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?

Things a startup founder will never tell you...

Founder Non-Admissions

View more OpenOffice presentations from Chris Yeh.

I just loved this little slideshow from Chris Yeh on things a startup founder will never tell you. I can't tell you how many times I've asked some of the entrepreneurs that approach me questions like these and gotten a ton of prevaricating..... If your startup can't answer these questions honestly - you should consider whether it's a valid idea in the first place...

If we treated everything in life like consultants and developers are treated

Give this excellent video a watch:



... then ask yourself - is this the way I treat my vendors and development partners? Is there a lesson to be learned here? If we go into a grocery store to buy something we don't dicker over the price, try to delay payment or anything else. We go, we buy an item, we pay for it and we leave. Why then do people feel compelled to dicker over the prices offered by resellers of professional services like software development, or computer tech support? What is different about the product they offer from the product the other service professionals in this video offer?

My guess is - they really aren't that much different. We don't ask our hairdresser to "wait 30 days" till we can pay them. We don't try to talk our waiter or waitress down in price so we can get our meal cheaper. We just decide - is their product or service worth the price I'm paying and then we either do - or do not - do business with them.

In a great software development effort, both parties are working to maximize return on investment and minimize cost of development. This is what long term relationships are built on. Not a "sell it to you once and then soak you for everything you've got" attitude, but a sell it to you once and work together so that the product continually improves until it's delivered, and continues to improve after that.

So the next time you feel tempted to "dicker over price" think about it. Is the product or service worth it to you? If it is you might want to consider just paying that amount then. Your vendor with thank you for it and you'll be developing a long-term partner relationship that may last forever!

Being a program manager

One of the key things that every software development effort needs is an excellent program manager. That manager's key vision, leadership and customer advocacy drive success. In How to Be a Program Manager, author Joel Spolsky gives us some insight on combining agile programming and program management in a productive way. Since Joel worked on the team developing the next generation of Microsoft Excel, he's qualified to speak authoritatively about dividing up large projects into manageable bite-sized pieces. Like at OS-Cubed Joel believes that one program manager should be responsible for a team of up to 4 programmers, and that work should be divided up by functional area.

The most important part of Joel's article states that the program manager must be the customer advocate on the team. They must look at every interface from the customer (or end user's) point of view, and express that point of view to the programming team. Their job is to help the programming team design something that users will find easy to use and appealing. If users complain that the program doesn't work - it's not the programmers fault it's the program manager's fault.

I think this is an important point about program managers. Too often development teams focus on the program manager's job of coordinating resources and delivering on-time and in-budget without defining their visionary status.

Joel goes on to say that - despite agile programming pushing prototyping as a methodology, the program manager must write specs - detailed functional specs from the user's point of view - not the programmer's point of view. It's their job to advocate for the user and build an interface that is the best for them. I typically fill this role within OS-Cubed, Inc. I have just enough programming and platform knowledge to be dangerous, but not enough to be so buried in it that it's all I think about. I would go on to state that a good program manager probably has a high "DI" in the DISC test and a low "C". I will talk more about DISC and how it integrates into a programming team later.

The program manager should not however, be the person writing up the actual specifications for how the product should be developed (that responsibility is the programming team lead's job), nor should the programmers report the the program manager because that would allow the program manager's ideas to run roughshod over the programmer's. This needs to be a negotiation between what is optimal and what is possible and both the user's and programmer's needs are taken into account.

Agile programming is typically about fast turnaround and constant customer approval. So the program manager must stay ahead of this curve, constantly re-examining the impact that feature and user interface changes have on the full vision. Sometimes it will be their job to control the scope of the project and to do that they need to retain and update the vision as it changes.

Joel's article is a great read, and I highly recommend both the blog post itself, and the links he offers for help and assistance.