While in LA during November for the Los Angeles Auto Show, Adam Nollmeyer and I risked life and limb to capture a new and exciting ShalerJump photo. We climbed onto the roof of our 15 story hotel! (Video coming soon eventually..)
Don’t Make New Years Resolutions
The first day of a new year is a great day to look back at the previous year and look forward to the next. It is a day when many people examine themselves and consider what they should change going forward. New Year’s resolutions may include exercising more (losing weight), spend more time with family, start a business, write more blog posts, go out more, etc.
New Year’s resolutions are not effective ways to make or break habits. One of the hardest ways to break a habit (like smoking) is cold turkey. It is just as difficult to jump into a new habit and make it stick.
The best way to try to improve yourself, start good habits, or break bad habits is to regularly (not annually) evaluate yourself and take action immediately. Don’t wait until New Year’s to change.
ReadPhoenix: Top Blog Posts of the Week #3
Two weekly posts in a row. Do you know what that tells me? It says in no uncertain terms that I am not writing enough. That is one of the most valuable benefits I receive by doing this. The weekly write-up gives me an obligation to post regularly and the desire to make sure those scheduled posts are not my ONLY posts.
It is also great for me because it ensures I do not miss anything going on in local blogs. I want to keep up with what people are talking about locally, but if I did not set this obligation for myself, I probably would not spend time making sure nothing slips through the cracks.
Blog: BrainFuel
Author: Thomas Chapin
Company: Tornado Design
Post Title: Overnight Project
Tom whipped up a fun micro site recently, 100factsabout.com. It allows you to input a person’s name and it will return “100 completely accurate, verifiable facts about anyone.” Everyone has probably heard a couple of “Chuck Norris facts” during the last couple years. Now those same fun facts can be applied to you, your friends, or even your enemies.
Early this week, an anonymous Twitter user popped up on my radar, linking me to BrianShalerFacts.com. I tried to track down the person responsible. Unfortunately for me, Tom used private domain registration, hosted it on a different server in a different state from his regular sites, and used a proxy service to leave a comment on my blog. I was unable to track down who made it, but Tom later confessed and allowed me to help him with some pseudo-randomization PHP code. (Try looking up facts for multiple names)
Read on and see what facts you can dig up about your friends!
Blog / Author: Sunny Thaper
Company: Forty Media
Post Title: Radiohead’s In Rainbows Dumb Business Move?
Sunny starts off this post with: “Fortune Magazine claims that Radiohead’s latest album “In Rainbows” is the 58th dumbest moment in business.”
I agree with Sunny on the fact that Fortune is absolutely, positively, confoundedly incorrect. I might not go so far as to say it was the 58th smartest moment in business, but there would be a strong argument in their favor. What I can say is that it was one of the most consequential business moves in the music industry. A band sells their album online, makes it available for free, and proves that such a model can yield massive monetary success. It provides more evidence of the music industry’s obsolete business model.
Read on to see Sunny’s side and the links he provided.
Blog: DontTrustThisGuy.com
Author: Jim Jeffers
Company: Sitewire
Post Title: Advocates vs. Practitioners vs. Practicality
Jim brings up a good point about advocates and practitioners. With the success stories of Internet startups piling up, everyone is pushing the next big thing. Major companies are inventing new platforms to develop on left and right (Look at Google: OpenSocial, Android, Gadgets [Desktop, iGoogle, web], Google Gears, APIs for: Maps, Search, Feeds, Charts, Checkout, Calendar, Picasa, YouTube, etc). There are countless startups pushing everything from a new take on social networking (Facebook/MySpace-killers), communication (Twitter/Jaiku-killers), search (Google-killers), etc.
Read on to see Jim’s point of view.
Blog: Arizona Coffee
Author: Chris Tingom
Company: Tornado Design
Post Title: Boost Sales: Have a Starbucks Next Door?
Chris asks: “Could it be that having a Starbucks near independent coffeehouses actually helps boost sales?”
He provides a link to a great article from Slate Magazine that looks into the effect Starbucks has on independently-owned coffee shops. Much to Starbucks’ dismay (they intend to run competitors out of business), the presence of a Starbucks actually helps sales soar at competitors’ shops.
Read on at Slate Magazine.
