HTML: Keeping it real… literally
[via Boing Boing]
I run this joint. Don’t know where to start? Let me show you around:
[via Boing Boing]
Logo Orange has a nice history of big brand logos in alphabetical order. Both logotypes and marks are represented. Designers, get to it.
[via Kottke]
This post comes courtesy of a good friend — Nicholas Roussos — as he so concisely describes and interesting event that transpired in public relations yesterday. First a little background. Sony’s newly launched PlayStation 3 is in a world of hurt. It costs a whopping $600 (Blu-ray included) and people aren’t buying it. The value proposition just isn’t there yet (if ever) on a mass scale. Note: PlayStation brings in 60% of Sony’s total profits.
So yesterday, the world’s largest gaming blog, Kotaku, leaked information that Sony would be releasing a new social networking tool heavily inspired by Nintendo’s and Microsoft’s already existing user-generated content efforts. Sony asks them not to run the story, but Kotaku rightfully does anyway.
About an hour later, Sony blackballs Kotaku from all company relations saying only information in the “public domain” will be made available to Kotaku in their coverage of Sony products. Kotaku publishes Sony’s archaic email ban and fittingly describes the biggest conflict of interest between PR and journalism in a respectful reply to Sony’s head of PR, Dave Karraker: “I think [your reaction] only highlights the differences that PR people and journalists have. My interest is not in making sure that Sony has positive news or that the timing of their news is correct, my job only is to inform the readers of news as quickly and accurately as I can.”
Immediately after Kotaku’s follow up post to their rumor, the internet implodes. Every single gaming blog is quick to criticize Sony’s reaction. The story reaches Digg’s homepage, and Sony’s already negative relationship with consumers spirals even further out of control, all in a matter of hours. Sony quickly caves, and reinvites Kotaku to all of their events, etc. Everything like it was before only Sony leaving having learned a valuable lesson. That is the online conversation changes everything, as Nic states “Cluetrain-style.” The above example shows Sony PR trying to do what traditional PR does; control the message and its timing. Kotaku makes that effort to control public and fosters more leverage against the mighty Sony corporation than it ever could alone. The online conversation is so powerful that even a company as big as Sony has to give in.
TechCrunch is reporting that Adobe will release a FREE, online edition of Photoshop within six months time. I’m a little iffy on its likely performance (since larger PSD’s gobble up so much RAM), but if it’s a suitable alternative, my journey to the webtop will be near complete. Here’s a list of current software I use online, all the time:
I still use iTunes, Dreamweaver, Fetch (ftp), and Photoshop locally, but I’m all about migrating files and tools online in an effort to make my work flow more accessible from anywhere. How much of a webtop are you currently using?
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYATbZmz5BU[/youtube]
But I still love technology…[via email]
The most recent issue of Business 2.0 has a great article by Om Malik on hyperaggregation, or sites that aggregate other sites that do niche aggregation of a specific topic. For example, this blog is an aggregator of web, business, tech news, etc with a local Utah flare. My blog is also hyperaggregated by Connect Magazine that also aggregates other specific bloggers on a variety of topics though mostly focused on business issues. At some point Connect will likely post ads and start earning revenues merely by aggregating the best content. In theory, they will incur little to no content costs. The reason? People pay (in this case via attention and their time) for convenience, so as we get bombarded with even more worthwhile content, expect hyperaggregators to profitably compliment the big aggregators already out there.
Reading the article also makes me a bit sad to remember a project I was working on 9 months ago. It was an editorialized hyperaggregator built in WordPress that aimed to collect the best individual blog posts across a variety of topics. It was aptly named ContentDJ (one of the better site names I think I’ve come up with). Independent publishers signed up with our site for the chance to increase their exposure and ultimately take a cut in future ad revenues. I believe in a short few weeks with no exposure resulted in several hundred independent publishers. Sadly, my funding got cut, the site never left Alpha, and I currently don’t have the resources to keep it going though I still plan on seeing it realized.
On a related note, Griffio won a small account with Podango a few weeks ago to build a website for their newly launched Latest At… service which hyperaggregates the best of the best on big social websites like YouTube, MySpace, even PerezHilton.com. So take note: hyperaggretion will likely do very well in the coming months.
