Tech tips Articles

One of the most difficult tasks as it relates to time management is keeping the inbox functional. You’ll see that I don’t aspire to have a zero anywhere there, just manageable. I use my inbox as a place to store data. When I’m standing at Costco I can scroll through emails from Mr. G and be reminded that I need to buy shaving cream and gift cards. I love the ability to search keywords in my inbox and instantly come up with the email I knew I needed.

Unfortunately some marketers and publicists add bloggers like me to their email blast lists. They do it a bunch of different ways and not only do these pitches not work with me (and you can assume they won’t work with any solo blogger) but they can backfire in monumental ways that folks on the other end need to be aware of.

I am not interested in the same pitch everyone else gets. The only reason people read this site is because I am a “breath of fresh air” (which is apparently Australian for “obnoxious”). If a publicist emails me and 200 of my closest colleagues there is no good reason for me to respond. I don’t need the same information as everyone else. I need different information. I need to continue being a breath of fresh air. I’m willing to bet most other bloggers would agree.

When the salutation reads:

Hey there,
Hi,
Hi Mommy Blogger,

You’ve made it easy on me. I hit “spam” and your email disappears forever. Do I recognize that this method cuts me off from potentially great offers? Yes, but I also recognize that a good PR firm wouldn’t risk this. Your spam is my litmus test.

Advanced spammers use icontact, MailChimp, Constant Contact and other similar services. Last week I spent one morning unsubscribing to more than a dozen of these email subscriptions. I have ONE Constant Contact subscription that I’ve opted-in to, it’s for my children’s school.

It’s nice that all of these email subscription services have a one click unsubscribe available, but you still have to enter your email so I guess it’s not one click. What I’d like to do is be able to block Mail Chimp users from adding me to their lists. So I contacted Mail Chimp to ask them about this and they let me know in a form letter that it was not possible, I should use the unsubscribe button. I have a hard time believing that no one at Mail Chimp is capable of adding email addresses to a black list. If that is the truth then I’d be wary of using Mail Chimp’s service because they aren’t particularly advanced. What I suspect is the more likely scenario is that they just don’t care to spend resources on things like making people not hate them. 

This week, as a special thank you to Mail Chimp I forwarded each and every unsolicited bit of email they sent me to CustomerSupport@MailChimp.com. Some days it was five in a row, other days there were none. I received a form letter explaining that I could unsubscribe and I’d diligently respond to that form letter by explaining to them that I’d like them to block my email address from their servers. I have a feeling that I wasted someone’s time and that they felt annoyed and less productive when I sent them the same message over and over again.

The folks over at Constant Contact are terrific. Yes, their clients totally abuse my inbox but they are willing and able (as every email subscription service should be) to block my email from their servers. Alas I need Constant Contact because my children’s school sends their weekly updates this way. I’ve been forwarding all my Constant Contact emails to Abuse@ConstantContact.com and they’ve blocked my alternate emails from their servers.

I’ve also set up filters for my email accounts. Kardashian and Oprah have their own filters as well as a few other celebrity names. I mean if you’ve already got the endorsement of a retired talk show host and an amateur porn star what more can I do for a brand?

In 2012 my inbox won’t be an out of control beast. I’m not sure how I’ll make that happen. I might switch email addresses again next week as I find that buys me a few months of manageability.

What do you suggest?

Remember when I said that we spent November 10th shopping? Remember when I told you my Mom hates shopping? Well, my mom hates shopping less when the folks from Savvy.com hand her a little envelope of cash.

So basically with the Savvy app (or website) you take the items that you want and put them on a “want” list. This is good for people who aren’t me. If you’re me, you take the items you want and put them in your home. I have little use for delayed gratification and my husband will be pleased to know that there are only a few things that I actually want.

Now, if you’re me the “want” list is short but the shopping list is long. I don’t shop sales because my experience tells me that by the time things are on sale I’ve either decided I don’t want or need them or they are sold out of my size.

This is where Savvy comes in.

Most retailers will honor price changes within 10-14 days. Most consumers do not walk around with a pocket full of reciepts looking for cash back on a price adjustment. Savvy shoppers do and now Savvy.com steps in to make people like me appear to be savvy shoppers.

Basically you enter your receipt (just snap an iphone picture) and then savvy saves your items. When prices drop Savvy.com sends you an email. You can just pop back into the store and get your money.

So yeah, you can go shopping all week before the stores look like a tornado hit them and then leisurely drop in at J Crew in 12 days and get the price adjustment. It’s really smart.

Any good start up is only as good as it’s executive team. The folks who were at the event were telling us about their lead engineer who grew up in a really tough part of Los Angeles and overcame odds that were stacked against him. Maybe the mimosas made us more receptive to the message, but combining that with the fact that the marketing manager seems to truly admire his wife… well, Mom and I were smitten.

It’s in beta, so if you need your technology to work perfectly at every turn this is not the app for you. If you’re excited about new ideas, getting sale prices without having to shop sales, and supporting new business models then this is for you.

And really, the folks at Savvy.com gave my mom a really great birthday, and that just tickles me.

Savvy is available in the itunes store and coming soon to the Android market.

Over at the Windows Blog they’re celebrating Windows XP turning ten. Ten years ago I was pushing a double stroller and praying that two children would pick one naptime. I had an enormous Gateway computer that I absolutely loved and I spent all our discretionary income on getting the fastest internet connection we could afford.

I was buying and selling women’s couture and my only business partners were eBay and the USPS. My cell phone carrier was US Cellular (I just shredded the papers) and I’m pretty sure I had the top of the line cell phone… because I always do.

