FIRST Robotics regional competitions

Imagine a sport where the participants put more hours in practicing in six weeks than other sports do in a whole year - and then they practice all year too! Imagine a sport where there is around a 1-2 ratio between coaches and participants. Imagine a sport where EVERY SINGLE participant can go pro, and get a job helping their country and their company build the devices and software needed to keep us competitive in the world economy. Imagine a sport that gives every participante the opportunity to learn leadership, gracious professionalism, coopetition, good values, and an excellent work ethic. Now imagine that sport had only one competition a year in your area - wouldn't you want to go!? PLEASE come cheer on the hard working kids at your local FIRST ROBOTICS competition. It's just one day out of your life - it's countless hours out of theirs and their mentors. It's free and in Rochester it's at the RIT Gordon Field house TODAY AND TOMORROW ONLY!

Shamelessly plugging a business continuity seminar

One of the more common mistakes I see entrepreneurs make is to not properly protect their investment.  I challenge you today to take a look at your laptop, server, etc.  If it all went up in a fire tomorrow - would you be able to recover?  If one of your servers or workstations had an intractable rootkit installed - how long would it take you to get back to "running state"?  Have you suffered a data loss in the last 12 months?  How long before you restored, recreated or were able to use that data again?  If you're a software entrepreneur the software itself, and all your business planning IS your business.  If it fails, is lost or goes down - you're the one who will deal with the consequences - and they could be business killing.

I will be holding a Business Continuity and Security seminar on December 12th from 7:30am to 10am at the Radisson hotel in Henrietta.  This seminar is designed to update small businesses and entrepreneurs on new and better ways to protect their investment in data and systems.  This program is not targeted at IT experts - more for the manager/owner/employee level of decision maker.  It is also not targeted at Enterprise protection level requirements.

This amusing presentation features a ton of great information, breakfast and lolcatz for only $10.  For more information or a sign-up sheet check the link.

Time Warner Roadrunner epically fails once again

Roadrunner has rolled out a new web email client and in the process they may be blocking valuable mail from you to roadrunner clients. I have NO CONTROL over this, this is an information update to my followers


Ok, first some techy geek stuff in simple terms:
Roadrunner provides home email accounts to their clients. There are 3 ways to access these accounts:

 

• Roadrunner web mail: https://webmail.rochester.rr.com/
• POP mail (using an email client like Outlook or Outlook express) – by far the most common config
• IMAP mail (using an email client) – not as commonly used

About 2 weeks ago Roadrunner made some sort of change. This change created in each person’s WEB MAIL account a new mailbox called Junk Mail, and they turned on a setting on the Roadrunner side that started to filter mail in the account into the new mailbox if Roadrunner thought it was junk. The problem with this is that POP users will never know their mail is being filtered – they’ll just start missing messages. Time Warner didn’t TELL anyone they were making the change they just did it (This is typical of Time Warner Cable). I found out because I sent mail home to myself and it turned up missing. Even IMAP users might not know unless they refreshed their folders to see the new junk mail folder. Only a web mail user will know that the setting has been turned on, and tons of potentially legitimate email is sitting in their junk mail folder (over 90% of the email in my “junk” folder was legitimate mail).

 

Due to the way this is implemented, the sender will not know that their mail is being blocked, and the receiver will not know that any mail was sent to a junk mail folder they don’t know is there.

 

You can turn this setting off by logging into your roadrunner web mail (if you remember what your password is) and going to the SETTINGS/JUNK MAIL and say DELIVER MAIL instead of SEND JUNK MAIL TO FOLDER. Most people will have no idea how to do this, and there is no explanation of it on the web site. For most people the junk mail filtering in their client is sufficient to label and eliminate mail. If the user REALLY wants to know what Roadrunner mail they think is junk they can have Roadrunner add a label of “SPAM” to the “junk mail” before putting it in your mailbox.

