Thursday, March 30, 2006

ze frank

ze frank by the numbers:
1 - this is my blog. sometimes i don't write for a while. that usually means that i am doing something else. i don't forget about you though. i like you.
 
2 - these are things that i made for you to look at. click on them. when i add something new, i'll post it in my blog (see 1).
 
and so it goes...
 
a most interesting site.
 
he recaps the news today.
 
he provides this link to the coalition fatalities for the War in Iraq shown in time phased and superimposed on the map of Iraq. Stunning!
 
 
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Wednesday, March 29, 2006

I Speak of Dreams - Liz Ditz

From her about me section, Liz writes:

I am a 3rd generation Californian. Some life themes:

*organizations in the start-up phases: I was in the second graduating class from The Athenian School; I started working for the Cato Institute in its first year of existence; I was an early board member of the Yosemite Foundation; my daughter was in the third graduating class from The Girls' Middle School.

*wilderness learning: I went to Outward Bound in 1967, when the only women's course available was canoing in the Boundary Waters Wilderness. I went on several National Outdoor Leadership expeditions, incluing climbing Mount McKinley (Denali) in 1973.

*not-for-profit (or public-benefit) corporations: I've served on the boards of the Athenian School; The Yosemite Fund; Filoli; and The Girls' Middle School.

*Skepticism and Education: Someone I know well has a specific learning disability (dyslexia). In the course of helping her become a reader and a scholar, I've found a great many "treatments" that have no basis in evidence. There are also fads in education, such as whole language, that damage students. I write about both.

She writes on Academic Entitlements & More Bad Parenting

She writes on Dressing Your Chid Like a Slut

 

Read more of Liz at I Speak of Dreams.

 

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Thursday, March 23, 2006

Languge Log - Group Blog

Language Log is a group blog about language nuances.
 
What do you mean nuances?
 
Well how about "I found my snowclone in Palo Alto" which gets into the play on words from the old song "I left my heart in San Francisco"
 
So, what else do they write about?
 
How about the "Vanishing Slurs" where a Cole Porter song originally had words with racial slurs and over time these have been changed to become less challenging interpretations of the same song.
 
Hey, that sounds pretty good!
 
Great, read more of the Language Log here.
 

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Kinetic Ideas: A Marketing Blog - Wendy Maynard, the Marketing Maven

From Wendy's About page:

What is a Maven? Well, the American Heritage Dictionary says a maven is: a person who has special knowledge or experience; an expert. Personally though, I prefer the definition found in the Princeton University’s WordNet: someone who is dazzlingly skilled in any field.

And although I could tell you these definitions are the reasons I decided to call myself the Marketing Maven, I think what it really boils down to is my childhood dream of being Wonder Woman. Since I couldn’t very well run around as an adult calling myself by a superhero name, I picked the next best thing - a semi-adult version if you will.

Average open rate of HTML and Text/HTML newsletters is 29.7% over the past 30 days.

Sunday generates the highest average open rate of 41.1%, followed by Saturday at 36.7% for newsletter sent date.

Make time in your schedule for marketing. If you don’t have enough time for this important function, then learn the power of “no.” Treat your marketing time as if it were time with your customers. In other words, it is a non-negotiable aspect of your week that you keep on your calendar.

Don’t break into this time to schedule customer activities. Instead, tell a new customer, “I’m sorry I can’t fit you into my schedule this week. However, I do have time next week (or next month).”

Don’t be frightened of saying “no.” Two things will happen as a part of this approach. The first is that you begin to create demand for your services or products.You reinforce that you are offering a high value to your customers. They will be willing to wait.

Read more of Wendy here!
 
 
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Tuesday, March 21, 2006

LuLu Blooker Blog

Have you heard of the LuLu Blooker Prize?
The Lulu Blooker Prize is the world's first literary prize devoted to "blooks": books based on blogs or websites.

Awarded in three categories:
Fiction • Non-Fiction • Comics

There is also a blog devoted to communications around the prize.

Try saying this three times fast! LuLu Blooker Blog

 
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Six Sigma in the Blogosphere

If you are interested in Six Sigma, then this site might be one to check out.
 
