Ulanism

Comcast installed a SMC 8014 modem (link to manual) for my business internet. My default admin login is http://10.1.10.1. the default username/password is cusadmin/highspeed.

I don’t normally get all worked up over security issues. But this article by LifeHacker is an easy read and makes a lot of sense.

Change your password. Honestly. It is easy to do. Please be safe.

Am seriously thinking about pre-ordering the iPad. Is that a good idea or should I wait a while? Also not sure which model would be best. I really do not want to pay for the 3G network access as I’m hoping that universal wi-fi will soon be the norm around here. Appreciate your input.
Thanks,
Becky

We just purchased the 64GB Wi-Fi only iPad.

If it had a USB port or two we could hang additional storage off the side. Unfortunately, because you can’t, you are limited to using the iPad’s internal storage. This is why we bought the largest we could get our hands on at this time.

$500 is a fine price to put out there. $950 with AppleCare, tax and shipping (free right now) is not what folks would generally call a ‘bargain’. I decided to purchase the most expensive one because I really want the thing and think it will change our lives for the better. 16 GB and 64 GB thumb drives can be had for $15 and $250, respectively. As such, charging a $200 premium for the 64 GB over the 16 GB model is not so unreasonable. It does kinda hurt knowing they will be selling 256 GB iPads for $500 in a year. Whatever ;)

Apple keeps amping it up. For a while I was just happy that they were opening stores, pushing out cool products and improving their OS. Then they blew my mind with the iPhone. It truly is the best technological purchase of my life. I belive the iPad is going to be even better. For me, getting it the first day and knowing that I am part of this rich history is worth every penny.

Yes, I think you should get a WiFi only version. Yes, I think you should pre-order. I think you will be fine with the 16 GB model. You will be happy with the 32. I do not think you will ever regret it if you purchase the 64 GB one.

I just received this newsletter from Twitter. This is an example of a why newsletters are a bad idea from the most part.

1) I never opted in.
2) It is not clear from the header information who is sending it (ie: it could be spam!)
3) There is nothing in here that I really want to read about – it is all company focused “We celebrated with a little dance party.” Who cares?!?!?
4) there is no “Call To Action”. What do you want me to >>DO<< with this important information?

In short, it makes me leery of more things from Twitter. I know THEY think this information is totally cool and everyone should want to read it... but I am their client and I do not think any of it is worth my time. I guess it fits with the whole Twitter concept of sending out information for folks to consume or dump as they see fit.

On the plus side, it did come across as a personal email from Biz - which is the only reason I even opened it to begin with. They also make it easy to unsubscribe (which I did). And, probably most importantly, it was all real food and no sizzle (ie: no graphics).

The main issue I am bringing up is how you communicate with your clients. If too many of your clients see your newsletter in a negative light, you may harm your brand more than you strengthen it. Your clients view their time as valuable. Treat it with respect and your clients will reward you.

From: “Biz Stone (@Biz)”
Subject: Twitter Newsletter 2010 – Edition #1
To: ulan@yvod.com
Date: Wed, 3 Mar 2010 01:05:07 +0000 (UTC)

Hi there,

In the early days of Twitter, I used to send out short updates just to keep everyone in the loop since so much was happening. It’s been a while, but you signed up for short, monthly updates from Twitter so we thought it was time to start sharing more information. We’ve had quite a year. If you haven’t visited in a while, we’d like to invite you to come have a look at http://twitter.com — we’ve been busy!

Growing Up
In the course of a year, registered Twitter accounts have grown more than 1,500% and our team has grown 500%. Recently, we hired our 140th employee! His name is Aaron and he’s an engineer focused on building internal tools to help promote productivity, communication, and support within our company. We celebrated with a little dance party.

Features of Note
Some features of note that we released over the course of a year include the ability to create lists, quickly spread information with a retweet button, and an easier way to activate your mobile phone to work with Twitter over SMS. We also built a new mobile web site that looks and works much better on smart phones.

Feeling Inspired
By working together during critical times when others needed help, sharing important information that otherwise might not make the news, and inventing new and interesting ways to use Twitter, you’ve shown us that Twitter is more than a triumph of technology — it is a triumph of humanity. Projects like Fledgling and Hope140 were inspired by you.

Chirp!
While there may only be 140 full-time employees working at the Twitter offices, there are thousands of dedicated platform developers who have now created more than 70,000 registered Twitter applications creating variety and utility for all of us. We’ll be gathering this spring at Chirp, our first ever official Twitter developer conference.

Thanks,
Biz Stone, Co-founder (@Biz)
Twitter, Inc.

PS: This was sent to ulan@yvod.com for the account @ulan. If you’d rather not receive newsletters from Twitter, you can unsubscribe immediately. For questions, please visit us at Twitter Support.

