Disqus - Latest Comments for Mike Schinkel

Re: Thread The DMs, Please

Mike Schinkel — Fri, 29 May 2009 04:12:19 -0000

I like it too, but what I don't like about how Tweetie handles DMs is I can't tell the most recent DMs I've received vs. one's I've sent. I find myselfconstantly drilling down only to realize the last DM sent between me and someone else was from me, not from them. FWIW.

Anyway, nice to meet you at the #140tc afterparty.

Re: Why I Hate the Twitter Syntax

Mike Schinkel — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 17:17:18 -0000

Jesse: People started using @username organically and then Twitter recognized it and just "paved the cowpaths." @username works where username doesn't because of global vs. local scope as @azurelunatic brings up, and also because it's an otherwise unusual pattern that is easy and reliable to parse for username references. I personally love the way they are used. Besides, some people hated music CD when they were released too. '-)

Re: Elegant URLs

Mike Schinkel — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 05:25:51 -0000

Amber, URLs are a Good Thing(tm)! (note the "tm" :-)

Jeff, thanks for the mention, though I doubt I'll live up to that great advance billing!

See you at SoCon07 (hope Ben and I can get Toolicious done in time!)...

Re: App Forge = -1

Mike Schinkel — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 08:04:26 -0000

We resold their product for a short time at my former company VBxtras, back when AppForge was very young. It was never clear to me how they could make enough money to survive let alone prosper, especially with their big staff and Buckhead digs. It always felt like smoke and mirrors to me. Well I guess it was.

Re: Changing medical coverage in Georgia

Mike Schinkel — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 05:21:06 -0000

Jeff: I *definitely* feel your pain regarding insurance companies.

That said your mention of "My Georgia Doctor" which I'd not heard of might just nominate this post as the most valuable one I've read I'll year! I'm definitely checking them out.

Re: What’s wrong with the Atlanta startup ecosystem and how to fix it

Mike Schinkel — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 04:45:16 -0000

@Jeff: OMG. I honestly had goosebumps reading this. I can't tell you how valuable I think it will be that you have taken the effort to analyze this and explain it. WOW.

That said, here's hoping those of us who are obviously staying behind can make you proud so that when you do return triumphant you'll find a vibrant community that will be able to multiple everything you give back by orders of magnitude.

Anyway, subscribed.

P.S. I guess you need to update your blog's footer... '-(

Re: What’s wrong with the Atlanta startup ecosystem and how to fix it

Mike Schinkel — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 15:43:01 -0000

@Knox: I'd like to start blogging about those $25k to $100k deals that you are talking about. Can we set that up so that I can provide some exposure to the fact that is happening?

Re: What’s wrong with the Atlanta startup ecosystem and how to fix it

Mike Schinkel — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 03:52:11 -0000

@knox: "You are actually advocating an old style of angel investing."

Sorry, I don't follow you at all. OTOH, I'd be extremely interested in a post on your blog that that explained in detail what you meant, with examples. And I'm not goading you; I sincerely think it would be helpful. The more entrepreneurs can understand how the local angel investors analyze deals and invest in companies the better off we'd all be.

BTW, I really don't have a horse in this race other than really wanting to see the tides rise for all the boats in the Atlanta area. Frankly I'd love to see all my fellow Atlanta web entrepreneurs hit home runs as success breeds success.

The best way we can make that happen is for all of us to understand each other and work together to make Atlanta the envy of Ft Wayne Chicago and Boston as well as even Silicon Valley without us wishing we were them.

Agree?

Re: The economic downturn and your startup

Mike Schinkel — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 02:43:03 -0000

Jeff:

Great post, as usual.

And though I hate to admit it I've been predicting this in private conversations with my father since 2001.

But, I'm tired of negativity. What your post tells me is that many if not all of the "irrationally exuberant" competition (i.e. those that hindsight shows to have been over funded and/or that can't run their business for squat) are going to get kicked to the curb and only those that really run their businesses well will succeed. And that tells me Appcelerator will do very well.

Actually, like buying when the market has bottomed out, now seems like a great time to start a startup to me. FWIW.

Re: comments on rel-tag microformat

Mike Schinkel — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 06:00:51 -0000

I just came across this post after futureofwebapps-sf06 and I have to somewhat agree, but have other issues. I recently started trying to use the rel="tag" microformat and found it counter-intuitive, which tells me it could often get misused.

Further, for many websites it is difficult to implement a URL w/o a file extension i.e. IIS5 and IIS6 based websites, for example (note that this fact infuriates me [see http://www.mikeschinkel.com/blog/WellDesignedUR..., but it is still a fact.)

What's more, RSSBlog has a great point about re="tag" contrbuting PageRank inappropriately: http://www.kbcafe.com/rss/?guid=20050619130051

L:astly, it doesn't allow associating meaning of a tag with a URL that doesn't end with tag itself, which to me is very limiting.

JMTCW

Re: Comment on 'APIs, and guessing what users want' by Michael D. Ivey

Mike Schinkel — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 00:28:00 -0000

First, I've found @al3x to be SUPER to deal with; the best API support I've ever experienced. Just post here: http://groups.google.com/group/twitter-developm...

Second, I think Twitter may be requiring you to chunk by 100 in order to optimize for HTTP caching. Also, think what a load it would put on Twitter if several apps attempted to download @Scobleizer's friend list?

Anyway, I'm working on a Twitter app that I'd like to integrate with Divvs once we get close to our own alpha. If you are interested I'll let you know more soon.

Re: 2007/07/10/vbulletin-acquired-by-internet-brands/

Mike Schinkel — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 23:04:35 -0000

Interesting. I really like vBulletin for its features but have recently been looking for something else because I want something that is open-source. Maybe there we release vBulletin as open-source and we can see an explosion of innovation there?

Re: 2008/11/23/wordpressdirect/

Mike Schinkel — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 16:05:33 -0000

Sounds like a MASSIVE trademark infringement. WordPress lawyers, have a field day with me cheering you on.

Re: 2008/12/04/youtube-widescreen-embeds/

Mike Schinkel — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 18:56:30 -0000

LOVE the 3rd criticism of the Neanderthals that you quoted. LOL! :-)

Re: 2008/12/10/obama-bury-brigade/

Mike Schinkel — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 23:35:05 -0000

Thinking a betting-style prediction market would work better than Digg-style for finding wisdom of crowds. Bets for bragging rights alone.

Re: 2009/01/13/social-media-resume/

Mike Schinkel — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 00:32:44 -0000

It would be more clear and correct if you said "Your Domain
Name is Key" rather than "Your URL is Key." A website
contains a myriad of URLs but only one (1) domain name.

That said, good URL Design for *all* URLs on a site is also
very important and that is why I make what might otherwise
be viewed as a pedantic clarification. See
http://blog.welldesignedurls.com for more.

Re: Mashable Mixer Atlanta: The Social Media Event That Became #Mashlanta

Mike Schinkel — Thu, 21 May 2009 18:20:42 -0000

Here's a few more photos of #mashlanta: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikeschinkel/sets/...

More to come when I have time to process them. :-)

Re: Take the Twitter Challenge

Mike Schinkel — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 20:56:14 -0000

I was going to write almost exactly this same post. But you beat me to it. Thankfully. Now I don't have to. ;-)

Re: I made Phil Ripperger stand in line for an Xbox 360

Mike Schinkel — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 16:47:37 -0000

I hate to say this for many reasons (my company Xtras.Net sells .NET tools and also because the cult-leader-like behavior of the Rail creators), but Ruby On Rails has many, many things over ASP.NET 2.0. It appears it was designed as "pragmatic" as opposed to Microsoft's "visionary." What's more, the paradigm of ASP.NET is, IMO, all wrong. The forms/controls paradigm with VIEWSTATE and __DoPostBack() and very little use of real-world patterns. Microsoft usually solves 85% of the problem but then leaves developers to repeatedly reinvent the wheel with the remaining 15%. I think one of the key reasons is Microsoft's developer division architects don't actually use their tools to create real-world apps. The RoR folks do. Necessity is the mother of invention. What I think Microsoft should do is provide a grant to the MonoRail folks so they can add a bunch of full time programmers to the project so that it can grow and become a mature alternative to RoR. But if they do, Microsoft shouldn't control it. Instead, the team should look to get as many real-world projects implemented using MonoRail as possible, and offer seats on the paid developer team to people who would be a MonoRail liason between a real world project and also be on the MonoRail developer team. I'd sign up for that and rebuild www.xtras.net and www.howtoselectguides.com using MonoRail.

