What Chu Talkin' About Willis?

I don't think I am going to post today. How do you like that?

What do you want to know about? Just ask Big Pappa. Let me know what's on your mind and I will answer it. We will call it Big Pappa's Q&A. Didn't you know, I know everything there is to know about everything?

 

McDonalds Had To Close?

Well not all of them but the one I went to this morning did. This morning I realized that our dependence on technology may be out of control.

On my way into the office, I decided to make a stop at my local McD's and grab a sausage biscuit, minus egg of course due to my allergy to eggs (but that's a different story). Anyway, I sat in the drive through waiting for someone to speak to me from the little brown post but no one ever came. I waited, what I considered a significant amount of time (about a minute) and decided to drive up to the window to see what the highly trained McStaff was engaged in. They were all huddled together behind the counter looking at the register with a "what do we do" look on their faces.

Just then, they all raised their heads in relief and noticed that I was parked outside the magic food window staring in at them. One of the employees came and opened the window. I said "no one would talk to me at the post." She replied, "yes I know, we have been closed for the last couple of hours. Our computers went down."

Me (in astonishment) - "Your computers went down so you had to cease business operation until you could restart them?

Her (indignant) - "Yup"

Fortunately I was able to place my order as the system had just been returned to normal working condition. But Seriously, how did people order a burger, fries and a Coke before computers. It must not have been possible right? This was the message I gleaned from the McKids today.

Instead of serving customers and WRITING down the order and either giving the paper to the cooks OR just hollering at the meat jockeys, cafe style, they chose to shut the entire place down. Maybe there is some kind of McPolicy that I don't know about or some protocol that dictates that they shut down. God forbid you have to add the total of the check with out the use of a calculator or a cash register. There are plenty of restaurants that still use the paper, handwritten checks out there. Granted, not many, but they do exist.

I am not to sure what to make of all this. Today I witnessed 2 things. Dependence on technology and the younger generation's inability to adapt to anything other outside the strict confines of their current skill set.

Where are we headed in the future? Are we doomed? Your thoughts?

 

Hacking For Dummies

This post is being guest blogged by
computer engineer and published
author Steve Clark.

An interview with a pair of well-known security researchers uncovered an extraordinary view of the ecosystem that supports the phishing effort that plagues modern day financial institutions and their customers.

http://www.net-security.org/article.php?id=1110&p=1

"The reality is pre-made, ready-to-deploy, turnkey sites are already created for practically every major organization that you can think of.
All a phisher has to do is purchase the latest kit and deploy, no technical expertise or coding skills are really required. All the phisher typically has to do is place their email address into one line of code and they have a ready to deploy phishing site."

Once the 'turnkey' code has been modified with the correct email address, the whole site is simply uploaded to a compromised host on the internet.

Users receive an email that looks like it comes from a well known company (paypal.com for example) requesting the user to update their account status or whatever. Instead of going to the real website, the link leads them to the compromised website (which looks identical to the real one due to the turnkey phishing software that has become readily available), and are tricked into entering their account info which then gets emailed back to the hacker.

There are other ways to trick people going to the phishing sites that do not even involve sending emails, such as modifying the user's 'host' file located in C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc. This is a fairly easy hack is possible to do through back doors or vulnerabilities in many peer-to-peer file sharing programs (used for sharing mp3's and avi's). Still other methods involve monitoring the user's internet port itself and intercepting and bypassing a user's DNS queries - what's known as a 'man-in-the-middle' type of attack.

The good news is that there are ways to protect yourself. Microsoft has even started adding support for phishing attacks in its latest internet explorer version 7.0.

Microsoft Phishing Filter

It is alarming to me the ease and relative lack of computer skill that is needed to create one of these phishing websites - as well as how hackers are trading around our 'private' information like some kind of commodity.

I guess the bottom line is be careful of where you are going on the internet, it might not be where you think you're going!

Thanks for the information Steve!

 

"What I Found In My Email" Mondays. Vol.2 - Issue 4

Well here we are again. Another sublime experience that we are calling "what I found in my email" Mondays.

Here is a series of pictures that are simply incredible. Apparently, the Chinese don't have many beaches. Either that or there is just a LOT of people that are going to this one beach. Regardless of the situation, I don't think any of us can complain about the beach being crowded again.





















And here's the capper! Look at all those people. Literally as far as the eye can see. I am pretty sure this isn't Photoshopped.



So there you have it. The next time someone sits too close to you on the beach, be thankful that you are not in China. First it was Chinese censorship and now, crowded beaches. Aren't you glad you live in the good ol' US of A?

Have a great week everyone.

If you like the posts you see here on The Big Bald Blog, make sure you subscribe to the full feed so you don't miss a thing. Or, if you like, you can have updates delivered by email.

 

Stupid Panera Lids.

Last night I made a quick stop at Panera on my way home. I grabbed a Smokehouse Turkey sandwich and one of those frozen coffee/caramel concoctions with the whipped cream on the top. Yeah I know it's high in calories but hey, I was weak.

Anyway, the dome shaped lid that they put on the cup has a hole at the top for the HUGE straws they use. Have you ever seen those straws they have there? Seriously, I think you could fit a dime down it. The dime may not touch the sides on it's way through. Gigantic straws aside, when the gal put the lid on that little brown cup of love, it "squished" caramel and whipped cream out the hole and on the exterior of the straw.

I left the store and got in my truck. By the time I made it to the truck, the whipped cream/caramel slurry had begun to run down the side of the dome shaped lid. I ask you. What would you do is this situation? Of course, you lick if off.

Now it probably wasn't your ordinary lick. I think I may have been really working the sides of the gigantic straw and the edges of the hole with my tongue. I mean I was into it. I must have been really carried away to have not noticed the two girls walking very slowly and staring at me through the windshield. As I finished and went to start the truck, I made eye contact with my 2 fans. To my shock, they both looked at me in complete disgust, rolled their eyes and made for the door.

