Someone I know came to me the other day about a consulting project that may or may not happen.   What essentially he wants done is an overhaul of IT infrastructure.   They want more automation to their operation and they deal with physical goods.  So from receiving to shipping, to everything in between they are looking to streamline.    They want to do more with less, less equipment if possible, less people if possible, less stress if possible.   In other words they want what every other company in the world wants.

Currently they have a software package that does some of this, but it doesn’t do everything they want it to be able to do.   I don’t have implicit knowledge of the package, other then I’ve created firewall rules when I was consulting with Symantec to pass the traffic.   So my first question is the scope of the project.   The person I was talking to didn’t exactly no what I meant by that.   They were more worried about the big picture ideal instead of what a consultant would need to work with.  A vision of the end goal is great, but without specific tasks to get there it definitely puts an implementer at a disadvantage.   He stated that we would have to do a sit down and discuss the issue and layout of the business process.   This is a good step, but part of why I’m writing this is to help others know the answer they should have when going into something of this magnitude.

Easy, Hard and Correct

The first question is why do you want to do this?  There are easy answers, there are hard answers, and there is correct answers to this question.    Some of the easy answers include – I want everything to work together better, we want to build to the future, and I have to spend my budget before the end of the fiscal cycle and want to try out this product.    Hard answers include we want something more manageable for our IT staff, we want it to run faster in our environment, we want something we can understand.

There are reasons that these are the easy answers and hard answers.  The first and foremost thought is to remember to sit down with a consultant or someone who understands the technology thoroughly enough before ever sitting down with a salesperson.   To sales people, these are all easy and correct answers.   They will tell you your toast can be used to transport computer network traffic with the right purchase, they are there to get your money.  It’s the one reason I can never be a salesperson.  I like people using the correct solution, not necessarily the solution that I am selling.   Even when I worked at Symantec, I knew Symantec products were not the best products for all customers.   Some customers only changed products because they had money to spend and ended up worse off for it.    Salespeople are tricky creatures that guard their bonuses like Disney guards it’s copyrights.

Easy answers are normally very vague,  they tell a salesperson of consultant that you haven’t really though to much about the problem.  You have a basic idea of what you want, but you don’t know any specifics.  The problem with the easy answers is that they are also the most expensive answers – this allows those that are implementing something to sell you what they think is best, regardless of how it will fit into your business six months down the road when they are gone.  You will have to make some decisions on your own, and this should not be listening to the best sales pitch from two competing vendors.  The best sales pitch does not necessarily equate into the best product.

Why are the hard answers difficult?  What that’s because everything is relative.   Going back to my examples can show you this.  We want something more manageable by our IT staff, well how trained is your IT staff?   Do your employees know alternative operating systems?  Does your staff only run Microsoft products?  Is this faster for your environment?  What about a year down the road and the nightmare efficient system breaks because of infrastructure changes you were forced to make?  Everything comes down to you knowing your environment and your plans for the future.   A consultant only gets a glimpse of time into your configuration and is not going to be the full time employee running this stuff.   They won’t know how your future plans could be effected if you don’t tell them your future plans.

The correct answer?  That include being as specific as possible.  Let’s say this is to implement an Exchange Server migrating from a Lotus Notes architecture.   Why would I want to do this?   Lotus Notes has been long in the process of being a headache for us.   The administrator that runs it is retiring in six months and we have other employees that could scale up quicker to learn  Exchange then Lotus Notes.   The collaborative features in exchange work in Outlook, which our company already loads on all the desktop since we have a full Microsoft Office License on all of the desktops.  About 30% of our users already use outlook to retrieve their e-mail, even though they all have the Notes client installed on their desktops also.   Being able to consolidate this would save us thousands a year since we would no longer need a support contract or license fees paid to IBM to support the old Lotus infrastructure.    The more complete and specific the answer, the better the consultant can answer your questions.

Do You Listen To Alternatives?

Even in the Exchange scenario seems complete.  How rigid are you to suggestions?  What if the consultant offers up other alternatives such as a web based e-mail solution that would still allow Exchange to connect and retrieve e-mail? While a Linux/Apache approach may be cheaper, you could also implement it on top of IIS.   Building with some other technologies you could gain all the collaborative powers of Exchange for thousands of dollars less.   Those who didn’t want to use Outlook could use a browser.  If you combine this with a secure remote access solution this would allow for a possible quicker and less bandwidth connection for telecommuters if that is where your company is going.

Knowing what your plans and how rigid they need to be help a consultant decide what avenues may be the best approach for you.  While I offered up a free solution, another consultant may offer ways to augment your current Notes infrastructure to fit your needs.  The best consultants will offer alternatives to your current line of thinking.   You do not have to listen to them, you can stay focused, but hearing how open you are is important.

Timeline

A timeline is something you should have in mind sitting down with the consultant.  He needs to know deadlines and what your expectations are.   Does this need to be done in a week or a year?  How are your current employees going to ramp up on the new solution?  While a consultant may reset your timelines to something more realistic, knowing what type of time frame you are trying to achieve is important to the success of the project.   It also tells the consultant if they are going ot need to bring in more outside help.

Breakdown of Tasks

Have you compartmentalized your tasks?  The person that contacted me was looking for a complete end to end solution, is this what best?   In a solution like that how are you going to handle the transition time?   You don’t want to migrate the whole solution at the touch of a button, since any big architecture change can effect your business continuity.  For some businesses any downtime at all is lost revenue.   A consultant wants to make this impact as minimal as possible.   Even when you do the best planning and compartmentalizing sometimes you will get stuck on a twenty-three hour conference call working through the issues of down time.   When this happens I can tell you it’s not fun.  That was also with a staged migration.

What segments of your business can be down for hours at a time?   When you can answer that you can start staging your tasks.  The tasks that can be down the longest generally should be the first ones migrated, since they should give you expectations for later tasks, and allow you to plan accordingly.   Do not re-architect the design so the whole system (no matter how small) to be done in one night if there are multiple groups effected in the transition.   Design the impact to be as small as possible.   Yes, this may increase time – which in turn increases expense, but without proper planning it may cost you more in the long run.

Cost

The question that no likes asking or giving, what is your budget for this task.  You can wait for the consultant to make a cost estimate pitch first if you like – but at some point in the conversation cost is going to come up.   Do your homework ahead of time to see how much you expect it to cost and budget accordingly.   What are you going to do if things go over budget?  If your three quarters way through a project and haev no more money to finish it, how is that going to impact you?