Re: The coming G/Y/M/A/e developer wars

Mike Schinkel — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 02:08:48 -0000

Great post Robert.

But I think you missed SalesForce.com. Although now that I've said that, you might have been good to omit them because they reserve their APIs for their Enterprise and Unlimited customers and "certified" 3rd party developers; their Team and Professional customers are just S.O.L. SalesForce.com is their own worse enemy!

But maybe they will wake up, and if they do, I think SalesForce.com will be a playa!

Also, I think the guys commenting about tools don't get the point; tools are great but can only have evolutional change. Service APIs are about providing access to data and to invoke processes where programmers simply couldn't before. Ning is great, but it just simplifies what's already possible. It's kind of like the difference in the DotCom days between Pets.com and eBay. The former was about moving an existing business model to the web. The latter is about empowering new business models that previously could not have existed and for which few peole even envisioned.

No, this is not about tools or about interchangable Map APIs, this is about those things that 99.9% of us can't even imagine today but that we'll all look back on in 5-10 years and wonder how we do without, all because of the introduction of some grand new APIs that visionary leaders introduce.

And I agree it needs to be cheap; free if possible. Yes, someone can afford to buy a terrabyte, but many great ideas start with someone who is just playing around and then they discover something. If there is a cost barrier people will never play to be able to have that 'Eureka moment.' (The problem with the 'free' developer version of SalesForce is people can't ever use the developer version for real work, so they are not likely to use it unless they are plan to build something in advance.)

I also think you missed a point about what is needed. IT ALSO NEEDS TO BE EASY. Like the difference between RDF and RSS, if it is difficult, things won't take off.

Lastly, I think your "G/Y/M/A/e developer wars" is an unwieldy mouthful! (Ah! You did work for Microsoft, right? :) Why not something more catchy and tongue-in-cheek like the "GAMeY Wars?" Of course my adding SaleForce.com into the mix would just nix that one though. ;)

-Mike
P.S. Oops, one more thing. Where I see the real value will come is when most organizations realize the benefit of providing their data up for programmer consumption in easy-to-consume formats such as RSS Feeds, kind of like DCStat as Jon Udel wrote about here: http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2006/06/28.html

Re: Jon Udell’s value to Microsoft

Mike Schinkel — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 21:00:54 -0000

Scoble: "But, anyway, this is something I’ve noticed since leaving Microsoft. When you’re up at Microsoft all you think about is how to work with Microsoft stuff. Conversations like the one Jon is participating in seem normal and commonplace.

Then you get out of Redmond and the conversations are very different. I’ve never had someone ask me how to blog from Word outside of Redmond."

Robert, you are oh so right, but it extends way beyond Redmond. Anyone immersed in Microsoft technologies is like that too; Microsoft-centric consulting companies, people attending .NET conferences and .NET user groups, third parties supporting Microsoft technologies, and even my prior company Xtras.

It wasn't until I left Xtras and looked around that I realized how many excellent solutions are available that are not from Microsoft. What's more it appears that many of the Microsoft solutions are no longer the best solution anymore not the least because of their monolithic architecture mindset. And this is ESPECIALLY true when it comes to web technologies.

BTW, I think Microsoft still was at the top of its game 10 years ago when you were still at Fawcette and I was coming to VBITS. I mean, I think at that time Microsoft's solutions were some of the best. But with over 10 years since the widespread adoption of Internet open-source has matured as an option and is now starting to surpass many of Microsoft's offerings, and I think the trend will only accelerate.

Re: Ads on the Home Page?

Mike Schinkel — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 21:07:03 -0000

LOL! Your post sounds like your are trying to justify your position just a bit too much! '-) Making such a big deal of it just draws attention to the fact. Just do it and move on. If people want to bitch about it, well that's their problem.

BTW, I'd rather use the Kia owner for a real estate agent; I'd figure that they had a better chance of being ethical. Besides, who that drives a Cadillac today has any class anyway? Well, that is besides Kate Walsh... '-)

Re: Ads on the Home Page?

Mike Schinkel — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 22:33:04 -0000

Oops, I mean to say "rationalize" not "justify'... (Doh! :)

And as for profit & ethics, maybe I was just chanelling my stereotypical opinion of the "blue hairs in Cadillac" a bit too much (quote taken from a local radio ad spot about most real estate agents.)

Anyway, great blog (besides this post '-p)

Re: Ads on the Home Page?

Mike Schinkel — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 06:48:23 -0000

I'll have to stick up for Doug here; you mention that you doubt that advertising is the right way to go about generating income based on the significant efforts Doug invests in his blog, yet you don't offer any suggestions for an alternate monetization strategy. So I challenge you Myk; if this isn't the right way how about suggesting to Doug a way that is 'right', and one that is also financially viable?

Re: Ads on the Home Page?

Mike Schinkel — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 06:50:24 -0000

P.S. I always tend to find is a bit sadly humorous when people complain about those things that are given to them for free. FWIW.

Re: Ads on the Home Page?

Mike Schinkel — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 15:31:27 -0000

@Myk: You see, Mike, I defy the notion that blogs should have a monetization strategy at all. I´m sorry, that´s just the way it is with me. There´s no use in arguing this point really.

I won't argue. It's your opinion and I'm one who believes you have the right to it. Of course I think you are being unrealistic, and similarly I have a right to that opinion, but they are both opinions and nothing to *fight* over, right? :)

@Myk: Are there ads in the books you read?

Yes, they are called "Magazines." :-)

The irony is that I was just yesterday researching advertising in magazines and found research on magazine.org that shows all the stats show that many magazine readers view the advertisments as an important component of the magazine, especially when those ads are targetted to the readership.

@I don´t like ads in my TV-Series. That´s why I buy the DVDs. I don´t like to sit through half an hour of commercials before a movie starts, that´s why I buy a DVD.

You are comparing apples and oranges in many ways. I can tell you dislike the ads simply because you are predisposed to dislike them, but many people dislike them, like me, because TV ads significant impose on their time. Blog ads are much less intrusive than that and (with the exception of pop-up ads) don't waste people's time, except for those people who choose to spend their time brooding over them. '-)

@Myk: I do not believe in free everything at the cost of mutilating your blog with ugly third party advertisements.

Well for many blogs: "Besides that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?"

@Myk: I am ready to spend money. Only I´d rather give it directly to Doug instead of going through some shady “click through channels”.

My guess is you are in a drastic minority. If not, it might be worth Doug and other bloggers to develop the infrastructure required to support such an option, but it would have to be an option because certainly more than 90% would not pay. I doubt there are enough people that would make undertaking the development of such infrastructure worthwhile, but I could be wrong and I certainly wouldn't insert myself to block something that someone else wanted.

@Myk: True, I don´t like the way monetizing strategies have moved to the forefront of blogging. So what, if this is the way this blog will go, fine. It´s just not what I want from blogging and I think I´m entitled to act upon my feelings....I would gladly pay a subscription fee for this blog (unless it´s, like $300 a month). Now, I understand that there will be a legion of people screaming no way because it´s the internet and it´s free.

You are absolutely entitled to act on your feelings, as long as your actions are legal! (for example, firebombing Doug's house wouldn't be an appropriate way to act on those feelings, of course. :) But as someone who likes to study human nature I find your feelings categorical. It seems you've developed an attachment to the aspects of something that was in transition and now that's it has further evolved you don't like it even though for it to stay the way it started is unrealistic.

History has many examples of the disaffected, and they all become footnotes in history. For example, there are those who hated CDs because they preferred vinyl, but their discontent did not signficantly impede the transition to digitally encoded music. Similary those who hate advertising on blogs will won't cause blogs to revert back to free; blogging it too much trouble to do well (I know, I tried and I don't do it well!) that people need an economic incentive to do it well. And given all the other choices a reader has, subscription models don't work but advertising models do. Even New York Times has moved to advertising; NYT found that attention was far more valuable than protection: http://www.mikeschinkel.com/blog/attentionhasbe... (But you might not want to 't follow the link because I have ads on the page.)

