Update: It turns out that SurveyGizmo already offers email validation lookup. This means that when you do a survey on their system and validate it using their software, it will check to make sure that the server exists! See their blog posting for details.

Zip Code Validation

There are about 42,000 zip codes in the United States. In Canada there are over 800,000 unique postal codes, although for most purposes (at least, for most survey purposes I’ve ever heard of) the first three characters (the “FSA”) is more than enough and there are only about 1,500 of those. It wouldn’t be hard for a survey software to offer a feature that validates postal codes as they were entered. Which is to say that with a database of less than 45,000 records it would be fairly easy for to automatically validate zip codes as they were entered.

Any why just validate? I can only imagine that a lot of clients would appreciate the option of knowing the city, state, census region, and even latitude and longitude of the people who take their survey based on the zip codes that they enter. All this information is inexpensively available at places like zipcodedownload.com and can be easily integrated into online applications.

E-Mail Address Validation

Real-time e-mail address validation is even easier because it doesn’t require a database. While a lot of survey systems (but again, not all) offer syntax validation, what is much more useful is real-time e-mail address validation where the system uses a component to contact the the respondent’s e-mail server to verify (a) that there is a server there (dns lookup); (b) that it is a mail server (mx record lookup); (c) that it can accept e-mail (smtp server validation); and (d) that the user has an e-mail address on that system.

All of these things are very easy and very fast to do (the deeper you get into it, the longer it can take — for example, verifying that an account exists on a server can take 30 seconds if the system even gives a reply — which is why I usually only go to the level of testing whether there is an active smtp server). Plus it almost guarantees that the e-mail address that ends up in the data base is a valid, working e-mail address.

For example, whenever someone starts one of my surveys I have them first enter their e-mail address — this is so that I can later award them a prize in whatever sweepstakes I have going on at the time. Since it would be troublesome for everyone if the e-mail address they give us doesn’t work, before I start the survey I first validate their e-mail address using a component called aspNetMX. If the e-mail address is valid (or at least links to a valid e-mail server) then I start the survey. If not, I have them re-enter their address until they get it right. You’d be amazed how many people will mistype an e-mail address over and over again (I keep a log of the errors so I can make sure it is working properly, and the errors usually are really respondent errors).

Once again, it would be a great feature to the client (and something you could promote as a feature of your software) if you offered real validation whenever possible which helps the client have better, cleaner data.

• General Linear Mixed Models (part of the Advanced Statistics Add-On) allow you to “create more accurate models for predicting non-linear outcomes based on hierarchical/nested data or data that includes repeated measures.”
• Faster Performance: Supposed to offer faster compiled transformations in SPSS Statistics server, as well as faster pivot table generation in SPSS Statistics Base (which is a good thing — tables in SPSS 16+ seemed to take a lot longer than they did in SPSS 15).
• Statistics Web Portal: Another feature for those of you using the SPSS Statistics Server lets you allow clients to do their own ad-hoc queries and analysis via a web interface. Also requires SPSS Collaboration and Deployment Services.
• Automated Linear Models: This should be fairly interesting. It allows you to build “powerful linear models in an easy, automated way in SPSS Statistics Base and in the SPSS Statistics Server.” It promises “automated data preparation to get data ready for analysis in a single step; techniques to improve model stability and accuracy; support for categorical predictors; more variable selection methods; interactive visualizations.”
• Syntax Editor Improvements: Apparently more than a dozen performance and ease-of-use enhancements in the syntax editor.
• Default Measurement Level: Allows you to automatically set your measurement level. The software automatically looks at the data when you open the file and decides what type of measurement level is best. Not that this took a lot of time, but every little time saver helps I suppose.
• New Direct Marketing Capabilities include an improved interface; a scoring wizard; better, smarter output; integration with Salesforce.com.
• IBM SPSS Collaboration and Deployment Services: New software to let you share and re-use data sets, secure them, and make them easier to use across the company.

