The last three days have been a clumsy stumble through my thoughts and over my feet, and suddenly I'm gripped with almost paralyzing fear. I expected to feel profound sadness, but I didn't know I'd get this scared. Fear over absolutely nothing and then everything all at once. It's like a scene in a movie where you suddenly notice the ghost of a little girl peeking inside the window. This morning at 5 AM the smoke detectors in my room and Leta's room started beeping. The piercing sound lasted about ten seconds and then stopped just as abruptly as it had started. Five minutes later the smoke…
Egos
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Most Topular Stories
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Fire drill
dooce® main feed26 Jan 2012 | 1:48 pm -
Someday I’ll Tell You About Kenmore
Jessica Gottlieb A Los Angeles Mom26 Jan 2012 | 4:04 pmTraveling to Chicago in the winter is a bear. It’s cold and the traffic is miserable. If there’s only one thing you ever learn from me in your entire life let it be this: There is a train station in O’Hare Airport. Use it. I was really happy to meet so many women who I’ve followed online for years. One in particular is Bobbie who had a very serious accident on her way home. Of course I was happy to be with new and old friends but after coming home and hearing about Bobbie, her husband and her kids (just bumps for them, yay!) I sort of didn’t have energy to write about the day. I… -
What Our Fears Are Here to Tell Us
Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing25 Jan 2012 | 6:57 amWhat Our Fears Are Here to Tell UsThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing I’m going to get a bit personal today, but I believe there’s a solid business context for the message. I was sitting around a dinner table with a number of colleagues, which in this case meant people speaking at the same event as me. Martin Lopatka via Flickr CCA couple of the folks were pretty engaged in a conversation about another speaker that was not present and suggested that he was a fraud. The sentiment was that he didn’t really know what he was talking about because he had never really done what it is he… -
Why I love PandoDaily, new media company focused on startups
Scobleizer16 Jan 2012 | 3:46 pmToday Sarah Lacy, formerly of Techcrunch, announced she was starting a new media company and has gotten funded, to the tune of $2.5-million by a variety of big names in investing. This is just what the tech industry needs. Why? Because big companies are too focused on profits to properly cover the startup world. Here’s why. 1. Most stories about startups don’t get many hits. At least not when compared to stuff about Apple, Microsoft, Google, Facebook. There’s a reason for that that’s built into the system. If you write about Microsoft, for instance, its 90,000… -
Ask not what the Internet...
Dave Winer's "Scripting News" weblog27 Jan 2012 | 11:06 amOn Twitter, with its 140-character limit, there's little focus to the discussion about the new filitering they just announced. Here are some of my comments, in bullet form, hopefully to add some more substance to the discussion.. 1. We don't know very much about what they're doing, and it's not clear that we ever will. 2. The examples they cite, laws in France and Germany that prohibit pro-Nazi speech, are somewhat reasonable. But I suspect this will be used in the future to prevent leaks of information they don't want leaked. If Twitter-like tech is the new world stage, and I think it is,…
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Scobleizer
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Why I love PandoDaily, new media company focused on startups
16 Jan 2012 | 3:46 pmToday Sarah Lacy, formerly of Techcrunch, announced she was starting a new media company and has gotten funded, to the tune of $2.5-million by a variety of big names in investing. This is just what the tech industry needs. Why? Because big companies are too focused on profits to properly cover the startup world. Here’s why. 1. Most stories about startups don’t get many hits. At least not when compared to stuff about Apple, Microsoft, Google, Facebook. There’s a reason for that that’s built into the system. If you write about Microsoft, for instance, its 90,000… -
My first photowalk with Lytro’s lightfield camera
28 Dec 2011 | 3:48 pmThis weekend we’ll be in Yosemite with Google+ photographers, including Thomas Hawk, Trey Ratcliff Karen Hutton Scott Jarvie Peter Adams shirley lo and Kimberly Shoemaker. All trying to make a better image than the ones that come up in searches for Yosemite on Google+. So, to prepare, I went on a photowalk around Half Moon Bay with a new kind of camera: Lytro’s lightfield camera. Lytro’s director of photography, Eric Cheng, gave me a late Christmas present: he let me be one of the first people in the world to actually use one in the wild. Yesterday we walked around and I… -
Oh, Charlie, you should have been here for Christmas
26 Dec 2011 | 9:18 pmOh, Charlie. Charlie Kindel, that is. He used to work at Microsoft. He still has Microsoft in his blood as he tries to explain why Windows Phone 7 hasn’t taken off. I thought about posting this over on Google+ or Facebook or Twitter, but I like the way MG Siegler is treating it. All the stupid stuff goes on the blog and all the important stuff goes on YouTube, Tumblr, or Google+. Heh. MG mailed Charlie’s post back with a “way too late” headline and pointed out that apps do matter. It’s worse than that. Sorry Charlie. I had dozens of people here for several events… -
Viral coefficients + store feature + branding + influencers = cool apps on iOS first
11 Dec 2011 | 11:55 pmAt LeWeb last week former Google CEO, Eric Schmidt was asked by an audience member why the coolest apps come out on iOS first. Apps like Flipboard and Instagram. He answered: “”So my prediction is that 6 months from now, I think the question is exactly right right now, and 6 months from now, you’ll say the opposite. Because ultimately applications vendors are driven by volume, and the volume is favored by the open approach that Google is taking. That there are literally so many manufacturers who are working so hard to distribute Android phones globally, that whether you like ICS… -
The Facebook Freaky Line
20 Nov 2011 | 1:49 pmIt seems everyone is getting freaked out by Facebook once again. Molly Wood at CNET says that Facebook’s automatic sharing features are ruining sharing. That got everyone to pile on over on Techmeme. First, what does this automatic sharing feature (otherwise known as “frictionless sharing”) do? Well, every time I play a song on Spotify, for instance, it tells everyone something like “Robert Scoble is listening to Skrillex on Spotify.” On Facebook’s web interface that shows up over on the right in the new ticker (not everyone has that, and only the web…
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Dave Winer's "Scripting News" weblog
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Ask not what the Internet...
27 Jan 2012 | 11:06 amOn Twitter, with its 140-character limit, there's little focus to the discussion about the new filitering they just announced. Here are some of my comments, in bullet form, hopefully to add some more substance to the discussion.. 1. We don't know very much about what they're doing, and it's not clear that we ever will. 2. The examples they cite, laws in France and Germany that prohibit pro-Nazi speech, are somewhat reasonable. But I suspect this will be used in the future to prevent leaks of information they don't want leaked. If Twitter-like tech is the new world stage, and I think it is,… -
EC2 for Poets in 2012
25 Jan 2012 | 6:08 pmThree years ago, I wrote a tutorial called EC2 for Poets that made it relatively easy for a technically proficient user to set up a Windows server in Amazon EC2. A few hundred people tried it, and were able to get servers running. They could install apps, and run web apps that they then could access from home or on the road. Having your own server "up there" can be pretty cool, makes a lot of things possible that otherwise would be hard. For example you can run a personal river of news. That's what I do on one of my EC2 instances. Not only for myself but for a few friends at universities and… -
What could Nancy Pelosi know?
25 Jan 2012 | 8:59 amI know the Repubs like to demonize Nancy Pelosi, but I really like her. Check out this exchange with John King at CNN. Fascinating. What does she know? Some possibilities... 1. Newt is secretly a Democrat. 2. Newt is secretly a woman. 3. Newt secretly slept with Nancy P. 4. Newt is secretly Osama bin Laden's long lost brother. 5. New paid no taxes until he was 45 years old. 6. Instead of fighting in Vietnam, he signed up for the Khmer Rouge. He's Prince Sihanouk's long lost brother. 7. He was part of the Bay of Pigs invasion. In fact the bay was named after him. He's Fidel Castro's long lost… -
Ideas for movie moguls
25 Jan 2012 | 8:35 amPresident Obama asks that we suggest ways for the movie industry to control the Internet that we might not find so objectionable. Nat Torkington tells an old joke in a new context. It's a good one. God already gave the movie industry the Internet and it's been shown you can make many billions of dollars selling things there. So why not sell movies too? I think the President asks the wrong question. What can the movie industry do to freshen up their product in the age of technology to make it more fun and interesting for their customers. Rather than try to destroy the new playground, how about… -
Can we buy your search engine?
24 Jan 2012 | 9:08 amIn yesterday's piece about wanting an exit from Google, I mentioned that I might use DuckDuckGo, but had reservations because it's "another Fred Wilson company." Fred, who is a very cheerful dude (no sarcasm) responded with evangelism, which is what I like about Fred. Of course he can handle criticism, even when it's as vaguely defined as the bit in my blog post. Come right back with a great product pitch. I wouldn't expect any less. Even though I know Fred personally, he has a bigger presence in the tech world. Like it or not he now is the leading tech VC. He occupies a slot that John Doerr…
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How to Change the World
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Raising Money: What Not to Say and What Not to Believe #OfficeandGuyK
20 Jan 2012 | 12:46 pmOver the past two weeks via my partnership with Microsoft and Office Web Apps, I’ve provided templates of models for you to create enchanting PowerPoint pitches, Word business plans, and Excel financial models. They are all available for you to download from my SkyDrive account. I hope these documents and blog posts help you save a boatload of time and increase the quality of your efforts.I leave you with two sets of top ten lies: one of entrepreneurs and one of investors so that you know what not to say and what not to believe. Top Ten Lies of Entrepreneurs “Our projections are… -
Design a Sam Adams beer
20 Jan 2012 | 10:24 amNow this is a fun project. I’m helping Sam Adams “tap” the knowledge of beer drinkers and crowd source its next brew. Join the party by getting the app and designing your beer: The final brew will be released in Austin in the first week of March. #sponsored -
How to Create an Enchanting Financial Forecast #OfficeandGuyK
17 Jan 2012 | 3:52 pmThis is the third post in my Microsoft partnership, and it’s all about numbers. The topic is crafting your financial forecast to include in your pitch. Bill Reichert, my partner at Garage Technology Ventures, created an Excel model and wrote this blog post. There’s a lesson in this too: Get the best person for the job. His grasp of financial models and how to present them exceeds mine by two orders of magnitude. The Purpose of Financial Projections When it comes to financial projections, there are two types of entrepreneurs: first, the “visionary entrepreneur” who… -
How to Create an Enchanting Business Plan #OfficeandGuyK
12 Jan 2012 | 10:16 amHere is the second post in my series about planning, pitching, and launching a new business venture. In partnership with Microsoft and Office Web Apps, I’ve created a Word document that outlines a good business plan. It’s saved to my SkyDrive folder here. Feel free to download it and use it as inspiration. And if you’re working with a partner, you can use the free Word Web App to stay in sync. I provided the PowerPoint document before the Word document because a good business plan is an elaboration of a good pitch as opposed to a good pitch being a distillation of good business plan. -
How to Create an Enchanting Pitch #OfficeandGuyK
9 Jan 2012 | 10:01 amWelcome to the first in a series of blog posts I’ll be doing as part of a partnership with Microsoft and Office Web Apps. Over the next two weeks, I’ll cover everything a budding entrepreneur needs to turn an idea into an enchanting investment opportunity—from the perfect pitch to a killer business plan to financial forecasts. I’m going to start with a little dissertation on creating effective PowerPoint pitches for your company. I embedded the sample deck for you to click through by using the PowerPoint Web App. When you’re ready to get started, you can download the…
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AllThingsD
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Viral Infographic: Apple's Cash Pile Explained (All of Greece and Canada Get iPads!)
28 Jan 2012 | 1:02 amApple has a boatload of dough and is worth a ton. Oh, just look here, via this cool infographic from MBAOnline: -
Watch: Twitter's Cheeky Infomercial to Recruit Job Applicants
27 Jan 2012 | 8:14 pmIn an industry full of earnest nerds, Twitter hopes workplace humor is a selling point. The company (which is earnest and nerdy too, of course) released a tongue-in-cheek recruiting video tonight. “At Twitter, The Future is You!” is described as an internal Hackweek project to “make the best/worst recruiting video of all time.” It does indeed manage to be both laugh-worthy and cringe-worthy. (Bonus: Watch Twitter CEO Dick Costolo try to keep a straight face.) By the way, this isn’t Twitter’s first witty recruiting video, though one from two years ago was… -
Making Sure the Next Zuckerberg or Gates Stays Put at Harvard
27 Jan 2012 | 5:40 pmEarlier today, Harvard University and New Enterprise Associates announced the Experiment Fund, aimed at making sure that future Mark Zuckerbergs and Bill Gates can stay on campus and innovate without having to head West. The irony of the pair of legendary entrepreneurs dropping out — decades apart — of the even more legendary university to start two of tech most significant companies, Facebook and Microsoft. No longer, apparently. The early-stage incubator, which will award funding to four to six start-ups in amounts from $250,000 to $500,000. It will focus on seed ventures in the… -
Nintendo to Bring Online Game Network, NFC to New Wii
27 Jan 2012 | 3:19 pmNintendo president Satoru Iwata told investors today that the Wii U, the company’s long-awaited successor to the Wii gaming console, will come equipped with NFC capabilities that will be used to transfer gaming data and will open the potential for micropayments through the gaming system. Satoru also said the company was readying an online game network for the Wii U system, citing lessons learned from the tepid launch of the 3DS. -
Ah, So That's What You're Supposed to Do With Foursquare!
27 Jan 2012 | 3:04 pm“Web company has a video.” I know. But this one, posted this week by Foursquare, is worth thinking about for a second. It’s directed at new users, but anyone who visits the homepage and isn’t logged in will see it. “Save money and unlock rewards” based on stuff you and your friends like. Now that sounds like a pretty interesting service. And one that makes a whole lot more sense than “You’re supposed to ‘check in’ when you go some place. And also you might get a ‘badge’ or something,” which is where Fourquare has…
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Seth's Blog
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The honest broker
28 Jan 2012 | 4:42 amIt really is a choice, one or the other. Either you happily recommend the best option for your customer, or you give preference to your own items first. Either you believe in what you sell, or you don't. Either you treat your best partners better, or you treat everyone the same. Either you shade the truth when it's painful to do otherwise, or you consistently share what's important. Either you always keep your promises or you don't. Either you give me the best price the first time, or you make me jump through hoops to get there. Earning the position of the honest broker is time-consuming and… -
Reconsidering Gartner's Cycle of Hype
27 Jan 2012 | 4:22 amOne theory of technology marketing and acceptance goes like this: A technology causes a media hypestorm and rising expectations. Then it crashes to Earth as the popular press and the public discovers that it's not all the hypesters said it would be--through no fault of the technologists who brought it to the world in the first place. Then, gradually, the truth about the technology seeps out until finally it reaches its use case--and then becomes that status quo, just waiting to be disrupted as it previously disrupted what came before. While the violent vicissitudes of this chart make for good… -
Who cares?
26 Jan 2012 | 4:09 amUnless someone does, things start to fray around the edges. Often it's the CEO or the manager who sets a standard of caring about the details. Even better is a culture where everyone cares, and where each person reinforces that horizontally throughout the team. You've probably been to the hotel that serves refrigerated tomatoes in January at their $20 breakfast, that doesn't answer the phone when you call the front desk, that has a shower curtain that is falling off the rack and a slightly snarky concierge. This is in sharp relief to that hotel down the street, the one that costs just the… -
Solving problems (vs. identifying them)
25 Jan 2012 | 4:27 amOften, we're hesitant to identify a problem out of fear we can't solve it. Knowing that we have to live with something that we're unable to alter gives us a good reason to avoid verbalizing it--highlighting it just makes it worse. While this sort of denial might be okay for individuals (emphasis on might), it's a lousy approach for organizations of any size. That's because there are almost certainly resources available that can solve a problem if you decide it's truly worth solving. Put yourself and your people on a path to finding problems without regard for whether or not they are capable… -
"It's completely up to you"
24 Jan 2012 | 4:06 am... and that's the problem. I was picking out the mat for a framed photo and there were a thousand colors to choose from. The framer uttered the scary invocation, putting the choice back to me. So many things are now completely up to us, more than ever before. Where and how and when we work and invest and interact and instruct and learn... If you think you have no choice but to do what you do now, you've already made a serious error. It seems to me that passing the buck on this merely because it's easier than choosing is precisely the wrong strategy. It enables an abdication of power that…
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kottke.org
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Bay of Fundy extreme tides time lapse
27 Jan 2012 | 8:46 pmThe Bay of Fundy in Eastern Canada has some of the world's greatest tides...at times, high tide is 50+ feet higher than low tide. Here's a time lapse video of those tides in action. Tags: time lapse video -
Motion sculptures made with PVC pipe
27 Jan 2012 | 7:39 pmKorean artist Kang Duck-Bong makes PVC pipe sculptures that look like they're moving. (via colossal) Tags: art Kang Duck-Bong -
The human body's microbial ecosystem
27 Jan 2012 | 10:18 amIn this transcript of a talk given to the attendees of the Joint Summits on Translational Science, Carl Zimmer highlights an important aspect of understanding the human body and how to treat its many maladies: the ecosystem of microbes. The microbes in your body at this moment outnumber your cells by ten to one. And they come in a huge diversity of species -- somewhere in the thousands, although no one has a precise count yet. By some estimates there are twenty million microbial genes in your body: about a thousand times more than the 20,000 protein-coding genes in the human genome. So the… -
New Monty Python movie (sort of)
26 Jan 2012 | 5:33 pmMonty Python member Terry Jones is set to direct a sci-fi comedy that will feature other Python members "voicing key roles". Gilliam, Cleese, and Palin have all signed on and they're working on getting Eric Idle. Members of Monty Python's Flying Circus are reteaming for "Absolutely Anything," a sci-fi farce combining CGI and live action, with Terry Jones to direct and Mike Medavoy to produce. Plans are for filming to begin in the U.K. this spring, with the Pythons voicing key roles as a a group of aliens who endow an earthling with the power to do "absolutely anything" to see what a mess… -
Notable typefaces of 2011
26 Jan 2012 | 4:17 pmTypographica shares their favorite typefaces of 2011. The idea is simple: I invite a group of writers, educators, type makers and type users to look back at 2011 and pick the release that excited them most. (via ★essl) Tags: best of best of 2011 lists typography
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Gary Vaynerchuk
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My favorite video i have made in quite some time, if u have 1...