Anyway, the bottom line in my argument is that your dislike for ads really only affects you (and those with similar feelings) and it affects you negatively; IOW you are the one who looses from feelings that you choose to have. There's an old saying "A man got kicked by a jackass. He considered the source and went about his business." You can get worked up about ads on blogs and cause yourself some heartache, or you can just accept it.

You said "Don't argue the point" so you probably think I am arguing the point but I'm not. I'm discussing the issue of being upset about something that has evolved and that won't change back to the old way and how that only really diminishes the quality of life for the person who gets upset. So in sum, if you learn to accept this evolution, you'll be a happier person.

FWIW.

Re: Should Web 2.0 Design be Scrapped?

Mike Schinkel — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 15:50:25 -0000

Typical myopic and self-centered designer. I read his post then viewed his presentation expecting to gain some real insight yet only found a post that preached to the choir of his FOWD audience; a group whose shared ethos is wanting to have creative freedom without having to worry about business goals. Ironically it's the Web 2.0 version of the ad agency that focuses on winning creative awards instead of focusing on driving revenue to their client's bottom line.

I'd pay a lot more attention to Jakob Nielsen and Nielsen's Law: "People use other people's website far more often than yours (so making your site consistent with other sites will increase usability and hence better help you achieve your business goals.)

Re: Dear Abusive Client

Mike Schinkel — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 02:04:17 -0000

Gosh, it all seems so real. Almost like you just lived through that telephone reaming... '-)

Re: Javascript back in the game

Mike Schinkel — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 02:20:04 -0000

@Douglas: "PHP and VBScript are examples of Server-side languages."

That's actually not technically true about VBScript. What would be more true would be to say "VBScript is an example of a scripting language that has been used mostly on the Server-side as the primary language for Microsoft's ASP even though it can be used as a client-side scripting language in Microsoft's Internet Explorer."

You could go on to say "There are several reasons why VBScript has not been widely accepted as a client-side scripting language with the most important being that it didn't work in Netscape's Navigator back in client-side scripting's formative years, and also doesn't work in FireFox, Safari, or Opera now. Another important reason by Javascript trumped VBScript for the lead on the client is because VBScript is a much less powerful language than Javascript."

Yes, it is a mouthful and I could have wordsmithed it down, but given the context, why go to the effort? :-)

P.S. I have over 10 years experience programming in VBScript, and am just now really starting to learn Javascript in earnest, so for me to say the latter is more powerful is telling...

Re: Video: Blogs in Plain English

Mike Schinkel — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 09:18:56 -0000

@Douglas "Some folks confuse strategies and wonder, why not build an entire social network, then? If blogging is good for Search Engine results - then Social Networks must be incredible!"

I didn't follow that logic at all. I agree with your premise that blogs and social networks have different value propositions and that social networks are not good for topical SEO (though they might be good for something else as yet unknown), but I didn't follow how you think people are drawing lines between the two. I've actually never heard anyone mention anything like that...

Re: Video: Blogs in Plain English

Mike Schinkel — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 10:02:19 -0000

Ah, I see where you are coming from now. You were talking about those total neophyte prospects and clients that "Heard 'bout this new thang called the "inner-net" and wanna get me a piece o'that action 'cause I done heard you can strike-it-rich on there. Said so on the T. V." and not about those of us who are actually paying attention!

(Sorry if I went a little overboard there on the characterization... :-)

(P.S. How about adding a comment preview plugin to this here ol'blog? I hear tell some blogger referenced a list of Top 30 plugins somewhere. I'll bet you could find one in that list... '-)

Re: The Big Switch and Bluelock

Mike Schinkel — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 00:14:30 -0000

But BlueLock does appear to be a site sponsor...

Anyway, why mention BlueLock and not mention Amazon's EC2, S3, and SimpleDB?

Re: The Big Switch and Bluelock

Mike Schinkel — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 12:05:57 -0000

After your glowing review, maybe BlueLock should become a paying sponsor... ;-)

@Douglas: Helping Indiana

I understand, I do the same in Atlanta, GA (see http://web.meetup.com/32/)

@Douglas: Amazon not an infrastructure service

Albeit not at the same level of BlueLock apparently, but it EC2 not infrastructure?

Re: The Big Switch and Bluelock

Mike Schinkel — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 12:08:40 -0000

Thanks for the comments Ade. I was going to ask Douglas to write a post comparing and contrasting BlueLock to Amazon's web services but no need now as you already did!

P.S. You Indianians really do stick together, doncha? :-)

Re: The Big Switch and Bluelock

Mike Schinkel — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 12:42:43 -0000

@Douglass: It’s the perfect region to startup a tech company since the cost of living and tax benefits are so good. Compared nationally, it’s 20% less cost on average. That’s the word we need to get out! The MidWest attitude towards hard work and great service is a big difference as well.

But then you have to live in Indiana godforbid.... (sorry, could't resist '-)

Anyway, sounds like you should go calling on the Chamber of Commerce as your next sponsor... :)

Re: Google Announces $1B Revenue Share Program with YOU!

Mike Schinkel — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 18:23:59 -0000

The crows come home to roost! Heh!

I've been wary of Google for a while!

Re: Google Announces $1B Revenue Share Program with YOU!

Mike Schinkel — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 18:32:06 -0000

Also, very relevant here: my favorite book (ever?) "New Rules for the New Economy" by Kevin Kelley talks about how the "superwinners" gain from the "winner-take-most" environment of the network economy in Chapter 2 which you can read online. It (and the whole book) are definitely worth a read. Oh, BTW, it was written before Google even existed (or at least before they were well known.)

Re: WordPress: Related Post Tweaking

Mike Schinkel — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 10:44:45 -0000

Great post! But I do want to pick a few nits.

Your justification for "(not) joining to another table" because:

"it could reduce the speed at which these results are displayed and slow down the load time"

is offbase and an example of premature optimization which inhibits maintainability, and it's a shame to see people with a sizable audience recommend such things because it spreads misinformation.

The SQL join you speak of, assuming your have reasonable indexes in place will increase your response time by at most microseconds. You'd have to have tons and tons of traffic before anyone would notice even a half-second difference. Now yes, if you force yourself you can write so really braindead SQL code that will perform terribly, but an additional join on keyed data is not an example of that.

Also, rather than advocate hacking someone's published plugin, I'd really like to see you advocate enhancing it and then working to get your enhancement included in the actual plugin itself. As is, you might get some amateur coders to apply your changes and then later upgrade to the new version of the plugin and they loose the changes but can't figure out what went wrong. Your change is benign, just a loss of functionality, but some hacks can cause a site to break if a future revision of the core plugin is used over top of the hacked one.

JMTCW. Keep up the good work otherwise. :-)

Re: WordPress: Related Post Tweaking

Mike Schinkel — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 10:45:50 -0000

Crud on the prior comment's formatting! I wish you had comment preview! '-)

Re: WordPress: Related Post Tweaking

Mike Schinkel — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 12:24:12 -0000

@Douglas: I’m not sure I agree, though. I didn’t prematurely optimize… Once again - I got 100% of the functionality I needed without doing a join or adding indexes, etc.

Well, I guess that's the difference between someone who is viewing programming from perfective of profession and a craft vs. someone who is a practioner just trying to get something done (and I don't mean that perjoratively; on some mailing lists I play the letter role against the former. :)

It's similar to how an accountant or lawyer tells a business owner "I wouldn't do that" and the business owner, not steeping in all the ramifications that the professionals are aware of as being *potential* ignores their advice because it seems like too much effort, and plows ahead. God knows I've been that business owner in the past and have plowed ahead against all advice, though much to my chargin later. :-)

@Douglas: I am leery of republishing plugins, ...

No, that's not exactly what I was saying. What I was saying is that since it's open-source you can contribute your changes back to the original author it they'll accept, and you can do it proactively by contacting and offering. I currently work as a marketing consultant and website implementor for niche print publishers and use Drupal for web technology, and the Drupal community is always contacting plugin authors (Drupal calls them "modules") and offering to help improve other's modules.

Just a thought.

P.S. Thanks for the editing fix.

Re: WordPress: Related Post Tweaking

Mike Schinkel — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 18:10:36 -0000

@Douglas: I think the second option is a little more proprietary for my blog...

Yeah, I agree. Good deal though!

Re: Bye-Bye YouTube! Hello IndyTube!

