Archive for May 2007

You may have seen “View of the World” art depicting a large city like Chicago, New York, Washington, DC and other cities by Saul Steinberg. A View of the World from 9th Avenue is perhaps Steinberg’s most famous work from the series. I have Washington, DC and New York.

Paul sent me this online communities version that resembles the “View of the World” style. He loves “Blogipeligo.”

I’m a one person business who has been blogging since June 1, 2000. At first, it was on a personal basis since blogging hadn’t found a way into business yet and I had just started freelancing on the side.

The blog slowly evolved into a business-focused one. Though there are thousands of blogs out there — why should I keep it up when readers’ times are spread thin and across so many? I do it for the following reasons:

1. I dipped into blogging before most people heard of it.

2. Build relationships — it’s a marketing and networking tool especially since I’m deaf and cold calling doesn’t work for me. More on this in another post – another day.

3. Good writing practice… since I’m a writer, I need to write often and a blog forces me to keep practicing because I know I need to update it at least three times a week — although lately, I feel like if I do it less than five days week, I’m not doing my job. Blogging helps me practice coming up with ideas of things to write about.

4. Keeps my site’s content fresh, which makes search engines happy and gives people a reason to come back from time to time. People are less likely to return to a static site.

Pogo fans will recognize Pogo Island, a game that blends five popular Pogo games with an adventure. Pogo Island consists of Poppit!, Word Whomp, Phlinx, Tri-Peaks Solitaire, and Squelchies. You can play these games individually through the Quick Play option or go on an adventure as Perry the Parrot Captain.

As Captain Perry Parrot, the player works to reunite with the mascots and earn supplies to repair the boat to sail away from the island. The five Pogo games adopt an island look-and-feel to fit in with the story.

Micro-games appear throughout the adventure to help players collect the needed tools to fix the boat. Players earn ranks so they can work their way up from Explorer to Island Guru. They also work hard for the tokens, which players can transfer to their Pogo.com accounts if they have wireless set up on the Nintendo DS for connecting to the Internet. Pogo Island awards badges when players reach milestones like “Win 5 games of Phlinx.”

The mini-versions of Pogo’s popular games translate well on the small screen. However, the game didn’t provide instructions every time a player encountered a game for the first time. Not everyone has played all the games and micro-games on Pogo.com.

It’s standard for Nintendo DS games to provide Help the first time players play a game. Players can access the Help or tutorial anytime from the main menu. However, the micro-game instructions don’t appear in the Help. Not all micro-games are obvious that anyone can figure them out without help.

An eight-year-old took interest in Pogo Island and chose to play it over the latest greatest game he recently purchased. However, he became understandably frustrated with the All Aboard, a dull slingshot micro-game. In fact, the micro-games were more of a nuisance than fun to play.

The adventure game starts easy and gets harder as players advance. Game favorites are Poppit! and Tri-Solitaire. Least favorite, Squelchies, doesn’t work well with the double-screen since it’s difficult to tell the color of the Squelchies appearing in the edge of the screens. Phlinx took a little warming up, but it didn’t take long to turn into an addicting game. Word puzzle fans will like Word Whomp.

Fans of multi-player gaming can choose between Party Play and Multi-Card Play. Four players can join in the fun in Party Play mode. Each takes a turn playing the game on the same console. Two players can play in Multi-Card mode, but it requires having a wireless connection and both consoles loaded with Pogo Island. Only Word Whomp is available in Multi-Card mode.

Pogo Island should make fans of the five games happy now that they can take with them. If the micro-games annoy, just skip Adventure Mode and play Quick Player or Party Play mode.

Buy Pogo Island or check out the Game Guide at Pogo.

I’ve noticed a growing trend of businesses listing their partners on their Web site. A great idea, but are they doing it right? Think about the sites that list their partners. How do they do it? Just list the logo, name and link to the site? Or do they take the time to share a brief overview about the partner?

Partnerships don’t happen instantly. So a site should invest the time and space to a partner. A simple paragraph or two about the partner and what the company has done for the business works fine.

I’ve been wanting to add a recommendations page on this site — but haven’t figured out how to make the structure work with the site. This page would list companies and products I recommend, and maybe partner with along with a paragraph or two about each. Blue Flavor lists me as a strategic partner and includes a bio.

