Senator Craig's not the only one with a fascination for bathroom shenanigans. Check out the Bathroom Blogfest for everything you need to know about the ultimate customer experience -- Toby's got a great RUN down too. Okay It's really hard for me not to do bathroom humor as it is. So that's where I'll END it.
--
November 03, 2007
November 02, 2007
got my rx reading glasses today
Jenna (as you may remember, she's 10) and I got our first pairs of glasses on the same day. I believe that means she has her FATHER'S vision genes. ;-)I'll try to get her in front of the computer tomorrow. Blessedly, she is asleep. She looks cute as a bug in hers. Two pairs for $99. Oye, moneymoneymoney. Tres ick.
Alert for the uninsured: Doctor's Vision Works exam is cheaper than Walmart's. $39 at the vision works place. $55 at Walmart.
Helllo. They have a reading-glasses sale (custom) for $29. That's pretty good. AND I got my glasses in a-bout-an-hour.
It's weird -- I can really see now when I look at the computer. And all this time I thought it was Stripping News. I wonder why I never saw any T&A.
October 29, 2007
And that goes double for Jeremy
Marketing Roadmap asks, and Kat Herding speaks, in comments.
Kat Herding and Jeremy Outerbridge will long live on in our hearts, but when the photographer whose photos we purchased/licensed decided to threaten legal action over the matter (even though I believe the photos were technically used for purposes under which they were licensed), the fact is that we gave up. At the time we were, uh, slightly engaged in other crises of magnificent proportion. So we both tore down our identities, and some of the most creative alter-blogging in the blogosphere went see-ya-later-bye.
At least no animals were harmed in the making of the Kat Herding Media management team.
So that's the story. Now even my emails from those golden days are gone.
With so much frustration so frequently, why do we stay here?
Anyone?
---
Kat Herding and Jeremy Outerbridge will long live on in our hearts, but when the photographer whose photos we purchased/licensed decided to threaten legal action over the matter (even though I believe the photos were technically used for purposes under which they were licensed), the fact is that we gave up. At the time we were, uh, slightly engaged in other crises of magnificent proportion. So we both tore down our identities, and some of the most creative alter-blogging in the blogosphere went see-ya-later-bye.
At least no animals were harmed in the making of the Kat Herding Media management team.
So that's the story. Now even my emails from those golden days are gone.
With so much frustration so frequently, why do we stay here?
Anyone?
---
October 28, 2007
What ARCHIVE Button?
You know sometimes when someone says, "Didn't you ever do X?" where X is something you should have done but stupidly didn't know anything about? yeah. so. right.Here's what I didn't know about gmail:
You never know when you might need a message again, but with traditional webmail services, you delete it and it's gone forever. With Gmail, you can easily archive your messages instead, so they'll still be accessible when you need them. If you decide you no longer want a message in your Inbox, just hit the 'Archive' button and the message will still be available in 'All Mail' or through a search.I've used Gmail for 4 years, but not exculsively until I got my mac (correction, until my blog READERS got me my mac) a few months ago. I had gotten used to the folder structure in Outlook, and when I moved to Gmail over time, I really valued the search box at the top, because that was how I could find anything and everything I needed. I figured I didn't NEED to move my inbox mail around anymore. What with all these MBs of storage, let er ride!
'All Mail' is the holding place for all of the messages you've sent or received, but not deleted. When you delete a message, it's gone forever. With Gmail, you have enough storage space to last for years without deleting a single message. Just archive everything and all your messages will be searchable and easily accessible.
Problem is, I never noticed the Archive button. I never RTFM either. I didn't know about All Mail--I never even NOTICED it. Every once in a while I'd go clear out spam, and empty trash, but that was it. I figured Google was doing the archiving. OF COURSE I WANT MY ASP TO ARCHIVE MY DATA. They archive my blog for me--why not my mail?
Do they archive? I don't know yet. I posted on the forum Shelley suggested. We'll see.
Funny thing is, lots of the bloggers have popped up in GChat to ask if I've found my inbox mail yet. I tell them no, and then I say, "TIP: if you haven't archived, go do it. now." TO A MAN/WOMAN, they're like: ARchive? What the hell is that? How?
Like me, they jumped into gmail and never really bothered to think about DOING anything with their mail. Like me, they just saw the little archive and allmail features for the first time after my crisis.
e. chatted me up and said, where did you put your inbox mail? I mean you archived it right? I'm like, no i kept it in my inbox. she's like what do you mean--ALL of it? I said, well yeah, all of it. and she's like how...why...wha.. how many messages? I said, thousands. She said, MBs? I said, lots--like almost 30% full. She said: You never archived it? me: :-(
See, she keeps her inbox empty. She does the right thing and archives her mail like continuously. As we reviewed how we use gmail, it became apparent that we are polar opposite gmail users.