18 Jan 2012 | 2:04 pmMy favorite video i have made in quite some time, if u have 1 minute Please undertand this https://plus.google.com/111310990991240556038/posts/ADtCqHmsTUQ?hl=en it REALLY matters. What do you think? -
2012 will be the year consumers “a scale” begin to...
11 Jan 2012 | 10:52 pm2012 will be the year consumers “a scale” begin to air their dirty laundry on the social web and the impact will be substantial if it happens to a brand more than 5,10 or 100 times. This video shows... -
I hate to call out OWN, I mean no one has done it better than...
3 Jan 2012 | 12:05 pmI hate to call out OWN, I mean no one has done it better than Oprah, that said this Tweet just embodies EVERYTHING that is wrong with the way Corporate America and most businesses and brands for that... -
There is no such thing as social media - Watch. What are your...
23 Dec 2011 | 1:10 pmThere is no such thing as social media - Watch. What are your thoughts on this logic? -
Stop doing shit you hate- The web allows for you to start...
22 Dec 2011 | 2:22 pmStop doing shit you hate- The web allows for you to start businesses at such a low cost = HUSTLE
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Charlene Li
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Jerry Yang’s departure signals a New Day for Yahoo!, the passing of an era for Tech
17 Jan 2012 | 6:30 pmMy first reaction to the news that Jerry Yang is leaving Yahoo! was that this was the passing of an era. I first met Jerry in 1994 when he was still a PhD student at Stanford, before he and David Filo left to run Yahoo! full time. Through bubbles and two economic downturns, Jerry has always been omnipresent in Silicon Valley. But all good things come to pass. With the arrival of Scott Thompson as the new CEO of Yahoo!, it makes sense that Scott be given a clean slate upon which to write the future of Yahoo!. This is very much the norm for incoming CEOs, where founders are asked to take a… -
Predictions Social Business in 2012, Part III: Transforming Your Organization
9 Jan 2012 | 12:26 pmThis is the last of three posts I’m writing on predictions and priorities for Social Business in 2012. You can read the first and second prediction posts for more context. Prediction #3: Connected leaders and employees will create sustained competitive advantages through a culture of sharing. This year will see some companies pull ahead of others because they are able to collaborate, innovate and execute better and faster thanks to an ingrained culture of sharing. This is the year that companies get serious about investing in their internal social business capabilities, simply because it… -
Predictions for Social Business in 2012, Part II: Knowing Your Customer
3 Jan 2012 | 6:26 pmRather than simply make prognostications, I wanted to give actionable advice based on these trends. This is the second of my three predictions and priorities for Social Business in 2012 (read the first prediction). Prediction #2: Your customers want to be known. Your customers don’t merely want you to understand their needs or pain points. They want you to know them as individuals anywhere and anytime they engage with you. Companies sure know a lot about us, without knowing much. For example, I’m classified for marketing purposes as a Gen X, 35-45 years old, graduate degree holding, Real… -
Predictions and Priorities for Social Business in 2012 – Part I
2 Jan 2012 | 11:57 amMy pet peeve about the annual predictions ritual is that they lack context for action. It’s nice to know that tablets and big data are important — but what should you do about it? So here’s my attempt at not only forecasting but also to provide actions that companies should be prioritizing in 2012. The Process: I went through my speaking and client engagements in 2011 and looked at which topics and themes I kept referring to over and over again, especially toward the end of the year. I also analyzed which of the tweets from these events were most retweeted to verify where the heat… -
Complete a Survey on Enterprise Social Networking
27 Oct 2011 | 12:38 amI’m working on a new Altimeter report on how organizations are using enterprise social networking (ESN) solutions. The report is tentatively titled “Making The Case for Enterprise Social Networking” and looks at how technology platforms like Chatter, Jive, and Yammer are being used within organizations. Request: Please contribute to Altimeter’s Open Research by taking this survey. You can sign up at the end to have the report emailed to you when the report goes live. Spread the word on this survey too — we want to have broad participation and also share our research…
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Daring Fireball
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Motorola’s Buzzwords
27 Jan 2012 | 7:29 pmSeems like their caps lock key works. ★ -
New York Times Goes Deeper on Chinese Apple Factory Working Conditions
27 Jan 2012 | 7:19 pmCharles Duhigg and David Barboza, reporting for the New York Times: “Apple never cared about anything other than increasing product quality and decreasing production cost,” said Li Mingqi, who until April worked in management at Foxconn Technology, one of Apple’s most important manufacturing partners. Mr. Li, who is suing Foxconn over his dismissal, helped manage the Chengdu factory where the explosion occurred. “Workers’ welfare has nothing to do with their interests,” he said. Tim Cook responded in a company-wide email. ★ -
Make That Two
26 Jan 2012 | 4:22 pmAnalyst Ed Zabitsky sees AAPL shares falling to $270: The reason for his bearish view of the company is that Zabitsky believes the competing Android mobile operating system from Google “will change the playing field entirely” with its latest 4.0 update, also known as Ice Cream Sandwich. He says the experience on the updated platform is on par with Apple’s iOS. ★ -
There’s Always One
26 Jan 2012 | 4:19 pmThomas Kee is doubling down on his advice to sell Apple short: My purpose here is NOT to suggest that sales of iPhones are going to decline aggressively, even though I firmly believe AAPL products do not carry with them the competitive advantages they once did. Instead, I am suggesting that sales growth like what we have been witness to will not continue at the same rate. This stall is coming, it is closer than most people think, and what we were just witness to is likely the peak in this growth cycle. ★ -
The State of Apple
26 Jan 2012 | 2:14 pmIf you’re at Macworld Expo, come see Jason Snell, Andy Ihnatko, and yours truly on stage at 4pm speaking about the state of Apple. If you’re not at Macworld Expo, shame on you, but you can watch online at Macworld.com. ★
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Logic+Emotion
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Launching a Social Command Center (Without The Center)
27 Jan 2012 | 10:05 am"Social command centers" are all the rage today and it's not without some merit. Many organizations now find themselves in a real-time business environment where news travels faster than sound, and information is set free. As a result, some forward thinking companies have put "monitoring" in place either in-house or in combination with partners. This isn't enough. And to make matters worse, I've seen companies make the classic mistake of buying a tool BEFORE putting any thought into the design that goes into effective monitoring and response, forgetting the 3P's (People, Process, Platforms). -
Trust Shifts From Institutions To Individuals
23 Jan 2012 | 11:44 pmToday I had the opportunity to present to academics and industry experts from the international poultry industry (you can listen to a re-cap via a short podcast from "Agwired" here). During the presentation I was able to share some results from the recently released 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer, in which the overarching theme is a general skepticism toward institutions such as government and big business with signs of hope when it comes to empowered individuals. A Person Like YourselfIn last year's study, it was the expert and even the analyst who enjoyed some degree of trust from the public… -
What's A Picture Worth?
13 Jan 2012 | 1:45 pmJust updated my "Visual Thinking Archive" on Flickr. It provides a variety of frameworks, visual thoughts and non text based strategic thinking would could apply to a variety of business cases. What's a picture worth? It's up to you to determine the worth. For me, it helps the thinking process. -
The Year of the Change Agent
2 Jan 2012 | 8:55 pmWe've always lived and worked in a state of flux but one can make the argument that recent developments in technology, society and business seem to have accelerated the pace of change we have to contend with. Our mobile devices would have been considered fairly high powered computers not that long ago. We live in a hyper-connected state of existence, constantly sending out signals to friends, family, work associates, peers , etc. If this year belongs to anyone, it is the change agent. You may be thinking—"that's exactly what I am," but chances are, if you aren't frustrated or feeling like… -
Holidays
22 Dec 2011 | 10:25 amEnded the year with a flurry of activity. We went public with our newly elevated offering around social business—have delivered significant milestones with several clients and wrapped up my frequent air travel for the year. The next couple of weeks will be spent catching up with family, friends and even some snowboarding. Here's to you and yours in 2012.
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Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang | Social Media, Web Marketing
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A Worldwide Salute to Community Managers
23 Jan 2012 | 5:43 amIt’s the third annual Community Manager Appreciation Day (every fourth Monday of Jan) and I’d like to salute the folks working on the front lines at companies big and small leading the charge. These folks are critical in the change as companies have moved from the static website to the dynamic human focused social business we’re seeing across every agency. Charged with the following four key responsibilities: a community advocate, brand evangelist, savvy online communicator, and involved in shaping future products and services they’ve got their hands full. This exciting new role… -
People on the Move in the Social Business Industry, Jan 16, 2011
16 Jan 2012 | 2:04 pmMark you Calendars now that Community Manager Appreciation Day is coming this coming Jan 23rd, please salute your community professionals. Both the submissions on this job announcement board, as well as available social media positions at corporations continue to pour in. In this continued digest of job changes, I like to salute those that continue to join the industry in roles focused on social media, see the archives, which I’ve been tracking since Q4, 2007. People on the Move in the Social Business Industry: Len Devanna joins Ant’s Eye View as Vice President, Social Business… -
Buyers Guide: A Strategy for Managing Social Media Proliferation (Altimeter Report)
5 Jan 2012 | 11:57 amGet account control now –or risk a career of continual social media sanitation. To match the growing consumer adoption of social media, many companies have launched social media efforts with little planning. As social media spreads beyond corporate communications and marketing, business groups are deploying social media without a standardized process. In fact, enterprise class corporations (those with over 1,000 employees) have an average of 178 social media accounts and this number will only grow if left unchecked. Companies that don’t control these accounts are at risk of having… -
A Taxonomy of Tech Bloggers –Who Will Lead Beyond The Golden Age?
29 Dec 2011 | 8:53 amIn order to understand the movement in the ever-changing tech blog space, let’s dissect the market to identify trends. Whether folks agreed or disagreed, the assertion that Tech Blogs are evolving from the Golden Era to the next, continues to resonate as a healthy discussion. I saw responses from many of the blog management teams (Techcrunch, Mashable, RWW, VentureBeat, BoingBoing, and more) both agreeing and disagreeing, as well as traditional journalists at Wired chiming in. Recap: Four Trends Why Blogs Are Evolving Out of Golden Age In the previous post, it was identified there are… -
End of an Era: The Golden Age of Tech Blogging is Over
27 Dec 2011 | 11:01 amUpdate Dec 29: I posted a Taxonomy of Tech Bloggers in response to the growing conversation. That’s right. We’re at the end of an important period. The tech blogosphere as we know it, is over. Four Trends Show the End of this Era: Like the film industry, the Golden Era is the emergence period, when fresh innovation in a new medium is born. New techniques, revolutionary content, and different business models emerge as innovators pioneer a new medium. I first had this discussion with Chris Saad, which triggered some thinking on my end. I asked some of the foremost tech bloggers of their…
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Amy Wohl's Opinions
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SOA Governance - What are Your Company's Plans?
16 Jan 2012 | 3:00 pmI'm going to be speaking on SOA Governance at IBM's Pulse Conference on March 5 and have created a short survey to understand what are your company's plans for using SOA Governance. Please do me the favor of completing this survey - it will take you three minutes or less and will be most valuable to me. Take the Survey by Clicking Here. Thank you. -
A Ride on the Hybrid Bus
3 Jan 2012 | 12:36 pmAmy Wohl is currently guest blogging on IBM's Impact site. We will be posting links to each of those blogs here. The new post is available here: A Ride on the Hybrid Bus -
Master Data Management, Business Process Management and Service Oriented Architecture
14 Dec 2011 | 5:24 amAmy Wohl is currently guest blogging on IBM's Impact site. We will be posting links to each of those blogs here. The new post is available here: Master Data Management, Business Process Management and Service Oriented Architecture -
Computing for Everyone
9 Dec 2011 | 2:09 pmGrady Booch, an IBM fellow and esteemed software engineer is working on a project to bring a series to television and the web which will approach Computing the way Carl Sagan approached the universe. Daryl Taft has written an excellent article explaining the project and its goals. They will use Kickstarter to fund the initial startup (that comment papers over the fact that Grady, his wife Jan and a number of others have been working on the project for four years). The part of the project I particularly love, beyond the fact that Grady is a great storyteller and the subject is endlessly… -
SOA Federation
29 Nov 2011 | 8:35 amAmy Wohl is currently guest blogging on IBM's Impact site. We will be posting links to each of those blogs here. The new post is available here: SOA Federation.
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Dilbert.com Blog
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Who Benefits More?
27 Jan 2012 | 1:00 amDo the rich get more benefits from the government in return for their tax dollars? In a recent post, I casually mentioned that all citizens get roughly the same benefit from the government. Several readers objected. Let's throw some more gasoline on that campfire.This question matters because if the rich get more benefits from the federal government, some would say it is "common sense" that they should pay a higher tax rate. But, as regular readers of this blog know, common sense isn't a real thing. And its ugly cousin, fairness, is a concept invented so dumb people could… -
State of the Union Hypnosis
25 Jan 2012 | 1:00 amLast night, CNN was getting audience reactions to President Obama's speech, and asked a man his opinion on the idea of ending subsidies to oil companies. My fellow citizen responded that during times of government subsidies, gas prices rose, so maybe if the government removed subsidies to oil companies, gas prices would fall.Huh?How hard would it be to run for President and try to satisfy both the smart people in the country and the voters who don't understand . . . well, anything? The classic solution is to lie to the dumb while winking to the smart. If you do it right, the dumb… -
Non-Believerdar
23 Jan 2012 | 1:00 amIt's starting to look as if Newt Gingrich will be the Republican nominee. If so, this might be the first time two non-believers ran against each other for President of the United States.What?Oh, that's right: You still think Gingrich and Obama believe what's written in the Christian Bible. I understand why you think that. After all, both men say they believe in god, and they do churchy things. The trouble is that Gingrich and Obama both set off my non-believerdar. (That's like gaydar for non-believers.) I'll bet if you did a test in which you showed volunteers pictures of… -
SOPA Update
19 Jan 2012 | 1:00 amYesterday I wrote about SOPA and solicited your comments. I was delighted to discover that this debate is more interesting than I had hoped.For all practical purposes, SOPA is very dead now, and the Internet killed it. Your human-centric view of the world might be that freedom-loving activists killed SOPA, and the Internet was their tool. But I don't share the common view of human beings as the center of the universe. From my perspective, the Internet defended itself from a virus that came out of Congress. The Internet is essentially alive now, and we work for it. That's also a plot… -
SOPA
18 Jan 2012 | 1:00 amWarning: This blog is written for a rational audience that likes to have fun wrestling with unique or controversial points of view. It is written in a style that can easily be confused as advocacy or opinion. It is not intended to change anyone's beliefs or actions. If you quote from this post or link to it, which you are welcome to do, please take responsibility for whatever happens if you mismatch the audience and the content.Are you following the huge debate about the proposed legislation in the United States to stop online piracy? It's called SOPA, short for Stop Online Piracy…
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Doc Searls Weblog
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Live blogging Politics of the Internet
25 Jan 2012 | 2:30 pmSo I’m at Micah Sifry’s Politics of the Internet class at the Kennedy School, and risk live-blogging it (taxing my multitasking abilities…) Some questions in the midst of dialog between Micah (@Mlsif) and the class (#pol-int)… Was there a $trillion “internet dividend” over the old phone system, and was it a cost to the old system? Did the Internet have to happen? Is the IETF‘s “rough consensus and running code” still a prevailing ethos, or methodology? Is it an accident that the rough consensus above is so similar to the #Occupy methods? -
Surf’s up! Look north
24 Jan 2012 | 4:44 pmAccording to this… … the Aurora is on. The Kp Index has hit 5, and a geomagnetic storm is on. Here’s today’s SpaceWeather on the matter. Follow the links there. Bear in mind that the aurora are curtains of light up to a thousand miles high. So if the auroral oval is pushed down over southern Canada (which these storms tend to do), it should still be visible far south across the United States. Current links: Northern Lights over the UK metofficenews.wordpress.com) An Easy Guide To Observing Aurora mbcalyn.wordpress.com) Epic Geomagnetic Storm Erupts :… -
2025 in 2012
23 Jan 2012 | 6:07 pmMarcel Bullinga is a Dutch futurist and author of Welcome to the Future Cloud. Today I got pointed on Twitter to a Q&A with Bullinga by Aaron Saenz at SingularityHub. Interesting stuff. An excerpt: SH: Welcome to the Future Cloud seems to be very supportive of intellectual property (IP) rights and digital rights managements (DRM). Are IP and DRM necessary to the development of a healthy future? MB: Yes and no. The trend is twofold. We will have ironclad ways to protect our data, our virtual sources and our identities. We will wrap our virtual belongings with what I call a Cloud Seal. A… -
PR’s problems, 20 years later
22 Jan 2012 | 10:37 pmI was near the end of my career as a PR guy when I wrote the essay below for the January 1992 issue of Upside. Since then Upside has been erased. Some bits of it still persist on the Internet Archive, but nothing before 1996. But I did save my own draft of the piece, and put it up here, back in the mid-90s, where it has remained all but invisible. So I thought it would be fun to surface it now on the blog, on the 20th anniversary of its original publication. Here goes: THE PROBLEM WITH PR Toward a world beyond press releases and bogus news By Doc Searls There is no Pulitzer Prize for… -
Can’t lose, in a way
22 Jan 2012 | 4:34 pmI grew up in New Jersey and New York, rooting for the Giants. (And, in the Namath era, the Jets too.) Then, after 20 years in North Carolina (mostly as a college basketball fan), I lived in the Bay Area for 25 years, and rooted for the 49ers there. One daughter lives in the Bay Area, and most of my wife’s huge family lives in the Bay Area, and most of them are hard-core for the Niners. We were out there a week ago and got some great hang time watching the Niners beat the Saints. However, I’ve worked and lived in New England for five and a half years now, and have been rooting for…
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A VC
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Feature Friday: Techmeme
27 Jan 2012 | 5:51 amYesterday Techmeme launched a redesign. I like it. Nicely done Gabe. I thought I'd use this news as a jumping off point to talk about my favorite feature on Techmeme. When a news event happens, I like to see various pundits' take on it without having to click thru and read every post. Techmeme has always done this better than any other news service. Let's take this news that Twitter can now comply with local censorship laws and takedown notices without taking down a tweet globally (good news in my mind). It looks like this in Techmeme: But if you click on the down arrow on the left of the… -
Blog Polls
26 Jan 2012 | 4:55 amBlog polling widgets have been around a long time. I've tried out a few of them on AVC over the years. And polling has never taken off as a major form of engagement on blogs (as has commenting, liking, tweeting). I'm curious why that is so. I met with a young man named Max Yoder yesterday who has built yet another polling widget. He calls it Quipol. I figured I'd give it a test run with the AVC community. And let's get right to it with the question of the day: Quipol Let me know what you think of Quipol and blog polling widgets in general in the comments. -
Textbook Cases
25 Jan 2012 | 5:51 amI read something today that I wish I had written. So I am going to cross post it. This post comes from Noah Millman and it is about the lame textbook thing that Apple launched recently. With that intro, I'll shut up and let you read Noah. The original post is here. If anyone knows how to reach Noah, I'd like to email him and tell him how much I liked his post. I see that Steve Sailer and Matt Yglesias are both wondering why Apple’s iPad textbook initiative is so lame. Sailer wonders why Apple isn’t exploiting the interactive possibilities of the tablet to make textbooks much more… -
The Green Button
24 Jan 2012 | 5:08 amThis past Sunday afternoon I had the pleasure of being on the judges panel at the NYC Cleanweb Hackathon at NYU ITP. There were thirteen hacks presented to the judges. Of them, probably half had incorporated the "green button" for getting your utility data into their app. The Green Button is an initiative promoted by Aneesh Chopra, the CTO of the United States. In a speech last fall, he challenged the utility industry to come up with a simple way to allow consumers to access their utility data. Last week, three big California utilities announced they had made the Green Button available on… -
The Management Team - Guest Post From Matt Blumberg
23 Jan 2012 | 3:56 amNow that I've completed three posts on The Management Team over the last three MBA Mondays, it's time for four or five guest posts on this topic. The first one is from Matt Blumberg, CEO of our portfolio company Return Path. I've been on Matt's board for over a decade and I've watched him develop into one of the finest managers I've had the pleasure to work with. Here are Matt's thoughts on this topic. When Return Path reached 100 employees a few years back, I had a dinner with my Board one night at which they basically told me, “Management teams never scale intact as you grow the…
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John Battelle's Search Blog
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For Posterity
28 Jan 2012 | 12:02 amI had to post this image from Twitter. There. If this continues, I figure I’ll be at least in a good negotiating position come the Rapture. -
Once Again, RSS Is Dead. But ONLY YOU Can Save It!