Looking back I realized how that must have looked. Ladies, if by some strange twist of fate, you are reading this blog, I apologize for that display. I really am a nice guy. Oh and thanks for not taking a video of it.

 

The Sears Story

I have been seeing a LOT of articles online about how terrible the customer service is at BestBuy and Sears. I had an ever so small outburst about Sears' customer service in a post about purchasing from local businesses. In the comments section, Al wanted to hear more about the "Sears Incident."

Without further adieu, I give you The Sears Story.

I am going to try and condense this down as much as possible. A few years back, I decided I needed a new vacuum. Because of that need, I went to Sears and after some brief discussion with the sales person about the various models and the FAB's of each one, we settled on a Kenmore vacuum, we will call it vacuum model POS V1. This vacuum lasts about 2 years before it stopped working. Out of warranty, we figured it was just a cheap vacuum. I believe it was only about $200. Please understand that I am not using it as a shop vac or processing gravel with it. Normal household vacuuming is all it is used for. I liked the vacuum well enough and so I decided to get another one just like it. I thought a vacuum should last for more that 2 years but hey, what do I know.

So we (my wife and I) go back to Sears and purchased the same thing. 6 months into the vacuum (model POS V2), it starts shutting down after about 10 min. of vacuuming. I waited another 5.99999999 months to take it in. It was simply to low on my priority list. By the time the repair center (somewhere in BFE) actually gets the unit, it is 2 days out of warranty. (They stopped doing local repairs quite some time ago.) They said that they can't fix it under warranty and it will cost $135.00.

Hold on a minute there cowboy. I said, "When I brought it into the store it was still under warranty." Apparently THAT didn't matter. It matters when they go to make the repair. But here is the kicker. As I was talking with the manager's manager, he was reading the notes out loud on the phone to me and said that they can't get it to duplicate the problem. (Keep this in mind for later)

Come to find out that they had already put a new motor in it and were trying to sell it to me before they were going to ship it back. This was before I found out that the tech wrote a note about not being able to find the problem. After calmly talking to the service center's manager's manager it became apparent that they weren't going to do anything for me under warranty. In a fit of rage, I told them to put the old (expletive deleted) motor back in and ship the (expletive deleted) thing back to me. And in a very unkind manner I explained to them that they would never get another dime of my money again.

The next week I get an automated phone call on my answering machine saying that I have a "repaired" product ready for pickup. Repaired?!?! Oh yes, the story gets better. Not only is the vacuum NOT repaired it is in a worse state than when I sent it in. The vacuum comes back and it has another motor in it that doesn't even work. So now, I can't even use it at all. Remember before it would at least run for 10 minutes and then shut off, but now, NOTHING.

Keep in mind this was a time consuming ordeal for me that lasted about a 2 weeks. I WAS going to go back around with them, simply on a matter of principle, but I then realized that MY time is worth more than the entire Sears service department. Pick your battles, I guess.

Here's what I ended up doing. I just decided to take them BOTH (models POS V1 & V2) to the Sears vacuum department and drop them off. The manager came out and asked what the problem was and I replied, "No problem at all, here are the 2 junk vacuums (obviously in like new condition) that I bought from you and you can have them back. This has been a valuable learning experience for me. I will never buy anything from this store or your company again." I walked out with them all staring at me in silence. Not the justice that I was looking for but it made me feel good I guess. Word of warning. DO NOT buy ANYTHING from SEARS. They SUCK. Thats right, SEARS SUCKS. (linkbait)

So why didn't I go back and do a second round of battle? Because I now tell everyone I know about how Sears customer service sucks and that they should NEVER buy anything from Sears unless it is a Craftsman hand tool. AND I have this platform to spread the message.

On a side note, I don't get real excited about vacuums but I have to tell you that I AM excited about the vacuum I have now. I have a Dyson. This piece of machinery is an amazing work of technological art. I have never had nor seen a vacuum perform like the Dyson. If you have the means, I HIGHLY recommend that you pick one up.

Ok this LONG post is done. If you made it this far, thanks. Let me know about your experiences.

 

Android Part 2.

The post is guest blogged by the
Android Guys and is providing a
brief overview of what the new
Android is all about. This post is
part 2 of 2 in what we are calling
the Android series.

Hey everyone this is Scott again from AndroidGuys, doing a little guest blogging thanks to Big Pappa!

If you currently own a cell phone or plan to in the future, Android will probably play a part in your experience. Google created Android with 33 other companies called the Open Handset Alliance. Essentially what they are doing is taking control away from cellular providers and giving it to the consumers. By providing less restriction, you will be able to do more with your phone than ever before without barriers getting in your way.

About The Android Guys:

While there may be a handful of excellent tech/mobile/gadget sites out there with thousands of readers, we found that nobody was covering Android specifically. We created the site as a project between a few friends who wanted to post our own daily findings about Android. As a community blog, we wanted to avoid the constant "Hey, did you see Google is doing this…?" situations. We intended to direct our friends there whenever they were asking questions. We realized very quickly that nobody else was doing this on any level, so we took it from our secret site to a larger audience. We've seen our traffic grow leaps and bounds in just over 10 weeks. Daily posts of facts, rumors, and opinion is what our readers have come to expect.We cull information together from a variety of news sources and report on what we feel is the most relevant. We also write our own opinion pieces every few days about anything related to the mobile industry in general.

I watched a few weeks back as an iPod Touch was given away here and was very excited to see the level of participation that the blogging community had. So excited in fact, that we decided to throw our own contest for our Entrecard brothers and sisters. Although we aren't giving away actual hardware or devices, we figured we pay tribute to what got us here in the first place. Entrecard credits!



We are throwing a contest through the end of January where you can win 250, 500, or 1,000 credits just for dropping your card off at our site!

