OK, I’ve given you the reasons why Google will be successful this time, but why won’t what they announce tomorrow give Twitter or Facebook a buzz cut? Funny aside, I found this photo of Matt Mullenweg (the entrepreneur behind Wordpress) getting a buzz cut by using Google’s Social Circles search. Some things that will keep Google from giving either Twitter or Facebook a buzz cut tomorrow (yes, I’ve been leaked some info about what’s coming tomorrow, so you gotta read in between the lines here): 1. Facebook has a defensible position in identity. Visit Huffington…
Egos
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Robert Scoble
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Why Google won’t give Twitter or Facebook a buzz cut tomorrow
8 Feb 2010 | 11:19 pm -
The social failings of Google
8 Feb 2010 | 9:07 pmOrkut. Used it? I did back in 2002, but since then? No one I know uses it. Jaiku. Used it? I did back in 2006, but since then? No one I know uses it. Dodgeball. Used it? I did back in 2006, but since then? No one I know uses it. These are just a few of the failures Google has had trying to figure out the social space. Tomorrow they’ve invited a ton of journalists to see a new social effort. The headline on top of Techmeme screams “Twitter killer.” Um, I’ve learned in life that past behavior is the best predictor of future results. So, why is Google going to succeed… -
A TED responsibility
7 Feb 2010 | 11:09 pmThe TED conference has given me a huge responsibility. They’ve handed me one of a small handful of press badges (as I understand it fewer than 10 are handed out every year). Regular tickets are $6,000 each and the conference was sold out more than a year ago (next year’s TED is already sold out). They do put a major restraint on the press covering the event: no filming, or recording of sessions. Another restraint? No computers in the main session unless you want to sit in the back row. OK, I can live with that. So I doubt you’ll see a view of TED like I got of Chris… -
Why if you miss Siri you’ll miss the future of the Web
7 Feb 2010 | 10:42 pmSiri is the most useful thing I’ve seen so far this year. But after playing with it, getting an interview with its CEO (video here on building43) it’s even more important for you to pay attention to. It is the best example of what the web will be. Let’s go back. Web 1994 was the “get me a domain and a page” era. Web 2000 was the “make my page(s) interactive and put people on it” era. Web 2010 is the “get rid of pages and glue APIs and people together” era. Siri is the best example. First, it’s not a website. It’s an application… -
Google’s two-front war with Apple and Facebook; who are the winners and the losers?
2 Feb 2010 | 12:53 amI’ve now heard from three separate Google employees that Google will release a news feed that will compete with Facebook and Twitter. I expect to see a demo at Google’s IO conference in April. For hints at what’s coming you MUST look at two foundation-level services: 1. Google Profiles. Google is asking you to voluntarily add all sorts of information about yourself. So far I’ve told it more than I’ve told Facebook or Twitter, here’s my Google Profile. Why? Because it’s available to all of you and this data gets added all sorts of places in the Google…
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Dave Winer
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Is Manhattan exempt from snowstorms?
9 Feb 2010 | 7:28 amOkay this time they say there really is a snowstorm headed for NYC. And I'm nestled in my West Village apartment, with almost no food in the fridge, thinking -- "What does this mean to me?" Last time I was caught in a snowstorm was in Cambridge, MA. I was staying at the luxurious Charles Hotel, after participating in a conference about the future of news put on by Shorenstein Center. I didn't worry about food, I assumed the hotel would take care of it, and I wasn't disappointed. A group of delayed conference-goers ventured into the snow, across the street to the now-defunct Bombay Club… -
Twitter-killing follow-up
9 Feb 2010 | 6:42 amYesterday's piece started quite a discussion, and for the most part people agree that it's time for some new stuff in TwitterLand. That tells you that it's not only time, it's past time. In the past, there would have been a lot of comments about how the limits of Twitter are what make it so perfect. If you still believe that, watch this NSFW puppet "interview" with "Walt Mossberg" and "Steve Jobs." It's hilarious, and shows how the tech industry falls for what puppet Steve calls "an obvious crock of shit." Anyway... There's more to producing a Twitter-killer than just adding features that… -
Must-have features for Twitter-killing
8 Feb 2010 | 5:03 pmIn October 2009, after 2.5 years of using Twitter every day, I wrote a piece that explained the limits of Twitter that we'll have to look past Twitter to see solved, because Twitter doesn't seem to be trying to solve them. Tomorrow, we hear, Google will announce a product that aims to take on Twitter. If so, here's a list of features to look for. Any of these features would give Google a serious edge over Twitter. Maybe they thought of some things I don't have on my list. It's always nice to put your stake in the ground. I did it with the iPad with some hilarious results. So here's the list… -
Who dat just won the whole thing!
7 Feb 2010 | 11:39 pmA brief note of congratulations to the City that Care Forgot. It's so wonderful that the Saints won the Super Bowl! This will go down as one of the big moments of sports history, imho. As the 1969 Mets undid the betrayal of NY fans by the Dodgers, the Saints give hope to a city that was betrayed in so many ways. From what I know of New Orleans, this victory will be the stuff of legend for a long time to come. It's a city with a great sense of history, and destiny. And humor. Until 2005 its destiny was to be devastated by a monster hurricane and the failure of the rest of the country to come… -
My first full day in NYC
7 Feb 2010 | 5:37 pmI spent my first full day living in NYC since 1977. Lots of observations, but I only have time to share one. In other cities, the places you drive to are places you walk to in Manhattan. There's every kind of restaurant within a block of my apartment. In Palo Alto, you can get it all (but the pizza isn't as good) but you have to drive everywhere unless you live off University Avenue. Same in Berkeley. And the walking in Manhattan is amazing. It's huge and has so much variety. And everywhere you go the buildings reach the sky. In every other city I've lived in, they might have had a few…
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Guy Kawasaki
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How to Avoid Gullibility
8 Feb 2010 | 3:45 pmWe’ve all been sucked into doing something stupid, right? Fortunately, Steven Greenspan has written a book called Annals of Gullibility. In its conclusion he explains how to avoid gullibility, and I’ve provided a synopsis for you. Read the full story at the American Express Open Forum. More on psychology if you need the advice. -
How to Be Empathetic
4 Feb 2010 | 10:24 pmBy definition, good marketers are empathetic. That is, they have a capacity to understand and care for the needs of others. Bruna Martinuzzi explains how to be empathetic over at the American Express Open Forum. -
How to Not Be Annoying on Twitter
4 Feb 2010 | 10:19 pmAmber MacArthur explains how to not be annoying on Twitter over at the American Express Open Forum. Sage advice for you to develop a great reputation and following on Twitter. More Twitter tips. -
The Elements of Guyle: British Blogging
27 Jan 2010 | 10:06 pmWant to make your blog classier? You should blog like a Brit. I explain how to do this in ten easy steps. -
How to follow the Apple announcement
27 Jan 2010 | 7:56 amFollow the Apple announcement at Apple.alltop. We aggregate over 200 sources there.
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Kara Swisher
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Was Google Ad Designed for Viral Mockery? "Parisian Oops," "Is Tiger Feeling Lucky Today"…What Next?
9 Feb 2010 | 5:30 amPlease see this disclosure related to me and Google. Yesterday, the day after after Google aired its first national commercial on the Super Bowl, an exec at a rival Internet company marveled at what high favorable scores the “Parisian Love” advertisement got, adding that the possibilities of spoofs of it were also endless. “I have a feeling that making fun of it will probably be a good thing for Google,” sighed the exec, who would dearly like such attention. BoomTown doubts anyone at Google (GOOG) meant it that way. But, indeed, it did not take two seconds before the… -
Better Times for VCs? Redpoint Raise $400 Million Fund Focused on Social, Mobile, Cloud and Clean
9 Feb 2010 | 12:15 amRedpoint Ventures announced that it had closed a new $400 million fund to invest in early-stage start-ups in the “social and mobile Internet, cloud computing and clean technology spaces.” The last fund that the Menlo Park, Calif.-based venture firm raised was $250 million in March of 2007, which was called Redpoint Omega and aimed at later-stage start-ups. The last early-stage fund, Redpoint III, was in February of 2007 and was also $400 million. While Redpoint’s new fund size did not increase, as they often do, is today’s closing a sign that things are looking up for… -
Turning the Tables: Carol Bartz Grills BoomTown in the Yahoo Cafeteria (Over Easy With a Side of Disclosure)
8 Feb 2010 | 6:16 pmToday, BoomTown gassed up the Mini Cooper and motored down to the Sunnyvale, Calif. HQ of Yahoo, this time with a tiny bit of trepidation. Ok, not that much, but some! Why? Because Yahoo (YHOO) CEO Carol Bartz had invited me to be the first in a new speaker series for employees at the Internet giant, called “Yahoo From the ‘Outside In,’” due to my intense–some might say obsessive–interest in the company. The twist: Bartz herself conducted the interview with me in front of about 600 Yahoos gathered in its URL’s Café, the main cafeteria at the company. -
Microsoft's New Mobile Phone Software Is Coming (and Its "Project Pink" Still Lives)–But Should It Just Give Up and Buy RIM?
8 Feb 2010 | 9:06 amNext week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, Microsoft is likely to unveil Windows Mobile 7, the new version of its mobile operating system, trying to create some excitement around its foundering mobile strategy. “Foundering” is probably kind, given the innovative strides both Google (GOOG) and Apple (AAPL) have made in the smartphone arena in recent years by comparison. That’s why rumors about the various attributes of the new mobile OS escalated again after Microsoft (MSFT) CFO Peter Klein noted at the company’s most recent earnings call: “As we… -
The Bids Are In for AOL's Sale of ICQ–It's Down to a "U.N." of Four Buyers
8 Feb 2010 | 5:02 amAOL has taken another step closer to selling off its ICQ instant messaging service, culling seven bids to four “serious” ones, said sources close to the situation. The price for the service is hovering just under $200 million, several sources said, with one bid higher. An AOL spokeswoman declined to comment. BoomTown reported news of the sale of ICQ by AOL (AOL) in November, part of a deleveraging of units from the newly independent Internet company as it focuses more on its content and advertising business. While other reports a month later said the sale was closer to completion…
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Seth Godin
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TEDthink
9 Feb 2010 | 3:00 amCan you factor this? If you're like most people, you get a little queasy at the thought. And when you were in tenth grade, you surely wondered why they were bothering you.(the answer is (x-2) times (x-2), in case you were curious.)It turns out that the real reason you needed to do this work was to be able to play with numbers in your head. Abstract numerical thought is an important skill among educated people.Which brings us to TED, a conference held every year in Long Beach. It's going on right now. Watch a few TED videos and try to get ahead of the speaker. They have an idea...it's probably… -
Frightened, clueless or uninformed?
8 Feb 2010 | 2:57 amIn the face of significant change and opportunity, people are often one of the three. If you're going to be of assistance, it helps to know which one.Uninformed people need information and insight in order to figure out what to do next. They are approaching the problem with optimism and calm, but they need to be taught. Uninformed is not a pejorative term, it's a temporary state.Clueless people don't know what to do and they don't know that they don't know what to do. They don't know the right questions to ask. Giving them instructions is insufficient. First, they need to be sold on what the… -
The least I could do
7 Feb 2010 | 3:35 amOne way to think about running a successful business is to figure out what the least you can do is, and do that. That's actually what they spent most of my time at business school teaching me.No sense putting more on that pizza, sending more staff to that event, answering the phone in fewer rings... what's the point? No sense being kind, looking people in the eye, being open or welcoming or grateful. Doing the least acceptable amount is the way to maximize short term profit.Of course, there's a different strategy, a crazy alternative that seems to work: do the most you can do instead of the… -
iPad app of my dreams: the digital talking pad
6 Feb 2010 | 8:10 amHere's the spec. If you build it and it's great, I'll use it and I'll blog it.A while ago, I posted about the talking pad and a modern version of it.I think there's a killer app version of this for the iPad, and I hope someone will build it. The talking pad is an interactive presentation tool for smart people.OverviewIt's a very simple concept: a collection of pages (slides, images, type, let's call them pages) that are easy to navigate in a non-linear way. Along with the standard zoom features, I'd like to be able to write on any of them in real time using my finger. I can also call up, on… -
The relentless search for "tell me what to do"
6 Feb 2010 | 2:26 amIf you've ever hired or managed or taught, you know the feeling.People are just begging to be told what to do. There are a lot of reasons for this, but I think the biggest one is: "If you tell me what to do, the responsibility for the outcome is yours, not mine. I'm safe."When asked, resist.
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Jason Kottke
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Using Facebook to split up the US
9 Feb 2010 | 7:24 amData from Facebook reveals how the United States is split up into different regions like Stayathomia, Greater Texas, Dixie, and Mormonia. Stretching from New York to Minnesota, [Stayathomia's] defining feature is how near most people are to their friends, implying they don't move far. In most cases outside the largest cities, the most common connections are with immediately neighboring cities, and even New York only has one really long-range link in its top 10. Apart from Los Angeles, all of its strong ties are comparatively local. (thx, dinu) Tags: Facebook maps USA -
Glitch is the new Game Neverending
9 Feb 2010 | 6:21 amStewart Butterfield and his ex-Flickr co-founders have revealed what their company, Tiny Speck, has been working on for the past few months: a game called Glitch. A CNET reporter has been embedded at Tiny Speck for the past few months and has more than you probably want to know about the new company and game. Tags: Glitch Stewart Butterfield Tiny Speck video games -
Google's Super Bowl ad
8 Feb 2010 | 1:24 pmIt didn't feature an athletic woman with a flimsy bra throwing a hammer through a screen, but I thought Google's Super Bowl ad was pretty well done: Tags: advertising Google search Super Bowl TV -
Balls of mud that shine
8 Feb 2010 | 11:19 amI've posted about hikaru dorodango a couple times before but they're always worth another look. Dorodango start out as sloppy mud balls but through careful shaping and polishing with dirt and sand, they end up perfectly round and shiny. Here is a particularly beautiful and unusual example, made from some yellow soil in New Mexico: That totally looks like leather! Here is a more traditional (and shiny!) example: Both of these were made by dorodango artist Bruce Gardner. Here's some video of how the balls are made: This video is good as well but if you want to create your own, these detailed… -
Authentic imitation
8 Feb 2010 | 9:26 amThe way that books used to be printed, the reader would have to cut open each page with a paper knife before it could be read, every page a tiny gift from the writer. The printing happened on large sheets of paper which were then folded into rectangles the size of the finished pages and bound. The reader then sliced open the folds. Paper knives, variants of letter openers, were used for this purpose. The deckle edge on modern books is an imitation of what those sliced open books looked like. Tags: books
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The Altimeter by Charlene Li
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Welcome to new Altimeter Group partners: Alan Webber and Lora Cecere
26 Jan 2010 | 10:00 amI’m pleased to announce that Altimeter Group has brought on two additional partners to meet the growing demand of our clients, which now number over 40 retained clients. Alan Webber and Lora Cecere each bring with them unique areas of expertise, but what makes them great partners for Altimeter is their ability to help clients understand and address opportunities and problems created by emerging technologies. Trends such as open government and supply chain/demand orchestration disrupt traditional business and organizational models, creating both problems as well as opportunities. We… -
“Socialgraphics” webinar slides and recording now available
20 Jan 2010 | 11:59 pmThanks to everyone who attended the webinar we held today on “Understanding Your Customers’ Social Behaviors“. Many people wanted to attend the webinar but weren’t able to because of schedule conflicts. So we’re making the slides and a video recording (slides and audio) available here. You can also download from Slideshare.net (for slides) and drop.io (for the recording). Also, there was a vibrant conversation taking place on sites like Twitter, using the hashtag #socialgraphics (for search of just the tweets on the day of the Webiner, use this link). Understand… -
Webinar introducing "Socialgraphics", a customer-centric approach to social strategy
11 Jan 2010 | 6:16 pmJeremiah Owyang and I will be running a free Webinar introducing how we are thinking about how companies can understand their customers through what we are calling "socialgraphics". To register for the Webinar: Register for Free Webinar: Understand Your Customers’ Social Behaviors, Hosted by Altimeter Group Wednesday, January 20, 2010 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM PST Beware of plans or proposals that start with “Twitter Strategy” or “Facebook Strategy” Instead, they should have a “Customer Strategy” that focuses in on how customers behave… -
From the Cockpit: Altimeter Updates
2 Dec 2009 | 4:21 pmFrom time to time, we want to keep our community updated with what’s happening at the Altimeter Group, we’re continuing to grow, having fun, and will have more announcements in the upcoming future. Here’s a partial snapshot of the partners progress to date: Ray has taken on new clients focused on the Social CRM space, and continues to be a global traveler, keynoting the SAP user group conference in UK and France. He was recently accepted as the latest member of the Enterprise Irregulars, a collection of the top minds in the Enterprise Software Market. Deborah has… -
Saleforce.com integrates social with Chatter launch
18 Nov 2009 | 6:21 amAt its Dreamforce conference, Salesforce.com announced the launch of Chatter Collaboration Cloud. On the surface, it may look like merely Twitter integrated deeply into Salesforce.com’s offerings, but it’s really a social platform that can integrate multiple inputs that will accelerate the opening up of enterprise applications. I was pre-briefed about the announcement, so will walk you through major highlights and also discuss a few implications. Overview Chatter Collaboration Cloud reflects a recent expansion in Salesforce.com’s offering, continuing where Sales Cloud 2,…
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John Gruber
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BashFlash
9 Feb 2010 | 6:52 amNice complement to ClickToFlash — BashFlash monitors Snow Leopard’s Flash Player process and lets you kill it when it starts using excessive CPU time. ★ -
LESS CSS App for Mac OS X
8 Feb 2010 | 8:51 pmCSS nerds: have you checked out LESS? If so and you dig it, you might be interested in this. ★ -
Panelfly
8 Feb 2010 | 8:49 pmGee, I wonder if e-comic-book distributors are excited about the iPad? ★ -
Wolf Rentzsch: MobileSafari Is Not the New IE6
8 Feb 2010 | 6:52 pmWolf, responding to PPK’s argument that MobileSafari is the new IE6: Mobile web developers, like most developers, are future-focused. We’d rather all mobile phones catch up with the iPhone we have in our pockets today, rather than bend over backwards to accommodate the current majority. When Koch damns developers for professional hypocrisy and incompetence, I see a quiet revolution of mobile developers waiting for other phones to catch up to the iPhone. Count me in with Wolf on this one. ★ -
An Even-Tempered Apology From White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel
8 Feb 2010 | 3:06 pmApologies to the Hulu-less. ★
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David Armano
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The Unofficial SXSW Survival Guide
6 Feb 2010 | 12:07 pmHaving passed on my slot to the folks at Dachis Group, I will not be speaking this year at SXSW (interactive) but I will be attending. It will be my second time, and I'm happy to share that there will indeed be a sequel to the sleeper hit event last year known as "Allhat". This year we are going with "Allhat II: Return of the Cattle", and it's sure to be even better complete with local live music thanks to the support from Edelman Digital. That said, there were several things I learned from surviving SXSW, and you might want to take some of them into consideration.Go With The FlowSXSW can… -
Why I'm Not Writing a Book (Right Now)
31 Jan 2010 | 8:17 pmThere's really nothing like a book—they are portable, intimate, useful, influential and the good ones tend to go "viral" in the sense that you share them with people you know. And of course today we have new ways to digest them: from audio to Kindles to iPads etc. A question I've been getting a lot lately is:"When are you writing a book"?I've had some interest—from publishers you've heard of. But the answer is:"Not right now".My logic is simple. One cannot serve two masters—and serve them well. Either my full time job or the book would suffer. So the time is not now. I've got things to… -
Six Ways to Find Social Media Talent
29 Jan 2010 | 6:40 pmMore articles on Harvard BusinessAs organizations move their social media strategies from theory to practice, they discover a difficult truth they must confront: Finding the "perfect" social media talent is practically impossible. To start, the field is flooded with thousands of self proclaimed "experts" who have reinvented themselves to take advantage what looks like a growing business opportunity. Maybe they do know social media, but many don't. They need to be vetted. More broadly, most candidates for social media positions fall at the ends of a spectrum. On one end is the person who… -
The 5 Reasons You're Failing In Social Media
21 Jan 2010 | 1:28 pm1. You really don't want to engage directly with customers, employees, etc.—you just want them to hear what you have to say. 2. You're not ready to create new roles, update process, re-distribute resources and budgets, re-train people, and revise old policies. 3. Social media actually threatens how you make money—but you pay lip service out of fear.4. Politics.5. You see it as a career advancing opportunity as opposed to a significant business transformation.Reverse any of these, and you've likely improved your chances of succeeding in a business environment that's becoming increasingly… -
10 Ideas For The New Decade
19 Jan 2010 | 2:18 pm10 Ideas For The New DecadeView more documents from David Armano. So as you can tell, I've been pretty heads down at the new job with Edelman. It's been very exciting working with a host of companies who are looking to move the needle through leveraging social technologies both outside of their organization and within. I did get to contribute some thoughts along some of the great minds here which you can find in this document. Download, print, share and read. It's worth your time.
