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2008

  • 1 min read

Making my blog look very busy

Wordpress TimestampHave you noticed? How frequently I've been posting?

I am using WordPress's 'post in the future' feature so in one sitting I can rattle off 6 or 7 posts and schedule them for publication in the coming days.

Very efficient 🙂

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WebInno is back in town

If you live in the Boston area and are in the tech business you should check out the more or less monthly Web Innovators gathering sometimes referred to in shorthand as WebInno. Here is the WebInnot blog and here is the WebInno registration page and announcement of the next WebInno event.

For all of y'all who suffer from the boston-isnt-as-cool-as-silicon-valley syndrome, I strongly recommend you check out the next WebInno. Here again are the coordinates:

"It’s just over two weeks away until our July 15th Web Innovators Group meeting and we’ve lined up another great set of demonstrators for the event.

As usual, the doors officially open at 6:30pm at the Grand Ballroom in the Cambridge Royal Sonesta, with the “main dish” presentations to the entire crowd starting at 7pm." (from WebInno)

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Dave (not that one) writes about Fear of Failure

I just came across Dave Dupre's blog. Some good reading there, for example:

"[…snip] If the single test does not show a huge improvement, the project is considered a failure and scrapped. This happens all the time, and it always stifles innovation. Why propose something new if you have to be right all the time?

Innovation does not proceed on a schedule. To maintain a culture of innovation, occasional failure must be allowed - even encouraged! As long as you learn from your mistakes and move on and get better, the team and the company will be better off." (from Fear of Failure)

Technorati Tags: softwaredevelopment management

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30+ Must-Have Updated Firefox 3 Extensions

Check this post 30+ Must-Have Updated Firefox 3 Extensions from Mashable!:

We’ve put together a list of 30+ must-have Firefox 3 extensions that we know you’ll enjoy, whether you’ve upgraded to Firefox 3 and are looking for something new to add to your browser, or have yet to make the upgrade and are looking for a reason.

Lots of good stuff there if you are a FireFox 3 user. Check 'em out!

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Using Google to make community standards transparent and objective

This New York Times article, "What's Obscene? Google Could Have an Answer" is pretty interesting, and makes sense at some level:

"Judges and jurors who must decide whether sexually explicit material is obscene are asked to use a local yardstick: does the material violate community standards?" (from "What's Obcene?")

and then:

"In a novel approach, the defense in an obscenity trial in Florida plans to use publicly accessible Google search data to try to persuade jurors that their neighbors have broader interests than they might have thought." (from "What's Obcene?)

Read the whole article, it's quite interesting. Do you think this is a reasonable judicial approach?

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Good article about TechCrunch and Michael Arrington in Wired

I haven't seen anyone pointing to this article about TechCrunch and Professor Arrington, but it's very interesting. I remember when it was first starting and how he would write an unbelievable number of interesting and useful reviews about new products. Mike Arrington was a machine! Say what you will about him, TechCrunch is the labor of some extremely hard work:

"Of course, Arrington's success is about more than partying like a frat boy and schmoozing like a Hollywood agent at a cast party. With the exception of a three-week vacation (during which he worked half-time) at the end of 2006, he says he has worked every day for two years straight.

He gets up at about 10 or 11 am, is at his desk 10 seconds later, and tends to the business side of his operation until early evening, seeing entrepreneurs, doing phone interviews, tracking the news of the day, and writing posts. He's often at parties or other events until 10. It's typically not until 10 or 11 pm, when things quiet down, that he has time to think and write more thoughtful, analytical blog entries. "I've actually cut back," he says. " from TecCrunch Blogger Michael Arrington Can Generate Buzz

Learn all about TechCrunch and Michael Arrington

Technorati Tags: techcrunch arrington

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I agree with Tom Friedman

He's been saying something like this since a week after 9/11. I agreed with him then, and I still agree with him:

"Oil is poisoning our climate and our geopolitics, and here is how we’re going to break our addiction: We’re going to set a floor price of $4.50 a gallon for gasoline and $100 a barrel for oil. And that floor price is going to trigger massive investments in renewable energy — particularly wind, solar panels and solar thermal. And we’re also going to go on a crash program to dramatically increase energy efficiency, to drive conservation to a whole new level and to build more nuclear power. And I want every Democrat and every Republican to join me in this endeavor.”

That’s what a real president would do." (from Mr. Bush, Lead or Leave)