It is a group blog with about 13 different people contributing. Seems to be quite active.
 
Recent posts include:
 
The 360 Degree Feedback Survey (in cartoon format)
 
In honor of St Patrick's Day, some green Six Sigma projects
 
 
 
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Friday, March 17, 2006

You CAN Shortcut Evolution!

Are you ready to be one of the most popular bloggers on the planet?

DON'T WAIT FOR PERMISSION TO SUCCEED! Join 100 Bloggers NOW!

Then add 100 Bloggers to your Technorati Favorites.

It's a numbers game. If we ALL participate, we will break into Technorati's Top 40 Favorites by the end of the week-end.

Technorati is currently tracking more than 30 million blogs. The Corner on National Review Online, No.100 on Technorati's Top 100 (by links) has more than 12,700 links from 2,400 sites. Generating these kinds numbers takes time. This is your opportunity to shortcut evolution.

GENERATE MOMENTUM FOR 100 BLOGGERS AND THEY WILL GENERATE MOMENTUM FOR YOU!

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Success begins today - John Richardson

John Richardson writes in his About section:

Success Begins Today. An interesting concept to be sure.

This blog is dedicated to all the travelers on the journey to success.

Have a successful day… today!

Simple, concise, to the point.

In Follow the Leader, John writes:

A precept of Steven Covey came to mind as we started and stopped in the middle of nowhere. “Begin with the end in mind”, played over and over in my head. How could I be so blind as to end up in this crazy line? After all, all these thousands of people were doing the same thing! How could so many people be so blind? If I had just asked somebody where the line went I would have never got in it. I would have exited out the south entrance just like we did on Saturday.

Following the crowd can be a dangerous thing. Unless you know the destination, the crowd can lead you places that you would never go on your own. When we examine the life roads that we are on we really need to know where we are going. We need a roadmap, directions, and a guide.

In On Writing Well, John writes:

The first audio book in my MBA on the Run series is a classic listen. This is a book that every student should have in their library. Entitled “On Writing Well“, author William Zinsser takes the subject of writing and breaks it down into four simple principles. They are Clarity, Simplicity, Brevity and Humanity. If you keep those four principles in mind, your writing will shine.

Read more of John here. After all your success begins today!

 

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Dealing with Darwin - Geoff Moore

 
From Geoff Moore writing at his blog, Dealing with Darwin, comes this gem:

Equity is not actually currency, it is ownership rights, and although markets are willing to trade one for the other, they should not confuse the two.  eBay gave up around 4% of its ownership rights to gain Skype.  That is a good deal if Skype can change eBay’s future earnings potential by more than 4%, a bad deal if it cannot  The cash value of the transaction is a distraction in this calculation.

Read the full posting here.

 

Geoff writes in his one line Bio:

I am an author, consultant, and venture capital partner, with a background in English literature and a wonderful family life.

In Value-based Performance and Performance-based values

Values-based performance characterizes collaboration cultures who commit to altruistic ideals, live these values in their work, and earn thereby the trust of customers and partners .  Performance-based values characterize competition cultures who continually hold themselves accountable to objective metrics of success, regardless of who gets uncomfortable.  The two cultures tend to repel each other, creating nice guys who finish last and jerks who drive Porsches.  But sustainable, good-to-great companies have to combine both.

Read more of Geoff
 
 
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Wednesday, March 15, 2006

A Study in Sherlock - Douglas Johnston

Hey, finding a blog set up to delve into one with whom I can't get away from an association with, is a sure thing to announce to the world that the Hitchhiker Team has found it.
 
Yes, there is A Study in Sherlock, as in Sherlock Holmes. Elementary, my dear!
 
So if you ever had an inkling to know more about the great detective, this is one place to put on your listing. Well done, Watson!
 
My other sites, a million monkeys typing and DIYPlanner.com (home to my free printable kit, the D*I*Y Planner), are more concerned with technological, productivity and creativity issues, but A Study in Sherlock is the home of my passion. Whether you’re a teenage newcomer or an elderly scholar (or a teenage scholar or an elderly newcomer), I hope you’ll find something to enjoy in these pages.

The game is afoot. Do not delay! Go to A Study in Sherlock!