Mike Schinkel — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 23:01:33 -0000

Allright, it's official! Douglas is really just a shill for the Indiana and Indianapolis Chambers of Commerce.... '-p

Re: Bye-Bye YouTube! Hello IndyTube!

Mike Schinkel — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 21:35:15 -0000

You do know I'm just ribbing you....., right? ;-)

Re: links for 2008-01-22

Mike Schinkel — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 00:08:36 -0000

Snipr's API is cool, until you realize that it violates a principle tenet of web architecture; GETs should be "safe" (have no side effects.) See W3C's TAG Finding "When to use GET" which states "GET is used for safe interactions and SHOULD NOT have the significance of taking an action other than retrieval."

Several more references:

-- http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/Axioms#state
-- http://www.intertwingly.net/blog/784.html
-- http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/forms/methods.html
-- http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-tag/200...

Re: links for 2008-01-22

Mike Schinkel — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 00:31:26 -0000

Oh, and in case anyone thinks "GET must be safe" is just standardista mumbo-jumbo and it doesn't really matter, realize that is what a lot of people thought until the Google Web Accellerator fiasco. Here are some links:

-- http://blog.moertel.com/articles/2005/10/25/goo...
-- http://bitworking.org/news/I_m_sorry__I_can_t_k...
-- http://37signals.com/svn/archives2/google_web_a...

Also I'd highly recommend anyone wanting to design an API to discuss the best way to provide a RESTful API on the rest-discuss mailing list:

-- http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/rest-discuss/

Re: Mass Media to Mass Social Networks = FAIL

Mike Schinkel — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 16:38:36 -0000

Heh. This just sounds like Hoosier-specific xenophobia to me... ;-)

But seriously... good post. I'm doing work on a large project remotely and am finding challenges like you describe even though the client is here in the good 'ole USA (but neither of us are in Indiana. :-) I find myself writing very long emails to explains concepts which is taking a huge amount of my time. But of course I couldn't have even done the project for them 10 years ago...

OTOH, I am finding something very useful coming out of it. Being forced to justify things in email gives me a great history of the project decisions and also gives me content I can later mine once I finish this project and (can hopefully) start blogging again.

I see that I will also be able to approach a similar project and be able to reuse much of what I wrote to them justifying the directions I've taken.

Part of this is my client is very willing to take my direction and lets me just explain things and agrees to them rather than fighting me on my recommedations. I am lucky that way, unlike you sometimes.

JMTCW anyway. :-)

Re: Mass Media to Mass Social Networks = FAIL

Mike Schinkel — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 16:53:23 -0000

Oh also, you say that the future of social networking is grim yet you taut Smaller Indiana. Aren't you really trying to instead say that newer social networks need a strong common bond and in your case that is geography and (somewhat) shared culture?

My dad has been part of an online social network for probably 15 years now. It's called a mailing list for people who (mostly now used to) own a particular make and model of motorcycle that was only produced in the USA for 3 years and hasn't been produced since 1991. His social network is stronger than any web-based social network I have yet seen (Facebook included), and it is all self-organized and managed in email. So strong that they have had annual rallies and as few as 2 places and as many as 4 places around the USA for the past 10 years. So social networks don't *have* to be local to be strong they just need a strong shared bond (although local is one of the stronger bonds that exists.)

That said, let's assume that you wanted to try to build an online social network community for a publishing client and let's say that client has a shared interest (maybe even motorcycles.) How would you go about doing it given your comments that social networks are grim?

Re: Understanding the R in CRM

Mike Schinkel — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 03:46:43 -0000

Maybe you'd be more accurate calling them "Prospect Management Systems", or "PMS" for short. Kinda has an ironic ring to it, no? '-)

Re: WordPress: Related Post Tweaking

Mike Schinkel — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 16:04:52 -0000

@Dwayne: I strive to do the minimum it takes to accomplish the purpose I’m try to achieve. To spend more time would not be cost effective.

Of course if always doing the minimum means that you don't learn better techniques causing you to repeat the minimum many times in the future rather than allow you to avoid it, then you've made a false achievement. Yes, many tasks don't need extra effort but I've witnessed many people take shortcuts like this in the past and they were some of the least productive and/or least value-creating people I knew (some of them were unfortunately my employees, hence why I really noticed their lack of productivity.)

@Dwayne: In short, unless that loss in efficiency was noticeable in my blog I would not spend the extra time, If it’s noticeable than I would decide whether the additional time would be worth the result. Perfection is not always the best solution.

I think you missed my points. First I was saying that Doug was optimizing for unnoticable efficiencies, not me, but more importantly if you are going to implement a hack that can cause future maintainability issues for goodness sake don't publish it for other's use without at least telling them of the kind of maintainability problems it might cause for them later.

The irony of your comment is that taking the quick and easy route often ends up costing you a lot more time in the future when you install a security update for your WordPress, loose your hacked functionality and want it back. Now you have a haystack with a missing needle and you now need to figure out where the needle used to be.

Spend extra time on performance? Bah, generally not needed. Spend extra time on maintainability? Yes, it often pays for itself in the long run.

Wrapping up, yes it's human nature to dismiss warnings for things that have never caused oneself pain. Feel the pain once and you'll be a lot more likely to heed those warnings from others who have already felt that pain.

Re: WordPress: Related Post Tweaking

Mike Schinkel — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 20:03:34 -0000

One thing I should say; I do think Doug's hack would be a good addition to WordPress, at least as a user option. It does seem rather silly to limit related posts to only those that came before.

ALSO, I would like to ask Doug to post about how his daily posts are posted from del.icio.us; that would be an interesting topic.

Re: WordPress: Related Post Tweaking

Mike Schinkel — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 20:22:49 -0000

Heh. Good one! I guess I should have googled for it first.

BTW, I sent you a personal email about me being in Indy Feb 16-19 about a week ago but have not heard back. Did you get? (feel free to delete this part of my comment.)

Re: Is Education The Answer?

Mike Schinkel — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 01:59:22 -0000

I have come to believe that the most valuable thing that one can get out of college is something didn't include. I think the best reason to go to college is to compete and collaborate with peers, And the better the school the better the peers as one strives to the level of their peers. Especially when those peers can from different experiences and/or different cultures than me.

I got far more out of studying with other students and being involved in extracirricular activities with them than any other aspect of college.

Unfortunately there is a large segment of our population (~42%?) that fears colleges, especially the better colleges, because they force students to question their own predjudices and preconceived notions. Far too many people would prefer to just believe what they want to believe and thus surround themselves with others who enable their myoptic attitudes as they restrict their world view. After all, the best way to believe what one wants to believe is to ensure that there is no evidence to the contrary.

If we are going to move forward as a country, as a world, as a human race, people are going to have to get past this pathological need to stifle anything that contradicts their rigidly-held world view. Unfortunately, based on what I've seen happen over the past decade, I don't hold out much hope that most people will actually put aside their clinched ideologies for that to actually happen.

Re: Is Education The Answer?

Mike Schinkel — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 18:27:42 -0000

I don't think its the parties so much as the people. Especially people who gather in groups and special interests like 501(c)s and "think tanks." It will never change until the people wake up and realize they are being played for pawns.

Part of my point was more that the people has such ingrained ideologies that they beg to be manipulated. It's not the party's faults they pander to people's ideologies and pit them against "the others" to gain their power. The parties have just learned how to achieve their goals, to get elected.

"Liberal" and "conservative" are some of the current polarizing labels where groups manipulate people by preaching ideologies and demonizing some idealized and easily identified other group that in many cases doesn't exists. These people use fear and divide by religion, race, sex, sexual preference, culture, geography, nationalism.

When I was young we had "the cold war" but after that went away I thought we had a new world order that could operate on commerce and live in peace. My god naive I was.

Re: 5PM: Full-featured Project Management SaaS

Mike Schinkel — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 10:49:37 -0000

What, are the 5PM guys from Indiana?!? ;-)

Just kidding. I just checked out 5PM and, on the surface, it looks quite good!

Re: The Memory of a Country

Mike Schinkel — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 09:07:26 -0000

@douglas: ... but the reason why we tell the story over and over is to try to change peoples’ perceptions.