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Jeremiah Owyang
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Register For Webinar: Developing a Social Strategy by Objectives
8 Feb 2010 | 10:11 amLeft: There are four main categories of social strategy, yet with over 20 subset objectives, which we’ll discuss at a high level. Organizations that focus on social technologies suffer from the symptom of ‘Fondling The Hammer‘ . True social strategy stems from business objectives –not the latest technologies. So often, companies develop social tactics based on the latest tool that’s sprung forth. Yet, so far and few in between to organizations develop an actionable plan based on business goals. This second in our no-cost webinar series is coming up on the… -
People on the Move in the Social Media Industry: Feb 4, 2010
4 Feb 2010 | 8:31 pmThe submissions are defintly picking up, I’m seeing more submissions than before. Why? I attribute this to the start of the new year when many folks change up jobs, and the slight uptick we’re starting to see in the economy. In an effort to recognize the changes in the social media space, I’ve started this post series (see archives) to both track and congratulate folks who get promoted, move, or accept new exciting positions. Please help me congratulate the following folks: Congrats to Jeannette Gibson (Twttier) who has moved to corporate marketing to run social media at… -
Matrix: Companies Should Factor ‘Social Influence’ Into Total Customer Value
3 Feb 2010 | 6:00 amCase Study: An Influential Mom Blogger Caused Mainstream Crises Popular blogger, Heather Armstrong (@dooce) was dissatisfied with her non-working Maytag appliance. Following protocol, she called their support number, yet her issue was not solved. Stonewalled, she argued/warned the support staff that she was on Twitter, yet didn’t receive special assistance. Escalating further, she then flexed a muscle and told them she had over 1,000,000 Twitter followers –yet the support rep did not budge. Finally, she blogged and Tweeted against Maytag, initiating a boycott by her… -
List of Corporate Social Media Strategists, Corporate Community Managers in 2010
30 Jan 2010 | 9:36 amAs an industry watcher, I look at trends, data, spending, technologies, yet what’s really important is watching the trend of professionals as they grow into these roles managing disruptive technologies. Update: Brian Hayashi has created a spreadsheet of this with additional info –like Twitter handles. We’re staying coordinated so the data is matched, follow Brian on Twitter. [Connecting with customers using social technologies is deceptively challenging, as most outsiders don't recognize the leadership to change internal cultural. Now, in public, let's recognize those who… -
O’Reilly Webcast Social Business: Taking “Social” to the Core of Your Organization
29 Jan 2010 | 6:30 amA few weeks ago, I was invited to join a discussion with Joshua-Michéle Ross (O’Reilly ), Stowe Boyd, thought leader, and Peter Kim (former colleague at Forrester, now at Dachis Group) on the topic of social business. Listen in, as there’s not really a lot of content on the slides to focus on, while you go about your work, driving, or workout.
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Tara Hunt
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Minding the Gap
2 Feb 2010 | 9:20 amOne of the messages I’ve been lucky enough to be spreading lately is that of questioning the gap between business and human values. I started thinking about this issue almost two years ago, but wasn’t able to quite shape it into the message I needed to get across until earlier this year when I was preparing to give a workshop at Best Buy HQ for the Social Media Club Reality Check Series in January. It occurred to me as I finished up The Whuffie Factor and was traveling around talking about it, there were parts of my message that were valued by business leaders and other parts that… -
Would You Sacrifice Love for Greatness?
1 Feb 2010 | 10:34 pmFor nearly two years now, I’ve been part of an amazing event that isn’t widely publicized and is, shockingly (for me, anyway), invite only. It’s invite only because it takes place in women’s kitchens and dining rooms and assumes a good amount of trust and intimacy. This event was christened Comfort Food Club because of the original intent to comfort me after a breakup with a nice meal and conversation in a trusted space. Our conversations are private and our bonds are palpable because of the trust. So this post isn’t going to break that bond of trust, but I do… -
Power to Change the Broken System
7 Jan 2010 | 1:10 pmMost all of us, whether we notice it or not, spend a good part of our lives in some form of consumer-company interaction. Whether we are shopping for groceries, banking, paying rent, shopping for clothes, picking a movie, buying a book, selling our services, working for a company whose services we are performing for customers or eating at a restaurant. I’m not sure what percentage of our lives are spent on one side of the equation or the other, but I’d guess that a good majority of our time is spent consuming or selling. And though I dislike the term ‘consumer’, the… -
Guest Post: Washington Forgets Best Case for Immigration Reform
6 Jan 2010 | 7:40 amWritten by: Richard Herman The White House has once again announced its commitment to immigration law reform in early 2010. So far, however, there is no sign that the administration, the Congress, or any other national leaders have learned the lessons from past attempts on this issue, most notably the ugly debate and legislative failure in 2007. Ask people on the street what they think of when they hear the word “immigrant” — particularly with 10% unemployment in the country —- and you will hear statements like: “They take our jobs,” “They bring… -
The Hegemony of Proper English
3 Jan 2010 | 5:39 pmFrom Resolution On The Oakland “Ebonics” Issue Unanimously Adopted at the Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, January 3, 1997: The systematic and expressive nature of the grammar and pronunciation patterns of the African American vernacular has been established by numerous scientific studies over the past thirty years. Characterizations of Ebonics as “slang,” “mutant,” “lazy,” “defective,” “ungrammatical,” or “broken English” are incorrect and demeaning. When this resolution was widely agreed…
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Scott Adams (AKA Dilbert)
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My Shop Vac
9 Feb 2010 | 1:00 amNow that I have a manly garage, with a manly workbench, I was delighted to receive for Christmas a Shop Vac. It's a magical device that sucks up all sorts of debris, even liquid. It has attachments for everything. I think one attachment is for haircuts, but I haven't tried it yet. The Shop Vac is gray and black and reminds me of R2D2 so much that I expect it to jack into my breaker panels and reprogram my DVR.My point is that my Shop Vac is totally awesome. That is, unless I try to move it. It has wheels, but at the first sign of movement, the Shop Vac starts squirming and tossing off… -
Knowledge That Matters
8 Feb 2010 | 1:00 amI wonder if the most valuable knowledge you can have is the knowledge of what you're good at. For example, I doubt you are working at the very best job for your aptitude. We tend to drift into our careers. It's more luck than plan. But imagine if you were born knowing you had the natural aptitude to be the world's best brain surgeon, or guitar player, or graphic designer. On the flip side, maybe you thought you had more talent in some field than you do, and wasted a lot of time preparing for the wrong profession.Any assessment of your own abilities is necessarily polluted by your… -
Name as Destiny
2 Feb 2010 | 1:00 amI've written before about the fact that a person's name can influence his choices. Studies show that people named Dennis become dentists at a higher rate than you would expect. People also prefer to live in places that sound like their own names. Names matter. http://www.stat.columbia.edu/~gelman/stuff_for_blog/susie.pdf I was thinking about the naming of things while watching the debate over the iPad. And by the way, for the record, I would like to say I was wrong about the iPad being a non-genius device that consumers would compare unfavorably to a laptop. According to the media,… -
Earthquake Insurance
1 Feb 2010 | 1:00 amWhere I live, about an hour from San Francisco, you have to think about getting earthquake insurance. I've always had it. But I looked into it again for our new house because the insurance is absurdly pricey. I learned, to my surprise, that most people in earthquake territory don't buy earthquake insurance. This made me wonder who the bigger fools were.There are two popular schools of thought. One is that your house is (often) your biggest asset, and you can't take a chance of losing it. If you live in earthquake country, the odds of a Big One are high. Therefore, if you can… -
Creativity by Combination
29 Jan 2010 | 1:00 amA lot of what passes as creativity is just combining things that aren't normally combined. For example, my parents are in town this week, at the same time the iPad was launched, which made me think a lot about the physical form that products take. And because of the iPad launch, there's a lot of talk about the iPhone too. At 6:30 AM, all of those ideas combined in my head, somewhat automatically, and I drew a comic in which Dilbert invents a cell phone in the form factor of an old man's head. You'll see it on March 23rd. Comic characters work best when they have well-known…
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Doc Searls
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What’s Old is Nude Again
8 Feb 2010 | 3:52 pmIn Social Media Crisis Management By This Fluid World, Jonathan MacDonald reviews his own reporting of a real-life incident in the London Underground — and what happened next, as the ripples spread. Good stuff. In the midst of his talk (slides are presented in the post) he cites my own small contribution. Interesting how normative practices continue to improve even as variants emerge, and even as supporting technology changes, along with users and uses. For example, reporting is still reporting, whether you’re doing it by blogging or tweeting or texting or phoning or …… -
Dats love
8 Feb 2010 | 12:27 pmSez Dave (now back in Metsland), “As the 1969 Mets undid the betrayal of NY fans by the Dodgers, the Saints give hope to a city that was betrayed in so many ways.” Exactly. And let’s not forget the betrayal of NY fans by the Giants too. Losing both was a double-whammy for me as a kid. For live major league baseball, Dodgers/Giants fans had to go to a Yankees game — and root against them. Did that a few times. It was way cool. And affordable back then too. I believed the Saints would win. The whole run-up felt like the ‘69 Mets AND the ‘69 Jets in Superbowl… -
Heavy Whether
3 Feb 2010 | 1:57 pmChris Daly posts a 1995 essay he wrote for the Atlantic, recalling almost exactly the experience I had as a kid growing up and skating on ponds in the winter. An excerpt: When I was a boy skating on Brooks Pond, there were almost no grown-ups around. Once or twice a year, on a weekend day or a holiday, some parents might come by, with a thermos of hot cocoa. Maybe they would build a fire — which we were forbidden to do — and we would gather round. But for the most part the pond was the domain of children. In the absence of adults, we made and enforced our own rules. We had hardly… -
Ice stories
1 Feb 2010 | 3:53 pmFor most of Winter in the Northeast, skating is possible only during the somewhat rare times when the ice is thick and not covered with snow or other unwelcome surface conditions. And bad skating has been the story, typically, for most of this Winter around Boston. After an earlier snow, there were some ad hoc skating rinks cleared by shoveling, but those were ruined by rains, more snow, more rains, and intermittent freezes that made a hash of the surface. But recent rains and hard freezes have formed wide paths between remaining islands of ruined snow. On most ponds there aren’t enough… -
Up the creek without an iPaddle
27 Jan 2010 | 9:09 pmIn response to Dave’s Reading tea leaves in advance of Apple’s announcements, I added this comment: Steve loves to uncork constipated categories with the world’s slickest laxative. So I’m guessing this new box will expand Apple’s retail shelf space to include newspapers, journals and books as well as sound recordings, movies and TV shows. It will be the best showcase “content” ever had, and will be a wholly owned proprietary channel. A year from now, half the people on planes will be watching these things. It would be cool if it also helped any of us…
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Fred Wilson
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The Time Value Of Money
9 Feb 2010 | 2:34 amIt's Monday, time for MBA Mondays. Last week, I posted about The Present Value Of Future Cash Flows and in the comments Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry wrote: That being said, before even covering NPV, I would have first talked about the time value of money. To me, time value of money is one of the top 3 concepts that blew my mind in business school and that should be common knowledge. When you think about it, all of finance, but also much of business, is underpinned by that. Once you understand time value of money, you understand opportunity costs, you understand sunk costs, you just view the… -
Flash, HTML5, and Mobile Apps
7 Feb 2010 | 6:12 amAbout a year ago, I wrote a post about Apple's "blind spot" for Flash. I took more heat for that post than anything else I've written here other than political posts. It opened my eyes to the fact that Flash vs HTML5 is one of the most politically heated topics in the tech business. The third rail, as it were. The choice of what technology web developers use to produce rich browser based applications is a big deal with a lot of important ramifications for companies, investors, and most importantly users. Jeremy Allaire, creator of ColdFusion and Brightcove, addresses this issue today on… -
Lightweight Advocacy
6 Feb 2010 | 4:18 amI was at a board meeting of a non profit this week and the talk turned to "advocacy" and whether or not the non profit should be doing any of that. I had to ask what the definition of advocacy was just to be clear what we were talking about. It's not something I've traditionally been involved in. When I think of advocacy, I think of politics, lobbying, public relations, and a bunch of other "heavyweight" behaviors that I abhor. Wikipedia's definition of advocacy is: Advocacy is the pursuit of influencing outcomes — including public-policy and resource allocation decisions within political,… -
NYC BigApps Winners Announced
5 Feb 2010 | 3:40 amI've posted about the NYC BigApps contest a few times here. And you all helped me with my chore of judging all 85 apps. Thank you for that. Last night I walked up The Highline to IAC Headquarters to attend an event where the winners were announced. I also manned the "Investors Bar" where a number of fellow venture and angel investors sat and talked to the entrepreneurs in attendance. Kind of like the genius bar, but the geniuses were on the other side lining up to talk to us. The winners were (cutting and pasting from the NY Times here): WayFinder NYC: An application… -
Likes In The Comments
4 Feb 2010 | 4:16 amI don't exactly know why, but I've noticed a significant increase in the amount of "liking" going on in the comments recently. And I've responded to it by starting to "like" comments myself instead of or in addition to replying.This is great for me. I often reply to a comment that I like without adding anything to the discussion just to signal that I liked it. I'll just like in that scenario going forward. I will continue to reply a lot and engage a lot so don't think that will change. And the double like/reply (which I'd like a button for) is also a nice move which I find myself doing a fair…
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John Battelle
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A Google Twitter Killer? Not Till Google Mutates
8 Feb 2010 | 11:53 amThat's the rumor (BI via WSJ). The idea is to let Gmail become your portal into status update. It won't work, period, unless it connects to Facebook and Twitter. And so far, as I've pointed out before, Google won't do that, at least, not yet, and and certainly not in the way it should be done. Google is simply not understood by consumers to be a place where they can connect with friends and colleagues. If it intends to become that, it has some DNA mutation in its future. This one should be interesting. -
The Monday Signal: Monday Morn. Advertising Quarterback
8 Feb 2010 | 7:51 amWas it really as simple as that? Google CEO Eric Schmidt took to the blogwaves after the Super Bowl yesterday to explain Google's surprising decision to purchase an ad thusly: We didn't set out to do a Super Bowl ad, or even a TV ad for search. Our goal was simply to create a series of short online videos about our products and our users, and how they interact. But we liked this video so much, and it's had such a positive reaction on YouTube, that we decided to share it with a wider audience. If there's one thing Google's consistent about, it's the company's approach to PR: it always sounds… -
Updated: Google to Air "Search Stories" Ad During Super Bowl...
6 Feb 2010 | 3:11 pmRemember when I wrote about the new "Search Stories" ads for Google's core search offerings?In that post, I noted "It's truly a brand campaign: Google is not selling anything here other than its own brand - that ephemeral sensibility that resides between its customers' ears." Well I've got a pretty reliable source who is telling me Google plans to hit the branded advertising big leagues this Sunday - the source says Google's "Parisian Love" ad (below) will air during the third quarter of the Super Bowl. Now that would be a true turning point for the brand - a brand that, for nearly ten years,… -
The Friday Signal: It's The Platform, Not the Bowl
5 Feb 2010 | 8:35 amFriday is all about the biggest event in television marketing - the Super Bowl. This year (as I've noted here before) I'm struck by how many campaigns are integrated with longer term social marketing platforms. That's putting the investment to good use - promoting what I call a media annuity that will pay back all year long. However, much of the press and some of the marketing still gets it backwards - they see the Super Bowl as something that social media "builds buzz for." Nope. It's the other way round, folks. Your brand, which after all is what you're buying the ad for, right? - your… -
Thursday Signal: Are You Checked In?
4 Feb 2010 | 11:22 amToday is all about checking in. Not so much driven by anything in today's news, but every week or so I'll just go off based on what's on my mind - driven by the news, to be sure, but also by the bricolage of a lot of inputs over time. And over the past few weeks, I've been developing a thesis around the concept of "checking in." Now for those of you not playing along at home, "checking in" is the terminology for "declaring where I am and what I'm doing through mobile devices and social media platforms." As usual, I'm a late bloomer in this new trend. I joined Foursquare, one…
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37signals
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PHOTO: There's quality control for you. This is
8 Feb 2010 | 4:06 pmThere’s quality control for you. This is the latest entries in the Entertainment category on iTunes. -
The App Store: Quality control without the quality
8 Feb 2010 | 1:42 pmI love my iPhone and I love Apple (cue images of flag pins and “I love muh countray!”), but I believe they’re blowing it with the App Store gate keeping. That’s of course not a new opinion. Developers left and right have been decrying the broken process. But there’s nothing like feeling it on your own bones to make the point. We have a couple of new features in the wing for Campfire. They’ve been done for more than 10 days now. Why haven’t we released them yet? Because the iPhone app Ember needed to have a simple regular expression updated to support… -
Scope a variable to a block in your template code
8 Feb 2010 | 10:38 amSometimes you are coding a template and you need to refer to the same method chain over and over. For example, you’re coding a template that summarizes activity on recent messages. You iterate through a block of messages, and for each message you want to display some information pertaining to the last comment. You could do it like this: <div class="active_messages"> <% @active_messages.each do |message| %> <h1><%= message.title %></h1> <div class="latest_comment"> <div class="avatar"> <%= avatar_for(message.comments.last.creator) %>… -
Descriptive words and phrases found on a $6 bottle of hand soap
8 Feb 2010 | 9:38 amExtremely mild Richly foaming Naturally gentle Deeply cleanses Nourishes Pure and soothing Synergistically Refresh and restore Skin radiance Cool soothing Protects and restores balance Harmonize and replenish Additional moisturizing benefit What doesn’t this stuff do? Lather up and this naturally gentle, richly foaming, pure and soothing nourishing cleanser will synergistically refresh, harmonize, replenish, protect and restore balance with cool soothing botanicals. Kinda ridiculous, isn’t it? Reading this should remind you to read your own site, your own marketing copy, your own… -
INSIGHT: When debating UI, a picture is better than
8 Feb 2010 | 9:03 amWhen debating UI, a picture is better than a description. And a functional mockup is better than both. But debating UI without being able to look at something is a waste of time.
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Chris Brogan
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Earn Your GED- Find Success Tomorrow
9 Feb 2010 | 1:30 amNo, not your General Equivalent Degree. The GED to which I refer is “guest experience design.” What the heck am I talking about? I’ll tell you. Old words: customer service. New words: guest experience. Disney, where I am this week, has a concept called a Moment of Truth. A moment of truth is “any time a guest comes into contact with any aspect of a business, however remote, is an opportunity to form an impression.” Note that it’s “an impression.” It can be good; it can be bad. Why “guest?” Because guest is much more hospitable than… -
Pursue the Goal Not the Method
8 Feb 2010 | 1:30 amIn the back of a town car hired to take me to the Kansas City International airport, talking to Jeff, a driver with two kids, self-proclaimed ADD, and a history of quitting rote sales jobs every few months, I realized something of importance to the story of what’s brought me to this place: I am a seeker of the goal, not the method. Now, to unpack. The Method Is What We’re Taught to Pursue We learn our times tables. We learn the 50 states (in the US, at least). We are taught all these rules, these patterns, these systems, these methods. Musicians learn their scales. Painters copy… -
Your Blog From the Prospect’s Point of View
7 Feb 2010 | 7:34 amWhen you use your blog to complain or report sideways about the industry at large, what message is that sending to your potential new clients? If you’re spending your time analyzing what other people in your space are doing, citing why they’re wrong, and providing your commentary about all the things they’re doing, what does your next potential customer come away thinking? Is your negative commentary helping them make a buying decision? I’ve rarely seen the tactic work in traditional advertising. You can graze them a little bit. For instance, I’m a bit fond of… -
Just Lucky I Guess – Kitchen Table Talks
6 Feb 2010 | 1:46 pmIn this Kitchen Table Talks video, I just want to address all the nice folks who call me lucky, or who think I’m just sitting around being handed my lot in life. Can’t see the video? Click here. Direct link to the video “Lucky” is absolutely what I am. Here’s what I do to earn my luck: Write a blog post or two a day. Write a newsletter every week. Comment and connect with others daily. Answer and send hundreds of emails daily. Read voraciously. Work with the best clients I can find. Reach into new markets weekly. Travel extensively. Seems lucky to me. People… -
Some Of The Third Tribe Conversations
6 Feb 2010 | 1:02 pmI’m really enjoying participating in the forums at the Third Tribe site. I was just adding my two cents to a handful of forum postings, and thought that I’d show you what some of the topics we’re talking about are, so you’d have a sense of what’s going on. We don’t really share the contents, because the people participating there like having the chance to speak openly/candidly about their marketing challenges, but I don’t see the harm in sharing a few of the topic titles. Here they are: Favorite copywriting and marketing books? Third Tribe Blogroll? 2…
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iJustine / Justine Ezarik
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Photoshop is magic
8 Feb 2010 | 2:05 pm[ view larger ] I got a lot of questions about the Photoshop image I made of the my baby with Shane Dawson. It probably only took about 20 minutes after finding the images to make this little work of art. Above are the raw images I used to create that creepy child! -
Help Joyful Heart Foundation
8 Feb 2010 | 12:31 pmI’m excited to launch this video with a special message from Mariska Hargitay! If you get a free second everyday this month check out http://refresheverything.com/votejoy and vote for the Joyful Heart Foundation to win $250,000! They are currently in first place but we want to make sure they keep that spot! So keep up the votes. I can’t thank you guys enough for helping out with this. The last time I asked for you help with voting on something like this, we helped the Invisible Children win a million dollars for their charity! Your clicks are powerful TWEET IT TO YOUR FOLLOWERS! -
Trees hate you
8 Feb 2010 | 10:24 amI made a little cameo in this video by Julian Smith. Let me know what you think All of his videos are so pro! Big thanks to Sarah for letting us destroy her apartment with DVDs.. Well, actually that was just Julian throwing them at our faces lol. -
Filet of fish
7 Feb 2010 | 9:18 pmI probably think this is a lot more funny than it really is, but I saw this little guy at Walgreens and couldn’t resist making a little video. I wanted to buy him but decided I’d save the $20 and just make a video to remember it by -
Ask iJustine 23
5 Feb 2010 | 9:13 pmFinally made a new Ask iJ episode!! Here it is! What do you think of my Photoshop skills? Does that look like the baby that Shane Dawson and I would have? Here’s the full video of Chris Sheridan’s iJustine song! I love it so much!
