February 2012
1 post
“Of course, you don’t have to go far on the internet, much less in gaming,...”
– Why Devs Owe You Nothing • Opinions • Eurogamer.net
August 2011
13 posts
Dr. Drang: Stop using shortened URLs in tweets →
The venerable Dr. Drang agrees with me — now that Twitter is forcing t.co shortening on all links, short URL services like bit.ly are not only unnecessary, but at some level they harm the Twitter ecosystem.
WatchSalesforce CEO Mark Benioff on Steve Jobs. I won’t spoil it for you, but it’s an awesome story.
Grant Alan Tummins was born last night at 9:05 PM, on the same day that Steve Jobs resigned as CEO of Apple Inc. Though the two have little to do with each other, Grant’s birth and the photo above taught me a lot about the world that Jobs has helped create.
Apple didn’t invent personal computers or screens or keyboards, but they always strived to be better at making them, and they...
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WatchThis is only a test.
I wrote a tiny, elegant program in Ruby. It presents a prompt where you can enter any number of strings, and when you’re done it returns those strings back to you in alphabetical order.
array = []
item = nil
while item != ''
item = gets.chomp
array.push item
end
puts array.sort
Hey, it’s not much, but it’s progress. Anyone know how to...
“In English, we often use “or” to mean “one or the other, but...”
– Chris Pine, “Learn to Program”
We’re all born to broken people on their most honest day of living.
And since that first breath, we’ll need grace that we’ve never given.
I’ve been haunted by standard red devils and white ghosts, and it’s not only when these eyes are closed.
These lies are ropes that I tie down in my stomach, but they hold this ship together, tossed like leaves in this weather.
And my dreams...
If someone you look up to gives you a book or tells you about one, read it. They’re trying to tell you something, whether it’s a personal message or something they think everyone in the world should learn.
“This is America. Pick a job and then become the person who does it.”
– Mad Men, “The New Girl”
The Next iPhone
Over the last few years, somehow I’ve become the expert within my circle of friends and acquaintances about when the next iPhone is coming out. Seriously, this is probably the number one question I get asked. The odd thing is people ask me as if I know for certain what the next iPhone is going to be and when it’s going to come out.
I don’t usually like to feed into the...
July 2011
2 posts
“The major motivating factor for me at the time was making sure I had something...”
– Richard A.
June 2011
4 posts
So an Android developer walks into a bar.
The bartender asks, “What’ll it be?”
The Android developer answers, “Just a beer, anything is fine.”
The Android developer finishes his beer and, fishing around in his pockets, asks, “How much do I owe you?”
The bartender says, “That’ll be four bucks.”
“Hang on,” says the Android developer as he walks away,...
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Everything You Never Wanted to Know About Posting...
NOTE: I have updated this article as of August 13, 2011 to reflect changes in Twitter’s policies. Please see below.
The other day I was having a conversation on Twitter with a few friends about URLs, discussing their length and how the user experience of links could be improved on the service. This conversation was eye-opening because it made me realize that all three of us thought we knew...
Six reasons your data is safe in Evernote →
I’ve been using Evernote for a few months as a place to store just about anything — documents, photos, checklists, meeting notes, and just quick thoughts that I want to jot down.
The problem, though, when you fully rely on a third-party system to organize your life, is that you don’t control the third-party. But in this post, Michael Hyatt gives six excellent reasons why Evernote can...
May 2011
6 posts
“Being an expert in social media is like being an expert at taking the bread out...”
– Great article by Peter Shankman at BI.
While I love social media and I think it’s one of the things I’m “good at,” I would never call myself a “social media expert” for the very reasons stated in this article. My real strengths are researching, learning, and...
“What we failed to ask was, ‘Who cares?’”
– Alexia Tsotsis indadvertedly explains one of the biggest problems with the current startup culture. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.
The 7 Biggest Fan Page Marketing Mistakes →
This is exactly the kind of social media advice I like to see — real, practical, and fact-based. Great simple steps you can take to improve your Facebook Fan Page. (via @stevenesmith)
Watch
April 2011
32 posts
The Art of Internet Presence →
I’ve moved No More Buzzwords from Tumblr to WordPress. Please follow the link to be taken to the new site. You can also subscribe to the new full RSS feed. Thank you, and sorry for the inconvenience.
"People" Brands vs. "Product" Brands →
I’ve moved No More Buzzwords from Tumblr to WordPress. Please follow the link to be taken to the new site. You can also subscribe to the new full RSS feed. Thank you, and sorry for the inconvenience.
The Impossible Task of Choosing Who to Follow on... →
I’ve moved No More Buzzwords from Tumblr to WordPress. Please follow the link to be taken to the new site. You can also subscribe to the new full RSS feed. Thank you, and sorry for the inconvenience.
3 tags
Ubiquitous Capture
If you’re a knowledge worker, chances are you’ve heard of the book Getting Things Done. In it, David Allen describes a system for time and task management that many people swear by. I read the book and really enjoyed it, but most of the techniques Allen describes don’t really fit very well in my life. I’ve implemented a few of the core concepts and ideas in the book, such as “buckets” and the...
1 tag
Trust
Three years ago when I was interviewing for a job with Dave Ramsey, I was asked to submit a written household budget. It was certainly an odd thing to experience. I’d never been asked for something that at the time I considered so personal, especially not by an employer. But the way it was explained to me made perfect sense — they wanted to make sure that hiring me made financial sense...
