Archives for 2006

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Are All Good Product Names Really Taken?

Previously I wrote about How a Good Name Turns out to be Crap – Literally – well, whatever the meaning, it did not hurt JobbyGuy Kawasaki was lamenting on the difficulty of finding a good name/domain (Oops, are you sure you want all that comment spam left there, Guy?)

Now Robert Scoble comes up with a very simple rule: only pick names that do not come up on Google, Yahoo or MSN Windows Live search at all.  It makes sense to me, but of course it’s easier said then done.  Case in point is Vyew, which I just wrote about yesterday.   Dharmesh  (whom I just got to know very recently but am already hooked on his blog) says in his comment:  “Though I will certainly agree that the name is cute, I think it a bad choice as spelling is too strange for a common word. Those that hear it spoken are highly unlikely to know how to spell it.”

What do you think?  Can intentionally misspelled common words that in  pronunciation describe the product, but are only available as domains and are only unique on search because of the “typo” actually become Brands?


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The poll may not properly display in feeds, please click back to my site to vote…. thanks.

Update (5/1):  I’ve just realized there is a pretty good existing precedent: Wyse, the thin-client company.

Update (5/2):  In another naming related news Jeff Nolan reports that SAP & Microsoft renamed their Mendocino project to Duet.  I can see Mendocino being a project name, but Duet  is more telling for the product – certainly better than Duel.    Obviously Duet by itself fails the Scoble-test, but “Duet SAP” or “Duet Microsoft” works pretty well.

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ThinkFree, the Microsoft-free Web Office

Are you  losing track of the plethora of  WebOffice applications?  I certainly am, as a matter of fact, today I just said half-jokingly that soon we will need a directory of all Web 2.0 directories, let alone app’s. 

My favorite editor so far has been Writely, but that may very well be by pure chance, since I tried Writely first.  I recently checked out the Zoho writer, and liked it.  Zoho has been the first one (as far as I know) to come out with a cool Web Spreadsheet application, which btw. is not only function-rich, but also esthetically pleasing. Sooner or later I’ll spend some time checking out their Virtual Office.  There hasn’t been a lot in the area of presentations though, the only one I am aware of is Thumbstacks – a simplified presentation app, without the fancy animation ..etc effect, but more than enough for a typical presentation.  Obviously all these applications are web-based, and so are the data files that create (in sharp contrast to AjaxWrite, AjaxSketch ..etc which are not true Web 2.0 apps, since they can only save your work on a local harddisk). That actually presents a potential problem where one’s digital life is stored on several sites and not easily shared between applications: some of the online storage services like Box.net Omnidrive, Openomy ..etc (sorry guys, can’t list all, there’s too many of you )

The entire landscape changed today – at least for me it was today, when on the Qumana blog  I read about ThinkFree.  The South Korea-based company claims to have “The Best Online Office on Earth”  (affirmatively, not just probably ).

 ThinkFree handles documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and is compatible with MS Office file formats.  You can create / save / share new documents, or upload existing Microsoft ones.  Oh, have I mentioned the 1G free storage?  I haven’t had the time to test all features in detail, but I think the fact that the first complete WebOffice exists is significant, and the initial reviews are positive.

Update (4/30):  Of course while we’re all caught up in the WebOffice craze, it doesn’t hurt to remember that a lot of Net-users are still stuck in dial-up prison, like Vinnie is now, in India..

Update (5/1): It just occured to me that a combination of ThinkFree (MS

Office replacement) and Central Desktop

(Online Collaboration, “wiki without the wiki”) is likely to be a

perfect online combo for most small businesses. I’ll cover the latter

in another post.

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Vyew – Free WebEx Killer ?

Reading TechCrunch’s profile on  Wyaworks, a new startup that “aims to do for web development what blogging has done for publishing” reminded me of another product I placed in my Web 2.0 Bookmarks a while ago and forgot to check it out: Vyew.  (no relation to wyaworks other than being remote namesakes).


