For the past 11 months I’ve used Google Apps Premiere Edition and I’ve decided to abandon this paid service and move back to the standard Google apps offered for free. Let me start off by saying it isn’t a money issue.
I’d gladly shell out the $50/year if I believed the service was worth it, but that’s simply not the case. The purpose of this post is to provide full disclosure for folks considering switching to Google Apps (paid or free versions) so they can make an educated decision. Read More
I’m writing this post while flying back from San Francisco after a week at the 20th annual Apple’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference. This being my first time at WWDC, I thought I would share my thoughts and observations on the event.
Just under 6,000 people attended the conference and hailed from virtually all parts of the globe with heavy concentrations from Asia, Western Europe and the America’s. As with all things Apple, the event was masterfully organized with no noticeable glitches throughout the week. I was particularly impressed with the preparation that went into check-in and the much sought after Monday keynote. Thousands of attendees woke up in the wee hours of the morning to stand in line for a good seat at the keynote presentation. Word has it that the #1 position was filled over 17 hours early.
This being my first keynote, it was certainly exciting but as most geek blogs have confirmed, Apple revealed no real surprises. The blogs had quite accurately predicted the new iPhone down to it’s new magnetic compass so the wind had been taken out of Apple’s preverbal sails. With that being said, the showmanship of Apple continues to be superb – even when technical glitches arose during the iPhone developer demonstrations.
Beyond the Monday keynote, my week was filled with a variety of technical seminars often flying far above my head but interesting, nonetheless. I tended to grasp the most essential points of each presentation and felt generally comfortable with the topic at hand. More than anything else, I found the social component of the conference to be far more useful than the seminars themselves. Apple setup dozens of informal gathering places throughout the conference making meetups remarkably easy. In addition, my business partner and I met with key representatives from Apple’s iPhone team, something nearly impossible outside of attending an event like WWDC.
Food and entertainment exceeded my expectations as well. Apple’s culture of healthier eating could be seen in their choices of breakfasts, lunches, snacks, and drinks (it was nearly impossible to find a caffeinated beverage beyond Starbuck’s coffee or Tazo tea). Plenty of sponsored parties and social events abound giving WWDC attendees the opportunity to unwind at night and network with fellow geeks. The Thursday evening Apple-sponsored bash was held in an outdoor setting and featured the band Cake to entertain the masses. Of all events, this was the most uptight with nothing more than a sea of black-clothed, male dominated conference-goers milling around in awkward clusters.
Without question, WWDC is a fantastic event–especially if you can leverage it to establish new business connections or have the technical wherewithal to grasp the immense training offered by Apple.
A few years ago I jotted down a goal to reduce our environmental impact. I knew it wouldn’t be any small feat since we, like so many Americans, are accustomed to living a wasteful and lavish lifestyle as compared to the rest of the world. Facing the challenge head-on, I set out to look for areas that could be implemented without dramatically altering our routines but still make a positive environmental impact over the long-run. The tips below are the changes we have implemented in the Onkels household and I’m betting you can do the same.
1. SUPPORT REINCARNATION
At the top of the list was my desire to curb some of the waste that goes directly from our home to the landfill. Although the best approach is to reduce your consumption, recycling is the next best thing. I live in an area of Keller, Texas that is serviced by the city of Fort Worth which means we are able to participate in one of the easiest recycling programs on the planet. There is no sorting whatsoever, a free 30-gallon trash cart is provided, and they have some of the most liberal plastic acceptance requirements I’ve ever seen. But even if your city doesn’t offer such a painless recycling program you can still catch a good amount of your waste. Start with just paper, glass, and aluminum and use a few of those 5 gallon orange Home Depot pails you’ve got laying around your garage. If you don’t frequent Home Depot, try a plastic storage tote or even cardboard boxes with a trash can liner. Set these bins up in or near the kitchen area – this is critical as you and your family are not likely to walk into your garage or outside every time something needs to be recycled. When trash day arrives, you’ll have the bare essentials sorted and ready for pickup.