 

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Sushi Kiddush

In his own words...

Sushi Kiddush is a travelogue blog, but not of the travel book milieu where the journey drives the plot. Instead, environment collides with memory. Place is very important to me because a seemingly ineffectual passing moment might hold the key to another world. A random thought or memory might effect my very footsteps in present time. Judaism is the fabric of my life. The organic, circuitous, sometimes, labrynthine experience of reading Sushi Kiddush is my Jewish life. Nothing is incompatable in my world. Nothing is inconsequential.

Read Sushi Kiddush.

Who is Cynthia Clay?

NetSpeed Leadership is her company. They do stuff--cool stuff. But this ain't about them. This is about Cynthia. [She looks more like a Cindy to me]. And her blog. Lots of good stuff here. Not company stuff, but cool stuff.

Here is a lil'bit of Cynthia's bio:
Over the last 23 years, Cynthia Clay, President of NetSpeed Leadership, has trained, coached, and mentored hundreds of emerging leaders at companies like Blistex, REI, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, and Valero Energy. Clients in dozens of industries—from manufacturing, retail, and banking to entertainment, high tech and healthcare—have benefited from her extensive experience and innovative learning strategies.

Clay's recent posts include: Taking a stand as an ethical leaders... Learning new skills... and Communicating at work. Check them out.

Read Cynthia Clay.

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Orange Politics - Ruby Sinreich

Ruby Sinreich writes (with others) at orangepolitics.org. The About section goes into more details:
Although the title sounds definitive, this web site is most decidedly not. Everything here is explicitly biased toward the authors' and editors' points of view. Take that as you like. The purpose of this website is to encourage residents of Orange County, NC to get involved in their community by offering education and perspectives on local and regional issues. We also hope to enable productive dialog about local issues, to better understand each other and our community.

Ruby also writes her personal blog at lotusmedia

You get a two-for-one deal today!

Happy reading.

Living the Luxe Life - Stacy

Stacy is a voluptuary and writes at Living the Luxe Life.

What is a voluptuary?
The dictionary tells us that it’s a person given to the pursuit of luxury, and pleasures of the senses. For me, it goes beyond that, to embracing everything that's good in the world and that allows me to live a wonderful life.

For many people, that level of enjoyment seems best left to the wealthy, or reserved for special occasions. But what I know for certain is that that’s just not true. Luxury is all around us, all the time. And it’s not expensive (necessarily!) to bring luxury into our lives. Luxury, to me, is simplicity, perfectly executed. To me, it’s an everyday thing, and in part, a mindset.

I enjoy the small and large, the free, the inexpensive and the obscenely expensive yummies our world offers us all. If it's comforting or comfortable, I want to know about, and preferably experience it. I look for it all the time, surround myself with what I love, and most importantly, am grateful for every bit of it, always.
She writes on Discomfort, Lavender Vanilla Snow,
and Technology: It's great when it works! amongst her more recent posts.

You should read more of Stacy here.

Monday, March 13, 2006

The Practice of Leadership - George Ambler

George writes in his About section:

Basically, I experience blogging as Thinking! On this journey through life we all need a place to collect our thoughts, a place to reflect and learn from life’s experiences. This is why I blog, to think and shape my thoughts. Additionally, my blog keeps me motivated and committed to the practice of leadership, to keep inspired, to continue learning, exploring and connecting with people. This keeps me more conscious and aware of my journey through life and its possibilities.
He has a nice write up on SMART goals.

His tagline is:
It’s only in the practice of leadership that we influence our world…

How true!

Read more of George here.

/Message - Stowe Boyd

Stowe Boyd has a new blog and new endeavor. He is writing now at /Message and his goal is to get into the Technorati 100 in 90 days.

Now, I hesitated to do this posting. The Hitchhiker goal is to focus on the long tail. Stowe is not long tail. Sure, his new blog started out on the bottom... but he is not the average Joe just starting out a blog. When writing at Get Real for Corante, he was 1448.

What won me over is that if there is a game to play to get into the Top 1000, I'd like to know what it is. I may still not play but at least that is my choice. And you may be interested!

Besides Stowe does post on a variety of interesting stuff.

