Disqus - Latest Comments for colin

Re: AdaptiveBlue

colin — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 20:46:30 -0000

Great post. I came across Adaptive last night, and installed it. Very rich set of services, and this will be a winner. Incidentally, this is the most lucid description of the practical application of the Semantic Web that I have seen to date.

Re: AdaptiveBlue

colin — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 20:46:30 -0000

Re: The greater sum

colin — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 01:11:38 -0000

hmmm ... where do we begin. First off, the notion of devices and web is not that radical. Last time I checked it was based on internet access and common standards, but I won't go down that rat hole.

At a simpler level, it means being able to see your email, docs, contacts feeds, social networks simply from device of choice, which is usually laptop and phone.

So the determinants some down to laptop and phone OS, and that takes us back to standards, which is where we are not going here.

The obvious example I would pick to add to your list is gmail, google reader, and a decent phone browser for SN's offer a fabulous integration and always in sync. This combo works superbly on windows, linux, Mac, blackberry or iphone.

Re: Clouds gathering

colin — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 00:23:51 -0000

Nice perspective. I listened to a talk on Azure the other week (below) and as well as the proprietariness of it, was also surprised a little that it was not further along. Why do I still sense a disparity between the Ozzie vision and the implementations. Keep the faith! <a href="http://itmanagementfeb09event-rest.eventbrite.com..." target="_blank">http://itmanagementfeb09event-rest.eventbrite.com...

Re: Business pr0n

colin — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 00:47:05 -0000

I only subscribe to Financial Times and Economist. Enough in there to provide context & analysis of the world news. Both have excellent premium online services. Everything else is just news reporting and available everywhere.

Re: Evaluating technology

colin — Wed, 16 May 2007 13:51:12 -0000

@Greg & Michele .. I would suggest that in todays culture, the concepts that Maslow intended when he spoke of physiological, and safety are so foreign to us that we may have forgotten. The valid issues you raise including security, prosperity, and choice, in the way you might mean, are all in the self-actualisation part of the pyramid, so its quite rational to re-prioritise there.

The decision to take a risky job vs a secure job is not a 'will I have a roof over my head decision'.

Re: Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

colin — Sun, 20 May 2007 05:47:24 -0000

David .Congrats to you and the others from Toronto joining Microsoft. This provides hope for that company.

I think Mohammad Akif's comment above sums it up well. There are only a few ways to manage technology, and its healthy for advocates from one of them joining another. This cross pollination can only be healthy.

With regard to the patent issue, I agree its shocking, and frankly contradictory when we consider where Microsoft found the ideas for their original graphical interface. But business is business and law (patent) is law. Stupid, but law. The law needs to be changed.

I have no Microsoft products on my laptop, but the reason is not philosophical. The reason is stability, security, and simplicity. If Microsoft developed a better product, I would use that. I want the best, not the 'free-est'. I happen to believe open source makes better products, and that ought to be the focus, rather than worrying about the good vs evil war.

But more importantly on the philosophical side, if there are changes required and expected from Microsoft, whats the point of whining about it & better to get inside and help to change it.

I don't think that open source advocates need to be personal and visceral in their attacks, suggesting character flaws; I think those commenters need to look in the mirror, or run for political office, where we expect such behaviour. Personal attacks are not very 'open-source'.

Re: Toronto SharePoint Camp – Oct 20, 2007

colin — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 09:47:25 -0000

Davis. slightly off topic . great show today at Second City. I have been to many MS events, but this one was different .. it all takes time.

I think in a small way your show was better than .
<a href="http://tinyurl.com/3chf7b

" target="_blank"><a href="http://tinyurl.com/3chf7b

" target="_blank">http://tinyurl.com/3chf7b

Re: StartupEmpire is the new black

colin — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 20:45:57 -0000

Go knuckleheads :-) Better this than inaction. This is the real web 2.0

Re: Improving the mobile browser

colin — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 20:45:35 -0000

You raise a great point here David, and highlight one of my bugbears. The mobile experience is currently a set of disparate applications, with not enough integration across to laptop world. Mobile is also not fast enough, even on 3G so it often needs work locally on the device to accommodate.

I admit to being a google fan. I was searching around earlier this week, and located an updated m.google.com. Their new app offers up a phone/ blackberry based search app with google suggest built in, and simple links to gmail app, google maps etc.