25 Jan 2012 | 11:49 pmAbout 14 months ago, I responded to myriad “RSS is Dead” stories by asking you, my RSS readers, if you were really reading. At that point, Google’s Feedburner service was telling me I had more than 200,000 subscribers, but it didn’t feel like the lights were on – I mean, that’s a lot of people, but my pageviews were low, and with RSS, it’s really hard to know if folks are reading you, because the engagement happens on the reader, not here on the site. (That’s always been the problem publishers have had with RSS – it’s impossible to… -
Google+ Spreads to AdSense, Will It Spread to the Whole Web?
25 Jan 2012 | 10:47 pmSeen in the wild (well, OK, on this very site): The “Recommend this on Google” hover box at the bottom is new, I’ve never seen it before (then again, my ads are usually from FM). It’s what we in the biz call a “social overlay” or a “social ad” – and as far as I can tell, it’s only available to those advertisers who use Google AdSense. Why am I on about this? Because some weeks ago, Facebook told a bunch of advertisers and third parties (FM was one of them) that it was no longer OK to integrate Facebook actions into third party… -
The Future of War (From Jan., 1993 to the Present)
25 Jan 2012 | 12:24 am(image is a shot of my copy of the first Wired magazine, signed by our founding team) I just read this NYT piece on the United States’ approach to unmanned warfare: Do Drones Undermine Democracy?. From it: There is not a single new manned combat aircraft under research and development at any major Western aerospace company, and the Air Force is training more operators of unmanned aerial systems than fighter and bomber pilots combined. In 2011, unmanned systems carried out strikes from Afghanistan to Yemen. The most notable of these continuing operations is the not-so-covert war in… -
Put Your Taproot Into the Independent Web
24 Jan 2012 | 11:51 am(image) This article - Early Facebook App Causes Is Being Reborn As A Polished Web Site For Good – caught my eye as I was nodding off last night (thanks so much for moving the web into my bedroom, Flipboard. No really.) Now, it didn’t catch my eye because of its subject – Causes – but because of what its subject was doing: refocusing its business back out on the Independent Web, from its original home in the zoological garden that is the Facebook platform. This is indicative of what I believe will become a trend over the next year or so, barring moves by Facebook to…
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Signal vs. Noise
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Basecamp Next's caching hardware
27 Jan 2012 | 8:45 amFrom the very start, we wanted Basecamp Next to be fast. Really, really fast. To do so we built a russian-doll architecture of nested caching that I’ll write up in detail soon. But for now I just wanted to share where all this caching is going to live as we just installed it at the hosting center. It kinda reminds me of what pictures of a drug raid look like when they lay out all the coke and cash on the table, but this is what 864GB of RAM looks like: Cost of the loot was $12,000. -
Three years later, Mr. Moore is still letting us punt on database sharding
27 Jan 2012 | 8:23 amThree years ago, I wrote about how improvements in technology keep allowing us to punt on sharding the Basecamp database. This is still true, only more so now. We’ve grown enormously over the last three years but RAM keeps getting cheaper and FusionIO SSD’s keep getting faster. If anything, it seems like recent advances in SSD technology are accelerating and it’s ever more unlikely that we’ll need to shard Basecamp. Basecamp remains a perfect candidate for sharding. Isolated accounts, no sharing between them. Yet the cost in increased complexity is constant while the… -
REWORK passes 200,000 copies sold!
26 Jan 2012 | 12:43 pmWe just got our royalty statement from Crown and are pretty excited about the fact that we’ve sold over 200,000 copies of REWORK now. About three quarters of the sales have been hardcover books with audio and ebook splitting the remainder. Thanks to everyone who helped us get here by buying and recommending the book. We are very grateful for your support in getting the word out. -
Basecamp Next: A peek at early iterations of the Projects screen
26 Jan 2012 | 12:06 pmWe’ve been working on Basecamp Next since March 2011 and we’re getting close to the public release. The private beta is now in full swing. Early iterations on the Projects screen We thought it might be fun to share some of the early design explorations for one particular screen, the Projects screen. Basically, the projects screen is a list of your projects. You can create new projects there as well. We explored hundreds iterations of the screen – from small tweaks to fundamental shifts in the feature itself. Only a fraction of the explorations are shown in the video below. -
Give me spark
26 Jan 2012 | 9:14 amSome of the best decisions and designs at 37signals have emerged from intensely contested debates. Not just between Jason and me, but from anyone in the company. When sparks fly, some truly great ideas come to light. The catch is that the heat must arise around the decision itself. Debates go off track when personal biases or old grudges come into play. So long as each party sticks to the merits, adding some fire will only unearth new angles and concerns. This energy is so important to how 37signals operates that I consider it every time we make a hire. Is this person willing to fight for…
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chrisbrogan.com
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Make Better Video
23 Jan 2012 | 6:52 amI’m learning about video because I believe, strongly, that 2012 is the year that companies and individuals who can create interesting video will be able to stand out better in the oversaturation of social media. My own practice, Shhh! The Secret Show, has me learning about lighting, sound, editing, interviewing, content planning, camera angles, titles, screen casting, how to make b-roll, and more. It’s quite a step up, technically, from what I used to do with a Flip camera and a bit of waggling it around in front of my face. And when I say this, it’s most definitely not… -
97 Ideas for Building a Valuable Platform
20 Jan 2012 | 11:25 am2012 is the year where social media oversaturation hits hard. We will scale back on our participation in social networks, and we will most certainly scale back who we choose to follow as sources. This won’t be because someone is bad or good. It will be based on whether the connection with that person adds value to the stream of information we’re cultivating or not. In determining how to deliver value and stay relevant and visible in this new landscape, I’ve written down 97 ideas to help you build a valuable platform. Note: some of this thinking comes from writing a new book… -
A New Project for 2012
16 Jan 2012 | 3:30 amI’m pretty excited about my new video show, Shhh! The Secret Show, which has its first episode here. The premise is that it’s a show to help you be a better you, and to improve your business through the effort. It ties to what I’m working on with my company, and it’s going to be a lot of fun to build. Instead of starting off with something fully polished and perfect, I wanted to “build it in front of you,” which means that I’ll show you how I improve it each episode. I’m learning lots of new skills at the same time, including lighting, how to… -
Doing the Work is Sexy
9 Jan 2012 | 7:21 amDorothy Parker said, “I hate writing. I like having written.” I know many people who are like that about their business, their trade. I know many more people who love to fantasize about what life will be like when they make it, but they like to skip over the part with the hard work, or they give it a sentence or two. Here’s a hint: the work part is what brings the money part. How to Get Very Lucky In Life A few days ago, I came a lot closer to being able to cross something huge off my bucket list. I can’t talk about it just yet, but essentially, I was able to shoot… -
Email List Building the Lazy Way
4 Jan 2012 | 9:17 amPeople seem to want to know about email list building, and how to get a big newsletter subscriber base. I have my ways. I’ll share what I know. I sell premium WordPress themes (affiliate link) from StudioPress, because I’m a fan of the company, but also because I use them and they have served me very well. At present, I’m using the Generate theme (scroll down a little), which features a prominent email subscription link at the top of the page (see the above graphic or just click through to [chrisbrogan.com]). This is perhaps the least customized version of a StudioPress…
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Joel on Software
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New York City gets a Software Engineering High School
13 Jan 2012 | 1:56 pmThis fall New York City will open The Academy for Software Engineering, the city’s first public high school that will actually train kids to develop software. The project has been a long time dream of Mike Zamansky, the highly-regarded CS teacher at New York’s elite Stuyvesant public high school. It was jump started when Fred Wilson, a VC at Union Square Ventures, promised to get the tech community to help with knowledge, advice, and money. I’m on the board of advisors of the new school, which plans to accept ninth graders for fall of 2012. Here’s why I’m excited about this new… -
How Trello is different
6 Jan 2012 | 1:14 pmJust a few months ago, we launched Trello, a super simple, web-based team coordination system. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and adoption has been very strong, even in its early, 1.0 state. Trello is new kind of development project for Fog Creek. It’s 100% hosted; there will never be an “installed software” version of Trello. That allowed us to modernize many aspects of our development process; I am happy to announce that there is absolutely no Visual Basic code involved in any part of Trello. What’s next, flying cars? The biggest difference you’ll notice (compared… -
Should you launch at a conference?
15 Sep 2011 | 10:28 pmShould you launch at Launch? (Or TechCrunch Disrupt? Or Demo? They’re all pretty similar). This year I launched two major new products at conferences: Careers 2.0 and Trello, and both times, it was totally worth it. First, a little background. There are three popular conferences where you can launch new products: Launch, TechCrunch Disrupt, and Demo. They all work the same way: You apply. If you have a half-decent product that is genuinely new, you’re likely to get a spot. That said, hundreds of companies apply for these conferences with unbearably awful products, so there’s always… -
Announcing Trello
13 Sep 2011 | 12:44 pmAround the time of Fog Creek Software's ten year anniversary, I started thinking that if we want to keep our employees excited and motivated for another ten years, we were going to need some new things to work on. It occurred to me that we could easily afford to make four little two-person teams to launch four new products. That would give our developers more chances to move around from product to product when they got bored, which would make Fog Creek Software an even better place to work. Each team, we decided, would be guided by the spirit of lean startups. They would ship early and often. -
Stack Overflow DevDays is Back!
27 Jun 2011 | 2:51 pm[UPDATE - September 6th - Regrettably, DevDays had to be cancelled. See the announcement on the Stack Exchange Blog for details.] Stack Overflow DevDays, the universe's best conference series for coders, is back, and it's bigger than ever! Here's the idea behind DevDays. You're a developer. You'd love to learn all the latest hot new technologies. Things like DVCS, HTML 5, Node.js, CSS3, Hadoop, etc. The stuff the cool kids are all talking about on the playground while you're stuck in the basement somewhere grinding away on Java Enterprise Visual Basic. The idea behind DevDays is a fast,…
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dooce® main feed
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Joshu's Dog
27 Jan 2012 | 12:45 pmHas a dog Buddha-nature? This is the most serious question of all. If you say yes or no, You lose your own Buddha-nature. 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 Joshu's Dog. This post cannot be republished without express written permission. -
Stash
27 Jan 2012 | 12:19 pmYesterday while I was out I ran across a stuffed puppy and could not resist bringing it home to Marlo. Okay. Lie. I ran across two stuffed puppies. When I got home I held them behind my back, but she could see the foot of one of the puppies peeking out and OH MY GOD the squeal. "HOOOOOOEEEEEEEEEEE!" It shot me straight in the gut and almost knocked me over. I folded up that moment and put it in my pocket. 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 Stash. This… -
Fire drill
26 Jan 2012 | 1:48 pmThe last three days have been a clumsy stumble through my thoughts and over my feet, and suddenly I'm gripped with almost paralyzing fear. I expected to feel profound sadness, but I didn't know I'd get this scared. Fear over absolutely nothing and then everything all at once. It's like a scene in a movie where you suddenly notice the ghost of a little girl peeking inside the window. This morning at 5 AM the smoke detectors in my room and Leta's room started beeping. The piercing sound lasted about ten seconds and then stopped just as abruptly as it had started. Five minutes later the smoke… -
Ta-da!
26 Jan 2012 | 11:31 amWould you look at that dumb dog back there contributing nothing to this trick other than the beautiful markings on her face. Chuck has to pull the weight for both of them, poor guy. He's going to need her help when I try to balance the fridge between his eyes. 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 Ta-da!. This post cannot be republished without express written permission. -
Resemblance
26 Jan 2012 | 10:07 amYou can see that the untidy WTF hair is a bit of a family trait. Don't worry, Marlo. At least we're all pretty decent spellers! 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 Resemblance. This post cannot be republished without express written permission.
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Matt Cutts: Gadgets, Google, and SEO
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It’s time to stop PROTECT IP
18 Jan 2012 | 6:47 amA couple months ago, I wrote this about SOPA: SOPA galvanized the tech community, from start-ups to venture capitalists to the largest web companies. SOPA was an unexpected shock and a wake-up call. Well, guess what? Now the internet is awake. And I don’t think it’s going back to sleep any time soon. We might need to rally again in the near future, but we can do that. The internet learns fast.Now it’s time to rally and get loud. It’s time to call your Senators. Heck, it’s time to ask your parents to call their Senators. If you think the internet is something different, something… -
Sharing a search story
11 Jan 2012 | 2:20 amI’ve been reading a lot of the coverage of the Search plus Your World launch and I wanted to share my story and then clarify something.I love to stay up until early in the morning playing Werewolf. In early December I went to a journalism conference called “News Foo Camp” in Phoenix and played a lot of Werewolf. When I got back, for some reason I searched for [werewolf] — maybe I was thinking about making a custom deck of werewolf cards. Because I was dogfood-testing Search plus Your World, this is what I saw:In the top row of pictures, you’ll see a bunch of people playing… -
Larry Lessig on the corrupting influence of money
13 Dec 2011 | 3:37 pmLarry Lessig has a new book called Republic, Lost which discusses the corrupting influence of money on politics. I would highly recommend the book, because it gets to the heart of why things so many things in Washington, D.C. seem broken today and how to fix them.If you don’t have the time to read the book right now, you’re in luck. Lessig recently stopped by Google and gave a brief overview of the themes from the book. I had the honor of introducing him, and the video is live on the web now. Lessig’s talk is about 45 minutes long (the rest of the video is questions and… -
Beware of fake Matts leaving comments
11 Dec 2011 | 7:20 pmA lot of the time, I dispel misconceptions by leaving comments on blogs. That works great, except for the rare occasion when someone pretends to be me and leaves a rude, fake, or otherwise untrue blog comment. Over the previous decade, I’ve only seen 4-5 times where someone impersonated me. But in the last month, I’ve seen at least three nasty comments written by “fake Matt Cutts” impersonators.The first fake-Matt comment I remember was over Marketing Pilgrim around November 14th, 2011. When Frank Reed checked out the fake comment, it came from 74.120.13.132, which is… -
Progress against SOPA
21 Nov 2011 | 10:01 amWhen I did my blog post about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) last week, things looked quite grim. The fight isn’t over, but there’s been a lot of great developments in the last few days. If you’re not familiar with SOPA (and the PROTECT IP Act in the Senate), here’s a video that covers the basics:This internet censorship under SOPA editorial by Rebecca MacKinnon also describes why SOPA would be really bad for the internet.I also wanted to take a minute and thank everyone who called or wrote their Congressperson to speak out against SOPA and PROTECT IP. As a result…
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Bob Sutton
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Do You Have a GOOD and SIMPLE Performance Evaluation Form?
