Pretzel Logic

New Features!

2007-04-18T11:20:00.000-04:00

This blog has been a bit quiet lately, but Pretzel Logic has not. In fact, we're announcing some new e-mail features.

Before I get into the new features, I should explain that to get the most out of Pretzel Logic, you should be accessing your mail through IMAP, and not POP3. IMAP stores your mail on the server and only downloads what it needs to, while POP3 downloads everything to your local inbox then deletes it from the server. Since the mail is now stored only on your computer, it is not accessible from other locations. IMAP keeps the mail on the server and therefore allows you to check your mail from multiple computers, or multiple clients. You can even see your sent items and drafts! In addition, since the mail is still on Pretzel Logic's servers, it can be backed up and restored by Pretzel Logic should the need arise. Another difference is that POP3 only knows about your inbox, so any sorting must be done by your e-mail client. IMAP actually stores the individual folders on the server. This allows Pretzel Logic's servers to do the sorting for you, and allows the first new feature called "plus addressing" to work.

Plus Addressing
Plus addressing allows you to have an infinite number of unique e-mail addresses, and have those addresses be automatically sorted. Here's an example of how I use it:
I log into eBay and change my contact address from John.Ross@pretzel-logic.ca to John.Ross+eBay@pretzel-logic.ca. Then I simply create an eBay folder in my mail program and wait for mail to arrive to that address. When it does, it will be delivered into my eBay folder automatically. Forgot to create your eBay folder? No problem. If the folder doesn't exist, it simply gets delivered to your inbox.

That last point is a powerful feature. If the folder doesn't exist, then mail is sent to your inbox. That means you can just make up addresses on the fly! If a web page is asking you for your e-mail address and you're not sure if they're going to spam you, you can give them a unique address. If you notice that a unique address starts to get unwanted mail, you can tell where the address was harvested from. Don't want their messages in your inbox any more? Simply create a folder named the same as the plussed part of the address, and those messages will be diverted into the new folder.

Keen-eyed observers may have noticed that Pretzel Logic is already using plus addressing when we see a message we think might be spam. Not only do we change the subject of the Message to make it obvious, but we actually send it to your +spam address. Don't want spam in your inbox? Create a folder named spam and any new spam will get filtered for you.

New Mail Administration Tool
Up to this point whenever you wanted to create new e-mail accounts or add aliases, you had to ask us to do it for you. Now you can do all that yourself! There is a new Mail Administration tool that allows you to add and remove e-mail accounts, edit forwarding rules, change passwords, and even set quotas on accounts.

To access this new tool, either select the "Mail Admin" link from the "Support" menu, or go directly to the URL: http://admin.pretzel-logic.ca/mailadmin/. If you're the administrator for your site, you can login with your e-mail address and password. Once you've logged in, you should see all your domains, and can select the domain you wish to make changes to. If you want to allow more administrators to make changes, just let us know. There's no limit to how many people can have access. Of course, keep in mind that any administrator can edit all your e-mail accounts, so for security I recommend keeping that list small.

Of course if you still prefer to have us make the changes, that's fine too. All you ever have to do is ask.

That's it for now, but there's a few other nifty features coming soon. Keep an eye here for further announcements in the coming weeks.

Cheers.

Help Fight SPAM

2006-12-06T12:48:00.000-05:00

SPAM has exploded in recent months. Spammers are clearly winning the battle. One of the reasons is that we spend too much time on the defense and not enough on offence. We're all annoyed by SPAM and have employed filters to keep it out of out inbox, but how many of us are active in making sure SPAM never gets sent in the first place? If we make a little effort to stop SPAM where it originates, we might be able turn the tables on the war.

Here's what you can do to help with the fight:

Check your computer for viruses. Most SPAM is being sent from "zombies" - that is computers that have viruses on them and are controlled by someone else. Even if you're already running a virus scanner, it's a good idea to double check since no virus scanner will catch everything. One of the easiest ways to double check is to use a free online service from Trend Micro. They have an application that can check for viruses right from your web browser. Just point your browser to: http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ and follow the instructions. The scan and cleanup will each take an hour or so, but you can let it do it's work in the background. The long wait is worth the piece of mind.

Don't reply to SPAM; don't click on the links; don't buy any stock advertised in SPAM. SPAM exists because it works. Some types of SPAM get up to a 20% response rate. The stock SPAM that is dominating these days earns the spammers as much as 5% in two days. Yes, its possible you might also make a bit, the spammers are going to make a lot more - and send more SPAM. BTW, the average person who buys stocks advertised in SPAM chalks up a 3% loss - and that's before brokerage fees. As a personal favor, if you know of anyone who has ever bought anything advertised in a spam (even if it was a great deal) give 'em a good slap upside the head. Then tell everyone else to do the same.
Don't even open the message. Even if you don't click on anything sometimes spammers can tell if you've read the message. That's thanks to HTML messages which often load graphics from remote websites. All the spammer needs to do is see who loaded the graphic to know who's reading the messages. They can use this information to test how well different messages are making it past filters. They then use this information to make better SPAM that the filters can't catch.

Make sure your ISP blocks port 25 from its customers. It's a bit of a pain when ISPs do this, but it helps immensely. SPAM would be almost non existent if all ISPs did this. As I mentioned in the first point, most SPAM comes from zombied computers. There is no reason why your desktop should be connecting to any servers to send mail - other then your ISP's servers of course. The downside is that if you have a laptop you might have to change your settings between the office and home. There are ways to mitigate the pain, however - such as authenticated SMTP on a different port. If ISPs simply blocked all SMTP traffic from their customers to anything other then their servers, they can filter the mail even before it gets out of their network - and then contact the customers who are spamming.

