Buying a tablet: Three things I am considering

This is going to be an exciting two weeks for the tablet computer market. There are three major announcements coming up in this order:

• Tuesday, October 23 - Rumored Apple iPad mini 7" tablet
• Friday, October 26 - Microsoft Surface RT tablet
• Monday, October 29 - Rumored Google Nexus 7 32GB tablet

So if you were thinking of purchasing a tablet like I currently am, you might want to wait and see what each of these companies are bringing to the table. Here are the three things I am considering as I weight my purchase options.

1) What do I plan on using this tablet for?
I've seen online the debate between consuming media and productivity when it comes to tablets. It seems to me, and I am by no means an expert, that the Apple iOS and the new Andorid Jellybean OS are geared towards the consumption of media (books, music, games and videos). While the Microsoft Surface, with its available keyboard, is able to do both making it a better, and possibly more comfortable choice. Although I don't see enterprise companies adopting the Surface in the beginning as the new Windows 8 OS is very different from what everyone is used to.

2) How much do I want to spend?
At this moment I don't think we know what all the prices are for these tablets so it is hard to do a direct comparison. However based on what we do know and how their previous products have been priced, we can make a few assumptions. The Google Nexus 7 made headlines for its low cost entry point into the market and that appealed to a lot of people including myself. Some features had to be sacrificed like a rear camera and 3G connectivity, but I don't think those belong on a tablet anyways. Apple and Microsoft are priced higher and they know they can get away with it. They are being offered as a more premium product and depending on their additional features the price difference could very well be justified. 

3) Ease of transition
My main reason for buying a tablet is to phase out my super-slow eight year old PC computer. I'm willing to bet that a tablet can replace 90% of what I use a computer for (email, browsing the web, and the occasional Blog post). I have been using iTunes for years and have purchased quite a few songs and videos in that time. I'd still be able to play back that content on the iPad mini while anything with DRM is useless on the other devices. Likewise I have Microsoft Word and Excel documents that I have made that would work best for the Surface RT or Pro edition, plus I am very familiar with those products. Google does have similar products and they could be stored online in the cloud or specifically the Google Drive storage space, thus not taking up hard drive space.

So, what's it going to be...
Like yourself I'll be paying very close attention to each of these announcements and the news coverage they'll receive to figure out which product is right for me. I currently feel drawn to the Google Nexus 7 and a 32GB version would be very welcome over the current 16GB version. It should prove very interesting week for the tablet market.

What tablet would you choose?? How often would you use your tablet versus a desktop/laptop?

Web Analytics & Marketing Automation

I have just read a very thought provoking article by Rodica Buzescu titled 'Web Analytics & Marketing Automation: Why Businesses Need Both' on the site B2B Blogging. The article, which you should read, echoed the exact thoughts I had Friday afternoon when I experienced my first interaction with Google Analytics.

My main focus has been on the Marketing Automation side of things and I rarely thought much about the contact information not captured on a 'contact us' or 'sales request' form. That all changed when I saw a few simple stats. Now I am wondering about those who didn't fill out the form and what lost opportunities there might have been.

Prior to Friday I thought that Google Analytics was a hard to navigate program and that it would take me hours to get any real information out of it. I was so wrong and I feel terrible that I haven't looked at this kind of data sooner. I challenge anyone who manages Marketing Automation programs to gain access to this data and get ready to see things in a whole new way.

Should we have a third child?

This is the question that has suddenly crept into my heart and is looking for some resolution. We have two beautiful daughters who fill our lives with such happiness and they are both at an age (5 and 3 years old) that we can start doing more activities as a family. So why would I want to rock the boat?

When asked in kindergarten what I wanted to be when I grew up, my answer wasn’t the typical astronaut or fireman, I knew at that early age that I wanted to be a father. In grade twelve I had to write an essay and I chose the topic of success. I didn’t write about the millions I planned on making or about the luxuries my life would be able to afford me. I wrote a simple tale about building a family and loving them with all my heart. So I share all this because I think I’ve been hardwired since the beginning to grow a family.