Its not perfect, but a good start. We need a holistic view of how we interact with internet and one that can be accessed from any device.

PS... no idea when you redesigned btw but nice. Must get out of google reader periodically :-)

Re: Ten New Gurus

colin — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 18:32:57 -0000

Thanks for this summary David. I added to my 'future' label in Reader.

Re: Net Neutrality

colin — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 10:07:59 -0000

In fairness to the telco’s they paid for the pipes that the internet runs on. They did that expecting to charge for services. If we push this argument too far, the government would take over internet; is that better? What if its the French Government – we all have to learn French, and praise Chirac.

This descirbes well the work and the people behind internet infrastructure.

<a href="http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.12/ffglass.html

" target="_blank"><a href="http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.12/ffglass.html

" target="_blank">http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.12/ffglass.html

I would suggest its less Road Neutrality, than it is language neutrality. Consider … no-one tells David Crow what language he should rant in, any more than I may rant in Scottish if it makes me feel better.

I am ok with the telco’s charging for access, and the the market dynamics should determine that price, more than government regulation. But they cannot tell me what I should look at or how I should use internet.

To me thats what net-neutrality should be … freedom to access/ use/ anything I want, just as industrial age people were permitted to converse in any way they saw fit, whether it be hand signals, bearing gifts, or words.

Re: Net Neutrality

colin — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 07:56:54 -0000

Absolutely .. they should not be able to limit what we see/ access/ use online.

Re: Unacceptable, nea, criminal behaviour

colin — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 14:22:19 -0000

Its truly unbelievable, and wrong. I think at a minimum, we can support Kathy, and exorcise those involved, who still to my knowledge have not responded or apologised.

Re: Blogging's Dead, Long Live Blogging

colin — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 13:10:37 -0000

Fear not Fred ... you are the new A List.
I see the Calcanis thing as a joke. Certainly some blogs have moved into something that looks like something in media with multiple authors, and while interesting they are just not blogs, as I define them narrowly, being one persons view, take it or leave it.
So the new A list are the blogs that have their own niche, loyal readers, and commenters. I posted more on this earlier in the week.
http://tinyurl.com/6ck2dt

Re: » Idée Tineye in limited beta - We have invitations | StartupNorth

colin — Tue, 06 May 2008 00:33:13 -0000

I am in .., thanks

Re: Desktop Uploader 1.1.0

colin — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 20:17:07 -0000

Great news ... still looking forward to the Linux version ;-)

Re: Overnight success takes a long time

colin — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 00:48:32 -0000

This is a timely post for me. I am probably in the early adopter category - used twitter in Apr 2007. I watched FF at launch and left, came back, left etc. interestingly my initial reaction to gmail was similar. Took me till late 2004 before I "got it". Today I am devoted to Apps Premium, Docs etc, on web and mobile, and cannot imagine what would make me shift.

Bottom line - i totally agree that it takes time to be an overnight success so stick at it.

PS ... I moved to FF full time over the holidays, and interestingly it was Tweetdeck that did it for me. When I realised I could use lists and rooms in FF to manage my streams of data on my terms, I finally "got" Friendfeed.

Re: Yahoo’s Ymail: Don’t really get it

colin — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 02:22:16 -0000

Indeed ... yahoo mail and hotmail are so convoluted to use compared to gmail its not even funny. Rather than create a new domain, why not rebuild the service and make it usable.

Re: Personal note: A job change for yours truly

colin — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 22:37:29 -0000

Congrats on this Matthew. No easy task you have taken on, and it will require challenging the establishment in many ways no doubt, so you will be the right guy. Good luck.

Re: Twitter: We Need Search By Authority

colin — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 03:25:37 -0000

The use of the word "authority" by people here when speaking of followers is flawed. Authority suggests that someone has some intelligent perspective. Following in twitter or friendfeed is at best a misunderstood and at worst an unknown behaviour. Fair enough to sneak these features in, but lets not kid ourselves about what it means. Social tools remain the least understood tools and adding features is great but lets not misrepresent.

Re: Banking Executives - Stop being stupid about technology.

colin — Sat, 03 May 2008 14:18:53 -0000

I think there remains one overarching problem ... banks/ CU's do not understand the strategic role of technology in their business. This might be caused by being in denial that technology is the business, but whatever the reason, this acknowledgment is essential in my mind.

