Holiday gift idea #1: For the busy music lover

For that special someone who is always on the go, you can help him/her be productive while sitting on the throne!

The iCarta Stereo Dock is perfect for the bathroom.

Pros:

• You don’t feel like you’re wasting precious minutes.
• You can keep listening to your favorite podcast in the shower.
• Plays while it charges.
• Built-in speakers.
• Moisture-proof construction.

Cons:

• You still have to worry about accidently dropping your iPod into water.
• Bathroom bacteria will make its way onto the iPod eventually.
• Sometimes two minutes alone without noise or gadgets can be a good thing.
• You’ll be forever known as the guy/gal who gave that tiolet-iPod thingy.

Available now for $99.99 at SkyMall.com or Amazon.com. Enjoy!
-Roland

P.S. Have any gift ideas to improve productivity in the new year? Please let me know.

Roland Reinhart is an interactive marketing professional. His observations can be found at Chaos365.com and AdMadMan.com.

©2006 Roland Reinhart. All Rights Reserved.

Article: Becoming referable is a matter of earning, not asking.

Whether used to get your new job or a new client, professional references are more important than ever. Coworkers and clients move on to new positions and it is possible for you to loose touch with them. I’ve also noticed more people (including myself) do not provide written references any longer — partly out of concern for not being in control of how the information is used, and partly because some corporate policies do not permit written and oral referrals.

You might want to read this article by Jeffrey Gitomer: “Becoming referable is a matter of earning, not asking.”

(According to Jeffrey) Here are the elements that breed proactive referrals:

• Be likeable. This is the first prerequisite. Without a friendly relationship, there is no need to go further.
• Be reliable. The company, the product, the service, AND you, must be “best,” and “there when needed.”
• The customer considers you an expert in your field. To be referable, you must have an expertise that breeds customer confidence.
• They trust you. The customer is CERTAIN that you will do everything in the referred party’s best interest, like you have with theirs.
• You have a track record of performance. You have already done the same thing with the customer and they’re comfortable that you can repeat the performance.
• They consider you valuable – a resource, not a salesman.

Definitely check it out the full article.
-Roland

Article: Contingency Plan for your Web-Based Business

Obviously, you should have all your information accessible in case of unexpected emergencies (e.g. natural disaster) or for your family in case you die suddenly.

While getting your personal financial summary in order, don’t forget to do so for your business.

I came across this really good article, A Contingency Plan for your Web-Based Business, that covers it from a business owner perspective.

I encourage you to check out both links.
-Roland

Save time when trying to schedule a meeting

I learned about this time saving tip from Merlin Man and think it’s brilliant.

Normally, in your office environment, you might be able to schedule a meeting with coworkers using MS-Outlook’s calendar to see when they appear to have available time. Outlook permits users to accept, decline or recommend alternate date/time. Unfortunately, these features typically don’t work when arranging a meeting with a group of people outside your network (i.e. clients, partners, vendors).

The simple solution is Doodle. Doodle allows you to structure a simple poll based on the dates/times you recommend. Then you send the link to your team mates and they vote on when they are available to meet. Finally, you review the results and issue your meeting invitation the way you normally would, knowing that the participants are less likely to decline.

Benefits:

• Simple interface.
• Anyone can access it remotely, via a Web browser.
• It’s free.

Limitations:

• You can only vote on date/time. It would be great to have flexibility to turn the columns into poll topics to vote on.
• It doesn’t integrate into your calendar application.
• Keep in mind this is a third-party, insecure tool, so don’t post anything too confidential.

In summary, Doodle is great, free tool for arranging meetings with your distributed work force, teammates, family, friends, etc. It’s not just for the office. Use it to schedule the best day to meet your friends after work. Find out the best day to have family come visit. Poll your friends to pick a date for a get-away trip. Check it out for yourself.

Enjoy!
-Roland

Roland Reinhart is an interactive marketing professional. His observations can be found at Chaos365.com and AdMadMan.com.

©2006 Roland Reinhart. All Rights Reserved.

Some Video iPods shipped with Windows virus

Earlier this week it was reported that McDonalds had distributed virus infected MP3 players. Another example has come to attention that shows that any brand (even Apple) isn’t immune from viral nuiscances.

