Tretakoff Musings
Friday, February 29, 2008
Outlook Help, Via Twitter
I've written many a time about how I hate Outlook. Today, I struggled for hours to get Outlook even to start. I vented my frustration on Twitter, and, much to my surprise and delight, a Twitter person decided to point me to a great set of tips: Arrow Tips. Now THAT is the power of the Web to deliver solutions!
Now, excuse me, I'm back to figuring out how to reduce a 4GB Outlook Archive file...
I've written many a time about how I hate Outlook. Today, I struggled for hours to get Outlook even to start. I vented my frustration on Twitter, and, much to my surprise and delight, a Twitter person decided to point me to a great set of tips: Arrow Tips. Now THAT is the power of the Web to deliver solutions!Now, excuse me, I'm back to figuring out how to reduce a 4GB Outlook Archive file...
Labels: social networks, Software, Twitter
Thursday, February 28, 2008
YouTube Drives Business
A great article from Internet Retailer on the effect of a single YouTube video on the fortunes of a niche DVD seller. The "12 Days Of Christmas" video, sung by the amazing a capella group, Indiana University's Straight No Chaser, has been such a YouTube hit that the sole distributor of the DVD went from selling 100 copies a year of a single title, to an amazing 5,300.
Best of all, the popularity has convinced the 1998 graduates featured in the video to reunite for a follow up performance! Here's to the power of the Internet!
The original performance, in all it's glory:
Best of all, the popularity has convinced the 1998 graduates featured in the video to reunite for a follow up performance! Here's to the power of the Internet!
The original performance, in all it's glory:
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
How To Make Your Own iPhone Ringtones
I do love my iPhone, but sometimes the restrictions are asinine. Take ringtones, for instance. Can you ask for a more prefect device for ringtones? And yet, Apple insists the only way to have ringtones is to buy them from iTunes. Period. Now, I grant you, the ringtones they ship with are exceptional, but I have some ones that are quite specific and highly unlikely to be on iTunes. What to do?
Leave it to the power of the Internet. In browsing this forum, I found one solution that actually did work:
Yup, sure enough, worked like a charm. I'm free of The Man's restrictions. Um, at least until the SDK comes out...
I do love my iPhone, but sometimes the restrictions are asinine. Take ringtones, for instance. Can you ask for a more prefect device for ringtones? And yet, Apple insists the only way to have ringtones is to buy them from iTunes. Period. Now, I grant you, the ringtones they ship with are exceptional, but I have some ones that are quite specific and highly unlikely to be on iTunes. What to do?Leave it to the power of the Internet. In browsing this forum, I found one solution that actually did work:
1. Take any song in iTunes and if you don't want to mess with the timing, right click and choose "convert selection to aac" and a new version of the song will appear just below the old one.
2. Right click the song, select Get Info, and go under "Options" and "Start Time" as well as "End Time" and pick which part of the song that you want to make into a ringtone. (It seems the general consensus with this is under 30 sec.)
3. Once you've selected what part of the song you want, click OK. After this you need to again "convert selection to aac" for the new version of your shortened song.
4. With the new clip, right click and select "Show in Windows Explorer."
5. Once the file is shown in Windows, rename the file from ".m4a" to ".m4r". (It was stated above how to enable windows to show file extensions.)
6. Once renamed, double-click on the file and the new ringtone will beging to play in iTunes and you are ready to sync and enjoy your new tone.
Yup, sure enough, worked like a charm. I'm free of The Man's restrictions. Um, at least until the SDK comes out...
Sunday, February 24, 2008
I'm Not Alone In My Flat Tire Hatred
In the central plaza of downtown San Rafael, CA, on a wet and windy day, I encountered this homage to all who have suffered the pain and frustration of a flat tire on their bike. Nice to see this expression of catharsis and irony.
In the central plaza of downtown San Rafael, CA, on a wet and windy day, I encountered this homage to all who have suffered the pain and frustration of a flat tire on their bike. Nice to see this expression of catharsis and irony.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Mine?
Labels: photos, San Francisco
Bouncing Gift Cards
An unexpected side effect of The Sharper Image bankruptcy: gift cards are not being accepted for payment anymore. Although the Consumerist points out that you can sue for compensation under bankruptcy law, I'm kinda shocked.
