I Lived 080808

Yes, today is 08 08 08. The most significant thing happening today is the 2008 Summer Olympic Games (link is to English version), being held in Beijing, China. Without trying to make some political statement, I'm pretty surprised more athletes or countries didn't refuse to participate. Does that mean something?

A neighbor is getting married today. That will be kinda cool for them, having 080808 as their wedding date. It will definitely be the subject of discussion for years to come.

Today is a Friday, and yeah, I'm working. the weather in Salt Lake City, UT is very cloudy, and in places it's raining.

I purchased a single MP3 from Amazon this morning. It's Tracy Lawrence, Find Out Who Your Friends Are. The cost was $0.99. I heard the song on Pandora.com, and they make it easy to buy songs directly from iTunes or Amazon. I buy a lot of songs this way.

What are you doing on 080808?

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Modern Medicine Is Just Hot

Today's note will be fairly short. I just wanted to give a shout out to those in the medical profession. Tonight I watched an episode of Hopkins, a semi reality show about Doctors at John Hopkins Hospital. It's mind boggling what these Doctors are able to do. I have a Daughter who has been on the receiving end of their medical marvels.

No matter how much I bitch and moan about about the cost of medical care, I am glad that people are willing to get their hands dirty to save lives.

Picture courtesy of Gustty

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Could This Be A Hot Solution To My Flickr Post Problem?

If you're a Flickr user, and want to post photos to your blog, you know there is no way to add categories or tags to the post. There could be a plug-in solution, but I couldn't find it. Seriously, I looked for a long time. If there is one that does what I'm proposing, please let me know and I will update this post and back out what I've done.

This solution isn't for the faint of heart. And I'm not 100% sure how secure it is. But I know for a fact it works just like I want. Here is the scenario and my hack:

1. Create a new WordPress user for Flickr posts. Doesn't matter what you call it. Just make sure it has posting rights.
2. Add you blog, or modify and existing entry, in your Flickr account. How to do this is beyond the scope of my explanation.
3. Use the new WordPress user you created in step one in your Flickr blog settings.
4. Modify you xmlrpc.php file that sits in your WordPress root folder, with the below code. It would be in the same place as wp-config.php.

Here is where it gets a little hairy. Find the line which has this code snippet. Mine starts on line 1578, but yours may differ. It's in the function mw_newPost($args):

if (is_array($catnames)) {

foreach ($catnames as $cat) {

$post_category[] = get_cat_ID($cat);

}

}

Just above the code on line 1578, add this code snippet:

if ( $user_login == '*NEW_USER_NAME*' ) {

$catnames[] = '*CATEGORY*';

$tags_input[] = '*TAG1*';

$tags_input[] = '*TAG2*';

}

Save the file. Flickr gives you the ability to create a test post. I would recommend you do that before calling it good. Make SURE to remove any entries in the Settings/Writing/Update Services box before testing or your test post will show up in your RSS feed and anywhere else that you ping a new post.

Now, when you post from Flickr, using the correct WordPress user, you should have an entry in the category you choose, with the tags you want. You can add as many tags, or even categories as you like.

Again, there may be a more elegant solution that I haven't found, but for now this solves my problem. I suppose you could use this for any outside service that uses XMLRPC to post to your blog.

I'm also interested in hearing about potential security issues with this solution.

Photo courtesy of poolie.

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Book Review: It's Your Ship

My personal trainer recommended a book the other day called It's Your Ship, by Captain D. Michael Abrashoff. As a former United States Marine, I try and read leadership books written by those who served in the military. I connect with them. I understand their leadership styles and I always learn something.

Leadership comes in many forms. Good leaders make adjustment to their surroundings and the people they are working with. But the principles remain the same. Captain Abrashoff is the kind of leader hard to find in the corporate world.

The style most identifiable, and the one he uses as an example over and over, is giving those that work for him the responsibility, authority and resources to make things happen. He knows you build people up and give them what they need to succeed, and your own success will follow.

There's plenty of example situations, and he does a good job of dissecting both wins and losses. I happen to consume this book by audio CD, and I must admit by the 5th CD I was a little bored. The references to Navy process and protocol was a little much, and it felt like he was losing focus on leadership, and instead droned on about the Navy and his crew.

I whole heartedly recommend this book. Aside from the military flavor, he does play both sides of the isle, indicating how a business can use the same leadership principle he did in the Navy.

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CouchCast With Comasts Frank Eliason

Join us as we interview Frank Eliason, Digital Care Manager at Comcast on how he started something of a phenomenon using Twitter to help people with their Comcast challenges, under the name @comcastcares.

When discussing his experience with social networks, Frank notes that Twittering about people’s fragged modems at work wasn’t the first exposure he’d had with Internet community-building:

My first experience in social media was not listening to Customers, but rather communicating about the health of our daughter Gianna, who was born premature. Years later when she was diagnosed with cancer, we again communicated through our website.

