(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):
-
Reference yourself as a proper noun. As you’ll see on both the online and print versions of Connect Magazine, the publication always references itself in-paragraph as “connect” sans capitalizing the “c” despite their being a proper noun. The reason — I suspect — is because the publication uses all lowercase letters in their logotype like several other companies do including my own. But the war waged against uppercase proper nouns in writing will never be won. Rather, the attempt in creating an exception to the rule is confusing to readers, and frankly, looks amateurish; like something a brash mom-and-pop shop would do shortly after creating their first company name. People don’t expect proper English on a creative logo, but they do expect it when reading copy. So ditch the lowercase “c” at the paragraph level if you want to mitigate confusion.
-
Quit changing the font type, its size, or its color in-paragraph. In paper form, Connect now uses a bright orange (its corporate color) when referencing itself or its URL in addition to snubbing conventional proper nouns. It also appears that they change the font type and its size a bit. This issue is largely more problematic that the first. It significantly reduces the readability by disrupting text continuity. The overall reading experience feels like that of driving your car over those annoying speed bumps in front of elementary schools. I’m betting the magazine did this in a vane attempt to combat the reader confusion cited above, which — if accurately assumed — would be ridiculous. And no, just because online articles can get away with colored hyperlinking doesn’t mean you can in print form. You’re a magazine not a website!
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:
- Microsoft
- Cendent
- Altria/Philip Morris
- Best Western
- Dunkin’ Donuts
- Lorillard Tobacco
- Levi Strauss
- Baskin-Robbins
- Chanel
- Nike
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:
-
Determine which feeds you no longer use. You know the routine. You read an article you like and subscribe to the publisher’s feed. That’s what you should do. But maybe that was and is the only article that appeals to you. What if you’re no longer reading the feed, or better yet, pulling inspiration from it? You may be thinking: “But I don’t want to lose it.” Well guess what. You can resubscribe at anytime.
-
Remove feed. Hit delete. Just do it. You’ll be better for it. If you must, save the feed in a backup OPML file in the unlikely event you decide to re-add it to your reader later on.
-
Create high-, medium-, and low-priority feeds. Another helpful method in organizing your feeds is to use priority folders. “High” being stuff you enjoy reading daily and that yields solid inspiration, “medium” being the above average feeds you sometimes read, and “low-priority” being feeds you don’t use often but like to keep tabs on and/or read when you have some extra time. I’ve also seen some feeder users organize feeds by “updated often” or “rarely updated.”
-
Add new feeds. If you aren’t cycling in new feeds at least once a month, you’re missing out. There is simply no way you have already subscribed to the web’s best content. Seek it, add it to your reader in a “pending” status to gauge its viability, then add it permanently if its producing consistent results.
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.
Simple. Cocky. Optimistic. Pays homage to the company’s 30 year history while ushering in the new year, and it capitalizes on the computer maker’s killer momentum as of late. NOTE: I’m not a Mac nerd; I split my time between a PC and PowerBook. Regardless, this is good advertising.
One of my favorite musical acts from last year is an indie Norwegian musician by the name of Magnet. Both his albums are diamonds in the industry rough, and he even taught me the proper way of handling accompanying song artists without creating multiple album artists like most do.
I loathe it when MP3s list additional album artists for songs that feature a second song artist. It clutters my already cluttered music library. For example, if I were a musician and did a song with Snoop Dogg under my alias of Smooth Harold, most song files would read the following as the second album artist: Smooth Harold featuring Snoop Dogg. You would then find two versions of Smooth Harold listed in your music library, one by itself and one with Snoop.
My “On Your Side” Magnet album handles the accompanying artist at the song, not artist level. Take Magnet’s excellent rendition of Bob Dylan’s venerable classic: Lay Lady Lay (with Gemma Hays). Gemma Hays sings the chorus on the track. When done like this, my music library stays cleaner and the accompanying artist still gets listed credit. A match made in heaven for a music nerd like me, and an approach I’ve started implementing on new songs added to my 6,000 song library. By the way, what music management software do you favor?
Use It lists the top 10 web design mistakes for 2006 with a lot of good ones to boot! Notable pet peeves include poor search on sites (I’m guilty when I don’t use Google on a site), PDF files (ditch ’em everyone!), poor usability by not changing the color of visited links (guilty here), and force opening new browser windows (annoying).
If I can change, and you can change, we can all change… Hit the source link for the goods.
UPDATE: Added forgotten link. Whoops!
When I first saw the trailer for Rocky Balboa (read: Rocky VI), I thought, “Oh man, is Stallone out of his mind?” Maybe a little, but that’s the whole point of the film. People can’t believe Rocky would fight one last time, and people couldn’t believe Stallone would make yet another movie in the series at age sixty. That incredulity plays, however, right into the movie’s central conflict and stretch of a plot. Rocky Balboa is an inspiring, albeit, very fictional story. Keep that fiction part in mind when seeing this film, and you’ll leave having watched a very good movie.
