Posts Labeled with ‘web’
I decided on a simple, simple redesign. That’s it. This is long overdue.
I took down the rest of the site. One page. One page only.
Labels: web
Blogger is pulling the plug on their FTP option. I am not amused.
I was one of the very first users of this program & used for publishing on my domain name. In fact, people like me are why Blogger was -and is- so popular today. I got the word out. I talked it up. Case in point: I spoke about how great Blogger was in USA Today.
I also used it & showed how easy it was to use. I personally cajoled at least 25 people to start blogs. I even started a blog for my family when my brother-in-law was in a terrible accident, to help us keep in touch & watch his progress throughout his recovery.
Now I’m getting thrown away like yesterday’s trash. No love from Google. So I’m giving no love back. I can’t recommend the hosted version of Blogger (it’s not very good.) Bite me Blogger! You are dead to me.
Labels: web
I have my work cut out for me: I really need to do some massive redesigns and web cleanup. My online identity is much messier than I would like. I really want to continue to build my online identity so that I trigger assessments of trust, value, esteem, and so that I open opportunities for professional and personal growth toward my view of what I want for my future. This is my ordered list of tasks broken down by websites: [Updates as of 3/9]
- [Stalled, but In Progress] BackinTime is just atrocious. I haven’t done anything with that site in years and it shows. I will button that one up quickly. It’s first on the list, because it is the most neglected. I still want to keep up this revenue stream. It hasn’t been a big revenue producer in the past, but I really do like Historical Consulting for movies and tv. If nothing else, I will continue to foster this as a hobby.
- LuraLee.com isn’t great, but not awful. I’ll clean it up, re-write some of the copy, and maybe change the color scheme/look in order to update it a bit. In the process, I will better define my personal-professional identity, goals, and narratives.
- [Completed WordPress Upgrade] Lura.net (this site)….. honestly, I’m still ok with the look/feel. The real issue is the content. I just need to re-commit to blogging substantively. My issue with this site is that it’s just too darn boring. Unfortunately, being interesting is sometimes at odds with being professional. I continue to struggle to find a voice that enables both…. Seth Godin is my hero in this realm.
- [Completed] Lura.Smugmug.com: I got an influx of photo galleries representing many of my years with MAS (my ex). I just need to review/edit and rename/organize those gifted galleries. Not a huge project, but something I had previously neglected.
- INeedCoffee& Revenue Generating articles … possibly transitioning to another revenue-generating venue. I made a little over $2K on INC last year. That’s a nice payday for articles that I wrote years and years ago. It’s enough money to inspire me to review/edit and possibly seek out newer revenue generating opportunities for my writing skills.
Labels: web
I was thinking yesterday about all the things that I used to share online. I telegraphed my daily activities & viewpoints to the world: I blogged about politics, news, hobbies, friends, relationships, etc. I put up photos. I contributed to websites by writing articles, answering questions, and commenting on other posts. Now… not so much. I still do things, have hobbies, care about politics, engage with friends, go out, read books, etc. I just don’t blog about it. My smugmug account is under-utilized. I haven’t contributed articles recently. And I haven’t answered questions online recently. I used to be a very active contributor to the web. Now I’m just taking up space.
Am I concerned about privacy? A little, but not much. Truth is: there isn’t much privacy. A motivated person can find out about you, whether or not you actively manage your online presence. You have to work hard at it to be off-the-grid. And if you are, people will assume that you have something to hide, which may damage a reputation as much or more than if you were up-front about it all. For example: I know this one person who is a nut about being on-again-off-again with his/her online identity: unsearchable on FB, hidden profile on Match, doesn’t blog, has an unlisted phone number, etc. My joke about this person involves the witness protection program… and a rat.
Am I leading an uninteresting life? Nope. I have more and different kinds of activities than most people I know. I have cash, which means that I can afford to go places, unlike some of my younger friends. Plus, without kids and soccer practice or ballet lessons, I have time. This separates me from friends my age or older. I also have hobbies. It still shocks me how few people have hobbies.
So what is it? Perhaps it’s that I’ve been there, done that, got the shirt. It’s not new and exciting to me anymore. I don’t get an adrenaline rush from writing a great blog post. I hated user comments on my blog (bad experiences). I don’t get all warm-and-fuzzy when someone reaches out to me on Facebook. Most of the time, I don’t even look at the person’s profile anymore when I get a connection request on LinkedIn or FB.
But this may all change shortly. I am in discussions with someone about helping out with a Social Media Marketing company… this would necessitate my re-engaging in this space again. And it would undoubtedly give me a fresh perspective and a “twist” on the whole conversation, such that it would launch me back into the daily practice of managing my online identity. If so, you might see me blogging, tweeting, FBing, and getting on-board with every social media player in the marketplace.
I’ve been a fan of Seth Godin’s blog style for a while. It’s more about citing a situation, making an assessment/interpretation of the situation, then positing fundamental business questions with the intention to get the reader to determine that they may need some help. Even when he writes a blog where he never uses a question mark, the blog is intended to prompt you to ask: am I doing that? Is my business acting that way?