There are lots of information and documentation available for SPSS 19. Read “IBM SPSS Statistics: What’s New” for detailed descriptions of the new features or you can download a free 14-day trial of IBM SPSS Statistics 19 from the SPSS web site. All of the user manuals for IBM SPSS Statistics 19 are also available online, including plug-ins, tools, command syntax reference, and guides to each of the modules.

I’ve been looking for a set of wireless headphones for a while, and it wasn’t really until recently that it seemed as if they were commonly available in a size and shape that was appropriate for exercise. I was on my treadmill using some traditional wireless headphones which worked OK for a while but weren’t really designed for running (even in place). The original JayBird Sportsband was in December just getting ready for shipping, so I put in my order and received my pair (the original SB1) right after the first of the year. The total cost was about $101.

The package for the Sportsband included the headset, a USB cable for recharging (you have to plug it into your computer or some kind of USB charger) and a six panel instruction sheet. While the instructions were short, it really didn’t take much time to get the headphones set up and and paired with both my iPod Touch and a small Sony Bluetooth transmitter which I had attached to my TV.

The controls on the Sportsband headphones are very simple — there aren’t a lot of them and the functionality they provide depends on the device you connect the Sportsband to. There is a power switch, up/down volume buttons and two additional buttons which (depending on the device) will move you to the previous or next track. I found that when connected to my computer I was able to use all five of the buttons — when connected to my iPod or (more recently) my iPad, only the volume controls work (that is to say, the previous/next track button doesn’t do anything).

The JayBird Sportsband is very small and light. It fits comfortably on my head. I should note that it is warrantied against damage caused by sweat, which can be important if you use it for exercise. I find that the Sportsband does a very good job holding a signal with any of the devices I’ve used it with. The sound quality is very good (at least to my ears) and there is no static or other improper sounds I had gotten used to hearing with non-Bluetooth headphone devices. Everything sounds good!

Speaking of other devices, I’ve also connected the JayBird Sportsband to my Blackberry (which also has a Bluetooth connection) with excellent results. The headphone also has a built in microphone, so even though I’ve never tried it, one would imagine that you could take it running and answer the phone if someone were to call (to switch from one device such as your iPod to another such as your phone you simply press the on/off button once. You can switch back by pushing it again).

I should say that a couple of weeks ago my original headphones (the original SB1) stopped working. I’m not entirely sure why, but the battery (which usually can last about 8 hours) refused to hold a charge. The warranty on the headphones is one year so I very easily requested an RMA, returned it, and got a brand new set of headphones back via FedEx within just a week or so. Not only that, but the company had upgraded my Sportsband SB1 to a brand new Sportsband SB2 which I’m just breaking in now (it comes with the same box contents, although the instructions are more detailed…plus they included two extra pairs of earphone padding foam — something my original SB1 did not come with).

.The new Sportsband SB2 comes in a variety of different colors. It also has the ability to integrate with your Bluetooth devices in such a way as to offer CD quality sound through something called apt-X. As far as I can tell some Bluetooth devices have this broadcast capability built in — for use with an iPad, iPod or iPhone my understanding is that you need to purchase a separate adapter. For myself, I’m fine with the sound quality that I currently get from the device.

As a six-month user of the Jaybird Sportsband, I report myself to be a satisfied customer. The product did exactly what it was supposed to do, and when I had an issue with the device they resolved it by sending me a new one with no questions asked. I gladly recommend it to anyone looking for durable Bluetooth headphones that are light, have strong battery life, and are great for exercise.

Learn more at the jaybirdgear.com web site.

Note: IBM/SPSS has announced the features of SPSS Statistics 19.

Of course I understand that the development costs are lower when you write only one version of the software that runs on PCs, Macs and Linux systems (although it doesn’t seem like the price is lower). I also imagine it makes it easier to do certain kinds of integrations with other languages (although I don’t know which ones). And maybe academia has embraced Java and prefers the Java interface for SPSS. And I do appreciate that SPSS has made every effort to try to make the Java interface as friendly and as similar to what I’m used to seeing as possible.

