Disqus - Latest Comments for toddmck

Re: louisgray.com: Hey Bloggers, We're Discussing Your Posts At Social Median!

toddmck — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 02:54:56 -0000

They gave me George Clooney. Regretting the change ever since.

Re: Friends Outweighing Hatred On The Web

toddmck — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:14:52 -0000

Very well put. It has been pretty clear to me for a while now that you are a class act. This post is further proof.

Re: Identi.ca Apps & Why It Could Blow Twitter Away

http://shegeeks.net/identica-apps-why-it-could-blow-twitter-away/ — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 22:37:12 -0000

I think getting away from the Twitter name entirely is only a good thing. Playing on someone else's trademark makes your service seem like a derivative of theirs, which Laconi.ca/Identi.ca aren't.

Re: louisgray.com: TweetDeck: New Twitter AIR App With Summize Integration, Groups

toddmck — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 20:56:43 -0000

I really like getting something that's delightful in some way when it first turns on. For me, "Twitter Status: Pretty much ok" seems like a nice human touch and made me smile.

Re: Identi.ca Apps & Why It Could Blow Twitter Away

toddmck — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 19:42:00 -0000

On the verb, how about playing off the .ca domain AND the bird theme. Tweet -> Caw (you know, like the sound a crow makes)

Re: Sponsorships and Blogger Hypocrisy

toddmck — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 14:58:37 -0000

Steven, As I was reading your poll questions, I found that there wasn't one that exactly summarized my feelings. Something like "I think it's fine, but every time you write about the sponsor or their industry segment I have a new filter to think through" or something like that. In Scoble's case it works for me and I don't think too much about it. That's because he's not writing about Seagate every other post, or even the storage industry. For example, if FriendFeed sponsored Scoble's blog (or Twitter last year), I'd consider most of his writing questionable. Since he's not sponsored by FF, and Seagate has no obvious connection to them, I trust that it's all just pure Scoble enthusiasm. Bottom line for me, it complicates things, but it's not unworkable.

Re: louisgray.com: The Gray Family Doubles Overnight. Welcome Matthew and Sarah!

http://www.louisgray.com/live/2008/06/gray-family-doubles-overnight-welcome.html — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 12:57:31 -0000

Congrats Louis! From myself and everyone at ReadBurner :)

Didya get our package?

Re: louisgray.com: The Gray Family Doubles Overnight. Welcome Matthew and Sarah!

toddmck — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 12:53:46 -0000

That's terrific news - congratulations Louis!

Re: I really want my readers opinion on this

toddmck — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 03:41:15 -0000

I strongly agree with Daniel as well. I wonder if that would make for an interesting way to design a poll - along the lines of "agree", "strongly agree", etc. It could be that the (current) minority who prefer control feel somewhat passionate about it.

Re: The Adolescence of the Blogosphere

http://www.winextra.com/2008/04/12/the-adolescence-of-the-blogosphere/ — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 18:59:02 -0000

Ya this was one of the two features I was referring to (but funnily enough this one will be leading into another one as well - so I guess the count is still at two to come :) ).

It is nice to see that even on a limited basis - as I never expect much of what I write to gain any traction outside of a small circle - that some folks appreciated the thoughts. Even if Duncan Riley considered it more of time to "man the yawn buckets" - http://twitter.com/duncanriley/statuses/787708091 ....

I am glad the post resonated with you and even happier if it provided even one blogger such as yourself with a new way forward that is more gratifying. That in itself made the post worth writing.

Re: The Adolescence of the Blogosphere

toddmck — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 13:04:03 -0000

Steven, if that's one of the two feature posts you were wondering about "is it worth it?" then I can't wait to read the other one. This is a really good look at what's going on, but more importantly it points us forward. I also agree with the thesis that there's a significant "niche" to fill by people who think before they write something. This post really resonated with me and I'm glad you took the time to write it. Totally worth it :)

Re: Would you quit pickpocketing my wallet

toddmck — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 02:48:27 -0000

It's probably extra relevant in this market segment. Spyware and antivirus software requires great trust in the vendor. There are a lot of shady operators that will sell out that trust in schemes to turn a quick buck. So, it's a market mostly driven by fear, and one in which extreme credibility needs to be established. And, it's one of the few things that can reasonably require a subscription. A natural subscription model can be a gold mine. Take a close look at Intuit - the tax operations dwarf everything else. Not because it's more interesting or useful than quicken, but because it drives more revenue. Consistently, year after year.

All this just begs for rational pricing, and doing what's right for the customer. Especially from a player that doesn't have the instant credibility of CA or Symantec or Microsoft.

