SwitchEasy makes it easy

I blogged about the really bad customer service experiences of Verizon FiOS and Cox Communications. It is time to reverse the tone and say some good words about SwitchEasy who makes iDevices accessories. I owned three Colors iPhone 4S cases, one iPad 2 CoverBuddy back case, and most recently a Canvas folio case for my new iPad. Obviously, they make high quality stuff, so I keep buying. I want to write about my latest experience on the Canvas folio case.

I considered both the SwitchEasy Canvas and Marware C.E.O. Hybrid Case and had a tough time deciding which one to get. I ended up getting the Canvas because my wife liked the pink CoverBuddy for here iPad 2 a lot. They also have CoverBuddy for the new iPad but I wanted better protection when I meet my customers and show them the iPad and iPhone apps we build for my business.

Product

I bought the Canvas in charcoal. It shipped the next day and arrived within 3 days. They sent it from their California warehouse to Virginia. The case itself is really, really well made. It has the kind of professional and outgoing look, but does not look too serious and dull. The texture is very nice to touch and feel. I can’t stress it enough. It is really nice to touch. Sometimes, I just put it on the table and look at it and admire it. However, it does have a strong smell because it is new, which has subdued over a week now.

I use it as a stand in landscape mode all the time. I especially like the outside of the front cover touches the table surface so that the inside of the front cover stays clean. When you are at a coffee shop or food court and try to use your iPad, you know why I like it that way.

It comes with two headphone jack protectors and dock connector protectors, a screen protector, a cloth and squeegee. They are standard stuff with most SwitchEasy products, but are nice for me since I am annoyed when I see dust accumulating inside jacks. I also dislike oily screens when other people use my iPad after eating chips and what not.

Customer Service

When I applied the screen protector, I accidentally let the adhesive side (i.e. the side that touches the iPad) touch the cloth. As a result, I had a very dusty screen protector with a lot of black particles. When it happened, I knew it right away I fucked it up pretty badly. However, the iPad now sports a very good display that is kind of hard to scratch, so I figured I will just use the case without the screen protector. After all, that is how my wife uses her iPad 2 and there isn’t a single scratch after more than a year of heavy use. I also figured it wouldn’t hurt to tell SwitchEasy about what happened and if they would send me a replacement screen protector, especially they are just plastic.

I actually have the full text of the support request from SwitchEasy. I will just let it describes my experience.

Raymond Law, Apr 12 05:30 pm (PDT):

I received the new Canvas today and am very happy with the case. However, when I applied the Screen Guard to the iPad, the adhesive side of the Screen Guard touched the cloth that came with the case accidentally, and thus attracted a very large amount of dust particles. I tried very hard to clean it but still could not get them off.

I realize this is my own fault. However, it ruins the whole experience of the case for me. I’ve bought cases for all our iPhones and iPads in my family from SwitchEasy. Would you be so kind to send me another Screen Guard so I can apply it to my iPad more carefully this time?

Thank you very much.

Jordan, Apr 13 01:22 pm (PDT):

Hey Raymond,

Typically we do not send replacement Screen Protectors out, but We will go ahead and make an exception for you! We will have a set of New Pure Protect Screen Protectors for the New iPad/ iPad 2 out to you today. Please just verify your Transaction ID from PayPal and also your current Shipping address. As soon as we receive that information we will go ahead and have the package out in the mail for you!

I would I also recommend watching some YouTube Videos to possibly make it a bit easier on how to apply your Screen Protectors with no Bubbles. I do know it can be extremely tricky!

Thanks again,

Jordan
SwitchEasy US Customer Service

Raymond Law, Apr 13 03:04 pm (PDT):

Hi Jordan,

Thank you a lot. You made this a happy day for me. My PayPal transaction ID is XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX and my shipping address is:

Raymond Law
XXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXX

I actually clean the iPad with the cloth after a hot shower to let the dusts settle first. But it was an accident that the adhesive side of the screen protector dropped on the cloth. When it happened, I was like: “Oh no…” And I could never get the dusts off. Do you have some recommended links to some videos of applying them?

Thank you very much.

