I recently wrote about the revolutionary upcoming launch of the new iPad. I have also come across quite a few articles claiming this iPad is not yet sophisticated enough or not ready to replace the laptop technology. I suggest you do not underestimate this revolutionary device and I also recommend some patience as I don’t expect all the remarkable future features to be available in version 1 fo this iPad. I predict revolution through evolution. Apple will set the new standard as they keep evolving this platform just as they have done with the iPod and iTune and iPhone and many other iProducts.

It is ONE more tool available for you to consider. There are tasks I prefer to do on my powerful Mac Pro desktop and there are tasks I prefer to do on my Mac Book Pro laptop.

Here are just a few examples why this iPad is superior to what you are used to right now:

1. This is going to be a new touch experience for everyone which is not suitable for your desktop or laptop.
2. I don’t load and play games on my desktop or Laptop. I will on my iPad which was designed for it and will make this an amazing experience.
3. I don’t read books on my desktop or laptop. I will on my iPad which will also make this an amazing experience for me. Multiple books available at my fingertips. Built-in dictionary with a simple click. Search for a word and find where else it appears in the book.
4. Reading newspapers will also be a superb experience.
5. Applications will quickly become available (already are) which are NOT available for your laptop and desktop.
6. I am sure I will quickly adjust to the virtual keyboard and become quite productive using it.
7. For me, the weight and size are just perfect to carry into a presentation or a meeting.

I predict that when version 2 comes out, it will most likely replace my laptop. Until then, just one more tiny device in my Chadology bag which will take less space and weigh less than my 4 books I carry. The world has become an “instant” demand world. Just as we can now get our music of choice and listen to it within a few minutes, we can now leverage such technology to quickly download a book and read it within minutes. Although I would most likely wait for the version that supports a video camera, I can not wait to get my palms on this iPad.

Just one more powerful tool in the Chadology bag.

You are probably wondering what in the world is Chadology? Well, I am glad you’ve asked. This popular term has been used by quite a few of my clients and is taking off quickly. There are various permutations such as: Chadology, Chadnology, Chadknowlogy, Chadovations yet they all represent the power of Chad’s knowledge and wisdom, combined with technology and then simply applied to the client to improve their lives and businesses. I have just received this photo, of walking Chadology, taken by one of my clients upon my arrival to the Providence airport last week for The New Product Experience workshop I co-hosted with Alan Weiss.

And yes, I am working on simplifying Chadology so there is less gear to carry.

So there you go and now you know.

Apple has just announced their latest gadget – the iPad which I belive is an industry and revolutionary game changer. Although some critics are already citing reasons why this technology is not as advanced as expected and are finding flaws with it, I think to the contrary. Similar to what Apple has done with graphic user interface (GUI) in the 80s, then followed by many innovative technologies in the 90s, and then the introduction of the iPhod, iPhone, music and movies, they are now leading into the future again with this remarkable invention.

So what is the big deal with this iPad and is it just a big iPod? Well read on.

1. Several years ago I said that sales of hard copy books will drastically subside and be replaced with the dramatic increase in digital book purchases. This is already happening and the iPad will make it a complete reality.
2. The newspaper industry is in a huge decline and elimination. The iPad will make it attractive to digitally read newspapers in intuitive ways which are unimaginable in hard copy.
3. I resisted the Kindle because I wanted a cool tablet which has the power of a powerful computer and displays vivid colors. Steve Jobs made this a reality for me today.
4. I am already using an app on my iPhone that has handwriting capabilities. I am sure this is going to be available on the iPad very shortly and not require these silly digital pens to be carried around.
5. So just a big iPod? Absolutely not! I would call this a Microsoft and Kindle killer. And actually the more I think about it, this is an amazing example of looking into the future in the present.

I recently spoke on Social Media and All That Online Jazz to the Pittsburgh Consulting Community. Here are some video testimonials I have captured with my flip video camera.

