I finally needed to get a new phone... the old one was long overdue for replacement. I had actually been using Monica's old phone for the past 6ish months and it was just finally too much for it.
I had been trying to hold out on the new phone to see what was announced at MacWorld. Sure enough, the iPhone was announced but the pricetag and the network requirement scared me off - maybe I'll jump in on version 2.0.
Anyway, the phone I ended up getting is nothing spectacular. Things like playing mp3s and having a camera are really not important to me - so I just got a standard basic phone. One thing I discovered after I bought it though is the ability to "compose your own ringtones".
Keep in mind this thing has terrible sound quality and the interface to compose is (on quick glance) pretty miserable if you really wanted to do anything cool. HOWEVER, it is perfect for something that I really really want - super ultra completely totally basic sounds. My personal preferences are always to stay away from any kind of unique and cool ringtone - I always end up going with "ring" which will be some sort of imitation of the sound your home phone makes (or made in 1995 anyway).
So, here are the ringtones I have composed and implemented on my phone:
g2 - (the note "G" for what I believe is a "half note" is set to play when I have voicemail)
a4 ("A" for a quarter note to be played for a new text message)
now get ready for the complicated one:
d4g4 (two notes in succession! - for an incoming call)
You can imagine trying to *really* compose something with that type of entry method!
Yes, I know I live dangerously. This really does give me exactly what I want though - short, succinct, boring sounds that don't stand out in anyway whatsoever.
1.19.2007
1.16.2007
More on the work question
Thanks for all the great feedback guys! If you still have something to add (especially an opinion that really conflicts with some of the other comments?) I would still really like to hear it. This definitely isn't something where there's an "already have enough comments" limit.
There were two things that really surprised me about the responses we received.
1. 9/11 comments (so far) said: Send It.
The 2/11 said: Send them an email containing the option. So, everyone seems to have no problem with us sending them "something" and the majority seem to think just signing them up with an opt out option is fine.
2. Several mentioned making the unsubscribe deliberately clunky.
I definitely have had the experience that a couple of you have brought up: visiting a site to unsubscribe - seeing that it's involved - and leaving without canceling.
This is something we're really not interested in doing - We want to be as easy to leave as possible for several reasons, not the least of which is that we really do want to be "user friendly, good guys" that treat their users how we'd like to be treated.
Another, perhaps more concrete reason is that when I couldn't unsubscribe for the emails I mentioned above my reaction WAS to stop trying to unsubscribe and let them continue sending since it was a hassle, BUT I wasn't going to continue receiving. So, when I got back to gmail, I immediately clicked the "spam" button. I really try not to do that as I know firsthand that a company identified as a "spammer" (even for a short period) can have a hell of a time getting their head back above water, but when they made the process unnecessarily difficult: I really didn't feel bad about it.
At this point we haven't made the final decision as to whether to go ahead - or when to do it, but the feedback here seems to be very in favor of doing it. I would REALLY like to hear your opinion if you haven't had a chance to leave it yet. It's very surprising (unlikely?) that everyone reading does feel we should sign them up (or minimally send them something)... everyone else is posting anonymously - you can too!
There were two things that really surprised me about the responses we received.
1. 9/11 comments (so far) said: Send It.
The 2/11 said: Send them an email containing the option. So, everyone seems to have no problem with us sending them "something" and the majority seem to think just signing them up with an opt out option is fine.
2. Several mentioned making the unsubscribe deliberately clunky.
I definitely have had the experience that a couple of you have brought up: visiting a site to unsubscribe - seeing that it's involved - and leaving without canceling.
This is something we're really not interested in doing - We want to be as easy to leave as possible for several reasons, not the least of which is that we really do want to be "user friendly, good guys" that treat their users how we'd like to be treated.
Another, perhaps more concrete reason is that when I couldn't unsubscribe for the emails I mentioned above my reaction WAS to stop trying to unsubscribe and let them continue sending since it was a hassle, BUT I wasn't going to continue receiving. So, when I got back to gmail, I immediately clicked the "spam" button. I really try not to do that as I know firsthand that a company identified as a "spammer" (even for a short period) can have a hell of a time getting their head back above water, but when they made the process unnecessarily difficult: I really didn't feel bad about it.