Jordan, Apr 13 03:16 pm (PDT):

Hey Raymond,

Accidents happen, we understand. The Screen Protectors will be out in the mail for you today. The tracking information has been sent to your email address her so you may log onto www.USPS.com to view all locations of this package.

As for Help Videos, go ahead and YouTube how to apply SwitchEasy Screen Protectors for iPad OR how to install screen protectors for iPad. Some are more helpful to others so I can not tell you an exact video to watch. I would say watching a few would be more helpful then just one because you can pick up different tips that may be helpful.

Have a Great Weekend!!!

Best,

Jordan
SwitchEasy US Customer Service

What a nice gesture! Jordan shows understanding of a customer’s experience and did something about it. I later found out the screen protector is priced at $14.99. Am I going to consider SwitchEasy cases for my iPhone 5, 6, 7, …, and newer iPad, newerer iPad, newererer iPad, …etc? Absolutely. It is really a small price to pay to keep a customer happy and return, and spread good words about the experience. Hence this blog post.

For some reasons, bigger companies like Cox never learns after so many years. Verizon Wireless customer service was really good compared to that of FiOS, at least a few years back. I hope they also improved now. I will found out when I talk to them when I help my parents pick the next Internet provider.

Little Disclosure: SwitchEasy is a Hong Kong-based company and I am originally from Hong Kong too, but the above story was based on a truly happy customer experience without cultural bias. I am proud that a Hong Kong company can be this good. I hope they are equally good when treating customers in all continents.

$10 dollars offer to switch away from Cox

Read the following story about Cox to learn about a $10 offer if you switch away from Cox to Verizon FiOS or DirecTV, or basically anything else.

The Story

I have been busy and not blogged for a long time. The reason I do again now is to show all Cox Communications potential new and existing customers how bad they treat their customers so that you will not give them your TV and Internet business.

The cable modem in my parents’ house broke down and we considered switching to Verizon FiOS because it has been working well for me in my house. I called Cox and made it clear to the lady that we might switch so that there was no point to fix it if they would charge us a fee to send a technician to our house. If they did want to charge a fee, I wanted to cancel Cox. She insisted there would not be a charge if it was an equipment problem. So I let them send the guy.

The guy came and gave us a new cable modem because that was obviously the problem. We were not told there would be a service charge or a charge for the new modem. So we thought we might just stick with Cox and not switch.

However…

When the next bill came, we were so surprised to see a service charge of $69.99 and a modem charge of $26.99. Plus the monthly charge of $49.99, tax and surcharges, the total was $147.98. I reiterated at least 5 times to the lady that I would rather not have any guy come to our house if there was going to be a charge. And now these charges appear on our bill. I called them and another lady looked up our account and agreed to take the $69.99 service charge off our bill, but there was still the modem charge. I asked where I could return the modem to get it off our bill as well. She told me the address for the Fairfax, Virginia Cox location to return the modem.

I brought the model to their office. This Dennis guy shouted, ‘What can I help you with?’ with an annoyed and belligerent attitude.

Me: I would like to return the modem.
Dennis: Why do you want to do that?
Me: I don’t need it anymore.
Dennis: Why do you not need it anymore?
Me: Because I am canceling with Cox.
Dennis: Why do you want to cancel?
Me: Because my mom does not use Internet anymore.
Dennis: Why?
Dennis: Why?
Dennis: Why?
Dennis: Why?
Dennis: Why?
…

You get the idea. I felt like being interrogated for returning the modem to them. I should’ve just asked them to send me a box to send it back. By doing more myself, I got a cream pie in the face.

I finally had to say I am in a hurry and just need to return this modem please. Can you do that? He took the modem and gave me the receipt but wanted me to call to cancel instead of doing it for me right there.

I called Cox and went through their stupid menu to cancel service. This lady asked if I was the account holder. I said no, but I called on behalf of my mother because she does not speak any English. She said she couldn’t cancel because they need to speak to the account holder. So obviously, I was able to help her create the account to begin with but not cancel. Put it in another way, it is ok if anyone call them to give them money, but they require a non-English speaker to call them to cancel.