It is quite obvious that one of the keys to the business success of many, is their ability to offer valuable products on their web sites. When I demonstrate, review and discuss this with my clients it is quite common to hear them share with me their aspiration to create such products to promote on their own web sites. The unfortunate thing is that such aspiration is often associated with an immense sense of frustration and the rudimentary challenge of how to make this a reality. The other obstacle is how to get their knowledge and ideas out of their head and into a completed product such as a booklet, book, CD, DVD workshop, Teleseminar and more.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

1. Interview other thought leaders, record the conversation and create an audio file that is available as an MP3 download off your site or a CD.
2. Have others interview you or even video tape the conversation and make it available as an audio or video file.
3. If the objective is to increase your audience by providing free value, interface your audio recordings with iTunes and your videos with YouTube and such services. Also make your transcript available as an eBook in a PDF download.
4. Hire a content writer that will help you get your great ideas unto paper or digital files.
5. Assemble some of your best articles into a powerful collection and create a new eBook that is also available as a hard copy.
6. Create a weekly podcast series.
7. Create a monthly video series.
8. Invite your audience for three free teleseminars, deliver outstanding value and announce your new monthly teleseminar series.
9. Get together with your Internet company and layout the strategy and tactics to implement and promote these products successfully.
10. Chart your way to success – Determine one of your desired products, pull out your calendar, write down the date it will be completed and available, determine all the steps necessary to accomplish this and schedule them accordingly. Now repeat for the next product.

Unless you have already mastered the creation of such products and are doing so effectively, consistently and profitably, the key is your discipline and creating a powerful support system to help you get there. To become successful at creating products, you may need to select an accountability partner, a mentor, an Internet and a business strategist, a content writer or someone who has done so successfully and learn from them.

Since it is that time of year when making resolutions is popular yet only few follow through with, why not take a moment, determine a product your customers need that you are passionate about and have the knowledge and expertise. Then, pull out your calendar and take your first step by taking action now. You’ll be glad you did. I promise.

I was chatting with a client of mine the other day, not realizing that my browser’s facebook page was open. My attention was interrupted by the sound of my facebook instant message screen. Here is the brief online conversation that ensued with my face book friend Mark or so I thought:

Mark: Hey. are you there?
Chad: yes, on the phone. you good?

Mark: Not too good at the moment and need your urgent help
Chad: what’s going on?

Mark: We stranded in London,England. Got mugged at gun point last night all cash credit card and cell phone were stolen
Chad: so sorry to hear this. You will have to go to a place that has a phone so i can verify it is you!

Mark: all cash credit card and cell phone were stolen. Thank God we still have our lives and passport
Chad: Since you have your passport, get to the American Embassy and call me from there
and by the way, what is my granddaughter’s name?

9:28amMark is offline.

So called “Mark” disconnected our chat and also and immediately removed his facebook connection with me, which means that he defriended me (social networking term). That was all I needed to realize that my friend’s account was hacked. It was actually kind of eerie to realize that I actually just had a conversation with an impostor – a cyber thief.

I called my “real” friend Mark who was vacationing in Las Vegas and explained to him the situation. He apparently had idea of this and was shocked to hear it. I also explained to him that it is quite likely that this cyber crook may have already contacted others and possibly even engaged in other fraudulence activities. I suggested Mark logs back on, change his password, change his status message to notify his friends of the posisble fraud and then contact facebook to report this issue.

My suspicion is that my friend’s computer security was compromised by him surfing the net and accessing the wireless network in his hotel room.

Protect your passwords by changing them frequently, encrypting them, installing a firewall on your computer and making sure your data is not open to the world and especially when accessing a wireless network.

Safe surfing,

Chad

I was scheduled to talk with a client of mine recently. I reviewed the most recent email she sent me, prior to dialing the phone number, and noticed her phone number at the bottom of her email signature, which I do recommend as a great pragmatic practice. I picked up the phone, dialed the number listed and got the sound of a fax machine on the other end. Thinking I dialed the wrong number, I dialed it again and got the same fax machine sound. I then pulled up her cell number and when finally connecting she asked me why am I calling her on her fax line. I said that I called the number listed in her own email signature. She indicated that she uses that email address only for private communication and her telephone number listed is her home number that is also used as a fax machine. She then asked me to dial another land line number which was not listed in her email signature.

This illustrates a prime example of how technology may actually complicate the ease of being able to contact you. If you require a fax machine, set up a dedicated number and do not run the risk that your fax machine answers human calls and especially those from your prospects and clients. And if you are listing the phone number to contact you in your email signature, which you should, make sure that number leads to you or your voice mail and not your fax machine.

Share your story with us.

I was recently interviewed and quoted in BusinessWeek.