It may be the reason we do it, but at least in business, it is generally not effective. What is effective is to use advertising to either insert a new belief where no belief previously existed, or far more effective, to reinforce an existing belief which keeping the brand top of mind. And noted marketing expert Al Ries agrees with me on this (or more truthfully, I learned it from reading his books. :-)

@douglas: I’m being honest when I say that I’m simply amazed at how effectively the Democratic party has made this election about the Iraq War, when Bill Clinton himself signed the Iraq Liberation Act in 1998.

Sigh. I being honest when I say I'm continually amazed at how so called "independents" (who are in truth right leaning) and especially "conservatives" have such a willing ability to identify retconning in the Democratic party but are blind and/or oblivious to it in the Republican party!!

For every example of a Democratic rewriting history, I can find at least 1 equivalent from the Republican party. This is especially true for the past 8 years given how the Republican's strategy for winning a majority was to polarize and divide the country and energize their base. And since they ruled the land from 2001 through 2007 with a majority in both the White House and Congress there was no inter-party oversight, itself a damnable occurence. Republican's during that period felt it was better to unite against and demonize the Democrats, because it brought them short-lived power than it was to actually work with those in the other party to look out for the best interest of the American people.

Truth be told, both Democrats and Republicans are both of the same species; move any one of the across the align and they'd be no different. Demonizing one side as you did simply demeans you and sullies the otherwise excellent reputation you have been building on your blog.

What's even more incredulous to me than the Democrat's retconning is how those on the right continue to defend the war in Iraq while at the same time complaining bitterly about taxes! No time in history have we fought a war and lowered taxes! The money spend on the war, invested wisely over that same period, would have established the USA as the continued leader in education, research and development, innovation, infrastructure, and caring for the health of its people and ensured the USA lead the world in all aspects for decades to come. Instead one-party rule with an unwillingness to question the value of proscecuting a war in Iraq has brought the USA financial hardships for what will likely be decades to come and may possibly end up financially bankrupting our country. Yet the hawks always fail to acknowledge that as if, like religion, huge miltary budgets are sacred and use of miltary is beyond question or oversight.

I listened to a podcast on negotiations where a Stanford Graduate professor spoke about how people who make bad decisions are far more likely to continue making bad decisions to justify their prior bad decisions rather than to acknowledge their mistakes and move to correct them. She described the psychology of it being that those who have committed sunken costs are far less risk averse with future potential loss in order to justify their prior failed actions, and she was describing this with examples in bad decision making across the board, not just related to any specific war.

It's very clear to me that the combination of the intense division in the country architected by Karl Rove et. al. resulted in bitter debate over going to war with strong supporters on both sides leading the US to be a country half filled with people who staunchly supported the war and thus it was effectively as if it were their own bad decision. Now rather than acknowledge that the war was a mistake their subconscious defense mechanisms kick in and they circle the wagons; anything else and they would have to acknowledge to themselves the unmitigated disaster that was this war.

Minimally it has been financially disasterous but beyond that it has created a devastating loss of life (for Iraqi civilians, if not our own soldiers); given many Arabs and Muslims reason to choose terrorism over pursuing personal and national prosperity; resulted in what is now a failed state in a volitile region; strengthened a country with lots of oil, allies who are not our best friends, and strong anti-American sentiment in the ruling class (Iran); has destroyed our reputation for holding the moral high ground among the rest of the world (you know, the other 95% of the world's population), and has continued to divide people in this country when we need more than anything else to stop being divisive and come together as a nation (united we stand, divided we fall...)

Eric Hoffer described in his 1951 book titled The True Believer how one of the most effective ways for leaders to cement blind loyalty in followers (i.e. a head of state cementing nationalism in citizens) is to get them to be complicit in horrific acts, and the more horrific the acts the more blind the loyalty becomes. Most people believe themselves to be good so for them to live with themselves after supporting horrific acts they have to justify the actions resulted in good. Yet the reality is there is almost never good vs. evil and the more horrific the act the more horrific the follow on acts until something external interjects to stop it. During this Iraq war the US has killed somewhere between 75,000 and 300,000 Iraq civilians; as Stalin said "One death is a tragedy; a million are a statistic." Today we are just totally desensitized to their losses and many of us continue to beat the drum that "It was all worth it." Yeah, tell that to the remaining family members of Iraqis who lose their love ones. Let's contrast their loss of life to the around 3000 for the Trade Towers. How can we even in good faith compare and still view ourselves as the good guys? The pyschology of the rationalizing mind.

Listen, I'm not anti-war, I'm just anti-stupidity and given the number of counter-arguments for the war from people who were well-respected (until they had their character's assasinated because they spoke out against the war in Iraq), it was just plain stupid to go to war with Iraq. But what was 10 times more stupid was not to plan for reconstruction then what was 100 times more stupid was to put party loyalists rather than techocrats in charge of rebuilding. STUPID, STUPID, STUPID, and anything short of a close-minded adherence to The Fox Network as one's exclusive news source reveals that to be so. Had the war planning process been lead by rational-minded apolitical people we'd have never chosen to go into Iraq but instead it was dominated by divisive political rhetoric by those with veiled and still unknown agendas who were arguably enabling if not directly participating in war profiteering. And to not even be willing to consider that the justifications for war might have been severely inappropriate is nothing more than willful ignorance, but then there is that psychology thing I mentioned. Because of that psychology thing that disables those who made huge mistakes from acknowledging them and changing course, and the bigger the mistake the harder it is to admit it, we have to continue pumping money and lives into this huge mistake in Iraq until those who come to power had no part in the decision to enter into the war. Only then can we start to reverse this tragic course and begin to heal as a nation.

Unfortunately there are still be those who can't get beyond this "Democrats/Republicans disingenous" thing (pointed reference intended) that we won't heal anywhere nearly as quickly as we might otherwise.

Whew, now that I've got that off my chest I feel much better. For a couple hours, at least. ;-)

Re: The Memory of a Country

Mike Schinkel — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 11:42:29 -0000

Thanks for the thoughtful reply.

And I do agree with you that politics is marketing and advertising, taken to the extreme even. I guess that proves that "Moderation in all things" truly are wise words to live by. :-)

Re: Finding Visio… aka… People Wonder Why I’m on a Mac

Mike Schinkel — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 15:36:01 -0000

You know the Mac wouldn't be so bad if it were not for all the Mac People." ;-)

Re: Just Because You Can…

Mike Schinkel — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 22:07:47 -0000

It's just the typical example of how most people spend far more time thinking about how they can extract value rather for an existing pie and be damned about anyone else, rather than how they can inject value based upon what others actually want.

People have always done this but in the days before the always-connected Internet it wasn't nearly as obvious. Now because it costs so little to impose one's desire to extract value on such a huge number of people we've reached a point where, unless things change. we are all going to be under constant stress and so overwhelmed that things are going to break down in ways we can't even yet imagine.

OTOH, and here's my hope, that people start to realize that no only does injecting value give them good karma, it will also gets them much better returns over the long haul. Will people actually become that enlightened? Only time will tell...

Re: Just Because You Can…

Mike Schinkel — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 22:12:55 -0000

BTW, I ran a meeting on Leveraging the Mobile Web at Atlanta Web Entrepreneurs and the consensus of the attendees regarding push advertising was overwhelmingly "Don't you even think about it, or I'll end up ramming my mobile device far, far up someplace you'd really it rather not be." Or something like that. ;-)

Re: ExactTarget integrates Landing Pages

Mike Schinkel — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 12:18:25 -0000

I don't really understand exactly what these landing pages are that they are offering. Are they suggesting to direct traffic to their website instead of one's own? Please explain! :-)

Re: Take Knotice! Bridging the Marketing Technology Gaps

Mike Schinkel — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 12:45:08 -0000

Want a great inexpensive lens for a Nikon D40? Sigma has a 17-35mm f/2.8-4 which you can get from Cameta thru Amazon for $240. It's the only f/2.8 lens with built-in lens focus motor that the D40 requires for autofocus under $1000, and I've been really happy with mine.

Most of my recent photos have been taken with that lens. For example.

As an aside, I won't be using the D40 or that lens much anymore as these pictures, taken with the D40 and my Sigma 17-35mm f/2.8-4 lens show why! :-)

Re: FeedBurner: Display your stats using the API

Mike Schinkel — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 12:50:08 -0000

Can I assume you'd recommend Clicky?