She passed away in 2004, shortly before her 4th birthday. What is interesting is how her website put us in touch with so many great people from around the world. Some of the closest friends I will ever have. In Gia’s memory when possible we work to support many of the charitable organizations that were there for us.

Visit CouchCast.org for all of our shows. Come and be part of this sometimes wacky, sometimes funny, and sometimes techie podcast. Hosted by Robert Merrill, Matthew Reinbold and Thom Allen.

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Writers Symposium Ezine Is Hot

Utah author Paul Genesse and friends, put out a great ezine, about once a quarter. This is for writers, by writers. Why is it hot? Let me tell you.

Paul rocks at providing assistance to other writers. He has a good mix of contributors, and the content is always refreshing. In the latest edition he covers GenCon, pegged as "The Best Four Days In Gaming". But Paul contests it should also be called "The Best Four Days In Writing". Some 70 writing seminars, panels and workshops will be given at GenCon. There are two tracks, game writing and fiction writing.

If you're a writer, you need to check out the ezine. It can easily be found at Paul's website, http://paulgenesse.blogspot.com, or the Writers Sumposium website, http://writerssymposium.blogspot.com.

Photos by Ant Smith

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Learning The Value Of A Hot Story

Today was Breaking Dawn day. One of the hottest days in the book business. A day that compares to a Harry Potter day. Stephenie Meyer, author of the Twilight series, released book four today. Just to give you an idea the number of people who wanted to stand in line to get a copy, my wrist band said number 800, and that was just at one book store.

Needless to say, I was not going to stand in line while I watched 799 other people complete their purchase. So I did some reconnaissance. I found that several smaller stores were carrying the book, and so early this morning I trekked to a Wal-Mart and purchased 4 copies, and there was no line, and no one to fight.

The reason it was so important for me to get this book, was a daughters insane attachment to the story characters. The male character, Edward, is apparently hot. Every woman whose read the book wants their man to be Edward. It's hard to live up to.

The reason I'm telling you this story, is that word of mouth has basically driven the success of this book series. In the tween age group its a hot story. Vampire love stories are all the rage. Every author should be so lucky as Stephenie Meyer. Don't get me wrong, she is a very good writer, and tells great stories. But the readers have created the frenzy. Its been truly amazing to see it happen.

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One Hot August Day

It's August 1st. We are in the dog days of summer. The time where you're just about fed up with hot weather, and ready for the fall cool down to happen. Not to mention you're ready for the kids to go back to school. Pools are your best friend, and you get up early just to go for a run

NaBloPoMo theme for August is HOT. So, I'll be writing post about things that are hot. And they won't necessarily be about the weather.

Play along if you would like, visit the web site here.

Photo by PieterMusterd

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Facebook Alters Beacon System

Changing the way Facebook handles the Beacon system was inevitable based in user concern. While they are trying to calm the waters with this change, they still need to take a few more steps. At the very least they need to provide a page of companies using the Beacon system and let Facebook users choose who they want to share data with. This is what Facebook has chosen to do:

Users must click on “OK” in a new initial notification on their Facebook home page before the first Beacon story is published to their friends from each participating site. We recognize that users need to clearly understand Beacon before they first have a story published, and we will continue to refine this approach to give users choice.

What I find amazing is as of this writing nothing is on the Official Facebook blog. All I've found are reports from bloggers who follow technology and Facebook. Why is that? Why hasn't Facebook just come out and publicly said they have made changes to Beacon? What I know is they have made an effort to improve the service and give their users more control over how and what is used.

I still think Facebook rocks. I think the entire social network platform has many positive advantages. I also think its great the community can come together and police itself. These are the types of issues that should be taken serious by community builders.

Do you think Facebook went far enough? Is the Beacon system too personal?

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Utah Geek/Blogger Dinner Tonight

Tonight is the Utah Geek/Blogger dinner at Sampan at the Southtowne Mall in Sandy. Here is a link to the details.

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Backing Up Your Trusted System

I'm finding that most people never think twice about backing up the things they write in a notebook. They feel secure in the fact you can't break a notebook. This gives them a false sense of security. You can just as easily lose your analog trusted system as you can a digital one.

I spent some time last night and today searching for someone who had a backup problem with their trusted GTD system. There's plenty of hack information available, but I tried just about every possible method I could think of to find something someone may have written or suggested. I just couldn't find anything. So I decided to create a list of things I do (or should have been doing) to back up my notebooks and other documents.

• If you are carrying your trusted system with you on a trip, store the notebooks in a plastic baggy of some kind with n airtight seal.


• During your weekly review make sure you are transferring important information to a backup notebook (which stays in your home or office) or an electronic device like a computer or PDA.


