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I just checked my site (as I'm still tweaking it) and found that I was using at least four different font faces on the site. Sorry about that. I hope I didn't do any permanent damage.
Now there is just one font face.
Hey, I'm a programmer, not a designer!
Yep. I'm a programmer. I write software for a living and have done so for a lot of years now. So, when I'm not writing articles here, or writing books or short stories, I'm usually writing software.
Several years ago I wrote a little application called Size-O-Matic that helps web designers quickly see their designs in a web browser set to different window sizes. It was so popular that I actually got a segment on TechTV (now called G4). Someone with more time than I have could probably find the segment on Google Video or YouTube.
Size-O-Matic is and always has been free. If you're a web designer download it and give it a try. I haven't updated the program for years, but it still works just fine.
At the first of the month I mentioned that my short story, Semper Nunc had been accepted into the Amazon Shorts program. I just checked today and found that it is now available for purchase. It's only 49 cents to buy at Amazon and you get it immediately via download or email.
I just bought a copy to see the layout and style. It's very nice! Plus there's an author page that has a great picture of me in it as a bonus. ;)
I'm excited about Semper Nunc because it's the beginning of a much larger storyline that I'm developing. I wrote it as an entry to a writing contest and to begin to develop the universe and characters for my next novels. Semper Nunc is scifi/fantasy and takes a lot of cues from X-Men and The 4400. If you've got some spare change and spare time, I'd appreciate you giving it a read and commenting on it.
You may remember that I blew up my blog a while ago. Well, it hasn't had all the features it used to have since then. I just didn't fix everything at the time it imploded, so I've been doing a little bit here and there for a while.
Today I just got around to adding the archives back to the right sidebar. The archives let you easily peruse my blog posts all the way back to last year. As strange as it may sound, someone actually asked me where the links to my archived articles were. Well, they're back. Now you can quickly see what I was writing about in any month back to the beginning (September 2005). For example, there's a great article on bacon in February!
Enjoy.
Until my sophomore year in high school, I hated my English classes. I hated reading, I hated writing. In my sophomore year, I finally got a teacher that helped me figure out what the problem was. Up to that point, I felt I had no choices in my reading and I wasn't particularly interested in most of the books that were required. My teacher, Mrs. Smith (really, Mrs. Smith, I'm not protecting her identity) failed my first book thesis because I deserved it. I had never failed on anything, so I went to see her. She let me know that I had failed because I clearly hadn't read the book and that I clearly didn't care. She wanted to get my attention.
She sat down with me and went over the reading list. There was nothing that I was interested in, so she made me a deal. She would create another list of potential books from which I could choose. If I did an excellent job on a book from that list, I agreed to do the same on a book from the original list. I agreed. From the new list I chose Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein. That was the key. I just needed to feel that I had a choice, then I caught the fever. I started reading everything I could get my hands on. I started writing my own fiction. Obviously, I'm still writing (read my novel).
One book, one teacher and here I am.
Okay, this is pretty serious (unlike some of my other posts). I've been doing a survey for about a year now on superpowers. The question is simple: If you could choose a superpower, what would you choose and why?
As for me, there are two answers. First, if the superpower has nothing to do with being useful, then I'd pick the power to fly. Flying is cool but isn't the most useful power. At least that's how I see it. I'd be able to get back and forth to work without the hassles of traffic, but I wouldn't assume that flying by itself would also imply super strength or super speed.
Second, if I were trying to come up with a more useful power, I would choose telekenisis. The ability to move stuff with my mind would be pretty useful in general I think. Assuming there are no weight limits (as we were taught by Yoda), then telekenisis would be both cool and useful. You could even make a case for telekenisis as a method for flying, but I'm not sure about that.
Okay, so that's your assignment. Respond in the comments section of this article and tell me what and why.
I received an email a few weeks ago from a new web site called Books on Shelves. Here is a part of that email:
Our brilliant idea was to enable unique voices to raise their profile, be
seen and heard, be bought and read, to come together on one site and so have
greater strength in unityWe gave ourselves the name Books On Shelves
We thought that sounded straight to the point and simple (just like us
really)We appreciate the lasting value of books and we know that some may need
extra time to mature, just like good cheese. Sometimes books (and cheeses)
with enduring flavours, a unique after taste, wacky colours, bizarre names
etc. do not get fully appreciated immediately. They need time to loiter on
shelves, time to be talked about, time to come into their own. Some will
never be flavour of the month…..but we still believe that they deserve some
shelf space. And the book buying public also deserve a diverse range to
choose from. We also know how frustrating it is for writers to survive when
their work does not fit within the mainstream. We believe it is tragic to
waste this untapped treasure.To this end we came up with the idea of becoming a gateway for writers,
independent publishers and readers by providing virtual, limitless shelves
for real books - good reads beyond the normal bookshelf fare.
Have you even heard of The Shadow? I hadn't. It's a 1994 film starring Alec Baldwin (and a star-studded cast) where Alec plays the comic-book inspired Shadow.
Thanks to Netflix.com and some random suggestion made by its service, we had the bizarre pleasure of watching this film over the weekend. This is the strangest, weirdest cool movie that defies any ability to describe it. It's not a good movie in the sense that you'd say to your friends, "Yah, that was a good movie." It's a good movie in the sense that it has an awesome, strange mix of filming and style that makes you say something like, "you should see it, but you probably won't like it." But then you'll want your friends to watch it so you can talk about it. Get it?
