Archive for October, 2009

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Balloon Boy vs The Internet

Friday, October 30th, 2009

I know what you’re thinking, Balloon Boy is so two weeks ago, shouldn’t you be talking about snow?  Frankly, two feet of snow doesn’t impress me, but how the Balloon Boy story played out on the Internet is worth a look.

For those who missed it or managed to blissfully ignore the story, the short version is as follows.  A home-made balloon floated away from a home in Fort Collins, the balloon’s builder reported that his son was in the balloon, a chase ensued, the balloon landed on its own, but the boy was not on board, the boy was later found hiding in his house, and it’s now believed that whole thing was likely a hoax.

What’s this got to do with the Internet?  Lots:

Here at the office folks were using a Slingbox, which is a device that streams your satellite, cable or DVR to your computer over the Internet, to watch the live TV coverage.  The coverage was also being streamed live on various stations’ websites – 9news.com had its best day ever.

On Google “balloon boy” became the number one search term.

On Twitter it was the top topic.  You could watch as people tried to get Adam Savage of Mythbusters fame to calculate if the balloon was big enough to actually lift the boy (which it turned out not to be).  There were also countless rumors of the “heard from guy who knows someone who’s friends with the girlfriend of a guy at the FAA” type.

Literally hundreds of Facebook pages and groups were started.

Once the search was on a web site called whereisballoonboy.com appeared.

Before the boy had even been found there was a tee-shirt for sale, on shirting print-on-demand site Zazzle.

It turned out that the boy and his family had been on a reality TV show called “Wife Swap“.  Clips from the show, and even a rap video, quickly popped up on YouTube.

In the end, it’s just a silly, perhaps sad, little human interest story about people wanting fame.  Without the Internet, there would have been the live TV coverage, but most people would not have heard about the story until the evening news.  By then the boy would have been found, they possibility of a hoax raised, and the excitement gone.  But the real-time nature of the Internet drove the story, amplified the excitement, and turned it in to more that it was.

I’m not sure that’s a good thing…

Posted in News | 2 Comments »

Getting the most out of your email with Indra’s Net

Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

As a support representative at Indra’s Net, one of the more frequent calls that I take has to do with customers who are having trouble accessing their mail with us.  Some of the time, this can be due to a temporary period of high load on our mail server, but often these problems arise because the customer has their email program set up in a way that will reduce efficiency.  We have recently made upgrades to our mail server that will help prevent the server from getting overloaded.  but there are a couple of changes that you can make to the settings in your email program that may also help improve your email performance.

(please note that this information is mainly for people that have their email programs set up for POP access…not IMAP).

  1. A lot of people have their mail program set to check our mail server every minute for new mail.  If you adjust the settings in your mail program to automatically check our server every 5 minutes or longer, it will help reduce the server load and improve the efficiency of your mail checks.  You can always manually click your “Send / Receive” or “Get Mail” button between automatic checks if you need to.
  2. Have your email program take the mail off of our server once it is checked.  A lot of the load on the server comes from people not knowing that they are storing mail on our server.  The only reason that most people need to store mail on the server for a period of time after their email program checks is if they have multiple computers or devices (Blackberry, iPhone) that also need to receive a copy of the mail.  Even if you do have multiple devices, we recommend having your email program remove the mail after 3-7 days (whatever you are comfortable with).  If you do not have more than one device checking mail on the server, then you can set your email program to remove the copy of the mail after a check is complete.  This will only remove the mail on our server.  It does not effect the mail that you store locally on your computer.

Here is how you get to the settings in question on the most popular email programs:

- Outlook 2000 – 2007: (Removing mail from the server) Go to the Tools, Email Accounts, View or change existing, then Change on your account.  Go to More Settings, then look in the Advanced Tab.  For the automatic check setting, go to Tools, Send / Receive, Send / Receive Settings, Define Send / Receive groups.  Adjust the automatic check settings under the All Accounts area.

- Outlook Express: (Removing mail from the server) Go to the Tools, Accounts, Properties on your account, then look in the Advanced Tab.  For the automatic check setting, go to Tools, Options, and the setting is under the General tab.

- Mac Mail: (Removing mail from the server) Go to the Mail menu, Properties, Accounts area, Advanced Tab.  For the automatic check setting, go to Mail menu, Properties, and the General area.

- Mozilla Thunderbird: Both relevant settings are located in the Tools, Account Settings, then Server Settings area in the left column.

If you need further assistance making these changes, please feel free to call one of our support representatives at 303-546-9151.

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And now for something completely different

Friday, October 23rd, 2009

We seem to have found our collective stride in small business web sites. Information is still key, with getting said info to the user as the main goal (which leads to contacts, which leads to relationships, which leads to sales). Thankfully, small businesses are following standards, which makes development somewhat easier because people know a bit more about what to expect and how to prepare.

But of course, I’m never happy.

So what I’m wondering is when are everyday businesses going to branch out with the design of their web sites? At what point are they going to start pushing the envelope and create something that’s off the beaten path?

One of our most recent clients, 15th Street Studio, decided to take a different direction with the design of their framing/gallery studio site (www.15thstreetstudio.com). They wanted to go for a theme with more impact than the usual small business site. They were looking for a web site that showed their experience, the caliber of their service, as well as the care they were going to take with their clients’ artwork, without having to actually come out and say it. In that vein, they also wanted to forgo traditional content, instead going with testimonials and quotes from their clients to speak for them. So in the end, we worked together to come up with a design that centered on professionally-taken images of their studio, equipment and staff, and incorporated their quotes. (We also created some more traditional, search engine friendly pages, but they are not the focus.)

Now the 15th Street Studio site isn’t wildly different. It still has navigation in the proper place, a contact page, etc., but it’s also not the usual, run of the mill small business web site. It has become more of an experience. When you are on the site, you get a feel for them, not just information about them. And so far, the site has served them well.

I know for some that trying something out of the ordinary is a difficult proposition, especially since it seems like everyone is so wildly concerned about showing up on Google, so most will never want to break the mold. But the thing is, different gets noticed, and different gets talked about (not to mention Google shouldn’t be the only thing you rely on to get your site out there). Yes, if you’re trying to impart information, it still needs to be user friendly, but information doesn’t just have to be words on a screen.

For many, perhaps including ourselves, I believe it’s time for something completely different.

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