Category: Uncategorized

Chris Selland linked to an article about Steve Jobs that is in the WSJ. [here]
Chris: See my previous post. The subscription model at the WSJ has foiled your attempt to share this with the rest of us.

Business 2.0 is asking how much you would pay to read the NY Times online. [here]
My response: why? I don’t read newspapers anymore. I would pay nothing to read this online, when I can get news free from Reuters, BBC and Yahoo!, and commentary from blogs.
MSM just does not understand. Their model is broken. It is 300 years old, and it is finally succumbing to it’s own dead weight.
The forests of the world are breathing a sigh of relief.
BusinessWeek, trying to support its brethern through it’s lame attempt to “blog”. [here]

In this post, I mimiced the list of tools that Brendon Connelly lists.
I forgot to add some of my personal favourites and additions.

• Cygwin: Makes any Windows machine able to run a linux-like terminal
• Caffeine. Addicted.
• Ethereal: If you are a geek, you need this. Packet-sniffing goodness
• Trillian. Yeah, GAIM is open-source, but Trillian is just that much slicker
• Firefox. Runs anywhere; need to know more?

I know that most of these are more for the geek side of the house, but a lot of my traffic comes from those folks.
Leave your additions in the comments.

This is the latest browser statistic breakdown for the Newest Industry. Data is gathered using the StatCounter.com application and is updated in real time.
I will try and post this to the top of the system on a weekly basis.
Thanks to Tim Bray for the inspiration.

Sig hits for 6 with this post on the tension that exists between leaders and managers. [here]
Where do exciting ideas, visions and concepts come from? Leaders.
Who is responsible for stifling the unique voices of leaders? Command and Control Managers.
The common thread I am reading on the business books I am pouring through right now is that you will get farther, be more successful, and get the chance to meet really cool people simply by being the person you are, and not letting your ideas be crushed.
I have discovered that I can bring more to my company by doing less of my “job” and more thinking. I speak in an authentic voice, one that cries out to let our customers kick ass, be remarkable, and make an impact in the world.
Ok, the last statment is not really the case: I really just help companies suck less, and understand how to do it more successfully.
But by doing less jon and being more leader, I feel more fulfilled. And frankly, this role is how my mind is tuned anyway.
Bring me your problems, and I will help you understand what the real problem is.

Seth Godin has another take on this issue. Leaders are the management cultures worst nightmare. They show that the management culture is not necessary for success. In fact, you can succeed without the management culture.
Now, if you think success is only monetary in this case, you are so wrong. For a true leader, making a ton o’ cash is secondary to helping shape how people think and how they behave.
Think of the greatest leaders you know. How many were rich? How many became rich AFTER they had been recognized as successful leaders?

The firm I work for is currently shopping around for a new PR agency. On Thursday of last week, we went over to one of the candidate firms to hear their approach and how they think they can help us.
35 slides. Densely packed. No information. All about what they have done, not how they think they can help us.
The density of the presentation took 3 days to sink in, and it was only this morning that I realized that this was not a good way to sell me on their potential. And I told the powers that be at our firm exactly that.
The folks at this firm need Cliff.
And a little dose of Kathy Sierra wouldn’t hurt! This firm was showing us how they had kicked ass (past tense), not how they would help us kick ass NOW!

Jeremy…things are getting weird at Yahoo. [here]

Fred Wilson found this. I have been wondering how I could add my Amazon Associates information more easily.
I love having my mind read.
And to prove it works, buy Why Business People Sound Like Idiots. I just finished it. It helps to remind me that everything I try to do at work is right; that being myself, as insane and interactive as I like to be, works.
On to the Purple Cow…then Blink…

I have been seeing a large number of hits with the following User-Agent string in my logs lately:

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.5) Gecko/20031007 Firebird/0.7

1. Firebird hasn’t existed as a browser for a very long time
2. A build date of October 7, 2003???
3. From 3 separate IP Addresses

This Apache REWRITE rule took care of this issue.

RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} .*Gecko\/20031007.*
RewriteRule ^.*$ http://www.pierzchala.com:9080/ [R,L,NS]

Try the URL…it points to this iptables rule.

/sbin/iptables -A INPUT -p tcp -i eth0 -s 0/0 --dport 9080 -j DROP

I love Linux!

Is there anything interesting going on? Is anyone doing anything interesting?
Bored…bored…BORED
Sigh!
Anyone got a secret they want to share?