Thinks I find along the way
Let me count the ways…
“When technologists of the future look back in time, they’ll remember 2009 as the year Google got serious about an internet operating system, speeding up the web, and indexing EVERYTHING in sight. Take a look at the year 2009 in Google.” Source: This Year in Google: The 2009 Edition – Google – Lifehacker
No company produces more good, empowers me more, or innovates more. Go to the source for a reminder of what Google delivered this year…
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While I’m reluctant to recommend any tool by Yahoo! [this includes Flickr, etc.] due to their uncertain future, I found a need for Yahoo! Pipes today. What is Pipes?
The tool consists of two major components: an interface, called an editor, where a Pipe is put together; and an execution engine that runs the Pipe instructions. Once a project is saved in the editor, the instructions are saved as a special kind of document on the engine. To run the Pipe, the engine reads the document and then accesses anywhere from dozens to hundreds of Web services–from feeds supplied by Craigslist to geography data on Yahoo Maps. To optimize the response time, says Sadri, the engine parallelizes as much of the execution as possible, breaking up the instructions into chunks that run simultaneously.
Almost immediately after its release, Pipes garnered a lot of attention from bloggers, software developers, and experts on Web-based applications. Perhaps the most glowing endorsement it received was from Tim O’Reilly, founder of O’Reilly Media, a computer-book, magazine, and online publisher. On his blog O’Reilly wrote that the tool is a “milestone in the history of the Internet.” He added that while it’s still a bit “rough around the edges,” Pipes has “enormous potential to turn the Web into a programmable environment for everyone.” Source: Technology Review: A More Personalized Internet?
Already, I’m sick of the hype around the iPad so I wanted to find a way to scan my favorite news feeds and edit out any mention of the word iPad. Enter Yahoo! Pipes…
“Don’t blog to be known. Blog to be knowable.” Being ‘searchable, findable, knowable’ is the start of thought leadership…
Are you still getting email newsletters? I’m doing everything I can to eliminate them and keep my inbox for ‘just in time’ information only. Wait! Where do I get the information which was contained in those newsletters? Through newsfeeds. Here’s a post that might help you get started…
“Do you have a huge number of blog and news feeds in your feedreader that you can’t possibly keep up with on a daily basis? Or, on the other end of the spectrum, have you resisted deciphering those three little letters, RSS, and continue to check your bookmarked links regularly to see if your favorite web pages have updated?
Now there is a new — and incredibly simple — solution. Guy Kawasaki, whom I used to read in Macworld Magazine when he was the original brand evangelist, recently started a new network of websites called Alltop.com. Based on the popurls model, the sites — each focusing on a specific topic — show the latest five posts from a wide range of news sources and blogs covering that topic, all on one page. Topics include celebrities, health, “green,” social media, small business and many others.
I suggested to Guy that he create a “nonprofit” topic and worked with him to identify news and blog feeds that should be included. And that’s how nonprofit.alltop.com was born.”
Whether you take the Alltop approach or use the free Google Reader to subscribe to feeds — just do it! Getting newsletters out of your inbox and into your browser is a great way to resist following the rabbit trail of an interesting newsletter in the middle of your work. Save your inbox for action and your newsreading for a newsreader! Contact me if you’re interested in learning how to make the switch…
That’s fairly extensive, but many firms are, at the very least, monitoring some of employees’ Internet, phone and email use, especially larger companies and those in sensitive or heavily regulated industries. The market for email monitoring software has grown more than 25% each year since 2008 and is projected to reach $1.23 billion in 2013, according to IT market research firm Gartner; more than one in three large U.S. companies employ actual people to read or analyze employee email, according to a 2010 study by email monitoring firm Proofpoint. Plus, a survey by the American Management Association and The ePolicy Institute found that almost half of the small, medium and large companies surveyed monitored phone use, and two out of three monitored web use. Instant-message and text-message monitoring are also increasing, says Stephen Marsh, chief executive of email archiving firm Smarsh.
