A really good review of Posterous by Andy Ihnatko of Chicago Sun-Times. The more I use Posterous, the more I like it. Can’t see myself giving up the WordPress blog but if I were just starting today… If you haven’t seen my previous posts on this, Posterous is a blog you update via email. It’s really that easy but the resulting site is far nicer than you’d expect.
Did you ever show someone how to do something online and then show them over and over and over again? Sure you have. A couple of years ago I started using screencast apps (like ScreenFlow) to record brief “how-to’s” that I could put online rather than do the same demo again and again.
ScreenFlow and Camtasia and similar products enable you to record your demo once, and then let folks watch it when –and as often– as they want. These apps are very good… and maybe too good. (I tend to go on and on)
Lately I’ve been using Jing, which is made by the same people that make Camtasia. The difference is Jing is free and it limits your screencast to 5 minutes. Which I consider a feature, not a limitation. It forces you to focus, to be concise. If you need more than 5 minutes, you’re probably rambling and wordy.
I’ve done a few screencasts showing our reporters how to put stories online using our new WordPress websites. Recorded on the MacBook and uploaded to Screncast.com ($15/year). I then just send the links to our folks and they can watch the short videos (without downloading files). Works on Mac and PC.
During my affiliate relations days, it wasn’t uncommon to run into a radio station manger who had a beef with one part of our company and took it out on the division I worked for. And I’m certain it went the other way, too.
In my desperation to save an affiliation, I’m sure I said, “But that’s not me. That’s a completely different part of our company. You can’t punish me for what they did.”
Wrong. He can and he did. It was all Learfield as far as he was concerned. Seth Godin reminds us of this in today’s post:
“If you’re not proud of where you work, go work somewhere else. You don’t get the benefit of the brand when it’s hot without accepting the blame of the brand when it’s wrong.”
The Southeastern Conference is getting ready to launch the SEC Digital Network. They’re working with a company called XOS Digital and are touting: “…nearly 10,000 hours of original and exclusive SEC content anytime, anywhere through online video syndication, digital downloads, and exclusive live-streaming and on-demand video content.”
If I understand this correctly, this does NOT include live streaming of actual game broadcasts. Those are protected by the rights holders. Companies like ours. So what content will be available?
The company I work for is associated with some SEC schools: Alabama, Mississippi State and South Carolina.
Remember that saying about the farmer’s pig? We eat everything but the oink? Well, companies like ours pay lots and lots of money for the marketing rights to this big schools and we have to sell everything but the oink to recover that investment.
But you can only put so many commercials in a radio or TV broadcast; only so many logos on a big scoreboard; only so many ads in a program (as you can see, I don’t really know everything we sell).
And if God isn’t making any more land, she’s not making any more avails in a football broadcast. So everyone is looking for ways to generate more programming, more content, to support additional advertising. The SEC Digital Network would seem to be doing this.
And the fans have a nearly insatiable appetite for anything related to their team. And if the SEC does this right, with lots of fan engagement and interaction, and fully mobile… they’ll have a winner.
I just did a little Twitter house cleaning, blocking about 60 followers who looked … suspect. My criteria for blocking is very scientific and includes –but is not limited to– the following:
If I blocked you and you’d like for me to reconsider… you’re way too needy. But email me and we’ll talk.
[10 hours later] The Twitter spam is coming way too fast. I’ve blocked almost 100. Giving serious thought to protecting my account.
I should explain that our refrigerator conked out (that’s the term the service tech used) recently and Barb purchased a new one (above). But this pretty much what we have on hand most of the time.
It looks a lot like the frig my buddy Allan and I shared 30+ years ago on Church Street in Kennett, MO.
The jar on the second shelf contains either a pickle or a salamander.
Leo Babauta says he’s done with email. Sort of. It’s really an interesting idea and I can imagine giving it a try if self-employed:
“After more than 15 years of dealing with email, of checking email multiple times a day, of responding over and over throughout the day, of deleting spam and unsubscribing from newsletters and unwanted notices, of filtering out messages and notifications, of deleting those dumb forwarded jokes and chain mails …I’m done. I’m done, because email takes up too much of my time. I’m done, because I don’t like being at the mercy of every incoming request, because I would rather spend my free time creating than replying to emails.”
Leo plans to set up an auto-responder so his correspondents won’t think he’s dead and use Twitter as his main form of communication. For longer conversations he’ll go with IM or Skype. If he needs to collaborate, there’s Google Docs. Friends and family can just pick up the phone and call.
I hope it works for him. Someday I hope to give it a try, too. And for the record, your best bet for reaching me is commenting here or the Gmail address in the sidebar. The work email address is the last thing I check. [via @steverubel]
5.1 miles according to Google Maps. And — as Google predicted– it took just about 1 hour and 40 minutes.
The battery on my 12 year old 4 Runner conked out Sunday evening. A neighbor jumped me and I dropped the car at the local Toyota dealer. This morning I could have called someone for a lift to work but that would have meant missing my visit to the Coffee Zone.
So I set out on foot just before 6 a.m., with a sign taped to my back that read: “Latte for a ride.” I figured I’d get a ride in no time. Seriously, I thought it was cute (but later learned it was just creepy). I left just before 6 a.m.
Big strong men in pick-up trucks passed me by. They were either afraid of me or just didn’t give a shit.
90 minutes later I arrived at the Coffee Zone, sweaty with two quarter-sized blisters on the bottom of my feet. When the oil is all gone I’ll be able to ride a bike down the middle of the street.