Author Archives: Jon Lowder

Reading List September 1, 2005

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  • Kids Just Get It (The Post Money Value) – While at dinner Rick Segal overheard a child say the following after hearing about benefit concerts being put together for Katrina victims: “How come they have to do music to get help, don’t people just want to help?”
  • Fred Barnes to Katrina Victims: Drop Dead (New Hounds) – Conservative pundits behaving badly.
  • Rant on the Hurricane (The Chairman’s Corner) – The Guilford County (NC) Republican Party is in deep doo-doo.  Why?  Just read a few posts from this guy’s blog for some clues.
  • Wedding Canceled (Patrick Eakes) – Anecdotal testimony from people on the ground in Louisiana.

Reading List August 31, 2005

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  • Should New Orleans Be Rebuilt? (BuzzMachine) – Jeff Jarvis asks the question I suspect many Americans are thinking and he gets dozens of remarkably un-troll-like comments.
  • Is Dell Dying? (Slate) – The headline is really, well stupid.  But the article itself takes a hard look at Dell’s real business problems for the near future.
  • Terry’s Fortune Escapes High Point (Off the Record via Ed Cone) – Randall Terry, a local millionaire in High Point, NC died last year and his largest beneficiaries are his dogs ($1,000,000 +) and his foundation.  The foundation is principally focused on funding the NC State Veterinary school and Terry’s old boarding school in Virginia, so High Point won’t get any help from a man remembered as a true scrooge by the editorial writer.
  • Cover Your Eyes, Kids (Patrick Eakes) – Patrick, winner of the most popular Greensboro blog contest (I need to ask him if he gets to wear a tiara), doesn’t like how the NC Senate passed the lottery bill.  He’s right.
  • The Angry, Hate-Filled Left (OpinionEditorials) – I read this site every once in a while to keep an eye on what the "Righties" are saying.  I disagree with a lot of what this guys says, but I agree with his main point: while we (Americans) are all guaranteed the right to free speech that doesn’t mean we should not also show restraint.  By the way his title could just as easily be "The Angry, Hate-Filled Right."
  • Downturns (A VC) – Fred Wilson senses an economic downturn coming and has some good advice on how to deal with it, at least from an investor’s perspective.
  • National Bottle Museum (bookofjoe) – My neighbor, Curt Ewing, is an avid bottle collector will love finding this if he doesn’t already know about it.
  • Logistics of New Orleans’ Kidney Transplant (Moore’s Lore) – Dana Blankenhorn is thinking about the logistics of rebuilding New Orleans.  He’s right, it’s daunting.
  • Conservatism: A House Divided (Conservative Voice via Vie de Malchance) – Pat Buchanan writes an opinion piece on the state of the Republican Party.  My favorite quote: "
    But on spending, Bush and Congress do not even meet the Clinton standard. They qualify as Great Society Conservatives."
  • Copter Parents at 2 O’Clock! (Daniel Drezner) – Colleges are finding that this generation of students has parents that are "hyper-involved" in their lives, interfering with their childrens’ non-academic, problem-solving educational experience.  Sorry to see that namby-pamby parenting extends beyond middle-school.

One Nation, Without Gas

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There’s an email rumor flying around Florida warning that gas stations are going to close at midnight and stay closed for 2-3 days.  According to this report that caused a run on gas stations, and authorities believe that it may be an exaggeration of official statements that said some of the state might experience gas shortages.

Given that it happened in Florida we should probably dismiss this as typical Floridian behavior, but today a friend told my wife that his wife was at a BP station filling up and the woman working the register was saying that they were raising their prices for the second time in 20 minutes.  On top of that she said that once they were out they wouldn’t be getting another shipment for a while.

It’s anecdotal, but word like that gets me thinking maybe I should top off just in case.  Of course I could also behave like a Floridian and put it in an email and, voila, we’ve got "Miami in Carolina."

