Category Archives: Web/Tech

When You Want to Leave Your Wife a Message but Not Actually Talk to Her

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Admit it, there are times you want to call someone and be guaranteed you don't actually talk to them but are still able to leave them a message.  You know the scenario: your wife calls and leaves you a message but you're getting ready for a meeting and don't have time to talk so you don't call her back and while you're in your meeting you get another message, left in that "I'm pissed that you're ignoring me" voice, asking where the blankety-blank you are and why you're being such a wank.  You can't very well say to her, "Honey I wanted to let you know I got your message but I didn't want to talk to you, because if I had you'd have kept me on the phone for 10 minutes about something totally trivial and out of my control and I really had to go into my meeting."**  Well, you could say that but then you'd be on the couch for a week.

**Please note that I've never, ever thought these things myself.  I swear.

My friends, technology has once again come to the rescue.  My friend Dan emailed me a link to a great service called SlyDial that allows you to dial a number and it automatically bypasses the ring and takes you directly to voice mail.  I downloaded the version for Blackberry and it works like a charm.  To be honest I have no idea how it works behind the scenes, but it's cool and it's free so I recommend it for any of you who love voice mail but don't like actually talking to anyone.

Can you think of scenarios where this could come in really handy?  Feel free to share.

Welcome Triad Forum

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I meant to write about this earlier in the week but somehow it got buried in my ever growing pile of things to do and I neglected to do it.  Thankfully, Esbee reminded me with this post. 

Here’s the deal: Neil Tolbert of Clemmons has launched a new discussion board called Triad Forum.  The most active topics appear to be North Carolina and Southern Speakisms, It’s getting dangerous to watch a baseball game and, unsurprisingly, Democrats are responsible, hands down, for this crisis!!!.

I love discussion boards and it’s nice to see one focused on our area.  Good luck to Neil on building it up to critical mass.  Me thinks that the link from Esbee is going to spike his traffic quite a bit.

Nice Viral Video from AARP

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Aarpvotevideo

This came in from my Mom.  It’s one of those videos that allows you to embed a person’s name so that it appears in the video.  In this case it looks like I’m running against Obama and McCain and the thrust of the video is that you, the voter, is the one who can change America.  It’s a nice get out the vote effort from the geezer association.  Oh, and I say that in only the nicest way because I’m soon be of age for membership.

DIY Traffic Alerts via Text Message

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Do you really need someone on TV to tell you about traffic?  Why, no you don’t now that the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) has made their traffic alerts available by RSS feed. I’ve just now put myself into direct competition with local traffic reporter Jennie Stencil by adding the Forsyth County traffic alerts to my blog; just look in the right hand column at the bottom and you’ll find it right there.

Of course you can set up your very own traffic alert system so that you don’t have to wait on anyone.  Here’s one way to get traffic alerts sent via text to your phone:

  • Go to the NCDOT’s Traveler Information Management System page(http://apps.dot.state.nc.us/tims/)
  • Select the region or county that you’re interested in getting traffic updates on.
  • Once you’ve gotten to that page go to the bottom and look for the "RSS" button.
  • Click on that and you’ll go to the page that acts as a kind of permanent news ticker for that particular travel area.
  • Highlight the address in your address bar.  An example would be this address for the Piedmont Triad region: http://apps.dot.state.nc.us/TIMS/RSS/IncidentList.aspx?RegionId=2
  • Go to www.web-alerts.com
  • Paste the address you just copied into the field provided and click "Go".
  • Add your phone number in the appropriate field, add keywords (if you want to) in the keyword field and click "Create Alert".
  • When you get the text asking for confirmation just confirm and you’ll have your very own traffic alert system.

One problem that I’ve found with this is that the alert contains a link to a web page, which is okay for me because I have a Blackberry and an unlimited data plan with Verizon.  For someone who is on the road and getting the text via regular phone this is going to be a problem.  Stay tuned because I’m looking for a way to send a straight text alert.

What’s cool is that NCDOT allows you to select traffic alerts by region, county or route so you don’t have to get alerts for Raleigh if you live in Winston-Salem.

Converging

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I’m at ConvergeSouth in Greensboro. Good sessions so far. I’ve run into several people I know, including Ed Cone, Smitty and Lenslinger. Right now I’m listening to Anil Dash of Six Apart, the company that hosts this blog. He’s talking about “next year’s social network.” Interesting stuff.

This is a free conference that i’m enjoying. I didn’t register for it so I didn’t expect to have lunch, but it looks like they ran out of food for a lot of the people who did. That’s too bad because it will taint some peoples’ perception even though it’s a free event.

They have 100 kids from Guilford County high schools here. I should have brought my kids; they’d really find some of it interesting.