If i were you, I'd model my gmail habits after e., not me.
So my question is: How often do you archive your gmail?
---
The Horror - My Incoming Gmail Mail Is Still Gone
I really was hoping -- nay praying -- that when I woke up today, my inbox would be as full as it was, and the losing of mail going back to 2004 would have been just a glitch in the system.Not so.
You are currently using 43 MB (0%) of your 4463 MB.
I was up to almost (30%) percent full yesterday.
What I do still have are chats going back to 05 and some sent mail dating back to 04. I haven't sorted it out yet to see if sent mail is all there. Honestly, I'm afraid to look too closely. But suffice it to say that the 1700 messages in my "All Mail" folder don't represent the thousands of emails I had before whatever happened happened.
Mail HAS shown up in my Sent Mail folder since yesterday. When the bomb went off, all folders were empty, including trash, sent, spam, and inbox. I don't know if everything is back in my sent mail. There are 900+ messages. Something tells me I've sent more than that. But I'm HAPPY to have what I have.
All Mail seems to be a combo of chats and sent mail.
Inbox - nothing. nothing other than the mail I've gotten between yesterday's loss and and right now.
And I was in the middle of a big project with very important emails going back and forth.
Devastated.
How can Google not have an archive function that lets us save mail to our hard drives?
I never even saw the "archive" button until yesterday. never thought about clicking 'select all' and archiving important mail.
I figured--it's Google. What could go wrong?
A lot.
SO, if anyone knows who I can call or email at Google about finding my incoming mail between 04 and yesterday, I'd sure appreciate it.
and, by the way, share your backup techniques with your friends if you have any.
shit.
---
October 27, 2007
Evolutionary Expert Determines Geeks of the Future Will Be Small and Ugly
Get the crack pipe ready.
10,000 years after we become a species of coffee-colored perfect humans with large genitalia, our reliance on technology will turn us into.... bloggers.
While humans will reach their peak in 1000 years' time, 10,000 years later our reliance on technology will have begun to dramatically change our appearance.
Medicine will weaken our immune system and we will begin to appear more child-like.
Dr Curry said: "The report suggests that the future of man will be a story of the good, the bad and the ugly.
OMG OMG OMG OMG
ALL OF MY GMAIL IS GONE. i... i... i can't speak. 0% used. i was at 27% used. nothing in my inbox. nothing anywhere.
google say it aint so.
google say it aint so.
October 26, 2007
Blogging 3.0
This is what blogging is.
People want to twitter instead. Do you? I don't want to twitter too much. People's writing is getting crappy because of Twitter. People who mostly twitter are not writing. If everyone only twittered for three months, everyone's writing would suck. Bad.
With any luck, we'll wander back to caring about what we write.
eventually.
Thanks RB.
---
People want to twitter instead. Do you? I don't want to twitter too much. People's writing is getting crappy because of Twitter. People who mostly twitter are not writing. If everyone only twittered for three months, everyone's writing would suck. Bad.
With any luck, we'll wander back to caring about what we write.
eventually.
Thanks RB.
---
October 25, 2007
When you spend all your time shoveling snow and pizza...
...you'll probably come in last place among cities who blog.
you may want to shuffle off to a Bills game, but you won't be shuffling off to techmeme if you live in Buffalo.
---
you may want to shuffle off to a Bills game, but you won't be shuffling off to techmeme if you live in Buffalo.
---
Still Crazy After All These Years
I finally made the time to do it, and shelled out the sixty-seven dollars it costs to earn your freedom from America, even if temporarily. That's what it costs to get a passport if you have your passport but have let it expire. On the other hand if you don't have a passport at all, like the lady at the post office ahead of me, you have to make an appointment for another day, a couple of weeks away. And then you have to come back and pay a hundred bucks for return-of-the-Messiah delivery timeframe, or two-hundred bucks for faster-than-pony-express delivery service.
Give or take.
As I drove away from the post office, with Jenna's form in hand (yes, your kids now need passports to leave with you), I was thinking that I could let go of this place. I could leave this country that seems to be getting sicker by the day. That if in a year from now, our duly elected officials resemble the current configuration, I would have to go. Who could stay?
But since America has the monopoly on teh internets, everything will probably be okay. After all, we're not THAT far gone over here. Right? That is unless you read the latest Zogby poll on U.S.ians attitudes re: the net. Marshall Kirkpatrick breaks it down for us, calling U.S. attitudes "insane":
Isn't it great to be a superpower?
---
Give or take.
As I drove away from the post office, with Jenna's form in hand (yes, your kids now need passports to leave with you), I was thinking that I could let go of this place. I could leave this country that seems to be getting sicker by the day. That if in a year from now, our duly elected officials resemble the current configuration, I would have to go. Who could stay?
