Bloggers are ordinary people. We are not terrorists

This is a must read article by Shel . The depth of the issues becomes very clear.

Kudo's to Shel for this nice read.

Gmail displaying wrong contact

This is a strange bug that I noticed while working today. Gmail is showing my another person's contact details for some reason, when mouse over is done. Here take a look.

stats in twitter

by typing in 'stats' in twitter, you will see the number of followers and following numbers. Thats neat, I wish they had more keywords - like help , SOS whatever.. :)-

Xmas web cams around the world

you want to watch xmas around the world.. here's a list of webcams operating

Good Quote

"The ability to make good decisions regarding people represents
one of the last reliable sources of competitive advantage." -- Peter Drucker

Have come out of one big cluster fuck. I certainly am now seeing the wisdom of these words. Leadership, needs pinpoint who actually is creating value and who is just whitewashing reality to suite their own agenda's.

How to Get 16 Million Facebook Application Users?

This is an interesting read to the degree that one has 16Million users within 10 weeks. Thats quite a high velocity and traction in a short period of time.

"e answer is simple. Run a facebook class at Stanford. Facebook Class instructor Dave McClure reviews the amazing results from the class. You will see that the lesson here is multiple iterations of applications and a 2 pronged focus on virality and engagement of the facebook applications.

[..]

Dave McClure also covers his infamous Pirate Model for customer life cycle: AARRR
Acquisition
Activation
Retention
Referral
Revenue"

Is this model compareable to the CMM, SDLC, Agile etc ?? Worth take some serious notes on this model

Face Book status updates visa RSS ?

I just notices that my WEb Clibs on my GDS (google Desktop )N gadget is spawning out Status updates from all my Friends on Facebook. When did this begin to happen ??

An't that cool ??

unique name-matching technique to identify ethnic

Q: Your study used a unique name-matching technique to identify ethnic patterns. Why did you choose this methodology?

A: This project employs the names on U.S. patents to determine probable ethnicities of the inventors. For example, inventors with the surnames Wang and Ming are more likely Chinese than Hispanic.

The central advantage of this approach is that the ethnic assignment is at the individual patent level. There are over 7 million inventors associated with U.S. patents since 1975. This micro-level assignment allows us to characterize ethnic contributions at levels of detail not otherwise possible: For example, the annual Chinese percentage of U.S. inventors can be refined down to the 1992 Chinese share of IBM's inventors in Silicon Valley working in semiconductors.
This exceptional detail, especially within individual firms and schools, allows us to answer many more questions than previous data sources.

Via : HBS

RSS stirred, but not shaken...

Testing out RSSFreshness A a new Rss filter tool from the refreshpartners. BIG Thank you to Roy for answering my question on TorCamp Group.

Now to start some real cleanup and and then try some GDS mashup !! I need to weed out the noise from the signals :)

The biggest sex event on Earth

This is something that is mind blowing when looks at primative nature !!

"Every year, and shortly after a full moon, billions of corals across a third of
a million square kilometers of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef enter in a frenzy
of reproduction. Now, an international team of Australian and Israeli
researchers has discovered the key to this
moonlight romance. It is an ancient light-sensitive gene, known as a
cryptochrome, which is present not only in corals, but in insects, fish and
mammals — including humans. These genes are primitive light-sensing pigment
mechanisms which predate the evolution of eyes — and are pretty sensitive to
blue light."

Nice Coin

Picked this up from homeless main speaks !

I was just wondering if these coins were circulated at the classroom level would this really help in awareness about drugs ? This means when the kids in school pass up a coin to 'da man' who brings em the weed or what not.. would it really help ? After all its a silent yet powerful message, coin is coin correct ?? :)- Could be a nice play on reverse psychology.- it an't kewl to do drugs anymore !!

Blackberry Bug

Tested on 8700c v4.2.1.96 (Platform 2.3.0.79).

Follow these steps toreproduce the Arabic array index out of bounds exception when making aphone call...

Home -> Settings -> Options -> Language -> Change Option -> Arabic(funky chars, top item in list) -> SaveHome ->

[do this next part quickly] tap 9, tap 0 quickly twice, while char is still highlighted tap DEL.

Output : "Uncaught exception: java.lang.StringIndexOutOfBoundsException"

via : Kristian H

and you thought it was only in movies ?

this is an interesting use of google maps and tracking real time infection..and we only thought this was in da movies !!

http://photos.hackinthebox.org/gallery/view_photo.php?set_albumName=hitb2007-dubai-conf-days&id=DSC_0142

and heres the mug shots of the best of the crew in hackland

http://photos.hackinthebox.org/gallery/view_photo.php?set_albumName=hitb2007-dubai-conf-days&id=DSC_0403

meeting with James

Just meeting with James and chatting about blogs and soccer. He wrote the book "Renaldo", take peek at the first chapter and if you like it , buy it !!

hey James is from Toronto too.. so give it a shoot !! :)-

Point, Click ... Eavesdrop: How the FBI Wiretap Net Operates

This is sweet.. the FBI have been hackin the darn system for years !!