Ten years ago, like today, all I needed to launch a business was a few quiet minutes, a robust computer and a stable internet connection.

Nothing has changed. Everything has changed.

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it before, but I’m part of the Windows Champions Program. Basically I get to learn about windows all year long and I get the kickiest tech support a woman could ever ask for and in return I write a few blog posts a year telling y’all about how Windows can be part of your online life. Oh, they’re going to let me play with tons of tech too.

Our first webinar was about how to use hotmail and it was impressive. I’m using the interface a little bit and getting more comfortable with it. It’s possible that I’ll share it with everyone one day soon. I’ve got a video that I took… and a touch of ADD so we might not actually get there.

I missed the second webinar because they’re on Thursdays and everyone who knows me knows that I play tennis every Thursday for the rest of my life. I don’t work Thursdays, I never have, never will, and this will keep me out of therapy (that and the fact that I’m not particularly introspective).

The second webinar was about Windows Live Writer, which my friend Kristen had told me about. Actually Kristen had sort of raved about it with love in her eyes, so I was sad to miss that one.

A few days before the webinar I went and downloaded Live Writer (it’s a free download) and decided to check it out on my own. I don’t need a webinar to tell you that Windows Live Writer cut my blogging time by at least 30%. I no longer worry about a buggy connection, clicking through on a cumbersome dashboard or worrying that with WordPress what you see is not actually what you get (WYSIWYG).

I’m here typing my post into Windows Live Writer and when I’m done I’ll either hit publish or schedule it for later.

You may or may not have noticed that I’m using images much more often. You know why? Because you can just copy and paste images into this thing and they’ll resize for you. You can also watermark images, but I’m not all that concerned with anyone stealing my craptastic photos.

You can also use Live Writer for more than one account, so in theory I could be publishing here or at any number of other places. In reality I’m lucky I can get a post out here.

You won’t find Live Writer tutorials because there’s no need for one. It’s really that simple.

I would have completely forgotten about Windows Live Writer but for my neighbor not liking me. You see, my neighbor and I were at Kim Tracy Prince’s birthday party and she did not say hello to me. Since there were only a dozen of us there I was a little put out that she didn’t say hello. Naturally I didn’t say hello to her because I knew that she was irritated with me or she would have greeted me. Right? Right, work with me here.

So after the party I went home and explained to my husband that Romy doesn’t like me. He asked me if I said hello to her and I explained to him that I couldn’t possibly because she didn’t say hello to me and obviously… then he lost interest and muttered something about Mars and Venus.

I explained the scenario to my daughter who immediately understood. I told her that it was totally unacceptable for our neighbor to not like me and she nodded knowingly. When I was grating a thousand lemon rinds to make Julia’s Lemon Loaf Cake Jane looked at me and said, “Bring one of those to the neighbor and she’ll have to like you.”

So I grated a few extra lemons, actually if I’m going to be honest, Alexander grated a few extras. I brought the cake over to Romy who was surprised that I thought she was mad at me. Which clearly shows that she is a wonderful actress because I am never ever wrong. I gave her the cake and we chatted about blogging.

She spends a lot of time blogging. A lot. I explained to her that I’m a three hour a day girl and that if it can’t get done in that amount of time it doesn’t need to get done. Romy went on to tell me that she adds a lot of links and it’s time consuming… Oooh I can fix that! I practically jumped up and down clapping my hands. Try Windows Live Writer. Just do it, you’ll thank me.

And I’ll tell ya what, sometimes baking a cake doesn’t do a damn thing, but letting a blogger know how to manage their time, that’ll make them love you every time. Windows trumps Julia Childs in suburbia. Who knew?

Recently I spent a day with the folks at DocStoc and made a few videos. If you’re interested in more they’re after the jump.

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If you’re like me you might not be sure what ASUS-Automobili Lamborghini VX7 means. It means OMG Lambo has a computer. Yeah, that LAMBO and it’s the sexiest thing I’ve had my hands on in a long time.

As part of the Windows Champions program I’ll be able to play with a bunch of computers and technology this year. When the folks from Windows heard me talking about cars with love my voice they asked if I wanted to try out a Lamborghini computer. After jumping up and down and sqealing and hugging them a few times I said, “Why yes, thank you very much for the kind offer.” In my grown up voice.

Here is the computer

The packaging on the ASUS Lambo VX7 is exquisite. This is a luxury computer for a lover of luxury. When I pulled the box out I felt like I was opening a Birkin or a Kelly bag. Every bit of attention is paid to the details. If you watched the video you heard my son’s excitement when he saw the body of the notebook.

Although it’s portable, this is not a small computer and if you are planning a nomadic life with your notebook this might not be the solution for you. It weighs almost 8 and half pounds and it’s screen is sweet at 15.6″ and all that styling is bulky. For around the house and maybe to the office and back it’s still a portable enough notebook and it’s so beautiful you’ll forgive it it’s heft.

ASUS didn’t just slap a Lambo logo on this thing and ship it out. This computer is fast. It starts fast, it operates fast and it’s screen is stunning. It comes standard with a Blu Ray reader and writer. Watching a movie on this computer is an absolute treat for your eyes.

The ASUS VX7 is the perfect computer for the automotive fan. It’s an impressive design piece on a desk and it’s a workhorse. (see specs below) Mostly though, my kids love having a Lambo in the house. I’d expected the VX7 to be incredibly expensive so I was surprised to see it available online for under $2,300. It would make an incredible gift if someone (say your wife… Mr. G) loves both technology and cars.

Oh, and here’s what happens when you start it up.

Specifications