Is your website lazy?

Is your website tired, rundown, listless,...is it unpopular?

For readers less than 50 years of age, this is a very well known (partial) line from the "Vitameatavegemin" episode of "I Love Lucy." Definitely worth viewing if you've never seen it.

The phrase popped into my head this morning while observing and listening to someone attempting to apply for a new job via the Internet. It sounded painful!

The search for applicable job postings is easy enough. In this instance, the person seeking a new position is an experienced IT professional, with Project Management Professional (PMP) certification, and over 20 years experience. I can also tell you he is not an idiot.

But on certain job sites, clicking on the position of interest ends up meaning an hour or more of re-writing a resume that has already taken considerable time to compose and format. An hour or more of trying to figure out what the page designer AND the prospective employer are really asking for...it can make you feel first, like an idiot and then second, that applying via this website is just too much hassle.

The mere plethora of skills requested for many positions, specifically in IT, should tell you immediately that making an attempt to funnel these skills into small text boxes is not going to work.

The contract environment in which many IT resources exist means they sometimes have many positions at different locations, often running only 3 to 6 months in duration. Try fitting 20 years of THAT in a character-restricted text field.

Servers that store said resumes are often slow and buggy. Spend your 45 minutes, describe the last 20 years of your life, click the "Preview" link so you can have a wee look at the masterpiece you are and BINGO - "Error 404 File Not found" or, "Internal Server Error", my personal favorite.

The "laziness" I suggest is that prospective employers and recruiters want the prospect to do their admin and clerical work for them.

Someone built them a database - possibly with little analysis as to how the user would process the application - to store all the relevant and keyword data. The employer can now have an admin person run a quick search to find applicable candidates for a position...from the few, the proud, the brave who actually managed to complete the submission "mission'. Even the information submitted may not actually be conveying what was intended by the applicant, but that database is full so it MUST be working for you, right?

The contrast between this painful process and the job opening that provides a contact person's name, an email link and maybe even a phone number is dramatic. If your resume is up to date and ready for the real world, you can submit it - with or without a cover letter - in about two minutes. Time involved in this part of the process has no bearing on your ability or fit for the job - only your ability to flow your data in the format you intended to the correct person.

Wise up web site builders and owners - the harder you make an order or submission process, the less of either you will receive. Keep it simple and make it painless...these tasks are yours to perform - not your visitors.

Country Hearth Wood Stove - Review

$600 savings in the first year of use!


People living north of the Mason-Dixon line won't believe it, but North Carolina gets COLD in Winter.

Having purchased a rural cottage on a lake in the Piedmont region of North Carolina a few years ago, and having observed the "excess resource" of wood already available on the property - buying a wood stove seemed a smart move. I am not disappointed.

This little stove - Century Hearth Model FW240007 - really cranks out some heat - and I mean HEAT - not just warm air!

A good link for a description of all the bells and whistles of this stove is at Vermont Castings.

You'll either need to understand and be very handy with the installation requirements or have someone do the tough stuff - like cutting a hole in the roof and assembling the proper pipe, etc. You'll also need to carefully follow the code for distance from walls and have a fireproof mat for your floor. As you can see in the picture, the mat protects the ceramic tiles on the floor.

Other items of importance to novice users will be the need for a blower fan. Otherwise, you'll have a 90 degree area right around the stove and not enough heat moving through the rest of your home. This particular model's coverage is up to 1500 square feet of living area.

Don't forget to buy an ash bucket which will soon feel like an appendage. The good news is that carting the bucket back and forth inside and out will do wonders for your ability to move from 90 degrees to 5 degrees in a timely and efficient manner. A little use of the biceps is never a bad thing either. Exercise with a purpose!

This is not a purchase for those who like to just sit in a warm house during Winter. It's a fair amount of work - even if you have wood available as I do on my property. You still have to haul the wood, tend the fire, clean the stove and the pipe - and plan for those times when the stove has cooled and so has the house. If you can project-plan this into a daily process though, I highly recommend it as a viable option to gas, oil, or electricity for home heating.

From an economic standpoint, since heating my house is normally accomplished by propane and a gas pack unit, I estimate my expenses this first heating season will be cut in half - in this area and at current propane rates - a savings around $600 for one season.

I purchased this stove at Lowe's for around $480, end of 2007. The other items needed to complete installation brought the total cost to just under $1500, (double-walled pipe is not cheap.) I am very pleased with the return on investment of this purchase.

If anyone has any questions, don't hesitate to ask...

Enjoy!