Re: I’m a Cisco I-Prize Finalist – Please Support our Idea

Mike Schinkel — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 12:05:42 -0000

Sounds like something that would still need significant client-side functionality, maybe using Adobe AIR? Or would that not be Cisco-ish enough?

Re: Verizon: Please Stop the Madness

Mike Schinkel — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 22:59:09 -0000

Sounds like they need some well-designed URLs...

Re: Many of My Blog Posts are Verbose

Mike Schinkel — Sun, 04 May 2008 20:01:48 -0000

FWIW, I follow you in part for your verbosity...

Re: Photography 101 with Paul D’Andrea

Mike Schinkel — Tue, 06 May 2008 16:34:04 -0000

Great gift; looks like you have a future "Anselette" on your hands. :-)

But don't feel bad, my first pics with my own D40 were simply awful. It's a great camera but it takes a real commitment to learning photography to be able to coax good pictures out of it, a commitment your daughter is clearly showing along with Paul's help.

Over the past year I've really enjoyed my D40 (my pics on Flickr) and learned tons from the Atlanta Photography meetup, which has been great. Not sure how good it is, but you should take her to the Indianapolis Photography Meetup and give it a try.

P.S. Beware, though, if she gets really into photography she may outgrow the D40 and it will be time for her to move up to a better Nikon model, complete with several $1000+ lenses. And you certainly wouldn't want to hold her back, now would you?

Heh; don't say I didn't warn you. ;-)

Re: Recognizing Opportunity

Mike Schinkel — Tue, 06 May 2008 16:37:37 -0000

Why don't these existing businesses change? Because there's HUGE inertia is continuing on the same path. Christensen details it extremely well in The Innovator's Dilemma.

Re: Have You Taken Myers-Briggs? ENTP?

Mike Schinkel — Tue, 06 May 2008 16:39:58 -0000

Heh, ironic, I'm an ENTP too (borderline INTP). And those descriptions are spot on, at least for me.

Re: You’d probably open this Mail…

Mike Schinkel — Fri, 16 May 2008 11:55:06 -0000

While you see it as an exciting marketing trend, I see it as a pox. Techniques to trick people into paying attention are just not the kind of techniques I'm interested in employing. Sure they can be effective short-term, but I want people to pay attention to the quality of my brand and what I'm offering, not because some idiot got suckered into thinking I sent them a handwritten note. JWTCW.

Re: Blogging is not Enough, “Press the Flesh”!

Mike Schinkel — Wed, 28 May 2008 18:29:23 -0000

Doug: I completely agree. I've accomplished a lot more acclaim here in Atlanta with Atlanta Web Entrepreneurs and other related meetups and events I attend and support than I was ever able gain with my blog. Plus, it's a lot more rewarding to be with people face-to-face than alone behind a keyboard and computer screen.

Re: How Many Blog Posts?

Mike Schinkel — Thu, 29 May 2008 20:52:45 -0000

Enter Douglas Karr: Cyber-Stalker!

j/k ;-)

Just a note, there are several reasons MySQL might skip an autonumber so the post number is a maximum potential, not an exact number. Just FYI.

Re: Maybe Time to Rethink your Strategy When…

Mike Schinkel — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 03:59:16 -0000

The question is, did they double their sales in units or in dollars? I wouldn't necessarily poo-poo the latter...

Re: Stuck on a Plane for 3.5 Hours

Mike Schinkel — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 17:38:39 -0000

A plane ride?!? Hell, when we took our trip from Atlanta, it was an overnight train trip. Your daughter should be thankful.

AND I had to walk to school 10 miles barefoot in the snow. Uphill. Both ways! '-)

Re: MBP: Micro-Blogging Provider and Protocol

Mike Schinkel — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 02:46:12 -0000

Sounds like a great idea, except at least one people each within several of those companies would actually have to take the leadership to make it happen. I may be getting cynical, but I've seen many related things that could happen but didn't so I don't see this happening, at least not until a behemoth like Google establishes the protocol and says "everyone follow it, or else." Sorry for being negative, but once bitten twice shy.

BTW, not sure if you noticed but I finally switched my blog to WordPress after a self-imposed hiatus of almost a year. I was waiting for the time (and motivation) to finally change from my old software that had become more trouble that it was worth. Now I can do more than just comment on your blog and others; I can actually start blogging again!

FYI, yours is only one of three (3) blogs I listed as actively following right now. I think I might have to add another blogroll category of "Blogs I would follow if I only had the time!" for all the other great blogs out there. '-)

Re: MBP: Micro-Blogging Provider and Protocol

Mike Schinkel — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 17:13:25 -0000

Frankly I don't see how anyone has the time to read many blogs. When I allow myself to go for a period where I get nothing done and then I feel really bad about myself for doing so. Then if I manage to allow myself to get sucked into a "conversation" (read "debate") that's when it really becomes a timesuck. I don't know how people who are gainfully employed manage to find the time for it.

But one of the reasons why I continue to I read yours is that, for the topics that interest me, yours is much higher on the "signal" than on "noise" ratio than most blogs. Kudos.

Re: Creativity versus Copyright

Mike Schinkel — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 01:20:20 -0000

Yeah, I love his message. For example, I read Free Culture several years back, and I very much felt his pain. However, with all bought-and-paid-for suits we have in congress I have no hope that things will change in the foreseeable future. ;-(

Re: Is the next President of the United States running Linux?

Mike Schinkel — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 22:49:17 -0000

Just goes to show that Hillary really was a closet Republican after all... ;-)

Re: Is the next President of the United States running Linux?

Mike Schinkel — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 22:53:27 -0000

Quick! Get this man a sense of humor!

Re: Should Bloggers Correct their Mistakes?

Mike Schinkel — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 04:16:26 -0000

Douglas: I agree for factual errors. If you leave them you potentially do future readers a serious disservice. OTOH, if you take a soapbox position and get called to the carpet on it, I think it is disingenuous to rewrite history. JMTCW anyway.

Re: Killaboration

Mike Schinkel — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 00:15:15 -0000

Good god that would have been funny, if it hadn't been so painful to watch! LOL!

Re: Blogging for Business: New Tricks for Old Dogs

Mike Schinkel — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 18:26:57 -0000

Great post, as usual.

But I do want to ask, how did you come about learning of Compendium's feature you highlighted? Is a client of yours using it? Or was this post sponsored by Compendium? It really did come across like a commercial.

Be aware I'm not accusing you, and even if it was a pay-for-post I'd still think highly of you, but I am just supremely curious...

Re: Blogging for Business: New Tricks for Old Dogs

Mike Schinkel — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 18:35:00 -0000

Doh! For some reason I didn't see the "Full Disclosure" part, I read it in my RSS reader and somehow missed that. Sorry for the prior post.

Re: My Blogging Cards Have Arrived!

Mike Schinkel — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 14:25:39 -0000

Oh no! There's the coat and tie again! '-p

(Nice design though! :)

Re: Starbucks: Inflation and Devaluation of a Brand

Mike Schinkel — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 03:09:50 -0000

Douglas:

I almost never go to Starbucks because I've never been a coffee drinker and why pay for wifi when it's free elsewhere?

But frankly I think the problem is the public markets. Investors are always demanding growth and not caring about the extra little special you want in the companies whose stock they hold. If their stock doesn't growth in value greater than the S&P they are sacking management and bringing out the lawyers.

Problem is once you get to a certain scale you just can't continue to grow at the same rate. With 95% market share where are you going to find 10% growth? So management starts cutting corners, shaving costs, getting cheesier with its approaches. And that's especially true if the founder and/or management team with the winning ethos is no longer at the helm (just look at Apple during the John Sculley days.)

So realistically it hasn't been Starbucks killing itself, it has been the nature of the beast of public markets where investors are fully divorced from any involvement in the company's operations and just demand more, more, more.

It's enough to make an idealistic capitalist want to stay private.

Re: Who’s Twittering You?

Mike Schinkel — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 13:51:06 -0000

Hi Douglas:

An even easier way is to use TweetBeep.com which itself uses the former Summize at http://search.twitter.com. I use TweetBeep to monitor a lot of different keywords including all the various misspellings of my last name! :-)

Also for those interested I prepared slide for an Intro to Twitter that I delivered at Atlanta Web Entrepreneurs' recent Twitter meetup.

