flyte blog: small business web marketing blog

Web Developer Appreciation Day Take II

I came into the office this morning to be greeted by a box of chocolates from Jeff and Jennifer from SelectDwelling for the recent Web site flyte designed and built for them.

As a "you're welcome!" I offer a link to your Web site (see above.)

Best of luck with your business of helping home owners and long-term renters connect in southwest Florida!

Rich Brooks
Will Link for Chocolate

How Not to Do Customer Service, By Yahoo

The other day I had a question, and decided to try out Yahoo Answers for the first time. I put together my question, filled out the necessary items and hit submit. Unfortunately I received a Yahoo 999 error.

Neither of these bullet points seemed relevant, but it was late at night and I let it drop, knowing I could attempt again from the work the following day.

The next day at work, on another computer, from a separate ISP I tried again. Same result. So I decided to follow up with customer service at http://help.yahoo.com/.

Dear AT&T, What's the Real Cost of a $699 iPhone?

The other day I jumped into the pool, fully clothed, to save my daughter who had gotten in over her head. Unfortunately, I hadn't removed my iPhone from my pocket before doing so.

I don't tell this story to brag--everyone reading this would have done the exact same thing. I only mention this because I want to make it clear that this wasn't one of those situations where someone drops their iPhone in the toilet while they're drunk at a party.

The good news is that I had Apple Care for my iPhone 3G. The bad news is that getting it wet--no matter how noble your purpose--isn't covered. The best Apple could offer me was to repair my iPhone for $200.

Next, I called up AT&T. I had only bought the iPhone about 6 months ago, so I didn't qualify for any kind of upgrade. I said I was more than willing to add two years to my contract to get the discounted 3GS price, but they wouldn't do it. They would, however, be happy to sell me the iPhone 3GS at the non-discounted price of $699.

So, if you're scoring at home, AT&T could have kept me happy by locking me into their service for an additional two years of profit to them! Instead, I'm in the market for a used iPhone and counting the days until my contract with AT&T is up. If the iPhone/Verizon rumors are true AT&T has convinced me that they're not interested in keeping my business.

There must be some convoluted bean-counter logic to all this, but I can't find it. Instead, I'll be patiently waiting until I can get onto a network where I can get more than one bar at my house.

Rich Brooks
Frustrated AT&T Customer

Happy Ending: Me--being me--had tweeted my iPhone's demise, and the cause behind it. At the same time, the company behind SimplyTweet, a Twitter iPhone app, was running a contest on Twitter. The grand prize? A $200 iPhone gift card.

I only heard about this because Tyler Strange (aka @attractiveideas) entered me in the contest, and I was selected!

Although I still couldn't upgrade to the 3GS I was able to trade in my wet 3G for a dry one thanks to Tyler and SimplyTweet. You can follow SimplyTweet on Twitter, as well.

Web Sites for Healthy Eating (& Living)

Last week I donned my "As Seen on TV" shirt and recorded a segment for the local evening news program, 207. The subject was on Web sites that provide health information on the food we eat, the cosmetics we wear (some of us at least), and the sunblock we lather on.

You can see the full-size video on the 207 Web site or a slightly smaller size down below. (Sorry about the obligatory commercial lead in.)

Add Music to Your Tweets with Blip.fm

OK, so you've been tweeting for a while now, but something's missing and you can't quite put your finger on it.

Well, if you're thinking that it's music that your tweets are lacking then you're in luck. Although Blip.fm is a standalone social media app, it can be a Twitter add-on as well.

But I get ahead of myself. First, visit Blip.fm and set up a free account; once you have, you are now officially a DJ.

Blip.fm works a lot like Twitter.

• Twitter has tweets, Blip.fm has blips, which are short messages with a song attached.
• Twitter has followers, Blip has listeners.
• If you like a tweet on Twitter you can "retweet" it, if you like a song a song a DJ plays you can "reblip" it. You can also give that DJ props to show how much you like it.

I don't use Blip.fm to discover new music, although I have discovered new songs and artists through some of the DJs I listen to at Blip.fm. I just find the music is too eclectic--even within the same DJ--to make for good listening.

Instead, I use Blip.fm to inflict my musical taste upon humanity. Banana Splits, anyone?

To do this, you put in your desired song and/or artist into the Blip search box. Not every song can be found, which is annoying if your taste runs a little esoteric. Blip.fm will bring back several versions, and you can preview each one to make sure it matches up with what you were looking for. Then you can add an accompanying message of up to 140 characters.

Once your account is set up you can sync it to your Twitter account (and your FriendFeed account as well as some other services) so that your blips appear as tweets.

Keep in mind that Blip.fm adds a musical note and a URL to your tweet, so if you maxed out the 140 characters on your blip, it might get cut off when it becomes a tweet.

Please feel to add therichbrooks to your favorite DJs on Blip.fm once you set up your account.

If you want to listen to that beta version of Bruce Springsteen's Thunder Road, here it is.

Rich Brooks
Last Night a DJ Saved My Life

Is the Internet Making Us Stupid?

“Is this the new David Byrne?” my wife asked me.

“Yep,” I replied.

“The one with Brian Eno?”

“Yes...who did he used to play with?” I wondered aloud.

“You had to ask. It’s right on the tip of my tongue.”

“Oingo Boingo?” I offered.

“No, I think it begins with an ‘S’.”

I looked off, chewing the rest of my tuna fish sandwich, trying to think of bands from the 80’s that began with S. Simple Minds? No, that couldn’t be right.

“Roxy Music!” I heard from the other room. Cybele had obviously Googled the answer.

This is our answer to everything, and it may well be yours, too. I recently read a piece in Wired magazine where the author was unapologetic about using Google to find the answer to just about every question. He--and us Brookses--argue that there’s just too much information these days to expect that you’ll be able to keep it all in your noggin…especially if we only use 10% of it as some people believe.

