What I had not really thought about, until now, is that there is potential for uplink speeds at the same sort of rate.  Most wireless network users stick almost exclusively to downloads, beyond sending a simple email or calling up a web page.

It is the uplink speed that is now revolutionizing electronic news gathering.  Using the commonly available 4G wireless networks, it is now possible for a reporter or camera man to upload high definition video in real time using nothing more cumbersome than a cell phone.

Combine that with a portable HD video camera and a wireless mic, and you have the ability to get real time video on the air from anyplace where there is a 4G cellular signal.  It can actually replace a satellite uplink truck!

Since the signal path is local (phone to tower to network) there is less latency (delay) than you experience with a satellite uplink, where the signal travels for hundreds of miles.  Power consumption is minimal and everything a reporter needs in the field can fit into a small backpack.

Satellite uplink trucks may well be the next victim of the internet.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and HB  extension cordsand OnStage Stand mic stands.

I had resisted using the online versions of some of these journals because they were cumbersome and did not lend themselves to being used in the way I normally like to read.

Recent upgrades in the subscription version of  Mix Magazine (Mix Online) have made me rethink how good digital magazines can be.  This journal for audio professionals has a cover price of $2.95 for the printed version, but is available free to those in the trade.

The  internet subscription version of Mix is different from their web site, Mixonline.com, and you must subscribe in order to access the full blown digital journal.  It’s still free, but instead of simply going to the Mix site, you access the online journal through a special url that arrives through email.

This adaptation is fully searchable, has an active table of contents, and can be scrolled page-by-page the same way you would read the printed verson.

It even has a handy “help” feature that lets you set up the pages in the manner that works best for your reading style.

Mix is a big magazine with lots of good original content, and while it is advertiser supported, their editorial policy appears to be one that does not unfairly favor the companies whose ads appear along with well generated content.

It even has a zoom feature that keeps from from having to reach for my glasses.

If you want to take a look before you  subscribe, just click here.

Goodbuyguys.com is a collection of web sites (including buytape.com, buybattery.com,buymicstand.com, buyextensioncord.com, buyaflashlight.com and buywireties.com) designed to deliver a great selection of production supplies.

The end of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament last night brought another revelation regarding where the television is headed.  Here’s one more reason to not count on the future of tv manufacturers.

I signed up for the NCAA  “March Madness” computer app (the first smart phone app I have ever bought) so that I could watch UNC play their first round game from my office, where I have no television.  I ended up watching another one of their games online in the round of 16 as well, since CBS opted to not broadcast it.  The app was not particularly well designed, but it was better than the radio, and I made it through the game.

Last night I was doing some work at home at my desk when I realized that the championship game was about to start.  Even though there is a big screen high def television in the same room as my desk, I found myself logging on to my NCAA “March Madness” account and watching the game (buffering, countless ads, jerkiness and all) rather than turning on the televison, because I needed to continue working.

It seems that convenience and content trumped high quality.  I didn’t even realize what I had done until the game was over.

As more and more content becomes available online, whether free or paid, the use of a dedicated device that only does one thing, like a television, seems doomed, regardless of the quality of the viewing experience.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and HB  extension cordsand OnStage Stand mic stands. Need an extension cord for your obsolete big screen tv?  We got ‘em!

Recently, I have completed a home security system using four internet-enabled robotic cameras that cost about $60 each and can be controlled remotely by my smartphone.

I can’t believe how well it works, and once the cameras are purchased, there are no monthly charges.

Here’s what I did.

The wireless security cameras can be placed anywhere within the range of your home computer network’s wireless router (usually a range of up to about 100 feet). Data connection  to the router is wireless, but the cameras will need power from a standard wall outlet or extension cord.

Once the router is configured (a complicated process, but it only has to be done once), the cameras can be accessed through a standard web browser that can be run on any desktop computer, smart phone or tablet computer.  That means that you can see what the cameras see from any internet enabled device.

After downloading a free app (advertising supported), to your mobile device (works on both Apple and Android smart phones and tablets) you can see what the camera sees on your mobile device screen, pan and tilt the camera and set it to automatically record for a preset length of time if its motion detector senses activity.

It even sends me an email with an image of what it is seeing when the motion detector is activated.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and HB extensioncordsand OnStage Stand mic stands.

The larger and more prominent the site, the less likely it is that phone contact will be an option.  Even though it can be terribly irritating, I understand why.  Let me explain.