Starting from zero; Day 60

eTech Wrap up, the 3 Threes

Doc Searls on the Intention Economy


Read Stowe!


Updated 3/14/06 - changed 100 to 1000 as the target based upon a correction from Stowe. I had dropped the zero accidently.

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Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Mentor Audio

Are you into podcasts?

Would you like a 1 minute or 10 minute message from a mentor?

On topics like Courage, or Destiny, or Problems

You can subscribe via RSS to the podcast feed or to the feed and comments, for the 1 minute messages or for the 10 minute messages.

Check it out!

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Antonella Pavese

From Antonella's About page:
I've always been an hopeful pessimist. I can see that the glass is half empty, but I cannot stop looking for ways to add just a little bit more water (or wine). I am always restless and seeking, because deep inside myself I know that I can be happier, that the world can be a much better place, that we can build much more usable interfaces, and that we can create better and more compassionate user experiences.

From When shopping online becomes a personal experience:

People add value to things. The sushi candle kit looks and smells better because a person made it, put it in a box, and wrote a personal note to me. I feel as I know Nikola. A picture of her and her two children, B.B. and Ritzy, is posted on the Sticky Wicket Crafts website. I know that she lives in Seattle and if I happen to go there, I can find her at the Pike Place Market.

Suddenly, shopping online is not anonymous anymore. It's about real people living in real places. Forget the mysterious vendors hiding behind E-bay nicknames. Forget electronic devices shipped directly from Shanghai to your home and made by some unknown worker in white clean suits.


From The girl made of glass:

I am still reading Necessary Dreams (and yes, you should read it too. You should read it if you are a woman; you should read it if you are a teacher; you should read it if you are a manager; you should read it if you still believe that women are "less ambitious" and care less about their careers than men do; you should read it if you feel overwhelmed and ready to give up.). Anna Fels unveils the many subtle and less subtle biases that have the net effect of providing less social recognition to women, which translate in a greater fragility of women's ambition. She tells me that if I feel overwhelmed and inadequate it's probably because I don't have enough support and recognition in my work environment, not necessarily because I am bad and faulty; and that this is true of everybody, not just of me.

Read Antonella!

Friday, March 03, 2006

The blogosphere trail is open

Troy posted:

The blogosphere is a giant time capsule that offers a panoramic view of our world. It is a collection of personal expressions that represent virtually every human perspective of our times. It is filled with millions of personal accounts, diaries, essays, stories and photos. It is filled with art. It is filled with emotion. It is filled with thought. It is our collective conscience. Better than any collection of books or articles, the blogosphere will capture the story of our existence.


I posted:

We still have lots of snow on the ground here in New England
but I look forward to getting to a trail and hike in the spring.

You get a water bottle, a snack, your good comfy boots,
your camera, etc. together in our day pack
and arrive at the trail head.

You sign in on the trail log.
Check the sign out comments, usually some good info there.
Almost a real time update that the guide book can not provide.

And start walking.

Similar to what Troy and I are starting here.
You can consider this a trail head.

We are both hiking in the blogosphere.

We have our individual likes and dislikes, our passions
and a common desire to share the experience with fellow hikers.

As we find a blogger voice that sounds like something you might be interested in we'll post it here.

We are dependent upon your feedback to let us know how we are doing.
So come back often. We hope you'll find some good things here.



Originally posted 3/3/2005

Yes, the hiking has been underway for one full year!

Thursday, March 02, 2006

blogher helps today

Partly 'cause I am lazy today
Partly 'cause Alanna Kellogg already has a great round up
Partly 'cause I'm hungry
 
and
Partly 'cause it provides more links than I was going to do with one posting
 
You get to follow this link to find a good bunch of blogs from around the world
 
Enjoy!
 
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Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Paul Stamatiou

Paul Stamatiou writes at Paul Stamatiou.com. He is
... a 19 year old student at the Georgia Institute of Technology majoring in Computational Media. This is his blog where he talks about tech news, reviews and guides.
He is 57th on the Technorati Favorites listing so he does not need my help in providing exposure. But you might need him.
 
He writes about Apple
 
He writes about the Flock browser.
 
If these items interest you, you might need to read Paul here.
 
 
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