http://pianoinsidemybrain.com Thoughts from Howard Yermish about technology, music composition, wine, bicycling and being human. Fri, 05 Sep 2008 19:15:24 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Check out my post on the World Wide Web Communications company blog: Keys to your Domain Just to add as a side note, you can use QuarkBase to help research the whois information about your domain. http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/09/05/keys-to-your-domain/ For those of you that live in the Greater Philadelphia Area, I will be speaking at the event for the Women of Wit and Wisdom on Wednesday, September 24th, 2008 at 5:30pm at the Pyramid Club in Philadelphia. Marketing Your Website: A 12-Step Program Is your website simply languishing in the corner, ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/09/04/upcoming-event/ Want to know the IP address? Hosting company? Server platform? Domain registration information? Alexa traffic rank? Company information? Social network popularity? And on and on and on... Where QuarkBase shines is its presentation. It takes a very simple approach (just type in the domain name) and it serves up all of ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/09/03/quarkbase/ It happens at least once per week, if not more. A friend, colleague, client or prospect asks for the silver bullet. "How do I reach my target customers?" The typical answer (old) is to buy a lot of ads in hopes that millions of people will see them and somewhere in the ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/09/01/reaching/ If you are reading this, you may have figured out that I've been taking a little posting break since the beginning of the month. While you are relaxing at a BBQ this weekend, consider this... Before email, postal mail arrived (and still does) only once per day. What if email only ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/08/25/summer-break/ With less than a week before my wife gets back from Los Angeles, I've made significant progress on the Home Improvement List of Death. Let's review what has been done. I raised the floor in the room off of our kitchen so that it is at the same level. This involved ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/08/03/progress-report/ Yesterday, someone was showing me his new iPhone 3G, perhaps in a slightly futile attempt to make me jealous. He was talking about how it felt in his hand and how he liked that it was thinner. I reminded him that it was thinner "at the edges," but thicker in ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/08/02/thicker-or-thinner/ Another gem from Common Craft... [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pd2gAf5VZZ0] http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/07/31/electing/ The other night, we ordered takeout food from California Pizza Kitchen. So I drove across town to pickup the order and back through traffic with the food. But when everything was unpacked, something was missing: the tostada toppings for my wife's pizza. Needless to say, she was bummed. As the dutiful ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/07/29/good-experience-with-cpk/ Now that the first wave of iPhone applications has basically hit, I'm anxious to see what the next wave brings. One application that I would like to see would be the ability to attend webinars from the iPhone. Someone like WebEx or Citrix (GoToWebinar) would be the natural choice to develop ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/07/28/webinars-for-iphone/ "It crossed our minds early on that the more an audience cared - we were working before, on average, 240, live people. If you could get them caring - the more they cared, the harder they laughed." — Norman Lear Norman Lear, TV writer/producer of "All in the Family" was born on ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/07/27/quote-from-norman-lear/ So this post is being written from a new iPhone application now available. While it doesn't give full administration, it does let me add new posts. It also lets me add photos to the post, in this case a screenshot from the application. Also nice is the ability to schedule posts, add ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/07/25/wordpress-app-for-iphone/ One of the keys to being an email Ninja is the tools you use. For many people, the choices are Outlook or Gmail. Lifehacker brings us the following post: Outlook vs. Gmail - The Definitive Comparison They talk about everything useful, from search to folders/labels to rules/filters to contacts to spam and ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/07/23/outlook-or-gmail/ Many people in the business world perform a Google search on themselves to see if anything strange is showing up. Well, you can setup an automated search of new content on Google by creating a free Google Alert for either your name or business name. Google Alerts All you have to do ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/07/21/your-daily-google-alert/ "Nobody climbs mountains for scientific reasons. Science is used to raise money for the expeditions, but you really climb for the hell of it." — Edmund Hillary Edmund Hillary was born on July 20, 1919. http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/07/20/quote-from-edmund-hillary/ Even though my day to day has more to do with strategizing with clients, I still love to roll up my sleeves, fire up my graphics programs and code editors, and get under the hood for some good old fashioned website development. With that in mind, one of my favorite ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/07/16/xscope/ "I am not the archetypal leading man. This is mainly for one reason: as you may have noticed, I have no hair." — Patrick Stewart Patrick Stewart was born on July 13, 1940. http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/07/13/quote-from-patrick-stewart/ In spite of the activation woes that struck Apple & AT&T yesterday, I was able to download and install the official iPhone 2.0 Firmware to my iPhone "classic." After exploring the new features of the device, here are a few of the highlights: I have multiple email accounts setup on the phone. ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/07/12/iphone-firmware/ For some reason, lots of people have been mentioning to me that they are going to be near an Apple store over the next few days. Perhaps they are going to purchase a new iMac or MacBook? So, for all of those people ready to jump from the PC to the Mac, ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/07/10/switch/ Over the past few months, I've found myself in desperate anticipation of the next episode of the podcast, You Look Nice Today. There have been 12 episodes so far, each about 30-40 minutes long. And so far the best way that I can describe it is: Three guys discuss awkward moments ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/07/09/ylnt/ In Seth Godin's latest post Let Me See, Seth lists out 18 ways that you could mashup data and present it in ways that are useful and very powerful. This got me thinking: Did he just post 18 ideas for startup companies? Yes, I think that he did. So, what ideas do ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/07/08/seths-list-of-semantic-web-applications/ "All major religious traditions carry basically the same message, that is love, compassion and forgiveness the important thing is they should be part of our daily lives." — Dalai Lama The Dalai Lama was born on July 6th, 1935. Coincidentally, President George W. Bush was born in 1946 on the same day. ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/07/06/quote-from-dalai-lama/ Over the last decade we saw two things: one of the greatest cyclists of all time and some of the worst garbage in professional sports. Coverage for the tour starts today. No short prologue to start the race, but a full on stage with a sprint finish. It's a shame that last ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/07/05/tour-de-france-starts-today/ Over the past month, everyone who knows me has been asking me about the next iPhone. Usually, it includes the obvious question, "Are you getting the new one?" For me, the answer is simple. "No." Here are my reasons: Many people are excited about the 3G speeds for the network, but the coverage ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/07/04/7-days-until-the-next-iphone/ Every summer, my wife and daughters go off to Los Angeles for an extended visit with my in-laws. So while I get some appreciated bachelor time, I'm also left with a list of home improvement projects. Last summer, the list was easy: I finished in the first couple of days. This ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/07/01/home-improvement-list-of-death/ When you help out a salesperson, does it make you feel dirty? Most people have a negative view towards sales people. And no one likes to be "sold." But everyone likes loves to buy. So would you go out of your way to actually help out someone in sales? Would you help the nice ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/06/30/do-you-feel-dirty/ "For a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve the quality of life, please press three." — Alice Kahn http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/06/29/quote-from-alice-kahn/ How deep is your email inbox? Seriously, how deep. I've been there from time to time, but I've been proactively working to keep my inbox as close to empty as possible. If your inbox is over 2000 messages deep, you might need to do something radical. Perhaps you should declare email bankruptcy. Here ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/06/27/declaring-email-bankruptcy/ Social networks can be strange. Especially Twitter. Networks like Facebook or LinkedIn require that connections be mutual. That is to say if I want to connect to you, you have to accept and then connect to me. So when I "friend" someone or "connect" it is a two-way street. Twitter is different. ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/06/26/not-a-two-way-street/ If you like cars and technology, this is very cool. http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/06/25/bmw-gina-concept/ For those of you that happen to be female and live in the Greater Philadelphia Area, I will be speaking at the event for the Women of Wit and Wisdom this Thursday, June 26th, 2008 at 5:30pm at the Pyramid Club in Philadelphia. Using LinkedIn to Promote Your Business Is it 12 ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/06/24/event-reminder/ On Friday, NPR's Morning Edition ran the following segment: Can you go a day at the office without e-mail? Employees at U.S. Cellular try to do that every Friday. A policy implemented a few years ago gives workers a respite from the e-mail avalanche. Click to read and listen... Interesting story considering the ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/06/23/take-fridays-off-from-email/ "I find it rather easy to portray a businessman. Being bland, rather cruel and incompetent comes naturally to me." — John Cleese http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/06/22/quote-john-cleese/ The Inquirer ran a one-day campaign to prove a point: print advertising still works. The piece was seriously hysterical and I had fun sharing it. But you wouldn't believe the letters to the editor in the Inquirer. People really need to lighten up. (Sorry, I couldn't resist.) http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/06/19/derrie-air-2/ Sometimes you just have to take a step back and point out the obvious. Today was one of those times. I was in the middle of typing out a detailed email message that was going to be longer than five sentences when a blinding flash of the obvious hit me: pick ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/06/18/messaging-medium/ For those of you that work in an office, you know that around 3pm you start getting just a bit tired. So what to do? Another cup of coffee or get more rest at night? Nope, take a 20 minute nap. Mind you, it may be hard for you to convince ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/06/17/no-coffee/ There are no shortcuts. Whether it is blogging, social networks or simply owning a business. Darren Rowse from Problogger brings us this post: Build Your Network Before You Need It Darren is right on target. All too often my clients look for the quick fix or silver bullets. Networks take years to ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/06/16/build-your-network-in-advance/ From the site BestofYouTube.com, a bear scratches its back on a tree, disco remix edition. http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/06/15/disco-bear/ Have you ever wanted to be part of a world record? Well, here is your opportunity. From the comfort of your Windows or Mac, simply download the new version of Firefox 3 to be released next Tuesday. If you want to feel part of it early, simply go and pledge your ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/06/13/download-firefox/ I did a presentation for the Cherry Hill Chamber of Commerce, "Blogging for Business," on June 10th, 2008 at their power lunch event. http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/06/12/blogging-for-business-presentation/ One of my favorite poets from my childhood, Ogden Nash... "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of." http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/06/11/quote-from-ogden-nash/ I always love to see that wine is actually good for you. This study is specifically about longevity. Of course, please drink responsibly. New Hints Seen That Red Wine May Slow Aging Red wine may be much more potent than was thought in extending human life span, a new report suggests. http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/06/11/nyt-new-hints-seen-that-red-wine-may-slow-aging/ Here were my original predictions about the iPhone 2.0, updated with the actual announcement from Apple: 16 GB and 32 GB versions of the phone at $399 and $499 respectively and yes, there will be a 3G chipset as the entire world is predicting. Apple stuck with the 8 GB and 16 ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/06/10/iphone-predictions-scorecard/ If your cell phone can do this, imagine what it can do to your brain! My suggestion is that you get a bluetooth or wired headset. [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ju5yIFu4yY8] Post in the comments if you can repeat the experiment with your phone. http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/06/09/popcorn/ When opening the Philadelphia Inquirer yesterday (actually, my wife saw it, I rarely open an actual newspaper), I saw a full page advertisement for Derrie-Air. So I went to their website to learn more: Mission Statement Derrie-Air is the world's first carbon-neutral luxury airline. We will offer our passengers the finest luxury ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/06/08/derrie-air/ I've been a huge fan of 37signals Basecamp for several years now. We have been using it with our clients for almost two full years now and the results are amazing. What is great about 37signals is that they keep making Basecamp better and better. Little by little they roll out ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/06/07/basecamp/ After having a conversation with one of my favorite clients, Joe Fermano, he pointed me to the following video. http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/06/06/randy-pauschs-last-lecture/ Twitter has been suffering major reliability problems. Perhaps the service was never engineered to handle the number of users and "tweets" and third-party clients. While it may have cute error messages, the Twitter crowd has started exploring other options. Enter Plurk. I have to say, the experience of Plurk is quite good. ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/06/05/plurk/ Use one of your spare clicks to write some stream of consciousness over at WriteSomething.net. Basically, your message is added to this ongoing collaborative stream. From the about page... "... I sit here thinking about what it means to be a part of something like this - an endless, senseless, interactive book ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/06/04/just-write-something/ If you are someone who likes to forward jokes around, you need to be respectful of everyone's email addresses. Don't throw all of those addresses in the TO: or CC: field. Use the BCC: field so that others don't see the full list of emails. So the next time that you ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/06/03/bcc-please/ In an effort to bring goodness and sunshine to the entire world, Google has its own version of the traditional 411 information service. But, in the Google spirit, it is free. From any phone, simply dial 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411). It is all voice activated and the couple of samples that I tried ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/06/02/goog-411/ Another great video from Lee and Sachi Lefever: Social Media in Plain English [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpIOClX1jPE] What I like about this video is that it is very much an overview of social media, rather than a focus on one particular technology. That might be its weakness as well as I think that it might ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/06/01/social-media-in-plain-english/ John Jantsch from Duct Tape Marketing brings us this post: The 3 Cs of Lead Generation He talks about blending advertising, public relations and referrals to create a balance between cost, credibility and control. My 2 cents was about making sure that advertising, PR and referrals worked together to create a continuum. Most ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/05/31/cost-credibility-and-control/ If you are new to Twitter or even for seasoned users, head on over and take a look at the Twitter Cheat Sheet. And if you aren't following me yet... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/05/30/twitter-cheat-sheet/ If you happen to be clutching an iPhone and you live or work in the Philadelphia area, SEPTA has developed a nice iPhone application: iSepta.org. (Click on the link from your iPhone.) What makes this interesting is that SEPTA's website is pretty inconvenient for finding train schedules, but this iPhone optimized ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/05/29/isepta/ If you are looking for Web 3.0 goodness, Twine is probably a good place to start. I just started playing around with Twine while it is still in invitation only private beta. I'm in a sharing mood, so if you want to check it out, either post your email in ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/05/28/twine-private-beta/ As this post appears on the blog, I will be in the car heading to an undisclosed campsite. I doubt that I will have cell phone reception and I highly doubt there will be an open WiFi network in range. There will probably not be an extension cord long enough ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/05/24/time-to-unplug/ Take a few moments to read the following article from the Knowledge@Wharton site: Microsoft's Vista: New Horizon or the End of the Road for PC Operating Systems? From the bottom of the article, the author writes the following: Another radical shift for Microsoft would be to make Windows a more open platform where ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/05/23/should-ms-open-source-windows/ A full rainbow spans the horizon looking east over North Broad Street after a brief rain shower in the early evening of Thursday, May 22, 2008 in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Tom Mihalek) http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/05/23/rainbow-over-philadelphia/ Happy Birthday to German composer, Richard Wagner, born in 1813. Known for his vignette operas such as Tristan und Isolde, Parsifal, and Der Ring des Nibelungen (a.k.a. The Ring Cycle). One of my favorite memories at Eastman School of Music was when my composition teacher, Christopher Rouse, asked me to listen to ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/05/22/wagner/ For a little more than two weeks, I have been investigating BrightKite, a new website that brings location and photos to Twitter. Now onto my experience. After receiving my private invitation to the service, signing up with BrightKite was simple. Finding Friends With any social network application, the overall experience gets better as ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/05/21/brightkite-2/ Favorite tweet: Merlin Mann from 43folders describes what it is like to talk to a Windows user about the Mac. And if you haven't heard it yet, check out the "You Look Nice Today" podcast. http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/05/20/describing-van-halen-to-a-horse/ Seth Godin brings us this post: Four Big Words. As he points out, over delivering is hard. Really hard. In fact, it can be hard just to deliver consistently. The key is developing your system for delivering. Run the system over and over again. Refine the system. Improve your results over time ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/05/19/overdeliver/ One of the things that is quite remarkable since the introduction of the iPhone is the version of the Internet that has been tailored for iPhone users. For those of you that don't know what I'm talking about... Most mobile phones have some access to Internet content but the experience is ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/05/19/iphones-private-internet/ Last night, I was horrified to find my iPhone cooked. Seriously, HOT to the touch and completely unresponsive. As soon as I determined that the phone wasn't going to wake up, I went online and scheduled myself an appointment at the Genius Bar at my local Apple Store, a simple ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/05/18/kudos-to-apple/ And sure enough, the morning after my iPhone was cooked, the following article appears in the Philadelphia Inquirer: What are cell phones doing to our society? One of the points that the writer, Jonathan Last, makes in the article is something that my wife and I discuss all of the time. Cell ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/05/18/inquirer-what-are-cell-phones-doing-to-our-society/ Oh, Google Maps, you sneaky dude. Did you just start showing real estate listings on your maps? Head on over to maps.google.com and do a search for your area. Then click the "Show search options" link next to the "Search Maps" button. From the drop-down menu, you will see "Real Estate." ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/05/18/real-estate-listings/ 1. PowerMac G4 Dual Processor Machine: working, making its usual fan noise. Seems to be okay. I don't plan to turn it off ever again if I can help it. And if I do, I know the voodoo tricks that worked this time. 2. Color Laser Printer: toner didn't magically materialize. ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/05/18/update-on-technology-conspiracy/ Today was one of those days. With guests staying with us, I shut down my desktop machine, an old dual-processor G4 from 2002. It is quite noisy. When I went to power it up this morning, it didn't. Nothing, nada, zip. Uh-oh. Usual tricks didn't work either. Double uh-oh. So ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/05/17/technology-conspiracy/ Go click over to the "By the People" website (link below) and read the following article by Steve Balzac, president of 7 Steps Ahead. Management: The Seven Habits of Pointy-Haired Bosses Shameless plug: Steve is my brother-in-law. His company does amazing things for companies, coaching management and teams for effective group ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/05/17/pointy-haired-bosses/ I have three computers: home, work and my laptop. While I prefer to use Safari, often I find myself in Firefox since it has broader support. And even worse, I find myself testing sites in Internet Explorer through virtual machines. And I browse sites through my iPhone. My website bookmarks were ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/05/16/tasty-bookmarks/ First, go read Seth Godin's post: Signal to noise I agree, it is too much. Why has is gotten so loud? The answer is simple: Web 2.0 enables conversations and the more people and businesses that come to the party, the louder it will get. So how do you deal with all ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/05/15/too-much-noise/ From my post on the World Wide Web Communications blog... There are literally hundreds (well according to Technorati as of this post about 113 million) blogs out there. So How do you claw your way out of the Long Tail of blogging? From a recent Q&A... "I've had my blog on business ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/05/15/the-long-tail-of-blogging/ Another interesting and somewhat heated debate from last night's LinkedIn Live Philly event was about those people who are "open networkers." You may see the term "LION" as part of their