At this point we haven't made the final decision as to whether to go ahead - or when to do it, but the feedback here seems to be very in favor of doing it. I would REALLY like to hear your opinion if you haven't had a chance to leave it yet. It's very surprising (unlikely?) that everyone reading does feel we should sign them up (or minimally send them something)... everyone else is posting anonymously - you can too!
1.15.2007
Help me out with a work question...
If you have a minute, give me your opinion on this as a comment below (or email me at halbergj @ gmail) - it'd be REALLY appreciated.
As most of you probably know I work for a website called Seeking Alpha. Our most popular (and free) service we offer is the ability to receive our posts (you configure which you want) in your email box. Many people like it as it saves the time of checking the site frequently while also ensuring that you don't miss anything that you're interested in.
Since all of our content is free without any account setup there are really only a few reasons to actually sign up and give us your email address. 65% of our users signup because they want to receive email. 2% because they only want to comment. and the remaining 33% because... we don't know.
Our assumption is that the majority of that 33% were looking to receive email and we failed to provide it to them. They were lost somewhere in the process because we just didn't make things obvious enough - or a link we send them didn't work - or something along those lines. We're also sure that some amount of those users signed up "just because" - maybe they wanted to see if they got anything extra for doing it (they don't) or they just were really bored and did it for entertainment (sad statement on their social life!).
Our dilemma is that adding all these people as customers of our (free) service would mean a lot to us. It would boost our traffic and just make us feel like we didn't let them down when they were looking for our service.
Finally I get to the question I need your input on:
We are considering sending all of these people an email letting them know:
1. We are very sorry if you're receiving this email and don't want it. The letter would make every effort to let people know that we are not trying to spam them, but are trying to give them a service we believe they wanted in the first place. The letter would include a personal email address and phone number - something a spammer would obviously never do, as well as a single-click link to say "I never want to hear from you guys again".
2. The letter would let them know that we are going to begin sending them one email per day containing the headlines from our site. They will never receive more than one email per day and (again) with one click they can always opt out.
Pros and Cons:
Pro side for us: We get a bunch of new subscribers. We would, of course, expect many of them to immediately opt out - but we certainly would gain at least some of these people. After "the dust has settled" this would also answer a question we've been spending A LOT of time thinking about: Has poor usability been causing a very large percentage of our users to not get the service they desire? ... we think that looking at the percentage of users who immediately unsubscribe vs. continue to use the service will go a long way to answering that question.
The pro from the users side: If you are someone who genuinely wanted this service but didn't get it hooked up the first time - you'll being receiving one email per day that you consider valuable and you can go out and change your settings if you like (to only receive a subset of headlines for example).
The down side from the users side: If you really didn't want to hear from us: you received email from us (probably 2) that you didn't want. You may consider this 'spam' as you didn't specifically request this email. If you do feel this way it will probably be compounded by the fact that you've been signed up to receive one of these everyday.
The down side for us: Some people may feel as described in the last paragraph.
A few final puzzle pieces:
Every person we send to will have entered their email address into our site at some point. At that point they received an email saying they needed to confirm: and they DID then confirm (they "double opted in"). So, they DID quite deliberately "sign up for Seeking Alpha" - They just never actually utilized any of our services after that point.
Every person we send to will have never subscribed (we will not send to anyone who has subscribed at some point but unsubscribed).
What do you think? I am REALLY interested in hearing what everyone has to say about this...
** Update: I'm going to post comments I receive via email here anonymously. Obviously, if you give me anything that makes you recognizable I'll either omit it or clear it with you first... just want to get the conversation here going a bit though.
As most of you probably know I work for a website called Seeking Alpha. Our most popular (and free) service we offer is the ability to receive our posts (you configure which you want) in your email box. Many people like it as it saves the time of checking the site frequently while also ensuring that you don't miss anything that you're interested in.
