Eric Burns Online — My Virtual Take on Tech

Vibe Coding a WordPress Plugin – What Worked and What Didn’t, plus What I Paid Attention To

I use vibe coding more and more lately as see opportunities to safely leverage it. There are areas where I’m hesitant to use it though. Not because I didn’t think it worked, but because of information security concerns. I’ve spent enough time writing code across different languages and environments to…

Resilience, Not Audacity

February 13, 2026 Attitude Sales No Comments

Cold calling really has a lot to do with resilience, and this week I got a good reminder of that. Early in the week I commented on an LinkedIn comment where someone felt cold calling was about chutzpa. When I hear that word, I think of audacity. I had replied…

Personalization Beats Volume

January 8, 2026 Attitude Sales No Comments

Quick outreach tip for anyone in sales or recruiting: Before emailing someone about services, take 30 seconds to see what they actually do. If someone works at a software services company, pitching them software services isn’t outreach – it’s spam. Personalization beats volume every time.

Progress Happens Beneath the Surface

December 25, 2025 Attitude No Comments

As 2025 winds down, many of us are reflecting on the year – its wins, its lessons, and its challenges. To those still grinding but not seeing the success you deserve, know this: progress often happens beneath the surface. As Steve Jobs wisely said, “Some years you win. Some years…

Irony Moves Fast on the Internet

November 25, 2025 Attitude No Comments

A few weeks ago, a major cloud outage drew some public commentary from Elon Musk. One month later, and headlines read: “Outage Disrupts X, ChatGPT and Other Parts of the Internet.” According to the article the root cause was Cloudflare, and it is a solid reminder that much of the…

Why Experienced Leaders and Marketers Don’t Mock Catastrophes

October 25, 2025 Attitude No Comments

The recent AWS outage reminded me of another incident. In 1989, the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound. None of the other oil companies made much public noise about it. Why not? Because they knew it could happen to them. Just a few days ago, AWS experienced a…

Hidden Data Risks When Recycling Old PCs

September 27, 2025 Attitude High Level Tech Intro Technical Tutorials & Developer Education No Comments

Besides the obvious risk posed by an old 3.5 inch hard drive, there are several easy to miss ways that retired computers can leak sensitive information. These mistakes can expose intellectual property, customer records, or employee data to the public, or worse, to competitors. The resulting spear phishing attacks…

Are Shipping Failures Baked Into the Business Model?

August 26, 2025 Analytics Attitude Startups No Comments

DO NOT CRUSH OR BENT Still pretty clear – even after translation. That’s what the manufacturer printed on a very thin, minimally padded box. The company I bought it from chose to ship that box inside a paper envelope. In the back of a delivery van, likely in a pile…

Eliminating a Single Point of Failure in My Daily Work Setup

July 25, 2025 Gear No Comments

For years I relied on a single laptop for everything. A Dell Inspiron moved between my office desk, the coffee table, and wherever I happened to be working that day – including lunch outings where I often did some of my most focused work. At my desk, the system lived…

Conversational AI in Support: Integration Matters More Than Intelligence

June 25, 2025 Conversational AI No Comments

It’s encouraging to see large enterprises like Dell Technologies investing in conversational AI for customer support. Done well, these systems can dramatically reduce friction, shorten resolution times, and free human agents to focus on complex issues. However, effectiveness depends on how well the AI is integrated with existing telemetry and…