There’s also an energy expert out there saying that prices could go up 65 cents a gallon as early as this weekend.  That’s one prediction I buy, you know, because it’s hard to underestimate the price-gouging ability of this industry.

Given the current gas climate here’s what I’m looking forward to:

  • The look on the faces of the little 5 feet tall, 95 pound bottle-blond soccer moms and blinged-out mama’s boys who have cornered the Escalade market spending $75 at the pump for one fill up.
  • The one free fill up a month promotions that GM will inevitably tack onto their "Employee Discount" program when they extend it, again, next week.
  • Still spending less for a gallon of gas than I do for a gallon of milk.

Here’s what I’m not looking forward to:

  • Listening to the insufferable little tree huggers drone on and on about their wonderful little hybrid.
  • Listening to the insufferable big tree huggers drone on and on about their wonderful little hybrid, but I’ll be polite to them since they’re bigger than me.
  • Possibly owning a hybrid.

Reading List August 30, 2005

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  • Identifont (bookofjoe) – Joe’s found a site, called identifont, that enables you to identify a font’s name by answering a series of questions.
  • Hired Because of His Blog (Rexblog) – At least one person has been hired because of his blog which, as Rex points out, makes a nice contrast to all the "fired because of his blog" stories.
  • Multipurpose Tools (EdCone) – Ed writes about an article in the NY Times that tells of the romance-killing effect on some men of viewing their wives giving birth.  He also links to an article in Slate that provides an overview of the very negative reaction of some female bloggers to the Times article.  To say I have a strong opinion here is an understatement, and will be the subject of a separate post.
  • Customer Relationship Mismanagement – (Doc Searls Weblog) – Oh my wife will love this post about how "f’d up" the Quickbooks customer service system is…she’s been-there, done-that.
  • Fletcher Grants Amnesty to 9 Charged in Probe (Lexington Herald-Leader via The Lex Files) – Read this article for more evidence of why no American can be too cynical about our politicians.

Queen of the Bargain Shoppers

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Celeste, my lovely wife, has always been a bargain shopper, but lately she’s taken it to another level.  Just today the checkout person at Harris-Teeter had to get the manager to override the register because Celeste had saved too much money on her purchases.  Using a combination of coupons and in-store sales she saved $94 on $224 worth of food, or something like 42%.

I’ll never forget the first time we went grocery shopping after we were married.  To my horror Celeste came armed with a plastic box of alphabetized coupons and a calculator, which she unabashedly wielded as she sent me scampering for one item after another.  Hell, she even had the aisles memorized so she’d bark out an order like "Bar-B-Q Sauce, Sam’s Special, Aisle 5, Right Side…the label is blue."  I took that last item to mean that in the time it took us to drive to the store I’d somehow forgotten to read.

After what seemed like hours of shopping, which I’m sure had nothing to do with my desultory attitude, we finally made it to the cashier and promptly saved something like $25 on a $120 purchase.  That’s a lot of money, especially when you’re young and broke.

Although I’m still the designated idiot shopper (I’m entrusted with bread, milk and eggs) I no longer balk at Celeste’s couponing.  In fact I’ve found that I can even contribute to the cause since I get to help with the math (no more calculator), can actually read labels to discern those items that cost less from others and, when needed, promote the benefits of generic-brand cereal to our discerning children. 

By the way, don’t try to fool a 10-year old into thinking that Tasteeos are in fact Cheerios by transfering a bag of Tasteeos to an old Cheerios box.  They catch it every time.

As you can tell Celeste has had a positive influence on me, and I think I’m beginning to actually have one on her too.  Just last night she told one of the kids to throw away a plastic dish from a frozen meal.  I believe this is a first in our marriage and it gives me hope that we may no longer have to store enough plastic dishes to feed all of Fort Bragg.

