Zappos – a company that seemingly ‘gets it’ with regard to customer service, doing the right thing, and providing the best products at the best prices.  They have not paid/asked me for this comment.  When I find a company willing to provide the best service and put the customer first, I’m so impressed.

I just ordered a new pair of shoes this afternoon (about 11:00 GMT –7).  I just received this email (emphasis mine) in my inbox (13:50 GMT –7):

Although you originally ordered Standard (4 to 5 business days) shipping and handling, we have given your order special priority processing in our warehouse and are upgrading the shipping and delivery time frame for your order.  Your order will ship out Monday, June 30th 2008 and be given a special priority shipping status so that you can receive your order even faster than we originally promised!

Please note that this is being done at no additional cost to you.  It is simply our way of saying thank you for being our customer.

Now that is how to treat your customers.  I wrote a quick post earlier this year about how I felt they were innovating in advertising as well.  Seems to be a very creative company…and they are watching on Twitter as well!  I see that their catalog has expanded well beyond shoes and that is the only thing that worries me.  I hope that their commitment to excellence and return policies will apply when you buy that digital camera from them.  I’m not convinced that their expanding catalog is the best business move, but I’m not behind their doors.

Until then, can’t wait for my shoes (oh and btw, if they are the wrong ones or don’t fit, they pay for return shipping too).  Thanks Zappos!

Are you poking around with the latest ASP.NET MVC (Model-View-Controller) bits?  If so, hopefully you are already aware of the resources available to you and the fact that Phil Haack is one of the program manager’s leading those efforts, and Scott Hanselman has been providing the community with some resources to jump start your learning.

Well, another member has just joined the ranks on the team I work for.  Stephen Walther, pictured here in his best book-cover pose ;-), has joined the team.  He actually joined earlier this month, but I’m just now getting around to welcoming him to our team and checking out the stuff he’s been doing.  He’s been on a great clip lately and I’ve been reading his latest 11 tips on ASP.NET MVC on his blog.  I’m really glad to have him on our team as I think we’ve got some great resources for ASP.NET, AJAX, MVC, Silverlight and Windows Client.

If you are messing around with the ASP.NET MVC framework, check out his site and subscribe.  We’ll be seeing a lot more of Stephen soon and I’m sure your ideas will be welcome to him as well!

I suspect Apple will have a good day on 11 July.  I’m pretty sue Apple could release the iGumWrapper and people will camp out 2 days before to be the first to purchase a gum wrapper made out of napkin and far less superior in functionality than what exists today.  It’s the lure of Apple, the marketing engine behind them and the fact that despite that napkin material, it would likely be so beautiful and make you forget some things that you’ve depended on for so long.

But I digress :-).  In all seriousness, Apple excels at the hype and the experience (yes, two distinctions that shouldn’t always be confused as one).  With the release of the iPhone 3G, they’ll sell a lot I’m imagining and it will cause other mobile manufacturers concern…or it should.  The iPhone is being marketed as ‘half the price’ but others have already pointed out that that asterisk on the advertisements is a large asterisk…and in fact the ultimate cost to the consumer is actually higher (including service plans, etc.) than the current model.  But who cares…I’ve seen the cost analyst and it is negligible.  Misleading advertising?  Maybe.  Some have even pointed out that other than the 3G there isn’t much core upgrade to the device.  No camera upgrade, no IM, no Bluetooth support for cars, no cut/paste, no MMS messaging.  Some have even pointed out that despite GPS support there will be no guided turn-by-turn navigation provided.

Regarding Navigation: Some have said that 3rd parties will use the SDK to solve that problem.  Ah, but read the terms of the SDK…no applications can provide navigational guidance using the SDK.  Why?  If you are aware of US carriers in telecom, you may notice that devices equipped with GPS all have an icon for directions – provided by TeleNav – provided as a monthly service fee of approximately USD $10 per month.  I think this is one area where the carriers won against apple in negotiations…to protect their own agreements and cross-revenue opportunities on services.

One thing that has bothered most developer geeks about the SDK is the lack of background processing.  Apple’s keynote has pulled a little of the 'these aren’t the droids you're looking for’ magic by stating battery life, blah blah blah.  Hey guess what…Blackberry does this just fine and has great battery life.  Is this an area of “we couldn’t get it done” for Apple?  How many think this will change?  I do.  If there is any plans for iChat to be on the device, it would have to be.  Rely on an middle messaging server to deliver what is effectively an SMS command and then prompt me to launch the app again?  Seriously?!  Is this another way of retaining the carrier’s service costs for messaging fees?

Have you ever noticed that Visual Voicemail is actually delivered as an SMS command to the phone with information on what that voice mail contains?