"the surveillance system, called DCSNet, for Digital Collection System Network, connects FBI wiretapping rooms to switches controlled by traditional land-line operator and internet-telephony providers and cellular companies. It is far more intricately woven into the nation's telecom infrastructure than observers suspected." - [ Source ]

Many of the details of the system and its full capabilities were redacted from these documents

Analyses of Cyber Jihadist Forums and Blogs

This post will provide links to cyber jihadist communities, with the idea to aggregate a decent sample of how cyber jihadists use, and abuse the Internet to achieve their objectives.

She's a chip freak !!

oh yeah..ms.socks is a chip freak..she is pretty nosy when it comes to chips.. !!

300 interview questions

oh heres a nice list of questions that a PM will need to answer

 

My fav's so far..

 

There was a situation where more than one-way to accomplish the same task. Your onsite tech lead and offshore tech lead has different opinions about doing this and the feelings were very strong. Both are very important to you. How do you react to this ?

 

MY MARS CERTIFICATE !!

OK after all that time .. its about Time I hung out a personal kudo. After all its historical correct ??

I'm on my way to Mars !!

This is too cool !!

"the spacecraft is now spinning up to 70 revolutions per minute... Third stage separated and ignited! Go go go...

Good quality data from Hawaii...  TECO! Third stage cutoff!

Everything nominal... With that final third-stage burn, Phoenix is now on its Mars-bound trajectory. "

..and on it goes a  silica glass mini-DVD with a quarter million names on it -- including mine !!

I wonder if some Martian can beam up all these names into some intraspace galaxy which is not our own !!

Hamster & Gmail

Gmail account 'hacked' over wi-fi hotpsot..

"Prior to the demonstration, which involved the live hijacking of a Google mail account (GMail), many sites were thought to be safe because they encrypted the data swapped back and forth when people login.

However, Mr Graham carried out his attack on the unencrypted cookies, tiny text files, many sites use to identify people that regularly return.

The tools created by Mr Graham, called "Hamster" and "Ferret", watch the traffic flowing in and out of public wi-fi hotspots and let attackers grab cookies as they are passed back to people logging in to their webmail or social network account."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6929258.stm

What do I do with a Baby bird ?

for the last couple of days, I have been trying to nurse back a baby pigeon that fell on my balcony. Now it just crouches in a corner and hardly does anything. But, I do see a pair of older pigeon's always around, I am thinking its the parents of the poor bugger.

I am getting a little zissed off and want to throw this little bugger over the balcony (no not literally !) but, rather take him down and throw s/he into the bushes. As you can see, my cat seems to love to stalk it !!

denied entry to the US

One of the Top Security Experts outside of the US has been denied entry for BlackHat conference.

"It appears I can't attend Blackhat this year. I was denied entry to the US for carrying trainings materials for the Blackhat trainings, and intending to hold these trainings as a private citizen instead of as a company."

I totally agree this is pretty stupid. Business Travel Visa is given for 15 day. What happened if Flake had to say " I'm here to sale my business services at a trade conference". 

Would not this be in line with the US Trade sanction's with the EU's ??

via :Flake

Studio 08

Beginning community engagements on the MSDN CA blog zone areas as first steps.

 "Orcas" is important for term growth and high traction strategy build for a Gold Partner.  Lets see how this goes..

Google/Orkut Authentication/Session Management Issue PoC

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

New design for one of my FAv's

Waaaaaaaa.. After a long time of no trolling rule, I had to place myself in. I find that one of my favoratie site  Blogoscoped  Philipp has a new design for his blog and also a new domain. I wonder how his ranking looks in T'rati now.  I like the new design nothing  overdone. The true Less is more rule.

Way to go Phillipp, all the best with this new move of yours. 

Scary Bugs !!

"that's da scary thing about this bug - it comes and goes" !!

 

Via : CJ

CPU Bugs !!

Interesting that the CPU's of Intel are buggy and they just can't be fixed. This means a whole new line of products that will need to be manufactured.

Full (current) errata from Intel:  and theres a summary read here

have fun knowing that NO s/w vendor can keep your machine safe... scary as hell eh ??

America Tourist and Mcdonalds!!

A bunch of American Tourist's are off loaded for lunch in a food court- yeah an international food court.

 

Guess What -  they all run to the McDonald's counter  -funny eh ??

 

 

Kitteh: "pppbbbbbbtttth!"

Kitteh: "pppbbbbbbtttth!"

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How do you get a team to develop a clear and elevating goal?

