Technically Speaking

Early this week, I said I was going to try to just stay off of twitter entirely. See if I could do it. With business the way it currently is at Lookery and all the cool data that is being shown for free - it was simply impossible! Now many people don’t believe that twitter’s way of communicating is effective business, but we seem to thrive on it with a tweet or three a week.

As you look at my stats, you can clearly see who my audience is and where they are coming from. But since this blog doesn’t get a whole ton of traffic, you should really check out some cool high traffic sites in our network.

Anyone running a site can benefit from statistics like this, and it’s simply signing up and registering your site. Than another 10 seconds to copy and paste the code into your site(s) page(s). Pretty simple. Almost like Google Analytics code, yes, that simple! Not only that, if you are not running ads on your site but rather do that on your own - you now have compelling data to show potential advertisers of your site(s) demographics.

Enough about work, it’s time to hit the buffet! Not literally of course, too many pushy people that like to do the unthinkable - backing up in the buffet line. Actually though, I did hit the buffet for real this week.

Seriously now, one item of interest I saw this morning was about AOL buying SocialThing. Is this a good deal or bad deal? Considering I was reading recently of how AOL is hanging on to a thread of life. Or do they still call that reorganization? My thought was that AOL was going to be bought, but apparently it’s just a shuffle the deck move once again. At least the guys over at SocialThing have now confirmed the deal.

The other item of interest it seems is all the Olympic coverage or lack thereof. I have actually watched like 10 minutes of coverage, beach volleyball. You can get pretty good coverage of what is happening on the major sites such as SI.

I’m glad to see that it appears a cease fire has been signed between Russia and Georgia. I was actually keeping up with that news over any Olympic coverage this past week. It seems like no matter what, there is always someone at the games being accused of cheating, or better yet - a war breaks out somewhere that just shows how barbaric humans really are.

One item to keep watching is how Glam is surging almost quietly online. They seem to be the leader these days, and I have read stories in the past few weeks about how they are overtaking the marketplace. When I had other writers on this blog, I was more in tune with such sites as Geek Sugar. I even did some video back in the day. Quite funny that there are still links to the videos. Out of all of them, I think the banana episode was pretty funny.

Technically Speaking, it’s all about the data and wish I had the time to do more videos again! Unfortunately how do you think Lookery serves billions of ads monthly? Well it’s time for me to get to work, that’s how!!

It’s been quite a busy day for me. I just went through and updated my Link Blog for only the 2nd time today. What I’m doing these days is fun, exciting, and at the same time frustrating at times. You know that being said, I wouldn’t trade it for any day job that I’ve done. Even when I worked in the IT industry full time, I will have to say, this is still 120% more fun.

Well I just went through my Link Blog, as I stated above, and one of the articles that jumped out at me of course is from CenterNetworks. One thing about Allen, he has a great way at putting across the news of the moment. I saw a bunch of articles about the twitter money grab, but he put it across in an engaging and interesting manner. One that grabbed my attention, and made me want to read it. Any article that finishes with the line

I am sure the cats who handle the servers are eating some fine Kibbles ‘n Bits tonight!

deserves to be read.

I will however have to say, even though the article he posted the other day on a great blog that talks about VC funding, I am going to have to lean to what I have always stated. Any freakin’ idea will sell to any VC if you know the right people. If you know how to grab someone’s attention, and hold it for at least 7 minutes, you can sell them another social network. Don’t believe me? Look through any of the major sites to see how many social networks have received $millions in the past 30-45 days.

So where do I stand as far as executive summaries, biz plans, and all that tree killing stuff? Well as a traditionalist I would say “Yes, you should have all of that ready to roll.” As a person that hates to kill trees for any purpose but to burn wood over an open fire, I would say, if you can talk the talk and get in front of some people; show that your product just “works” (twitter), all that stuff can be reserved for an open bonfire on your camping trip.

Another interesting item that I have yet to see is Om’s new show. GigaOm TV. Nice. Now again, I did read Allen’s review of the show earlier today (see guys/gals, I may not be blogging as much, but I am reading and taking note when I get a second!) - and I will have to say, I am still intrigued at watching. That just proves that a bad review or middle of the road interview is not a show stopper.

I agree with what Om said, all that production stuff is hard to deal with. When I was doing the podcast thing last year, 4 nights a week, I will say that was the worst part of it all. I can walk in and plain lay it down. Perform. That’s me. When it comes to producing a show, now that is another story entirely. As many have seen, I forgo any production these days with my occasional video web cam casts. Why? Because I would rather be the talent, and let someone else do the producing stuff. OR, I’d rather just produce and let someone else be the talent. Either or, but not both.

When you have the crew of Revision3 behind you, anything can be cool looking. Unlike the videos that I was in earlier this year that I did produce. The Technically Speaking Live shows, and the Friggin’ Break Reports. Yup, Rev3 could have probably made those shows rock. Unfortunately, being the talent as well as the producer takes quite a bit of time. All of these shows I speak of, podcast or video can be found on my media page.

Finally a “just this in“, well not really. It’s been in for a bit now, but looks like Microsoft is going after anything that strengthens their stake in the world of online advertising. They just acquired this Santa Barbara startup called AdECN Inc. I’m not the first to say anything about it, as I saw the smattering of stories as I went through the Link Blog, and it’s quite interesting to see their focus now on the advertising world.

