scooblog by josh ledgard : Mindless Linkage

Align Right

jledgard — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 03:11:29 GMT

For anyone that's just learning basic HTML. I suggest this tutorial...

http://icanhascheezburger.com/2007/06/12/lolcat-alignright

Merging Humans with Tools to Slow Down Trolls

jledgard — Tue, 15 May 2007 23:40:01 GMT

This was a great read that I found through Seth Godin's blog.

Troll whisperers aren't necessarily very good at hacking tools, so there's always an opportunity for geek synergy in helping them to automate their hand-crafted techniques, giving them a software force-multiplier for their good sense. For example, Teresa invented a technique called disemvowelling -- removing the vowels from some or all of a fiery message-board post. The advantage of this is that it leaves the words intact, but requires that you read them very slowly -- so slowly that it takes the sting out of them. And, as Teresa recently explained to me, disemvowelling part of a post lets the rest of the community know what kind of sentiment is and is not socially acceptable.
When Teresa started out disemvowelling, she removed the vowels from the offending messages by hand, a tedious and slow process. But shortly thereafter, Bryant Darrell wrote a Movable Type plugin to automate the process. This is a perfect example of human-geek synergy: hacking tools for civilian use based on the civilian's observed needs.

Curt Shilling - The Robert Scoble of Baseball?

jledgard — Thu, 10 May 2007 02:38:14 GMT

You know, the person that everyone listens to, makes outlandish statements that may offend people on occasion, and then has to issue statements like this...

Everyone has days and events in life they’d love to push the rewind button on, yesterday was one of those days. Regardless of my opinions, thoughts and beliefs on anything Barry Bonds it was absolutely irresponsible and wrong to say what I did. I don’t think it’s within anyone’s right to say the things I said yesterday and affect other peoples lives in that way.

Source: Public Apology « 38 Pitches

And I love the comments with reference to the rise of sports related bloggers tearing down the need for traditional media. This blog thing really is catching on I tell ya...

"You have successfully eliminated the need for the sportswriter with your blog, so I would suggest that you also choose to antiquate radio by taking your public comments directly to the people in the form of a “38 Pitches Podcast” and dominate yet another form of alternative media."

Car 1 : Carbon Bike 0 : Josh OK

jledgard — Fri, 04 May 2007 20:48:25 GMT

I posted my experience being hit and run by a car yesterday on my personal blog. I'm posting the link here as a cautionary tale for other softies I know bike to work regularly.

I saw a red car out of the corner of my eye quickly cut in-front of me and attempt to turn right onto the cross street without a signal. They did this, without knowing that I was right next to them. I slammed on both brakes, but careened into their right front passenger door. I was lucky the force of the collision unclipped me from the pedals. I flew onto the hood of their car and I heard their tires skid from the brakes. When the car stopped my momentum flung me off of the hood and onto the pavement.

Source: Yesterday I was hit by a car while biking to work - Josh Ledgard's Personal Blog

A reason for social mapping

jledgard — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 20:28:28 GMT

Dare has one good point and one bad point about the new google mymaps feature that we've had for a while.

Source: Dare Obasanjo aka Carnage4Life - Google MyMaps vs. Frappr: A Feature Isn't a Business

As usual the reactions from the blog pundits are equal parts surprising and unsurprising to me. The unsurprising bit is that I didn't find anyone who compared this to the collections feature of ~~MSN Virtual Earth~~ ~~Windows Live Local~~ ~~Live Search Maps~~ Live Maps which can be viewed at http://collections.live.com. I'm sure when the "Web 2.0" pundits eventually discover we have this feature it will be claimed we copied it from Google. :)

When are people going to stop giving google credit for everything? How long will the web honeymoon last? This is one area that we were not copycats... they were. Lets give credit where credit is due here.

On the other hand what I did find surprising were blog posts like Google Launches MyMaps - Platial Gets Screwed and My Maps at Google: Is Google Doing a Microsoft? from Pete Cashmore and Paul Kedrosky which complained that Google was killing "social mapping" startups like Platial and Frappr with this move. Ignoring that "social mapping" seems like a silly product category in the first place, I wonder what exactly is wrong with this move. Some startups point out consumer demand for certain features from online mapping sites (i.e. missing features) and the consumer mapping sites add the features.

I have one use for social mapping services, but it's going to require a feature that neither google or live maps support today. I want to make it easy for people to share road bike routes with one another. To do this you have to be able to define custom routes between markers and generate good printouts with the directions, pictures, and comments about the routes. It's not good enough to just map the best path between two stops since you really want more flexibility to say... not take the highway when you are on a road bike. Then people can collaborate to build some really cool bike routes based on revisions to other routes.

Forget Fancy new Powerpoint Templates

jledgard — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 08:32:50 GMT

I thought this was pretty cool.