The premise of the story is that the current heavyweight champion, Mason “The Line” Dixon, is too dominant for his own good. He can’t find a decent challenger to save his life. Enter an ESPN “computer fight” simulating a win over Dixon by the Italian Stallion. With that, Balboa eventually decides to come out of retirement to fight the champ in an exhibition match, well, because “fighter’s fight.” “When life beats down on you, you take it and keep moving forward.” That’s the essence of the movie’s story and it works very well. It’s got a lot of heart.
Sure, Stallone’s botox ridden face bothered me a bit at the start, but I found myself never growing tired of the engaging dialog and willing the movie to continue. The lines aren’t perfect, but they’re engaging, funny at times, and surprisingly impressive none-the-less. Watching this film made me realize that Rocky serves up a hefty piece of Americana: Classic music, a fighting spirit, and the idea that it ain’t over until it’s over. 4/5 stars from this here blogger, and that’s even excluding the nostalgic factor.
There sure are some perty web designs on this list of the 50 most beautiful desings of 2006, all sans the unnecessary use of Flash. A few of my favorites here, here, here, and here. Peep the nice aesthetic mojo to get the creative juices flowing.
The design guys at We Are Seen Creative suggest that status quo networking does not work. That is, the idea of getting to know everyone you come in contact with in an effort to turn an eventual sale or hook up with needed talent. The article claims the key to efficient networking is to “find the key nodes in the network [and] don’t network just for the sake of networking.” Right. The idea is you can spend less time networking if you hook up people who know a ton of people rather than spending all your time personally getting to know a ton of people. Said individuals are often called connectors. And secondly, don’t justify lost productivity because you’re sitting at some boring luncheon while not meeting people.
I agree that genuinely getting to know connectors can speed up your reach, but the romantic in me doesn’t want to discount my personal attempts to network with everybody as the article seems to imply. Should you bypass getting to know someone just because they’re a cashier or you don’t feel they’re “connector” material? I don’t think so. How much time does networking really take? You can do it by asking a few sincere questions with individuals you come in contact with. Hence, there is no material time lost asking “How are you?” “Where are you from?” and “What are you passionate about?” If you strike a chord from there, you’ve got a contact in some shape or form I’m convinced will benefit all parties at a later time. But then again, I’m a romantic.
So what’s your networking strategy? Do you have a conscious one or is it something you just do? And would you agree that trying to meet everyone is a waste of time in favor of connectors and “big deal” people? I’m in no way case study on networking, so opine in the comments, please.
TIME magazine rounds up the five “phenomena” on the year that captivated the media momentarily before ultimately going bust on the hype. The PS3 shares the not-so spotlight next to Bode Miller, Studio 60, Fox TV’s canceled If I Did It program, and Snakes on a Plane as the year’s biggest letdowns according to the magazine.
From the article’s sub-section entitled HOW TO BLOW A HUGE LEAD in video games: “The PS3 is hideously expensive–it goes for up to $600–and Sony manufactured only a piddling few hundred thousand for the U.S., fewer for Japan. Plus it’s hard to write games for; the launch titles were lame. You know you’re in trouble when you get beat by something called a Wii.” Sony would have to try really hard to get anymore negative press for the PS3, not to mention other facets of the company’s endeavors. Can an electronics brotha get a break? Maybe a slight one if we didn’t run this story…
Continue reading at Joystiq…
Lindsey and I are paying off our credit card for the first time this month. 0% interest finally ran out after 3.5 years of a full interest free life. But to complicate the process, Citi says they have to charge us $18 to pay off our card by phone. They don’t allow pay-offs online, so the only other free alternative is to pay by snail mail. To do that, you must estimate future days of accrued interest. Annoying.
I realize they complicate the process to keep me as a customer, but that is the exact opposite of good customer service. Remember the recent lesson AOL learned in canceling accounts? Help the customer get what the want, even if that means losing their business. Nothing wrong with trying to keep an account, but never confuse that with not listening to your customers.
So starting today, anyone that wants to pay off their balance with me, I require an $18 processing fee. (kidding)
This is very cool. As one YouTube commenter aptly described, “The lyrics *seem* to mean more with the gravitas of years.”
[via Calacanis]
The Wall Street Journal reports of the effects of Blackberry parents on their children which are cleverly called Blackberry orphans. From the article: “They are fearful that parents will be distracted by emails while driving, concerned about Mom and Dad’s shortening attention spans and exasperated by their parents’ obsession with their gadgets. Bob Ledbetter III, a third-grader in Rome, Ga., says he tries to tell his father to put the BlackBerry down, but can’t even get his attention. ‘Sometimes I think he’s deaf,’ says the 9-year-old.”