In Closing

This may seem like a list of things that I want as a consultant.   These are however fairly common truths on what a consultant needs to start a project properly instead of spinning their wheels.   In the next week or so I’m going to follow this up with how to spot a good consultant versus a bad one.

]]> http://creeva.com/2009/02/10/things-you-should-be-able-before-to-answer-contacting-a-consultant/feed/ 3 http://creeva.com/2009/01/20/features-google-reader-needs-to-add/ http://creeva.com/2009/01/20/features-google-reader-needs-to-add/#comments Tue, 20 Jan 2009 23:50:18 +0000 Creeva http://creeva.com/?p=4050

Image from here

Google reader, I love you – I also hate you.    You are like a bad relationship that I can’t break.   You save me so much time on the web since I no longer have to jump from site to site.   You however do not give me any good reason to use you and save items.    You are a cruel mistress who mistreats me and wastes my time.   Here are things you need to work on.

The first and only thing you need to work is how saved “starred” items work within your interface.     I have been trying to clear out “starred” items since the list was getting unwieldy for me.  Let’s start off by how I use starred items.   I use it to save personally interesting stories that are not relevant enough for me to share the story.   They are also too mundane in most occasions to e-mail to myself.    Yes I know this is in essence using you as a bookmarking service – a service mind you that Google has not officially ventured into.  You are designed to display information rapidly from multiple sources and your saved items is really an after thought.    Or it it?

You attempted to rectify some of this with tagging, the first problem I have with tagging – is other then by using search I can not find a way to find the “folders” made by creating a tag.   It’s all fine and great that we can create tags, but if you can not quickly get to them, what is the point other then to give me hope.   Maybe I’m just retarded when it comes to tags, but tags do not answer the second problem I have, only the bookmarking aspect (and answers it extremely poorly).

The second thing I use you for is saving stories that I can come back and read later.   I get in on Monday morning and I have 367 unread items that have shown up since Sunday when I cleared them out.   I don’t have time to leisurely read the stories, instead I go through and star the ones I want to come back and read later.   By Friday I have over one thousand story I want to come back and read, but who has the time or effort.  The other day to get back to my oldest starred items it took me over 5 minutes of scrolling all the way down and waiting for you to load.   There has to be another way.

A few methods I came up to help the starred overload issue:

Saved feed items by date – if you could categorize items in folder by month/week/or even day that you starred them that would be fantastic and save on a hell of a lot of scrolling.

Starred item by feed it came from – by being able to filter our starred items by source feed would also be awesome.   This would allow me to quickly dig into the stories I want to read when I sit down.   Sometimes I don’t feel like going back to starred items from feeds 6, 5, 89, 90, etc. – when all I want to do is read stories from feed78.     There should be a simpler way to do this then forcing me to tag or search.  I can set up labels and see them on the left in Gmail, why is the reader data so different?

Well next week I plan to publish articles of some of the saved links I have saved by subject.   I’ve been working hard, but like they say you go two steps forward and you end three steps back.     We’ll see how it goes.

Love,

Creeva

Image from here

I know I just gave a post on using creative commons based works, and about the problems of dealing with international public domain laws, but Youtube has cracked down on me.   Over the past few weeks I’ve been getting e-mails from youtube that say the following:

Subject: A copyright owner has claimed content in one of your videos

Video Disabled

A copyright owner has claimed it owns some or all of the audio content in your video [redacted]. The audio content identified in your video is [redacted]. We regret to inform you that your video has been blocked from playback due to a music rights issue.

Replace Your Audio with AudioSwap

Don’t worry, we have plenty of music available for your use. Please visit our AudioSwap library to learn how you can easily replace the audio in your video with any track from our growing library of fully licensed songs.

Other Options

If you think there’s been a mistake, or you have other questions, please visit the Copyright Notice page in your account.

Sincerely,
The YouTube Content Identification Team

Now in theory I could fight this, but I know I am in the wrong.  I had videos on my profile that did include copyrighted music.   For the most part they are not videos that I created, I was merely archiving them in a central location so people could find them.   All the videos that have been taken down are Machinima videos that were “filmed” in Star Wars Galaxies.  I can’t really take them up on the music swap suggestion, since the person that originally made the videos had a specific intent that went along with the chosen music.

This all goes into the idea of fair use and when is it ok to use something to create something else.   This argument is a bit out of scope for this post.   What I can say is all of these videos still exist online, archived in far off pages.   It is sad that they can’t be displayed to wider audiences since most of them do have true genius in their design.

I thought this apt to add before anyone thought I had a holier then thou attitude in anyway because of my recent conversations.   I knew the risks and issues involved with posting these pieces.   I never claimed any part of the work was mine, and the most important thing is – I knew where it stood in the grand scheme of things before I did it.   I’m not saying you will never run into a spot where you won’t ever use copyright material.   Just be aware of what you are doing if you do.

On Friday Google rolled out a new favicon to the world. This news seems to be so powerful that it inspired a Slashdot thread with 183 comments and a story about this received 1451 Diggs at last count.  I however think just smacks of slow news day syndrome, but what can I say – I’m writing a useless story about how other people found a useless story interesting.   Maybe this will be the post that makes it to the front page of Digg.

BTW:

Google’s new favicon

That’s for those that have not gone to Google.com and seen the new favicon in the address bar.

The above picture has nothing to do with this article.

A few weeks ago I was having a discussion with one of my family members about web site design and blogging.   He stated that he was going to be starting some sort of manga/anime fan site based on a certain character.  I stated that he should be a bit wary about the images he used that he may have to worry about copyright issues since the images were trademarked and copyrighted.   Keep in mind this was the same brother that wanted to setup a website for a girl so you couldn’t download the images (and I called him out on the futile nature of that).    Kind of ironic when he wants to control it, he thinks one way – but when he wants to use it he thinks another.

Another family member piped in that they thought if it was online it was public domain and free to use.   Now I corrected them, but so everyone else knows – just because something is published online doesn’t mean it’s free to use.   When I don’t use my own pictures I always use creative common licensed images and put an attribution link beneath the image (sometimes I do use public domain images and don’t attribute).   I even had an online scuffle with someone who licensed her work via creative commons and didn’t know what it meant.

I gave my family the two minute off the top of the head review of current copyright law and how creator’s rights worked under our borked legal system.   Essentially if you are in the US anything made 1923 or earlier is free game – anything after that is the life of the creator plus seventy years.   Unless the page it’s on states otherwise you have to assume the work is copywritten.   Then we get into fair use, which is a whole other ball of wax entirely that I’m not going to touch right now.