 

You have a roadrunner account if your email ends in Rochester.rr.com

I'd recommend strongly that everyone with a Roadrunner account take 2 actions:

• Check your settings and be sure they reflect how you want your mail processed (check your junk mail to be sure there's not legit mail there)
• Complain to Roadrunner LOULDY about the fact that they should not be making decisions for you about what mail you do and do not see, without informing you or giving you the option to set those defaults up front.

Having dealt with the spam-nazi's at Roadrunner before they block stuff for no particular reason.  90% of the stuff they block is legit, and it causes no end of headaches for people that host their own mail or use small carriers (and sometimes large carriers - they blocked hotmail for no reason last week).  We are the customers - it's up to us to let them know when they've overstepped their bounds.

Recent news and Career Fairs

I recently posted to http://www.rochesterstartups.com/ with recent entrepreneurial news for Rochester, check it out. Also yesterday I was a participant in a Digital Rochester Career Fair, as a potential employer. I have 3 job openings coming up in October, and was at the fair looking for candidates. Let me say that for the most part I was impressed with the talent available, even if some of them weren't the right fit for my immediate requirements. I did notice a few mistakes though, so as I was chatting with potential employees I came up with some tips, which I tweeted on my @LeeDrake account. For convenience sake I thought I'd collect them all here for future reference. Since there are 10 of them I'll do them in true David Letterman Top 10 style:

• Tip 10: I have a pile of 30 resumes on my desk, they all took my card. 2 people followed up with an email, ONE person linked in, no one called. They all wanted jobs. If you don't follow up - you won't get the job - guaranteed.
• Tip 9: Recruiters want to know you are SERIOUS about wanting a job with their company. SERIOUS. Show it. Prove to them that what you have to offer their company is enthusiasm, skills, and follow-through. The interview and career fair process is a test you MUST pass to get to the next level.
• Tip 8: If I asked you to send me your resume electronically send it in the mail the next day, preferably that night! No one wants to scan in paper resumes when they can be emailed. Electronic is so much easier to organize.
• Tip 7: If you really want a job with me and I gave you my card and invited you to link in send me a request asap! Even if I don't have a job - if we're linked in I can refer you to someone who does. Never turn down an opportunity to link in to a potential employer.
• Not a tip, but an observation: Somebody came up to me at the career fair today to thank me for all the things I do for the Rochester area. He didn't want a job, or at least not from me - didn't give me his resume or contact info. He just wanted to thank me. Believe me - that guy I'll remember.
• Tip 6: if you aren't a fit don't try to make yourself one, just thank me or ask for a referral and move on. Take the time to read my postings. Ask me what I want before you launch into what you do.
• Tip 5: While I'm happy to chat with you about all sorts of things if there's no one waiting, please share if there's a line. It's definitely ok to chat and get to know the recruiter, it's definitely not ok to make 25 other people wait in line while you do it.
• Tip 4: Putting a plastic sleeve on your resume not only won't make hiring you any more likely it also prevents me from writing notes on your resume about where you might fit in. This isn't high school. A one page resume and/or 2 pages stapled together are fine.
• Tip 3: If you are bringing a resume to a career fair and its more than 2 pages, staple it and put name and contact on both pages. Sometimes that pile falls over - do you really want your pages mixed with everyone elses?
• Tip 2: If the recruiter is talking to someone else - DON'T INTERRUPT THEM. EVER!
• And the #1 Job hunting tip if you are attending a career fair brush your teeth or have a mint before hitting the tables. There is no excuse for bad breath or BO at any time - but if you're looking for a job that is the WORST time for you to have these issues.

There's a reason most of our new projects are in social media

There's a reason why most of our newest projects are in the area of social media, for instance the online collaborative education tool Kajour by Knowledge Athletes. The reason is that social media is becoming one of the main new tools in everyone's networking and branding architecture. If it's not one of your main new tools you might want to check out a video from the author of Socialnomics, Eric Qualman.








So my question for you as an entrepreneur is - if you're not creating a product that is social media oriented - what are you doing to include a social media interface or connection to your product and brand? What active role are you taking to ensure that once your new product or service comes out it is relevant?