Tonight HP sent me an email with a free offer to upgrade to HP Connected, their cloud storage. It sounded attractive so I gave it a try.

A cool-looking sign-in page appeared:

I typed in my Password and clicked the big blue button, hoping for the best however the login simply failed:

If this were an amateur web site then I could forgive the entry-level web programmer for making such a gaffe, however this is a multi-billion dollar leader in our computer industry, so I expected so much more.

Many other reliable suppliers have already provide me with free cloud storage:

• Dropbox
• Google Drive
• Microsoft Skydrive

I wish HP all the best in joining the cloud party, however they are terribly late and ended up at the wrong house tonight.

I have used all three of these choices, and I can tell you that the final option of using an Internet phone is my preferred choice today. Now, let’s look at the pros and cons of each choice.

Land Line – Pros

It’s familiar, the same kind of technology that your parents used. It works when the power goes out, and you can dial 911. Need some limited mobility, then use a cordless phone.

Land Line – Cons

It’s the most expensive option, which is why over half of USA households have switched to option #2, the cell phone instead of a land line. They are the largest in size, and will not fit into your pocket.

Cell Phone – Pros

You probably have an old cell phone lying around the house, so why not use it for your home phone number? Cell phones are small, pretty reliable, and SmartPhones are feature-rich. You can still dial 911 and get help. They are small and portable, easy to carry in your pocket.

Cell Phone – Cons

Still a bit pricey, especially for ocasional usage. Fragile when dropped and they don’t like water. During peak usage, your cell phone service can be spotty to non-existant.

Internet Phone – Pros

Most homes and businesses already have a broadband Internet connection, so it’s easy to connect. They are flexible and have features like voice mail that can be accessed from any web browser. The monthly cost of $0.00 is very attractive.

Internet Phone – Cons

You cannot dial 911, so for emergencies have another device to call for help. You have to set things up to get the free monthly price.

How to Spend $0.00/month

You’ve read this far, so you should be curious about what I’m using to get free monthly phone calls:

• Google Voice, free from Google, we’ve ported our Home phone number to this web-based system which was a one-time cost of $20.00, otherwise you can choose a free phone number that is in your local area code.
• VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) Box – Obihai makes a $50.00 box that plugs into your Internet and local phone.
• Vtech cordless phone, just $19.00 at Fry’s,

To setup Google Voice you can follow a tutorial at Obihai.

After you unbox the Obihai box, you’ll want to go to the web and create an account, follow this tutorial.

Finally, you need to tell the Obihai box about your Google Voice account, and follow this final tutorial.

There you have it, I’m making free phone calls for my home phone number, the sound quality is better than a cell phone, and the voice mail indicator even works on this Vtech phone. From my web browser I can also see or hear my voice messages as well, very slick.

The approach that I ended up with was to use the familiar Tab metaphor with the major category names across the top:

We used WordPress on this project to allow the client to login and make their updates using just a web browser. This is the back-end to the web site that I blogged about most recently, see what the front-end looks like.

For the technically inclined, this project used jQuery UI and jQuery Tabs.

• Internet
• Phone
• Cell Phone
• Television
• Security

The challenge was that TCT West serves 61 cities, and the pricing, packaging and options change for each city. Furthermore, each service has optional add-ons. In summary, there are literally millions of choices possible, so how do you make that intuitive to the customer trying to order a single service, multiple services, or even a pre-packaged bundle of services?

We started out the design by making it very simple with a single choice: Residential or Business

Once you choose by clicking, then a new choice appears dynamically prompting for your City location:

Clicking in this field brings up a City picker:

Based upon what you just clicked in the City Picker, you next see only the packages and services designed for your specific city:

As you choose an Internet service then the add-ons appear dynamically:

As you choose each service then the shopping cart populates instantly and shows if you have any discount:

Clicking the Checkout button brings you to a summary page where you see all the details of your order:

There you have it, this is how we simplified the process of having millions of choices by offering dynamic content based upon customer choices, one step at a time.

This project was developed in WordPress, see what the back-end looks like in another blog.

For the technically inclined reader, this project used the powerful jQuery library.

When a member choose an option and quantity, clicks the Add button, they see the PayPal cart on a secure web page:

If they click Continue Shopping, then they are returned to the PMPA page that they started on. When they click Check Out then they can pay with Credit Card or PayPal.