Last Thursday I received an urgent email and a voice mail from a consultant and speaker, who is also a colleague of mine whose identity I will keep anonymous who is not my client and is not hosted on our server. She reported to me that her web site was infected (see slide below) which presents a serious risk to all visitors arriving to her site. Upon further investigation, not only did we find out that her own site contains serious viruses but the server her site was hosted on was reported to contain thousands of viruses and malicious content.

This is an example of a credible, competent, successful professional who is using the services of amateurs and a hosting company that threatens infecting all the sites hosted on their server if not already done so.

This is also an example of what happens when one selects a cheap solution that may have greatly damage their repute. Can you imagine being the client visiting this site, only to find out that the consultant you’ve trusted over the years, has just infected your computer and potentially your organization with viruses?

Not only should you do business with people you trust, who are extremely competent and highly recommended but you ought to think twice before you select your hosting company.

(Click on image to enlarge)

© Chad Barr 2009. All rights reserved.

Hysterical spin on our technologies from comedian Louis C.K.

If you have an iPhone and a blog I recommend you purchase the BlogPress app from iTunes. It is a great application which will enable you to post directly to your blog from your iPhone. So now there should be no excuses for you or for me to post such interesting threads which I am doing from my iPhone right now. The landscape keyboard and cut, copy and paste which I use for my signature below are awesome additions as well.

And attaching photos is a piece of cake. Even my dog Noodles agrees since you can see him wagging his tail.

My wife and I traveled to Utah via Las Vegas this past week. Since I had some business calls to take care of, I asked my wife if she would not mind driving the beautiful route from Vegas to Utah while I make these calls. She of course agreed and with my Latte in one hand, I pulled out my iPhone, connected my Apple bluetooth headset and started to make my calls. No only was I able to be productive and take care of business but in one of the calls I needed to check an email with an attachment and an Internet web site we were working on. I pulled out my Laptop, connected my Verizon wireless card to it and within seconds I was connected to the Internet and my email. And all of this while my wife is driving.

What a great world we live in today.  Especially as our electrical grid is improving almost daily.

Note: I was going to actually post this topic during that ride but decided it was time to enjoy the view and a conversation with a beautiful lady in the car.

Earlier I posted What have you bought for me lately story here on my blog. My good friend, Tom Breur, Principal of XLNT Consulting in the Netherlands was quick to point out the following fascinating facts. Here is what Tom emailed me and I am publishing it here with his permission. Thanks Tom.

That story actually serves multiple purposes, depending on which point I
am making.

World wide, about 100 Million transactions per day, 50 Billion transaction per year are being screeened online
for fraud, using a Neural Network model (in combination with business
rules). The market leader is Falcon, owned by Fair Isaac, formerly HNC.

Learning points:

1 – Because of the huge volume, the learning is remarkably precise.
Conversely, you need sufficient volume to tease out the signal from the
noise.

2 – You need the “feedback recording” of events in order to make such data
capture a sustainable organisatiopnal activity: credit card companies
“know” when they hit a false positive (they call, and then pass the transaction),
the false negatives are claimed (disputed) after the client receives their
statements. These data are fed back in to the application ot make it
“adaptive”

3 – There are costs for false positives (spoiled surpises, like yours
- that’s what everybody expects if you tell the story right which makes it
so much better), and false negatives, fraudylent transations that were
accepted. If you put those in the equation, you get “better” models, that
is, better tuned to the business needs. (another example of asymetric mis
classification costs I always use is credit cards: when accepted +$200
profit, when defaulting -$5000 write-off, therefore you cannot afford to
err very often).

We are working on a client project that involves two people in my organization, the client and another business partner. In order to improve communication and make sure all people involved are in the loop, I requested we all hit “reply all” when responding to emails. Doing so is not just common sense but also good business practice. Well, you guessed right. On numerous occasions both the client and the business partner did not choose to “reply all” and hit the “reply” button only, which would then reply only to the sender and not the others involved. There are of course occasions when this is necessary, especially when you want to reply to the sender, keep it confidential and prevent others from seeing it. But this was not the case here.

An oversight? Perhaps. But if you are not paying attention to important requests that affect proper communication and project success, you are increasing the chances of communication breakdowns and failures. I realize we all may suffer from dementia at times but the fact from my experience is that this situation is ubiquitously common.