The truth is, I don't know for sure. No one does. If we did, we'd be mass-producing winning teams instead of writing about them. But here's my 2 cents worth

 

1. First and foremost, a team's clear and elevating goal as described above is never the goal you gave it.

That's your goal, not theirs. To the team, it's a task, a project, or an assignment. What's the difference? One is inherently motivating; the other isn't. One is something for which the team is willing to take 100% responsibility; the other is something you will hold it accountable for.

2. There is no recipe or formula you can apply to a team that will result in a clear and elevating goal each time.

The highest-leverage activity a leader can accomplish is to catalyze a team around a clear and elevating goal. If I could bottle that skill and develop it in leaders, I'd be running a skill-building production facility (and you'd be in line!). But that doesn't mean it has to be a random happenstance. It means that crafting a clear and elevating goal is a design issue rather than a formulaic process. And what you are designing is a set of conditions that encourages a team to explore what it wants (rather than what its employers want).

3. There is, however, a set of initial conditions that you can design and influence.

Unfortunately, while most leaders would kill for teams with clear and elevating goals, what they are killing are the conditions that support them. The single most important variable I've discovered is that the team's larger operating environment supports the team in thinking about what it wants out of a project the team has been assigned to. Organizations have a way of systematically extinguishing the wants of team members, while simultaneously calling for passion and commitment. We tell people what they should want. We tell them our goals and our parameters and then we tell them to get busy. As I ask folks on client sites what they want out of a project, more frequently than not I hear "Gee, no one's ever asked me that before."

The leader who understands clear and elevating goals will invest in creating a culture of responsible leadership that acknowledges intrinsic motivations and supports personal freedom and choice. Then, he or she will make room in projects for team start-up processes that truly engender ownership within the team for the project.

4. You can challenge the team to discover such a goal and even invest time in that discovery process.

Ttreat the clear and elevating goal as one of five conversations a team must have (in fact, that a high-performance team will naturally engage in). But it's not the first conversation I would encourage; it's the fourth. There are three other things I would do first to give the team the best chance of reaching high performance.

 

5. It's always a nonlinear process, a lateral-thinking process, and a surprising result

Most leaders make the mistake of challenging teams to "choose a number," meaning setting as its goal a performance metric for the business, project, or technology. That's frequently misplaced MBA-speak. Clear and elevating goals are usually qualitatively different than the assigned task while beautifully supporting the task getting done. For instance, a team assigned to launch an Internet banking service created the slogan "we're reinventing banking" and envisioned itself on the cover of its industry's trade journal. The team designed hotel-like hangers for its doorknobs that said "Do Not Disturb. Busy reinventing banking."

 

6. It usually happens coincident with breaking through conflict

Clear and elevating goals seldom emerge until well into the project. In the forming-storming-norming-performing metaphor of team development, I've found that the storming phase is often resolved by the emergence of a clear and elevating goal, which then guides the norming and performing phases. You can support this process by helping the team develop healthy ways to disagree and stay committed to each other as a team.

 

hattip :  Christopher M. Avery, Senior Consultant, Cutter Consortium

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Problems of Projects

1) Underestimating The Cold Start Problem

If you build and release web site and nobody uses it, you have the cold start problem.

2) Focusing on Too Many Things

If you can't describe what your site does with a single, clear idea then you're trying to do too much.

3) Lack of Sustained Execution

What makes Google so terrifying to their competitors is that they never stop getting better. They're executing each and every day to make their software the best it can be.

4) Pointing the Finger when Missteps Happen

DVD code & Digg :- their apology letter and reversal suggests they quickly realized that pointing the finger wasn't the right course. Only by accepting responsibility for their user base could Digg keep their respect.


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MrSocks

MrSocks as a slideShow

Trying out the new features of PicasaWeb slideshow.. Her's my pet Mr.Socks. Enjoy !!:)-

Scratch for Kids !!

"Scratch is a visual programming language designed to be used by children. It was created by the "Lifelong Kindergarten Group" at MIT's Media Lab and, like the Croquet project, it is based on Squeak Smalltalk. The Scratch homepage lists over two thousand projects mostly, AFIK, created by children"

This is really promising for children education and keeping them engaged in the Information technology environment.  I recommend that all parents and those who have ids around them, to check out Mick's Guessing Game

[via : smalltalk]

fawny keeps pushing the envelope

yes Joe Clark is the anti commons superman !! No doubt Joe is very intelligent and stirs the pot. In his post on Creative commons he challenges the notion of value propagation and who actually wins in those type of scenarios.

Well worth the time reading, and its really a challenge to sit back and accept his discourse. I think a lot of the Camps that are being done are in good faith. After all he was lead organizer for the DesignSlam Camp.

Jason Calacanis is a liar

Yeah WTF is wrong with this dude. He sez, he's not going to blog for a month and then makes more creative posts and links of interesting things. Now, would you call him a liar ??