I don’t care what calculated advice your PR company gives you, this is how you start correcting a mistake if you run a consumer business, or any business for that matter. It’s called a sincere apology and it’s been helping men stay out of the dog house since the dawn of time. Watch as JetBlue CEO David Neeleman publicly apologizes on YouTube to his customers. He takes full responsibility after leaving numerous passengers stranded on a frozen tarmac for 10.5 hours at JFK. Admirable.
My wife Lindsey is learning the piano taking formal weekly lessons. She used play when she was younger, but has since forgotten some of her chops. So for the last 6-7 months, she has been practicing often after she puts the baby down to sleep. The sweet sound fills our house. Though she doesn’t yet sound like Mozart, Liszt, or Beethoven, the aural harmony of progress, practice, effort, hard work, and dedication is music to my ears.
It’s very motivating for me to hear this change in action. My line of work is either visual, experiential, or cognitive so my ears don’t get to participate in gauging my development (if any). So outside of practicing musical instruments, I can’t think of many skills where you can hear actual progress aloud. Keep up the good work, Lindz!
I started work on a project for the Podango boys a few weeks ago. Podango, like myself, all work virtually out of home offices. The saved overhead, non-existent commute, and luxury of remaining close to family is twenty first century goodness, yes. But one of the biggest downsides in working from home is when you and the client need a good ole fashion conference room or business office for necessary several-person meetings. In the past, I’ve mustered up private library rooms or a quiet restaurant, but they’ve always been far from ideal. Since neither I or Podango have a central office, their team recommended we meet at Noah’s in Lindon, Utah. “What’s Noah’s?” I asked. “It’s a multi-purpose rental building with online bookings,” they replied. “Cool,” I thought, but I had my doubts.
I was wrong. Noah’s great and spacious multi-purpose rental building is awesome! It has business rooms, gaming rooms, racket ball courts, basketball court, studio rooms, rec centers, reception rooms, private theatre and even a freakin‘ ice skating rink. All the business rooms include 50 inch plasmas, mini-bar, bottled water, 20″ iMacs, leather sofas, conference table white board, laptop to TV cables, free wireless, and our room even had a pool table to boot. It’s a very nice, flexible, and accommodating facility. You book a room (for as little as $18/hour) online or by phone and they send you a passkey with a room number. Granted, our key didn’t work right away, so we had to get assistance, but the place is only a couple of weeks old. Kinks are expected, but I see this thing as having tons of potential. Expect to see several more of these facilities in the near future as more and more individuals work from home. Me and Noah’s Rental Ark are tight right now.
I like music. I like it even better in iTunes. So with that, here are the artists, albums, and songs heavy in my rotation for early 2007 ordered by ones I’m listening to the most. Nota bene: these aren’t necessarily what have been released in early 2007, just what I’m currently listening to:
Of course, my playlists are also peppered with 80’s, classical, and a bunch of other stuff, but this is what has my attention as of late. I’m also anticipating Air’s new album due March 5 (new single here). Mmmm. Air. What are you currently listening to?
I did something yesterday that I don’t recall doing before. With exception to a single message, I avoided my email from 8am-6pm while still working. No gmail, no Blackberry, no nothing. I had to finish up a magazine article by this morning and needed the extra focus and added attention to get it done. I have a personal goal of replying to every action email within 2 business hours, so this was hard for me to do. But having put out existing fires and working under a tight deadline, it worked. And you know what, I actually enjoyed it. Ordinarily, I treat my email like life support, so it was nice to break away and breathe on my own terms as opposed to constantly checking my mail at all hours of the day, including nights. I should do this again.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to check my email…
Don’t have time to read every popular business book out there? Read the book summaries at either Wikipedia or Wiki Summaries. These “Cliff Notes” of sorts work great for buzz terms, new ideas, and heavy meme books like the following:
The list could go on and on. Just Wiki a popular book and have at it. Of course, this isn’t a substitute for that excellent thing called actual reading, but it’s a great way to stay up to date, if not refresh yourself on the key ideas of emerging (or repackaged) concepts in business.
It has been said that almost 80% of all IT projects go over schedule and budget. That’s huge. And since I build web software for a living, I’ve had my share of mistakes. But fortunately, I learned early on that superior project management can significantly curtail delays and rising costs thus increasing the chances of a client leaving happy.