-Mike

Re: Lifestyle business? Google or Microsoft could eat your lunch

Mike Schinkel — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 17:09:00 -0000

I have unfortunately used Basecamp (again, after 2+ years away) with several of my recent clients though it was not my choice. It is painful product to use because it doesn't let me work they way I want to work. If I could get my clients to use something else I'd be much happier.

On the contrary to several people commenting, I think all that Microsoft or Google would need to do is actually listen to what customers need instead of telling them "No, sorry, we aren't going to give you what you ask for because we think you don't need it." <sic>

Re: Digital Transition: From Redundant News Coverage To Original Link Journalism

Mike Schinkel — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 15:45:04 -0000

Hey, any thoughts about how print publications could/should start providing URLs within their printed stories?

Maybe they could provide their own version of TinyURL on their website where they provide a short named link with a bit of editorial about the link, and then the real link to let readers go to that external source. As a print reader, I would appreciate this.

Re: Should Google Subsidize Journalism?

Mike Schinkel — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 00:29:10 -0000

I agree there is a *HUGE* need to get back to real journalism and be able to differentiate between those who only blog to support their own ideologies.

It seems to me that a professional journalist was expected to follow a code of ethics and exhibit a high degree of professionalism or they were not respected.

In the past, people believed the news organizations that had established credibility however those institutions are crumbling with the FCC removing barriers to joint-ownership and with profit becoming the driver. What's needed is a new vehicle for journalists to establish credibility.

Since the free market has proven that by itself journalism takes a back seat to profit, it seems that what needs to happen is for real internet journalists to band together to create an membership association that sponsors a "Professional Blogjournalists" designation and that sets a high-standard and offers peer review.

I think with the right PR campaign, assuming there was real substance to it, a blogger with such a designation could demand a much larger income because readers would know they write to a much higher standard than the rest of the mostly loud-mouth bloggers on the web and because such a group of blogjournalists would have considerable political clout.

Frankly, I think something like this is imperative if we want our society to continue to be free.

Thoughts?

Re: Should Google Subsidize Journalism?

Mike Schinkel — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 00:55:16 -0000

Sorry, I should have said "It seems to me that IN THE PAST WHEN NEWSPAPERS RULED, a professional journalist was expected to follow a code of ethics and exhibit a high degree of professionalism or they were not respected."

Re: Traditional Media Sites Should Link To Third-Party Content

Mike Schinkel — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 09:35:58 -0000

This is a GREAT article, and exactly what I've been trying to put into words for my current client. Bravo!

Re: The Evolution From Linear Thought To Networked Thought

Mike Schinkel — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 04:04:47 -0000

I think robojiannis is spot-on. I far prefer to read from the printed page than from the web because when I'm reading on the web I constantly feel like I need to follow links to get the "complete" story, and following links never ends. With a book or a magazine I can actually "finish" it; not so with the web. I dislike reading on the web so much that I usually print the web posts that I really want to contemplate (I print 8 pages to a sheet using Fineprint so I'm not so so bad ecologically.) But even though I consider myself very web saavy maybe it's just my age (44) showing.

Re: Decommoditizing Social Networks By Connecting User Profiles Via OpenSocial

Mike Schinkel — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 07:11:36 -0000

Scott:

I think you misunderstand what OpenSocial is in the same way that I originally misunderstood what OpenSocial was. Such misunderstanding is easy because the name invokes something that is obvious except that that "obvious" is in fact not what OpenSocial is.

Instead of being a way to manage and port one's own data OpenSocial is instead a spec for creating widgets (OpenSocial API) and a spec for discovering one's social graph at other websites (Social Graph API). I was more than a little disappointed when I learned that.

What I think you were really talking about in terms of functionality is DataPortability.net whose mission is to cultivate end-to-end data portability across social networks. Now THAT is what I had hoped OpenSocial was.

With that bit out of the way, I think your analysis of Facebook and its motivations and positioning are otherwise 100% spot-on.

BTW, I think what we'll see is an evolution to where their are millions of social networks and a few will be big because of brand alone (like maybe Facebook and MySpace.) The rest will be small networks in little niches that struggle to monetize which is exactly the same problem that you write about that newspapers have today.

As you know, when we commoditize the techonology and the means then everyone rushes in, we have a bubble, then a shakeout, and then statis. In that latter state its very difficult to "get rich quick" or even grow quickly, and doing business once again becomes about executing better than the next guy. JWTCW.

Re: Decommoditizing Social Networks By Connecting User Profiles Via OpenSocial

Mike Schinkel — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 15:18:17 -0000

@Scott: What you see with OpenSocial is likely just the tip of the iceberg.... But you can be sure Google wants to see complete data liquidity in the system.

True, but the reason I commented is because when I first read about OpenSocial I made plans to use the portabile data aspect immediately, only to rudely find out that it wasn't there and (how long has it been?) is *still* not there.

So even though you have faith in Google getting to that point (as do I) your post might leave people with the impression that OpenSocial is about data portability and that data portability spec is available today, of which neither are the case.

Hey, I've finally got faith that American's won't be foolish enough to vote in another Republican after 8 years of Bush II, but the election hasn't happened yet so I'm not gonna bank on it and I'm gonna keep volunteering and making donations until we know it to be fact.

All that said, I *did* say that I otherwise agree 100% with your analysis... :-)

Re: Forget Disintermediation, Focus On Open Data Exchange

Mike Schinkel — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 13:14:56 -0000

While I agree 100% in principle and very much want to see a web where the user is placed front and center, you didn't mention any ways in which someone besides Google can effectively monetize that strategy. Yes, you talked about how YOUR blog and MY blog could have everything, but in a world where everyone has everything nobody really has anything, at least not on the web in terms of monetizable attention.

Similar to the 90's when every software company was afraid to develop something because once it showed promised Microsoft would develop a competitor and squash them, how do you envision people monetizing open data exchange where they 1.) create a competitive advantage for themselves, and 2.) don't just show Google the way to exclusively make even more?

And before I go, let me reiterate that the world you describe is the one I want to see I just don't yet know how an entity besides Google can effectively monetize it on any reasonable scale.

(BTW, I'm using IE7 and your comment preview button is not working.)

Re: washingtonpost.com’s Political Browser Uses the News Judgment of Journalists to Filter the Political Web

Mike Schinkel — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 03:07:33 -0000

Scott:

This is really exciting, and goes a long way to validate the ideas you've been promoting for months (years?) now. Bravo.

I'm especially interested in your mention of "leveraging web technology..." and "an open editorial system for exchanging links..." I'm interested because I've been buildng such technology, piecemeal, for clients for both WordPress and Drupal sites and I would like to exploring taking my experience and efforts to the next level to possibly do one or both of the things you envision.

So I'd be very interested to hear you views of exactly what you think would be needed, built on top of an open source platform. Or better yet I would love to chat with you about it via email or phone. You have my email, let me know if you'd like to chat about what you need/envision and how I might be able to (help) make it a reality. (If you want to research me to see what I've been involved with before now just google my full name w/no space.)

-Mike Schinkel

Re: Will Algorithms Make Human Editors Obsolete? Not If Journalists Collaborate

Mike Schinkel — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 02:23:39 -0000

Sounds like you are suggesting that the long-time journalist's holy grail "The Scoop" give way to collaboration?

I like it! But then I'm not a journalist so I'm wondering it you'll be able to get the old grizzled veterans to sign on to this? Or will they have to die out first...?

Re: The California State of Mind

Mike Schinkel — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 02:12:42 -0000

Bravo Russell, Bravo.

Re: The California State of Mind

Mike Schinkel — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 02:48:09 -0000

Not to be contrary as I do believe Russel made a great post and agree with you on that, but as you asked for how many startups in Atlanta, how about 157 early stage[1] & 26 later stage[2]? [1] <a href="http://atllogos.com/index.html?tab=early" target="_blank">http://atllogos.com/index.html?tab=early [2] <a href="http://atllogos.com/index.html?tab=later" target="_blank">http://atllogos.com/index.html?tab=later

Re: The California State of Mind

Mike Schinkel — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 02:00:26 -0000

Chris: That's really depressing. I for one thought SeatSnack was a great idea; hopefully I have you that impression when you explained it to me. If you any reason I didn't I deeply regret that. That said, at least you've got a salary now and I hope this doesn't mean you are forever gone from the Atlanta Startup scene. I always thought your energy was infectious. Maybe you were just too early in the startup phases for Atlanta? -Mike

Re: The California State of Mind

Mike Schinkel — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 02:02:26 -0000

Damn typos. First paragraph was supposed to be (w/asterisks marking typos): "That's really depressing. I for one thought SeatSnack was a great idea; hopefully I *gave* you that impression when you explained it to me. If *for* any reason I didn't I deeply regret that."