2. FIRE THE MAILMAN
For the record, I’m not anti-postal service, but the process of sending physical paper around the globe these days is absurd to me. Don’t get me wrong, I recognize that not everyone fully embraces digital communications and many people actually enjoy getting mail. What I am suggesting, however, is that you at least make a concerted effort to reduce, or eliminate junk mail. In our household, we’ve shaved off at least 75% of unwanted mail and continue to take steps to increase this figure. Because of the many businesses I run, I still opt for physical bills to be mailed as I rely on a printed copy for taxes but virtually everything else is considered unwanted and I operate like a mail mercenary to get off these lists. The process starts with the major marketing and advertising lists which you can unsubscribe for free using several web-based services (I’ve compiled a list for you below). Beyond that, you’ll need to call your credit card companies and specifically opt out of marketing mailings which include those annoying pre-approved checks. We also called the three phone book suppliers in our area and asked to be removed from their distribution lists. It’s still not perfect and every time I start a new business or make a major purchase, we invariably end up getting postal-spammed but there is noticeable difference from taking no action whatsoever.
3. CRANK UP THE A/C
You heard me right, crank up the A/C. We live in a 3,400 sf house (before you rush to judgment, real estate is ridiculously cheap in Texas). Our two story house uses two relatively efficient air conditioning units that operate on separate circuits. Even with this configuration, portions of our house always end up being too cold or too hot depending on the season. More specifically, my home office which is where I spend 90% of my time is always upside down. I had to crank the upstairs A/C unit much higher than appropriate to achieve the right temperature in my office. After visits from several service companies and an additional ventilation duct, I still couldn’t get the temperature below 80 degrees in the middle of summer. I finally ended up buying a portable air conditioner from Costco and operate it solely in my home office to achieve a comfortable 76 degree environment while the rest of the house (which remains empty during the day) remains at 82 degrees. My energy utilization (and consequently my electric bill) dropped by more than $70 per month during peak periods even though my portable air conditioner ran nearly 8 hours per day. The point of this tip is to think beyond the norm. Each situation is different but don’t think that your only option is to turn down the A/C or heat.
4. PUT ON YOUR APRON
My family is incredibly guilty of eating out too often and only recently begun to consciously embrace home cooking. Beyond the obvious health reasons, home cooking has some added benefits to the environment especially if you make meals that will end up producing leftovers. With two kids, and two working parents, time is never on our side so we have opted to use the crock pot more often than not. With just a bit of pre-planning and prepping of the ingredients, cooking with the crock pot is painless and near foolproof (important for culinary-ignorant guys like me). As an added benefit, the energy usage on a crock pot is similar to running a standard incandescent light bulb so even after 8 hours of cooking, it’s generally more efficient than making the same items in your oven (although how much depends on a variety of factors). Best of all, the ingredients you use to cook often are purchased in bulk form and utilize far less waste than buying individual pre-packaged meals, or eating out at fast food restaurants.
5. RETIRE THOMAS EDISON
As an inventor and entrepreneur myself, I admire Thomas Edison’s ingenuity and tenacity. His invention of the lightbulb revolutionized the industrial world as we know it but even Edison would be stunned to see his work remain virtually unchanged and still in use over a hundred years later. Not long ago CFL (compact fluorescent lightbulbs) were prohibitively expensive but with bulk pricing at stores like Costco, Sams, Home Depot, and Walmart falling below $1.00 a bulb, now is the time to officially retire the incandescent lightbulb in your house. Many people will tell you to focus on your high-wattage, heavily-used locations first but I’m here to tell you right now…just do it all. Bite the bullet, it will probably cost you less than $100 all said and done and but for a very small percentage of your lights, you won’t have to touch them for years – literally. You’ll save money immediately from the reduction in energy usage and lowered heat emission plus feel good about making a visible difference. Gripes like color temperature are no longer issues as warm-colored CFL’s are readily available even at the low prices mentioned above. My biggest energy savings came from our outdoor patio / driveway lights, our kitchen / family room can ceiling lights, and our stairwell bulbs. With just these areas alone, I cut our bulb-to-bulb ratings from 1,890 down to 270 watts.
6. INFLATE YOUR WALLET
My final tip is something we all hear about often but so many people just don’t take it seriously. Inflating your tires is the easiest way you can improve your car’s gas mileage. While other options such as improving your driving technique will yield more impressive results, I don’t classify changing driving habits as “easy”. Powering up a $25 air compressor and filling your tires to their maximum recommended air pressure takes no more than 10 minutes of your time (and I’m being conservative). If you add this to your weekly routine, especially when the weather in your area is fluctuating, you will undoubtedly see tangible results at the pump.