Why not stop at two? Life is good right now, and with the two girls under our wings, I can see that trend continuing throughout our lives. Vehicles, vacations, and restaurants all cater primarily to a family of four. Once you start changing that equation, a lot more forethought has to go into everything. I don’t think it is impossible and where there is a will there is a way. But it is a major consideration which deserves asking; Should we have a third child?

My Thoughts: My Book Live Duo

I just want to express some love for the My Book Love Duo from the awesome people at Western Digital. This Network Access Storage (NAS) product has been a welcome addition to our home network setup.

There are great reviews for this product available out there and this isn't meant to replace any of those. Read  any of these for full information: CNET - PCWorld - TechRadar  I just want to share how our family is using this great product without going over too much technical information. 

Half of the capacity is used to store your
data and half is used for a second copy

The first reason that I pushed for our family to acquire this additional piece of hardware is the RAID 1 (mirroring) capability it has. In English that means that the six years worth of pictures of our children growing up and other treasured moments are safe and sound. You see there are two hard drives in the My Book Live Duo, and in the RAID 1 mode, the total capacity is split in half and it automatically copies itself. So if one hard drive fails the information is safe on the other one. I just need to replace the broken one and it will then copy the information onto the new one. 

Tip: When first setting up the My Book Live Duo, you have to allow for close to 12 hours to pass as it switches from the maximum capacity mode to mirrored. So don't expect to do much upon opening it.

The second reason for the purchase is the personal cloud storage. It is a perfect match for the WD TV Live Streaming Media Player, another great product from Western Digital. I'm able to access all of our video files from the comfort of our living room via its wireless or wired network capability. I no longer have to run up and down the stairs moving content around on portable hard drives. Setting up the Shared folders was easy to do and really the hardest part is changing your habits of how you save your files.

Tip: With the WD TV Live, first access your Shared Folders via the Network Share option. Select the Shared Video folder and then push the 'Option' button. Select the 'Add to My Media Library' option to add it to the default view. That will get you to your content quicker.

The third reason for buying this Network Access Storage (NAS) hard drive versus any others is because I've consistently had a great experience with the products from Western Digital. It all started with their first generation WD TV media player which changed forever how I watch content on the television. Western Digital is a brand that is continually innovating and produces products that work as promised.

If you are looking for a networked storage solution for your family or small business, take a serious look at the WD My Book Live Duo. It is currently available in two sizes: 4 TB and 6TB and prices sometimes vary so make sure you shop around online first.

What other NAS solutions would you recommend? Anyone have any other tips on how to best use this product?

My Reading Buddy

I was blown away today. So I wanted to take this moment to share how proud I am of my oldest daughter.

We have a set of flashcards that feature 'Sight Words' - they are 192 common words from the Dolch and Fry high-frequency word lists. She was able to read every single one with minimal assistance. The box says they are for children ages 6 & up, and she is only 5 years old.

She is the youngest kid in her senior kindergarten class and I am so proud of how well she is doing with her reading ability, although for anyone who has spent any period of time with her might not be surprised. I give her full credit for her accomplishments as she has had a love affair with books since she was one year old, but I will tell you what we have done as parents to help foster this.

5 Tips for helping your children learn to read

1) Books, lots and lots of them.
Make sure that you have books in your home and if possible in every single room. Read to them as early as possible to help develop the habit early; before naps and bedtime is a perfect and favorite time for my girls. The library is a great place to frequent to get new stories and when someone asks you what to get your child for their birthday or Christmas, always tell them books.

Summer Projects: The Backyard

I have been off the blogging radar ever since the weather had become stable enough to start my outdoor projects. The list of items to get done started small but like most years it keeps growing.

The first thing we wanted to do was to improve the drainage in our backyard with a french drain since the Spring of 2011 was very wet and we weren't able to use the backyard until June. This was very disappointing for my wife and two girls so we started this job in early May.

We had a guy we know excavate the trench (thank goodness) so the worst of the job for me was lugging 3/4 drainage stones from the driveway to the back of the house. As it turned out I had ordered way too many stones and we now had to figure out what to do with them. "Let's build a new deck." we both agreed.

That of course meant that over the Victoria Long Weekend (a Canadian holiday) I had to dismantle the existing deck. I haven't laid any new sod down yet since we still have some excavating to do, but at least the trench is gone. So that is how the backyard project looks currently; I would say that we're at the half way point. We want to get it all completed in June so we have the rest of the summer to enjoy it all. Wish us luck!