But since America has the monopoly on teh internets, everything will probably be okay. After all, we're not THAT far gone over here. Right? That is unless you read the latest Zogby poll on U.S.ians attitudes re: the net. Marshall Kirkpatrick breaks it down for us, calling U.S. attitudes "insane":
I'll say. And don't forget the 92% who believe that aspiring gang members will fire weapons at their cars if they flash their headlights.To summarize: an alarming percentage of respondents are open to brain implants that allow them to access the internet with their minds and that allow their children's locations to be tracked, they think government censorship of online video content is acceptable, the internet makes them feel closer to God and less close their significant others - but their own identities on the internet are not very important to them. This is frightening stuff.
Isn't it great to be a superpower?
---
October 24, 2007
Google AdSense vs PayPerPost vs BlogAds - One Blogger's Story
At a time when Google is sharing even less of the pie with adsense partners than ever, I thought it opportune to report that BlogAds is still the way to go for small and indie publishers (the artists formerly known as bloggers). This finding is not the result of a probing quarterly earnings review. It's personal experience from my experiments with Google AdSense, BlogAds, and PayPerPost, the first two of which I've used for the last few years on and off.I tried PayPerPost recently, but honestly, the hoops you have to jump in order to perform like a trained circus monkey so that your post meets the criteria for approval makes it hard for me to use PayPerPost. I'm glad PPP is around though. It's a great opportunity for bloggers who know how to punk out a post without selling their soul. There is no reason bloggers should rely on someone to write their ad copy for them--writing is what we do. And PPP lets you do that and get paid for it.
I have no ethical problems with PPP and the way it works now, but still - it takes lots of work to develop posts that are both interesting enough not to bore your readers to tears or insult their intelligence while still meeting the criteria associated with each ad post. This is not so much a PPP deficit as it is a Jeneane deficit. I can barely tie my shoes on a good day.
In my PPP experiment, I had 2 posts out of 4 approved to the tune of $49.55. Two of the posts I submitted were rejected for not meeting the criteria specified. Still, four posts worth of work for $50 isn't going to make anyone rich, but it's not bad money for relatively easy work.
I'm not sure the percentage of the ad money PPP keeps. If I were BlogAds or PayPerPost I'd sure be boasting that it's a lot more than Google, who I think is actually taking our money at this point:
By reducing the percentage paid to publishing partners Google boosted its financial performance and exceeded analyst estimates. AdSense publishers lost $23.99mI have been a Google Adsense partner for about four years now, although I just started using the ads again primarily because I am experimenting to see if anything's changed. Answer: not really. In my 4th year of partnering with Google, I'm just about due for my second $100 payment. You do the math: I average about $50 a year with Google. So $50 for 4 posts with PPP, or $50/year with Google.
With the price of gas, I'm not going far.
Enter BlogAds. Now, besides the fact that Henry is a smart and generally noble gentleman who invented the category, BlogAds is simply the best paying ad engine for the indie blogger. On the other side of the fence, it lets advertisers get very granular and targeted with their messages. Micro messages to micro markets. It works; that's why everyone else started to try to do it too.
The only criticism I have of blogads is that using the system to approve ads and set up hives is slow. It often seems bogged down, but patience wins out. Also, I wish there were a more interactive community of publishers sharing best practices for how to build hives and make your blog visible, about pricing, and about placement. But the bottom line is this: I make between $20 - $50 per ad with BlogAds.
So there you have it. On your average indie blog that's been around a few years and has a pretty good Google page rank and adequate Technorati rating and some loyal readers who aren't afraid to click, you can make the following (averages from personal experience):
$50 per year with Google AdSense
$50 per four ad posts with PPP
$50 per ad with BlogAds
Some people apparently have been able to sell links rather than ads. I don't know what the 'link for sale' process is like, but if someone had asked me if they could buy some HTML code from me for $50, I might have said yes. 'Cept nobody asked me. Probably a good thing. Apparently Google is further punishing publishers by slicing their Page Rank number for selling links. All this time I thought links were good. Dang.
You'll be happy to know that Allied is holding steady at a 6/10. But I was a 7/10. Do you know back in the early days of Page Rank, I actually hit a 9? How funny is that shit?
---
speak up
Toby Bloomberg's got a great list of social media conferences coming up - and she starred the ones she'll be at. If you see her, say hi for me. Toby and I live in the same city, but don't see each other often enough.---
October 23, 2007
Crossing the Chasm
Pretty soon they'll be recalling more toys than they sell, in which case critical mass will shut down the toy industry and we'll go back to playing with paper airplanes. Who's with me?!