But it isn’t enough. SPSS versions 16-18 do not have the same look and feel as all of the other programs I work with on my PC every day. SPSS is more sluggish, the spacing of the fonts look weird, and whenever I try to copy and paste data from SPSS to Excel (which I do hundreds of times a day) it takes five or six times as long because I have to unformat the data that has been transferred.

This isn’t the first time I’ve had this rant. It happens every year or so when I say, “Ok — I’m going to give this next version of SPSS a try.” I put away my half-broken-under-Windows-7 version of SPSS 15, load up SPSS 18 (despite the fact that I never upgrade, we keep buying updated licenses) and give it a try — only to slink back to SPSS 15 once I’ve had my fill of frustrating, non-value added experiences.

With that said, there are a couple of things IBM/SPSS could do to make me finally make the switch to SPSS Statistics 19.0 when it is released.

Better Variable Organization Tools (Folders)

I’ve asked about this before, and I’ll keep asking! Many of my data sets have hundreds of variables (multi-response questions can do that to you). Life would be so much easier if it were possible to organize these variables into folders. Folders that could be closed so that variables that I’m done with can be hidden.

The ability to color code variable variables would also be extremely helpful. Even better — let me add folders that I can color code.

This is much more preferable to what I have to do now, which is create “fake” variables with repeating x’s (“xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx”) in order to make it visually easy to identify different sections of variables. And what kind of solution is that?

Another useful capability I’d love to see in SPSS 19 would be the ability to have “aliases” of variables. There are times when I like to keep a copy of a variable with several different groups of variables (for example, if I’m doing segment analysis). Instead of having to pull the variable out of it’s “natural group” of variables, it would be nice to be able to easily create an alias which I could then store with the other variables.

Cleaner Cut/Paste Options

I would switch to SPSS right now if it were possible to copy tables and paste them into Excel without all of the Tablelook formatting. I know someone must have thought it would be a feature to copy the formatting along with the data. This might even make sense if you were copying the data into Word or Powerpoint. However, there is no reason I can think of as to why I would want to copy all of that formatting from SPSS into Microsoft Excel. It is absolutely a nuisance. I would much prefer if IBM SPSS Statistics 19 gave me a choice (perhaps somewhere in the options) to be able to copy data without any formatting — much like it used to do in SPSS 15.

Pre-Defined Banners in Custom Tables

I won’t say that I need this feature, but when I’m working with SPSS Custom Tables it sure would be useful to be able to pre-define sets of variables that I could easily drag to the top of my table in a group — without having to hunt them down in the list of variables one at a time.

I realize my requests are pretty much focused on my work-flow and how I will/would use IBM SPSS Statistics 19, but I can’t imagine I’m the only one with these issues. And please, IBM, if you really want to make me smile go the extra mile and bring back the OS-specific versions of SPSS!

Flipboard is fairly straightforward in terms of its purpose — it allows you to select from a variety of different sources of information (including your own Facebook and Twitter account) and have it displayed in a beautifully laid out, easy to read magazine format.

I’ve been a NewsRack user for some time now. And when Pulse was introduced I bought that as well. Both had their issues, and while I preferred the look and feel of the Pulse newsreader, it wasn’t as easy to quickly read through my feeds as it was to do with NewsRack — which, while it isn’t as pretty, made straightforward and what it sacrificed in prettiness it made up for in efficiency.

Flipboard isn’t necessarily the most efficient in terms of getting through a lot of different content, but once you start to use it you’ll find you don’t even care.

The app opens with the equivalent of a magazine cover. A moving magazine cover that shifts from one image to the next with the only consistency being the Flipboard logo and the word “<Flip>” in small letters on the right. And flip it is — to navigate to the table of contents, you simply drag your finger from left to right across the screen, which causes the page to turn to the table of contents.