Chapter 11 allows a company to reorganize, granting temporary relief from debt to emerge slimmed down, leaner, and more competitive. TSI is closing over half of their stores, allowing them to escape long term leases and layoff employees; that's cost savings. If they can get relief from the looming Ionic Breeze judgment, those two moves alone will provide the chance to actually make a go of it.
This one I don't understand: the gift cards represent actual cash that has been paid to the company by consumers, not a promise of cash. If a supplier sells TSI gizmos, they get paid on a net 30 or 60 basis; TSI can hold back that money, and the supplier is screwed: the gizmos are in TSI stores, and the supplier has to get in line with everyone else to get paid. But the gift card holder? No way: that's actual cash.
I think back to Chapter 11's like United Airlines. In those, key executives were given raises or bonuses to ensure they stayed, as the bankruptcy court felt that the company had a better chance of competing and exiting bankruptcy with those people on board. In this case, the only way TSI exits chapter 11 is if they reduce costs while maintaining sales; if consumers can't purchase, that directly damages those prospects, and they are looking at Chapter 7 instead.
I think this might be a result of the initial chaos around the problem, and will be a temporary condition, at best. If not, get ready for the latest Gordon Brothers acquisition.
An unexpected side effect of The Sharper Image bankruptcy: gift cards are not being accepted for payment anymore. Although the Consumerist points out that you can sue for compensation under bankruptcy law, I'm kinda shocked.Chapter 11 allows a company to reorganize, granting temporary relief from debt to emerge slimmed down, leaner, and more competitive. TSI is closing over half of their stores, allowing them to escape long term leases and layoff employees; that's cost savings. If they can get relief from the looming Ionic Breeze judgment, those two moves alone will provide the chance to actually make a go of it.
This one I don't understand: the gift cards represent actual cash that has been paid to the company by consumers, not a promise of cash. If a supplier sells TSI gizmos, they get paid on a net 30 or 60 basis; TSI can hold back that money, and the supplier is screwed: the gizmos are in TSI stores, and the supplier has to get in line with everyone else to get paid. But the gift card holder? No way: that's actual cash.
I think back to Chapter 11's like United Airlines. In those, key executives were given raises or bonuses to ensure they stayed, as the bankruptcy court felt that the company had a better chance of competing and exiting bankruptcy with those people on board. In this case, the only way TSI exits chapter 11 is if they reduce costs while maintaining sales; if consumers can't purchase, that directly damages those prospects, and they are looking at Chapter 7 instead.
I think this might be a result of the initial chaos around the problem, and will be a temporary condition, at best. If not, get ready for the latest Gordon Brothers acquisition.
Labels: business
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
The Inevitable
A moment of silence this morning for my old friends, employers, and purveyors of all things needless.
The Sharper Image has filed for bankruptcy.
I shall shed a burltech tear in its honor.
Thanks, fellow TSI alum Tim for giving me the heads up.
A moment of silence this morning for my old friends, employers, and purveyors of all things needless.The Sharper Image has filed for bankruptcy.
I shall shed a burltech tear in its honor.
Thanks, fellow TSI alum Tim for giving me the heads up.
Labels: 80's, business, San Francisco
Saturday, February 09, 2008
Paper: The Hobgoblin of Analog Minds
I have an admission: I hate paper. From printouts of emails, to handwritten notes, I detest paper in almost all forms. It has become the trash and detritus of our daily life: credit/debit cards have nearly replaced paper money, but they leave behind the droppings of indecipherable receipts that we, as a society, are terrified to leave behind for fear that our entire identity will be stolen from that innocuous pizza payment. As we have moved to a digital world, complete with multifunction scanner/printers and both enormous hard drives and online storage, paper is simply a crutch to be finally snapped in favor of bits.
It looks like the New York Times is noticing. The article points out how a Google engineer has already eliminated paper from his family's life; I have been fighting this battle for nearly a decade. My weapons of choice? Visioneer's line of sheet-fed scanners and both CD burners as well as Moxy. I scan EVERYTHING: receipts, photos, notes, legal documents, even recipes, with just a flick of the wrist into the small slot behind my keyboard. In moments, the digital facsimile is written to my hard drive, for future archiving to CD and Moxy. PaperPort software not only scans a perfect copy, but also offers, if warranted, optical character recognition to make those static blocks of ink into digital, malleable, components. After the scan, straight to the shredder for erasure of identity theft risk.
