Daily Digest (weekly)
August 23, 2008 by Andy Brudtkuhl - Leave A Comment
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10 Suggestions to Improve Google Reader
From Louis Gray…
1. “More Like This” Suggestions
2. Eliminate Duplicate Feed Items
3. Add Negative Keywords
4. Share Items Without Subscriptions
5. Aggregate Reader Statistics
6. Addition of Search
7. Create a Link Blogs Directory
8. Further Integrate “Trends”
9. Expand Individual Feed Stats
10. Customization -
“Twitter can be an amazingly powerful platform for connecting to your community as well as driving traffic to the various properties you want people to go. Having an event? Tweet it out! Launched a new bag? Tweet it out!
The key to Twitter is the level of listening you do as well as talking. It is definitely supposed to be an interactive program. And, in fact, this is where you build the majority of your Whuffie (aka social capital). The more you interact on Twitter, the more people will interact with you, which attracts others to you as well.”
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Starter Kit: Social Media and Social Networking Best Practices for Business
“I wanted to start with some basic guiding principles that should be used to guide social media participation particularly for companies. These should apply to participation in most online social media environments and social networks.”
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20 Free eBooks About Social Media
It’s interesting what you can find when you look around a bit on Google. I thought I’d look for a few new ebooks to read. I found 20 different ones that might be interesting to you. It never hurts to get a few different perspectives. In all cases, the first link is to a PDF file, the second link is to the site where it’s hosted.
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33 Brands That Suck on Twitter
“Brands That Suck on Twitter: I don’t write this post to be mean spirited; I write this post to simply call attention to brands and companies that are totally missing the boat and not listening on twitter where millions of conversations are happening everyday. Do companies think about or even care what people are saying about them, their products or services on twitter? If they don’t, then they are about to be rudely awakened soon enough.”
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Why Brands Are Unsuccessful in Twitter
- Brands are slow to the party
- Corporate domain: “out for lunch”
- Not personal enough
- Too personal
- campy personal wears thin
- big brother is watching
- hybrid brands won’t last
- ROI unclear
- No one gives a care -
“Tables have got to be one of the most difficult objects to style in the Web, thanks to the cryptic markup, the amount of detail we have to take care of, and lack of browser compatibility. A lot of time could be wasted on a single table although it’s just a simple one. This is where this article comes in handy. It will show you ten most easily implemented CSS table designs so you can style your tables in a zap!”
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10 Futuristic User Interfaces | Monday Inspiration | Smashing Magazine
Some cool details on the possible future of user interface design
“Good user interfaces are crucial for good user experience. It doesn’t matter how good a technology is — if we, designers, don’t manage to make user interface as intuitive and attractive as possible, the technology will hardly reach a breakthrough. To gain the interest in a new product or technology, users need to understand its advantages or find themselves impressed or involved.”
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Form Elements: 40+ CSS/JS Styling and Functionality Techniques
“Recently there have been a number of noteworthy techniques such as styling different form fields, live validation, Context highlighting, trading options from field to another, slider controls and more – using CSS and different Javascript libraries. Below we present findings of search to more than 40 tutorials and demos to showcase the capabilities and robustness of CSS and Javascript. “
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First Android Phone Just Approved By FCC – ReadWriteWeb
Today, the news broke that the HTC Dream, the first handset to run Android (aka “the Google Phone”) has been approved by the FCC. In the documents provided, it appears that we have now a release date for this highly anticipated phone: November 10th, 2008. So what will the HTC Dream offer? We take a look at some of the details and unknowns surrounding this device.
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The 13 Skills of the Public Relations Pro of the Future
we have unleashed one of the most intensive training regimens I know of for our staff. While our focus is on digital and “digital influence,” there are a lot of other skills that will help the next generation of communications experts (do we need to retire the “public relations” term?).
The next generation will need to get strong in the following. I have begun the process of drilling down into each to offer some practical “how-to’s” for each. Look for more in the future or even create your own and link back here:
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Will twitter start using advertising? What do you think? Will you even care as a user?
“American users will see banner ads soon, and don’t be surprised if your message on dining out gets side-saddled with an ad for a local restaurant. And to be fair, Microsoft’s deal valued Facebook at 100 times its then-$150 million in estimated revenues. Similar hyperbole could turn Twitter’s $28 million revenue potential into a $2.8 billion valuation.”
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FireNES Adds Tons-O-Nintendo Fun to Firefox
Very cool – play NES ROMS via built-in emulator that’s a Firefox extension…
“If you didn’t notice from reading my last massive time waster, I love classic gaming. I’m also a Firefox user, and always on the hunt for good addons like the rest of you. Thank god for FireNES, an awesome addon for Firefox that gives you ready access to a massive repository of NES games.
After you install it, customize your toolbar and add the FireNES button to give yourself one-click access to the sidebar. The full ROMs list is massive, The toplist contains the 100-or-so most played titles, and you can add any game to your list of favorites with a simple right click.”
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10 Worst Web glitches of 2008 (so far)
“We have been reminded several times lately that Web 2.0 is in no way a synonym for “reliable.” Major services have crashed. Big product launches have fizzled. Users have raised their collective fists in the air. What’s going on? Is the Web crumbling? Well, no, it’s not. But users’ expectations are rising, and Web companies often get themselves into trouble by promising far more than they can deliver.”
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Des Moines Register mentions TrustyPig Brand Hijack
Local bloggers – including Nathan T. Wright, Andy Brudtkuhl and Brett Trout – created posts and Twitter messages informing customers that TrustyPig was using the SmartyPig Web design features illegally.
Within a couple days, TrustyPig began replacing its Web designs, Gaskel said.
