Laughter, Laughter, Laughter….
For more info on why developers are giving Vista the cold shoulder head on over to CNET
I lost about 35% of my RSS feedburner subscribers because the nasty little spammers felt compelled to hack my feed with a string of unsavory link ads. The spammers tainted a wordpress file by embedding a rogue javascript that makes “calls” and implants the nasty links.
I’ve upgraded to a newer version of wordpress (not bragging about my version for security) and cleaned / reinstalled numerous files. I have five older posts (feed only) that are still affected by the spam but have the problem relatively under control. I may repost those entries if I cannot fully diagnose the feed problem. Posts and Feeds going forward are clean so no worries on building the feed subscriber base back up.
I thoroughly recommend hardening your Wordpress install and batting down the hatches for security sake. Also check out the following resources which have been instrumental in my own diagnosis of RSS spam link injection.
RobertGaloppini
Linux-by-Example
Kakkoi
Gordon Dewis
Raph
So if you fall victim to spam injection or feed hacks then go through the following resources above…otherwise take a pill and call your doctor in the morning.
Any technology problem that swallows endless hours of my time, compels me to post solutions so someone else can avoid the same pitfalls. Wamp server is an apache, php, mysql bundle for dynamic website development (a localhost environment). The problem I ran into was I could not browse my local host or load phpmyadmin. It was driving me insane because the server was clearly communicating with the index.php file but would not load. So after numerous uninstalls and reinstalls of Wamp I finally decided to track port 80 (duh!). The port 80 was having a conflict with Skype that also uses port 80. So long story short if Wamp installs and you can’t render anything to the browser, skype is probably running.
As always sorry to the non-geek readers….but I know my previous 1and1 cpanel migration to mysql saved people in the past based on the hits.
For the last ten years I had the equivalent of cell phone ADHD until I experienced the Blackberry line of products (Blackberry 8703 in particular). Blackberry’s newest product announcement “Bold” has all the bells and whistles a modern day smart phone should have coupled with the reliability and functionality of the Blackberry name. A few of the press release highlights:
BlackBerry Bold smartphone’s support for tri-band HSDPA and enterprise-grade Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g) networks and its next-generation 624 MHz mobile processor make short work of downloading email attachments, streaming video or rendering web pages. The BlackBerry Bold also includes 128 MB Flash memory plus 1 GB on-board storage memory, as well as a microSD/SDHC memory card slot(ii) that is conveniently accessible from a side door. It comes with the renowned BlackBerry productivity applications, including phone, email, messaging, organizer and browser, and works with thousands of mobile business and lifestyle applications, making it easier than ever to stay connected, productive and entertained. With this powerful new smartphone, users can even talk on the phone while sending and receiving email or accessing the web, and download Word, Excel or PowerPoint files and edit them directly on the handset using the preloaded DataViz® Documents to Go® suite.
STUNNING DISPLAY
The BlackBerry Bold smartphone comes with the most vivid and bold display ever introduced on a BlackBerry smartphone. Its half-VGA (480×320 resolution) color LCD is fused to the undersurface of the lens, making images leap out with stunning definition and clarity. Pictures are vibrant and razor sharp, while videos play smoothly and web pages, documents, presentations and messages snap with exceptional quality and contrast.
DESKTOP-STYLE WEB PAGES
With its newly enhanced, high performance browser and high-resolution, ultra-bright display, the BlackBerry Bold smartphone gives users an on-the-go web browsing experience with desktop-style depiction. The trackball mimics a mouse, making it easy to navigate sites in “Page View” or “Column View” or to zoom in on specific parts of a web page, while various emulation settings allow users to choose between the full desktop-style HTML content and layout or the mobile version. Attachments can also now be downloaded from within the browser and there is support for watching streaming videos (RTSP - real-time streaming protocol).
RICH MULTIMEDIA
While it is designed to meet the extensive requirements of the business professional during the day, the BlackBerry Bold smartphone also caters to the business person’s consumer side during evenings and weekends. It features a 2 megapixel camera with video recording capability, built-in flash and 5x digital zoom. The enhanced media player can display pictures and slideshows quickly, play movies smoothly in full screen mode, and manage an entire music collection. Audio can be played over the handset’s dual speakers in rich, stereo sound, and when using wired headphones or external speakers, the media player gives the user an equalizer with 11 preset filters - like “Lounge”, “Jazz” and “Hip Hop” - that boost or soften audio ranges to create the perfect ambiance.
For managing music and video, the BlackBerry® Desktop Manager software includes Roxio® Media Manager for BlackBerry® as well as Roxio Photosuite® 9 LE, which makes it easy to enhance pictures and create photo albums on the computer. For users that manage their collection with iTunes®, the new BlackBerry® Media Sync application provides a simple way to sync iTunes digital music collections with the smartphone(iii). Support for High Speed USB 2.0 allows all files to be transferred quickly from a desktop computer to the BlackBerry Bold smartphone.