• Take a digital photograph of each page in your notebook. You can store these pictures on your computer, your PDA or online with a service like Flickr.


• Scan each page of your notebook. This has the same affect as taking a snapshot only you probably get a cleaner image.


• Put a trusted system backup on your schedule. Typically you schedule a backup of your computer, make sure you add a trusted system back up too.

These are just some options you can take to prevent complete data loss if your trusted system disappears.

What are your suggestions for backing up your trusted system?

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My Moleskine Crashed Hard

Have you ever discovered something so horrific that you nearly threw up on the spot? That happened to me today. Every once in a while I take public transit to my office away from home. Today was one of those days. I hastily put everything in my backpack and ran out the door to catch the bus. Somewhere between my office door and the bus, all of the Moleskine's I was using were gone. I must have forgotten to zip up the pocket they were in. All of my notes. All of my design drawings. Some personal information. Receipts. Names. Numbers. All gone.

This is the risk of a paper based lifestream. I have a PDA, a T-Mobile MDA, but I only use it to make phone calls, store documents, email, Twitter, and keep my lists. I never kept lists in my Moleskine. Typically I scan the notebooks for relevant tasks, notes and list additions, and type them into a note file I keep on my PDA. I felt good about it. I had a digital copy of some notes and lists and everything else just stayed in the book.

Remember the IT guy always telling you to backup? Well, it had been months since I'd backed up my Moleskine. There is no recovering months of work. There are things in those books I can't remember, and I planned it that way. My poor execution in backing up my trusted system came back to bite me in the ass.

So now the question; do I go out and buy new Moleskine's or do I abandon this type of collection system all together? At the moment I'm just sick and pissed all at the same time. I went back later to trace my steps and no luck finding them. Hopefully someone will find my business cards in the back and call me, but nothing yet. My instinct is to go get the books and quit whining, get over it, move on. So I'll wait until tomorrow. Maybe I will have a clear head and make the right decision.

Cammeron Reilly pointed me to a blog post of his when he first made the leap to a paper lifestream, and the concern he had about losing it. I never really had that problem. Maybe naively I assumed nothing would ever happen because I was always careful. But this one day when I rushed instead of took my time, really messed me up. I guess now I have a reason to write more blog posts on the subject.

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Great Links From The Past Week

Here are some great links I came across from the previous week:

• Russell Beattie writes eBooks need more contrast to take off


• Chris Brogan says Passion Drives Personal Brand


• Pam at Escape from Cubical Nation asks Do you have to have an interesting life to use Twitter?


• 52 Novels asks Could something like TechStars work for novelists? (I am so on board with this idea)


• Mark Cuban writes Do Blog Comments Have Value?


• Zen Habits writes Obsessive- Compulsive’s Guide: Top 12 Organizing Tips, Plus Resources

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Surround Yourself With Winners

A good friend sends out a weekly email about improving sales skills. One of the reasons I like reading his advise are the questions he asks at the end. Most of the time they are interpersonal questions. But today, her wrote this:

Educating the world is not your job. Go find some smart people and do some business with them.

Several years ago a mentor told me this "If you want to be making a million dollars a year, why aren't you surrounding yourself with people who are?" The point I think he was trying to make, and the one my friend is trying to make, is surround yourself with smart people who are winners. We learn from example. That is how we learned to talk, to walk, eat, pretty much everything we do we learned from watching someone first.

Take inventory of where you are. Who you are associating with. Are these people helping you reach your goals? Can they? Are you helping those around you reach their goals? Can you?

My suggestion is to have a well rounded set of friends and associates. Make sure everyone is positive and supportive. Those who aren't need to be removed from your life. If you aren't positive or supportive, change your attitude, change your friends, change your path.
Describe the kind of person who makes your life better.

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Props To My Peeps

This weeks prop goes out to my Sister-In-Law, who held Thanksgiving dinner at her house. I know the amount of work that goes into putting on a production like this. Everyone had a great time.

Past props.

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Do You Know What Facebook’s Beacon Project Is?

I really don't like this Project Beacon from Facebook. Even though I spend time developing applications that use services like Facebook, this one is personal. Take for instance these entries from the main user feed in Facebook:



While I appreciate the ability to advertisers to make connections with customers and their social networks, people have to be concerned with the amount and type of data being pushed around. The problem will be people not understanding or forgetting they can turn this feature off in Facebook.

Take for instance the example in the image above. What if the purchase made on Fandango was a gift for my wife, who is also a Facebook user and a friend of mine. Have I just ruined it without realizing? I think so.

I don't really care if advertisers and Facebook have figured out a way to create a viral buying process, I do care about the exposure its creates. Learn more about Beacon and how to keep yourself from being unnecessarily exposed here.

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WordPress Plug-ins I Use And Why

My WordPress blog uses several plug-ins, and I thought I would share with you what they are and why I use them.