Why do this, you ask? Many reasons. One, a catastrophic disaster. If your papers are stored in your house, what good will they do you in a fire? A fireproof safe? Uh, yeah, that's what you want to entrust your life to: a block of metal that you have now way of testing will survive, and your only recourse is a refund from the manufacturer? Oh, yes, IF you can find the receipt for it, that is.
Want more? Years ago, this country's revenue collection agency informed me they had doubts about my claims of income and expenses. They instructed me to provide proof. In one weekend, I was able to pull up every receipt, every pay stub, every scrap of evidence and set my printer a-churning to ship them undeniable evidence. In a week, the matter was amiably settled, thanks to my information.
I'm clearly not the only one here. Starbucks now asks if you want a receipt when you pay by card. Banks and credit card companies push the "benefits" of paperless statements (though, since it's a cost reduction for them, I think they might be better served by offering an incentive). I bought a house by doing a stock transaction via a cell phone's mobile data connection, and executed the paperwork all with a digital signature: not a single actual piece of paper until we refinanced.
The article points one one downside: power consumption. It fails to point out the other: paper is a renewable resource. The more we use, the more trees are planted, the more global warming is fought. Notice I didn't say recyclable; Penn & Teller made a very eloquent and thought provoking piece on why paper recycling is horrible for the environment, and greater paper use is actually a far better alternative. See for yourself (warning: language may be offensive, and it's 29 minutes long):
With the advent of the Kindle, Amazon is trying to produce a watershed digital moment for one of the biggest paper consumers: books and magazines. Direct marketing has already found e-mail far more effective than traditional mail. And note taking? Laptops and smartphones are already de rigueur in the classroom and boardroom, making those 8 1/2" x 11" pads look like a quaint relic. Our offices already make the offices of just 10 years ago look like they came from an episode of Mad Men.
It's time to free ourselves of the paper handcuffs. We no longer consider etching on a wax tablet, or chiseling out our thoughts in stone, or capturing a moment in oil and canvas. Let's throw off this last, pervasive vestige of our past and finally embrace the world of tomorrow, today.
I have an admission: I hate paper. From printouts of emails, to handwritten notes, I detest paper in almost all forms. It has become the trash and detritus of our daily life: credit/debit cards have nearly replaced paper money, but they leave behind the droppings of indecipherable receipts that we, as a society, are terrified to leave behind for fear that our entire identity will be stolen from that innocuous pizza payment. As we have moved to a digital world, complete with multifunction scanner/printers and both enormous hard drives and online storage, paper is simply a crutch to be finally snapped in favor of bits.It looks like the New York Times is noticing. The article points out how a Google engineer has already eliminated paper from his family's life; I have been fighting this battle for nearly a decade. My weapons of choice? Visioneer's line of sheet-fed scanners and both CD burners as well as Moxy. I scan EVERYTHING: receipts, photos, notes, legal documents, even recipes, with just a flick of the wrist into the small slot behind my keyboard. In moments, the digital facsimile is written to my hard drive, for future archiving to CD and Moxy. PaperPort software not only scans a perfect copy, but also offers, if warranted, optical character recognition to make those static blocks of ink into digital, malleable, components. After the scan, straight to the shredder for erasure of identity theft risk.
Why do this, you ask? Many reasons. One, a catastrophic disaster. If your papers are stored in your house, what good will they do you in a fire? A fireproof safe? Uh, yeah, that's what you want to entrust your life to: a block of metal that you have now way of testing will survive, and your only recourse is a refund from the manufacturer? Oh, yes, IF you can find the receipt for it, that is.
Want more? Years ago, this country's revenue collection agency informed me they had doubts about my claims of income and expenses. They instructed me to provide proof. In one weekend, I was able to pull up every receipt, every pay stub, every scrap of evidence and set my printer a-churning to ship them undeniable evidence. In a week, the matter was amiably settled, thanks to my information.
I'm clearly not the only one here. Starbucks now asks if you want a receipt when you pay by card. Banks and credit card companies push the "benefits" of paperless statements (though, since it's a cost reduction for them, I think they might be better served by offering an incentive). I bought a house by doing a stock transaction via a cell phone's mobile data connection, and executed the paperwork all with a digital signature: not a single actual piece of paper until we refinanced.