I’m an internet content creator.  I spend most of my day adding content to our web sites to provide what we hope is useful information to customers and prospects.  That includes detailed explanations, product specifications and comparisons and “how to” animations and tips. We’ve been at it long enough that we feel that our sites far outstrip our competitors when it comes to providing information that supports what we sell.

We are blessed that most our sites do well in what is called “organic” search, which means that they show up in search results when you seek out products and information using standard search protocols.  If you search for something like “gaffers tape” or “Procell battery“, you’ll always see our sites on page 1.

For some people, finding us through search simply means that they look no further than the phone number.  Rather than take time to look through the site using a very powerful built in search function, they just reach for the phone.  Almost without exception, there is a more useful and illustrative answer to their question on the site than anything I could possibly tell them on the phone.  Every time I get one of these calls, I’m tempted to bury our phone number more deeply in the site (or at least no longer make it toll free!).

Oh, and while we’re on the subject.  When you send us an online request for our catalog, how about including your mailing address.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and HB extensioncordsand OnStage Stand mic stands.

I think that Apple is missed their opportunity and this will never happen.

I remember how excited my family was when we got our first high definition tv.  I hooked up a computer, interfaced a dvd player and our old vcr, subscribed to satellite tv and installed an antenna on the roof to get broadcast HD programs. We even have surround sound with a sub-woofer!

The thing hasn’t been on in weeks and I can’t remember the last time either of my kids sat down in the family room to watch television.

It is clear that they would all rather watch whatever they are watching on their laptops, their smart phones or their IPads.  The ability to watch what they want, when they want to, and wherever they are is clearly much more valuable than a big screen, good quality audio, and a high definition image.

That is not going to change, and no matter how “smart” and interconnected an Apple television might be, they are too late.

And the high definition tv in our family room  that cost $900.  You can now by a comparable unit for $199!

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and HB  extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands. Need an extension cord for your obsolete big screen tv?  We got ‘em!

Now, it appears that Google is ready to put their ability to serve up truly relevant search content on the shelf in favor of providing search results that are tempered by what our friends may have searched for or what we may have looked for in the past.

This is Google’s latest attempt to take on Facebook in an arena that Facebook owns, and lots of Google users are unhappy about it.

Instead of seeing information that the internet as a whole values because of the quality of the content (what is on the page and who links to it) you are more likely to see results based on your friends and colleagues have searched for.

I like my friends, but they are not who I normally choose to turn to when I want the kind of search results I used to get on Google.  They are good people, but I don’t think of them as primary resources for the kind of information I am usually seeking.

What might be even more important is that Google has been quiet about what they are doing.  Most people don’t realize that their search results might be very different than someone across the office or in the next dorm room.

The result of this change in Google’s search code,  something that might well be called “Facebook envy” has reminded me that there are lots of other useful search engines available that now better meet my needs.

Google needs to get back to what made them so successful in the first place.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands. We are proud to feature extension cords from Hosatech.

Today, Dec. 29, has been proposed as boycott Godaddy day, and thousands of customers are threatening to leave Godaddy in the dust and move their hosting and registrar accounts to someone else.

H.R. 3261, the Congressional bill, is bad legislation and threatens to remake the internet at its core.  It would allow a major transfer of internet control to a few major players and allow those who claim control of digital intellectual property to shut down small time web sites without due process.

We currently have in excess of three hundred domains registered with Godaddy and use them to host many of our sites.  We’re ready to see them in our rear view mirror if they don’t step up and get this right, and do it quickly. If  you are a Godaddy customer and want to put pressure on them to stand up and fight for their customers, give them a call at 480-505-8877.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands. We are proud to feature extension cords from Hosatech.  We believe that a free and open internet is the key to job growth, economic development and more opportunity for everyone.

I have spent the last hour trying to come up with a usable set up for the latest version of Google’s G Mail, and I’m getting nowhere.  How can a company as progressive and powerful as Google completely fail to understand what users want in an email platform?

Now, I realize that Google is an advertising company and I am willing to accept some ads on the G Mail screen, so a little clutter is inevitable, but I have learned to tune it out.

However, not having the ability to control how the information on the screen is organized or having a logical way to index saved emails is incredibly frustrating.

Email was never intended to be a “conversation” and Google can’t change that, no matter how hard they try.  It is the lack of immediacy that makes it so much more powerful than a chat client or a message sent from a social networking platform.