LinkedIn profile. Typically, open networkers have many thousands of connections. And their goal is probably to connect with everyone. Ed ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/05/14/open-networking/ Do I file this one under music, humor, Mac OSX or creativity? Just watch it. [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kxDxLAjkO8] Digital filmmaker Dennis Liu made this amazing video for The Bird And The Bee's song "Again & Again" using his Mac OSX desktop as the canvas. http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/05/14/again/ One of the interesting things about social networks is that often, you never socialize in real life. Tonight was a little bit different. There were probably over 100 people who came out to Rembrandt's to actually see all of those people that they had connected to. A good suggestion that I ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/05/13/linkedin-old-emails/ BrightKite is a location-based social networking site that is currently in private beta. I've been playing with it for about a week and my initial reaction is that it is like Twitter with locations and pictures. I have a limited number of invitations to the party so please post a ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/05/13/brightkite/ I'm a very big fan of Merlin Mann of 43folders, especially for his writings and talks about David Allen's Getting Things Done (GTD) system as well as Merlin's Inbox Zero methodology. But one of my favorite "techie" things is the Hipster PDA. This is really nothing new but I find that ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/05/12/hipsterpda/ Nathan Myrhvold, former Chief Technical Officer of Microsoft, commissioned the building of a Difference Engine No. 2 based on Charles Babbage's design. It's on display at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA starting May 10, 2008 for the next year. After that is will go to Myrhvold's private ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/05/12/difference-engine-no-2/ I've been a huge fan of Salvador Dalí for years and his work has influenced my compositions, specifically two of the movements of Five Images. The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory (5:19, 7.3 MB) — In an earlier piece, Winter Octet, I had based the opening movement on the famous ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/05/11/dali/ (From the Associated Press) A heavily armed member of the Secret Service Emergency Response Team watches as a mother duck and her ducklings cross the driveway at the White House as heavy rain storms blanketed the Washington area, Friday, May 9, 2008. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds) http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/05/11/white-house-ducks/ I come across a lot of interesting technology things. When something spurs my interest, I usually give it a shot. Usually that shot lasts about two weeks to see if anything interesting will come from the trial. Most services completely crash and burn, but some stick. For example, I tried Jott ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/05/10/the-two-week-trial/ Every website has an "About Us" page. But seriously, who really cares about the "About Us" page? The answer is simple: people care about themselves. So typically the site owner cares about the "About Us" page. Zero value to the target audience of the site. I think that there is a better ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/05/09/who-cares/ It is news like this that really brings it home, but if you are ever elected for a position that includes a residence, you may want to read this article... Nevada governor wants his mansion back and his wife out I guess what happens in Vegas doesn't always stay in Vegas. http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/05/08/ready-to-rumble/ Check out this moment with Wine Library's Gary Vaynerchuk on "The Big Idea"  at this link. ”People are always talking about what you’re doing now… To me, it’s not what you’re doing now, it’s about where you’re going.” - Gary Vaynerchuk And Donny Deutsch responds... "The difference between staying small and getting big in ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/05/08/the-big-idea-gary-vaynerchuk/ Ahh... the story of a boy expressing his undying loyalty for Brett Farve through apparel. But when the man retires, so too does the shirt get retired. That will teach you Mr. Farve for breaking this boy's heart. Favre fan retires faded No. 4 after 1,581 days I can only imagine it fitting ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/05/07/farve/ In the news today, buried under just about every other headline you can image, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, composer of such hits as Swan Lake and The Nutcracker, celebrated his 168th birthday today. The composer could not be reached for comment. http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/05/07/tchaikovsky/ We knew it was only a matter of time, but it was certainly a rough road getting there. Both my wife and I love riding our bikes and we want our children to have the same love. I think that's why it was so hard for us to watch our daughter ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/05/07/bicycle-breakthrough/ May 6 marks the anniversary of the 1937 crash of the Hindenburg. It also marks the official birth of the term "Crash and Burn." As a way to remember, this is a great day to try something in which you are sure to, well, "Crash and Burn." http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/05/06/crash-and-burn/ Fortunately, I finished the Broad Street Run. It wasn't glamorous but I finished. A couple of highlights... My target time was 2 hours for the run, a faster pace than I finished the Disney half-marathon. I finished in 1:59:37 and considering how bad my knee was feeling after mile 4, a ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/05/05/broad-street-wrap-up/ Even when Twitter needs to go offline, the error message has character. All too often, error messages on websites aren't helpful for the users. It is a nice touch for both marketing and user experience. http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/05/05/twitter-error-messages/ This could be my last post. I am about to start the Broad Street Run. Thankfully it is mostly downhill. Not quite sure why I registered for the event and I have no plans on actually getting a good time. I've had back spasms all week. My preparation wasn't adequate. (Was I supposed ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/05/04/broad-street-run/ Way way back in 1997, Michael Dell boasted that if he were in charge of Apple, he would "shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders." My how times change. As of the close of the market on Friday, Apple's market value is at $159.49 Billion where ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/05/03/karma/ Astronauts Suffer Agonizing, High-Pitched Death After Helium Leak http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/05/03/helium/ From Q&A on LinkedIn... Which blogging tool would you recommend and why? I recommend WordPress for several reasons: Hosting Support - many hosting providers have one-click installs or stated support for WordPress. If not, WordPress is a very straight-forward installation to do if you have experience. Developer Support - there are tons of developers ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/05/03/which-blogging-tool/ [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVy6z7gwydU] http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/05/02/obama-top-10-list/ AT&T has a real problem. People are buying iPhones and not signing up for service. Apple cares a little bit (they get a percentage of the monthly service) but they really make the profit on selling the phones. So, I will throw out my theory about the rumored price break ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/05/02/att-iphone/ Okay, so as a proud owner of a first generation iPhone, here are my predictions about the iPhone 2.0: 16 GB and 32 GB versions of the phone at $399 and $499 respectively and yes, there will be a 3G chipset as the entire world is predicting. No internal GPS chip, but ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/05/01/iphone-predictions/ In case you were wondering about the merits of Twitter, check out this CNN report: Student 'Twitters' his way out of Egyptian jail And you were debating the merits of Twitter! http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/05/01/twitter-your-way-out-of-an-egyptian-jail/ LinkedIn has gained broad acceptance as a social network for business professionals. Here are my LinkedIn rules to live by: (Your mileage may vary.) 1. Keep it professional. The goal is to make you look good in a professional networking environment. So don't be a troll. No one likes trolls. (Except, perhaps ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/30/etiquette-on-linkedin/ Let's say you just searched for "Bounce Rate" in Google. Perhaps you had been reviewing your site statistics with Google Analytics and wondered, perhaps out loud... "Why are so many people that click on the link to my site, bouncing?" But first, A little definition is in order. What is bounce rate? ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/29/bouncing-clicks/ For those of you that happen to be female and live in the Greater Philadelphia Area, I will be speaking at the event for the Women of Wit and Wisdom on June 26th, 2008 at 6:30pm at the Pyramid Club in Philadelphia. The details for the event have not yet ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/29/save-the-date/ Once Adobe took ownership of Dreamweaver, I knew that this day would come. Adobe Discontinues GoLive I've known you since you were called GoLive CyberStudio. I remember when Adobe bought you and GoLive 4.0 was released. You were such a special application and I officially moved away from NetObjects Fusion to author all ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/28/golive/ Here's a post from my Twitter network @pprlisa about a boy who uses echolocation to overcome blindness. It is amazing and inspiring. [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpBm4KoWsrY] http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/28/echolocation/ So, what if you don't want the phone contract from a smartphone but still want a killer PDA? If you are typically at a desk in an office or home, a pre-paid cell phone for emergencies or infrequent calls is a very inexpensive way to go. (My wife's pre-paid phone ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/28/ipod-touch-as-pda/ When I gave my presentation at my local BNI chapter two weeks ago, my speaker gift was a little different. I purchased two copies of "The Dip" by Seth Godin. I instructed the winner that one was him to read and the other copy was for his best client. (I got ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/27/one-gift-two-books/ For those of you who have ever put in temporary text when doing page layout, check out the bottom of the first page of the sports section from the Philadelphia Inquirer. All I have to say is, "Refer hereh ag hag ha hga hga hgh ag hag hag ha hga hga ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/27/temporary-headline/ Thanks to the explosion in online commerce over the last 10 years, FedEx and UPS have grown nicely. But what about local courier services? To me, it seems that with local businesses trying to compete with the likes of Wal-Mart and Amazon, shouldn't local courier services see some benefit for this? ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/27/local-courier/ As a kid, I wanted to be an astrophysicist. Watching this demonstration was pure joy. And for good measure, more information is available from the WorldWide Telescope website. http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/26/worldwide-telescope/ Brain child of one of my favorite authors, Seth Godin, is Squidoo. Read and learn. Squidoo concept: Everyone is an expert on something. How can Squidoo benefit you? By creating a "Lens" on a topic, perhaps what your business sells, you position yourself as an expert. And it also can improve link ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/26/squidoo/ Amazon sells everything that can be sold. It is the ultimate shopping site. Nothing beats it. Customer experience is awesome. Prices are good and shipping is quick. And if you are a merchant, you can even set up your own shop on Amazon. You can save stuff in your shopping ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/25/edges/ I got my first PDA over 10 years ago, a PalmPilot 5000. I spent the better part of a weekend mastering Graffiti. I took it everywhere and kept track of my contacts, tasks and appointments. I even took notes on it. I sync'd it at least twice a day and ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/25/pda-nostalgia/ There are hundreds of social networking sites with more arriving every day. Perhaps you have been invited to a few, "friended" some people, connected to some people you know or once knew. Social networks get more interesting the more connections that you have. More conversations, more opinions, more people, more, ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/24/dunbar/ If you called me up right now and tried to sell me something I would hang up. If I called you up right now I would expect the same thing. If you were looking for something and Googled to find me as the expert, you might send me an email. And if ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/24/conversations/ Every few years we all get that summons in the mail: jury duty. Today was my day to serve. I was all ready to go to the courthouse and perform my civic responsibility. But alas, I was not needed. I was excused. So far in the five times that I have ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/23/jury-duty/ If you have a webcam, this site will blow your mind: www.hrp.com You navigate the site with hand gestures and your webcam. Not quite "Minority Report" but certainly moving in that direction. http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/23/hrp/ This one has been around for a while, but if you haven't seen it, it is worth a look. [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLlGopyXT_g] The video was created by Dr. Michael Wesch, a professor of digital ethnography at Kansas State University, and his work was given a "Rave Award" from Wired Magazine. http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/23/the-machine-is-using-us/ For those of you who just cannot get enough cute dog pictures, Purina has launched a targeted DIGG clone in Pet Charts. Find popular stories, photos and videos about pet related content. Woof. And if you are looking for more social networks just for pets: (post more of your favorites in the ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/23/digg-for-the-dogs/ On the subject of being a good human, Guy Kawasaki brings us this article on Entrepreneur.com: Model Citizen: Here are 5 ways to be not just a better entrepreneur, but also a better person. http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/22/model-citizen/ And to follow-up from my earlier post about LinkedIn, here's a good post by a friend from my Twitter network @denthewise: Network - not Knowledge - Is Power Dennis' point is that with more people using social networks in both personal and business contexts, the network of connections and relationships is becoming ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/22/network-is-power/ LinkedIn has been around for a while now and recently they passed 20 million users. Unless you live under a rock, you probably have received at least one invitation to connect with someone on LinkedIn. That said, I frequently hear, "Okay, so I have an account and a couple of people ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/22/linkedin/ From October 2006 through September 2007, I was the president president of the Voorhees Regional Referral Group - a local BNI chapter here in South Jersey. It was a roller coaster experience. For those unfamiliar with BNI or other similar referral networks, here is the short story: one business profession ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/21/creating-referral-networks/ Today in history... In 1830, James Starley, British inventor and father of the bicycle industry was born. One specific contribution was the tangentially spoked wheel, a huge improvement over the radially spoked version. That said, try to get out on your bike this week. The weather in South Jersey is finally ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/21/happy-birthday/ A sign on a door is a promise. This one promised service 24/7/365. Yet the store was only open 8 hours a day during the week and only 4 hours over the weekend. Sure, the owner was willing to put a phone number on the door and encourage a visitor ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/20/we-never-close/ Lorelle has posted the following article: WordPress.com Banned Again: Why Aren’t You Concerned? Lots of blogs are hosted for free through WordPress.com and I'm not specifically sure of the EULA for services like WordPress.com, Blogger, YouTube, Flickr and such. But it would seem to me that using one of these services ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/20/yikes/ In an effort to compete with Wikipedia, the de facto standard for bloggers, Encyclopaedia Britannica has launched Webshare... Here's a quote from the site: A special program for web publishers, including bloggers, webmasters, and anyone who writes for the Internet. You get complimentary access to the Encyclopaedia Britannica online and, if you ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/19/encyclopaedia-britannica/ Jason Fried of 37signals offers the following post: Workplace Experiments What I especially like are the 4-day work weeks. It is a similar concept to Google giving you one day per week to work on your own projects, except the project is actually about making sure that you are fully rested and ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/18/workplace-experiments/ Check out my post on the World Wide Web Communications Blog: Eye on the Prize In summary, it is all about the purpose of your website, which is really to convert a stranger into a customer. http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/18/eye-on-the-prize/ Something is rotten in the town of Redmond, Washington. IBM is using Macs. IBM Launches Pilot Program for Migrating to Macs And through the course of this pilot program, 86% of the users wanted to keep their Macs. A quote from the article... "When presenting at customer or external meetings, I have been ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/17/switcher-alert/ Google is possibly one of the most powerful tools on the Internet, if you know how to fully leverage its power. The Google Guide has great information for novices and advanced users alike to get some amazing results from the search goliath. There is even a cheat sheet for power users. Even ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/17/google-guru/ Lifehacker posts a great top 10 list for email productivity... Top 10 Email Productivity Boosters http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/16/email-productivity/ I work with lots of clients on their website strategy. All too often, they want to rush ahead to the visuals. The most crucial step before going to the design is to define the purpose for the site. The problem is that clients create a broad definition of the purpose of ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/16/extra-step-purpose/ A lot of digital ink has been spilled debating the usefulness of Twitter. And what makes Twitter so interesting is that people have developed lots of interesting uses for the service. There is one particular use that some of the Internet "stars" have talked about. Asking Twitter a question. I'm a ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/15/twitter-and-the-wisdom-of-the-crowds/ On the subject of taxes, you might as well go see if you are going to get some "eco-stimulus-love" from the IRS in the next few months. So grab a copy of your 2007 return (the one that you made before sending it in, right?) and head over to the ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/15/calculate-your-economic-stimulus-payment/ [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pqe2eCtY4Pg] As usual, the Common Craft show (this time for hire) comes through with a nice high level description. And, Salesforce.com has launched a new blog for this integration. And as a follow-up from today's webcast, visit http://www.salesforce.com/googleapps/ for complete information. http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/14/common-craft-video-about-google-apps-salesforcecom/ This commercial from the Zurich Chamber Orchestra is just plain cool. My composer brain loves this more than my marketing brain! http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/14/rollercoaster/ RSS = Really Simple Syndication For most people, it's not so simple. So, let's try to resolve this. Let's say you are obsessed with the news, so everyday you log on to a bunch of different news sites to see what is new and interesting. If you are only following one or ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/14/rss-explained/ If you are a Salesforce.com customer, consider yourself officially blessed with Google Apps right in your Salesforce.com world. What does this mean in simple terms? If I were in Microsoft land right now, I'd be a bit worried. Okay, really worried. Here is a video tour from Salesforce.com. Putting Google Docs into ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/14/officially-mashed/ My good friend Andy Petranek forwarded this story from Fox News (!?!) about a new storage technology that could be available in the next 10 years. Memory Breakthrough Could Mean 500,000 Songs on an iPod Spinning electrons just sounds cool. Less power requirements and more durability. I guess that Moore's Law is ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/13/racetrack-memory/ Early this morning, GrandCentral went offline. Not sure why. No notice to its users, but it is back online. Right now the service is totally free and in beta, so the users that will complain about this violently should remember... FREE and BETA do not mean RELIABLE. Yes, GrandCentral hopes ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/13/grandcentral-goes-dark/ Okay, file this under "computer geeks with too much time on their hands" but these photos are lots of fun... Flickr: The Transparent Screens Pool http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/13/transparent-screens/ Tamar Weinberg brings us some good tips for making the most of DIGG. 11 Tips to Enhance Your Digg User Experience http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/12/11-tips-to-enhance-your-digg-user-experience/ How many messages are in your email inbox right now? Seriously, I have seen too many people become completely overwhelmed by the onslaught of email. Just because it is digital doesn't give you an excuse to become an e-packrat. And once your email inbox gets too deep to manage, what ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/11/dream-of-an-empty-inbox/ When I lived in California, I didn't drink wine. Now I live in New Jersey and I love trying many wines. Thanks to some old fashioned laws leftover from prohibition, shipping wines to New Jersey is a pain. And, many other states suffer with similar problems. What does this mean? It means ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/10/shipping-wine/ A short post about my best friend... Tricks Just in time for his birthday. http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/09/brian-tricks/ After all of this time, World Wide Web Communications has started its journey down the road to Blog nirvana... And here is a link to my first post on the blog. http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/09/wwwc-does-blogging/ There has been lots written about how to make your products and services remarkable and how you should avoid competing on price. But what happens when your product isn't remarkable? A huge example is the comparison of the Apple iPod to the Microsoft Zune. And right before another major iPod announcement, ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/09/last-resort-price-break/ France's Eurova is developing a temperature sensitive varnish so that when the temperatures go below freezing, the paint changes color to pink. Color Shifting Roads Warn of Ice From a usability point of view, pink lines on the ground are easy to spot and we are already used to looking for the ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/08/when-the-roads-turn-pink/ Lifehacker posts this article... The next time you wonder, "What ever happened to so-and-so?" you've got a few power people search tools to turn to. Lots of very interesting ways to help locate