---
---
Bloggers Prepare to Take Some Time Off as Writer's Strike Looms
I feel a picket line comin' on.
---
Writers maintain they were shortchanged years ago when they agreed to a discounted pay formula for home video sales, only to see that business take off. And they're determined not to make the same mistake again as the digital revolution upends the entertainment industry.Shhheeeah? Ya think?
---
October 22, 2007
Let there be Light!
when all my blog friendz bought me this mac, i had no idea how much fun i could have playing at home on the internets.
--
The Really Important stuff
My friends are like really the smartest people on the internets. Witness BMO BMO BMO, here asking some very important questions about light, dark, in, out, and getting things done vs doing something. If you're a professional organizer, a serial killer, or a circus monkey, feel free to give some advice to a friend who is in the dark. It's the right thing to do.
--
--
Job Security, Or Back from the Brink
Australian grave diggers are now equipped with life saving defibrillators -- no, not in case the coroner was wrong, but for the funeral attendees who often succumb to their grieving.
--
"A lot of people who die are old, so the people who come to the services are frail and they are vulnerable anyway, and the additional stress of a funeral tips them over the edge,” Vicki Pridmore, chief executive of Melbourne’s Cheltenham cemeteries, told local newspapers on Friday.There are mashups, and then there are mashups. eh?Pridmore said a family or friend collapsed at a funeral every two months on average, so now gravediggers were being trained to use the new defibrillator.
--
October 21, 2007
October 19, 2007
Web 2.Ouch - sense-surround vest for video games
What do sick people, prisoners, elders, and geeks have in common? Apparently the need to get prodded.
Now there is a special vest designed to let players of video games feel the punches, slams, pokes, and various other body blows that come at them during games.
Apparently the vest was designed without the virtual contact sports market in mind. In fact initially the vest marketed as a remote diagnostics tool for physicians. In other words, to:
Now there is a special vest designed to let players of video games feel the punches, slams, pokes, and various other body blows that come at them during games.
Apparently the vest was designed without the virtual contact sports market in mind. In fact initially the vest marketed as a remote diagnostics tool for physicians. In other words, to:
"...give medical exams via the Internet to prisoners, the elderly, those in rural communities and other isolated people."
The medical version of the vest is more sophisticated, enabling doctors sitting at their computers to prod, poke and press patients' bodies from afar and get feedback on what they are virtually feeling, according to Ombrellaro.
I suppose the vest now has a dual use: It can beat the crap out of the gamer geeks, and then let doctors remotely diagnose their broken ribs.
What a mashup!
So, let's say you have this 100+member blog you want to move...
Alright here's the deal. I own blogsisters.com. I have hosting that I'm not using that was tied to another domain that I let expire on purpose. I would like to re-set-up Blog Sisters (don't think we can physically move a blogspot.com hosted blog?) on either wordpress or typepad.
Tell me, which platform will be able to support hundreds of members with posting privileges, and will be easy enough for all to use? Blogger has a niche in the group blogging thing--one of the things it's done right from the get go. I suppose I could start a new blogger blog and just host it myself, but part of me thinks it would be good to give the old homestead a REAL makeover. Kind of like those double-wides you see being hauled down the highway.
Thoughts, ideas, etc. are welcome.
--
Tell me, which platform will be able to support hundreds of members with posting privileges, and will be easy enough for all to use? Blogger has a niche in the group blogging thing--one of the things it's done right from the get go. I suppose I could start a new blogger blog and just host it myself, but part of me thinks it would be good to give the old homestead a REAL makeover. Kind of like those double-wides you see being hauled down the highway.
Thoughts, ideas, etc. are welcome.
--
scared me there for a minute
Stowe reported that Corante lost their domain -- it's true that the once busy hub of opinion has had a hard time rising above the NOISE TIDE of 2.0 opinion holders, especially with the spammers help. But I hope they keep it going. Let's not do away so easily with the relics that helped start this party.
---
---
so I never saw Bwana.TV before
I like it. I like the way he talks about blogging in this video - it's a good overview on blogging -- Informative without hyperbole. Nice. Thanks to the Pirillos for the link via twitter to the Halo 3 related contest that brought me to Bwana.TV.
---
---
an order of business.
there is an important poll on the sidebar. if you haven't taken it yet, you really should as your career -- nay your LIFE -- may depend on it.
---
---
October 18, 2007
Here's the Thing
This isn't the be all end all blog design. No sirreeee. I had gotten so many emails that my blog was hanging (mostly IE users, finally including my own husband) that I decided to bare-bones it and build from there.
Allied turns 6 in a couple of weeks. There are lots of things in life I have a hard time believing. That's one of them.
P.S. PLEASE let me know if the page is loading better (or loading at all for some of you) now that I took off some of the more questionable elements. We'll see what I can get back on without compromising the speediness and general UserGeneratedFriendliness of this here blog.