What summer projects are you working on? What would you suggest I use for decking boards?

Navigation bar using Pages in Blogger

How to get a horizontal navigation bar to work perfectly in Blogger. I had previously written about how I wanted to create a horizontal navigation bar with tabs that could could link within my blog. I had come to the conclusion that using Pages was the wrong way to do this. I WAS WRONG!

How to create a Page that can link within your blog?

The first step is to change to the updated Blogger interface. I had first resisted this when it first came out but now realize that was a mistake. I find now I really like the clean design of it.

The updated Blogger interface is a major improvement over the previous version.

Updated options with new Blogger Interface.

Next access the 'Pages' options. You'll now see the main option navigation is along the left hand side. Below the 'New Post' button, the third option is 'Pages', click the link.

Get ready to add new pages. The first option is 'Blank Pages' which are perfect for your 'Contact Me' or 'About Me" page, or as Blogger describes it "Add text and media". The new option that wasn't in the previous interface, or if it was it was well hidden, is the 'Web Address' option. This can be used to "send readers to another web address" or best of all to a spot within your blog.

Page title and URL.  The 'page title' is what is going to appear in your navigation tab and the URL is without explanation the webpage that you want to link to. Save your work and View your Blog. Voila!!

My experience: The first page that I created was to search for all my blog posts with the same label. In this case it was http://www.steveccoleman.com/search/label/Blogger since I wanted to share tips about Blogger as I learned them. This one especially made me happy since I was so frustrated the first time I tried to achieve the same goal. The new Blogger interface made it too easy which is OK for me.

Have you found any other features in the new interface that made your blogging life easier?

Check-box click reveals new question

Here is some quick and easy JavaScript that you should add to your online form projects to get more information out of your contact.

Depending on someone answers a certain question you can reveal a follow up question to ask. The example I use below poses the question "Do you want a sales person to contact you?" If they check off 'Yes' then we reveal a new question asking for their phone number. It allows you to guide the contact along instead of blasting them with a list of questions. IT feels more like a conversation.

My example and how you could do it yourself

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Check if you want a sales person to contact you.

Phone:

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Three Thoughts about Toy Quality

You may have caught on from previous posts that I don't like to waste money, and when I do have to spend it I like to buy quality. How I don't want to spend my money is on replacing toys that have broken one week after receiving it. Grrr Argh!

I have two girls and they are by no means rough with their playthings. So it is always disappointing for me and especially them when something breaks due to poor quality. And it makes me wonder what are they learning from all of this, or where a valuable life lesson might exist. Here are three thoughts on that:

1) Environmental

When a toy breaks and can't be fixed, it goes into the garbage. And it seems to me that this is happening in greater frequency (especially after Christmas and Birthdays). I can't help but thing of all that plastic that is ending up in our landfills. It is going to take years for it all to break down. Not to mention the wasted resources each year to make more toys that quickly turn into junk. I want my children to think about the planet first and not playtime things. A hard lesson for a five and two year old.

2) Financial 

No amount of crazy-glue was
able to save these two toys.

How are kids (and sometimes adults) supposed to learn about the value of money when their immediate response when something breaks is "Can I get a new one?" Our immediate response is "No". That isn't the solution to the problem, you can't just run out and replace things. Sometimes you need to step back and ask yourself, "Do we really need that?" and "Is there a better quality alternative?" You sometimes end up paying a little bit more, but then you are buying quality.

3) Family Values

My girls are playing with the Sesame Street Clubhouse by Fisher-Price that I played with at their age. Why? Largely due to the better built toys from that time but also because their dad took care of it and he respected his toys. Since toys these days seem to be lacking quality it more important than ever to take care of our belongings which includes putting them back where they belong at the end of the day. Again a hard lesson for a five and two year old.

Thinking of the Fisher-Price clubhouse and the fact that is was made in the USA makes me think twice about buying products with the now all too common "Made in China" label. I'm not seeing the quality anymore and I think it is all about getting consumers back into the stores to buy more things.