Use of valuable Google tools like Google+ and Google Adwords requires having and using a G Mail account, so simply ignoring G Mail is not a realistic option.

How about giving us the option of a straight forward and simple interface that doesn’t look different every time I log on to my account.

It’s just a suggestion.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.

Why is it taking twenty minutes?  Because I am a “Returning Customer”.  That’s why.

I’m sure you have had this experience.  Because I have ordered from this company before, there is an account in their customer data base associated with my email address, so they won’t let me complete the order process without logging in to the account that I did not want to create in the first place.  So far, I have requested at least six times that they email me my password, but I still haven’t received one.  If I was a new customer my order would have already been completed, but because I am showing some loyalty by placing a second order, I am stuck at the entrance and the door has been slammed in my face.

We’ve found a way around this at our own web sites which will allow you to place orders as a “guest”, no matter how many times you want to order, so we know it can be done.  Our web developer has nicknamed this “no hoops”, as in “you don’t have to jump through any hoops to place an order“. You can use the same email address every time and never be turned away because your email address is already associated with an account.

I started this blog post when I requested my password and I have now completed it and have still not received it.  \

Time to find another toner cartridge supplier.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.

By default, settings for Word Press allow readers to post comments.  You can moderate the comments and decide whether you want to allow readers to see them or just delete.

There is a strategy among people who optimize sites for search whereby they post comments to blog sites and if the site allows the posting to be displayed, then it creates what is called a “backlink” (a link back to the poster’s own site) which, at least in theory, improves that’s sites performance with major search engines.

Most of the comments we get appear to be automated,  posted by robots, and probably from programmers whose native language is not english.

Here are a few recent comments:

When he recovers he doesnt give up and his next confrontation goes somewhat improved.

Good post. I be taught something more difficult on totally different blogs everyday.

We can’t give your site earlier than telling you that many of us seriously loved the coffee quality information you are offering on your visitors?

I experience fairly fortunate to have encounter your internet webpage

Digged google 30 mins, findally i get it, thanks!

Perhaps my favorite of all time:

These are impressive articles. Keep up the sunny handiwork.

Here’s where you can view our other blogs:

Allabouttape.com

Tapenews.com

Volleyballtape.com

Routesettingtape.com

Hooptape.com

Thetapeworksblog.com

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.

Every trade magazine I pick up these days has an article about yet another Ipad, smart phone  or tablet computer app that is designed to wirelessly interface with a piece of sound or lighting equipment so that it can operated through an internet interface.   These are exciting developments and certainly give production pros a great new set of tools for managing their shows.

The article I am expecting to see next month, or the month after, is about how some 20,000 seat arena concert or major corporate media event has been hijacked by someone who has been able to hack one of these sound, lighting or video controllers and bring the show to its knees.  It seems inevitable to me.

All sorts of recent revelations regarding how much energy black hat hackers apply to cracking financial networks and major e-commerce sites show us time and again how vulnerable these interconnected resources are.  If major credit card and online sales  web sites that spend millions on security can be hacked and taken over, even briefly, by outside parties, it seems highly likely that wireless internet-based show controllers, subject to little or no security, must be quite vulnerable.

No kisses are going to be blown when this prediction comes true!

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Electratrac and Coast Wire extension cords, OnStage Stand mic stands, and lots of other useful production supplies.

I don’t mind doing it, but we make every effort we can to avoid using the phone for customer service functions.  In addition to the ability to get savable information in front of the customer, doing customer service functions online and through email allows me to time shift.   If providing answers doesn’t involve constant telephone interruptions my responses can almost always be more thoughtful, concise and detailed.

I came across a great tool today for answering a customer inquiry by simply emailing them their own question, formulated in a way that Google will deliver the answer that I want to provide.  It has a great “wow” factor and really enhances the customer service experience.

It is called “Let Me Google That For You” (lmgtfy.com).

One of the most common questions I get is “what is the proper extension cord size for my appliance“.  We have a chart at buyextensioncord.com that addresses this question.  By formulating a google inquiry so that it points at our content, entering it into letmegooglethatforyou.com and sending the customer the tiny url that is generated, i can get Google search results in front of the customer that look like organic search but which have been manipulated to insure that the customer sees the results that I intend for them to see.