Geek.com reports:

Apple ships some iPods with virus – Apple took what should have been a very embarrassing situation for the company and turned it into an opportunity to bash Microsoft. According to the company’s Support website, some Video iPods totaling less than 1% of those available were found to be carrying the Windows RavMonE.exe virus. The affected iPods were those available for purchase after September 12th of this year.

As posted on Apple.com

We recently discovered that a small number – less than 1% – of the Video iPods available for purchase after September 12, 2006, left our contract manufacturer carrying the Windows RavMonE.exe virus. This known virus affects only Windows computers, and up to date anti-virus software which is included with most Windows computers should detect and remove it. So far we have seen less than 25 reports concerning this problem. The iPod nano, iPod shuffle and Mac OS X are not affected, and all Video iPods now shipping are virus free.

As you might imagine, we are upset at Windows for not being more hardy against such viruses, and even more upset with ourselves for not catching it.

If you suspect your iPod may be infected, visit Apple.com for advice on how to remove the virus.
-Roland

Roland Reinhart is an interactive marketing professional. His observations can be found at Chaos365.com and AdMadMan.com.

©2006 Roland Reinhart. All Rights Reserved.

Mobile friendly Web sites – Free List

Here’s a tip. Maximize your downtime while in a waiting room or during your commute. I’ve compiled a list of useful URLs for mobile friendly Web sites. These are Web sites that provide content and functionality without clutter, and should be easily viewable in a mobile device (i.e. wireless pda, smartphone, cell phone, etc.). All you need is a mobile device capable of viewing Web sites.

This is not meant to be a list of a thousand mobile Web sites. It is in simple format so…

• You can use it as a quick reference.
• It has logical categories (i.e. News, Travel, Weather). Plus, some items (i.e. movie times, wine selector) you don’t know you’d need until you are out and about.
• It is a meant to be a fast download, so you wont waste time or wireless bandwidth.
• You’ll have a single list without having to click and drill down endlessly.

As of this writing, these are all functioning (not abandoned) Web sites.

Simply bookmark this URL in your phone/pda (it will be updated with new sites or corrections).
http://www.chaos365.com/mobile/

Or, copy the URLs below…

News and Interests:
AdAge
Bloglines
Business Week
C|Net News.com (Or this)
CNN
Digg
Geek (Mac) (PDA)
MacNN
Motorsport News
The Onion
Reuters
SciFi Channel
Slashdot
Time
The New York Times
TechCrunch
USAToday (Or this)
Yahoo

Weather:
AccuWeather
Ask
Weather.com
Yahoo! Weather

Travel:
American Airlines
British Airways
Cathay Pacific
Continental Airlines
Delta
Dollar Rental Car
Expedia
KLM
Northwest Airlines
Quantas Airlines
United Airlines

Directions:
Ask (Directions)
Ask (Maps)
MapQuest
Google Maps (Download application)

Portal:
Palm’s Portal
Yahoo’s Portal

Wines (Impress the ladies):
Mobile Drink Boy
WinePros

Movies Times:
InfoSpace
MovieFone

Search:
Ask
Google

Email (caution: not all https secure):
Gmail (Or this)
MSN Hotmail
Yahoo! Mail

Package Tracking:
Fedex Tracking
UPS

Misc:
Amazon
Edmunds
Handy Facts (Flu or Cold?)
IMDB
Ask Currency Conversion
Ask Area Code Lookup

I hope you find this list useful. Simply bookmark this URL in your phone today.
http://www.chaos365.com/mobile/

I’ll update the list periodically with new sites and/or corrections. So you’ll always have reliable info.

Enjoy!
-Roland

Roland Reinhart is an interactive marketing professional and Palm Treo fan. His observations can be found at Chaos365.com and AdMadMan.com.

©2006 Roland Reinhart. All Rights Reserved.

Article: McDonald’s Promotion Serves Up Virus-Infected MP3 Players

Adrants.com reports:

McDonald’s Promotion Serves Up Virus-Infected MP3 Players
As part of a McDonald’s Japan promotion, the burger giant, along with Coke, gave away 10,000 MP3 players to those who purchased specially marked cups of Coke. Unfortunately, the MP3 players were infested with QQPass, a piece of spyware, that, once connected to people’s PCs, allowed hackers access to passwords and other personal information. McDonald’s issued a public apology and a recall for the infected MP3 players. It’s unclear whether the company made any restitution for any data lost by those who were infected.