Re: The California State of Mind

Mike Schinkel — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 17:40:59 -0000

Thanks for clarifying. Starting a business is hard. Deciding to stop something you've invested your heart and soul into can be even harder. I completely get where you are coming from regarding the difficult of finding customers who can say yes and say it now. Here's hoping your current stint will prepare you for your next venture and that it won't be too far into the future.

Re: The California State of Mind

Mike Schinkel — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:21:56 -0000

Charlie, Thanks for attending AWE on the 18th. "Adopt a Startup" is a great idea. Any chance you want to take the lead in coordinating that? I will definitely help you with it if so. -Mike

Re: The California State of Mind

Mike Schinkel — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 01:35:12 -0000

It doesn't have to be Fortune 500's, it just has to be paying customers. "Paying customers" can be "small businesses", "medium-sized businesses", "government agencies", "military installations", "non-profit organizations", or even "consumers." The bottom line is that the requirement to find customers doesn't damn us to mediocrity, it actually ensures superiority. You don't have to stop shooting for the stars, you just need to be able to eat during the journey. But don't take my reply to assume I'm saying it will be easy; it will be damn hard. Ask any funded CEO in the valley and my guess is they will all say they worked/are working their a**es off. And that's the fun of it all.

Re: An Atlanta Coworking Space Is Coming: Ignition Alley

Mike Schinkel — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 22:43:25 -0000

Wow, news travels fast these days! :-) Thanks for the quick post.

Re: Waterfall Charts and Exits

Mike Schinkel — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 00:40:12 -0000

Really excellent post Ben!

It's also illustrates one of the reasons I think most entrepreneurs should pursue funding only after they are in a position to dictate the terms. IOW when they are running a company that is hitting a home run and thus numerous investors want to participate. If not my belief is the entrepreneurs are almost always going to get the short end of the stick.

And as for angels, their situation is even worse; why ever be an angel given their likelihood of a positive exit?

It all goes to validate The Golden Rule: "He who has the gold makes the rules."

Re: Observations^3

Mike Schinkel — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 13:27:52 -0000

@Sanjay:
Great and awesome post! I found myself nodding my head and going "uh-huh" at every paragraph. I also felt really good at the end because, as you know, I've been busting butt for the past 1.5 years doing exactly what you ask for by organizing Atlanta Web Entrepreneurs every month. And I want to do a lot more, maybe some things will change soon that will let me... And you will be helping me with AWE this month too, so thanks!

When I started VBxtras in 1994 I had the same feeling of "screw investment, I'll just make it happen." And I did and it went gangbusters. We made some mistakes starting in 2000 after our lack of capitalization caught up with us, but we had a 6 year run with hockeystick growth! Wish I had known a good CFO back then, but that's water under the bridge.

And in my participation around the co-working idea, lots of what I want to see happen is to foster a community where we can help each other out on an ad-hoc and a daily basis. I think we can create a culture where we can seat those SSJ investors on the sidelines and we can just all go to town creating lots of value where the SSJs only participation is to watch other's make money. And if they SSJs ever decide to rethink their approach we could let them join the party too but not until. OTOH we plan to talk f2f about all that soon, don't we? :)

P.S. As for your comment to @Wei about people struggling to help others, I can say with much experience that the most benefits I have gotten for myself have been when I have helped others, so YES! We've got great local talent and a great ethos outside the SSJ community; let's pool it together and make things happen!

Re: Observations^3

Mike Schinkel — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 13:29:31 -0000

@Wei you already know I've offered Twitter help...

Re: URLs With or Without “WWW”: Which is Best?

Mike Schinkel — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 16:30:24 -0000

@Blog Bloke: But I would add that although a mod rewrite might be a good idea in Kathy’s case, it shouldn’t be necessary for new bloggers who don’t need to make changes to their existing url structure.

Well....not exactly. It's not the lack of existing URLs that are the issue, it's the fact that some people will type the "www" and other's won't so over time she is likely to find that people have bookmarked her pages using (at least) two different URLs for each page thus splitting her page rank. So it is best practice to pick one and redirect to it from the other, even for a new blog.

Also, Mary Nichole Hicks has an excellent point that extends beyond plain text; for example word processors like MS-Word and email clients like MS-Outlook can recognize URLs that are preceeded by "www." and convert them to links but (typically) can't do so for the ones without a "www." prefix. And this can be a concern for others who are not the domain owner so choosing not to use a leading "www." has downsides that domain owners should consider in addition to their personal preference of which looks better to them.

Re: URLs With or Without “WWW”: Which is Best?

Mike Schinkel — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 18:27:59 -0000

Sorry if I misunderstood. I frequently find people have opinions on URLs that are not based on fact and I guess that makes me quick to interject. Well, if anyone else misunderstands like me then my comment and your reply will be sure to clarify.

As for should we not be using MS? Since I don't join in on the anti-Microsoft bashing and instead focus on a pragmatic view, I'd say there are not generally-applicable good reasons why we shouldn't be using MS software; most often its just anti-MS angst that fuels those sentiments.

What's more on the web I'm more concerned about those things that affect others, and ~90% of people use MS products. Ignoring concerns of MS software users would be like publishing a blog to work only with Opera, Safara, and Firefox; all others not welcome. Though it might make those who dislike MS feel good it would be limiting their own audience and rendering inaccessible their content to people who have perfectly valid reasons for choosing to browse with IE (for example, because their company only supports IE or because they are a newbie who bought a new PC with IE installed and are not comfortable installing Firefox.)

FWIW

Re: URLs With or Without “WWW”: Which is Best?

Mike Schinkel — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 19:20:06 -0000

As a (former?) software developer I, like all software developers, have written code with a bug or two so I've learned not to throw stones. "Bugs" are like needles in haystacks; writing bugfree software is like proving there is NOT a needle in that there haystack; very hard indeed.

Of course a lawyer would probably just see those potential bugs as a "great opportunity." :-)

As for casualties of Bill Gates, I'd have to say that given free markets and free will its rarely fair to say a company is a causualty of another; instead I'd argue that they are a causualty of their own lack of execution and/or poor decisions.

I ran a company for 12 years that was once listed in the Inc 500 and though it still exists I'm not running it and it is a shell of it's former self. Why? I could say we were a causualty of our VC-backed competitor or that we were a causualty of Google making our value proposition less compelling but I will say instead it was my inability to execute a proper plan in the face of a changing world. (I of course learned a lot from that experience and am a better business person than I was at the time but I will still say that I could have been a better CEO back then.)

Re: URLs With or Without “WWW”: Which is Best?

Mike Schinkel — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 20:24:44 -0000

I look at it holistically; Gates efforts to succeed is the same thing that any red-blooded capitalist would have done, he was just a lot better at it than most. Frankly, I wish I had his skills and connections at the time so I could do have done the same instead of him! :-)

My first programming job was as an engineering co-op programming Pascal on an Apple II with a Z80 CP/M card. My boss suggested we buy an IBM PC and I argued against it, but shortly after using it I realized how much better it was than what I was using. And the rest is history...

As for self-pity, I do have that but keep it to myself mostly; when I post on someone's else blog I figure it's best to be as honest with myself as I can be, and I know it was my decisions that were at fault. Otherwise I might get called on it by someone that was there!

Lastly, thanks for offering a guest writer spot, I'm honored, but I'm currently so far behind I don't have time to blog at my own blog, or time to convert it to WordPress. My only reason I have time to comment on your blog is I have the flu and this is easier than working. :)

Re: URLs With or Without “WWW”: Which is Best?

Mike Schinkel — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 20:56:48 -0000

Ah, I never said Gates was nice! Though I think the ruthlessness comes as much from Balmer as from Gates. They are just red-blooded capitalists, you know the type that have done so well during W's reign...

Ditto to you regarding our exchange and recovering from the flu.