The dialog was not good, the acting was okay, the cast was amazing, the story was so-so, but there was something very cool about the visuals and something extra that's hard to put a finger on. At first I hated it. In the end I wanted to watch it again. Very strange. 1.5π.
Yesterday I wrote about Google's recent promotion of my traffic module. You can see in the graphic on the right the profound impact that had on my blog traffic (it might be time to reread my series on using Google modules to drive traffic).
I've been reading a book called The Tipping Point which was recommended to me by my friend Jeffrey. The book explores the phenomena that turn events into epidemics -- how little changes can have a dramatic impact on the spread of an idea. I feel like I'm experiencing a portion of a tipping point. And I'm excited about it.
In the next few weeks I'm going to try to put together a web site for mapping all of the downloads of my novel and allow readers to mark where they are geographically and comment on the book. I think it will be fun for people to be able to interact regarding The Agency Delta and see the thoughts of other readers online.
Thanks to everyone who has downloaded The Agency Delta. Thanks for helping to tip the readership!
I'm having a bit of trouble right now with my traffic module. The way the Yahoo! traffic API works is to throttle the number of requests per IP address. The daily limit is 5,000 requests per IP address. I now have several thousand users of my module, so I can't hope to get the data to them with the Yahoo! limit.
I'm working with Yahoo!, but I can't seem to get the right person. In the meantime I've built a requester that can shuttle data out to other web servers to help me do what I need to do. If you happen to have a web server that you can host a PHP script for me ... and if you're willing to do it, I'd love to hear from you! You'd be helping me out a lot!
I can give you the exact details if you want to help.
Thanks!
Strange how the Internet works.
I was just sitting here minding my own business when all of the sudden my book started getting downloaded at an unprecedented rate. If you've been following my blog for a while, you'll know that when Seth plugged my book on the first day it was available for download there were about 1,000 downloads. That was July 13th/14th.
Up until today I hadn't crossed the 2,000 download threshold. Then, out of nowhere, there have been about 200 downloads in the past couple of hours. What happened? Well, it seems that Google has started promoting my traffic module again. Why is that important? Well, I recently added a link on the traffic module to my downloadable book. Apparently people do click the links.
Man, I love Google.
I recently mentioned that I'm discontinuing my Flickr modules. When I made that announcement, several people asked if I would make the source code available for others to continue supporting the modules.
Absolutely! I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't think of that sooner. So, here it is (download size: 136,069 bytes). I'm putting my source code for this directly into the public domain, but realize that my solution relies on some non-public-domain components included in the downloaded file. You can get the full details in the README included in the download.
I hope someone (or several of you) can take this code, implement it and improve it!
I received this in an email yesterday from Billy Crook. We've never met before, he just came across my book online and sent me this message:
I just finished reading it. (I started Monday evening) I don't usually read fiction, but I couldn't minimize, let alone close your book until I had read it all. When you publish, I will gladly buy a copy. I appreciate that you didn't load down your pdf file with all sorts of no-print, no-copy restrictions. Actually I don't really know that you didn't, since I have no need to copy or print, but I use an alternative reader, which chokes up on the Adobe DRM encryption stuff. If you're open to it, at some point, you might want to add your book to Project Gutenberg, which would pretty much guarantee it's existence and instant availability to everyone for eternity.Great job on the book. You're a talented and cultured writer. Good luck on the publishing process.
This is why I do what I do. This is not the only positive feedback I've received on my book, but it's the most recent unsolicited feedback, so I asked permission to blog it. These comments have not only improved my day in general, but have given me something to think about. The idea of opening the book up and putting it on Project Gutenberg is an interesting one. Maybe this book becomes an always-free lead to the new ones I'm working on for future release.
What would you do?
And I really don't understand malls either. Yesterday we went to buy some soccer cleats for my daughter. Not knowing exactly where one would buy soccer cleats, we decided to go to the mall. They have several shoe stores there, right?
So, I just finished listening to the audiobook version of The Long Tail by Chris Anderson. I honestly recommend that everyone read this book. It's not just a business or geek book, it's a book that explains the changing economics of our world in a really easy-to-understand way. You see, traditional retailers live in an economic model of scarcity. For example, shoe stores have limited (scarce) shelf space, so they have to decide which shoes are going to sell the most and limit selection to those items. Big-box retailers like WalMart have more shelf space, but it's still limited. Same with all bricks and mortar retailers.
Interestingly, I had thought this through before going to the mall. I figured there would be at least one sports-related shoe place at the mall. I was right. There were two. However, even within that niche, soccer cleats are still too specialized to warrant shelf space. So, after leaving the mall empty handed, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out the purpose of the mall in this economy. The stores in the mall are more niche than big-box retailers or superstores, but not niche enough to be particularly useful, so what's the point? Is it just social?
Not surprisingly I found a bazillion places to buy soccer cleats online. This is one aspect of the long tail, the ability to offer everything. From where I'm sitting I see two places that I'll shop: first is the superstore or big box because I can get most of my non-specialty stuff there and the Internet because I can get my niche stuff there. I really have a tough time seeing where the mall fits in. You?
I was just chatting with a friend of mine and he was getting a bit stressed about all the things he has going on in his life right now. As usual, instead of actually helping, I simply cracked a joke. He laughed and said thanks for making him laugh. He needed that.
That got me thinking. It's been a long time since I last mentioned my short stories. In fact there are probably a lot of new readers out there that don't even know about them. So, here you go:
Before I started writing, I didn't personally know a single author. After my first book was published, it seemed like everyone I met was an author or was related to an author. I suppose it's just normal to start seeing the things you're focused on. The reason I mention that is because a few months ago my brother told me that his neighbor had just landed a publishing deal.
