After a week of Earth Day I sat back and thought a little about how conscious I am and my customers are of environmental concerns. How many recycle? How many buy recycled materials? How many have switched to CFL light bulbs? Have any started to use cloth bags for shopping?
I don't see many hybrid vehicles in the Alleghany Highlands. Honda and Ford sell them here (no Toyota). We do have a regional recycling of Paper, Cardboard, Plastic and maybe Glass. I sit on the board of the organization that recycles in the area (Jackson River Enterprises), but I'm not sure why the maybe. I would guess there isn't strong demand for recycled glass material. If its profitable to recycle JRE will do it aggressively. Ah the profit motive. The problem with recycling is that the state hasn't pushed the equation enough to make it profitable. In a capitalistic society its profits that drive decisions.
Our wonderful Virginia legislature has denied adding a deposit on glass bottles for 10 years in a row. A simple law that would get a big litter problem off our streets and create jobs. Many other states have a similar law so its not like its experimental legislation. San Fransisco has banned the sale of plastic water bottles. Maybe a deposit on them would help solve the problem. Stores charging for plastic bags would push people to use reusable cloth bags. Cost is a great motivator.
As a card carrying tree hugger, I urge all my customers to do more in their lives to conserve the resources that we have. What has this got to do with Technology? We'll see in my blogs during May!
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Monday, April 21, 2008
#126 - How should one Email?
I'm not talking about Email etiquette. I'm talking about what Email service should I be using? How hard is it to change? Why should I change?
As I have mentioned before, I use AOL for my email and until this year I have been very pleased. AOL updated their version to 9.1 and took some of the flexibility out of AOL email. I still think the service has some nice features (groups, good SPAM protection, the ability to say what email is saved on your PC and what isn't), but with the changes I'll remain neutral as to recommending it to our customers. If you have it and like it stay with it!
The services I don't recommend are those that use Outlook or Outlook express. They automatically download ALL your email to your computer. The good, the bad and the very ugly. Why would you want to download SPAM and Spyware email? You don't but if you use a email service (ntelos, tds, verizon, comcast) that you use the Outlook programs then you indeed do download all that stuff.
Services I like are Gmail and Yahoo mail. These are free email services that keep the emails on their site and let you leave them there forever. I use Gmail and it does a nice job of keeping SPAM out, but it does get a bit cumbersome organizing all those saved messages. You don't have to load a program on you PC like you do with AOL, so that's a plus.
So what should you do? Well if you aren't swamped with SPAM and haven't got a virus from you email then keep on using what you are used to. If you are getting a bit fed up then take a look at Gmail, Yahoo mail or even AOL free.
As I have mentioned before, I use AOL for my email and until this year I have been very pleased. AOL updated their version to 9.1 and took some of the flexibility out of AOL email. I still think the service has some nice features (groups, good SPAM protection, the ability to say what email is saved on your PC and what isn't), but with the changes I'll remain neutral as to recommending it to our customers. If you have it and like it stay with it!
The services I don't recommend are those that use Outlook or Outlook express. They automatically download ALL your email to your computer. The good, the bad and the very ugly. Why would you want to download SPAM and Spyware email? You don't but if you use a email service (ntelos, tds, verizon, comcast) that you use the Outlook programs then you indeed do download all that stuff.
Services I like are Gmail and Yahoo mail. These are free email services that keep the emails on their site and let you leave them there forever. I use Gmail and it does a nice job of keeping SPAM out, but it does get a bit cumbersome organizing all those saved messages. You don't have to load a program on you PC like you do with AOL, so that's a plus.
So what should you do? Well if you aren't swamped with SPAM and haven't got a virus from you email then keep on using what you are used to. If you are getting a bit fed up then take a look at Gmail, Yahoo mail or even AOL free.
Monday, April 14, 2008
#125 Charging for the Internet
One of the true mysteries of hoteldom is why the least expensive hotels (La Quinta, Holiday Inn Express, Marriott Courtyard) provide free Internet service and the most expensive hotels (Crowne Plaza, Sheraton, Hilton) charge for it. I guess the answer is because they can. Think about how much money they make on that service. The normal charge is $10 per day per room. I don't know about you, but for a dedicated line I pay around $30 a MONTH. What's more amazing is that you know it doesn't cost the hotel $30 a month for Internet service per room. Actually the cost is more like $5 per month per room. So it is like printing money. What can we do about it? Unless forced to stay in an Internet Charging Hotel, I don't. If I do have to stay in one of those nasty charging hotels I always complain about it on the satisfaction survey. Still when you are printing money you usually don't care what the rabble have to say. Remember how they used to charge out the roof for long distance and local calls? Cell phones ended that. Satellite wireless may eventually end this rip off someday.
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