Ask the wizard
One of the gifts of working in a small company is the opportunity to interact with every aspect of the business. Not only is it rare for someone to look at a different part of the company and remark “That’s not my job”, but if the culture’s right, it’s actually frowned upon. I like that [...]
Interview with Tyme White
Tyme White, community director at blog network “9 rules”:http://9rules.com/, recently asked her readers for questions about FeedBurner to send my way. The result is a two-part interview (”part 1″:http://nottoogeeky.com/words/ntg/feedburner_rick_klau_interview_part_1/ and “part 2″:http://nottoogeeky.com/words/feedburner_rick_klau_interview_part_2/) that covers a lot of ground. Tyme and I will be doing a podcast follow-up (probably next week). This was a great process [...]
How Zune could beat the iPod
OK, here’s my crazy idea for the week: Microsoft should update the firmware for the Zune to add podcasting support, then cut a deal with T-Mobile/Starbucks so that every Zune owner within a few yards of a Starbucks would get free wifi access. The pitch? In the time it takes to order a coffee, your [...]
Signs of the apocalypse
If you have the stomach for it, this “22 minute recording”:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gp0HyxQv97Q&eurl= of a phone call with Verizon Wireless customer service is just staggering. Throughout the entire experience, noone — not supervisors, not account reps, not even the supervisor’s supervisor — are capable of recognizing that .002 dollars is different than .002 cents. That this guy [...]
Lenovo Rides the Cluetrain
In the “Cluetrain Manifesto”:http://www.cluetrain.com/, “David”:http://www.hyperorg.com/blogger/ and “Chris”:http://www.rageboy.com/ and “Doc”:http://doc.weblogs.com/ wrote that “markets are conversations”. Much has been made of the importance of listening to your customers, and engaging them rather than talking at them. Remarkably, even when the perils of ignoring customer feedback have been made abundantly clear, companies that go the distance in this [...]
Breasts on a plane
“This”:http://mamaknowsbreast.com/2006/11/mom_kicked_off_plane_for_breas.php is just ridiculous. (Originally spotted over at “BuzzMachine”:http://www.buzzmachine.com/index.php/2006/11/20/a-mob-of-moms/.) By contrast, I recall flying to Palm Springs with Robin and Ricky (then about 6 months old). We flew on Southwest (rapidly becoming my favorite airline, by the way - that’s another post), and I was struck as we began our initial descent: I was [...]
Lawyers, Blogs and Music
Two posts lately by friends were an absolute joy to read: Erik Heels wrote about “meeting a rock star”:http://www.erikjheels.com/2006-10-31-batman-lawyer-meets-boston-band-founder.html at a Halloween party, and Marty Schwimmer wrote about a “Springsteen tribute band”:http://www.schwimmerlegal.com/2006/11/tribute_brands.html.
Not only were these posts fun to read, but is there any doubt that if you were a musician, you’d hire these two in [...]
Techdirt Insight Community
I’ve enjoyed knowing Mike Masnick almost as long as I’ve been blogging (I used to work with a guy who was friends with Mike in high school, we got to know each other through Mitch), and I’ve always been impressed with the business he’s built around Techdirt. Most of us in the blogosphere know Techdirt [...]
Bill Tancer was right
Bill Tancer’s “blog”:http://weblogs.hitwise.com/bill-tancer/ first hit my radar when “Lee Rainie”:http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/a/102/about_staffer.asp at Pew Internet & American Life told me about it… since then, I’ve found it to be a treasure-trove of insight into search traffic. Last month, I “wrote about Bill’s observations about home sales”:http://www.rklau.com/tins/archives/2006/08/25/search_as_a_leading_economic_indicator.php, and the fact that he believed, based on search activity in [...]
Search as a leading economic indicator
Bill Tancer’s “latest post”:http://weblogs.hitwise.com/bill-tancer/2006/08/unexpected_decline_in_existing.html about Hitwise having advance indications of yesterday’s announcement of a drop in July home sales is fascinating. In short, Bill points out that the National Association of Realtors require 3-4 weeks to put their analysis together, so, even though September’s almost upon us, we’re just now hearing that home sales in [...]
