SlideSold – SlideShare is a social sharing site geared towards presentation slides that was later acquired by LinkedIn. Over the years I have posted a few presentations there, but haven’t used it a lot. This week it was announced SlideShare was sold to Scribd. Interestingly I haven’t heard anything more about this other than the email announcement I got on it from SlideShare. Equally interesting is that Microsoft, who acquired LinkedIn a few years ago, is actually selling something, which I can’t recall them doing before. In any case, it will remain to be seen if I keep using it, depending on what Scribd does with their acquisition.

Not Binging It – This wasn’t the only change I noticed at Microsoft this week. Bing, their search engine, had an element of gamification where you could earn points for searching and daily search-related games, and use those points for a variety of things including gift cards. From typical daily checking of the news and playing said games, I would typically earn enough for a $5 Starbucks gift card every month. This week they change how many points you would earn for each activity, and it pretty much mean I wouldn’t earn much of anything, especially as I use DuckDuckGo as my primary search engine. As a result, I stopped playing the games.

Molto Bene – So what did I fill the 10 minutes of my morning with now that I am not using Bing? I reinstalled Duolingo, the language-learning app, and restarted Italian lessons.

8’s Enough – I’m not a fan of floating shelves, but I am tasked with hanging them. I had to hang a few that came without hardware. After a little research online I learned about figure 8’s which would seem to do the trick though I couldn’t find them in local stores and had to order online.

How Do You Virtually Run? – The whole family signed up for Gourdy’s virtual 5K Pumpkin Run /Walk as friends are going to organize for several families to actually run and walk together. I’ll be walking.

How You Lean Coffee – I participated in my first Lean Coffee this week. What is it? In short, people submit topics, vote on what topics to talk about, then spent 5 minutes to discuss each one. After the allotted time participants then decide if the topic needs more time. It was a fun and energized way to keep conversations and ideas flowing.

Bon Voyager – I finished binge-watching Star Trek: Voyager this week. The biggest think that stuck out for me through all seven seasons is why they never made a copies of the Doctor? For those who never watched it, the Doctor was a holographic program. I am sure there are numerous articles online about this, but I’d rather leave it to my imagination.

Yet Elegant – Simple Mills recently added a line of Veggie Pita Crackers to its stable of grain-free products, and now they’re a delicious part of my stable of what I am eating.

Packing It In – To say fans of the Green Bay Packers are loyal is an understatement. However the pandemic took precedent when their season ticket holders were surveyed and 80% said they would opt out of the upcoming season. Note that the opt-out meant they would still retain their season ticket accounts, much to the dismay of those on the multi-decade long waiting list.

G I Had This? – G Suite, the bundle of apps from Google that includes Gmail and online storage, sent a confusing email to its customers that the search giant was removing support pages. I got emails from my clients asking about this, as they had no idea what they were talking about and knew of no support pages. From some searching I found they weren’t alone in the confusion.

Art 2020 – Though I am non-partisan, I felt bad for the City of Milwaukee, who was banking on banking on hosting the Democratic National Convention. The in-person events scheduled for July were reduced to much smaller, mostly virtual events this past week. Despite this there were still some visual elements, including a replica of the Apollo Theatre sign that turned off a couple of letters to show the word “poll.”

You Never Forget – When I picked up the above-pictures six-pack of Samuel Adams Octoberfest this week I had a realization – it was 30 ago (give or take a few weeks) that I had my first Sam Octoberfest, and thus my first micro-brewed beer. It was shortly after I moved to Boston and my friend Norm came to town, and we stopped at his aunt and uncle’s house and they offered me one. Needless to say this Bud Light drinker changed his ways for good with that first taste a score and a half ago.

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

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Most of what I share this week was learned earlier in the week, as the latter part was pre-occupied with why my kiddos’ school system did a last minute change from partial in-school learning to all virtual. I guess the silver lining was that learning was on my mind all week, right?