those lost cousins or pre-screen job candidates. Please, no stalking. http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/08/how-to-track-down-anyone-online/ Steve Jobs knows how to get things right. When he lowered the price of the iPhone 2 months after its introduction, he heard the customer complaints and posted this open letter. And for a few more thoughts on this, The Unoffical Apple Weblog has this comment. And then Seth Godin has this ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/07/the-right-way/ For those of you familiar with Craigslist (Local Philadelphia Link), Lifehacker has a great article with advice for selling your stuff: A Seller's Guide to Craigslist. http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/07/sell-stuff-on-craigslist/ It is pretty simple to do. Here are the steps: Make sure that your email messages are very generic. Send them out too frequently. Add people to your list that haven't asked. Include everyone in the "To:" or "CC:" fields. Write really long email messages. Since I'm "in the biz," I frequently stay subscribed just to ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/06/how-to-kill-your-email-marketing-campaign/ Griffin Technology has released a new iPhone case, ClearBoost, which claims to boost the built-in antenna while providing physical protection for the phone. According to the support page... "These improvements will, instead, translate into an increased ability to maintain connection with the cellular network, with more stations available to your phone, ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/05/even-more-bars-for-your-iphone/ Ever need to find the address of a phone number? Check out Sullr from a browser or Sullr Mobile from your mobile phone. Type in the phone number and get the address you need. http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/05/reverse-phone-number-lookups/ Google Analytics is a result of Google's purchase Urchin web statics software. Back in the day (well, a couple of years ago), Urchin was one of the best web statistics packages available. Google's improvements to the front-end interface and back-end recording is simply amazing. And they give it away for ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/04/google-analytics/ Most people know what spam is...Viagra advertisement, unsolicited stock tip, lottery winning notification from somewhere in Europe, etc. But what is Bacn? (It's pronounced bacon, but in Web 2.0 lingo.) Bacn is email that you asked for and perhaps want to read at some point, but it isn't remotely urgent. Bacn tastes ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/04/what-is-bacn/ I'm not a fan of my evil overlord cable modem/TV/phone provider, Comcast, but... Comcast first in US with 50Mbps cable Internet Can you say 50 megabits per second? And, with speeds up to 100 megabits per second available by the end of the year? Take that FiOS! My guess is that Verizon can ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/03/comcast-cable-internet-ups-the-ante/ Don't get me wrong, email is a fantastic communication tool and I wish that everyone used email. But too often I see email as a constant distraction. Think about this...You have Outlook open in the background and you start to do some productive work and only 5 minutes later, the new ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/03/close-your-email-program/ From the Zen Habits blog... Life Coding: 9 Ways to Fight Feature Creep in Our Lives http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/03/feature-creep-in-our-lives/ Sometimes in the hectic schedule that is our production environment, one focuses on the task at hand and not the result at the end. What we do for our clients isn't just creating websites, applications and such. Our clients use the websites and applications that we create for them to market ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/02/enabling-clients/ Webware posts this interesting article about the possibility of Ebay partnering or selling Skype to Google. Without getting into all of the plumbing or technical implications, this seems like a home run for both. Ebay gets some needed cash, but Google gets a seriously amazing product which fits into Google ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/02/skype-grandcentral-android/ If you are still using your house number and kid's name for your password, you should start taking security a little bit more seriously. The Password Meter I also recommend creating motion-based passwords, that is to say, something that your fingers will remember rather than a word or number. http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/02/use-strong-passwords/ So after a very long wait, I received my invitation to GrandCentral back in the fall. The service is still in closed beta. GrandCentral, now owned by Google, is a service that gives you a single phone number which rings a collection of other numbers that you define for schedules, ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/01/invitation-to-grandcentral/ At a recent medical checkup, the doctor noticed sound waves coming out of my ears. He deemed this "rather odd" and ordered additional tests. Three specialists later and it has been confirmed that there is an actual piano inside my brain. It is a Steinway micro-grand, which is about the size ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/04/01/piano-found/ Okay, I might be a little obsessed with Steve Jobs and Apple products. But the following quote makes a good point... "You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new." - Steve Jobs There are ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/03/31/think-like-steve-jobs/ If you've been around email long enough, you have certainly experienced the misunderstandings that email can sometimes cause. But to go even further, how do you make sure that your emails will actually help get things done. The key is to write about one thing per email. From Web Worker Daily's ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/03/31/get-action-from-your-email/ Webware brings us this post about Yahoo's new vertical site aimed at women, Shine. http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/03/31/yahoo-launches-shine-for-women/ Now that Twitter is starting to hit the main stream, enter the publicity stunt of ColorWars2008. And if you are enticed, sign up for the veryGreenTeam, which is exactly what Ze Frank is trying to get you to do. "Tweet!" http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/03/31/twitter-color-wars/ If you find yourself fumbling with your cell phone, MP3 player, GPS or other devices in your car, get things neatly organized with ProClip. It is a 2 part solution where you pick the holder for your device and the mounting adapter for your car. A great way to securely ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/03/30/way-too-many-gadgets-in-the-car/ As a follow-up to the previous post about understanding Wikis, here is a great segment from The Colbert Report. In August of 2006, Steven Colbert edited several Wikipedia articles during the taping of his show. After making his changes, Colbert encouraged his viewers to spread his concept of Wikiality by ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/03/30/steven-colbert-on-wikiality/ Here is a great video from YouTube that explains the concept of Wikis in a 4 minute video. There are a number of other videos available from the YouTube Channel for the Common Craft Show. [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY] I love the style of the Common Craft videos as they present technology in a "why ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/03/29/wikis-in-plain-english/ Get it while it's hot... Getting Email Under Control It is a free PDF download, although it requires registration with Davidco.com. http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/03/29/david-allen-offers-free-advice-for-getting-email-under-control/ Last night, our family and the friends we are staying with had the privilege of having dinner with wine maker Andy Troutman and his family. Since I've been a little bit obsessed with wine for the past 18 months, I seriously enjoyed the whole experience. Andy's house is at the Winery ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/03/29/dinner-with-andy-troutman/ The excitement (?!) from yesterday