---
Allied turns 6 in a couple of weeks. There are lots of things in life I have a hard time believing. That's one of them.
P.S. PLEASE let me know if the page is loading better (or loading at all for some of you) now that I took off some of the more questionable elements. We'll see what I can get back on without compromising the speediness and general UserGeneratedFriendliness of this here blog.
---
HEY - let's learn about cookies!
Guess whose kid is explaining Cookies to grownups? I'll give you one hint: baden.
The video is part of a de-mystifying cookies contest, so go over and give Mari some star-and-comment love. BYOM - bring your own milk. :-)
--
October 17, 2007
Dumbest Product Marketing Move of 2007 - Tampax CARDBOARD
Okay, maybe you're not a woman. But you don't have to be a female rocket scientist to figure out that the advertising you've seen recently on T.V. for Tampax Cardboard (yes, you heard right) is a very dumb example of branding for many so reasons, two of them quite obvious:1) Tampax applicators have been cardboard for at least the 30 years I've been using them.
2) When I make my list of words that evoke feelings of comfort, absorption, and security, cardboard is way down at the bottom of that list.
I think Tampax might have gotten a clue that the new Cardboard campaign is going over like a lead brick (possibly the only material lower on my comfort list than cardboard).
If you look at the google cached images from the Tampax site, you'll see a couple product images with the new "cardboard" theme, and some images with the word cardboard. But when you click on them, the images magically transform to Tampax's Pearl branding (aaah, pearls).
Business should be wary when Great Marketing Minds invade the conference room suggesting that a re-branding or branding upgrade will help "move the needle" in terms of product sales.
Especially if they come in using the word "Cardboard."
---
October 16, 2007
Mania is highly underrated
loling all over myself.
However, before I could fully parse the semantic pathways that were opening up before me -- even as the lanes of traffic were shutting down -- some chick comes on and says that horses have always been a part of the American way of life. "We rode into battle on them," she says. "We used them to deliver the mail..."
You know that Beatles song where they go "...found my way upstairs and had a smoke and somebody spoke and I went into a dream" and then they go AHHHH-AH-AH-AH, AH-AH-AH, AH-AH AHHHHHHHHHH.... Like that? Well, that's what happened to me. Except for the smoke part. Or the stairs, as I was, if you will recall, driving at the time.
And I thought to myself, the view through the windshield going as fuzzy as a Penthouse centerfold, well that's right! While I'd never given it much thought before now, who ever heard of the cavalry arriving just in the nick of time on cows? Or some hapless postman pushing through rain and sleet and dark of night on cowback?
When you think about it, there are a lot of things to think about.
---
social marketing - contest mashup
Cool idea for a contest pointed out over at Blog Nation. Leave it to those smart Canadians to think up an interactive where's waldo hunt to promote a book, called The Frozen Thames, by Helen Humphreys. Questfortheicefox.com details the contest, which mashes up GoogleMyMaps and Facebook for a virtual treasure hunt that will award the winner a $2,000 travel voucher.
I took an interactive approach to book reading when I started Gonzo Engaged in 2001 to chronicle my reading of Gonzo Marketing, which turned into an interactive discussion with me, the author, and other readers. That was in the days before social networks, back when ebooks were the big news in the book department. It will be interesting to see other ways social networks can bring books to life in the virtual dimension.
---
I took an interactive approach to book reading when I started Gonzo Engaged in 2001 to chronicle my reading of Gonzo Marketing, which turned into an interactive discussion with me, the author, and other readers. That was in the days before social networks, back when ebooks were the big news in the book department. It will be interesting to see other ways social networks can bring books to life in the virtual dimension.
---
October 14, 2007
This City Just Doesn't Get It
Southern Metroginormous cities like Atlanta, which a few decades ago were towns without millions draining resources like mosquitoes at a blood mobile, have a hard time grasping when it's time to DO something about a problem. Atlanta public officials are famous for letting problems fester and grow from annoyances into crises before they even think about dealing with them.
Hence our dire situation in Georgia currently, and in Atlanta specifically: We're gonna run out of water.
Hence our dire situation in Georgia currently, and in Atlanta specifically: We're gonna run out of water.
"Most large metropolitan areas have systems in place where they try to be better managers of the resource than that," said Don Wilhite, who founded the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and has been involved in drought responses for at least three decades.
I'm sure most do. But not here. We're still sending water down to Florida, into some areas where no outside watering restrictions exist (we've had those restrictions here in metro Atlanta for years).
Howdy Florida neighbors! Mind if we drive down and visit your showers?
----
October 12, 2007
October 11, 2007
Not that I Care But I Do...