27 Jan 2012 | 9:52 amAs many of you know, I have expressed considerable skepticism about whether performance evaluations are even worth using, if they do more good than harm. And Sam Culbert has gone the next step with his book, Get Rid of the Performance Evaluation. Even though this debate will continue to go on, the fact is that lawyers, HR executives, and the force of tradition -- and some rational reasons as well -- mean that most organizations aren't going to be getting rid of these things anytime soon. As such, I was talking with a senior HR executive and she asked me if I knew of any… -
Why The New Yorker's Claim That Brainstorming "Doesn't Work" Is An Overstatement And Possibly Wrong
26 Jan 2012 | 10:17 pmThe current version of The New Yorker has a wonderful article by Jonah Lehrer called "Groupthink" (you can see the abstract here). It does a great job of showing how creativity is a social process, cites wonderful research by Brian Uzzi showing that when people have experience working together in the past they produce more successful Broadway musicals (up to a point, too many old friends is as bad as too few), and offers research showing that groups where members engage in constructive conflict are more creative -- all themes I have talked about at various times on this… -
More Evidence That Sleep Deprivation Turns Employees Into Assholes (Due to Loss of Self-Control)
24 Jan 2012 | 11:23 amThose of you who have followed this blog, and especially, Good Boss, Bad Boss will know that a pile of evidence already shows that sleep deprivation turns people grumpy, insensitive, and dulls their cognitive abilities -- in other words it turns them into dumb assholes. An interesting newish paper adds to the pile of evidence. A pair of interesting studies on sleep deprivation were published in the October issue of the Academy of Management Journal by Michael Christian and Aleksander Ellis. In both a field study with 171 nurses and a more controlled laboratory study with… -
"The No Asshole Rule in Our Zappos Museum"
21 Jan 2012 | 1:39 pmThe title of this post is from the header of an email I just got. Here is the text: Dear Bob, Zappos is building a museum and we would like to include a signed framed copy of The no Asshole Rule in our “Library Exhibit.” What is the best address for us to send you a copy of your book to sign? Doonesbury? A museum? What's next? Who knows. Being the asshole guy has been wonderful and weird. P.S. I am leaving out the author's name -- it wasn't Tony Hsieh or a senior executive. -
New CEO Studies: Nuances of Narcissism, Flattery, and Opinion Conformity
20 Jan 2012 | 12:39 pmI got my copy of the Administrative Science Quarterly in the mail the other day. You can see the cover to the left, it is famous for pretty pictures like this one by Signe Pike, whose mother Linda Johanson is the managing editor (and has been for at least 30 years I can recall). I was one of two associate editors for four years in the 90's and, although I liked doing it in many ways because the work was challenging and I especially liked working with Linda, the weight of having to write over 100 decision letters a year on papers (which would be sent out for evaluation by three…
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AE on the Verge
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How to Prepare for a Skype Interview
24 Jan 2012 | 5:51 pmI am moving to Connecticut in a few months and for the first time in decades actually have to think about details related to a new job search, including preparing for an interview. I've been quizzing colleagues who have been interviewed on Skype to get their input about how to prepare for a Skype interview (should I ever have to do one), along with my own thoughts as a Skype user ...1. Be a Skype user long before you actually have to use it for business so you know what you’re doing; get accustomed to seeing others and yourself on a screen in a conversation;2. Be sure you know how to work… -
Office Technology: More to worry about
23 Jan 2012 | 8:15 pmAre your meetings being watched via your videoconferencing equipment without your knowledge? An article in the New York Times gives that a big maybe. Apparently hackers can often easily get into those video conference systems - thus into the board rooms that host the equipment - and can then watch and listen to everything that happens in those rooms. The article also mentions that the US Chamber found that an IP address in China may have accessed them via an apartment thermostat and office printer. Seriously, did we need more office equipment to worry about?Here are a few more things to think… -
Creating Additional Value at a Committee Meeting (in 3 minutes or less)
17 Jan 2012 | 10:19 pmIf a committee meeting is adjourning early, do you (or should you) take 3 minutes for professional development?At the end of a meeting, a chairman asked an attendee (before we adjourned) if she could tell the group in two minutes about the top two business apps she uses on her iPad. Two others gave their top app too. It all took a total of about 3 minutes. Everyone was writing the info down (including me); and when we reconvened the next day the pre-meeting chat was all about those apps.Sometimes we miss easy opportunities to learn from each other - even if only a 3 minute burst of… -
Your Association Staff: The Beneficiary Check
12 Jan 2012 | 12:42 pmDo you have any idea who you designated as the beneficiary on the life insurance policy provided by your association? Do your employees still remember who they designated?Many years ago, an association employee passed away and one of her children called because the family was really surprised about the beneficiary to her life insurance policy - it was totally inconsistent with everything else noted in the will. But it didn't matter - the beneficiary is the beneficiary; and the determination was between the insurance company and the employee.Especially with longtime employees who may have had… -
Reminder Note ...
6 Jan 2012 | 10:10 pmIf you really need to remember to do something after work or when you leave the office - write it on a post-in note and staple it around a purse, bag or briefcase handle. It's harder to miss than other ways you may leave a note.
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ze's page :: zefrank.com
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sound of silence
27 Jan 2012 | 12:35 pmboy + (deaf) girl :: it's borderline saccharine :: but couldn't stop watching :: click below to watch -
data viz
26 Jan 2012 | 11:40 amcommuting in chicago creates a haunting image :: from eric fisher :: "[The map] is paths from one geotagged tweet to the next by the same person, routed along the most heavily geotagged path in between." :: read the details here: http://gapersblock.com/merge/archives/2012/01/23/technology-follows-us-home/ -
l'horizon :: surreal photos of surf city
25 Jan 2012 | 1:10 pmromain laurent :: whimsical trick photography :: see more at http://www.romain-laurent.com/work/lhorizon/ :: (via mymodernmet) -
insecure :: by michael shevlin
24 Jan 2012 | 12:42 pma new book written by my friend Michael Shelvin (only $2.70 as a digital read) :: http://www.amazon.com/Insecure-ebook/dp/B006X3164C/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1327399735&sr=8-2 -
power of music
24 Jan 2012 | 11:05 am"Jack Leroy Tueller, at age 90, recounts a remarkable experience he had in WWII." :: click below to watch ::
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Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing
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How to Drive Sales Offline With Local Online Calls to Action
27 Jan 2012 | 7:24 amHow to Drive Sales Offline With Local Online Calls to ActionThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing One of the real underutilized opportunities these days is to use your online presence to drive local offline sales. In order to do this you must think beyond the content aspects of your website and start to think about ways to tap local buying behavior and enable local buying tools. The heart and soul of this kind of thinking is the tried and true call to action. Marketers have been using the simple act now, buy now, call now language to get prospects to take all manner of action since the dawn… -
Admitting We Have a Problem Is the First Step
26 Jan 2012 | 6:46 amAdmitting We Have a Problem Is the First StepThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing One of the most fulfilling moments in my consulting work comes when a client finally flashes a hint of realization that they do indeed have an affliction. And that affliction is – that they desperately need to be exactly like everyone else in their industry only older, bigger, and more results oriented, cost effective and partner centric. The treatment for this is not pretty, but it usually starts by showing them a series of test results like the ones listed below that include comparison results from… -
What Our Fears Are Here to Tell Us
25 Jan 2012 | 6:57 amWhat Our Fears Are Here to Tell UsThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing I’m going to get a bit personal today, but I believe there’s a solid business context for the message. I was sitting around a dinner table with a number of colleagues, which in this case meant people speaking at the same event as me. Martin Lopatka via Flickr CCA couple of the folks were pretty engaged in a conversation about another speaker that was not present and suggested that he was a fraud. The sentiment was that he didn’t really know what he was talking about because he had never really done what it is he… -
Creating a Company of Owners
24 Jan 2012 | 7:28 amCreating a Company of OwnersThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing I believe that one of the greatest opportunities we have as business owners is to create wealth. By that I don’t necessarily mean get wealthy. I mean create an asset, a business, which is worth more today than it was yesterday. All too often this view gets buried in the push to create a paycheck. In my view there are much easier ways to draw a salary than owning a business. The real magic in the wealth creation opportunity comes when you also see it as a way to create wealth for all of the people the work to increase the… -
5 Ways to Use Other People’s Content in Your Marketing
23 Jan 2012 | 8:03 am5 Ways to Use Other People’s Content in Your MarketingThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing You need lots of content, you know that, but you also know that content creation is one of the more time intensive marketing activities you have to tackle. While you do need to create your own content as the foundation for your total content and teaching strategy, you can – and should – supplement your content with that from other people. Image hazel.estrada via Flickr CC One of the best services marketers can provide these days is to act as a filter for all that’s being produced out there and…
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KurzweilAI » News
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First 3D structural model of cancer-prevention molecule
27 Jan 2012 | 5:58 amThe c-Cbl protein can switch between two shapes (credit: Hao Dou, et al./Nature)Cancer Research UK scientists have mapped the first 3D structure of a key protein that protects against the development of cancer.The team at Cancer Research UK’s Beatson Institute for Cancer Research, in Glasgow used X-ray analysis to map the structure of a protein called c-Cbl and showed that it changes shape when it is switched on.c-Cbl controls cell growth , which when unregulated causes cells to divide excessively and can lead to cancer. The protein is defective in some leukemia patients. Discovering that… -
Biologists discover rotational motion of breast cells, required to avoid malignancy
27 Jan 2012 | 4:50 amAfter five days of mitosis and CAMo, polarized breast cells have assembled into an acinar sphere with a lumen in the center (inset) (credit: Berkeley Lab)In a study that holds major implications for breast cancer research and basic cell biology, scientists with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have discovered a rotational motion that plays a critical role in the ability of breast cells to form the spherical structures in the mammary gland known as acini.This rotation, which the researchers call “CAMo,” for coherent angular… -
Gingrich proposes Moon base by 2020
27 Jan 2012 | 4:21 amDomed lunar settlement (credit: Pat Rawlings/NASA)Newt Gingrich has called for a bold, aggressive space program that would establish a permanent base on the Moon by 2020, along with a next-generation propulsion system for taking humans to Mars, and commercial near-Earth activities that include science, tourism, and manufacturing.Transcript of the speech, courtesy of the National Space Society. -
‘Super Wi-Fi’ blankets first county in US
27 Jan 2012 | 1:29 amNew Hanover County, North Carolina, recently rolled out “Super Wi-Fi,” operating in the “white spaces” between 50–700Mhz, where previously only television stations were allowed to transmit, reports Technology Review Mim’s Bits blog.This could mean high-speed wireless connections for the county’s residents, and also the potential to connect to Wi-Fi towers that are miles distant (not possible with conventional Wi-Fi).However, high-power Super Wi-Fi signals (up to four watts), which can travel for miles, must give TV channels a wide berth. Low-power… -
Scientists create femtosecond atomic X-ray laser
27 Jan 2012 | 1:21 amA powerful X-ray laser pulse from SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory's Linac Coherent Light Source comes up from the lower-left corner (green) and hits a neon atom (center), which emit more X-rays, creating a domino effect that amplifies the laser light 200 million times. (Credit: Gregory M. Stewart/SLACj/Nature)Lawrence Livermore Lab (LLNL) scientists and international collaborators have created the shortest, purest X-ray laser pulses ever achieved, fulfilling a 45-year-old prediction and ultimately opening the door to new medicines, devices and materials.The researchers aimed…
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FactoryCity
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Report the App Facebook Platform Opt In [Flickr]
21 Jan 2012 | 2:56 pmfactoryjoe posted a photo: -
The saddest social software interface evar. [Flickr]
8 Sep 2010 | 8:43 pmfactoryjoe posted a photo: -
This sums up the challenge to the digital identity community [Flickr]
31 Aug 2010 | 8:52 amfactoryjoe posted a photo: When an original OpenID advocate like @simonw can't muster enough benefits to adopt OpenID for one of his own sites, it's time to reconsider the product we're selling. See also: openidconnect.com -
Clarifying my comments on Twitter’s annotations
21 Jun 2010 | 2:21 pmTwo weeks ago, Mathew Ingram from GigaOM pinged me via my Google Profile to ask what my thoughts — as an open web advocate — are on Twitter’s new annotations feature. He ended up posted portions of my response yesterday in a post titled “Twitter Annotations Are Coming — What Do They Mean For Twitter and the Web?” The portion with my comments reads: But Google open advocate Chris Messina warns that if Twitter doesn’t handle the new feature properly, it could become a free-for-all of competing standards and markups. “I find them very intriguing,” he said of… -
TweetPhoto NASCAR [Flickr]
14 Jun 2010 | 11:45 amfactoryjoe posted a photo: Welcome to the new world of OAuth-based NASCARs! Whither OpenID?
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Escape From Cubicle Nation
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A concrete example of how to get yourself to “do the work”
24 Jan 2012 | 5:56 pmGolden Gloves contender Amanda Wang and Pamela Slim. Photo by proud cousin Abe Cajudo. They say the best way to learn something and reinforce positive behavior is to teach it. So here, 5 minutes after gaining insight while on a walk to Starbucks, is my advice to help you “do the work” (said channeling Steven Pressfield). To watch directly on YouTube, go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zVWDH2QflA What I neglected to say in the video is that exercising even a little bit makes everything feel better! <Enjoy getting back to your regularly scheduled programming. I have a… -
How to build a powerful and profitable mailing list
17 Jan 2012 | 2:27 pmIf you have studied small business marketing, you may have heard the frequent cheer “The money is in The List!” And indeed, creating a strong email marketing list is a powerful foundation for any business, online or offline. In this video, I give you a few things to think about as you are establishing your mailing list, as well as a cardinal sin to avoid. To view this directly on YouTube, go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4xEkc0qEbg More marketing tips coming! At the end of this month, I am going to be opening a new section of Power Boost Marketing for enrollment. Power… -
Bigger goals mean more resistance – don’t back down!
12 Jan 2012 | 2:19 pmHappy 2012! If you followed my planning videos in December, you may have defined some nice juicy goals for yourself this year. And as you have started to execute those plans, you may have already faced some challenges and resistance from your market. My best advice? Don’t back down. Here’s why: (Direct link to YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY-BbkxIkGQ) Bigger Fish! Pescadotes! -
What it looks like to walk in the direction of your goals – or not
11 Jan 2012 | 10:59 amI came across a funny and realistic video yesterday on Facebook by Sonja Alarr, a wildly creative life coach who captures what happens when you want to move towards your goals, but find yourself running in the other direction. (Watch on Vimeo at this direct link: http://vimeo.com/20876606 This was her first video, and I think you will agree with me that she knocked it out of the park. See what happens when you feel the fear and do it anyway? Her tips for getting unstuck and moving toward your goals: Give yourself a hard deadline Get a great teacher Find time to practice Get friends to help… -
How to step clearly and powerfully into the new year
3 Jan 2012 | 5:24 pmAll this new year talk can get overwhelming, can’t it? Between plans, resolutions and goals, it is easy to get frustrated before the first week of January is over. Let’s step back from the pressure of big goals and talk about some practices that will anchor productive behaviors, the key to consistent progress throughout the year. Take a few minutes to jot down responses to these four questions: Question 1: What thought am I going lead with as I take my first step out of bed? My husband often shares a teaching from his grandfather, who was a very wise person and a medicine man. His…
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Global Neighbourhoods
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Yahoo CEOs: less vision than Ray Charles
4 Jan 2012 | 3:34 pmYahoo! has announced appointment of a new CEO: Scott Thompson. Who, you might ask? Well he’s a guy who lifted PayPal from a billion-dollar subsidiary of eBay into a multibillion dollar entity. What does he plan to do, you might ask. Well, he doesn’t yet. In a conference call with press and analysts he kept emphasizing that he just got there and he needs time. That’s precisely what Carol Bartz said for the years during which she was at the helm, watching the Yahoo ship slowly and steadily sink below the sea of change that the company has ignored for more than a decade. How… -
My Favorite Books of 2011
31 Dec 2011 | 12:41 pmIt’s the last day of an odd year and many people are reflecting on life. Some of my friends are using blogs to write about the death of the blog. Others are reviewing the great moments in technology or social media in 2011. But too me, there were very few truly great moments in technology. We have as an industry evolved from a period of great disruption and are now focused on refinement. This may be good for users and business, but it is pretty boring for writers, or so it seems to me. So, I thought I would dedicate my last post of the old year to one of my great passions: books. I read… -
Is EMail Dead?