Not only do employers watch what you’re doing, but many act on what they find. One in five large U.S. companies fired an employee for violating email policies in the past year, the Proofpoint survey found. What was a fireable offense? Most email investigations pertain to issues of employees leaking sensitive, confidential or embarrassing information, or theft – not racy messages sent to a girlfriend from an office email account or the occasional online shopping binge from the corporate desktop.
Follow the link and go to the source. How many of these things are true in your organization?
Mind mapping software is an incredible canvas for exploring your thinking and recording, manipulating, distilling and converting your insights into white papers, blog posts, presentations and other forms of content. No other type of productivity software gives you this level of flexibility and creativity.
Mind mapping software is particularly valuable in helping you to build thought leadership because:
It exposes your thinking, converting it from indistinct thoughts in your head into concrete words and phrases on your computer screen. That’s very powerful, because your conscious mind can only hold only 6 or 7 thoughts at one time. By freeing up your “mental RAM,” mind mapping helps you to tap into a deeper level of thoughts and ideas. Because mind mapping leverages your brain’s powerful associative capabilities, it helps you to access ideas that are at the edge of your thinking. This may be territory you rarely get to explore, unless you have thinking tools that can help you to drill down below the veneer of your usual thoughts.
Mind mapping is a marvelous tool for enabling you to view both the forest and the trees, and to see connections and relationships that weren’t visible any other way. It’s a marvelous tool for systems thinking!
Finally, mind mapping is a boon to thought leaders because it enables you to envision “white space” ideas – ideas that are between the existing or known concepts, strategies and orthodoxies in your niche.
Firefox is my primary browser, although I use them all…
“What makes Firefox different? Most importantly, we’re open. That means anyone around the world (and we have thousands of experts watching our back) is able to look into our code and find any potential weak spots in our armor.
And when we hear about a problem, we roll up our sleeves and get to work fixing it right away. It’s in your best interest (and ours) to take care of the issue, even if it means admitting we’re a little less than perfect.
Simply put, your security is our top priority.” Source: Mozilla Products | Security
Besides security in addition, it’s one of the fastest browsers available and it’s the most extensible. Second favorite? Google’s Chrome. Least favorite? The one most people use: Internet Explorer. Ask me why!
With Cloud Computing becoming more widely utilized, it is important for organizations to understand ways to maximize benefits and minimize risks of a move to the cloud. This paper details the significant benefits that Cloud Computing brings and provides guidance to IT decision makers to help their decision making process. This is especially important given the plethora of vendors in the marketplace today. Buyers need to appreciate that assessing individual providers is critical to the success of Cloud Computing programs.
If you seriously want to understand the benefits [and pitfalls] of cloud computing, go to the source. If you want to apply the benefits and avoid the pitfalls in your organization, ‘connect with me’ to discuss your scenario…
The folks at Lifehacker took a poll on the top calendaring applications. Here are the results…
“Nothing’s more important to your productivity arsenal than a solid scheduling tool, and considering so much of what we do happens at the computer, a good calendar application is just the thing to bring order to your agenda. On Tuesday we asked you to share your favorite calendar application, and today we’re back with the five most popular answers. Keep reading for a detailed look at the top five and to cast your vote for the calendar tool you like best.” Source: Hive Five: Five Best Calendar Applications
Me? I use Google calendars — the free one associated with my Google account as well as my business calendar in Google Apps. Go to the source to read the whole article — it’s worth it!