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Joel on Software
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Why testers?
26 Jan 2010 | 1:04 pmMy sister got her kids a little puppy, and they’ve been trying to train it. To live with a dog in the house, you need to teach it not to jump on people, not to poop in the house, to sit on command, and to never, ever, ever chew on the iPad. Never. Good girl. With dogs the main trick to training is that feedback has to be immediate. If you come home to discover that, hours before, the dog tipped over the garbage can in the kitchen, it’s too late for training. You can yell at her but she just won’t get what you’re going on about. Dogs are just not that smart. For programmers, getting… -
Rocket Surgery Made Easy
25 Jan 2010 | 1:21 pmSteve Krug has written a follow up to his usability classic Don’t Make Me ThinkThe sequel, Rocket Surgery Made Easyis a terrific, short, concise, fun guide to running simple “hallway” usability tests to improve the usability of your software and websites. Highly recommended. Need to hire a really great programmer? Want a job that doesn't drive you crazy? Visit the Joel on Software Job Board: Great software jobs, great people. -
A little less conversation
22 Jan 2010 | 12:33 pm“As companies expand, the people within them start to specialize. At such a point, some managers will conclude that they have a ‘keep everyone on the same page’ problem. But often what they actually have is a ‘stop people from meddling when there are already enough smart people working on something’ problem.” From my latest Inc. column: A Little Less Conversation Need to hire a really great programmer? Want a job that doesn't drive you crazy? Visit the Joel on Software Job Board: Great software jobs, great people. -
Secret language
30 Dec 2009 | 7:01 amMicrosoft Careers: “If you’re looking for a new role where you’ll focus on one of the biggest issues that is top of mind for KT and Steve B in ‘Compete’, build a complete left to right understanding of the subsidiary, have a large amount of executive exposure, build and manage the activities of a v-team of 13 district Linux& Open Office Compete Leads, and develop a broad set of marketing skills and report to a management team committed to development and recognized for high WHI this is the position for you!” This is ironic, to use the Alanis Morissette meaning of the word… -
Let’s stop talking about “backups”
14 Dec 2009 | 7:30 amIs your desktop backed up? Did you backup that server? Are your backups on a different machine? Do you have offsite backups? All good questions, all best practices. But let’s stop talking about “backups.” Doing a backup is too low a bar. Any experienced system administrator will tell you that they have a great backup plan, the trouble comes when you have to restore. And that’s when you discover that: The backed-up files were encrypted with a cryptographically-secure key, the only copy of which was on the machine that was lost The server had enormous amounts of configuration…
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Dooce
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In order to leave a comment, you must take sides
8 Feb 2010 | 1:41 pmInternet, I need you to be my girlfriend right now, the one who invites me over on Friday night to have a glass of wine and talk about how, sometimes... not all the time... but occasionally... and at times frequently... husbands can be complete idiots. I really appreciate it. When I'm done I'll let you tell me about how awkward it is when your boss tries to say certain words that get muddled by the botox that has been freshly injected into her upper lip. Yesterday afternoon on the half-hour drive home from my mother's house Jon and I were talking about what our dream house would look like,… -
My ears are still ringing
8 Feb 2010 | 9:22 amWe had a few party favors left over from Leta's birthday party, and yes, that right there is a kazoo. I included that specifically in the goodie bag because I am INHERENTLY EVIIIIIIILL! And hoo! Have I paid for it already. I'm gonna take that thing and run it over with the car if Leta even looks at it again. click image above to see the photo on dooce.comby dooce in Daily Chuck© Armstrong Media, LLC. All rights reserved. Originally published by Heather B. Armstrong for dooce.com as My ears are still ringing. This post cannot be republished without express written permission. -
Sunday tradition
8 Feb 2010 | 8:41 amSomewhere in the chaos of the last seven months Jon convinced Leta to try a cinnamon roll. We've tried in vain before, but this time I guess she was feeling more cooperative. Or, you know, LIKE A REGULAR SIX-YEAR-OLD. So we've made a family tradition of eating them on Sunday mornings, and she looks forward to it almost like it's Christmas. She brings it up all week long. I'm hoping this is one of the more positive things she brings up in therapy in twenty years. click image above to see the photo on dooce.comby dooce in Daily Photo© Armstrong Media, LLC. All rights reserved. Originally… -
Newsletter: Month Seventy-two
4 Feb 2010 | 8:17 amDear Leta, Yesterday was your sixth birthday. That's 72 months if I had been keeping up with the monthly newsletters. Yeah, about that... your father and I severely underestimated the amount of chaos a second child would add to all of our lives. It didn't just double it, it multiplied it by a hundred and then tripled that number. We now consider it a good day if we can remember to get you out of the door with your shoes on. They don't always match what you're wearing, but hey, cut us some slack. We haven't ever forgotten to pick you up from school. Yet. So let's start there. School. AND SO IT… -
A preview...
3 Feb 2010 | 10:16 amOf The Armstrong De-Bearding Celebration. I love how this photo looks like it's straight out of 1975. And you just know Steely Dan is playing in the background. click image above to see the photo on dooce.comby dooce in Daily Photo© Armstrong Media, LLC. All rights reserved. Originally published by Heather B. Armstrong for dooce.com as A preview.... This post cannot be republished without express written permission.
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Matt Cutts
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Chrome support for Greasemonkey
8 Feb 2010 | 9:30 pmBack in December, I happened to click on a Greasemonkey script in Chrome and was shocked that it just worked. At the time, I wrote a note within Google that said Whoa. I just clicked on a Greasemonkey script in the latest dev version of Chrome (4.0.266.0 on Linux). Chrome offered to install the GM script, so I said okay. The script ran perfectly in Chrome with no changes at all! I don’t know how many Greasemonkey scripts will run in Chrome unchanged, but at least some will. Last week brought that news as an official announcement. My guess is that scripts that don’t use specific… -
Improving Arabic searches and talking more about ranking
2 Feb 2010 | 12:55 pmMoustafa Hammad and Mohamed Elhawary, a couple engineers in our search quality group, just did a nice post about improving Arabic language searches: Our algorithm employs rules of Arabic spelling and grammar along with signals from historical search data to decide when to leave out spaces between words or when to remove unnecessarily repeated letters. Now, when you type a query leaving out spaces or repeating a letter, we’ll return better results based not only on what you typed, but also on what our algorithm understands is the “correct” query. There’s a few nice… -
Installing Android development environment on Ubuntu 9.04
30 Jan 2010 | 6:18 pmI wanted to play with writing Android apps on my home Linux computer, which is currently running Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope). These are mostly notes for myself, so don’t feel guilty if you skip this post. - Make sure your system is up-to-date: sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade - Install Java sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jdk - Switch Sun to be the default version of Java. It’s much faster than the built-in version, at least when I tried it. sudo update-java-alternatives -s java-6-sun - Make a directory, e.g. mkdir ~/android - Download Eclipse from… -
Keep an eye on changing pages
25 Jan 2010 | 6:58 pmGoogle just launched a nice feature on Google Reader: the ability to keep an eye on pages for changes. This works even if the page doesn’t have its own RSS feed. This sort of thing is very handy. You could use it to spot new things on a privacy policy page or watch for changes in the executives page at another search engine. Check out the blog post, but it’s easy to use: just add any url to Google Reader. -
PubCon 2009 talk: State of the Index
22 Jan 2010 | 1:34 pmIf you followed @googlewmc on Twitter you would already know about this, but I recently recreated my “State of the Index” talk from PubCon in November 2009. Here’s the video of the talk below: And here are the slides if you’d like to follow along: The talk is almost half an hour, so I hope you enjoy it and learn something new!
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Bob Sutton
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Let's Invent a New Word or Phrase: What do you call someone who "opts out of participating in something but then complains about the outcome."
6 Feb 2010 | 11:37 amThis question came in an email yesterday from Mozilla's Asa Dotzler, who is renowned for his skill as an open-source marketer, especially in spreading the Firefox browser. The engine that propels any open source community is having a wide range of smart and hardworking people who generate and refine solutions, and are eager to step in and fix them when things go wrong. So maintaining norms that encourage people to participate in generating solutions and making decisions-- rather than those who don't pitch in or help make decisions but always complain bitterly about the… -
IDEO CEO Tim Brown: "I found it vaguely embarrassing and frustrating to be in an office."
4 Feb 2010 | 1:13 pmI have argued in the past that there are a lot of evidence-based disadvantages to working in an open office, as there are many more interruptions, distractions, and other stressors --- and of course less privacy. And there are quite a few studies that show when people move from closed to open office designs, they don't like it all and their productivity sometimes drops. I had an experience a few weeks back, however, that has me questioning the limits of this research -- and believing that if an organization has the right norms, leadership, and especially collective… -
What a Mess: The Tenure Appeal Meeting at Ohio University
1 Feb 2010 | 1:33 pmI got a comment this morning about the outcome of the the appeal meeting at Ohio University for Bill Reader's tenure case. You may recall that I wrote about this in detail in my post on The No Asshole Rule Versus Compassion for the Mentally Ill. The meeting appears to have been an ugly scene. According to the report in the school paper:"A standing-room-only crowd of students and faculty members in Baker University Center 219 heard Dean Greg Shepherd and Director Tom Hodson defend their decision to deny Reader tenure, calling him a non-collegial bully incapable of… -
I Am Now Blogging at Psychology Today
1 Feb 2010 | 11:43 amI just started blogging at Psychology Today last week. This page and blog will remain the place where I put the lion's share of my effort. Most of my posts will appear here first, and then I will reprint some of them there to reach a different audience. The name of my blog there is Work Matters: Straight Talk and Solid Evidence About Organizational Life. I also will let you know when I write anything in Psychology Today that is now printed here. For starters, I thought a good way to introduce myself to Psychology Today readers was to introduce them to a range… -
You Know It Is Snake Oil When They Say That It Explains 75% of Success in Life
24 Jan 2010 | 12:26 pmI clearly have strong beliefs about what drives human behavior, and think there is pretty strong evidence to support many of them. At the same time, I believe equally strongly that there are no magical cures for organizational and individual problems, or any one theory that explains all human behavior. Behavioral scientists battle over these issues -- and they should, it leads to better evidence -- over things like nature versus nurture, extrinsic versus intrinsic rewards, cognition versus emotion, and on and on, and each of us -- me too -- is probably unduly biased in favor of our pet…
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AE on the Verge
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What Associations can learn from "Blind Side" marketing
5 Feb 2010 | 8:43 pmHow do we as associations engage our base, and grow it?I'm fascinated with an article in the New York Times about the movie "The Blind Side" that includes a description about how they built an audience base. Such as:"In this case Grace Hill [Media] took the unusual step of offering online sermon outlines based on 'The Blind Side,' with clips that could be used in churches equipped with video screens. According to Mr. Johnson and Mr. Kosove, about 23,000 churches downloaded the sermons, laying an exceptionally strong base for the film."Thoughts:1. Online outlines and clips. How good are we… -
6 tips for a less chaotic webinar or conference call
4 Feb 2010 | 5:27 pmIf you're hosting a webinar (or conference call), be sure to do these 6 things:1. On the same email you send to participants with dial-in/log-in instructions, include: a) how to mute the call when listening; b) how to un-mute the call; c) how to ask a question during the call2. Go over those 3 details again at the START of the call (remind them it's on their email too), AND when it's time to take questions. If you only have instructions on a slide, and then REMOVE that slide from view, the Participants might not remember how to un-mute or ask a question when it's time.3. If you have a feature… -
Uh, Oh: Your Association Member Ordered WHAT?!
30 Jan 2010 | 12:50 pmWhat if you had in your records something really personal about a member that has nothing to do with the association directly?An association is an affiliate member of a major online retailer, and receives a commission on orders generated from their link, along with a report.Good news: more non-dues revenue incomeBad news: report shows a member ordered a "personal product" (use your imagination)Many of us likely underestimate how much we're revealing about ourselves in ways we don't fully understand when we do a search, go to anyone's site, or place an order especially through a link from… -
10 Thoughts from a Virtual Participant
26 Jan 2010 | 7:42 pmYes, even virtual participants in association meetings have expectations. Today I participated in an association's virtual Town Hall Forum. Much better than flying to DC for those 3 hours. A few thoughts:1. Big thank you for virtual option. Thank you to every organization that provides a virtual attendance option. There just aren't enough hours in a day or in life to participate in so many meetings. I absolutely loved having a virtual option, because it's a meeting I absolutely would have needed to attend in person otherwise. The meeting info was important, as was hearing the debate.2. Big… -
8 Lessons Association Execs Can Learn Like Student Athletes
25 Jan 2010 | 8:22 pmI sometimes teach a new association executives "boot camp" and often try to figure out where we actually learn what the position entails. Because my teenagers play sports I realize there are certain lessons kids get playing high school varsity and college sports that applies to association executives too:1. Allow Yourself to be Coached. Sometimes you're going to be asked to play a different position than what you believe you're best at, or to change how you do something. Give the other position or alternative your best effort too. You may find you like it, you may learn something, it may help…
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Jason Calacanis
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AUDIO: Howard Stern talks about becoming judge on American Idol http://bit.ly/abEjFr
9 Feb 2010 | 7:31 amHoward Stern to replace Simon Cowel on American Idolhttp://www.mahalo.com/howard-stern-american-idol shock-jock Howard Stern confirmed that FOX was courting him to replace Simon Cowell on American Idol. During his show on February 8, 2010. Addressing the recent rumors that Stern may become a judge on Idol, Stern told his listeners, "There's not a better job on the planet than judging that f—-ng karaoke contest." He went on to say, "It might be possible, we'll see," and "They'd have to pay me a ton of dough because I already make a ton of… -
Brilliant: Super Gay Superbowl Photo–literally.
9 Feb 2010 | 7:23 am -
Watching London wake up remotely on webcam while on my flight home. Daddy 2.0
9 Feb 2010 | 5:37 amSent from my iPhone, but I’d rather be using my blackberry frankly. -
WTF?!? US army dad ‘waterboards’ 4-year-old http://bit.ly/cogSXS
8 Feb 2010 | 3:05 pmJoshua Ryan Tabor http://bit.ly/cogSXS http://www.mahalo.com/joshua-ryan-tabor Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile -
Gawker Media packed with bloggers…. I counted 23!
8 Feb 2010 | 1:34 pmSent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
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Ze Frank
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pain_pack featured in UK's metro!
4 Feb 2010 | 3:02 pmlink to image :: they chose a very creepy pic of me...maybe because I'm a VAMPIRE! -
Sussex Safer Roads Partnership (SSRP) | Embrace Life
2 Feb 2010 | 6:27 pmclick below :: beautifully shot PSA :: -
pain_pack :: new project
1 Feb 2010 | 12:12 pmreally like how this evolved :: pain pack :: zefrank.com -
a childhood walk
26 Jan 2010 | 2:48 pmhere is a gallery of submissions i made from a recent project called "a childhood walk." Give it a try! -
still getting fan mail for my 52 to 48 project!
20 Jan 2010 | 11:43 amlike this one! "Still feeling magnanimous? I am not. Scott Brown got 52% and I am happy about it... and I still hate you stinking liberals. How do you like being on the shit end of the stick? Sincerely, Joel Alumbaugh
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John Jantsch
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PR is Only Dying If It Isn’t Evolving
9 Feb 2010 | 5:51 amSharePR is Only Dying If It Isn’t EvolvingThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Marketing podcast with Brian Solis (Click to listen, right click and Save As to download – subscribe now via iTunes For this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast I asked Brian Solis, Principal of FutureWorks and co-author of Putting the Public Back in Public Relations, about the future of the PR industry as we know it. There’s plenty of doom and gloom surrounding the practice of public relations in the social web world, but Solis suggests, and I totally agree, that there’s a… -
5 Questions You Should Ask Every Customer
8 Feb 2010 | 5:33 amShare5 Questions You Should Ask Every CustomerThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Constantly seeking feedback from your customers is a great way to learn how to market your business more effectively. If you’ve never done this before, do it immediately as it is one of the best ways to discover what you do that actually differentiates you from your competition. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve worked with a small business that had no idea what its competitive advantage was until we heard it right from the mouths of happy customers. Seeking feedback is also a great way… -
Weekend Favs February Six
6 Feb 2010 | 8:14 amShareWeekend Favs February SixThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing I’ve added a weekend post routine that I hope you enjoy. Each weekend I write a post that features 3-4 things I read during the week that I found interesting. Generally speaking it won’t involve much analysis and may range widely in topic. (Flickr image included here is also fav image of the week) Image credit: Dr Swan Enjoy! Good stuff I ran across this week: Siri – An iPhone app that acts like a personal assistant – you can ask to find things by name – nearest Starbucks or by broad category –… -
Extending Your Presentations Through the Backchannel
5 Feb 2010 | 5:18 amShareExtending Your Presentations Through the BackchannelThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing The term “backchannel” was coined in the field of Linguistics in the 1970’s to describe listeners’ behaviors during verbal communication. It is commonly used these days to describe the behavior or conversation going on in social media while a speaker is making a presentation. In some conferences the majority of the people listening may be actively Tweeting throughout a speech. Like it or not, managing the backchannel has become a part of presenting, in person or online. -
Analytics from a Really Smart Guy
4 Feb 2010 | 1:19 pmAnalytics from a Really Smart GuyThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Marketing podcast with Avinash Kaushik (Click to listen, right click and Save As to download – subscribe now via iTunes Avinash Kaushik, author of Web Analytics 2.0 is one of those rare people who can take a somewhat dry and mathlike subject of web analytics and make it sound easy and even fun. I got to spend a few minutes with Avinash for this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing podcast for some tips about this important, but often overlooked topic. Web Analytics can seem like a scary subject, but it’s…
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Ray Kurzweil (and Ramona)
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Service providing AI-based real-time matching of content with individuals funded
8 Feb 2010 | 11:26 pmCognitive Match, which applies real-time AI, learning math, and semantic processing technologies to increase response rates for online businesses, has received a $2.5M investment. The service is targeted to companies that are marketing via websites and generate over $1M annually through their website, Cognitive Match CEO Alex Kelleher told KurzweilAI.net. "We work with 4 UK universities, and the professors at those universities who are leaders in the fields of AI, computational mathematics and natural language processing," he said. The matching engine makes decisions by using a large number… -
Researchers develop 'lab on a chip' that detects viruses
8 Feb 2010 | 11:06 pmBrigham Young University engineers and chemists have created an inexpensive silicon microchip that reliably detects viruses, even at low concentrations. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news184876976.html) -
Millimeter-scale, energy-harvesting sensor system developed
8 Feb 2010 | 11:03 pmA 9-cubic millimeter solar-powered sensor system developed at the University of Michigan could enable new biomedical implants, home-building and bridge-monitoring devices, and environmental sensor networks, with average power consumption less than 1 nanowatt. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news184873895.html) -
Professor: We have a 'moral obligation' to seed universe with life
8 Feb 2010 | 10:58 pmSeeding the universe with life is not just an option, it's our moral obligation, says Michael Mautner, Research Professor of Chemistry at Virginia Commonwealth University. The suggested strategy: deposit an array of primitive organisms on potentially fertile planets and protoplanets throughout the universe. Potential breeding grounds include extrasolar planets, accretion disks surrounding young stars that hold the gas and dust of future planets, and - at an even earlier stage - interstellar clouds that hold the materials to create stars. (Source: http://www.physorg.com/news184915200.html) -
Google leaps language barrier with translator phone
8 Feb 2010 | 10:35 pmGoogle is developing software for the first phone capable of translating foreign languages almost instantly, using voice recognition and automatic translation. (Source: http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/personal_tech/article7017831.ece)
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Chris Messina
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Designing hashtags for emergency response
18 Jan 2010 | 3:52 pmI’ve been moved by the devastation wrought by the Haitian earthquake. It’s simply impossible to fathom, with death toll estimates hitting 200,000. In comparison, the Indonesian tsunami of 2004 killed nearly 230,000 people — placing it fourth among the world’s deadliest earthquakes. To give some perspective to those numbers, the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945 killed 80,000 people instantly. These are numbers that I simply can’t grasp. And this disaster still unfolds, with scores pitching in — many turning to the social web and social media to facilitate… -
Happy birthday to me! I’m joining Google
7 Jan 2010 | 1:07 amYes friends, I’m turning 29 and I’ve decided to go work for The Man. In all actuality, I’ve been mulling over such a move for some time, considering a number of compelling opportunities for my next step. After reviewing my options — in light of the progress I’ve made so far and my familiarity and existing relationships with the new team at Google that I’ll be working with — I came to the conclusion that Google offers me the best possible opportunity to continue my work in an environment and culture that is compatible with my outlook, goals, and work habits. I… -
OpenID Connect
4 Jan 2010 | 3:58 pmI’ve been thinking about how we make OpenID both easier and sexier for quite a while now. As frustrating as the answer may be to technologists, the problem is not necessarily one that can be solved with more technology. Instead, at some point, you have to move beyond the original constituents of a solution and start to package up the thing in a way that is less alienating, and less “insider baseball”. “OpenID Connect”, therefore, is what I’m starting to use in casual conversation as my answer to Twitter and Facebook Connect. It’s really creative, I… -
2050
2 Jan 2010 | 11:40 amIt occurred to me last night — through simple arithmetic, really — that 40 years from now, we’ll be living in the year 2050. I suppose that realization was just as potent as the high school realization that I’d be entering college one year before 2000, and that a decade after that (i.e. this year), we’d supposedly have made contact with aliens by now. In any case, it got me thinking that, in all likelihood, I’m going to make it to 2050. I’ll be 69 years old, and imagine by then, will have much more perspective, knowledge, and wisdom than I have now. Still… -
Clarifying a few things about Twitter typographics like hashtags and slashtags
14 Dec 2009 | 12:53 pmPrompted by a post by Karl Long and Aral Balkan’s new Twitterformats initiative, I wanted to clarify a few about hashtags and slashtags — at least as I see them. First: Stowe Boyd deserves credit for Microsyntax. I just pitched in in the beginning and use the wiki to document some ideas I’ve had. I didn’t start the project, though I do think it’s a useful convening spot. As well, Stowe and I have different ideas about microsyntax, and it’s worth taking the time to grok his perspective. Second: when I wrote my post on what are now called slashtags, I was just…
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Pam Slim
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How do you want to lead your life?