20 Dec 2011 | 11:13 amJohn Naughton, writing in the Guardian has a good piece based on email he received from Mark Zuckerberg, forecasting the death of email. It will be replaced, if Zuck has his way, with Facebook’s new Messenger service. Naughton does a good job of refuting the self-serving prophesy, but I think there are more reason why the imminent death of email is less vision and more hallucination. Naughhton is wrong on one point. Predicting the death of email is not new. I’ve been hearing such forecasts ever since blogging and social media started gaining momentum. Dr. Danah Boyd, the a… -
A Jew’s View of Christmas
17 Dec 2011 | 10:48 amWife Paula, dog Brewster & some bearded guy. Photo by Shel [Note: I first posted this in December 2003 and have reposted it almost every December since. I hope you enjoy it.] I grew up in the 1950s in New Bedford, Mass., an overwhelmingly Christian city. Christmas was the biggest day of the year. Schools were closed. Parents enjoyed rare paid days off. Often, snow coated the ground. Churches stood in every neighborhood and their bell towers would chime carols all day long. I was a Jewish kid and I knew this day was not for me, But, I just couldn’t help feel the excitement. My… -
Needed: An Annual Tech Conference Calendar
12 Dec 2011 | 3:53 pmIt’s December and like a great many professionals in the tech industry, I’m trying to determine what events to plan and budget what I do for next year. There are a great many people looking at the same time/place/budget issues, ranging from home office folk like me, to C-elevel global enterprise executives. It surprises me how incredibly difficult it is to gather what I need. I asked about this on my social networks, and three sites were frequently recommended: Plancast, Upcoming.com and Gary’s Guide. Each of these sites is useful if you want to find a meetup, tweetup or…
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Matt Mullenweg
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On the Evolution of Investing
24 Jan 2012 | 1:59 pmToday Y Combinator announced they are adding two new partners, Garry Tan and Aaron Iba. This announcement is unique because it does not list their academic credentials, their previous investments, the boards of companies or non-profits they have sat on, how many years of experience they have, or any of the usual badges of honor investors parade in their biographies and Crunchbase profiles. Instead we get accolades of “rare individuals who can both design and program” and “best hackers among the YC alumni.” Take note of this moment. I was part of a dinner conversation… -
MPAA Threatens Politicians
22 Jan 2012 | 2:43 pmMPAA Directly & Publicly Threatens Politicians Who Arent Corrupt Enough To Stay Bought on Techdirt. -
Hollywood and the Justice System
21 Jan 2012 | 8:44 amTwo excellent essays on how Hollywood has completely put our legal system out of whack through years of twisting our legislative process to their ends, or as Shirky put it “imagine the possibility of a longer jail term for streaming a Michael Jackson video than Jackson’s own doctor got for killing actual Michael Jackson?” Andrew Bridges on PandoDaily: Forget SOPA, Hollywood Already Had a Field Day with the Justice System. Clay Shirky on his blog: Pick up the pitchforks: David Pogue underestimates Hollywood. -
#Reinventing: Chamber of Commerce
18 Jan 2012 | 11:23 amReally great article from my friend Hunter Walk on #Reinventing the Chamber of Commerce, which is especially relevant given how the US Chamber of Commerce has been tending to side with the MPAA and RIAA rather than actual small businesses, startups, and tech communities. -
BBC Viewpoint on Blackout
18 Jan 2012 | 10:51 amI've built my life on a free and open internet. As the co-founder of WordPress.org, a free software project that aims to democratise publishing, and the founder of Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com that hosts blogs from around the world in pursuit of the same goal, the proposed US legislation to regulate and censor the free and open foundation of the internet makes my mouth go dry with fear. The rise of the web over the past two decades and the freedom to publish and express yourself online will be looked back upon as a cultural revolution. We have gone from a world split…
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blog maverick
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The TV Business Keeps Getting Stronger !
14 Jan 2012 | 6:53 pmBack in my broadcast.com days we had a saying that “bits are bits”. That once content becomes digital, it is naturally going to become available on any and all digital devices. Based on this, we always made the point to be platform and device agnostic. We didn’t care where or how people saw our content, as long as they saw it and we had the chance to monetize it. We also knew that our core value proposition to consumers was that on broadcast.com they were able to get content that they couldn’t get on TV. We had Yoga channels, we had cricket live and on demand, we had… -
Why Startups Shouldn’t Hire PR Firms
13 Jan 2012 | 5:31 pmA quote from my book, How to Win at the Sport of Business got picked up in multiple stories. In the book I stated effectively that “Startups should never hire a PR firm”. As you would expect, the PR Industry was not over-joyed at the comment. Articles were written about how incredibly valuable a good PR person can be to a startup. Actually, I have no doubt that a smart PR person can add value to a startup. The problem is that all things considered, it’s not enough value. The first problem with hiring a PR firm is cost. Cash is always in short supply in startups. -
You Don’t Live in the World You Were Born Into
31 Dec 2011 | 11:54 amI thought this was appropriate to start the new year. We all have the tendency to believe that we are living in a very advanced technological period. We get all excited about the new tech we got at Xmas and what we read about that will soon be available to us. In reality, everything we are excited about today is going to be incredibly old and boring much faster than we ever expect. No matter what year you were born, by the time you finish(ed) high school, its (was) a completely different world. Today’s high school seniors were born prior to the World Wide Web, wireless internet,… -
The Fan Experience at Sporting Events – We dont need no stinking smartphones !
24 Dec 2011 | 11:17 amWith the season starting tomorrow, I wanted to update a blog post I did in 2010. In just the past 18 months the number of proposals for in-game entertainment have skyrocketed. It seems like every day I get a new proposal to invest in a company that is going to revolutionize the experience of going to a sporting event. Without fail the proposal starts out with some form of “with the explosion in sales of smartphones…” Then I get the meat of the pitch which is some derivative of stats, pictures, fantasy games, social sharing via FB/Twitter or some new network to replace… -
Patent Law Kills Again
17 Dec 2011 | 3:28 pmI got this email this morning. Mark, I’ve been following blogmaverick.com for a loooong time. I’ve recently come up against a patent related issue and figured I give it a shot in running it by you since you write about patent law often. I’ll be brief… I spent the last year developing an extremely valuable piece of technology. I have caught the eye of a Fortune 500 company that would benefit most from the technology and they want to make a strategic investment in my small company. The problem is they are big, stodgy and paranoid… and they are hung up on…
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The Tom Peters Weblog
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Race to Nowhere
27 Jan 2012 | 6:51 amTom has said, "We tell our kids to 'be still,' then tell them to 'read history books'—which are replete (100%!) with tales of people ... who never sat still." This is obviously not the ideal way to cultivate a talented workforce. The education system in the United States still seems to be attempting to churn out well-behaved factory workers. With the enormous pressure placed on teachers to produce sufficient test results, the classroom becomes more about test preparation than exploration and discovery. Albert Einstein, long since deceased, had this to say: "It is nothing short of a… -
Advice, For What It's Worth ...
25 Jan 2012 | 9:20 amI was asked to contribute (a very few words) to a family page offering words of wisdom to a graduating high school senior. That's a serious challenge—and I literally spent days on the task. Here, for better or for worse, is the result: Rules For Living Life to the Hilt Nothing will turn out the way you thought it would. There is no bigger waste of time than making plans. Any success you have will be the byproduct of having thrown yourself headlong and without reserve into what you were most passionate about—and then ridden the wave you created wherever and at whatever speed it… -
Off the Cuff Series
23 Jan 2012 | 8:56 amWe're happy to announce the start of our Off the Cuff video series. A few months ago we asked for you to send us questions you'd like us to ask Tom on camera. The first question was posed by longtime fan Dave Wheeler, about how it came to be that Tom realized the importance of front line supervisors. We find the timing of this particularly remarkable, since it dovetails so well with the latest part of the Mother of All Presentations released at ExcellenceNow.com, First-line Supervisors Rule. -
RSS at ExcellenceNow.com
20 Jan 2012 | 11:06 amYou can now subscribe via RSS to ExcellenceNow.com so that you're alerted as soon as a new Part of the Mother of All Presentations is released. Go to ExcellenceNow.com and use the little orange button at the bottom of the Slide Set list to subscribe. Happy reading! -
"Tom Peters Still Rocks"
18 Jan 2012 | 9:30 amWe're quite excited about the overwhelmingly positive response we've seen to our new ExcellenceNow.com site. We hope you're finding lots of inspiration about why you do what you do from Part 2's Moral Basis for Enterprise, and are starting to focus in on your front line supervisors after this week's release of Part 3. Erika Andersen wrote a kind review of the site at Forbes.com that we think you'll enjoy reading. She talks about her first encounter with Tom through In Search of Excellence, and describes him as a "tribal elder." As 2012 marks 30 years since In Search was published, perhaps…
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The Business Blog at Intuitive.com
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HP markets to stereotypes? Ugh.
11 Jan 2012 | 10:25 amI realize that as a dad blogger -- see GoFatherhood for my dad blog -- I get on a lot of mailing lists that are really more aimed at mom or mommy bloggers because, well, most of us Dads don't blog about parenting, we blog about work, tech or our other passions. Mars, Venus, all that. So I'm no stranger to getting press releases and media queries that begin "Dear Mom" or "As a Mom..."Still, as a former employee of Hewlett-Packard, I cringed when I received this promotion from the team at Porter Novelli PR for the HP SmartPrint system:As a busy mom, I'm sure you don't have time to struggle with… -
Tip: There's an Art to Formatting a Press Release
8 Dec 2011 | 10:14 amAs we close in on the huge Consumer Electronics Show (still almost a month away) I am now getting 10-20 emails a day from PR agencies and publicists, inviting me to attend various events, come to parties, meet with executives, and schedule time to stop by one or another of the over 2000 vendors that are going to be at the show. Helpful, but overwhelming.What it also highlights, however, is the difference between a PR agency that understands the reality of a busy journalist and those that exist rather for their own self-aggrandizement perhaps as much as for promoting their client.Case in… -
What's the future of laptop PCs versus tablets?
30 Nov 2011 | 10:17 amI received the following question from a reader and it started me thinking.... With the recent popularity of tablets, do you think in the near future tablets will replace netbooks or stay as a substitute? If you think tablets and netbooks are going to continue competing against one another, do you think the demand for netbooks will decline but not perish? Thanks! He raises an interesting question, but I'm going to expand it just a bit to ask an even bigger question: Are tablet computers going to eclipse and ultimately replace laptop computers in the marketplace? I have the most popular… -
Data security and the CLEAR airport security card
8 Nov 2011 | 4:41 pmAs regular readers know, I wrote a blog post a week or so ago about applying for a CLEAR card [see Biometrics and my application for the CLEAR card] and in that writeup I had one big question: with all the biometric data collected, how does the company ensure that it's safe and secure? I just got an update from CLEAR Vice President Mark Neirick addressing my security concerns. Here's what he says:CLEAR recognizes that with the information provided by its members comes the expectation and trust that CLEAR will appropriately protect it. A key difference between the current system and that of… -
Biometrics and my application for the CLEAR card
4 Nov 2011 | 1:28 pmIt's not often a company goes bankrupt and comes back from the dead as a better, smarter firm. Seems like companies are more often built on the rubble of previous ventures instead. The airport express security program CLEAR is a notable counterexample, with its database of Transportation Security Administration-approved biometrics that let them whisk you through the airport security lines. With over 200,000 paying members, the first generation of CLEAR just up and declared bankruptcy one day and shut down, leaving a lot of frustrated, disappointed users: no-one got a dime back. Fast forward a…
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Conversation Agent
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What Keeps You up at Night?
27 Jan 2012 | 5:00 amI'm a night owl. Often people will hear back from me in the wee hours because I get creative at around 4pm and then stay in flow for hours after that. By the time I realize I'm cold from the heating going to low for the night, it's way past bed time. When I get into flow, I shut everything else... [Click on the title to read this article in its entirety at Conversation Agent] -
Keep the Faith. Demand Proof. Relentlessly.
26 Jan 2012 | 5:00 amThere are two aspects to doing business -- believing in what you're doing, and verifying that it works for your customers and clients. To succeed, you need to do both, relentlessly. When it's only about keeping the faith, you may be worshiping at the altar of hope (or its shady cousin, ego), and... [Click on the title to read this article in its entirety at Conversation Agent] -
How to Win Customers and Influence Word of Mouth
25 Jan 2012 | 5:00 amWhen I met Stan Phelps for coffee a little over a year ago, I learned for the first time there was a term -- lagniappe -- that meant a small gift given to a customers by a merchant at the time of purchase. It cannot be faked of forced, for it to work it must feel real. Our conversation on the... [Click on the title to read this article in its entirety at Conversation Agent] -
The Truth About B2B Social Media Adoption
24 Jan 2012 | 5:00 amWhile we've been sharing examples of creative content strategy executions for a couple of years here, it's easy to forget that the rest of the business world may still be wrestling with different issues. The truth about social media adoption, according to the results of a survey conducted by Penton... [Click on the title to read this article in its entirety at Conversation Agent] -
How Much is a Lifetime Customer Worth to your Business?
23 Jan 2012 | 5:00 amFor Zane's Cycles, it’s $12,500, says CEO Chris Zane in Reinventing the Wheel. That means if we start by providing a child his first bike at 4-years-old and continue through the retirement bike, we will collect $12,500 in fulfilling all of the cyclist’s lifetime needs. But to actually sell an... [Click on the title to read this article in its entirety at Conversation Agent]
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The Daily Nightly
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Patrick Witt's choice: was it real?
27 Jan 2012 | 5:41 pmBy Anne ThompsonNBC NewsFollow @nbcnightlynewsLast year, we brought you a story about the choice Yale University quarterback Patrick Witt had to make ... go to the final round of interviews for the Rhodes Scholarship or lead the Bulldogs against the Harvard Crimson in what is known as "the Game." Many of you watched our story and weighed in on what choice Witt should make. Today, the New York Times reports that in the end Witt didn't have a choice.Based on talking to a half dozen anonymous sources, the Times says the Rhodes Committee told Witt and Yale that his candidacy had been… -
The twisty road to US-Pakistan re-engagement
27 Jan 2012 | 12:00 pmPakistan has closed crucial roads used to ferry supplies to U.S and NATO troops in Afghanistan -- leaving Pakistani drivers stranded and driving up the U.S. price tag for the war. NBC's Amna Nawaz reports from Peshawar. By Amna Nawaz, NBC News correspondent in Pakistan writes PESHAWAR, Pakistan – The ring road in Peshawar is a rough ride: navigating certain stretches means dodging enormous potholes, steering clear of steep ditches and swerving to avoid the occasional brave soul who darts from one side of the road to the other.Yet this has been, for the last decade, one of… -
What we can all learn from formerly homeless teen Samantha Garvey
27 Jan 2012 | 10:28 amBy Rehema EllisNBC NewsFollow @nbcnightlynews Samantha Garvey, the homeless teen who was a semifinalist in the prestigious Intel Science competition, told me this week her mother "has been crying a lot." But unlike when the family was evicted from their home on New Year’s Eve, now she says it’s tears of happiness. After the news broke about how Samantha, 18, was able to stay focused on her studies even as her family was mired in turmoil, there has been an outpouring of admiration for her. She attended the State of the Union address, appeared on “The Ellen… -
Economy picked up pace at the end of 2011
27 Jan 2012 | 8:43 amWhat we're following: - Economy picked up pace at the end of 2011- Secret Service to investigate bullet-ridden image of President Obama- Gingrich, Romney battle in final Florida debateAnd did you see...- Blast outside Baghdad hospital kills 26- Costa Concordia crash victims offered over $14,400 plus travel and medical costs- Thailand elephants now being poached for meat -
President Obama and AZ Governor Brewer have testy exchange
26 Jan 2012 | 8:39 amWhat we're following: - U.S. Army chief says he is comfortable with plans to shrink the size of his force- President Obama and Arizona Governor Brewer have testy talk- Egypt stops U.S. Transportation Secretary's son from leavingAnd did you see...- Netflix regains some customers after unpopular price increase- Alaska Airlines to stop practice of giving out prayer cards- Foreclosures pushing home prices lower
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Ann Coulter's Townhall.com Column
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Re-Elect Obama: Vote Newt!
25 Jan 2012 | 5:54 pmTo talk with Gingrich supporters is to enter a world where words have no meaning. They denounce Mitt Romney as a candidate being pushed on them by "the Establishment" -- with "the Establishment" defined as anyone who... -
Strongest Case Against Romney a Few Sheets Short of a Ream
18 Jan 2012 | 5:01 pmMitt Romney has spent more than 20 years in private enterprise, making thousands of business decisions affecting hundreds of companies that led to more than 100,000 new jobs and billions of dollars for employees and... -
Who Wouldn't Enjoy Firing These People?