In case you don’t know, Seth Godin is an branding and marketing expert-for-hire (and best-selling author) so, in a sense, he’s using the blog to demonstrate his capacity to think and interpret situations in a superior way. Occasionally, he’ll make a blatant suggestion that’s more preference than expert opinion. Very occasionally, he’s post a blog that seems incongruously banal… but that’s a rare one. When that happens, I quiz myself to ensure that I’m not missing something brilliant, then I tend to dismiss it by thinking that he’s just having a bad day.
My view is that his style would work for anyone who is claiming to have some expertise, and who has a few brain cells to rub together.
So….. here’s my point… I’ve decided to use Seth’s writing style as a model for the long ingnored L2ideas blog. I’ve stopped and started that blog a few times, and deleted previous posts just the other day. I doubt anyone is reading the blog… but what the heck, as I do more marketing, networking, and such… maybe it will impress someone enough that it will make it easier for me to build a relationship with a client and close a deal. Stranger things have happened. Can’t hurt.
Now, you may ask, what have I got planned for this here blog? Good question. It’s been diary-esque all along. But really it’s not even that. In actuality I don’t blog about many things in my life. I’ve gotten some creepy crap from readers over the years. So I rarely blog about the day-to-day of work and I don’t blog about my sex life. I don’t blog about emotional stuff, and if I do I usually come to my senses within a couple of days and delete the post.
As a result this blog is BORING — but if you’re reading, you already know that. Really, I’d be surprised if anyone is still reading & even more suprised if anyone has bothered to read this far down the page! So… I’m looking for some inspiration.
I have seen some successful bloggers that are “personalities” — but I gave up trying to be a popular kid on the “A list” in early 2000. I’ve seen bloggers who are brilliant hobbyists and blog about stuff that they are passionate about but don’t work with every day (photography, finance/investing)… but that’s not me either.
Right now, this blog exists because it gives me a certain “street cred” in the IT world that helps when I assert myself as an IT Strategy Consultant with some level of expert knowledge and foresight. I can honestly say that I was an early-adopter of this technology and others. Although I’m generally the last of the first wave, I “get it” and use it, so I’m not some old fogie who is theoretical about this stuff. But the joie de vivre of blogging has waned over the years for me. I’m still looking for inspiration… maybe the Seth style will work for me on a personal blog too?
Labels: technology, web, work
Dan Kaminsky went from regular IT Security guru to IT Security demi-god this year. There’s something about internet celebrity. Lots of people get a big head and turn into jerks during their 15 minutes. But not Dan. He really is a nice guy. I have to say that I think Dan Kaminsky deserves all the kudos & press he’s gotten this year. Here’s just a few:
- Most recent Wired Article
- Boing Boing – Cory’s probably just trying to write an interesting blog, but it got a little snarky if you ask me.
- Wired
- Dan’s so famous that some jokesters made a Fake Dan Kaminsky board at DefCon
But I have to give a special shout-out & thankyouverymuch to Dan, his girlfriend Crystal, and Johnny for taking care of me at Toorcon SD. They were all extremely kind and generous and gracious to me. Here’s Divide’s photos of Dan, Crystal, and me from earlier in the night. (Go to Divide’s photostream on Flickr and Toorcon specific gallery)
Yale posts Open Courses:
http://www.oculture.com/2008/10/yale_open_courses_the_new_lineup.html
Labels: web
A friend of mine forwarded an email to me asking me to review it & help them discern whether or not it was an email hoax. It was. Specifically, it was a hoax about a virus… but it could have been about anything scary. Last week I received the email hoax about carjacking from someone else. Anyway, below, you’ll find a snippet of my response to this type of email. Typically, I included a link to snopes.com in an effort to educate the rube.
Here’s 2 hints for detecting hoax emails:
- Any email that requests that you forward it to your friends is
almost always a hoax of some kind. - If the email is written in a colored, big font, with lots of exclamation points, it is almost guaranteed to be a hoax. Serious people who
write about really important or really scary stuff usually do it in a small black font… no extra emphasis, no exclamation points, and with little or no emotion. On the other hand, if it sounds like it was written by a Vulcan lawyer, maybe it is real.
I can’t save the world, but I try.
Labels: web
Michael and I started INeedCoffee.com 8 years ago today. Go visit INeedCoffee now.
Years ago, I used the site to showcase my skills as a technical writer. INeedCoffee used to have a very comprehensive set of help files for the back-end; which I’d show as a part of job interviews. How funny is that?
Over the years, I’ve played many roles….
- site administrator – when Michael needed time off,
- frequent contributor – (especially as a last minute contributor when others didn’t follow through,
- content ghost writer – there are some articles that I’ve written under pseudonyms to disguise my identity,
- us writer – I wrote a lot of the INeedCoffee Staff content pieces,
- editor – for much of the contributed content,
- html slinger – marking up content through many of the re-designs,
- product designer – creating the INeedCoffee store content
Here’s looking forward to eight more years of Caffeination Information!
Labels: web
This redesign is a little of everything…
- There is something old (the Lura.net banner images are reused from my 2002 design)
- The .css file is new, and content has been updated.
- Some of the photos are borrowed from MAS’ site — we were at the locations together, but I haven’t gotten all of my photos organized yet.
- Blue… well, there isn’t much that is blue, which is new. Since there was a lot of color and a lot of blue in the last site. I went for minimalistic, clean design.
What do you think of it?
Labels: web