The article points one one downside: power consumption. It fails to point out the other: paper is a renewable resource. The more we use, the more trees are planted, the more global warming is fought. Notice I didn't say recyclable; Penn & Teller made a very eloquent and thought provoking piece on why paper recycling is horrible for the environment, and greater paper use is actually a far better alternative. See for yourself (warning: language may be offensive, and it's 29 minutes long):
With the advent of the Kindle, Amazon is trying to produce a watershed digital moment for one of the biggest paper consumers: books and magazines. Direct marketing has already found e-mail far more effective than traditional mail. And note taking? Laptops and smartphones are already de rigueur in the classroom and boardroom, making those 8 1/2" x 11" pads look like a quaint relic. Our offices already make the offices of just 10 years ago look like they came from an episode of Mad Men.
It's time to free ourselves of the paper handcuffs. We no longer consider etching on a wax tablet, or chiseling out our thoughts in stone, or capturing a moment in oil and canvas. Let's throw off this last, pervasive vestige of our past and finally embrace the world of tomorrow, today.
Labels: bullshit, Eco-friendly, lifehacks
Thursday, February 07, 2008
It's 2008, not 1988
Great article by Ken Magill on the surprising laggards in the direct marketing game to adapt to e-commerce, even in this Internet infused world. Including the hilarity of being privacy policy compliant...even with no ability to be so, as no data is being collected. Having been on the forefront of this with one of the world's most direct marketers over 10 years ago, I watched the industry slowly adapt, cautiously embrace, and then often thrive on the change. Reminders like these make me shake my head in astonishment.
Read and enjoy.
Read and enjoy.
Stupid Catalog Watch: You Don't Have a What?
By Ken Magill, Magilla Marketing
A favorite catalog in the Magilla household is Make Life Easier. It's simply full of some of the coolest stuff to, well, make life easier.
For example, there's the four-tools-in-one set of pliers, monkey wrench, pry bar and slot head screwdriver. Then there's the thumb saver, a device that allows the user to hold nails, tacks and screws at a safe distance so they can swing a hammer without worry. Or how about Fatal Funnels: little yellow devices that turn ordinary one- and two-liter soda bottles into wasp traps? Neat-o.
So guess what Make Life Easier doesn't have: An e-commerce enabled Web site. Yes, the cataloger has a Web site, but customers -- or should I say, would-be customers -- can neither browse products nor place orders on it. No kidding.
Customers can order from Make Life Easier by phone, mail or fax ... but not online. Get it? Make Life Easier? Doesn't allow orders to be placed online? Can you say Irony? There must be someone out there in Magilla Marketing land who can help these guys. Please?
Interestingly, Make-Life-Easier.com has a privacy policy. It seems the privacy wackos have become so deeply entrenched in online marketing culture that they've even convinced a merchant who isn't selling on the Internet to toe the line on their paranoid, anti-free-exchange-of-information philosophies.
"The security of your personal information is important to us, and we take precautions to prevent unauthorized access to that information," says Make Life Easier's privacy policy. "All of the personal information that we collect online resides on a secure server behind a firewall, which is intended to prevent external access to our database."
Um, guys? You're not collecting any personal information online. You won't even let us place an order. The worst you could do is disclose that some random computer user read your privacy policy and clicked through a couple of other pages.
Thanks for the thought, though.
In the meantime, could we have a little chat about your order options, please?
Labels: business
Sunday, February 03, 2008
Andre Tippett, Hall of Famer
I was surprised and pleased when watching the Patriots accept their sixth AFC Championship trophy two weeks ago that the presenters were none other than John "Hog" Hannah and Andre Tippett, two former Patriot stars of the 1980's. I've always been a football fan, and growing up in New England, was exposed as much to the Pats as possible, even though I always rooted for my Dallas Cowboys. See, back then the Patriots were an afterthought; in Boston, you had, in order:
- The Red Sox. This was not a team, it was a religion, based on tradition and misery. They crushed the souls of all who dared to root for them, but since it had happened every year for generations, it was practically required.