8 Feb 2010 | 5:30 pmI had a very interesting coaching conversation the other day with a bright young woman. We were talking about her desire to expand her business and play bigger in the world. (And don’t worry, I asked her permission to tell this story. And no, that is not her picture, it is a stock photo ) When I asked what would happen if she started to put herself out in the world in a bigger way by offering more programs and connecting with more people, she got kind of quiet. I asked her what it would mean to her life if she grew her business. This is what she said: “I would have to be out… -
Your all-or-nothing attitude will bring all stress and no progress
2 Feb 2010 | 5:08 pmI can always tell when new entrepreneurs are starting to crack under the pressure of decisions. They say things like: “I know everyone tells me I have to choose a specific niche, but I really don’t want to limit myself to only working with one type of person!” “What if I spend all this time and energy getting this business off the ground and I find out (no one will buy from me) (I don’t like it) (I have no time) (fill in the concern).” “The URL for the business name I wanted is not available! How can I be successful without a catchy business… -
Question for you: what stops you from testing your biz ideas early? What helps?
28 Jan 2010 | 1:26 pmI am really obsessed with the topic of test often and fail fast. I wrote a whole chapter about it in my book, and still feel like I barely scratched the surface. By “test often and fail fast,” I mean the ability to create a very small prototype or sample of your product or service and get it in front of your target market for feedback. So many new entrepreneurs get paralyzed with perfectionism. And you know what I feel about that! I am writing an article on this topic, and would love your insight into two questions (choose either or both, depending on which apply to your… -
Guest post by Seth Godin: You are not a cog
26 Jan 2010 | 3:00 amI have never had a guest post on my blog before. Until now. Seth Godin wrote a special post for EfCN to celebrate the launch of his new book Linchpin. It comes out today — check it out here. You are not a cog If you have your own business, you’ve already taken a huge step, but it’s tempting, really tempting to let fear take over and let it push you to start following the rule book. You know the rule book I mean. The one with the musts, the shoulds and the of courses in it. The one that’s amplified by most how-to books and blogs, and enforced by banks, in-laws and… -
Registration now open for $100 Business with me and Chris Guillebeau
18 Jan 2010 | 7:01 amGood morning! I am excited to give you the registration link for the program I told you about last week that I am co-teaching with Chris Guillebeau. We will be working intensively with an inaugural group in a month-long program aimed to power-charge your micro business. See all the details here, and if you are interested, grab a seat, because I have a feeling they will go fast. http://unconventionalguides.com/100biz.htm Here is to a fantastic, supportive start to 2010! — Update 5pm MT on 1/18: We had an amazing day — we sold out the February program in 3 hours, and are halfway…
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Shel Israel
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Moving Experience
7 Feb 2010 | 1:33 pmI have moved to WordPress as of Feb. 7, 2010. Please visit me at http://globalneighbourhoods.net. If you somehow bounce back to this site, just hit refresh and try again.I will slowly migrate old posts over as well. But you if you are searching for old content, you may want to search here, first.Sorry for any inconvenience. See you on the new site. -
New Book Title 'Blurring Boundaries'
4 Feb 2010 | 11:21 amThis is my third try with this new book. That's not nearly as bad as it may sound.Scoble and I tried seven names before we came up with Naked Conversations. I don't even have a proposal yet, never mind a publisher or publishing date, so there is still lots of time.But having a working title, even one that may change a few times, makes it easier to talk about my book. And the process of name requires me to focus thoughts on what this book is about in the simplest, clearest possible terms.So let me try again:Blurring Boundaries--How Online Enterprise Communities improve … -
New Book Title: 'Blurry Lines'
2 Feb 2010 | 10:56 amI've decided on a working title for my new book, unless of course, someone tells me why it's a bad idea: Blurry Lines--How online communities help companies & customers mutually profit.When I interviewed Mark Finnern, who runs SAP's mentor program, he told me that the companies community networks were blurring the lines between the company and it's customers. The same perception came up again when I interviewed Intuit's Scott Gulbransen who talked about an ongoing collaborative process in communities that let the users say what they wanted in products in discussion… -
TLE Notebook: Intuit's Scott Gulbransen
1 Feb 2010 | 1:33 pmIntuit is one of at least five companies that I plan to profile in depth for my new--still nameless--book. The others are essentially big business-to-big business players. But Intuit is business-to-small business and consumer. My particular interest is the small business side an area generally considered to be too fragmented, limited in budget and late to adopt to be a profitable area to serve. Yet, every small business needs to manage its books and tax records and Intuit is the overwhelming supplier of automated products in this area. Scott said Intuit has 50 million individual and small… -
8 Key Points to my new book
30 Jan 2010 | 11:08 amOne of my exercises in starting a new book is to create two sentences. The first tells you what the book is about and the second tells you who it is for. The challenge is to constrain yourself to two sentences.I'm not there yet. It would be nice, because once I get there, figuring out the Title/subtitle would not feel like such a daunting task.As I've written before, I use this blog as a sandbox, for my books, a place to play and experiment. A place to see what does and does not work. Over half the books I planned to write have never gotten beyond this sandbox. Almost all writers go…
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Jessica Smith
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The Influencer Next Door...Influence Going Local
31 Jan 2010 | 6:12 pmImage Source: WestSideSports.com.auIt makes sense. As more and more people use social media, blogs, and local online news sources such as the Examiner.com, being influential is no longer limited to those early adopters. Now that our offline friends have come online, we're more likely to heed their warnings or accolades about products and services...along with musicians, movies, and restaurants. And with influencers now getting more attention from traditional media, it's not out of the realm of possibility for your favorite blogger to become a subject matter expert on the local news or radio,… -
Being the Change for World Peace, One Basketball at a Time
28 Jan 2010 | 9:07 pmYou know, it's the unexpected connections on Twitter that can make a huge impact on one's life on a personal level. When someone new replies to a tweet of mine, I try to immediately check out their profile...admittedly, I don't do that as often as I'd like. But when @jdbasketball on Twitter cheered on the Terps with me, I did that time. And what I found out about him, led me to approaching JD about letting me interview him on this blog. Obviously, since I'm writing this, he said yes...and well...while this post is long I hope you learn as much as I did from someone who has been able to marry… -
The Three Hardest Words to Say
20 Jan 2010 | 9:11 pmAnd no, I'm not talking about "I love you." The three hardest words for people to say, it seems, is: "I DON'T KNOW." For some reason, there's a stigma attached to the idea of letting people know that one doesn't know something. However, I've found that the more forthcoming we are with what we DON'T know, the more confident those around us are about what we DO know. Think about it. -
American Idol Makes Me Cry
13 Jan 2010 | 8:54 pmI probably cry more when I watch American Idol more than any other show. I don't know whether it's the people who are traveling from near and far for the opportunity of a lifetime to realize their biggest dreams. Or. If it's because they are willing to go through this experience in front of thousands of thousands of people and possibly face rejection in front of said people. Most likely, the personal stories shared by American Idol hopefuls are what turn on the tears. Witnessing their journey to the Golden Ticket, their key to Hollywood, is often moving and always inspiring. My favorites so… -
TED
11 Jan 2010 | 8:10 pmWith so many conferences taking place every year, it's always tough to decide which ones to go to. This year there's one conference in particular that I am really looking forward to, however, I probably WON'T be learning about the following there: The latest cutting edge trends on SEO How to attain Twitlebrity status New ideas about how to reach out to bloggers But what I what I do expect is to: Deepen my appreciation for other cultures while expanding my global perspective Be inspired to open my mind to new ideas fostered through innovation Look at new approaches to communicating with my…
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Jonathan Schwartz
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Where Life Takes Me Next...
27 Jan 2010 | 11:53 amYou've probably seen the news - the Sun/Oracle transaction has closed. With the passing of that milestone, I can once again speak freely. Having had nine months to accelerate down the runway, there's not a doubt in my mind Oracle's takeoff and ascent will be fast and dramatic. I wish the combined entity the best of luck, and have enormous confidence in the opportunity. Greg Papadopoulos, one of the brightest people I've ever known, once made a very interesting statement - all technology ultimately becomes a fashion item. It was true for timekeeping, and it's definitely true of computing and… -
Will the Java Platform Create The World's Largest App Store?
18 May 2009 | 9:37 pmTo say the past few months have been a whirlwind is an understatement. And thanks for the reminders, I recognize it's been a while since I've posted a blog. For reasons why, just click here to read the background. And before you ask, SEC regulations and securities laws limit what I can discuss about the Oracle transaction, so don't expect any insights on the topic. But there's still a ton going on at Sun - with JavaOne (June 2nd, in San Francisco) coming up fastest on the horizon. We're preparing to reveal what I believe is one of the most important advancements ever for the Java community -… -
Sun's Cloud (4 of 4)
18 Mar 2009 | 10:54 pmIn the last three updates to this blog, I've tried to set out a clear direction of where Sun's headed. I've talked about our three basic priorities: 1. Technology Adoption 2. Commercial Innovation 3. Efficiently Connecting Adoption and Commercial Opportunity. I'm hoping you've got a clear picture surrounding the first of these two priorities - how and where we drive software adoption, and focus our commercial efforts. So now I'd like to talk about the linkages - while also addressing one of our biggest strategic challenges, our scale. Selling Scale First, why is scale a challenge for Sun? To… -
Sun's Network Innovations (3 of 4)
11 Mar 2009 | 10:26 pmAs I referenced in my prior entry, I'm reviewing Sun's three major strategic imperatives, and our progress going in to next fiscal year. Our strategic imperatives, in order, are: 1. Technology Adoption 2. Commercial Innovation 3. Efficiently Connecting 1. and 2. This entry focuses on the second, Commercial Innovation, and reviews our core revenue products, services and strategies. By now, you understand Sun's approach to growing the market - driving adoption of key technologies drives Sun's addressable market. Once you're using one of our fundamental technologies, Sun's innovations focused on… -
Technology Adoption (2 of 4)
6 Mar 2009 | 8:35 amAs I referenced in my prior entry, I'm reviewing Sun's three major strategic imperatives, and our progress going in to next fiscal year. Our strategic imperatives, in order, are: 1. Technology Adoption 2. Commercial Innovation 3. Efficiently Connecting 1. and 2. This entry focuses on the first, Technology Adoption. Adoption is a non-economic phenomena, no money is spent, only time - yet it has extreme financial consequences. Let me give you an example. I was with a big customer of ours last year, and reading through my account briefing before the meeting, I knew we were doing well. An…
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Bob Parsons
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5 things I wish I learned in Business School. Plus ... a smoking HOT blonde.
6 Feb 2010 | 12:07 amWatch Video BlogBob lays out 5 BIG things he learned the hard way — none of which are taught in business school. Bob & his smoking HOT assistant Leeann (who stars in GoDaddy.com's 1st Qtr SuperBowl commercial) also show you GoDaddy.com's LOLA commercial which was banned from the Super Bowl. See if you can figure out why. -
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Matt Mullenweg
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Jay-Z
8 Feb 2010 | 5:43 pmAs I noted on Twitter, Jay-Z now has a WordPress-powered blog. It’s bare right now, but hopefully they really start to stretch WP soon. By the by, Jay, let’s grab a bite and talk tech and design. Hat tip: Michael Koenig. -
Seven on Seven – Rhizome
8 Feb 2010 | 5:36 pmIn April I’m going to be participating in an event called Seven on Seven put on by Rhizome. “Seven on Seven will pair seven leading artists with seven game-changing technologists in teams of two, and challenge them to develop something new — be it an application, social media, artwork, product, or whatever they imagine — over the course of a single day. The seven teams will unveil their ideas at a one-day event at the New Museum on April 17th.” -
Start Project
3 Feb 2010 | 6:27 pmAs reported on BoomTown, I’m joining some cool folks including Biz Stone, Chris Sacca, Mike Tatum, and David Liu as an adviser to The Start Project. -
WPtogo is now WordPress Android
2 Feb 2010 | 4:29 pmWe’ve just released WordPress for Android 1.0 which is a continuation of the WpToGo development now under an official WordPress banner, and of course as Free Software. Congrats to Dan and the team on making this happen. Mobile stuff is really starting to come together for WordPress. I’ve been playing with this on my Nexus One for about a week and loving it. -
Better Firefox Checker
1 Feb 2010 | 5:58 pmAfter the Deadline, the enhanced spelling and grammar checker, has just released a new extension for Firefox that enables AtD functionality on any textarea on the web, which is really killer. This is one of the possibilities I was most excited about when we acquired AtD. For more check out the coverage on Download Squad and Lifehacker.
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Mark Cuban
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Why Have So Many Internet People Lost Touch With Reality ?
4 Feb 2010 | 9:16 amSometimes its hard to tell if people are trying to be funny, mean, interesting, provocative or are just plain stupid or completely out of touch with reality. I know I get accused of being all of the above all the time. The other day in New York I gave a speech at the AlwaysOn Conference which AdWeek summarized nicely here. The audience was primarily newspapers and people related to their business. So as I do when I speak to a group like this, rather than just shilling a product, service or position as many, if not most keynote speakers do, I try to put myself in the business shoes of the… -
Why Google is Bad for the Newspaper Business
3 Feb 2010 | 11:44 amOne of the key core competencies of a publication is the process of selecting “all the news thats fit to print”. No one can read every news story. Instead of even trying to consume everything, we all have a process we go through for discovery of news, information and topics of interest to us. We have sources we trust for our news and information. It may be a printed paper or magazine, a website, tv news, facebook or twitter updates, or some combination of everything we have access to. No matter how we get information there is one certainty, there is a finite number of sources… -
The Simplicity Test: A Simple Policy Guide for Job Growth
31 Jan 2010 | 9:04 amThe simplest way to create more jobs is to allow small business and entrepreneurs to spend less time and money on lawyers and accountants and redirect that intellectual and financial capital to the core competencies of their business. Any new government policy that requires the hiring of lawyers and accountants will not lead to new jobs, it will lead to time and money being wasted and fewer jobs being created. Like the administration before it, the current administration seems to have no concept of what it takes to start, run and grow a small business. None. Here is a hint. If you want to… -
Talking the IPad, Kids, Making Money and Video
28 Jan 2010 | 4:34 pmI cant wait to get my hands on the IPad. Its going to be a HUGE hit. You can book it right now that it will be the product that kids of this generation grow up with and look back on with affection just like we did with the first video games. Video games changed how we grew up. The IPad will change how kids grow up. Apple was brilliant in how they cultivated apps for the IPhone and Touch. With so many apps for kids, any parent with young kids and either of these 2 devices will tell you that their kids use and love them. In fact, it was this very reason that I helped create Puzzle Palace… -
Why are we condemning Jeff Zucker & NBC over Leno ?
18 Jan 2010 | 1:11 pmIf you want to know why its going to take longer than people hope or expect to get out this great recession, look no further than media and corporate response to Jeff Zuckers move of Jay Leno to primetime. What Zucker and NBC did was the EXACT RIGHT MOVE. Business environments change. When they do, as broadcast network television has, and continues to, there are two basic choices. You can do it the way it’s always been done, or you can challenge yourself to change the game. In the case of NBC, Jeff Zucker chose to take a risk and move Jay Leno from late night television to primetime.
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Tom Peters
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Leadership: The Problem Isn't the Problem
3 Feb 2010 | 2:16 pmTom argues that the reaction to the problem often becomes more of a problem than the original misstep would have been if dealt with honestly. As he's been known to say: "Foul up. Fess up. Fast. Fastidiously." You can watch the 2:10 minute video on YouTube and, if you like, download a PDF of its transcript. -
Scary!
1 Feb 2010 | 4:59 amScariest start of an article award 2010, from yesterday's New York Times: "China vaulted past competitors in Denmark, Germany, Spain and the United States last year to become the world's largest maker of wind turbines, and is poised to expand even further this year. China has also leapfrogged the West in the last two years to emerge as the world's largest manufacturer of solar panels. And the country is pushing equally hard to build nuclear reactors and the most efficient types of coal power plants. These efforts to dominate renewable energy technologies raise the prospect that the West may… -
The Fortune Guy Is the One With the Problem
28 Jan 2010 | 12:22 pmThere's a Fortune article on a Goldman guy who quit. ("The Man Who Walked Away from Goldman Sachs," William Cohan, 0208.10.) The Goldman guy was worried about Goldman doing a header like Lehman. The Fortune guy wrote: ""If Goldman's stock went to zero as Lehman Brothers' had ... then Winkelried's decades of hard work would be vaporized in the blip of a Bloomberg screen." What a horror. Namely, the fact that the Fortune guy could produce that sentence, presumably with no sense of irony. Suppose my net worth was 100.000% wiped out this morning. I would be unhappy. Very unhappy. But ... But… -
What is Excellence?
26 Jan 2010 | 3:59 am[Our guest blogger is Seth Godin, who needs no further introduction here. We'd like to thank him very much for this, his first post at tompeters.com.] Twenty-five years ago, my life (and yours, too, probably) was changed by Tom and Bob's book, In Search of Excellence. After that, on a regular basis, Tom has provided us with shots of brilliance and unsettling reminders that we've got a long way to go to reach our potential as organizations and individuals. Along the way, there's a question that's been nibbled at but never really answered. I mean, I already know many of the 687 ways to create… -
What Matters Now, on Paper
25 Jan 2010 | 6:59 amWe gave you a heads up when What Matters Now, the ebook that Seth Godin put together with the help of over 70 friends, became available. (You're welcome. How could we keep something that fantastic a secret?) Now you can order a paperback with all proceeds going to one of our favorite non-profits, Room to Read.
