Archive for September 2005

Seth Godin, editor of the book, has collected 33 inspiring ideas and they become The Big Moo. The Group of 33, as the book references these successful business people, includes Mark Cuban, Dave Balter, Malcolm Gladwell, Tom Peters, and Guy Kawasaki. The aim of the stories or ideas is to show what it takes to become remarkable.

The book’s title comes from Godin’s previous best seller, Purple Cow which shows how to stand out in a world of brown cows. According to the book’s synopsis, “… sometimes you need something even bigger than a purple cow. You need a big moo — an insight so astounding that people can’t help but remark on it.”

While Purple Cow focuses on standing out, it lacks the second and very important step — getting others to talk about your business. Standing out alone doesn’t lead to business. How do people find out about you? That’s what The Big Moo is about — sharing ideas and real-life examples of how to get people talking.

“Some Things Just Don’t Translate” points that the way we see our products may not be the way customers see them. Sounds obvious, but it isn’t. An Italian in the house ware business opened a store in the U.S. His foot traffic wasn’t match by sales. He observed his customers and remained baffled as to why they were looking and taking an interest, but not buying.

He asked a customer how she liked the store and merchandise. It turned out that what Americans considered vases, Italians saw as glasses — and vice versa. The owner, of course, was selling glasses of six in a case and vases as singles. Americans didn’t want to buy six vases — they could’ve bought six glasses with ease, though. This type of valuable advice appears throughout the book.

Most essays clearly get the point across although a couple aren’t as strong. The book does what it sets out to do: motivate the reader to get out there to put ideas to work to develop a remarkable organization that gets everyone buzzing.

Though the book explains the contributors gave up their by-lines for the book, I would’ve liked to know who wrote each story. There’s no way to guess who wrote which story as few of them relate to the businesses associated with the people. What does knowing who wrote it do for me? It tells me who made the observation or how the person thinks. It’s like sharing a quote without the author’s name.

It’s an easy, gratifying, and fast read. I read the whole thing in about an hour. Each essay is about two pages on the average. All the proceeds from the book go to three charities.

Title: The Big Moo
Author: group of 33, Seth Godin
Publisher: Portfolio Hardcover
ISBN: 1591841038
Date: October 2005
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 208
Cover Price: USD: $19.95 Amazon: $13.57

This is the first Firefox book I’ve read, so it won’t have a comparison to any of the others — as a few books hit the market soon after Firefox started nipping at Internet Explorer’s market share of the browser market.

Chapter 1 kicks off the book with an introduction explaining why Firefox is a first-rate browser and how to install its Windows, Mac, and Linux releases. “Essential Browsing Features,” the next chapter, reviews tabbed browsing, searching, downloading, and other features.

I’ve used Firefox prior to the v1.0 release and I’ve picked up a few tricks in this chapter. The tips go beyond entering keywords into the search box or changing search engines. However, I found an error — the book says to left-click on a selected word on any Web page and run a search on the selected word — It’s right-click, not left.

“Revisiting Web Pages” dives into bookmarks and how to get the most out of your bookmark file. The tricks explain how to quickly find a Web page that is hidden in your bookmarks somewhere, and you don’t have a clue what it is called and the keywords aren’t giving you what you want. Also covered are RSS feeds, Live Bookmarks, and memory tools such as using history, managing cookies, using the password manager, and clearing tracks.

Many people love Firefox because it’s customizable. One way to make it your own is by changing the theme (look and feel). “Dressing up Firefox” explains how to find and change themes.

Another way to get what you want out of Firefox is through extensions, covered in chapter 5′s “Personalizing Firefox.” Yeow shows multiple ways of installing extensions and using the extension manager. The chapter works through the extensions the author recommends (he provides a good selection) and how they work.

Intermediate Firefox users most likely want to jump ahead to chapter 6, “Tips, Tricks, and Hacks” and maybe chapter 7, which is for Web developers. Chapter 6 looks at about:config and how to modify preferences through its interface. Then Yeow shows where to find the user’s profile, and covers what files are included in the profile and what they do. Find great tips on how to mark unread tabs, shift the sidebar to the right, and disabling annoying 1996 Web site features like blink and scrolling marquee.

“Web Development Nirvana” highlights the tools that come with Firefox for developers and which extensions make development easier including LiveHTTHeaders, Web Developer Toolbar, and Greasemonkey. The book closes out with troubleshooting and information about browser’s nightly builds.

The book only has minor shortcomings. The tips and warning sidebars text is smaller than the rest of the book’s contents. It might be difficult for some people to read.

While it’s nice that a bonus CD came with it, it’s outdated (v1.0.3 and current is 1.0.6. It also has Thunderbird 1.0.3 and the current is 1.5 Beta 1.). At least, it doesn’t increase the book cost and gives newer users an easier start as they don’t have to worry about downloading files.

It’s a well-rounded book written in a friendly and easy going style that should get new users up-to-speed and provide experienced users with tips to maximize the Firefox browsing experience. The book helps you discover this mighty browser outside of what comes in the box or download. The companion Web site has sample chapters available.

