Four short links: 24 May 2011*

  1. Book Review: Change Anything – it is a fascinating book. Having long held the usual assumptions about willpower, I was impressed with the counter-arguments that willpower, to a certain extent, is ineffective because it is not combined with a multi-faceted strategy.
  2. Facebook and Twitter: Treat them like your kids – Just as parents need to treat their various kids differently, but fairly, so do professionals need to deal with Twitter and Facebook using a separate but equal approach. Here are some suggestions.
  3. Ins and Outs of Using Gadgetry – It’s time to publish the first installment of what should be the Big Book of Basic Technology Knowledge — the prerequisite for using electronics in today’s society.
  4. Developer Segmentation: Tell Me What You Think. Or How the Web “Killed” the Professional Developer –  have been giving a fair bit of thought lately to app developer segmentation. Considering how much money is poured into developer relations, its surprising just how little solid segmentation work has been done in terms of understanding developer roles or personae.
*Original format by O’Reilly Radar

Four short links: 23 May 2011*

  1. Project Management: Four Problems to Avoid – It is important that you never trust to luck when you plan a project. Hope is not a strategy. Remember the words of Napoleon, when he was asked if he believed in luck. He said, “Yes, I believe in luck. I believe in bad luck. And I believe that I will always have it, so I plan accordingly.”
  2. Travel Planning with Microsoft OneNote – I travel a fair amount and I’m always looking for a good way to organize everything I need when I go – I use services like TripIt and Dopplr but think I may have found another tool to add to my kit bag – using OneNote to create a TripBook.
  3. A new appreciation of security theater – The WSJ reported recently that the FBI, looking for fresh leads in the 1982 case of Tylenol poisonings, suspects Ted “Unabomber” Kaczynski and is trying to get hold of a sample of his DNA. Coincidentally I was just thinking about that case thanks to Bruce Schneier.
  4. Are You Talking Yourself Into Failure? – A couple of days ago I watched a fascinating You Tube clip about mantras. Mantras are the things you say to yourself in your head, over and over again – and they have the power to impact how you feel and act in the short term, which ultimately impacts how your life turns out in the long run.

*Original format by O’Reilly Radar

Four short links: 22 May 2011*

  1. The War on Sharing – The war that the record labels is waging to protect its copyrighted music is mistakenly believed to only concern services that explicitly allow you to share music.
  2. 10 interesting details about Twitter’s mysterious CTO – The first Chief Technology Officer of one of the most important communication technology companies of our time has left his job today – and for a guy who made public disclosure easier than ever, we hardly knew the man.
  3. Markets in everything – You’ve committed your life to Jesus. You know you’re saved. But when the Rapture comes what’s to become of your loving pets who are left behind? Eternal Earth-Bound Pets takes that burden off your mind.
  4. Are you a social media expert? – I have to admit that seeing someone call themselves a “social media expert” is one of my biggest pet peeves. Finding the words rock star or guru in a profile gives me the shakes.

*Original format by O’Reilly Radar

Four short links: 21 May 2011*

  1. The business case template is a helpful project management tool that many managers are using to construct their business proposition, in the hope it will be approved.
  2. How Creative are You? – Use this self-test to boost your creativity skills in the workplace.
  3. Inside the videos of Silicon Valley tech companies (marketing secrets) – You’ve seen the videos from Google, Mint, and tons of other startups that Transvideo Studios does. Recently Rocky and I visited them to find out the secrets behind how some of these videos were produced.
  4. 11 Leadership Lessons From Silicon Valley – As you might imagine, the culture at Intel is very fast-paced, as it is with much of the technology industry in silicon valley. Surviving and thriving in a fast culture such as this one takes leadership abilities from everyone across the organization.

*Original format by O’Reilly Radar