Online To-Do Lists
So I’ve been in the market for a nice, online, easy-to-use organizational tool to keep track of things I need to do. I looked up a few, one being Tom’s Planner.
Tom's Planner
Even though it has received great reviews from TechCrunch and other tech/online blogs, it seemed kind of complicated and a little more than what I was looking for (maybe better for a scheduler/day planner). Then today I stumbled upon www.TeuxDeux.com. It’s perfect: pretty to look at, simple, and easy-to-use.
www.TeuxDeux.com
There’s a list for every day of the week, and even a “someday” area. Check this site out!
The speed of your site may affect your google ranking?
According to Google’s Matt Cutts, who was interviewed by WebProNews, that may be the case. “Historically, we haven’t had to use it in our search rankings, but a lot of people within Google think that the web should be fast,” says Cutts. “It should be a good experience, and so it’s sort of fair to say that if you’re a fast site, maybe you should get a little bit of a bonus. If you really have an awfully slow site, then maybe users don’t want that as much.”
It makes sense to me! I know personally when I try to load a slow site, it generally slows my entire computer down which is frustrating and I try to stay away from those kinds of sites. So if Google knew which sites were faster than others that would be great and save me time. It might also push those with slow sites to take some of the “crap” off or call up their web-designer and have them do a re-design that makes their site faster and rank higher in a Google search (and make it more aesthetically pleasing). Being a web-user, and not a web site maintainer/owner, I can’t really see any kind of downside to this.
What do you think?
No more angry T-Mobile posts…
Instead, here is a video of a cute french bulldog
I feel better already. :]
T-Mobile Data Outage (Part II)
Well it’s been 1 week and 3 and a half days that I’ve been without any data on my phone. I received an update finally from T-Mobile yesterday via text message that everything had been lost permanently. I don’t think I’m being harsh when I say that T-Mobile sucks.
I understand that these things happen. Technology, as great and convenient as it is, is not the most stable thing and has been known to fail and have glitches since the computer was invented. But the way that T-Mobile dealt with it’s loyal customers was where they failed:
- First, without knowing exactly what was going on, tech people/customer service reps over at T-Mobile were advising sidekick users to try restarting their phone or remove their battery to fix the problem. Unfortunately, if you did this, you permanently lost all of your data. T-Mobile now has made it very clear that whatever you do, do not remove the battery or let your phone die, because the system is still unstable and you will continue to lose everything any time your phone restarts.
- Second, the Sidekick phone and data service (powered by Microsoft) is supposed to be backed up continually. That is one of the perks to having this phone. Even if I threw my phone into a pool in a moment of passionate anger (or something), all that data on my phone is SUPPOSED to be backed up somewhere in the data-sphere on some huge Microsoft server. This is what was promised to us when we first bought our phones and this is also included in our $20/mo. that we pay for our data services. In fact, sometimes my data would disappear, only to be returned to me 10 minutes later, fully restored. I could also log-in from any other sidekick or a computer (on T-Mobiles website) with my username and password and have instant access to everything on my phone.
- Third, I called customer service Friday night that my data was lost to ask what was going on. The customer service rep told me my data would in fact be restored between 10pm and 12am of that night. Well, it wasn’t. Making promises you can’t keep? Not very smart. It just made me more mad that they weren’t being up front with me. T-Mobile also promised an update on Monday, the 12th, which left sidekick customers constantly checking the web site all day to find no update. They finally made a quick, lousy, unclear, update late Monday night that left people with even more questions. They stated that they were giving SOME customers who lost data a $100 gift card to T-Mobile…in about 2 weeks. Wait…what?! You’re telling me that I have to wait 2 weeks to have any compensation from T-Mobile if I even qualify…ANOTHER 2 weeks without a functioning phone…no thank you. In 2 weeks, I’ll have an iPhone. This “compensation” is pretty much a big slap in the face to Sidekick users.
- Fourth, I felt that I shouldn’t have to pay my phone bill this month seeing as all the trouble this has cost me. This whole data outage had particularly bad timing as I was traveling the weekend it happened. With no internet service to email anyone, and no phone numbers to contact anyone, I could really only talk to about 2 people. T-Mobile continually refused to credit my account for a full month’s bill. They just told me to be patient and my contacts would finally be restored. Well I waited and waited, and called every day to get updates and they just told me to keep waiting and that they understand what I’m going through (highly unlikely as everyone I talked was NOT a sidekick user). When I talked to one supervisor, he told me, “This is the biggest thing to happen to T-Mobile. It feels like a hurricane has hit us, complete devastation here.”
