Disqus - Latest Comments for raj

Re: Caption Contest: Bill Gates and Bill Clinton

raj — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 19:08:31 -0000

Dude, how 'bout a few greenbacks for a new saxophone?

Re: Hiring staff in India may not be worth it

raj — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 08:57:33 -0000

75% does sound high. However, I have a friend living in Bangalore (who left Ohio) and he says that what is happening is that engineers hear that one person is getting more so they jump ship or simply ask for more. As an aftereffect of B-lore being so popular as a base, the cost of living has risen drastically, too. This is fueling demands for higher rates.

Apparently, though, some Indian companies having been outsourcing some work to China, and Indian workers are moving there. I unfortunately didn't record any reference URLs, but these are tidbits I've read elsewhere in the past year, or received from friends.

Re: Even Simple Multi-tasking Can Make a Project 30% Late

raj — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 02:14:45 -0000

I've been a multi-tasker for over 20 years and it always works for me, but only for certain types of work - if it's all physical, good luck. To succeed with it, you need to plan a bit and to be able "see" the multi-tasking in your head.

I'm proof against this growing theory that multi-tasking is bad. But the fact is, in any project, you'll have down time. That's when you work on something, preferably sufficiently different.

This is in fact how my father, a now retired math professor, taught me to study in high school and college. I took it and applied it to most of my career, most of my mindset.

Now if all of your projects/ tasks are the exact same type of work, you are better of single-tasking. This, I believe, is what multi-tasking naysayers seem not to understand.

It's also something I'd forgotten when I'd originally taken on too much blogging work earlier this year. But when I dropped some work and learned to balance writing against research against, say, commenting or communicating, I found I could multi-task again.

So to all multi-tasking naysayers, I say you're approaching it all wrong.

Re: Twitter or write a book? Hm…

raj — Wed, 20 May 2009 21:08:46 -0000

Seriously, you can't compare 130K words of tweet text to the equivalent of a book. As someone who has written a book and also write over 2 million words in the past 10 years, I know that the latter collection has a lot of garbage that even I don't want to read ever again. So those 2 million words are hardly something bigger than the individual pieces of quality. (Though I might able to extract quality nuggest and add all new text.)

On the other hand, if you have common themes running through your tweets, maybe you can write a book around those themes, explaining why/ how/ when/ etc those tweets came about -- in the context of how to be an effective "microblogger".

Re: Daniele, first photos

raj — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 19:25:27 -0000

Congrats, Luca. He's beautiful. So much hair!

Re: U.S. Vs. Europe: Notice and Takedown

raj — Wed, 17 May 2006 12:42:56 -0000

As far as I know, and as I've been writing about for several years, The Berne Convention (http://www.law.cornell.edu/treaties/berne/overv...) on international copyright issues was adopted by all member nations of the UN (United Nations). That would include any countries in the European Union as well as the U.S. There are newer documents such as the DMCA, which also need to be taken into consideration at the same time.

Re: U.S. Vs. Europe: Notice and Takedown

raj — Wed, 17 May 2006 13:40:06 -0000

Jonathan, good point. The Convention is getting outdated. Yes, we need more powerful standards, as well as best practices and techniques for actually fighting copyright infringement and general plagiarism. I think that your site is aiding in that regard. Keep up the good work.

Re: Plagiarism Today Turns One

raj — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 02:51:58 -0000

happy happy happy, happy blog-i-versary :) I just passed my one-year recently, too.

Re: It’s A Boy!

raj — Thu, 31 May 2007 01:03:24 -0000

Congratulations on the beautiful boy :)

Re: Don’t Just Linkbait Top Bloggers, Write For Them

raj — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 17:31:47 -0000

Ben - great article.

James, I see you finally got online, then. Hope you're well. Haven't seen you in a year or more.

Re: WordPress Automatic Upgrade 1.2 Release

raj — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 13:25:19 -0000

I get the same error ("Fatal error: Call to undefined function: current_user_can()") as Nick mentioned above, on Sep 11/2008, but not the database error. I also have WP 1.5.2 and can't seem to use the plugin (downloaded from wordpress.org on Mar 6/09). Any ideas what might be wrong?