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Dave Taylor
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Hey SkyMall: pay attention to customer feedback!
8 Feb 2010 | 9:17 amI was alerted on Twitter by a reader about their interesting blog entry Something New To Think About at 30,000 Feet (Flying and Spying). In the article, the writer highlights this product: It's the Stealth iBot PC Monitor and, in essence, it's a simple device that enables you to install spyware on any PC computer in under ten seconds. As the vendor describes in the Skymall catalog:Easy To Use & Undetectable Total Computer Spying Tool Covertly Monitors Passwords, Chatting, Photos, Websites & More: Insert In USB, And In 5 Seconds Data Nano iBots Monitor All Computer Activity On ALL USER… -
It's time for Foursquare (and Web 2.0) to grow up?
4 Feb 2010 | 10:01 amA month or so ago I was approached by the U.S. Navy, invited to join their Distinguished Guest program and spend the night on the U.S.S. Stennis aircraft carrier. Surprised, I said "yes" and planned a trip to San Diego, California, the embarkation point for the Stennis visit. My parents live about an hour's drive from the base, so I added a few days so I could see them, and had a nice week planned out. A bad storm threw a monkey wrench into our plans, however, and the Navy informed me that they had to postpone the Stennis visit. Did I cancel my entire trip and wait for the Navy to reschedule? -
Going to CES next week? I'm co-hosting...
29 Dec 2009 | 11:55 pmLast year at the massive Consumer Electronics Show, I was privileged to speak at the Social Media Jungle event that Jeff Pulver hosted the day before CES really kicked off. This year, I'm co-hosting with Jeff and we have a pretty amazing lineup of speakers for our half-day event on January 6th, 2010 in Las Vegas. Here's Jeff's description of the event: It's wild out there in the social media jungle! Unbridled growth and tens of millions of "addicts" have made social media an unstoppable force that's changing the way we live and work. Sit in on state-of-the-industry updates, and get a candid… -
Lack of quality control on Facebook ads leads to...
28 Nov 2009 | 9:53 pmThere's really no nice way to say this. You just need to see the ad: Ayup, spell one word wrong in your ad title and the meaning changes rather dramatically, to say the least. The problem here is that Facebook, for all it has an interesting self-service advertising model, also suffers from the problem of user-generated content. Ultimately this is not serving the community well, and I expect that either ads over time will prove less and less effective as users learn to tune them out, or that Facebook will need to hire quality control folks... What's your reaction to the advertisement above? -
What's the impact of social media on business growth?
23 Nov 2009 | 7:05 pmA reader writes to me:"As an empirically-based economist, I would like to know whether there are studies that show the impact of twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites on business growth. I have a client (I do a small bit of consulting) that is pushing hard to get "into" social networking to grow the business. I am a bit reluctant, because there is no way to "control" the message. If there's even one former customer that is unhappy with my client, the negative effects can be explosive. I also wonderwhether paying Google for per-click exclusive use of specific words can really…
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Valeria Maltoni
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How I Participate in Social Networks
9 Feb 2010 | 4:00 amI'm borrowing a page off the Communicatrix blog to lay out how I participate in social networks. Why? Because we all have a different strategy to how we spend our time and energy to be social and to achieve our goals and since we have a strategy, in the spirit of social, we should make it transparent. [hat tip to Skip Shuda for suggesting it]I've been getting more than many requests from several people in many networks lately. Requests to friend, requests to tweet, to forward, to bookmark, to stumble, the list goes on. Being online for the best part of my day makes me very accessible. That I… -
Are You Customer-Averse?
8 Feb 2010 | 4:00 amWe all know the story of how Comcast went from customer-averse to customer-friendly. It started online with a person, and it's making its way to the rest of the organization. You will agree with me that Comcast went from this episode, to this action, to this thinking. They went from customer-averse, to customer-friendly. It didn't happen overnight, still it did. Competition helps, too, so we keep our fingers crossed on any one company getting too big to care.Businesses continue to look for more ways to get new business either from new or current customers -- usually both, in this order. Shiny… -
Trust in Media Down, Good News for Experts
7 Feb 2010 | 4:00 amTrust in business and Government has gone up in the last year, while trust in media seems to be declining across the board -- this is the latest finding of the latest annual Edelman Trust Barometer survey. Take a look at the executive report and see that:Trust in traditional media is trending downward: TV news dropped by 20 points radio news dropped by 17 points print news dropped by 12 points Trust in digital media is still pretty low, and although corporate communications are trending higher than social networks, they're still not that high.We've all witnessed the decline of stretched news… -
The Future Online is Subscription-Based: Why I Joined Third Tribe
5 Feb 2010 | 4:00 amClearly, the title left out a few pieces of information. I believe there is still a future online for free, but increasingly, the way to get things done, to go from conversation to agent, is subscription-based. Why? Accountability, resources, self-selected network, and opportunity to syndicate service, for a fee.The service for a fee model interests me most. That's why I joined Third Tribe as a member this week. The whole velvet rope community concept should make brands pay attention. This is not just a build a community to push your products, or just engage customers in your stuff kind of… -
We Still Get Things Done Through Search
4 Feb 2010 | 4:00 amWith all the talk about social networks and engagement, when it comes to getting things done, we rely on search. The image above was part of the set I used last Fall at the Inbound Marketing Summit when we talked about the importance of creating content for sharing.There was another interesting study I did not mention at the time that confirms a few of the following statements on social media as content delivery mechanism to: help conversions connect to value build relationships extend to influentials engage via education They are all outcomes I've had the opportunity to experience and…
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Brian Williams
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Future Shock: National Debt
8 Feb 2010 | 3:33 pmBy NBC Washington Bureau Managing Editor Albert Oetgen. Several reporters and producers in the Washington Bureau of NBC News were assigned last week to take a broad look at the implications of the unprecedented level of federal deficit spending and exploding national debt. Their series, Future Shock, begins with Lisa Myers' piece tonight. The faces of Everett McKinley Dirksen and Lawrence Peter Berra were shaped for preservation on the likes of Mount Rushmore, their voices tuned for broadcast on old-time radio. Jowly, gravelly. They are American icons. … -
It has happened. This will help.
8 Feb 2010 | 12:16 pmBrian Williams, anchor and managing editor Today I get to talk to one of my favorite Americans. Garland Robinette, the voice of the Big 870, WWL Radio in New Orleans. Garland is one of the voices—one of the people—who helped New Orleanians get through Katrina, and all that has followed. He was one of the people I was thinking about last night when the Saints pulled it off. I just have to hear his reaction to this victory. It is impossible to express my emotions for that team or for that City...except to say: I wish I was there, I'm thinking of them, and what a game that was. -
Major explosion
7 Feb 2010 | 12:21 pmBy Lester Holt, NBC News anchor We're live from Vancouver again tonight. Here, and in our New York newsroom, we are monitoring that massive explosion at a Middletown, Connecticut power plant that was under construction. Early reports are that as many as 50 workers were inside. There are fatalities and injuries. We've had reports of people feeling it 10 miles away. Ron Allen is there and will bring us up to date on the broadcast tonight. We're also following the recovery and dig out from yesterday's East Coast blizzard, and it looks like more is on the way later this week. By the… -
Snowbound
6 Feb 2010 | 11:27 amBy Lester Holt, NBC News anchor Greetings today from Vancouver, Canada where the city and NBC are gearing up for Friday's opening of the 2010 Winter Olympics. For the time being however, the U.S. mid-Atlantic States seem to be reaping all the winter medals -- at least for snow totals. One my colleagues sitting next to me here in Vancouver, who is normally based in Washington, has been on the phone with his family back home who are without power, and along with a lot of other folks, expect to be in the dark and cold for some time. Our White House correspondent Savannah Guthrie, who co-hosted… -
Your pictures of the snow
6 Feb 2010 | 8:29 amWe asked our @nbcnightlynews Twitter followers to send us their photos of today's big snowstorm. Here's some of what we received:@TheNortherner sent this photo of Capitol Hill:@DawnieMom in Martinsburg, WV sent this (who can blame her for taking the photo from inside?!):@AmandaChanguris snapped this shot in Frederick, MD. Not a good day for sitting on her front porch.We got this series from @KYounger in northern Delaware. There goes the picnic table!From @DailyProgress in Charlottesville, VA:@Saradb82 describes herself as a "Nebraska girl in Washington, DC." Here's her backyard this…
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Roger Von Oech
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"Vanishing Point" from Bonsajo
20 Jan 2010 | 7:35 pmI really like this short video (1:40) entitled "Vanishing Point" from Bonsajo, a visual performance unit in Japan. It makes me think of some stuff I saw in the late 1960s and early 70s. It's fun just to watch it and let it flow over you. Vanishing Point from Bonsajo on Vimeo. -
Personal Highlights of the '00s
27 Dec 2009 | 3:30 pmThe '00s are at an end. On a personal level, I can say the '00s were a good decade. I spent most of my fifties there (I aged from 51 to 61). I had some wonderful experiences, met some interesting people, and created a few things along the way.Here are some of my personal highlights from the '00s:• I Imagined that a Rhombic Triacontahedron could be broken into 30 pyramids. This idea became the Ball of Whacks. I patented it, went to China to manufacture it, and created a company (with Stuart Kaplan, Creative Whack) to market and distribute it. Subsequent products are the X-Ball… -
Novel Omission
14 Dec 2009 | 4:25 pmClick HERE to follow me on Twitter!For the past month, I've been Twittering — and having a lot of fun doing it. I was an early adopter of Twitter — March, 2007 or member #1,810,431 — but didn't much do with it until recently. One thing that has helped make the experience enjoyable is the Tweetie app for iPhone. Now, I can take a few minutes here and there and check what's happening in the "river of Tweets" that flows by.Many of the people I "follow" are interested in innovation, creativity, and the new social media technologies that enhance social… -
New Version of Creative Whack Pack App!
24 Nov 2009 | 10:01 amToday, Apple approved a new version (3.1) of my Creative Whack Pack iPhone app. [Here is the link to iTunes.] Since it was introduced last March, this product has become the iPhone's premier creativity/innovation tool. It has also been #1 in its category (Business). Great price too: $1.99. The three main new features are: Note-taking workshops. Each specific Creative Whack card has its own sound effect. These enhance the user experience, and make the session more memorable. There is increased "sharability." You can now share Creative Whack cards with friends and colleagues… -
What's Your Creativity Style?
21 Nov 2009 | 1:13 pmIt's time again for some inspiration from Heraclitus, the world's first creativity teacher (he lived around 500 BC). Today's insight is: “I searched into myself.” Heraclitus felt that consulting our own knowledge and intuition is a wonderful way to gain insight. Unfortunately, some of us never learned this lesson. Much of our educational system is an elaborate game of "guess what the teacher is thinking," and we come to believe that the best ideas are in someone else's head rather than our own. Heraclitus reminds us that there are good ideas within ourselves…
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Ann Coulter
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Matthews and Olbermann Now Openly Fighting Over Obama
3 Feb 2010 | 3:17 pmIn a "Special Report" on the president's question-and-answer session with Republicans last Friday, MSNBC's jock-sniffers Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow produced a museum-quality... -
Can't We At Least Get a Toaster?
27 Jan 2010 | 3:28 pmIn the wake of the Massachusetts Miracle last week ("The other Boston Massacre"), President Obama adopted a populist mantle, claiming he was going to "fight" Wall Street. It was either that or win... -
That Old Obama Magic is Back
20 Jan 2010 | 3:54 pmOnce again, the people have spoken, and this time they quoted what Dick Cheney said to Pat Leahy. Less than two weeks ago, The New York Times said that so much as a "tighter-than-expected" victory for... -
Harry Reid's Negro Problem
13 Jan 2010 | 4:43 pmThe recently released book Game Change reports that Sen. Harry Reid said America would vote for Barack Obama because he was a "light-skinned" African-American "with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one." The... -
If You Can Find a Better Deal, Take It!
6 Jan 2010 | 6:32 pmSomeone mentioned Christianity on television recently and liberals reacted with their usual howls of rage and blinking incomprehension. On a Fox News panel discussing Tiger Woods, Brit Hume said, perfectly...
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Jeffrey Zeldman
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A List Apart 300
9 Feb 2010 | 7:29 amIssue 300 of A List Apart for people who make websites solves password-related usability problems with a dash of JavaScript, and employs content strategy to help your site do the right thing at the right time: The Problem with Passwords by LYLE MULLICAN Abandoning password masking as Jakob Nielsen suggests could present serious problems, undermining a user’s trust by failing to meet a basic expectation. But with design patterns gleaned from offline applications, plus a dash of JavaScript, we can provide feedback and reduce password errors without compromising the basic user experience or… -
Free advice: show up early
5 Feb 2010 | 7:31 amDelay happens. The train is late, the flight is cancelled, the traffic is murder. Travel is the leading edge of entropy, and entropy is the universe’s final comment on the meaning of it all. If the universe is expanding and there are snow delays on Route 1, it’s not your fault that you’re 15 minutes late to the meeting, right? Don’t be so quick to excuse yourself. If 80% of success is just showing up, 90% is showing up early. It’s hard for the client to sympathize with your lateness when she, who had farther to travel, managed to make the meeting on time. No… -
Ahem
3 Feb 2010 | 3:39 amThe first part of my post of 1 February was not an attack on Flash. It described a way of working with Flash that also supports users who don’t have access to Flash. I’ve followed and advocated that approach for 10 years. It has nothing to do with Apple’s recent decisions and everything to do with making content available to people and search engines. It’s how our agency and others use Flash; we’ve published articles on the subject in our magazine, notably Semantic Flash: Slippery When Wet by Daniel Mall. We do the same thing with JavaScript—make sure the site… -
Free advice: buy a dongle
2 Feb 2010 | 7:20 amThere is still no Wi-Fi on the northeast corridor Amtrak trains that carry hundreds of thousands of business travelers each day. So quit whining and get a USB 3G modem. It’s free with monthly service, which is tax-deductible. For the $60/month I pay Verizon, I can connect my laptop to the internet from any train, bus, boat, lounge, lobby, conference room, coffee shop, or just about any other environment to which modern business takes me. -
Laying Pipe
2 Feb 2010 | 5:22 amDan Benjamin and yours truly discuss the secret history of blogging, transitioning from freelance to agency, the story behind the web standards movement, the launch of A Book Apart and its first title, HTML5 For Web Designers by Jeremy Keith, the trajectory of content management systems, managing the growth of a design business, and more in the inaugural episode of the Pipeline.
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Marc Canter
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1st week of Feb. 2010 - blogging
8 Feb 2010 | 8:23 pmPerhaps Michael Arrington should watch my going away present to Silly Valley on the notion of what a Persona editor would look like. Unfortunately this video has never been included onto teh Google Tech Talk page - or indexed into Google - though that was why I did it. But regardless - the issue of centralizing one’s ‘digital lifestyle’ is totally what the Persona Editor is all about. We’re increasing our efforts at CWRU to teach entrepreneurism and encourage entrepreneurial activities. Steve Gillmor wants his iTV Dunkin Donuts contest “create your own… -
On-demand “Lost”
8 Feb 2010 | 1:15 pmSince I teach my class on Tuesday nights - I’ve been unnable to catch the new episodes of “Lost”. So I’m forced to go to ‘Hulu’ and go on-demand. But what a pleasure! Given “Lost’s” time travel motif, I can’t help but comment on and create a blog post on how coolio it is to be able to randomly jump throughout the five season mythology of “Lost”, pause, rewind, watch again - study - and then loop through the Lost storyline - again - but this time via episode #22 - instead of episode #4. The other bonuses to watching… -
I’m not passive in any way
6 Feb 2010 | 6:16 amMy wife just said it perfectly. I’m going to pursue the answers. I’m not gonna sit still and accept the status quo. Kismet has brought me here and I’m letting fate guide me. My current class has us building the user experiences for the Case Connection Zone. Stay tuned on that one. It’s installing 1,000 megabit connections into 104 homes and apartments on Hessler St. - directly adjacent to the CWRU campus. Watch the videos of the class - and enjoy me having a GREAT time teaching! -
It’s George’s birthday - and I’m blogging
3 Feb 2010 | 2:20 pmHappy birthday to my best friend here in Cleveland - George Nemeth! The Open Web doesn’t have a single vendor I can’t think of a better person to run Google’s social efforts - than Joseph Smarr! Subscriptions are the new black - I still think OPEN is the new black. Others agree. It’s Time to Know Regrets on being a Digital nation Monetization and consolidation in the land of Second Life. Microsoft Azure finally ships…. Werner Vogels and Amazon = rock! Divest divest divest - is what Yahoo is all about. Learning from your garden - is crucial Gotta get me one of… -
A blog post about Cleveland, Youngstown and the Plain Dealer
1 Feb 2010 | 8:59 amOver here in NEO (North East Ohio) the Plain Dealer is the old school media player who’s Cleveland.com has been the old school portal of note. In yesterday’s Sunday paper the Plain Dealer published: - yet another article on Youngstown and the Youngstown Business Incubator (YBI) - an attack on the Cleveland Foundation pulling their funding from the Fund for the Economic Future Jim Cossler is the driving force the YBI and he’s almost single handedly forcing companies to move to Youngstwon. Jim’s fervor and passion is what ignites the YBI and makes Youngstown what it is…
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Donald Trump
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The Due-on-Sale Clause
8 Feb 2010 | 8:25 amby Tina Merritt The Due on Sale Clause, or Acceleration Clause, is a clause in a mortgage which states that if there is any transfer of ownership or interest in a property, the mortgage can be called and immediately due to the lender. With the exception of VA and FHA mortgages (which are generally assumable by a qualifying party), almost all mortgages have a due on sale clause. Keep in mind that generally, this clause is a contractual option by the lender. This means that the lender may or may not decide to call the loan due once notified of a transfer in title or ownership… -
What is a Negative Amortization Mortgage?
3 Feb 2010 | 10:25 amby Tina Merritt Negative amortization occurs when the payment made by the borrower does not cover the amount of the interest incurred. The difference is added to the loan amount. Traditionally, negative amortization loans have been used by lenders to allow for a lower monthly mortgage payment in the beginning of the loan period. So, why would someone want this type of loan? Well, it may be an option for a couple where one person is presently employed and the other is in school, graduating in a year or so and will be employed, bringing the household income substantially… -
A Second Home... What Qualifies?
2 Feb 2010 | 10:06 amby Tina Merritt As the economy has wreaked havoc on the second home market, some buyers are seeing an opportunity to own something they might not otherwise be able to afford. Others are finding themselves "stuck" with 2 properties and not being able to sell one. The IRS allows for up to 2 residences for a taxpayer to deduct mortgage interest. Also of note is what qualifies as a second home: House Townhouse Condominium Boat RV Mobile home Trailer The requirement states that the second home must have a sleeping space, toilet and a place to cook. In addition, the second home must be at least 50… -
Modular Homes
1 Feb 2010 | 8:56 amby Tina Merritt A couple of years ago, I was asked by a lender to help them sell a new construction home. The home was quite large (3,600 sq ft) and sat on 3 acres of land. In performing my due diligence, I checked the title and permits at the courthouse. I was incredibly surprised to read "modular home" on the initial building permit for the home. By all accounts, the home looked like any other recently constructed home in the area. Not to be confused with mobile or manufactured homes, a modular home is built in a controlled environment and then shipped in pieces to… -
Amanda Knox Prosecutor Convicted of Abuse of Office
28 Jan 2010 | 1:05 pmby Donald J. Trump I had mentioned a couple of weeks ago that the prosecutor in the trial of Amanda Knox should be thrown into jail, not Amanda Knox. Just recently, the prosecutor, Giuliano Mignini, was convicted of abuse of office in an earlier murder case. He was sentenced to serve one year and four months in prison for his role in the investigation of the case known as the “Monster of Florence” murders. These murders took place between 1968 and 1985 in the Tuscan countryside. Mignini is appealing the verdict and is being allowed to continue working during the appeals process.
