minute Freedom Choice plan is NOT posted on 8x8s website.

People often chose VOIP communication for two main reasons cost and features. In my case the features met me needs but the cost was unbearable. 8×8 probably would have a customer for at least another five years if they had simple not gotten greedy with their pricing structure.

Full Disclousure: When signing up for service with Call Centric I also signed up as an agent. Therefore, I do receive commission for those I refer.

However, more than anything I would like to see an unlimited data plan that allows me to pay about $0.10 per minute for voice minutes.  It is time for cell phone companies to rethink the way they sell there services. I believe they would actually sell more smart phones if they pricing followed this type of format. So here is a message to all the cell phone service providers:

SHOW ME THE DATA! 

Now that my current cell phone contract is about to expire data pricing will be a top priority in my future mobile communication needs. I would consider a reasonable priced plan provides me unlimited data and texting and charges for voice by the minute.  

Grand Central is a phone service that touted ‘one phone number for life’. However, Grand Central provided more than just a phone number it gave users the ability to control who called them and where that call was routed to be answered.

I first came across Grand Central when I was in the process of changing mobile phone numbers. After providing all my contacts with my new Grand Central number I quickly learned of its limitations. The biggest problem I came across was the inability to receive text messages to my Grand Central number. While only a select few of my contacts actually text me I quickly realized this would not be a number I gave to most of my regular contacts.

I regularly followed the Grand Central blog as well as the the Grand Central help forum but after seeing little feedback from anyone at Grand Central I decided this would not become my one number for life. Instead I now use this number where I want to make sure I can screen the calls I receive.

I logged into my Grand Central account tonight and other than a message on the home page indicating the switch to Google Voice is coming nothing has changed. Google Voice appears to be a step in the right direction for this phone service. However, I am cautiously optimistic as the service is only as good as the support behind it.

I’ve been using Packet8 for my home phone for the last 4 years. While, I am not one that talks on the phone a lot I can say that I have never noticed any loss of call quality. The only issue that I had with Packet8 was getting the phone adapter shipped in a timely manner. Since I started using Packet8 I have referred friends and family to the service and shipping of the adapter has not been an issue.

Today I can’t imagine having home phone service without many of the features that Packet8 provides at a reasonable rate. Most important for me is selective and anonymous call blocking. I had the unfortunate situation of being an issued a phone number that was previous used by someone that owed several people money (this number was issued to me by a landline provider and not by Packet8). I have told numerous debt collectors that the number they dialed is no longer valid for the person they are trying to contact but it usually does little to stop repeated calls. Packet8 allows me to send certain number as well as anonymous calls strait to voicemail.

Voip allows a person to control their phone as opposed to their phone controling them. Now only if cell phone companies will provide these same features……

I first saw this technology a couple of years ago in a specially designed shopping cart in my local supermarket. The tv-kart uses inductive charging after each use to replenish power in the cart’s battery after each use. Recently, I came across this technology again when checking out the latest gadgets from CES 2009.

Ecoupled technology by Fulton Innovations has tremendous potential to change the way we recharge our cordless devices.

Fulton Innovations has partnered with some big names such as Energizer, Motorola, Texas Instrument, and Legget & Platt. These partnerships can provide a strong foundation and great marketing potenial to a technology just waiting to explode.

As a consumer, I can’t way to use this technolgy in my home, office, and car so I can quite fumbling around to find the right cord for my ‘cordless’ devices.

I see this as one step closer to a creating one device that has many uses. Can you imagine your ‘cell phone’ being able to change the channel on your TV or unlock your car doors. I am sure someone has and is working on it now. Of course there must be a balance between functionality and security for any device to become widely accepted.

(via MobileCrunch)

Recently,  AT&T has launched their U-verse service in my area. Having heard the news, I was excited about the possibility of trying a new means to receive television programming and possible saving some money. I spoke with a couple of different sales people from AT&T and I was impressed with the service. However, I expressed my recent poor customer service experience with the installation of AT&T’s dry-loop DSL service (also known as naked DSL). Each one of the representatives I spoke with acknowledged that there was a significant problem with the dry-loop DSL service. They also said that the Uverse was a totally separate division.

Having worked for a major corporation I understand that different divisions can operate in significantly different manners. However, I find it difficult to do business with an organization that does not understand the value of outstanding customer service. Combined billing makes disputing charges a little more difficult.

I am a firm believer that a low price will bring a customer into an organization and good customer service will keep them.  AT&T got me in the door with a good price on a service but their extremely poor customer service kept me from spending more money with a company that does not value my time spent waiting on hold. In this case poor customer service will keep me searching for another service provider.

The other obstacle I have come up against is the need to share information with my wife. She is competent on her computer skills but does not care to experiment with technology like I do. As most married men would say, my goal is to keep her happy without spending a lot of money. A task few men will probably ever master.