Over the past two years, Griffio has completed 92% of its projects on time and 84% under budget. I’m very proud of that result and hope the trend continues as I learn knew ways of speeding up the development process through better communication. So why do most IT projects fail? Information Week writes: “Technology projects very seldom fail for technology reasons. By far the highest percentage of failures results from human communication issues.”
In short, good project management is a must. And good project management is all about managing both client and developer expectations. For example, what specifically is included in an engagement, and more importantly, what’s not. Have an open door policy and don’t be afraid to lay your feelings out on the table when problems arise (and they will). Project management isn’t rocket science. It’s just good ole fashion accountability using delivery milestones, progress updates, and honesty up front when things aren’t going as planned.
Funny how smaller buyers still devalue software that arguably takes just as much time if not more than physical tangible products like homes, buildings, and cars. Developers: you’ve seen this before. Keep moving forward. Prospective clients: take note, and if you’ve done this, don’t ever do it again. Complete rotating .gif here.
A while back, I received an email invite from both my wife and a colleague of mine. The request was for me to share five things you may not know about me on this here blog. I believe the meme phenomenon was called “blog tagging” or something. Well, here’s number one (others to follow periodically… maybe).
First off, I don’t drink alcohol. So after turning sour on coke, juice, and other soda varieties all the time, I decided to ask for a virgin drink while dinning at a restaurant a few years back. The only kiddie cocktail they offered was a Shirley Temple, so I obliged and have been in love with them ever since. So much that just last weekend I bought a bunch Sprite and grenadine and having been sucking down the cherry-lime goodness to no end during the busy first months of the year. It’s gotten so bad, that I drink the things at all hours of the day. Just listen to what my wife said as I prepared yet another Shirley Temple over brunch this morning: “Blake, it’s 10 in the morning!!??” True story.
So yeah, I love Shirley Temples. If they weren’t virgin, I’d be a drunk.
In an effort to be a better human being while attempting to do what countless others have done for me, I’m launching two new social features on Smooth Harold. The first is the Smooth Harold Helpdesk. If you have a specific question you think I might be able to answer (business, web, personal, etc), don’t hesitate to ask via email, phone, or in person. I’ll usually respond same day when possible and free of charge. If I don’t know the answer, chances are I can refer you to someone who does. And no, this isn’t quid pro quo (really), it’s just a genuine attempt to share the little that I’ve learned from talking with people smarter than me, reading good books, and seeing what sticks.
The second offering is perhaps an extension of the first; it’s an open invitation to share lunch with any one either living in or visiting the greater Salt Lake area regardless if I know you personally or not. I remember a little over a year ago being down and out in business. I had just become a first-time father and hadn’t taken home a paycheck in over three months due to slow sales. Swallowing my pride, I asked an individual whom I respected but didn’t know if he’d be willing to go to lunch and answer some of my questions. It was one of the most helpfully and motivational experiences I’ve had as an entrepreneur in progress and was just the antidote I needed to keep going. (Thanks, Josh!) All you have to do is ask, and there are plenty of other people out there willing to do the same. So have your people call my people; we’ll do lunch! Of course, I don’t have an entourage of people, so you can just contact me or have your entourage contact me.
See the updated sidebar for complete details on both.
(Warning: heavy feel-good self promotion to follow) Robert and I are nearing completion of a new, online weight loss community built in Ruby on Rails. And I’ve gotta say I’m very pleased with the turnout. Robert — the lead developer — is a use case ninja and does an excellent job ensuring every base is covered. Granted, the application still has some bugs to work out, but at the moment, I’d argue this is the best “built according to design” site Griffio has ever released. Heck, my biased self would argue this to be the best social site ever to come out of Utah… if you’re into health and weight loss, that is. Weight Loss Wars version 2 hits perpetual beta next week and should go live shortly thereafter.
Steve Jobs posted an excellent article today backing a DRM-less music file for the masses. That means you play the file when you want and where you want independent of music players. Even iPods. From Jobs’s callout to the big four record companies: “If [DRM] were removed, the music industry might experience an influx of new companies willing to invest in innovative new stores and players. This can only be seen as a positive by the music companies… Convincing them to license their music to Apple and others DRM-free will create a truly interoperable music marketplace. Apple will embrace this wholeheartedly.”
