Tech in the Trenches

Carl T. Holscher fights for the customers.

Category: Observations Page 10 of 90

How to win at gift giving for kids (and their parents)

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On February 5, 2020

In Observations

My wife is part of a large family. With 6 siblings, and those siblings have 18 children of their own. That’s a huge number of birthdays, Christmases and special events where presents are expected. We have been trying to go another route with presents for the kids.

With so many grandparents, uncles, aunts and friends the children are showered with presents. Toys and books and batteries and stuff. So much stuff. Christmas morning looks like a toy store exploded under some Christmas trees. Instead of buying more stuff for their kids, we have been giving different sorts of gifts.

  • College Funds

We have encouraged anyone who doesn’t have a 529 account to set one up for their kids. Then we can send them money for their futures instead of toys for today. It’s a good gift for the parents and helps a little with their kids’ future. It also encourages them to setup the account (if they didn’t already) and I hope makes the conversation easier to have with others. Instead of buying the kids another toy, do something that will benefit them in the future.

But think of the children! I can hear the wails of grandparents everywhere needing to see the kids filled with delight over the wrapped packages. This brings me to the second part of winning at gifting.

  • Awesome Greeting Cards

Instead of spending $20 (or more) on a toy, find the coolest car you can with with the current favorite cartoon character, prehistoric creature or just neat artwork. We sent Thomas the Tank Engine card (for a little Tommy) and that elicited running around and showing everyone who was near with the card for the next week (and it remains intact 7 months later). For Christmas, we found a card with a series of little pop-open windows and different scenes playing out. And the boys love opening the windows and seeing things pop-up.

Instead of another toy in a pile of toys, it’s fun to have the kids talk about the cards months after we send them. I know kids love what they love. But it’s so much fun seeing them love the cards as much as we loved picking them out. And now you’ve got extra money to send for their futures. Or to get their parents something nice, like an Instant Pot.

Seriously, if you haven’t found the Instant Pot, it may change your life. It’s the best gift we gave to an adult last year.

Make It Happen

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On January 30, 2020

In Observations

This tweet inspired this post.

In another case, I was asking too many specific questions, which I thought were harmless, but they were un-intentionally setting off a chain of useless workflow at a company because when a board member asks a question everyone drops what they are doing to answer it, even if it isn’t all that important.

Feedback for Board Members – Javelin VP – Medium

This one really hits home and is related to the Executive Makes Request and No One Asks Questions problem that happened recently.

This has happened at every place I’ve ever worked in support. An Executive makes a request like “I need X for a meeting.” This triggers a flurry of activity. Meetings are called. People are given marching orders. There’s a flurry of activity caused by this request.

This is all as it should be. Until questions are asked.

Questions such as “When is this meeting?” Well… um…. I don’t know. “Where will this meeting be held? And for approximately how many people?” Um…. I don’t know. Just make it happen.

I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been given orders like make it happen without the most minor details provided or questions answered.

This leaves the people responsible for making it happen in a awkward position because they often don’t have the power to ask or know who to ask for details when their managers also don’t know them.

And no one will ask the Executive in question for this information, or go through their assistant.

So what should be a 5 minute conversation often turns into (if you’re lucky) a single day of meetings, phone calls, IMs, and activity all in the service of nothing.

All of this motion wastes all of this time and at the end of it, you’re still no closer to a successful execution because you don’t know what to execute.

Car Crash. Ending your day.

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On November 28, 2019

In Observations

Tonight I heard a sound that I thought was something blowing around (it’s been extremely windy here with gusts up to 50 MPH). I thought it was a trash can blowing over. Or something blowing down the road.

I looked out the front window and saw something very different.

Car upside down on the road.

I saw the car with a side smashed in at first. The other car was hidden behind some bushes. When I saw it, I called 911 while another person was already with the driver speaking to her.

The 911 Operator said the call was being reported. The guy speaking to the driver’s wife was on the phone with 911 already.

Once the Operator told me she had the call and dispatched people I hung up.

Thankfully, there are two fire departments very close by and there were police cars here in moments with the fire trucks and ambulance not far behind.

Fire truck parked in my yard.

The driver was able to walk and talk. Besides being shaken and in shock seemed mostly fine. Other than having a bad Thanksgiving.

Be safe out there everyone.