Title: Firefox Secrets
Author: Cheah Chu Yeow
Publisher: Sitepoint
ISBN: 0975240242
Date: June 2005
Format: Paperback
Pages: 292
Cover Price: USD: $29.95 Amazon: $19.77

Recent events, such as Hurricane Katrina and the tsunami, are strong motivators that businesses need to be on the ball by having backup plans in place. It’s tempting to think that such disasters will never happen to your company because you’re located on some land-locked oasis in the middle of nowhere, but not all disasters are caused by Mother Nature and tornadoes tend to go for land not water. Earthquakes can poke a chip out of a computer.

Creating a crisis management plan may sound time-consuming, especially if your shop is already overloaded. But how much time and money will it take if you don’t have one in place? New Orleans never thought it would be in the situation it is in today (sending thoughts and prayers to the residents of the city).

Over at InformIT’s Web Design Guide, I’ve posted tips on how to create a crisis management plan for Web sites, which also includes a list of sites that offer cheap, online storage for easy and cost-effective data back-ups.

In case you missed it, here’s a past meryl.net article on crisis management from a public relations and marketing perspective.

What’s the difference between meryl’s notes and meryl.net articles? I put keepers and longer entries (qualified as articles or essays) there for easier finding. They may have been posted in these notes and are copied over there since the notes have over one thousand entries.

In celebration of the launch of the new site, Astraware has a Play Anywhere Competition. The finalists are posted. Go for the loo (hint, hint). Pwetty pwease?

Ouch. Micosoft is at it again. In Business Week, Steve Ballmer is quoted. “We won the desktop. We won the server. We will win the Web. We will move fast, we will get there. We will win the Web,” he says.

Molly, representing Web Standards Project, responds perfectly. She writes,”No Mr. Ballmer, Microsoft will not win the Web for one very good reason: We the people will make sure you never do.”

My concern is not with Microsoft as a company, but with its attempt to dominate once again. Little innovation occurs when a business dominates and since Firefox lit a fire proving that IE doesn’t remain the most used browser just because it’s there and loaded on all machines. People have learned there are other and better choices when it comes to browsers and Web-based applications.

I’m mad now.

Gap Inc. closed down its family of Web sites so it could load the new designs that are supposed to make it easier to use the site and to find things with fewer clicks. gap.com has a tour of its new features. I shopped around the site and almost immediately I found a broken image link. I like that it covers current trends and helps you figure out what clothes are appropos for work, going out, and current trends. It’s much improved.

Old Navy also got a redesign as it’s a member of the Gap family. However, I don’t see an improvement in finding the gift card information. Those of you who have shopped online at Gap, Old Navy, and Banana Republic in the past, what are your thoughts on the redesign?

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Back to your scheduled programming…

Did you hear that? That was feminism acting out as it takes a step backward with Tom’s Hardware Guide Columns: Why Women Aren’t Gamers – Yet – Hands Up Who really Wants Women In Videogaming? Yeah, he’s got some, eh? But really, I understand his point and he is right about everything he said regarding Grand Theft Auto.

I played a lot of games growing up and even after college. I didn’t slow down until I had a kid. Same goes for Paul. My priorities changed. I still love a good game, but I don’t have time for it and I can’t make time for it because I have to do that for other things. [ Read more... ]

Did you hear that? That was feminism acting out as it takes a step backward with Tom’s Hardware Guide Columns: Why Women Aren’t Gamers – Yet – Hands Up Who really Wants Women In Videogaming? Yeah, he’s got some, eh? But really, I understand his point and he is right about everything he said regarding Grand Theft Auto.

I played a lot of games growing up and even after college. I didn’t slow down until I had a kid. Same goes for Paul. My priorities changed. I still love a good game, but I don’t have time for it and I can’t make time for it because I have to do that for other things.

My older son is into Pokemon for the Game Boy. He has lost one of the game cartridges at the after school program during the first week of school. I’m glad he did. He played it way too much over the summer and I was wondering how I was going to wean him with school back in session. That was resolved with his losing the game. What about the other games he has? This one was different because he beat everyone. Yes, my son, the competitive feller. My son who gets a defeatist attitude when making the slightest mistake. I pointed out a minor writing mistake so he could do it right next time. He reacted as if he lost a ball game.

His sister got him into Neopets and she also installed AOL instant messenger (AIM) on his computer. I can live with these. Why? With AIM, you have to read and type. He’s in first grade, so yay literacy. And Neopets? It also involves reading and typing.

Outside? Yes, he still goes outside to play. The problem is that no one else comes out. Considering I loved play games myself, I don’t knock my kids playing. It’s about balancing. Eating a balanced diet. Living a balanced life. I played a lot of sports, so that gave me the exercises I needed.