UPDATE: iTunes currently protects songs that are already DMR-less at emusic.com. Not to side with the big record lables, but perhaps Steve is up to something else. More here.
A coupla links for the thrifty at heart (or those trying to save a little something):
I love resourcefulness.
I just overheard a television commercial for a local liposuction practice. The commercial tagline really caught me by surprise: “It’s your body, you select it.” It sounded really good (which is what an advertisement is suppose to do) but it’s a complete lie. Just because it’s your body doesn’t mean you hold the key to modify your DNA. Not even good marketing can change that. This isn’t to say that liposuction is wrong in any way. I’m just commenting that despite what marketers would have you believe, you cannot change your physical appearance with money to complete satisfactory levels. In nearly every case, that comes from within. But when my kids hit adolescence and struggle with their appearance like every other human being does, I’ll just lie to them: “It’s your body, you select.” That was easy.
I got to thinking today of the popularity of cell phones and just how intrusive they have become in our lives. I stopped to think when I bought my first plan. Technically, I bought a prepaid cell phone back in 2001 for my mother sorta as a family phone when I worked for Cingular. But I didn’t get my own plan until 2003 (call me a late bloomer). So…
Connect Magazine has a fairly new ad campaign aimed at soliciting user-generated feedback from its readers. The campaign shows close-ups of several individuals (some prominent) with the quoted text, “I’m Editor-in-Chief,” suggesting that anyone can make recommendations for improvement. That’s a good thing. So it is in this public forum and with the utmost respect that I offer the following two suggestions after reading the first article from the magazine’s January issue (Nota bene: The online version only contains half of the print formatting problems I’ll discuss below):
The above two suggestions are sure to increase the professionalism, usability, and most importantly, the readability of an already excellent publication. After all, Connect sells reading material for a living. They’d be wise not to alienate that experience for creativity’s sake or ambitious differentiation.
Disclosure: I write for Connect.
Dell lost its position as the number one PC manufacturer last year to HP. Though I used to swear by Dells, their prices have increased while their quality has rapidly decreased, hence, the last PC I bought was an HP. So what’s behind Dell’s recent funk? Bureaucracy says the newly appointed CEO, Michael Dell. “We have great people … but we also have a new enemy: bureaucracy, which costs us money and slows us down,” Dell wrote. “We created it, we subjected our people to it and we have to fix it!” Note: No one can fix bureaucracy, but transparency sure can help mitigate it. But come to think of it, I can’t think of any very large company that manages it well. You?
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlBxHhL2lQc[/youtube]
I realize this commercial is over a year old, but it still cracks me up. And you gotta watch it a second time for the full klepto goodness. But on an advertising ROI basis, I’m not sure if the ad increases Starburst’s bottom-line. It may only be memorable via its wittiness rather than its ability of creating an emotional impulse to buy more Starbursts. Regardless, it’s good stuff.
Utah Business, which is generally a pretty poopsky magazine with very trite articles, has a nice little read on the key benefits of blogging. They dub keeping tabs on what’s going on in your space by reading blogs as the first benefit of blogs and the marketing power via publishing a blog. Here’s a nice blogging for dummies description from the article: “A corporate blog can enhance a company’s brand, build thought leadership, deepen customer relationships by promoting conversations and put forth a human face to a large organization. A blog also provides fresh web content, which gives you more online visibility, attracts search engines and drives more traffic.”
My only beef; if you decide to publish a company blog, don’t call it a “corporate blog.” Just call it a blog. Personable. Authentic. Sans spin. No direct selling. Blogging: taking the corporate out of companies since 1999. I should trademark that.
Business 2.0 has published their 101 dumbest business moments of 2006. Here’s one of my favorites: “In August, RadioShack fires 400 staffers via e-mail. Affected employees receive a message that reads, “The work force reduction notification is currently in progress. Unfortunately your position is one that has been eliminated.” I think I’m going to start apologizing to my wife via email now. Less confrontational.
And who can forget the AOL “retention consultant” from Utah who wouldn’t let some guy cancel his account. Madness. Click onward for the full list of mediocrity.