Banks/ CU's tend to be run by a combination of marketing & product. Both think in terms of product and service design based on fees, interest rates, terms and conditions etc. Once technology is a core component of the design process, then new elements such as UI design, screen flows, product explainability, become essential elements of the design. One of the first questions oiught to be "Will the product work in a self service web site, or mobile phone browser?". This question has to be answered by a technologist.

Just my take ....

PS .. nice redesign

Re: I’m gonna be a daddy - again!

colin — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:51:50 -0000

Congrats Brad and family ..... you will be a busy guy!
Colin

Re: Is Personal Branding < Company Branding?

colin — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 20:22:49 -0000

@Brad @CUWarrior ... I too fell into this for same reason as Matt. Now that I am independent of a Bank, I actually don't mind the outcome as it associates me with my blog, and my topic. I have other blogs, and it would be confusing if they were all me.

However it is only me, and even though its in effect a pen name, it kind of says something about what I do. Blogs have to be personal, and owned. However mine is not about my personal life, so I am ok to continue the pen name just to make that differentiation.

On the other hand a CU has many employees. They can't all be CUdejour, so an email from the CU is by definition impersonal. But we all hate those direct mails signed with a stamp from the EVP Personal Banking etc. Those are obviously fake.

At the end of the day the email needs to be clearly written by a person, and having the CU name in the SMTP header is probably ok on that condition. The exception is if the audience is the portfolio of the writer, and for sure that must be a personal email address.

Re: The social Web as financial regulatory framework

colin — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 02:28:51 -0000

you do raise an interesting point here. Something I have learned, at much cost, is that the regulators do not offer protection to consumers. What they do is institute approvals of processes. By that I mean they will agree that Company A has the appropriate processes in place to satisfy them that consumers will be adequately protected.

There might be an opportunity to incorporate p2p as part of the process to satisfy regulators that consumers can be better protected if p2p is part of the process.

Re: Idée Tineye in limited beta - We have invitations

colin — Tue, 06 May 2008 00:33:13 -0000

I am in .., thanks

Re: StartupEmpire - One more iteration: 1 day, $65, same great opportunity

colin — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 22:29:35 -0000

Nice move. This is excellent value considering the scope of the speakers.

Re: Geeky Frustrations

colin — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 21:39:54 -0000

H Stephanie ...
A couple of thoughts:
1) Google Reader - "share" will send that post to a Stephanie Reader Link blog. That should take care of the last item
2) Re del.icio.us / Google Reader integration - hear hear!

Re: Blogging 4 Business Afternoon Keynote: Michael Steckler

colin — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 11:23:46 -0000

Seems like a fair bit of old style thinking at this conference .. must be killing you Steph!

Re: We’re looking for beta testers!

colin — Sat, 26 May 2007 13:13:48 -0000

Enjoyed your talk, and looking forward to the beta. If you need testers, let me know.

Re: Raising a stink doesn’t bring the traffic

colin — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 23:43:53 -0000

Hah ... I wish I had your problem, with 10 - 20 * views! Relax Robert and enjoy the ride. See you in Geneva!

Colin

Re: Why you SHOULD be livid at me

colin — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 00:29:27 -0000

Robert .. seriously, you have it together. Don't listen to the naysayers. Remember .... blogs are personal.. they are about you. End of story.

Colin

Re: I didn’t know about Tech Crunch’s new conference until today…

colin — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 23:01:57 -0000

Seriously Robert ... I don't know how you put up with all this stuff - my though | ignore it.

All I can add is that we appreciate our blog for your (Roberts) opinions. The soap opera stuff (well said Tris) is for the rest.

Re: Off to Germany and Switzerland

colin — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 20:24:08 -0000

See you at LIFT Robert. We get there Tuesday. Looking forward to meeting you in person!

Colin

Re: Another definition of “Second Life”

colin — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 21:13:39 -0000

Robert ... your comments are dead on. From the Wednesday workshops through to the final day, the conference was a brilliant exercise in pushing minds to think about things, and perhaps think differently. It was fantastic to have no vendor booths outside ... just crazy art things, that only marketers could dream up.

Re: Microsoft hires another interesting person

colin — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 00:57:13 -0000

RE: The silence from Ray lately is getting deafening

Since the disruption "Memo" and release of one microformat - zilch! And I am (was) a MS fan. There is so much capacity and capability there. Right now, I have to bet against Ray.

