Delicious Bookmarks now available for Internet Explorer

If you are still using Internet Explorer rather than Firefox, it would have been difficult to take advantage of my recommendation in October 2006 to start using a web-based bookmarking system. At the time, I recommended using Delicious (see my own public bookmarks here).

Of course, Delicious has had a plugin available for Firefox users for a few years which makes bookmarking websites from within your browser as natural and easy as bookmarking the old way. But better. A lot better.

What I Will Do if Microsoft Buys Yahoo

The impending Microsoft hostile takeover of Yahoo is getting under my skin. Not since the HP-Compaq merger has there been such a more useless waste of human energy and money.

What’s difficult for me to swallow is that Yahoo shareholders may eventually vote for this. These are the same sorts of people who are always looking to trade away good players on sports teams for the hope and speculation that some future drafted player will be the savior of the franchise. Rarely do such wishes come true in sports - and even more rarely do they in business. It seems that no one believes in building anymore, in staying the course, in commitment.

Yahoo’s Fire Eagle

I just got my invite to Yahoo’s new Fire Eagle web application. (Incidentally, they sent along four others that I can give away to whomever would like one - just contact me). I have to say… I’m impressed!

Fire Eagle is, as far as I know, Yahoo’s first full web app built with Ruby on Rails (they normally use PHP/Python for most of their stuff). The idea behind Fire Eagle is that you can update your physical location via a number of methods, including third-party websites and cell phones, and then display it using a number of methods, such as your blog, your Facebook profile, etc. I’m no fan of Rails, having recently abandoned the platform, but if anyone is going to make Rails work and leave the arrogance of its founders in the dust, it’s Yahoo.

WordPress could replace “Growing Disenchantment with Social Networking”

In my prior article I wrote briefly about how I believed social networking, as we currently know it via MySpace, Facebook, et. al., is breaking down - and quickly.

Now, Anne Zelinka of megablog GigaOM reports on Chris Messina’s efforts to use WordPress as a platform to enable blogs to share their own contact lists - much like a ‘friends’ network that you might find on some proprietary system. Then, especially if other major blogging platforms emulate this idea, you’ll be able to have your own friends network on your own branded website or blog. Which is as it should be.

Portfolio Link is Great

I recently discovered a great little website called Portfolio Link. It allows you to very easily create a fictitious stock portfolio to see how good of an investor (or day trader) you might be. However, it is unique from other similar sites in some ways.

I initially had my fake portfolio on Yahoo’s Finance. However, there is no way to prove your merit to others with such a portfolio, because, for ease and convenience, Yahoo, like many other sites, allows you to go back in time and make changes to your portfolio. Thus, I could go back to Google’s IPO date and make a large purchase of its stock and then claim I’m a financial genius.

Del.Icio.Us Finally Snagged Me

A few years ago, I heard about the rage of saving your favorites online (or “bookmarks” as Netscape and Firefox calls them). The advantage was that you would have all your bookmarks in one simple place. For those of us who use multiple computers (home, work, laptop, friends, etc), this was certainly an attraction. I couldn’t recall the number of times I would have to “re-Google” something because I was at the wrong computer. I don’t mind re-googling when it is something easy. For instance, I already know that Dreamweaver’s extension list is at adobe.com and I can just click a few times to get to it. But there is really a better site called…. something about a zone…. dreamweaverzone.com? No, that’s not it… dmzone.com?… no…. ahh, yes.. . Having your bookmarks with you can really save time.

The $39 Experiment

Under the “Why didn’t I think of this?” category, I found about this guy, Tom Locke, who decided to use a roll of stamps and mail letters to 100 different companies asking them for free stuff. He has received all sorts of things back, but what I find typical of mis-managed companies is what some of the companies wrote back in their rejection of his request. Amazing. Tom includes all the text of his letters, each individually tailored to each company he wrote to. My favorite letters of Tom’s are the ones he wrote to Energizer (hysterical), Subway, and Industrial Tool & Die. While some cool companies sent him a few coupons or a free product sample, a special few sent him some big time stuff. Fellowes sent him 4 cans of compressed air! What? I pay through the nose for that stuff. It’s like crack to a techie.