It’s interesting how some brands become verbs: back in my last “corporate” job even after we switched from WebEx to GotoMeeting, we kept on saying “we’ll webex it”.  But Vyew is a cute name, I wonder if the same will happen as users switch.  Because they will switch.  Nothing beats free.

Of course Vyew has more going for it than just being free. Nice features, easy-to-use UI (I’ve just tested it with Dennis)  , and it’s even PC, being green.  A key value for people on-the-go is that it doesn’t require any download, you just start collaborating from any browser.

Vyew is a product of the team that created Simulat – I am not sure if it is the same company or another venture of the same individuals. They launched 2 weeks ago.

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Directory of Web 2.0 Directories

Steve Rubel points to Categoriz ,  “another big giant directory of Web 2.0 sites and services.”

I think to be considered valid Web 2.0 site, it should be called  Categorizr. (As in Flickr, Flagr,  Socializr ..etc)

A good resource otherwise.   We soon will need a directory of all Web 2.0 directories.

Update (5/7):  I told ya!   Here’s a list of Web 2.0 lists by Richard MacManus

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$250K Buys a lot of Fahrvergnügen

Oh, boy, and I thought $85K was way too much for a Volkswagen .. was I wrong! Apparently you can spend $250K to get your very personal Fahrvergnügen (not to be confused with this)

That’s how much Ron Patrick, owner of Sunnyvale, CA Engine Control and Monitoring spent to build his jet-propelled VW bug. “The purpose of this car is to have fun and be stupid,” he says with a laugh. “This is entertainment. It’s a toy, a toy for silly boys.”

The Flying (well, almost) Bug is street-legal, but he cannot fire up the jet… although “Patrick says that once in a while he puts on a crash helmet (mainly as a sound muffler), takes the car out on nearby Highway 237 in the wee hours of the morning and fires it up for a brief and hopefully cop-free run.”

His next project: digging up his garden to build a missile silo. Can you spell Nucular Proliferation? He has already purchased an SA-2 for a thousand bucks at an abandoned Polish air base and is now trying to get it cleared through Customs. Good luck with that.

(source: SF Chronicle)

Update (5/9): See Matt Marshall’s post on the X1.

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No More Investigation Into Gas Prices, Please

Every time officials launch an investigation into gas prices, the damned thing defiantly climbs further up. 

A few days after President Bush’s announcement we’re now up to $3.49. 

Today I hear the Sate of California is launching an investigation, too – hm, summer just broke out, weekend coming… do I hear $3.79?

(photo originally published at Blinq)

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Raising Boys

Reading Ben’s post about 20 Reasons Not to Have Children I could not resist but post this email I’ve recently received.  For the record: I am very much pro-children and hope (for him) that eventually Ben will change his mind.  

 

Raising Boys

 

a) For those who have children past this age, this is hilarious.

b) For those who have children this age, this is not funny.

c) For those who have children nearing this age, this is a warning.

d) For those who have not yet had children, this is birth control.

 

The following came from an anonymous Mother in Austin, Texas. Things I’ve learned from my Boys (honest and not kidding):

 

1.) A king size waterbed holds enough water to fill a 2000 sq. Ft.house 4 inches deep.

 

2.) If you spray hair spray on dust bunnies and run over them with roller blades, they can ignite.

 

3.) A 3-year old Boy’s voice is louder than 200 adults in a crowded restaurant.

 

4.) If you hook a dog leash over a ceiling fan, the motor is not strong enough to rotate a 42 pound Boy wearing Batman underwear and a Superman cape. It is strong enough, however, if tied to a paint can,  to spread paint on all four walls of a 20×20 ft. Room.

 

5.) You should not throw baseballs up when the ceiling fan is on. When using a ceiling fan as a bat, you have to throw the ball up a few times before you get a hit. A ceiling fan can hit a baseball a long way.

 

6.) The glass in windows (even double-pane) doesn’t stop a baseball hit by a ceiling fan.

 

7.) When you hear the toilet flush and the words “uh oh”, it’s already too late.