Here’s one example of partners done right. Bizanga took the time to write about its many partners. The company relies on the technologies of these partners. Thus, prospects will want to know who they are and what they’re about.

While working on my review of The Apprentice: Los Angeles, I couldn’t figure out how to describe the game’s genre. Many sites refer to this particular genre as Action or Arcade. I think Action is too broad and Arcade is wrong. I see Arcade games like Galaga, Asteroids Pac-Man (is my age showing?), Donkey Kong, 1942, Tetris and so on. These games don’t have a story going and tend to do the same thing over and over only increasing in challenge and bonuses.

Other games of the same genre as The Apprentice: Los Angeles include Diner Dash, Fairy Godmother Tycoon, Belle’s Beauty Boutique, and Flower Shop: Big City Break. I guess some call these “Diner” style games because of the popularity of the Diner Dash series. I doubt Diner Dash is the first one since many “Tycoon” style games came along and they resemble them. But not everyone has heard of Diner Dash and some of these games have nothing to do with food.

Some Tycoon games work like SimCity and Civilization — more strategic. So Tycoon wouldn’t be the right name, I don’t think.

So should it be “entrepreneur” or “fastpreneur?” After all, these have one thing in common — you’re starting and building a business. The themes vary. For the most part, they involve customers and serving them quickly and efficiently. They have an arcade element in that it’s fast action. Some, not all, have a strategic element and usually on a lighter scale than the average strategic game.

Along these lines of thinking, Tycoon games like Fairy Godmother Tycoon would go under “entrepreneur” while those like Zoo Tycoon can go under “strategic.” “Fastpreneur” helps separate the Tycoon games since most involve trying to build a business. Strategic games tend to move slower and involve more planning and less action. What do you think?

It’s no surprise the Donald has found his way into a computer game. The Apprentice: Los Angeles might not be what you expect. The game combines four Diner Dash style games taking place in different locations and a boardroom memory style game. Those not familiar with the TV show can learn more about The Apprentice on its official NBC site.

If you’ve played the original The Apprentice, don’t expect this one to resemble that flat attempt to take advantage of the TV show’s popularity. A look at screen shots from the two games easily shows the new version contains better graphics, and perhaps better games.

The success of Diner games depend on the game’s design and storyline. The Apprentice: Los Angeles has a strong storyline. Players run a sushi bar, boutique and beach rental. The fourth, a hotel, comes later in the game as the final task.

You play five levels of one task (a task in this case would be working in one of the stores) and then move on to the next. When you don’t score high enough to beat your rival team, you go to the boardroom. Each level contains a monetary goal, but even if you miss it in one level — you can make it up in the next.

A visit to the boardroom means playing a memory style card game. Race against two other players you take to the boardroom with you by finding matching pairs. Make high point matches and take away other players’ points until you reach a specific number of points.

The game play is another story. The customers in the stores drove me crazy and not in a good way. They were more impatient than customers in other games of a similar style. It didn’t take long for them to go from happy to throwing a tantrum like a child.

The levels grew too hard too fast and my hands cramped when I tried to move quickly. A little chaining (clicking ahead multiple tasks) is possible, but you don’t receive bonuses. Even with chaining, I wasn’t fast enough for these spoiled-rotten customers. Some Diner games characters don’t move fast and smoothly, but that’s not an issue with The Apprentice: Los Angeles.

One of the game’s strengths is its beautiful and crisp graphics. Thanks to the first rate graphics, you can’t miss what goes on behind the scenes like a chef trying to catch a fish in the window at the Sushi Bar for a few laughs. You also meet customers who obviously represent certain stereotypes.

The game also includes the Donald, Don Jr., Ivanka and 12 Apprentice players from the past six seasons. When Mr. Trump fires someone, we get the usual “great experience” and “I did a good job and shouldn’t have been fired” taxi talk. Trump mostly says, “You better work hard and reach your goal” or “Your team failed!”

Unlike other Diner games, the game avoids monotony by having three regular Dash games and a card memory game. Those who like Diner games will like this one whether or not you like The Apprentice since it doesn’t play a big role.