Remember what you subscribed to and properly unsubscribe when you decide you no longer want the information. These days many SPAM filters can be trained, but as the saying goes "garbage in, garbage out". Basically, if you sign up for stock information from a legit source, then decide you no longer wish to read the bulletins, don't train your filter to stop them. This just pollutes the filter and makes it more likely that it will block legit e-mail and miss SPAM. On top of that, mail is still being sent to you, and it still takes bandwidth and resources from your provider.
Make sure your ISP publishes and checks SPF and/or DomainKeys records. They're a method to specify which mail servers are authorized to send mail for a given domain. This in itself doesn't stop SPAM, but once we can stop forgeries it will be easier to identify them. I'm sure we've all seen mail claiming to be from Microsoft Support telling us that there's a new virus - and to install the included patch to fix the problem. Would it surprise you to find out Microsoft Support never sends patches out by e-mail? Scams like that would grind to a halt if ISPs checked SPF and DomainKeys records. (Microsoft already publishes SPF records.)

These ideas aren't widely used because they don't directly benefit the people who implement them. However, if everyone used them we would have a much easier time in filtering out what does get sent. Then we can finally start treating the problems instead of the symptoms.

Cheers

Happy Birthday E-Mail!

2006-11-27T22:34:00.000-05:00

E-mail recently passed the big three-five. Sometime in late 1971 a geek by the name of Ray Tomlinson sent the first e-mail message.

Ahh... thirty five years. Marketing for penis enlargements has never been the same, and millions have hit the "enter" key with reckless abandon: for thirty five years people have been sending e-mails they wish they hadn't. Yes, I've sent more then a few I wish I could have pulled out of people's inboxes. At least none of my messages made it to the list of top five most embarrassing e-mails.

Not sure how to celebrate this holiday, but something tells me it should involve Viagra, genuine Rolex watches, and penny stocks. I'll leave the implementation to your imagination.

Cheers.

Enron E-mails

2006-10-27T14:07:00.000-04:00

Considering the theme of some of my recent posts, I just couldn't resist sending this link along.

As part of the court cases against the Enron executives, 200,000 e-mails were entered into evidence - and therefore became public domain. Now, a company called Trampoline has made all this e-mail available on-line at: http://enron.trampolinesystems.com.

Check it out. It really paints a fascinating picture of the fall of Enron.

Jeff Skilling is Going to Prison

2006-10-23T19:46:00.000-04:00

The news is in: ex-Enron CEO Jeff Skilling was sentenced to 24 years in prison - just 6 years shy of the maximum sentance for his charges.

Jeff's sentence is in line with other corner-office convicts. WorldCom's Bernard Ebbers got a 25-year sentence, former Tyco chairman Dennis Kozlowski was sentenced to 8 to 25 years, and John and Timothy Rigas of Adelphia received 15 and 20 year sentences for their shenanigans. Skilling's lawyers said that 30 years was a life sentence to a 52 year old, but I bet a lot of people are happy with that. At the sentencing many people stated how they were sentenced to a lifetime of poverty after dumping all their savings and 401Ks (The US version of RRSPs) into Enron at the suggestion of Jeff Skilling and Ken Lay.

Is this sentence harsh enough? One of the considerations for handing down a sentence for any crime is to deter others, yet fraud is everywhere - even at grad school. In a recent study, 56 percent of graduate business students admitted to cheating in the past year, with many saying they cheated because they believed it was an accepted practice in business. Yes, that's more then half of all business students are already cheating (and those are only the ones who admit it). And why not? They're often rewarded for their unscrupulous activities. Donald Trump himself applauded one team on "The Apprentice" after they fraudulently obtained some megaphones, and likely made the difference between winning and losing the challenge. Is it even possible to compete in markets where everyone else is cheating, or is it true that "nice guys (or gals) finish last"?

Jeff's sentencing is a step in the right direction. His sentence may be harsh, but it's obvious that an example must be made to show business leaders that crime doesn't pay. I'd personally love to see even harsher sentences, or even creative sentencing. Imagine if you could sentence someone to a $30,000-a-year standard of living - that would be a much larger deterrent then the Martha Stewart style day camps that seem to be the norm.

Cheers.

Lazy Web Developer? You Might Just Get Sued.

2006-09-10T22:03:00.000-04:00

Recently a federal judge in the US ruled that you can be sued if your web developers are lazy.

The Internet has been called "the great equalizer". It knocks down barriers, levels the playing field between small and large businesses, and makes race, gender, or creed irrelevant. Anyone, from anywhere can use the full power of the Internet. At least that what's supposed to happen.

In reality, many companies and web designers are lazy, and don't bother to ensure their site works on all browsers and platforms. Users running Internet Explorer on Microsoft Windows make up close to 80% of the Internet population, so why bother making sure your site works on Macs, or Firefox and Opera? Who cares if it works on Blackberries or Palm Pilots? Properly building a website for all these browsers in DHTML and CSS is hard, so why not cut corners, or have your site built entirely with graphics, or Flash? Because that other 20% may just decide to sue.