I could go on and on about how bad Microsoft/Danger has failed by not backing up or testing their backups and how T-Mobile has failed it’s loyal customers by handling this situation in the worst way possible…but I’m done talking about it. I’m just going to sit and wait for that class-action lawsuit to be filed (FYI: mention of said lawsuit on the T-Mobile sidekick forum will probably get you blocked from it: If you can’t take the heat, T-Mobile, then don’t fail your customers), switch my service to AT&T and buy an iPhone, send out one of those annoying “I lost my numbers!” Facebook events to all my friends, and slowly try to rebuild my contact book. Good riddance.
T-Mobile Data Outage (beware: this is a long one)
Well if you follow my twitter or are friends with me on Facebook, you know that when I say I’m frustrated with T-Mobile right now that’s a huge understatement. Let me clue you in on what’s been happening…
T-MOBILE FAIL:
Last Friday morning at about 1:30am all Sidekick users (a certain phone that only the T-Mobile carrier has) lost their “G”. The “G” is located right next to the service bars (that tell you how strong your signal is; when you have full service and are not roaming, there will be a “G” next to the bars). This isn’t abnormal in the least, especially when you’re in the middle of nowhere and your phone is searching for a signal. So most people thought nothing of it, including myself.
Fast forward 15 hours later…still no “G” and my phone is STILL searching for a signal. Now, I’m frustrated. I’ve been trying to use the internet and it says the internet connection is closed. I’m about to board a plane back home for the weekend and I have a 3 hour layover in Chicago and want to be able to play around on the internet and check my mail while I wait. But it’s not letting me. So I take out my battery and my SIM card to see if that will reset the connection somehow. Still no luck. Oh and what’s this? I’ve lost ALL MY CONTACTS IN MY ADDRESS BOOK NOW?! Yup, all gone…completely deleted. Oh and look, my calendar has mysteriously disappeared too, as well as my pictures, and notes. AWESOME.
I now have no way of contacting anyone. I don’t even have my mothers or sisters numbers memorized (I realize now I should probably have them written down somewhere). Thankfully my best friend from high school is picking me up from the airport and she’s had the same number since 2001 (one of two numbers I have memorized). Once she picks me up I decide to call T-Mobile to see whats up. They tell me all sidekick data has been lost and that they are working to restore it ASAP.
CUSTOMER SERVICE?
It’s now Wednesday, 6 days later. Still no contacts, no calendar, no anything. I feel like a little lost puppy out in the world. I’ve spoken with T-Mobile several times (they told my they would have everything back last Friday night between 10pm & 12am, which obviously didn’t happen). And because of the amount of people calling, every time I call customer service I get disconnected and have to call back and do the whole pick a language, say my number, “I’m sorry, I couldn’t understand you…could you repeat that?” thing. So frustrating.
Stay tuned for part 2 of the T-Mobile Data Outage…
You guys…I GOT A JOB!
So, remember how I was whining and complaining and CONSTANTLY talking about how I was unemployed? Well those days are officially over. I’ve now moved on to whining and complaining about having to wake up early, long hours at the job, and not making enough money.
JUST KIDDING! I’m ecstatic about my new job and I absolutely love it. It was a long, and I mean REALLLLLLLY long, process of finding one. I started looking for a job down here in Nashville around May. I was hired at the beginning of September, so that’s like what? 4 or so months?! And the sad thing is I feel like one of the lucky ones for finding one so “fast”. I still have a lot of friends who have recently graduated from great and prestigious universities (some even double majoring) who have yet to find a job. To be honest though, the 4 months that I was unemployed weren’t totally useless. I did snag an awesome internship that has been really beneficial to me. And since this new job is part time, I’ll still be able to continue the internship with MicroExplosion and continue my education.
So What Am I Doing?
I’m working for three small businesses that share an office in East Nashville. One is Taylor Made Plans who specializes in renovating, revitalizing, and adding on to houses. You know those super adorable houses in East Nashville and Germantown? They work on a lot of those houses to update them while at the same time preserving their historic character.
One of the other businesses is Jeffrey Design, LLC. They specialize in residential interior design, mostly for upscale and large spaces. Their portfolio is pretty amazing to look at. Très magnifique!
The last, but definitely not least, business is Shonna Sexton Studio. Their niche is commercial and corporate design. You know the Nashville Convention & Visitors Bureau downtown? They did that. And the famous Mike’s Ice Cream on Broadway? Yup, they did that too. They recently did the interior to an eyecare place that is nothing short of amazing! You can check out their portfolio online.
I work in an office for all three of these amazing and talented businesses doing marketing (and anyone who know’s me well knows that I am obsessed with interior design and architecture, especially Victorian and Craftsman style homes). We do a little traditional marketing via newspaper/magazine advertisements, mailings, etc. But now we’re trying to integrate social media into the mix as most other businesses are doing too.
I do think it’s extremely important for small businesses to jump on the social media bandwagon now. Even just a dipping in of toes to get started. Social media has opened up a whole new way of communicating with consumers. It’s much more intimate and this is why it’s especially beneficial to small businesses who need to make those relationships with their community.
