-Revised Oct 9, 2008, 7:47AM EST: fixed Paul’s last name in title.
While listening to a backdated episode of the Windows Weekly podcast (#67) yesterday afternoon, I realized something interesting about the relationship between journalism and popularity. Paul Thurrott (co-host of the show with Leo Laporte and of WinSuperSite fame) was explaining how he is giving away and selling certain items he no longer needs: books, DVDs, tech hardware, software, etc. He said that it’s a collaborative process with himself and his wife to de-clutter the home. But what really caught my attention was the clear distinction he placed when giving away or selling said items.
Like many journalists and tech reporters, Paul receives many review units that he is not required to return. He distinctly said during the podcast that these items are not for sale: he will simply give them away for free. Obviously, this is the right and ethical thing to do: no conflict-of-interest issues can arise here.
Moreover, there were also items that Paul was selling for a very small fee - not expecting to send his kids “to school”, as he explained. These items he purchased himself. But what really caught my attention was that he was conducting said giveaways and sales not on his revenue-generating website (WinSuperSite, which is an excellent tech site - by the way). Rather, he was referring people to visit his old website - internet-nexus.com for the items. Simply put, no monetary gains from increased website traffic to WinSuperSite were made by Paul during this giveaway/sales event.
This is such a cordial thing to do and is something that isn’t seen in much of the current generation of tech journalists, writers, or reviewers. It seems that so many of these professionals (and small-time-writers) have used giveaways and other promotional techniques to lure people to their site and/or generate web traffic (yes, I’m looking at you Mr. Kevin Rose and that iPhone). I recognize Paul for his ethics and class: he is now heads and shoulders above the rest.
I just wish that more would follow by example.
Something nobody wants to hear about but must face: death statistics.
Chances of a fatality reullting from an accident:
-airplane: 1 in 1,000,000
-car: 1 in 300,000
I think I’ll start taking the Gulfstream to the university from now on. Anyone wanna “plane-pool”?
Ever had that immediate need for a nice cold glass of water? This presentation will make you appreciate it!
I haven’t written here (AlexLuft.com) in a while. There a few reason as to why that is (they’re all very good, I promise!):
- I’ve been working on a design to the static pages of the site and I’m pleased to announce they are going to be live pretty soon. I should have them up in about a week or so. Maybe two. ;)
- I’ve been working on the website for my personal training business - FunctionAll. You can see the first stage of the site at TrainFunctionAll.com. It’s a work in progress but is a good first step for me. I’m planning tp building on it as time goes by.
- I’ve been helping Ariana out with her clothing line, Uneek Geek. Check out her Etsy store for some cool geek wear and apparel. We’re working on getting her own web store up and running using Magento, so that’s taking some time as well.
Between all that and TechNest Report, I’ve been very much tied up, but as soon as the redesign for this site and Uneek Geek are more or less along, I’ll be back and writing more - I promise!
Finally got the long-awaited call from the AT&T rep letting me know my pre-ordered 8GB 3G iPhone has arrived. I was transferring my number from T-Mobile, so it took about 10 minutes of waiting in the store for that to happen. This wasn’t really as bad as I was anticipating it would be. In fact, I was fortunate to have an AT&T rep who new what she was doing. I walked out with my brand-spankin-new iPhone in one hand - ready to make but not yet receive calls and sms - and my old and trusty RAZR V3i in another hand - capable of performing both tasks until its service was terminated. Here are my first impretions:
- Love the new “feel” of the phone: it’s not slippery as was the first gen.
- Love 3G speeds. So far, I have always been covered by 3G - Coral Springs/Parkland area (Florida, USA).
- The best part is the App Store: it’s simply amazing. Besides the amazing iPhone user interface, the App Store is the best thing on the device. I have downloaded and use the following apps:
- Twinkle - a location-aware Twitter client (meaning you can specify to received updates from people in a 5 mile radius from you)
- AIM
- Yelp - a location-aware “places search” - that is kind of like Google Maps but also has an active community of reviewers. I think it uses Google Maps on the iPhone as the mapping tech
- Light - turns the screen completely white to simulate a flashlight.
- Jott - records your voice notes, transcribes them to text, makes it available on the iPhone App or on the web. You can even type using the keyboard if you don’t want to talk. Voice-to-text transcription has been very good so far. You can make to-do lists, shopping lists, and there is a messaging and social-networking feature that I don’t yet fully understand. To mark a task as “done”, just cross it off with you finger and the effect that follows is amazing - a strikethrough line that crosses that task/item off. This is my favorite App thus far.