The book is Fablehaven. The author is Brandon Mull. There are only a few books that I've read as quickly as I read Fablehaven. It drew me in quickly and kept me interested. I finished it in three chunks of time split over Saturday and Sunday.
Fablehaven reminded me of The Chronicles of Narnia (the movie -- I never read the book) as far as the basic storyline. It also had elements that reminded me of Eragon, the Harry Potter series and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. If you can't surmise from the aforementioned references, Fablehaven is fantasy fiction. Brandon's writing is descriptive yet concise so you can build a great visual in your head without feeling overwhelmed by unnecessary detail. He created a world so compellingly real and complex that I had no trouble believing the story, so the conflicts felt real and I cared about the characters. The book itself is just the beginning of a longer story. There will be a sequel. Based on the first book, I'm now at least as excited about the sequel to Fablehaven as I am about the final Harry Potter book.
Good job Brandon and good luck!
What a weekend! I watched three movies I've never seen before and I read a book cover to cover. I'll do the book review separately later. Normally I don't have time for so much mass media, but this weekend, we had a little cold going through the family, so we didn't go out much or do the normal weekend things (like mow the lawn).
The first two movies I'm talking about are already on DVD. Of course you can get them from Netflix.com and I recommend doing that.
The first one is Eight Below. My wife did a review of it here. I thought I had a pretty good idea about this movie when I sat down to watch it. I did have the overall premise right, but I didn't have a clue about the scope of it. Eight Below is a great movie to watch with the whole family. But keep the lights low and the Kleenex handy because you're going to cry. Unless your heart is two sizes too small, you're going to cry. I cried, and I'm not even much of a dog person. 2π.
The second movie we watched at home was Without a Paddle. Somebody recommended this movie to me, but I can't remember who -- it's been a long time. Without a Paddle has been sitting in my Netflix.com queue literally for months because I kept pushing things above it. I'm sad I waited so long to see it. This movie is sort of like Stand by Me in the sense that it's a group of guys on an adventure to find something. However, this movie is about a group of 30-somethings on a quest to fulfill a promise they made to a friend when they were young. It's crude and rude as you can imagine a movie about guys being guys might be. But it's funny. And underneath all of it, there's a great message. I think this movie will appeal mostly to guys around the age of 30. Sister Snoopy wouldn't like this movie based on what she mentioned she doesn't like in a movie, so take that as a warning if you're thinking about showing this at your next multigenerational family reunion without watching it first. ;) 1.75π.
Finally, we all went to see Zoom (okay we weren't that sick). Zoom was surprisingly good. It reminded me of Sky High (which I really liked). Zoom is a family movie. That means you'll find it filled with site gags, burps and lots of corniness that appeals to little kids and to me. It's also a superhero movie, so there's lots of action that will appeal to little kids and to me. It's not scary and in the end everything turns out okay. The only surprise for me was the star power of the cast. Zoom stars Tim Allen, Courtney Cox, Chevy Chase and Rip Torn for starters. You'll see other familiar faces through the show. I loved seeing Chevy Chase doing something that reminded me a little of Fletch. Zoom is a fun family movie worth the price of admission. 1.75π.
A good friend of mine has just completed the beta version of his new product called Foresight. It's an add-in for MS Outlook that helps you better organize your life (your projects, tasks, goals, etc.) by helping you track the most important things one at a time.
I'm not a master of organization as my wife can attest, but I do track tasks in a list and check them off (for the emotional boost). The advantage of Foresight is that it gives me a way to look at things from a broader perspective and only drill down to the immediate things that I need to do today. This helps me from getting into a mode where I accomplish nothing because I feel overwhelmed by all the little things.
Another thing that blew me away when I first started using Foresight is its deep integration with Outlook. It really ties everything together. Tasks, projects, calendar items are all pulled into one easy-to-manage place so you don't have to learn the details of everything to get started.
Remember that this is a beta version. That means that right now not all of the little quirks are worked out. I ran into a small installation warning that was incorrect, but it caused no problems. I also found a spelling error in one section of the program. Overall, though, it's an impressive addition to Outlook that adds real value.
If you decide to download Foresight, I'd be interested in your comments, but Jeffrey (my friend and the manager of the product) is particularly interested in what you think. Let him know where the product can be improved.
You can learn more about Foresight here.
If a million dollars fell into your lap right now, what luxury/toy would you buy? Notice how I framed the question. I didn't ask you to tell me about your charitable donations or paying off your debt or socking away some money for your kids' education. I'm curious about what fun thing you'd do?
Vacation? Car? Boat?
For me, today it would be this 70 inch SXRD HDTV from Sony.
Of course then I'd give some money to charity and sock some away for college. ;)
Crap like this lawsuit in California is the fundamental problem with our society. So many people feel so entitled that they can sue for almost anything on the basis of discrimination. The result in this case will be that the Angels will no longer celebrate Mother's Day in the future.
My question is: where are all the sane people? I know you're out there. Most everyone that I personally know thinks this kind of stuff is crazy. Most people I know are proud of their race, religion, gender and age and they would defend their rights against true discrimination but they would never sue over a Mother's Day celebration. Why is our society so likely to bend for the few (or the one)?
By the way, the web site for the Superiour Court of Orange County is http://www.occourts.org/ and they have a feedback email address of feedback@occourts.org. Just thought you might like to know.
I just found out that I have to fly to Bloomington, Indiana on Sunday. So with everything going on out there with the liquids ban, have you had to fly recently? If so, how was it?