11 Jan 2012 | 4:01 pmEarlier this week, Mitt Romney got into trouble for saying, "I like being able to fire people who provide services to me." To comprehend why the political class reacted as if Romney had just praised Hitler, you must... -
Iowa Shows Republicans Determined to Beat Obama
4 Jan 2012 | 4:36 pmIt's been a mixed week for Mitt Romney's campaign. On one hand, Romney won Iowa, but on the other, he was endorsed by John McCain. Until the first actual votes were cast Tuesday night, it appeared as if some elements... -
Only One Candidate Is Right on The Two Most Important Issues
28 Dec 2011 | 5:06 pmIn the upcoming presidential election, two issues are more important than any others: repealing Obamacare and halting illegal immigration. If we fail at either one, the country will be changed permanently. Taxes can...
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Jeffrey Zeldman Presents The Daily Report
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Dyson to NY: drop dead
27 Jan 2012 | 9:21 amDYSON’S WEBSITE won’t sell me a vacuum cleaner. It claims New York, a U.S. state it provides in its own drop-down menu, is “not a valid state.” I have previously ordered Dyson products from the Dyson website and shipped them to a different address in New York. I have an account and everything. But the website won’t let me ship products to my office. This is just one of about a dozen errors that wasted half an hour of my life today. -
Accident
23 Jan 2012 | 12:32 pmCAR JUST HIT ME as I was crossing street. Van carrying old people. Driver didn’t see me. Van struck my head. # I punched door. Driver and passengers stared at me. Time slowed way down. I gestured for driver to pull over.# Asked woman on street if I was bleeding. She said no. Told van driver to leave. He got out, walked over, insisted on seeing if I was ok. # Black man, about 60. Told him I was good, merry Christmas. Shook his hand twice, nearly hugged him. Glad to be alive. # Two hours later: In ER with friend, getting checked after accident. # No concussion, no spinal or brain injury,… -
A List Apart Issue No. 342: A Pixel Identity Crisis; An Important Time for Design; Building Twitter Bootstrap
17 Jan 2012 | 11:11 amIn a triple issue of A List Apart for people who make websites, it’s time for designers to seize the day! Transcend mobile platform differences, harness the power of an open-source front-end toolkit, and band together to change the world: An Important Time for Design by CAMERON KOCZON Cameron Koczon says designers have now been given a blank check—one that lets us band together as a community to change the way design is perceived; change the way products are built; and quite possibly change the world. Building Twitter Bootstrap by MARK OTTO Mark Otto, the co-creator of Bootstrap,… -
Ding dong, SOPA is dead.
16 Jan 2012 | 8:27 amDING DONG, THE WITCH IS DEAD. For now, at least, the “ill-conceived lobbyist-driven piece of legislation” known as the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is no more: Misguided efforts to combat online privacy have been threatening to stifle innovation, suppress free speech, and even, in some cases, undermine national security. As of yesterday, though, there’s a lot less to worry about. …Though the administration did [not] issue a formal veto threat, the White House’s opposition signaled the end of these bills, at least in their current form. A few hours later,… -
Selling Design – an online reading list
11 Jan 2012 | 9:30 amTOMORROW, WHICH IS also my birthday, I begin teaching “Selling Design” to second-year students in the MFA Interaction Design program at School of Visual Arts, New York. Liz Danzico and Steve Heller created and direct the MFA program, and this is my second year teaching this class, whose curriculum I pull out of my little blue beanie. In this class we explore collaboration and persuasion for interaction designers. Whether you work in a startup, studio, or traditional company; whether you design print, products, purely digital experiences, or any combination thereof; whether…
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Digital City Mechanics
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24 Jan 2012 | 9:56 pm
24 Jan 2012 | 9:56 pmHere’s the pitch Marc Canter gave in Kansas City recently for the Gigabit Challenge. A Microsoft guy (writing for Silicon Prairie News) thought Marc was the best! Digital City Mechanics, Gigabit Challenge Finale from Curt McMillan on Vimeo. -
PolymerOhio internship program
18 Oct 2011 | 11:37 pmWe’re launching a program with PolymerOhio to help save Ohio’s Polymer industry. This program was developed by and will be administered by Digital City Mechanics. -
Connecting the dots at the CONTACT conference
18 Oct 2011 | 8:35 amI’ll be speaking at the CONTACT conference in NYC this week. My theme will be “connecting the dots.” Everyone at the conference will be well intentioned, super intelligent activists, thinkers and doers. “So what can I say – which will make a difference?” 1. We’re all still operating in silos – in our own unique worlds and networks. 2. By inter-connecting between each other, yes knowledge can be shared, but also money can be used more efficiently. Share space, help each other create web sites and viral campaigns, support each other’s… -
Digital City – Tampa
15 Oct 2011 | 9:20 amI’ve just returned from an amazing trip to Tampa and the Tampa Bay area. I presented to an overflow crowd of entrepreneurs, government officials and community leaders, I was interviewed several times and I met with the Mayor of Tampa. Things are looking great for the launch of our program down there – soon! Tampa has a rich history, plenty of diversity and immigrant population, potential investors – who wish to help out their communities – and LOTS of industry who can potentially sponsor programs and projects. These are all the ingredients necessary for a… -
Digital City project Prezi
8 Oct 2011 | 4:24 pmthe Digital City project on Prezi
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Andy Sernovitz | Damn, I Wish I\'d Thought of That!
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Abuse of trust
27 Jan 2012 | 9:00 amDid you ever wonder why so many consumers hate businesses? Often it’s because businesses take advantage of the relationships we have with them. When I bought a camera from Casio, I was pretty excited about the relationship. I bought several models over the years, convinced many friends to buy one, and blogged about them more than once. I was a fan. I gave them my email because I trusted them. But to them, I’m just a name in a database — a name to be marketed to. Even if it makes no sense at all — such as these emails that I’ve been getting for keyboards and… -
Newsletter #868: The “Use What You Have” Issue
26 Jan 2012 | 10:00 am[Welcome back to the Damn, I Wish I'd Thought of That! newsletter. This is text of the great issue all of our email subscribers just received. Sign yourself up using the handy form on the right.] Great marketers aren’t just looking for the new and shiny — they’re also looking at how to get the most out of what they already have. Here are a few examples to inspire you: 1. For recruiting 2. For innovation 3. For competition 4. Check it out: Events from your birth year 1. For recruiting Finding new, talented people to join your team can be expensive and time consuming. But… -
I can’t tell you about this
25 Jan 2012 | 9:30 amSeriously, I can’t. I was at the mall and some guy in a kiosk was selling special iPhone screen protectors that are supposedly better-feeling, better-working, and don’t fall off. With a lifetime guarantee. For $20. My regular screen protectors keep falling off or getting bubbles, so I decided to try it. It’s amazing! You should get one. I show it to everyone, every time I pull out my phone. But here’s the big word-of-mouth lesson: I have no idea what it’s called. I don’t know the name of the store. There is no brand name, no package, nothing to tell me how… -
How long are your shirt tails?
24 Jan 2012 | 9:00 amA good men’s shirt has long tails (it keeps the shirt tucked in). A manufacturer can save millions by slicing a few inches off the bottom of every shirt. Bad companies look at this as a spreadsheet question: How much money can we save by reducing fabric quantity? But the most important data never shows up on a spreadsheet: Customers who bought the shirt, thought it seemed short/cheap, and never came back. Your “fabric cost” spreadsheet doesn’t have a column for “customer retention costs.” Which means you may be saving money on a cheap product, but losing… -
She left me standing there, and I don’t know why
23 Jan 2012 | 9:00 amI was a customer of a very good web hosting service for many years — until I cancelled my account last month. Cancellation was easy — I did it online and it was hassle-free and efficient. I left with a positive feeling. But they have no idea why I left. Why didn’t they call? Why didn’t they ask? Was it an unsolvable problem, or could they have won me back with a quick fix? Was I upset about something that they could apologize for? Or was there a mismatch between my needs and their product line — information that would help them in the future? Don’t let a…
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Paul Kedrosky's Infectious Greed
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Twitter Digest: 2012-01-27
28 Jan 2012 | 6:00 amWhat the fk is a "stealth data investment fund", & why is that not as stupid an idea as it sounds? http://t.co/I1A52Prl -> Rick Bookstaber: The Twilight of the Leisure Class http://t.co/fvDXm1PN -> Took this yesterday in BC: What happens when I'm in a hurry to get to fresh powder – http://t.co/yKZjckUk -> Whoa, best recruiting video ever: At Twitter, The Future is You! http://t.co/46MHEoHk /via @elunt -> Video: High-marking snowmobiler caught by avalanche, and dug out – http://t.co/q0rluD4r -> -
Twitter Digest: 2012-01-26
27 Jan 2012 | 6:00 amToday went through my annual exercise of unsuccessfully signing up for lunches at upcoming TED. Zero luck. Again. -> IRT @TreeHugger: What happens when a man tries to live solely on those foods advertised on television? http://t.co/DqeLVOr1 -> Vancouver showing off today in vertiginous mid-winter fashion : the Lions loom like volcanic, white sno-cones. Damn you George Vancouver. -> Powder powder: 10 inches new http://t.co/46olq9nm -> Nadal / Federer. Again that outcome. Tragic. -> -
Twitter Digest: 2012-01-24
25 Jan 2012 | 6:00 amGaddis, Pynchon, and Mistaken Identity – http://t.co/grt2mvBx -> I'm so damn helpful that sometimes I just want to kiss me. -> Mostly for the title: Econophysics of a religious cult: the Antoinists in Belgium [1920-2000] http://t.co/lkndYLKA -> Photo set: Salvaging the TK Bremen – http://t.co/oiB7U1rj -> "Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work." http://t.co/guPozSdi -> -
Twitter Digest: 2012-01-23
24 Jan 2012 | 6:00 amFavorite anagram for new RIM CEO Thorsten Heins: Shit Enthrones. -> Traveling. Volunteers? RT @jholston: Can @pkedrosky read this and please translate for humanity? TIA. http://t.co/TlAQrvK5 -> Didier's finish at Kitzbuhel this weekend. Such a great moment. http://t.co/d2zG4qH6 -> Retiring Didier Cuche Sets Record at Kitzbühel – http://t.co/V9PwuZm2 -> Imagine if drastic change required. Whew. RT @emilychangtv: RIM closes down 8.65% after new CEO says no "drastic change" is necessary -> Vegas in the rain … ♫ soundtracking "Half Light II (No…
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@ProBlogger
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25 Reasons Why Google Hates Your Blog
27 Jan 2012 | 8:02 amThis guest post is by Belinda of The Copy Detective. Your blog is a good read. Everyone says so. Although “everyone” is really just people you already know. Like your Mum. So why isn’t your blog being found by other people? The millions and millions of people hungrily consuming blog content out there in the global online space we call the Internet? The cold, hard truth is that Google hates your blog. And it’s nothing personal. You just don’t have anything that Google wants. Creating high-quality, relevant content is a must if you want your blog to be noticed by search engines but… -
2 Different Tales of Blog Growth
26 Jan 2012 | 2:01 pm“What was ‘the tipping point’ for your blog?” This question is one that I’m regularly asked in interviews, and it is one that is challenging to answer. The assumption behind the question is that there is often some kind of event that pushes a blog into the limelight. The reality is that it’s not always this way. Let me illustrate this by telling the stories of my two main blogs—ProBlogger and Digital Photography School. ProBlogger’s tipping point: dramatic growth Here on ProBlogger, the only real tipping point-type event that I can identify is when… -
6 Fatal Symptoms You’re in the Wrong Niche
26 Jan 2012 | 8:06 amThis guest post is by Martyn Chamberlin of Two Hour Blogger. “What should I write about?” It seems such a silly question. Of course you know what to write about! In fact, you could argue it’s even impossible to write about the wrong thing. That’s like ordering the wrong iPod! Whoever heard of such a thing? As you know, if you write long and hard enough, someone will listen. An audience of five is great if you’re just blogging for fun. But what if you’re trying to build a profitable business? Can you get enough people listening to make a business? The answer… -
10 Ways Multi-blog Authors Can Stay Creative and Generate Great Posts
25 Jan 2012 | 2:02 pmThis guest post is by Jo Gifford of Cherry Sorbet Creative. Keeping fresh and creative is key to keeping on top of the game when writing different blogs across various sectors, and for various clients. Working with efficient workflows, time management and organization all help to keep that valuable information harnessed to be used when you need it, but how about making sure you can produce great content on time and on demand? Keeping creative and informed means you are working efficiently to produce content that’s engaging, informative, and, of course, profitable for you. After all,… -
Ramit Sethi Exposed: How He Earns Millions Blogging
25 Jan 2012 | 8:07 amThis guest post is by Michael Alexis of WriterViews. In this post, I’m going to show you the exact steps one blogger used to earn over $1 million. Not long ago, I interviewed Ramit Sethi of I Will Teach You To Be Rich. If you’re serious about making money blogging, then you need to read this interview. But a heads-up: this post is long and extremely detailed. It took me over 20 hours to write. It will take you about 15 minutes to read. If you like, you can download a PDF of the entire article here. I know you may be skeptical about the $1 million, so let’s start by looking at…
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AllThingsD » Walt Mossberg
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Real Bonding With Family Around the TV Via Skype
25 Jan 2012 | 8:03 pmAs you read these words, millions of people are conducting video chats using the popular Skype service, now owned by Microsoft. Most of these calls are low-resolution encounters between two individuals, conducted over personal computers. [ See post to watch video ] This week, I tested a new device that aims to transform Skype video chats into room-size experiences, involving whole families or groups of friends on each end—seeing each other, chatting and sharing photos in high definition using TVs. It’s called telyHD, and comes from a small Silicon Valley start-up called Tely Labs. In… -
Track Changes on an iPad
25 Jan 2012 | 8:02 pmQ: You recently reviewed an iPad app that lets you use Microsoft Office programs on an iPad. But does this support the “Track Changes” feature of Office, which I cannot find on any of the office-type apps I’ve tried on the iPad? A: Yes, it does. And tracked changes are synchronized with your PC or Mac. As I noted in the review, the new app, called OnLive Desktop, gives you the complete Windows version of Office on an iPad, via the cloud. So all features in the Windows version, including the tracking of changes, are available. Q: I am a new Mac user and would like to become a… -
Talk Is Cheap and Reliable on Nokia's $50 Phone
18 Jan 2012 | 8:03 pmThe standard price of a smartphone running one of the modern mobile operating systems is typically $200, with a two-year service contract. Recently, there have even been a few, largely unsuccessful, attempts to boost prices to $300. [ See post to watch video ] But phone makers and carriers have been eager to push smartphones into lower price bands to expand the market. Older and more basic models have been showing up for less. Multiple Android models sell for around $100, and a few well below that. Even Apple, which established the $200 standard, sells its iPhone 4, which is outwardly… -
Walt Shows Off CES Gadgets for Fox Business News (Video)
12 Jan 2012 | 2:04 pmAs noted in this Fox Business News interview, it’s not easy to get around the floor of CES when you have one of the most recognizable faces in tech, but Walt Mossberg dutifully pressed through the throngs, and while nothing really blew him away, he did find a few items intriguing: Samsung Note: Dubbed a “phablet,” the Note is a cross between a big phone and a small tablet. One Tablet Per Child: The follow-up to the original One Laptop Per Child computer, this tablet is designed for third-world and developing countries. Digital health and fitness products: A blood glucose… -
Working in Word, Excel, PowerPoint on an iPad
11 Jan 2012 | 8:04 pmAlthough Apple’s popular iPad tablet has been able to replace laptops for many tasks, it isn’t a big hit with folks who’d like to use it to create or edit long Microsoft Office documents. [ See post to watch video ] While Microsoft has released a number of apps for the iPad, it hasn’t yet released an iPad version of Office. There are a number of valuable apps that can create or edit Office documents, such as Quickoffice Pro, Documents To Go and the iPad version of Apple’s own iWork suite. But their fidelity with Office documents created on a Windows PC or a Mac…
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BenEdelman.org
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Advertising Disclosures in Online Apartment Search
25 Jan 2012 | 6:00 amA decade ago, the FTC reminded search engines of their duty to label advertisements as such. Most general-purpose search engines now do so (though they're sometimes less than forthright). But practices at specialized search engines often fall far short. In today's posting, Paul Kominers and I examine leading online apartment search services and evaluate the disclosures associated with their paid listings. We find paid placement and paid inclusion listings at each site, but disclosures range from limited to nonexistent. Where disclosures exist, they are largely hidden behind multiple… -
Google Tying Google Plus and Many More
12 Jan 2012 | 6:00 amGoogle's new "Google Search Plus Your World" service favors Google Plus results at the expense of more popular social networks like Facebook and Twitter. These changes have prompted widespread concern, and rightly so. But in fact Google's dubious tying tactics extend well beyond Google Plus. I show Google using tying to favor all manner of its services, including using tying to force others to submit to Google's will even in areas where Google is not yet dominant. -
Revisiting Search Bias at Google
11 Nov 2011 | 6:00 amLast week Joshua Wright posted a critique of my January 2011 Measuring Bias in 'Organic' Web Search (with Ben Lockwood). In this piece, I offer a brief response. -
Understanding the Purposes – and Weaknesses – of Online-to-Offline Discounting
26 Oct 2011 | 7:00 amDaily deals sites often promise discounts exceeding 50% -- mobilizing millions of consumers spending billions of dollars. Yet this model faces growing resistance, particularly from merchants concerned that "deals" offers are unprofitable. The natural question: When and how are large discounts sustainable? Deals services seem to envision delivering new customers who return paying full price, yet they've done little to demonstrate that return visits actually occur. And there's reason to doubt whether customers enticed by a discount will actually return to pay full price. I explore the… -
Advertisers' Missing Perspective in the Google Antitrust Hearing
20 Sep 2011 | 7:00 amThis week's Senate Antitrust Subcommittee hearing promises to investigate persistent allegations of Google abusing its market power. In these discussions, it's crucial to remember whose spending fuels Google's monopoly: advertisers. Google is far from generous to advertisers -- burdening them with high pricing, harsh terms, and various restrictions that primarily serve Google's interests. In this piece, I review worrisome practices regulators should investigate and, in due course, seek to prevent.