Re: Second Life has my credit card and won’t let go

colin — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 01:51:27 -0000

This is a classic real life example of the need for VRM as outline by Doc. Credit Cards are 100% aligned to support vendors, and the Banks who issue the cards (I am a Banker btw) do nothing to improve this scenario. Re Dallas suggestion above, I will be surprised if that works. The concept of 'stop payment' is foreign to credit cards.

Re: Google Reader taking the day off?

colin — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 21:22:59 -0000

I use the share feature extensively ... I haven't encountered that problem, but get the occasional 'oops'.
I am not a coder, but is it possible that all the AJAX tools clog up the browser periodically? I get that sense sometimes. I am always on gmail, and Reader.

Re: Jon Udell’s value to Microsoft

colin — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 21:47:48 -0000

RE: "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."

Having just left corporate life (following a few more years than you) I can relate :-)
Yes, the way things are seen is totally different, and one doesn't see that until you are out. In the case of MS its Word etc, in my case Banks, its a certain approach to projects, and software which bears no resemblance to the outside world.

Re: Mike Arrington to interview Ray Ozzie at Mix

colin — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 23:00:08 -0000

Get that interview! I am so curious whats on his mind.

Re: It’s an Amazon day

colin — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 23:56:50 -0000

I totally agree. All the smart developments are levering S3 for storage - its cheaper and simpler. for my own personal use, JungleDisk and S3 back up 'my documents' every night. Its smart enough to recognise incremental change, and only takes a few minutes. My monthly bill is like this - Thats $1.28 for Feb to date, for 5.7 Gigs:

Amazon Simple Storage Service Feb to date $0.20 per GB of data transferred 1.023 GB 0.21 $0.15 per GB-Month of storage 5.688 GB-Mo
0.86 1.07

Re: All for four notes in Windows Vista

colin — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 02:20:30 -0000

Thanks for this Robert. I lived and enjoyed through the whole King Crimson thing in the late 60's, early 70's. This is a pleasure!!!

Re: The hype about that micro blogging service

colin — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 20:00:30 -0000

Clearly Maryam is the brains in the Scoble family :-)

Re: Onward!

colin — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 22:24:10 -0000

Sorry... busy day and late to this ....

Maybe I am just old and cranky, but I do not like the idea of laying down quietly, on the basis that bad people might choose to attack otherwise.

One of the great things about the net, since about 2003, is the resurgence of positive thinking, including blogging. Thats not a PollyAnna point - there is a renewed business vigour that is creating new and genuine value, and its predicated on real people working together and that means, self policing the bad people. Thats not the same as censorship, and I believe we all need to get over that hurdle.

Anyhow, welcome back Robert!!

Re: I finally get “semantic” Web

colin — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 15:39:33 -0000

Thanks Robert ... we more people to describe with examples, not XML / geek talk.

Re: Google Reader losing feeds?

colin — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 20:56:02 -0000

Temporary glitch around 4:30pm EST. Lost all feeds, but I saw all my old folders that I had deleted when i changed my feeds around 3 / 6 months ago. I took a deep breath and figured they were doing some work, and within 5 mins or so, everyting came back correctly. Now, at 9pm EST, everything is fine, and fast. I have confidence in Google.

Re: Oh, danah!

colin — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 22:34:01 -0000

This is not an academic study ... why? Because there is no data... at least not enough data to make conclusions. for example ... Facebook was launched as a school friends network. MySpace was for everyone. Are we comfortable about the demographic results? Of course we are........ they are precisely as we would have exected.

Re: Is 2008 finally going to be “year of Linux on the desktop?”

colin — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 17:31:35 -0000

I installed Xubuntu 2 months ago, and am very happy about capability, stability, and speed. Its not unusual to run for over a week with no performance hit. OpenOffce launches literally instantly - zero delay.

Downside: lack of support for itunes is about the only gap I have seen.

PS ... the trigger for me to switch - After 12 years of Windows, I cannot imagine installing Vista. And I have a core duo fast Thinkpad X60s.

Re: Facebook: the new data black hole

colin — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 21:14:55 -0000

This is interesting. Wondered something similar when i hooked up WP this morning. I wonder if we have to think about horizontal social networks, such as FB as aggregators, and vertical networks such as WP, or Lending Club, as capabilities that folks will pull into their horizontal networks. I'll stop there before my brain explodes.