Reading List August 29, 2005

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  • The Betting Site for Big Thinkers (Freakonomics) – A couple of surprises here: one that a noted economist enjoys gambling and two that there are some very nerdy gambling opportunities at places like LongBets.com.
  • Dell Calling (BuzzMachine) – Jeff Jarvis finally got a call from a Dell PR person and she just continued spouting the company line.  Jeff’s given up on them.
  • Eye to Eye: A Talk With the CBS Blogger (BuzzMachine) – Jarvis meets with the new official CBS blogger and finds him nice enough that he offers some friendly words of advice.
  • You ARE a Marketer. Deal with It (Creating Passionate Users via BuzzMachine) – Hugh MacLeod explains why we’re all marketers, whether we like it or not.
  • Ups and Downs (Hogg’s Blog) – Jinni Hoggard has been fighting cancer for a long time and the experience has been a roller coaster for her entire family.  Her husband, David, has been writing about it on his blog and yesterday he wrote a post about the roller coaster ride they had in just one week.  It’s a must read.

Yahoo! Sucks…Again

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It appears that Yahoo! isn’t just having problems with their Yahoo! Music Engine.  According to this article at MarketingVox they’ve had mega-problems with their search ad service for over a week.

As much of a pain-in-the-butt the music problem has been the ad problems are a much bigger deal, both for Yahoo! and its clients.  From the article:

Although ads continue to run and advertisers can now access their
accounts, some advertisers’ credit cards and bank accounts have been
and are still being charged continuously for amounts several times over
the budget they had set, advertisers have told MarketingVOX. Though
Yahoo in all likelihood will reimburse these greatly inconvenienced –
and in some cases bankrupted – advertisers, the process is not likely
to be pleasant.

And how is Yahoo! responding?  Again from the article:

…Yahoo’s Gaude Paez told MarketingVOX that the upgrade caused
"unexpected issues," and that their engineers were working around the
clock to fix the problem.

According to various advertisers, however, Yahoo has not proactively
contacted them to inform them of the ongoing problems, and others say
Yahoo has also not returned calls or responded to repeated requests for
answers.

I’m glad to know that I’m not the only who has a hard time getting a rise out of Yahoo!, and now I’ll expand on what I said in my original "Yahoo! Sucks…Today" post; I bet if Google had a music service it would actually work and I doubt we’ll see a snafu like this with their ad service.

My last thought on this: it’s one thing for them to screw up customer service on the music service, but I really can’t understand screwing up on one of their bread & butter "products" like advertising.  I think they’re about to get "Dell Hell’d."

WebJillion Cool Winston-Salem Based Blog

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Thanks to Joe for letting me know about Adam’s blog, WebJillion.  Joe and Adam work together at the Winston-Salem Journal and were the people responsible for getting their RSS feeds set up, among other online initiatives.

I’m particularly interested in WebJillion’s free IYHY mobile web application.  Here’s how it’s described:

It is an absolutely free web application that strips all the crap from a web page and gives you the good stuff when you’re
on the go — the content.

If
you sign-up for free with IYHY it will keep a running, editable list of
your "mobile bookmarks" on your account homepage. That way they’re
easily accessible when you’re on your mobile device. If you don’t
sign-up, that’s cool too, you can still use it for individual sites.

Nice!

***Update*** I just spent a little more time on WebJillion and there’s an even more interesting application called Temptation Blocker.  What an idea!

Reading List August 26, 2005

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  • How Blogs Pertain to You (iMedia Connecton via Micro Persuasion) – Had to mention this one since I’m quoted in it.  The article asks how small fry (i.e. me) get treated by companies when we complain, versus how blog heavyweights (Jeff Jarvis) get treated by companies  when they complain.  Good stuff!
  • As Blogging Grows Companies Eye Legal Pitfalls (Yahoo! News) – Corporate types wonder what their liabilities are when it comes to blogging.
  • Blog Tools Tackle Content Management (InfoWorld via Yahoo! News) – Blog tools are essentially stripped down content management systems, and some people are beginning to use them that way.
  • simplehuman Uses Typepad to Build Press Room (via MicroPersuasion) – A company called simplehuman used Typepad (same service I use for this blog) to build a press room.  My lesson learned: I need to either improve my templates myself or get a real designer to do it.