People have many reasons to use browsers other then IE. It may not be available for their OS or hardware platform, but, more importantly, it may not have the accessibility features that enable the blind to use the Internet. That's why Target was recently sued because their website is not sufficiently accessible by text-only browsers. Some text-only browsers read the pages aloud, or translate it into braille so the user doesn't need to see or use the mouse. The ruling states that websites are subject to the Americans with Disabilities Act, and must not exclude the blind. I'm hoping this will lead to other lawsuits against sites that don't work properly when their font size is changed, viewed on low resolution monitors, or used without Javascript and Flash.

In fact, having websites that depend on graphics are is not only lazy, but kinda stupid as well. The programs that search engines use to crawl the web (called spiders) are blind as well. A graphic means nothing to them. If they can't see a link, or understand its context they can't properly catalogue your site and show it in searches.

There are many viewers of your website, and many of the important ones are in that 20% you're neglecting.

Cheers.

Addicted to AdWords

2006-09-05T23:58:00.000-04:00

Eeep. Google has gotten me addicted to AdWords.

For those who don't know, Google makes quite a bit of their money through their AdWords advertising program. The reason they can give away search, analytics, gmail, and many of their other products is that the more they know about what people search for and what pages they visit, the better they can target the ads they sell. I've heard many good things about it, so a couple of weeks ago I signed up for an account, and I put together my first campaign.

The way it works is simple. I write a series of ads, select key words where I want my ads to appear, and select the geographic location I want to target. Then when you go to Google (or any site that runs Google ads - and there are lots of them), and do a search on one of my keywords, my ad might show up. If it does, and someone clicks on it, I pay Google some money (anywhere from a few cents to a couple of dollars, depending on what I choose).

All I can say about it is that I'm addicted. Google has managed to build a tool that is both extremely powerful, and really simple to use. They have a lot of automation that can do things for you - such as figure out the best price to pay for an ad based on a monthly budget, or show the best performing ads more often then the lower performing ones. The addicting part is that Google dices up your reports in many different ways, and it's fun to watch where your ads are shown, when they're clicked on, which ones are clicked on, and what keywords are the most effective. It's fortunate they don't update the stats in real time (There's up to a 3 hour lag) otherwise I'd just spend all day hitting the reload button, and watch the numbers change.

Of course, Google has it in their best interest to make sure the ads work. They don't get paid unless someone clicks on my ad, so they want to give me all the tools I need to produce effective ads and target them properly. It's too early to tell how well it's going to pay off, but it has started to drive traffic to my site. Unfortunately this means that I must now work on the website more so that when people click on the links they're given relevant information and driven to buy.

At any rate, if it doesn't work, the cost of setup is only $50 CDN. After that the only cost is what I pay when people click on my ads, and about an hour to set the whole thing up. I'll keep everyone updated on how it goes, but if nothing else it's showing me what keywords people are searching for.

Now, If only I could figure out how to target people who have too much money, and want to buy me a 60 foot yacht....

'Later

Spinning in Your Grave?

2006-08-02T11:26:00.000-04:00

Companies often tightly control who the press has access to in their company. They want to make sure that the positive points of a story are told, and don't like word to get out that they've made any mistakes. The spin that these companies try to create will soon be worthless. We've entered a no-spin zone.

In the old days, it was enough to do a little, then tell everyone how much good you did. In 1999 the tobacco company Philip Morris spent $60 million on charity. They then spent $108 million telling us about it.

Why would they spend almost twice as much on spin as the action? It's because spin works - or at least it did. Companies are increasingly having to deal with the fact that the public has access to much more information then they used to. Often the consumer knows more about a company's products and what went into making them then the executives of that company. If a company is acting irresponsibly, it's no longer enough to put out a press release full of spin and sweep it under the rug. The online community will spread the ugly side of the story far faster then the newswires. Gemma Puglisi, an assistant professor of communications at American University sums it up in the Washington Post:

"This has been a wake-up call for these companies," she said. "The day where you send a little letter to the CEO is over. In the age of technology, you have to be even more careful of how you treat your customers because you don't know where they're going to go. Now everything's out in the open."

This is exactly what's happened to companies such as Walmart, and Dell. Sites such as http://www.walmartsucks.org/, http://www.walmart-blows.com/, or http://www.ihatedell.net/ are quickly updated with the latest bad news. For the most part, Walmart's response has been to simply ignore negative opinions (or try to sue them to shut them down). However, recently they've started a huge PR campaign, and have had to start to address these criticisms.

Dell is also addressing their critics. They're actively looking for blogs that talk about Dell, and are then directly responding to those issues. They've also started blogs of their own. Instead of trying to sweep their problems under the rug, they're letting the world know what their problems are - and what they're doing to fix them. Because they're telling us the whole truth (good and bad), it's taking some of the wind out of the anti-Dell community.

Corporate blogs aren't only limited to Dell. Corporate blogs are springing up all over, like at Google, Sun, Microsoft, McDonald's and a number of other companies. The Toronto TV station CP24 also blogs, and I've even heard rumors Pretzel Logic has a blog too! Why the move to blogs? Companies know the bad news is going to get out one way of another. If the CIA can't even keep their wiretapping operations a secret, what makes you think you can hide your corporate shenanigans? Since the news is going to get out, you might as well be the first to talk about it. That way you can tell everyone right away what you're doing to fix it.

So, is spin dead? It seems to me it is. People are going to talk about you and your company - whether you like it or not. If you can't beat them, you might as well join them.

Cheers

Is It Too Easy To Run A Business?

2006-07-06T20:22:00.000-04:00

The recent death of convicted ex-Enron CEO Ken Lay made me think about his journey, and whether or not it's too easy for someone to run a business.

