Disqus - Latest Comments for MarinaMartin

Re: Marcelo’s next thing

MarinaMartin — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 19:23:50 -0000

Awesome to hear what you've decided, and serious props for having the self-restraint to not split yourself into thirds.

Re: On Sleep

MarinaMartin — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 08:35:15 -0000

I agree; I'm also a nightowl, and my productivity at night is nowhere near my productivity during the day, all other things being equal. I'm an efficiency consultant and I'm lucky that most of my work can be done on roughly my own schedule, but even one AM meeting a week can make me upset and throw off my rhythm. (You read the Maker v Manager schedule article, I'm sure ... to me, sleep is just one long boring meeting.)

I pull at least one all-nighter a week to help me enjoy the best of both worlds. A bowl of pasta with flaxseed oil (omega-3s) is key for keeping alert for an extended period of time, moreso than caffeine (which makes me jittery and overtired after hour 18). I find I can trick myself into thinking I slept by going for a run and showering around 5am. If I'm in a slump, I listen to one fast-paced song loudly on my iPhone, and/or read a Seth Godin post, and I'm good to go.

Re: Legacy Technology Dies Hard

MarinaMartin — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 22:17:02 -0000

My life has been an interesting contrast the last few years, as I'm a social media / tech early adopter in my private life but I work (as an efficiency consultant) primarily with low-tech companies. I see Windows 95 terminals and legacy software from the early 1980s on a *constant* basis. Yet, these same companies with older technology are generally profitable and have money to spend on services; they've simply been humming along just fine as-is and don't understand why they should change. And since their workforces are typically older, an overnight transition to Windows 7 and Yammer is untenable.

There's still a great deal of money left on the table when one caters to and markets via new technology.

Re: louisgray.com: RSS Is Doing Great, But Stand-Alone Feed Readers Are Collapsing

MarinaMartin — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 02:30:10 -0000

Google Reader lacks many of the robust features of NetNewsWire, namely smart lists. Without smart lists, I can't do things like mark all "Twitter Digest" blog posts as read with one keystroke (K) and I can't subscribe to a bunch of feeds but only pull posts containing a particular keyword. (Yes, there's Yahoo Pipes, but setting that up for a ton of blogs takes for-ev-er.)

When you get a lot of feeds, Google Reader is horribly slow. My job is very RSS-intensive (Well, I should say, it's research-intensive, and RSS makes the research faster) and I've got more than 4,000 feeds. Google Reader freaks out on me; NetNewsWire behaviors perfectly. I love NNW and it's definitely not a legacy app, as about 25% of my clients use it actively.

For a small number of RSS feeds, Google Reader is fine, but GReader is painfully lacking in advanced features for power users.

Re: Warm the Mug

MarinaMartin — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 18:29:11 -0000

In many retail environments, the number of positive comments an employee gets has a significant impact on their future promotions and raises. I'm not familiar with PF Chang's specifically, but I know at other large chains the comment has to be sent in writing to count (which means almost no one does it, so they count even more).

Next time (or now -- there's still time!) I'd leave a comment. Otherwise her manager might never know.

Re: How To Live (Comfortably) on $36 A Month For Food

MarinaMartin — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 17:57:29 -0000

Look for a bakery outlet. In Salt Lake City there's a Wonderbread factory outlet where you can get three loaves of bread for $1. The bread was perfectly fine but was cut wrong or the bag may have been misprinted.

A big pot of lentils and rice or chick peas and rice last for days in the fridge and is incredibly filling (and good for you).

Re: Monetize The Audience, Not The Content

MarinaMartin — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 18:00:32 -0000

No one seems to have mentioned this yet, but having content behind a paid wall does *not* exclude it from appearing in Google search results. Google has a special arrangement for walled gardens wherein you must agree that the searcher can view the content of the page that appears in search results (but no pages beyond it). So, if a search brought me to page two of a paid NY Times article, I could read page two, but not page one or three without paying.