SmartyPig was launched early this year as the nation’s first online savings account with social networking capacity, where friends and family can contribute to savers’ accounts at West Bank to help meet specific savings goals.
TrustyPig’s Web site says it is an online marketing company. It’s not clear where the site operates from, but a post on it explains that the SmartyPig mistake occurred when “a programer from Romania and a designer from China” were hired to design Web pages.
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Burnout. Find the ways and means and resources to manage it now. You’ll need all of them and more in the coming years
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Video Search Engine Optimization (VSEO) Session
“According to comScore, nearly 139 million U.S. Internet users watched an average of 83 videos per viewer in March 2008, viewing a total of 11.5 billion online videos during the month. However, the average YouTube video receives only 100 views a year. This makes optimizing video for YouTube one of the biggest opportunities in the fast-changing and complex world of search. This session will look at how video search engine optimization (VSEO) has become the most important new use of search engine optimization today.”
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Microsoft Data Center coming to West Des Moines
Microsoft is expected to announced tomorrow that it will bring its new data center to West Des Moines, sources familiar with the project say. The size of the project and employment are unavailable.
Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft said in July that it would bring a data center to the Des Moines area. The West Des Moines project is expected to be similar in size to a data center in San Antonio, Texas.
Microsoft said last year it’s building a $550 million data farm that will employ about 75 high-tech workers. The workers will earn an average of $70,000 annually.
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Bacon Salt: How two tech guys created a viral food sensation
“What started as a viral internet campaign turned into positive mainstream media coverage, and consumer demand for Bacon Salt in their local supermarkets. I don’t have a list of where you can buy Bacon Salt today, but I’m told that penetration is strong across the United States, with several large chains stocking the product.”
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50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business
50 different ways your company can use Twitter as a communications tool
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Jerry Seinfeld: Microsoft’s New $10 Million Pitchman
Microsoft Corp., weary of being cast as a stodgy oldster by Apple Inc.’s advertising, is turning for help to Jerry Seinfeld.
The software giant’s new $300 million advertising campaign, devised by a newly hired ad agency, has been closely guarded. But Mr. Seinfeld will be one of the key celebrity pitchmen, say people close to the situation. He will appear with Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates in ads and receive about $10 million for the work, they say.
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Microsoft Data Center in West Des Moines, IA
This “next-gen” facility will be different than the traditional data center, supposedly using the “container” model they have been working on. Basically a container is a semi-trailer (or shipping container that you see on barges and trains). Within this container are 1,000 – 2,000 servers. These containers are, literally, trailers that can be hauled in via trucks to scale the system. Microsoft has built a similar data center in Chicago that has two floors. Currently, the entire first floor is made up of 150-200 of these containers.
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Microsoft Embraces Data Center Containers
“The entire first floor of Chicago is going to be containers,” Microsoft director of data center services Michael Manos said this morning in his keynote at Data Center World in Las Vegas. “This represents our first container data center. The containers are going to be dropped off and plugged into network cabling and power.” The second floor of the immense facility will be a traditional raised-floor data center, Manos said.
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The Iowa Communications Network provides high quality, full-motion video; data; high-speed Internet connections; and telephone service to a variety of authorized users, which includes state and federal government agencies, K-12 and higher education, hospitals and public libraries. Video is a tool for distance learning connecting Iowans at multiple sites for classes, meetings, and training. Real-time interaction is possible via microphone between two or more sites. Through partnerships with education, medicine, the judicial system, government agencies, and the National Guard, the Network brings this live video to around 758 sites, or nodes, around Iowa, located in schools, National Guard armories, libraries, hospitals, and federal and state government offices.
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It’s official: Microsoft unveils West Des Moines plans
“Gov. Chet Culver welcomed Microsoft to Iowa today, with the announcement that the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant will build a $500 million data center in West Des Moines.”
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West Des Moines site of new Microsoft data center
Microsoft Corp. has selected West Des Moines as the site of its new $500 million data center.
The center will be built on a 42-acre parcel at the intersection of Booneville Road and Xavier Place and will house large-scale World Wide Web services for Microsoft’s online services business. It will employ 50 to 75 people, with an average salary $70,000.
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Culver to announce Microsoft picks West Des Moines site
Microsoft is creating 75 full-time jobs paying an average annual salary of up to $70,000 at that center.
To receive the Iowa tax breaks signed Feb. 28 by Culver, Microsoft must invest at least $200 million in the state.
Last year the state approved a measure that helped persuade Google to build a $600 million data center near Council Bluffs. That package exempted electricity purchases and capital investments from the state’s sales tax.
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Microsoft to build $500M data center in Iowa
The Legislature passed measures creating tax incentives aimed at luring the computer giant to Iowa, to build new power generating facilities and improve the state’s communications network. Those efforts paid off with Microsoft’s decision, said Senate Majority Leader Michael Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs.
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Fusioncube > Enable multiple sessions in Firefox
Run separate sessions in different Firefox windows
“Then browsing around yesterday, I discovered this little known environment variables – MOZ_NO_REMOTE – that makes this magic happen. Therefore, there’s two ingredients to getting this to work.
1. Firefox profiles
2. MOZ_NO_REMOTETo make multiple profiles for Firefox, simply run “Firefox.exe -P” from a command line. This opens up the Profile Manager. Create as many profiles that you feel you’ll need independent sessions. Then create a shortcut to Firefox.exe on your desktop or quickbar for each profile you made. Right click the icon for each shortcut and open the properties window. In the Target field you need to specify which profile to use when launching Firefox like this – “F:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe” -P “ProfileA”
Then just create a new environment variable MOZ_NO_REMOTE with a value of 1.
Then you can click each Firefox icon and you’ll have a seperate session for each of your browser windows. Have fun.”
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