Apr 9, 2008 | blog
These public bitchfest’s by the supposed “A-List” really need to be taken offline. This crap has filled my RSS reader for too long – I want to be reading real, valuable, useful information from these “thought leaders”, not this drivel. If you can’t share an opinion in a way that adds value – why bother?
I haven’t bothered to read up on the current brouhaha involving Loren Feldman/Mike Arrington and Shel Isreal because I really couldn’t care less. The result is that TechCrunch has less value today than yesterday, and I now know that I’ll not even bother to stop in at 1938 Media. I’ve got better things to waste my valuable time on.
If you’re wondering when blogging will overtake MSM, you’ll first have to get the leading online “publications” to stop acting like 10 year old playground bullies. Until that happens, and people working on high-profile sites start acting like real professionals blogging will remain a little Gen-Y pipedream.
There – I feel better now. 😉
Apr 5, 2008 | blog
Well I just upgrade my WordPress install to version 2.5. Everything seems to be working as intended, so I’m not too worried about it. After several upgrades, I’ve figured out the best method for me.
- Back up the database, and the WP-specific folders
- Inventory my plugins and verify that they are compatible with the new version
- Disable all those plugins prior to the upgrade
- Make sure that the theme is compatible with the new version
- Upgrade WordPress
- Enable the plugins one at a time, checking their main function to verify that there aren’t any issues
- Finally, test the site in all major browsers, which for me means FireFox, Internet Explorer, Safari, and Opera
It’s gone quite well and I think I’ll test one more thing by publishing this post. That tests the compatibility with Windows Live Writer, my main (and favorite) blogging editor.
Have you upgraded WordPress yet? If so, any issues? Good luck if you’re just getting around to it! 🙂
Apr 4, 2008 | blog
It’s all perception, or how you view things. I’m often trying to change my view of the world by working in different places when I have the chance. Whether that be coffee shop, a cafe, or a park – the change of scenery does wonders for one’s productivity.
Inspiration
That thought was driven home when I looked out the window last evening and watched the beginnings of a beautiful sunset. Just being able to see that sunset after a darn hard day of coding helped change my perspective on the day. It elevated the spirits and allowed me to get more done around the house than I had planned for the evening.
Look for Patterns
So often I see people doing the same thing day in and day out. It’s an easy routine to fall into. After all most tasks are repetitive and we naturally evolve processes to fit them and simply follow the process over and over. Often we don’t even think about the repetition, instead letting the frustration of it cloud our view of things in general.
Trying Things
It’s amazing how changing even the simplest of things can change one’s point of view and bring on a fresh perspective.
- Soundtrack for your life – listen to some tunes while you work
- Rearrange your desk – it’s amazing how moving things around shakes things up
- New wallpaper for you desktop – get some new vistas to look at
- Work remotely – go find that “Coffee-Fi” as my friend Thomas calls it, exactly who says you can’t be productive outside the office
Watching for it
More than anything, simply watching for real opportunities to change how you do things, view things, or even work will help bring a new perspective. You’ve probably been doing this type of thing for your employer, “think outside the box”, but may not have done it as often for yourself.
Stand up for a minute and take a good, slow look around your office, and office mates. Turn all the way around. How many others are looking up or around? I bet you’ll see most of your cube mates “heads down” doing those repetitive tasks we talked about.
What About You
So, what are you going to do? Do you have something that we can learn from? What other things have you found to change your vista?
Photo credit: lulacerdarj
Technorati Tags: Perspectives, Viewpoint, Worldview
Apr 2, 2008 | blog
I just wanted to post a note on email spoofing. In the past two weeks, I’ve become a victim of this shitty practice, with my inbox inundated with thousands of all sorts of not-so-great spam, along with the thousands of mail-delivery failures that accompany a spamming storm of this sort.
To anyone receiving email allegedly from my domain (rickmahn.com) I apologize for any inconvenience it may cause you, but understand that I’m not generating this spam. I am in the process of reporting as many of these messages to the FTC as possible and also am working with my email server host (Google) to help identify, report and curtail as much of this unwanted traffic as I am able to.
This has been happening for about 2-3 weeks, and I’m most worried that my domain will be black-listed because of this spoofing event. Yes, I’ve published the SPF for my domain, and have enabled all technical means to deal with this problem, but this does not stop the people actually trying to spoof my domain (or potentially yours!). It’s all down to detective work at this point, reporting as many of these messages as I have time for around my real job and home life – not an easy task at all.
So, if you’ve gotten spammed by an email that seems to be originating from my domain, I apologize and understand your frustration – I also am being spammed (doubly so) as this happens – and my name and reputation is being affected because of this. The funny thing is that there are only three actual email address that send email from my domain, so it’s easy to tell what’s spam.
Any suggestions on other steps is appreciated!
Technorati Tags: Email Spoofing, Domain Spoofing, Spam
Apr 1, 2008 | blog
I’d like to let my fellow SMBer’s in Minneapolis & St. Paul know about the next SMB-TC event! It’ll be held at the Caribou Coffee in Roseville, just off Snelling Ave. They’ve got a dedicated conference room that may be more conducive to being able to talk with everyone, working WiFi, and great coffee.
Although the room is smaller as it holds ~12 people or so, I think it may let us have better ability to talk without having to play musical chairs. I’m interested in all feedback on this one as I’m going to try to find a similar, larger venue for the May event when we may have some folks from out-state MN join us! So if you can’t make this one, I hope to have the details for the May event all figured out in the next week or so.
You can sign up using the Upcoming Event page: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/467223
Mar 29, 2008 | blog
That’s the question I Friday morning, mainly because I’m just curious what people thought. Originally I had planned to post this later that day, but… life intervened. Anyway, a number of people shared their thoughts and I thought I’d put them together in a short post. So the question was…
What makes today special for you? Is today the day?
I want to say thank you to all my Twitter friends that sent responses, and I really appreciate you letting me share your Friday! I hope that everyone get’s a bit of insight and inspiration from what we share in these Q&A sessions on Twitter – they’re fun!