Re: LinkRiver Is My Personal Techmeme

http://shegeeks.net/linkriver-is-my-personal-techmeme/ — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 00:28:03 -0000

Definitely a straightforward service. Maybe you could email the developer
Adam Stiles and pitch it to him about adding services automatically through
just a username?

Re: LinkRiver Is My Personal Techmeme

toddmck — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 00:19:36 -0000

Yep, it came first thing this morning. I haven't had much time to check it out yet, just imported my Google Reader shared items and del.icio.us. Amazing how quickly expectations change. I had to hunt down the urls by hand and paste them in manually - felt pretty old school. The service, from what little I've played with it, is great though. Seems very straightforward.

Re: LinkRiver Is My Personal Techmeme

http://shegeeks.net/linkriver-is-my-personal-techmeme/ — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 00:04:41 -0000

Did you get your login?

Re: Did Anyone Miss Me?

toddmck — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 08:51:15 -0000

I meant to comment earlier, and just finally got back to it. I don't know if you've ever taken a look at timesnapper, but it's the first thing that came to mind when I read your post. I can't say I've never tried it - quite the opposite. It's kind of obscure, but I had a need for it some time back when I was trying to track billable hours. It just really impressed me as being a simple idea extremely well executed. Might be worth a look.

Re: LinkRiver Is My Personal Techmeme

toddmck — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 08:31:56 -0000

Thanks for pointing me to this - I'm now awaiting a login. Very helpful and informative post.

Re: FriendfeedWatch: Your One Stop FriendFeed Shop

toddmck — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 03:10:22 -0000

Yep, I'm sure I could pick a name out of there for general ridicule, but it wouldn't be polite for me to say. The badge is awesomesauce personified - great job!

Re: Your Stats Don’t Matter, But Your Conversations Do

toddmck — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 00:01:56 -0000

You're absolutely right. The conversation is where it's at - all the rest will sort itself out. It was kind of sad to hear what happened, but it's really cool how quickly the recovery went. Switching the feedburner source was terrific. I just got a big flurry of posts, and there you are, back in the game. Thanks for linking, by the way - you rock!

Re: Blogs and the “phone-in show” effect

http://www.mathewingram.com/work/2008/04/01/blogs-and-the-phone-in-show-effect/ — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 17:33:10 -0000

Thanks, Todd -- that gave me a laugh :-)

On Tue, Apr 1, 2008 at 1:29 PM, Disqus

Re: Blogs and the “phone-in show” effect

toddmck — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 17:28:10 -0000

YOU ARE SO WRONG!

No, seriously - interesing post. Thanks for the break from all the self-appointed comedians.

Re: Why SheGeeks Is So Awesomesauce

http://shegeeks.net/why-shegeeks-is-so-awesomesauce/ — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 09:17:58 -0000

Thanks to you I'm going to make one tomorrow in Photoshop. I'll keep you posted on it!

Re: Having the Last Word & the 20 Second Attention Span

http://seeknock.blogs.com/seek/2008/03/having-the-last.html — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 02:19:07 -0000

Do we chime in just to feel connected? We surf along, dip our toes in here and there. Then when we feel ready we join and discover connectedness. Does the reverse happen when nobody chimes back? Do we feel disconnected? On an island alone by ourself? Lost? (woops, shouldn't have watched that last Lost post tonigt ;)

Re: Having the Last Word & the 20 Second Attention Span

http://seeknock.blogs.com/seek/2008/03/having-the-last.html — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 01:59:02 -0000

Disqus does seem like an important addittion to the community. I particularly like the ability that disqus gives to respond by email. My post only really addressed friendfeed but the same also happens elsewhere. I'm not ready to let go of a topic at a specific place and time when everyone else has already moved on.

Re: Why do customer satisfaction surveys ask such stupid questions

toddmck — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 19:50:34 -0000

Having lived inside a "metrics driven" organization for a while, I've kind of got a universal translator for these things. The survey your pointing out is all directed at the customer care person, and each of the items is a number that rolls into their performance review. Where it really gets fun is when the survey is cross-organization.

I read these as:
Ding person who created website - 3
Kudos guy I talked to on helpdesk - 9
Ding person who created survey -2
Ding CEO (if possible) - 1
Kudos people who keep infrastructure up - 8

Of course, in this case it's simply "thumbs up, thumbs down" on the person you talked to - all 10s, all 3s, whatever. Unless you have a specific gripe. Those form statistical anomalies. That's gold as far as management is concerned. It will be discussed in performance appraisal, if there are enough of the same.

All in all, though, you're right about the questions. Plain english beats manager speak any day.

toddmck missed point of my post and went off on tangent - 2
toddmck was generally pleasant and tried to add to conversation - 8
toddmck explained stuff I already knew - 1