As a way of thanking our loyal visitors, and as a way of roping in some new traffic, AndroidGuys is pleased to announce our inaugural contest! In what is sure to the be the first in a long line of giveaways, we are gonna throw a contest for our fans! So what exactly are the prizes? Read on!

First place is 1000 EntreCard Credits!
Second place wins 500 Credits!
Third place wins 250 Credits!

We're going to draw the winners names on February 1st at midnight so you have two weeks to get your entries in.

There are plenty of ways to gain an entry into the contest.

1 entry for commenting in this post.
1 entry for dropping your Entrecard off
3 entries for subscribing to our feed via email.
10 entries for writing a blurb about our contest.
20 entries for placing our 125px ad on your site until the contest is over.
50 entries for placing this into your site until the contest is over. (be sure to link back to the post !)

There is no limit to the number of times you can drop your card off!

Good luck! Enter as often and in as many ways as you'd like. If you link to us or host our ad, email us at androidguys@gmail.com so we know about it!

Remember, the deadline to enter is midnight February 1st at midnight. Winners will be announced the next day!

 

It's No T-800, Model 101, But It Will Do.

The post is guest blogged by the
Android Guys and is providing a
brief overview of what the new
Android is all about. This post is
part 1 of 2 in what we shall call
the Android series.


Android is the open source operating system that will be implemented into handsets and mobile devices starting second half of 2008. Being 'open' allows developers to create unique mobile applications that can take advantage of all a handset has to offer. For example, any of the phone's main functionality such as making calls, sending text messages, or using the camera can be changed or tweaked in any way imaginable.

Android is built on the open Linux Kernel which is becoming more popular on PC's all the time. It will run faster and use less memory resources than the other OS's out there. As new technologies and capabilities emerge, Android will be easily adaptable and able to incorporate them.

The beauty of open source is that all applications are created equal. There is no way to differentiate between a core application and a third party one. With devices built on the Android Platform, users will be able to tailor the phone to their liking. Change the phone's home screen, the style of the phone dialer, or any of the programs. They can even instruct their phones to use their favorite photo viewing application to handle the viewing of all photos. With a free, open source platform to work with, Johnny down the street can create a program with as much power or capability as the big software houses we've become accustomed to giving our money to.

Developers can combine information from the internet with data on your mobile phone like your contacts, calendar, or geographic location -- to provide a more relevant user experience. Some of the possibilities include finding the location of people and places based on proximity to them. Imagine driving down the highway and your phone automatically tells you the price of unleaded gas at the next exit. How about a promo that pops up to save $5 on your pizza if you mention the code when you go in? As GPS gets cheaper and incorporated into devices, location based services will emerge as one of the leading reasons to purchase a smart phone. Android is the open source project that will enhance your user experience.

Tune in tomorrow for part II.

 

"What I Found In My Email" Mondays. Vol.2 - Issue 3

Welcome to another edition of "what I found in my email"Monday. Today we are celebrating the art of being a man. A complex process which takes years of frivolous spending and unnecessary modification to seemingly ordinary products converting them into something extraordinary.

Take a look at the first picture below. See that little temperature guage? Know what its for? It's not what you think it is for.







Pictured below is the result of time well spent. Some may ask why? Others will respond with, "AWESOME!" Either way this is an innovative and stupendous exhibit of why we call ourselves man. The glory of this device will render future generations speechless and contribute to an overwhelming sense of awe by those who witness it's glory.






Yes ladies and gentlemen it's a grill. But no ordinary grill. A grill by which all others are judged.

Now the only thing you need is an insert for your trailer hitch so you can take it to the races and tailgate.

Kudos to the fabricator on a job well done.

What say you?

On a side note feel free to shoot me an email with non-copyrighted and interesting images that you would like to see featured in "What I found in my email" Mondays. I would prefer pictures that you took yourself, not something that has been recycled on the internet a hundred times. Send the good stuff to The Big Bald Blog at ImpactMT dot com.

 

Is This For Real?

I "Stumbled Upon" this the other day. I mean seriously is this for real? Can someone shed some light on this for me? Is this a Photoshop job or something?

 

Very Cool!

This is great!



For those of you who are just joining us, Dave, the owner of MaleWail won the grand prize package from the contest that we recently ran.

Dave is now fully "Big Pappa-fied." Thanks for the love! You can check out his post here.

Stay tuned, I have another contest coming up in the next month or so. It is going to take some time to put it together but it is going to be extremely entertaining. It's going to be the grand daddy of all contests, I assure you.

 

What Did You Just Say?

I got a call today from a magazine trying to sell me a "no obligation, cancel at any time" subscription. According to the sales rep, the magazine focused on specialized SEO, SEM and web marketing.

I said, "Sure, I will take a look at it, but I want to take a look at your website first."

She said, "Oh, uhhh... well, we don't have a website."

My Response - "So let me get this straight, you have a publication about website marketing, search engine marketing and SEO and you DON'T have a website?"

((click)) The line goes dead.

Yes that's right, I got a circa 1988 telemarketing call peddling a subscription to a magazine and they hung up on me when I questioned them. Nice. I wonder what kind of scam they were running?

This reminds me of a of the girl who tried to scam money out of me in front of Target right before Christmas. A young and inexperienced panhandler came up to me and said that she was collecting money for a mission trip for her church.

Me - "Oh really, what church?"
Her - "The baptist one."
Me - "Which one."
Again she said, "The baptist one."
Me - "Yeah, I heard you, but which one"
Her - "The Kingdom Hall over on um...uhhh..."
Me - "The Kingdom Hall is a Jehovah Witness church"
Her - "Uhhh...well...uhhh...I wish my sister was here she knows more than I do."
Me - "No thank you, I have to go now"

As she walked away I got in my truck and watched her try and hit up someone else coming out of the store.

The moral of the story. If you are going to try and scam someone, at least have your story straight or make sure you have a website. :)

I can already hear it, some of you are going to say, "But Big Pops, your website has been down/under construction a LOOONG time." To you I say, HA. No longer will The Big Bald Blog be alone on Impactmt.com.