Download the game from your favorite site:

• Amazon
• Big Fish Games

Lifehack provides 101 on-target tips for becoming a better blogger. 101 feels like a lot, but try to do a couple things a day. Don’t think about doing all 101, but motivate yourself to do something as simple as “Do one thing every day to improve my blogging skills.”

I’ve been blogging for seven years. It’s easier now than it was seven years ago. When I started on June 1, 2000, I didn’t post on a daily basis. In fact, I went a few months without posting anything. Now I feel guilty if I don’t blog at least five times a week on InformIT and here.

It’s really OK if you don’t post something five times a week. Two or three times a week works. The blogosphere is crowded and the audience spreads across the board. A few talented bloggers manage to pick up a big chunk of readers. Those same blogs tend to have updates many times a day. But that doesn’t mean you need to do it, too. It depends on your blog and its purpose. As a one-gal business, a blog helps me with the following:

• Practice writing on a daily basis. Writing becomes easier over time doing this.
• Attract search engines thanks to the regularly updated content.
• Share knowledge so my clients and potential clients get to know me.
• Participate in online conversations by linking and commenting on useful articles, posts and Web sites.
• Network.
• Talk with others through comments and trackback.

I’m sure I overlooked a few more benefits. What other benefits do you get from blogging or reading blogs? Does blogging work for business-to-business businesses? Some say no and closed their blogs. Others say yes. Though my clients are mostly B2B, I don’t count my blogs as B2B blogs. Why? I was afraid you’d ask that. Not an easy thing to explain. Or do you disagree?

Can’t believe I didn’t know about these sites earlier! I had heard about Will Ferrell’s hilarious landlord video that stars his 3-year-old daughter as a mean and drunk landlord. But I never pay attention to videos since I know most don’t come with captions… until today. So if you know of a video that’s worth viewing — just submit it to Project ReadOn. That’s it!

Captioning video gets easier pointed to Dotsub where you enter the captions yourself and Project ReadOn where you can request your video get captioned. So I check them out and got to enjoy the landlord video. Project ReadOn requires lining up the captioned popup box with the video (turn off pop ups on the site so you can get the captions). The FAQ explains how to ensure the captions and video sync up.

Jonathan and Lisa Price have a nice article on writing FAQ and covered many points that we may not think about. For instance, if you have a large site — you might want to show the FAQ or Help that’s relevant to the page users are on rather than give them the whole thing to dig through. Many software applications do this — give you the Help based on the window you’re viewing.

I believe FAQ are best served when all of the questions and answers appear in one page — unless it’s ridiculously long and neds breaking up. The reason for this is because some users will use their own browser’s search instead of a site’s search — they want to find a keyword on the current page instead of browse the whole site.

Add items to the FAQ as you get e-mails from users, see questions popping up in the forums or on the Internet — don’t assume people will find their way to the other sites that answer the questions… do people a favor by offering everything in one place. Users appreciate it and it never hurts to go the extra mile… actually, they expect you to have complete answers. Hey, it saves you time as people won’t contact you if they can find the answers on their own. Of course, not everyone thinks to check the FAQ — but every bit helps.

Notice I never used the “s” in FAQ as in FAQs? Skipping it was hard, but I learned to just write “FAQ” because “Q” means “questions.” Why write an FAQ if you only list one question?

I spent a few hours at the hospital the other day and discovered the hospital’s network blocked every messaging application — Web-based and stand-alone application. I understand they don’t want their staff — especially medical staff that must respond quickly — chatting away. But what about those of us trying to communicate with friends and family members about the status of a loved one?

I had my Sidekick, so I could use AIM. But I took shortcuts in our conversations as it’s tedious to type on the little device as opposed to a notebook. This was in the waiting room by the ICU, so it’s not like these patients are the type to come and go. My mom rarely goes home between visiting hours and I’ve hardly talked to her in the past couple of weeks. Most of my updates come second hand.

Granted it could be a security issue. The hospital could offer ONE option on its “blocked” message page. Tried Meebo, Trillian, original apps like AIM and MSN Messenger. Attempted to find others through searching and those were blocked too. Is there a middle ground for an organization and its customers?