On the Flipboard content page you have nine blocks for assigning content — two of the blocks are pre-assigned to Facebook and Twitter and the other seven are available for you to assign content.

Flipboard allows you to search for Twitter users and lists as a basis for your content, or you can choose content that has been preselected by the Flipboard editors. Some of the pre-defined categories include World News, Business, Finance, Design, Photos, as well as Sports, “Green” (environmental) and even The Onion. Think of it as selecting the sections of your own magazine.

When you’re done adding content, it is easy enough to read it by simply selecting a section and flipping to it. One of the near touches is that when you do flip to a section, you can see multiple pages turn.

All of the pages look like they have been laid out by hand. On some pages, articles and pictures will be split left and right; in other cases, a picture may cover the entire top of the page. Other pages of Flipboard will seamlessly mix pictures and content. All of it looks amazing.

If you tap on an article it will expand to fill the entire screen. Not usually the entire article — usually just the excerpt at the top, with retweets of the article located at the bottom of the page. At the very bottom of the page is the option to add your own retweet of the article, which makes the literally a social magazine — enjoyable to read, easy and enjoyable to pass on to your friends through your Twitter account. Each page then also makes it easy enough to read the full article content on the web (once you are in this “reading mode” you can also swipe across to simply go to the zoomed in version of the next article — a smart move, otherwise you’d have to do twice as much work to read all the way through the feed).

I can’t really think of anything to complain about Flipboard. Certainly, it isn’t as efficient for plowing through a lot of content, but it is much more enjoyable. It does appear to limit the number of “sections” you can add, but it also appears that you can combine multiple subjects into a section — so I think I have to learn more about how this works. Plus, I have kind of come to realize that many I don’t need to read so many different feeds?

Anyway, I strongly recommend Flipboard for iPad. It’s one of the best apps I’ve come across for the iPad, and it’s free.

Download Flipboard

For example, when I enter my name it tells me that there are 1,459,093 people with the first name of “Mark.” And there are 303 people with the last name of “Kupferman.” When it puts the two together, it turns out that there is only one Mark Kupferman in all of the United States.

The site also features some interesting stats about the most popular last names (Smith, Johnson, and Williams); the most common boy names (James, John, and Robert); the most common girl names (Mary, Patricia, and Linda) as well as an interesting list of the most searched famous people (Harry Potter, George Bush, and James Bond). Incidentally, there are a total of 102 people in the US with the name “Harry Potter.”

The Attributes

For my CBC study I had a total of eight attributes. Seven of them were binary product features (either the feature was included or it wasn’t), and the ninth was the price level. The structure basically looked something like this:

Feature 1 (Included or Not Includes)
Feature 2 (Included or Not Includes)
Feature 3 (Included or Not Includes)
Feature 4 (Included or Not Includes)
Feature 5 (Included or Not Includes)
Feature 6 (Included or Not Includes)
Feature 7 (Included or Not Includes)
Price Level (L1,L2,L3,L4,L5)

What was tricky here is that I wanted to be able to display different ranges of prices depending on how many different Features were included. That is, products that only included one feature would be tested at five specific price points, while products that included three of the features (doesn’t matter which ones) would be tested at a different set of price points.

Think of it as if I had an ice-cream store and that I had seven different flavors of ice cream for you to choose from. You could have anywhere from one scoop to seven scoops, and your pricing would be determined based on the number of scoops of ice cream you buy — not by which flavors you choose.

If we were talking about just three different features (or three different flavors of ice cream) it would be easy enough to use the internal conditional display functionality (three features plus a price level variable = four attributes). I would simply calculate all of the prices for each combination of variables and hard code them into the conditional relationship tool. However, since I needed to be able to include eight different variables in the mix, I needed to go another route.