If you’re interested in learning more, I’ve compiled a list of helpful resources below.
Recycling:
- Earth911 – Find recycling centers and tips for your area
- Planet Green – How to Go Green with Recycling
- Ohdeedoh – Interesting canvas recycling bags
Junk Mail Reduction:
- Mailstopper – Service to stop junk mail
- ProQuo – Another service to stop junk mail
- YellowPages Goes Green – Opt out of receiving printed phone books
Portable Air Conditioners:
- Costco – Great prices on portable A/C units
Crock Pot Recipes:
- Crock Cook – Huge repository of recipes
- Recipezaar – Another huge repository of recipes
CFL Bulbs:
- Home Depot – CFL Bulbs
- Lowes – CFL Bulbs
Auto Tire Pressure Tips:
It’s not often that I feel compelled to promote a video but in this case I’ll make the exception. Barry Schwartz, the author of The Paradox of Choice cites numerous examples where we have collectively failed by our own inaction and our steadily growing bureaucracy. Barry beautifully illustrates why it is imperative to make both moral and sensible decisions when dealing with life, business, and even government. When life contradicts these values, employees become disillusioned and quit their jobs, businesses go bankrupt and look to the government for help, and government clamors to establish even more rules that exacerbate the problem. Watch the video – it’s worth it.
[flash http://video.ted.com/talks/embed/BarrySchwartz_2009-embed_high.flv w=540 h=300]
If you’re a parent of a highly temperamental wonderful teenager like me, then you might enjoy this tip. After much Googling combined with some trial and error, I discovered a fool proof* way to obtain an iTunes account with absolutely no credit card required. Why is this important? Regardless of how responsible Alex tries to be with my iTunes account, invariably she ends up miscalculating her iTunes gift card value or simply forgets to add the prepaid card to my account before downloading songs. When this happens I receive a nice email from Apple informing me that (I) just purchased Justin Timberlake’s latest single along with fifty other songs – all conveniently charged to my credit card.
For quite some time now I’ve attempted to create a stand-alone account for Alex but Apple does an incredibly good job of masking the fact that accounts can be created without a credit card. However, I did finally come across a solution that worked by reading the comments at GHacks.net, so without further adeu I present you with the simple solution:
- Ensure that you have signed out of your iTunes account. You can do so by clicking on your email address in the upper right-hand corner and clicking “Sign Out” in the pop-up window.
- Go to the home page of the iTunes store by clicking on the little house icon in the upper left-hand corner.
- Click on the “App Store” link in the list at the top left.
- Find any iPhone Application that is free and attempt to download it. The easiest way to find a free application is to glance over to the lower right and view the list of “Top Free Apps”.
- When the pop-up window asks you to sign in, click on the “Create New Account” link at the top of the window.
- Follow the sign up process until you reach the credit card screen. If everything worked, you should see a “None” option to the right of the credit card types. Select this option and finish the signup process.
- Voilla, you have your very own stand-alone iTunes account not linked to your credit card.
One final tip: be sure to keep the login details handy so you can pass them onto your kid – and so you can authorize your own computer for his/her songs. (Because even parents like to listen to Justin Timberlake once in a while.)
*Disclaimer: This process worked as of the publishing of this blog post. If history repeats itself, Apple will continue to plug the holes for creating iTunes accounts without credit cards.
If you’ve been following my activities over the past few days, you know that I recently launched a customer feedback site related to the Sirius/XM merger. As this site begins to gain traction, I wanted to give everyone some additional background as I believe it helps put the issue in context.
On November 13th, 2008 Sirius and XM Radio combined their channel lineup and eliminated what the two companies described as “redundant programming”. Unfortunately, these changes were released with very little communication and no apparent input from the listing audience. Personally, I subscribed to XM for nearly 4 years and switched to Sirius 2 years ago because the programming was significantly better (for my tastes).
When the post-merger programming went live a couple of weeks ago, my wife and I were dumbfounded. We knew nothing of the programming changes yet many of our favorite channels had either disappered or the playlists had been significantly altered without any warning. To say the least, we were appalled at the gross lack of communication by the new Sirius/XM and many others share our sentiments. If you do a Twitter or Google search for “Sirius sucks” you’ll see what happens when a company fails to listen to its customers in this age of socially-connected consumers.