During Ken's trial, his entire defense seemed to be basically; "I ain't no never been a fancy accountant before. 'Dem numbers confuse me". He tried to convince everyone that since he wasn't an acountant, he had no idea about all the corruption going on. I don't believe this. Even basic math skills should have been enough to indicate something wasn't right. The only conclusion is that either Ken is a thief, or so dumb he shouldn't have been allowed to use an electric toothbrush, never mind run a huge multi-national corporation.

That's why I think board members and executives of corporations should be licensed. Even if Ken was completely innocent of the charges, as the leader of the company everything that happened was his responsibility. Everyone there worked for him. He built the team, he was responsible for hiring honest directors who were good enough to know they needed to hire honest managers, who knew enough to hire honest employees. When I took leadership courses in cadets, one of the basic concepts we were thought was that if an individual failed, it's possible that the individual is at fault. If an entire team fails, there is only one person to blame - the leader of that team.

I'm not suggesting putting Ken in jail just for his failures (pretending for a second he wasn't part of the corruption) but then he shouldn't be allowed to run a company either. Take his license away and ensure he can never again (at least without leadership training, or some other remedial action) lead more then a small handful of people.

Bad leaders are supposed to be removed by the invisible hand of the free market - which is why CEOs have to report to the board of directors. The problem is that if you take a look at the boards and executives of a lot of companies, you'll see a lot of duplication. When bad leaders do fail, they often get massive payouts, their full pension, and quickly find themselves in charge of another company - where their friends make up most of the BoD.

I'm not suggesting making changes to all businesses. Sole proprietorships (of which Pretzel Logic is one) mean that the owners (and leaders) are already held accountable for any wrongdoings of the company or it's employees.

Running a corporation should be a big deal. People who run one should have to be held accountable and own up to their mistakes. Not knowing how a gun works is no defense for murder. Not knowing the basics of how a company works should not be a defense for letting your company break the law either.

Cheers.

Parting Ways with The Man

2006-06-16T10:00:00.000-04:00

At about 3:30PM yesterday, I grabbed my bag, turned off my computer, and walk out of the bank for the last time.

For the past 6 months or so I've been working part-time at the bank and spending the rest on Pretzel Logic, but now the time has come to concentrate on Pretzel Logic full time. I'm a little nervous. The bank offered me a safety net. It continued to pay me, and it ensured I socialized with other humanoids at least a few times a week.

Not that I'm totally without a net. My wonderful wife Maia is more then supportive, and has offered to be my sugar momma for a while. This really has made the transition easier, and will remove a lot of the stress from the start up phase.

So, I'm now completely self employed. Whether I sink or swim will be completely my own doing. Time to see if I'm really as smart as I think I am :-)

Cheers.

The Net Neutrality Debate Heats Up

2006-06-02T00:56:00.000-04:00

The battle lines over net neutrality are currently being drawn. The debate is whether or not telcos can charge content providers for the privilege of delivering content across their network.

I've stated my position in a previous post, and over the past few weeks many others have taken positions as well.

Everyone from Senator Hillary Clinton to the musician Moby have stated their opinions, as well as several grass-roots efforts such as Save The Internet.com (which is for neutrality). DontRegulate.org and Hands off the Internet (which are both against any regulation) have weighed in as well. It's interesting to note, however, who is really behind the last two "grass roots" sites.

What I find most interesting is how various industry players have taken a stand. On the side for a tiered Internet is a number of hardware companies (many of whom are suppliers of the telcos). Of course, various content providers such as Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and even eBay are against anything that may erode fair access to all. Some smaller Internet providers are also fighting in favor of a tiered Internet.

Skype (a VoIP network) doesn't seem worried. They figure VoIP will become so large that customers will demand it, and companies that block - or cripple - VoIP will lose customers. Of course, the real danger is that those companies will block VoIP access to any provider except for themselves.

There are even some Internet heavyweights like Bram Cohen (creator of the BitTorrent protocol) who is against net neutrality, and Sir Tim Berners-Lee (the inventor of the world-wide-web) who calls for net neutrality.

Tim makes an excellent point, that nicely summarizes the whole issue:

"Information is what I use to make all my decisions. Not just
what to buy, but how to vote."

If access providers are allowed to control what we can access, then they control what we think. Considering all the controversy over Google's decision to censor their search results in China, I'm surprised that more Americans aren't getting involved in the debate.

In an interesting twist, if the telcos succeed in their plans, they may lose the right-of-way in many states that allows them put cable and fiber along state roads, water and sewer lines, and other public assets.

It's important to note that so far, this debate is only going on in the US. However if the US starts to use a tiered Internet, I don't know how long Canada's Internet will remain free.

Cheers.

The Customer Isn't Always Right

2006-04-24T10:12:00.000-04:00

The customer isn't always right. There is a big difference between doing what a customer asks for, and doing what they want.

Many entrepreneurs and small business owners have to wear many hats. There are many aspects to a business, and it's impossible to be an expert at all of them. When you buy a service or product, it's often the case that the person you're dealing with is much more knowledgeable then you are on the options and possible pitfalls of their offerings. Any one who has a coach, or an advisor knows this. You don't hire a financial advisor to do what you ask. You hire them to do what you want. You hire them to maximize your financial investments, not simply to load up on the stocks you like.

I'm not suggesting that anyone ignore what the customer is asking for, or make them think they're getting something they're not. It is ultimately the customer's decision to make. However, a good advisor will teach you why what you're asking for may not be the best choice, and help walk you through the decision making process.