One possibility was to combine some of my binary attributes. So instead of giving each of the seven features its own attribute, I could combine four of the attributes into one “mega attribute” which included every possible combination of the four features, like this:

So what I’ve done above is take four of the Features (F1-F4) and infused them into one attribute with 16 different levels. I’ve then taken the other three features (F5-F7) and infused them into a second attribute with 8 levels. The remaining attribute (price level) goes into the third attribute, and it is then fairly easy to combine the three variables using the built in conditional pricing tool.

However, this solution didn’t seem particularly elegant, and not being a mathematical genius I couldn’t say whether doing this would really achieve what I was try to accomplish. I really wanted to leave each product feature as its own attribute, so I had to come up with another way to calculate the prices on the fly without being able to use the built in tool.

The Javascript Method

The solution I came up with basically involved using the Free Format question type to stuff the value of each attribute (in each scenario) into Javascript variables, which I could then do math with to set the appropriate price level based on the number of features which were included.

Setting up the Attributes. I started by setting the display levels of each of my attributes to something that Javascript could easily work with — in this case, 1s (for when the feature was included) and 0s (when the feature was not included. That made it easy to determine the total number of features that were included by simply adding up the values that SSI Web inserted into the web page. I did something similar with my pricing variable — instead of putting in something like “Level 1″ or “Level 2″ I just put the numbers 1,2,3,4,5 (for each of my five levels.

Setting up the Free Format Questions. I then inserted Free Format questions for each question in the “Write Questionnaire” section (see the SSI Web documentation for a detailed explanation of how this works).

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
function col1F1()       {return '[%CBCDesignLevelText(CBCRAN1,1,1)%]';}
function col1F2()       {return '[%CBCDesignLevelText(CBCRAN1,1,2)%]';}
function col1F3()       {return '[%CBCDesignLevelText(CBCRAN1,1,3)%]';}
function col1F4()       {return '[%CBCDesignLevelText(CBCRAN1,1,4)%]';}
function col1F5()       {return '[%CBCDesignLevelText(CBCRAN1,1,5)%]';}
function col1F6()       {return '[%CBCDesignLevelText(CBCRAN1,1,6)%]';}
function col1F7()       {return '[%CBCDesignLevelText(CBCRAN1,1,7)%]';}
function col1Level()    {return '[%CBCDesignLevelText(CBCRAN1,1,8)%]';}

function col2F1()       {return '[%CBCDesignLevelText(CBCRAN1,2,1)%]';}
function col2F2()       {return '[%CBCDesignLevelText(CBCRAN1,2,2)%]';}
function col2F3()       {return '[%CBCDesignLevelText(CBCRAN1,2,3)%]';}
function col2F4()       {return '[%CBCDesignLevelText(CBCRAN1,2,4)%]';}
function col2F5()       {return '[%CBCDesignLevelText(CBCRAN1,2,5)%]';}
function col2F6()       {return '[%CBCDesignLevelText(CBCRAN1,2,6)%]';}
function col2F7()       {return '[%CBCDesignLevelText(CBCRAN1,2,7)%]';}
function col2Level()    {return '[%CBCDesignLevelText(CBCRAN1,2,8)%]';}

function col3F1()       {return '[%CBCDesignLevelText(CBCRAN1,3,1)%]';}
function col3F2()       {return '[%CBCDesignLevelText(CBCRAN1,3,2)%]';}
function col3F3()       {return '[%CBCDesignLevelText(CBCRAN1,3,3)%]';}
function col3F4()       {return '[%CBCDesignLevelText(CBCRAN1,3,4)%]';}
function col3F5()       {return '[%CBCDesignLevelText(CBCRAN1,3,5)%]';}
function col3F6()       {return '[%CBCDesignLevelText(CBCRAN1,3,6)%]';}
function col3F7()       {return '[%CBCDesignLevelText(CBCRAN1,3,7)%]';}
function col3Level()    {return '[%CBCDesignLevelText(CBCRAN1,3,8)%]';}
</SCRIPT>

I know…I absolutely could have used an array for these variable names and probably saved myself some coding down the line. However, for various reasons relating to other projects this was the easiest and fastest way to capture each of the values.