• Chipotle recently added riced cauliflower to its menu as an option for its burritos and bowls, and I finally tried it. It’s not bad, but not sure if it’s worth the $2 upcharge.
• A few weeks ago I talked about other weekly summary-type posts out there, and one that predates even my first run at this is Five Things on Friday by my friend James Whatley. James shares a lot of great tech, social and cultural things in his unique, energetic style. You can read it on his site or sign-up for this weekly emails.
• Do you know what a favicon is? If you’re on a desktop or laptop computer, look at the browser tab and you will see a small icon there. Why do I bring this up? This week I learned of an online credit card skimming scheme using favicons. Talk about things not being as they appear.
• Remember Google+? Did you even know what it was? It was another short-lived social platform from Google that was shutdown last year. If you had a Google+ account you may want to check out this class action lawsuit about Google+ private user information being leaked public.
• This summer we were originally planning a trip back to Denmark, this time taking the family we didn’t have the last time we went. Had we went we likely would have gone to CopenHill, which I learned about this week from a native Dane. It is a combination biomass generator and recreational facility, including a year-round skiing hill. Anything to avoid seeing the Little Mermaid again.
• Years ago I learned a lot of the success of Redbox was due to the fact people didn’t return DVDs right away, and thus paid extra as the discs just sat there. This happened to me, and I ended up carting them to another city we visited this week. As I had no idea where the nearest kiosk was, I searched on “redbox near me” and the first result was for Google Maps, so it had to be correct, right? Wrong. It took me to a former Walmart store that was closed. I then tried the Redbox mobile app, and quickly learned of its lack of intuitiveness to find a nearby location without first searching for movies. What I eventually found was just across the street from the former Walmart.
• Kathy Fredrickson is a friend and a digital marketing professor at University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and realized as coronavirus was altering businesses that said businesses needed digital marketing help. And she had the students that could help them. As the virus continues its impact, she has branded this as SOS for Small Business and is not only continuing it locally but expanding it across the country. Watch this presentation Kathy gave last week on SOS and how the first offering went and helped businesses.
• GIMP is an open source image editor, and a suitable, affordable replacement for Adobe PhotoShop. The more I use it, the more I like it, and I don’t need to subscribe to PhotoShop. One feature I used a lot in PhotoShop, putting a box with a colored border around part of an image is easier to do in GIMP.
• Within a short drive of me are 2 drive-in movie theatres, and the other night I went to one where we watched Open Season, an animated comedy, and Paul Blart: Mall Cop, a comedy animated in a different way. Though I have seen Paul Blart several times, Open Season was new. As I watched it, there was something familiar about the music. As it turns out, Paul Westerberg, the lead singer of The Replacements, composed most of the songs. Open Season came out in 2006 and I am just learning this, but that’s fine with me.

The wisdom of the fool won't set you free.

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

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As businesses and individuals return to work, of equal importance to safety and protection is communications – we need to know as much as possible to make informed decisions. One area I have found lacking is with the Web sites of businesses and professionals. Many sites I see in the course of trying to return to normal suffer from a dearth of vital information needed for people to determine if they are still operating or not, and if so how.

Here I offer seven recommendations for your Web site to indicate the status of your business and how to help return to normal as possible these days.

Add alert functionality upfront – If there’s something important you want people to know, put it right up front. How? You can have a brightly colored alert banner anchored to the top of your home or all Web pages to inform people. A browser pop-up can also achieve this. As you may not have this functionality already, you might have to check with your Web site consultant or look into the services of your Web site platform to see how you can gain this. It may be easier than you think, and even if it comes with a cost, it will be well worth it.

Are you open? – This may be obvious to you the business owner, but not all Web sites I visit make it clear. The messaging may be nested into the design of the site but not easily found. Using the alert functionality mentioned above is one way to achieve this. Another is to look at all of the content of your site and make whatever adjustments needed to indicate so.