- The Celtics. Ah, a team I was lucky enough to see in its heyday, in a sport I actually played and loved to watch. The C's had dominated the sport for so long, they made the Yankees look like rookies in baseball. And the 1986 Celtics were the culmination of the greatest team, of any sport, of all time. This was a team that was so powerful, so dominant, so full of fire and heart, you instantly knew you were watching greatness.
- The Bruins. Boston's one of the great hockey towns, and, even though Bobby Orr had retired, and Ray Bourque and Brad Park were not quite there, the allure of the Boston Garden echoed with the excitement from the great 1970's Bruins teams.
And then there were the Patriots. They were the last major professional sports team to make Boston home, and, truth to tell, they weren't all that welcome. See, Boston fans had enough to watch back then that the Pats were never really embraced. Hell, even playing in hallowed Fenway Park wasn't enough to draw crowds to the Boston Patriots, so they headed to the hinterlands of Foxboro and changed their name to the New England Patriots, hoping to draw a larger fan base. Shafer Stadium, that cement and aluminum bench hole, was horrible: you had to drive 45 minutes out of civilization, then sit on the freezing metal, while the snow, wind, and bad food/beer worked you into a stupor, all to watch a bunch of bums get their heads handed to them by Marino and the Dolphins.
But, like this year in Boston sports, in 1985-6, something happened. The Celtics were at the peak of their greatness, battling the Lakers every year for the title. The Red Sox were one out away from Bill Buckner's knees from breaking the curse. The Bruins were handling the Canadiens like an expansion team. And, of all things, the Patriots started to win. Their players were, for a change, personalities. Steve Grogan, one of the gutsiest players I've ever seen, was in his quarterback sunset; the young Tony Eason, a first round pick, was slinging balls like a first-rounder should. Irving Fryar, when not catching knife wounds from his wife, was hauling in deep balls that would make Randy Moss smile. And the Pats had a real rarity: a white running back who could actually run, in Craig James, and even a great thrid down back, Mosi Tatupu (father of today's NFL'er, Lofa Tatupu).
But the soul of this team was the defense, and Andre Tippett led the way, with a challenge he placed with the team after an early season loss to the Browns. All class, and all performance, he helped those Pats get to their first Superbowl with grit, determination, and grace. They won a wild card berth to get them into the elusive playoffs, when no wild card team had ever gone to the Superbowl before. They grounded the Jets, and the fans started to notice. They ransacked the Raiders, and the excitement grew, with signs springing up in New Hampshire and Rhode Island. They Squished the Fish, crushing the Dolphins in the AFC Championship game, and New England started to get football fever. Andre Tippett was there the whole time, smiling gently, showing that fire in his eyes, as he laid out yet another quarterback, while Ronnie Lippett laid out the theatrics, and Nellie held the running backs in check. Fred Marion and Raymond Clayborn knocked down passes.
Alas, Andre and the Patriots were not rewarded with a Superbowl win on their first visit, as they fell to what was considered the most dominant NFL team ever, the 1985 Chicago Bears, in Superbowl XX; that dominance has finally been eclipsed by this year's undefeated Patriots team. But today, on the eve of an amazing sixth Superbowl appearance by the Patriots, and a possibility of a 4th championship in 7 years, Andre Tippett was surprisingly elected to the Hall of Fame. This is an organization that kept Art Monk out for a decade, only to finally correct it this ear, and John Madden out for a quarter century. Yet today, finally, one of those great Patriots who did all the hard work to make it easy for those crusty New Englanders to root for Brady, Belichick, and Bruschi, was recognized for the great champion he was, and is. Congratulations, Andre: you deserve it.
Good luck to the Pats tomorrow! As I felt in 1986 when the Celtics played the Knicks, or the Bruins squared off against the Rangers, and especially when I sat in upstate New York with my fellow Boston transplants watching the Red Sox among rabid Mets fans: please, Please, PLEASE...make New York lose. :-)
Sorry, Steff!
I was surprised and pleased when watching the Patriots accept their sixth AFC Championship trophy two weeks ago that the presenters were none other than John "Hog" Hannah and Andre Tippett, two former Patriot stars of the 1980's. I've always been a football fan, and growing up in New England, was exposed as much to the Pats as possible, even though I always rooted for my Dallas Cowboys. See, back then the Patriots were an afterthought; in Boston, you had, in order:- The Red Sox. This was not a team, it was a religion, based on tradition and misery. They crushed the souls of all who dared to root for them, but since it had happened every year for generations, it was practically required.
