Somehow I did not appreciate the contributions of the bass players for the Rolling Stones until recently.
Someone posted this on the Nextdoor app:
“Please do not post anything about your dog or your cat. No one has seen your pet. OTOH, if you have a lemur or a llama or any other animal whose spelling begins with the letter “L” we will consider those on a case by case basis.”
Fortunately I am not afflicted by Nextdoor but I know people who are and they are annoyed with those postings about pets. Empathy is a good thing, you know.
I have been having some discussions with Our Esteemed Colleague, ChatGPT. The following is among the first such sessions.
This is a recommendation for HP SmartFriend service. At the time of this writing, it costs $50USD for the first month and $15USD thereafter. The support staff spend as much time with you as necessary. The technicians are in India; they are every well spoken and educated.
I have an HP laptop that I use as a desktop replacement – along with a Thunderbay 8 from OWC. I was having a problem that was difficult to solve. Running Windows 10, the laptop would freeze at random times. I tried researching on my own for an embarrassingly long time. HP has remarkable built-in tools but everything indicated that the hardware was clean. And it turns out there was nothing wrong with the hardware. Eventually I contacted HP support and signed up for “SmartFriend” service. After they confirmed everything I had done, what solved the problem was to perform a “Windows 10 reset.” This is not quite as drastic as you might think, but definitely not your first choice. You do have to reinstall your applications. The system has performed well since the reset.
If you have an HP computer platform with a problem you can’t solve on your own, sign up for this service. You will not regret it. The link is https://www.hp.com/us-en/services/consumer/smartfriend-overview.html — also there may be a promo code at the website for the first month.
This article at PC Magazine reviews the new features of the Microsoft Edge Browser. You will be surprised. Good use of your time. Some of the best ideas are towards the end of the article so be patient. Courtesy of Michael Goldblatt.
Operational metrics of customer success for software implementations show progress over time and drive financial success over the long term. What gets measured gets fixed. The trend is more important than the numbers. Here are some feasible and useful quarterly metrics:
Percent of all tests that have been automated – This is a direct financial driver and one to which a company needs to commit resources constantly. Increasing is better. The following example shows progress from 2005 to 2010 at Salesforce.com:
Number of unplanned production incidents – This should be decreasing over time and is a direct measure of quality. Decreasing is better.
Weighted number/severity of exceptions discovered in testing – this is a direct measure of quality of the software development process. Decreasing is better.
Weighted number and time to resolve production incidents – decreasing is better.
Ticket close rate – increasing is usually better.
Weighted number and severity of open tickets – decreasing is better.
Weighted severity, number, and time to respond – measures the time it takes to recover from a failure as measured from the time when you were first alerted to the problem as weighted by severity. Decreasing is better.
Time to failure – increasing is better. As usual this can be weighted by severity.
Lead time – this measures the time between placing a feature on the roadmap and when it gets delivered. Related: Faithful fulfillment of roadmap commitments.
Customer acquisition cost – The trend will indicate scale efficiency and leverage. Decreasing is better.
Customer retention rate and Churn rate – these apply mostly to software subscription customers but can also be relevant to companies with services as well as products.
The “lead-to-customer conversion” rate – The number of leads that convert to paying customers.
Signs you have been targeted as a money mule:
You receive an unsolicited email or contact over social media promising easy money for little to no effort.
You are asked to open a bank account in your own name to receive and transfer money.
You are asked to receive funds in your bank account and then transfer funds via a wire transfer or electronic payment system.
You are offered a lucrative job, but the “employer” you communicate with uses web-based email (such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, or Outlook).
Your online companion, whom you have never met in person, asks you to receive money and then forward the funds to someone you do not know.
If you believe you, or someone you know, has been solicited to be a money mule, please contact your local FBI field office. To report suspicious activity, please visit the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov.
You can also find more information by visiting the FBI Money Mules information site.
Plex is a versatile media server that can run on Macs, PCs, Nvidia Shield, and NAS devices. Clients can run on a wide range of devices and on web browsers. Plex makes your media available at a speed and resolution tailored to your Internet bandwidth and device resolution. The following is a 20-minute introduction to Plex in a home environment:
The big news for Plex is the DVR function including hardware trans-coding:
Kodi playback of Blu-Ray:
