» scott laplant

Optout of unsolicited mail

Scott LaPlant — Mon, 31 May 2010 10:35:03 +0000

Is your mailbox overflowing with unsolicited credit card offers? Are you sick of receiving offers for everything under the sun? I know I am. As an aside, I wonder how many trees are killed each year for this crap?

I’ve been absolutely mortified in doing some research lately about the business practices of the major credit bureaus. It’s nothing short of scandalous and I am absolutely curious about how they can sell your personal information and it not be viewed as wrong. I guess that’s an argument for another day.

If you go to this ftc website: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/alerts/alt063.shtm you can actually opt out of unsolicited offers. You essentially have two options; you can choose to opt out of credit card offers or you can opt out of credit card offers AND all other types of junk mail.

The credit card offers coming by the dozen? Then simply go here: https://www.optoutprescreen.com/?rf=t This website is run by the three major credit bureaus – it was mandated by the Fair Credit Reporting Act. It allows you to opt out of all credit card solicitation offers. You can opt out for 5 years or for life. If you choose the ‘for life’ option, you’ll need to also mail a form into them. They’ll enter you in the 5 year option in the interim.

Vote today

Scott LaPlant — Tue, 18 May 2010 11:10:45 +0000

No matter what your political preference or affiliation, if you want a voice you need to vote.

It always amazes me how people are so willing to complain but, when you get a little further along in the conversation you find more people than not just never bothered to vote. It’s a civic duty people. You don’t vote, then don’t complain!

This is more about earning the right to complain. It’s about participating in the process. Having a say and telling our leaders the direction you want the country pointed. Go vote!

A review of drobo

Scott LaPlant — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 13:59:46 +0000

Sometimes, technology sucks! I can see you nodding your head in agreement. – We’re off to a good start with this article already, right?! Actually, technology really doesn’t suck. What does suck is that sometimes things break, don’t work according to how they’re advertised – this is true of anything, not just technology. Murphy’s law applies here.

The fine people at Data Robotics have an enormous task of making backup easy – all the while keeping their reputation intact. No easy feat when you’re dealing with people, their digital life and the age of social media.

Face it, your life’s memories sit on a hard drive. Memories tend to elicit emotions that run the gamut – imagine the emotion of losing those memories. I’m instantly mortified. I can see all my memories gone forever. Am I sad? Sure. Mortification turns to panic pretty quick. That pretty much defines the task Data Robotics has indirectly on top of their day job of keeping your data safe. Needless to say, when a person thinks their memories are gone forever, calm and rational are not the emotions at the top of the pecking order.

The situation I describe in the previous paragraph is the predicament I encountered a few weeks back. Fortunately, I utilize more than one method of backup. Doubly fortunate for me that my computing platform of choice (Mac) has a wonderful utility called ‘Time machine’ that does an admirable job. However, while time machine is fine for a quick recovery here and there, it’s not the solution for optimum safety and redundancy.

With backup, the key is redundancy. The drobo makes backup easy. You plug the drobo in to an electrical outlet, plug it into your computer and finally, pop the drives into your drobo. That’s all you do. It takes your data and spreads it over several drives, for redundancy. It also does this automagically. You don’t need intimate knowledge of RAID arrays, or anything technical. It does all the difficult, mundane and boring stuff for you. It makes an incredibly complex and difficult task as easy as turning something on and plugging something in.

Ok, back to things going wrong. In very short order I had three drives go bad and it appeared my drobo was acting weird. I’m writing this article while I await the arrival of my replacement drobo. I wanted to take a few minutes to share a few lessons I learned about this experience:

Backup is important.

The people at Data Robotics care about their customers.

Sometimes, thing don’t always work, so have a backup plan – especially if it’s important to you.

I’ve been incredibly impressed with the support from the people of Data Robotics. You have real people trying to make a great product, improve the safety of our digital lives and do it with kindness and humility.

Is it Data Robotics fault that hard drives sometimes fail? No, it’s not. They’re taking a bad situation and attempting to make the experience of something that fails into an experience of “we’ve got your back”. How many companies can you say that about?

Have you ever noticed?

Scott LaPlant — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 15:39:54 +0000

This post is just an bunch of random observations I’ve made recently and I wanted to get them down and hopefully generate a discussion. Feel free to agree, disagree, debate, disseminate or aggregate.