My Ego Might Just ‘Splode

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About seven months ago I wrote a post called "My Hometown Newspaper" that got a little attention here in Winston-Salem and in neighboring Greensboro.  The post was basically about how, because of staff blogs at the Greensboro News & Record it felt more like my "hometown paper" than the Winston-Salem Journal, despite the fact that the Journal was delivered to my house every day.

I heard from folks at both papers and a guy named Jay Rosen, an influential figure in the news business, wrote about it on his "Pressthink" blog.  The experience was more than a little surprising for me since I wrote the post in what I thought was a vacuum.  I didn’t think anyone read this blog except for me and my family, and then only after I begged them to.

Well it was an even bigger shock today when I was reading Steve Rubel’s MicroPersuasion blog and saw this paragraph on his post Listen, Learn, Lead to Succeed:

Palmer gives yet another example of two newspapers that get it. Earlier
this year, North Carolina blogger Jon Lowder made a quiet complaint
about his hometown paper, the Winston-Salem Journal, and compared it,
unfavorably, with the Greensboro News & Record – which is some 30
miles to the east. Both papers responded to Lowder’s original blog
post. In the Winston-Salem Journal’s case they also went ahead and
created an RSS feed just days after Lowder’s original post.

Gulp!

So I click through to the article he’s referencing and find myself described thusly:

What happens when smaller fries harp online? Does corporate America listen?

Most of the time, probably not, but it’s interesting to watch when a
blog post actually catches a company’s attention. That occurred earlier
this year, when a North Carolina blogger, Jon Lowder, made a quiet complaint about his hometown paper, the Winston-Salem Journal, and compared it, unfavorably, with a newspaper 30 miles to the east, the Greensboro News & Record.

Okay, so being described as a "small fry" shouldn’t boost anyone’s ego, but I’m vain enough that I’ll take whatever I can get.  After all, I’m being compared to Jeff Jarvis who is one of the biggest bloggers out there, a true "A-List" blogger, so being a small fry in his company is kind of like being the wimpiest guy at the Mr. Universe contest…right? The article goes on to say:

 

Part of the post read, "I live in Winston-Salem. I have the
Winston-Salem Journal delivered every morning. But I don’t feel like I
know anyone there… I get all the N&R blogs via RSS. I don’t get
their paper… yet. But I still feel closer to the N&R."

There are a million and one wistful comments like this on the web,
but somehow this one got traction. For one thing, it was quoted by
NYU’s Jay Rosen, the author of the PressThink blog, a widely read site.

For another, both the Winston-Salem Journal and the Greensboro News
& Record responded to Lowder’s original blog post. Indeed, the News
& Record’s top editor posted a brief reply.

More remarkable still, though, was what happened at the
Winston-Salem Journal. Not only did the paper respond to the post and
supply contact information, but it went and created an RSS feed just
days after Lowder’s original post.

Now that’s customer service.

That last part is great, because the Journal was responsive, especially a guy over there named Joe who seemed to be the driving force behind their RSS efforts. (Joe has his own personal blog at http://www.joewrite.com).  I’m thinking that Joe should get a bonus or something since he’s getting his employers some pretty positive online exposure right now.

Finally, I’m once again bowled over by the power of blogs.  Think about this: the guy who wrote the article never interviewed me. He got a substantial part of his story from something that I wrote, so he didn’t have to interview me because my thoughts were out there for the world to see.

And think about this: something written seven months ago by a guy sitting in his home office in a pair of sweats has impacted two public companies, in whatever small way, over a seven month time span.  Now multiply that by however many thousand of people who are out there writing away and you have a very interesting phenomenon.