Inside of WordPress they can choose where to place this new event registration using short code:

[pmpa_print_competition]

This is easy for the PMPA volunteers to add event registration to any Page, plus it’s easy for members to register, a win for everyone.

1. Have people opt in
2. When people opt in, then let them opt out easily with one or at most two clicks
3. The frequency of messages should be appropriate, not too often
4. Let people choose what their interests are
5. Provide value

I’ve been a loyal Acura car owner for many years and some how I got added to their email list, but then decided that I no longer wanted to receive their emails.

At the bottom of the email was a link to update my preferences:

Clicking this link I ended up at www.acura.com and scrolled to the bottom and checked the box to Unsubscribe:

Then to my dismay the page told me that no updates had been made to my preferences:

I then phoned Acura support at 800 382 2238 and asked to be removed from their email list. The Acura phone support asked for my phone number to find my account, but when I provided my phone number he couldn’t find the account. Next he asked for my Vehicle Identification Number which I was unwilling to give him. Finally he asked for my name and had me wait several minutes on hold. Eventually he asked me to forward my latest Acura email to a special address. All of this process was a big hassle and inconvenience to me, a somewhat less than happy Acura customer.

Summary

I’m shocked that Acura has not mastered the art of email communications, and hope that in your business that you will comply with the CAN-SPAM act and make it easy for subscribers to quickly opt-out without placing them in a catch-22 situation where they cannot opt out themselves.

• Reliable uptime for web hosting accounts
• Value pricing
• Helpful tech support 24/7, in English
• Experience, they host over 1,000,000 web sites
• Scalability, they serve one person companies up to large corporations

Having said that, I felt some panic today when I tried to login at www.1and1.com and was greeted with this screen of death:

This is the kind of screen that you would see if their web host was having issues, or worse, they were hacked.

A quick phone call to tech support provided me with the login address: my.1and1.com

Yes, I can login, however why is the main web site at www.1and1.com down this afternoon?

All of the web sites that I have hosted at 1and1 are all up and running without issue.

When I filled out a Support request on their web site it was about 10 minutes later that I got a reply e-mail asking me, “Which browser are you using?” I replied that it was Google Chrome on a Mac. Next, I tried out four other browsers and they all worked OK (Firefox on Mac, Safari on Mac,  IE on Windows, Firefox on Windows).

Hmm, sounds like a browser issue and not a web hosting issue. I then went into the settings on Google Chrome on my Mac and cleared the cache, sure enough I can now browse 1and1 OK, it was a browser bug and not a 1and1 issue. You see, even an expert like me can mis-diagnose a tech issue.

The phone was shipped to our home within 2 days of ordering, and my daughter enjoyed using her first smart phone. She was so excited about the iPhone that she started downloading apps, changing the ring tones, getting a case, etc. that we didn’t activate the phone until 15 days later. Upon activation I called her iPhone but she couldn’t hear me speaking. We ran through some diagnostics at the Apple support site and concluded that the speaker wasn’t working.

We phoned AT&T and explained our audio problem with the iPhone and they told us that we were one day late beyond the 14 day limit for a return, instead we needed to talk with Apple directly. The nice AT&T support person connected us with Apple and we found out that we could either have a replacement mailed to us in a few days, or just schedule an appointment at our local Apple store using the online scheduling with the Genius Bar.

Monday morning we arrived at the Apple store in Bridgeport Village and received our replacement iPhone 4, at no cost. The blue-shirted  employees at our Apple store greeted us warmly, found our reservation, and helped us quickly and efficiently. Now that’s superior customer service that will likely make my daughter a lifelong Apple customer.

I like it when a story has a happy ending. Lucy sent me a hand-written thank you card and a gift certificate to Hayden’s Grill, so I’ll enjoy some fine dining tomorrow night with my lovely wife.

If you network, then think about giving some referrals to businesses that you know, like and trust.

Here’s the new look for 2013:

I’ve teamed up with Valia before, we combined freelance skills and created the Tualatin Chamber of Commerce web site as well.

I look forward to another fun year at the Tualatin Crawfish Festival, eating food on Friday night, walking in the parade on Saturday morning, and working the dunk tank as a fund raiser for the Veterans of Foreign War, Men’s Auxiliary.