Can I still bring my iPod? What in the world am I going to do in Bloomington?
I'm not anti-Microsoft. As a software developer, I've always been pretty happy that Microsoft came along and made Windows ubiquitous. It means that I only have to develop software for one platform to get the most bang for the buck.
I'm not really pro-Microsoft either. My web server runs Linux. I'm a huge fan of Google. I don't use MSN search (sorry Tracy). And up until yesterday I was a Firefox bigot.
Now my stomach is churning because I downloaded IE 7 (beta) and it's really good. I mean, it's really, really good. The first thing I noticed is how sharp it looks. It's streamlined, fast and it just looks good. And it renders pages better than any browser I've seen. I'm not sure if they're doing something proprietary with their font rendering, but it's better than in any browser. I didn't want to like IE 7. But I do.
What to do?
Yesterday, Desiree sent me an email with a link to this video (thanks, Desiree!):
Until yesterday I had never heard of Jake Shimabukuro. Until right now, there's a good chance that you hadn't heard of him either. After watching the video a number of times yesterday, I decided to go find out more about him. I found out that he's not just some kid with a video cam and some skills, he's actually recorded a few albums. I checked iTunes. It took less than a minute to locate While My Guitar Gently Weeps (link requires iTunes), listen to the sample, purchase it and load it onto my iPod.
I showed the video to my boss -- an avid Jazz fan -- and he said, "This guy is doing for the Ukulele what Béla Fleck did for the banjo." He asked if I had ever heard of Béla Fleck. I said no. He told me to check out his music. I did. Another few minutes and I was downloading Béla Fleck's Whitewater.
This is the long tail. With iTunes, I have a nearly endless supply of music available at any time. When I get a recommendation or hear something I like, I can sample, buy and download a single track within moments. Plus I get additional recommendations directly from iTunes and I can explore other similar music while I'm online.
Five years ago this wouldn't have been possible because broadband was so limited that streaming videos were virtually non existent. Ten years ago it wouldn't have been possible because ten years ago I didn't even have an email address. Today it appears that I'll probably never set foot in a music store again. Why would I? They probably don't have Jake Shimabukuro or Béla Fleck on the shelves. It's hard to sample an album in a music store. And I can't just buy the one single track that I like.
Last note on this: A few months ago my brother and I were talking about classical music. Neither of us are even conversant in the classics, but he mentioned that he has always liked Pachelbel's Canon in D. And why not? You've heard it a zillion times (even if you don't recognize the name). I went to iTunes and browsed through all of the recordings of Pachelbel's Canon in D. There are dozens. What's great is at iTunes I can get a classical recording or I can get: a New Age version by Robin Spielberg or a Holiday version by Brad White & Pierre Grill or a Country version by Dog Mountain or a Folk version by Jeff Pike Barlow (my favorite) or an Electric Guitar version by John Tapella or a Classical Guitar version by Keith Kubena or a Vocal version by Naturally 7. Talk about a long tail!
If you'd like my perspective on the long tail as it pertains to business, read this.
Are you an übergeek? Did you think about coding while waiting in line at the midnight premier of Lord of the Rings? If so, you can benefit from the following eight articles I wrote detailing how to use you coding powers to drive traffic to your web site. I used the following techniques to bring my own blog out of obscurity.
You'll probably want to check out the original overview article I wrote that describes why I wrote the series and provides the background information necessary to understand my perspective.
I have an amazing family. My first (and only, so far) iPod was given to me as a gift from my mom. I love it. First thing after getting it, I rounded up all my CDs and ripped them, then I opened an iTunes account and started buying music. Recently my brother pointed me to audible.com. This is a great site.
If you spend any time at all commuting and you have (or are planning to get) and iPod, you should join audible. It's an audiobook download site that has more titles than you can imagine. Yesterday I downloaded The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More by Chris Anderson. This purchase is apt (and ironic) since audible.com is clearly a long tail kind of service (more on that in a subsequent post).
Audible.com provides several membership levels. The one they claim is the most popular is $14.95 per month and gives you one free audiobook per month. As a member you receive deep discounts on any additional purchases per month. If you don't want to buy into a monthly program, you can just buy audiobooks on their site. I'm excited because I can now fill my commute with something useful and positive.
This may be soon be another site I can't live without.
I should point out that an iPod is not required to use audible.com audiobooks. You can use any digital audio player (MP3 player) or listen to the audiobooks on your computer.
I just updated my site's privacy policy and I added it as a blog entry. Sorry to all of you reading my blog using an RSS aggregator, you'll get my privacy policy as an article.
I'm sure you'll find it very interesting reading.
Privacy Policy Statement (15 August 2006)
This is the web site of Blake Schwendiman (http://www.blakeschwendiman.com/).
We can be reached via e-mail at blake.schwendiman@gmail.com.
For each visitor to our Web page, our Web server automatically recognizes only the consumer's domain name or ip address (where possible), but not the e-mail address.
We collect only the domain name or ip address, but not the e-mail address of visitors to our Web page, the e-mail addresses of those who post responses to our blog entries (if supplied) and aggregate information on what pages consumers access or visit.
The information we collect is used to improve the content of our Web page.
With respect to cookies: We use cookies to record session information, such as items that consumers add to their shopping cart.
If you do not want to receive e-mail from us in the future, please let us know by sending us e-mail at the above address.