Another sore spot for developers was the lack of Flash on the device.  There has been some bickering from Adobe/Apple on this, but it still isn’t there.  Adobe has said in their last company call their execs have noted they have it working via SDK but would hope the software would eventually be a part of the iPhone software.  A similar request has been made to me by developers of ‘when will Silverlight be on the iPhone’?  Hey guess what, no plugins are allowed on the iPhone – let’s wait for Apple to change that first, then let’s talk…you can’t complain when the platform doesn’t allow it first!

And then comes Android.  When I first saw the video demonstration of this I was impressed.  It incorporates a lot of what modern devices have as well as what people like in the iPhone from a usability standpoint.  Oh, and it will be free and open source.  Some of the Open Handset Alliance have already announced devices with Android that might be available as soon as the end of this year!

Will Android be successful in mainstream?  That is a big question.  Why would I ask that?  Tim, it’s Google, they do everything right, how could you be so stupid?  But consider this.  What makes Apple so successful in their software implementations?  Their ad campaigns shed some light on this when they jab Windows.  They control everything…the entire channel from hardware design to implementation.  There are no other (legal) hardware providers creating iPods, iPhones or MacBooks.  What does this have to do with Android?  Well Android is an open source project that will directly affect consumers.  Most of the time I think we see open source projects that are hiding behind consumer services.  Take, for example, any web server running their site on Linux.  Sure that affects consumers visiting the site, but not directly…the HTML/rendering is what affects me…not the implications of the hardware.

Android will be literally in peoples’ hands.  There have been others that have done this successfully…like Sansa running Mono on their MP3 devices.  But how is this different?  Google isn’t providing the handset.  Will Android feel the same pains of the distribution channel that Windows does?  That being that you are providing an OS and don’t control the hardware that it resides on?  Android will be picked up by handset manufacturers and modified and tweaked and installed on various chipsets and handsets with differing peripherals that may not always comply to the specs or to what Android may expect.  Will that give Android a bad name when someone wants to put it on a device that is ‘minimum requirements’ (I hate minimum requirements---ever try anything on a min req machine…it never is a good experience)?  That remains to be seen.  Perhaps Google may have to do what they said they never would: the Google phone – to ensure that Android has one place where it can be guaranteed.

And when it does come out, will it beat iPhone even though it shares some similarities?  I’m not convinced.  Apple (and iPhone) have a culture behind it.  iPhone itself has become somewhat of a mnemonic.  If you have an iPhone, when you tell someone that you just took a picture, do you say “I took it with my phone” or do you say “I took it with my iPhone”?  I hear this all the time…I <fill-in-the-function> with my iPhone.  I never walk around saying “I took this with my Blackjack.”  This is an advantage Apple has over the market…the brand strength.  I took it with my Android.  Still doesn’t sound right.  Even the newest devices like the Samsung Instinct, HTC Diamond, etc. will not gain that level of brand recognition.

Where does all this leave developers?  Let’s see:

• Apple – closed platform; closed hardware; Objective-C/Cocoa dev platform (OSX only for best tools); controlled distribution channel for apps;
• Android – open platform; Java dev platform; tools everywhere; available for any hardware
• Windows Mobile – open/closed platform; C++/.NET dev platform; tools everywhere (best tools on Windows); available for any licensed hardware vendor

What a minute, Windows Mobile an ‘open’ platform?!  Tim, you lie.  Well, I’m not sure the marketing teams would agree with my statement, but consider the facts.  Windows Mobile provides an operating system to device manufacturers to leverage.  We actually provide what we call “platform builder” and those who license Windows Mobile can customize and pick and choose what “Windows Mobile'” means to them.  Is it completely open to alter the base code of WinMo?  No.  But if you have ever picked up a phone that had WinMo from T-Mobile and one from AT&T and one from Verizon, you’ll see that it is not the exact replication across the board.  Those carriers have done some of their own customizations and added/altered some of the applications that exist.

Basically developers will have a choice…not a consistent choice by any means because each choice has a specific skill set.  I don’t know Java well enough that Android will be my choice, for example.  But if it is compelling enough, will that cause me to want to learn?  Who knows…

So what’s with my rant.  Who knows…just had some thoughts on mobile that I wanted to get out.  Carry on.

Related Blog Posts:

• Zac Bowling's thoughts

For those of you who use my RSS FeedReader Web Part for SharePoint, it has been updated into an ‘official’ release for the project.  Version 3.0.0.2 is now the latest release.  It incorporates all the changes from our team’s contributor, Ryan – thanks Ryan!!!  You can read the checkin on the Codeplex site or review this previous post for Ryan’s checkin notes.

As always, the source code is included on the site, licensed under the Ms-Pl.