- The Celtics. Ah, a team I was lucky enough to see in its heyday, in a sport I actually played and loved to watch. The C's had dominated the sport for so long, they made the Yankees look like rookies in baseball. And the 1986 Celtics were the culmination of the greatest team, of any sport, of all time. This was a team that was so powerful, so dominant, so full of fire and heart, you instantly knew you were watching greatness.
- The Bruins. Boston's one of the great hockey towns, and, even though Bobby Orr had retired, and Ray Bourque and Brad Park were not quite there, the allure of the Boston Garden echoed with the excitement from the great 1970's Bruins teams.
And then there were the Patriots. They were the last major professional sports team to make Boston home, and, truth to tell, they weren't all that welcome. See, Boston fans had enough to watch back then that the Pats were never really embraced. Hell, even playing in hallowed Fenway Park wasn't enough to draw crowds to the Boston Patriots, so they headed to the hinterlands of Foxboro and changed their name to the New England Patriots, hoping to draw a larger fan base. Shafer Stadium, that cement and aluminum bench hole, was horrible: you had to drive 45 minutes out of civilization, then sit on the freezing metal, while the snow, wind, and bad food/beer worked you into a stupor, all to watch a bunch of bums get their heads handed to them by Marino and the Dolphins.
But, like this year in Boston sports, in 1985-6, something happened. The Celtics were at the peak of their greatness, battling the Lakers every year for the title. The Red Sox were one out away from Bill Buckner's knees from breaking the curse. The Bruins were handling the Canadiens like an expansion team. And, of all things, the Patriots started to win. Their players were, for a change, personalities. Steve Grogan, one of the gutsiest players I've ever seen, was in his quarterback sunset; the young Tony Eason, a first round pick, was slinging balls like a first-rounder should. Irving Fryar, when not catching knife wounds from his wife, was hauling in deep balls that would make Randy Moss smile. And the Pats had a real rarity: a white running back who could actually run, in Craig James, and even a great thrid down back, Mosi Tatupu (father of today's NFL'er, Lofa Tatupu).But the soul of this team was the defense, and Andre Tippett led the way, with a challenge he placed with the team after an early season loss to the Browns. All class, and all performance, he helped those Pats get to their first Superbowl with grit, determination, and grace. They won a wild card berth to get them into the elusive playoffs, when no wild card team had ever gone to the Superbowl before. They grounded the Jets, and the fans started to notice. They ransacked the Raiders, and the excitement grew, with signs springing up in New Hampshire and Rhode Island. They Squished the Fish, crushing the Dolphins in the AFC Championship game, and New England started to get football fever. Andre Tippett was there the whole time, smiling gently, showing that fire in his eyes, as he laid out yet another quarterback, while Ronnie Lippett laid out the theatrics, and Nellie held the running backs in check. Fred Marion and Raymond Clayborn knocked down passes. Alas, Andre and the Patriots were not rewarded with a Superbowl win on their first visit, as they fell to what was considered the most dominant NFL team ever, the 1985 Chicago Bears, in Superbowl XX; that dominance has finally been eclipsed by this year's undefeated Patriots team. But today, on the eve of an amazing sixth Superbowl appearance by the Patriots, and a possibility of a 4th championship in 7 years, Andre Tippett was surprisingly elected to the Hall of Fame. This is an organization that kept Art Monk out for a decade, only to finally correct it this ear, and John Madden out for a quarter century. Yet today, finally, one of those great Patriots who did all the hard work to make it easy for those crusty New Englanders to root for Brady, Belichick, and Bruschi, was recognized for the great champion he was, and is. Congratulations, Andre: you deserve it.
Good luck to the Pats tomorrow! As I felt in 1986 when the Celtics played the Knicks, or the Bruins squared off against the Rangers, and especially when I sat in upstate New York with my fellow Boston transplants watching the Red Sox among rabid Mets fans: please, Please, PLEASE...make New York lose. :-)
Sorry, Steff!