A tale of topiary and routers

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On November 9, 2019

In Observations

Today started with yesterday. Last night, I upgraded the firmware of my router. Instead of going smoothly, it failed to complete. I spent 2 hours trying everything in the documentation to revive it. To no avail. I gave up about 1am and crawled into bed next to an annoyed wife.

You get the good and the bad with nerds. I got the lecture this morning of, “Most people don’t even know how to login to their router. Why are you even logging into the router to know there was an update to install!” And she’s not wrong. I had a second router up until a few weeks ago, when I set it up and leant it to her sister to replace a failing router she had.

I am a believer in Two is One and One is None. The idea is having one is the same as none because when that one thing breaks, it’s gone. However, having two means you’ll have at least one left. It’s an idea for backups, which I need to revisit after this, but it can be applied to other things. I’m not saying you should have two routers around at all times, but I wish I did.

I replaced the router this morning after Microcenter opened. After a few hours of research trying to balance a router with enough nerdiness for me and ease for my wife. If I can work on projects and she has no idea, that’s a win.

The router I settled on was the TP-Link Archer C3200 which is an older router, but I was able to find one at a good price. I liked that it combined both the 5ghz and 2.4ghz networks into a single name. The extra 5ghz channel will be useful as our home becomes smarter it helps to have more lanes on my information superhighway.

After getting the router setup and making sure the smarts in my house started working again, I had a long, long day at work to get through.

After work, we went to see the new Addams Family movie. And get a donut. Which inadvertantly let to the Discovery of the Season.

After selecting our donuts, we went to Home Goods to see what sort of wonders it held for Christmas. We were there a few weeks ago for Halloween decorations and a small topiary.

My wife made an Edwards Scissorhands doll for Halloween since she couldn’t find one (and is extremely crafty).

Edward with the trimmed tree we had to use instead of a topary.

We were looking for a topiary. We went to Home Goods, Michaels, AC Moore, Targets, and every other store we could think of that might have anything. We failed at every turn.

There was no topiary to be found. Certainly not one of a proper size to stand next to Edward in the front window.

Until Christmas.

Edward and topiary. Reunited.

We walked into Home Goods and there it was. My wife about screamed in delight and rage. The perfect topiary. Standing there. Waiting. A week too late for this year. But perfect for next year.

Why I setup an email address to read newsletters

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On November 1, 2019

In Observations

I setup a dedicated, private email address for newsletters and now they’re a joy to read instead of anxiety-causing clutter. This may not seem like a big deal to you. But it has changed how I read newsletters and reduced my stress in seeing new ones piling up in my Inbox. I enjoy the Newsletter Renaissance and when I see an interesting one, I sign up for it. The problem started as many of them arrive on the same day (like podcasts on a Wednesday, but that’s another story). So I would get overwhelmed by the number of emails in I wanted to take the time to read but would never find that time because they added to a pile of anxiety instead.

The first solution I tried was Stoop. I thought it was a perfect solution. An app for newsletters. I could send them to that email address for Stoop and read them in the app at my leisure. It worked well for awhile, but the problem was I didn’t want another app to remember to open. So again, newsletters I wanted to read would sit unread for months. Also, the app wasn’t a great experience for newsletters I want to open links from in other tabs to read after I finish the newsletter. I want a computer screen for that, not a phone.

The second reason I stopped using it was more than one person writing about (I don’t remember who) how they were starting to remove stoop.email addresses from their lists because part of the point of a newsletter was the intimacy with the audience, being invited into their Inbox. And Stoop was taking those emails and instead of providing the authors with real people, it gave them a pile of junk addresses essentially. It’s hard to get intimate with a piece of code.

So for those two reasons, I deleted stoop and then it hit me.

I want to get these newsletters delivered in email because email is flexible and can be anywhere I want to be. I also want the authors of the letters to know I’m a real person behind the address and when I wanted to reply to them, I could, from a real address. I guess that would have been a problem with Stoop, but I don’t reply very often so I never encountered that problem.

I setup a reading@ address. It’s perfect because it reminds me what it’s for. It gives me a place that’s not my primary mailbox to dive into at length and know I will find long, quality messages there. It’s been a perfect solution for me. I can open it on the phone, or on a computer and dive into as many or as few letters as I want at a time.

I can enjoy them in a quiet, peaceful space without other messages around them screaming for attention. Moving these newsletters out of my screaming, needy Inbox and into their own home, means I can read them with the slowness and patience of a good book rather than a screaming Twitter feed.

I’m starting to think about what other things I can change the context to enjoy more.

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