The exception to this rule is when someone, erroneously or not, decides to include me and other recipients in their distribution list. Unless the content contains an error that needs to be pointed out, or all recipients need to know that I should not be included in future email updates, I simply hit the “reply” (to sender only) and ask the sender to keep me out (opt-out) of their distribution list.

Since I hopefully got you reading this far and since I know you would agree with me that we all get tremendous amount of emails and spam let me also suggest the following:

1. Reduce the number of emails you are sending and replying to.
2. Keep your email pithy.
3. No email jokes please. Let me share with you that I either delete them without reading or reply to sender with a request to stop sending them to me. This is an example where I choose not to hit “reply all” since I want to reduce the chances of others I do not know on the distribution list deciding to become my “friend” and add me to their distribution list.
4. Which brings me to the last point. When sending an email to people who do not know each other and unless previously agreed by all as expected, use the blind copy (bcc) option when sending your email. This way you are not revealing email addresses of people who would rather remain anonymous. I am one of these people.

Did I follow my rule number 2 of being pithy? Well, this is not an email and you decide.

This was my rant for the day and I do feel better now … I think.

(photo by Tim Niland)

Progress of Music and Technology

The picture above pretty much resembles my LP vinyl records collection I had growing up at my parents’ home. Mine contained roughly 4000 LPs that I managed to purchase and collect from the hard-earned money I made playing my music gigs back then. To make sure my records sounded great, I even purchased a Dual model turntable, which served me well for quite a few years. It was 1972, I was sixteen back then and life was good. Then came the digital CDs, my first Sony Walkman player among the many other players I purchased. As technology advanced, I had to re-invest in this digital revolution and replace the old with the new.

Today, it is my iPod that holds thousands of songs, audio books and movies. This one tiny device, that fits in my pocket, replaces my walls covered with vinyl records, cassettes and CDs as well as the various players: turntable, cassette player, reel tape and walkman I used to own.

I still remember the days when going to the music store and listening to the new records while having to signal to the store clerk, controlling the music, to skip the selection to the next song. Today, at my leisure, I visit my favorite iTunes online store. There, I can instantly listen to and watch excerpts of songs, movies and audio books and immediately purchase, download and listen to the ones I want.

Life is great.

Let me illustrate this progress through pictures:

I still remember this radio at my grandparents home when growing up

Then my first Reel-to-reel tape recorder

And my turntable

With my cassette player

With the thousands of cassettes

And thousands of music CDs

And thousands of vinyl LPs

Replaced with this awesome iPod

And my iTunes where I purchase, download and organize my music

And listen to it all using this outstanding Bose headset

While visiting one of my clients today and walking by their computer room, I noticed that their backup tapes were neatly stacked on the desk next to their server. When taking a closer look I also noticed that they had two tape sizes, the larger to backup their main legacy system and the smaller size to backup their windows server. Interestingly enough, there were only four tapes in each stack and the ones labeled Thursday were missing from each stack. Since today is Friday, I knew exactly what they were doing wrong. I walked into the CEO’s office and here is the conversation that took place:

Me: who is in charge of the backup system?
CEO: That’s Bob.

Me: I noticed only four tapes in the computer room and I was wondering were the missing Thursday tape was?
CEO: (proud and boasting): You see Chad, we have implemented this great backup procedure several years ago. When Bob came in this morning, he brought back with him the nightly backup tapes from Wednesday, that he took home with him last night. He then put last night’s server tape backups in his brief case so he can take them off site. This way we always guarantee that we have one off site set of tapes. (At this point the CEO had a big smile on his face probably waiting for me to acknowledge their great backup procedure.)

Me: May I ask you several questions?
CEO: Sure, go a head.

Me: How important is your backup system?
CEO: If disaster strikes, we would be dead in the water without them with possible terrible consequences to our business.

Me: Does Bob ever take a lunch break?
CEO: Sure every day.

Me: Does he always carry his brief case with him when he leaves for lunch?
CEO: Rarely.

Me: So I guess if a major disaster took place when Bob is out to lunch, such as; fire, water or earthquake, wouldn’t you agree that you would be dead in the water when he returns?
CEO: (speechless, no sound)

Me: Or if a major disaster strikes your business when Bob is at home and for some reason the tapes he has at home are damaged. Wouldn’t you agree this terrible scenario is the same?
CEO: (starting to make a sound)

Me: Would you like to know what Bob needs to change?
CEO: Absolutely.