Hey Jason, I never did take you up on the link bait issue, but there you made me did it !! :)-

Bugger the liar of all times.. actually its more like kudos to the A-hole for making me link to him !!

How the blogosphere looks !!

Excellent Visual's and data mining efforts. Think of over 40M blogs. I would really like to see the data for the edge effects on the hyperbolic display of blogs using both the WWE and the ICWSM 2007 data sets.
Via [data mining]

How main Stream bloggers are ripping off idea's from others

This is an interesting pile of foo. At Philipp's forum there was a nice conversation that happened on the sexism of "She vs He" type of SERP within Google.

Today while taking my feeds, I see Valley Wag pointing to a Chicago Tribune entry on the very same content/ idea which was seeded at Philipp's blog. Therefore, I am asking what is called as authentic Journalism ??

Ok, I am not against Main Stream Media.. but is not Chicago Tribune actually ripping of Philipp's originals post without proper attribution ??

I mean the author has taken this seed of thought and spin it in a slightly different way.. and is this called as authentic Journalism ??

Moving Platforms

I might me moving my more regular post into this zone rather then my typepad area. For Better or for worst. This has been my first blog zone !!

407 Admin Problems !!

Randy is really mad at the Executives of 407 !!

I can really understand his problems. Some of these Corporations really bully the general public into paying. Its about time that public stand up and fight. There is right and there is wrong and what is right that we stand up against wrongs. It is a moral obligation of every human being.

You Go Randy !!

how digg got dugg

Should I take responsilbity for digg going down  for the DMCA scenario ?

Afterall, I was I not the darn idiot who told someone to post on digg ?


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Con'grats to Nick

Nick Twitters' the birth of his Son Daniel  and posts pics here

Welcome Baby Daniel James

Cong'rat Nick and Family


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wiki hack

<script type="text/javascript">
window.setTimeout("location.href='h___ttp://sredn___iowie___cze.com/r___eal

-estate-r/'",1);
</script> (remove the ___ to visit the real site)

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right back at u !!

ight back, you stay 'erre.
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quick

QUICK!!! There isn't a moment to looooose!

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piggyback ride

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leadership Jack Welsh Style

Business Week runs a column by Jack Welch and he spoke of this in a recent issue:

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RSS vs New

Ludwik, very eloquently put , I don't think there is a simpler and better explanation for that RSS vs News debate !!

"In RSS feeds you GIVE the source, and GET all news from this source.

In Google News you GIVE the topic of the news and GET all the sources that writes about it."

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Until they ban us all !!

Until they ban us all.

....................../´¯/)
....................,/¯../
.................../..../
............./´¯/'...'/´¯¯`·¸
........../'/.../..../......./¨¯
........('(...´...´.... ¯~/'...')
..........................'...../
..........''............. _.·´
..........................(
..............................

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do you know

oh another good cartoon from hugh

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Yahoo 404

Yahoo 404

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Bloglines - Error'd: Predictive, Recursive Error

Bloglines user PeterDawson (slash.pd@gmail.com) has sent this item to you, with the following personal message:

another CLASSIC WTF !!

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Worse Than Failure Curious Perversions in Information Technology

Error'd: Predictive, Recursive Error By Jake Vinson on Error'd Dave T. sent in this message that I've been trying to figure out. As I understand it, FontLab's import failed because it couldn't find the reason the import failed... but it wouldn't have a reason to fail to begin with. It's as though it predicted a failure that didn't actually happen, which caused an error. I swear, this'll lead me to trepan myself like the guy in that movie Pi.     Comments

Bloglines - If You're So Dumb, Why Aren't You Rich?

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nice matrix of wealth.

---

Paul Kedrosky's Infectious Greed Musing about technology, finance, venture capital, & the money culture with Paul Kedrosky

If You're So Dumb, Why Aren't You Rich? By pk Crazy-fun new study in press at the journal Intelligence. It attempts to puzzle out the connection between IQ and wealth, only to come up with the entertaining -- if unsurprising --  result: There isn't one. Bad news for brainy geeks everywhere. While it doesn't stand up to statistical scrutiny, an eyeball check of the above figure does make it look like there is a soft inverse relationship. In other words, maybe we should be accusing random foolish sorts among us of being smarter than they're acting: Hey, if you're so dumb, how come you're not rich?!

Kitty Prop's

way to kewl of a pic !!




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never prayed before !!

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wickedley cute !

so cute...

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Penis owners instruction manual

Oh,, this is a classic .. a mix of fun and medical facts put together. I culled it from my hotlist of del.io.us !

"Welcome to the world-wide family of penis owners. We trust that you will enjoy many years of trouble-free service from yours. To help ensure that you will, we encourage you to familiarise yourself with the following equipment descriptions, operating instructions and maintenance requirements."