Since all of our content is free without any account setup there are really only a few reasons to actually sign up and give us your email address. 65% of our users signup because they want to receive email. 2% because they only want to comment. and the remaining 33% because... we don't know.
Our assumption is that the majority of that 33% were looking to receive email and we failed to provide it to them. They were lost somewhere in the process because we just didn't make things obvious enough - or a link we send them didn't work - or something along those lines. We're also sure that some amount of those users signed up "just because" - maybe they wanted to see if they got anything extra for doing it (they don't) or they just were really bored and did it for entertainment (sad statement on their social life!).
Our dilemma is that adding all these people as customers of our (free) service would mean a lot to us. It would boost our traffic and just make us feel like we didn't let them down when they were looking for our service.
Finally I get to the question I need your input on:
We are considering sending all of these people an email letting them know:
1. We are very sorry if you're receiving this email and don't want it. The letter would make every effort to let people know that we are not trying to spam them, but are trying to give them a service we believe they wanted in the first place. The letter would include a personal email address and phone number - something a spammer would obviously never do, as well as a single-click link to say "I never want to hear from you guys again".
2. The letter would let them know that we are going to begin sending them one email per day containing the headlines from our site. They will never receive more than one email per day and (again) with one click they can always opt out.
Pros and Cons:
Pro side for us: We get a bunch of new subscribers. We would, of course, expect many of them to immediately opt out - but we certainly would gain at least some of these people. After "the dust has settled" this would also answer a question we've been spending A LOT of time thinking about: Has poor usability been causing a very large percentage of our users to not get the service they desire? ... we think that looking at the percentage of users who immediately unsubscribe vs. continue to use the service will go a long way to answering that question.
The pro from the users side: If you are someone who genuinely wanted this service but didn't get it hooked up the first time - you'll being receiving one email per day that you consider valuable and you can go out and change your settings if you like (to only receive a subset of headlines for example).
The down side from the users side: If you really didn't want to hear from us: you received email from us (probably 2) that you didn't want. You may consider this 'spam' as you didn't specifically request this email. If you do feel this way it will probably be compounded by the fact that you've been signed up to receive one of these everyday.
The down side for us: Some people may feel as described in the last paragraph.
A few final puzzle pieces:
Every person we send to will have entered their email address into our site at some point. At that point they received an email saying they needed to confirm: and they DID then confirm (they "double opted in"). So, they DID quite deliberately "sign up for Seeking Alpha" - They just never actually utilized any of our services after that point.
Every person we send to will have never subscribed (we will not send to anyone who has subscribed at some point but unsubscribed).
What do you think? I am REALLY interested in hearing what everyone has to say about this...
** Update: I'm going to post comments I receive via email here anonymously. Obviously, if you give me anything that makes you recognizable I'll either omit it or clear it with you first... just want to get the conversation here going a bit though.
1.02.2007
Blog Happenings
First off, there are a bunch of posts that went up tonight for you to check out:
1. Baby Slavik
2. Engaged
3. Happy Holidays
And there are a couple other changes on this blog that you may notice.
1. Links on the right. A little re-organization and cleanup. I think the only ones removed are 'inactive' - let me know if I removed you and shouldn't have.
2. The calendar link on the right. If you've ever looked at my calendar here before you've noticed it was formatted terribly. Now it's about a million times better - check it out.
3. Cleaner "Blog Archive" links on the right (which you'll never use).
4. Complete list of the "labels" that I've ever used. This you may actually use - for example, if you were to want to know what I've ever said about the brewers here you could search this page right now for "brewers". When you find the link in the labels section you could click there to see all of them. Useful? Mildly.
Hope everyone had a great holiday season and Santa was good to you all.
1. Baby Slavik
2. Engaged
3. Happy Holidays
And there are a couple other changes on this blog that you may notice.
1. Links on the right. A little re-organization and cleanup. I think the only ones removed are 'inactive' - let me know if I removed you and shouldn't have.