I hung up and called again. Another guy picked up and I told him I was the account holder this time hoping to just get this over with. But then he put me on hold and probably called the guy at the Fairfax office or spoke to the lady that I talked to earlier on the phone. He came back to me and said the guy at the Fairfax office told me I couldn’t cancel at the office because I wasn’t the account holder. The fact is, I was never told about this. I was just told to call to cancel. Obviously, this Dennis dude was such a moron and tried his best to give me a hard time to cancel. WTF!?

I called again two days later with my mom next to me, preparing to be interrogated one last time. This time, another guy answered but didn’t require speaking to my mom.

Me: I would like to cancel our Cox service please.
Rep: Oh, why?
Me: Because we don’t need it anymore.
Rep: Are you moving?
Me: No.
Rep: Where will you be staying at?
Me: Same place.
Rep: Do you want to move your service instead?
Me: No.
Rep: Why do you want to cancel?
Me: Because we don’t need it anymore.
Rep: Why?
Me: Because we don’t need it anymore.
Rep: When do you want the cancelation to happen?
Me: Today.
Rep: Ok.
Me: (Sigh… Finally) What is my balance?
Rep: I can’t tell you. It takes processing time.
Me: Should it be just the pro rated portion for the current month.
Rep: I can’t tell you… The final statement will be sent to your current address.

So this time they didn’t insist talking to my mom. But I was forced to pay for 2 more days because I couldn’t get my mom until 2 days later, though she was needed. But well, I got it canceled, still very worried about how they want to fuck me up with the final statement.

The final statement came a few days later. Not surprisingly, there were surprises. Cox not only didn’t remove the modem charge after I returned the modem, it added a new modem charge that was even higher at $53.33. So the first modem charge 1 of 3 of $26.99 + the second modem charge 3 of 3 of $53.33 = 80.32. Do not ask me why it said ’1 of 3′ and ’3 of 3′ and not ’2 of 3′. I don’t even know why the ‘of 3′ means. I guess there would be more surprises!? Granted, there was a credit of $26.66 for the unused number of days for the current month. Note that I was forced to pay 2 more days, after I returned the modem and canceled, but they didn’t allow me to cancel. The total amount due now was $107.32.

I had to call again and alerted the lady that I returned the modem but instead saw a new modem charge. She said returning the modem and getting a receipt at the Fairfax Cox office wasn’t enough to credit back my account. I had to call Cox again to ask them to take it off my balance. Obviously, common sense does not apply in this company. One saving grace from all of these is that this lady was actually very nice and took care of it with my new balance of just $23.33. What a big difference!

The truth is Cox intentionally makes it very difficult if their customers want to cancel service. I understand that, as a business, you want to retain your customers when they are leaving. But you do that with sound business practices and customer care. And maybe if they offer a better deal than the competition, people may actually want to stick. However, they do that by charging customers outrageous and unreasonable fees, and when I tried to straighten it out with them, they hassled the fuck out of me. I had to make about 6 phone calls to cancel…

Does anyone want to do that?

The Offer

Here is the deal, Cox is so fucked up with idiots that do not know how to run a business to serve customers. They only care about your money. They would do anything to get every penny out of you. That is why I want them to go out of business.

If any of my friends is currently a Cox customer, or is thinking about getting Cox for their home TV and Internet needs, I am personally offering you $10 to go with Verizon FiOS or DirecTV. To receive this offer, I must know you personally, not just some random person. I will determine your qualification based on my sole discretion. After all, I am not a millionaire. I just really really want to share my unpleasant story about Cox with you and hope you don’t have to deal with them when they are sneaking to your pocket or purse for your wallet. So if you think you qualify, just contact me.

Verizon FiOS’s customer service is just equally as bad two years ago. It still makes sense to switch because FiOS is just faster, although not necessarily cheaper. However, it does run pretty solid for me in my house. It also helps when I have Verizon Wireless for our family of cell phones. After I help my parents switch, I will let you know if they improve since then.

Verizon FiOS has the absolutely worst customer service

I am able to say that because of numerous personal experiences. After reading my story, you would be wise to stay away.