Making Firefox Live Bookmarks Favicons
Firefox's Bookmarks toolbar is invaluable. To allow for more links and more efficient use of real estate, I usually kill the name of the bookmark, as the favicon is more than enough for me to be able to know what site I'm clicking on. However, one annoyance I've had is with Firefox's Live Bookmarks: the ability to add an RSS feed as a bookmark that is updated with the articles in the feed. Useful for browsing sites with lots of interesting content, like digg or headlines on the NFL, without having to wade through the pages. However, they lack favicon support, meaning they take up a lot of toolbar real estate.
Enter LiveClick, a Firefox extension that allows you to bring the joy of favicons to your Live Bookmarks, as well. While also offering a ton of micromanagement for these bookmarks, I really love it for the favicon support: it's automatic, slick, and lets that real estate stay valuable.
Now, if I could just figure out why some bookmarks actually pay attention to their site's favicons, while others remain blithely ignorant, I'd be styling.
Enter LiveClick, a Firefox extension that allows you to bring the joy of favicons to your Live Bookmarks, as well. While also offering a ton of micromanagement for these bookmarks, I really love it for the favicon support: it's automatic, slick, and lets that real estate stay valuable.Now, if I could just figure out why some bookmarks actually pay attention to their site's favicons, while others remain blithely ignorant, I'd be styling.
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Pulse Goes Public
Plaxo's Pulse continues to get better and better. Today, they became the first to use Google's Social Graph API. The result? A public "pulse" page, that you can control the content of, available to anyone, not just Plaxo users. Mine is up. Another perk? Pulse status updates now link with your Twitter account and vice versa: update one, the other is automatically updated.
The article I link to above actually does the best job yet of stating why Pulse is not a Facebook "me-too:"
Gotta say, I hope Plaxo continues their trend, missteps and all, cause it's the way I believe social networking was meant to be. Catch me there...
Plaxo's Pulse continues to get better and better. Today, they became the first to use Google's Social Graph API. The result? A public "pulse" page, that you can control the content of, available to anyone, not just Plaxo users. Mine is up. Another perk? Pulse status updates now link with your Twitter account and vice versa: update one, the other is automatically updated.The article I link to above actually does the best job yet of stating why Pulse is not a Facebook "me-too:"
"Plaxo's Pulse platform, mistakenly thought of by some as just another social network, is actually an attempt at an open version of the social web where sites inter-operate with each other. Currently Pulse supports integration with flickr, YouTube, digg, LiveJournal, Windows Live, del.icio.us, yelp, MySpace, webshots, last.fm, Pownce, xanga, tumblr, jaiku, twitter, smugmug, Yahoo 360, Picasa, and Amazon."
Gotta say, I hope Plaxo continues their trend, missteps and all, cause it's the way I believe social networking was meant to be. Catch me there...
Labels: Plaxo, social networks
Tesla Uncoiled
Amid the strange doings at Tesla Motors, the first all-electric, 250 mile range, stunningly fast production Tesla Roadster arrived stateside today, with the "P1" (Production, 1st model) making landfall at Tesla HQ for its happy owner, Tesla chairman Elon Musk (of PayPal and SpaceX fame).
Tesla, located in the Bay Area, has been a darling of the technorati, but has recently gone a bit off the rails. Many of the key personnel have left; the Roadster was long delayed (despite having sold through the initial run in preorders); the transmission was scrapped for a "temporary" 1 speed that will be replaced in all of the cars when the new one is perfected. But even odder comes the news that the fabled WhiteStar sedan, which was always Tesla's secret weapon (they used the Roadster as a lure to get customers and funding; the sedan is for mass production) is not dead as previously was rumored, but is now coming back as a hybrid? Look, I'm all for Silicon Valley to make Car 2.0, but Tesla needs to get some stability to be there for the long run.
Congrats to them for the first car off of the line. Uh...got any extras?
Amid the strange doings at Tesla Motors, the first all-electric, 250 mile range, stunningly fast production Tesla Roadster arrived stateside today, with the "P1" (Production, 1st model) making landfall at Tesla HQ for its happy owner, Tesla chairman Elon Musk (of PayPal and SpaceX fame). "P1 was flown from the Lotus manufacturing plant in Hethel, England; its battery pack came from Tesla’s plant in Thailand and is being installed this afternoon at the company’s California headquarters."