There has been some emails/work items/debate over the installer.  The installation is two parts:

• Installation of binaries
• Deployment to SharePoint servers

It has been much debated with me in private emails about that the MSI installer should automatically deploy to the server.  Initially this is how feedreader did it.  And I was flooded with email complaints.  Why?  Well, turns out people don’t always install to the same locations, have SharePoint in the same locations, want to deploy only certain web parts to certain SharePoint site collections, etc., etc. – I could go on.  The bottom line is that every configuration was different enough that it didn’t make sense to me to put effort into the installer to either a) guess or b) ask configuration questions.

SharePoint already provides a tool to do this: stsadm.exe.  The readme (yes, there is a readme file) provides instructions for deploying the web part to your specific configurations.  I also received notes that the sample script should be more explicit.  Again, people haven’t always been installing the binaries to the same location so if I was explicit, I’d be wrong in some instances.  I can’t please everyone :-)

The first step (after running the MSI which installs the binaries to your machine) is to run the stsadm tool to add the web part solution:

stsadm -o addsolution -filename %YOUR_INSTALL_DIR%\SharePoint.WebParts.Rss.wsp

Note the %YOUR_INSTALL_DIR% is not a literal you should be typing.  This refers to where you installed the binaries.  If you didn’t change any settings it would be this:

stsadm -o addsolution -filename "C:\Program Files\Tim Heuer\RSS feedreader Web Part\SharePoint.WebParts.Rss.wsp"

Notice that if you have spaces in your path you must put them in quotes.

If you have problems/suggestions log them as a bug/work item on the Codeplex site please.  If you have an idea and would like to contribute, the source is available!

The web part package you may have noticed is not packaged in a WSP file for easier deployment to Windows SharePoint Services v3 and in fact, that is a new requirement (WSS v3) for this update.

Yes, this is one of those posts where you reflect on ‘life’ and how precious it is.  Today was a weird day for me because of two things that caused me pause.  Allow me a little history…

Just over 5 years ago now I received a call that my father was in the hospital as a result of a massive heart attack and was unconscious.  Those are things you never want to hear…ever.  Needless to say it was going to get worse.  In fact my father was in immediate need of a heart transplant to live.  In the interim, they would equip him with an artificial heart.  Sounds logical right?  Unfortunately, ‘artificial hear’ in my father’s situation (due to his body size, chest cavity, etc.) translated to a massive piece of equipment.  Literally my father was hooked up to a pressure device that was on wheels and was about the size of a machine washer.  He had these HUGE tubes connected into his chest and external pumps that served as ventricles.  EVERYTHING was external to his body – yes you could see blood pumping in and out…it was disgusting and amazing at the same time.

After about 7 months of this and a false start on a heart transplant we got the call that a heart was coming and it was local (a donated heart has about a 4hr ideal life span to transplantation).  Hours of surgery later my father had a new heart.  It was a long road to recovery but he is alive today with a donor heart.  My family is eternally grateful for this gift.  My children would have not known their grandfather otherwise (my wife was 9months pregnant when this was all happening).

Fast-forward 5 years later.  Today we received a letter from a woman we’d never met.  It was the mother of the donor heart.  My own heart sank as she wrote this letter on father’s day.  She wrote how she had hoped we were able to benefit as she has felt this long for some time.  We had suspected the identity of the donor heart immediately as on the day my father received his, there was a terrible murder in a neighboring city of a young man.  To this day we suspected it was his heart.  Today we received confirmation of such.  To protect his identity I am not revealing details but that isn’t the point anyway.  My father lives today as a result of one man’s unfortunately loss of life and his remarkable decision to be an organ donor.  This letter from the family is a reminder of what a remarkable miracle happened to my father. 

The second thing today that made me slow down is a funeral my wife and I attended.  For the past 6 years we had known an individual and her daughter.  She was from Mexico and trying to make a better life for her and her daughter.  Her daughter meant everything to her.  Last week she was struck by a car and a week later died as a result of head injuries.  She was 16.  We attended her funeral today and it was amazingly sad to see a family have to bury such a young life.  Our friend was overwhelmingly saddened as you could imagine.  Our hearts were broken as we know how much her daughter meant to her…how much she shaped her life around her daughter and made every decision to better their lives together.

UPDATE:
What I forgot to mention is the 16 year old girl donated her heart (received by a 12 year old boy in WA), lungs (60 year old woman in WA), liver (8 year old and 68 year old), pancreas (50 year old) and kidneys (unknown).  What a great gift on such a tragedy.  Donate Life.

So, I guess here’s where the “count your many blessings” part comes in.  Cliche?  Who cares.  I came home and hugged my kids.