With respect to Ad Servers: To try and bring you offers that are of interest to you, we have relationships with other companies that we allow to place ads on our Web pages. As a result of your visit to our site, ad server companies may collect information such as your domain type, your IP address and clickstream information. For further information, consult the privacy policies of:
http://www.cj.com/privacy.html
http://www.linkshare.com/home/privacy.shtml
http://www.google.com/privacy.html
From time to time, we may use customer information for new, unanticipated uses not previously disclosed in our privacy notice. If our information practices change at some time in the future we will post the policy changes to our Web site to notify you of these changes and we will use for these new purposes only data collected from the time of the policy change forward. If you are concerned about how your information is used, you should check back at our Web site periodically.
Customers may prevent their information from being used for purposes other than those for which it was originally collected by e-mailing us at the above address.
With respect to security: We have appropriate security measures in place in our physical facilities to protect against the loss, misuse or alteration of information that we have collected from you at our site.
If you feel that this site is not following its stated information policy, you may contact us at the above email address.
Every once in a while it's important to come back around and re-introduce my blog. Today's that day. There is a constant influx of new readers and there are a lot of people here that are just new to the concept of a blog. So from time to time I'll do an entry that restates what this is all about and how to get the most out of it.
First and foremost, this blog is my place to promote my first-ever fiction book, The Agency Delta. It's not yet published, but you can download it here. Second, I use this blog to promote my writing in general. You can read my short stories here and learn about my upcoming Amazon.com short story release here.
Second, this is where I keep people up-to-date on my Google modules. I have a Netflix module and a traffic module that I support currently. I usually post update information and helpful tips about my modules here.
Third, this is where I comment on movies, music, technology and other things that I find interesting. I'll also refer to my favorite web sites and blogs from time to time. I'll also announce other blogs that I'm working on like this one or new blogs by people I know and love, like this one. (Speaking of that, Jeff P., where is your blog? I'm waiting.)
Now that you know what I'm usually talking about, let me make some suggestions on how to get the most out of my blog (and blogs in general). When I first started reading blogs on a regular basis, I did so by visiting each site every day. I kept a list of blogs in my browser's bookmarks and just went to the sites from time to time. The problem I had was that I had to remember to do it. If I forgot for a while, then the number of new blog entries per blog became overwhelming and then I'd miss some really good stuff.
That's when I learned about readers (sometimes called aggregators in the techie world). Blog readers let you subscribe to all the blogs you want and then they keep track of what you've read and what you haven't. You go to one place to see all the stuff you're interested instead of going to dozens of individual places. The blog reader I use is the Google Reader. It's online and easy to use. There are many other readers out there. I'll let you comment on the ones you like. But for the new people out there, get yourself a good reader and learn about RSS and you'll find reading your favorite blogs much simpler and more enjoyable. And you'll save a lot of time!
Subscribe to my blog right now and you'll never worry again about missing an article (I know you're worried).
Update: I've been able to update my Flickr gadgets and there are new versions finally available! Visit Instant Flickr to install the latest Flickr gadget.
Do you ever feel like you're running around like a chicken with its head cut off? Well, I don't really know what that feels like (gratefully), but I think you get the point.
I've been feeling that a bit lately with my Google modules, so I've decided to simplify. I've been having some trouble lately with my Flickr modules (and that makes me sad), but I've had to make a choice. My Flickr modules aren't unique (there are a lot of others here) and I've had some trouble with the Flickr API service lately, so I've decided to stop supporting them. I've had just too many support-related emails to manage. The good news in this is that it allows me focus on the two modules that really are unique and interesting so that I can improve them. So, I apologize if you're a big fan of my Flickr modules (and thanks!), but I'm going to focus on my Traffic module and my Netflix module to make them better, faster and stronger (we have the technology).
PS. I can't tell you what a relief I felt after I made this decision. Sometimes I carry on doing things I feel I have to do when I really don't.
Collaboration really is the whole point these days, isn't it? All of the major web site/services of the past few years have been about creating online groups for communicating. Whether it's collaborative ranking like Digg or reddit, collaborative editing like Wikipedia or Wikimapia, sharing like del.icio.us or simply the community creation of bloggers, the new web is all about interaction.
Well, I'm probably slow on this one, but did you know that you can create and publish lists of songs on iTunes (they call them iMixes)? I wrote an article back in June about music and emotion. In it I mentioned my AAA playlist. Well, today I published my AAA playlist on iTunes here. BTW, I think you need iTunes installed for the link to work.
Isn't that cool? Now when somebody asks you what you like to listen to or what you've been listening to lately, you can jump into iTunes, publish your iMix and give your friends the link. Quick, easy, fun.
Do you set goals? Do you write them down?
I'm curious about goal setting in general. I think about what I want to accomplish, but most of the time I don't actually write out exactly what it is and when I expect to achieve it. Ironically, I have a very positive experience with written goals. Back in 1999 or 2000, I wrote a goal that I would become a published author within the year. I had no experience, no leads, no topic, no publisher, nothing. Just a goal.
That was the year that Osborne/McGraw-Hill contacted me to edit a new book called PHP 4 Developer's Guide. After about a month of working as an editor, I was asked if I would take over writing the book. Within a few months I had a published book under my belt.
I've read a lot about setting goals and writing them down. There is a general idea out there that the act of writing a goal and seeing it creates some force that helps to make it happen. What's your experience?
... in something. Or at least that's what they say.
I'm not sure what I'm an expert in yet. Maybe it's bacon. I don't know. In any case, while I may not be an expert, I do have experience in some things that might be considered useful. And I have two brothers who are experts.