Image from here

I’m the crossposting whore – I write once and I have everything designed to publish everywhere (well at least when things aren’t broken like Ping.fm to Myspace blogs).   This however is not syncing, it’s distribution and publishing.     A true sync across all platforms would be amazing.

The example I would love is I make an edit to a blog post, then every place and profile that I’ve published that post on would update with no manual intervention.   Since I can’t do that, Creeva.com is considered my authorative location for all blog posts.  If I wanted to edit those other sites I would have to do each one manually.  Granted I’m sure without using syncing it saves on bandwidth.

Things that I can sync?   Well my contacts and calendars with Plaxo, but that kind of is just the tip of the iceberg.   My biggest issue write now is syncing Flickr photos to Facebook.  I am aware of Flickurbook, but this still uses your local machine – there is no reason this can’t be done “in the cloud”.    It’s all soooo sloooooow.   Seriously at the speed it moves I could just reupload all the pictures to Facebook faster then this thing goes.  It’s free, it’s the developers fault, it’s great what he did; but it’s not the solution I’m looking for.

Finally using my distribution chain I chase all over the web to answer comments.  I don’t mind doing that.   However, wouldn’t it be better if across all platforms and services these comments were kept in sync?   Then I could use the spam filters I wanted to from a central location.  I could reply to comments from a central location.

I’m just pipedreaming again…..

Stargate Atlantis Season 3- more Stargate goodness.

Amazon Synopsis:

With Stargate SG-1 now permanently off the data screen (except for a TV movie or two) after ten productive seasons, it appears that the fate of the universe is now the responsibility of the Stargate Atlantis crew. Based on the latter’s third season, whose 20 episodes (plus a wealth of bonus features) are made available here on five discs, we’re in good hands.
Three years into it, Atlantis has retained numerous familiar elements while continuing to evolve steadily. The core cast is intact, with the cocky wiseacre-hero Lt. Col. John Sheppard (Joe Flanigan) and the egotistical, neurotic genius Dr. Rodney McKay (David Hewlett) still the most entertaining of the bunch; as the series explores the characters’ personal lives and backstories, we even meet (in “McKay and Mrs. Miller”) the latter’s sister, who’s every bit the wiz that he is. On the other hand, the roles of team leader Dr. Elizabeth Weir (Torri Higginson) and members Teyla (Rachel Luttrell) and Ronon Dex (Jason Momoa) are neither especially well-written nor well-played. The return of Richard Dean Anderson (and his sense of humor) as General Jack O’Neill, the SG-1 mainstay during most of its run, for a few cameos is most welcome, as is the presence of the Wraith, the series’ principal villains (SG-1 fans will also recognize the “sentient machines” known as the Replicators from that series). With their flowing white locks, cat-like eyes, pale, almost translucent skin, ultra-fine black leather dusters, and, in one case, shades that would make a Hollywood hipster envious, the Wraith remain the coolest bad guys on the sci-fi scene. We already knew that they feed on humans, but this season brings some startling new revelations, particularly in “Common Ground,” an excellent episode that finds Sheppard and a Wraith (Christopher Heyerdahl) forming an unlikely alliance against a mutual enemy; we also witness the return of the Wraith known as Michael (Connor Trinneer), who was the subject of the Atlantis team’s ongoing “retro-virus” experiment (designed to make Wraiths human) in Season Two and plays a significant recurring role in Season Three. Other developments are apparent as well, but most dramatic of all is the death of one of the team’s key members.
Stargate Atlantis isn’t the most original TV show ever created; in fact, elements of The Running Man, Alien, The Abyss, Enemy Mine, and other sci-fi works are sometimes so obvious that the characters themselves mention them in dialogue. But as always, the action sequences, special effects, models, and other technical elements are first-rate, as are the bonus features, which include episode commentaries, featurettes, and photo galleries.

Stargate Atlantis Season 2 – more Stargate goodness.

Amazon Synopsis:

If Stargate Atlantis isn’t the coolest sci-fi series on television, this five-disc, 20-episode box set from the second season (2005-06) offers ample evidence that it’s right up there. The writing is good; the stories are intriguing, and the science part of the equation is credible enough to justify our suspension of disbelief. The characters are for the most part well-defined, and the acting, while perhaps not Emmy-caliber, is just fine. The action is exciting, the effects work impressive, the costumes and sets first-rate. But what Atlantis really has going for it is the presence of some of the baddest bad guys in the cosmos: the Wraith.

With their flowing white locks, cat-like eyes, pale, almost translucent skin, and teeth so bad they’d make the British blush, the Wraith rock. They also have a constant need to feed–on humans, of course–and are a serious threat not only to Atlantis but to the entire known universe, including good ol’ Earth. And although there are occasional diversions, the producers and writers have wisely kept the focus on these implacable antagonists; in fact, the newest member of the team, one Ronon Dex (played by the dreadlocked and hunky Jason Momoa), is a “runner” who escaped the Wraith’s clutches, was a fugitive for years before being found by our heroes, and specializes in dispatching the villains with cold precision. In the course of the season, via single episodes and several multi-parters, the Stargate team, commanded by Dr. Elizabeth Weir (Torri Higginson in the show’s least interesting role) and led by insouciant Major John Sheppard (Joe Flanigan), with genius-neurotic Dr. Rodney McKay (David Hewlett) handling the scientific intricacies and yet another doc, Carson Beckett (Paul McGillion, affecting a Scottish brogue), overseeing medical matters, deals with the enemy on many fronts. Lt. Ford (Rainbow Sun Francks) defects after assuming Wraith-like characteristics. The team experiments with a “retrovirus” designed to turn Wraiths into humans (the results are decidedly mixed). They encounter a human who raised a Wraith female from childhood and insists she’s just like us (she’s not). They’re captured and imprisoned on a Wraith “hive” ship. And in the final episode, the humans and the Wraiths even form an alliance of supposedly mutual convenience (the episode is a cliffhanger that awaits resolution until Season Three, but anyone who thought this “partnership” was a good idea for our side clearly hasn’t been paying attention). As was the case with the Season One set, bonus materials are generous, including audio commentary (by actors, directors, and others) on every episode, various featurettes, photos, and more. Now if only there were a few Wraith interviews…

As far back as I remember when I went to someone’s house the first question my mother asked me when I got home was never “Did you have fun?” Maybe that was too plebeian for her and her non-bourgeois ways. She didn’t want to be like every other mother on the planet and ask the obvious question. The question she did ask? Well that was “What did their house look like?” My mother was obsessed with other people’s housing decorations and using her eight year old son to do her scouting for her. I was a bad a scout thought, my answer until I was eighteen and moved out was almost always “It’s a house, with stuff in it”. She tried to grill me further and if she was lucky she sometimes got to pluck out some of the details she wanted.