Re: Things on my mind…

colin — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 14:23:47 -0000

Robert ... what sets you apart is your willingness to to address issues head on, so you will get some people come back at you. However you at least address issues. The people and one in particular '/' who choose to use personal attacks which add zero value to the discussion, merely remind me why I long ago unsubscribed. Take care, enjoy, reflect and come back soon.

Re: What I learned

colin — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 23:27:30 -0000

Its physically impossible to be wrong about predictions. Ask any economist. I think the only learning is to ignore personal attacks, or emotionally charged 'rebuttals'.

Re: Why doesn’t Microsoft get the love?

colin — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 22:51:31 -0000

Like you, but for different reasons, I love(d) Microsoft ... in the 90's. What has changed though is how to hold on to customers.

- old way: create enough friction, that makes it too expensive and hard to leave
- new way: make really good products

The old way works until someone comes along with something better and easier. Meanwhile, the rest of the world is moving to open, common standards.

Forget Bungle ... if MS were to scrap IE and adopt Firefox, that would renew the company and centre it around a common view of the technology future.

I think Bungle is precisely what MS ought not to do.

Re: Adobe joins rest of industry in going for Microsoft’s throat

colin — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 01:01:24 -0000

Wow... I agree this is huge. The opportunity here to go beyond the way we think today about office apps is huge. I know MS is counting on Office and Sharepoint to maintain their share of market with corps, but friction is not a good way to maintain loyalty. Something bigger is happening here.

Re: It’s your business

colin — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 22:19:26 -0000

Brilliant post Robert. You live your life in the open, and lead in terms of internet lifestyle. Best of luck, and keep being you!

Colin

Re: Cuil: Why I’m trying to get off of the PR bandwagon…

colin — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 01:35:09 -0000

welcome back Robert!

Re: Scoble Sucks

colin — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 02:46:58 -0000

Far out Robert! Don't stop!!
Start ups are accountable to be effective and produce results.

Re: Anti-depression thinking: what do we do?

colin — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 18:56:08 -0000

At a more basic level, I suggest we return to basic investment approach that has been lost by many, too young to know the difference - no disrespect intended. In the 50's and 60's rule #1 was to maintain balance bewteen equities and safer investments if you are concerned about risk. Consider cash and government bonds (widows and orphans was the category).

Stock market investment is not safe. Repeat after me ... not safe. its also a long haul investment, not a short term one.

Re: Twitter (and all social networks) will never be the same thanks to PeopleBrowsr

colin — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 21:43:50 -0000

Its nice - but not enough to get me of Air based Tweetdeck which is more robust. Either way I agree this type of app changes everything and allows more personal effectivity.

Re: Is Silicon Valley seeing an economic turnaround?

colin — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 21:19:18 -0000

I think we will see the upturn first in startups/ tech sector but its too early ... lots of worse news to absorb over next 6 months first.

Re: Why I haven’t posted for two weeks

colin — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 22:00:28 -0000

Robert ... best wishes in whatever comes next. Keep smiling!

Re: I Want Your RSS Feed!

colin — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 23:26:06 -0000

Admirable idea - good luck - I am in the Bank space, and I subscribe to your feed. No problem if its not on topic for you.

http://thebankwatch.com/feed/

Re: I Canceled My Basecamp Account Today

colin — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 15:56:57 -0000

I agree on the tone of their blog becoming too 'know it all' and losing that yearning to get it all right. I also felt that in the introduction of Highrise which was too hyped, and over-rated now that we have seen it. I still have my Basecamp account, but am watching carefully.

Re: WCUL 007 Part Deux

colin — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 02:39:44 -0000

Great to hear it went well. I was sad to miss the session, and the discussions.

Re: Happy Birthday to Wesabe!

colin — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:05:42 -0000

Congrats! Considering what you have accomplished, I was surprised it has only been a year.

Re: Windows—Make room for Linux!

colin — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 06:09:37 -0000

Great post Carey. Normally I would be looking to upgrade after the usual 6 months, but I see no advantage, and tons of disadvantages. I already run Firefox, and OpenOffice so software is no issue for people like me. But what people like me need is a simple graphical Linux that I can run on my laptop, and not have to learn command line stuff, except for exceptions. The operating system needs to be relatively transparent, and background.

Re: AdaptiveBlue

colin — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 20:46:30 -0000