Stimulate The Economy: Start A Business

As we begin our latest downward slide in the economy, people are starting to lose their jobs at an alarming rate.

Instead of looking for some other job, why not create one for yourself? It is easier than most people think if they simply choose what’s right for them.

“What is the right company to start?” I can hear you asking. Something you know and that can be tested easily with minimal costs. I don’t know what that is for you, but you do.

It’s old advice, but worth repeating. Look for something that comes easily or happily to you. Something you are an expert in that you can turn into something to sell to others. If it is hard to replicate, even better.

Once you know what it is, start small and test out the results, but start today. That is the key. Your business model is only going to be perfect by accident. Be willing and able to change.

How does this help the economy? By creating jobs, tax revenue, etc.

If you’ve gotten this far, let me know. There are so many people out there that are willing and able to get you even further.

September 22, 2008 | Filed Under Life, Work | Leave a Comment 

PSA: Don’t Generate Offensive Promo Codes

OK folks, I’m now on my 3rd client having problems with certain four letter words coming up in their automatically generated promo codes. It’s easy to get around this problem in a very simple way: Don’t use vowels in your promo codes if you’re using letters. No need for special filtering software or huge lists of banned words. You can always add complexity later, but that simple rule will help you more than the rest.

If you want to get more careful, you could alternate letters and numbers, or use some other strategy. To be kind to your users, be aware that some numbers and letters look the same to people and they will enter your codes wrong (or worse, enter in someone else’s code by mistake).

To help you, here’s a list of the numbers and letters I suggest people use because they won’t get them confused with each other and hopefully your system won’t create any bad words (if they do, let me know). If you’re worried about the number of combinations you can make, just add more characters to the length of your code or allow yourself the option to generate your own special codes.

letters = ['B', 'C', 'D', 'F', 'H', 'J', 'K', 'L', 'M', 'N', 'P', 'Q', 'R', 'S', 'T', 'V', 'W', 'X', 'Y', 'Z']
numbers = [2, 3, 4, 7, 9]

You could then take this and make a simple ruby method that does something like this:

letters = ['B', 'C', 'D', 'F', 'H', 'J', 'K', 'L', 'M', 'N', 'P', 'Q', 'R', 'S', 'T', 'V', 'W', 'X', 'Y', 'Z']
numbers = [2, 3, 4, 7, 9]
promo_set = letters | numbers # combine arrays
promo_code = promo_set.sort_by{rand}[0..14].to_s # randomize array and take the first 15 elements and make them a string
=> "CS4FZLHVMPK3QJN"
September 10, 2008 | Filed Under Code, Design, Ruby, Work | 1 Comment