One that I posted earlier in the Link Blog, that everyone that is in a startup should look at. It’s called, when it’s time to move on from your startup idea. I agree with the 3 points it made. For those that are in a failed startup, maybe it’s time you read this article that pretty much lays the facts out there. What was that saying? Oh yeah, “Lie to yourself, Lie to your mother, but don’t Lie to Rex Dixon.”

Technically Speaking, yes, I can be a goof ball - but when you live like I do, you have to have a weird sense of humor to keep your sanity some times day to day. Oh, and why it’s almost a total full time job being a blogger - this just in for real - Alesis iMultiMixer - now this is just plain COOL! I think some Wilmington NC real estate might be the plan someday.

Congratulations are in order once again for SplashCast. Passing your 2,000th user is quite an achievement. I think it will take off even faster for your company. What I have seen so far just from using it, it’s so simple to use and implement. It’s a no brainer when you want to broadcast content on this web 2.0 web we live in.

Technically Speaking, I hope you have been watching the latest videos we have put out. They are on the right side bar if you have missed them. The players are kind of tiny, but actually the video looks sharper (my opinion) as they are wmv 320×240 compressed. I have not checked the stats (another great thing about SplashCast - nice stats they offer up to the user!) yet on the new Technically Speaking Live Episode #3 or the first Friggin’ Break Report Episode #1.

I purposely did that. I want you to compare the SplashCast version in the smaller window on the right to the above links to the YouTube links (425×350). Try it.

You could have watched this on the SplashCast player last night. YouTube takes a minute to approve the video. See the blog post below concerning all the links. Yes, there was more information even after the bit about how happy I was with SplashCast:

I sound like a SplashCast shill now don’t I? Well I am not shilling. There is no money involved here. Full Disclosure - SplashCast does NOT pay me to tell everyone about how great their service is. I do this freely, without reservation.

Why am I saying this? Well I just got done uploading the first episode of the Friggin’ Break Report Episode #1 - up to SplashCast, YouTube, and Revver. Well as soon as the video went up, Friggin’ Break Report Episode #1 was live and world wide. YouTube said - Processing. Revver, I don’t even bother there until I get an e-mail.

What am I saying? If you want your video online, today, now and in the moment you create them - use SplashCast. The service is fast, and guess what? Every episode is in it’s own little player. It’s like basically a TV with different shows, all back to back. You can see an example of the player on the right side bar. Both shows are there, the Technically Speaking Episode #3 (just uploaded that) and the Friggin’ Break Report Episode #1 right below that.

Oh, and you don’t have to do just videos either! Another thing - the player is SIZED to fit in my side bar. You can actually make it huge if you want too. I just know that the wmv file I upload would look even more crappy if it was any bigger then a normal size video you see online. Just the facts of video compression!

Let’s say you are really creative and artistic, but take pictures or do poetry set to music. Yes, you can put that there. Henry Rollins would probably love this service. I mean seriously, there is one dude that is super intelligent that also makes some aggressive music. Whatever your shidig is, you can put it up on SplashCast. Great service, and I will probably keep talking about them in the near future.

Now for some show notes:

Friggin’ Break Report Episode #1

Mae Oakmont talks about this unique product found on OverStock dot com.

Knife Holder that you may want to warn your guests about. “I’m not a slasher freak, really, no.. it’s just my knife holder.. honest.. “

Technically Speaking Live Episode #3

Mae discusses her new show - Friggin’ Break Report

Give Me A Friggin’ Break

Break It!

Planypus

Yo grasshopper. You pay, you pay now. You steal our content. You owe big money. You get Daddy Google to pay! Pay NOW! Take down video!

Wow. This is big news. Viacom has gone for the take down on YouTube. I guess the video cast we did last week was probably perfect timing. If you want your MTV rock videos, that will be about the only way to get them before the big take down.

Technically Speaking, there will probably be a lot of people checking out my associated link on this. If you can get the plugin, it does work.

Yes, I need a better computer to edit these on. This one took forever to come together. Literally I should have been done with this in less then a 1/2 hour. Anyways, here it is - only Episode #2:

URL’s to the items we discussed:

JVC Headphones

Webcam

Jewelry

Video Downloader

SoundTap

I want to first say “Thank you!” to Paul who wrote this a few days ago. Also thanks to Mae who found it! Sometimes, I miss things in my feeds. Mae was paying attention. Live Episode #2 should hopefully be filmed on Friday, and online shortly after that. We have taken all the great comments and critique and hope to improve with each episode!

Next up, just added Mr. Business Golf as a guest writer here on the blog. Scot has his own blog, but the site is in a transition phase, so I know he has good stuff to blog. He has a business angle that can only come from 32 years of “real world” business experience. He also wrote the book - How To Play Business Golf - which, if you are a golfer or in business - you should pick up a copy TODAY!

His first post should be here shortly. Technically Speaking, I have to run!

We hope to get back to the normal blogging like as soon as possible. Here is the video, for those that may have caught the earlier feed, I had to go with Revver. YouTube rejected it because we were too long.

Download link

Technically Speaking, everything that I can’t get posted like in the next 10 minutes, will obviously be in the Link Blog. Lastly, for those of you that may have issues with the flash player I use here - here is the direct link to the Revver page.