It is a glorious day here in Big Pappa Land. We are in the final stages of getting it ready to go live, FINALLY. I think that it should be live here in the next week or so. So again I say, HA.

Have you ever been scammed or has anyone attempted to scam you? Let's hear the story.

Have a great weekend everyone!

 

A Branded Response

Here's a response that I received to this article that I posted a while back. This came from a certain Klay DeVries who offered up his opinion on the situation. For some reason I want to keep calling him Kyle Gass, maybe because I just watched The Pick of Destiny. Anyway, back to the serious stuff.

Here's what Klay had to say on the subject:

"First off, if an organization (nonprofit or otherwise) chooses to work with a firm that limits its branding work to designing logos and implementing graphic standards, that organization deserves the tyranny of navel-gazing and knuckle-rapping they'll likely experience.

Brands are obviously much more than how they're expressed visually. Brooks suggests that a brand is "who you are and what you do — as perceived by the public," and I think he's basically right. In its simplest form, a brand is a perceived promise. It defines for the individual what he/she expects to get out of his/her relationship with the brand in every aspect of that relationship: shopping experiences (in store, online and/or over the phone), product quality and value, customer service, corporate and customer communications, solicitations and advertising, etc. The more consistently and positively the promise is conveyed and experienced at every touch point, the stronger the brand is and the more equity it can build.

Brand identity systems can be very effective in helping to build brands, but not when they're nothing more than byproducts of a design exercise. They have to grow out of real understanding of and insight into an organization's customers' desires, its competitors' offerings, and its own values, personality, and — yes — aspirations. Let's not forget that before Nike or Target — universally acknowledged super brands — were established, respected, and loved by their customers, almost nobody felt cool or validated by lacing up a pair of "running shoes" or buying "cheap chic" or shopping at an "upscale discount" store. Those categories didn't exist in the minds of a broad cross-section of consumers until these organizations *created* niches their brands could define and own and to which prospective customers (and competitors) could aspire. The visual aspects of those organizations' brand platforms are still relevant and vital to their success, and they were essential to helping Target and Nike leapfrog their competitors when other elements of those brands (products, Web sites, customer service policies, store designs, etc.) weren't as visible or strong.

Finally, I think Brooks' rationale as to why donors give — which also speaks volumes as to why customers buy — is spot on. It really sums up the whole brand discussion. (My additions to his comments below are in [brackets].)

"Your donors [customers] give [buy] because of what giving [buying] means to them. How it gives them personal significance. How it fills their hearts with joy, or eases their conscience. How it changes the world in ways they care about. What it says about them — to themselves or to others.

"That’s what your brand must articulate: What about your organization feeds donors’ [customers'] needs? What is it about supporting [buying from] you that makes them feel proud, or fulfilled, or cool, or validated?"

So there it is, branding in a nutshell. A great brand answers a fundamental, universally asked question — "What's in it for me?" — the way a donor/consumer wants it answered, and it does so at every opportunity, every touch point. A great brand always keeps its promise. Organizations have to realize that while they own and are the stewards of their brands, their branding work has to be externally focused. Branding is not about the organization for the organization's sake. For a nonprofit it's about fulfilling on promises to donors and others who fund the mission, without whom there would be no opportunity to serve constituencies, For for-profit entities it's about fulfilling on promises to customers to whom the organization wants and needs to "sell more stuff more often at higher prices [margins] so the company makes more money."

Thanks for the response Klay! Any other input?

 

My Own Personal Goal With Barbados

One of the many blogs that I read is Joe Tech. It is pretty entertaining and well written blog that does a good job of keeping my attention which is not easily done. Many of you may or may not know but he has a sister blog called Link Bait Me. Yesterday Joe wrote about a personal challenge he has with increasing his traffic ranking in New Zealand. It seems that he gets quite a bit of traffic from New Zealanders and wants to get his traffic ranking above 500.

I thought that was pretty odd. Why is he getting so much traffic from such an obscure place. Then I looked at my own rankings in different countries and here is what I found.

Barbados - 3,359

Jamaica - 6,883

New Zealand - 8,053

United States - 10,745

Australia - 11,019

Norway - 11,644

Pakistan- 12,289 (wow the Paki's even love me)

United Kingdom - 15,492

Canada - 18,403

Indonesia - 25,209

I am highest rated in Barbados! Now, the 3,359 ranking probably isn't saying much as Barbados probably doesn't have many sites or much internet traffic. Heck I didn't even know where Barbados was until I looked at a map.



So there it is, the Eastern most island in the Caribbean island chain.

The economy in Barbados has traditionally centered around sugarcane. However in recent decades, the tourism trade has been a major factor for the country and is responsible for almost 50% of the country's income. So what's the point? The point is that I am going to try and break into the top 3000 for Barbados. Why? Just to see if I can do it. Everyone has to have goals right?

How am I going to do that? Linkbait as Joe suggests. I will try a couple of things in the next few weeks to see if I can crack the 3000 mark and report back to you at the end of the month.

Please make sure you seat backs and tray tables are in their upright positions - we are heading for Barbados!

 

Why Did I Get Hacked?

I didn't get hacked, I was just posing that as a hypothetical.

Most of you are familiar with the story behind David Airey's domain/site hijacking. To recap, some enterprising individual hacked his way into David's Gmail account through some exploit and proceeded to transfer away his domain and then hold it hostage. Thanks to the intervention of Bob Parsons, CEO of GoDaddy, David was able to get his domain back from the offending party.

With that groundwork laid, what are you to do to protect your domain? Making sure your little piece of the web is safe is something that most of us take for granted. I know I sure do. Even as I sit here and look at this list of things to do, I am realizing that I am doing a few things that you are NOT supposed to be doing.

James Koole over at the TuCows blog has a list of things that you may want to pay attention to.

