Z Trek: The Alan Zeichick Weblog
CueCat FAIL, and the graveyard of bad business models
The CueCat is the archetype of the bad business model. Ted Bahr (the “B” of BZ Media) and I often wave off a bad business model as “it’s another CueCat,” which is about as blanket a dismissal as you can have.Do you remember the CueCat?…
Our Sony Playstation 3 is dead, and we won’t miss it
We purchased the Playstation 3 in May 2008, for the primary purpose of watching Blu-Ray movies. At $399, a 40GB PS3 was the same price as a dedicated Blu-Ray player. (You can read the story here.)For the first year, we enjoyed the hi-def movie…
The customer name is right in the database… but is spelled wrong on screen
When checking one of my bank accounts, I noted that my surname displayed on the welcome screen was misspelled, as "Zeicnick."I wrote to the bank's customer service dept., thinking that my name was somehow wrong in the account database. The reply…
Richard wants to make a reservation… what’s the scam?
Where's the scam here? This messages, like many scam message, came in from one free email service (Yahoo), but has a reply-to address at another (Gmail). I believe the Yahoo addresses was forged. The recipient list was suppressed, and it came…
Going from Honolulu to San Francisco? Grab your kayak!
It's 3,613 miles from Honolulu to San Francisco. If you're driving, it'll take you 14 days 19 hours. Be sure to leave plenty of time for kayaking, as you go from the Turtle Bay Hilton in Waikiki (near Diamond Head) to Seattle.Don't ask why we…
Extended Stay America’s state of the art: Win NT, IE 3.02 or higher — or Power Macintosh
It's time to hire some new software developers, folks!I was checking out the Extended Stay America hotel in Bethpage, New York — it's not far from BZ Media's headquarters on Long Island. When going for a virtual room tour, I was stopped dead…
The News-Computer site keeps getting better
I made the mistake of wandering over to the News-Computer blog home page, and have wasted too much time there. Here are some of the lead paragraphs for the latest stories published here.These are clearly stories that were machine-translated…
The 2009 SD Times 100 String was published online and in the oppressive inscribe
Talk about "lost in machine translation." I was pointed to this interesting page, http://news-computer.com/page_all_1.html, which you may enjoy as much as I did. (Websites are lacework sites!)The lead story on the page, "Technology News: Social…
The losers at Vocus Public Relations are at it again
It's apparently impossible to get the jerks at Vocus Inc. to stop spamming me. My mailbox is filled with messages sent out via their PR spamming service. And now they're working hard to make sure that you don't realize that that the spam comes…
Billable hours, not billable bits
Where’s the money in the software business? Increasingly, it’s in the consulting or maintenance contracts or in software rental – anything but in the software itself.Consulting around enterprise software isn’t new. One of the tenants…
Interact with your code
A great way to become a better programmer is to read code. As Andrew Binstock began his most recent Integration Watch column,The programming section of Reddit occasionally receives posts from comp-sci majors and early entrants into professional…
Thanks for reminding me about the poor service
Here's a sales pitch received today, from an account rep we had trouble with at a service provider three years ago. He came off our account shortly thereafter.Do you think my response involved the "delete" key? If so… you're right!Subject:…
Mobility as a business enabler
The first question about the new iPod nano is, how did Apple cram so much stuff into a 1.28 ounce (36.4 gram) package?(Well, actually, now that the iPod nano can serve as a video camera, sound recorder, FM radio and pedometer, as well as an…
The Rev. Dr. Paul Adams gets around
The same guy — Rev. Dr. Paul Adams — has figured in two separate confidence scam emails. One was received today, claiming to be from the FBI's Robert Mueller. The other came in on July 30, and was signed by Hillary Clinton.What are the odds…
What the heck is ‘cheese seasoning’? Learn all about it
"Made with real cheese!" That's what it says on the bag of Cheetos Twisted Puffs, which I was cheerfully munching last night. "We grow the best snacks on Earth!" adds the brightly colored packaging from Frito Lay, which manufactures the tasty…