 

8.) Brake fluid mixed with Clorox makes smoke, and lots of it.

 

9.) A six-year old Boy can start a fire with a flint rock even though a 36-year old Man says they can only do it in the movies.

 

10.) Certain Lego’s will pass through the digestive tract of a 4-year old Boy.

 

11.) Play dough and microwave should not be used in the same sentence.

 

12.) Super glue is forever.

 

13.) No matter how much Jell-O you put in a swimming pool you still can’t walk on water.

 

14.) Pool filters do not like Jell-O.

 

15.) VCR’s do not eject “PB & J” sandwiches even though TV commercials show they do.

 

16.) Garbage bags do not make good parachutes.

 

17) Marbles in gas tanks make lots of noise when driving.

 

18.) You probably DO NOT want to know what that odor is.

 

19.) Always look in the oven before you turn it on; plastic toys do not like ovens.

 

20.) The fire department in Austin, TX has a 5-minute response time.

 

21.) The spin cycle on the washing machine does not make earthworms dizzy.

 

22.) It will, however, make cats dizzy.

 

23.) Cats throw up twice their body weight when dizzy.

 

24.) 80% of Women will pass this on to almost all of their friends, with or without kids.

 

25.) 80% of Men who read this will try mixing the Clorox and brake fluid.

 

 

 

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Pandemic Flu Outbreak on College Campus

Fortunately not in real life, but a simulation at the Legal Preparedness for Pandemic Flu conference in San Francisco:

A hypothetical focusing on a potential avian flu outbreak on a college campus located in a densely populated urban environment will be presented. The story will unfold over a simulated two-week period. Panelists will respond to the medical facts as they emerge and comment on the legal authority of public health agencies to take action, the legal obligations of the healthcare sector and private employers to work with government agencies, and ethical perspectives on how decisions will be made in the face of medical and legal uncertainties. “

I guess it all makes sense, yet a bit shocking that we don’t even know how (if) we will survive the epidemic, but the lawyers are already preparing, as usual

On a lighter note, lawyers in London are losing billable hours big time: 

200px-DaVinciCode_USThe chat in the legal community is that not one billable hour has been done today,” lawyer Mark Stephens said Thursday….”Life in London has ground to a halt because everyone — barristers, solicitors, partners, managing partners, legal secretaries — is working on deciphering it.”  
He is talking about the secret code the judge who presided over the failed Da Vinci Code plagiarism case at London’s High Court hid in his written judgment.

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Why Spam Swicki?

Search activity on my swicki (see right sidebar) skyrocketed all of a sudden. Here’s a partial list of searches performed yesterday:

ags publishing 1
battle realms 1
book publishers directory… 1
bourbon street 1
bourbon street new orlean… 1
brick 1
british industrial revolu… 1
brownie guides 1
brownies uk 1
bunk beds 1
buy cds 1
buy concert tickets 1
c programming 1
california bar 1
california state bar 1
camelot park 1
car audio systems 1
careers 1
cascading style sheets… 1
cd now 1
cd stores 1
cfm 1
cgi 1
chat rooms 1
chat sites 1
cheap airline tickets… 1
cheap cds 1
cheap dvd 1
cheap ink cartridges 1
cheap tires 1
civil war battles 1
civil war information… 1
clock kits 1
cnn 1
cnn interactive 1
cnn world news 1
comp cams 1
computer deals 1
computer hardware 1
computer prices 1
computer sales 1
computers 1
concert tickets 1
concert tickets ticketmas… 1
consumer product reviews… 1
consumer reviews 1
corel draw

There are pages and pages of this crap, it’s clearly an automated “search attack”.  Once again I prove how clueless I am about the business of spamming, but I really don’t see who and how benefits from such automated searches …  Swicki team?  Anyone? 

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43 Best Blog Prank Still Goes On

Alexander Muse reminds us that his 43 Best Blog Experience is still live – 2 months later people are entering themselves and deleting others.  For all those interested may I suggest you also check out Ego-surf.

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