This started out about women and gaming and ended up being about kids and games. Our lives and priorities change. If I was single, my time would be spent differently (obvious point, I know) — but not all of it. I’d still work. I’d still make time for reading, exercising, and volunteering. Instead of being a wife and mom — I might be a gamer, traveler, and playing volleyball on an adult team.

Off track here again. I don’t like many of the “hot” games out there. If I had time, I’d play Super Mario Sunshine, Animal Crossing, Harvest Moon, Sonic Hedgehog, and The Sims — yes, The Sims! I do play games (mostly puzzles from Astraware) on my Palm Tungsten T3 when I get stuck somewhere like the doctor’s office.

But, no, I never played games like Yu-Gi-Oh, Grand Theft Auto, Turok, Metroid Prime, Resident Evil, or any of the typical games you see covered on Lunabean. I did play Castle Wolfenstein way back on my old Apple ][+ or was it //e by then?

Who cares which gender likes which games. If you have a crew playing games together — then it should be about enjoying the game not about women lashing out at a game’s disgusting antics. There is another time and place to do that. If I like to play Grand Theft, then by golly what’s wrong with joining the group of guys to play the game?

Geekwoman wrote an article in response to Aaron’s original. She covered the kinds of things I would address if I played these games. She writes, “There are plenty of women gamers who are just as dedicated to the same games as guys. And some of us are even as well endowed with flat stomachs, too, just like some of the avatars that we use to represent us in our games. A figure like that takes lots of blood, sweat and tears to maintain.

“Some of us frag harder with words than with weapons. That’s where I come in, and why this article was conceived.

“I grew up in an era where women strived for the freedom to be sexual. Women fought for the right to work in the sex industry and obtain biological freedoms such as birth control and safe abortions. I would hate to see all the accomplishments of women’s liberation lost to future generations of women due to the current puritanical fads and censorship.”

Having been in process management in a software organization for over ten years, I’ve seen too many articles and books on the topic that worked better than Valium for putting me to sleep especially since they have no side effects. Joel Spolsky is known as one of the best (if not the best) writers on the topic of software. However, in this book he stands aside and lets others demonstrate that he isn’t the only one who can write about software in English and captivate you.

Joel on Software (his Web site slash blog) fans won’t be disappointed in the selection of authors as they deal with the concepts he writes about on his site. Some readers may be expecting a book solely on software development. Even Joel goes beyond this. Some folks might be disappointed that most of the articles, blog entries, speeches, and essays are available somewhere on the Web. I only recognize a few of the authors and their articles, so I would’ve never known about the others had I not found this book. [ Read the book review... ]

Having been in process management in a software organization for over ten years, I’ve seen too many articles and books on the topic that worked better than Valium for putting me to sleep especially since they have no side effects. Joel Spolsky is known as one of the best (if not the best) writers on the topic of software. However, in this book he stands aside and lets others demonstrate that he isn’t the only one who can write about software in English and captivate you.

Joel on Software (his Web site slash blog) fans won’t be disappointed in the selection of authors as they deal with the concepts he writes about on his site. Some readers may be expecting a book solely on software development. Even Joel goes beyond this. Some folks might be disappointed that most of the articles, blog entries, speeches, and essays are available somewhere on the Web. I only recognize a few of the authors and their articles, so I would’ve never known about the others had I not found this book.

The essays cover a gamut of development-related topics. They include coding style, outsourcing programmers, dealing with Excel as a database, using social software (Friendster, LinkedIn, Tribe, and all that) and the things that are right and wrong withthese shared spaces, emerging digital rights, and defining the two-phase commit process a la Starbucks. Even a couple of them are nothing but comics. The one on Windows search knocks its readers out of their chairs laughing, at least it did for me.

The book also contains business-related essays that address a few problems affecting many companies — namely team compensation and forced overtime which often spills over the weekend. Joel introduces every essay and includes notes clarifying abbreviations, names, or terms that aren’t widely known. After all, the world of software is vast and it’s impossible to know everything about it.

The manager benefits from the book because she gains insight into the developer’s perspective which could help her become a better leader. The developer benefits because many of the issues covered can impact him no matter what language he uses for development. If you belong to neither management nor development, the best way to decide if the book is for you or not is to review the table of contents and reviews. If you find only one or two interesting possibilities, search for them online instead.

I’m one of those who belong to neither group. My software organization background has been along the lines of an analyst and process manager. Even I find that most of the essays are enjoyable or educational. Only one or two lost me.

While most of the content is available on the Internet for free, the book is worth the bucks. It’s nice having a collection of high-quality writing related to software and the business in one place instead of schlepping the Web for it. Furthermore, you get an opportunity to read about business offline — I find that I read most of the book while traveling on an airplane. The flight flew by thanks to the book. I appreciated and absorbed the essays better by reading them in the book than I would have had I read them online.

Title: Best Software Writing I: Selected and Introduced by Joel Spolsky
Author: Edited by Joel Spolsky
Publisher: Apress
ISBN: 1590595009
Date: June 2005
Format: Paperback
Pages: 328
Cover Price: USD: $24.99 Amazon: $16.49