Or not? 
(Cross-posted @ CloudAve )
Archives for November 2009
Bohemian Bankruptcy
Posted on November 27, 2009 ·
P.S. Ah, that FTC disclosure.. I did some business with the Queen .. way back. 
Scoble is Wrong When He Says He is Wrong:-) Full Feeds Still Rock
Posted on November 23, 2009 ·
Wow, I’m sensing another TechMeme Storm rising (and a certain analyst would call it a circle j***, but that’s another matter). Robert Scoble says he was wrong when he said In 2006 he wouldn’t use any news aggregator or feeds that aren’t full text.
I think the Scobleizer is wrong now that he says he was wrong. 🙂
His key argument is that his reading habits changed, he relies a lot more on Twitter, which is short form, uses the iPhone which is not that convenient for lengthy text, and Google Reader has become bloated and slow.
All true. But let the user / reader chose: even sadly slow and bloated Google Reader offers the choice of reading full text or scanning just the headlines. It’s a simple switch, there is no need to cut off the source. I don’t read all my feeds A to Z, like Robert, I do a lot of quick scanning. But I find it extremely frustrating to have to click through to a site, sometimes wait looong (we’re all guilty of having too many widgets and plugins that slow down page load) only to find out it wasn’t worth the wait. So I tend to skip partial feeds, and guess what happens to less read items? They get dropped from Google Reader…
From the content author’s point of view, I understand the need to bring traffic to ad-supported sites, and that’s about the only exception when providing partial feed makes sense (but even than, please remember to send enough to entice me to click through). But for many others, perhaps for the majority of blogs I follow: it’s a distributed world. If you want your views to matter, you need to be heard / read via whatever distribution channel you can reach, and that means providing full feed.
3 weeks ago I switched another group aggregation blog that I am editing, the Enterprise Irregulars to WordPress and along with that finally was able to offer full feed. Our feed subscriber base doubled and on-site page views tripled. Yes, pageviews tripled despite the fact that we are “giving away” content. Translation: we’ve became more visible, accessible, and it works.
(Cross-posted @ CloudAve )
Don Dodge Dumps Microsoft After it Dumps Him
Posted on November 16, 2009 ·
It’s less than two weeks ago that Microsoft let Don Dodge go, along with 5,000 other employees. He parted gracefully, then soon posted:
Getting dumped by Microsoft was a life changing event…for the better. The future is very bright. The opportunities are amazing.
Don probably set a World Record in the speed of getting a new job offer:
Vic Gundotra at Google was the first one to contact me with an opportunity…90 minutes after the news of the layoff hit. That fast decisive action was refreshing, and such a contrast to the slow, secretive, bureaucracy at Microsoft
Not only the outreach was quick, but the entire hiring process concluded in days, which is highly unlikely for Google. Yes, Don Dodge is now with Google and it did not take long for him to dump the remainder of his Microsoft life:
- Thanks Microsoft Outlook, but I’m going to Gmail.
- Thanks Microsoft Office Office 2007, but I’m going to Google Docs.
- Thanks Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.5, but I’m going to Google Android.
- Thanks Microsoft Internet Explorer, but I’m moving to Google Chrome.
Yes, I’m sure Microsoft made the right move, getting rid of a well known public face of the company was all worth it, and now this very public slap in the face is just the icing on the cake. Well, Google was smart enough to turn Microsoft’s loss into their own gain 🙂
Congrat’s to Don for landing on his feet extra-fast, and – to paraphrase his blog title – moving onto The REAL Next Big Thing.
(Cross-posted @ CloudAve )
The End of Cloud Computing? Chavez to Bomb the Clouds..
Posted on November 15, 2009 ·
Image via Wikipedia
Well, not really *that* Cloud.. but it’s the weekend (for a few hours), so light weight posts are in order. :-) Reuters reports:
Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez says he will join a team of Cuban scientists on flights to "bomb clouds" to create rain amid a severe drought that has aroused public anger due to water and electricity rationing.
Chavez, who has asked Venezuelans to take three-minute showers to save water, said the Cubans had arrived in Venezuela and were preparing to fly specially equipped aircraft above the Orinoco river.
"I’m going in a plane; any cloud that crosses me, I’ll zap it so that it rains," Chavez said at a ceremony late on Saturday.
Cloud Seeding is not a new concept: amongst others the Mayor of Moscow plans to resort to it to keep snow away from Moscow (no more White Christmas?), the Chinese reportedly used it to clear the air for the Beijing Olympics, and it’s an old trick of the long-gone Soviet leadership to provide such “air cover” for their big military parade.
But don’t worry: “our” Cloud will be OK. Oh, and they won’t reach Cloud Avenue either. 🙂
The End of Cloud Computing? Chavez to Bomb the Clouds..
Posted on November 15, 2009 ·
Image via Wikipedia
Well, not really *that* Cloud.. but it’s the weekend (for a few hours), so light weight posts are in order. 🙂 Reuters reports:
Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez says he will join a team of Cuban scientists on flights to “bomb clouds” to create rain amid a severe drought that has aroused public anger due to water and electricity rationing.
Chavez, who has asked Venezuelans to take three-minute showers to save water, said the Cubans had arrived in Venezuela and were preparing to fly specially equipped aircraft above the Orinoco river.
“I’m going in a plane; any cloud that crosses me, I’ll zap it so that it rains,” Chavez said at a ceremony late on Saturday.
Cloud Seeding is not a new concept: amongst others the Mayor of Moscow plans to resort to it to keep snow away from Moscow (no more White Christmas?), the Chinese reportedly used it to clear the air for the Beijing Olympics, and it’s an old trick of the long-gone Soviet leadership to provide such “air cover” for their big military parade.
But don’t worry: “our” Cloud will be OK. Oh, and they won’t reach Cloud Avenue either. 🙂
(Cross-posted @ CloudAve )
Prezi Dazzles: Live Recording of a Social Media Class
Posted on November 9, 2009 ·
I’ve said before: if you wanto to dazzle with your presentation, use Prezi. The Prezi team did to presentations what Google did to email: throw away all pre-existing notions, re-think why and how we use email (presentations) and build something from scratch. That’s how you get results that truly dazzle.
Of course that brings up the question of just how much you want to dazzle: probably not too much in the corporate world: as Prezi throws away all notions of what presentations are (used to be), there would be too much “undoing”, too steep a learning curve. PowerPoint and Enterprise are too deeply intertwined. That said Prezi is a great tool (online and offline) for superstar freelancers, small groups, or just about anyone who gets on stage and wants to … yes, dazzle.
But Prezi can make you dizzy 🙂 at least in the video below, played 10 times the original speed. So hold on to your chair tight, and enjoy…
(Cross-posted @ CloudAve )
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