Archive for July, 2007

What would happen if you were named in a frivolous lawsuit? And what then if you lost, and a criminal plea bargain saved your business, your home, or perhaps even your freedom? You’d have a record. Just like that. What if you were accused of something, and the arguments were drawn out and ugly, even if you “win.”?

Depending on your state and your industry, the Attorney General, circuit court, city government, or other websites (usually high authority) could post every decision (or even accusation) for Google to crawl. If your name was even slightly unique, you’re hosed as these would almost always come up on page 1 (if not position 1) for searches under your name, even if the event occurred 10 years ago. I’m no expert on this stuff, but found my lightweight journey into this world enlightening - ps: I encourage you to grab a copy of Radically Transparent, a new book by Andy Beal  and Dr. Judy Strauss - and possibly to attend their webinar. I encourage you to help me correct any errors here - I am not a lawyer.

So… let’s dig in just a tad….

(more…)

It’s 90 degrees this weekend in KY. Lines are getting a tad bit long at the Ice Cream shop down the street from my house. People are having a little trouble choosing from the flavors that range from Rocky Road to florescent green. But you’re going to have to pick your passion sooner or later. Kids all choose the florescent green, from what I can tell (I think they have a hidden UV light pointed at that stuff or something. It freaking glows!.)

But we only get to choose ice cream occasionally. Our kids get it perhaps once a week in the Summer. These are serious decisions. You want to choose carefully on this stuff. Summer will end before we know it.

As we grow older we are also given just so much time to choose persuits we enjoy and can master sufficiently to be considered scarce and therefore valuable. We get only so many cones to fill.

I enjoyed Tim Ferris’ Four Hour Workweek and Seth Godin’s “The Dip” as previously posted, which both encourage introspection about life and work habits in this way, so I was really happy to find Pamela Slim’s article “I’m just not into you” - Kicking lukewarm passions to the curb“ in her ezine. It’s really a good read - and can help clarify some thinking if you find yourself muddled in luke-warm pseudo-projects that are weighing down your dreams.

How can you tell if your former “burning flame” is now a “smoldering ember?” (details removed…go read it!)

• When you sit down to work on it, you don’t feel much of anything.
• You find yourself justifying its value or purpose, but don’t really believe your own reasons.
• When you step back to view it in the context of your long-term strategies or goals, it either doesn’t fit or has a minor role.

This, from today’s Wall Street Journal, made me smile.

“Sprint Nextel Corp. has taken the unusual step of disconnecting customers who call customer service excessively.

The country’s third-largest wireless provider, with more than 53 million subscribers, has sent letters to about 1,000 subscribers terminating their contracts, according to Roni Singleton, a company spokeswoman.

“The number of inquiries you have made to us … has led us to determine that we are unable to meet your current wireless needs,” the letter, dated June 29, states.”

I’ll bet they keep calling. I recomend they send them to a recording of the man who said it best himself…

*Hit the f road

personalpost

I noticed that Google is starting to estimate your likelihood of display for site-selection ads. Trouble is, anyone who does any level of CPM tuning will have different bids on many sites, and the estimate only seems to apply to the default. If they showed the estimate for individual sites, that might be useful. ” Display likelihood is estimated only at the ad group level. Similar estimates are not available on a site-by-site basis.” says Google.

 

The majority creating new websites:
I will create a georgous bucket, with sparkles and a golden handle.
IÂ will find an empty patch of flat ground to put my bucket.
I will watch the sky, and admire my bucket.
I hope it rains soon.

A few who understand:
I will plan an aqueduct and dig a reservoir.
I will test the water sources in the hills.
I will gather the lumber and pipe.
And route the flow to my basin.
While I work on my georgous new bucket.

The Blackberry Desktop Manager (BDM) has become my enemy, even as my new BlackBerry Curve has become my best friend. With my MPX220 Smartphone I used to be able to just walk NEAR the office and Bluetooth would sync to outlook - hands off automatically. If there were conflicts, my sync rules would handle them. I could be a good 30′ away and all was good. I have pulled up IN MY CAR outside my office and sync’d without getting out via Bluetooth and driven away. No kidding. I realize I could buy sync-over-web, but this has worked really well for me.

It really was sweet. But now, the BDM will not allow such luxuries. Not because of the hardware itself (it has far better bluetooth range than the MPX220 in fact) but because of problems (for me) in the user interface (UI) design on the BDM.

First issue….BDM’s designers have decided that they need to ignore the connection options chosen by users in the Windows Bluetooth control panels. Just because I have selected “do not confirm bluetooth connections” doesn’t mean they have to actually LISTEN to that setting choice, right? BDM ignores these settings and proceeds to confirm every attempted connection by my Curve. Showstopper for proximity syncing. Gotta click “OK” to continue. Physical Presence Required #1.

Second issue…The confirmation box at the end that boasts “Desktop Manager Synchronized Outlook for you!” kills further synchronizations and locks up my blackberry in the “Connected to Desktop” screen (as long as you’re in bluetooth range.) You mu st walk to the damn computer and dismiss it before the sync can happen again. Just release the connection and give the status another way!

The point of the Blackberry was to improve our productivity not to force us to admire the success of your software! Physical Presence Required #2. Proximity sync showstopper #2.

The hardware is sweet. The handheld software has been sweet. But Research in Motion should be ALL OVER the Desktop Manager team to fix these inexcusable Gaffes.

I’ll be psyched if someone can tell me that I’m doing something fundamentally wrong. You’ll get link love galore and I’ll have happy-day-yes.

The MSA of Lexington will have a million before we know it. Yet it still feels like a small town at these times of year. Image is from our downtown neighborhood’s street party. (The regular parade, yes, parade, is Wednesday.)

Hope everyone has a happy Independence Day Week. PS: Happy Canada Day, too!

When you look at your web pages you focus like nobody else in the world. You look at each part of it thinking about the effort that went into the design. You might feel proud or relieved it is done. You know the reasons you put certain text in certain places, or remember the steps you went through in getting a graphic or photograph just right. But this lens is not the lens of a visitor to your site. It’s impossible for you or your web designer to see through that lens.

When others visit your website, they move like nervous birds. They skim and pop. Their eyes dart about. Nobody sticks around a site to be “nice,” or clicks on a few extra pages to make the designer feel worthwhile. Your site has to be right before they’ll stay. And “right” is defined by the standards of the web visitor’s itchy trigger finger, not you or your web designer.

Do you know your average “time on site”? Do you know the average number of pages for a visitor? If not, get ready - you might be surprised.