Category: Internet (Page 31 of 40)

I now have an official Web site up and running for my new business, User Savvy. We specialize in Web strategy, covering usability, branding, design and related issues.

User Savvy is going to be a weblog and publishing center for articles on the industry, but I’m still getting Movable Type configured, so expect the blog launch sometime next week. Once it goes live, the Ideapad will refocus on expository writing and non-Internet observations.

I am actively seeking new business, so drop a line if you’d like to chat.

The Ideapad turned five on November 1. How long ago is that? When I started this blog, my computer—a 233 mhz Apple G3 with a 4GB hard drive—was still new. (I upgraded the 4GB drive to an 80GB Maxtor two weeks ago.)

Today I finally switched my site search from an Atomz engine to Google’s free search option. Yeah, Google may run text ads next to my search results, but Atomz had stopped performing well. Atomz’s free engine has a 500-page limit, and the spider was digging into individual-item weblog display pages, then not including them in the search results anyway. Odd and inconvenient.

Google doesn’t always register database query pages in its search results either, so I have returned to making monthly fixed-code backups of the Ideapad to improve the search engine performance. Makes for a nice memento, too.

For those of you scoring at home, I also combined the search and contact info into a single page and updated the Ideapad sidebar for the first time in way too long.

Spent the day at Ad:Tech yesterday. Sometimes a conference floor still feels like 1999—lots of companies with forward-sounding names, free candy everywhere, and plenty of mine-is-bigger-than-yours plasma screens.

The tone is different now, though. Lots of people are inquiring about personal, not business-development, opportunities (myself not excluded). Conference floor space is far smaller than it used to be. And the free swag is much more humble.

Sat in on a decent blog-marketing panel moderated by Rick Bruner, but it was doomed by faulty T1 wiring and an end-of-day timeslot. But hey, one third of the New York’s “emerging chattering-class VIPs,” so I can’t complain. (Although Anil needs a haircut. Heh.)

New York magazine has a fun column this week about the New York media blog movers and shakers (we know better than to call it an A-list). Jason Kottke, we hardly knew you.

Nifty graphic of New York’s power supply and demand for Thursday. Can you spot the discrepancy?

World New York is cookin’ these days.

Check it out: I’m a homework assignment. (July 1 item; thanks, Nick!)

I would love to read some of the submissions. Please contact me if you know where to find them.

According to this report, Apple is wisely (and perhaps proudly) submitting iTunes sales data to SoundScan, giving an added burst of legitimacy to its numbers.

When I was younger I used to consider buying some of my CDs intentionally at larger stores where sales were being reported to SoundScan. Let my indie voice be heard! So I’m spending my $15 at Sam Goody—at least the world will know I’m buying the new Odds record. BBC Records will understand.

SoundScan has been tracking online music sales for a while, so this news isn’t a big stretch. But it is good news.

I updated my home page today (mainly to refine the self-aggrandation now that my three-pronged weblog is back to one) and rediscovered my home page archives. I have faithfully saved my index files dating back to 1999, archiving a page the last day before a change. Take a look:

October 1999

January 2000

May 2000

September 2000

from when I switched servers (11/00? no date listed)

December 2000

January 2001

January 17, 2001

February 2001

August 2001

August 2001 to June 2002

June 2002 new

February 2003

March 2003