Month: January 2005
Yahoo! (Another) Desktop Search Beta
Go try it here.
Good luck!
Do I want to participate in a book project? Yes.
Jeremy Wright has asked for new authors to join him in a book project. It looks truly interesting. And the approach is new.
What would I write on? Well, if you have followed this blog for any length of time, you should know that my passion is in the area of Web performance, and the process necessary to effectively management world-class Web sites.
A prime example of this is not one of the big players, but one I use daily — TypePad. With very few exceptions, the TypePad interface works flawlessly for me, and what I do with it. I could download Moveable Type and run my own blog; but TypePad does such a good job, that I have no need to do this.
How does a company such as Six Apart run a Web site that scales so effectively? How do they keep costs down? What are they doing to ensure that this level of excellence, performance so good it is transparent, will continue?
These are the questions I would ask in my 1,000 words; this is my passion.
Some resolutions that I buy into
Sam Decker has some 2005 resolutions that you can really sink your teeth into.
Number 6 and 8 are my favourites.
6. What will you remove from your web site?
Web sites are magnets for content and pages that build up over time. Eventually, many of these pages get one visit per month. Its often why large companies do a redesign every 2-3 years sort of a web site colonic!
Have you looked at your page visits lately? What pages get little traffic and can be removed. What content on the remaining pages can be removed because it doesnt make an impact? Get an outside perspective.
….
8. What meetings will you decline?
A couple months ago (as has happened before) I had to take an emergency business trip and my admin cancelled all my meetings for two days. As you might imagine, everything was fine. But they seemed so important when they were set up!
An executive once told me that choosing meetings is a conscious decision every executive needs to make. The meetings should be used to make strategic decisions, where multiple functions are involved. Decline or delegate informational meetings. Cut back recurring meetings. When my team went through the important/urgent exercise, meetings were a major part of our ability to gain back some work/life balance.
Nortel Making Bad News Again
Nortel given more time to file updated fiscals
This story of woe and misery goes on and on.
Blogger Fired; I hear the stampede coming
Ok, Just read this at News.Com.
Frankly, if what this former employee of Waterstone’s (a partner of Amazon for the UK market) is alleged to have done is proved to have occurred, I have no problem with his dismissal. It comes down to common sense. Don’t talk about something in your Blog that you would not be willing to say to the same person or organization in person.
I know I am not really good about this myself, but since this trend appeared, I have been self-editing (not self-censoring) what I say to take into account who it is directed to, and how it might affect me if someone I know were to read the comment.
If more people used this common-sense approach, we would not be hearing of so many blog-related dismissals.
Frank Patrick describes it this way:
How often have you made a quick-and-dirty assessment of a situation "…unencumbered by the thought process"….(*)
All of that protein consumption gave us these brains; let’s use them,
New Articles up on my site
Ok, so only one is really new; the other is heavily revised from its original state.
- Hit Tracking with PHP and MySQL demonstrates how to build your own simple tracking code, using PHP and MySQL. Relevant in the light of the recent SiteMeter outage
Geographic IP database using PERL, PHP and MySQL allows you to build your own geographic IP database using freely available data**
Have fun with them; any feedback is greatly appreciated.
[**] I have removed this article due to the traffic it was generating.
Drabinsky finally charged in Canada
Garth Drabinsky has finally been charged in Canada (here).
I worked in the event ticketing industry for a few years, and had a few friends who worked for Livent in a variety of capacities. I will not repeat the tales they told me, as I am not a sucker for legal punishment. Needless to say, when the Livent sandcastle began to crumble, no one in the industry was surprised.
It’s too bad because he did revive "event theatre" (as opposed to real theatre) in Canada. But, he and the Donald do have the most famous hair…
Not so happy times at Google
Guess that not everyone at Google became a millionaire and the happy GOOG is no longer the happy dorm it once was (here).
When the last company I worked for went public, one of the employees came bounding through the building showing off his multi-hundred thousand dollar cheque from his stock sale. Needless to say that this person was not my favourite after that.
Getting in on the ground floor means you have good connections or you are lucky, not that you are a better human being.
Radon Thoughts
- The Packers deserved to go down in flames. They played awful football.
- I am saddened that both the Chargers and the Seahawks got the boot. The Seahawks because they are the closest NFL team to my point of origination (Victoria, BC); the Chargers because I have a soft spot for Doug Flutie, having seen his best years in the CFL.
- The Colts look unstoppable.
- Go Pats!