Ever heard of e-mail bankruptcy? It’s what happens when you give up on cleaning out your inbox and just delete everything and start over. This little article talks about the peculiarity of e-mail and how it tends to pile up. Ironically, I spent two hours last night pairing my inbox down from 400+ messages to three (I should say my main inbox–I’ve pretty much given up on the 10+ other inboxes I have).
My biggest failures with e-mail are my desire to keep every single e-mail (necessitating a ridiculously long chain of folders for every client and source) and my inability to act immediately on e-mail. I let it sit there, deciding to deal with it later–which usually means three months later when it’s one of hundreds. Every time I clean out my inbox I try to deal with e-mail as it comes and not let it pile up again, but inevitably I’m seized by indecision and decide to deal with one later, and then another later, and then pretty soon I’m stacking ’em up again.
I spent some time tweaking the site yesterday (again). I realized I didn’t have much of a description anywhere so I added one to the top. Maybe that will help explain what this place is to the newbies. And fill in a few of you old timers in case you forgot.
I also added an e-mail subscription box to the sidebar. I mentioned this before, but the sign-up box is new. Basically if you want to get my blog updates delivered to your e-mail inbox (in full text, no less!), you can sign up there. Entries are delivered once a day. That’s the only thing the list is used for (I couldn’t spam you if I wanted to–not that I want to) and you can unsubscribe at any time.
I’ve also been using a tracking service to see where people click on my homepage. It’s fascinating stuff, but the biggest thing I’m noticing is that a few people don’t use bookmarks. You come to my site to use the Flickr or Blogroll links at the top, instead of just bookmarking those sites (my Mom does it, but I’m sure she’s not the only one).
I hate blogging about this, but I don’t know where else to turn. Maybe you can help.
I’m trying to get my Mac to work with a Microsoft keyboard and mouse, and it feels a bit like trying to broker peace in the Middle East. OK, it’s not that bad. In fact, it’s worked out great. A while back I bought this new Microsoft Wireless Desktop for Mac keyboard and mouse combo to replace the keyboard that must not be named (actually, it was an Adesso, and yes that’s my 1-star review of it). The new Microsoft keyboard and mouse worked great, despite my mixing genres.
Except when I shutdown or restart the computer. Then both the mouse and keyboard go dead until I unplug and re-plug the USB wireless receiver. Then everything works fine. I can’t figure out how to fix it so I don’t have to do the unplug and re-plug dance at every shutdown/restart. Microsoft’s site is no help and I haven’t found much Googling. Any brilliant ideas out there? Or is this just Bill Gates’ revenge?
After much tinkering, false starts, failed attempts and rabbit holes I finally have a new movie and book review system going. Each item gets a fancy 1-5 star rating (half stars are allowed) and an image pulled in from Amazon. Pretty swanky, huh?
You can see the initial results in the sidebar, with the latest movie and book reviewed. I’m not thrilled with the layout yet, but we’ll see what happens.
Marketing guru Seth Godin blogged today about adding some fancy new links on his site.
First, he added this little pop up thing next to his books. It’s not a true pop up window (it’s all web 2.0–what is that? Java? Ruby on Rails?) but it gives you a number of link options. You can buy the book on Amazon or Barnes & Noble or Google it or do half a dozen other things. It’s interesting. Some what useful. I can’t help but wonder if one more arrow next to his book will confuse people (do I click on the book, the arrow, or the title?). It’s also fairly similar to SnapShots, which I also find some what confusing/distracting.
But second, Godin also added “flair” to the bottom of each post for Technorati, Digg and del.icio.us saving/linking/adding/whatever-you-do-there. I’m so unsure about this sort of feature-creep. I talked about it before, getting some inspiration from Jason Kottke to tone down the excessive information.
Huh? Amazon.com offers free shipping if you spend $25 or more. My total (before the quality tools) was $24.24–76 cents shy of free shipping. So by spending an extra 86 cents I saved about $7. I’ve done this before (and with Barnes & Noble), but it was much more efficient this time thanks to the Amazon Filler Item Finder.
I do feel some what odd buying crap I don’t need, but you can’t ignore those economics: buy more, spend less. And who knows how often you’ll need a metal spring clamp? (I’d wager seven cents it’s more often than a 7/32 socket, which I probably already have)
Sex, Drugs and Updating Your Blog from the New York Times, focusing on how musicians are using the web to connect with fans. The story of Jonathan Coulton is great. A lot of this story focuses on the sheer volume of fan e-mail. As a person who has answered e-mail for an organization receiving over 100 e-mails per day, I can appreciate how maddening that is. While it’s great to interact with people and know that you’re making a difference, some people are just stupid.
How To Be a Star in a YouTube World from the Wall Street Journal, all about what it takes to be successful in online video. Not nearly as engaging, but some interesting reading.
Seven tips on how to run a successful community from the guy who founded MetaFilter. OK, it’s not exactly in line with the rock star theme, but if you’re going to be a rock star online community is important. It’s also important for the rest of us, so it’s some helpful advice. I’ve heard it said before that online community, or any community for that matter, is a lot like herding cats. So good luck with that.
I just added a new FeedBurner RSS feed and the ability to subscribe to this blog via e-mail. Nobody was begging me for either option, but I’m testing them out to see how they work and if they’re worth using. The e-mail subscription option seems pretty nice, especially for those unfamiliar with RSS (like the mom contingent that reads my blog).
I think Movable Type has an e-mail notification system, but I’ve never bothered to set it up. Plus it seems easier to let someone else handle it.
I’m not sure how helpful the extra RSS feed is, but it comes with the e-mail subscription service. Plus it has a lot of fun extras that might be nice. FeedBurner recommends condensing all your RSS feeds into a single feed–theirs. Of course they want me to do all my RSSing through them. I’m not sure if that’s a good idea yet. It seems smart, but I don’t know. We’ll see.
Whether or not it works out, when it comes to my clients it’ll make me smarter. And I like having work as an excuse to play on the Internet.
A client asked me if I had any tips for writing online, and I salivated at the prospect. I’m just full of brilliant ideas. So I dove into my meticulously organized file of links and articles to find a collection of sources worthy of a college syllabus. Unfortunately I didn’t find much. Either there hasn’t been much written or I’m not as meticulous as people think I am.
So I figured I’d better write it myself. This isn’t anything new, simply tips and ideas I’ve picked up over the years. And much of it should be obvious–this isn’t rocket science. Unfortunately, it’s also not always followed (especially on this blog).
The key to writing for the web is readability. Anything you can do to increase readability is huge. That’s basically true for any type of writing, though certain elements become more important for the web.
Kent Nichols of AskaNinja.com shares his take on how to succeed in the future of entertainment in another Pop!Tech video. (This one’s about 24 minutes–kind of annoys me that tech-savvy folks didn’t think it important to tell you how long the videos are. And while I’m whining, where are the permalinks?)
It’s a crazy world we live in when someone can wrap a piece of fabric around their head and make a living. It’s obviously more than that (which is why you and I aren’t creating our own explosively successful viral video series), but it always makes me wonder. What would it take to be the next Ninja, ZeFrank or Homestar Runner? Sometimes I think I should start a club and set out to do just that. (link via kottke.org)
A work-at-home dad wrestles with faith, social justice & story.