How does your family handle broken toys?
What toys have stood the test of time in your house?

Scrapbooking meet the QR Code

Everyday at work I get to apply my craft as a digital marketer. My main responsibilities include managing our marketing automation campaigns in an effort to generate new leads and to nurture the existing ones. One new tool that we started introducing to our online/mobile marketing efforts in 2011 was the QR code.

I can't help but bring home some of the ideas that float around my head. One time when my wife, the Crafty Cucumber, asked for my opinion about a scrapbook page she was working on it occurred to me that QR codes could be used in scrapbooking. After explaining to my wife that QR stood for Quick Response and that the concept is that you could scan the code with a smart phone and get directed to anything online you would like. She politely smiled and continued asking for my thoughts on the page she was working on.

So the idea is to simply help enhance what was being beautifully communicated with paper with a little help from something digital. The example I have is a scrapbook page that she made of my youngest daughter's first birthday. I had taken a few videos of the day, specifically when she was devouring her cake, and proceeded to post them on YouTube. It was simple creating a QR code using the Google URL shortner tool; you create it, save the QR code image, and then print it out on scrapbook paper and add to your project.

What will it take for me to buy a cell phone?

I will first start off this posting letting you know that I love technology and the ways that it can advance and improve our social and work lives.

I last had a cellphone eleven years ago and back then it was just voice service. It was for those emergencies that never seemed to happen; not that I am complaining. I don't think my wife has never had a phone outside of using anything for work related purposes, and again it would have been just voice service. So the closest my family has come to a modern smart phone is my 3rd generation iPod Touch (the one without the camera).

Here are the reasons I don't have one currently.

1) Cost - They don't come cheap. Be it the phone purchase or the addition of a data plan. I don't see the value in it.

2) Accessibility - I work in an office and I sit beside a phone, if someone calls me, there is a really good chance I'll be there.

3) Necessity - I've gotten by the last eleven years without one, and I'm not sure what would change that.

Which leads me back to the question of this post, What will it take for me to buy a cell phone?

Blogger: Pages versus Posts

I am slowly but surely getting this blog/website to look and feel the way I want it to. Blogger is the tool I am using to manage the website and I've chosen the free NewsMagazine template from Deluxe Templates as my look and feel. I specifically loved the 'Featured Post' ability; that I hope doesn't get annoying. (please let me know)
I've recently added two tabs at the top of my navigation: Web Marketing and About Me. For a very frustrating day I thought I had to do this via the (Design > Edit HTML) section by editing the code so I could indicate the specific page. I turns out I add items to my navigation in the (Posting >Edit Pages) section. Although it wasn't what I expected.

What I wanted the 'Web Marketing' tab to show you was this 'Web Marketing' - which is showing you all the postings I have written about, you guessed it, web marketing. Instead what the Blogger Pages section creates is static pages. This is great for About Me type information, something that you can write once and occasionally update. I wish the Blogger help section was more clear on this.
So in Blogger, Posts will always show up in the main page. You can't move them into one of your pages. Pages are great for information like your personal bio, a static picture gallery, and any other information you need to only write/share once.
So with this new understanding I need to find a new way to allow people to navigate to certain types of posts. While I might find posts of my kids cute, those just looking for information about web design and social media might find it distracting.
Does anyone know how to create a custom navigation?

Chicken Alfredo Dinner

Chicken alfredo served on one of the kids IKEA plates.

To help out from time to time I will prepare a meal for our family. It is a job I should take on more often but then we'd be eating chicken and rice all the time.

I decided to make a simple pasta dish for the four of us as my most recent contribution.

Ingredients used:

• 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 2 roma tomatoes
• 1 green onion
• Alfredo sauce mix or from a jar
• Skim milk
• Olive oil
• Pasta noodles

Preparation:

Scissors made quick work of the onions.

The chicken was slightly frozen which I find easier for chopping despite the cold hands. I cut them into small pieces in the hopes that they might go unnoticed by my youngest daughter who takes the prize when it comes to being a picky-eater. (She comes by it naturally.)

Follow the instructions on your pasta noodles and start boiling the water. We used penne instead of fettuccine noodles since it is easier for the girls to pick up on their forks.