POWERFUL WI-FI & GPS
For even broader high-speed network coverage, the BlackBerry Bold smartphone supports the 802.11 a/b/g Wi-Fi standards, ideal for use in enterprise or campus wireless LAN deployments, over Wi-Fi hotspots and on wireless home networks. A new “Push Button Setup” is included, making it faster for users to connect to protected wireless networks that require a sign on process.
Through its integrated GPS, the BlackBerry Bold smartphone can pinpoint its exact location, supporting applications like BlackBerry® Maps and other location-based applications or services. With its improved rendering capabilities, faster download speeds and ability to support simultaneous voice and data, the BlackBerry Bold smartphone even allows users to navigate while on a call.
FIRST CLASS PHONE
The BlackBerry Bold smartphone features a new acoustic design that increases the size of the phone’s audio sweet spot, improving listening quality and clarity. It also comes with numerous premium phone features including Speaker Independent Voice Recognition (SIVR) for Voice Activated Dialing (VAD), Bluetooth® 2.0, with support for hands-free headsets, stereo headsets, car kits (including car kits that adhere to the Bluetooth Remote SIM Access Profile) and other Bluetooth peripherals. It is a quad-band EDGE and tri-band HSDPA handset that supports global roaming(iiii) and features dedicated ’send’, ‘end’, and ‘mute’ keys, smart dialing, speed dialing, conference calling and call forwarding. It also features noise cancellation technology that offsets background noise, a powerful speaker phone and support for polyphonic, mp3 and MIDI ring tones.
“crafted from premium materials” in the beginning of the press release is no joke. I have dropped my phone half a dozen times (hard) and it bounces back every time. It’s nice to see Blackberry staying fresh in the mobile marketplace especially with the success of the iphone.
Other nice coverage on Blackberry Bold can be found at:
1. Focus rather than multi-task. Studies have shown that tasks take 50% longer to complete during multi-tasking rather than concentrating intently on the task until adequate completion.
2. Prioritize tasks appropriately. Don’t work on #4 on your “to-do” list when #16 and #25 are essential for a deadline. This sounds like common sense but prioritizing what is critical, is an essential ingredient in time management.
3. Monitor where your time goes. Identifying where your time really goes in a work-week verses where you “think” it goes is a must. This will reveal what your distractions are as well as what is consuming your time but producing little productivity.
4. Clean the Clutter. This is the one time management technique I continue to fight with everyday. Out of sight, out of mind works well here, When evaluating a task either “Do it”, “Discard it” or “File it”. This includes your digital assets as well like email, and desktop files. This should also help you perform backups on data more timely because your purging your inbox more.
5. Quiet Time. Believe it or not this is an essential technique to decompress from the daily information overload and noise. A minimum of 15 minutes should be allocated to taking a break, walking, cat nap or just reading personal material. The importance of this technique is release the stress value.
The benefits that you will gain from these techniques will be amazing. You should realize at least one of the following.
- More productivity
- Less ADHD syndrome
- Peace of mind
- Pride of accomplishment
so there it is your top 5 management techniques….take 2 pills and call me in the morning. -Good luck.
Rumor has it Blockbuster is coming out with a setup box (like we need another one), that would certainly explain the Circuit City purchase. I can see two compelling reasons for this; first CC offers the hardware and manufacturers that would enable such a feat and two CC certainly has the retail outlets and distribution channels. According to ECT (full story there) the purchase represents a 54% premium. The clear and present danger reportedly is coming from BestBuy, Apple and discounter Walmart. The quote for the acquisition has been pulled from ecommercetimes below (I took the liberty to highlight the business jargon used for these type of M&As):
“Our proposal offers Circuit City a significant premium to its existing stock price and creates a game-changing retail concept with a sustainable competitive advantage,” Keyes said. “We believe the combination will result in a compelling consumer proposition that will drive significant revenue and margin enhancements as well as cost synergies.”
For those of you not versed in M&A business jargon I will attempt to translate:
“In case you haven’t been keeping score, we have been getting our A*S handed to us by Netflix, you got a better idea?”
For those of you wondering why this made StartupAddict Musings the answer is simple….disruptive technologies and bold business models like Netflix (NFLX) cause traditional companies like Blockbuster to make long-term strategies to survive and that is the business DNA startupaddicts are made of.
PPC (Pay per Click)
CPM (Cost per 1,000 impressions),
CPC (Cost per Click)
CPA (Cost per Action)
PPC should be a component of any advertising campaign and should be used with carefully selected niche “keywords” or at least your competitors keywords. A startup should also look into running PPC campaigns on search engines other than just Google like Yahoo and MSN. If you want to get even more sophisticated look at getting PPC software programs that will select keywords and manage multiple campaigns from one easy interface where user-conversion tracking is less arduous.