Linkage: Microsoft and cool: so close yet so far :)

jledgard — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 02:31:30 GMT

Source: The JobSyntax Blog : Microsoft and cool: so close yet so far :)

Anyway, I love the end of the article, in which Fred reveals that a Microsoft employee inadvertently emailed him PR's file on him, Wired, and Microsoft's talking points surrounding efforts like Channel 9 and On10. Love it. So classic Microsoft. Cringe, cringe, sigh...

While I'm on the topic of big-corp-culture I did find this amusing and it's something else I can totally see happening. The issue to me is that there is still a perception gap between blogging and getting an article in wired. We blog freely, but if Fred from wired contacted me I'd have to get a few levels of approval to talk to him. But if he asks questions on my blog it seems like fair game. :-) When the only difference I see is the level of exclusivity granted.

If Fred asks questions on my blog and I answer publicly there isn't much to gain for wired compared to a private phone call.

Nothing to see here

jledgard — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 02:04:54 GMT

Of course the following story would be comical if I could say that nothing like this ever happens here.

Source: AOL: Powerpoint paralysis - Valleywag

...Straightforward enough. Splice in the different databases, slap a name on the product, pray. Not for AOL. The company engaged a top-tier naming agency, evaluated 120 different options, tested the finalists with focus groups in Denver and Chicago, checked on the meaning in 16 languages -- and the brand strategy group explained its process in a laughably belabored 20-slide presentation.

The truth is somewhere in the middle. There isn't much risk if you are a start-up in naming your product something that means "crap" in non-English languages. But if you are AOL then doing so could mean irreparable harm to your brand and the money you make in that country.

I shudder when I think how much effort must have gone into the "Vista" name choice, but I'd rather spend that money than piss off an entire country or ethnic group with a poorly chosen name.

I won't say this means there is no bloat here, but simply that some things that are laughable from the perspective of a english language only startup are not that laughable when you own products that need to scale globally.

Google makes your code prettier

jledgard — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 19:21:06 GMT

Something I'd love to see Microsoft do more of is small, simple, solutions to annoying problems that would delight customers. Here is a perfect example.

Google Gode Prettifier

A simple Javascript and CSS file, the Google Code Prettifier makes syntax highlighting in a web document super easy. It's pretty flexible too. According to the project page, the lexer involved will correctly highlight code written in C, Java, Python, Bash, SQL, HTML, XML, CSS, Javascript, and Makefiles.

Great tips on ramping up online user communities

jledgard — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 19:20:44 GMT

There is truth in every recomendation from the following post.

Source: Creating Passionate Users: User Community and ROI

In Building a User Community Part 1 we talked about the importance of not only a strict "There Are No Dumb Questions" policy, but also an even more dedicated "There Are No Dumb Answers" message.
Today, this post will offer a few more tips on how to use your marketing budget (tiny as it may be) to build, support, and grow a user community from the beginning...

Forums are now as simple as a widget

jledgard — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 19:16:37 GMT

The interesting thing is that the same forum could be hosted in different widgets on different sites if I read the post correctly.

Freewebs continues to add to their widget catalog with their new forums widget. This customizable plug-in is available for use on your Freewebs page or on another website. Wherever the “widgetized” forum resides, the conversation is updated in real time. This continuous flow of conversation truly represents the capabilities of today’s widgets, and could be an ideal feature for groups of friends or small organizations.

Source: Freewebs Launches Forums Widget

Viacom to YouTube: Zip It... Zip it good

jledgard — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 19:11:38 GMT

I think the clip says it all, but incase it doesn't...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Media conglomerate Viacom Inc. said on Tuesday that it was suing Google Inc. and its Internet video-sharing site YouTube for more than $1 billion over unauthorized use of its programming online.

Source: Viacom in $1 bln copyright suit vs Google, YouTube | Technology, Media & Telecom | Reuters

Don't taunt happy fun ball

jledgard — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 01:12:10 GMT

Or Wikipedia :-) The comments on all the linked entries are just comical all around.

Something you don't see everyday at Microsoft

jledgard — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 00:27:11 GMT

Source: Sara Ford's WebLog : Influencing the Microsoft culture one open source presentation at a time

The thing I love most about my job is being creative in how I’m trying to get an idea or message across, especially when it comes down to challenging the Microsoft culture. So, it’s probably a safe bet that no one has ever seen a sign like this before on Redmond campus:

The problem with subscribing to guidance feeds

jledgard — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 21:50:58 GMT

I think next-gen guidance is about bringing together a lot of key concepts:

context-precision (using context to organize information)
personalization (create your own views, tailor it for your needs, ... etc.)
community type ratings (expose the thinking and rate the raters for the guidance)
guidance types (evolvable schemas for guidance types, such as how tos, guidelines, checklists, patterns ...)
Folksonomy over taxonomy

Source: J.D. Meier's Blog : Guidance 2.0

The concern I have is over the missing relevance engine. It's hard for me today to separate the guidance signal from the noise of feeds I'm subscribed to today. Tags don't really help solve the problem of knowing what guidance I really need. Some of those needs only come up in real time... and I'm going to have to search, but some of the best practices should be feedable with a customized relevance engine.