SCORE Podcasts

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My friend Ruth sent over an item announcing the launch of SCORE podcasts.  From the news item:

SCORE “Counselors to America’s Small Business” announces the new
“Small Business Success Podcast Series” for start-up entrepreneurs and
small business owners. Each month, two new podcasts will be added, one
for http://www.score.org and one for http://www.score.org/women.

Each podcast is available as an audio broadcast online. A SCORE
expert or guest expert will offer tips and advice about a business
issue for approximately seven minutes. Past podcasts will be available
on archive pages at each Web site.

SCORE has released its first two podcasts:

*  Julie Brander, marketing expert with New Haven SCORE, shares ideas on “Marketing Your Biz in a Weak Economy” at www.score.org

*  Peggy Duncan, SCORE blogger and productivity expert with Atlanta
SCORE, talks about how to “Get More Done in Less Time” at
http://www.score.org/women

SCORE is a great program that hooks up entrepreneurs with counselors who are retired business people.  In other words young bucks get to learn from business veterans who have been there and done that.

Oh, and check out Ruth’s company Quantum Events.  If you need someone to create and manage compelling events then Ruth and company are the people you need to speak with.

What’s in Your PageRank?

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Anyone who’s worked on websites spends at least a little bit of time wondering how they got earned their Google PageRank.  In fact Steve Rubel thinks that PageRank is uber-important:

There are three reasons why Google Page Rank rules.

1) Page Rank is something you earn by producing high quality content that people link to – or what John Bell describes as socially connected

2) It enables you to influence people on the Internet’s biggest
stage – Google – and just as people are searching for the topics you
are knowledgeable about. This means it amplifies your influence because
the press start at search engines when researching stories

3) Finally, Page Rank is channel agnostic and takes the entire
online ecosystem into account. It judges you based on links from all
kinds of sources, not just people who live in the same fish tank. In
other words, it goes beyond people who hang out on Twitter who love
people who Tweet or bloggers who link to other bloggers, etc. It
eschews the echo chamber

PageRank takes time to earn. There are no shortcuts. Google is
democratic and rewards professionals and amateurs equally if they do
their job well. Create high quality content that earns links from other
quality sources and, over time, your Google Page Rank grows as does
your influence and responsibility.

Here’s the thing, though.  I actually have two PageRanks for this blog’s home "page".  You see I host this blog on a service called Typepad and there are two addresses you could type into your browser and reach my blog: http://www.jonlowder.com and http://practicalinc.typepad.com/jon.  If you type in the first version my PageRank shows up as a "2 of 10" but if you type in the second one I’m a "5 of 10."  Exact same content, just different URL.  Essentially when someone types http://www.jonlowder.com they get forwarded to the second address, so really you end up in the same place (I think) but it’s interesting to me that they would have different PageRanks.  If some smart person could explain the difference I’d sure appreciate it.

DIY Wi-Fi Signal Booster

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Normally I would put an item like this in my "links" post, but I know so many people who have problems with their home wi-fi network that I thought it important enough for a solo post.  Here’s the deal: if you have a wire strainer you can use it to boost your wi-fi receiver’s power since it acts as a parabola that focuses the signal for your receiver.  Check out the post on Instructables for details on how they used a dumpling strainer to do the deed. They call it a "WokFi" which I like.

I’m willing to bet that any wire strainer will help, but since the dumpling strainer offers a wider surface than the average strainer it probably works better than a standard strainer.

Instructables also provides a DIY tip on how to extend the signal of your wireless router using tinfoil sails. Very cool.

$12.95 for 24 Hours of Crap

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I’m in San Francisco on business and I’m staying in the Parc 55 hotel.  They charge for internet access here and it’s $12.95 per 24 hours, whether it’s wireless or wired.  Okay, I’ve been robbed for internet access by hotels before but generally the connection works better than dial-up.  Not so here.  I’m (internet) partying like it’s 1999.

Spammer Cleared

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Most of us hate spammers.  Let’s be honest, the only people who love spammers are spammers and their mothers, and in some cases even that might be stretching it.  That’s why today’s Virginia Supreme Court ruling that Virginia’s spam law is unconstitutional and that overturned the conviction of North Carolina-based spammer Jeremy Jaynes’ is sure to cause great gnashing of teeth.

Not that spammers have really been hindered by the various anti-spam laws out there.  They just moved their operations overseas and pumped up the volume.  Still, Jaynes’ case seemed to be one small instance where we would see justice done to one of those purveyors of penile enhancements we all love to hate, but even these roaches appear to have First Amendment rights.  Well, so do I and I’m going to use it to say that in my humble opinion Mr. Jaynes is still a little troll who deserves to be someone’s playmate in one of Virginia’s correctional facilities.