It all boils down to communications. The majority of listeners are upset because the Sirius and XM pre-merger communications emphasized GREATER choice and the “best of both” company’s programming. Yet what we’ve seen is a significant reduction in programming variety because the management team wanted to cut costs. Look, I’m a business owner and I understand the need to lower costs but the method Sirius/XM chose was inappropriate and outright foolish. With stock prices hovering at less than a quarter, now is not the time to be gambling with major changes that could disrupt the user base during an unsteady economy.
My position and motivation is quite simple. Sirius/XM must make a concerted effort to rectify the problem by gathering input from its customers and taking action. Once the votes are tallied, I will send the results along with comments gathered by the listeners in a certified letter to the Sirius/XM board of directors.
You can visit my Sirius/XM listener-feedback site at: http://voiceofthelistener.com
I’ve been working professionally since I turned 18 and I’ve recently had some time to reflect on my fifteen year journey with all of its twists and turns. Up until now I had been conflicted because I’ve always viewed myself as an entrepreneur down to the DNA-level but didn’t understand how I tolerated 12 years of working for a large corporation if this were truly the case.
What I began to realize is that my employer of 12 years, RadioShack, was not your typical Fortune 500 firm.
RadioShack, or rather Tandy Corporation, was founded by an unorthodox and rebellious entrepreneur, Charles Tandy. Charles ran his company under a culture that embraced unbridled entrepreneurialism. In fact, the most decorated veterans of Tandy’s company were those who broke all the rules. This unique culture remained entrenched within the Tandy/RadioShack organization well past Charles’ death in 1978. But when management recognized serious flaws in the company’s strategic plan in early 2004, the less-structured environment that attracted the entrepreneurial spirit began to fade. Within months, outside consulting firms such as McKinsey, Bain, and Accenture were brought in to re-structure the organization and install new management throughout. While this evolution was probably necessary in order to position RadioShack to compete within a new retail landscape, the effect was total alienation to folks like me who had enjoyed the freedom of truly leading our own operation.
What I’ve discovered is I do indeed thrive in less-structured environments. And while I absolutely love the thrill of running my own companies, I now know that I am still fit to work for other firms−even large corporations, provided they offer the type of environment that enables me to thrive.
So how are you wired? Have you discovered the optimal working environment and cultures that bring out your strengths?
For several years now I used the domain, onkels.org as my primary family and personal blog site. A few months ago I purchased daveonkels.com to serve as my go-forward blog homestead. While deeply entrenched in the process of launching Nectar, I didn’t have time to establish my new blog so I opted to create a placeholder lifestream in its place. With little effort, this temporary site consistently ranked in upper portion of Google’s page one search results. That is, until I made the decision to run a Google AdWords campaign using my own name as the keywords. My logic for doing such a thing was simple. I was curious to see how much an AdWords campaign would cost on a monthly basis because my partners and I were considering offering this to our Nectar customers as a add-on product.
Within a day of launching the AdWords campaign, daveonkels.com dropped to page two, then three, then eleven, and ultimately disappering from Google’s organic search results all-together. As you might imagine, I was both perplexed and frustrated. Why would Google essentially punish me for running a paid AdWords campaign on their own network? I did a considerable amount of research and found others who cited similar stories but in their situations when they stopped the AdWords campaigns, their organic listings reappeared within a few days. In my case, daveonkels.com has returned to the organic listings, but on a paltry page eight rather than its original page one listing. Considering inbound links exist from every social network site I utilize such as LinkedIn, Vimeo, Facebook, etc, it’s hard to believe this ranking is even remotely reasonable.
I’m not one to roll over easily, so I quickly launched my personal blog, wrote several in-depth posts, conducted further SEO optimization, and leveraged information from Google’s webmaster tools. Unfortunately, even after working hard to reverse the situation, my ranking has not improved and I’m left wondering what I did to deserve the cold shoulder by Google. I’m confident that the situation will sort itself out eventually but not without leaving me quite jaded towards Google and its ranking methodologies.
