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POPSWhy Your Homepage Doesn't Matter (As Much)
I found this article completely by accident on a blog I've never read before while looking for reviews on a beta service I'd forgotten I signed up for. And best of all, I happened to be looking at landing page options for a client when I got side-tracked by this post. Mr.Amer is 100% correct. Not much about your homepage really matters anymore. It's nothing more than your reception area. If you go to the dentist, you're there to see the dentist, not to sit in the reception area. And I bet that if the dentist is a really good dentist, you'll sit in the reception room for a bit even if you can't stand the wallpaper. Amer's point takes us back to Internets 101, where the purpose of a website is to organize information around a topic for easy retrieval. A decade ago, when internet search was still in infancy, a search engine would lead you to the site's homepage, drop you off there, and say good-bye. Today's search? Think a gargantuan gorilla that will run out, snatch and grab the d
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POPSWhy DRM-protected Music is a Waste of Money This is a shining example of why DRM is flawed. Why should our music collection depend on the continued support of some retailer? Any time you pay money for DRM-protected music you are renting the music that you purchased . And once those DRM servers shut down, they walk away with your money AND your music.
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POPSFree Tools for PC-Related Rx Calls This is a good list of tools to have on your spare USB drive. CCleaner, JFDrag, and Spybot Search & Destroy have been priceless allies for me in the Battle Against the Blue Screen of Death. What's in your toolbox?
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POPSMesh Platforms There seems to be a pretty big focus on 'the mesh' these days. This post from RWW pulls together material from Marc Canter 's upcoming book. It's a good look at the competing platforms that are emerging. The idea of a mesh network is a bit hard to conceptualize. You could say that it's a bunch of communications devices that help each other move data from one point to another. Wikipedia offers a much better, albeit more involved, definition. I found Microsoft's explanation rather easier to grasp. And their Vision video isn't bad either.
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POPSWEP/WPA Cracking with WZCook Disclaimers aside, I bookmark utilities like this one for a number of reasons, one being my inability recall where it was that I wrote down my WEP key. (I've long since given up on actually remember the passphrase itself!) A more recent application occurred during a hotel stay during which the hotel locked down it's internet access using a passphrase due to a "malicious user", and I needed access before the phrase was distributed to the front desk IT person. As you can see, there are a fair number of legitimate uses out there, and this little app takes up very little hard drive real estate. I actually have a USB drive with "travel"-related software utilities such as this, which has saved my quite a few times.
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POPSCompanies Catching on to Telework, but is the Corporate Culture Ready? So far I've worked for both public and private companies, for large government organizations, and for myself. I've also been a telework proponent for years. I can say that, without a doubt, I've been most productive when I'm allowed to dictate my work environment. Which is perhaps why this article really resonated with me. This post from (surprise!) WebWorkerDaily is probably the best collection of telework-related advice I've ever read. Aimed at large corporations, Mike Gunderloy & Aliza Sherman do a bang-up job summarizing myths associated with corporate telework as well as the benefits- a few of which you may not have thought of before! It's true that large corporations seen to have a hard time "getting it" when it comes to initiatives like telework. Telework requires a certain amount of trust that your employees will behave responsibility while out of your direct control (aka the office). Not all corporate cultures allow for this to occur. And even in cultures that do, many e
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POPSPosterous is Minimal Effort Blogging I know I can always turn to DemoGirl when it comes to finding cool and useful online tools. Here's a great screencast of super easy blogging platform Posterous . Similar to Tumblr , but even easier to use, I can definitely see a growing audience for this and perhaps other no-brainer blogging platforms. Thanks for the tip, Molly!
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POPSMicrosoft Live Mesh is, umm, Live Admittedly, I don't know a lot about Microsoft's Live Mesh product. And judging by articles like this one posted at ReadWriteWeb, the current sync-and-store product is just the beginning. What I find interesting about Live Mesh is that it is built on open protocols. This means that developers can begin making products and services that live "on the Mesh". How soon we'll see this is anyone's guess, as are the applications themselves.
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POPSOverview of the Micro-Blogosphere I'm doing some research on SMS messaging and micro-blogging and clipped this post for the long list of mobile social networking sites. However, this May 14th post is a good comprehensive look at the micro-blogging landscape.
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POPSLive Blogging Using Google Docs Google Docs has been criticized lately regarding downtime- a legitimate concern for corporate customers. Since I'm not a corporate account and it's been there (mostly) whenever I need it, I still think Google Docs is a great alternative to expensive software packages. One of the best things about Google Docs is the large user community, and I'm constantly hearing about new and innovative uses for Google Docs. Like the article below that steps you through blogging a live event using Google Docs.
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POPSThe Social Media Quadrant: Where Do You Fit? Check out this great post by Liz Strauss at Successful-Blog.com. The quadrant that Liz lays out is not unfamiliar to anyone who has attended business school or perhaps a leadership or team-building training. What's so cool is that Liz grafts this model onto the social networking/ social media scene. In doing so, she raises a number of questions that we may not have thought to ask. And depending on the goals we have, our answers here may predict our success or failure in our future endeavors. One of the better ways to use Liz's chart is to identify where our customers lie within the quadrant. What values in the quadrant match the values of your current audience. How about your target audience? What do you have to do different in order to cater to each different quadrant? Or do you want to cater to all quadrants? It may not be worth the time, energy, expense, etc. Perhaps by releasing some of the resources devoted to these customers, you can re-focus them on a more producti
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POPSExperts, features, and overspecialization I'm trying to wrap my mind around this post. It's quite lengthy, but I guarantee you it will make you think. Thing is, I'm not sure I completely agree. Does adding additional features really reduce the audience? Is it true that those who overspecialize in today's world will not do well? What if the reverse is true? For example, take an application that has very few features. All resources are focuses on two (two being an arbitrary small number) specific tasks. On it's release, only people who need to perform those tasks will benefit from the application. Now add sixteen features and you've got sixteen times the likelihood of someone needing the application. Think of all the social applications with open API's. I'm using Clipmarks to post to my Wordpress blog, which will notify my Twitter followers of a new post, send an email to my subscribers, and provide an RSS feed for various news readers. My audience is expanded exponentially with each new feature that is tied into these
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POPSEco-friendly bubble wrap Relieve stress while raising the stress level of the people on the cubes near you with virtual bubble wrap. On an eco-friendly note, birds can't choke or drown in virtual bubble wrap...
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