Lindsey and I had a bit of a run in with our old health insurance company, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, this month. Behold their deceptive customer service:
We started this new policy in September of last year. We then set our online bill pay to start sending scheduled payments at the end of each month. Note: we wrongfully and unknowingly assumed payments were due every 30 days, when in fact, our first premium acted as backpay for part of September and Blue Cross — like everyone — requires prepayment of premiums on the first of each month, thus our second payment was technically due in 15 days from our first payment. But that is neither here nor there, because we didn’t find this out until our return from Christmas break, and that’s not the issue I take with the company.
Once home in early January, we received a letter from Blue Cross stating that our policy had been terminated on November 1, 2006 citing “delinquent payments” and/or “failure to pay” as the reason. Oh really??!!! Lindsey quickly logged on to our bank account to see we had been sending payments and caught our fifteen day discrepancy. It appeared the company was “backpaying” for previous months and ultimately decided to terminate our policy because of it. Fair enough, our mistake. A notice would have been nice before cancellation, but it was our responsibility. But that wasn’t the problem. The problem was that Blue Cross was faithfully cashing our checks without hesitation even after they terminated our policy. They cashed checks in October, November, December, with a new check likely to be cashed at any moment before we stopped payment. “But Blake, didn’t they cancel your policy on November 1?” you ask. Right your are, they did, but I guess they figured we owed them another check.
First Lindsey called to explain the situation. Blue Cross acknowledged the mix-up and said they would reinstate our policy. But after the incompetence, we didn’t want them as a provider anymore. We just wanted our money back. They said they would send us a letter. They then sent a very cryptic “Welcome Back letter” totally disregarding our prior request for a refund. Lindsey called again, and they told her the policy holder would now have to call. That was me.
I called and said they owed us one month’s premium because they cashed a check on December 1 even though they cancelled our coverage on November 1. The lady on the line was obviously perturbed by my probing and first asked, “Didn’t you get a letter?” I replied that I had but it didn’t solve the issue of a refund. She then denied my claim and said everything was correct and that I was mistaken. Having the check sitting in front of me with its number and the date it was cashed by them, I called her on it. She got really quite for a moment. And then playing dumb said, “Oh… now I see it. Sorry. We’ll send you a refund.” Had we not initiated and documented the error, I can only imagine the company would have tried to stiff us as I’m sure they do thousands of other customers when the opportunity arises. And you know the attempt to avoid refunds comes from the top. How couldn’t it? Regardless, we now have a new policy with a new provider. Still, health insurance companies are a scam. Until you get really sick that is. 🙂
Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who sues most of all? These 10 companies based on trademark lawsuits from 2001-2006 taken from the sidebar of this article:
So what can be gleamed from this info? Either these companies are overprotective or have several others infringing on their IP.
[via Kottke]
This is tennis player Andy Roddick during a press conference after getting schlacked (even bageled) by super-human and world number one Roger Federer in the Australian Open semifinals. To set the stage, Federer owns Roddick. He now has a 10-1 winning record against the fifth ranked American. Despite this, Roddick has made several in-roads up to this point even beating Federer in a a warm up match just two weeks ago. But he may be competing against the greatest tennis player who has ever lived. Tough break. And though dropping some censored expletives during his post-game interview, Andy’s candor in defeat is admirably, likable, refreshing, and extremely funny. Well played (the press conference that is).
In doing some Wikipedia research last week on Bill O’Reilly, I found this little snippet of vandalism right under the “Politics” sub-section after four, well-constructed paragraphs: “Bill O’Reilly is also a douche who should never express his right winged opinion ever again.”
I couldn’t help but laugh at the little activist fellow who snuck that one in. The change in cadence was hilarious. And while I love Wikipedia, I do admit it that it takes an intelligent reader to spot entry vandalism on controversial subjects. Hence, you have to be a pretty savvy individual to spot the good from the bad. Furthermore, reports indicate that the reading level for the site is on a 10th grader level, much higher than the 6-8th grader level of most national publications. But more often than not, however, Wikipedia works like a balanced and well-written charm. It’s the closest “no spin zone” I’ve found on the internet.
