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My wife is dropping me off at Penn Station Baltimore and a policewoman tells me I have to go across the street. My immediate thoughts were that there was a bomb scare. I look down Charles St and see tons of people outside and I am thinking oh boy… something is going down right now.

The person next to me says…”I think we just had an earthquake”. My immediate response” Yeah right, we don’t have earthquakes in MD”

Sure enough I found out a couple minutes later that we did have an earthquake and it shut down everything from South Carolina all the way up to Boston.

Luckily there was no major damage or death down the eastern seaboard so immediately the jokes starting flying around on tv and social media.

After sitting around bored at the train station for a while my partner sends this email out to the staff of DoublePositive:

From: Sean P. Fenlon
Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2011 4:45 PM
To: DP Staff
Subject: East Coast Earthquake

Please reply to all with the funniest things you encountered today on the social media grid today regarding the earthquake.
Here’s mine:
“This afternoon, mostly aftershocky. The 3-day forecast? Hurricane Irene. And for your weekend? Plague, pestilence, and locusts.” ;-)
Cheers.
SPF

I figured it would be cool to share some of the responses for a good laugh so here goes:

Lory Cerato – i knew Will & Jada Smith separating would change our lives forever……just didn’t realize that natural disasters and earthquakes would follow.
Ramon Castro- “Ooooh. Do it again!!!!!!!!”“If anyone is looking for a job, my church is currently hiring security for the expected crowds this Sunday”
Chris Cormier- Best turn out for a Quake LAN party EVER!!!” “Hokie football was in pads today, please excuse the disruption.”
Drew Detwiler- don’t worry, the president is safe and sound on the golf course of Martha’s vineyard
Brad Foutz- “shake and bake chicken for dinner with milkshakes”
Ramon (again)- “Oh, excuse me. I had beans for lunch.”
Chris (again)- the Hokie one was responded to even better though…“You sure? It’s a little early in the season for the Hokies to collapse with that much force… are we even playing Miami today?”
Lee Pollak- Resorting to cannibalism directly after the earthquake may have been a bit premature….
Mike Hudkins- “There’s only been one reported casualty due to the earthquake – my boxer briefs.”
Casey Cook (who was on a train at the time) – The funniest for me was when our train was stopped in middle of nowhere and an Amtrak agent got on PA and she said,
“LADIES AND GENTLEMEN. I HAVE JUST FOUND OUT THE REASON FOR OUR DELAY. HURRICANES HAVE BEEN FOUND UP AND DOWN ALL OVER THE EAST COAST. UNTIL THESE HURRICANES STOP WE WILL CONTINUE TO BE STRANDED.”
Brian Ocheltree- “can someone pls go back and get my putter?”
Me- “Ok people the earthquake is over. You can now go back to responding to our Google Ads. thank you”
Kevin Norris- “Chuck Norris is doing pushups everybody. Relax.
JJ Olson- “You can all go back to work. S&P just downgraded the earthquake to 2.0”

(Obviously some of these are quotes to where I don’t have the original source so I apologize if I did not credit the right people but this was a good laugh around the office for sure that I wanted to share with YOU)

In my last couple of posts, I wrote about LeadsCon 2011.  Several of you have asked me about something that happened at the convention, so I thought I’d take a minute to address it.

As you guys know, DoublePositive has a lot of good friends in the space, and we were thrilled to see so many of you in Vegas this year.  We decided to celebrate a special year with our peers and friends by throwing a party.  Our goal was to pay tribute to this great industry we are in right now.

The location of the party was The Rhumbar in The Mirage.  See below for some pictures taken by our friend Steve Hall (also check out his hilarious blog about marketing and advertising at www.adrants.com).  More pictures are on our Facebook page: http://on.fb.me/f1EmnT.

In keeping with our “Rock Star” theme, we gave out guitar picks as tickets to the exclusive event.  They looked like this:

… which inevitably led to the question, “What is the meaning of 42?”

Ah, yes, great question.  As Douglas Adams fans know, “what is the meaning?” is the driving question of his cult classic novel, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.  In the book, a group of hyper-intelligent pan-dimensional beings want to know the Ultimate Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything.  They design a supercomputer, which takes 7.5 million years to come up with the answer.  It turns out to be 42.  Unfortunately, The Ultimate Question itself remains unknown.

So that’s where we stand today.  We may know the answer, but the question still eludes us, challenging us to learn more, care deeper, work harder and push farther into new frontiers.  We figure, as long as we go forward together, with great people like you, we should be all right.

Anyway, as I mentioned in a previous post, DoublePositive is continuing to change the game.  We’re rolling out a suite of innovative products as we speak.  Check back soon and I’ll tell you everything I know.