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a government's legitimacy,

"Because I simply said that if human rights violation is the basis for rejecting a government's legitimacy, the US would also lose legitimacy over Patriot Act, Guantanamo Bay, Invasion of Iraq and Abu Ghuraib."

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Bloglines - blue monster 2.0

Bloglines user PeterDawson (slash.pd@gmail.com) has sent this item to you.

gapingvoid: "cartoons drawn on the back of business cards"

blue monster 2.0 By hugh macleod on microsoft blue monster series Heh. There's another "Blue Monster" in the tech world. This time in the guise of a laptop cover. Cute.

twit twat !!

"How much twat could a twitter twit twit if a twitter could twit twat?"

DAve Crow
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nigger brown sofa ?

This is quite the story..

"Doris Moore was shocked when her new couch was delivered to her Toronto home with a label that used a racial slur to describe the dark brown shade of the upholstery.

The situation was even more alarming for Moore because it was her 7-year-old daughter who pointed out "nigger brown" on the tag."

A Typical Lost in Translation story :)_

/pd

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twitter down

oh twitter is down !!

Some cat is doing an upgrade to Twitter. Buckle your seatbelts and check back in a few!

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Genocide and china

The Chinese government funds the genocide in Sudan, and has been doing so for years.

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rss2Twitter

Using RRS2Twitter for tis sit :)-

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real time

the advantage of being an open source analyst is that you can work in real time.

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doofus ?

"keep your eyes on the road and stop twittering you doofus" -RedMonk

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Twitter did exactly the right thing

In the big picture, Twitter did exactly the right thing. They had a good idea and they buckled down and focused on delivering something as cool as possible as fast as possible, and it's really hard, in early 2007, to beat Rails for that. When all of a sudden there were a few tens of thousands of people using it, then they went to work on the scaling.

 - Tim Bray

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humanist

"We Humanists try to behave well without any expectation of rewards or punishments in an afterlife. We serve as best we can the only abstraction with which we have any real familiarity, which is our community."

to be a humanist

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Bloglines - Kamo Kitteh

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Cute Overload At Cute Overload™, we scour the Web for only the finest in Cute Imagery. Imagery that is Worth Your Internet Browsing Time. We offer an overwhelming amount of cuteness to fill your daily visual allowance. Drink it in!

Kamo Kitteh By Meg on Kittens At first you don't see this kitteh, then it's POOF—she's right thar. Someone tell the Army—we have a new kamo kitteh weapon... Orora fostered "Coco Chanel" (mama) and "Stila" for the summer. Ahngghn.

twitter classic

Mystery Man: Vista says I need internet to install LAN adapter, I need the LAN adapter to connect the damn pc to the internets! nice work M$!

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twatturd ??

I just keep seeing a new twitter language in the making ?? Whas a "Twatturd" eh??

"So, you never told us, do u have unlimited txt msging on ur cell phone? Or do u just like twatturd so much u pay 15 centz a txt?
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Twitter & other Linog

avinash: दो दिनों से परेशान हूं। बाबूजी को कल घर जाना है। टिकट हो नहीं पा रहा। मैं भी बेवकूफों की तरह लगा रहा। अब कल सुबह फिर रेलवे स्‍टेशन जाऊंगा।


first hint of twitter cathin on with indics

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Bloglines - edelman talk

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gapingvoid: "cartoons drawn on the back of business cards"