What the hell is Technorati doing with Authority & Rankings the past month?
Dave's been in my home town enjoying the local past time - eating good food - and has taken great pix of my favorite landscape and old hometown during his visit to RIT.
Meanwhile, my T'rati Rank has fallen from the 2,000s to the 3,000s to the 10,ooos to a personal low of 25,254. And my Authority has fallen from a high of 800-something to a low of 200-something. Granted, as for the Authority number, I haven't a clue as to its meaning, but it seems to me that high was better than low, because when I was high they put a cool microscopic badge next to the Rank that said "Top 5000." Now high is the new low, except of course for the Men and Media Conglomerates of the Top 100, who stay pretty much the same give or take.
I mean, compared to the other quirky blogs, I have more fans, have certainly been around longer, and am pretty damn quirky. So why is my authority equal to bloggers with 1 and 2 fans?
I end this post in the way that every blogger ends the obligatory post about their ranking and authority numbers: OH I really don't care about this stuff. It's all a bunch of smoke and mirrors masquerading as a business model. Blah blah woof woof. So on and so forth.
Except that I do care.
I'm just not sure why.
------
Dave's been in my home town enjoying the local past time - eating good food - and has taken great pix of my favorite landscape and old hometown during his visit to RIT.
Meanwhile, my T'rati Rank has fallen from the 2,000s to the 3,000s to the 10,ooos to a personal low of 25,254. And my Authority has fallen from a high of 800-something to a low of 200-something. Granted, as for the Authority number, I haven't a clue as to its meaning, but it seems to me that high was better than low, because when I was high they put a cool microscopic badge next to the Rank that said "Top 5000." Now high is the new low, except of course for the Men and Media Conglomerates of the Top 100, who stay pretty much the same give or take.
I mean, compared to the other quirky blogs, I have more fans, have certainly been around longer, and am pretty damn quirky. So why is my authority equal to bloggers with 1 and 2 fans?
I end this post in the way that every blogger ends the obligatory post about their ranking and authority numbers: OH I really don't care about this stuff. It's all a bunch of smoke and mirrors masquerading as a business model. Blah blah woof woof. So on and so forth.
Except that I do care.
I'm just not sure why.
------
first comes love then comes marriage
...then comes chickadvisor in the baby carriage. Nice story on how Ali and Alex started the social shopping site in The Star's small biz section.congrats, de Bolds!
--
October 10, 2007
Mo Mommy Blogging
Shallow and Tacky reports that babies who listen to Mozart are just as dumb as babies who listen to Metallica . So light the crack pipe, crank the heavy metal, and put some sweet tea in the baby's bottle--it's time to get your groove on.
OMGZ. It Happen.
AKMA begatz Shelley begatz the LOLcat Bible:
20Invisible Man say, “I can has fish n’ birdz.” 21Fish go in water, birdz go in sky. It good. 22Invisible Man say, “make lots little fish and little birdz. Fish make fish in water; birdz make birdz in air.” 23It get dark again, then lite: day fife.
24Invisible Man say, “I can has aminulz.” It happen. 25Invisible Man make kitteh n’ cowz n’ snakes n’ stuff. Iz good.
26Invisible Man say, “I can has man that look like me.” He rulez. 27Invisible Man make man like him, boy and gurl. 28Invisible Man tell man, “ur in mai Earth, pwnz0rz mai aminulz.” 29And u eats fruitz. 30Aminulz eat greenz.
31Invisible Man saws creayshunz: iz good. It get dark, then lite: day sicks.
;-)
---
20Invisible Man say, “I can has fish n’ birdz.” 21Fish go in water, birdz go in sky. It good. 22Invisible Man say, “make lots little fish and little birdz. Fish make fish in water; birdz make birdz in air.” 23It get dark again, then lite: day fife.
24Invisible Man say, “I can has aminulz.” It happen. 25Invisible Man make kitteh n’ cowz n’ snakes n’ stuff. Iz good.
26Invisible Man say, “I can has man that look like me.” He rulez. 27Invisible Man make man like him, boy and gurl. 28Invisible Man tell man, “ur in mai Earth, pwnz0rz mai aminulz.” 29And u eats fruitz. 30Aminulz eat greenz.
31Invisible Man saws creayshunz: iz good. It get dark, then lite: day sicks.
;-)
---
October 09, 2007
Facebook - Child's Play?
Kara Swisher has a great post on the immature nature of Facebook apps. See, here's the thing: immature and silly is really fun at first because it's fun-ny at first. But once you've filled a few fake fish tanks, posted to a few groups, planted a few pretend gardens, and caught a few hot potatoes, you start wondering if you might be spending that time billing or planting real gardens with your kids.