Whenever my mother went to a house she seemed to case the joint like a burglar. What she wanted to steal though was not anything tangible they owned. What she wanted to do was find something that either she could use in her own decor, or talk about with her friends about how much she disliked it. If you didn’t fit in one side of the spectrum you immediately fit into the other side.

If something was featured on Oprah as must have, my mom would scheme to buy it. I can only assume she owns both a Wii and Kindle. I don’t know why she would buy a kindle though, she doesn’t read. I’m not saying she is incapable of reading, only that she prefers every bit of information spoon fed to her through network television compared to any other avenue. I swear my mother thinks the purpose of the newspaper is to hold her shopping advertisements.

She attempted to justify her moronic decision to make the first room you enter in the house being the dining room because one of her friends did it. This was one of those moments where you say, if all your friends are jumping off a bridge would you do it? (My answer to that question has always been “How high is the bridge? Is there water underneath it?” How many friends are we talking about and have they all survived?”) Either way a stupid design choice is a stupid design choice, copying it just makes you dumber.

The correct answer to why you do such a thing? Well I could say it fits until our routine better, it makes the house more functional, who cares about the norm or aesthetics, or it’s my house and I like it. However hiding behind that your friend does it so you decided to do it? That shows you have no thought in the problem other then some selfish little need of instant gratification that you are trying to get fulfilled.

I understand why my mom wants to decorate or own things that other people do. It’s called a psychological term called mirroring. If someone mimics your body movements your mirroring them. It allows for a repertoire to form, a link if you will. People like people that are like them. In some mis-guided learning my mother thinks she needs to dress, talk, and live like everyone else – otherwise she is non-existent. If she isn’t acknowledged because she isn’t like everyone else she get depressed. The whole problem is when you live your life by mirroring all those around you all the time, you are no longer an individual. You are a member of society, but your not going to help further it or challenge new and original thought.

Every single idea my mother has had for house design or money making has been because someone else has done it first and she thinks she can do it also. Mind you she doesn’t think she can do it better, she thinks she can do it just as well and get the same compliments for it. Because of this my mother doesn’t do anything well beyond “keeping up with the Jones’”.

Read Part 1 Here

Read Part 2 Here

Read Part 3 Here

Read Part 4 Here

Read Part 5 Here

Read Part 6 Here

Read Part 7 Here

Read Part 8 Here

Read Part 9 Here

Read Part 10 Here

My mother is obsessed with her house.   She thinks it is the most important thing in the world.  Above keeping adequate food in the house even.   If she needs something she’ll beg, plead, and cry until she gets her way.   She is as spoiled as she has made any of her children.

Her rational seems to be that people will look at her as a better person if she has a nicer house and furniture (a screwed assessment in my belief). Not only will they look at her as a better person, I honestly believe that she thinks it does make it her a better person. Should could have been Mother Theresa and feeding starving children on the streets of Calcutta and she would still be a terrible person in her mind if she didn’t have the greatest modern style in her house.

My father did amazing work remodeling the house of my parents originally bought it. In the end it was a useful, functional, and livable house. My step-father isn’t too shabby at work also, yet his designs are not as well thought out. He (with I’m sure my mothers chiding) turned half the garage into a ten foot by ten foot dining room. It was cramped and never felt right. It also negated half the garage and made it so you couldn’t pull a car in any longer. To make matters worse he had to put one to two wall jacks for various services into each wall in the room. Idiotic for a dining room. If you need that kind of outlet space get a surge protector, because I know her didn’t put a better breaker in the house.

My mother must have reached the realization at one point that this was a bad spot for a dining room. So she turned the front living room into a dining room. At first line this doesn’t sound too bad, until you realize there is no atrium or anything, so the dining room is the first room you enter when you walk into the house.

The last time I was there the house was so transformed you could hardly recognize it anymore. What used to be a livable space that felt like a lived home is slowly being transformed into a model home that just has residents. It is not a place you would ever feel comfortable in. While it doesn’t look bad, it looks like no one lives there except for the mess, maybe weekend renters that haven’t cleaned up yet. A nice place to visit, but you wouldn’t want to live there.

Read Part 1 Here

Read Part 2 Here

Read Part 3 Here

Read Part 4 Here

Read Part 5 Here

Read Part 6 Here

Read Part 7 Here

Read Part 8 Here

Read Part 9 Here

Two years of doing National Novel Writing Month and two years of failure for myself.  This year however it should be cake.  Chocolate cake, not white cake – I dislike white cake it’s like the step-father that no one likes of the cake world.   Now I’m sure one of the first things going through your mind is “How is this slack ass that hasn’t written an orginal article in two weeks going to write a novel”.   Well I’ve been busy what can I say?   I think I can do the novel this year.   It’s only 50k words and I can pop out 5k words in an hour when i put my mind to it.

However when I actually bother to write, I never want my blog(s) to suffer.  What I’m going to attempt ot do this weekend is future write for the whole month of October.  I’m hoping if I sit down and crunch through writing before November hits that most of my writing can be focused on that.   So between my different blogs that means doing about 100 articles in the next 7 days.   Can I do it?  I think I can.  I’ll throw in some slack ass reviews to get through a cheater post here or there.   None of us are super-human, and if I was actually getting paid to do this it would be something completely different.

I also have to start looking at adding a blog section to the VCMA web site.   It seems that we are to be featured in the Sunday edition of the Lorain Morning Journal.   I’m going ot have to get someone to snag me an extra paper of that.   So I thought it would be nice to have a regulary updated news section of the blog.   I’ve many times showed my distaste for doing static pages, a blog format would do wonders for releasing updates on a regular basis.  This reminds me though that I also need to get a new design theme for the VCMA website.

Picture from here

A couple weeks ago I was talking with a friend about an idea for a new web service.   The web service would have you enter in all the services and sites you use and have an account with online, and then send you a twitter alert when the policy changed and it would show you which text changed.  My problem is while I could come up with the design, function, and architecture I couldn’t figure out any way to monetize such a service.  I let it languish and said I would eventually write a blog article on how to roll you own.   This is that article.