1. "Use WHOIS Privacy. It can protect you to a certain extent from this kind of theft. If the administrative email address that is listed with the domain name under WHOIS is exposed, then a potential domain thief has two pieces of information he needs – the domain name, and the email address used to manage it. The thief can then gain control of the email address, and then use that email address to gain control of the domain by having passwords emailed to himself. WHOIS Privacy offers some protection because it prevents the domain thief from finding out what the administrative email address is for the domain name.

2. If you can avoid it, don’t use free, web-based email addresses for your administrative contact. In this case, a security flaw in GMail allowed the hacker to gain control of the email account of the domain holder. Likewise, having your entire domain portfolio under a single administrative email account is another mistake. Never mind having one domain name stolen, if a thief gains control of your email account, he could steal your entire portfolio of names.

3. Your domain name is worth more to you than you might think. It may only cost you $10 a year to register the domain, but take a moment to imagine what the cost would be if you had to change domain names tomorrow. It could be as easy as reprinting business cards, or as difficult as re-branding your entire company.

4. Chose your Registrar wisely. Look for a Registrar with a solid Compliance team and a good record within the industry. They’ll have policy and procedures in place to protect you against domain name theft, and in the event your domain is taken from you fraudulently, you stand a better chance of getting it back with a solid registrar. Our CEO, Elliot Noss, has talked about this in the past. You can read his “Ten questions to ask before you pick your domain name Registrar” post for more information on how to make an informed choice."

I guess I have some work to do after reading this. It really doesn't matter what you do or how secure you think you are, there is always someone that is going to find a way into your stuff. But question is, what makes certain people a target? Traffic? Perceived worth? Did they anger someone? Or is it the thrill of randomly picking someone and hacking them just to see if you can do it? AND exactly how many licks DOES it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll brand Tootsie Pop? The world may never know.

 

What's This From?

"This is Hi-Fi... high fidelity. What that means is that it's the highest quality fidelity. It has the TK-421 modification which gives it 4 quads per channel. So basically you get twice the bass with the TK-421."

I know, I know, it's too easy. It still makes me laugh.

Can anyone tell me where another completely unrelated reference of "TK-421" appears?

 

" What I Found In My Email" Mondays. Vol.2 - Issue 2

It's back and it's better than ever. An exciting thrill ride that will assault your senses. A journey into the amazing... Ok fine it's not that great but it IS another edition of "what I found in my email" Mondays!

So here's the setup:

Look at the picture and you can see where this guy broke through the guardrail on the right side where the people are standing on the road (pointing). The pick-up was traveling from right to left when it crashed through the guardrail! It fipped end-over-end, across the culvert outlet, and landed right side up on the left side of the culvert, facing the opposite direction from which he was travelilng.





Now look at the 2nd picture below...




Now I don't know if this is photoshopped, but there is a pretty good possibility that is was. However, it's a pretty lucky landing nonetheless.

Ok back the the grind. Happy Monday everyone!

 

HUGE CONTEST.

Happy Saturday Big Bald Bloggers - I just ran across this HUGE contest that Mike is having over at Bloggin-Ads.com.

Seriously, he must have been working a month to get all of these other blogs to sponsor prizes. Head on over and take a look or for your reading pleasure and convieniece, I have included the prize package details and rules below.

Contest Duration - 1/11/08 ’til 1/31/08 (11:59:00PM PST)

Prizes

There are going to be 12 different groups of prizes, which means there are going to be a total of 12 different winners. By adding up the value of all the prizes, I would say it is worth a least $1,000. Just for Max’s sponsorship of “500″ One Buck Wiki pages total a value of $500, which makes it one heck of a contest.

*Group 1*

• 1 Month blogroll and 125×125 ad spot (Blog About Your Blog)
• Detailed blog review (Yimto)
• 1 Month 125×125 ad spot (Google Is Not God)
• License for PopUp Loser (Semmy)
• 50EC (Julianas Lair)
• 4 Hour Week Workbook (Money Relations)

*Group 2*

• 1 month 125×125 ad spot (Peter Foti)
• 500EC, 1 month 125×125 ad spot (3rd World Blogger)
• 1 month 125×125 ad spot (Contest Time)
• Blog review (Belolats)
• eBook - Wealthy eBook (University Kid)
• 1 month 125×125 ad spot (Mixed Market Arts)

*Group 3*

• 1 125×125 logo, 125 ad spot, blow review, and 3 backlinks (A Frog To Kiss)
• 1 month 100×100 ad spot (Lankapo)
• 500EC, 1 month 125×125 ad spot (Web Blog Money)
• 100 One Buck Wiki pages (Zedomax)
• 1 month 125×125 ad spot (Flat Water)

*Group 4*

• License for PopUp Loser (Semmy)
• 3 months 468×60 ad spot (Ryan Yockey)
• 200EC (Aims Graz)
• 1 month 125×125 ad spot (Contest Time)
• 100 One Buck Wiki pages (Zedomax)
• 1 month 125×125 ad spot (To The PC)

*Group 5*

• Harmonica DVD (Blog Money Wiki)
• 1 month 300×250 ad spot, 3 month blogroll link (VolkDefense)
• 1 month 125×125 ad spot (Scholarpreneur)
• 1 month 125×125 ad spot (Ben Spark)
• 1 month 125×125 ad spot (I Make Money On Facebook)
• 1 month 125×125 ad spot (Mixed Market Arts)

*Group 6*

• Domaining Manifesto eBook (DNXpert)
• 100 One Buck Wiki pages (Zedomax)
• 100 One Buck Wiki pages (Zedomax)
• eBook - Wealthy eBook (University Kid)
• 1 month 125×125 ad spot (EZ Money Online)

*Group 7*

• 250EC (Dorm Earning)
• “The Baby Jesus Butt Plug” book (Cyber Fizzle)
• License for PopUp Loser (Semmy)
• 1 month 125×125 ad spot (Contest Time)
• 250EC, 1 month 125×125 ad spot, 1 month rotated text link (Ez DIY Electricity)
• 1 month 125×125 ad spot (PixToo)