Try clicking on http://tinyurl.com/6xpgvny and you’ll see what I am talking about.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.  Every extension cord we sell is “Satisfaction Guaranteed“.

You don’t have to apply much thought to this before it becomes apparent that the cost of shipping has to be rolled into the cost of the product. The merchant would not be able to survive, much less be profitable, if this was not the case. “Free” is, no doubt, the most powerful word in marketing, but there is a catch. A big catch!

Customers ask us every day if we will give them free shipping.  Regrettably, the answer is always “no“.  Here’s why.

Everything we sell is heavy.  A case of gaffers tape weighs 48 lbs.  When you place an order online, our shopping cart asks for your zip code, calculates the weight of the shipment, and gets your shipping cost directly from a UPS shipping database.  This cost is added as a separate line item when you complete the purchase transaction.

We ship our products nationwide from North Carolina warehouse.  If you are ordering from Greenville,  SC your shipping cost would be $18.14.  The same order shipped to Phoenix, AZ would have a $43.19  freight cost.  If we offered free shipping, then the customer in Greenville would have to pay more for the product to cover the cost of “free” when we shipped the same case of tape to Arizona.

Following the same logic, the customer in Reno, NV who orders a pair of shoes from Zappos (they are located in Las Vegas) and pays the same price as someone who orders those shoes and has them shipped to Norfolk, VA is paying more for the shoes than is necessary.  That’s because they have to cover  Zappos’ costs when they ship something across the country.

I don’t know when or if the “Free Shipping” craze in e-commerce will fade from fashion, but I do know that it is not free.

Share your observations on free shipping.  We’ll pass them on to our readers.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.  Every extension cord we sell is “Satisfaction Guaranteed“.

One of the things that always surprises me when we have issues with suppliers is how some of them seem to think that being “nice” to us, their customer, is what is really important.  That might have been the case in the day of the business lunch and the phone order, but electronic communication has pushed “nice” to the back burner, particularly when a supplier thinks that being polite can take the place of being informed.

It’s really difficult to be tough with a supplier when they think that kind words and thoughtful pauses can make up for not being able to tell me the status of my order or why i was shipped the wrong product.

What we want is information.  One of the greatest things about electronic communication is that it’s easy to set a business like tone without being compromised by someone’s attempt to “nice” their way out of a situation when they don’t have the answer you want.

In this day and age, being a good “listener” really means that you are a good reader.  We like it that way.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Shurtape gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.

After several years of not being able to find our address (on a private road) in any of the online mapping software, there we were on Google Street View.  Apparently a Google mapping survey vehicle had visited our neighborhood, and there was a picture of our loading dock-uncut grass included-for all the world to see.

While Google Street View may be useful for businesses, say a delivery driver who is wondering which dock is ours, its indiscriminate use, regardless of the address being sought out, is troubling.  I don’t mind someone being able to identify my business address, I would prefer that not just anyone be able to identify which home driveway is mine and which is my neighbors’.

Of less concern in the privacy arena, but clearly of great interest to a business owner, is how unflattering the image Google chose to use was.  We have a very attractive building with a large landscaped front lawn fronting on a major US highway.  We take care in presenting a good face to the public and regret that Google chose to use a view of our facility that almost no one ever sees.

While we have no interest in manipulating accurate data that is in the public domain, we do feel that Google should take more care to present a balanced presentation of what their images really represent.

My Facebook page

Little did I know, these games (and others) are generating huge income for a company called Zynga.  Zynga develops incredibly popular social networking games and they make their money in an amazing way.

It appears that those who play the games are willing to pay real money for “virtual” goods.  That pink tractor my friend was bragging about having-it turns out she paid $3.50 for it.  Yes, the $3.50 was real, but the tractor is not.  Zynga needs no warehouses, no trucks and no maintenance facilities.  The pink tractor exists only on their servers and costs essentially nothing.  The bulk of their costs (minimal) are tied to the credit card transaction fee for the purchase.

This article in last week’s New York Times values Zynga at $4.5 billion dollars and estimates their annual revenues at $500 million, almost all of it from the sale of virtual goods.  The Times goes on the crown Zynga “the Google of Games”.

We sell real things, and the cost of warehousing, shipping and guaranteeing them is the majority of the cost of running our business.  If we could figure out a way to sell “virtual” gaffers tape, we could become the “Google of sticky stuff“.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.  Got an observation about social network gaming that you would like to share with our readers?  Let us know.

