This morning I was badly surprised that I couldn’t update RSS feeds to my iPhone anymore. When I click “Refresh” button in Newsstand I was getting all sorts of errors. I even tried to reboot the iPhone but it didn’t help either.  I made some real time search on Twitter about this problem and found a couple of tweets where people were reporting exactly the same problem. Made a search in Google and found nothing.

In about 5 hours I checked Newsstand app again hoping that the issue is resolved but the problem was still there. So this  is what I did to resolve the problem:

• Uninstall Newsstand app
• Go to app store, find Newsstand app and hit the Buy button; don’t worry, it’s not going to charge you again
• Enter you password; at this point iPhone lets you know that you’ve already purchased this app so hit Ok to continue downloading it
• Once app is installed, run it and type your Google account info if you want to be able to synchronize with Google Reader
• Bum! It’s working again

I think the reason it stopped working was because of some changes that Google recently did on their end.

Update:  I’ve just found this blog post on Newsstan’s site that explains how to resolve the issue. Too bad I didn’t look there at first place.

In every bar I’ve been, right after we (me and my friends) are placed seated the waiter forgets about us. For example if you need another bottle of beer it may take 15-20 minutes to get it.  So I started wondering why is that. It’s supposed to be in best interests of the owner to maintain high quality of service.

And then I realized! Waiters don’t get tips! That’s why they don’t really care! It’s just not common in Ukraine and other post Soviet Union countries to leave tips the way it goes in US (%15 – %20 of order). People leave only change which is less than $1 in most cases! And the waiters’ salaries are measurable. So why would they bother to care about their customers?

It could be obvious thing that commission model is closely related to quality of service but I didn’ t realize this until I’ve seen the completely opposite side.

As you can see I got only 62 visits. The max was 13 visitors per day. 3 RSS subscribers. Nothing to be proud of for 3 months old blog. And I’m not surprised that I have such a low usage. I exactly know the reasons why:

• I tried to post once a week and I haven’t blogged for two weeks now. Should post at least 2 times a week
• I haven’t picked one particular subject to blog about. I blog about different kind of things ranging from running online store to productivity tips. I.e. I haven’t defined my niche
• My posts are too long. I should learn how to write shorter posts but more frequently
• I don’t do any promotion of my blog at all. I very rarely comment on ProBlogger, ShoeMoney and John Chow blogs and I have my Twitter and Facebook profiles linked to my blog. That’s all that I’ve done to promote my blog
• I don’t network with other bloggers

You may be wondering why the hell I need to run a blog like this. This blog is the beginning of developing my personal brand. I try to make it useful for the beginners like me so they don’t repeat my mistakes and see what really works. I’m not pretending to be a guru and bullshitting people with content aimed to sell affiliate offers. I don’t even have any advertisement yet…

Hold on, look like I’ve just defined my target audience! LOL

Old Way Of Hiring Web Designer

I ran through this last year when I was working on eCommerce project for the client. I’ve set up shopping cart platform, entered products and it was time for design. My client wanted something “special” although he didn’t know what exactly he wanted. So I went to Craigslist, paid $20 and put up an ad. Right away I started getting tones of proposals from all around the world (mostly from India of course). My client wanted local designer so I picked around 70(!) candidates for review and eventually picked the one that looked the most professional for the budget that I had.

Then the hell has started. My client has made the deposit, designer started working. I was passing requirements between my client and designer. Designer was submitting drafts. My client didn’t like those since he wanted something “special”. Designer reworked and submitted drafts again. Eventually it ended up that designer spent so much time that she started asking for more money. My client was like “What did I pay the deposit for?”… And the  project just failed.

New Way Of Hiring Web Designer

I’ve heard about 99Designs a couple of times and all good stuff. So I decided to give it a shot. Here is why I call it new way. With 99Designs you run the contest. Designers from all over the world start to participate submitting their drafts based on your requirements. You are free to ask participating designer to change something and they’ll be happy to make a change for the chance to win the contest. The only catch is you have to deposit money upfront to the special escrow account. If by the end of contest you pick the winning design these money will be transferred to the winner in exchange for the design source files. In worse case of scenario you’ll loose only $39 listing fee and get your money back.

Here are few things you need to be aware of to run the successful design contest:

1. Write as detailed contest requirements as you can. Include URLs of web sites that you like. Check other similar listings first to see how others write the requirements.
2. Don’t listen to 99Designs suggested prize for your contest. They put it the way high. For example they suggest to put $600 for web site design and you could get it for $300. The reason they put it so high is they charge %10 of the winning prize. Also check other contests that have already ended to see how much people paid.
3. Communicate with designers who participate in your contest. This way you can ask them to change something. Plus other designers will look up the comments and have a better understanding of what you want
4. If you don’t have logo design run the separate contest for it first. And then run a contest for the web site pages.
5. Note that the final outcome of the contest is one or more PSD files. Don’t expect to get your design in HTML/CSS format. This would be separate project that requires skill that not all designers have. I’ll write another article on this soon.

I hope this info will help you getting your design done. I had very positive experience with 99Designs. Please share your experience.

1. Blind Typing On Keyboard

As I wrote in my previous post everyone who works with computers should learn how to type right. By this I mean typing with all 10 fingers without looking at keyboard. This minimizes switching of eye focus between keyboard and computer screen which results in less load on your eyes

2. Extensive Use of Copy/Paste

When I feel like I have to type the same word or phrase for more than 2-3 times I just copy and paste it. This way I waste much less of my eye energy. Even if it’s just one word (more than 5 characters), when you type it you are unconsciously looking for typos. When I do copy/paste I need to make sure that the just the 1st instance of word or phrase is written right.

3. Extensive Use Of Keyboard Shortcuts

Most of the applications have keyboard shortcuts to majority of operations that you could do with mouse clicks. Many of these shortcuts became a standard across multiple applications. E.g. Ctrl +N for the new file, Ctrl + S to save file, etc. So, for example when you want to save file in Notepad you could go to File menu and select Save option. But this simple operation will require your eyes to control the movement of mouse cursor. And you can avoid it by using Ctrl + S shortcut.

It takes time to master blind typing. But copy/paste and keyboard shortcuts are simple things that you can get used to. So, don’t waste your vision!

In a panic state I went back to my computer and googled for “fish bone swallowed” (thanks to Google’s search intellisense for helping me to pick the right keyword). Among first few organic search results I saw this title from Yahoo Answers: How to remove a fish bone (accidentally swallowed) in the throat? Most of the answers suggested eating a piece of bread and drinking water behind it. This is supposed to push the swallowed bone down to the stomach.  I followed this advice and felt a sudden relief from the pain!

So thanks to  Yahoo Answers for saving me from trip to the hospital. Just in case something similar happens to you always google it first for the solution.