One-click unsubscribe

Business / Databases / Email / Technology

Over the years email spam has gotten better and worse. ‘Better’, in that the “Unsubscribe” link that is required by the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 has made it much easier to stop unwanted email. ‘Worse’, in that more companies/groups around the world can now get your email so much easier than before, so you actually get more junk email than ever before. Another ‘better’ comes in the form of that wonderful “Spam” (or ‘Junk’) button in Gmail and other web-based email systems. When enough people click that button …

Hotel minimum wage cost cutting

Business / Customer Service

The Los Angeles City Council recently voted to increase the hourly minimum wage to $15.37/hour for hotel workers at hotels with 300 rooms or more. Until today, the minimum wage for LA County was $9/hour. My first thought in reading the headline was – “Okay, so how do you cut costs at hotels?” My solution – cut staff and offer daily discounts to guests who choose not to get a daily cleaning service. I stay at hotels far more often for work than I do for personal travel, …

Where’s the gas tank?

Automotive / Technology

I don’t know when I learned this trick, but it was many years ago. Have you ever rented or borrowed a car and had to stop for gas, but as you’re driving up to the pump you suddenly realize that you don’t know if the gas tank filler is on the left or right side? I’d say there’s a… 98% chance that has happened to everyone. And with the popularity of the Toyota Prius and Chevy Volt, which gives people much longer time between fill-ups, even those car …

Voting on ads…

Business / Video / Websites

For several years I’ve felt like there’s something missing from ads – specifically video ads. More specifically, web-based video ads. Voting. We all remember those especially good ads. The kid reading the ingredients on a container of Breyers ice cream; Verizon’s “Can you hear me now?” campaign; Connect Four’s “Pretty sneaky sis!”. Of course, those ads were all pre-internet, so the way they rated commercials was by sales and by advertising teams crunching sales numbers. But so many ads are just awful and there’s no way to let …

Finally dumping GoDaddy… for Google

Business / Customer Service / Technology / Websites

GoDaddy has long been a staple in the domain and website hosting market for many years. Over the past many years though, they’ve gotten increasingly worse in customer service and price. There are many alternatives that people are happy with, and I’ve tried many. Several years ago I moved most of my web hosting, and the hosting of most of my clients and friends, off of GoDaddy’s terrible hosting services, but I’ve left domains there. (And so have many others.) Last month I had my final bad experience …

Small business and technology

Business / Software / Technology

I started in the software and technology world in 1995 doing tech-support for a software product called “Internet in a Box”. The job consisted mainly of taking phone calls to help customers who bought the software, to install it on their Windows 3.1 computer, configure their modems, or update their modem strings, to get connected to the Internet. By 1996 the Internet had become more open for the public but it still wasn’t “easy” to get connected. Internet in a Box was revolutionary in the same way TiVo …

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