Newspapers are a conduit between sources and the audience. As we've all seen, the Internet is allowing sources to reach an audience directly, making the newspapers unnecessary in many cases. Instead of focusing on reporting news, they should focus on helping people understand the news and learn. An article on Sunni violence would be free to read (probably ad-supported), but then I can pay $10 to take their online "Learn About Sunnis vs Shiites" course so I have context and can better participate in discussions (online and off) about the topic. Yes, there is an increasing number of free educational content out there by colleges, but if you actually take the time to go through it, it's not very good for self-learning, and probably downright intimidating for most people.

Re: Another test post (Scripting News)

MarinaMartin — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 19:57:10 -0000

Well now I'm inclined to stay subscribed just to spite you ;)

Re: Another test post (Scripting News)

MarinaMartin — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 19:01:33 -0000

Well, I like your blog, when you're not posting test posts. They're rude. It's like I signed up for your email newsletter and you send me 10 blank emails every day. I appreciate the work you are doing but I'd rather send you $10 than have you take up $10 of my time marking test posts as read.

Re: Another test post (Scripting News)

MarinaMartin — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 18:35:20 -0000

Couldn't you make a fake blog somewhere and put the test posts there? It has been a touch annoying getting 10+ test posts from this blog recently, and since you're not using a similar naming convention in every post, I can't filter them out with a smartlist in NetNewsWire.

Re: There's a missing product (Scripting News)

MarinaMartin — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 02:06:14 -0000

I agree there's a missing product, but I disagree with your description of what it is.

Anyone is already fully capable of bumping up your status updates in terms of importance. I could stick your Twitter RSS in a priority folder, or have them emailed to me, or get them as SMS. Your friend asking if you were going to reboot clearly did not take advantage of these options, so presenting another option for making you high-priority in his information stream isn't going to help.

As for meeting someone in the airport, the odds are just as good (better) that someone random -- who does not have you in their high-priority stream -- would be there and have time to hang out. This seems like a job for a location-aware mobile app. Or (shocking!) starting a conversation with a stranger in the airport.

What I'd like on Twitter is the ability to mark select status updates as high-priority (say, with a ^ sign, which isn't used for anything except exponents). Friends could subscribe to all my updates, or just my high-priority ones, and I could have a separate view on my iPhone and a separate alert from Tweetdeck/Nambu for tweets marked important. (Will spammers take advantage of this? Yes. But I don't follow spammers.) Then those truly or quasi- important tweets ("I have an hour to kill at X" "Who remember the name of that book?") have a higher likelihood of being seen, but everyone (sender and recipient) gets a say.

Re: Disqus lost my comment

MarinaMartin — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 01:40:10 -0000

I took Disqus off all my blogs last week. Comments were regularly disappearing; I'd return to an old post that I know had 20+ comments and suddenly they were all gone. I thought it was my imagination, but it happened one too many times. Ultimately normal WordPress comments + the Subscribe to Comments plugin are perfectly adequate.

Re: Twitter Search This

MarinaMartin — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 13:02:45 -0000

If you pick which language you want to search from the drop-down menu (English), the search results get significantly better for DIA/DEN.

However, case-sensitive search would be great... for Twitter Search and for Google Alerts, while I'm making a wish list.

Re: Disqus Is Growing and Hiring

MarinaMartin — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:59:04 -0000

Perhaps one of these new hires can fix the bug that Disqus doesn't let you turn off comments on particular pages/posts? It's two lines of PHP to fix, they've known about the issue for forever, and they haven't fixed it. It's the reason I took Disqus off all of my 12 blogs; I could (and did) fix the code myself, but ignoring it for this long really makes me wonder what they're doing all day.

http://disqus.disqus.com/turning_off_commenting...

Nice idea, ultimately not worth giving up control of my own commenting system.

Re: Should you move your startup to the Valley? Depends on where you are (Data included!)

