Microsoft’s Partner Conference is in the Cloud
Posted by Scott Ahlsmith in Productivity on July 12, 2010
Or, maybe they just wish they were in a cloud since this week’s Conference is in Washington, DC where humidity is keeping pace with temperatures. I’ve lived in Washington, DC and there’s a very good reason why Congress leaves during the summer.
Anyway, this conference is suppose to be all about MS Online Services (Azure), BPOS (Business Productivity Online Standard Suite–now that’s catchy!), Cloud Services, whatever they want to call it. Come on Redmond. Pick a name and stay with it. All you do is confuse the market by calling the same thing by several different names. Or, in other words, get your heads out of the clouds and listen to what’s happening on the ground.
Now, why is the version of SharePoint on our Microosoft Online Services platform still stuck at 2007? SharePoint 2010 was released in May 2010 and it’s now July. Aren’t automatic software updates benefits of operating in the Cloud?
According to Chris Capossela, senior vice president of Microsoft’s Information Worker Product Management Group, ”It just takes us some time to upgrade the data centers to the new versions of Exchange server and SharePoint server. By the end of this year [2010] our largest online customers will have the updated versions, which are powered by the 2010 servers.”
Well, as a small BPOS user of only 40 seats, that makes me wonder why we paid a premium to Microsoft rather than a more reasonable fee to Google. Of course, Microsoft has a solution for their small customers, “Customers who are desperate to run Exchange 2010 and SharePoint 2010 in the cloud can look to third-party vendors, such as Intermedia, which has already launched hosted versions of the latest Exchange and 2010 technologies.”
Testing WordPress iPhone App
Posted by Scott Ahlsmith in Blogs on November 1, 2009
iPhone Cold Weather Gear
This is my first post from the new WordPress iPhone app. It was easy to download from the iTunes’ App Store, its free, and its setup was straight forward. The UI fits the iPhone format and conforms to its layout and navigation guidelines.
The only feature I can’t find is the ability to load photos in a post. As I design principle for this blog, I always like to start the post with an illustrative photo or graphic.
PS. I learned how to load a photo (obviously) through trial and error. The sequence of when the photo is loaded, however, determines where it appears in the post. In order for it to appear in the most upper-left position, it must be loaded before any text is added. In order to position it where you see it now, I had to edit the post using WordPress’ Admin Dashboard.
Controlling Blog Spam
Posted by Scott Ahlsmith in Blogs on October 31, 2009
Automatic Kismet (Akismet for short) is a social collaboration effort to eliminate comment and trackback spam WordPress blogs. Ahlsmith’s Aspirations uses the WordPress platform and Akismet keeps spam out of the comments and trackbacks to posts on this blog.
Within days of setting-up this blog I started receiving 2 to 3 alerts a day saying that my latest post had comments or trackback requests awaiting my approval. If I accepted those comments and trackbacks, I could have opened a pharmacy. The spammers were pushing Ambien, Valtrex, Lavetra, Viagra, and more.
Read the rest of this entry »
Great Productivity Tool
Posted by Scott Ahlsmith in Productivity on October 30, 2009
Every once in awhile I find a productivity tool that makes so much sense, I literally stop being productive, buy the tool and start learning how to integrate it into my life. I know that sounds counter productive, but I’ve found that productivity improvements require stopping periodically to ‘sharpen the ax.’
Granted, all that glitters is not gold, and I’ve traveled down some productivity dead-end paths, but I’m always ready to risk a small investment in money and time to save me a few minutes every day or to help me be more effectively manage my business and personal affairs. Enter reQall.
What Do You Really Want?
Posted by Scott Ahlsmith in NLP on October 4, 2009
Desired outcomes paint a picture of what our life looks like once we’ve achieved something we really want–a goal. Attaining our goals is easier when the desired outcome, the total picture, is clear and visible. Desired outcomes let us put our minds into the end-state after having achieved a goal. Knowing and experiencing this end-state helps us stay motivated and rework our plan by staying flexible and focusing on what matters most once the goal is attained. Read the rest of this entry »
Tasting Notes: The Ojai Vineyard 2005 Pinto Noir Bien Nacido
Posted by Scott Ahlsmith in Wine on October 3, 2009
The Bien Nacido vineyard in Santa Maria, CA year after year produces some of the most sought-after pinot noir fruit in California. Only winemakers who have mastered the temperamental pinot noir grape are even considered as candidates for vineyard manager Chris Hammell’s coveted allocations.
The Ojai Vineyard’s 2005 Pinot Noir should make Jim proud. It is highly extracted and offers aromatic blast of musty red raspberries and cherries during the initial swirl-n-sniff. It has a full and rich mouth and finishes with a pleasant bite of tannin and acid. This is a great Pinot Noir and ranks up there with Sanford’s Barrel Select and Lane Tanner’s Bien Nacido creations.
It paired perfectly with my German Sauerbraten and cheese course. It cost $47.99USD when it was released.
Tasting Notes: The Ojai Vineyard 2002 Syrah Bien Nacido
Posted by Scott Ahlsmith in Wine on September 30, 2009
Bien Nacido has not been considered a top tier syrah vienyard, however it is one of the best kept secrets in the Central Coast of California.
This wine was the second vintage harvested after Chris Hammell took over the vineyard management duties in 2001. It shows.
This Syrah required time to come into its own. Tasting notes from 2004 indicate this wine was tight, spicy and exotic with no forward fruit when it was released.
Fast forward seven years and this wine proves my point about Bien Nacido syrah grapes. This is a big chewy wine with balanced black fruit flavors and round soft tannins. It paired nicely with Wild Ginger’s Black Pepper Scallops, Lamb Satay, Fragrant Duck, Seven Flavor Beef, and Panang Beef Curry. Wine list price: $112USD
Measuring eMail Marketing’s Effectiveness
Posted by Scott Ahlsmith in Marketing on September 30, 2009
Budgets are tight. Passion and intuition run deep. Strong opinions; strongly held. Continued improvement and funding for email marketing requires more than delivery, open, click-through rates or astrology.
Email broadcasts and their aggregated campaigns need to be aligned and measured with business terms like unifying goals, meaningful objectives, strategic projects. This requires a solid understanding of the company’s strategic plan and the role email marketing plays in accomplishing that plan’s goals and objectives. Meaningful objectives, like driving more consumer prospects site traffic and creating more non-endemic partnerships drive company profits and should also drive email marketing’s ROI.
Two different classes of metrics should be applied to email markting:
- Systemic Metrics–Bounces, opt-outs, spam complaints, unsubscribes, forwards, click-throughs, design engagement, subject line effectiveness, and conversion rates
- Indirect Metrics–Incremental revenue, cost reductions, average conversion, lead generation, site traffic.
As you might imagine, these two sets of metrics require collaboration and coordination with other departments. The email marketing team needs to venture outside their department and find ways of collecting data that demonstrates the effectiveness of their offers and campaigns. They also need to design and execute side-by-side tests that generate results that can be used to make small and continuous incremental improvements that product results.