See also:
The short answer? Not very much — if anything — especially given the landscape of current, more social internet traffic. For the uninitiated, “nofollow” is an SEO-er’s worst nightmare. Internet links of type “nofollow” don’t get weighted by search engines as credible content. Therefore, search engines are less likely to increase your search engine result page ranking. But the link still exists on a page to send humans along their way (what really counts), and gone are the days of link juice via the mighty Wikipedia with some speculating Digg and others will soon follow.
If you run a link farm or use black-hat SEO techniques, you’re job just got a bit harder and will continue to do so. On the other hand, if you understand traffic-driving content, solid copywriting, and content optimization for humans, you and your site will do just fine. As search listings get more bloated, people want to be referred by trusted individuals or a consensus group, not some outdated search algorithm. Hence, the “nofollow” link is a good thing to counter spam while humans still get directed to the best content. Remember: search engines follow where humans go, not the other way around. Optimize your content and you’ll do just fine. Need another buzz word? Call it SEO 2.0. Okay don’t. Just call it smart content.
WordPress just released version 2.1. The already stellar CMS/Blog software just got a whole lot better right out of the box. From the release: “You can [now] set any “page”? to be the front page of your site, and put the latest posts somewhere else, making it much easier to use WordPress as a content management system.”
We baked this feature into our custom WP installs last year for several clients, but it’s nice to see this support out of the box. Also included is an autosave feature, a better default spell checker, more AJAX for quicker updates, and better overall performance. Oh, and it’s named Ella after the great Ella Fitzgerald. At last.
Hit me up if your interested in a custom upgrade, and/or if you’d like to see just how far custom development can enhance your WP install as a better CMS.
A study last June (via Business 2.0) revealed that more than 2/3 of all Microsoft employees used Google search instead of internally-bred MSN Search. The reason is obvious, but I bet MS employees are constantly pressured into using MSN over Google, despite the latter being superior (not to mention more efficient. So in a lot of ways, Microsoft could actually save money by openly allowing Google search. Isn’t that called a paradox or something?).
In working for AOL as a freelance blogger, I felt similar pressure, albeit very minor, when our company’s social bookmarking software, Netscape, was first launched to compete against/alongside Digg. Sure, Netscape does some great things, but it’s inferior in the sense that Digg fosters a much larger community that drives a lot more site traffic. What was once requests for “Digg” traffic at AOL started becoming requests for “Digg/Scape” traffic in what appeared to be an artificial attempt to increase the userbase. No harm in this, and again, we were in no way “forced” to use Netscape, but I did feel slight political pressure to use it alongside Digg. The act always felt a bit forced as Digg and its organic traffic were the real reason for the traffic submitting requests in the first place.
A couple of years ago, Griffio built an internal web project management application in PHP to help keep tabs on our company projects. It was good software, and we spent a significant amount of time designing and building it. But it wasn’t as good as Base Camp, 37 Signals’ project management software. Wisely, we started using it over our own. It would have been shortsighted on my part to force or socially pressure my employees to use our software (not to mention myself) over Base Camp despite the sunk investment cost of our internal product. So with exception to material costs, I can’t think of a logical reason when an inferior product should be used over superior one.
Granted, many times this could simply be “awkwardness” when what you’re building or offering isn’t as good as a competitor’s product. Perhaps your product is better suited for a different audience. But whatever the scenario, nothing is gained by forcing or pressuring one’s employees into using company built products when cost isn’t an issue. Better yet, ask your employees why they prefer the alternative to enhance your offering. That’s free advice straight from the end-user.
Mmmm… fonts. Typography. Here’s a list of the 100 best fonts as voted by design experts for a German publication. Some of my favorites include Helvetica (no. 1), Futura, and Myriad. Would it be too nerdy to ask what your favorite font is?
Microsoft will launch its Windows XP successor next week dubbed Windows Vista on Jan 30. Key features include a newly skinned GUI, better search (allegedly), new multimedia creation tools such as Windows DVD Maker, and “completely redesigned networking, audio, print, and display sub-systems.” That’s about it.
The thing is, my PowerBook has been doing all of this since 2001’s release of Mac OSX. It’s a much better OS than any I’ve seen, though I currently use XP on my desktop. To upgrade to Vista, most computers 1-2 years old don’t support the minimum requirments like a graphics card to run Vista, hence, it should be at least a few hundred dollars to upgrade, not to mention the hassle and time spent in reloading all of your programs (something Apple does out of the box).