MarinaMartin — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 01:38:50 -0000

Okay, I won't quibble with your dataset, but I will quibble with your definition of success. I'd die before I sold a company of mine to Yahoo or Google; it's like volunteering your seven-year-old child for ritual Mayan sacrifice. (Yea, I realize that walking away from many millions would be difficult, but if I'm not seeking a buyer, I'd never be in the theoretical position of being able to refuse.) If profit is your sole incentive, then sure, acquisition is the ideal, but I'm not putting in 90-hour weeks to watch my hard work be killed (Dodgeball, Jaiku) or irreparably maimed (Flickr). A better success metric would be "still operating and in the black after five years" regardless of acquisition.

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/06/what-makes-more-sense-iphone-tethering.html

MarinaMartin — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 03:50:20 -0000

Well, which is faster? And if they're comparably fast, which is cheaper?

I bought my iPhone primarily because I wanted access to apps over 3G (ruling out the Touch), but my primary phone is a Blackberry 8830 which I can tether via Verizon ($15/mo for up to 5GB). It tethers via Bluetooth, which adds to the "cool" factor because my phone can be in my purse but I can surf from my laptop over its connection.

There's no way Apple will let you use your existing unlimited data for tethering. They'll limit you, and charge you extra for the privilege to tether at all... so either way you're looking at an extra monthly expense.

Re: That's not what I ordered...

MarinaMartin — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 05:26:39 -0000

Wow, Drew. Your attitude is inspiring, and I just know you'll kick cancer's ass.

"The Stranger" by Camus is nowhere near as good as "The Fall," and I was just about to blame the former's translator, but now I know it's your cancer's fault. Dammit, cancer.

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/05/todays-real-time-web-makes-blogging-and.html

MarinaMartin — Fri, 29 May 2009 18:47:44 -0000

Yes, Twitter is better at breaking news than RSS. (Although I still don't see value in the immediacy of earthquake reports; what am I going to do about it?) I was never under the impression that RSS was intended for breaking news. I guess if your only concern is immediate breaking news, then ditching RSS wouldn't be much of a loss ... but they can pry my 4,200 RSS feeds away from my cold, dead hands! I use RSS to learn about advanced economic theory, stay on top of action alerts, and find relevant conversations. Many RSS posts could sit for months and would still be of value to me.

Re: Could Facebook Replace Your Email?

MarinaMartin — Tue, 19 May 2009 16:52:41 -0000

I sure hope not. Many people today complain of information overload and a perpetually-full inbox, and Facebook offers no tools -- no filters, no tagging, no folders, no smartlists -- to help make sense of incoming messages. I receive some communication via Facebook, but read the messages through my traditional email program (Mail.app) and only go to the site to respond if absolutely necessary.

Re: I’ll Sic My Encyclopedias on You!

MarinaMartin — Wed, 13 May 2009 20:56:10 -0000

I did have to carry the box down the stairs (and into the post office) ... but it was worth it. Plus, I was in way better shape than the post office lady :)

Re: Lessons from the changes in Twitter (Scripting News)

MarinaMartin — Wed, 13 May 2009 15:19:25 -0000

A-ha! That makes sense. I was looking at it from the perspective of accessing tweets via the API (which I'm aware Twitter itself doesn't do) and distributing tweets the opposite way, where it pulls my timeline from the relevant sources instead of pushing each update into the right timelines.

Heaven's forbid they have explained it THAT way instead of saying they took away the option because it confused people.

Re: Lessons from the changes in Twitter (Scripting News)

MarinaMartin — Wed, 13 May 2009 14:30:50 -0000

I'm a novice programmer, so maybe I'm really missing something, but could someone provide an example where the now-default "only see @ replies if you're following that person" would be *less* process-intensive than "see all messages sent by users I'm following"? Seems like you'd have to filter each and every tweet in the former situation, whereas the latter situation requires less work. I'm partially interested because I don't believe Twitter and partially interested because I'd like to expand my programming horizons.