2. The calendar link on the right. If you've ever looked at my calendar here before you've noticed it was formatted terribly. Now it's about a million times better - check it out.
3. Cleaner "Blog Archive" links on the right (which you'll never use).
4. Complete list of the "labels" that I've ever used. This you may actually use - for example, if you were to want to know what I've ever said about the brewers here you could search this page right now for "brewers". When you find the link in the labels section you could click there to see all of them. Useful? Mildly.
Hope everyone had a great holiday season and Santa was good to you all.
Happy Holidays!
A great holiday season is about to wrap up here. Monnie and I made it to many great parties this Christmas season.
Leading it off was the Halberg Christmas, on Saturday 12/23 , with my grandparents in Ripon - it was great to see my grandparents along with my Uncle Dan and Uncle Roger and family. Claire and Sheila made it back to WI in time for the even too!
That night we hosted Carissa and Niki who were in town for the holiday. We finally got to check out Sardine and it lived up to expectations.
The next morning 12/24 it my parents hosted a Christmas brunch featuring some early present opening and delicious food. Monnie and I got the "DVD upconvertor" that we've been wanting ever since getting our new TV (as well as the chord for the thing which somehow costs almost as much as the unit itself!). We also took home some really fun Pez dispensors - mine featured the cast of "Orange County Choppers" (and it looks like they returned the favor).
Next up was Milwaukee to celebrate with Monnie's family. Monnie's brothers joined us at their parents house for Christmas Eve for some low key fun. The next morning after mass we were all back in the living room to see what Santa had brought us. I'm not going to list everything out here but Santa was very good to me this year. Some magazine subs, a Rollie Fingers autographed pennant (!), new snow pants, gift cards, and a new Sudoku travel game were among the highlights.
After all that Christmas fun it was back to work for a few days before heading up to Green Bay 12/29 to see cousin Timmy and the Michigan Tech Huskies were in town to take on the Phoenix of UWGB. It was a hotly contested game but late in the second half GB was able to pull ahead for the victory. Tim played a great game though - leading the team in scoring, rebounding, and assists as well as making several key defense plays including a rejection that landed in the first row of the fans! This also gave us a chance to see a lot of the Fitzgerald relatives that we hadn't seen over Christmastime: John, Kate, my parents, Sheila, grandma, Martha and JR, and loads of kids made for a great group!
From there it was straight to the UP for our annual New Years trip at Powerdorn Mountain. This year we had a much smaller group (Nate and Ericka, Geer, Jon Palmer, Monnie, and I) which was a welcome change from the last few years. Having a bigger group is tons of fun but sometimes it's nice to scale it back a bit. Our first day the conditions were nice - they had a few inches of snow the night before and the hill was in surprisingly good shape given the complete lack of snow and mild weather that we've had this year. The next day was a bit rainy but that didn't ruin the fun - we just took in a bit more football that normal. Great times and I'm already looking forward to next year.
After the 4.5 hour trip we went to pick up Howie from his vacation destination: Burlington, WI. Howie spent his New Years at the home of Myra and Darryl - some other WAAGR members. He had an AWESOME time there with 7 other dogs that either belong to, are being fostered by, or were just visiting their place in the country. Howie got some much needed socialization and exposure to some other dogs and got a very good report as a well behaved puppy. He sure is tired today though!
Today we went over to my parents for lunch to see my brother who has made it into town. Mike had to work (in Maine) over Christmas and wasn't able to make it back until now. Great to see him and we'll still have one final Christmas event when we get together later this week for dinner and to exchange gifts.
Wow! I knew we had been really busy over the holidays but now that I've written it all down - that's a lot of fun and travel! Some fun coming up soon but we're also looking forward to a little downtime here to catch up!
Leading it off was the Halberg Christmas, on Saturday 12/23 , with my grandparents in Ripon - it was great to see my grandparents along with my Uncle Dan and Uncle Roger and family. Claire and Sheila made it back to WI in time for the even too!
That night we hosted Carissa and Niki who were in town for the holiday. We finally got to check out Sardine and it lived up to expectations.