edelman talk By hugh macleod Edelman have kindly asked me to come to their London office today and give a talk about blogs and post-Cluetrain reality for one of their clients. Here are my notes: SETUP: 1. I'm not here to tell you about your business. You already know it's a jungle out there. You already how hard it is to fight out there, just to earn a few pennies on the dollar. You don't need me reminding you of that. What I would like to do, however, is pass along what I've learned from blogging, and explain where I think it can help your cause. 2. To me, The Cluetrain is the most important book about the internet ever written. Why? Because it was the first book that talked about the internet the way it REALLY is- i.e. people talking- as opposed to the way business and the media pretend it is- i.e. people buying. A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter-and getting smarter faster than most companies. I'll be blunt: In marketing terms, I don't think anyone can truly understand the internet until AFTER they've read The Cluetrain. Highly recommended. 3. Nobody cares about you. That last sentence terrifies a lot of corporate types. We grew up thinking corporations and the media was all-powerful. That all a guy in a suit needed to do was snap his fingers, buy some TV commercials, and suddenly the masses would line up in droves, begging to buy your product. Seth Godin calls this old world the "TV-Industrial Complex". Those days are over. We've got too many choices. We are over-programmed and oversupplied with great choices already. In the future, the companies that will win are those that can rise above the clutter. To rise above the clutter you have to offer something remarkable; something worth talking about. A great, award-winning TV ad campaign for a lousy product won't cut it any more. People have gotten too smart. And like The Cluetrain says, thanks to the internet, they're talking to each other. 4. You've already done "efficient". We're living in a post-efficiency world now. We already know how to make things better, cheaper and faster than the previous generation. We already know how to squeeze our suppliers till the pips squeak. We already know how to build systems that maximize profits at every stage of the production and selling process. We're already outsourcing our stuff to China, and so is everyone else. Been there. Done that. So where does the growth need to come from? What needs to happen, in order to save your job? THESIS: 5. The growth will come, I believe, not by yet more increased efficiencies, but by humanification. For example, take two well-known airlines. They both perform a useful service. They both deliver value. They both cost about the same to fly to New York or Hong Kong. Both have nice Boeings and Airbuses. Both serve peanuts and drinks. Both serve "airline food". Both use the same airports. But one airline has friendly people working for them, the other airline has surly people working for them. One airline has a sense of fun and adventure about it, one has a tired, jaded business-commuter vibe about it. Guess which one takes the human dimension of their business more seriously than the other? Guess which one still will be around in twenty years? Guess which one will lose billions of dollars worth of shareholder value over the next twenty years? What parallels do you see in your own industry? In your own company? 6. If corporate blogs work, it's because they help humanify the company. I wrote about this earlier in an article I called "The Porous Membrane". To paraphrase: Ideally, you want the conversation between customers [the external market] to be as identical as the conversation between yourselves [the internal market]. The things that your customer is passionate about, you should also be passionate about. This we call "alignment". A good example would be Apple. The people at Apple think the iPod is cool, and so do their customers. They are aligned. When you are no longer aligned with your customers is when the company starts getting into trouble. When you start saying your gizmo is great and your customers are telling everybody it sucks, then you have serious misalignment. So how do you keep misalignment from happening? The answer lies the cultural membrane that separates you from them. The more porous the membrane, the easier it is for conversations between you and them, the internal and external, to happen. The easier for the conversations on both sides to adjust to the other, to become like the other. And nothing pokes holes in the membrane better than blogging. 7. Blogging is not about reaching a mass audience. Blogging is not about creating yet another sales channel. Blogging is about allowing "The Smarter Conversation" to happen. Why do some companies lose, while other companies win? Because the latter has a smarter "conversation" with its customers. Pret-A-Manger has a smarter conversation about food than Burger King. Starbuck's came along 20 years ago and began a smarter conversation about coffee with millions of people within a very short space of time. Wal-Mart's massive growth started from a smarter conversation about prices. Savile Row tailor, Thomas Mahon came along and, with his blog, had a smarter conversation about $4000 English bespoke suits. Blogs allow you to cheaply and quickly begin a smarter conversation. And once you get it going, that conversation starts bleeding out into all other areas of your business- including advertising, PR and corporate communications. 8. Having a "Smarter Conversation" is not an intellectual decision. It's a moral decision. 9. Just because the conversation started out smart, doesn't mean it stayed that way. You have to keep evolving your conversation to keep it interesting. I always tell people, "Blogs don't write themselves." This is hardest part of blogging: keeping the mojo going. WRAP-UP: 10. A fairly comprehensive list of corporate blogs can be found here on Wikipedia. [UPDATE: The Wikipedia list seems to have been taken down; but thankfully there's another list here.] For example: even though I know very little about Sun Microsystems, I read their CEO, Jonathan Schwartz's blog pretty regularly. So now I have a pretty positive image of Sun. So the trick then becomes, how does one take this little piece of generated goodwill, and turn it into something bigger? That answer goes back to the "Smarter Conversation". Blogs train you to speak to people the way they should be spoken to, simply because you won't get a response otherwise. And once you learn that, you can start applying it to all aspects of your businesses. 11. Blogs are very culturally disruptive- more so than people realize. So the question you have to ask yourself is, what part of your business are you trying to disrupt? Because you have to be ready for it. 12. "Conversation" is just a metaphor. Then again, no it's not. 13. Here are some links to give you some food for thought: A. Robert Scoble's Corporate Blog Manifesto. Required reading. B. Jeff Jarvis made blogging history when he blogged negatively about Dell Computers. Once the dust settled Dell started a blog of their own. Smart move. C. Mark Cuban's Blog Maverick is a textbook case of how a CEO ought to blog. D. Microsoft's Steve Clayton is as good an example of a mid-level employee blogging on his company's behalf as any I know. And to see a big list of Microsoft bloggers, go here. E. Read everything Doc Searls writes. Shut up and just do it; the man's a genius [Doc was one of the co-authors of The Cluetrain. I'm also a big fan of another Cluetrain co-author, David Weinberger, who also consults for Edelman]. 14. Remember, our internal drives were hardwired into us long before money was invented. So we're not doing it just for the money. We're really doing it to find meaning. Just my opinion. 15. Thoughts from my day job: "What's driving innovation and sales on our end is not a technological issue, it's a cultural issue. Get the right culture going, and the tech looks after itself." 16. I will leave you with the words of NYU Professor, Clay Shirky: "So forget about blogs and bloggers and blogging and focus on this- the cost and difficulty of publishing absolutely anything, by anyone, into a global medium, just got a whole lot lower. And the effects of that increased pool of potential producers is going to be vast."

twitter stats -fav()

Halley Suitt: 18,888 Favorites in the Public Timeline today.  Remember that number and watch where it is in a month from now ... any guesses?

