Dave Burke : Freelance .NET Web Developer specializing in Online Communities

Bits for February 2, 2008

On Free.  I've been a hug fan of Kevin Kelly's work for 10 years.  Two of his books in my fave list that I need to re-read are New Rules for the New Economy (1998) and Out of Control (1994).  Seth Godin linked to Kevin Kelly's "Better Than Free" post, calling it a fantastic riff.  Kelly lists eight reasons why something is worth charging for.  Definitely worth reading for free.

More On Free.  On the topic of free, Mark Cuban says it would be a smart move of movie producers to give the soundtrack away for free.  That seems like an excellent idea to me! 

More On Mark Cuban. I heard an interesting story on Marketplace about Mark Cuban being so impressed with the enthusiastic cheering of a Clippers fan named Clipper Darrell while in Los Angeles recently that he made the guy an offer to do his thing in the Dallas bleachers for the Mavs instead.  That Mark Cuban sure is an innovative thinker. 

You have to give us Vermont Socialists some credit.  People think Vermonters are all Socialists, but you have to give Vermont credit for bringing issues to the national consciousness, like how Vermont lawmakers introduced a bill this week saying the president no longer has the authority to use Guard troops in Iraq and that the Vermont Guard should revert back to state control.

The Amazon Connection.  Amazon seems to do everything right, and their new data center services are no exception.  Their Web Services are unparalleled.  I turn down a lot of project offers that come my way, but I'd definitely try to make room for a project that would give me the opportunity to work with Amazon Web, Data and Online Payment Services.

DeviantART site for great photos, textures and design ideas.  DeviantArt has a wealth of great graphic content.  Interestingly I saw a thumbnail that caught my eye, enlarged it and said, "Hey, that's where I live!"  There was a photo of Lake Champlain taken from the shores of Burlington, Vermont.

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Posted on 2/2/2008 8:52:30 PM by Dave Burke
Categories: Everyman Links
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2/3/2008 8:04:01 AM Permalink

I use the Amazon S3 service for my online backup needs.  It's very nice (and cheap).

Tom Lynch |

2/3/2008 8:14:47 AM Permalink

Hi, Tom.  Thanks for visiting.  Apparently there's support for S3 in CS2008's media gallery as well.  

daveburke |

2/4/2008 1:50:15 PM Permalink

Dave, I've done quite a bit of work with Amazon's search service - the WIWM site makes a lot of use of it. It is great and there are some good .NET wrappers for it. I'm not sure which one I am using but hit me up via email if you're interested and I'll look it up. I've been thorougly impressed with Amazon's stuff.

If a job for specifically for AWS doesn't come along perhaps you can cut your teeth on a fun little project and then be able to work some AWS into a future project.

One of the things I've been thinking about doing is building a CS sidebar widget (or maybe a Graffiti widget) that checks either the search term via the referrer (if the user came from google) or the tags identified with the post and then searches Amazon for items relevent to that term(s) and then those items to the user (along with the blog owner's affiliate id appended to the Amazon URL!). Three to five items would probably be ideal. For instance, for a post about AJAX maybe AJAX books would be displayed and the same for a CS post and CS books. Or maybe running shoes for a post about running. Feel free to steal my idea if you'd like.

Dan Hounshell |

2/4/2008 2:11:26 PM Permalink

Dan, If I had the time I'd do a fun project first, but in the high-flying world of CS freelancing there's little time for fun.  That reminds me, my sister wants a site for quilting...

Back to AWS, I LOVE that idea.  I don't know if I'd be that sophisticated checking on the referrer, but there's no reason not to display affiliateID-based books or other products based on the blog post.  Maybe an extended weblogpost property could specify the product type or terms for display?

Thanks for sharing your idea!  Always great to hear from you!

daveburke |

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