The next morning 12/24 it my parents hosted a Christmas brunch featuring some early present opening and delicious food. Monnie and I got the "DVD upconvertor" that we've been wanting ever since getting our new TV (as well as the chord for the thing which somehow costs almost as much as the unit itself!). We also took home some really fun Pez dispensors - mine featured the cast of "Orange County Choppers" (and it looks like they returned the favor).
Next up was Milwaukee to celebrate with Monnie's family. Monnie's brothers joined us at their parents house for Christmas Eve for some low key fun. The next morning after mass we were all back in the living room to see what Santa had brought us. I'm not going to list everything out here but Santa was very good to me this year. Some magazine subs, a Rollie Fingers autographed pennant (!), new snow pants, gift cards, and a new Sudoku travel game were among the highlights.
After all that Christmas fun it was back to work for a few days before heading up to Green Bay 12/29 to see cousin Timmy and the Michigan Tech Huskies were in town to take on the Phoenix of UWGB. It was a hotly contested game but late in the second half GB was able to pull ahead for the victory. Tim played a great game though - leading the team in scoring, rebounding, and assists as well as making several key defense plays including a rejection that landed in the first row of the fans! This also gave us a chance to see a lot of the Fitzgerald relatives that we hadn't seen over Christmastime: John, Kate, my parents, Sheila, grandma, Martha and JR, and loads of kids made for a great group!
From there it was straight to the UP for our annual New Years trip at Powerdorn Mountain. This year we had a much smaller group (Nate and Ericka, Geer, Jon Palmer, Monnie, and I) which was a welcome change from the last few years. Having a bigger group is tons of fun but sometimes it's nice to scale it back a bit. Our first day the conditions were nice - they had a few inches of snow the night before and the hill was in surprisingly good shape given the complete lack of snow and mild weather that we've had this year. The next day was a bit rainy but that didn't ruin the fun - we just took in a bit more football that normal. Great times and I'm already looking forward to next year.
After the 4.5 hour trip we went to pick up Howie from his vacation destination: Burlington, WI. Howie spent his New Years at the home of Myra and Darryl - some other WAAGR members. He had an AWESOME time there with 7 other dogs that either belong to, are being fostered by, or were just visiting their place in the country. Howie got some much needed socialization and exposure to some other dogs and got a very good report as a well behaved puppy. He sure is tired today though!
Today we went over to my parents for lunch to see my brother who has made it into town. Mike had to work (in Maine) over Christmas and wasn't able to make it back until now. Great to see him and we'll still have one final Christmas event when we get together later this week for dinner and to exchange gifts.
Wow! I knew we had been really busy over the holidays but now that I've written it all down - that's a lot of fun and travel! Some fun coming up soon but we're also looking forward to a little downtime here to catch up!
Engaged!
Congrats to Hobber and Jen! Tom popped the question 12/27 in Saint Louis (where Tom recently relocated for work) and to quote him "amazingly, she accepted".
These two are a great couple and Monnie and I were really happy to hear they've decided to tie the knot!
These two are a great couple and Monnie and I were really happy to hear they've decided to tie the knot!
Baby Slavik
This is pretty late but welcome to Baby Slavik! Evey Ryan Slavik was born 2AM 12/17/06 - 20.5 inches - 6lbs 6ozs. Baby, Mom, and Dad are all home and well.
If you're curious about the name: "Ryan" is Marni's maiden name and "Evey" is Paul's middle name, so the name was a natural fit.
Monnie and I are super excited about the new addition and can't wait to meet her! There are rumors of a WI-tour this summer and hopefully Madison will be one of the stops.
P.S. No, Paul's middle name isn't "Evey"
If you're curious about the name: "Ryan" is Marni's maiden name and "Evey" is Paul's middle name, so the name was a natural fit.
Monnie and I are super excited about the new addition and can't wait to meet her! There are rumors of a WI-tour this summer and hopefully Madison will be one of the stops.
P.S. No, Paul's middle name isn't "Evey"
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