I find it frustrating when I'm buying a product or service, and I get what I asked for. Often my visions don't translate into reality, but no one questioned my demands. I get the best service, not from businesses that ask "What are looking for?", but from the businesses that ask "Why are you looking?". If you give the customer what they ask for, at best you've met the customer's expectations. If you take the time to understand what they want, you can give them something unexpected, and blow them away.

I wish fewer businesses did what I asked.

The PC is dead

2006-04-08T15:03:00.000-04:00

The personal computer will soon be dead.

In the early days of computers there was nothing personal about them. They were large UNIX mainframes where everyone would log in via remote terminals, and share all the computing resources with everyone else. Then in the early 80's computers moved into cute little boxes that sat on our desks. (O.K., they weren't that cute, but they did sit on our desks.) This worked well for quite a while. They were our computers to do with whatever we wanted, and install whatever we wanted. The problem is, It's hard to have your data move with you. Laptops help, but if you're like me, you often use other computers as well. I have a laptop, home desktop, work desktop, home windows server and some UNIX servers. My data is scattered all over the place, but even more annoying, when I install or configure a new application, I have to do the same task on every machine. Not to mention the fact that I'm running more then one operating system, and many applications won't run on all of them.

That's why I'm happy to see the re-emergence of the central computer, and remote terminals. It started a few years ago with applications such as VNC, and RDP. Lately, things have taken another step, with the emergence of Application Service Providers. ASPs do pretty much what their name suggests. They turn applications into a service. Instead of having to buy and install applications, you can just subscribe to the service. If this seems a bit weird - it shouldn't. You're likely already using (or at least familiar with) services such as Hotmail, and Mapquest. These services are delivered right over the web. There is no software to install (other then a browser), and you don't have to worry about upgrades. The real advantage is that you can access your data from anywhere. For years travelers have known the treasure of web-based email as they move from internet cafe to internet cafe.

Today, with browsers supporting DHTML, AJAX, and Java Script, a new breed of web applications are emerging. These applications have the potential to replace many of the common desktop applications. Writely (Recently acquired by Google) is a full featured word processor - all on the web. AjaxLaunch.com wants to go even further with their own Ajaxwrite, a drawing program called Ajaxsketch, and even a video mixing tool called Eyespot. Yes, a video editing environment, and all you need is a browser.

Wondering when your favorite application will debut as a service? It's likely not far off. In the meantime, there are many new applications that would have never worked on a personal computer.

As the network gets smarter, our personal computers become less important. In a few years, I won't be surprised to see that the network is the computer

Cheers

Laziness: The Key to Success

2006-03-26T13:00:00.000-05:00

Is being lazy the real way to get ahead?

I think so.

Before you write me off as a complete nut, hear me out.

As a geek, I work hard at being lazy. Ask me to do a job more then once, and I'll automate it, so I don't have to do much the next time around. It also means that I do what I can to make sure problems never appear so I don't have to deal with them at all. Firefighers are an excellent example of this. They do what they can to make sure fires never start. They would much rather sit around the firehall and wash the trucks, or play with the dog. They would rather do almost anything other then fighting fires. After all - fighting fires is hard work, so they're doing what they can to be lazy.

Same thing with the little fires people have in their businesses. You can take 5 minutes to prevent a problem now, or you can deal with it in 6 months when it will take a week to clean up the mess. Do you backup your computer religiously, or are you like most people and skip it for a while? After all, what are the chances that your computer is going to crash in the next month? Quite low, so why not be lazy and skip a few backups? The problem is, this is the wrong kind of lazy. You're just going to create more work for yourself later, so it's not really being lazy, it's simply procrastinating. It's like trying to save money by canceling your car and house insurance. A little short term gain for a lot of long term pain. If you put some effort into automating your backups, you won't have to do much work to back up your files in the future. If your computer does crash, you have current copies of all your work that will be fairly quick to recover.

This works for more then computer backups as well. When I was a TSR (Tech Support Rep) I was "The Mac Guy". Every time a customer would call in with a Mac, the call would get transferred to me, since few other TSRs knew much about Macs. I wanted to be lazy, so I did quite a bit of work to improve the tools and documentation so the other TSRs had what they needed to deal with those calls. I benefited by having to deal with fewer calls, and the customers benefited by having most of their problems solved by the first TSR. If I could have kept them from calling in altogether, I would have done that too.

The trick is to avoid getting behind the curve; getting yourself so bogged down with menial tasks that you have no time to improve your processes. If you dedicate yourself to being lazy early on, you can keep ahead of the curve, and you'll have more time to spend on growing your business.

So the real key to success is to work hard - at being lazy.

Cheers

Welcome to Pretzel Logic

2006-03-20T20:00:00.000-05:00

Now that the beta is underway and you can see what Pretzel Logic will be offering, I thought you might want to know why I'm offering these services. Let's start off with Pretzel Logic's mission statement.

Most mission statements read like they are written by the marketing department, and have very little meaning. My mission statement is simple (and borrowed from Kathy Sierra).

I want to do what I love, and to be profitable so I can keep doing it.

That's really it, and all it ever needs to be.

Let me give you some background on how I got here.

One of my first jobs was working for a Radio Shack dealer in a small town in southern Ontario. The first owner of that dealer was passionate about what he did, and he taught me a lot. I had fun working there, I wanted to work hard, and I think I did a great job. My boss was well respected, and we made sure that people were happy when people left our store - whither or not we sold them anything. That was something that I was proud of.

Unfortunately, the dealership was sold, and the new owner was more concerned with making the banks happy then the customers. Suddenly the place didn't seem right for me anymore.