Re: RSS is dead? My ass... (Scripting News)

MarinaMartin — Thu, 07 May 2009 00:50:42 -0000

It sort of scares me how often I've been agreeing with you lately ;)

RSS is not remotely dead; it's still in the process of being born. I'd say 98% of my efficiency consulting clients had never heard of RSS before I showed them; as an efficiency consultant, I see RSS as providing immense time savings at zero cost. Tools like smart lists in NetNewsWire, Yahoo Pipes, and even tweaking feed URLs in WordPress allow me to filter content to include/exclude exactly the material I'm interested in. RSS is just plain awesome.

I've setup an organizational schema for my RSS feeds such that I am free to add any and every feed that remotely interests me without it impacting my overall productivity; this means I've spent zero time just "browsing" the web in the past three years. (Sure, I go off on tangents to learn about things, but there's always a purpose. It's really been years since I just typed random terms into Google because I was bored or felt I was missing something.)

Re: What are your must-haves and staples?

MarinaMartin — Thu, 07 May 2009 00:37:15 -0000

I have the Fekkai glossing cream, and while I *want* to like it, the application process feels so awkward. I have to wash my hair, then let it soak for 3 minutes (standing there naked, dripping wet, and cold), and then quickly rinse and hop out of the shower. Haven't quite been able to work that into my routine.

I was once a Lancome whore, and very happily so, but ever since discovering Lush I just can't use anything else.

My staples:

Fresh Farmacy from Lush ... the best facial cleanser ever. I've been using it for more than a year now and my face still feels squeaky-clean after I use it. (Contrary to Lush's directions, I cut off a slice at a time, splash my face with water, then rub the piece over my face. This makes the whole bar last for-ever because you're not losing soap by lathering up your hands first. Each slice lasts about two weeks and I store it in a tiny airtight container.)

Clear Improvement mud mask by Origins - I've used this for at least five years, every Sunday, and no other mask compares. (Even Lush masks!) Goes on thick and gooey, feels nice and tight, washes off decently-easy in the shower.

Oil of Olay microdermabrasion kit - I genuinely look forward to this process three times a week. My skin feels ridiculously smooth and supple afterward, and it only takes 90 seconds.

(On Sundays I do Fresh Farmacy + microdermabrasion + Clear Improvement and it's just heaven for my face.)

Laura Mercier makes an amazing tinted moisturizer that's exactly the right amount of pigment and moisture. It makes me look dewy. Love it.

Last but not least, the best concealer ever: Effacernes under-eye concealer by Lancome. It says it's for under-eye circles, but you can use it anywhere. This has been my staple for at least eight years now.

Re: Feeling Overwhelmed? What’s The Best Twitter Desktop Application?

MarinaMartin — Thu, 07 May 2009 00:26:12 -0000

Nambu is the best so far -- it has support for groups, it shows unread count for each group (unlike Seesmic Desktop), and adding a person to a group is faster (fewer clicks, better search) w/ Nambu than with Seesmic Desktop.

However, Nambu crashes ALL the time. On Twitter yesterday I said using Nambu was liking having a boatload of pissed Somalian pirates between you and a tray of bacon truffles. I see exactly what I want, but I can't use it for more than an hour without freezing.

I'm still waiting for the ability to mute a user (still follow, but not get tweets -- mainly to mute *myself*); mute specific keywords; toggle how long I want to save messages (i.e. have a "favorites" group that pulled all their messages for me to read, vs. only seeing current messages); and put a note for why I'm following someone (CoTweet has this, but I have to click the name, then Note, to see the note. I want the note every time I see a tweet.)

I've started building my own app to take care of these things, but I'm a beginner programmer so it's slow going ;)

If you have an account that doesn't need groups, Tweetie is awesome. Clean interface, easy keyboard shortcuts, no memory leaks AFAIK. I use that + Sideline (for awesome/fast Twitter searches), plus Nambu for my two Twitter accounts that I need groups.