• When I signed up, I was not even sent a bill, neither paper nor electronically, but I was charged on my credit card for whatever they want to charge. It requires a 1-year commitment. Bad start!
• They lowered their prices for Internet, and I kept paying the higher price until I found out and called to adjust.
• I called to upgrade my TV plan to Extreme HD and I was offered $15 per month if I also upgrade my Internet speed from 15/5 to 25/15 and combine my FiOS and wireless bill. He asked me if I wanted to get a home phone and I refused, but he still gave me the $15 offer.
• When the bill came, no human being on earth would be able to understand the breakdown. This is done to confuse you, but it seems to be standard practice for every consumer entertainment provider nowadays.
• Of course the $15 offer was not reflected on the bill.
• So I called them again. They couldn’t find my account after I gave them my phone number, account number, name, address. I was told that their system is down and would call me back when they would finally be able to pull up my account.
• No call for a week. So I called again.
• This rude lady Badger (who would only give me her last name) redirected me to wireless department who redirected me to Badger. WTF!?
• I told Badger about my promised offer but now she claimed I also needed to have home phone to qualify for $15 off. Now that’s a lie, and they are not honoring their words.
• Badger asked me for the person who offered me and I told him he gave me an order number but I didn’t ask for name. She said she would not be able to find it then. But I told her if last name is only given and if the guy’s name is Smith, how would she be able to find him for me? She did not have an answer.
• Badger became rude and I asked to talk to her manager Dinkins. Being mistreated by Badger’s rude attitude, I started off telling Dinkins that I was not trying to start arguments but simply trying to get things straight. But she turned out to be another rude lady in the billing department. Rude behavior fosters rude behaviors – no surprise there.
• I told Dinkins the same thing over and she still insisted a home phone was required.
• I asked Dinkins to find the guy who offered me and told her I’ve got an order number, but Badger asked me for the name. I again questioned how she would find him if the last name is Smith and that’s the only thing given to customers. She did not have an answer.
• I then tried Live Chat. First chat attempt got cut off and I lost the transcript right when my story finally sounded too convincing for them to deny.
• Second Live Chat attempt. See below.
• I called FiOS again to try to downgrade my speed back to 15/5 because (1) I don’t really need it, (2) I upgraded because I was told that was need to get $15 off to cancel out the cost, (3) I upgraded based on a lie.
• This time I chose to go to the order department. My belief is that the order department is always nice because they need you to place an order, whereas the billing department is always a pussy because they want you to fuck off and pay whatever they desire to charge you.
• This gentleman was able to give me his full name Eric Frisby. So the policy of giving out names must depend on either or both: (1) billing department can only give out last name whereas order department can give out full name, and/or (2) if it’s a complaint, give the least information so you won’t be founded out and get fired. No surprise to my belief here.
• Now Eric told me I would indeed raise my price if I downgrade because it’s not in a bundle and would cost me $25 more. WoW!!!
• I then told him about the $15 discount offer I had been promised. He looked and said he founded it!!! FINALLY, after 3 phone calls (talked to 5 persons), 2 live chats.
• He told me he would be able to apply that manually.
• GREAT! But wait, I need to see that in my bill to believe it. But that goes through the billing department, so I have no idea if I will see that or not.

Do I need to mention the Verizon website is one of the most feature-rich website I have seen for all my online accounts. BUT, it never worked for the things I wanted to do, it shows errors on numerous occasions, is extremely slow and times out. YES, I am using their website on its very own FiOS network. LOL

I do have to mention, contrary to FiOS, Verizon wireless customer service has been great and polite. They seem to come from two separate companies…

Second Live Chat transcript as follows (not all that interesting, included for documentation purpose):