Once I left high-school, I started working for a small local ISP. Everyone who worked there was passionate, including me. In fact, I cared so much, that one week-end I put in a 36.5 hour shift. Yes, I worked over 36 hours straight without going home or sleeping. There was a job to be done, and I wanted to do everything in my power to make sure it got done. I wasn't the only one that put in extra hours. It was a fairly common occurrence. Never because we had to - or that we were even asked to, but because all of us wanted to. Some of my friends who worked there are still there years later, and have no interest in leaving. If it wasn't for some banks calling in some loans early - I would likely still be there as well, however I was laid off, and was forced to move on.

So I moved to Toronto, and started working for a much larger ISP. Again, this was a fabulous place to work. The camaraderie we had was incredible. Everyone there was energetic, eager to help out wherever it was required, and our customers rewarded us by giving us one of the highest customer satisfaction ratings in the industry. I had fallen in love with the company. My friends couldn't get me to shutup about how great it was to work there. The only downside was that the company was so successful that other companies wanted to buy us, and did. After a series of being sold, merged, spun-off, re-acquired, re-sold, and every other bad thing you can do to a company, I ended up working for one of Canada's national telcos. The telco had a long history of process and culture, and unfortunately it breeded anything but passion. It bread mediocrity, and resistance to anything that's different or revolutionary. It became a place where short-term profits were the primary motivation for any decision, and it seemed most customers weren't even on the list of top five. It was still the company that I had fallen in love with. The job I was doing was the same, as were the teams I worked with, however the company had changed, the relationship went sour, and the time came for me to move on.

My next stop was a contractor for one of Canada's largest banks. At first, I didn't even want to work for the bank, but a friend of mine worked there, and convinced me to give it a shot. The team I ended up working with were quite good (They - and I tended to be the black sheep of the bank). However, it was still a bank. Conservative in everything they did, and generally devoid f energy. That's fine if you're a bank, but not for me. The bank paid really well, and the work I did was interesting, but it was not enough.

Enter Pretzel Logic.

I believe that people can still have passion for their vocations, and that when the employees of a business have a zeal for their work, customers will reap the rewards. I'm not interested in creating a business who's service is simply "O.K.", or average. I want to build a service that's great. It may not be perfect, but when problems happen, you can bet I'll care. I won't be happy until potential customers are begging to buy my service. I want my customers to fall in love with my company as much as they are their own. I want to be proud of what I've built, and I want others to be proud as well.

So the mission statement actually makes quite a bit of sense. I love the freedom running my own business gives me, and I love making people happy. I know I can't be everything to everyone, and I don't want to. I just want to be something special for people who care about quality.

If you're one of those people, then welcome to Pretzel Logic.

Here's an email I sent out to some of my friends l...

2006-03-20T16:10:00.000-05:00

Here's an email I sent out to some of my friends last week:

Hey everyone!

As most of you know I've been toiling figuring out how to stop working for The Man, and actually become The Man!

Today, I've taken another step closer with the launch of Pretzel Logic groupware beta site. The beta site is - hopefully - really close to what customers will be paying for. There are still a few tweaks and some cleanup and automation that has be to be done, but most of the features work.

The launch of the beta site allows me to show off Pretzel Logic to potential customers and to my friends. Soon, I'll be migrating Fenks.org and Pretzel-Logic.ca over to allow me to test under real-world conditions.

Once I'm satisfied all the features are working, and stable (and I get the billing system working), I'll be opening the doors to the masses.

In the meantime, if you want to see what I've been working on, wander over to http://www.pretzel-logic.ca. On the main page is a sign-up form allowing you register for the demo. Just fill out the form and I'll email instructions back to you.

If you want to keep up to date with what I'm up to and how I'm doing, you can read my blog at: http://www.pretzel-logic.ca/news. If you wish, you can also subscribe to it via E-mail, RSS or ATOM.

I've spoken to a few of you about hosting your domains once the beta was going. I'm not quite ready yet (give me another few weeks of testing to make sure everything is O.K.) but let me know if you're still interested after you've taken a look at what I'm offering.

There is still a whole lot of work to do (like writing any sort of documentation) but at least I can start to show it off to everyone who has expressed interest.

Take a look, and let me know what you think. I'm eager to hear your comments.

Wooo! I'm quite exited about this step. It means I can start showing off my cool site.

Cheers.

Countdown Begins

2006-03-04T19:23:00.000-05:00

The countdown to the launch of the beta site has started. I have an appointment on Monday to put the groupware server into co-location, and I'm just putting some finishing touches on the demo.

Barring any major problems, you should be able to take the services out for a spin next week-end.

Cheers.

Lies, Damn Lies, Statistics, and Small Business Myths

2006-02-23T23:08:00.000-05:00

In the process of starting Pretzel Logic, people have quoted me many statistics about small business, and how ninety percent of them fail within the first five years.
That's a daunting statistic for anyone thinking of taking a risk like starting their own business.

So I surprised to find out, that statistic is false. Yeah, it seems like someone made it up. From www.entrepreneur.com:

The small-business failure legend purports to show that half of startups fold in the first year and 80 percent to 90 percent succumb after five years. But nobody seems to know where this stat originated. In fact, several well-documented studies indicate that starting a small business offers a much more reasonable chance of success. For instance, the SBA, using U.S. Census Bureau data, reports that almost half of new firms with at least one employee survive beyond four years.