Tomatoes and green onions

Add some olive oil to a skillet or frying pan and cook the cubed chicken on medium heat. While the chicken is going it is time to start cutting up the vegetables. I used kitchen scissors to cut up the onions and a paring knife to dice up the tomatoes. Place in a container while you wait for the chicken to finish up.

Once the chicken is no longer pink I added the veggies into the frying pan to help soften them up. Turn down the heat at this point.

The result of not stirring.

Now it is time to start the sauce. It is very important that you follow the instructions on the packaging. I didn't faithfully stir it continually and had to scrub the pot for close to an hour afterwards to get it clean.

Once the sauce is done, the pasta has been drained and rinsed, you're ready to mix it all together and share with your family.

What I found was that I should have used less chicken, even though that goes against my general thinking. I enjoyed the meal as well as my wife, the kids weren't as enthused. It did little to impress my picky-eater, she was happy to have her noodles plain.

Does anyone have a suggestion to improve my pasta dish?

Send me a tweet @steveccoleman

Other photos:

The house smelt great while cooking.

Multitasking on the cook-top. Notice I'm not stirring.

My Online Marketing Resources - Twitter

A coworker's daughter recently started a new job in online marketing. Some of our responsibilities overlapped so I decided that I would share some of the online resources that I occasionally use for ideas and inspiration. I'm going to break it out into sections based on the medium the information comes from to help keep it organized.

Twitter Resources I Follow

You don't need Twitter to visit these resources but it doesn't hurt. Make sure others at work understand that you're on there for business reasons and not reading about celebrity gossip.

Webdesign @codrops Marketing Automation @Eloqua @marketo

Online Marketing @b2bsalesandmrkt @EmailDirect @BtoBSocialMedia @KISSmetrics @EmailonAcid

When setting up your Twitter account or editing your existing one, it helps to mention your interest in online marketing in your description. That way others can see your shared interest and potentially follow you as well.

Who else is a great resource on Twitter for Online Marketing information?

For all that money just lying around

I had previously written about how I'm saving money in the short term by shaving my head in the new year. But I am also thinking about how I can save some money in the long term as well, one of those ways is making additional payments to the principle of my mortgage. It is really scary how much money we're all paying in interest charges to own our homes, so anything we can do to reduce that amount of interest is welcome advice.

Here is an example. Let say the mortgage is $250,000 and the interest rate is at 5% on a 25 year term. Your monthly payment towards the principal and interest is around $1462. Over the life of the mortgage, you'll be paying $188,443 in interest. Yikes!!!

Now here is the awesome part, if you make just one additional payment of $1462 at the beginning of each year you have the mortgage, you will save yourself $29,590.26 in interest charges. Plus you'll have it all paid off over 3 years earlier.

Alternatively if you make a monthly payment of $122 ($1462/12), you can save $30,021.21 and have it paid off 3 and a half years earlier.

Note: I do not work for a bank nor do I have a degree in accounting, I just know how to do math and fill out a spreadsheet.
Another thing to keep in mind that some banks might charge you for making extra payments and that there is usually a limit of how much you can pay straight to the principal. But I am willing to bet that even if you have to pay a bank fee, that you'll be saving thousands of dollars in the long term.

Don't believe me. Let your numbers and the math do the talking!!

"Cutting" back on spending

In a moment of cheapness, I drove out of the hair salon parking lot refusing to pay $30 dollars for a haircut. Instead I make a short journey and found myself in the men's hair care product aisle in Wal-Mart.

For the same price as the haircut I purchased a hair-clipper set and after setting myself up in the garage I proceeded to shave my head. It felt like such a victory; I was still out $30, but it was on my terms.

I share this memory as it relates to one of my New Year’s resolutions - to save and make some extra money in 2012. If a hair cut costs between $25-30 dollars and I get one every two months, that adds up to saving $150-180 dollars on the haircuts alone.

There are also the residual savings as well. I won't be needing to purchase any hair products like gel or hair spray. My usage of shampoo and conditioner will been reduced so we won't be replacing those items as quickly.

Plus the best part, since I'm Canadian, it works like Velcro and helps keep my winter hat on.

What are your new year’s resolutions?
Have you done anything strange to save a few dollars?