- Evernote - the best note-taking application. I have it installed on my Mac, my Vista PC, and even my Hackintoshed Mac. Any changes I make to my notes on the iPhone are synced up to the cloud (where I can access and edit them) and then synced back down to all my PCs. This is my second favorite app (because the “new factor” has worn off as I’ve been using it for a few months already on the dekstop).
- Google app - the same as going to Safari and doing a Google search, but without having to do so. Also searches your entire phone’s contents, including email and Contacts.
- Apple Remote - an amazing app: allows you to control your iTunes library on your Mac/PC remotely. Basically, the iPhone becomes the remote for your computer with iTunes.
- Shazam - put a song on that you don’t know the name of and it will tell you what it is. It will even offer to take you to the iTunes music store on the iPhone and get the song for you.
- Urbanspoon - find restaurants based on your location and preference type. Makes use of iPhone’s accelerometers. Allows you to “lock in” location, cuisine type, and cost.
- Check please - a tip calculator. Allows you to specify cost of check and split the tip (or bill) in x different ways.
- Save Benjis - performs an internet search to compare prices on items you’re interested in. Think of PriceGrabber but for the iPhone - natively.
- I haven’t installed any games yet since I don’t really want to pay for them (yet). Maybe I’ll get Tap Tap Revenge.
- One important tid-bit: during my first sync, I selected the option to restore from my previous iPhone (the first generation). This brought back all my old iPhone’s podcasts and contacts and information but made the iPhone really slow. The delays and lag between clicks/touches were enourmous. I wiped it and started over with a clean iPhone, setting it up through iTunes. This fixed the “slowness” problem.
- Things I’m still waiting on:
- Google Calendar native over-the-air (OTA) sync app and Google providing “push” through Gmail and Gcalendar.
- 1Password: OTA sync through my.1password.com. (1Password is a password management application for the Mac.)
- Google Documenets syncronizer that would allow me to edit Google Docs without an internet connection on the iPhone.
What do you use? Talk to me in the comments.
I found a great Delicous (Del.icio.us) overview online for those not in the know. I was just browsing around on a site called SlideShare (another useful and excellent site, by the way) when I came across this deliciously-useful -;) slide show. I’ve been a Delicious user for almost a year now and thought I’ve been using the tasty online application to its fullest. Apparently this was not the case, as I didn’t know what “bundles” were - for instance.
Check out the slideshow after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »
In my shopping for the new 3G iPhone, I discovered something I didn’t know: even the least expensive individual plan for AT&T ($69.99/month) includes unlimited in-network calling for AT&T customers. The plan doesn’t have unlimited nights and weekends, however. These realizations came as a big surprise, since I found this out in a situation I wouldn’t have wanted to. And that’s all I’m sayin’.
By the way, I pre-ordered two iPhones (8GB) from an AT&T store on Tuesday: one for me and one for Ari. Needless to say, the experience was sub-prime.
I am in the process of redesigning business cards for my personal training business - FunctionAll. The creative question of the day is whether I should fill the card up with as much information as possible or keep it very simple and intriguing.
If I take route the vebose route, I would be filling the card up with some (if not all) of the following items:
- Company name
- Company logo
- My name
- Physical address
- Phone number
- Email address
- Website
- Information about the company and the principles behind it
- Services provided by FunctionAll
On the other hand, I would like to convey intrigue and curiosity about the company and its services and would do this by only including:
- Compay name
- Company “tagline” (motto)
- Company logo
- My name
- Website
The idea here is that I am able to convey information about my company and its services in much greater detail on the website, thus being the only place to go for the recipient of the card. This would be analagous to Apple’s press invitations to special events: no details except the location of the event, its date, and an ever-so-slight hint (in “tagline” and/or image forms) about the event’s contents. Sounds good so far, doesn’t it? Well, it does have downsides.
As a friend explained to me earlier today, some (if not most) people just want to grab a card, find out what the company is all about, and make the decision right then: are they interested or not in the company and its services? Do they keep the card or throw it away at the closest possible recycle bin without anybody seeing them do it?
I will try out both types of cards and report which one is turned out to be most successful. Lucky for me, I can experiment in such ways.
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It was dark and we met in an alley. I pulled out the item and was handed four paper bills: three $100s and one $50. Holding the cash in my hand, I thought: “What if it’s fake?” Read on… Read the rest of this entry »
Check out this 2003 email from Bill Gates. It came as part of turned over material from the Microsoft antitrust suits.
My favorite part:
“So I gave up and sent mail to Amir saying - where is this Moviemaker download? Does it exist? So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated.”
I’m surprised that those lines, don’t end with “You all should be fired for this.”
Anyway, hit up the read link after the break of this great memo that gives a little more insight into Bill G’s personality and management style. Read the rest of this entry »