CPM is a model that “Federated Media” has adopted quite well and is asking for premium advertising dollars based on the targeted content it provides. The CPM model is one that bodes well for highly targeted audiences and branding. For those of you unfamiliar with Federated Media it is John Battelle’s advertising network of the biggest and best blogs on the Internet across every thinkable vertical (although technology is most prevalent). For instance, I could advertise StartupAddict on Mashable (awesome social media blog) that would run at $30 CPM. This may seem high and it is certainly above normal CPM rates, but I’m gaining exposure to a very specific niche audience –social media. The 1000 impressions or CPM I gain on mashable is more valuable than being on the front page of Yahoo where I may only be getting 200 impressions out of the 1000 that are actually interested in StartupAddict.com.
CPC (Cost per Click) is a cost per click minimum for popular keywords and really should go with the PPC comments above. The more popular the search term the more the minimum cost. CPC advertising protects you by a set amount you pay for each click, but click fraud can also be an issue as well.
CPA (Cost per action) is the new kid on the block and is an advertising model where the advertiser pays only when a certain action is triggered a “pay per play” method. In continuing to use StartupAddict.com as an example, I may only want to pay when visitors become registered users to the social network. The CPA is results advertising, and by far my favorite method. RWW has a good article on cost per action and I found TURN to be an interesting advertising firm that focuses on CPA.
A combination is almost always necessary, but if you could only pick one go with a CPA method until your cash flow gets up to snuff for a bigger advertising budget.
If you get a chance to read the 8th habit or at least listen to the audio book by Stephen Covey (author of 7 highly effective habits of successful people) it is well worth it. I’m a little late on getting the book, but it was in the bargain bin at Barnes the other day and couldn’t help myself. Mr. Covey makes some very interesting points on the difference between workers in the 20th century verses the worker of the 21st century.
The old century was based on the industrial age where production and efficiency was paramount. Today the Knowledge worker is among us and needs to be treated less like an expense (industrial age accounting system) and more like an asset. The modern day worker is more entrepreneurial than the 20th century industrial age worker, yet current employers have not adapted to that change. Most employees feel they are restricted or wasting their time in their current work environment.
Solutions need to come from the employer to let the knowledge worker be more entrepreneurial and base a reward system on company improvement and common goals. I think the churn rate at businesses and the overall work culture would grow dramtaically by implementing this ideology. In the process, the modern worker would feel empowered and satisfy the entrepreneirual gene that is in all of us. The employer just needs to loosen the leash a bit. Some of the most successful companies have implemented flavors of this technique.
It has alway been my philosophy with any businesses I am involved with to give employees and partners enough rope to either perform or hang themselves.
1. I’ll be writing a part II on starting your own real estate brokerage firm based on “start a real estate brokerage” post.
2. AOL bought social network Bebo for $850 Million
3. Facebook rolls out IM
4. Why Hulu is going to rock the video boat…earlier post here
5. I will be posting a 3-part case study series on the creation of StartupAddict.com and outsourcing in hopes fellow entrepreneurs can learn a thing or two.
I’ve been promising SA 2.0 this week (hell, I’ve been promising for months)….but I will truly roll it out even with the few concessions and kinks (damn bootstrapping).
Well all I can muster for a roundup on my residual “red eye” fumes but will be back on schedule tomorrow.
I thought long and hard before giving my answer to my friend (which is contrary to my usual verbose knee-jerk reactions) and I finally told him about an exercise I learned of that was more in tune with psychology than business. I told him to write down everything he possibly could about his business, what the strengths and weaknesses are, the history of accomplishments the aspirations for the future and so on. After he answered the questions I told him to construct a boiler plate questionnaire of 20-30 questions that he had already provided answers for. I then told him to give the questionnaire to stakeholders of his business such as customers, vendors, shareholders, even competitors (the old adage keep your friends close but your enemies closer). He was shocked at the results that were returned.
The lesson is one of “know thyself”. The first time I learned of it was not in a business application, but a personal test. The goal was to answer a questionnaire regarding my personal characteristics and traits and then let my friends and family answer the same questionnaire that I answered about myself. I was absolutely astonished to realize the stark differences between what I thought of myself and what other people thought of me. Some of my perceived weaknesses were viewed as strengths in the eyes of my friends and family and vice versa. Sometimes like my friend you can’t see the forest from the trees when your in the trenches of day to day operations of a business. We become blind to our business’s faults. Seeing a fresh perspective from an outside source of what really fuels your business and what truly ails your business is the key. There is no better litmus test on how your business is doing or could be doing then hearing it first hand from a reliable but close source.
Don’t always pretend to have all the answers…it’s better to ask the question and find the answer. Then and only then can you devise a strategy appropriate enough to turn around your failing business.
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