Apple has just been granted a patent on their unibody design for their laptops. (Yes, I am against patents as they limit the free flow of knowledge. Simple argument but one I believe.)

Here is the official Apple.com page on the design.

Here is the direct link to the remarkable video. Take a look =)

Newsletters are bulk emails with graphics. I have been sending people over to Mail Chimp when they want to create newsletters. So far everyone is happy with that. Or, if they are not happy, they have not come back to give me a superior alternative.

Truth be told, I am not a big fan of newsletters. I get a few and universally view them as spam. Yes, they do provide information to me that I like, and yes, I have opted to receive each one. (I unsubscribe to those I don’t want. It is extremely important that all newsletters make it easy to unsubscribe!) That being said, I still do not like them. I much prefer a personal email. Newsletters add fluff and sizzle when what I want is real food (content).

I am not saying newsletters do not have a place. All I am saying is that I, personally, do not like them. As such (and to the detriment of me billing more consulting hours), I do not advocate that clients use them. For most clients, sending a periodic email is superior. I recommend that people set up an email ‘group’ and send an email to the group when they have something to say. The more personal and relevant the better.

Apple, Eddie Bauer, etc. all have large marketing departments and newsletters make sense for them. Smaller businesses do themselves a disservice when then flood their contacts with company-focused data. Every time we communicate with our clients… it should be relevant and helpful to our clients. We should only use email/newsletters to inform our audience of events they will find interesting.

I love this. Just love it =)

“Ok” I am convinced NOT to add the google feature to my site. Thanks for taking a look and sharing your point of view.

Not sure what you mean by… “Clicking on your icon I see that you have Activities and have joined a single site. Not bad info to give out…”

I hope that I am not your most lame client….

You are not my most lame client. You inspire me to write =)

Actually, I was rather embarrassed that you found a cool Google feature that I did not know about!!!

However, looking at the Google Friends Connect functionality, it does not look like it is geared toward increasing your professional reach. Instead, it looks like it is a way to show how “cool” you are because you have so many people following you. While this may, in fact, be a neat marketing plug, having 50 folks following you is not going to impress me. Having 20,000 will. How long will that take? And do you REALLY want 20,000 friends ;)

I have 82 friends on Facebook and it makes my skin crawl :{ I avoid loging in because someone is always saying something that I really “should” read (if I do not want to insult them). I can not imagine doing this for a business site. If my blog had 82 people following me, I do not think that would be an impressive number (not when YVOD hosts 300+ websites and consults with well over 300+ additional folks).

In short: “feeds” are supposed to make it easier for folks to get information from your site. Feedburner sends an email to everyone who is subscribed so they do not need to “visit” your site to get your latest posts. I imagine Google Friends Connect does the same thing (especially since the own Feedburner now). That being said, Feedburner shows up on your site as a single field with a “Subscribe” button next to it. Google Friends… well, it sure makes Google stand out.

PS: If you click around on your friends site, each one of the Google Friends Connect has an icon. Find yours and click on it. You will see a bit of info about you. Do you want that given out on your friends site? Not sure. But more importantly, does your >>FRIEND<< want that info given?

What if your friend helps Democrats get elected but you are a Republican lobbyist? Does your friend really want that info on his site? Does he want to be known as palling around with the opposition? What if you are his only friend? You could imagine how the trust between him and his clients could be broken. Maybe he is just a front for the Republicans…

My only point is, Google is in charge of what info gets on your site. That is, in my opine, never a good thing. Sometimes it is worth it (if you are raking in ad revenue), but try not to give someone else total rights over any part of your website.

No Borders
No Military
No Money

—-

Zeitgeist, The Movie

Zeitgeist: Addendum – 1:23:00 – “In fact, between maglev technology, advanced battery storage, and geothermal energy, there would be no reason to ever burn fossil fuels again. And we can do this now, if we were not held back by the paralyzing profit structure.”

—-

This is one of the most important projects I have come across in the last few years. At first I kinda just thought; “Yeah, another conspiracy theory with some cool graphics and a bit of research to help sell it. Nice!” After watching the original movie twice and observing how links to it started popping up in diverse places, I thought about how great it would be if regular people watched it (instead of just fringe nutz like myself).

So today while I was wondering the outer reaches of the internet I came across “Zeitgeist: Addendum” and decided to take a break to change my life. Fortunately, this new work does not disappoint.

Yes… you will be taking up 4 hours of your life by watching these two films. I tried to make it easy by embedding them in this post (no need to go anywhere).

Please let me know by commenting below if you find these videos worth watching.

Zeitgeist, The Movie – Remastered / Final Edition

Zeitgeist: Addendum

“ZEITGEIST, Part 1″ Debunked? Acharya Responds

My world has changed. Now I hope to change the world.

Good luck Barack =)