Lesson learned: You really can’t trust anything you get for free. Even a seemingly harmless, generic MP3 player can cause chaos for you, resulting in much wasted time and frustration to fix the problem.

Be wary and pass on the “free stuff.”
-Roland

Roland Reinhart is an interactive marketing professional. His observations can be found at Chaos365.com and AdMadMan.com.

©2006 Roland Reinhart. All Rights Reserved.

Mobile Solution: Google Maps

Your always on the go and Google can go with you to make your life a bit easier.

In my experience, looking up driving directions using the Palm Treo Web browser is a bit tedious. I’ve also tried to create and save MapQuest directions as a channel for Avantgo.

Google made getting directions a whole lot easier with it’s new Google Maps for mobile devices. It’s available for various models of the Treo, Blackberry and many more popular handsets. (Check out the compatible device list.) The install is under half MB and can be downloaded directly to your mobile device or installed during a sync with your desktop computer.

Once installed, you can get detailed directions and even real-time traffic for roughly 30 cities. You can zoom in and out of maps and view the locations as satellite images. Google also tries to enhance the experience with integrated search results (local business locations and contact information appear all in one place on your map).

It’s definitely useful and worth checking out, especially if you’ve been frustrated by other solutions. You can even view satellite images of your house as easily as if you were at your computer.

Download Google Maps: www.google.com/gmm

Compatible device list: www.google.com/gmm/devices.html

I hope you find it useful.
-Roland

Roland Reinhart is an interactive marketing professional and a Palm Treo fanatic. His observations can be found at Chaos365.com and AdMadMan.com.

©2006 Roland Reinhart. All Rights Reserved.

Mobile Solutions: Lookup from Google with SMS

Situation: Your out and about and need to find one of the following fast:

• Thai restaurant
• Movie time
• The French translation for “coffee”

Q: What do you do?
A: Send a text message to Google, of course.

Google has continued it’s tradition of unbounded usefulness. Even if you don’t have a Web browser on your phone, you can look up a variety of useful information, real-time, via (SMS) text messaging. Simply send a text message and get the answer you need. It works suprisingly well.

SMS Quick Start
1. Start a new text message and type in your search query
2. Send the message to the number “46645″ (GOOGL)
3. You’ll receive text message(s) with results
Tip: For help send the word ‘help’ as a text message to 46645.

• Local listings: hospital San Jose CA
• Driving directions: pasadena CA to santa monica CA
• Movies: world trade center 94110
• Weather: weather dallas tx
• Stock quotes: tgt
• Q&A: population of Japan
• Glossary: define prosimian
• Translation: translate coffee in french
• Froogle: price mp3 player
• Zip code: 94043
• Area code: 650
• Calculator: 160 pounds * 4000 feet in calories
• Currency conversion: 5 usd in yen
• Sports: ny jets or boston bruins
• Help: help
• Tips: tips

See for yourself. Check out detailed instructions and a live demo of Google SMS.

I hope you find this useful.
-Roland

Roland Reinhart is an interactive marketing professional and Palm Treo fanatic. His observations can be found at Chaos365.com and AdMadMan.com.

©2006 Roland Reinhart. All Rights Reserved.

Article: User security education is pointless

News.com had an interesting article: “Security expert: User education is pointless”

“Users are often called the weakest link in computer security. They can’t select secure passwords, and they write down passwords and give them out to strangers in exchange for treats.”

“I don’t believe user education will solve problems with security because security will always be a secondary goal for users.”

“In order for security to work, it must be embedded in the process. It must be designed so that it does not conflict with the users’ primary goal. It can’t work if it interferes.”

The frustration with security is that it is labor intensive and costly on both the part of the company providing service, as well as the end user. There is a high degree of responsibility on both ends to maintain secure environments.

Think about the end user experience. For new computer users, right out of the box, security is not their first concern. Newbies struggle to operate the computer, gain access the Internet, and communicate with others. Only after a level of comfort has been achieved will newbies begin to become aware (slightly) of online risks. Manufacturers and service providers can do a much better job with pre-emptive consumer education right out of the box.

-Roland

Roland Reinhart is an interactive marketing professional. His observations can be found at Chaos365.com and AdMadMan.com.

©2006 Roland Reinhart. All Rights Reserved.

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