This urban legend also suggests that businesses that closed were all failures. But the SBA, using another set of Census data, says a third of new businesses that closed in their early years were financially successful when they shut down. Jeff Williams, a business startup trainer in Arlington Heights, Illinois, says small businesses close for many reasons, and financial failure is not the main one.

This is only one of several myths that entrepreneur.com debunks.

I really hope those myths didn't discourage too many people out there from exploring their entrepreneurial spirit. If you're still on the fence about starting your own small business, I hope this article gives you some encouragement.

Cheers

How do I market myself?

2006-02-20T12:57:00.000-05:00

I have a confession to make. I've been having fun reading about marketing.

Actually doing the marketing, however, is a different story. How do I market Pretzel Logic? Specifically how will people find out about me?

I've been looking at other groupware providers, hoping to see trends in their marketing. It seems, however, that the marketing of the large groupware bundles is aimed at people who already know they want the product, or who already have an older version, and are looking to upgrade.

How do people go out and find a new groupware service?

Of course, in this day and age, I have little idea how anyone would go searching for a new word processor either. They would likely simply use whatever their friends, business, or school are using. Since no one is using Pretzel Logic yet, that won't work.

New products such as Firefox, or OpenOffice attract users because they offer features that are superior to what's out there. Pretzel Logic is using almost all open source software. A few scripts were written by me and my contractors, but all that work was done on the back end. The bulk is still all open source, so it's easy to get all the snazzy user-interface features as what I will be offering. Most of the real magic of a good IT service is behind the scenes. All the security work, backups, architecting, etc is never seen by the customer. They're there to prevent problems and recover quickly if they do happen. So a service business completely lacks the Oohh and Ahhh of a shiny new application with nifty features people can actually use.

Other things Firefox and OpenOffice have going for them is that there's almost no barrier to people trying out the new products (A simple download and quick install in both cases). If you don't like it, you can switch back. Switching over to a different groupware and e-mail provider will never be that easy. I'm doing a few nifty things to make testing easy, but to really test the service you need your entire company using it for months. Certainly not the five minutes it took me to fall in love with Firefox.

So, I'm left with the question - How do I get businesses to try my service?

I guess the only option is for me to get out, hit the pavement, and be a salesman. Contact anyone in my target market, and start a dialogue with them.

Crap.

I feel like I'm turning on my inner geek. First, learning (and enjoying) marketing. And now.... entering sales.

I think I better go and tweak my TCP stack, rebuild my kernel, or at least go analyze some firewall logs before I start craving for a suit.

Cheers.

What's Your Reason?

2006-02-15T13:26:00.000-05:00

Seth Godin has an interesting post titled "The Reason"

I firmly believe that businesses do some of the things they do simply because that's the way they've always done them - whether or not they make any sense.

The RIAA in the US is trying to regulate how we use our iPods, instead of embracing them. The iPod doesn't threaten their business, it threatens their old and outdated business model. The RIAA tried to stop radio when it was invented. (Who would buy music if they can listen to it for free?) They tried to stop MTV (Now we're giving away videos as well?!?!). Turns out radio and MTV make hits.

The RIAA is to focused on keeping things the way they were, when they should be focused on how to take advantage of these new opportunities.

I think everyone should ask themselves why they do the things they do. "Because we've always done it that way" is not an acceptable answer.

Woo!

2006-02-12T13:45:00.000-05:00

Everything works! All features are happily working together.

Yeah, that means I'm about to enter the beta stage. There's still cleanup that needs to be done, (automating some processes, tweaking some defaults, writing documentation etc.), but the features are enabled and working.

In the next week or so I'll move the server out from my office into a data centre. Once there it will have much more bandwidth, and I'll be able to open the beta up.

I had originally aimed for March 1st to go production, but that's no longer reasonable. I'm not sure If I want to make any commitments at this point. I have to find a balance between pushing the product out before it's ready, and delaying forever until it's perfect. (Which it, like all art, will never be)

I'm hoping the feedback I get from everyone during the beta will let me know what people can live with and what is a show-stopper.

Anyway, I'm celebrating this occasion by heading out and skiing, (It's perfect skiing weather today, and the snow conditions are excellent as well) so I must be off.

Cheers.

How do you Glue a Stamp onto an Email?

2006-02-11T00:10:00.000-05:00

A few months ago I had a couple of posts about SPAM and what I think people should do about it (See: I hate SPAM filters! and I hate spam ....... filters (Part 2))

Yahoo and AOL have come up with their own way of dealing with SPAM.
Stamps!

The idea is, basically, that if you think your email is valuable, then you shouldn't have any problem paying something for it (We're talking 1/4 of a cent to a penny each). You can still send email if it doesn't have stamp, but it may get delayed, you get no guarantee of delivery, and it may get dropped by over-zealous SPAM filters. Basically if it has a stamp, it's first class mail, and if it doesn't have a stamp, it's no class mail.

The thinking behind this scheme is simple. The reason SPAM is so pervasive is that it works. It costs nothing for a spammer to send out 100,000 emails, and the one or two responses that they'll get back makes it worth their while. (The response rate to spam is about %0.0015)
Now... what if they need a $0.0025 stamp? That's $250 they need to spend - just for a single sale. They're profit margin would disappear and the spam would dry up. If you send mail to your customers, and the message isn't even worth $0.0025, should you really be sending it out? Any one who sends you personal mail can be white-listed - indicating that they don't need a stamp. Any mail that's not white-listed, and doesn't have a stamp can't have any value, and is therefore treated as such. Any email that does have a stamp can then become even *more* valuable since it now stands out from the crowd.