The key feature to making this work (obviously) is a service that can monitor website for changes and give you some sort of data trigger outbound that is usable for repurposing.  I know I could use services that would do an RSS feed, but I wanted something more immediate and trustworthy then RSS for this scenario.  I hunted around and I found the service Change Detection that will send send you an email when a web page has changed.

E-Mail Alerts

With e-mail you have a bit more control.   It’s all easy.  If all you want is an e-mail alert put in the policy page into the page address field.   Then place your e-mail address in the “send alert to:” field.   Easy as cake and your done.

Twitter Alerts

What about getting twitter alerts?  The first thing I’ll point out, I’m not a programmer.  I’m sure there are much better ways to do this in much simpler methods.  I have two requirements for myself.   Keep it free, and it keep it in the cloud.   Make the internet do the work for you, it’s always on and online – your computer doesn’t have to be.  So instead of using an Uber-Twitterbot I’m going to utilize a few free service:

1. Change Detection -Configure the privacy page you want to monitor the same way in section for getting email alerts.  Instead of relying on the emails for notification, change detection allows you to create an RSS feed for each page you are monitoring.

3. Twitter – Setup a new twitter account that you can friend.  If you worried about privacy (people knowing which sites you are watching), set the updates to be protected so only “friends” can see them.   Have the alert twitter account friend you, log out and friend the account back with your main twitter account.

4. Twitterfeed -Take the feed from change detection, pipe it through twitterfeed so it will put update notifications to your “alert account”.   Now whenever anything has changed you can watch updates from that account and you’ll have almost real time monitoring of any web page.

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Just the other day I wrote about cloud computing versus SaS terminology.   A web application isn’t necessarily a cloud computing or SaS platform.   It can be one or the other, it can be both, it can be neither.   Now that, that is out of the way let’s move onto the meat.

I think that all web application developers would do well to look at WordPress and the product they offer as key points for their own designs.   Obviously I use WordPress as a blog, I also use it as a CMS, a middleware application system, a database, a word processor and other uses.   WordPress is extensible far beyond the original blog software it was designed to be.

The reason that WordPress is so transformative is the ability to use a fairly easy (well not for me but I suck at PHP and programming in general) API that the users can use to extend and transform the core product.  This is done through the use of plugins.   In theory the expandablity of WordPress would allow it to transform into any functional web application you can imagine.   I’m not saying this should be done however.   WordPress plugins a lot of times just add band-aids to a product to extend it further then the core company can imagine or support.

Think of your ticket support system.  Most of these are moving to a web based interface.  Easy to manage, no software to install on users computers, easily updated since you only have to update the core server – it’s a no brainer to move everything you can over to a web based centrally managed focus for a company.

Why can’t you extend it though?

Most of the web application companies MAY ALLOW YOU to go as far as put your company logo in the interface.  Allowing you to brand a product to some extent is not the same as extending the product.  I don’t want color changes.  I don’t want a simple image swap.  I want feature sets being implemented without waiting 18 months to have it done.  If you have a robust CRM application, in this modern time wouldn’t you want a spot to add a LinkedIn Profile section?  This would be as easy as allowing customers custom fields that they can rename on the back-end.   What about adding an image?  This would be a bit more difficult then a simple custom field, but still possible doable.  How about however a full blow plugin that looks up the LinkedIn contact info.

This is all hypothetical, but let’s say this is how the plugin would work in generic CRM system.

1.  User logged into the CRM would associate their own – or a corporation profile with Linkedin

2.  User plugins in new contacts e-mail address

3. User is prompted with “Would You Like to Request Connection on Linkedin?”

4.  If users states yes the plugin would go into a state of “Waiting for Remote User to Confirm”

5.  At this point the user could add in all the information they normally would in the CRM database

6.  Later the user would receive an confirmation (or decline) of linking up in LinkedIn

7. If the receive a confirmation they could then pull in the information to the CRM application.

8.  Then the CRM application would have connections and how they relate to each other in their database, home pages, Resumes, etc. – all from a couple clicks.

That is a scenario that would appeal to sales personnel.   Let’s look at something more urbane, a library look up system. A library lookup system is something very simple  and single tasked.  It works well and returns (normally) the following information:

• Title
• Author
• Subject
• Location
• If it’s in or checked out
• Sometimes a Summary
• Sometimes an Image

Now let’s look at methods we can use to extend this functionality.  The first thing I would make sure is there a public internet accessible site where either the general public, or the Library chooses just card members can access.  Library users are normally people that live in the same town and there are a good number of them that know each others.  What does that buy you?  Word of mouth.  What about a a secondary revenue stream outside of donations or overdue fines?  How can you leverage more people to show up at your fund raising drives?  I’m assuming these are question that library officials ask themselves.   How can we turn that simple search to find a book into something more?

Let’s give the users an option to use the search page as a social platform.  I would give the a users a choice of using the old style simple search functions, but also give them a chance to leverage the public you are serving to work with you instead of you working for them.

Let’s go over an imaginary social library platform.

1.  User opens up a search window into the library database and enters a query.

2. User gets back the title, author, and subject – then a link that states more information (this is where a plugin would take over)

3.  On the plugin page users could get back an image of they are searching.  They also see where it is located, if it’s in or not, and more.   What about a sidebar that allows them to purchase the book/movie/CD at Amazon?  Reviews from other library patrons?  A list of who checked out which book (make this opt-in only on a per title usage – don’t compromise a users privacy).  A listing of library events where the author is signing books, giving a reading, or there is a book discussion covering these topics?

You just made something that is infinitely more “sticky” and let’s the users interact with your site on a much larger scale then previously.  They are no longer browsing alone, but in a group, with people they know from town.

All of this is possible with a platform that allows plugins.  I’m not asking for web application developers to support any plugins directly.  If a plugin breaks or crashes the core site (shame on the user that puts an untested plugin in a production environment) – the web application developer should tell the user they will not support the product with any plugins running at all.   It doesn’t mean the framework, APIs, and access shouldn’t be there.

I’m pleading with web application developers that allow the users to have self hosted servers to please build this extensiability into their products.   I can hack around another platform and get these functions, but sometimes we just want to buy a program from a vendor with support.   Currently your making us choose between function or support.   It should not be that way.  Opening up can only gain customer loyalty in the long run.