We've just decided to collaborate in a new blog called MoneyMattersBlog. MoneyMattersBlog new blog actually has a point (as opposed to this blog which probably doesn't). The point of MoneyMattersBlog is personal and small-business finance, management and related technologies. Expect to read about taxes, investing, management, eCommerce and business-related technologies if you decide to visit.
We're still developing look and feel and some aesthetics of the blog, but there is already some articles and there will soon be much more.
This is my last entry in this series and it will be a catch-all of the remaining sites that I'd hate to lose:
I love learning languages and learning about languages. In high school I took three years of French. I've never used it except in casual meetings with other basic French speakers. Then I spent two years in South Africa where I learned Afrikaans and some Xhosa. I learned to speak, read and write Afrikaans fairly well, but I haven't used it once since about 1991. My Xhosa was never great, but it was a fun language to learn.
In college I took a year of Spanish and I continue to try to learn it via CD and Telemundo. It's coming along, but I don't feel very comfortable striking up a conversation in Spanish. Recently I found this site for learning Chinese via a podcast. I can now say "Is this your pen?" in Chinese which comes up a lot more often than I would have thought.
I need to figure out a way to spend a couple of years in a Spanish-speaking country, then in China. After that I'd like to re-learn French and then possibly begin Russian or Hindi.
Do you speak more than one language? Which ones? If not, which ones would you like to learn?
I haven't talked much about Lulu.com in the past primarily because it isn't a site that I visit regularly. However it is one site and service that I would really miss if it were gone. Lulu is a print-on-demand book printing company that I used to publish two of my three books. They provide a full-service printing service as well as customized storefronts (see mine here) and a zillion other services.
If you're considering publishing a book, you should at least consider Lulu. My experience with them has been excellent. To publish a book with Lulu you simply upload a Word document or PDF file, upload some cover art and select the binding. If you do not require any other services, you can make a book available for online purchase with no up-front costs at all. In my case, I opted for the ISBN service which costs $99 per book and requires that you purchase one copy of the book initially to approve the printing. The advantage of the ISBN service is that your published work can then be distributed online at Amazon and through other booksellers online and offline.
If you're thinking about publishing something private like a family history or personal journal, you can also use Lulu to create the printed copy and only make the work available by invitation. It's a fantastic service and the people at Lulu are great to work with.
Google is without a doubt the single-largest part of my online life. I use GMail for mail, Google Reader for aggregating the blogs I read, Google Calendar for scheduling, and the Google Homepage to keep track of everything else. Additionally I use Google Adsense on this blog and on my other web sites and since I'm a Google module developer, I spend a lot of time looking at the Google developer forums and their code section. I love Google Earth and Picasa and I have dabbled in Google SketchUp, though I'm not talented enough to get much out of it.
Google Mail (GMail) is obvious. It's a free email account with virtually unlimited storage and good controls. When I switched to GMail I thought that I might miss some features of a regular mail application such as the ability to create rich messages (with pictures and colors and backgrounds). I don't. I really never used that feature much anyway. I love being able to access my mail from anywhere. I love having the Google search engine for my mail. There are so many occasions that I need to find an old email, but can't remember much about it. It's so easy to find in GMail using their search functions (just like Google for the web). I've been with GMail for over a year and I haven't looked back once.
Google Calendar is the best thing I've found for calendaring. I love the concept of creating and sharing calendars. I wrote a long post about that here. I also think there's a marketing opportunity for using Google Calendar. I wrote about that here.
Picasa is Google's photo organization software. It really is amazing what Google gives away. This is a great photo organization and touch-up product. If you need to remove red eye from your photos or rotate or resize, crop, adjust ... well, you should try Picasa. It's free, it's fast and it's really cool. There's much more to Picasa than I've had time to explore. If you haven't downloaded it yet, you should.
Did you notice when I added the Adsense ads to my site? Hopefully it wasn't a negative thing for you. I added them after reading this article by Seth Godin about having advertisements on a web site. Interestingly since I incorporated the advertisements on my site, my readership has gone up. Truthfully I don't know if it has anything to do with the ads, since many other things have evolved on my site as well, but my readership definitely didn't go down, so the ads are staying.
Adwords is the other side of Adsense. Adwords lets you purchase advertising that appears on other web sites and on the Google main search site. I used Adwords a few years back and had an unbelievable response. In my case, there was no immediate monetary benefit to the ads I was buying, so I couldn't justify paying for the ads at that time. If you run a web store or online service today, you should definitely look into the Google Adwords program. The amount of traffic generated by Google is almost unbelievable.
There is so much at Google that it is impossible to discuss it all in a single blog entry. For me, Google is the first place I look for new technologies and new ideas on the web. I use Google every day and I suspect that won't change for a very long time.
I love getting news about the sequel to Batman Begins (called The Dark Knight). Today my brother pointed me to this article. I don't currently have a strong opinion about Heath Ledger. I'm just excited for any news about The Dark Knight.
Well, I finally convinced my wife to start blogging. I've been bugging her about it for a while. Previously she has been running a few bulletin-board style web sites and she still manages the day-to-day stuff at HopeToAdopt.com.
Her blog will likely be much more useful in terms of actual information than mine (unless you happen to be looking for a blog that comments on bacon, movies, Google, restaurants, writing and time travel). She's more talented than I am by a long shot. And nicer to look at.
You can see Holly's Corner here.
A couple of days ago we decided to go out for dinner at Carraba's. I think I may have ordered take-out from there once about 10 years ago when I was visiting Fort Collins.
