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January 2006 Archive

Rain gear for a sunny day

posted by DL Byron on January 31, 2006

I don’t want to criticize a fellow inventor and cyclist, but it would appear that the inventor of RainLegs has not ridden in the rain very much, which is odd since the company is from the UK where I hear it rains as much as Seattle. When you ride in the rain, it’s not your thighs and knees that you need to keep dry, it’s your feet and butt. Unless you want to be miserable during your commute or training ride, there’s no way getting around having fenders and mud flaps.

I’ll give RainLegs props for the attempt, but just don’t see that working.

Hat tip to CleverChimp for being clever.

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Virtual Seminar questions

posted by DL Byron on January 26, 2006

Q/A with M. Morton during the virtual seminar

M. Morton

I fail to see how a business-to-business Internet company’s message on a blog remain professional and list things like “On a Lazy Sunday” on its blog. Am I missing something?
Good question. That example is from my personal blog, which mixes personal and business. For a business, you’d post about your business or your expertise in the field, but remember that blogging is not press releasing. You’ll want to open up a bit more and offer a casual voice, less formal topics than typical marketing. If you liked “On a Lazy Sunday,” post about it and chances are your customers liked it as well.

Andrea J.

Is it better to use “comments”, “trackbacks” or both? Why?
Comments are going to be the conversation. Tracbacks are the related conversation, but are just the servers between the blogs talking to each other. In other words, comments are humans conversing and trackbacks are servers talking to each other. Both are good, but also susceptible to spammers who will flood comments and trackbacks with junk posts.

Bill K.

How hard is it to (or is it possible) install a reader on my site? So my site can gather information and act like a news resource?
It’s not hard at all. You can use all sorts of tools, like reblog.org.

Blogs I mentioned

Related & Upcoming

Essentials of Business Blogging Seminar.

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MarketingProfs Webinar Today

posted by DL Byron on January 26, 2006

I’m speaking about business blogging today with Anil Dash and Paul Paul Rosenfeld during a MarketingPros Webinar. Anil is covering the technology, Paul a case study about Quickbooks Online Edition, and I’ll discuss design, creativity, and being crazy for the cupcakes cousin.

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An Urban Ecosystem with Coyotes

posted by DL Byron on January 24, 2006

I heard the coyote yips and howls and yes, it’s confirmed, there are coyotes in Schmitz Park, the nature reserve in our neighborhood. According to PAWs, coyotes are very urban and adaptable and may take over the territory in the park now used by the foxes. Schmitz Park is an urban ecosystem, with owls, eagles, bats, raccoons, foxes, and now coyotes. The kids and I will never forget the time a barred owl flew over right our heads — they had just seen Harry Potter and believed it was magical. It was. Occasionally we’ll hear this call.

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Velomobiles for the Rain

posted by DL Byron on January 23, 2006

Considering how cold, wet, and miserable I was riding in the rain (with that nasty stomach virus), I’d say one of those Velomobiles Wired reports on would’ve been nice to have this weekend.

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MiniScobelized!

posted by DL Byron on January 20, 2006

I got miniScobelized from Scoble’s son! I do hope that prefix “mini” stands for a Mac Mini, as I understand he’s a Mac fanatic.

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Born Magazine delivery (Winter Issue)

posted by Scott Benish on January 19, 2006

BORN MAGAZINE : WINTER 2006 RELEASE
www.bornmagazine.org

Read more »

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inFlightHQ and Blog Business Summit in New York Times

posted by DL Byron on January 16, 2006

Our travel blog, inFlightHQ, and the Blog Business Summit are mentioned in the NYTimes. The reporter told us that the article is on the front page of the business section. When I get coffee tomorrow, I’ll have to find a copy.

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Now with Video!

posted by DL Byron on January 16, 2006

My family surprised me with an iPod with Video on my birthday. Nice! So, I spent a good day discovering all I could do with it, including ripping a DVD and watching it on the iPod

The latest version of QuickTime has an export to iPod function to convert video, including your home movies, porn, or whatever you want. I’m also going to try out my presentations on my iPod and, at the least, use the iPod as a backup instead of burning CDs.

On video in iTunes, Frank Steele noticed that you can now stream video with iTunes. I tried it and it works, but only with video purchased from the Music Store.

Finally, for podcasting, if the formats are confusing, see audioblog’s new on-the-fly transcoding to iPod video format feature. I spent a good amount of time trying to figure out why the pugcasts weren’t in a compatible format. It’d be real nice to not have to worry about any of that.

Updated

A quick chat with Mike D. and I learned that you can record from the Comcast HD box to your Powerbook and then, of course, to your iPod. See this tutorial from MacTeens.

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Speaking Season Approaches

posted by DL Byron on January 15, 2006

Robert’s post about the RSS Summit reminded me that speaking season is coming up. I’ll be talking about business blogging, RSS, our book, and more at

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On this day

posted by DL Byron on January 13, 2006

It’s my 39th birthday, my parents 44th anniversary, Friday the 13th (the day on which I was born), and the 25th day of rain.