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Follow Friday -- John Gruber
As I’ve already stated, I had many inspirations in starting this blog. Many people helped me in many different ways, and most of them indirectly. Probably my biggest indirect push to start this blog was John Gruber.
John has been writing Daring Fireball since 2002, and it has since become one of the most popular blogs on the Internet. While the blog itself is primarily about Apple and...
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TweetDeck creators working on a Twitter... →
According to “sources”, UberMedia is working on its own platform to compete with Twitter. Why?
The service would seek to attract users by addressing common complaints about Twitter, such as its restriction on the length of a message and how it can be confusing to newcomers …
Personally, I think this sounds like a great idea — it would force all the social media...
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Panic releases Prompt for iOS →
Prompt is an elegant SSH client for iPhone and iPad. It’s one of those apps that I have absolutely no need for, but I’m tempted to buy it anyway because it’s just so cool. Great job, Panic folk.
[iTunes App Store direct link]
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Some Potential Business Models for Twitter
My post from last week about paying for Twitter was met with some interesting conversations. Many people agreed, but some people offered a spin on the “charging to use Twitter” idea and said that Twitter could put a limit on the number of tweets someone could send without paying, for instance. I just really don’t think Twitter will ever charge an entry fee to read or post to the...
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Book Club -- Free by Chris Anderson
Most of us realize by now that Google is an advertising company in the guise of a web services company. That’s a pretty obvious example of how valuable services can be offered to millions of people for free, but there are dozens of services out there where a business model is not quite as straightforward.
Chris Anderson’s book Free: The Future of a Radical Price is a few years old...
“On the surface, The Thank You Economy is a book about how businesses can use...”
– Software developer extraordinaire Joe Hewitt on Gary Vaynerchuk’s new book. I can’t wait to check it out after I finish a couple others I’m currently working through.
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Welcome to the staticDimension →
When I first started the idea for this blog, I wanted to use a self-hosted CMS, but ultimately I went with Tumblr because it was easy and I didn’t have time to build something from the ground up.
Since then, I’ve been monkeying around a bit with WordPress, and I’m really not happy with it for something with the simplicity I’m trying to achieve with this blog. And then I...
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Further Thoughts on a Subsidized Kindle
Yesterday Amazon announced a new pricing structure for their popular Kindle e-reader with a very interesting twist. You can still get the Wi-Fi Kindle for $139 and the 3G version for $189, but now Amazon is also offering a variant for $114 that is supported by what they’re calling “special offers” — in other words, ads.
This ad-subsidized Kindle is just $25 off the normal...
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Amazon's New Ad-Supported Kindle →
How long until all ad-supported platforms are now “with Special Offers”?
Also, the $114 price is odd, right? MG Siegler has a good take on this:
Amazon has always been cagey on Kindle sales, so there’s no way we can expect them to state their margins on the device. Others have estimated that the Kindle margins are likely “razor-thin” based on component tear-downs and other Amazon...
3 tags
Perfection
One of the biggest things I’ve struggled with in my life is perfectionism. Usually when I start something new and I’m not good at it right away, I quit. That’s the reason why I’ve had so many failed projects and blogs in the past. It’s something that I need to work on more than anything else I can pinpoint right now.
By the time you read this, I will have been...
3 tags
“Good marketing will only get people through the door the first time. A good...”
– Shawn Blanc on the iPad 2.
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Follow Friday -- Shawn Blanc
Reader’s Note: I’ve taken the idea of Follow Friday on the blog from a popular Twitter meme, but I’m putting my own spin on it. Every Friday I’ll feature one person or entity in particular that I think you should know about and “follow.”
When I first set out to write this blog, my intentions were to use it as a platform to make a name for myself, in a sense....
3 tags
Mashable Presents a Lesson in Irony →
Title of the article: “HOW TO: Optimize Your Content for Social Discovery” What’s the first step? “Write Better Headlines” Oy vey.
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If You're Afraid, You're Doing It Wrong
The biggest goal I set forth for myself when creating this blog is to not turn it into a “53 Ways to Turbocharge Your Twitter Account!” charade. I want to be as honest and genuine as I possibly can. Because of this quest for integrity, I find myself questioning myself every day on how I use social media to promote myself.
Sometimes I find myself afraid that I’m doing it all...
1 tag
Ben Brooks' 13 Rules for Software Developers →
Every point here is great. My favorite:
Look at what other apps do wrong, more than you look at what they do right — fill the voids, don’t clutter the market.
iOS and Android are making it easier than ever for people to make and distribute software, but making good software is a different thing altogether.
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Ian Hines on Time, Attention, and ADHD →
A wonderful and courageous post by Ian about his struggle attention and his diagnosis of adult ADHD.
I’ve often felt like I might suffer from the same affliction myself, but I’ve always been too scared to have it officially checked out. For now I’m “self-medicating” in a sense by trying to get better at time management. So far, it’s working.
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Who Would Pay for Twitter?
It’s pretty clear at this point that Twitter needs to start making real money soon if they want to continue to be successful. It’s been a back-of-mind sort of thing until just recently when the “dickbar” fiasco brought Twitter’s desperation for profit to everyone’s immediate attention. The promoted tweets and trends revenue stream has been in place for about a...
3 tags
“Don’t hire a consultant to post your Facebook updates. Don’t...”
– I agree with James in pretty much every case. It’s okay to get some planning or strategy help from outside sources, but conversations are too important to contract out. No one out there has the passion for your business like you do.