So the technologist in me wants to buy and install it right away just to see if it stacks up, and if it can significantly improve the operating system experience. The skeptic in me tells me it wont do anything better than OSX, a trusty browser, or even XP does. And I wouldn’t have to worry about upgrade headaches and additional costs. Will you be buying Vista next week?
“Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from poor judgment.”—?unknown
Making mistakes. I’m not sure if there is any other way. Sure, counsel from those with experience can increase knowledge thus mitigating some mistakes, but knowledge and experience (or wisdom) are very different things.
NOTE: I didn’t make another big mistake recently, though I’m likely to do so. Just found this quote in an old book of mine.
From a letter sent November 2 by Whole Foods Markets CEO John Mackey to his employees: “The tremendous success of Whole Foods Market has provided me with far more money than I ever dreamed I’d have and far more than is necessary for either my financial security or personal happiness…. I am now 53 years old and I have reached a place in my life where I no longer want to work for money, but simply for the joy of the work itself… Beginning on January 1, 2007, my salary will be reduced to $1, and I will no longer take any other cash compensation….”
Though he’s not the first of “$1 dollar executives” (tax reasons maybe?), he specifically says “cash” so it’s likely he still has something to gain in the form of stocks, etc. But I still liked his wording… “Success has provided me with far more money than is necessary for either my financial security or personal happiness.” When does financial ambition realize its both secure and happy?
I No Longer Want To Work For Money [Fast Company]
Over the last two years, blogging (and social sites in general) have been big sellers for Griffio. The short answer is because they work in boosting exposure, influence, and opportunities. But sadly, the blog drop-out rate is ridiculous. I’ve heard as little as 1% of all newly created blogs continue publishing after only a short while. To counter that futile fate, here are (5) guidelines for building a successful blog should you decide to start one: Continue reading…
(Screenshot taken from the companies homepage today.) This time, it’s for real, PayPal.
Very cool touch technology in a Minority Report sort of way, but it seems like this could slow down the human interface experience a bit. Doesn’t speed (which translates to ease) always trump everything else?
[Thanks, Robert]
Deadspin opines on the recent $250 million contract signed by David Beckham to play in America: “So let’s call like it is: Beckham coming to America is great for LA clubs and restaurants, US Weekly and The Star, Adidas, Victoria Beckham (can a slot on “Dancing With The Stars” be far off?) and, of course, the haircare industry. As for the MLS, he will clearly put [fans] in the seats, at least in his first season, but will he actually raise the level of play? Not by himself.”
Not with a bunch of other soccer professionals either (think Pele and Co. in the late 70’s that came to play in America for the NASL). Soccer won’t take hold in America until it can award its athletes with fame, money, and respect, none of which it currently can. I like the sport, but so long as baseball, football, and basketball do a better job in providing said economic incentives, athletes who play soccer early on will soon jump ship to a more enticing sport. Oh, and you gotta kill the “soccer mom” if you ever want any cred.
2007: it’s time to clean out your feed reader. I understand this article goes without saying but feel the majority of heavy RSS users don’t understand the importance or reasoning behind usubscribing from feeds. Why should you? Because RSS overload eats into productivity and phases out quality reading time, that’s why. Even if you click “mark all as read” you’re still wasting time.
Last year I let my total feed count creep into 400+ territory. I read maybe 20-30 daily with about another 30-40 periodically. Since then, I’ve reduced my total “active” feeds to 67 while constantly cycling in new ones and ditching old ones that no longer yield useful content for me. With that, here are some general guidelines I like to follow to keep my feeds clean and usable and my productivity at a healthy level:
Life, not to mention the work day, is too short to waste on stale feeds. And just think, while you’re mindlessly thumbing through “fast food” feeds, you could be treating yourself to a real literary entree; The Chosen or one of these business-related books quickly come to mind.
What you see above is a pile of 16 new credit card offers received during the week of Christmas while I was out of town. The mailman delivered this liability stack in just 7 working days. That’s 2.3 new offers per day. I realize this is in no way a record, but c’mon. Tree huggers should be going after plastic masters for this. It’s ridiculous. But alas, the onslaught must work, otherwise this post wouldn’t exist.