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Andy Sernovitz
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Free Kills
9 Feb 2010 | 6:00 amEveryone is all excited about the idea of free. Free software, free content, and Chris Anderson’s book, Free: The Future of a Radical Price. But it’s not always good. When something is given away free, it kills the market for similar products. iTunes is a very adequate music manager. But it doesn’t work well for large collections, multiple users, or home networks. By giving it away to almost everyone, there is no more market for music manager software. No one is ever going to pay for it again, so no software developers have a reason to build something better. RSS feeds… -
Job opportunity: We’re looking for a brilliant director of sales
8 Feb 2010 | 1:00 pmWe’re quickly growing here at GasPedal and have an immediate opening for a director of sales for our Social Media Business Council community. A few must-have qualities: Proven BtoB sales experience with VP- and C-level execs at large corporations Strong knowledge of social media and word of mouth marketing Consultative and approachable — our product is a long-term community membership; this is a relationship-building position Honest, trustworthy, and ethical Sales are brisk and the product is popular. Current members include Procter & Gamble, Dell, Wells Fargo, Microsoft, Home… -
7 smart rules of social media manners
8 Feb 2010 | 6:00 amSome great business blogging advice (and life advice) from Christopher Burgess of Cisco: You Are Responsible: There are no do-overs. There is an adage, “Once posted, forever toasted,” which serves to highlight the reality that your information, data and content will be available to one and all, seemingly forever, and it is guaranteed to revisit you sometime in the future. Abide by the Rules: Individuals are accountable for their actions. This is a basic tenet of public discourse and elucidation. Don’t share your company’s confidential data. Don’t speak about… -
Superbowl
7 Feb 2010 | 5:14 pmZe Frank speaks for me: Best line: “Everyone knows it takes millions of dollars to create compelling content.” Ze’s Website Share: -
How to scare away new customers
7 Feb 2010 | 6:00 amWe ordered a sample pack of a new kind of computer paper. We even paid $10 for the samples. They charged us $10 shipping. We ordered $150 worth of parts from a catalog on our first order. We forgot a few things, so we bought $20 more. There was a $4 ’small order fee’. There are certain moments when you know you just found a new customer: First phone call, first visit, asking for samples, new customer buys twice in a week. Set up a process to identify these actions. Give them extra samples. Send them links to how-to videos. Include a coupon for a free upgrade on the second order.
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Paul Kedrosky
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Denmark Leads the Household Leverage Sweepstakes
9 Feb 2010 | 12:26 amWho let four northern European countries sneak past the U.S. in the household leverage sweepstakes? Source: Global Household Leverage, House Prices, and Consumption, By Reuven Glick, and Kevin J. Lansing -
Hugh Hendry, Marc Faber, and Nassim Taleb Go to Russia
8 Feb 2010 | 10:27 pmAn alternately sober-minded and gibbering mad – but never boring and mostly riveting -- hour-long what-would-you-invest-in panel with Nassim Taleb, Marc Faber, Hugh Hendry and others from the just-completed Russia 2010 conference: -
More Reading: Niall Ferguson, Euro Depression, Nevada, etc.
7 Feb 2010 | 1:10 pmA few more things I just had to share:Deliriously bizarre, gossipy, etc. piece about econohistorian Niall Fergson, from footballers to fatwas (Daily Mail)Europe risks another global depression (Simon Johnson)Nevada budget crisis: could lay off all general fund workers and still be in red (WashPost) -
Economists, Crises, and Cartoons
7 Feb 2010 | 11:40 amApparently I'm not the only one to notice the rise of economists in cartoons during financial crises. As a related aside, this paper has some fabulous old crisis cartoons. Economists, Crises and Cartoons David M. Levy Center for Study of Public Choice Sandra J. Peart Jepson School of Leadership Studies February 4, 2010 Abstract: Economists have occasionally noticed the appearance of economists in cartoons produced for public amusement during crises. Yet the message behind such images has been less than fully appreciated. This paper provides evidence of such inattention in the context of the… -
Weekend Reading: Greenspan, EM Bonds, Cash-in Refis, China, etc.
7 Feb 2010 | 11:31 amFrom my weekly Weekend Reading column, a few articles and papers worth reading: Alan Greenspan fights back against critics (Source) Emerging-Market Bond Sales Stall as BES Scraps Issue (Source) Recovery teeters as debt threat spreads (Source) A Financial Crisis That Just Keeps Moving (Source) Mortgage Bankers Association Sells Headquarters at Big Loss (Source) 'Cash-in' refis growing in popularity (Source) Why a China bubble burst would be quieter (Source)
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Darren Rowse
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Have a 37 Minute Coffee Break with Me [Audio Interview]
9 Feb 2010 | 5:43 amIf you have a spare 37 minutes today to grab a coffee with me (or at least are doing something that will allow you to listen to something for 37 minutes in the background) check out this interview I did with Robb Sutton late last week. Robb’s also transcribed it for those who prefer to read. In the interview Rob asks me about a whole range of stuff including: my background in blogging my philosophy on lots of sites vs focusing upon a single (or just a few) sites the process of going full time (and my wife’s six month ultimatum) my shift in focus to e-books and membership sites a… -
What Is Your Blogging Goal for February?
8 Feb 2010 | 6:22 amA few days back I asked readers a question: What Have You Been Putting Off and What’s Holding You Back? Some of the responses to the question in comments (and via email and Twitter) revealed a lot of bloggers really wanting to step things up and get what they’ve been putting off done. So – lets set some goals – what do you want to achieve by the end of February? I’m not going to be calling you up to check up to see if you’re meeting your goals – but hopefully in putting them down publicly you’ll find yourself a little more spurred on to reach… -
9 Tricks I Used To Triple My AdSense Earnings In 30 Days
7 Feb 2010 | 6:34 amGuest post by Daniel Scocco from Daily Blog Tips. I have been using Google AdSense to monetize my blogs and websites for as long as I remember. In fact it was the first method I ever tried (I made a whooping $15 on my first month… back in 2005). Over the years I migrated to other methods (e.g., direct sponsors and affiliate marketing), which made AdSense become merely an inventory filler. I was still making around $1,000 monthly from it, but whenever I could I would use other methods over it. Then some months ago I started noticing an upward trend on the CPC of my sites, and I figured that… -
How I Got Some Paying Sponsors Without Really Meaning To
6 Feb 2010 | 6:21 amA guest post by Josh Hanagarne. World’s Strongest Librarian was about four months old when I got interested in sponsors. I’d read the articles about how to do it, and none of them sounded that plausible for me and my situation. For one, my traffic wasn’t impressive, certainly not to the point where sponsors were approaching me. And, while my blog has become slightly more focused in its first ten months, it wasn’t targeted at any group of readers in particular, so I wasn’t sure how confident niche advertisers would be. It’s a little more focused now, but I can’t really think of a… -
29 Debates Bloggers Have about Blogging
5 Feb 2010 | 6:13 amDo you want a formula to guarantee the success of your blog? Yesterday I was interviewed by a journalist about blogging and half way though the interview he asked me what the formula for successful blogging was. His question was innocent enough and asked without agenda but as I pondered it and pondered the many successful blogs that we see in our medium it became very clear to me that while it might be simpler to have a formula to follow to make our blogs succeed that there are many many different approaches to success in this field. One of the things that I love about blogging is that there…
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Walt Mossberg
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Mossberg Discusses the iPad on "The Charlie Rose Show"
5 Feb 2010 | 7:17 pmThursday’s “Charlie Rose Show” featured a discussion with Walt Mossberg, David Carr and Michael Arrington about the upcoming Apple iPad. Their wide-ranging discussion covered topics such as the surprising price point, the omission of Flash and Apple’s (AAPL) challenges in this new market. [FLOWPLAYER=http://charlierose.http.internapcdn.net/charlierose/digitalgrill_content/020410_2.flv,380,300] -
Two Little Laptops With a Lot to Offer Their Core Users
3 Feb 2010 | 6:04 pmFor all the talk about new tablet computers like Apple’s iPad, laptops remain the computer industry’s bread and butter, and smaller laptops are especially popular with consumers. So, I’ve been testing two diminutive laptops, both with 11-inch screens, that show how clever engineering can take a familiar device and customize it for particular audiences. These two machines couldn’t be more different, and they are aimed at radically different customers. Neither is a bargain-priced netbook, but both were designed with compactness in mind. [ See post to watch video ] One of… -
YouTube on the iPad and Dumping IE6
3 Feb 2010 | 2:25 pmMy wife likes to watch YouTube videos. I was thinking of getting her a new Apple iPad tablet, but apparently the iPad lacks an easy way to do this. Why, oh, why did Apple (AAPL) fail to make it easy to access YouTube on the iPad? A: Even though the Web browser on the iPad can’t play Adobe Flash video files like the ones YouTube typically serves up, Apple did include a special YouTube app on the iPad, similar to the one on the iPhone, that can play loads of YouTube content. In fact, this YouTube app was shown at the iPad launch. The company says the one for the iPad has been rewritten to… -
New Way to Flit from Store to Store
2 Feb 2010 | 6:16 pmImagine going to the mall in search of a new pair of black leather gloves. But this time, rather than starting the search by going straight to your favorite stores, which look familiar and carry recognizable merchandise at expected prices, you must walk to the center of the mall and sort through a giant bucket of gloves with few identifying marks other than price. Wacky as this scenario sounds, it’s the way many people shop online every day. They look for specific items by searching Web sites like Amazon.com (AMZN) and eBay.com (EBAY), where results are displayed in big lists without… -
New Mozilla Email Is Easier to Use, But Not Easy Enough
27 Jan 2010 | 6:04 pmThe good thing about open-source software is that it harnesses the talents of techies around the world. The bad thing about open-source software is that it’s too often geared toward such techies, not average folks. That’s why there haven’t been many widely popular open-source products for mass-market computer users. The shining exception is the Firefox Web browser, which is published by the nonprofit Mozilla Foundation. Now, Mozilla is trying for another win, with a new, overhauled version of the companion email program for Firefox, called Thunderbird. Unlike Firefox,…
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Ben Edelman
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Google Toolbar Tracks Browsing Even After Users Choose "Disable"
26 Jan 2010 | 4:00 amI present screenshots and screen-capture videos demonstrating that even after a user specifically chooses to "disable" the Google Toolbar, and even after the Google Toolbar disappears from view, Google Toolbar continues tracking users' web browsing -- including the specific sites visited, pages browsed, and searches conducted. I then critique Google's installation -- which lets users activate these transmissions in a single click, while ceasing the transmissions is much harder. I compare Google's current notice/consent process to Google's 2004 version, finding important decline in both… -
Upromise Savings -- At What Cost?
21 Jan 2010 | 4:00 amWhen users install the Upromise toolbar, Upromise admits collecting "non-personally identifiable information" about users' online activities. But Upromise actually transmits detailed information -- not just page-views and searches, but email addresses and even full credit card numbers, expiration dates, and CVV2 codes. Upromise copies card numbers out of users' encrypted (HTTPS) browsing, but Upromise retransmits card numbers in plain text -- making it all too easy for others to gain access. -
Google Click Fraud Inflates Conversion Rates and Tricks Advertisers into Overpaying
12 Jan 2010 | 4:00 amIn today's post, I show click fraud with a twist. Like standard click fraud, this infraction completely fakes clicks -- charging advertisers for clicks that didn't actually occur. But this click fraud is carefully targeted -- faking a click to the victim advertiser when the user is already at that advertiser's site. Thus, standard efforts to measure conversion rates classify this traffic as legitimate and valuable -- tricking advertisers into raising their bids and paying even more, when they should be demanding refunds. -
Google Still Charging Advertisers for Conversion-Inflation Traffic from WhenU Spyware
5 Jan 2010 | 4:00 amIn February and May 2009, I reported Google paying WhenU spyware to cover selected sites with those sites' own Google PPC ads. These bogus placements perpetrate a practice I call "conversion inflation": They let Google claim credit for purchases that would have happened anyway -- overstating Google's effectiveness and leading advertisers to overbid and overpay for Google traffic. Google admitted the impropriety of these placements -- even offering a credit to RCN, the advertiser I featured in May, though denying refund requests from other affected advertisers. But, remarkably, Google and its… -
Payment Card Network Rules Prohibit Aggressive Post-Transaction Tactics
5 Dec 2009 | 4:00 amPost-transaction marketers crucially rely on automatic transfer of consumers' payment card numbers -- copying a customer's credit card number from a merchant (where the consumer intentionally made a purchase) to a post-transaction marketer's membership club (which typically attracts a consumer's attention with a deceptive offer promising illusory savings). Copying credit card numbers raises numerous concerns, as detailed in my Statement for the Record last month. Crucially, it also violates applicable credit card network rules, which specifically prohibit merchants from copying card numbers.
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Brian Solis
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The Internationalization of Social Media
8 Feb 2010 | 3:09 amIf you were to look at Social Media the United States and many other parts of the world, you would believe that the world of Social Media was flat, dominated by social continents including Facebook, Twitter, blogs, YouTube, and Flickr. As we zoom in, we visualize other established and emerging social services that depict provinces and outlying settlements of our social atlas.Upon publishing the original Conversation Prism, which was the culmination of a year’s work documenting and organizing the social web by usage and conversational patterns, the world responded by creating… -
The Roles of Facebook and Twitter in Social Media Marketing
5 Feb 2010 | 4:14 amSocial Media marketing is rapidly earning a role in the integrated marketing mix of small and enterprise businesses and as such, it’s transforming every division from the inside out. What starts with one champion in any given division, be it customer service, marketing, public relations, advertising, interactive, et al, eventually inspires an entire organization to socialize. What starts with one, a domino effect usually ensues toppling each department, gaining momentum, and triggering a sense of urgency through its path. And, it also marks the beginning of our journey through the ten… -
Mobile Internet Market to Eclipse Desktop Internet
3 Feb 2010 | 4:42 amSounds like a sensationalistic headline, but if you read Morgan Stanley’s latest series of reports on the Mobile Internet, you’ll walk away with the same impression.Morgan Stanley’s global technology and telecom analysts documented the rapidly changing mobile Internet market to provide a framework for emerging trends and direction.To set the stage, Morgan Stanley forecasts that the mobile Internet market will be at least 2x the size of desktop Internet when comparing Internet users to mobile subscribers.According to the report, Apple’s iTunes + iPhone/Touch ecosystem… -
The Human Algorithm: How Google Ranks Tweets in Real-Time Search
1 Feb 2010 | 4:57 amIn 2009, Google struck a deal with Twitter, rumored at $15 million, to integrate tweets into keyword related Google searches. And last month, Google also integrated real-time search technology to surface blog posts and news content as they hit the Web – dramatically improving the previous five to 15 minutes its spiders would take to crawl the Web. I should also note that Collecta also offers the ability to search the real-time Web, but its results also include popular networks within the social Web. Between Google and Collecta, Twitter Search is starting to show its age.The opportunities… -
Who is the ME in Social Media?
29 Jan 2010 | 4:11 amGood friend Stowe Boyd recently shared a quote by Gabriel García Márquez, “Everyone has three lives: a public life, a private life, and a secret life.”Indeed, quite simply many of us live life allowing specific, trusted individuals to know us in one or more of our personae. Our moral compass as well as outside influences affect how we balance our three lives. The size and permeability of our personal dividers vary in the separation of each life and resemble doors that open and close based on our desires. We nurture each individually with slight coalescence, but concentrate on…
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David Weinberger
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Cloud capitalism’s threat to cloud culture
7 Feb 2010 | 8:58 amCharlie Leadbeater has a terrific post on the threats posed by the fact that The Cloud (as in “cloud computing”) too often actually is a recentralizing of the Net by profit-seeking companies. The easiest example cited by Charlie is Google Books, which provides a tremendous service but at the social cost of giving a single company control over America’s digital library. The problem here isn’t capitalism but monopolization; an open market in which other organizations could (the pragmatic “could,” not the legal or science fiction “could”) also… -
How to send email using RealBasic
7 Feb 2010 | 8:23 amIt took a bunch of googling (thanks!) and some experimentation, but the following seems to work on a Mac (snow leopard) to send email programmatically, using RealBasic: Dim mail as EmailMessage Dim SMTPSocket1 as SMTPSocket // create an instance: SMTPSocket1 = new SMTPSocket // The name of an available SMTP server: SMTPSocket1.address = “smtp.YOURSERVER.com”// The port number of the server: SMTPSocket1.port = 25 // Your username for the server, if nec. SMTPSocket1.Username=”yourname@yourserver.com”// Your password: SMTPSocket1.Password=”yourpwd” // Create a… -
After press conferences, what?
6 Feb 2010 | 4:22 pmAfter watching President Obama at the Republican Caucus, it’s clearer than ever that press conferences need to go the way of press releases. They are just too constricted for the opportunities and temper of the new connected age. The reporters are too interested in getting headlines, and would rather appear fair and balanced than chase down the truth. We do better, it turns out, when the President is questioned by people who can acknowledge that they really, really disagree with him. So, what do we replace press conferences with? Or, more realistically, what can we supplement them with? -
[berkman] Berkman Buzz
5 Feb 2010 | 4:05 pmThe weekly Berkman Buzz … some of what Berkpeople have been blogging about: Ethan Zuckerman finds a box of rubber duckies in the forest. John Palfrey provides a view into Joel Reidenberg’s “Transparent Citizens” talk. OpenNet Initiative reviews the past year in Internet filtering and surveillance. Judith Donath reflects on the complexities of deception. Internet & Democracy discusses a recent DDOS attack. Weekly Global Voices: “Russia: Anti-Government Protest Covered By Bloggers, Ignored By Media“ CMLP unpacks a decision on anti-SLAPP in Massachusetts,… -
[ahole] Cyberutopianism, technodeterminism, Web exceptionalism
5 Feb 2010 | 8:24 amIn the spirit of my Be A Bigger A-hole Resolution, here’s a video of my talk at Reboot this summer. It leads to “Is the Web moral” segment, based on a talk I gave at the Drupalcon a few months before. In it, I claim to be a cyberutopian (gosh the Web is wonderful) and a Web exceptionalist (the Web is way different from what came before), but not a technodeterminist (the exceptional goodness of the Web won’t happen by itself.) [Later that day:] Ok, fine, if I’m going to stay true to my Resolution: I’m going to be on HubSpot.tv today at 4pm EST, talking…
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Dan Pink
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An emotionally intelligent . . . unsubscribe link?
8 Feb 2010 | 3:14 amHere’s a new one, courtesy of Eddie Garcia. Take a look at this unsubscribe link from Groupon. Pretty clever. I have a feeling it could actually get people to reconsider ending their subscription. (Note: Because Groupon is apparently overwhelmed with visitors today, I had to link to a Screenr video of the unsubscribe page rather than the page itself.) -
Factoid of the day: Super Bowl edition
7 Feb 2010 | 11:11 am“According to an operational study of National Football League teams prepared for The Wall Street Journal by Boston Consulting Group, the typical NFL season requires 514,000 hours of labor per team. That’s about eight times the effort it took to conceptualize, build and market Apple’s iPod, according to BCG, and enough time to build 25 America’s Cup yachts. If both Super Bowl teams dedicated themselves to construction rather than football, their members could have built the Empire State Building in seven seasons.” (Source: WSJ, 2/5/10) -
Can watching Pong make you more creative?
3 Feb 2010 | 8:01 amBrandon Schauer at Adaptive Path has put together a 49-second video designed to invigorate your corpus callosum and fire your creative powers. In a blog post, he says that his creation builds on research showing that side-to-side eye movement, by increasing communication between the left and right hemisphere, can increase creativity. If you’re facing a creative challenge today, I’m not sure watching Schauer’s nifty video beforehand will work. But I am sure it can’t hurt. If it doesn’t bring your two hemispheres into harmony, maybe it’ll be effective as a… -
Who wants to design the NEA’s new logo?
2 Feb 2010 | 4:21 pmIn an inspired act of crowdsourcing, showmanship, and democratic participation, National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Rocco Landesman has turned to us to refashion the NEA’s visual identity. Yesterday Landesman announced that his modest but mighty federal agency was accepting submissions to redesign the logo for the NEA’s “Art Works” initiative. As the NEA blog explains: “‘Art works’ is Rocco’s guiding principle for his work at the NEA. The phrase has three meanings: ‘art works’ are the plays, paintings, dances, films and the other… -
Factoid of the day: Generational divide
2 Feb 2010 | 3:55 pm“According to Julia Isaacs of the Brookings Institution, the (U.S.) federal government now spends $7 on the elderly for every $1 it spends on children.” (Source: NY Times, 2/2/10)
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Craig Newmark
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Using gaming to engage people in gov't?