Re: 2007/04/19/petition-against-alexas-statsaholic-lawsuit/

raj — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 11:15:08 -0000

So much for openness on the Internet. Not surprisingly, very shortly after Alexa levied lawsuit against Statsoholic, they suddenly had multi-domain comparison.

Some people just don't get what it means to release an API. It's not so that you can wait until someone else develops an application using your API, then you steal the idea from them by crying trademark violation or some such. Very disappointing.

Re: 2008/06/19/web-meeting-tools/

raj — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 12:55:25 -0000

There's also Teamviewer, which is free for personal use. It's a remote desktop tool, and I've actually used to work on two computers simultaneously (when an app didn't exist on one computer).

Re: Thymer: Online Project Management Made Simple [50 FREE Invites]

raj — Wed, 27 May 2009 17:49:08 -0000

Either they're gone or the damn "beta key" field is coded poorly. Can't register

Re: Judge: Microsoft Banned from Selling Word in the US

raj — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:25:40 -0000

I wonder what Tim Bray, co-author of the original XML specs, has to say about this development.

Re: Judge: Microsoft Banned from Selling Word in the US

raj — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:26:19 -0000

I wonder what Tim Bray, co-author of the original XML specs, has to say about this development.

Re: Whole Foods Boycott on Facebook Swells to 22,000 Users

raj — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 17:48:24 -0000

as much as I love the Whole Foods selection, they're extremely expensive. So their "approach" to health isn't exactly feasible for everyone.

Re: From Geek to Freak: How I Gained 34 lbs. of Muscle in 4 Weeks

raj — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 00:33:02 -0000

"4. Eat enormous quantities of protein "

I have previously tried that, and it does work to a degree. However, I'm surprised you don't qualify your statement. For some people, "enormous" amounts of protein can cause diarrhea, if they don't spread intake over the day. And excess protein can cause acne as well.

Re: The $100 New Media Project

raj — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 01:48:49 -0000

Yes, David. Me too. Glad to see you are back in action.

Re: The Multifaceted Approach To Web Income

raj — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 11:59:43 -0000

Publishing addiction.... yes, a very good term for it. That's what i have too, though nowhere nearly as successful as you. Keep up the good work.

Re: Blog Herald doesn’t understand why full-text feeds work

raj — Thu, 23 Feb 2006 03:08:09 -0000

When you make a bold statement like "Blog Herald doesn’t understand why full-text feeds work", you imply that all full-text feeds actually "work" and earn ad revenue, which of course is total nonsense. They may do so in the future, when someone comes up with a way to either successfully monetize full-text RSS feeds, or manages to make their site sticky despite offering full-text feeds.

And by the way, I won't subscribe to any feed that isn't partial-text :) I much prefer to browse, then get the full effect of the corresponding website. Except I keep envisioning something that might be out of some Blade Runner kind of world: an RSS reader that sequentially "plays" 3D holograms of stories.

Re: First the iPod Now Comes iGoogle

raj — Wed, 02 May 2007 14:14:04 -0000

Seriously? I forgot that Apple owns the "i" and that Apple once promised Apple Records they'd never move into the music business. - iRaj

Re: Your Roadmap to Success: The Outline

raj — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 21:03:43 -0000

Great advice. The outline is crucial. Don't approach any large project without creating an outline. In fact, I use it for small writing projects as well. Having an outline helped me write 900 pages of content for a book back in 2002 in only 3 months (plus a month for editing). Also in 2002, I used outlines to start 100 short stories and complete 60 of them.

The outline is often ignored but should be treated as the backbone of your writing, regardless of the type.

Re: Top 10 Blogs For Writers 2007/2008 - Seeking Your Nomination

raj — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 07:55:24 -0000

I "third" the nomination of Freelance Writing Gigs (http://freelancewritinggigs.com/)

Re: Nominate Your Favorite Writing Blog for 3rd Annual Top 10 Blogs for Writers Contest

raj — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 15:28:23 -0000

My nomination/ vote is for Deb Ng's Freelance Writing Jobs:

http://freelancewritinggigs.com

Not only a source of writing advice but of jobs as well.