Daniel M. Clark
Daniel is a writer, designer and affiliate marketer. His experience with the Print on Demand industry led to the publication of Success With CafePress.com in 2006 and his sense of humor is bringing about The Big Book of Spam in 2008. Some of his designs can be found at Hectic Studios, and his excellent Review Builders system helps affiliate marketers promote their favorite items.
I want a computer that is moist like cake… wait, what?
I just watched the new Microsoft ad featuring Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld buying shoes. Submitted for your approval (or mocking):
A computer that’s moist like cake so you can eat it? What the hell? I understand the goal here is to get people talking about Windows, but it’s not working. People aren’t talking about Windows, they’re talking about the commercial. Google it, you’ll see what I mean. While there is some truth to the notion that there is no such thing as bad publicity, this commercial isn’t going to make anyone respect Microsoft, Windows, Bill Gates or Jerry Seinfeld any more or less than they already do. To me, that’s what makes this commercial a failure.
Is Star Wars Over?
It is for me - at least for the Prequel Era stuff. Now, I’m 33 years old. I grew up on Star Wars, and thanks to the novels of the 1990’s and 2000’s, I’ve enjoyed a lot of stories set in the galaxy far, far away. In fact, there are a few novels that I consider superior to even the original trilogy - Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn trilogy comes to mind, as does the Jedi Academy trilogy by Kevin J. Anderson and most of the books in the very long New Jedi Order series. These novels stand up well against the original movie trilogy.
I’m a big fan of the original movie trilogy, so it should be no surprise that I find the prequel trilogy lacking in a lot of ways. Star Wars fans tend to go one way or the other. I don’t think the prequels are completely worthless; there are redeeming qualities in all three flicks.
Southwest Airlines FTW!
I had quite a pleasant experience with Southwest Airlines today, and since it’s understandably rare that people post anything nice about the airline industry these days, I figured I’d share this.
Earlier this morning I booked a flight to San Diego for a trip coming up next month. I used Southwest’s “Ding” service to get a pair of killer rates - $139 non-stop each way. Each flight was booked separately as a one-way trip, which explains the low fare and the screw-up I’ll be explaining momentarily. Other airlines I had looked at started at $300 round trip with stops.
I booked the flight out to San Diego first, and all was well. I double-checked the dates and times, and everything was correct. I then booked the flight home from San Diego, but I didn’t double-check my work. It was two hours later, when I was telling my wife that I’d made the reservations, that I discovered that I’d made a mistake. She asked what time my flight was, and I didn’t remember exactly, so I looked up my confirmation email and realized I’d booked for September 24th.
Don’t ask me how that happened.
Well, I called up Southwest, and figured I’d be on the phone for the next hour. I shouldn’t have worried - a representative picked up in less than a minute. I explained my situation, and the representative suggested that the easiest thing to do would be to simply cancel the reservation and re-book it, rather than try to finagle the system into accepting a date change on an internet-only fare. At that point, I figured they’d hit me for a $25 cancellation fee or something. Nope! No fee, he said. I hung up the phone praising Southwest - but I wasn’t done yet. My wife pointed out that sometimes, when you cancel a reservation, they don’t refund your money, they give you travel credits. I called Southwest back and re-explained the situation to a new representative (again, after picking up in under a minute). She was friendly and helpful, and quickly looked up the confirmation number and told me that the full amount had been refunded to my credit card.
I went back online after thanking her, and booked the correct flight home from San Diego - and double checked my work before hitting that Submit button.
Southwest Airlines earned my respect today.
I’m Not Always Online
I spend a lot of time online. I wake up daily between seven and eight, and I’m usually at sitting on the couch with my MacBook Pro within 30 minutes. During the day, I alternate between work and playing with Winter (who is super interesting these days, having hit the 3 year old mark). In the evenings, my wife is usually putting Winter to bed while I’m online. On the occasions when Angela doesn’t come back downstairs because she’s fallen asleep with Winter, I’m online until after midnight.
On average, I’d estimate I’m online anywhere from nine, maybe ten hours to about twelve, maybe thirteen hours a day. Some may say that’s excessive, but when your business is online, you naturally spend a lot of time online.
I’m writing this from 30,000 feet in the air, on a Southwest Airlines flight. I’ve got the MBP working for me, and my iPod is playing Angels & Airwaves (say what you will, I like ‘em). I fired up the notebook because now that The Big Book of Spam, Volume One: Subject Lines has been published, it’s time for me to get back to work on my other projects. That means scheduling updates for Artistic Opinions, Modest Opinions, The Big Book of Spam and this site - not to mention I’ve got other projects that need some love, too.
I wrote all that so I could write this:
Last year I installed a program called iGTD, a task manager. The premise is simple enough - define projects (each of my sites would be a project), then schedule tasks that need to be completed for each project. I can’t figure out how to make a task repeat weekly. Here’s where things break down.
I’m on a plane at 30,000 feet. I’m trying to use a new program, one that, although I installed it last year, I’m just now getting around to trying out. I’m not online.
The help files are.
Software developers: there is no excuse for not including your help files with the application. None. Your customers aren’t always online. I know, I know, there’s a big push to have everything online - Google, Microsoft and a host of others would love to have consumers own machines that are little more than dumb terminals in their always-connected homes. That’s not reality - and I’m not picking on iGTD here, which looks to be a great little app that will be quite useful to me - presuming I can access the help files eventually.
Put the help files on my local machine, dammit.
The Big Book of Spam
A wonderful tome has just been published - a book that will change the world.
A book that will unite nations.
A book that will cure ills.
A book that will rule the earth.
You know how Batman’s arch-enemy the Joker makes people laugh so hard that it kills them? It’s like that.
It’s a book about spam email. I wrote it. Go check it out.
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