• Akismet: Comment spam prevention. This is an essential plug-in for any blog.
• All in One SEO Pack: This plug-in helps me build SEO friendly links.
• Comment Referrers: This give me additional information when someone posts a comment. Its sent to me via the notification email and doesn't appear any where on the blog.
• Comment Timeout: I use this to lock comments on posts so many days after I post them.
• Counterize II: This is a great statistics plug-in. I'm using this because I'm trying to find a really statistics program for WordPress.
• Dunstan-style Error Page: This plug-in allows me to create a custom 404 error page.
• Easy Tube: This plug-in helps me embed YouTube videos in a post.
• Enforce www. Preference: I like my blog URL to be www.digitalthom.com. When someone enters digitalthom.com it basically prepends www to incoming URL.
• Exec-PHP: This plug-in allows me to add PHP code top posts or widgets.
• Executable PHP widget: This is a plug-in that lets me add PHP specific widgets to the sidebar.
• Feed Locations: This plug-in allows me to change the default location of my RSS feed.
• Fotobook: Small plug-in that allows me to integrate my Facebook Photos. It integrates right into my blog and works better than the Flickr photo albums I've tried.
• Full Feed: This plug-in creates full posts in my RSS feed.
• Gravatar: Some themes require this plug-in to allow users avatars show in comments.
• iWPhone: This is a plug-in/theme specifically for the iPhone. I use this for all my iPhone readers.
• Link Harvest: I'm testing this plug-in to see of it has any value to my readers. It basically takes all links referenced in posts and pages and creates a collapsible list.
• Most Commented: This plug-in creates a small list of the most commented on posts.
• Popularity Contest: This plug-in shows a popularity percentage on each post.
• Recent Comments: This plug-in shows the last number of comments made.
• Recent Posts: This plug-in shows me the last number of posts.
• Related Entries: This plug-in displays 5 links that relate to the current post.
• Secure and Accessible PHP Contact Form: This plug-in allows me to create a secure comments form.
• Spam Karma 2: This plug-in eats spam for lunch.
• SpotMilk: This plug-in changes how the administrative tool looks, like a skin, well, it is a skin.
• Subscribe To Comments: This plug-in gives my readers the ability to subscribe to comments via email. I use this so readers can track comments on a post.
• WordPress Heat Map: this plug-in creates a heat map collection of post tags.
• WordPress Mobile: This plug-in makes my blog mobile accessible. I use this plug-in for all my PDA users.
• WP-ShortStat: This is a statistics plug-in.
• WP-UserOnline: This plug-in shows me who's online reader in real time.
• WP-UserOnline Widget: This is the widget that actually shows who's online.
• WPhone: This plug-in allows me to manage my blog from a mobile phone.
• WP lightbox 2: This plug-in blows up images in a blog post making them easier to see.

That's it. Not too many but they really help me keep this blog running.

What do you use on your blog, WordPress or not?

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Happy Thanksgiving Everyone

Let us spend the day reflecting, with family and friends; laughing and eating together. I'm thankful for my health and family. I'm thankful for being able to live in a Country that allows me to do and be what I want.

However you spend your Thanksgiving day, please remember a few things:

• Our Military friends, no matter where they are, keeping us safe and free
• The less fortunate in our community
• The less fortunate globally

I wish everyone the best.

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American Girl Is The Perfect Lovemark

I'm sitting here watching Oprah with my daughter. I hardly ever watch Oprah, but this particular episode she was spotlighting a company called American Girl. If you own a company you would be doing your customers a disservice, if you didn't spend as much time as you can, learning how American Girl is a true Lovemark.

Dolls are big business and American Girl seems to have taken it to a whole new level. I'm learning the lengths this company is going to create a life long customer. Here are some examples:

1. Each doll comes with a real book, not a brochure, about its life, based on some period of American history.
2. When you purchase a doll you can have a professional portrait taken with the two of you
3. American Girl has what they call a Doll Hospital. When your doll has an accident this department performs all the medical procedures necessary to fix the problem
4. Your doll's lifestyle would not be complete without additional clothing, furniture and accessories.

Here's where the Lovemark comes into play. They make buying an American Girl doll an experience beyond the customers wildest expectation. There is a social aspect to the products. The company is 100% dedicated to making sure their doll owners get the red carpet treatment. The value of one young girl convincing her friends to buy an American Girl doll is priceless.

Take time to wow your customers. Take time to listen to what they want. Take time to give them what they want. Learn from your customers. Use what ever social and viral marketing is available.

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Track of the day: The Pop Soul Jazz Funk Love Shuffle by Centre Line

Centre Line
"The Pop Soul Jazz Funk Love Shuffle" (mp3)
from "Centre Line"
(Caprimusic / GLP)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
More On This Album

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