Last week I was riding the Brown Line in Chicago north and I got an idea to truly test out the video on the Nokia E75 I am evaluating. So I held it up against the window of the car and pressed record, and the following is what was captured.

If you cannot see the video above, follow this link to watch my Chicago Loop L Ride Recorded by Nokia E75.

This is a view heading north from the Randolph/Wabash stop to the Merchandise Mart stop. You will see the famous Chicago Theatre sign, the Chicago Board of Trade building and the Chicago River.

What do you think of the video? Is it of good quality? I have been using the camera for still photos and video and even took it to a wedding - look for a full report on my use of the Nokia E75 soon!

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Editor’s Note – The following is a guest post by Ralph Ingrassia, President of Endeavour Technologies, LLC, and a project management consulting guru. A longtime reader of The Hot Iron – not to mention client of Dunkirk Systems, LLC and close friend of Mike Maddaloni – he shares some of his wisdom and experience here, which we hope will be the first of many guest posts.

Who isn’t trying to cut costs these days, whether those be business or personal costs? One cost I was considering cutting was my weekly pool service. But, having tried that in the past and failed miserably, I had decided that maybe this wasn’t a cost worth cutting yet.

Over the years I’ve used the larger pool servicing companies, but have always been left disappointed by the higher prices, nickel and diming and lack of professionalism. So, being a small business owner myself, I settled on an independent Pool Guy and have been happy for the last few years. I could pick up the phone and he’d be here if I was having a party or if I had any problems whatsoever and it was always clear that his priority was that I was happy with his work.

Things started to change this year. The first point of concern was that his price went up this year again for the third year in a row. Now last year I understood a price increase due to the rising cost of gas but this year’s price increase left me confused. If anything I would have anticipated a steady price this year. Still, his prices were much more competitive than the larger companies mentioned above so I didn’t say anything. Then the nickel and diming started. Not much, but a few bucks here and there. Again, I was still saving money so I decided to just keep an eye on these charges over time.

Last week, however, was the deal-breaker. After completing my service he knocked on my door for payment and I happened to be on a conference call that I had muted. I decided that it would be easier to pay cash which left me $8 over the service price. I informed him that if he didn’t have any change we could just apply it to next week. The response was, “Ralph, you’re cheap just like my Dad.” “He won’t give a tip to save his life.” Now, anyone who knows me knows that I value good service and in situations where a tip is warranted, it is awarded. I worked in the restaurant industry and completely understand how the American restaurant system makes it so gratuities make up the lion’s share of a server’s income. Jokingly, I also thought that the fact that I actually had a Pool Guy would classify me as being not cheap.

But from the customer perspective, a line had been crossed here. As small business owners, we try to price ourselves competitively, prevent scope creep to manage the need for cost increases or business losses, and provide the utmost in professional service. In most cases, I find that it is the professional and personalized service that is most valued by my customers relative to my fees. The example I’ve detailed with my Pool Guy can be applied to my own business as well.

So what has gone wrong here? Is it just a case of temporary insanity or has the service provider forgotten that I am a long term customer that he has a pleasant relationship with and not a friend? Or, is it that this particular small business owner has forgotten to holistically look at their services and fees and evaluate if his customers are really receiving a superior service for their dollar regardless of a competitor’s price? In this case maybe it’s all three.

In the end, the decision that I made was to cut back on my service to bi-weekly instead of weekly. Was this decision driven solely by the lack of professionalism? No. But, it was a factor in a decision I had been teetering back and forth on.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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Business • Guest Post • (18) Comments • Permalink

There is momentum around New York City getting its own generic top-level domain (gTLD) - .nyc. The team organizing it, dotNYC LLC even has a ringing endorsement by former mayor Ed Koch. Where there has been a lot of controversy about the mass unveiling of gTLDs, this one has a lot of traction and makes a lot of sense to me, especially for a city of 8 million plus people.

So this got me thinking – which would be a more valuable domain name, pizza.com or pizza.nyc?

Last year pizza.com was sold in auction, and the price was reported to be around the US$2.6Million it sold for earlier. There is a Web site at pizza.com that has the tagline of “everything about pizza” but isn’t a compelling Web site, especially to someone like myself who 1) designs and develops Web site, 2) is 100% Italian American and 3) has eaten quite a bit of pizza in his time! I am not quite sure of the revenue model here; I can perform what is a Google search through the site for pizzerias, but you can’t order a pizza directly through the Web site.

When I think of pizza.nyc, all I think of is opportunity. The competition for this domain name will be significant, with parties from within New York City and beyond. The name recognition will almost be automatic in the City as there will be other .nyc domain names plastered throughout the city and people will start to naturally go to whatever dot nyc to get to a product or service. Then there is revenue. Pizza.com could be one pizza chain or a consortium of many. Whether it is direct or affiliate sales, there is definitely opportunity to make money from pizza in a city where people are passionate about their pizza.

This is not to say there is not opportunity for pizza.com. I do not have any insight or knowledge into its owners or their business model. What I am saying is based on what I see – both from what pizza.com is and what pizza.nyc can be.

What do you think? Are you in the pizza business? Are you a resident of New York City? Or do you just buy pizza? We’d like to know.

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Business • Domain Names • Technology • (5) Comments • Permalink

Thanks to the great folks at WOMWorld/Nokia, I will be evaluating the Nokia E75 device for the next few weeks. It arrived last week, and here is a video I made of my first impressions as I was unboxing it.

If you cannot see the video above, follow this link to watch my Nokia E75 Unboxing Video.

Since then, it has been my primary device, as I have switched my T-Mobile SIM from my Nokia E70 device to this. I am going to give it some time and really try it out, including installing the new Ovi Store and several apps, including Qik, ShoZu, Facebook and a Twitter client. I also plan on reading the instruction manual – seriously.

Since I made this video, I discovered a few things. The camera does not have a Carl Zeiss lens, though it has taken some decent pictures and video so far. The case that comes with it is very cool – the strap is not a locking, Velcro strap as I first thought. It is wrapped around the inside of the case, and I pull the tab to slide the E75 out of the form-fitting velour-like case. I haven’t seen such a case idea before, but I definitely like it.

Watch The Hot Iron for a full report when I am done reviewing it, or if I decide to share something in the interim, like photos or videos or who knows what! I will be sharing thoughts on it on Twitter - follow me @thehotiron.

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Earth Day has come and gone, and the Green Festival has blown through the Windy City. So does that mean thinking green is put aside until next year? Hardly! Especially for us entrepreneurs, thinking goes on all of the time, and in many instances it is often labeled as merely saving money.

Last week I was talking with a business partner and she was commenting on the cost of faxing for her, with an aging fax machine and a separate phone line. Asking me how I fax, I told her I use eFax and I don’t have either. The monthly cost is much less than a phone line, faxes come in as PDFs, and with Adobe Acrobat Professional to markup faxes no paper is involved.

I have been striving to be as paperless as possible, mostly to reduce clutter and to organize and index content for future use. Though eFax is nothing new, I have created one convert, who will be getting greener in more ways than one, just as I have been.

What ways do you save money and the environment at the same time?

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Business • Technology • (4) Comments • Permalink