The other day I received this e-mail in my inbox:

Hi Creeva,

I would love a review of my site if you feel it would be worthwhile…

Twiggit is an automated service that lets your friends on twitter know what articles you digg. every so often we check for the last article that you voted for on digg, and update your twitter status to reflect this.  Options include the ability to only tweet the articles you submit rather than digg, pause the service at anytime, change the frequency of when to check digg, completly remove your twiggit account.

There is nothing like this in the market, we aim to bring digg and twitter closer together!

http://twiggit.org/

Any questions please let me know :-)

Jason

It took me a few days to add this onto my plate, but I did get around to signing up for the website.    At one time I attempted to crosspost all of my online activities over to twitter – this got way to spammy.  When I set it up this account I configured itto send everything I submit on Digg to crosspost over to Twitter.  Since I sometimes will go on a digg spree and digg 50 stories in a day I didn’t want all of them to show up as tweets.   Props to them for thinking about this.

To test this out I submitted a recent story I wrote onto Digg attempting to find out a title about a movie I was tracking down.   The product works as designed.  All in all there is no frills, it’s single purpose – but single purpose that works quite well.  There are other methods of doing this such as importing feeds into twitter – but while Twiggit is essentially doing this at the back end – it makes it easier for people that would be intimidated by the level of understanding that this takes.  Twiggit is something I would send over so my parents could set up (if any of them used Digg or Twitter), versus something psuedo complex that I would have ot configure for them.

On the downsides, there website shows the following image:

If you look at the bottom of the image it says it received it 2 minutes ago from Twiggit.  This acknowledgment seems to be missing from my tweet which states submitted 1 hour ago from web.  I’m assuming this is a bug.

All in all Twiggit is not something groundbreaking, but it’s deserves it’s niche.  In the era we are moving into of micro-niches it fits in quite nicely.   With all the sites that integrate with Twitter, Twitter needs to start setting up a developer API similar to Google or Flickr so we don’t actually have to give these sites our Twitter usernames and passwords.  That however is a rant for another day.

UPDATE:

Originally the title mentioned Twiggit.com – which is the parent website of twiggit.org – the application is at twiggit.org.  Unfortunately I can’t catch everywhere I crossposted this story to, but I’m editing here on the source site.

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Today while I was driving home for work and I noticed a new church sign put up on the road side in front of a country church.   The sign was one of those, change it weekly, amaze your worshippers, and make drivers think type of signs.   This week it only said “Remember, Thou Shalt Not Covet”.  Now to preface this I consider myself a liberal christian who doesn’t believe in organized religion.   I’d go more into that, but that’s a discussion for another day.   You may consider me a heathen, but I don’t consider myself one. 

Thinking about the sign though just shows my how hipocritical we are when it comes to religion.   We consider ourselves a christian nation but don’t follow it.   I think the religion needs to be seperated from the government down to removing in god we trust from the money.   More fitting for the American economy is “In Money We Trust”.   If we didn’t covet things we wouldn’t be in the housing crisis we are now.   Gas prices would not be rising.   You wouldn’t worry about sending your kid to a better private school then your neighbors do.   

Coveting advances civilization. 

I said it.  Coveting does advance civilization.   If we didn’t see things and want something better we would still be living in caves and eating random plants that hopefully grew outside.   We wouldn’t see an animal and try to kill it.  We wouldn’t build a house.  We wouldn’t drive cars.  We want these things, we covet them.   You can deny you covet things all you want, but with very small percentage of people you covet something.   I do. 

Which brings out the fact of a church having this on the sign.  A church really really wishes to grow (part of the reason I think religion is personal and shoudn’t be a group effort).   They want to grow so much they now advertise for members.   If this isn’t coveting I don’t know what is.   Because of this a church having a sign that as advertisement designed to entice people into the church stating – though shalt not covet – it’s in the extreme of hypocriticalness.  Maybe churches aren’t the sin free places some people think they are.

I’ve done the community band circuit for a year now and I’ve played with two community bands.  The one thing I have noticed is that the bands don’t really seem to be growing.  When they do grow it’s usually by an older member decides to join in the band.  The youth market seems to be completely disenfranchised.   I can understand part of that, though I declined to the join the VCMA when it was first formed due to not liking the director.   It wasn’t because I didn’t want to play, I still had the yearly Vermilion Alumni Band to play in, then I moved to Oregon.   While there I hardly ever pulled out my trumpet and when I did it was just for a half hour stint every few months.   My lips didn’t have the range or stamina they once did.   After blowing out my lip the last couple years at Alumni after moving back to Ohio, I decided I need to bring more regular playing in my life.  This led me to community band.  Since I am young(er) I have a different perspective on the band.

The first thing is that the music (at least over the summer) is extremely heavily weighted to music written before I was born.   If we play anything done after I was born it was an arrangement of a pre-existing piece.  I hear the director say things like, “we’ll play this piece because everyone will know it”.   Most of the time this is said, I neither know it, nor do I recognize the melody.  I feel attached and not a part of something I can recognize.  This is not to say that I think the old music should be ignored, no matter how much I dislike traditional marches.  I think we should play a wider variety of music that encompasses all eras.  Young people that really aren’t in to band music should have something that is recognizable to them and not just something that there parents kind of remember or their grandparents danced to on their first date.    There needs to be a mixture.   A mixture that should appeal to all those involved.

Rules I would follow to achieve this if I was choosing the music:

1.  Choose at least one movie/television theme song- preferably something recognizable to all ages.   While we are playing Moonriver in the VCMA and I adore, it is not something that the majority of under-forty crowd would recognize.  I think you would have to go to the over fifty crowd to truly appreciate and remember it.  My wife said she would forever be in love and be inspired to work harder at learning an instrument if she hears The Muppet Show Theme Song.  My personal favorite is video game theme music, something as traditional as The Legend of Zelda Theme Song or a number from the Final Fantasy series.   There is a national company that tours and just does live concerts on video game music, it sells out pretty quickly.  These types of concerts have a great deal of appeal to the under forty crowd and that should be taken into consideration.

Some TV themes I would like to hear:

• Batman the Animated Series Theme
• The Muppet Show Theme
• The A-Team Theme
• The Adam’s Family
• The Star Trek Theme
• Farscape Theme
• Benny Hill Theme
• Monty Python’s Circus Theme
• Futurama Theme
• The Incredible Hulk Theme
• Inspector Gadget Theme
• Macgyver Theme
• Mission Impossible Theme
• Quantum Leap Theme
• Bonanza Theme
• Scooby Doo Theme
• Twilight Zone Theme
• X-Files

Movie Themes I would like to hear:

• Anything by John Williams
• Anything by James Horner
• Harry Potter
• Anything large movie made in the last 20 years.