Kara says she's done burning brainpower on whether or not to catch spuds:
I'm all for stupid things. Hell I sometimes AM the stupid thing. I can even manage some guilty giggles for an imaginative group name even when people around the world are dying. But there is something toddleresque about these kewl apps that feel very much like a child who does something cute, thereby eliciting uproarious laughter from his relatives, so then he keeps doing it until you're so sick of him that you want to toss him like a hot potato.
Kara asks: "...if that is all there is, can Facebook really build a viable and long-lasting business on what is essentially a bunch of games that will ultimately become wearying for users? Doesn’t it need more robust apps that actually are useful and relevant and make Facebook the service that Zuckerberg has often told me was a 'utility'?"
I believe with all my heart that play is the killer app of the Internet. So I'm all about the proliferation of just-for-fun widgets on Facebook. But I am also expecting more. I'm expecting to be able to accomplish as much on Facebook as I can on the net as a whole. I expect to be able to share and collaborate and engage and generate STUFF. Because the most productive form of playing is making stuff.
But a gazillion people can't be wrong - and Facebook is definitely the "in" social network. As much as I try to forget about Facebook and spend more time being productive, I do get pulled back in a few times a week.
After all, I have fish to send, Scobles to feed, and a garden to tend to.
---
Kara says she's done burning brainpower on whether or not to catch spuds:
She says she gets it. I think she does get it. I get it too. You get it, right?Right now on Facebook, I have been trying to decide what to do near on two weeks or more, after receiving a “Hot Potato” tossed to me by my old boss, Washington Post Co. CEO and Chairman Don Graham (oh, yes–his family also owns a key hunk of the legendary paper, too).
For those who don’t know what a digital Hot Potato is: It is a widget (also called a third-party app) created by a very nice-looking group of guys at a design outfit called Hungry Machine for the Facebook platform.
I'm all for stupid things. Hell I sometimes AM the stupid thing. I can even manage some guilty giggles for an imaginative group name even when people around the world are dying. But there is something toddleresque about these kewl apps that feel very much like a child who does something cute, thereby eliciting uproarious laughter from his relatives, so then he keeps doing it until you're so sick of him that you want to toss him like a hot potato.
Kara asks: "...if that is all there is, can Facebook really build a viable and long-lasting business on what is essentially a bunch of games that will ultimately become wearying for users? Doesn’t it need more robust apps that actually are useful and relevant and make Facebook the service that Zuckerberg has often told me was a 'utility'?"
I believe with all my heart that play is the killer app of the Internet. So I'm all about the proliferation of just-for-fun widgets on Facebook. But I am also expecting more. I'm expecting to be able to accomplish as much on Facebook as I can on the net as a whole. I expect to be able to share and collaborate and engage and generate STUFF. Because the most productive form of playing is making stuff.
But a gazillion people can't be wrong - and Facebook is definitely the "in" social network. As much as I try to forget about Facebook and spend more time being productive, I do get pulled back in a few times a week.
After all, I have fish to send, Scobles to feed, and a garden to tend to.
---
Give or Take a Mil
I notice that Stowe's and Mike's feedburner subscriptions are up somewhere between a few thou and a cool mil. Google Juice or God's Gift to Guys?
These spikes have been noted before, but I guess recent jumps in numbers have been, uh, big.
---
These spikes have been noted before, but I guess recent jumps in numbers have been, uh, big.
---
October 08, 2007
LET'S GO BUFFALO
Is this fair? Kiss my ass.
There's nothing I like better than a dejected cowboy.
Are you ready for some football?
---
There's nothing I like better than a dejected cowboy.
Are you ready for some football?
---
October 07, 2007
Mashup: Pimp My Ride and the Wayback Machine
Doc takes a shot at remembering all the cars he's known and loved before. And you?
Me:
1976 pacer bought for $100. My first car. I duct-taped all of the holes eaten away by rust and spray painted the whole car with blue rustolium. Drove for 2 years.
1982 Chevy Cavalier station wagon. Free - inherited after my grandmother's death. Drove over 100,000 and gave it to a friend.
1991 Isuzu Pickup truck, $10K new. Drove til it was paid off and then sold it to the neighborhood exterminator in 1998 for $5K.
2002 Chevy Venture Value Van - $16K - hate it. My current ride. Vow to never buy new again.
---
Me:
1976 pacer bought for $100. My first car. I duct-taped all of the holes eaten away by rust and spray painted the whole car with blue rustolium. Drove for 2 years.
1982 Chevy Cavalier station wagon. Free - inherited after my grandmother's death. Drove over 100,000 and gave it to a friend.
1991 Isuzu Pickup truck, $10K new. Drove til it was paid off and then sold it to the neighborhood exterminator in 1998 for $5K.