was a trip to Lehman's, a store that excels in pretending to connect tourists to the Amish. Apparently, they just completed major renovations and expanded significantly to add a café. The store itself (and its newly expanded parking lot) is located in the center of downtown ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/03/28/tourist-trap-in-ohio/ Startup Nation blog has a digestible breakdown of the CAN-SPAM act: How the CAN-SPAM Act affects online marketing http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/03/28/can-spam-and-email-marketing/ I've got two multi-user online collaborative whiteboards for you to check out... Twiddla Skrbl (it must be Web 2.0 since it is missing its vowels) Both allow users to create and share online "whiteboards" with freehand drawing, text, pictures and such. Worth a look. http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/03/28/twiddla-team-whiteboarding/ Well, if it was in the New York Times, it must be true... Yes, Running Can Make You High http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/03/27/runners-high-science-proves-it/ John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing posts about how Posting relevant comments on blogs is networking. There are many ways to do networking on the web but I happen to think one of the easiest is to participate in blogs you enjoy by frequently posting relevant content. Blog comment posting is ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/03/27/blog-comments-and-posts/ Email is a great tool for messages to people but it is horrible for sending attachments. Sure, the PDF, DOC, PPT or XLS file here and there is probably fine, but what do you do when you want to email someone a huge file? And since email is not secure, ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/03/27/sending-large-files/ I love my coffee pods, but since I'm the only one in my house that drinks coffee, my wife (a.k.a. Supermarket Hero) never knows when I'm running low on this crucial element of my diet. Thankfully, Amazon to the rescue with it's "Subscribe & Save" service. Simply put, you tell ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/03/26/subscribe-to-coffee-pods/ Glancing through the local paper on my vacation in the middle of Ohio, I found this ad... Yes, really. For the neighbors' sake, I hope that they come more than once per week. http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/03/26/local-advertisements-in-ohio/ Most business professionals abuse PowerPoint. It's just too easy to do. Author Seth Godin's Really Bad PowerPoint post on this topic hits the nail on the head. Business Week has a great article about how Steve Jobs is a master at giving presentations. He doesn't use PowerPoint, rather a program for the ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/03/26/really-bad-powerpoint/ Running is hard. Sometimes it hurts. Much of the time it is boring. And it is never particularly convenient in my busy schedule. And if I take a week or two off, it's like starting over again. But I am reminded that anything that is too easy isn't worth doing at all. That ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/03/26/why-i-should-run-more/ So often, email marketing bugs me. Companies forget that in order for email marketing to really be effective, the customer has to actually be interested in the message. So when I received a short message from Lens.com today, I was totally blown away. No ads, no sales, no special offers, no ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/03/25/email-marketing-in-the-customers-mind/ Ubiquitous capture, please meet Steve Rubel's article: Use Your Cameraphone as a Visual To Do List Simple, and you probably already have the camera phone. I've been using this technique with my iPhone as well as the heralded hipster PDA. http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/03/25/camera-phone-as-to-do-list/ When building a blog, one must post to the blog. Here is my simple advice for posting. "Don't waste time." Posts should be as long or as short as appropriate for the topic. Like this one. http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/03/25/posting-101/ While talking to a friend yesterday, we were discussing the whole concept of Email ettiquette. So many people use email but so few are taught how to really use it. Of course, this morning, I found this article from Wired Magazine which has some great pointers. And the New York Times ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/03/24/writing-email/ A prominent politician spoke to American's about race as though they were adults. http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/03/23/jon-stewart-on-barack-obamas-philadelphia-speech/ The speech is almost 40 minutes long and regardless of whether you are a democrat or republican, Barack Obama is addressing the issues in a very difficult and nuanced way. But it is based in his honesty and intelligence. [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrp-v2tHaDo] Read the entire transcript of the speech here... His speech is risky. But ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/03/23/obama-philadelphia/ Seriously simple web application downforeveryoneorjustme.com answers the question: "Is my website actually down or is there a problem with my connection to the Internet." If you are having a problem accessing your own site, this is a good place to start. Instructions not included, so just type in your domain name and ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/03/22/down-for-everyone/ I'm trying a new "style" of presentation for my current projects... Pecha Kucha. This is where you have 20 slides for 20 seconds each, giving you 6-7 minutes of content. Since it is typical for presentations with PowerPoint have too much text and too many bullets, I believe that using ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/03/19/seminar-presentations/ The hardest thing for me is not composing. And since it is perhaps the most personal thing that I do, I tend to put it last in line in terms of priorities. The good news is that my brain never stops writing music. I mentioned it before to friends and family, ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/03/18/back-in-the-saddle-again/ After seeing the article in Wired Magazine and then this post by Lee Lefever of Common Craft, I started thinking about how long I've been recommending this strategy to clients, friends, colleagues, etc. Lee's point is that they never would have been successful if they took the traditional approach. The ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/03/17/free/ I'm obsessed with cool productivity tricks and there are thousands of tools that can help. So I go about the usual trial phase where I play with the tool and it is cool, but for some reason it doesn't stick. Recently, one stuck. The problem: Ever notice how your best ideas happen ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/03/16/jott-to-self/ Not quite sure what possessed me, but I registered for the Broad Street Run scheduled for Sunday, May 4, 2008. I was pretty sure that after doing the Disney Half Marathon back in January that I had gotten this whole running thing out of my system. Apparently not. Or...it could be ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/03/15/registered-for-broad-street/ Ever wonder what kinds of speeds you are actually getting from your ISP? Make a click over to Speedtest.net. This is a really nicely done graphical interface that will show your upload and download speeds. So if you are ever wondering if you are getting the bandwidth you are paying ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/03/15/test-your-broadband-speed/ Since my 35th birthday back in November of 2006, I have been on a quest to expand my wine tasting palate. Like everything that I do and similar to my father, I make my interests into obsessions. In my house, I'm the only one that drinks wine. The kids like to ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/03/14/over-130-bottles-no-repeats/ I think that I've finally got this in order. I've tried to get myself to regularly blog with a few previous attempts but this one is actually going to stick. I think.In previous attempts I hadn't quite put my personal focus into the blog. It was always for some other ... http://pianoinsidemybrain.com/2008/03/04/first-post-again/