Update

And it was also a big day for Shel and RobertNaked Conversations is now on sale.

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Consecutive days of measurable precipitation

posted by DL Byron on January 11, 2006

If I recall correctly, the last time it rained so hard and long, was about 12 years ago and the hills started sliding down. It was the year I moved here and I couldn’t believe how much it rained. Whenever I’d visited Seattle before moving here, it was sunny, spring-weather, and beautiful. Seattle is still beautiful and the summer makes up for the rainy season by far, but I’m feeling the 23 days of rain and the blustering storms that wake me up in the middle of the night. It’s definitely dreeping.

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The year of HD

posted by DL Byron on January 09, 2006

I agree with the press and bloggers calling 2006 the year of the mac, but it’s also going to be the year of HD. The NYTimes ran a great article today on making sure your TV is adjusted correctly to enjoy that HD signal. If you’re wondering what it looks like, you’ll know it when you see it. Also, another tip is that I’ve found the cable guys know little more about HD setup than you do. Research it a bit, turn to inHD or DiscoveryHD and boom, you’ll see it.

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Rained so hard

posted by DL Byron on January 09, 2006

It rained so hard on us this weekend that when I got home my bike was clean! Normally, my rain bike is all grimy and dirty after a ride, but not when a deluge falls from the sky and blasts all the dirt off the bike.

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No, No, Notorious

posted by DL Byron on January 08, 2006

It’s great to see an 80s band, like Duran Duran, back on stage, in High Def, not fat, looking and sounding good. Sounding great actually, in 5.1 Surround Sound on inHD.

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Bill Clinton to take over Microsoft?

posted by on January 06, 2006

It’s a juicy little rumor Neville Hobson’s reported.

I love Bill Clinton. I think he was the bomb-diggity bombest President this country has seen since FDR, and the sexiest since Kennedy. But as I recall, under his administration - the Justice Department was pretty keen to nail Microsoft on a little thing called “anti-trust.” Hmm…could this mean all is forgiven?

I know this is a little off-topic for Switch2Mac - but if it’s true that Billy J (the J stands for Jefferson) is taking over Bill Gates’ empire - I might just have to reconsider Windows. Not to mention the fact that him making a move to Redmond (which is right around the bend from my house) would make me one happy little groupie.

Happy Friday, everyone!

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Put on a pair of pants

posted by DL Byron on January 06, 2006

I was embarrassingly reminded of how it’s important to put on a pair of pants, if only occasionally, in the home office. I work from home and mostly wear sweats, shorts, and pajamas. Today, when the UPS man came to pick up an overnight package, I forgot that I was wearing a pair of happy-face pajamas and quickly lost all professional credibility with the driver. My office looks like a design studio and I think I’m very professional, but that doesn’t matter when you’re standing there holding a package for UPS in happy-face pajamas. So, after he left, I got dressed up as if I was going to a real office. When the family got home they asked, “Why you all dressed up?” “Well, today I had on those happy-face pajamas and … “

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14 Years of Debt

posted by DL Byron on January 05, 2006

SallieMae wrote to thank me for being a great customer, congratulate me on paying off my student loans, and wish me luck in the future. I looked over the mail and noticed the date of the first loan — 1992! 14 years of college debt finally paid off. During the lean times, back in the dotcom bust, SallieMae was always the last to get paid and at the 6.65 percentage rate, I probably could’ve gone another 6 years. I also then considered what it’s going to cost my children to go to college …

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Get Real predicts "The Year of the Mac"

posted by Scott Benish on January 02, 2006

(Ed note: Title changed per Stowe’s comment.)

Stowe Boyd believes that this year will finally be the year of the Mac.

Given the recently revealed flaws in Windows’ security protocols, he writes:

How long will the 1990s positioning of Windows last, given this sort of nonsense? Why do businesses cling to the idea that the Microsoft stack and Outlook/Exchange are essential cornerstones of modern business life?

These flaws, combined with Macintosh’s imminent takeover of the home electronics market should have Microsoft running for the hills, says Boyd. But despite my hope that his prediction is correct - I can’t help but be a little bit skeptical.

After all, it’s not like anything has really changed. Macintosh has been acknowledged as the superior operating system for years. Windows has had security flaw after security flaw, but Mac has never been able to gain even 10% of the market share because until the developers go to the Mac, the people won’t follow. Why should 2006 be any different?

Don’t get me wrong, I see the whole home electronics thing as a big step in the right direction - but I certainly don’t expect an overnight coup d’etat.

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Happy New Year Card

posted by DL Byron on January 02, 2006

Happy New Year For those of you that may have missed our Happy New Year card in email, here’s a pdf version.

The photos are from our Maui holiday. It’s been a good year for us here, tons of work and not without some tough days, but a good year. We hope for the best again and wish you all well. 2006 is going to even busier.

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