After reading a number of blog entries the Fujitsu ScanSnap is very well received by those that have ventured into the paperless world. It looks like a great product but I see no reason to purchase an additional scanner to fulfill my paperless desires.

I also came across software called 42 tags that seeks to assist those seeking a paperless world. One of the great features I like about this software is that the files are stored in a non-propriety format. I have seen many organizations reluctant to try new software due to legacy data issues. Therefore, I knew this was a must have feature in my paperless system. After trying this software I found that without an Optical Character Reader (OCR) and the inability to view pdfs within the software 42 tags just would not work for me.

I had seen Evernote mentioned on Lifehacker as a note-taking tool but not as a paperless solution. After viewing the Evernote informational video I knew this was something I need to try. The OCR feature is what first sold me. The ability to input and retrieve data via various devices are also great features. I also like the ability ‘clip’ information from web pages. In fact I have quit bookmarking pages and instead clip them to Evernote. I have found it much easier to find a page that I was looking for.

At this time, I have not taken the leap to move all my paper into Evernote. Security is my greatest concern. The premium version of Evernote provides security via SSL so I will have to give that a try. As I stated earlier, my journey into the paperless world is one that I am not taking alone. Therefore, the ability to easily share secure data will also be a concern.

I will post more as my travels into a paperless world continues.

While I did take a web development course in college my skills are a bit rusty. Not only that but the progression of web development since I took that course has changed dramatically. Therefore, I was looking for a web development tool that was inexpensive and easy to use. I knew that open source was the way to go. Based on my research I decided that an open source content management system (CMS)was what I wanted. Although, I have to admit at the time I did not completely understand what a CMS was just that it made building web sites easier.  Joomla and Drupal are the two dominate open source content management systems. In my opinion, Joomla seems to have a larger user and development community so it was the tool I chose.

Many web hosts provide website software that can easily be installed via your control panel. This makes it easier to ensure the files are in the correct folder and any database associated with the software is easily setup. In my case, Dreamhost is my host provider. I have a separate domain registered that I use to test differnt ideas on. Setting up Joomla through my control panel on Dreamhost was very easy. The web host for shawneetrace.com is GoDaddy. It was also easy to setup Joomla via the GoDaddy control panel but I prefer Dreamhost.

According to the Joomla website “Joomla is an award-winning content management system (CMS), which enables you to build Web sites and powerful online applications.” It took me a couple of days to understand the basics of Joomla and how it is organized. Now I feel that I could easily build basic webpages. More importantly I now have a greater understanding of just some of the potential of a CMS. In the case of shawneetrace.com one of the past issues was the means by which content was updated. Previously all content was sent to the webmaster to be added to the website. One of the benefits of a CMS is that it allows different users to update different sections of the site. More importantly, the users don’t have to understand web development to add content. In our case the treasurer could update a financial information page or the secretary could easily post the minutes from a meeting. Empowering people to add the content own their terms reduces the number of people required to get content updated.

One other important element I learned in developing these last few web pages is the importance of graphics. This is true not only within indivual posts but within a website itself. Almost all professional websites have some type of logo or image at the top. A well developed website with images may provide the basic content need to does not present itself in a professional manner. It is kind of like mowing your lawn without doing any edging. Mowing will provide the basic look you want but edging says I have a lot of pride in the presentation I present.

Once you decided on a name you have to determine if you want have a blog on your own domain name or use one of the many free blogging services (WordPress and Blogger and just one of many of these free blog sites). In other words are you going to pay for your own domain name and hosting.

I chose to register my name with GoDaddy.com and have hosting done by DreamHost.com. The domain name registration was about $10.00 with GoDaddy and the hosting was about $70.00 for a one year plan. I realized after I registered with GoDaddy that signing up for hosting through Dreamhost also includes the registration of one domain name. I chose Dreamhost for the hosting because they were running a special for new customers that provided for unlimited storage and bandwidth for the life of the account. Another reason was Dreamhost was a unique referral program that allows the person doing the referral to setup a discount that customized to the new customer. The unique referral program provides for incentives for both parties involved. Therefore, if you are interested in having Dreamhost provide hosting for your website contact me and I can help you get a discount.

Another great tool I found is BecomeaBlogger.com. This website is done by professional blogger Yaro Starak. There are 10 free video tutorials that show anyone how to register for a domain and setup WordPress to administrator a blog on your domain. These videos break the process down in a very simple step-by-step process so I would highly recommend this site to anyone that wants to setup a blog but is limited on their technical knowledge.

I am sure there are other tools out there that can help someone that is starting a blog. If you know of any please share.

Being able to share the knowledge I have gained in both my personal and professional life is something I really enjoy. As a manager, I have always held the believe that sharing non-proprietary information and experiences can be beneficial for everyone. I am looking forward to sharing my thoughts, views, and experiences with anyone that will listen.