Now that I had an easy way to access each of the features (for example, I could find out whether Feature #1 was included in the middle scenario by checking the contents of variable col1F1()) I needed some functions to do the math for me.

To find out how many features were included in the scenario, I created a function to add them up:

function CountFeatures(F1,F2,F3,F4,F5,F6,F7) {
var v = Number(F1) + Number(F2) + Number(F3) + Number(F4) + Number(F5) +
        Number(F6) + Number(F6);
return v; }

Note that in the function above, the functions shown in the previous section of code would be pushed into this function, depending on which scenario I was working with.

Once I knew how many features, it was easy enough to return a price using a function like this (in which I pushed in the number of features and the price level):

function lookupprice(pcount, level) {
var lookupval = pcount + '-' + level;
switch(lookupval) {
case '1-1' : return 10;
case '1-2' : return 12;
case '1-3' : return 14;
case '1-4' : return 15;
case '1-5' : return 17;
case '2-1' : return 13;
case '2-2' : return 14;
case '2-3' : return 116;
case '2-4' : return 137;
case '2-5' : return 159;
case '3-1' : return 110;
case '3-2' : return 142;
case '3-3' : return 175;
case '3-4' : return 107;
case '3-5' : return 139;
case '4-1' : return 155;
case '4-2' : return 100;
case '4-3' : return 146;
case '4-4' : return 191;
case '4-5' : return 137;
case '5-1' : return 191;
case '5-2' : return 147;
case '5-3' : return 103;
case '5-4' : return 159;
case '5-5' : return 115;
case '6-1' : return 126;
case '6-2' : return 193;
case '6-3' : return 159;
case '6-4' : return 126;
case '6-5' : return 192;
case '7-1' : return 162;
case '7-2' : return 139;
case '7-3' : return 116;
case '7-4' : return 193;
case '7-5' : return 170;}}

The value returned could then be formatted as money and inserted into the scenario.

This is the basic outline of how I got my project to work — obviously it leaves out several details, such as how to get it onto the page, how to display each of the included features (you do, after all, have to show them which features are included!) but it makes for a fair starting point. If you have specific questions send me a note.

I own a car that is long out of warranty and is frankly starting to wear out a little. I’m probably not the best owner in the world — it’s probably been two years since I brought my car in for a check-up, and the display panel has been gradually filling with more and more lights. But there aren’t a lot of BMW service options here in the Orlando, Florida and it seems like every time I bring my car to the BMW dealer for service they charge me an insane amount despite the fact that don’t seem to do very good work. In my mind, visiting the local BMW dealership for service has come to feel a little like going to the dentist and I was starting to think that maybe I just wasn’t the right type of person to own a BMW.

That was until I found Nelson Aviles and BMW Tech LLC.

Nelson doesn’t have a big garage with lots of BMW technicians. In fact, it isn’t even in it’s own building — it’s just one bay in a row of several bays and I had to struggle to find it when I first got there. The general location is easy enough to get to — right on Orange Blossom Trail across from the CostCo and perhaps half a mile south of the regular BMW dealership. I live in South Orlando, and it’s probably about as convenient a location as you are ever going to find. There is no big sign — you need to know the address, and even then you have to drive into the back to find it (it’s behind the Goodyear — although don’t drive into the Goodyear lot — go next door and you’ll see a bunch of businesses in the back. Nelson’s place is all the way at the end).

There is a small office next to the garage manned by just one woman who welcomed me and offered me a fresh donut from a full box of Krispy Kremes sitting on her desk. She had me fill out a quick form, and then went to get Nelson who was working in the adjacent garage. He offered me a donut too. We chatted for a few minutes, he told me about his background, and how he had started doing mobile work (going to people’s houses look at their cars) and then how his success had led him first to a location in Kissemmee and then to his current location. We talked about the various issues with my car and went outside to take a look. He was very friendly and very personable.