Another advantage is that in order to buy stamps - you need to somehow identify yourself, and in doing that, it will make it much easier to track the spammers.

At least, that's the theory.

Now, before I start poking holes in their stamps idea, let me make sure AOL and Yahoo get applause for at least thinking of solutions - and trying to fix the problem. It's a scary thought that they want to change the way 35 billion e-mail messages are sent every day. Even the perfect plan is going to have an uphill battle.

However, I'm not sure this plan would work.

For one, a lot of the email I get is unsolicited. I get email from people interested in my services, interested in doing business with me, and yes, companies who want to market to me. This would promote the emails from companies who want to sell me a product, and demote any people simply asking for more information on my products. What email is more valuable to me? I can't use a white-list since I've never communicated with these people before. They likely wouldn't want to pay to communicate with me if they don't already have a relationship with me. Would you want to pay a cover for the priveledge of browsing through Wal-Mart? Without a stamp, they're relegated to the "unkown" folder - along with all the SPAM. Now I have two email folders - one full of corporate advertising (I've given them permission to market to me, so it's not SPAM) and another folder with mostly SPAM and a few really valuable gems. Not sure how that improves my mailbox.

Second, the spammers now have a way to legitimize their email. What if their response rate doubles - to %0.003 - then they're paying $250/3 responses or $83/person. I'm not sure how much it costs to produce fake diplomas, sugar pills, or documentation on how to "make money fast" but I bet their mark-up is quite good. That poor man who's just trying to get his money out of Nigeria stands to make a whole lot more then that. So why wouldn't they legitimize their emails?

Third, the idea that we'll be able to identify spammers is suspicious to me. If the Unibomber was able to buy stamps and mail off his packages, why should we think that spammers are under any more surveillance?

Fourth, this entire idea only works if they hit critical mass. AOL and Yahoo are indeed large email providers, but if this is going to take off they need the majority of email servers to implement it. AOL, Yahoo, Microsoft, and other came up with other ideas before, and failed to make much of an impact.

Will email stamps save us from SPAM? I don't think so. I'm still glad, however, that Yahoo and AOL are going through with this - even if I think it will fail. The lessons everyone learns will allow them to devise an even better plan. Spammers are constantly trying new things and learning and adapting. If we are ever to win the war on SPAM, we need to do that even more then the spammers.

Cheers

Is Google Getting a Free Lunch?

2006-02-07T20:42:00.000-05:00

Verizon, AT&T, and Bell South have started to grumble about Google getting a "Free Lunch", and want large sites such as Google and Yahoo to pay fees for preferred access to consumers over their lines.

Huh?

Sounds to me like the telcos are just whining that no-one wants to look at their content, and are trying double bill. Verizon and AT&T customers are *already* paying for badwidth. Google is simply giving people a reason to get an account with Verizon.

Don't forget, Google has a huge amount of servers all over the world. I bet a number of them are hosted on Verizon's, AT&T's, and Bell South's network. Doesn't that mean that Google is already paying?

If the telcos really want the public to get behind their plan, then they should start paying all the local telephone companies every time one of their customers calls their tech support line.

Let's see how long that lasts.

I'm betting not even as long as it takes to read this blog entry.

"My next product is so wonderful I have to keep it a secret"

2006-01-31T23:47:00.000-05:00

I'm a member of a number of small business and entrepreneurial organizations. I always find the gatherings really interesting because of the different views people have about how they should run a business. I have no idea what qualifications most of the people there have. They might all be MBAs; then again, they could be recent deliveries from the local turnip farmer.

One thing I hear often is that the entrepreneurs can't say what their business does. At a recent meeting, one man said, simply; "I can't tell you now, but it will be in the news next Tuesday - and it will revolutionize how people will do business".

The sad part is - I didn't see anything posted on Fark, or the Daily Show (Okay, I admit it - maybe those shouldn't be my only news sources). I, therefore, have no idea what this person is doing. He was certainly excited about his product and totally missed the opportunity for me to be excited as well.

I realize that Apple and other companies like to keep things secret, but they have a big carrot. Many people wander out to California each year just to watch Apple's keynote address. People need a carrot; keeping your product a total secret offers no carrot. Without a carrot, I'm not going to go out of my way to seek out your news, and I'm certainly not going to tell any of my friends about it.

Me? I want the world to know what Pretzel Logic is about. Even if it's not out yet, I think it's quite cool - and I want anyone else who thinks it's cool to know about it, and spread the word.

I just don't see the benefit of keeping things a secret and then having to spend lots of money to get the word out.

Cheers

Can small businesses compete?

2006-01-27T11:25:00.000-05:00

Are small businesses like Pretzel Logic on a level playing field with the large national telcos?: Certainly not.
Is it fair?: That's a definite "no".

I mean, how are these large telcos ever going to compete with me?

Yes, I meant that. It's really not fair that these large companies have to compete with small companies. Small companies are more flexible, faster and more agile. I've worked for national telcos and large banks, as well as small businesses, and I can tell you - the big guys are at a disadvantage.

In large companies there are so many people involved in every decision who demand compromises that every good idea is whittled down to mediocrity.

I never want Pretzel Logic to be "average". Large corporations may be happy with average, but I want to be better then that.

A while ago Seth Godin wrote an interesting entry in his blog called "Small is the new big" that summarizes the problem for large companies and the advantage of small businesses.

No, I'm not going to single handedly take down Bell Canada, or MTS/Allstream - but enough small business like me just might.