Telecommatt’s blog

Why You Can't Buy Viral Marketing

nobody@vox.com(Telecommatt) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 07:24:43 -0700

This is a really great article by Dawud Miracle. He really brings it back down to earth that viral marketing isn't a product or method that you can just go out and buy or do. Instead, it's an organic process that is created as you do the work of building and maintaining relationships.

clipped from dmiracle.com

Is it really possible to create a viral marketing effect?

Sure, it’s possible to create a viral marketing strategy. And it’s certainly possible to know what viral marketing is and, theoretically, how to use it.

But can you just simply create a viral response in some formulated or calculated way? Or is viral marketing something that happens as a result of a little solid word-of-mouth marketing and a little luck?

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Companies Catching on to Telework, but is the Corporate Culture Ready?

nobody@vox.com(Telecommatt) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 19:30:57 -0700

So far I've worked for both public and private companies, for large government organizations, and for myself. I've also been a telework proponent for years. I can say that, without a doubt, I've been most productive when I'm allowed to dictate my work environment. Which is perhaps why this article really resonated with me.

This post from (surprise!) WebWorkerDaily is probably the best collection of telework-related advice I've ever read. Aimed at large corporations, Mike Gunderloy & Aliza Sherman do a bang-up job summarizing myths associated with corporate telework as well as the benefits- a few of which you may not have thought of before!

It's true that large corporations seen to have a hard time "getting it" when it comes to initiatives like telework. Telework requires a certain amount of trust that your employees will behave responsibility while out of your direct control (aka the office). Not all corporate cultures allow for this to occur. And even in cultures that do, many employees aren't ready to work outside the corporate yolk.

clipped from webworkerdaily.com

As the New York Times has noticed, big corporations are starting to get with the web work program. But they’re mostly doing it in a big corporation sort of way, with fancy (and expensive) telepresence systems. While this approach may indeed offset the rapidly-rising price of travel, those of us who are long-term web workers may roll our eyes at this narrow-minded perception of the best way to remotely work.

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Weekend Project: Find Your Real Purpose

nobody@vox.com(Telecommatt) — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:25:43 -0700

I found this post by Steve Pavlina rather randomly, which is sort of cool, considering the topic of the article. And I figured that, since we're headed into the weekend, it would be a good time to post something a little different at Matt's Cuppa.

If it sounds somewhat tongue-in-cheek for Mr.Pavlina to say that we can discover our reason for being in the space of 20 minutes, then I suggest that you're fixating on the wrong part of that sentence. You're focused on the "20 minutes" part instead of the "discover your life purpose" part. What he's really saying here is that we all innately why we are here.

While that wisdom is certainly nothing new, finding the answer to the question is something few people really seriously and actively set out to answer. Why? Because it's daunting, it's scary, we've got too many other responsibilities, etc. (Although, for some odd reason, I have met more people in the social media world that know for certain what their purpose is than in any other sphere I've been in.)

But what if Mr.Pavlina is right, and you can find the answer to life's ultimate question before you head back to work on Monday? Personally, I'm convinced that we do all know what we're here for, but we won't shut up long enough to hear what it is. Which is why I like his approach. If we simply keep asking ourselves the question over and over again, eventually we'll have exhausted all of the reasons that don't matter, all of the reasons that aren't really ours, all of the reasons created by the various roles we play, and all we'll be left with is the real reason that we're here.

In the end, the test is not finding the real answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything, but persisting in our questioning long enough to hear it.

Happy Friday All!

clipped from www.stevepavlina.com

How do you discover your real purpose in life? I’m not talking about your job, your daily responsibilities, or even your long-term goals. I mean the real reason why you’re here at all — the very reason you exist.

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Pre-Configured Linux Distros for VirtualBox

nobody@vox.com(Telecommatt) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 12:47:40 -0700

Another good resource for those who want to play with Linux without committing a box to it. And "pre-configured" always has a nice ring to it.

clipped from lifehacker.com

If you've been checking out the newest VirtualBox beta for Mac OS X, or you're intrigued by Linux but not ready to deal with virtualizing it, the Sun xVM VirtualBox VDI Index—or, as it's skeevily nicknamed, veeDee-Eyes—has a host of pre-compiled, pre-configured images for you. No need to set up space, "boot" from a live CD and mess around with hardware config, as copies of Fedora, Ubuntu, OpenSUSE and others are ready to run. Not all of them are free, with a few of the multi-GB distros asking for a buck or two to cover server costs, but a good number of interesting variants and betas are there for the taking. VirtualBox runs on Windows, Mac, or Linux, and is a free download.

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Posterous is Minimal Effort Blogging

nobody@vox.com(Telecommatt) — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 19:00:07 -0700

I know I can always turn to DemoGirl when it comes to finding cool and useful online tools. Here's a great screencast of super easy blogging platform Posterous. Similar to Tumblr, but even easier to use, I can definitely see a growing audience for this and perhaps other no-brainer blogging platforms. Thanks for the tip, Molly!

clipped from demogirl.com

Click Here To Watch The Screencast 3m10s

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Seeding grasses

nobody@vox.com(Telecommatt) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 06:08:52 -0700

I keep taking picture but haven't had time to post them. I was watching the wind blow the grasses out by the pond today. We've now definitely moved from spring flowers onto summer flowers.

Seeding grasses

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Father's Day

nobody@vox.com(Telecommatt) — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 13:45:20 -0700

Father's Day brunch at the folk's place.

Father's Day

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Thai Curry House

nobody@vox.com(Telecommatt) — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 09:54:14 -0700

Went to a very good Thai place last night for dinner. It's in this strip mall and the sign on the outside just says "Thai Curry House", but inside it's about as authentic as it gets in the Upper Midwest. The food was grand and the decor really beautiful. They even had floor seating on cushoins. The pic above is a poor shot of a butterfly carved from a single slice of carrot that topped my pineapple rice. The presentation of all our dishes was surpisingly professional and the prices were reasonable.

Thai Curry House

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hail obliterates our plants

nobody@vox.com(Telecommatt) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 16:26:26 -0700

We had some crazy weather on Saturday. Thankfully no tornados, but hail that came out of nowhere. We had local radar up looking at a few patches of clouds and suddenly we hear a light clack-clack. My wife just got the car in before we were seeing marble and quarter sized chunks of ice. The hail obliterated the plants we had just purchased. It was so sad! there were petals strewn across the sidewalk. It looked like a foliage warzone. We went and got new plants now and are nursing the ones that survived the ice. And I'm happy to see that our favorite tree out front is already sporting a few new flowers. It's pretty amazing to see nature carry on.

hail obliterates our plants

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Petal Drifts and Learning to Whoosh!

nobody@vox.com(Telecommatt) — Mon, 26 May 2008 08:40:51 -0700

The petals have started to fall from the tree out front. It's amazing that just yesterday there was a petal here and there and today the petals have blown into our patio in large drifts. That seems to be a common pattern in nature, a tentative start and then, whoosh, everything happens at once. From penguins learning to swim to flowers in the spring. Maybe we should apply this pattern in our own lives more?

Petal Drifts and Learning to Whoosh!

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