Chat Subject: FiOS Billing Question
Your Question: I was talking to Cathy in my last session and it broke down suddenly. I need to talk to her again please.
A Verizon eCenter Representative will be with you shortly. Thank you. (14:36:58)
14:40:52 We apologize for the delay.You are next in the line. A representative will be with you shortly.
Agent Jana has joined. (14:41:25)
Jana : Chat ID for this session is xxxxxxxxxxx. (14:41:25)
Jana(14:41:35): Hello. Thank you for visiting our chat service. I will be happy to help you today.
Jana(14:42:26): I’m sorry, I cannot transfer this chat to another representive.
Raymond Law(14:42:36): Hi Jana.
Jana(14:42:58): Hello.
Raymond Law(14:43:23): I was promised a discount of $15 per month when I upgraded the the Extreme HD plan and my Internet speed to 25/15, but I am not seeing the discount on my bill.
Raymond Law(14:43:41): Account # is xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Jana(14:43:57): I will be happy to review your account; one moment.
Jana(14:44:08): Do you have home phone service?
Raymond Law(14:45:00): No, when the offer was made to me, he said no home phone is required.
Raymond Law(14:45:14): only the upgrade to 25/15 was needed for the $15/mo discount
Jana(14:45:36): Ok, one moment.
Jana(14:47:59): I see the bundle promotions as: 3 Months Free HBO/Cinemax and 24 Month Price Guarantee. I do not see anything about an extra $15.00 per month discount.
Jana(14:48:30): Did you just add your Wireless to the bundle too?
Raymond Law(14:49:51): Yeah, he told me I would get $15/mo off if I upgraded to 25/15 and combine my FiOS and wireless bills.
Jana(14:50:48): I cannot add a $15.00 per month credit to your account. Maybe he was referring to the extra discount that you are supposed to get for adding your Wireless billing.?
Jana(14:51:34): Let me check that part of the bill; one moment.
Raymond Law(14:53:03): I remember clearly that he said only the 25/15 upgrade and bill combining are required to get $15 off.
Raymond Law(14:53:31): Thanks.
Jana(14:53:57): I do not see it on the Wireless billing either.
Jana(14:54:17): I apologize, but I am unable to assist you with this issue through chat. Please contact our Consumer Sales and Solutions Center directly at: (800) 837-4966_Monday through Friday, between 8:00 AM and 6:00 PM Eastern Time.

You will be prompted for your telephone number by our Voice Response Unit. To ensure protection of your personal account information and expedite the handling of your request, please have your Verizon account number or bill available.

Our representatives will be happy to help you.
Jana(14:55:28): Thank you for chatting with us. The department to which we have referred you will be able to assist you. If you have any additional questions that we can assist you with, please do not hesitate to contact us again.

See how customers are helping customers on our Verizon Forums website located at: http://forums.verizon.com
Raymond Law(14:55:39): Jana
Jana(14:56:16): Yes.
Raymond Law(14:56:20): I’ve tried the phone support but they were being very rude and insisted a home phone is required, which is not true with my offer.
Raymond Law(14:56:37): I don’t want to be harassed yet again with your people on the phone.
Jana(14:56:48): I’m sorry. I cannot add a discount to your service.
Raymond Law(14:56:48): I will just take this to BBB instead then.
Jana(14:57:42): I have noted your account with the information you provided.
Raymond Law(14:58:15): Here’s something you can help me in the mean time.
Raymond Law(14:58:41): What is the TV portion and what is the Internet portion of my FiOS bill regularly per month?
Jana(14:59:32): One moment.
Jana(15:00:50): Looks like the normal rate for the TV is $57.99 and the Internet is $64.99.
Raymond Law(15:02:34): The bundle price Cathy told me was $94.99, which was correct.
Jana(15:02:51): Ok.
Raymond Law(15:03:34): If I am not getting $15 discount as promised, I will downgrade my speed back to 15/5 which was what I have before the upgrade. How much would my bundle price be if I do that?
Jana(15:03:40): That would be the bundled rate.
Jana(15:04:16): Let me look at your previous bill, one moment.
Raymond Law(15:06:01): okay thanks
Jana(15:07:02): It was $84.99 and the TV portion was also different.
Jana(15:07:32): Shows TV Essentials $47.99 and the Internet at $44.99 with a bundle discount of $7.99.
Raymond Law(15:08:20): I want to know how much would it cost me if I keep my Extreme HD TV plan and use the 15/5 Internet plan.
Jana(15:08:40): Ok, one moment.
Jana(15:11:48): $84.99
Jana(15:12:29): That is the Double Flex Rate.
Jana(15:13:04): That, of course, would not include your Wireless.
Raymond Law(15:13:11): What does that mean?
Jana(15:13:27): That rate is just for the Internet and TV.
Raymond Law(15:13:39): Right, of course I will have to pay wireless separately
Raymond Law(15:13:55): Now if I combine both bills, will I get a discount?
Jana(15:14:45): I cannot assist you with that. You will have to call in to re-bundle your services.
Raymond Law(15:15:20): Extreme HD + 25/15 = $94.99
Extreme HD + 15/5 = $84.99
Correct?
Jana(15:15:32): When I was looking up the rate for the lower Internet, I did not see an option to include the Wireless.
Jana(15:15:52): That is the information I see.
Raymond Law(15:15:58): See, that is the reason why the $15 off per month was offered!!!
Jana(15:16:31): What was the reason?
Raymond Law(15:17:10): Combining the wireless bill to get $15 off and to do that I had to ugprade to 25/15 so you see the option to combine the bills.
Raymond Law(15:17:38): That was why I was offered $15
Raymond Law(15:17:43): But now you guys are not honoring that
Jana(15:17:55): No, I was just in an order to change the bundle.. I have never ordered a bundle to include Wireless.
Jana(15:18:07): I am not in the order center.
Raymond Law(15:18:43): I am not accusing you, I am just saying that they didn’t honor the offer they promised on my bill.
Jana(15:19:04): Your account show that you have a Triple Flex bundle; triple would be your TV, Internet and Wireless.
Raymond Law(15:19:30): ok, so what is that bundle price then?
Jana(15:19:40): I cannot change your bundle or add an additional discount.
Raymond Law(15:19:44): I am trying to see how much I can save by changing it back to 15/5
Raymond Law(15:19:49): Can you change my 25/15 plan to 15/5 please?
Jana(15:20:05): I would say it is going to save you $10.00 per month.
Jana(15:20:41): No. You have to re-bundle with a new comittment and I cannot do that here. You will have to contact the Consumer Sales and Solutions Center.
Raymond Law(15:21:05): Can I get a transciprt of this chat?
Jana(15:21:37): You can copy and paste it to a Word document I suppose.
Jana(15:21:52): I do not have any way to send a transcript to you.