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Brian Solis
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Nissan Embraces Social Media to Improve Customer Experiences and Foster Advocacy
27 Jan 2012 | 1:25 pmIn this episode of (R)evolution, Nissan’s David Mingle, Director of Customer Management and Erich Marx, Director of Marketing join me for a refreshing conversation about social media’s impact on business transformation, customer experiences, and building an adaptive business model to learn and evolve based on new opportunities. We explore Nissan’s approach to new media for not only marketing, but also how the company uses social media to invest in and shape the customer experience over time. Having both David and Erich on the show offered a 360 view of the customer and also… -
The Mobile Marketing Value Exchange
26 Jan 2012 | 8:21 amGuest post by Scott Forshay, creator and editor of mobi.luxe. Following him on Twitter @mobiluxe Establishing consumer relationships through mobile marketing, as with any successful, productive relationship, inherently requires a mutual exchange of value. Whether consumers are opting-in for brand communications via SMS or engaging with the brand in a single instance through scanning a QR code, the onus is on the brand to deliver value in return for customers’ valuable time and information. Without the perception that value has been exchanged for value, the relationship becomes essentially… -
Likes, Genre, Action – Facebook Introduces Clicks to Action
25 Jan 2012 | 10:51 amFollowing the official roll out of its new Timeline, Facebook is introducing Actions, a series of new applications that change how people interact with apps, content, brands, and each other. The new apps will extend Mark Zuckerberg’s vision of frictionless experiences based on Facebook’s Open Graph platform, where apps introduce new ways to share your actions with your friends either implicitly or explicitly. With the new Open Graph platform, developers will introduce new Actions and Action buttons that extend the functionality of sharing beyond Likes to now include a dictionary… -
Looking Beyond 2012: Trends for Leading Transformation
23 Jan 2012 | 9:11 amPart 16 in an ongoing series that serves as the prequel to my new book, The End of Business as Usual… It’s a new year and a new set of predictions to set goals and expectations for 2012. I won’t bother you with the top 10 emerging social networks or apps to focus time and resources. Nor will I gaze in the crystal ball to reveal the five secrets to viral marketing and user/customer acquisition. Instead of adding my forecasts to the endless sea of debatable prophesies, I chose a more aspirational path. 2012 is the year of transformation as digital Darwinism threatens rigid and… -
How Suntrust Uses Social Media to Engage Customers and Comply with Regulation
20 Jan 2012 | 12:37 pmFinancial institutions are bound to rules and regulation than other companies experimenting in customer engagement, specifically in social media, can ignore. Over the years, SunTrust has stood out as one of several examples that understand how to use regulatory boundaries to inspire a new generation of customer engagement. The result is finding balance between risk and reward to meet customer expectations and improve customer experiences now and over time. As I’ve always believed…constraint forces creativity. Bianca Buckridee, AVP of Social Media Engagement at SunTrust shares her…
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Joho the Blog
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European Parliament has official look into ACTA. He then resigns in disgust.
26 Jan 2012 | 6:24 pmFrom Techdirt: Kader Arif, the “rapporteur” for ACTA, has quit that role in disgust over the process behind getting the EU to sign onto ACTA. A rapporteur is a person “appointed by a deliberative body to investigate an issue.” However, it appears his investigation of ACTA didn’t make him very pleased: I want to denounce in the strongest possible manner the entire process that led to the signature of this agreement: no inclusion of civil society organisations, a lack of transparency from the start of the negotiations, repeated postponing of the signature of the… -
Wanna be President of the Internets?
26 Jan 2012 | 12:26 pmWell, only kind of. The World Wide Web Foundation is looking for a CEO. Susan Crawford, got some free time? Al Gore, are you busy? Randall Munroe, after all how long does it take you to draw stick figures? Maybe (perish the thought) someone who isn’t American? -
[2b2k] 13 ways the Net is making us smarter
25 Jan 2012 | 8:28 amHuffingtonPost has done a very nice job turning a piece I wrote for them (“13 ways the Net is making us smarter”) into a photo-illustrated slide show. -
States banning municipal wifi.
25 Jan 2012 | 8:16 amStates are being pushed to pass legislation to prevent cities from offering municipal wifi, in order to preserve the current providers’ de facto monopolies. The latest are Georgia and South Carolina, because it would like be um terrible and, er, un-American to let localities experiment and maybe enter into private-public partnerships to speed more even distribution of Net access, or maybe even to view minimal Net access as some sort of public good or, well, do anything that doesn’t first of all maximize the profits of some large companies following a policy that has pushed America… -
Digital humanities
24 Jan 2012 | 2:57 pmSkip Walter’s post about his growing acceptance and understanding of the need for digital humanities hits on so many of my intellectual pleasure spots, starting with Russ Ackoff’s knowledge network, and including Kate Hayles and Cathy Davidson, and more and more. (Yes, he mentions “Too Big to Know” in passing, but that’s irrelevant to my reaction.)
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Daniel Pink
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State of the Union address as an eye exam chart
25 Jan 2012 | 9:48 amCan a Presidential speech ever be a work of art? Not usually. But R. Luke Dubois is doing his best. As part of the “Mulitplicity” exhibit now showing at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, which I had a chance to see last weekend, Dubois reconfigured all the State of the Union addresses in an interesting way. In a series of prints called “Hindsight is always 20/20,” he’s taken the words of each speech, noted their frequency, and rendered them as a Snellen eye exam chart – with a President’s most-used words in large type near the top and his less-used words in… -
5 great guests on our new season of Office Hours
24 Jan 2012 | 7:08 amGood news, folks. Office Hours is back for a new season! The madness begins this Friday, January 27, at 11am, EST, when our guest will be Susan Cain, author of the hot new book, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking. (That’s her on the right.) For those of you who’ve missed the biggest cultural phenomenon since Cop Rock, Office Hours is our radio-ish program, now available around the world on iTunes, in which I and a special guest open up the phone lines for an hour to take your questions about work, life, business, education, and anything… -
Does being reminded of money make you an uncooperative jerk or an independent thinker?
19 Jan 2012 | 6:54 amDedicated readers know that I’ve written a fair bit on how contingent rewards, including money, can go awry in all sorts of ways — resulting in poorer performance, diminished creativity, reduced interest in tasks that were once intrinsically interesting, and so on. But can the very idea of money also affect our behavior? In an interesting new paper, Jia Liu, Dirk Smeesters, and Kathleen D. Vohs say “You betcha.” The researchers carried out a sneaky experiment that had two components. First, they asked their participants to fill out a questionnaire on a computer. The… -
Tomorrow’s classroom excuse: SOPA ate my homework
18 Jan 2012 | 7:08 amIn case you haven’t heard, several large websites have blacked themselves out today to protest two pieces of anti-piracy legislation now before the U.S. Congress. Leaving aside the merits of their arguments, which I think outweigh the merits of the legislation’s advocates’ arguments, I’ve got two questions. 1. Will Wikipedia’s 24-hour disappearance have a material effect on anyone’s life? (I’m talking about you, students and journalists.) If so, that’s pretty amazing — given how preposterous the very concept of Wikipedia seemed not too… -
3 equations that can change your life
10 Jan 2012 | 9:19 amChip Conley is a rare bird. He’s a successful entrepreneur, a provocative thinker, and — get this — a nice guy. Today, he’s out with his newest book, Emotional Equations: Simple Truths for Creating Happiness + Success, and it’s a gem. (Buy it at Amazon BN.com, or IndieBound.) In the book, Chip uses the grammar and lexicon of arithmetic to some deeper truths about life. (Ex: Joy = Love – Fear.) Much like math itself, the technique is simple and elegant — so much so that I wanted to introduce it to Pink Blog readers. In the short interview below, I ask…
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craigconnects
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Military families could use a break
26 Jan 2012 | 10:00 amWith the wars overseas winding down, the need to help vets and military families is increasing, as attention to their needs shrinks.Vets need jobs, and that's high priority. So do their spouses, and they all need a hand dealing with everyday challenges that are magnified when troops are deployed or relocated.A guy like me, I don't know what kind of real-life help they need, but here's what I read. They might need a little help in areas I wouldn't have figured:getting school credits transferreddealing with family stress resulting from deployment or relocationunderstanding… -
Some Results from the National Dialogue for Improving Fed Websites
25 Jan 2012 | 10:00 amThe new Open Government stuff gets results, normally with no media attention. It's just good, solid work, no drama, no way to sensationalize it. That's included a lot of progress in the last two years or so from the Department of Veterans Affairs.Turns out that a group of folks at the GSA, that's the General Services Administration, has been planning for years to figure out how to make Federal websites more effective, and they concluded a real successful national conversation at the end of last year:http://web-reform-dialogue.ideascale.com/A lot of people provided and refined a… -
Peter Levin, CTO for Veterans Affairs, doing a great job
24 Jan 2012 | 9:00 amOkay, I've worked with Peter for a couple years, and just saw a very positive article which understates his performance and results for vets. For those years, I've seen remarkable work including real innovation, like employee and vendor innovation, and increasing use of social media.I bear witness to this, including some worry that he's been working eighty hour weeks routinely. (I couldn't do it.)Anyway, he reports to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, to get it right.Check out Feds@Work: VA's Peter Levin Pursues 'Art Of The Possible' In IT… -
We, The Internet
23 Jan 2012 | 10:00 amHey, this article: Antipiracy Bills Put on Hold in Congress (subscription link) was kind enough to quote me.Here's the original, for our mutual amusement:We, The Internet, have had a serious grassroots victory for democracy. Now is the time for us to turn that success into atipping point which restores the American vision of honest self-government. It's just a start.Personally, well, a nerd's gotta do what a nerd's gotta do. -
The #perfectgift that keeps giving
20 Jan 2012 | 10:00 amFolks, if you remember, I began the #perfectgift campaign on my birthday in December to help out the American Red Cross. The deal was that people would tell us what their #perfectgift would be, for themselves or someone else, and for each mention across the web, until December 31, 2011, I would donate up to $10k to the American Red Cross. The money was used to support the purchase of military comfort kits for our troops.To me, the #perfectgift is when I'm able to give to those who do such good stuff.Eileen Unger said, on my Facebook page, that her #perfectgift would be: "To take…
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The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan
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Ad War Update
28 Jan 2012 | 12:00 amThe full version of "Blood Money," funded by the pro-Gingrich PAC Winning Our Future: Ben Johnson wonders if the web ad will have an impact: While Romney was never personally implicated in the scandal that embroiled Damon Corp, fact-checking site PolitiFact has rated a separate ad drawing the same connections as “Mostly True.” Will the seven-minute negative ad do damage? After what pundits are calling his best debate performances thus far, Romney is ahead of Gingrich in the latest Florida polling. But national polls have Gingrich pulling ahead as… -
The Weekly Wrap
27 Jan 2012 | 9:30 pmFriday on the Dish, Andrew pinpointed Romney's achilles heel on taxes, pronounced the primary "not yet over," and reacted to the bombshell report that Paul edited his racist newsletters (follow-up here). He also excoriated Grover's plan to impeach Obama over taxes, lauded Corey Booker's defense of marriage equality, explained the sense in sexuality was like religion, inveighed against circumcision, and opened up about his first theatrical role. Newt appeared to be gearing up for a vicious ad campaign, got defended on the bucket weirdness, continued to employ… -
A Defense Of Super PACs
27 Jan 2012 | 7:34 pmMounted by Nick Gillespie: E.D. Kain makes related points while countering Chait: [W]hy should we be more concerned with the influence of one billionaire over the decisions of a hypothetical president Newt Gingrich than with the amassed influence of corporations over the Republican party itself? After all, if Gingrich did anything explicitly to help Sheldon Adelson we’d know about it rather quickly. Everyone would be paying close attention. But the machinations of the Republican party itself and the money which keeps the back-scratching mutual between the party and its benefactors is… -
Newt Wanted To Legalize Medical Marijuana
27 Jan 2012 | 6:57 pmIn 1982, before he wanted to execute pot importers, Congressman Gingrich wrote a letter to the Journal of the American Medical Association: We believe licensed physicians are competent to employ marijuana, and patients have a right to obtain marijuana legally, under medical supervision, from a regulated source. The medical prohibition does not prevent seriously ill patients from employing marijuana; it simply deprives them of medical supervision and access to a regulated medical substance. Physicians are often forced to choose between their ethical responsibilities to the patient… -
When A Man Loves A Lesbian, Ctd
27 Jan 2012 | 6:35 pmA reader writes: "Pink Triangle" is a great ode to unrequited love because it so wryly captures the absurdity and pain of loving someone who will never - or in the case of Pink Triangle Girl, can never - love you back. So I was amused to learn in this 2009 Fresh Air interview with Rivers Cuomo that the woman who inspired the song was actually straight, and that the pink triangle was a show of support for gay rights. Rivers missed the boat!
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Jessica Gottlieb A Los Angeles Mom
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Passing: Maybe not as “White” but Still Passing for Something
27 Jan 2012 | 5:04 pmToday I had a three hour salon appointment and one of those hours was spent listening to my stylist complain about Those Old Jewish Ladies. Only five or so minutes was spent with her regaling me with the tale of how she pretended to be Jewish to get out of a speeding ticket. As she was flat ironing my hair and complaining about the Horrible Old Jewish Ladies who do nothing but complain I sat smiling and wondering if I was doing the right thing. Should I have gotten up from the chair with my hair half done and caused a scene? Should I have said to her, “I’m Jewish.” Should I have goaded… -
Someday I’ll Tell You About Kenmore
26 Jan 2012 | 4:04 pmTraveling to Chicago in the winter is a bear. It’s cold and the traffic is miserable. If there’s only one thing you ever learn from me in your entire life let it be this: There is a train station in O’Hare Airport. Use it. I was really happy to meet so many women who I’ve followed online for years. One in particular is Bobbie who had a very serious accident on her way home. Of course I was happy to be with new and old friends but after coming home and hearing about Bobbie, her husband and her kids (just bumps for them, yay!) I sort of didn’t have energy to write about the day. I… -
LuxeYard: First Impressions
24 Jan 2012 | 2:01 amI met Braden Richter for lunch in Hollywood last week. The first thing I noticed was the laptop. In addition to being one of those radtastic titanium PCs that weigh next to nothing and can be tossed safely from an airplane, his screensaver was a picture of his son playing football that could have been a poster for Friday Night Lights. Braden is a Los Angeles based furniture entrepreneur. As he detailed his career path for me I was slackjawed. He humbly talks about going from UCLA to making “some stuff” for someone he knew… which of course became Shabby Chic. Braden quickly left school… -
ColourLovers Learns a Lesson About Jesus?
23 Jan 2012 | 8:23 pmLindsay has a fabulous post about Colourlovers and why she is boycotting them. To be perfectly fair I’ve only heard of Colourlovers in passing so if I joined a boycott that would be like me boycotting a prostate exam. Earlier today the Creative director at Colourlovers tweeted the following: The issue isn’t that some random guy tried to punish women who might already be close to jumping off a cliff. The issue is that this incredibly provocative post came from the creative director of a rather large website. The whole story is over at Linday’s blog and it’s a good read. The takeaway… -
Do You See the Scrotum?
23 Jan 2012 | 4:32 pmMy stepbrother texted me last night to let me know that he’d sent Alexander a text saying “keep it clean”. I was out buying the perfect silk blouse so I couldn’t exactly be bothered with parenting at the time. When I got home I asked Alexander for his cell phone. He looked sheepish handing it to me and we went through the text messages together. Most of the text messages were fine, funny even. There were links to chicken butt pictures. And then there was a note to his cousin saying, “This is you”. Along with this picture. There was also a WTF. Potty mouth… I wonder where my…
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Dembot
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How Money Determines Elections
6 Jan 2012 | 12:02 pmIf you look at the last five Presidential races, in each case, the candidate who spent the most money, won. Over the years, I’ve learned a few things about politics because my Dad was a major influence to the Democratic party and I payed attention to a lot of the things he was doing. He was a great man in my book and became one of the happiest people I have ever met, a workaholic entrepreneur driven by the pure passion of Democracy and opportunity for everyone. Some of his closest friends even accused him of being a Socialist. When he first got his jet, he would fly Ann Richards around… -
The Greatest Biggest Most Important Furthest Reaching Memes of 2011
8 Dec 2011 | 3:37 pmAll the world is a meme. So what are the most outstanding for 2011? The lists are already rolling in. There is a list of Best Memes (as in “best pizza”), Top News Memes (informed directly by the “Best Memes” list), Top Twitter Hashtags, Most Shared Stories on Facebook, Top Google Insights, you name it. To add to the lot, I decided to broaden the perspective beyond a US-centric outlook while narrowing my focus, for which I here present, THE GREATEST BIGGEST MOST IMPORTANT FURTHEST REACHING MEMES OF 2011. THE MOST IMPORTANT MEME OF 2011 Undoubtably, the single most important meme… -
UC Davis Officer at the Macy’s Parade
21 Nov 2011 | 8:06 amUC Davis Officer at the Macy’s Parade -
The Situation Room
21 Nov 2011 | 7:45 amThe Situation Room -
Help! It’s The Beatles with Pepper Man!