Anyway, I’m starting my third week here and so far everything’s been wonderful. We’re all learning about social media and marketing and how to use it effectively for their specific businesses and trying to have a little fun with it at the same time. So far, so good.
Sydney Red Dust Storms
Apparently Sydney was being overtaken by red dust and high winds yesterday giving photographers a chance to snap some amazing pictures. Flickr has a Sydney Red Dust Storm stream that has been garnering a lot of attention and Sydney has been a trending topic on Twitter today and yesterday. Check out some of these amazing photographs and click on them to go to the individual photographer’s Flickr page!
Sydney Bridge
Sydney Red Dust Storm
Sydney Bridge - My 2nd favorite photo I've found so far
Luna Park - My favorite photo I've found so far
Twitter: Getting interns jobs since 2009
So I have an internship. “But Tess, you’ve already graduated from a BIG TEN UNIVERSITY (go spartans!), why are you working for free?” you might ask…Well, because you can’t put a price on real world experience. I mean you can definitely put a price on an education, and we all do…but jumping head first into the world of business and social media and gaining all of that experience is priceless.
Enter: Bill Seaver, CEO/Founder/Social media mastermind behind Micro Explosion Media. I stumbled upon his blog one night, shortly after moving to Nashville. I was basically grasping at straws trying to find a job or even an internship and decided to research Nashville PR firms and I don’t exactly remember how I found it, but there it was…in all it’s social media glory, MicroExplosion.com.
I started skimming over some of his posts and watching some of his videos and made an executive decision to reach out to Bill and ask if he ever hired interns. But I couldn’t just send him an email…that would be too 2007 of me. So I decided to follow him on Twitter and within a couple hours he was following me right back. Next step: direct message him. What better way to reach out to a social media marketing firm/consultant than through Twitter? That way Bill knew that I was serious about my internship inquiries, and that I had a basic knowledge of how social media works.
And as it turns out, I was right (this is true 100% of the time) and next thing I knew we were meeting for coffee and figuring out the details of the internship. Then we made it official by creating an email address for me at MicroExplosion.com. So far it’s been a great learning experience and I’m actually getting to put my skills to the test which is nice. I can already tell how beneficial this internship has been and will be for me and it’s definitely worth the time and effort.
Stay tuned for more adventures with Bill and Micro Explosion Media, as I’m sure there will be a lot in the next few months!
Well, social media had an interesting night…
So tonight I was watching a couple episodes of Dexter online (thanks to Netflix instant streaming!) and in between episodes decided to check up on my Facebook and Twitter. Once I refreshed my Facebook page I instantly knew something had happened. It only took about 30 seconds of reading status updates and looking through the Twitter trending topics to stumble upon a video of the VMA’s and an incident involving Nashville’s own country darling, Taylor Swift and music’s drama starter Kanye West. Apparently Kanye hopped up on stage and stole the spotlight from Ms. Swift during her acceptance speech and gave the credit to Beyonce for best female video. Within minutes of this happening, the internet was buzzing about what had just occurred; most fans of both Kanye and Taylor Swift were enraged at his little outburst. On Twitter, the trending topics were going crazy, and now include a #teamtaylor tag. Another blogging platform, Tumblr, apparently crashed for a little bit with all the heightened traffic it was receiving.
Now here’s the thing. I love the internet and social media for this reason. I do not pay for cable, and within 5 minutes of being on the internet I was completely up to date on what had happened and all the hoopla that was accompanying it. But then, I was over it. I saw what happened, picked a side (Team Taylor, of course, have to represent Nashtown), and was done with it. However, I know this is going to be in the news all day tomorrow; the videos, the tweets, the blog posts, the memes: they’ve all just started. I’m already kind of sick of reading about it. This is the point that I wish I could just unplug and go to sleep and have new and more interesting information put in front of me in the morning.
EDIT: I started writing this post on Sunday night but never finished it. So it’s been a couple of days since the “incident.” And I as predicted the next day, Monday, the internet was still buzzing about it. I still think Kanye is a trending topic on Twitter. There’s also a clip of the President of the U.S. putting his two cents in on the matter.
Now, from a business stand point I have to say, “Bravo, MTV, Bravo.” There has been some speculation that this entire thing was staged. If it was, MTV probably received more buzz than they had even anticipated. If it wasn’t, I’m sure all the people over at MTV are extremely grateful that Kanye West does not have any tact whatsoever, and always feels the need to speak his mind. It’s a good thing Kanye really doesn’t care what people think about him because he’s not an entertainer…he’s an “artist”.
This whole event just shows what social media can do. The way we all communicate is changing fast. Jump on board now before it’s too late!
One last thing…what in the WORLD was Lady GaGa wearing?! She scares me…