Intridea’s Present.ly has been nominated as a finalist in the WebWare 100 Communication Category

Present.ly has been nominated as a finalist in the WebWare 100 Communication Category. We’re honored to be chosen from a pool of more than 5,000 applicants to be one of the 300 finalists to compete for the title.

The WebWare 100 is a yearly contest held by CNET that allows the public to pick what the 100 best web applications of the year are. Past winners included such products as GMail and Amazon MP3, so we’re very excited to be included as a finalist for this year’s selection.

Voting is open right now, so please vote for us! We think that business micro-communication is an important next step in the future of communication, and your votes will help validate that and move it even further into the mainstream. Thanks for your support.

Easy or Hard?

I had the following conversation with a colleague about a client project recently.

At that moment, it strikes me that sometimes I want the easy ones but at other times I want the hard ones. But why? After some thoughts, I concluded with:

I want the easy ones because they are easy and quick, but annoying and boring. And I want the hard ones because they are challenging and interesting.

I think the following matrix describes it best:

Do you get the point?

As software engineers or programmers (sometimes interchangeable terms IMO), we like to solve challenging and interesting problems, regardless of difficulties. Ideally, we like everything to be in the easy and interesting quadrant, but we certainly like (sometimes prefer because it is also challenging) things in the hard and interesting quadrant as well. We would accomplish things in these two quadrants with our fullest attention and best effort.

Stuff that belong to the easy and annoying, and hard and annoying quadrants bore us. We naturally pay less attention and try to do them with spare time. However, they still need to be done. They become a drag.

Now we understand the matrix, but what can we do about the drag?

This is what I think.

I may feel ActiveMerchant is a joy and interesting to work with, but someone else may think it is a distraction to the project and just want to settle with using Authorize.net when it is already supported by ActiveMerchant to do recurring payment.

I may feel having to crop all images again and save them in a different format is a waste of my development time, but a photographer may actually enjoy such work and may even add a drop shadow to make the images look better.

The difference is in the interpretation.

Interpretation

Different people interpret the same thing differently based on their own level of interest/time/concern, …/etc. That is a fact, not an argument.