9 Feb 2010 | 5:05 amWell, fun works, and maybe Dustin Haisler from Manor Labs has the right idea. He speculates about two ways that might build on existing approaches to get people involved in Does gaming have a place in government?Let’s say we built an online game that was as engaging as [Zynga’s FarmVille game, but incorporated real governmental concepts in the process. Which concepts are important to start with? Taxation: Have the gamer adjust taxes but also have it tied to public opinion (similar to Sim City, but less complex). Cost of Service: Have responding to police calls, water line breaks, etc.,… -
Spring in Cole Valley Heights #1
8 Feb 2010 | 7:42 amRight in back, and yes, the gf's got a much better eye than me.Click for larger. -
Survey of US Gov't web sites show increasingly happy public
8 Feb 2010 | 4:51 amHey, looks like some serious survey was work done looking at how people feel about Federal sites, comparing that with commercial sites. Looks like all the ongoing work is getting noticed. Here's a pretty good summary from NextGov. Citizen satisfaction with federal Web sites increased significantly in 2009, indicating that efforts by the Obama administration to increase transparency in government are getting noticed. For the last quarter of 2009, more than 250,000 citizens surveyed gave federal Web sites a satisfaction rating of 75.2 out of 100 points, according to a report released by… -
A view of Hogwart's, I mean, Trinity College Dublin
7 Feb 2010 | 9:38 amThis is a dining hall, long rows of long tables.At the podium (not too visible), Voldemort reads something in Latin to open and close dinner. -
Rate of job loss, Bush v Obama (fact checked)
7 Feb 2010 | 8:25 amUPDATE: just got factchecked, report and raw data (Courtesy of howardweaver)
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Andrew Sullivan
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"America Is Not Ungovernable"
9 Feb 2010 | 7:07 amJay Cost blames Obama for legislative impasses:It's easy to blame the Senate for inactivity - but the problem is the House. It has consistently passed legislation that is too far to the left for the Senate and the country. Ultimate responsibility rests with the President, whose expressed indifference toward policy details has allowed the more vigorous House Democrats, led by an extraordinarily vigorous Speaker, to dominate. That the President consistently praised the House and blamed the Senate in his State of the Union address suggests that he remains unaware of this problem.Has Jay Cost… -
The Odd Lies Of Sarah Palin XXXVII: Limbaugh, Emanuel and "Retards"
9 Feb 2010 | 6:52 amSargent examines Palin's blatant lie with regard to Limbaugh and Rahm using the word "retard". She claims on Fox News that Limbaugh never used the term in reference to a group of people. He did:Palin’s latest falsehood is almost laughably easy to debunk, yet she went ahead with it anyway. The point is that if you never subject yourself to any kind of media cross-examination, it gets easier and easier to lie, because there’s simply no downside, or any disincentive of any kind, to lying as much as you want to. And why has no one asked her if it's true that she calls Trig… -
The Obama Summit
9 Feb 2010 | 6:43 amIs Obama maneuvering to get a more conservative health reform bill passed - with his customary calm, bipartisan brand? Sargent wonders what it all means. Ezra notes how many Republican-backed ideas are already in the plan. Marcy Wheeler suspects:For some time, the White House’s efforts to pass the excise tax barely hid their underlying objective to eliminate tax breaks for employer provided health insurance. So while this is entirely speculative, I do wonder whether Obama is trying to use Republicans to either justify a switch to a different plan, eliminating the tax break, or at the very… -
The Tea Partiers vs Ron Paul
9 Feb 2010 | 6:25 amYep: that really is illuminating. One might imagine that no one would be able to compete with Ron Paul's small government credentials, his resistance to almost any government spending, and his uniquely consistent fiscal conservatism. But the Dallas Morning News (hat tip: Weigel) reports he has three "Tea Party" primary challengers. Three. Paul, remember, was by some measures the first Tea Partier, raising a vast amount of money for his presidential campaign online on the 234th anniversary of the original Tea-Party. But he doesn't measure up any more: John Gay, Paul's… -
Bonuses Helped Cause The Crash?
9 Feb 2010 | 6:13 amThat is what Dan Ariely's research suggests: We've recently gathered evidence suggesting that dangling exorbitant sums of money in front of workers doesn't improve performance. If anything, it negatively affects it. It could be true that the spectre of windfalls will increase activity. If I offered you a £1 million bonus for exceptional performance, you might work more hours and check Facebook less. But would your input be more thoughtful? More creative? Would you be more likely to tap your full-brain potential? Doing more doesn't equal doing better.
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Jessica Gottlieb
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There Was No Middle Ground Today
8 Feb 2010 | 9:56 pmIt was like a see saw, high and low, never really resting in the middle. I’m experimenting with YouTube, and I’m anxious for your feedback. Let me know in the comments. Do you like video or is one a week enough? Share on Facebook -
Always Changing, Hopefully Growing
8 Feb 2010 | 9:42 amI’m adding forums to this blog. Sometimes the comments get heated and exciting. I’d like to encourage even more discussion. Go on over and introduce yourself at The Forums. Share on Facebook -
A Very Real Question For Publicists And For Nestle
7 Feb 2010 | 11:12 amIt’s not a secret, I have an uneasy relationship with publicists. Oh, except one. Stephanie. I have a terrible relationship with food manufacturers, I really wish y’all would too. Food growers, particularly organic ones, they’re kinda hawt, and we have a good relationship… rumor has it we might kiss one day. On the 5th I briefly noted that Nestle is in search of a public relations firm who can help them with the most recent backlash regarding their ill fated Mommy Hawking event. Stephanie addressed my disdain with a really thoughtful comment. Hiring a PR firm is… -
PR Cannot Be A Substitite for PRoduct
5 Feb 2010 | 4:05 pmNestle is hiring a PR firm to “restore its reputation amid sustained criticism on the internet.” Really? This is a suckers bet. A agency can’t help Nestle. The only people who can help Nestle are it’s very own executives. If Nestle didn’t discourage breastfeeding and made some changes to their product line, all their bad buzz would go away. Instead they’re aiming to hire someone to sit behind the Green Curtain and try to trick people into thinking that some sort of systemic change has happened at Nestle. I think we all know this won’t be the case. -
Friday Confession: I Take This
5 Feb 2010 | 9:40 amI confess. Alli works wonders. I’ve used it a few times since Alexander was born. Go on vacation and gain 5 pounds? Forget the cleanse, take Alli. Just don’t eat fatty foods or you’ll have the Alli oops. Share on Facebook
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Andrew Grumet's Weblog
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Birthday cake (belated)
6 Feb 2010 | 5:18 pmA whole lotta chocolate going on in there. -
Wordpress for Android
2 Feb 2010 | 5:46 pmThe wpToGo app is reborn as Wordpress for Android. If this publishes ok, it's working for me. -
Handwriting Recognition
10 Jan 2010 | 1:30 amIn a story on this week's On The Media, the guest pointed out that Apple's Newton was a flop due to its poor handwriting recognition. It would have been easy enough to let the point pass, but it got me thinking. With all of the energy put into handwriting recognition over the various generations of products --- from the Newton, to Palm OS with its "graffiti", to the Microsoft tablet PC --- today's premier hand-held devices don't even bother. Instead of a stylus, we use touchscreens and on-screen keyboards or miniaturized keys. Has handwriting recognition ever become a significant or valued… -
It’s easier than you think
5 Jan 2010 | 1:20 amMichael Ruhlman: Real cooking is hard and difficult so here are the nifty shortcuts and tips to make all that hard stuff quickly and easily. It’s the wrong message to broadcast... Amen to that. For all the good that they do, it gives me heartburn when America's Test Kitchen emphasizes "quick", "easy" and "simplified" in their episode titles. Then again, perhaps it's a case of sale psychology. That power drill, or those shoes, are a lot more interesting if they're 50% off, no? -
On The Media on Pitch Men
2 Jan 2010 | 10:04 pmA fantastic piece from On The Media on the infomercial business and its precursors on the Atlantic City boardwalk: Pitch Perfect. It's about 17 minutes long.
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Betsy Devine
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The blind leading the Democrats
7 Feb 2010 | 5:15 amSnow-covered lion on Columbia campus Originally uploaded by betsythedevine “Not one dime! Not until Democrats pass healthcare.” That is what DNC fundraisers who call our house are going to hear from now on. The hacks and jackasses in Washington who took over the Democratic National Committee from Howard Dean have taken us right back to their old election-losing “centrist” techniques. Under Dean’s leadership, we witnessed the landslide election of Barack Obama and Democratic majorities in both the House and the Senate. All that advantage has been nearly frittered… -
Looking back, and looking forward
31 Dec 2009 | 9:38 pmNH strawberry season Originally uploaded by betsythedevine Hello, 2010, you already look so appealing, even under a faint sugar frosting of newfallen snow. Farewell and very good riddance to the now-past noughties, from Bush’s Florida recount to the disasters his team left behind. This picture is here to remind me of all the many things that are now better than they were when I was a little girl. The Merrimack River, once full of untreated sewage and factory waste, is now full of fish and dotted with boats in the summer. (Oh how Republicans complained about its cleanup!) I can find… -
John Brockman, founder of the feast
28 Dec 2009 | 8:58 pmJohn Brockman, founder of the feast Originally uploaded by betsythedevine John Brockman and Katinka Matson were in Cambridge this weekend, throwing (as usual) an enjoyable party… ..at which none of my iPhone pictures came out, but I like this one of John, seen here with just a bit of Albert-Laszlo Barabasi, the author of the (soon to be published) Bursts. There was quite a bit of talk about the Edge question for 2010 (which remains secret until it gets published there January 1.) I was also very intrigued by the ongoing DNA mysteries that Ting Wu explores in her Harvard Med School lab… -
Why does my desk not already look like this?
6 Dec 2009 | 5:06 amMmm computer displays to dream on 3 Originally uploaded by betsythedevine I have seen the future and it is CERN. The only reason our desks don’t all look like this right now is that you, yes you, haven’t yet realized how much you want this, and therefore computer and software manufacturers have not yet started to make it easy to get. Brains are not computers and we have “evolved” our computers to supplement the places where we really need extra help — memory storage and processing, collaboration, number crunching, and visualizing stuff. The trouble is that,… -
Real-time results from CERN’s ATLAS detector
1 Dec 2009 | 2:32 pmReal-time results from CERN’s ATLAS detector Originally uploaded by betsythedevine Frank and I are in Bern on our way to CERN, as the LHC beams are finally online and being brought up to speed. The LHC beam got to Bern’s labs before we did. But not much before we did — ATLAS recorded its first particle “splashes” on Nov. 20, not much more than a week ago. The ATLAS group at Bern University focuses on data-acquisition and data-analysis. One of the many amazing things they showed us today is their giant realtime display of LHC information. The lefthand side of the…
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bijan sabet
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our old microwave bit the dust. so lauren gave it to james. he...
9 Feb 2010 | 4:07 amour old microwave bit the dust. so lauren gave it to james. he loves it. -
Murder In The City - The Avett Brothers via The Second Gleam EP....
9 Feb 2010 | 3:46 amMurder In The City - The Avett Brothers via The Second Gleam EP. mellow & wonderful. -
The devil you know may be holding you back
8 Feb 2010 | 11:06 amLast week I had a drink with an experienced exec that has worked in big companies all of his life and never worked for a startup. That’s fine, not everyone is made for a startup life. But at one point, in the conversation he told me that he’s been tempted by startups a number of times but reminded himself of that old saying “the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t”. I paused when I heard that comment. I believe that saying is counter productive. To me, it says that the person is unwilling or unable to take chance or make a decision where the outcome is unknown. I told… -
King Of Carrot Flowers Part I - Neutral Milk Hotel Back to back...
8 Feb 2010 | 3:43 amKing Of Carrot Flowers Part I - Neutral Milk Hotel Back to back days from the same record. I’ve got to pick this up on vinyl. -
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea - Neutral Milk Hotel Heard this...
7 Feb 2010 | 12:00 pmIn the Aeroplane Over the Sea - Neutral Milk Hotel Heard this song on the hype machine. Clicked over and saw it was from another Tumblr user. So I clicked ‘liked’ and reblog and now it’s my song of the day! (via panoptican)
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Brent Simmons: Inessential.com
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Idea for alternative RSS syncing system
8 Feb 2010 | 10:18 pmGoogle Reader is an RSS reader that can be used for RSS syncing. Bloglines used to have a very basic syncing API (maybe it still does). NewsGator had a syncing API. FeedSync is a way to use feeds to sync other stuff (as far as I can tell). Sync Services (MobileMe syncing API) is a generalized syncing system that might be able to do RSS, but works just between Macs. WebDAV is cool. DropBox is super-amazingly-cool. But these are storage systems, not syncing systems for things like RSS. Not one of the above is a really great system for just syncing RSS between apps. (For people who remember… -
Pretend you’re Apple
28 Jan 2010 | 11:17 amSay you’re Apple. It’s a few years ago. You make and sell computers. You see the rise of web apps, and you notice people talking about how desktop apps are done. Desktop apps are done because, with web apps, people can login from anywhere, any machine, and get to their stuff. That’s cool, and you know it’s cool. You make computers and operating systems, and you think to yourself: “How can I sell computers that are pretty much just web browsers? How is a Mac better than a Dell or a Sony in that case?” I think the first thing you do is make sure you have a great browser. Faster and… -
J.D. Salinger
28 Jan 2010 | 10:31 amI’m broken up with the news that Salinger has died. -
Mom talks iPad
28 Jan 2010 | 8:36 amAdventures in Newfield (my Mom): “Most of the media reports don’t seem to get the new iPad — it’s not about how fast it is, or its lack of a camera or the flash to display video — it’s about using it just about anywhere and not needing a mouse!” Mom wants one. Me too. :) -
Bad Gravity
27 Jan 2010 | 9:44 pmiPhone apps, and now iPad apps, have always reminded me of what I want Mac apps to be: focused, carefully-designed, with every feature carefully considered and usually thrown out instead of included. Even more than the iPhone, the iPad will function as a laptop replacement. (Or, you may still have a laptop, but you’ll do more and more work on an iPad.) I like what I’ve seen so far about iPad app design. It has the virtues of iPhone app design with just enough more space and new features to make doing real work possible. I think this is fantastic. My concern, though, is that people may…
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John Robb's Weblog
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Demographic Dystopia
13 Jan 2010 | 9:55 amBack in 1996, I worked on the implications of matching just-in-time advertising with highly accurate personal data with the senior leadership of Firefly. My conclusion was that once that connection could be made, we create the opportunity for a demographic dystopia. In short, because you have great data (money, spending habits, public/network influence, etc.) you will get lots of free stuff. For example, you walk into a movie theater, ping the kiosk with you phone, and it says, "John Robb, it's so great to have you here. Please let us offer you a free… -
Avatar
30 Dec 2009 | 1:37 pmSaw it in 3D IMAX with the family today. All I can say is "insert favorite explicative here" James Cameron. He's done it again, and even better than before. -
Climate change summit = financial scam
8 Dec 2009 | 2:33 pmLimos, parties, caviar.... A party to launch another big kleptocratic event. Not even hiding that this is all about the money that can be made by the global financial system on carbon credits. -
Black Friday, Spectator Sport and Simulated Shopping
30 Nov 2009 | 8:27 amEven in a very prosperous part of the country, relatively untouched by start of the depression, black Friday shopping was a bust. Lines at food court and not the shops. VERY selective buying. Maybe $100 for the day on deeply discounted (70% off required) items. Mostly a spectator sport and a simulated shopping experience. -
The China Myth
16 Nov 2009 | 8:02 amIn truth, China is more vulnerable that the US is. Yves has some good stuff on this today. Here's more from the FT's Abrose Evans Pritchard: It is fashionable to talk of America as the supplicant. That misreads the strategic balance. Washington can bring China to its knees at any time by shutting markets. There is no symmetry here. Any move by Beijing to liquidate its holdings of US Treasuries could be neutralized – in extremis – by capital controls. Well-armed sovereign states can do whatever they want. If provoked, the US has the economic depth to retreat into near autarky (with NAFTA)…
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Lance Knobel
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“The Pepsi of Austrian writing”
8 Feb 2010 | 5:11 pmI’ve written before about my father’s unfashionable taste for Leon Feuchtwanger. Another Mittel European whom he favored was Stefan Zweig, for his fiction more than for his historical works. Many are sitting on my shelves now, part of the library that was divided between my sisters and me. But I’m going to have to take another look, with some trepidation, after reading Michael Hofmann’s evisceration of Zweig in the London Review of Books: Stefan Zweig just tastes fake. He’s the Pepsi of Austrian writing. He is the one whose books made films – 18 of them, and… -
Undercover Boss — good and bad
7 Feb 2010 | 9:13 pmI just watched the first episode of Undercover Boss, the new reality show from CBS. The idea is that a corporate executive goes “undercover” to find out what work is like on the frontlines of the company. Tonight’s episode followed Larry O’Donnell, president and COO of Waste Management, the $13 billion group that handles all sorts of dirty jobs — garbage collection, recycling, waste disposal, and so on. Waste Management made Wayne Huizenga’s first fortune, growing enormously as municipalities in the US and internationally contracted out services like… -
Davos redux
1 Feb 2010 | 3:04 pmFelix Salmon responds to my defense of Davos the other day. I agree with almost everything Felix writes. I suspect we generally share a world view, and I’m certainly suspicious of people who are convinced of their own righteousness (I never thought invading Iraq was a good idea, by the way). Where I disagree is the notion that there is some kind of singular Davos crowd or mindset (exemplified in Sam Huntington’s phrase “Davos man”). Felix writes: My point isn’t that Davos is influential or powerful in itself, just that it inculcates a mindset in its delegates where… -
The story of Davos
29 Jan 2010 | 11:36 amWhen Davos Newbies was launched in 1999, it was all Davos, all the time. I haven’t been back to Davos since 2001 (and the New York “Davos” in 2002), and so the blog has understandably drifted into other areas. But reading some of the reports from this year’s Davos there are some things that I think deserve comment. My friend Felix Salmon posted a very critical view of Davos and the World Economic Forum the other day: Is anybody here seriously examining the idea that Davos was institutionally responsible, at least in part, for the economic and financial catastrophe… -
The Prince of currencies
19 Jan 2010 | 11:05 amI recently finished Liaquat Ahamed’s wonderful Lords of Finance, which hardly needs my encomium on top of the many great reviews it received (you might want to try Joe Nocera or Jonathan Davis). But I suspect I’m one of the few readers who had an extra frisson when I read the following paragraph, about part of the response to FDR’s 1933 closing of all the banks in the country: More than a hundred cities and towns, including Atlanta, Richmond, Knoxville, Nashville, and Philadelphia, issued their own scrip. The Dow Chemical Company coined magnesium into alternative coins. That…
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Michael Gartenberg
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Please take our mobile app survey for developers
8 Feb 2010 | 10:55 amInterpret is conducting an App Developer Study and we are attempting to recruit both professional and hobbyist App Developers to take a short survey we’ve designed. We believe the survey will quite be helpful in pushing the industry forward for both developers and app users so please pass this on to anyone you know who might be interested. You can find the survey here. http://tiny.cc/appstudy -
Lessons from the iPad Launch
31 Jan 2010 | 3:25 pmLatest Engadget column, “lessons from the iPad launch” is now live here. “Apple didn’t invent the MP3 player market or the smartphone market, and it’s got a long way to go in the market for tablet devices. In each case, it refined the concept to make a device that appealed to the enthusiast market but was able to go beyond that space and capture the attention (and wallets) of the mass market. Vendors competing with Apple in this space are going to need to understand these lessons and in many cases change not only their current products, but the story they… -
iPad Hands on and First Take
30 Jan 2010 | 5:15 pmiPad hands on and first take are up at SlashGear. Check it out here “When the iPhone went on sale, some called it a failure and predicted lack of consumer adoption. Like the iPod and iPhone, Apple did not invent the iPad device category. It has, however, done a better job to date than anyone else justifying that space to the market, and I expect both enthusiast and mainstream consumer demand to be strong.” -
Thanksgiving Thoughts 2009
25 Nov 2009 | 9:38 amOn the eve of Thanksgiving I’m thinking about how more then three hundred years ago, a small band of pilgrims united in faith and seeking liberty came to a new world. A place where they could worship according to their own beliefs. Tomorrow, in the United States, we celebrate a national day of thanksgiving. How cool is that? Wherever you are, I wish you and your family a Happy Thanksgiving and best wishes for the holiday season. See you next week. -
5 Things Missing from the Droid
8 Nov 2009 | 9:41 amLots of buzz about the Droid over the weekend as more users got their hands on a device. My first take is posted over on SlashGear and it’s mostly positive. If, however, you’re thinking of getting one, here’s a list of five things that you should know about before you buy. 1. Applications. Despite the 10,000 apps in the the marketplace there’s too much stuff still missing, especially in terms of entertainment. That means a real lack of good games, no eBook readers like Kindle or Noook, no Slingplayer etc. Even worse, Android 2.0 still has a limit of 256mb for…
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Naked Jen
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Is it art? I don't know. But it sure as hell was entertaining.
8 Feb 2010 | 3:50 pmMy head feels a bit like a snow globe. That is in the hands of a three year old boy. Who has decided that it will be a blizzard for the hapless snowman inside ALL THE TIME. That is to... -
In the end, writers will write not to be outlaw heroes of some underculture but mainly to save themselves, to survive as individuals.