In a word, slick. And clearly one the more ambitious phones we’ve seen to date, with seemingly a lot of potential from the videos I’ve seen. It’s not without its problems, however. A single carrier is lame, 4Gb and 8Gb is a bit limiting though manageable, and I’m not sold on a touch screen keyboard. If anyone can make it work, it’s Apple, but I’m a big fan of physical clicks and actual buttons (tips hat to Blackberry). After all, it’s the only thing I know. So what do you think of the new, still not approved by the FCC, iPhone?
I learned a good lesson this evening while blogging a rumored story: when you’re confused (and your browser cache adds to the confusion) and everybody else is doing it (read: other big sites), go seek advice first. I was a little quick to publish the story for fear of missing out on early traffic as other sites had already begun posting. Turns out the site acquisition rumor was just a good ole version of cross-promotional branding I wasn’t familiar with, and luckily my editor caught the soon to be noticed mistake early.
So is it just me or does making professional mistakes get harder to deal with the older you get? I hate feeling like a smoe and kick myself sometimes for making seemingly obvious misteaks. “Teacher, my eraser is out…” What do you do after making a goof?
From Wired: “Everyone knows the MP3 format is used by more devices and people than any other file-based digital-audio format. Most also know that record labels prefer DRMed alternatives such as the ones sold by Apple’s iTunes, because they make it harder for people to share music. But… Evidence is mounting that major labels may start to prefer the MP3 format, as impossible as that used to seem.”
I really like iTunes and iPods, but I won’t deny that as a consumer non-DMR MP3 tracks being sold at Apple’s store not to mention everywhere else would be a much better thing.
My brother-in-law got me Freakonomics as a Christmas gift (thanks, Steve!), and I gotta say its one of the most interesting books I’ve read in a very long time. The book claims to have no central theme in favor of exploring several economic/incentive questions about why things are the way they are, but I’d say the book is really about challenging conventional wisdom. For example, authors Steven Leavitt and Stephen Dubner cite legalized abortion as the reason for the sudden drop in crime since the early 90’s (e.g. according to the book, a majority of women who get abortions are poor, uneducated, and don’t want the child, thus the child that would have been born has a higher chance of becoming a criminal) though mass media and other experts cited innovative policing strategies for the drop.
To give you an idea of how inspiring Freakonomics was for me, I usually jot down a few notes per book. Really, I email myself notes: ideas for further research online, words to look up in the dictionary, blog post ideas, and thoughts for further consideration. For any given book, I generally email myself about 3-5 times over the duration of either the couple of weeks or several months it takes me to complete it. With this book, I emailed myself 19 times over the course of two days which is how long it took me to read the short book. More of my specific thoughts on key ideas to follow.
While you probably didn’t know it, behind the scene server communication has brought you to this strange place. So if you are reading this, you have successfully traversed the internet to find Smooth Harold at a new location (URL | RSS).
– Management
A great video spoof on chump marketers. Hilarious, son.
I recently had a discussion with Nicholas Roussos, a good web developer friend of mine, about how some clients confuse “flashy graphics” for purposeful content that site visitors inherently value. Nic designed a very clean and professionally site for his company, but the suits above are holding back suggesting that the aesthetics “need to be more fun,” all this as content discussions are presumably pushed to the side.
When’s the last time you visited a site because of slick graphics? On the contrary, when’s the last time you visited a simpleton site (maybe even a poorly designed one) with excellent content that you either bookmarked or subscribed to for future use?
Even if your run an entertainment site (e.g. video, music, gaming site, etc) people will visit it for its entertaining content, rarely (if ever) anything beyond that. For example, humans don’t drink a glass of water because of the glass, they drink it because of the water, though the cup can help/hurt the overall experience. The same concept applies in building websites. Granted, they are much more complex than a hollow cylinder, but they still should be viewed as a container for content. That’s not to say certain sites shouldn’t use “fun,” slick, or playful design and navigation techniques, just ensure said graphical approaches stay a value-add rather than a major concern (also noting that trendy graphics are fleeting). Your primary focus as a web producer should always be content.