Have you ever noticed:

That news anymore is seemingly about things that really don’t matter and more about stirring up controversy and thus, ‘manufacturing’ news? Example: Brad and Angelina possibly splitting up is news?

You need to have a lot of money to run for public office anymore.

We’re more concerned about our elected officials sexual orientation but, are less interested in holding public officials accountable for corruption, or back room deals or for allowing the financial crisis to happen in the first place. See this post: Root cause

If someone disagrees with a particular political viewpoint they’re almost immediately looking to disparage that person instead of talking intelligently about why they disagree instead of trying to find common ground (or compromise).

How the rich and famous (mostly NFL football players) commit crimes – in some cases repeatedly and get off with nothing more than a slap on the wrist – I’m looking at you Ben Roethlisberger

These are just a few. I’ll most likely add to this post if the coming days. Feel free to add your own.

Dream big

Scott LaPlant — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 14:04:32 +0000

Recently, I had seen a headline where President Obama said to dream big goals. I forget the the sub heading of the article but, I believe it was something like “even if they seem impossible.” The point being, we need people to dream big and do bigger.

I’m not sure why but, this reminded me of another article I had read where there was a survey done (seems there is a survey for anything anymore) where “most” people in this country feel as if the American dream is unattainable anymore. I refuse to believe this myself.

Granted, this isn’t the 60′s anymore and people do tend to be less caring of others. Our politics is more about personal destruction than about being constructive – this goes for both parties. While I’m hopeful President Obama can be successful and bring real honest to goodness change, I’m doubtful it’ll happen. Not in the way change needs to happen but, that’s a topic for another day.

Dreaming big is only the first step. Looking inside yourself and determine what needs to happen to make the dream reality is the step before the first step.

Today is just a very exciting day. I’m looking forward to putting some goals in place myself and to dream big. My dream? To get people to understand that we’re in this together. Just because we may disagree with a political philosophy or view point doesn’t mean we can’t be friends, or civil or respectful. It just means we have things to discuss and debate

Amazon has lost it’s way.

Scott LaPlant — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 14:47:54 +0000

By now most of you probably know that the iPad will be released shortly. While I think it’s going to be bigger than we realize, it’s apparently making one company I’ve admired for years act out of fear.

Which company is that? Amazon.com. Amazon has been known for sometime to have a great online shopping experience and terrific customer service. Maybe not Zappos type customer service but, good none-the-less.

Lately, Amazon has been making some rather peculiar and dare I say, hostile decisions. Most have effected publishing “partners” while one high profile incident had the company remotely deleting a download from consumers Kindle devices.

Any casual observer could plainly see that Amazon is making poor decisions and it has me worried. I think Amazon overall is a very well run company. It’s also a rather large company and anything of that size, with different decision points (read middle managers making poor decisions) and you’re going to have the incidents they’ve had as of late.

Having said that, it’s no excuse for the tactics they’re employing with some of their partners. See this New York Times article to get yourself up to speed.

I hope Amazon decides to go back to focusing on making the best e-book reader they can. Focus like a laser on providing the best buying experience on the net. In doing so, I think they’ll be able to turn it around. After all, it’ll be a boon for their customers and it’s no secret that’s the best recipe for success.

Consumer Reports gets it right

Scott LaPlant — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 15:40:50 +0000

About four or five months ago I signed up for an electronic subscription to Consumer Reports. A couple of guys I worked with couldn’t say enough about the service. I had always heard/read good things about it so I took the plunge – and I’m glad I did.

This morning I received an email as I’m subscribed to their newsletter. After reading it, I thought it would be a good idea to share with everyone else. See below. Needless to say, I agree with everything stated. I think it’s about time people start getting back to basics; simple things like common decency and doing what is right are not gray areas!

Newsletter from Consumer Reports pased below

Dear Scott,

What happened to getting a straight-forward home loan, a fair credit card, and respect for the value of the money we deposit?

Over the past twenty years, the big Wall Street financial companies devalued personal responsibility, fair play and thrift and substituted high risk, mind-numbing complexity, and excessive bonuses.

We’re in the deepest recession since the Great Depression, with tens of millions out of work, because the incentives in our financial system changed. Financial firms reward people who gamble with borrowed money and show big paper profits for short-term gains — no matter what the long-term cost.