Because DoublePositive invented the pay-only-per-transfer pricing model, we get a lot of comparisons to innovators in other industries.  For example, a friend recently commented that we were the Jimi Hendrix of online lead conversion.  We laughed.  But when it came time to design our poster for LeadsCon 2011 in Las Vegas, we decided to own up to our rock star status.

What about you, brotherman?  Are you down with the Live Hot Transfers experience?  Let us know in the comments below.  And check back soon because I have one more post coming about LeadsCon.

With LeadsCon Las Vegas 2011 kicking off next week, everybody’s talking about speed-to-lead.  Even the Harvard Business Review has an opinion: “The Short Life of Online Sales Leads.”

The report comes out at the perfect time.  On Tuesday at 2:40PM, I will be representing DoublePositive in a panel discussion, “All About The Call – From Speed to Lead to Call Center Effectiveness”.  The topic is sure to create some sparks.

So come hear good, in-depth, healthy conversation between four companies that champion the process of speed-to-lead.

And let us know your take on the HBR report in the comments below.

For all developers out there who want to shine their creativity on business solutions with MS Silverlight, beware that it does not support the staple DataSet object that we are so used to binding to our grids: Yet another sign that the division between client and server side technologies is always becoming more clear.  One solution I have found that is useful to overcome this is to use a DataSet on a server side architecture, then create generic List<> of the business object that you need.  Write a method that takes in a DataRow object and create your List items that way.  You can then access the List<> through a client consumed WCF service and bind to a grid.

Ok, so the term “stranded” may be a little harsh. My wife and I wed on October 23, 2010. Kelly was stunningly gorgeous, the weather was beautiful, and the ceremony was surreal. The reception flew by, as everyone told us it would, but we enjoyed every second of it. The entire day was perfect. Then came the honeymoon. We were all set to travel to the island of St. Lucia. After staying up late with friends and family, we left for the airport at 3am on zero sleep, but that didn’t matter because we knew we were in for the trip of a lifetime. The flight was long, but we certainly can’t complain as we landed in paradise! From the moment we landed, there was a sense of relaxation that we hadn’t experienced before. Was it the fact that it finally set in that we were married? Or that were finally made it after a day long flight? Or was it the magic of St. Lucia that allowed to leave all of our worries behind? The hour and a half ride to the Sandals Grande St. Lucian Resort from the airport was very interesting. We stopped a few times to view some of the brilliant scenario, learn about the  banana crops, and visit some of the local road-side food vendors. The roads are narrow and windy and the St. Lucian drivers act like they’re driving on the autoban. They say if you can drive in St. Lucia, you can drive anywhere in the world. But the most noteworthy sites were the shacks all over that appeared as though they had already a huge storm. They looked as those they would crumble to the ground with the lightest gust of wind. 

When we arrived at the resort, we were greated by smiling, mostly St. Lucia, staff… and of course some delicious rum punch! After the painless check-in, we arrived in our room with breathtaking views of plantlife and the beach. Our honeymoon had officially begun. Everything was perfect – the service was first class, the food was delicious (I gained almost 10 pounds), the water was warm, and the drinks were plentiful! BBC anyone?

After dinner on Friday evening (2 days before we were set to depart), we retired to our room to find a notice indicating that a tropical storm was due to arrive over the next 24 hours, but that there was no concern. Oh, there was concern! We enjoyed a few more drinks at the bar (they brew a Guiness Foreign Stout in St. Lucia!!! – amazing!!!) before finally retiring for the night. In the morning there was another notice. HURRICANE TOMAS was heading right for us!!! We looked outside and saw that the paradise we came to love was being crushed by the storm. Palm trees blowing side to side, debris flying everywhere, bushes and trees derooted, erosion, devestation. It was the worst storm I had ever seen personally. People were starting to panic. They closed the airports so flights out that Saturday were cancelled. Luckily we were schedule to depart on Sunday. The storm worsened and concern greatened. At this point, interenet access, phone systems, and power were intermitent. Luckily there were powerful backup generators that did a great job of keeping power on in the resort. The general manager, Winston, truely earned his paycheck during the storm. He was available at all times to anyone with a question. He did his best to obtain exclusive information and details on the airports and flights. No one was allowed outside as it was very dangerous. They agreed to keep the bars open asking only that no one over-do it as medical attention was minimal at the resort and there was no way anyone was getting out of there to a hospital. At some point, even the hospital lost power and water. Yet we had both. We were extremely lucky in that we were on the North part of the island (the South, where the big airport is located, was destroyed), most of guests kept their cool and were willing to do whatever they could to help out, and of course the staff. The staff at the restort were some of the friendliest, most helpful, genuine people I have ever met. Even during the storms when they had no way of knowing the status of their homes and even their families. Phone systems were down, roads were blocked, there was no way out. Yet the staff continued to do their best to make sure each and every one of us had the best time possible under the conditions. They had buffet-style meals for us in a large ball room (for dinner, we had grilled Carribean lobster on evening of the storm). They even went as far as to setup a Halloween party on Sunday evening. After the storm calmed down, the staff immediately went to work to repair the beaches, clean the pools, repair water damage in building, remove fallen trees and branches, and return the resort to the pristine condition that it was in before the storm. The staff welcomed the help of the guests. We helped to powerwash chairs and walkways, return chairs and tables to their positions along the beach and pools, and anything else we could do to help out the people that made it their goal to help us the past few days. It felt good to give back even if it was a minimal amount. Winston made an announcement that two of the nights that guests were stranded would be complimentary with additional nights at a reduced rate. What an experience. Neither my wife nor I would trade it for anything. We had several days of perfect weather, a little “liquid sunshine”, and some great beach time and then an adventure that few couples can say they experienced on their honeymoon.