2002 Chevy Venture Value Van - $16K - hate it. My current ride. Vow to never buy new again.
---
intimacy and the internet
Quite right.
It seems there’s an inward-facing circle scattered around San Francisco and its peninsula; they’re smart and experienced and money-hungry and very alert. But when the next big thing comes along (and I love this business, because I know it will) you won’t have to rely on the professional noticers to tell you because it’ll touch your life directly. Probably by opening another conduit for the flow of ambient intimacy (that link showed up on one channel or another while I was writing this; dig it).thx, stowe.
October 05, 2007
feed yer style
Congrats to our good friends at stylefeeder! Oh sure it's all facebookfacebookfacebook now, but who got em started on MySpace? Huh? :-)
Oh Canada!
Good Job Bush! You did Bin Laden's job for him, just like he wanted!If we're lucky, Canada will swoop its Mounties down here and conquer our asses.
---
October 04, 2007
meeting me meeting you grieving
Some people subscribe to feeds for Technorati tags, so that they get quick access to all blogs with, say, the tag of Web 2.0, or Technology, or Atlanta. I do that. Except that the one that I check the most often has nothing to do with blogging or business. It is the tag for 'grief,' because that's the way it should be.
That's where I first found this brave woman's story, began admiring her spirit, her willingness to open up to us in the face of loss so enormous, her will to keep moving keep talking keep showing: this is how much I hurt. The community that has gathered around her, mothers-not-to-be, at least not yet, breathes her pain. The rings of her grief ripple outward, touching so many.
Her seventh pregnancy just ended with the premature delivery of her baby girl, who lived only a couple of hours. It is the seventh in a line of pregnancies that have given reason for hope, but sent her home with no baby in her arms -- and this time once again to the cemetery.
I ache for her.
---
That's where I first found this brave woman's story, began admiring her spirit, her willingness to open up to us in the face of loss so enormous, her will to keep moving keep talking keep showing: this is how much I hurt. The community that has gathered around her, mothers-not-to-be, at least not yet, breathes her pain. The rings of her grief ripple outward, touching so many.
Her seventh pregnancy just ended with the premature delivery of her baby girl, who lived only a couple of hours. It is the seventh in a line of pregnancies that have given reason for hope, but sent her home with no baby in her arms -- and this time once again to the cemetery.
I ache for her.
---
October 03, 2007
New Math: Social Network v Social Graph
Dave McClure is taking flack for adding a new term to the already jargon infested web 2.0 sphere with his coining of "social graph" as some subset or superset or different-but-similar-to term for social networks.
Stu AKA Stowe takes a stand against the redundant redefinition of what he believes is a good enough and valid term in "social networks" and views social graph as a marketing ploy that needs to go away.
Doug AKA Dave says that something about the mathematics of all of this makes social graph not just a valid, but a useful descriptor for whatever it is we are all doing here here together online instead of being outside in the park with our kids.
I usually agree with Stowe because Stowe makes a lot of sense and has the balls to call people on bullshit when it gets smelly around here.
But I actually have been looking for a term that represents my participation AMONG (not just in) social networks, my travels between and around, my friends shared and not shared among and between spaces, collaboration that takes place with others from these spaces, and the bridges that I hope one day will take me from here to there without having to replicate myself. If THAT is what social graph is referring to, then I think it's a useful term: The graphing of the entirety of my online participation.
I'm down with that.
I have no idea if I am making sense. Don't know much about algebra...
update: just read Dave's latest post which basically talks all about social graphs relating to activity INSIDE a social network--in this case Facebook. So, I'm back with Stowe again. Nothing new here. Not the right term. Needs to go. Or re-define it as above. kthxbye.
--
--
Stu AKA Stowe takes a stand against the redundant redefinition of what he believes is a good enough and valid term in "social networks" and views social graph as a marketing ploy that needs to go away.
Doug AKA Dave says that something about the mathematics of all of this makes social graph not just a valid, but a useful descriptor for whatever it is we are all doing here here together online instead of being outside in the park with our kids.
I usually agree with Stowe because Stowe makes a lot of sense and has the balls to call people on bullshit when it gets smelly around here.
But I actually have been looking for a term that represents my participation AMONG (not just in) social networks, my travels between and around, my friends shared and not shared among and between spaces, collaboration that takes place with others from these spaces, and the bridges that I hope one day will take me from here to there without having to replicate myself. If THAT is what social graph is referring to, then I think it's a useful term: The graphing of the entirety of my online participation.
I'm down with that.
I have no idea if I am making sense. Don't know much about algebra...
update: just read Dave's latest post which basically talks all about social graphs relating to activity INSIDE a social network--in this case Facebook. So, I'm back with Stowe again. Nothing new here. Not the right term. Needs to go. Or re-define it as above. kthxbye.
--
--
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)