Update location, hours and contacts – Due to changes in your business, have you relocated? Did you change your hours? Do you have different contact information? Is this new information reflected on your Web site? If not, it should be.

Changes to your business practices – If the experience your customers will have with you has changed as a result of COVID-19, indicate this on your Web site. Will someone have to wear a mask? Do you have shielding in place? Is distancing required? This is important for people to understand if they can still do business with you and will give them the peace of mind they may need that it's safe to do business with you.

Add social media feeds to your site – Many businesses and individuals are updating their social media accounts more than their Web site. Why not kill two birds with one stone and put the feeds from your social media accounts onto your home page? How to do this varies depending on your site and you should follow the previous tips on checking your Web site provider or consultant.

Start an email list – Many businesses found out the hard way when they had to shut down that the only contact with their customers was when they came through their door. As my good friend John Wall says on his Marketing Over Coffee podcast, you've got to have a house list. Every business, every professional should have an email list with the sign up on the Web. There are many different services where you can set up a mailing list, some are even free. For example, if you are reading this by email, I use MailChimp in order to create and send the emails from my RSS feed. You can customize templates and the content to send to your customers and contacts.

Add e-commerce – There's no time like the present to take online payments or sell products and services online. Just last week, Chipotle just started doing this by selling clothing and other items online. Now the company that was all about selling burritos and bowls is now into merchandising. If you don't have a specific new product idea, simply having the ability to take credit cards is important. It can be as simple as setting up a PayPal account and pay by the transaction by transaction, then upgrade to a credit card service when you get more volume.

Deconstructing vital Web site updates

As social media and other services have evolved, much business content and functionality, even e-commerce, uses them. Your Web site may have been neglected or completely out of sync with other messaging you have out there. As Coronavirus remains out there, I recommend these vital Web site updates to ensure it remains an integral part of your business.

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

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While many I know on the US East coast were clearing fallen trees from Hurricane Isaias this week, I tried not to be too guilty of the unseasonably cool weather we had in the Midwest, which perhaps made me more open to things around me.

• My friend Jimmy’s brother Bobby was recently diagnosed with a form of cancer, and now his family is facing a financial uncertainty along this unplanned medical journey. A GoFundMe page was setup for him, and if you are so inclined, please help this family in need.
• After watching the SpaceX Falcon capsule successfully splash down this past weekend, I was reminded of an article I read a while back and re-read this week about how Elon Musk and SpaceX use agile.
• I did some brainstorming on how I may do a guest lecture I have been invited back to give to an Interactive Web Management class at the University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh. In the process I recalled a past lecture I gave remotely in 2015 using Personify software. So I looked into Personify again, and learned that literally just a few weeks ago they released a version of their previously PC-only software for the Mac. I am going to evaluate both of their remote presentation apps for options on how I can best present a typically interactive, in-person learning session I have been fortunate to give over the last few years.
• Without getting into any awkward details, the Native deodorant brand is my new favorite.
• My co-working space, World HeadQuarters, announced they are moving to 2 new spaces at the end of the month. I have mentioned this space over time but hadn’t written anything in detail on it, and will do so once they move. The current space, a former ski shop, is very unique but not as functional as what the new spaces will offer.
• My favorite domain name registrar Name.com wrote on their blog about the opt-in security features they offer. As a long-time customer I leverage some of these, and am fortunate I have the choice to do so, unlike other registrars who invoke them without warning, no matter what they say. And yes, the link to Name.com will earn you – and me – a $5 credit if you move your domain names to them like I did over a decade ago.
• Healthcare software firm athenahealth recently rebranded one of its products as athenaIDX. This was nostalgic for me and hundreds others who worked for IDX Systems Corporation back in its heyday. IDX was acquired and went thru corporate selloffs and mergers before athenahealth got the product. The rebranding was extra nostalgic for me as I was involved in the last rebranding of its products that IDX did, as I managed the domain names for the firm, I was one of a few people in the whole organization who knew what the new brands would be before they were announced. I wrote about this a few years back as it was part of the project I didn’t “politically” work on.
• I would have thought the phone system hold music at SiriusXM would have been much better, but alas no. And if you truly want to get the best price from them, you have to commit to canceling, then they will offer it to you.
• I watched the documentary Juice: How Electricity Explains the World this week. It was a well-done presentation about electricity consumption and generation around the world. Even better was that, in my humble opinion, it was relatively objective and had no strong political leanings. And entertaining and educational as well.
• For my last post on book takeaways from The Fight for Four Freedoms I used Temi, the voice to text service I found a few weeks ago. I actually wrote it in a notebook, read it into my iPhone, then uploaded the audio file to Temi. As they don’t charge for your first submission, I saved about $1.50 for the six-minute audio file. Not to forget the likely half-hour I would have spent to initially type it. It still required editing, but the time savings for the initial transcription was well worth it.
• There was a bridge to nowhere, and now there’s stairs to nowhere. Gabriel Lofts are new apartments in a 100+ year old former lodge and furniture store building in Appleton, Wisconsin. The builder said they were going to retain many of the building’s unique features, and one is the above-pictured staircase, though it now leads to nowhere. At the bottom of the stairs at street level is a glass door, so I am curious to how they plan on using this space.