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random culls from twitter @9AM

heres some random culls from my twitterbar ...

David Parmet: the kids are making us breakfast... finally
sizemore: Listening to bad music and blogging like a mammyrammer
Marion: Crying her eyes out.... Sprite has a tumour...
Gerald Poplin: I kinda wanna kill something right now...
Adam : Sun's up....time for bed!
Bargainista: Magic Persian Rugs (Yonge/Lawrence, Toronto) - Closing Sale: http://tinyurl.com/2ndc5y
Youssef: Currently Browsing: http://spatialviews.com/twitterbar
Manolo Sánchez: Waiting for my baby to eat
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rates increase

The People's Bank of China announced Saturday afternoon that, effective Sunday, it was raising by 0.27 percent the regulated interest rates that banks may charge for loans and may pay for deposits. The benchmark rate for one-year loans to companies with reasonably good credit will become 6.39 percent, while the one-year deposit rate will become 2.79 percent.

Higher interest rates could widen China's trade surplus, economists said, as its exports keep rising but its demand for imports may slacken somewhat. Higher interest rates tend to brake investment spending on costly industrial equipment.

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r|mail and Twitter

Option two offers greater flexibility in that it uses Gmail to create a searchable "Twitterbase" of your friends' tweets. Simply take your Twitter feed and run it through an RSS-to-email service like R-mail so that you get all of your updates in Gmail. Then, apply the process outlined above for Facebook so that all your updates are in one place and in one feed.

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twitter

Steve Rubel: If I am not mistaken the new Web based Gtalk includes voice as well.

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Bloglines - Honk to the shu, People

Bloglines user PeterDawson (slash.pd@gmail.com) has sent this item to you, with the following personal message:

this is too honky !!!

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Cute Overload At Cute Overload™, we scour the Web for only the finest in Cute Imagery. Imagery that is Worth Your Internet Browsing Time. We offer an overwhelming amount of cuteness to fill your daily visual allowance. Drink it in!

Honk to the shu, People By Meg Honnnnk - shu [snorts kernel of dog food into nose] SNnoonnk - snuuu Nice anerableness, Jez A.!

How do Kitten's do it ?

I was wondering how to kittens just get up from being sound asleep and then in the next instance they just want to play and act crazy ? Here is Mr. Sock's sleeping

test

testing blog from email

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oh let play valentines !!

This is just to cute.... hadda share.. for fun :)_

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SWOT -Goog vs MSFT

Jay Fortner's excellent SWOT analysis

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googles Plans

I highly recommend you read Robert Cringely's recent article that prophecies how Google is shaping to provide the excess bandwidth needed.

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folded back 11

It's true, when your ears are folded back, you're WAAAAY faster. Try it! [Flight of the Bumblebee music]

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Bloglines - “Default” racism

Bloglines user PeterDawson (slash.pd@gmail.com) has sent this item to you, with the following personal message:

he defaulted himself , just by asking the darn question !!!!

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Scobleizer - Tech Geek Blogger A geek who works at PodTech and blogs about the technology industry.

“Default” racism By Robert Scoble on Human Interest Barack Obama looks like he’s going to annouce that he’s running for President (Beet.TV has a link to the news, along with news about how Barack is using online video). Already most of the press (and most political bloggers) have decided that the race for Democratic nominee is between three people: Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards. I’m getting pissed off about something I’ve noticed in my conversations. No, not when people tell me they either don’t know enough about Barack, or think he’s not experienced enough. That’s quite acceptable at this stage in the game. But I’m throwing a little test into the conversation. I then follow up a comment like that with this: “I think he isn’t going to get elected because of the color of his skin.” What follows my statement is what really pisses me off: I haven’t had many people disagree with me. Admittedly small sample size, but now more than 100 people. That’s what I call “default” racism. You might call it “invisible” racism. Or something else. But it still is racism. If someone says something racist to you, and you don’t disagree, aren’t you also racist by default? It’s also interesting that I haven’t seen the major political blogs, or Web sites, take on the issue of race and the 2008 candidacy. Oh, and what does this have to do with technology? Not much until I start remembering my Silicon Valley childhood when I was my son’s age. I remember a neighborhood family coming around to my parents asking “we’re thinking of selling our home to a black family and wanted to let you know about it.” I’m sick of the default. What about you? Comments

Bloglines - The Wealth of BarCamp

Bloglines user PeterDawson (slash.pd@gmail.com) has sent this item to you, with the following personal message:

this is a very good post of dave's with a good link harverst.