In fact, Google has become so persuasive there’s a Web site dedicated to shutting down noobie questions called Let Me Google That for You. Anytime someone asks a question they could have easily Googled themselves, you can send them a link to the simple search.

For example, When does Festivus start? This was my introduction to the site as I innocently asked this question through a Twitter post and got this snarky link as a response. In fact, my Festivus tweet is currently the 2nd result at the time of this writing.

With my iPhone I can now call in a Google search, increasing my access to the wisdom of the Internet anywhere AT&T or wifi can reach. The other day I clicked the Google icon, spoke the name and town of a friend, and the first result included his home phone number; a clickable link on my smart phone. Sweet.

Or is it saccharine? I remember (vaguely) reading 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez where the village is cursed with forgetting (in my possibly faulty recollection.) Over time, they forget the names of daily objects, such as a chair or window. To compensate for this they start writing the names of items on pieces of paper and sticking them to the chair or window. That works great until they don’t even remember what the words mean. Finally, an old friend arrives and lifts the curse.

Is this the future we’re heading towards with our over-reliance on Google (and other, lesser search engines)? Last night Cybele and I watched Wall-E with the girls. Are we entering an age where we’re becoming the mental equivalent of the corpulent, non-ambulatory humans of our fictional future? Will Google become our crutch hover chair, where we never need to mentally exercise to get that band’s name off the tip of our collective tongues’?

In our home, I’m sure we’ll continue to use Google. However, maybe we need to institute a 5 minute delay on the Internet to answer our questions, give our noodles the exercise they need to keep from getting flabby.

BTW, no Google searches were conducted in the writing of this article, so it’s quite possible the Wired magazine article was actually something I read on the back of a box of Cap’n Crunch and the Gabriel Garcia Marquez story was actually the Archie comic issue where Jughead bumps his head and becomes a chick magnet.

The Ice Storm

As I write this post it's day 3 of the 2008 ice storm here in Maine and I'm still without power at home. However, the CMP guys tell me our power should be back up within 15 minutes.

Admittedly, it was frustrating to go without power for three days when neighbors across the street, around the corner and behind me all had their power back the same day. However, we were blessed to have good friends who put us up for 3 days and 2 nights. Luckily, our daughters and theirs played like angels the entire time. It was more like an extended slumber party than anything else.

For the grownups, bourbon and beer got us through.

Besides the kindness of friends, the other silver lining was some great photos I got of the ice storm. You can view them in the slideshow below or at Flickr: Ice Storm 2008.

Rich Brooks
Thawing

Photos from Harbor Fish Market, Portland, Maine

Tonight's my last class of Introduction to the SLR at the University of Southern Maine, and we're having a critique of our photos. This kind of snuck up on me, but luckily my friends over at Harbor Fish Market were kind enough to let me come in and take some photos for class.

What's so cool about Harbor Fish Market is that it's a real fish market, not a tourist trap. As you can (hopefully) see from the photos, the fish is incredibly fresh and high quality; people and restaurants from around the country order from Harbor Fish.

Entering the retail store is a blast. The floors are uneven and a bit wet...you have to watch your step! Giant lobster tanks line one wall, and local and fish from around the world lay displayed on ice. Unlike some other fish markets in town, the prices are very reasonable, and the people who work there are very real, very cool, and very authentic.

There's a slide show below of some of the other photos I took. If anything looks appetizing you can have fresh, Maine seafood delivered to your door for dinner tomorrow. Just call 1-800-370-1790 x2 and ask for my good friend Robyn. She'll treat you right.

Rich Brooks
Fishing for Compliments

How to Take a Screen Capture of Your iPhone

If you've ever wanted to take a screen capture of your iPhone, here's how you do it:

Hold down the top button and click the big circle button at the bottom. The photo will appear in your photos section, and then you can email it to a friend or to tech support.

BTW, here's a possible April Fool's Day Trick. Confuse your friend swiping their iPhone while they're not looking and taking a random screen capture. Make it their wallpaper and/or the last screen the was up before the phone went to sleep. It's not a perfect trick, but it will confound them as they madly pound their iPhone screen with their fingers.

Chrystie Corns (@ccmaine) taught me that little trick, although the bit of evil was thrown in by me.

Rich Brooks
iPhony

Is 9/11 the New American National Holiday?

Today is September 11th, 2008, the anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the United States. It's also the day after I started listening to Thomas Friedman's new book, Hot, Flat and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution and How it Can Renew America.

Although I've just begun it, the book talks a lot about post-9/11 America, missed opportunities and our focus on security over freedom and collaboration. As Friedman states it, since 9/11 America has been in a "defensive crouch"...not the best position for a country that considers itself to be a world leader.

Having just started the book, it's hard to know if this is where Friedman's argument will ultimately go, but it seems to me that 9/11 currently has more impact on our daily lives than July 4th.

9/11 is about fear, uncertainty and the desire for security. 7/4 is about freedom and democracy. We can choose how we wish to be defined: are we about fear, or are we about democracy?

We all have gone through personal tragedies, or know someone who has--be they natural or man-made. Some people never truly recover, while others become stronger, even if they were scarred by the event. They don't allow themselves to become defined by that event, except in the fact that they were able to overcome it and go on living.

I'll continue to observe 9/11 and mourn those who died, but I refuse to let it cloud my vision about this country's potential...about the principles it was founded on: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

I choose to do what I can to focus on freedom; in the way I live, in the way I act, and in the way I vote. I hope you can do the same.

"He who sacrifices freedom for security deserves neither." -- Ben Franklin

Rich Brooks
American

Photo Credit: Paul Goyette