ReadPhoenix: Top Blog Posts of the Week #2
This week features:
– Effective Branding Case Study
– Building Phoenix’s Tech Community
– Spotlight on Phoenix Startup, JumpBox
– Book reviews: Simplicity, Happiness, Being Busy
Blog: BrainSpool
Author: Derek Neighbors
Company: Integrum Technologies
Post Title: Make a Mark on Your Customers
I think this was probably the best read of the week. While considering how to take his company’s brand to the next level, Derek talks about one of the best examples of successful branding, QuickTrip. I have had conversations with friends about this topic and Derek did a great job of laying out specific reasons and examples. Honestly, I often drive past other gas stations or drive out of my way to get to a QT.
Read on as Derek explains why many people can feel so strongly about QT.
Blog: Code, Content, Caffeine
Author: James Britt
Company: Rising Tide Software
Post Title: BarCamp Follow-up Follow-up: Ignite Phoenix
It is no secret that I am a supporter of building a stronger, more connected technology community in Phoenix. I think this is a great idea and would definitely attend if someone set something like this up. Want to organize something like this? Bring it up with me, James (his email address is on his site), or even the Refresh Phoenix Google Group.
Read on to learn more about Ignite [City] groups in Seattle, Boston, and San Francisco.
Blog: Scrollin’ On Dubs
Author: Sean Tierney
Company: JumpBox
Post Title:
It’s always great to see local companies getting attention of some of the most-followed people in the industry. Congrats guys!
Read on about his interview. Includes video.
Blog / Author: Sunny Thaper
Company: Forty Media
Post Title: Think Small, In A Big Way!
Sunny is currently reading a book by John Maeda called “The Laws of Simplicity.” I recognized the name and title from a great TED Talk video I saw earlier this year: “John Maeda: Simplicity patterns”
Read on about Sunny’s review of the book.
Blog / Author: Erica Lucci
Company: Integrum Technologies
Post Title: Stumbling on Happiness
Another review of a good book. She talks about the book “Stumbling on Happiness” by Daniel Gilbert. Believe it or not I recognized the name and title from another great Ted Talk video I saw last year: “Dan Gilbert: Why are we happy? Why aren’t we happy?” It is a great presentation. Be careful, after watching it, you might end up buying the book.
Read on about “Stumbling on Happiness.”
Blog: John Murch the Self Proclaimed Geek Guru
Author: John Murch
Company: Nomad Thinking
Post Title: Geek Guru Book Club Review Crazy Busy
Another book! John reviews “Crazy Busy” by Dr. Edward M. Hallowell and gives examples of some tips. I don’t have a video of Dr. Hallowell’s presentation on the topic, but John was lucky enough to meet him recently and watch a live presentation. Lucky!
Read on about “Crazy Busy.”
Facebook Poke-A-Thon Friday
If there is one feature on Facebook that I just don’t “get”, it’s Poking. You can poke a friend or a non-friend and that person will see a notification in their sidebar the next time they sign in. It would be a cool feature if Facebook did not have the “news feed” that displays your friends’ recent activity, because the poke could represent an unobtrusive way of saying “Check out the changes I made to my profile.”
I don’t know if I have as many application requests as Clintus McGintus (I caught a glimpse of his flooded Facebook sidebar at PodCampAZ). I used to clear out my requests every time I signed into Facebook, but realized that those seconds add up and only served to distract me from going in there and doing what I really wanted to do (check my FB fanmail*). I stopped clearing out the requests and noticed that the sidebar filled up quickly. With 10,000+ Facebook applications available, you can imagine how your Facebook sidebar could end up looking if there are not measures in place to limit the number displayed (and provide a link to show the rest). After 40 applications piled up on my sidebar, I started thinking about the 7 pokes I had below that.
It is a simple experiment and perhaps I am the only person who wonders about this. How big can that sidebar get? Application requests come naturally as your friends install and use them. If you ask for more of those, you are asking for a lot work from your friends (go to application page for each application, find invite utility, select my name, send invite). However, with pokes, you can provide a link and anyone (friend or not) can poke you in a matter of a few seconds.
I grabbed the link to my profile and sent it out to my friends on Twitter, asking them to poke me. I discovered that, unlike the application request list, the poke list does have a limit to the number of items displayed at a time. After 20 pokes, a link appeared to “see all” on another page. With almost 80 pokes, I had 4 pages of pokes to view.
For the sake of an interesting visual, I used Photoshop to piece together the 4 pages of pokes to show how they would look without the “see all” functionality. Only the top 20 pokes are actually appearing on my Facebook home page.
* = That “FB fanmail” remark was a joke ;–)