Nelson asked whether I planned to wait for the car to be ready or whether I intended to leave it. I told him that I had a ride and that I was ready to leave it (but points to Nelson for giving me the option!). I left my phone number and keys and waited to hear back.

Nelson called later in the day with the results of the diagnostic. He described several issues he had found with the car (mostly related to items I had told him about). He was very frank and straightforward about which items probably needed to be done right away (oil change, brake light replacement, and a couple of other items I don’t remember) but was also very clear about items which could wait. One of the issues with my car had been that there was a leak in the roof (it’s a convertible) right at the edge of the window — he told me what my options would be to fix it, but said he would see what he could do to adjust it so we could see if it fixed the problem without the need for the full part replacement.

For one item, he indicated that it might not even be broken — apparently the BMW dealership who had serviced my car most recently had overfilled the oil by about a quart and it might have been causing issues that were setting off sensors. He removed the oil and fixed the problem and said that rather than buying a new sensor now, we should wait a bit and see if fixing the oil level solved the problem.

The point of all this is that Nelson was very respectful my car, my time, and the fact that I didn’t have a million dollars to spend on a car that was almost a decade old. He gave me good, fair honest options and he wasn’t at all pushy. He even suggested items that could wait until my next visit. The total he quoted sounded fine, and I gave him the go-ahead to do the work.

He called me back a couple hours later. He had forgotten one of the items I had brought the item in for (actually, it was the main reason I brought the car in — the air conditioner fan had stopped working). He said that he felt terrible that he had forgotten to put it into the original estimate, and that he was just going to charge me for the park (without the labor!). I said that it wasn’t necessary but he insisted.

I should also point out that he did all of my various repairs in a day and that I was able to pick my car up the next morning. For those of you who think that is too long, keep in mind my various note that he had offered to do the work while I waited. I don’t know how long it would have taken, but as far as I was concerned the work was done as fast as I needed it to be done.

He said that the car would be done at 9am, and the car was definitely ready to go when I arrived to pick it up at 10:30am. I had to wait a few minutes for my bill to be organized, but that was OK — in the midst of it I learned that Nelson had actually charged me LESS than the original quote on one bit of labor and absolutely didn’t charge me labor for the item he said he wasn’t going to charge me for. I paid, I got my key, and was out of there.

One more thing — before I left, Nelson gave me another copy of his card. He told me that he was closed on Sundays and Mondays, but that if I ever had an issue with my BMW I should send him an e-mail — even if it was on a Sunday or Monday — and he would see what he could to do help.

I do not know how much I saved. I’m pretty sure it was a lot, and I felt very good about the money that I paid. I felt like I was treated honestly, respectfully, and I haven’t experienced such personal, friendly customer service from a car repair place in years — especially a BMW repair service. I will gladly bring my BMW to Nelson Aviles for repairs in the future, and I most wholeheartedly recommend him to anyone looking for BMW repairs in the Orlando area.

BMW Tech LLC is located in Orlando, Florida at 11245 South Orange Blossom Trail. Telephone number is (407) 781-0297. The shop is operated by Nelson Aviles, a BMW Factory Trained Technician.

I’ve used WordPress on a number of different projects, ranging from my somewhat defunct marketing research technology blog to my wife Elizabeth’s counseling web site to a few other web sites I’ve developed for others. Yet it somehow never occurred to me to use it for my own blog — until now.

I have no idea how often I’ll post. But there are occasionally things that I want to say, or talk about, or promote (such as the recently amazing car repair service I received and I might as well post it here — especially since I recently renewed this site (or at least, the domain name kupferman.com) for another 10 years and might as well make the most of it!

I will redesign this site with a new template soon enough. For now though I think I’ll just focus on adding some content….

Visit the Salt Room Orlando web site.