Here are 4 great ways to find rss feeds for Google Reader…
I’m a firm believer in the power of Google Reader to consume and publish great content — use the search box to find other things I’ve written about it. If you have questions do like Donna did and give me a call — I’ll be happy to show you how it all fits together…
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Yesterday, I said…
“Speaking of sex and smartphones or maybe sexy smartphones, I’m going to take this opportunity to rant about the iPhone AND Android phones for a moment. Excuse my language, but they both suck — that’s right — they suck! Why the iPhone? Because #1 it’s a closed system — yeah, there’s an app for that but they must all be approved by Big Brother at Apple — and #2 because AT&T is the worst cellular network in the world!” Source: Sex and Smartphones, part 1
…and promised to talk about the Android today…
Over the past two months, I have been experiencing a love/hate relationship with a Samsung Moment running Android. My final take? I went back to my old Blackberry Curve. I was attracted to the Moment for two reasons: it’s Google-created operating system and the appeal of the sliding keyboard on the Samsung Moment. Personally, I think the HTC Hero is one of the most beautiful pieces of industrial engineering I’ve seen in a long time but I hated the software-only keyboard on the iPhone so I thought I’d better try the Samsung Moment first. As it turns out, most critics agreed that the Hero is pretty, but underpowered — kind of like Obama’s healthcare plan, but I digress!
The Samsung Moment was a frustration from day 1 like this author describes…
“So all that being said, I found myself standing in a Sprint store faced with two choices, the Samsung Moment and the HTC Hero. I bought the Moment. Thankfully there was a 30 day trial period!” Source: WTF was SAMSUNG thinking?? Quick Review: Samsung Moment « RichandDaveShow.com
Do go to the source and read his comments if you’re thinking about a Moment. He really nailed it here…
“Wow, the battery on this thing is horrible! There is no possible way this phone, fully charged, could make it past lunchtime if you used it for anything other than a paperweight. ” Source: WTF was SAMSUNG thinking?? Quick Review: Samsung Moment « RichandDaveShow.com
Here are some that he missed…
Had enough? I did. I reactivated my old Blackberry Curve! It syncs with Google Apps, does a great job of email and texting, Pandora rocks again, and I’m not missing any calls. Calls are easy to make. All the basics are covered. Life is good again. Basic, but good…
My trial period is over but I’m going to return it to Sprint anyway and they better take it back! If you’re thinking about stopping by your Sprint store and getting a Samsung Moment take a moment and don’t. Get a Moment that is…
An inside look at my morning routine and the tools I use to bring e1evation.com together…
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFHGIoLhyQQ
In case you missed it, I’ve covered Google Reader in depth here, Feedly here, Gist here, and Shareaholic here…
btw, I’m aware this not my best video yet, but I’m learning to use Camtasia which is a powerful, but complex tool. Maybe I should read the manual?!
I’ve shared before that mindmapping is one of the single most important tools I use. I use freemind which is complete cross platform and free as well as Mindmeister and Mindmanager Pro which are not. Have you tried it yet?
If I only had one tool to use for blogging, it wouldn’t be WordPress and it wouldn’t be Blogger [although both are great tools that I use every day] it would be Posterous. I’m currently scripting my own screencast on the subject of Posterous, but in the meantime, here are a couple of other good Posterous videos to whet your appetite…
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oluAciipZU
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxeFOD5lZ4k
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6iYxbcGqNo
If you’re a business owner and you’ve heard the recent news about Facebook’s attention-grabbing new feature for location-sharing and checkins, you’re probably itching to find out what Facebook Places can do for your business and how it can help you reach out to would-be customers and loyal regulars in your community.
While Facebook isn’t ready to announce any special brand-platform relationships or tie-ins just yet, one Facebook ad exec told us that the company does have plans to integrate Places with its larger marketing offerings for SMBs. The best thing a business owner can do to prepare for those offerings is get familiar with the ins and outs of Facebook and location marketing now.
Here are a few pointers for how SMBs can use Facebook Places and other marketing tools starting today.
You can follow the ‘via’ link above to go to the source and read the rest of the article if you’d like to dig a little deeper…
I’m a huge fan of Lee LeFever and the team at CommonCraft — no one does short, simple, insightful technology explanations better than they do and this quick tour de force on Twitter is no exception. I encourage you to watch this as well as all the great videos the have over at their YouTube channel…
Bright, shiny objects! 
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