Prepare for the desktop update onslaught with Snow Leopard and Windows 7
Note symptoms. Search for them on Google. Download update or apply fix. Test results. Rinse, repeat. Wait for the next problem to appear.That’s been my life for the past several days, after updating my MacBook Pro to Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard,…
No more robocalls? Maybe it’ll be safe to answer the phone again
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission had made my day. In their release entitled, New Rule Prohibiting Unwanted "Robocalls" to Take Effect on September 1, we learn:Beginning September 1, 2009, prerecorded commercial telemarketing calls to consumers…
Facebook’s third-party developers know everything about you
Third-party developers, using Facebook's published APIs, can gain access to nearly everything on your personal Facebook profile — no matter how your privacy settings are configured. You can learn about this in a disturbing post, "What Facebook…
Alan’s PR suggestions for open source project teams
What do I wish that open source project teams understood about dealing with the press? That's the question posed by my dear friend Esther Schindler about six weeks ago. She was doing a panel on open-source software at OSCON, and was also researching…
My favorite comic strip: Pearls Before Swine
Stephen Pastis' strip, Pearls Before Swine, is almost always excellent and evokes a smile (if not outright laughter). The adventures of Ego-Man, shown at right, are a bit older but still among the goodies. (Click the comic to enlarge.) Fun characters,…
What are the odds that Microsoft will repeat its racial photo blunder?
As was widely reported on Tuesday, Microsoft admitted doctoring a stock photo image of a black businessman — used for a U.S. campaign — to depict a white businessman instead for a Polish campaign. You can see the two versions of the photo…
Resurrecting a dead MacBook Pro
It's back... From Beyond the Crypt!A good friend and colleague, who shall rename nameless (you know who you are!), had an unfortunate incident involving a 24-ounce cup of iced coffee, a two-year-old Apple 15" MacBook Pro, and a canvas tote bag.…
Texting technology targets tiny tots
How young is too young for texting?My teenage son has an iPhone 3G. Maybe we've spoiled him, but he does use the technology: he checks and updates our shared family calendar, he texts with his parents and friends, and he checks email. Sure,…
Attacking Microsoft
Look out, Microsoft: The Free Software Foundation is on a crusade to cast out sin, and they’ve done everything but name Windows 7, “Beelzebub.”Once upon a time, the FSF’s mission was to promote and support “free” software. The company…
You have to be crazy to believe this scam
This looks like the usual lottery scam: Yyou reply, they'll ask for your bank account number, and there you go. But check out the bottom of the message. What's with that? The headers reveal that hackers compromised an email account at University…
Linking Facebook and Twitter: Words of advice
Please don't link your Twitter account to automatically update your Facebook status, but if you do, remember it when you tweet. (This was a separate item in my "Facebook tips" blog post, but I've pulled it out.)Facebook and Twitter are different…
International cellular data usage is really expensive: $15 or $20 per megabyte
An American friend forwarded an expensive message from AT&T. He took his smartphone on a business trip to Canada, and didn't think about it. Oops. Or rather, "Ouch!"From: AT&T Customer Care for WirelessHigh International Data Usage AlertOur…
Facebook suggestions and best practices
Hello, Oscar the Grouch here. Here are some suggestions that I have for my friends and colleagues who use social media — Facebook, particularly.These are based on my observations; while they probably overlap other lists, that's coincidental.…
U.S. Commerce Association lauds my electrical equipment repair skills
A bogus organization calling itself the "U.S. Commerce Association" is mass-emailing out bogus emails hyping a bogus award, so that it can sell business owners bogus plaques. Here's what I received:From: "Board of Review" Subject: Second Notification:…
The cause of United’s flight delays: Too many email addresses!
This is unbelievable.My profile on United Airlines' website is configured to send me three copies of every flight notification, like if my flight is going to be changed or delayed. One of the notifications goes to my wife's email, one goes to…