2.  Choose at least one pop arrangement – the VCMA did the Beatles and this would fit into this category.  The real problem with pop music is that so little of it actually sounds good for a concert band.   The fifties and sixties popular songs actually sound the best, though there are a few later pieces that sound quite good also.

3.  Choose one classical piece that easily recognized, so far in neither of my community bands have we tackled any classical music.  We have done some “traditional” pieces, but nothing classical.   Where is the Bach, Beethoven, or Chopin?  There is an abundance of this that has been arranged for concert bands, but the bands I belong to seem to overlook anything pre 1880 and post 1960.  Christmas music doesn’t really fall under “classical”

Out of these 3 areas community bands should be able to play one piece from each of these genre’s through out there year of performing.  I’m not saying it has to follow that one of each of these pieces get played every concert, but out the forty or so pieces I have played in both bands, they should be able to accommodate one of each of these in their play rotation.

There are other rules I would follow also.

4.  No more then 20 percent of your music can come from any decade.  If it was all arranged in the eighties, that’s fine but the melodies and original music was composed according to this guideline.   I’m not going to pick on arrangers for doing a modern arrangement of In the Mood, its swing era song.   With this rule you could also still fit in easily a whole concert and still have music written from before I was born.

5.  No more then 40% from any single genre.  Whether this is marches, swing, classical, theme music, etc., etc. – variety makes more people take notice unless you’re doing a theme concert.

6. Theme concerts (usually X-mas concerts for community bands) – In a theme concert you should play a maximum of 80% of the music that follows the theme.   One or two pieces should be reserved for something unexpected and interesting that doesn’t fit the norm of a particular theme.  Whether this is a Christmas march or a summer playing of Sleigh Ride, the unexpected brings peoples attention by breaking monotony.

7.  While conductors normally choose the music in most circumstances, there should be one or two pieces chosen by the band members themselves to work through and play.   These people are there to have fun, play something they really want to play.

8.  Encourage your members to compose or arrange something for your band to play.  This makes the music all their own and gives your band something special.

That covers my notes from music selection.   So how do you attract new members?   Other then people moving into the community or the rare person finding out about you and showing up, there is little in the means of growth.  Community bands are competing with the Internet, Social Networking, video games, hanging out with friends, going to the bar, or clubbing.   Having lived through my twenties already most of these are more fun at that age then community band.  You need to hook members while they are still young.

I’ve always played for the love of playing.  I really started when I was a sophomore in high school, by my junior year you couldn’t keep me from auditioning or volunteering to play for whatever group was available.  This alone helped me grow into a much better musician.  I used to be able to transpose music from the key of C or the Key of F in my head automatically and play along from that sheet music.   My range and stamina were much better then they are still today.   My technique today is better in a lot of ways, but I feel I was a better player in a larger scope back then.  That was after only a year of playing back then, I have some of that memory still in my head and I’m old enough to have gained wisdom.  My knowledge should have grown.   After my single year of college I stopped playing with any group outside of Alumni band.  It wasn’t out of disinterest as much as effort.   If I didn’t love playing I wouldn’t stay with the community band, there is no one in my peer group and for a large part of it it’s not really “fun”, at least not in the sense it was fun back when I was in high school.

Most players fall off because they are not engaged early enough into the community band cycle.  To give an example what non engagement with playing can do, for alumni band out of the 160 of us that went through 3 years together, only 5 showed up last year to Alumni Band, only two of us regularly play now.  That’s hovering around a 1-2% rate of a player likely to stick with their instrument after school form my personal experience.  Almost all community bands explicitly state that will accept members that are in high school with their band director’s permission.   Now while I would have gladly played with a community band when I was in high school I was not going to go up and have Mr. Henry sign a permission slip or call to ask if I could join the band.   This is a turn off.   What should happen is that community band should be actively engaging the high school and middle school band directors for members every single year.  If community band members are worried about middle schoolers, then they should make a junior community band where the regular band can show up if they so choose and the younger players can show up.

Younger players are looking for people to emulate, to try to sound like.  Having mentoring by accepting is only going to raise their skill level.   Players that show up are not getting school credit, they are not getting paid, and so why have any stipulations.   If the music is too hard for them they are not going to stick around.   If they don’t really enjoy playing and are only in the school for socialization or the fun from that they are not going to show up.   If community bands are there to make its own members better, then the younger the better, they can make the band as a whole be better.  The older players get the benefit of mild teaching and understanding of what they are doing and the younger players gain a mentor.

Once the younger players are hooked they are more likely to stick with music, since they then have a place to play after they graduate.  They will be informed about the community band and will be regular members.   If they are anything like I was they will find a great relief about having some place to play over the summer.  Older members may even make a little bit of side cash by giving lessons, even if they aren’t as good as a true instructor they could still impart wisdom and teach a student to the edge of their abilities, at which point the student could move onto someone else. My high school self could play rings around my present self. I think community bands under estimate the skill levels of these players.

Is there a strong future for community bands?  It depends.   The older generations need to realize that playing in band is not “cool” at least not until your in your thirties, and I still get the occasional snicker about it – I just don’t care.  A community band is considered a tired thing by the younger generation who would prefer most of their live music to contain electric guitars.  The ability to evolve and bring new members in is essential for most community bands to last another twenty years.   Showing players it can be fun by playing music they can identify with and accepting them as peers within their membership.  You could still have a stipulation where the younger members couldn’t vote in elections, I’m sure you wouldn’t want your board run by four sixteen year olds – but having one of them in a position with a voice may give you greater possibilities then someone like me who is already twice that age and out of touch.

I’ve gotten the VCMA website in a stable place.  I can quickly edit it and make changes, so before any radical redesigns I’m now working on moving them over to Google Apps for internal paperwork.  I plan in the near future signing the VCMA up for a Myspace page and a Facebook account.  People in the younger peer group will be able to see it as an organization to identify with.  The older members need to realize why they started a community to begin with, which includes – hanging out with friends, playing for people, becoming better musicians, and having fun.  None of what I have written breaks any of that.  It may take them a little bit out of their comfort zone, but the mantra of business these days is to embrace and extend.   Growth happens once some of these things are followed.  If the bands I play with don’t start embracing this I’m not sure they will last another twenty years and things will get shaky in another ten.   Growth has not continued, but rather it has stagnated, unless there is something done to counter-act this, the downward trend will continue.