My only complaint is that the communication between the resort and the outside world was quite lacking and we tended to receive opposing information from different people. The technology to keep communications alive during a major storm like Hurricane Tomas must exist in St. Lucia. It’s a tropical island – they have to expect storms like that right? It would seem that the resort would have a better method of communicating information to people rather than everyone packing into the lobby to read a 4′ x 3′ board with printed updates or verbal updates. Maybe an information channel like they have on cruise ships, or at least the ability to broadcast a message across the entire resort including guess rooms and suites? But with the limited resourced that they had, the staff did the best job they could of keeping everyone informed with whatever information they had on request.

It seems that St. Lucia is quite the hot spot for honeymooners of late. We know a couple that traveled to St. Lucia only a couple weeks after us so it was interesting to share stories and hear how the island had healed by the time they arrived. If you have any stories from Hurricane Tomas or St. Lucia afterwards, I would love to hear them! And cheers to the people of St. Lucia who made our honeymoon unforgettable!

Engineers are always looking to find solutions to a problem – even if no real problem exists.  This is true with all walks of engineers, from mechanical to electrical to computer science.  One thing I’ve noticed over the years is if you tell an engineer that you can create a more elegant/efficient/out of the box solution then them, the first words out of their mouth is normally some form of “you must be joking, and you’re not funny.”  This type of competition can not only find the best solution available but it can be fun as well.

However, realistically speaking there’s normally not the time or resources to have these types of competition within a technology development team.  Additionally, it may not be the greatest idea to pit developers in a team against each other.  Individuals can partake in the many other venues for development competition from grass-roots user groups to the likes of Google, but it’s less personal than a direct competition.

So how can engineers settle such a trivial yet important contest?

Enter Pumpkin’ Chunkin’.  If you haven’t heard about this sport the idea is simple: find a way to throw a pumpkin go as far as possible.  The Science Channel is current showing a program for the 2010 Pumpkin’ Chunkin’ World Championships.  There’s also a website with plenty of pictures/video/information - http://www.punkinchunkin.com/.  If you haven’t seen it, I highly suggest taking a look.

All that being said, I’d like to send out an open invitation.  If you have a team of engineers (actual or self-titled) that want to go head-to-head with the team here at DoublePositive, here’s your chance.  Pumpkin’ chunkin’ isn’t the only venue.  Got a different idea?  Have some other engineering challenge?  Bring it on.

-Chris

Developer, Trebuchet Connoisseur

I consume a lot of audiobooks on my daily commute to DoublePositive.

I’ve had a run of good fortune lately stumbling into some fantastic audiobooks, including:

• Born to Run
• http://blogs.doublepositive.com/2010/09/23/born-to-run-this-is-not-the-boss-talking/
• The Big Short by Michael Lewis
• http://www.amazon.com/Big-Short-Inside-Doomsday-Machine/dp/0393072231
• A Whole New Mind
• http://www.amazon.com/Whole-New-Mind-Right-Brainers-Future/dp/1594481717

Unfortunately, my queue is now empty. :-(

So, I’m turning to the readers of this DP blog for help. Can anyone recommend a fantastic book or books (that is/are are available on CD audiobook)?

After a run like I’ve just had, I’m looking for the most inspiring or thought-provoking books you know of in order to keep the streak alive. :-)

Thanks in advance.

SPF

As a result of the performance of the Baltimore Orioles over the last 10+ years, I am not much of a baseball fan these days.

I am, however, a fan of baseball history.

I may soon also become a fan of the Washington Nationals as a result of one new player – Stephen Strasburg.

I request that all the baseball-fan readers of this chart below take a moment to digest this insightful prediction from Google.

Wow!

Cheers Steve! :-)

SPF