Happy Half-Century Mr. Northwoods!

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

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For myself growing up in New England, I was always interested and intrigued about the history of the United States. As a child, I was engrossed with the celebration of the Bicentennial of our country. Being in the area where early events in America happened, it was almost like I was absorbing history rather than studying it.

For a lot of the rest of the history of my homeland, however, I don't know it to the same level of depth. Much of it to me is top-line to the timeline, but without a lot of the minutiae. This is why I was interested in reading The Fight for the Four Freedoms by Dr. Harvey Kaye. I learned about the book after I heard Kaye on local radio interviews. I borrowed a copy of the book from a friend to learn the author's take on this time in history.

My takeaways from the book were a mix of thoughts on myself and history.

I had no recollection of ever learning about the Four Freedoms – As I read through the book, I often ask myself, why didn't I already know about this? Thinking back on what I learned in public schools, that one history class in college, stories from family members who lived through that era as well as my own personal reading, I knew a lot of the basics – the Great Depression, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (aka FDR), the New Deal, Social Security and of course the U.S.’s entry and time in World War II. All things considered, I can’t recall the Four Freedoms at all.

In short, the Four Freedoms were goals or quests FDR had for America: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear. He first presented these when he addressed Congress in January, 1941. I know the first 2 are in the U.S. Constitution. The last two, in my own assessment, are “covered” with the phrase “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” in the U.S. Declaration of Independence.

There were a lot of government “acronym” agencies during this time, and now – Thinking back on my own history lessons, I knew about the Work Progress Administration (WPA) and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), but that was about it. The book lists programs after program, agency, after agency, and all were referred to the acronym for their much longer names. We of course have this today, with new ones created just this year. If I were to look back my guess is there were more in between and even before this time. Each acronym comes with its own overhead needs to exist: budget, staff, etc., and one always hopes the results are worth the effort to create it.

History plus opinion of this period of time – I knew going into the book, from listening to him on radio interviews, the author has strong liberal / progressive political views. As I read the book, this was evident in the very positive tone given to FDR and all that government did, in contrast to the negative tone towards business and free enterprise. Granted from my own knowledge I know all wasn’t good from business, and many had the same feelings towards the government. I was able to read beyond this, however, and still got the essence of the Four Freedoms. Not bad for a self-described centrist and supporter of business and entrepreneurship.

I recommend The Fight for the Four Freedoms for anyone who is interested depth on this topic and period of time. It painted a good picture of the beliefs of FDR, those who followed him and the meaning behind his goals. As I borrowed this book, I returned it to its rightful owner and did not pass this one onto someone else.

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

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