When the waitress asked if we wanted an appetizer I mentioned that this was our first time dining there and that we'd need a bit more time. She immediately pointed out all of the specials, all of the good stuff and everything we needed to know for a first-time experience at Carraba's. We had a fantastic experience. The service was great and the food was great.
As an added bonus, the manager brought by a free dessert and welcomed us to Carraba's as first-time diners.
That's great service!
Today's favorite web site shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who has read my blog for more than a couple of days. In fact, I've written a lot about Netflix.com
. I think the first time I wrote about Netflix was back in January. Once I became fully assimilated by Netflix, I developed a Google Homepage module for Netflix.
If you've missed either of these articles, let me point out the top 5 reasons why I think Netflix is so great:
4. Price. We rent a lot of movies, but not everyone does. The nice thing about Netflix is that there are plans that will work for just about anyone. The least expensive plan is just $5.99 per month. With that plan you can rent 2 movies per month. The next plan is the "1 DVD at-a-time" plan for $9.99. You can rent an unlimited number of movies per month, but only have 1 at home at a time. I have the "4 DVDs at-a-time" plan. You can see the plans here.
3. Responsiveness. At first I was concerned that the 2-3 day turnaround for movies would be a detriment. While it is true that if I suddenly have a hankering to see The Strongest Man in the World with Kurt Russell I won't get it today, I will get it within a few days and I won't have to drive or call all over town to find a store that has it.
2. Convenience. I can't say enough about this. I love that I don't have to run out to the video store ever.
1. Unbelievable selection. Because of Netflix I can still rent movies like: Strange Brew, The In-Laws (original) or The World's Greatest Athlete. And who wouldn't want to rent these movies? All of these are 1970's movies. My experience with rental stores is that it's nearly impossible to find any movie that's older than about 10 years.
Seth gives some great advice to authors today. Sometimes I think he is speaking directly to me.
Here are some of his points:
1. Lower your expectations. The happiest authors are the ones that don't expect much.
2. The best time to start promoting your book is three years before it comes out. Three years to build a reputation, build a permission asset, build a blog, build a following, build credibility and build the connections you'll need later.
5. Don't try to sell your book to everyone. First, consider this: " 58% of the US adult population never reads another book after high school." Then, consider the fact that among people even willing to buy a book, yours is just a tiny little needle in a very big haystack. Far better to obsess about a little subset of the market--that subset that you have permission to talk with, that subset where you have credibility, and most important, that subset where people just can't live without your book.
12. Blog mentions, on the other hand, matter a lot.
14. Consider the free PDF alternative. Some have gotten millions of downloads. No hassles, no time wasted, no trying to make a living on it. All the joy, in other words, without debating whether you should quit your day job (you shouldn't!)
19. Writing a book is a tremendous experience. It pays off intellectually. It clarifies your thinking. It builds credibility. It is a living engine of marketing and idea spreading, working every day to deliver your message with authority. You should write one.
I have picked up some of this knowledge from personal experience, but it's nice to get some external confirmation. I have already made the PDF available (#14) and I'm not quitting my day job. Item #12 is true. Seth's mention of my book started a series of blog mentions that have boosted traffic and readership. #2 is the point of this blog. #19 is absolutely true. Comment #5 is sad. It's hard to believe that more than half of Americans never read a book after high school.
I have had Ultraviolet sitting at home for almost three weeks now. I rented it from Netflix.com (naturally), but I just haven't made time to watch it until last night.
I had heard that it was a little like Aeon Flux (which I really enjoyed). There are obvious similarities, but Aeon Flux was a much better movie overall. Ultraviolet had some very cool technologies and some good effects. Unfortunately not all the effects were good (especially the very big ones) and the story itself was a little flat. I never connected to any of the characters, so I didn't care much about anything that happened.
Ultraviolet is a good eye-candy type of movie if you just want some brain-dead entertainment. I can't say that I'd go out of my way to watch it again, though. 1.0π.
I've been using Amazon.com almost from the day it opened. At that time, I was living in Idaho and it was difficult to find the technical books that I needed for work. Amazon.com was the answer.
Since then, it's just gotten better. I buy most of my DVDs from Amazon.com and my wife and I have used it at Christmas almost every year because it is so easy to order and have the gifts (wrapped at Amazon) shipped directly to our friends and family.
One thing that I think most people overlook is the Amazon used program. If you're looking to buy a book or DVD, you should check the link called Used & new after you search for the item. These are items that are being sold by individuals and smaller businesses that either have new items in stock or used items available for purchase. I've picked up several books from their used book resellers. One book I bought cost $0.01 plus $1.50 in shipping. Sometimes the book is out of print (like my first book). Sometimes the book just wasn't great. Sometimes people just want to get rid of books they've already read. In any case, you get a great deal. I've never had any trouble with a used book. They've all been in excellent condition and they've all arrived promptly. You can also sell your old books (and other stuff) on Amazon. I've sold several old books there without any trouble.
As you know, Amazon is going to be featuring my first published short story soon. From my perspective, Amazon is another can't-live-without web site and service that I expect to use almost every day for the foreseeable future.
iTunes is another site and service that has changed my life. I have to admit that when I first started my electronic music collection, not every song was 100% legal. However, in the past couple of years, I've changed my thinking and I've found iTunes to be the best way to get the music that I want. Just before my vacation I downloaded the album Amore by Andrea Bocelli and the single of "Rock Me Amadeus (Ihn Liebten Alle Frauen...)" by Falco (naturally). Yesterday I downloaded "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" by KT Tunstall and "Right Here" by Staind. iTunes allows me to have the nuttiest taste in music in the world and still get the songs I want. Talk about long tail!