The Senate this week released a financial reform bill, and the banks’ top brass know their big bonuses are at stake. Make sure your Senators know their responsibility to voters is at stake.

Tell your Senators to bring back responsibility, fair play and thrift.

Banks dangled too good to be true offers in front of people who refinanced from a perfectly good loan into a risky one. Brokers got higher commissions for hard-selling risky, costly mortgages — like those where the payment didn’t cover the interest and the loan actually got bigger over time.

The banks booked higher profits on those crummy deals, then sold the risky loans to investors. When it all fell apart, the mortgage brokers, bank CEOs and the Wall Street traders got to keep their fat bonuses, while millions of families lost their homes or their retirement accounts.

It’s been more than a year since the economic meltdown, and needed changes are stalled. While politicians debate about which government agency should do what, there are a handful of common sense rules that would straighten out the incentives and reinforce the right values now:

E-mail Congress now to stop squabbling and fix the problems that got us here!

Wall Street’s financial titans oppose these reforms, and they’re spending tens of millions lobbying and advertising against them. To them, that’s just pocket change compared to the billions in bonuses they have at stake.

But this is a fight we can win because your anger at the banks is well known. Now they need to know that you are paying attention and you expect real progress — real reform with real teeth, and rules that will apply fairly to everyone.

Sincerely,

Jim Guest, President
Consumer Reports

In banks we trust?

Scott LaPlant — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:39:52 +0000

I was watching the news tonight and I couldn’t help but get angry – is it just me or are banks in the business of ripping people off?

In the segment I watched, the banking industry representative painted the picture that the banks were “protecting” consumers by now not allowing debit charges to go thru if the funds were not available in the account. Maybe it’s just me but, isn’t that what they should have been doing all along? I think what set me off was how they framed it as they were protecting consumers. Does anyone really believe this crap?

Celebrating a life instead of mourning loss

Scott LaPlant — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 10:53:34 +0000

I recently lost someone very close to me. While the initial shock was probably the hardest thing to deal with, I’ve found myself celebrating, remembering, and enjoying their life instead of mourning the loss.

Sure, I’m incredibly sad and obviously I’m going to miss not being able to pick up the phone and talk. I’ll miss not seeing him and being able to bounce ideas off him but, at the end of the day he’s left me with wonderful memories. I’d rather enjoy these memories right now than cry over his passing. Maybe I’ll do that at some point but, right now it just seems more appropriate to laugh at the good times.

New Years resolutions and commitment

Scott LaPlant — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 23:03:39 +0000

I’ve never been one to make New Years resolutions – and I’m not really sure why this year was different but, I decided to make a resolution for myself. I’ve committed to getting back into shape and honestly, I don’t know why I’ve waited so long. In a very short period of time I’m already seeing benefits.

We’re not just talking about physical benefits either. Certainly, just knowing I’m doing something purely for myself to benefit myself is a great feeling. The benefits extend far outside the physical realm and it’s nothing short of amazing.

I’m more cognizant of people who I interact with who say they don’t have the time to commit – I say bullshit. I’ve been there. I’ve made every excuse known to man to avoid working out and although I’ve been sporadic over the past two years in my regimen, I’m totally committed to taking better care of myself physically and mentally. The two go together like two peas-in-a-pod.

Hitting the 40 year old mark has made me very aware I’m not able to do the things I was capable of doing in the gym when I was 25. However, I don’t need to. I’m not looking to be the biggest guy on the block. I’m more interested in looking good on the beach, and having the energy to do the things I want to do. I believe in another 6 months I’ll be in the best shape of my life.

I don’t have a lot of time to finish this quick post but, I do want to take the time to encourage everyone to make the commitment to exercise. Do something for yourself – it doesn’t need to be what I’ve chosen… but make a commitment to yourself to read that book you’ve been putting off, or to set a goal and push yourself. I’ve got a lot of goals I want to attain this year and I’m remembering the importance of pushing myself and I love it! The key is to set attainable goals. You want to push yourself but, you also want to feel like the goal you’ve set is attainalbe. There is no reason to set a goal so unrealistically high that you can’t possibly attain it. It’ll discourage you and prevent you from continuing to set goals. It’s a fine line – sometimes it’s best to have a partner, someone who can hold you accountable. Accountability is a wonderful thing – mostly

Get on it. No time like the present to get after your goals. I know I’m done procrastinating.