I recently went on a “round up” and moved all the domain registrations to a single registrar because it was becoming increasingly difficult to keep up with renewals.

I chose to use Godaddy.com because their pricing seemed a little lower and they offer hosting services as well.

Now I am reconsidering that decision.

Godaddy.com is the “hands down winner” of the contest for the “most characters per page contest” and they lead the competition by miles in the “most in-your-face upselling contest” as well.  It is impossible to complete any sort of transaction at their site without their making dozens of attempts to sell you more products and services, and completing any sort of complicated administrative tasks almost always requires a phone call.

There ought to be some way to turn off all the special offers, deals and contests and choose a simple menu option for the task you came there to get done.

It is past time for Godaddy.com to provide a simple-to-navigate option for customers who know why they came to the site.  We can save looking at the Danica Patrick pictures till later.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.  Got an alternative to Godaddy.com that you would like to share with our readers?  Let us know.

I never cease to be amazed that a company will pay for an online add and then link the ad to a web page that has nothing to do with the product being advertised.  The ad link simply takes you to a “generic” home page for the company and then you must navigate the site  to locate what you originally were searching for.  After a couple of clicks you give up and go back to the original search page ready to click on some other ad.

An ad served up by a keyword search should take the searcher to a landing page that is specifically about the product for which they are searching.  Anything else is simply throwing the ad budget away.  You can’t necessarily control what pages Google or Yahoo will serve up in the free listings for search, but you can control the page that links to your ad.

Before spending any more money on keyword driven advertising, make sure that you serve up information relevant to  what is being searched for.  Dedicated landing pages are what keyword ads are all about.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.

The real  point I am hoping to make here is it seems almost as odd to me that a business might have only one web site.  We’ve got about twenty, and some days that hardly seems like enough.

With the cost of domain registration below $10 and offers left and right for “free” hosting, there is no reason to limit the way potential customers might stumble across your company.

Our strategy has been to take the different names of the products we sell and simply add the prefix “buy” in front of the name.  For example, we sell tape at buytape.com, batteries at buybattery.com, etc., but both domains link back to our primary domain.

Even with the scarcity of good domain names, combining something you sell or do with a “call to action” prefix or suffix can often generate a memorable domain name that is still unclaimed.  A  search at any number of domain registration websites can quickly help you define this technique.

A small but informative site that deals with only one component of your business can link back to your primary site in a way that leads prospects to where you would like them to end up.

These specialized content sites are very attractive to search engines as well, so you might be able to gain an advantage over your competition by addressing a very narrow niche.

Next time someone asks you if your business has a website, tell them “No, we don’t have a website.  We’ve got a dozen!”.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.  Got a good web development strategy?  Share it with us.

Net neutrality is the concept that says all traffic should move across the internet at the same speed and that those who actually own the networks (the large telcom companies in most cases)  should not be able to favor one sort of traffic over another .  The internet service providers in this case (AT&T and Comcast) argued that they should be able to slow down the movement of large files when network speed was impeded.  The court agreed with them, essentially telling the FCC that it had no power to regulate the internet.

Now,  I’m no fan of large telecom companies (particularly AT&T) but I have to admit that their argument resonates with me.  Those who argued (unsuccessfully) that the federal government should exercise control over data movement are ignoring a long standing precedent related to one of the most highly regulated infrastructures in the country.

I’m talking about highways.

I used to own a fleet of trucks and once a year I dutifully wrote a really big check to register my vehicles with the state dept. of transportation.  The cost of registering each vehicle was based on its weight, the theory being “the bigger the truck the more wear and tear there is to highways and bridges”.  I paid another tax every time I bought fuel-larger trucks burned more diesel fuel and thus paid more of a tax called “highway use”.

The FCC’s argument seemed to say that the telecoms should not be able to do something that federal and state government had been doing for decades.

It would seem that this argument deserves consideration in the net neutrality discussion.  The government does not actually own the internet infrastructure, but the argument still is relevant.  Those who make the most of the internet-transferring the largest files and the most data-would be charged the most.

The owners of the internet infrastructure don’t want to regulate what is actually being transmitted.  What they really want to be able to do is charge more to those who use their infrastructure the most.

It’s an argument worth considering.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.