*Group 8*

• 1 month 125×125 ad spot (My Blog Contest)
• 1,000EC (Article Snatch)
• 1 month 125×125 ad spot (Wired Kayaker)
• 1 month 125×125 ad spot (JTPratt)
• 125×125 ad spot until April 1st (1 Man And His Blog)
• 1 month 125×125 ad spot (Mixed Market Arts)

*Group 9*

• 200EC, 1 month text link via RSS feed (Slyvisions)
• 50 EC, 1 month 125×125 ad spot (Ideas and Money)
• License for PopUp Loser (Semmy)
• 1 month 125×125 ad spot (Sean)
• 1 month ad spot (size up to 336×250) (That Single Guy)

*Group 10*

• 1,000EC (Toast & Egg & Me)
• 1 month 125×125 ad spot (Blogging 4 Cash)
• Blog review (Andrew Benton)
• 1 month 125×125 ad spot (Ben Spark)
• License for PopUp Loser (Semmy)

*Group 11*

• 1 entry to Sam’s Superbowl Contest (Controversial Marketing)
• 1 month 125×125 ad spot (Orange Inks)
• 1 month 125×125 ad spot (Blogigs)
• 1 month 125×125 ad spot (Singapore Entrepreneur)
• 1 month 125×125 ad spot (Gorilla Sushi)

*Group 12*

• 500EC, 2 month 125×125 ad spot (ABC)
• 1 month 125×125 ad spot (Contest Time)
• 1 Month 125×125 ad spot (Read To Me Dad)
• 1 month 125×125 ad spot (Rhyan)
• Blog directory submission (5 keyword phrases) (SEO News)

Here is how you enter:

• 3 ticket - Subscribe to Bloggin-Ads.com via E-mail (CLICK HERE)
• 10 ticket - Post about this contest by using the post link and you must have all the groups and prize sponsors’ blog URLs in tact on your post
• 1 ticket each - Post a comment on any one of the prize sponsors’ blog (Limit 5)
• 1 ticket - Stumble/Digg the post (you must post a message on StumbleUpon/Digg)

What the heck are you waiting for? Get on over there.

 

Myspace or Yours.

In a new survey from Future Labratory, close to half of 18- to 24-year olds prefer spending 15 minutes of free time on social networking sites instead of watching TV, reading, talking on the phone or playing video games.

Web Pro News reports, "The survey found that women usually spent more time on social networking sites than men, and that the sites were increasingly being used to make money. Fourteen percent of users had made money from social networking sites selling T-shirts, artwork, and jewelry. Looking for romantic relationships and finding friendship were named as other uses for the sites.

This new generation of connected users are figuring out how to use these sites to explore new levels of creativity and develop new ways of doing business online."

I have run across several examples of blogs that tell you how to make money on Facebook or other social sites. Evidently there is software and other ways to amass a huge friends list and market to them as a way of driving traffic to other sites or affiliate links. I have both a MySpace account AND a FaceBook page. I set them up just to understand what they were all about. I guess it was a matter of continuing ED for me.

The main benefit that I have seen from both my Facebook and MySpace pages is that I have been able to receive countless, spammy or inappropriate friend requests. Granted I don't check them that often but I do see where the it could be time consuming. Now for me, Entrecard, StumbleUpon, MyBlogLog and BlogCatalog suck much more time from my coffers. I think I am going to have to do a better budgeting of time when I am engaged in my social media endeavors.

As I was looking through my stats the other day I noticed a new site that I had never heard of before. It's called SiteHoppin and I have received little bit of traffic so far this month. Anyone hear of it or participate in it? What social type sites are you participating in?

 

Smoking: The Advertising of Yesterday

I just love running across these old smoking ads. I used another one in a post I wrote about Mad Men.

I am fascinated by the ads from the 50's and 60's, especially the ones that were targeted to, or used the status of women to get their message across. They were so insulting by today's standards.

But wait, it gets better. What till you feast your eyes on this. Here is an actual article that I believe appeared in the Housekeeping Monthly publication, circa 1955. You may have to click on the image to enlarge it.



My how far we have come. Now be nice you guys!

 

Night Of The Brand Shamans

Written and reproduced with permission by Jeff Brooks creative director at Merkle/Domain.

"Something strange often happens when nonprofits turn their attention to branding. Here’s how you can avoid the nightmare branding sometimes unleashes on unwary organizations.

You can sense the evil magic, tingling like static electricity. That’s one sign brand shamans are at work in a nonprofit. Other signs include:

* Rampant scheduling of focus groups.
* Nonstop chanting of the word “standards,” like a spooky mantra.
* Appearance of spiral-bound books filled with pictures of ways the logo should not be used.
“Branding” has swept through the nonprofit world. This should make communication better. But it hasn’t turned out that way. Branding actually has done more harm than good.

We can thank the brand shamans. Their backward form of branding fails to reach donors because it’s built on organizational aspirations and preferences — not donor needs. It’s a blend of dogged consistency and poor design principles, held together with bogus research.

The brand shaman product centers around a brand guidelines document, or graphic standards manual. The theory is that if your look remains consistent, people will know who you are.

The odd thing is, these standards almost always dictate sociopathic design that reduces readability and restricts emotional range:

* The fonts are often sans-serif and hard to read.
* Design techniques like reverse type, type over color and colored type only make things worse. (For a commonsense approach to readability and design, read “Type & Layout: Are You Communicating or Just Making Pretty Shapes,” by Colin Wheildon.)
* And the color palette is usually a witches’ brew of faddish, sterile and unemotional shades.

Brand guidelines don’t have to be bad. Sometimes they aren’t. But when your standards are created without donors in mind, that’s almost inevitably what you get.