I like my Blackberry, not just because I’m addicted to email, but because when used effectively, it lets me attend to business without sacrificing flexibility. However, I don’t want my one year old daughter to grow up with a father more concerned with a portable piece of plastic than her company. More importantly, I know my wife could do without the constant checking. (Commits to leaving the Blackberry in my office after 6pm.)
[via Lifehacker]
Contrary to what some marketers think, you can never outsmart the masses. Small, ignorant sects maybe, but knowledge in numbers is a powerful thing. If you think as a marketer that you can fool your target audience into buying your product, you’re obtuse and presumptuous.
Just yesterday, I blogged about one Sony marketing company that pretended to run a consumer fansite in support of Sony’s struggling PlayStation Portable. They did a horrible job acting as “hip” youth and their disconnect showed in everything they tried to lie about on the site including copy and terribly fake videos aimed to go viral. I can only imagine the company in a planning meeting thinking they could outsmart consumers. Ironically, they got called out by every major game site on the internet, not to mention Wired news, and it’s only a matter of time before the story hits major networks and both the marketing company and Sony take a significant business hit. Remember: Marketing is about the glamorization of products, not blatant lying.
A short time back, I consulted with one company that erroneously thought they could start a blog with the ulterior motive of directly hard-selling products to their audience. They all but said, “people will want to visit our site just to get pitched to.” They were marketers and had no clue what they were doing. There is nothing wrong in using a blog to indirectly drive business. I highly recommend it and can’t say enough about how much business Smooth Harold has helped me close over the past two years. But there should always be an intrinsic value to any blog. Don’t ever compromise your authenticity for some web pipe dream.
I am a heavy Delicious bookmarker and earnestly try to tag my sites in an organized and reusable manner. However, I can’t tell you how many sites I go to bookmark and “Web 2.0” finds itself as a popular tag because other Delicious users have marked the site as “Web 2.0.” It could be a dog site, a forum, an email client, whatever, and people will inevitably tag ANY website as Web 2.0 rendering the inherent value of the tag useless. In most cases, it’s the same as tagging all your bookmarks with “www” or “online.” Granted, I tag selective case studies of “web 2.0” sites for my personal use, but I’m amazed how most seem to tag everything under the sun as Web 2.0.
People who say this probably do for one of the following reasons:
- They have no idea what they’re talking about and equate avoiding taxes with “free”
- Want to justify an unneeded or ambiguous business purchase (I’ve done this)
- Have no understanding of the importance of cash flows to companies
But the funnier reason why people say this? Note this classic exchange between Jerry and Kramer from the most awesomest of TV shows, Seinfeld, kindly compiled by Josh Steimle:
Jerry : So we’re going to make the Post Office pay for my new stereo?
Kramer : It’s just a write off for them.
Jerry : How is it a write off?
Kramer : They just write it off.
Jerry : Write it off what?
Kramer : Jerry, all these big companies, they write off everything.
Jerry : You don’t even know what a write off is.
Kramer : Do you?
Jerry : No. I don’t.
Kramer : But they do, and they are the ones writing it off.
[UPDATE: Cited transcribed source if “inspiration link” didn’t suffice. Post inspired by or “lifted from” Don Loper]
They don’t call it “The World’s Highest Junkyard” for nothing as empty oxygen bottles litter the ground en route to the summit, 29,028 feet above ground. With all due respect, the crowded climb is a tremendous feat for anyone. And don’t even get me started on how amazing Sherpas are (many of which climb without oxygen while carrying tourests’ gear). For more info, Jon Krakauer first-hand account of the climb, Into Thin Air, is one of the most engaging and profound books on the subject — not to mention humanity — you’ll ever read. Highly recommended.
Mumbo jumbo here: “A statistically rough (one sigma) estimate might be 75-100 million servers @ ~350-550 watts each. Call it Forty Billion Watts or ~40 GW. Since silicon logic runs at three volts or so, and an Ampere is some ten to the eighteenth electrons a second, a straight forward calculation reveals that if the average chip runs at a Gigaherz, some 50 grams of electrons in motion make up the Internet. So as of today, cyberspace weighs less than two ounces.”
Information has weight afterall…
[via Kottke]
Valleywag reports on where venture money is headed in the wake of Jason Calacanis (a publisher) getting hired by Sequoia Capital, a large venture capitalist: “Sequoia is investing seriously in an area that Silicon Valley venture capital has typically avoided: media. Used to be that VC firms demanded proprietary technology as a pre-condition of investment. But the success of ventures such as YouTube has shown that user interface and speed of execution can be more important than technology in providing some kind of sustained advantage.”
That’s a very good thing. Business is more about execution than anything else, though I admit good technology has advantages. But the bottom line is VC’s should be investing in competent ideas regardless of proprietary technology (though not independent of). Maybe the above move suggests that very idea.