In software development, instead of the project manager assigning tasks to each engineer, programmer, QA, you name it, based on time, skill levels, familiarities with certain code pieces, scopes, existing client relationships, maybe, just maybe, it is better to ask each person which of the tasks they have the most interest in and then assign tasks based on level of interest. That way, each person on the team will put forth his/her best attention/effort to accomplish them.

Potential pitfalls

• What if none of the tasks interest me? Maybe put that person in a different project that has tasks that interest him?
• What if many people are interested in the same task? Who gets to work on it? Maybe pair programming in which several people can participate and can have inputs?
• If I keep picking tasks that seem easy (on the surface), would it make me look lazy?
• If I pick several hard tasks, I may make myself too busy.

Again, we should not be blind folded by interpretaion. I may think it is easy but someone else may think it is interesting and solve the task better. I may think it is hard but since I am so interested, I may solve it with higher efficiency, hence less time.

The above is just a thought. I have not actually tried it to see how well the process works. However, since project management is so boring and annoying to so many people. We may as well put a different interpretation to it. It certainly is a paradigm shift in project management.

Moving from Typo to WordPress

I recently moved my blog from Typo to WordPress. Typo served well and it was written in Rails. However, it was more difficult to upgrade and I just don’t have enough time to maintain it and keep it up to date. So it has been running at version 4.1.1 which requires Rails 1.2.6. So a change is imminent and I found a couple resources by Stuart Johnston and Max Newell.

Those are GREAT starts!. However, I had to modify the migration script for my Typo version (4.1.1) and the latest WordPress version (2.7.1 at the time of this writing). Fortunately, the script is just pure SQL. That means I had to inspect the Typo and WordPress database structures to correctly map the tables and columns between the two databases. It is not the funnest thing in the world though, but this has to be done. If you have other versions of WordPress, I recommend you upgrade to the latest version first. That way, you don’t have to worry about WordPress’s table structures because I already did this for you. If you are using a different version of Typo, feel free to modify this migration script and post feedback.

Here are the steps that you need to take after grabbing the script:

> mysqldump typo_db articles_tags tags categorizations categories contents feedback > typo.sql
> mysql typo_db < typo.sql
> mysql typo_db < typo_4_1_1_to_wordpress_2_7_1.sql

Dealistic is launched

Andrew and I have been working on a new site Dealistic after our work at OnMyList.

We’ve also put up a screencast to show off our features (HUGE thanks to Sherry)

It lets you find deals by specifying a list of tags and it can notify you by email, RSS feed, and/or SMS when new deals appear that match your tags.

We made the site because we often need to find deals on things we want to buy but we spend way too much time looking for irrelevant deals on a lot of different sites. With Dealistic, what you get is what you want.

Never miss a deal because you don’t have time to find it! Just add a tag at Dealistic and we will let you know when a deal that you are looking for appears.

We also have a feedback tool that we hope you can give us suggestions to do better.

Home-made Strawberry Banana Rendezvous

Today I was stressed out while working because of the construction drilling noise near my house (I am working from home for Intridea). So I took a break, and tried to make a dessert aka Cold Stone Creamery ‘s Strawberry Banana Rendezvous.

Ingredients I used:

• Turkey Hill strawberry ice-cream – not the greatest ice-cream brand but that’s what was on sale at Wegmans last night…
• Hersey chocolate chips
• A few Strawberries
• Half of a banana – I ate the other half separately

I put all these in a bowl and mix it to gether for one minute. The taste comes close. However, it doesn’t resemble ice-cream anymore as I am missing one huge ingredient – the “cold stone.”

I guess the “cold stone” must be needed to keep the ice-cream ice-cream during the mixing process. The result was more like a milk shake than ice-cream. I still ate it all since I am a big ice-cream lover and I couldn’t just throw it away to the trash! I mean, it is going to look like that in my stomach anyway, right?

So if anyone has a substitute for a cold stone, let me know. This is what I think can simulate the “cold stone.”

• Put the bowl in the freezer and take it out only when you are ready to begin the mixing process.
• Take the ice-cream out at the last possible second.
• Surround the bowl with a box of ice.
• It is probably a good idea to max your AC or do this only in the winter. A few degrees below freezing and being outdoor in Canada may help too.