Your brand is what you do and who you are -— as perceived by your public. What you look like is the smallest part of that. Most brand guidelines pay lip-service to this fact, but few of them do anything about it. Because they can’t. A brand is bigger than a set of rules. (Read about what a real brand is in “The Brand Mindset: Five Essential Strategies for Building Brand Advantage Throughout Your Company,” by Duane E. Knapp.)

A strong brand — one that drives success in the marketplace — is a crystal-clear expression of your donors’ aspirations.

Here’s the deal
Donors don’t give because your programs are so brilliant. They don’t give because you’re so smart or strategic. And they don’t give because of your long history or superior achievements.

Your donors give because of what giving means to them. How it gives them personal significance. How it fills their hearts with joy, or eases their conscience. How it changes the world in ways they care about. What it says about them — to themselves or to others.

That’s what your brand must articulate: What about your organization feeds donors’ needs? What is it about supporting you that makes them feel proud, or fulfilled, or cool, or validated?

The brand shaman approach to branding ignores this. Their guidelines tell you that if you follow the rules, you’re “on brand” — when really, the navel-gazing focus of the document pushes you away from the real brand. If your brand consists of a logo, font choices and a color palette — that’s all it’s going to be. If your brand belongs only to the marketing department, it’s not really a brand at all.

Branding without shamans
So you want a real brand, not a brand shaman sham. Here’s how: Go easy on the externals (like design), but be a stickler about the internals — who you are. Here some steps you can take:

1. Get rid of your brand guidelines. This will allow you, force you, to build a donor-centered brand. Instead of rigid design rules, you can have design principles that are about the heart of who you are. Couple that with a well-told story about your organization — its founding or defining moment — that’s aligned with donors’ dreams.

2. Test, test, test. If you want your brand to drive better fundraising results, you need to let your donors lead you. And the way to do that is direct-response testing. Testing discovers how donors respond in real life, not what they theorize in a focus group.

3. Get aligned. Everyone in your organization needs to believe the same thing about who you are. Everyone needs to be pulling in the same direction. Getting nonprofit employees on the same page can be like herding cats, but the payback in brand equity is incalculable.

4. Be great. There’s no substitute for simply being amazing and unique. I’m not talking marketing here, but what you actually are. Don’t just say you’re great — be great! Bowl-’em-over great, tell-all-their-friends great. A “purple cow” as marketing guru Seth Godin would say. (Read “Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable,” by Seth Godin.)

All that’s much easier said than done, but donors deserve it — and increasingly, they demand it. Anything less will have a hard time getting attention — or donations — in the crowded nonprofit marketplace.

The brand shaman fad will play itself out within a few years. Until then, stand firm and resist their temptations. And keep your donors in mind, every decision you make."

This is a pretty bold departure from the traditional paradigm but I think there are some points that are valid. There are also points that I don't agree with. You need to have some guidelines and standards or your logo might end up being surrounded by rainbow comic sans. As a marketing professional, I am always going to teach continuity of brand, regardless of your market. What are your thoughts?

 

Why I Don't Like Your Website

I have seen a LOT of these posts floating around lately. Most of them are talking about the typical things on a website that provide some level of soothing irritation. Things like music playing on the load, resizing of the window, slow load times or a bunch of multi-colored fonts like comic sans.

Here are a couple of things that I can contribute to the lists going around. I have an extreme aversion to the mPire widgets that hold your browser hostage until they finish loading. The second thing that I want to add to the list is the annoying little voice that says, "Congratulation, you may have just won an iPhone."

Since you should always try to be positive, I think I will end this by saying something uplifting.

• I like your website because it has easy to see and use navigation.
  
• I like your site because because the text is broken up into easy to read segments.
• I like your site because it is extremely relevant to the keywords I was searching for.
• I like your site because it looks like someone took their time on the design and did the little "extras."
• I like it when you respond to me in a timely manner.

Take into consideration what you like and try to implement those qualities into YOUR site. You know, prior to writing this, I was informed that my site was causing an error in a visitor's browser. I immediately replied with questions about the error and determined that it was the JibJab video embedded in a post. I proptly got rid of it and ran over to WebSiteOptimization.com to see if I had any other issues. Yep, sure did. I fixed quite a few issues with image sizes and The Big Bald Blog appears to be loading faster now.

In summary, I LIKE it when you give me feedback about MY site to help me improve it. Thanks!

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

 

" What I Found In My Email" Mondays. Vol.2 - Issue 1

Welcome to the new year. I guess we are back in the swing of tings now. Here is the first issue of the 2008 edition of, "What I found in my email" Mondays.

This video was sent to me by a friend who does a lot of fishing. I am actually surprised that the fish, give it's size, didn't sink the boat.

Can anyone tell what kind of fish that is?



If you are just joining us here at The Big Bald Blog, this is something fun that I do on Monday's. Basically, if I have something remotely interesting in my email when I come into the office, I put it up here for your viewing pleasure. Remember, if you like what see, make sure you nab our RSS feed or you can subscribe by email.

Thanks for visiting and welcome to 2008.

 

AND WE HAVE A WINNER!!!!

Drum roll please!

The winner of the GRAND PRIZE package is...(suspense builder)...DAVE from Malewail.com.
Dave gets the iPod Touch, the Blog Review, the 500 Entrecredits and the BigPappa apparel package.

The second place winner is Jason from GorillaSushi.com.
Jason gets 250 EntreCard credits and a BigPappa Shirt with some stickers.

So how did I pick. I went to Random.org just like everyone else, put in my list and, voila (waalaa), I had the winners.

Dave and Jason make sure you drop me a line at: The Big Bald Blog at impactmt dot com and let me know where I need to send the goods. Also guys, let me know what size shirt you wear. I have up to 4XL or 5XL in some colors... What? Well, it is BigPappa Gear.