Now iTunes is branching out into TV episodes, short films, music videos and other types of media that you can watch or listen to on your computer or your iPod. A few months ago I wrote about the video iPod. My brother has one now (as does my grandmother!) and I may have to change my opinion. I'm pretty sure that nobody needs a video iPod, but I can see how fun it would be to have one. Anybody who travels could get a lot of use out of it. In any case, watching an episode of The Office on my brother's iPod last week was actually quite pleasant. Perhaps it's because The Office is just hilarious, but I have to say that I was impressed by the video of that little thing. Very cool.
Did you read my movie review yesterday? If so you might be happy to know that you can Download Knight Rider on iTunes. If you're not a fan of Knight Rider (like that could happen), you can still download all your favorite music at iTunes. I highly recommend checking it out today. You can also get iTunes gift certificates
. And remember, you don't need an iPod to enjoy iTunes.
Before I left on vacation I mentioned that I was going to start listing my favorite web sites or the sites that are most important to me and what I do. I'm not prioritizing the sites because each one has a different purpose. Today's site is PayPal
.
If you've been on the Internet for more than fifteen minutes (or maybe less if you pay attention to your friends when they're talking), you've heard about PayPal. When I first found PayPal I couldn't believe what a great idea it was. From a customer perspective, PayPal is a way to manage online payments. You set up an account, fund it by transferring money into it from a credit card or checking account and then you can purchase goods and services online at zillions of PayPal merchant sites without exposing your personal banking information to those sites.
As a merchant, you can open a PayPal merchant account that allows you to accept payments for your goods and services online without the hassle and the extremely high overhead of a traditional merchant account. In fact there are no upfront fees for opening any type of PayPal account (or there weren't when I started) and the transaction fees for selling online are very small.
I have used my PayPal account for both purposes. I regularly pay for images, domain names, servers, books, cds, etc. online from my PayPal account. I also receive payments through my PayPal account for our services at HopeToAdopt.com.
If you're thinking about setting up a shop of any kind online, you should absolutely consider opening a PayPal merchant account. It's quick, inexpensive and painless. You can be up and running and accepting payments almost immediately and your account or how you use your account can grow with your experience in using it. If you receive payments, you can also request a debit card that you can use anywhere that draws directly from your PayPal balance.
For me, PayPal is an indispensable web site. If it were to disappear I would have to change a lot of the way I currently do business online. If you don't have an account, sign up at PayPal today and get your online business started.
Today I have two movies. The first is still in theaters, the second just became available on DVD.
First, Monster House. This is a fun family movie about a house that is a monster (making the title particularly apt). I've seen a lot of Internet traffic about the quality of the animation of this movie. I'm not smart enough to discuss that. Basically for me it was a fun movie that I enjoyed more than I was expecting. It's got a good cast, a fun storyline and it's a good blend of kid fun and kid scary. My three year old wasn't bothered by the scary and my eight year old was entertained. It's a fun movie to see before the end of the summer break. 1.5π.
Second, The Benchwarmers. This is a movie that I wanted to see in the theater, but I missed it. It stars Rob Schneider, David Spade and Jon Heder. This is not a thinking person's movie. I loved it. There is a scene involving a lawn mower and a golf ball that made me laugh so hard I thought I would pass out. Also, if you grew up watching Knight Rider, you'll appreciate another segment involving KITT. I watched it last week and I've already put it back at the top of my Netflix.com queue. (Click here to add to your queue). It's stupid and just plain funny. 1.75π.
I just found out that my story, Semper Nunc, has been accepted by Amazon.com into their Amazon Shorts program. If you've been reading my blog for a while, you may have seen that story already. It used to be listed in my Short Stories area.
A few weeks ago I learned about the Amazon Shorts program and submitted my story there. Because they accepted it, they require a six month exclusive distribution agreement, so I took the story off my web site. It will be a few weeks before it appears on Amazon.com. You'll definitely hear about it when it's there.
As I get more familiar with the program, I'll let you all know how it works and I'll provide whatever advice and information I can. Up front it appears to be an interesting program, but I honestly don't know much about it at this point.
I'm back from vacation and I'm getting caught up on everything. I've got so much to do!
First of all, thanks to everyone for the concern when I wasn't blogging and for the nice wishes regarding my vacation. We had a great time. We took ten days to visit family and friends in Rexburg, Idaho. All of my family and all of my wife's family were there, so we had some great family time.
If you're interested, we drove just over 2,000 miles. It's 899.4 miles from my office in Scottsdale to my in-law's home in Archer, Idaho. On the way up, we stayed overnight in a town called Beaver. I'm not emotionally prepared to discuss that motel yet. We drove straight through on the way back. It took just over 15 hours, having just four stops along the way. That's pretty good considering my kids are 8 and 3.
We spent one evening at the "Bar J" Chuckwagon in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. That was for my grandparents. They both turned 85 in July. I have some pictures from that event that are too good for words, but I don't have them here with me right now. I'll get to those this week.
While in Rexburg, I stopped at my favorite shop for chocolates, Florence's. They have the best chocolates in the US. Really. If you're thinking about sending chocolates anytime soon, you should order them online from Florence's. It's not that nasty waxy chocolate you normally get at the grocery and it's not See's (which I don't like). Their web site isn't fantastic, but that's because they're busy making great chocolate. Try it and let me know if it isn't the best you've ever had.
I'll probably have more anecdotes to relate through the next week or so, but that's the initial report. I'm happy to be back.