I reference this story as an introduction to one of the most vexing, but easily solvable problems I face every day.  We make an effort to make sure customers and reach us on the phone, even though we are a web based business, and we usually prefer to conduct transactions online.  Still, we’ve had the same toll free phone number for 25 years and try to insure that it is answered by the third ring.

More and more, the caller on the other end of the line is a non-native English speaker and this usually means trouble.  We deal in some fairly technical issues (product specs, tracking info, etc.) and language barriers can be a real problem.  We’re a small business and, do date, no one in our shop is fluent in any other languages.  Sometimes the confusion is humorous, but usually it is just frustrating-on both ends of the line.

In just about every case the problem, or inquiry, could be much more easily resolved if the customer would go to the web rather than the phone.  In most cases, the answer to their question is readily available on one of our thousands of web pages.  If not, our email address and contact form are easy to find.

Best of all, new translation software from Google means that the inquiry doesn’t even need to be posted in English. An inquiry in Spanish about a “micrófono se encuentra” can quickly be translated to “microphone stand” and a term like UPS tracking number becomes “Número de rastreo de UPS” with a couple of key strokes.  It’s almost like having an international customer service department.

We’ll continue to prominently publish our toll free phone numbers and cheerfully answer the phone, but if you want the best customer service we can offer, then you’ll be happiest by sticking to the web.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.  Tell us how you use online translation services.

Today  Seth’s posting deals with how a business can keep prices down by having a customer do some of the work.  This is what internet pricing is all about.  When we are able to get you to do most of the time consuming work in setting up an account (read-data entry) and processing payments (read-credit card authorization), then there are savings that can be applied to our pricing.  A more direct  route between us and our customers means a more efficient operation. Thus, a narrower profit margin is acceptable.  No need for a middle man to do any hand holding on either side of the transaction.

We get the same phone call almost every day (different caller-same script).  It always starts out “ I found you on the internet.”  “We are a reseller and I was wondering if you have reseller pricing?“  I patiently try to explain that we do have scaled pricing, but it is based on how much you buy, not who you are.  It’s not like you found us on some sort of “secret” internet.  If you found us online, then so can your customer.

By asking for “reseller pricing” you are asking me to pay you to do work that I have already done-making our company easy to find by anyone who might need our products.

Unless you can convince me that by selling through you that some sort of value is added for the end user, then we will continue to do all we can to avoid the middle man.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.

The city of Wilmington, NC will use frequencies within this part of the broadcast spectrum to operate wireless surveillance cameras and environmental sensors in what city officials are calling a “smart city” deployment.

Wilmington has been on the leading edge of these developments before, being the first city to publicly experiment with high definition digital television broadcasts before this service was rolled out nationwide.

The FCC has issued what it is calling an “experimental license” which can be used while the final rules for using the newly available spectrum are worked out.

Here’s what Wilmington plans to do.

Their first use will be to transmit data from wireless traffic cameras in hopes of relieving congestion and reducing fuel consumption.

Second, Wilmington will install cameras in some city parks for surveillance.

Finally, the city will monitor and manage wetland areas in conjunction wit the EPA.

What might be most interesting is that commercial providers-primarily cell phone companies-can already provide all of these services through their data networks.

This sounds like it might just be an experimental “place holder” until major new players in the wireless  game like Google and Microsoft are ready to roll out new products since they are now clearing wireless mic users from the spectrum they purchased through auctions.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.  Join our discussion on wireless mic issues here.

I practice at least a half hour every day, and the worst part of practicing, by far,  is playing with a metronome.  I’m ” tempo challenged” and this is no fun at all.

On Monday my metronome died (believe me, this blog is not a eulogy!) and  i realized pretty quickly that i would never get ready for my lesson without it.

I was ready to head for the mall, when I suddenly remembered “I have one in my pocket”.  A metronome?  Not exactly.  What I had was my Droid smart phone.  A quick search among free apps, and within less than a minute I had a new time keeper.  The cost?  $0.00.

Anybody who is in the business of designing and manufacturing small hand held devices has a really tough new challenge.  Are they going to be put out of business by cell phones.  Development of phones that do lots of other things is accelerating quickly and all sorts of device makers are impacted.

Students no longer buy or wear watches.  They use their phones?

Who needs a camera?  Some phones have zoom lens and 6 megapixel resolution?

GPS?  I wouldn’t want to invest in Garmin and Magellan stock.

Calculator or language translator?  If you’ve got a smart phone,  you’ve already got both.

