Proud to be human, or…Hungry Like The Wolf. Sometimes you’re exposed to such a rush of creativity that you realize how damned good it is just to be part of the human race. The reviews for this Three Wolf Moon T-Shirt on Amazon
do just that. Excerpts like, “The women in Wal-mart that approached me wanted to know if I would be their boyfriend and/or give them money for something they called meth. I told them no, because they didn't have enough teeth, and frankly, a man with a wolf-shirt shouldn't settle for the first thing that comes to him.”…“I sometimes pay a prostitute to wear the t-shirt and visit me in prison just so I can look lovingly upon it.”…“Suffice to say, I'm swimming in a sea of babes the likes of which are usually found on those K-Tel infomercials. I'm also more confident at work, and expect to be promoted to cashier soon.”
Hire Roger! Roger Martin, the creator of Gallery Server Pro is someone I wish I knew better. He’s always so nice! He also works really hard and answers every single question on his product forum. Roger just released Gallery Server Pro 2.3 (which I can’t wait to upgrade on Sueetie!) and announced that it’s the last release of GSP until he can build up the family savings account with some contract work. Roger posted the number of Gallery Server Pro registrants and donations over the last year. Very interesting to read the stats on his Open Source product’s use and resulting revenue. Consider supporting a great guy and a great product to give Roger, as he says, “a summer job!”
Smashing Commandments on getting your content out there. I watched Cecil B. DeMille’s 1956 Ten Commandments during last week’s LaBatt Blue Hour of Power dinner prep sessions in the kitchen. I watch the movie every 6 months or so and am mentioning it because I regard most Smashing Magazine articles as the equivalent of Yul Brenner as Rameses saying, “So let it be written, so let it be done!” Here Smashing lists 10 Commandments on getting content in front of more people. The first three are Consider the Desktop, Go Mobile and Start Tweeting. The only commandment I’m not sure of is #5, Embrace Facebook. I don’t get Facebook. Don’t use it. Don’t like it. I’ll work on the other 9 to get to Content Heaven. Maybe Nefretiri will be waiting for me there.
Simpson stamps and Ronald Reagan. Springfield, Vermont is a very cool place. They served as the premiere of The Simpsons Movie, Magic Hat created Springfield Premiere Ale in their honor (actually they renamed their Single Chair Lift for the movie, but still), and now Springfield is premiering new Simpson Stamps! Hey, I love all things Homer Simpson, but the stamps don’t excite as you might think. That’s because I’m the owner of a virginal sheet of Ronald Reagan commemorative stamps reissued in 2006. People think I’m a raging Democrat, but you’ll have to pry my Ronald Reagan stamps from my cold dead fingers.
Corporate Innovation Failure, #56. I’ve read books on innovation that didn’t list nearly the number of reasons as this blog post from The Heart of Innovation on why most corporate innovation initiatives fail.
Community Failure, #7. I’ve read books on community building that didn’t list nearly the number of reasons as this blog post from Adam Goucher on why Running a Community is like, hard.
Late to the Stack Overflow party. I’ve recently been gaining an appreciation for Joel Spolsky and Jeff Atwood’s Stack Overflow. It took me a while, but I’m finally seeing the light. Quite a brilliant accomplishment. I listened to an early Stack Overflow podcast on ITConversations over 6 months ago and didn’t care for it at all, but I listened to Episode 53 over the weekend and enjoyed it, mostly because I’ve come to admire the unified marketing efforts of Spolsky and Atwood. (Podcast sidebar: I’m a Parrot Programmer and proud of it!) This ReadWriteWeb article describes why Stack Overflow is so brilliant. Voting, Badges, Tagging and Google as UI are some of the items discussed in the post.
With God as my witness, I WILL use the Social menu item on my Zune! Today’s Zune Everyman link for you. A pathetic little comic titled “Parent’s Worst Nightmare.” If I didn’t laugh I’d cry. Thanks to Nick Harrington for the link.