2 Feb 2010 | 4:52 pmShe shared that the film we had seen at the previous year's festival, "Interviews with Pathetic Men" (which, honestly, is NOT the title of the film, but is what we both have decided it really should be called) always seems to be on and she knows, insists really, that all the festival films find their way there but how do you sort the good from the bad, the ones that you really do want to see from the things that are just, well, pathetic? -
The healthy being craves an occasional wildness, a jolt from normality, a sharpening of the edge of appetite, his own little festival of Saturnalia, a brief excursion from his way of life.
25 Jan 2010 | 10:33 pmI think in the last four days I've gotten a total of about seven hours of sleep. This is not at all even the tiniest exaggeration. Cramming 23 films into four days will do that to a certain naked girl. -
The weight of the world is love. Under the burden of solitude, under the burden of dissatisfaction.
23 Jan 2010 | 10:39 amThose confluences when the writing and the pictures and the sound and the gasps of an audience all manage to come together in rare synchronicity are what fueled our bond in many ways. I miss sharing this festival with him. -
"Fiction’s about what it is to be a fucking human being."
22 Jan 2010 | 6:18 amIt is our common bond. We share our stories, our tales, our lives to stay connected to each other. To feel a part of the larger community. To contribute and to know that we are, yes, alive.
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Rebecca Mackinnon
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Events on Google, China and Internet freedom - two videos
4 Feb 2010 | 10:11 amAfter Hillary Clinton's Internet Freedom speech on January 21st, I participated in a follow-up panel discussion. While the panel video does not appear to have been posted on the State Dept. website, somebody has pointed out that it was posted here on CNet. (UPDATE: Thanks to Graham for pointing out it's on the State Dept. YouTube channel.) While I'm at it, here is the video of a panel discussion held at the New America Foundation the day before: -
Clinton speaks on Internet freedom
21 Jan 2010 | 3:58 pmThe cartoonist-blogger "Guaiguai" posted this photoshopped picture to express his feelings about Secretary Clinton's Internet freedom speech. He titled it: "Hillary leads the people."It appears that quite a lot of people in China watched the live video stream. The links to the text, video, and an ad-hoc Chinese translation - published through Google Docs, no less - are also circulating widely.Beijing is 12 hours ahead of Washignton and people are just getting up over there. Once more people have had time to read, watch and react, it will be interesting indeed to see… -
How not to save the Internet...
19 Jan 2010 | 4:23 pmSecretary of State Hillary Clinton plans to give a big speech about Internet freedom on Thursday. People are calling on her to speak loudly against Chinese censorship and stand firm for free speech on the Chinese Internet - and elsewhere like Iran. I've been invited to attend and I'm also going to be on a post-game analysis panel. But before the fun and games begin, I might as well add my two cents to the suggestion pile. The wrong message for Clinton to give on Thursday would be something to the effect of: "Never fear, netizens of China, America is here to free… -
Google, China, and the future of freedom on the global Internet
17 Jan 2010 | 4:34 amMaybe it's because I was schooled in political science, not computer science. But frankly I've been surprised by the extent to which some respected commentators have focused on trashing Google for lacking purity of motive. As if that were some kind of brilliant revelation. Of course Google's actions are motivated by self-interest. Self-interest is a complicated thing, and isn't only financial. I personally know quite a number of Googlers working in various locations around the world, some at fairly high levels. I get the sense that the emotional well-being of Google's… -
Google puts its foot down.
12 Jan 2010 | 10:19 pmThis is a picture of people laying flowers and making a traditional bow of mourning in front of the Google sign outside Google's Beijing headquarters. Google's announcement that it will "review" its business operations in China and is no longer willing to censor its Chinese search engine, Google.cn, is generating a range of reaction in China. Conversation over at the #googlecn hashtag on Twitter - created shortly after the announcement - has been raging fast and furious. The Chinese Twittersphere - comprised exclusively of people who are tech savvy enough to know how to get…
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Rex Hammock
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Google advertises in lots of good old fashioned ways
8 Feb 2010 | 8:40 amIn his typical insightful way, master of the search universe Danny Sullivan provides a thorough breakdown of the Google ad that appeared on the Superbowl last night. In his post, he also runs down several past examples of Google using “traditional advertising,” including a TV campaign to support the Chrome browser, outdoor and some local radio to support AdSense. (I would add that as part of its holiday airport free wifi campaign, many of the airports had lots of “place-based” signage associated with the effort.) One thing Danny didn’t mention was Google’s… -
It’s was just a game
7 Feb 2010 | 6:46 pmIt’s just a game. The Superbowl. The game is just a game — it’s between two teams of players, not the millions of us who sit in the stands and watch on TV. We’re just fans and we’re just talk. But every once in a while, the narrative — and the allegory — make the game more than just that battle out on the field. This year, the game was all about the team carrying on their shoulders the hopes and dreams of the people of post-Katrina New Orleans. And, well, in the process, for the rest of us who have known loss. Those of us who have ever faced the long… -
Are you working on an iPad app that can help content marketers – I’ll be happy to help
5 Feb 2010 | 5:51 amMy “job” has changed radically over the past few years, so I understand why people have no idea what I do. The company I started 20 years ago, now called Hammock Inc., is in the business of developing and managing different types of content and custom media for marketers who are trying to achieve specific objectives. (Objectives being a buzzword that means something you can actually measure, not something that’s important- and lofty-sounding but has no yardstick — those are called goals. We’re into yardstick stuff.) So, yes, when publishing a magazine (what lots… -
Economic indicators: John Chambers vs. 200 Economics Bloggers
3 Feb 2010 | 9:16 pmWednesday after the market closed, Cisco announced earnings that “trounced” analyst estimates. CEO John Chambers said, “We saw very strong, balanced growth from a year-over-year perspective in almost all of the major geographies and market segment categories,” he said. According to Reuters, “He sounded a bullish note for the rest of the technology industry, predicting a good chance of ’solid, sustainable economic growth.’” He said too that the company expects to add 2,000 to 3,000 over the next few quarters. I will remind you that Cisco serves… -
Should I care about Flash?
31 Jan 2010 | 10:56 amNYT.com with flash blocked. John Gruber writes a typically thought-provoking piece about Flash, the ubiquitous software platform that designers and marketers love because it enables animation and video that make a website act just like a TV or interactive game. Except, that is, when people do what I do and use things like the Firefox browser plugin Flashblock that keeps Flash from taking over my browser — unless I want it to. Flash can be great. But more often than not, it just slows down a web page. I grew so frustrated with Flash that I installed Flashblock months ago and…
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Yvonne Burgess
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Unword Theatre
1 Feb 2010 | 3:14 pmSome things can’t be said – that’s why we have theatre. -
Intensely Exclusive
6 Oct 2009 | 11:12 pmit was an intense relationship _ in a direct and exclusive sort of way Intensely Exclusive If I remember rightly, this drawing came up at the end of an experiment in which I recently participated – an investigation into group learning using WoW as the platform. I don’t know if others consider that they have a relationship with their computers or what types of relationships those may be, but I found that, although we were focused on the interactions among humans, my relationship to and with the “machine” (meaning both the computer and the software/environment) was… -
Here Now
1 Oct 2009 | 3:59 pmWith the power of life she pointed, saying “Here. Now.” and so it was. Here Now There comes a time when you realize that the only place you can make a difference is here and the only time you really have to work with is now … that the shortest distance between whatever past you’ve come from and any future you might choose is now … the point of all possibility. And then you realize that soon after that, another “now” will be up for grabs very soon. Or your realize that if this “now” is working but this “here” ain’t cutting… -
Go Bow
30 Sep 2009 | 12:36 pmonce she got her bow _ there was nothing could stop her! Go Bow This drawing started from the top: the figure started coming and I first noticed the hairbow. It wasn’t till it was done and I looked again that I saw the bow over her shoulder. So this is about getting your equipment and having the strength to use it. Pulling a bow and holding it steady is actually quite a challenge. My uncle taught me in Golden Gate Park somewhere when I was a kid, maybe only 10 or 11 years old. Sometimes you keep the equipment over your shoulder, and sometimes it’s on your head and only looks like… -
One Eye Open
28 Sep 2009 | 1:44 pmshe had but one eye _ and it was open and clear so could, of course see much better than most One Eye Open Being a meditator, we hear a lot about the “Third Eye”. You need two eyes to see in the world, but to get at a true kind of knowing, one is usually better. Sometimes that’s all you need: an inner knowing, a spiritual summons, and that’s a different kind of seeing. In the drawings I’ve noticed that the eye is usually what makes the piece be something in particular. Until the eye is placed, it could be anything. Frequently, the eye is the last touch.
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Hugh MacLeod: Gaping Void
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the new seth godin “linchpin” prints: available at the gapingvoid gallery
8 Feb 2010 | 3:16 pm[The "Linchpin" Series- available over on the gapingvoid Gallery etc.] Last month my friend and mentor, Seth Godin released his longest and probably most important book, “Linchpin”. I interviewed him about it here. To celebrate the book, Seth let me design a portfolio of four fine art prints, inspired by the book, entitled “The Linchpin Series”. You can go check out over on the gapingvoid Gallery here. What else is there to say? Seth wrote a great book. Like I said in my review on Amazon, “And Seth then challenges us, the readers, to become linchpins ourselves. -
women are now calling the shots at gapingvoid
8 Feb 2010 | 9:51 amI remember reading one of Tom Peter’s books about five years ago, when this sentence popped right out at me: “Make appealing to women your Marketing No. 1 priority.” It seemed like a very bold statement to me at the time, though Tom’s rationale was rock-solid. Not only do women account for over half of the nation’s GDP, their power over what is spent in the household is vastly greater than their menfolk’s. Sure, it’s a no-brainer. Did I pay any attention at the time? Of course not. I’m a Man. And men are stupid. Fast-forward half a decade and… -
front & back
8 Feb 2010 | 8:08 am[Another early one: showing the front & back of the same drawing. Laminated. New York, 14 January, ‘98] This was drawn in a very crowded bar, very late at night. I think it shows. -
the new official gapingvoid logo: “remember who you are”
7 Feb 2010 | 9:14 pmThis image to the left you should be seeing a lot of from now on, scattered around the gapingvoid empire. It’s now our official logo. OK, so why “Remember Who You Are”? Because it ties up everything I’ve been working on these last few years. First with the cartoons, the prints and the “Cube Grenade” private commissions. Like I said earlier: I’m interested in how art affects “The Real World”- the workplace, the world of work, the world of business. That’s what the Cube Grenade idea is all about. My advertising buddy, Vinny Warren,… -
“commitment”, revisited
7 Feb 2010 | 12:05 pmWithin 1 week of meeting this person you realize that not only have you found your soulmate, but you’ve found your soulmate who likes to have sex 4 times a day in the bed, on the dining table, on the kitchen floor, in the changing rooms at Bloomingdale’s etc. Within 2 weeks you’re already talking about moving in together. Within 3 weeks you’re talking about having babies together. Within 4 weeks you realize this person is a complete psychopath. Within 5 weeks this person also thinks you’re a complete psychopath. Within 6 weeks you’re sitting at a restaurant with an old friend who…
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GerardMcLean
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Why boomers are hesitant to adopt social media tools for serious business
29 Jan 2010 | 9:25 amI ran out of coffee filters the other day. Not a big deal, I’ll just hike to Kroger and get some more. When I got there, I saw the empty peghook that once held my filters. Moreover, there was a red tag on the hook informing me that this product would be discontinued. Here’s why this [...] -
Something serious is rumbling in Social Media
21 Jan 2010 | 5:42 amTalk is one thing. Money is quite another. A couple years ago, this thing called Twitter popped up on the landscape. Sure, it was a lot of fun and pretty much a waste of time. The kids in the company took to it right away and started following each other, tapping out little notes on what [...] -
5 things I resolve to NOT do in 2010
3 Jan 2010 | 8:49 amAfter thinking a bit about what sort of New Year’s Resolutions I needed to make a few days ago, I decided that I would put a list of five things together that I will NOT do for 2010. Here goes, in reverse order of importance (IMHO): 5. I will not use free software or services I have come [...] -
Rupert Murdoch gets the Internet… really, he does
9 Dec 2009 | 12:32 pmMy BFF Rupert Murdoch* has been taking some hits lately about him wanting to block Google from indexing his sites and putting up pay walls. I understand his reasoning and don’t think he is too far off the mark. In order to explain my thinking, I have an analogy. Say you own a small grocery store. [...] -
John Nese is to soda pop what Gary Vaynerchuk is to wine
8 Dec 2009 | 12:37 pmJohn Nese is the proprietor of Galcos Soda Pop Stop in LA. His father ran it as a grocery store, and when the time came for John to take charge, he decided to convert it into the ultimate soda-lovers destination. About 500 pops line the shelves, sourced lovingly by John from around the world. John [...]
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Franklin McMahon
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Creative Expert Video Series Launches
27 Jan 2010 | 5:52 amJust a quick note to announce a new series I am doing for Millimeter Magazine (Penton Media Inc.) which is called “Creative Expert with Franklin McMahon”. Each week on the video show I will cover a range of creative tips, reviews and techniques for media professionals. Topics include Adobe and Apple software, social media techniques, creative marketing and lots more. Check out the first few episodes below and check the Millimeter website weekly for new episodes. Creative Expert Episode 2: Marketing Using Facebook Creative Expert is a new video show dedicated to expanding your… -
The One Secret To Keeping Your New Year’s Goals
8 Jan 2010 | 8:09 amAt the beginning of each year people make a lot of plans for resolutions. I don’t believe in waiting or starting around a specific date, but the new year does bring a sense of hope and newness to many, so it can be a good time. In a few months some of these new plans never come to fruition, mainly because of one thing: no measuring. A good recipe for success is measuring progress and tracking the status. Goals need to be specific (”I will get 3 more clients this week” instead of “I’m going to try to get more work”) but they also must be trackable to allow… -
Shop, Dine and Stay in Portland, Maine
1 Dec 2009 | 6:12 amI’ve been working with the Maine Office of Tourism to produce a series of videos that focus on different cities in Maine. Here is one I just completed, based on Portland. I do a lot of commercial HD video production, web video and podcasts for clients, but it’s always so cool to direct a piece focused on the actual city where you live. See what you think Watch the video in HD on YouTube You can also watch the video on the VisitMaine.com website Franklin McMahon Studio website Franklin McMahon - Facebook Franklin McMahon - Twitter frank@fmstudio.com Share on Facebook -
Is Your Brand Just a Technical Service or is it Emotionally Compelling?
19 Nov 2009 | 7:11 amThere is a big difference between a brand and a service, a brand is more of a story and a service is more of a task. So when you do networking with potential clients, how do you describe yourself? Do you stick to talking about the task? I have always disliked the term “freelance”, I always prefer that people position themselves as a company, even if it is just them. But freelancers, especially when they are just starting out, often stick to just describing the tasks they do. For example if they do web work, they will mention they can do all the coding, host the site on a server… -
Sharpening the Saw - Close the Web Browser and Open Your Mind
11 Nov 2009 | 6:08 amWe’re all busy, we all have lots of tasks, projects, things going on. We are focused on growing our career. This could mean networking, gaining new clients, making things happen. But what about you personally? What about your skill set? Your talents? Self-improvement and self-growth? Author Stephen Covey covered this in his book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, in fact it’s the 7th Habit, sharpening the saw. You are the saw and you are always engaged in keeping things improving, growing and sharper. This could cover many areas including your mind, spirit and physical body.
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Ted Murphy
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Internet Marketing
27 Jan 2010 | 8:26 amI am pleased to announce the release of a new book edited by my good friends Missy Ward and Shawn Collins. Internet Marketing from the Real Experts is a collection of affiliate, email, blogging, podcasting, video, search engine, and social media rock stars that break down the how and why of Internet marketing in a clear, easy to understand way. There are dozens of contributors including Brian Clark, Joel Comm, Jim Kukral, Jeremy Schoemaker and yours truly. These are the people that do this stuff every day… the people that I seek advice from. Find out how they do what they do to achieve… -
2010 Marathon Schedule
25 Jan 2010 | 6:05 amLast year was my first year ever running a marathon. I started off pretty slow but managed to complete 5 full marathons through the year without stopping once during any of them. My best time was 4h 07m 58s in Atlanta on Thanksgiving day, with times for every race coming in under 4h 20m. I can honestly say that I am in better shape now than I was in my 20s and I feel great. My 2010 New Year’s Resolution is to run eight full marathons and one ultra marathon. Here are the races I have have booked or will book as soon as registration opens. January : ING Miami Marathon February :… -
Peace for Haiti
24 Jan 2010 | 10:10 amI have been overwhelmed by the support for earthquake victims in Haiti. The country has been torn apart by the disaster, but the world is coming to their aid. From concerts and telethons to text messages and twitter campaigns these past few weeks have been a testament to our global humanity. I am especially proud of America, no matter where tragedy strikes our government, companies and citizens provide relief like no other. I am trying to do my little part too. I have decided to sell a one of a kind piece of art that I have been working on over the past month or so. I didn’t start the… -
Ted’s Airport Security Guide
18 Jan 2010 | 9:07 amI have spent the past few weeks traveling the country non-stop. That means hours of my life wasted in the airport, many of those sitting in the security screening line on the way to my gate. Despite all the videos, signs and screaming TSA employees there is apparently still some confusion about procedures at the security check point. For those of you who have difficulty I have compiled my own guide to getting through security quickly and not annoying your fellow passengers. The Expert Lane In most of the major airports there are special expert lanes designated for people that travel… -
Taco Murphy
8 Jan 2010 | 1:55 pmI had a dream last night that included domesticated miniature camels (bonzo size), Gary Coleman, a flying hot dog cart and my unborn son. While I was impressed that the camels could use the toilet and Gary Coleman was taller in person, I woke up most excited about my unborn son. No, I am not married and no, Tara is not pregnant (that I know of anyway), but in my dream there was a bun in the oven and I had just scored a major victory for branding freaks and taco lovers the world over. I have talked about personal branding quite a bit in the past. I believe that it will be an area of growing…
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Derek Sivers
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Resist the urge to punish everyone for one person's mistake
The little diner near me has these big warning signs posted everywhere: WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO REFUSE SERVICE TO ANYONE FOR ANY REASON ALL ORDERS ARE FINAL! ABSOLUTELY NO REFUNDS! NO SHOES, NO SHIRT, NO SERVICE NO CELLPHONES. NO PHOTOS. NO VIDEOS. NO LOITERING! RESTROOM FOR CUSTOMERS ONLY! ALL VIOLATORS WILL BE PROSECUTED TO THE FULLEST EXTENT OF THE LAW I think some little business owner needs a good hug. Poor guy. Every time someone upsets him, he punishes all his future customers forever. When I was 6, I attended a strict little school in Abingdon, England. Early in the year, someone… -
There are always more than two options
Lately I've been helping a lot of friends with decisions. The common theme I've found is that they thought they had only two options. That's not a decision. That's a self-created dilemma! The way out is to realize there are always more than two options! Backing up: When someone says they only have one option, they're really saying, “I have no choice,” and you know that's wrong. (At very least, add “do nothing” and “go insane” as choices.) When they say they only have two options, beware. It means they got stuck. Once people get two options, they start… -
Big catalog = infinite specialty shops
Here's an idea I built but never launched at CD Baby. Maybe you can take it and use it somehow. How do you call attention to over 250,000 albums of music, so that each has a chance of being noticed by someone who might like it? They're categorized into 850 different musical genres, and the artists are from 300 different countries and states. You break it down into categories, right? But then people still have to start at a big generic front door, listing every possible genre or location. Not exciting. If you're a huge fan of Brazilian funk music, wouldn't you be more… -
Seth Godin on spreading music and selling intimacy
Reading Seth Godin's new book called Linchpin, I had some lingering questions on behalf of all the musicians I know. So I asked him. Here are my questions and his answers: You say, “the winners are the artists who give gifts”, but many artists I know are feeling like the losers. How would you explain your philosophy of the linchpin economy to a musician who's making great music, giving it away online, but getting only apathy in return? Feeling like a loser is part of being an artist, but I want to challenge the notion of “great music.” Sure, some music that's great is… -
Musician feedback on Ignore Everybody
I loved Hugh MacLeod's “Ignore Everybody” book, but I wanted to see what my musician friends thought of it. Alex Krupp had some extra copies from Swagapalooza, which I promised to put to good use. (Thanks Alex!) So I mailed a copy of the book to 15 different musicians so they could post their thoughts. Here they are, below. Click “LINK” to read their full post. Huge thanks to Melissa Rebronja for making this surprisingly-big project happen! Chuck Anderson, jazz guitarist “a concise and powerful presentation of deep concepts embedded in the struggle for the development of human…