Me: Keep all tapes off site and have Bob bring with him the tapes with the appropriate label for the day. When he gets into the office, have him put these tapes in the server and pull out the previous night server backup tapes and place them in his brief case to take home with him. This way you still have three days backup tapes off site if disaster strikes.
CEO: THANK YOU! We shall implement immediately.

Final and additional notes:

1. There are remote backup services available that will enable you to backup your system to a remote server eliminating the need for tapes.
2. Most reliable services are superior to backing up to your own tapes but are much more expensive.
3. If disaster strikes, recovery of software and data from these remote systems could take significantly more time than from your own tapes.

Our latest December newsletter for 2007 contains a couple of articles that you may find to be of interest. Blogging in the New Year is an article I recently wrote after attending the Blog World Expo last month in Las Vegas and after getting tremendous amount of questions about leveraging blogs in ones business. I also decided to publish Additional Lessons Leaned From Running My Business article after releasing the first Lessons Learned article and getting many emails requesting I share more such idea.
To also see how successfully some of our clients use their blogs, please visit www.AvivShahar.com and www.ContrarianConsulting.com for such examples.

I would like to wish you a fabulous and safe New Year and may this coming year be an amazing one for you, your family and your business.

Best Regards,

Chad

In my previous post, I talked about the world becoming one big HiFi spot. Well, American Airlines announced their plan to offer high-speed Internet service connection on their flights next year. What a great world we live in and it’s becoming better all the time.

After over 20 years of using and recommending PCs and laptops running Microsoft and Windows, I decided it is time for a change. I am glad to report that I am the proud owner of my new MacBook Pro laptop from Apple and it is absolutely awesome. It came with a beautiful 17” display, 2.33Ghz Intel Core 2 Due processor, 2GB of memory and 160GB of disk drive. All my PC files smoothly transferred over and I did purchase the Microsoft office suite for ease of compatibility. With my new Verizon wireless card, anywhere accessing the Internet seems to be working flawlessly and easier then before and even my wireless networks at home and the office are instantaneously connected to. Although rarely needed, I may even bring up, side by side, my Windows environment when necessary.

So I guess it is true: “An apple a day … keeps a new believer away”

To learn the key differences between integrated and not integrated web solutions and why it may be critical for your distribution business, read my article published this month “”Where is my order? How to avoid disappointing your customers.“

A question was recently asked:
“It seems that someone has been sending out spam and when people reply, the replies are coming to me even though my email address doesn’t appear in the “To” field of the emails. Do you have any idea what is going on and what I can do about it?”

Here is the answer and some additional points of clarification:

1. It is quite common /easy for spammers to hijack your email address. It is usually right on your website and typically on your contact page.

2. Spoofing is simply pretending to be someone else when sending an email or making it appear as if it came from somewhere or someone other than the actual source. Using this technique, your email may be stored in the “to”, “cc”, or “bcc” fields. Also common is that the “from” field may look like someone (usually a fake name) within your organization. This is especially powerful (for the spam company) when large organizations get spam and the “from” looks like someone valid they do not know within their own organization.

3. Open relay – which is an extremely serious condition, is when your email server, not properly protected, allows anyone from anywhere to send mail through your own server. Your email server is hijacked and mail coming from your server may actually look like it is coming from your own domain name (which it is).

How to protect:

1. Invest in great anti-spam software. Ours catches 99.99% of all spam with no need for us to constantly modify our own filters. A great anti-spam software does the following:

a. Allows for the definition of keywords to be scanned in the subject and body of the email and reject accordingly.

b. Allows subscribing to a service company that specializes in modifying the anti-spam categories. i.e. specifying the category of gambling, shopping or sex prevents my company from getting any such emails.

c. Provides RBL (Realtime Blackhole List) protection from those companies known as spammers which are automatically get rejected by my server. Please note that subscribing to the service mentioned above, automatically gives us this protection.

2. If your domain name is your own company name, contact your ISP or your technical person and make sure your email server is not an open relay server.

3. Remove your obvious email address from your web sites and replace with a hidden technique or a contact form.

4. If you elect not to invest in anti-spam software, this either may not be a serious problem for you or constantly modifying your own filters and pressing the delete key is something you may enjoy doing.

Safe surfing,

Chad