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South by Southwest Interactive 2009 is quickly approaching. I’ll be speaking, but I’ll also be in town from the 12th through the 18th, taking in the whole conference. So, I thought I’d ask, what events should I go to? Are you hosting one that I should come to?
I already have a few Tweetups on the schedule, as well as “Hands on Kirtsy.” Please let me know where else I should go!
For several years, I have supported Hewlett-Packard (HP) and their products. My family’s first computer was an Apple. But, the next one was a Compaq (who later merged with HP) and the one after that was an HP. When I was finally able to buy my first computer as an individual, I purchased an HP. I later bought a Laptop, which was a Compaq (this was after they merged, I believe). My second computer, the one I am on now, is an HP. My second laptop, the one I am typing this on right now, is an HP. We have two printers in the house – they are both HPs.
So, suffice to say, I’ve been a loyal Compaq/HP customer for more than a decade. I’ve been loyal because I’ve enjoyed their products and have been happy with the value and the results. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had crashes – but, those happen and the only thing that has ever really crashed on me is a hard drive.
Let’s go back to early January. I am getting ready to leave on a trip across the country for 2 and 1/2 weeks. I’m using my desktop, everything’s good. All of a sudden, out of no where, I see a blue screen flash and the computer goes off. Well, hey… that’s never happened before, in just over a year of using it. My thought, or my hope, was that I’d reboot and be good. That was not the case. I spent the next day and a half fiddling with it. Booting and rebooting, looking at the BIOS, messing with the boot order, trying system restores and system recoveries. I tried switching out memory. I gave up and just decided to factory restore it. Guess what? No go. I couldn’t do anything. I consulted with friends, went through various suggestions. Nothing.
With the trip only 3-4 days away, I decided I should go ahead and send it to HP for repair. This is where the first part of our story starts – the bad part. I had a hard time communicating with the HP support people. There was literally 6-8 times I called, so this is all a little hazy, but here’s the meat of it. The first lady I spoke with, at first, told me that HP doesn’t repair machines outside of the warranty. That can’t be right, I figured.
After restating my needs, she told me what I could do, which was that I could pay $149 for an extended phone support package and then see if their technician could help me over the phone. Then, if they can’t, I can pay for a hardware warranty for $120 and HP will take care of any hardware issues the machine has for one year. She wasn’t exactly the nicest lady I’d ever spoken with, but I thought there might have been a little bit of a language barrier. But, what she said sounded good. This was before I was done trying what I could on the machine, so I was really gathering info and didn’t place any orders. (more…)
A few weeks ago, I asked for feedback on the topic for my upcoming talk at South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive 2009. Thank you to everyone who offered their thoughts to me. I’ve made my decision and announced it over at ManagingCommunities.com. It should be a lot of fun!
When Brian Scott O’keefe followed me on Twitter, it made me look up what other O’Keefes were on the service. So, since I had already done this, why not post the top 10 most followed O’Keefes?
I used Twitter’s people search and I searched for not only O’Keefe, but O’Keeffe and O’Keef. Obligatory disclaimer: this search is limited. If someone doesn’t have O’Keefe/O’Keeffe/O’Keef on their profile, they wouldn’t show up. This is for fun and numbers aren’t all-important. With that out of the way, here are the top 10:
1. Kevin O’Keefe (kevinokeefe), 2,916 Followers
2. Tom O’Keefe (TOKiBiz), 1,158 Followers
3. Patrick O’Keefe (iFroggy), 906 Followers
4. Jeanne O’Keefe (thecolumbusteam), 632 Followers
5. Tom O’Keefe (TomOKeefe1), 561 Followers
6. Brian Scott O’keefe (randomblink), 556 Followers
7. Charlie O’Keefe (charlieok), 332 Followers
8. Linda O’Keefe (RIGHTone), 329 Followers
9. Matt O’Keefe (mattokeefe), 257 Followers
10. Kevin O’Keefe (voiceofwales), 253 Followers
Once in a while, I’ll randomly try something, sold by Amazon.com, that looks pretty good. I did this with Simply Asia Rice Noodle Soup Bowls, starting with the Garlic Sesame variety. It’s easy to make, healthy and really good. Problem is, Amazon has a really hard time keeping them in stock.
For this reason, I also tried the Spring Vegetable variety. It wasn’t as good, but was still quite good, in moderation. At the time of writing, it’s out of stock! So, apparently, plenty of people know about them. I may try another variety, but I’d definitely recommend them for anyone looking for a good, quick lunch.
Update: I have the solution.
I’ve been using Commission Junction for a couple of years (well, actually, much longer, but that account was closed), first with SodaRatings.com (for the eBay affiliate program) and then with the “Managing Online Forums” book site, to enable affiliate links to Books-A-Million. eBay moved away from Commission Junction, a while ago, bringing their affiliate program in house. Since then, I’ve just been using the Books-A-Million program. Everything was going fine, I thought, until I received this e-mail on February 1:
Dear Patrick O’Keefe,
You are receiving this email because we are concerned that your Commission Junction publisher account has not generated any valid commissions (from payable transactions) recently. We encourage you to begin earning commissions as quickly as possible. Otherwise, your publisher account is at risk of deactivation due to dormancy. Please see the Commission Junction Publisher Service Agreement for further explanation.
Accounts deactivated for dormancy are eligible for voluntary reactivation with Commission Junction, but you must re-establish any previous relationships with your advertisers. After reactivation, you are ready to redevelop your publisher business and begin actively promoting offers within the CJ Marketplace.
Of course, we would much rather see your publisher account actively earning commissions. If you would like some information on strategies and tips for doing so, please log in to the CJ Account Manager and click on the CJU Online link for helpful resources.
If you have any further questions regarding this or other issues, please use the Ask a Question feature available by selecting the Contact Us link available in your CJ Account Manager.
Regards,
Client Support
Notice, there is no mention of any fee in there. I did want to keep my account and I wanted to keep working with Books-A-Million. The e-mail was vague on what exactly I needed to do – just to “begin earning commissions as quickly as possible.” So, I went and logged in to my account to send them an e-mail to ask exactly how much activity was needed and to see what I could do. (more…)
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