In my band I’m still considered just a kid, though my father had his fourth child by my age.   I’m too young to them to be anything but a kid so what do I know.  I’m too old for any of the young people to truly listen to me, plus I’m over thirty so I’m to young to be trusted.  If we go by Cory Doctorow’s book Little Brother – they don’t trust anyone over 22.   Somehow I’m stuck in the adult version of the tweens.  So no one will truly pay attention, but that doesn’t mean this shouldn’t be said.

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]]> http://creeva.com/2008/08/23/is-there-a-strong-future-for-community-bands/feed/ 7 http://creeva.com/2008/08/19/my-obsession-with-capes/ http://creeva.com/2008/08/19/my-obsession-with-capes/#comments Tue, 19 Aug 2008 23:53:55 +0000 Creeva http://creeva.com/?p=3082

When I was young I loved capes.   I don’t know why.   The first cape I can remember (I’m sure there were predecessors) was one I had at my grandmother’s house.   It was dark blue with red trim.  I did the normal pretend I was Batman or Superman routines, but I just like wearing it.  I don’t know why.

Following that for years I had inferior capes, normally the halloween vinyl capes.  I hated those capes.  They would tear within an hour and most the time you were left with the collar and no cape.    Then I finally made it to working at the haunted school house (picture above though the cape is somehow behind my back enoguh you can’t see it).   I designed a character named “Vlad”  who I played off an on for 3 years – note the costume all put together probably ran me 400.00.

Since I stopped working at the school house I’ve only pulled out that cape on a couple occasions.   I still have it and it’s in the closet.   Maybe sometimes I dance around naked only wrapped in my cape…..wouldn’t you like to know.

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The other day I ran across a corporate link site that had a link on it that said “linking”.  It had a form you could fill out to be “authorized” to link to their site.   How retarded is that.  In this day and age where the meta and meat (same letters, HA!) of a web page is included in how many links, who links, and how your page is found, that someone would actually have this as their policy.

I understand deep linking, and why that could be wrong in some circumstances ( I don’t believe it’s wrong but I understand the logic) – the logic is completely lost on me for a site that is neither salling anything directly on their site and has no advertising.  You are not robbing them of anything.  Maybe you won’t see the “experience” they had planned for you, but that’s poor design on their part.  I shouldn’t go to a random website for an “experience”, I want the information plain and simple.   I don’t want your over the top flash animation that I look furtively around the screen hoping to skip through.  Heck if they have a flash intro page I normally won’t stick around.   If they have the choice between a high bandwidth or low bandwidth version (which in and of itself screams that you stopped learning good design 10 years ago), I always opt for the low bandwidth version.

Just a rant.

Get with the times people.

P.S. I’ll just link to you anyways cause I’m evil like that.

It seems that hi5 doesn’t use the same friend finding connections method that other sites do.   Because of this I accidently spammed over 700 invites to people that I know personal and professional.  I’m not going to send out another e-mail as a retraction.  It still is a pain in the ass.

Normal social network searches your contacts list and finds people that you know already on the service.  This is all fine and dandy.   Then when you click ok it then lists your friends not on the service and wants to know if you want to invite them.  At this point on all other services I click no.   Hi5 however hid what is normally the second page option down at the bottom of the screen and then proceeded to spam everyone on my contacts list.

I feel like an idiot – but live and learn.

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I thought the teens and pre-teens were the sounding board for tomorrows technology.   Well this isn’t always the case.   I previously mentioned talking with my brother over the weekend.   Well there is more to it then just the security post that came out of it.   He complained that he wasn’t getting confirmation e-mails for some of the web services he was using and he thought they may be getting caught by his spam filter.   I asked him which e-mail provider he was using.  He’s using his ISP…………..

I may be 32, but I have two brothers that are twins that are thirteen years old.   They have the fear of sharing their name online and everything else they will get over as they get older (or become completely paranoid and withdraw from the Internet entirely by the time they are 20).   They don’t however use web based e-mail.  I understand that they should be showing me what is new and interesting, so I expected Myspace or some such service for sending e-mails to friends.  Well they don’t, but part of that is that my 26 year old brother who sets up the web filtering for my dad frowns upon Myspace for that age group because of worrying about pedophiles I suppose (though a child is 99.9 more likely to be molested by a relative or immediate friend of the family instead of being attacked by an online predator).   My father and step-mother aren’t too hot on it either – they believe in the sunshine and dirt makes strong boys.   I’m more of the give me a book and a bed to lay on, or a laptop and a Gameboy with a bed to lay on type of guy.

They don’t however use web based e-mail – I haven’t used a strictly POP3 mail solution since college – so 14 years of using web based e-mail.  With the exception of corporate mail I can’t understand using it any other way.   Spam control is easier, you can access your e-mail from anywhere, you can archive your mail online without ever losing anything.  I started a series about computing in the clouds and even did one subject on web based e-mail.  The generation that comes after us (and the age difference is pretty much a generation) should have a more refined method of handling data.   It’s seems they choose to hamstring themselves then to learn and be more interactive.   That is not the case.

I have a sister that is pretty much from the mind set of using the computer as a utility or appliance.   It’s something that’s only slightly more interactive then a game system or television set.   I understand that mentality.   I figured however it was something that would end with my generation.  It seems not, the next generation at least in my family is not grasping and making tech work for them they are working for their technology.  What I mean by that is they put more effort into the computer then they need to, the computer should be a tool to make things faster and easier.   Not using it to the fullest extent you can and streamlining what you do is almost a shame.

My 26 year old brother and myself when we had our own computers kept pushing the line and seeing what we can do next.  He was twelve/thirteen when I went to college and he was running his own BBS.   He went the design and programming route.  I went the security and architecture route.   Both of us are very good at what we do in our own fields – at least we think so.  Though we have very little overlap since both of us view the other person as focusing on the wrong things.  The thirteen year olds don’t have the same in depth interaction with their computers.   Maybe this is a problem with growing up with computers their whole lives.   It’s not viewed with the same regard as it was for me and my next youngest brother.

It does give me some slight hope that the current twenty something and young thirty somethings are the height of the internet users while the rest of them stagnate and fully pushed the line.   But the youngest brothers have a few years to catch up and may do something with it yet, so I can’t fully discount them until the future arrives.

Now if they are reading this – go get a Gmail address and learn how to use it.   My father-in-law and mother-in-law have even moved to Gmail and it only took them a few minutes to learn it.