I am getting ready to transition over to my new 3 column design and as a bonus, just because I am feeling very generous, both of you will get a 200 x 200 pixel ad for free for one month on The Big Bald Blog. So send over your ad that you would like. Make sure it is a .png, gif, or jpg at 72 dpi or at the lowest resolution that you can get it to me in. Also make sure you include the link that you want the ads to go to.

Thanks SO much to everyone that participated in this first ever BBB contest. It was a tremendous success.

I already have my next idea for a contest in the works so make sure you keep on top of things at the Big Bald Blog.

 

Contest Update

I know who won.

 

You Still Have Time

The contest ends today at 4. I will draw the winner tonight and will announce it either Saturday or Monday. Depends on how I feel. Is that evil?

 

Again With The Fox!

Would you take a look at this. This is happening month after month on my site. This has to be a blogger thing or something. The regular Joe computer user has to be the one that is using IE. For about 6 months, the Fox has been dominating my stats. What are you seeing on your sites?

I always wonder what the unknown is.

 

The Tops in December 2007

Top Commented post
I Am Giving Away An iPod Touch And More. (pretty obvious)

Top Posts
What I Found In My Email" Mondays. Vol.1 - Issue 9
I Am Giving Away An iPod Touch And More.
What I Found In My Email" Mondays. Vol.1 - Issue 7
The Impact Of The Internet On Newspaper Advertising
Business Cards

Top EntreCard Droppers (my meme contribution)

CK Marketing
joanjoyce
The Mountain
JeanCosta.com
GorillaSushi

Top Browser accessed - FireFox

Top OS Accessed - Windows

Top Traffic Referrer - StumbleUpon

Top Commenter - Karen and GorillaSushi

Top Time of Day Accessed - Midnight

Top Day of the Week Accessed - Wednesday

Top of My Head - Still Bald

 

The Decision To Buy Local

When I watch TV or listen to the radio, typically the best creative comes from non-locally owned companies. I mean seriously, how awesome is this spot. When I say locally owned I am talking about smaller business that may have 1 or more stores and serving a rather smaller geographic area. I am NOT talking about WalMart or BestBuy.

Now granted, big companies are going to have BIG budgets and can hire better talent, creative directors, and big time ad agencies. However, this doesn't mean that just because you are a local business, your advertising has to suffer. There are all kinds of ways for a smaller business to deliver good creative.

Whatever you do, DO NOT let the local TV or radio station assembly line your spot. Hire someone that has a proven track record and can demonstrate proficiency in creative, production and design. Same thing goes with your printed material. Don't sacrifice on your graphic design. Hire a professional designer or marketing company that knows design. Don't rely on someone that says, "Hey Jim Bob, I know how to use Publisher and Word. I can make you a real purdy brochure." AND, don't take your final design to a color copy shop. Have it printed by a professional, commercial printing company. Now there is an exception that I am willing to accept. If you only need 50 of the finished product, then that is an obvious exception.

Now that I went off on that tangent, here is the real question that I am wondering about and would like some answers from you guys. Marketing and advertising aside, when it comes time to make a purchase for a washer, dryer, TV, Vacuum, or whatever. Do you turn to a locally owned business or will you shop at a big box store? Let me know why you make your buying choice.

For me, I will support a local business if I can. I have even been known to pay more at a locally owned company. Now don't get me wrong, I still get toilet paper and other miscellaneous things at WalMart, Sams or Target, but when it comes to major purchases like appliances, and things of that nature, I am going to go to a local business. I have had some of my worst customer service experiences from companies like Sears, Mediacom and WellsFargo. Now bear with me as I have a tourettes episode. SEARS WILL NEVER GET A DIME OF MY MONEY AGAIN!!! Sorry about that, I am a little scarred.

Digression aside, when I make local purchases, not only is the service better in most cases, I feel I am helping a neighbor.

Your thoughts?

 

Contest Update!

This Friday is the Day! For those of you who haven't entered yet, make sure you do by Friday at 4:00 CST. I will be drawing the winner that night. Since I have reached my goals already for this contest, I might as well report what I have accomplished.

One of my goals for this contest was to increase RSS subscribers - CHECK

For some reason this number is never correct. I actually have 80 email subscribers and 32 other subscribers. Giving me an actual total of 112. Given THAT number, I more than doubled my subscribers.

Another goal was to increase my Technorati authority to over 100 - CHECK


Some side effects of the contest were loads of traffic. Ok I will say CHECK to that one too.




The Alexa screen shot was taken last last Friday before I took off for the weekend. Bottom line is that all of my goals have been reached for this inaugural contest on The Big Bald Blog.

In the end my traffic for the month of December amounted to 32,344 Unique visitors which is obviously a new high.

To say thanks I am giving an additional 250 Entrecard credits away to a second winner making it a grand total of 750 credits. That's just how I roll. ALSO as a late add-on bonus, anyone who has "faved" The Big Bald Blog on Technorati by the time the contest closes, will get an extra entry.

Remeber it's all about YOU, the reader. Without you, none of this is possible. Thanks again!

 

$100 Per Month For The New Year

I am sponsoring a new kind of blog contest. I have joined forces with a band of bloggers (listed below) to give you some cold hard cash. If you want to earn some easy money this year then this post is for you.



It’s easy to enter! To enter the contest, just do any of the following:

1. Subscribe to RSS via email (2 entries per blog)
2. Write a useful comment (1 entry per comment on each blog listed below)
3. Write a post about this contest on your blog (25 entries if you link to this post as well as mention all of the other sponsors)

That is it! Feel free to leave your comments on this post and earn an entry and possibly the easiest $100 you have ever won. If you really want to increase your odds, make a blog post and subscribe to the sponsoring blogs and contribute comments actively on them. Who knows… making new friends might just earn you some more moolah!

Contest Deadline:
12:00 AM February 1, 2008.

Who wants to pay you?

1. Mixed Market Arts
2. JoeTech.com
3. Link Bait
4. Gorilla Sushi
5. CK Marketing
6. The Big Bald Blog
7. How 2 Blogger

Happy New Year!