For the past four years I’ve been actively using David Allen’s GTD personal organization principles in my life. The system is spectacular if you employ it correctly and stick with it. There are literally a ton of resources detailing GTD so I’m not going to dive into that subject. If you’re unfamiliar with David Allen or his GTD principles feel free to read the informative Wikipedia entry on the subject. Instead, what I wanted to discuss is my continued habit of bouncing from one method of collecting tasks to another. Possibly it’s a byproduct of my ADD tendencies or it could be my infatuation with software applications and technology that leads me down this path. I’ve used just about everything you can think of to collect my tasks and ideas.
Here’s a small rundown:
iGTD, kGTD, Toodledo, Remember the Milk, OmniFocus, Vitalist, Ta-DaList, Nozbe, GTDTracks, Gubb, Jott, Moleskine notebooks
The reality is that each of these applications and tools offer their own unique benefits but for one reason or another, I get tired of using them and move onto something new. The process is rather painful as I have to figure out a way to port over hundreds of tasks and notes into a new system. Needless to say, not the best use of my time. About six months ago I transferred my information into Cultured Code’s Things.app for Mac OS X. The application (even in its beta form) was the easiest and most fluid for entering tasks which is a ‘must-have’ for me. The tagging process helps track down actions by context or project and the recent introduction of a global search function really makes this application resonate with me.
But there’s one catch. This is a desktop application and although I spend most of my day on my Macbook Pro, more often than not, new tasks arrive when I’m away from my desk. If there’s one thing that will destroy your GTD workflow, it’s not being able to capture your tasks as they come up. So what gives me hope that Things will be my ‘permanent’ GTD tool is the Things iPhone application, aptly named Things Touch. My iPhone stays with me virtually night and day so it makes the perfect GTD inbox and enables me to review my tasks anywhere. While there are still times when I fail to capture new tasks, I can honestly say it’s no longer the fault of my collection tools. Instead, this is simply a lack a discipline that I seek to improve every day.
Not too long ago I signed up for the Verizon Wireless laptop data plan which provides access to the internet virtually anywhere. My first experience using the service was a 2-hour trip to east Texas, which if you know this area you’d know this is no small feat. And while I’m perfectly happy with the speed and coverage provided by Verizon Wireless I can’t justify the nearly $70 bill each month when I now have several extremely viable alternatives. Let me explain.
VIABLE ALTERNATIVE #1 (FREE WI-FI TO IPHONE USERS):
Just yesterday, AT&T announced that it is providing all iPhone users access to free wi-fi service at it’s more than 17,000 US locations. This means that aside from my always-connected iPhone via 3G and :gasp: Edge service, I now have the ability to perform more bandwidth-intense functions at a huge number of AT&T wi-fi hotspots.
VIABLE ALTERNATIVE #2 (FREE WI-FI TO STARBUCKS CUSTOMERS):
A few months ago Starbucks and AT&T announced a partnership whereby Starbucks would kick T-Mobile to the curb and make way for AT&T to install wi-fi in all Starbucks company-owned stores. With this came the benefit that Starbucks would now provide 2-hours of complimentary wi-fi to it’s Starbucks rewards customers. To become a rewards customer and eligible for free wi-fi service, you simply need to purchase a Starbucks gift card and register online. The only catch is you have to keep the card loaded with cash and use it at least once per month. Considering Starbucks is literarily a second home (or second office) for my partners and I while in startup mode, maintaining the rewards requirements is a piece of cake.
VIABLE ALTERNATIVE #3 (TETHERING TO AN IPHONE):
Although not officially sanctioned by AT&T nor Apple, the iPhone development community has several software options that enable a user to access the internet on their laptop via an active iPhone connection. The setup process is more involved because it requires jailbreaking your iPhone to enable loading of third-party applications onto your phone. While most of the steps are automated, I would only recommend this option to advanced users. There have been reports of speeds in excess 800kbs using AT&T 3G and obviously a bit faster if your iPhone is connected via wi-fi. If you’re interested in going down this route, check out the following links:
- iPhone Modem (see screenshots below)
- Jailbreaking Guide for Mac Users
- Jailbreaking Guide for PC Users
CONCLUSION:
Even though I will be forced to pay an early termination fee of around $150, this represents just two months of billing and significantly less expensive than riding out the balance of the contract. What other free (or close to free) options do you use, is there anything I missed?
