Part of the packaging was a flyer from the parent company TipToeTurtle.com . As well as BicycleTrailers.com, they have 8 other domain names that focus on high chairs or travel beds or child carriers and so on. They seem like a really nice, organized company.

I was expecting to have problems when I sent the trailer back - it’s never as easy to package it back up . However, they were as fast and responsive with updates on receiving the trailer and processing the refund as they were on the order. I would happily do business with them again.

It is a phenomenal video. Too bad that Kodak’s web site is messy and confusing and has nothing of interest to me. For me, the video just brought home how much they don’t matter to me. I can’t remember the last time I bought a Kodak product. I suppose that they do sell paper and stuff like that to Walgreens or Costco or wherever I get the few photos I want on paper printed out.

But it could be Fuji or Xerox or whoever for all I care.

I’ve been trying to use Google notebook to track things but it’s not working so well for me.  The interface is kind of clumsy.  Need to get back and try it some more, I guess.  In the meantime, I can use the blog to call attention to articles that are useful for me and for my hordes of readers. 

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My wife and I celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary a few months
ago.  I’m happily married, so I haven’t visited HotOrNot in years.   I was fascinated by the description of the dating service, which I don’t think they offered when a friend first told me about the site. 

“Thus HOTorNOT was able to fill some pretty basic human needs in a way
that no other online service had before. This would later translate
into financial success once HOTorNOT offered its premium dating service
because their cost of customer acquisition was so low - zero. The
largest cost associated with operating a traditional online dating site
is the cost of customer acquisition, which even for successful sites
can be 50% (or more) of revenue. Because HOTorNOT attracted users with
its free rating service, it could offer its dating service for the low
price point of $6 per month. This is a price that traditional dating
sites can’t compete with because it generally takes $15-$30 to acquire
a subscriber for a traditional dating service.”

I wouldn’t think that advertising would be very appealing on the site except to a few advertisers like Budweiser.  So the idea of adding dating as a way to make money seems terrific.   As the article says:

“Pay $30 a month to troll through profiles? Hell no! Pay $6 to contact a
hot girl who already said she thinks I’m hot too? Probably.”

Neat to see somebody come up with a way to compete not only with the usual paid dating sites (Match, eHarmony, Yahoo) but also with Craigs List and PlentyOfFish.

Can’t recommend this article - if you’re into web startups - highly enough.

As somebody who’s spent his fair share of time putting together desks and bookcases and children’s toys, one of the most powerful quotes was (paraphrased) “that things should be cheaper - we’re making them ourselves”.

In a post on “Is it tech rage or customer service rage?”, Techcrunch talks about how many stories at “tech rage” are but asks whether they’re really caused by awful customer service. I certainly think that’s the case. When I see a guarantee from companies like Qwest or Comcast, I immediately discount it down to 0. I’m sure that whatever the guarantee is, there’s something in the fine print that will prevent me from collecting. Assuming, of course, that I have the patience to persist in reaching a person.

I don’t shop at Wal-Mart. I have 3 small children and my wife and I need diapers and paper towels and formula and string cheese and lots and lots of other bulk items. We pay money to belong to Costco for two reasons: #1, they pay their employees a decent wage and provide them good benefits. And #2, they stand behind what they sell. I’ve never had a problem returning something to Costco. Costco is tiny compared to Wal-Mart but perhaps that’s why they can provide decent service.

Who Represents? - www.whorepresents.com

Pen Island - www.penisland.com

and 8 more courtesy of Independent Sources

This is especially interesting coming on the heels of her article about how to properly segment: Scion, Toyota, Lexus or Old Navy, Gap, Banana Republic. Wal-Mart, Wal-Mart, Wal-Mart? Don’t think so.