21 Nov 2011 | 7:34 amHelp! It’s The Beatles with Pepper Man!
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Bijan Sabet
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My partner, Mo
27 Jan 2012 | 1:36 pmI first met Mo about 5 years ago. I’m pretty sure it was Santo that made the initial intro. He was working at IAC at the time, and I really enjoyed meeting him. His energy, passion and opinions about the world of media and technology left a mark with me. We stayed in touch and a few years later we all agreed that he would be a great addition to the Spark team. It’s been three years since Mo joined our firm as a principal. In addition to leading investments on our behalf in some amazing companies, Mo has made our team and portfolio better in many ways. We like his approach to the… -
"Twitter’s latest policy is purposefully designed to allow Twitter to exist as a platform as broadly..."
27 Jan 2012 | 12:21 pm“Twitter’s latest policy is purposefully designed to allow Twitter to exist as a platform as broadly as possible while making it as hard as possible for governments to censor content, either tweet by tweet or more, all the while giving free-speech advocates a lot of tools to fight censorship.” - Why Twitter’s new policy is helpful for free-speech advocates | technosociology -
fred-wilson: Katy On A Mission (Katy B cover) - Arctic...
27 Jan 2012 | 5:18 amfred-wilson: Katy On A Mission (Katy B cover) - Arctic Monkeys the boys from Sheffield are doing the cover of the week happy cover friday Arctic Monkeys auto reblog. -
The rise of iPad
26 Jan 2012 | 2:54 pmI’m pretty much obsessed with my iPad. It’s more fun to use than my laptop or my desktop computer. The battery life is great and integrated 3g means I can connect quickly and easily. That’s the opposite experience i have connecting my laptop to my 4g mifi. there is nothing quick and easy about that. Clearly, I’m not the only one that feels that way. Just last quarter Apple sold 15million iPads. That’s an astonishing number for a category that didn’t exist a few years ago. Earlier today, I took at look at Google Analytics for my Tumblr. Traffic from iPad is almost half of traffic… -
For The Widows In Paradise, For The Fatherless In Ypsilanti by...
26 Jan 2012 | 9:36 amFor The Widows In Paradise, For The Fatherless In Ypsilanti by Sufjan Stevens shared from exfm
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inessential.com
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Android and ‘Legacy’
27 Jan 2012 | 2:32 pmMy co-worker Nick Bradbury asks: So “legacy apps” are ones built for the most prevalent versions of Android? -
Facebook and Passive Sharing
27 Jan 2012 | 2:26 pmJenny, on the Glassboard blog: When I think of oversharing, I think of self-pitying status updates that can at least garner schadenfreude. But this information is useless, much like non-alcoholic beer or another Chipmunk movie. -
Ubuntu HUD
24 Jan 2012 | 4:01 pmEvery few years I check out Linux-on-the-desktop, and every few years I’m disappointed because it seems like they’re just designing Windows clones. The argument for this is that it made it easier for people to switch. Which I think is a terrible argument: why copy something sucky? Why not attract users by doing something new and better? In recent years it started to get a little better, when Ubuntu started to design Mac clones instead. I say “better” because I think Mac user interface is better than Windows — but the same criticism still applies. Why not try something new? Why not… -
Fantastical and language detection
24 Jan 2012 | 3:48 pmSince Fantastical is all about natural language processing, localization is an especially interesting issue. With most apps, localization means translating menus and labels into other languages and displaying the right translations based on a user’s language settings. But Fantastical has to go farther: it has to understand what you type. The first step in understanding what you type is to know what language you typed. The developers could have gone the straightforward route — look at your language settings — but instead they went a step further: Fantastical detects the language based on… -
Mac Toolbox Lives
20 Jan 2012 | 5:43 pmI enjoyed Gwynne Raskind’s two posts about the Mac Toolbox on Mike Ash’s blog. Friday Q&A 2012-01-13: The Mac Toolbox The Mac Toolbox: Followup During my rare spare cycles, I’ve been working on updating a Toolbox app which was Carbonized just enough to run on OS X back in 2001. It still runs now, yes, but years have passed, and many of the APIs it uses have been deprecated. I can’t even use Xcode 4 to build it — I have to boot back into Snow Leopard and use Xcode 3. The biggest challenge with this app, by far, is dealing with QuickDraw. I’ve already switched from Open…
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Davos Newbies
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A few truths about Davos
25 Jan 2012 | 12:05 pmIt’s the time of year when everywhere I turn, I read tweets and posts about Davos1, which was a huge part of my life for ten years. I’m a long way from the mountain top these days, but I find that too many people don’t understand some basic truths about the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum.2 The Forum’s mission The Forum’s often-stated mission is “Committed to Improving the State of the World”. There were moments that a few other subversives and I used to say that it was a bit like the signs you see entering a London borough: Croydon: The… -
Google listens… if you shout loudly enough
23 Mar 2011 | 9:46 pmYesterday evening I wrote about the bizarre disappearance from Google News of my news site, Berkeleyside. What happens next is either an illustration of the power of digital democracy or an example of the value of friends with fantastic megaphones. Shortly after my post went up, a number of friends tweeted about it. Dave Winer and Felix Salmon were first off the mark. Felix’s rare use of an exclamation mark (“Berkeleyside axed from Google News!”) seems to have provoked some of his regular followers to retweet, including The New York Times’ David Carr, with over… -
Local news: we’re at Google’s mercy
22 Mar 2011 | 7:24 pmI spend the bulk of my time these days trying to figure out some of the future of journalism, with the local news site I started with two others, Berkeleyside. We’re unquestionably the leading news source for our city, and we’re widely recognized as such. The San Francisco Chronicle uses us to supply Berkeley news, we’re picked up occasionally by The New York Times, and we’re looked to by, for example, the local public radio station, for the latest on Berkeley. So it’s not surprising that we’ve also been the prime supplier of Berkeley news to Google News. -
The local view on AOL/HuffPo: we’re still where innovation is happening
8 Feb 2011 | 6:25 amIn the torrent of analysis on AOL’s acquisition of Huffington Post, relatively little attention has been given to the fate of Patch, AOL’s ambitious attempt to build a national network of local news sites. I have a dog in this fight: I’m one of the three founder-editors of Berkeleyside, the leading news site for Berkeley, California. So the growth of Patch — and its supposedly imminent expansion to Berkeley — has been something I’ve watched with keen attention. The only concrete remarks I’ve seen on the Patch part of the AOL/HuffPo deal have referred… -
Current reading: two out of three ain’t bad
16 Jan 2011 | 7:31 pmLong flights used to be a haven for my reading, but Virgin America’s inflight WiFi means I now spend the bulk of my regular SFO-JFK and back emailing, writing and catching up on feeds, rather than reading the books that are handily toted in my iPad. So I need to find other niches for my reading. I recently finished two of the books on my shelf at last report, and a third that I picked up on the recommendation of a friend. All were worthwhile, but one was exceptional. Country Driving by Peter Hessler has already had plenty of favorable notice, and it deserves all the plaudits. It has…
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GartenBlog
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Gartner Briefing: The Personal Cloud, Devices, and Social Media
4 Jan 2012 | 7:38 amPlease join leading Gartner Analysts from our Consumer and Electronics Research Teams for a briefing on The Personal Cloud, Consumer Devices, and Social Media. The sessions will focus on those markets Gartner believes can have the biggest impact on your revenues in the near, mid and long-term and what we believe you need to do now to plan to maximize your success. Join us for a morning of interactive presentations and learn how Gartner insight can help you innovate and grow your business. AGENDA 8:00 a.m. – 8:45 a.m. Registration and Breakfast 8:45 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. Martin Reynolds,… -
New GartenBlog goes Tumblr
27 Apr 2011 | 9:52 amI’ve recently started posting more short form comments and pictures to GartenBlog Tumblr. You can check it out here. http://gartenberg.tumblr.com/ -
iPod Refresh 2010 – My Hands On
7 Sep 2010 | 7:31 amIt’s become an fall ritual as surely as the leaves changing color on trees. Apple’s refresh of the iPod line at their fall music event. I’ve spent some time using the latest models. Here’s what i think. Some wonder whether a refresh is needed. To me that’s a non question. It’s like asking car companies why they introduce new models every few years. This years lineup makes a lot of sense, features are segmented more clearly and there’s some new innovation in style And form. iPod shuffle. This years shuffle takes design cues from the last two… -
A tale of two TVs from Apple and Google
6 Sep 2010 | 9:37 amLast week, Apple unveiled the newest version of Apple TV. It’s a stark contrast to what Google’s attempting to create. That’s the topic of this week’s Engadget column. Apple’s shown the ability to do the two things that will make Apple TV a success over time: engineer content deals once thought impossible and evangelize developers. What we saw this week is likely just the next step in the larger iOS platform play — although the TV is the next battleground for connected screens and applications, the platform is what matters in the long term, and Apple should… -
When less beats Moore
6 Sep 2010 | 9:35 amOne of the more fun parts of my job is that I get to look at a lot of different devices. Recently, the Sony Ericsson Xperia X-10 Mini-Pro (which is quite a name) captured my attention. It isn’t the largest screen or fastest phone you can buy but it may mark the beginning of a trend of a new breen of devices. That’s the subject of my latest Engadget column. As platforms mature, they tend to fragment into products that can meet specific needs. That’s true of everything from cars to toothpaste. It’s going to be true of smartphones as well. The X10 Mini Pro shows what the…
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nakedjen
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Phew.
25 Jan 2012 | 12:19 pmI don't think I've slept since before my birthday. I'm still celebrating. I've seen lots of really wonderful films and some films that made me cock my head sideways and wonder who on earth decided that making the film was a good idea in the first place? But then, you know, not all of us like the same flavor of ice cream. Which is why the aisles of the supermarket are filled with so very many choices. -
It takes a long time to grow young.
21 Jan 2012 | 1:36 amEvery birthday is a privilege. -
Collateral Damage
19 Jan 2012 | 3:15 pmThere are things we say, but there are things we do not say. There are very smooth edges, but there are very rough edges. The rough edges, the ones not so smooth, the ones that feel like the familiar old scabs from forgotten relationships, or old lovers, left there as badges of honor or glory or, well, maybe not either of honor or glory but to warn against the path that you already took and do not want to venture down again. -
Everything's completely under control this end, how is it with you?
10 Jan 2012 | 3:20 pmi can't make promises to the seven year old or anyone about forever. i just can't. and i know his seven year old heart is fragile and all he wants is to believe that we all love each other and that his family will remain intact in some sort of way and not turn upside down and that when he walks through the door the same people will still be here that were here when he left. that the dogs will greet him with slobbery kisses. that even if he's grown an inch and his pants are shorter and his shoes don't fit, that everything in this house is still just as he left it. that we're all still here… -
And So This Is Christmas
25 Dec 2011 | 7:34 amWe are all celebrants in our own lives, you know. So however you choose to spend this day, I do hope you take a few moments to celebrate and love the people who matter most to you. It's why we're all here.
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RConversation
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Now blogging on my book blog at Consentofthenetworked.com
17 Jan 2012 | 6:38 pmPlease note that I have shifted my regular blogging activity over to my book's website at consentofthenetworked.com. Click here to subscribe to that blog's RSS feed, or subscribe to email updates by clicking on the link under "follow blog by email" in the right-hand column. -
Netizen Report: Fight for the Future Edition
11 Dec 2011 | 5:51 pmMeet Khaled Alaa Abdel Fattah, born last Tuesday to two Egyptian cyber-activists: mother Manal Bahey al-Din Hassan and father Alaa Abd El-Fattah, who is currently in prison. Khaled is named after Khaled Said, the young man whose violent death at the hands of police in 2010 became a symbol and rallying point for activism that brought down the Mubarak regime earlier this year." Little Khaled was born as Internet-driven activism in another part of the world, Russia, is bringing a new generation of young people - many of whom had never participated in a protest before - into the streets to… -
An open thank you letter to Global Voices, on International Volunteer Day
5 Dec 2011 | 10:14 amToday is International Volunteer Day, a celebration of the millions of people around the world who give their time, energy and wisdom to projects and causes they care about. Volunteers feed the hungry, care for the sick, comfort the grieving. We live in a world where companies and governments are responsible for producing most of the products and services we need and use. Volunteers prove that there's another way to build things - we can write encyclopedias or operating systems, we can report the news, or host a revolution. Choosing to build a volunteer community was the key decision that… -
The Great Firewall of America
16 Nov 2011 | 12:33 amLast month the U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk sent a letter to the Chinese government requesting information about its censorship practices. The middle kingdom’s response: a polite middle finger. Foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu declared that Chinese censorship follows “international practice.” Her response is specious given that China operates the world’s most elaborate and opaque system of Internet censorship, as I describe in Chapter 3 of my forthcoming book. Yet Congress has been hard at work to bolster its legitimacy, however inadvertently. The reality is that the… -
Surveillance and Censorship in India
11 Nov 2011 | 2:10 pmChapter 9 of my forthcoming book opens with quotes from an infamous April 2011 BBC interview with RIM's co-CEO Mike Lazaridis, in which he ends the interview abruptly after the BBC's Rory Cellan-Jones presses him to answer questions about RIM's “arguments with the Indian government and various other governments in the Middle East" over those governments' desire to gain access to Blackberry messages and e-mails. In August 2010, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia threatened to ban BlackBerry services until RIM agreed to allow a satisfactory level of government access to communications…
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Rex Hammock's RexBlog.com
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Advice of the day: Stop waiting for your ship to come in (illustration)
24 Jan 2012 | 11:47 am -
Apple, China and the Curse of Living in Interesting Times
22 Jan 2012 | 9:06 pm[Note: Not that this blog has a topic, but if it did, this post is way off it. I apologize to those who have figured out this blog's topic and I promise I'll get back to it right after I post this foray into the topic of international trade, manufacturing and globalism -- a topic that I was surprised to discover that I can only write about while watching six hours straight of NFL conference championship games.] According to Chinese lore (or something sounding like Chinese lore), there are three phrases that seem like well-wishing toasts, but are actually a three-part “Chinese… -
Inst@Review: iBook Author isn’t just an ebook authoring tool
19 Jan 2012 | 12:53 pm[Note: Shortly after I posted this, I edited it to remove a rant I had that I've since discovered was misinformed. I've explained it at the bottom of the post.] Apple introduced an incredible product today called iBooks Author. Apple describes the product this way, “iBooks Author is an amazing new app that allows anyone to create beautiful Multi-Touch textbooks — and just about any other kind of book — for iPad. With galleries, video, interactive diagrams, 3D objects, and more, these books bring content to life in ways the printed page never could.” Now, it may be strange to… -
Scott Adams on IP theft: “It feels like a compliment”
19 Jan 2012 | 6:54 amRecently on Twitter, I confessed a personal concern with my growing realization that the only economist who makes any sense to me is not actually an economist, but is Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert comic strip. I’ve never been much of a reader of newspaper comics (even those online), so I’ve never been much of a fan of Dilbert. (I do have a personal Dilbert spotter who forwards me links whenever the strip makes fun of something that might be, uh, like me.) While Dilbert, the comic strip, may be off my radar screen, I am very much a fan of Scott Adams’ blog at… -
Evangelicals, Catholics & Politics
16 Jan 2012 | 8:48 pmJFK, as presidential candidate, addressing Houston Ministerial Association, September 12, 1960. Over the weekend, a group of politically-active evangelical leaders gathered in Texas to determine who they would jointly support among the candidates seeking the GOP presidential nomination. According to reports, the two finalists were Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich. From those choices, the evangelical leaders decided to endorse Rick Santorum, despite knowing his chances of beating front-runner Mitt Romney are a long-shot, at best. Hearing about this gathering of ministers in Texas reminded me of…
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gapingvoid
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Evaded
22 Jan 2012 | 4:59 pm -
Re–
22 Jan 2012 | 4:39 pm -
You must love what you do
7 Jan 2012 | 9:33 pm -
A perfect moment
7 Jan 2012 | 6:38 pm -
I tried…
6 Jan 2012 | 8:37 pm
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GerardMcLean.com
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Repairing typewriters
23 Jan 2012 | 1:22 pmLast week, I received emails from two former clients who needed some help with some legacy work. One needed some tweaks done on a print ad that was at least three years old. The other had moved his web site … Continue reading → -
Change is hard but choosing the wrong service is harder
10 Jan 2012 | 6:30 amI was listening to the news on the local Cincinnati NPR station this morning and heard a story about the City of Cincinnati moving from its self-hosted email service to either Google or Microsoft. In the analysis portion of the … Continue reading → -
Setting expectations in plain English
4 Jan 2012 | 5:42 pmA few months ago, my shower drain backed up while I was taking a shower. So I called the local Rotor Rooter and the person taking my call started asking me all sorts of questions about what I wanted. I … Continue reading → -
Instead of bad grammar, we’ll be subjected to bad video
24 Dec 2011 | 10:57 amIt appears that 2012 is going to be the year social media experts write less and post more video. My take? Instead of bad grammar, we’ll all be subjected to bad video. I urge you, please take some basic video … Continue reading → -
Complicated could be deadly
24 Dec 2011 | 7:06 amI was riding the elevator down from my doctor’s office yesterday and glanced over at the elevator panel. The emergency buttons caught my eye and it occurred to me that something that is intended to be used in the frantic … Continue reading →