Test/Behavior-driven development

I have done testing using the Rails testing framework (test-driven development) and also am looking at RSpec (behavior-driven development), so I asked Chad Fowler about his view on the two approaches. He told me the inventor of behavior-driven development said to him:

“You don’t need to do behavior-driven development because you already know behavior-driven development.”

Translation: TDD and BDD are basically the same thing. If you really understand what TDD is about, you are already doing BDD, regardless which testing framework you are using.

I also asked him how long it takes to do TDD/BDD versus w/o any testing. He answer:

“Negative twenty percent.”

A lot of existing projects don’t follow TDD/BDD and it is difficult/impossible to get involved in the middle and do that because development time is expected and it is less motivating when you are the only developer who writes tests.

Therefore, one thing I am determined to do from now on is that for my next Rails personal project, before I write any code, I will write a test to fail and then write code to make it pass.

Initially, it may take more time and getting used to, but hopefully it will cut down on debugging time and redesigning later on in the development process.

I’ve heard about TDD/BDD for quite some time and have also tried for some personal projects. But I think I will really force myself to strictly follow this paradigm, so I can get a real feel of how well it works.

Entrepreneurial Psychology

This is a very entertaining article by Marc Andreessen about Charlie Munger’s Poor Charlie’s Almanack. The following are some of the quotes that I find particularly interesting and it resonates with me. I can go back to read this to remind myself of some of these principles instead of reading the whole long article.

One: Reward and Punishment Superresponse Tendency

This is why stock options work so well in startups – and the fewer people in a startup, the better stock options work, since when there are only a few people in a company, it’s usually crystal clear to each person how her work will impact the value of the company.

As a company grows, stock options and other forms of equity-based motivation become less and less useful as an incentive tool, since it becomes harder for many employees in a large company to see how their individual behavior would have any effect on the stock price of the overall corporation. So, more tactical incentives kick in, such as cash bonuses.

Even engineers need counter-goals: incent engineers based purely on a ship date, and you’ll get a shipping product with lots of bugs. Incent based on number of bugs fixed, and you’ll never get any new features. And so on.

Two: Liking/Loving Tendency

Second, an entrepreneur, like any manager, has to fire people who aren’t great or who aren’t right for the tasks at hand. This naturally makes people not like you, particularly the people you fire. But again, not doing this backfires: nobody great wants to be in a company populated by mediocre or ill-fitting peers.

Finally, some entrepreneurs have emotional resistance to pursuing a strategy that does not meet with immediate approval from press, analysts, and other entrepreneurs. This is worth watching carefully – if everyone agrees right up front that whatever you are doing makes total sense, it probably isn’t a new and radical enough idea to justify a new company.

Three: Disliking/Hating Tendency

So when your startup’s competitive juices get flowing – especially for the first time – and you find yourself fixated on a competitor, be sure to take a step back and say, is this really what we want to be focused on right now – is the market we’re both in really large enough to warrant this? If so, sure, go for it, guns blazing. But if not, stepping back and thinking about how to focus instead on creating a large market might be more valuable.

Four: Doubt-Avoidance Tendency

In my view, entrepreneurial judgment is the ability to tell the difference between a situation that’s not working but persistence and iteration will ultimately prove it out, versus a situation that’s not working and additional effort is a destructive waste of time and radical change is necessary.

Five: Inconsistency-Avoidance Tendency

I think this is something that every entrepreneur needs to watch very carefully. Sometimes it’s simply a matter of timing – and if people just aren’t ready for a new idea, you usually can’t make them ready, and you have to wait for them to change or for a new generation of customers to come along.

My favorite way around this problem is the one identified by Clayton Christensen in The Innovator’s Dilemma: don’t go after existing customers in a category and try to get them to buy something new; instead, go find the new customers who weren’t able to afford or adopt the incarnation of the status quo.

Six: Curiosity Tendency

The only important thing I can think to add – aside from the importance of hiring curious people – is that lack of curiosity can be a huge danger to a startup in the following way: often, your initial strategy won’t quite work, but you can learn as you go based on other things that happen in the market and eventually iterate into a strategy that does work. Obviously, insufficient curiosity can prevent you from seeing the new data and lead you to continue to pursue a losing strategy even when you wouldn’t have to.