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flickr interestingness
UPDATE 5/27/19: Looks like these features are no longer available.
Flickr has something called “interestingness.” I don’t know if this is new or I just never noticed. A photo gets included based on “where the click-throughs are coming from; who comments on it and when; who marks it as a favorite; its tags” and other stuff. You can spend hours on interestingness so don’t go unless you have some time.
Not sure why, but there’s a calendar view in case you wanted to see interesting photos from June, 2008, for example.
MacWorld: Waiting in line in the dark and the cold
Sarah Palin has another book signing at noon today at the Barnes & Noble in Sioux City, Iowa. Supporters spent the night in the parking lot in hopes of getting their book signed. My friend Kay drove up from Des Moines to cover the event and took some photos. The wind chill was about 9 degrees.
Her story and photos got me thinking about things about which I care enough to wait in line, in the cold (I hate both). I couldn’t come up with much.
There was the time George (pictured), David and I waited in bitter cold weather to attend a taping of Digg Nation in St. Louis.
I had not idea San Francisco could be so cold at 4:30 a.m. or I would not have waited in line to see Steve Jobs give a keynote at MacWorld.
But the coldest of the cold will always be (I hope) the inauguration. My hands are shaking just typeing these words.
For whom/what have you/are you willing to wait all night in the freezing cold?
“How a Web Design Goes Straight to Hell”
This little horror story (from The Oatmeal) woud be funnier but for the sad truth that I have committed some of the client sins described here. I like to think I paid for them (on the other side) and now make a concerted effort to let designers do what we hire them to do.
I too have no idea what “pop” means but assume it is a euphemism for: “I don’t like what you’ve shown me and want you to keep doing it over and over until I do.”
It’s damned cold in Santa’s kitchen
Better email
Nick Bilton came up with 10 ideas for fixing the email glut. These are my favorites:
- Add reply buttons for YES, NO and MAYBE – Some messages just don’t need a comprehensive reply. If someone e-mails me and asks if I’m available to attend a meeting, rather than take the time to write back with a detailed response, why can’t I just click a YES, NO, or MAYBE button? One click and the e-mail has been dealt with.
- Cut off anything longer than 140 characters – Speaking of Twitter, do we really need more than 140 characters for most messages? E-mail applications could add a button that would cut off all content longer than 140 characters.
- A monthly word limit – We have limits on Internet bandwidth, and surcharges to limit the number of minutes we can talk on our cellphones. Why not limit the number of words an e-mail account can pump out each month? (If you go over, that new government e-mail tax kicks in …)
“Is it too late to catch up?”
A few questions from the always brilliant Seth Godin:
“What if your organization or your client has done nothing? What if they’ve just watched the last fourteen years go by? No real website, no social media, no permission assets. What if now they’re ready and they ask your advice?
I think my honest answer might have been, “Too late.” But Mr. Godin comes through with 10 practical suggestions. I encourage you to read them all. Here are my favorites:
- Start a book group for your top executives and every person who answers the phone, designs a product or interacts with customers. Read a great online media book a week and discuss. It’ll take you about a year to catch up.
- Offer a small bonus to anyone in the company who starts and runs a blog on any topic. Have them link to your company site, with an explanation that while they work there, they don’t speak for you.
- Do not approve any project that isn’t run on Basecamp.
- Don’t have any meetings about your web strategy. Just do stuff. First you have to fail, then you can improve.
Mr. Godin concludes the problem is no longer budget or access to tools, rather it is the will to get good at operating in our new world. I have to wonder if you haven’t found the will by now, how likely are you to do so
“My news feed on Facebook”
“Your honor, the defense will stipulate that Senator McCaskill’s Facebook page is in no way an act of journalism and might be self-serving and total horse shit.”
“So noted. The page will be entered as Exhibit F.”
Something about “my news feed on Facebook” made me stop. Politicians have been grinding out news releases since the dawn of time but same-day video news feeds? My natural instinct is to scoff at the idea of a “news feed” by a politician. But do I trust the senator more or less than Fox News? Hmm.
I’m old enough to remember when just being on TV meant you were honest and trust-worthy. Now whom do we trust?
My point here is that from now on, we’ll get the “news” from lots of people in lots of ways. Trust will trump the medium.
Sports Illustrated – tablet demo
More at PaidContent.org. This could sell the bejeezus out of the first cool tablet.
“The Death of Local News”
LocalNewser: Michael Rosenblum on the Death of Local News from Mark Joyella on Vimeo. “Michael Rosenblum’s been around the local news biz for decades, along the way helping create New York’s all-news NY1 and Al Gore’s Current TV. Rosenblum’s consulted for stations across the country and around the world, and yet he believes the model that’s kept local news alive since the 1950s is broken, and the only way to repair it–drastic changes in the way news stations operate–just won’t happen. Rosenblum tells LocalNewser’s Mark Joyella local news is like GM: sticking with a recipe that put them on top five decades ago, but will drive them to bankruptcy today.”
My favorite line: When Google does news in New York, it aint gonna start in the CBS building with a chopper. Or something to that effect. Video runs about 2 1/2 min.