This technology is even extending into areas with a very limited user base with applications like sound pressure level meters and digital remote controls for stage lighting systems.

I hate to admit it, but the monthly cost of my Verizon data plan is starting to seem like a bargain.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.  Got a favorite phone app?  Share it with us.

Pressure from manufacturers to control the price that online merchants charge for certain items mean that more and more web sites are no longer posting pricing with their items.

What may first look like an unwillingness of the seller to show you the price may actually be an effort on their part to keep the manufacturer from forcing them to charge a price dictated to them.

When you look at an item on a web site but can’t see the price until you “put it in your shopping cart“, it may be an effort on the merchant’s part to keep the manufacturer from easily seeing what price is being charged.  Because the price doesn’t appear with the item,  it won’t be indexed at popular shopping “bots” like Shopzilla and Pricegrabber, making it a lot harder for the manufacturer to control.

New interpretations of anti-trust law have given the manufacturers a lot more power in dictating prices to sellers.  Posting “lower than approved” pricing at a web site may violate advertising agreements.  This is likely why you can’t see the price until you add the item to a shopping cart.

This makes comparison shopping a whole lot tougher.

Periodically we are approached by manufacturers who would like us to sell their products, but negotiations always quickly end if they attempt to dictate the price we will charge our customers.  So called “MAP” pricing (minimum advertised pricing)does not come into play when we determine how to price what we sell to you.

We will always strive to give you the best price without regard to what the manufacturer thinks we should charge.  If we can take advantage of lower overhead and other efficiencies to offer you a better price than the competition, we are happy to share the savings.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.  Share your ideas on internet pricing with our readers.

As more and more financial and other sensitive transactions migrate to the internet, the need for upgraded security at the user level is lagging dangerously behind.

Recent New York Times research identified about 30 passwords that tens of millions of users turn to over and over.  One of the most popular is “password”.

New tools available to hackers allow automated attacks incorporating the most popular passwords to break into supposedly secure accounts.  Increasing the pool of most popular choices from 30 to 5000 shows that a full 20% of internet users’ passwords are included.

Fast computers coupled with speedy networks give hackers the tools to go after thousands of accounts simultaneously.  Couple this capability with software that can automatically resubmit passwords over and over until access is gained, and the time consuming problem of cracking log ins is not longer an issue.

For secure passwords, always mix numbers, letters and characters and use both upper and lower case.  Use 12 character passwords to protect your most sensitive data and stay away from the most popular 30 choices.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.  Read about our security policy here.

The new Nexus One cell phone was released earlier this month, but buyers, some whom have paid over $500.00 for the smartphones, find they are on their own if they have problems.

Not only does Google not provide a customer service phone number, they have announced that buyers should not expect to have emails answered for at least 48 hours.

This has the potential to give Google a real black eye before they even get started with their new hardware sales initiative.  A company with the profits and excess cash flow of Google would have had no problem in financing and developing a customer service operation to support the launch of the Nexus.

It’s hard to know if they were being arrogant, or just naive, but they would have had no difficulty in understanding what sort of customer support would be required to support a new cell phone.  Just visit a Verizon store.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.

Every desk in our office holds a Dell computer, but recent Twitter posts will certainly make me reconsider their computers the next time we need a new one.

The Times reports that thousands have posted to Twitter about their Dell experience and the conversation has even migrated to Dell’s own blog.  Complaints of delivery times delayed by as much as two months have forced Dell to go on the defensive, but they seem unable to counter the volume of complaints that continue to flow to Twitter.

Fair or not, the ability of a customer to post to Twitter about a consumer experience and immediately join a community of like minded buyers means its a new day for big players like Dell.

Do you have an insight into using Twitter or other social networks to take on a Goliath?  Share it with us.

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The most consistent prediction, by far (shows up on every list), is that we should expect a true explosion in internet video.  The combination of an expansion in bandwidth, the ease in which new content can be developed and the ability to search online for videos based on their content all mean that the value of internet video has increased greatly.

Last year we rolled out our video “how to” animation series, designed as simple teaching tools for those who work in audio visual and entertainment production.  They have been well received and we look forward to producing more in the new year.

The use of the web as a teaching medium can quickly expand, due to the ability of cell phones to now stream video.

Need to know how the pros tape down a cable?  Our “how to” animation is as close as your smart phone.

Do you have a good idea for a “how to” animation for the audio visual production community.  Let us know.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.