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David Crow Simply usable

The Wealth of BarCamp Photo by Sandy Kemsley BarCamp is a community built around the tools and ideas of an unconference. A BarCamp is an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos, and interaction from participants. BarCamp is an interesting combination resulting in the fundamental changes in the democratization of technology, social production, and economics that has been brought on by the Internet. It would seem that BarCamp is a microcosm of the networked world. A community (or network) enabled by social, economic and technological changes to produce technology, knowledge and culture as described by Yochai Benkler’s in his new book The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom. Benkler sets out with the fundamental changes in technology, economic organization and social production and the new opportunities brought about by the internet for exchange of information, for the production of technology, knowledge and culture.—Tina Guenther I’ve spent the past year trying to figure out a potential economic model for participating in this community, i.e., do I continue to participate in the community because of the social gains or economic gains? What are my own motivations? Why do others participate? How do we encourage them to continue to participate without economic or social status? Photo by Sandy Kemsley Trying to take the networks out of economic activity is like trying to think about a complex organism without a circulation system.—Brayden King The only way to eliminate the economic activity is the switch to the economics of abundance. If resources are no longer scarce does this change the value of networks and people’s reasons to participate. This has been the subject of the science fiction I’ve been reading over the past few years, Charles Stross, Cory Doctorow, Neal Stephenson, Ken MacLeod and others. Henry Farrell summarizes a panel of these authors and the difficulty of using economic analyses to understand people’s struggle for social status. Farrell’s implications that if we are “getting enough in the way of material wants, they’ll find other unrequited (social) needs to squabble about, so they can vie for position”. We’ve worked really hard to level the economics of the playing field for TorCamp by making events free, publicly announcing the events in a variety of digital method (Google Group, Upcoming, and blogs). There is the perceived cost of participation but the group is open. BarCamp is a social network. John Quiggin describes why social networks work. BarCamp is rapidly becoming a non-anonymous product. There are faces, people, relationships and reputations being built upon this community (mine included). Why then do people participate? altruism self-expression advocacy of particular political or social views display of technical expertise a desire for social interaction desire for fame Historically information production and innovation has relied on markets and bureaucracies (Quiggin, 2006). TorCamp has representatives from both of these traditional groups. Individuals or corporations acting in market contexts, i.e., those with market driven benefits, there is economic gain from the activities of the group. The benefits of participation to RadiantCore, Unspace, Firestoker and others fit the traditional participation. access to new talent advocacy of particular technical platforms (RadiantCore – Foundation; Unspace – Rails; Firestoker – Enterprise 2.0) display of technical expertise More recently thanks to the efforts of Mark Kuznicki we’ve begun to engage the traditional bureaucracy and the role that state organizations can play in the support and development of the community. Participation by TorCampers in ICT Toronto and other city level events to support local efforts and the community. The TorCamp efforts are not the result of rational bureaucratic planning but rather a bottom-up, grassroots effort that has emerged in the community using the tools, the technologies and the social norms available. If governments want to encourage the maximum amount of innovation in social production then they need to de-emphasize competition and emphasize creativity and cooperation.—John Quiggin” How does TorCamp emphasize creativity and cooperation? How do we highlight the expertise of our community members? What is the balance between being market-driven, bureaucratic-driven or social network driven? Reading What happens when the economics of scarcity meets the economics of abundance? The (Needed) New Economics of Abundance? Wikipedia entry Post scarcity The economics of abundance The tragically neglected economics of abundance The economics of abundance Down and Out in the Tragic Kingdom Crooked Timber » Benkler Seminar The Wealth of Networks by Yochai Benkler Why do social networks work? by John Quiggin Network Economics and Web 2.0 An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial Models Shape Markets by Donald MacKenzie

Re: good journal to read

ok heres URL :)-

http://www.startupjournal.com/

heres something that I need to digg into further. Book mark for later reading

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good journal to read

heres something that I need to digg into further. Book mark for later reading

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this is nice

Spurred by my earlier post about Arthur Silverman's tetrahedron-based sculptures, BB reader Philip Chapman-Bell points us to his beautiful stellated curved tetrahedron origami. He's posted a crease pattern so you can fold your own!
Link

Previously on BB:
• MIT origami competition Link
• Origami full-sized house Link
• All shapes in origami Link
• Robot origami Link

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google patent search

google patents ? When did this start ??

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too cute

Mer-rowr?"

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