Tesla, located in the Bay Area, has been a darling of the technorati, but has recently gone a bit off the rails. Many of the key personnel have left; the Roadster was long delayed (despite having sold through the initial run in preorders); the transmission was scrapped for a "temporary" 1 speed that will be replaced in all of the cars when the new one is perfected. But even odder comes the news that the fabled WhiteStar sedan, which was always Tesla's secret weapon (they used the Roadster as a lure to get customers and funding; the sedan is for mass production) is not dead as previously was rumored, but is now coming back as a hybrid? Look, I'm all for Silicon Valley to make Car 2.0, but Tesla needs to get some stability to be there for the long run.
Congrats to them for the first car off of the line. Uh...got any extras?
Labels: cars, Eco-friendly
I'm On The Schmap
Ok, I'll be the first to admit that I had never hear of Schmap. Time Magazine raved about it. The Washington Post gushed over it. And I was ignorant of it all. However, thanks to geotagging my Flickr photos, I was approached by the editors and asked if they could include two of my photos in their San Antonio edition. I was flattered, and received word today they are in.
The photos in question?
From the King William section of San Antonio, with it's stately mansions and immaculate grounds.
The Guenther House, a working flour mill with a restaurant on the banks of the river. We were tipped off to this King William gem from a great Riverwalk waiter, and brunched here the next day amid the most tranquil setting in a factory you can imagine.
Check out the widget with my photos included.
Geotagging pays off!
The photos in question?
From the King William section of San Antonio, with it's stately mansions and immaculate grounds.The Guenther House, a working flour mill with a restaurant on the banks of the river. We were tipped off to this King William gem from a great Riverwalk waiter, and brunched here the next day amid the most tranquil setting in a factory you can imagine.Check out the widget with my photos included.
Geotagging pays off!
10 Minutes You Must Watch
Keith Olbermann. You may know him as just the guy who does the "Worst Person in the NFL" segments on Sunday Night Football. Or, if you are a long-time ESPN watcher, you may remember him for defining the hip SportsCenter anchor position. But he is so much more. Specifically, he is the Paul Revere of a new revolution. Think of him as the anti-Rush Limbaugh, or, as he would prefer, the perennial foil to blowhards like Bill O'Reilly.
Olbermann's speech tonight is the type of language people like me crave to hear from leaders. As we are left with a President who can't even properly pronounce "nuclear," it falls to men like Keith Olbermann to make those words reality. Take 10 minutes and listen for yourself:
The amazing prose that stands out for me:
- "You told Congress, if you do not act by Friday, our ability to track terrorist threats would be weakened, and our citizens would be in greater danger," Olbermann said. "Yet you you are willing to weaken that ability. You will subject us, your citizens, to that greater danger. This is simple enough for you to understand. If Congress approves a new FISA act without telecom immunity, and sends it to your desk, and you veto it, you, by your own terms and your own definitions, you will have just sided with the terrorists."
- "If you, sir, are asking Congress and us to join you in this shameless, breathless, literal textbook example of fascism, the merged efforts of government and corporations who answer to no government, you still don't have the guts to say the telecom companies did assist you in your efforts?" Olbermann asked. "Will you and the equivocators who surround you like a cocoon never go on the record about anything? Even the stuff you claim to believe in?"
Keith, no one could have ever said it better.
Olbermann's speech tonight is the type of language people like me crave to hear from leaders. As we are left with a President who can't even properly pronounce "nuclear," it falls to men like Keith Olbermann to make those words reality. Take 10 minutes and listen for yourself:
The amazing prose that stands out for me:
- "You told Congress, if you do not act by Friday, our ability to track terrorist threats would be weakened, and our citizens would be in greater danger," Olbermann said. "Yet you you are willing to weaken that ability. You will subject us, your citizens, to that greater danger. This is simple enough for you to understand. If Congress approves a new FISA act without telecom immunity, and sends it to your desk, and you veto it, you, by your own terms and your own definitions, you will have just sided with the terrorists."
- "If you, sir, are asking Congress and us to join you in this shameless, breathless, literal textbook example of fascism, the merged efforts of government and corporations who answer to no government, you still don't have the guts to say the telecom companies did assist you in your efforts?" Olbermann asked. "Will you and the equivocators who surround you like a cocoon never go on the record about anything? Even the stuff you claim to believe in?"
Keith, no one could have ever said it better.
Labels: Politics
