February 3, 2010
Google’s aggressive Adsense purging logic may be the first crack that will break the Adsense program
Ok,
Google made a big sweep a couple months ago and de-activated about 20% of their Adsense publishers. My personal account which I used for this blog was deactivated for “posing a significant risk to the Google Adsense program”. Well guys, that account had been in use for over 6 years and was generating about $30/month in Adsense revenue to me. How big a risk is that to the powers that be? After appeal there was no detailed response, just “we can turn you off for any reason at any time and we don’t have to tell you why. Telling you why might reveal our secrets of how we determined you were a deadbeat in the first place.” Ok, so my $30 a month Adsense account was a threat to national security. The revenue barely covered hosting costs.
So I took my lumps and am going to go without ads and eat the hosting costs. Over at Kashless, we are starting a new project and I set up an Adsense account for that. Same name on the account, different email, different address (the company). After two days and NEVER having deployed Adsense with that account code (site still in development), I receive an email from Google saying that account has been de-activated for posing a “significant risk to the Adsense program”. The only thing I can think of is that the smarty pants at Google have some logic that snoops out people trying to get around an Adsense account de-activation by setting up another account and cuts those people off at the knees. Well that is certainly their right and privilege. But here is a news flash Google: “The new account is for a new business totally unrelated to the old one!” And the account was NEVER deployed on ANY site. I can understand if they had logic which said “oh, on this URL there was an Adsense account that we deactivated and now there is another Adsense account there from a similar guy, so lets deactivate”. But it seems that Google is using an Hammer and their logic is too broad.
All that is going to do is cause start-ups to go to another ad platform. Advertising.com, Burst, Adbrite and the rest should be thanking Google. Actually I am thanking Google because now I will be using a different ad network and maybe someone else will get enough scale to compete with Adsense. Adsense is sewing their own demise.
Posted by Martin at 11:11 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Removing software time again
Every couple of months I go through and thin the crap.
Here are today’s losers:
Yahoo messenger: I mean really, who uses Yahoo anymore?
afreecodecVT. No idea why it is there. Probably needed for some obscure video project long forgot.
Comcast High Speed internet installation wizard. Never works to diagnose my connection problems and contains tracking software that lets Comcast stalk you. No good.
Comcast desktop doctor: ibid
McAfee security scan. Using Microsoft instead. No reason to pay for virus protection.
Player. No idea what this is, probably some download for a media playback i never use anymore.
Sohail’s gmail notifier. was supposed to fix the problem of opening gmail as default mail client when clicking on a MAILTO: link in browser. Didn’t. Still looking for a solution.
TokBox. Was in love, never use it anymore. Have Google Talk, don’t need a UI for that at $9.99 a month.
SupportSoft Assisted Service: YAT (Yet another Trojan)
Yahoo Toolbar, software update, search protection: Yahoo, Really?
YourMinis AIR widget thing: Was curious, Never used it.
Posted by Martin at 9:43 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
April 20, 2009
uninstalling crap
Came home from Hawaii. Windows Vista desktop pegged, both processors at 100% and all 6 gigs of memory taken. Processes gone wild. Removing a bunch of stuff including
SpringBox (never used)
Twhirl (mobile only )
RescueTime (too processor heavy, never used)
WindowsLive Sign-in Assistant (never use)
w.Bloggar 4.02 (moved to WindowsLive Writer)
Snitter (Stopped using)
Spoke (never used, lots of overhead in Outlook)
SmartShopper (totally annoying sidebar)
Blackberry Media sync (installed Roxio sync which is a HOGGGGGGGGGG)
that seemed to have gotten rid of most of the hogs I don’t use anymore. System running MUCH faster.
(oh, and I tuned BackBlaze down to faster network while I work)
CPU utilization now 12% and 9% respectively, memory utilization 49%
Posted by Martin at 11:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 13, 2009
Another Google chrome error
I was downloading a new HP printer driver from here and Chrome didn’t do the download redirect to the FTP server correctly. I got a “file not found” error. IE opened up the download and install dialogue just fine. Chrome not ready still.
Posted by Martin at 6:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 17, 2008
How to make Windows Vista less annoying
Just did all these tweeks suggested by The How-To Geek. Wow, way faster! Especially with the Drobo copying files over. Thanks Geek!
Posted by Martin at 9:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 5, 2008
10 minute review of online task managers
Looking for a better task manager than LookOUt. Tried a couple with Jott integration. All sucky.
1. KeepUp. If you only do tasks that everyone else on the plante does like "anniversary" and "daylight savings time" and "pick up the kids". then this one is for you. I actually have my own life and my own tasks. Making a "custom task" is a pain. No outlook upload. Dead.
2. 43actions. Only for the hard core geek. Very minimal (good). too minimal (bad). Feels like the old line editor "vi". No instructions. No outlook upload. You gotta have read the GTD book and love that system. Next...
3. Sandy. Cute graphics. appeal to the undersexed geek in me. No outlook upload. Simple command understanding like "remind", but separate calendar. You can subscribe to the Sandy calendar in outlook on the web (cool), but unfortunately that is not my main calendar. bad. Next.
They all suck. So it seems that Jott has integated with a bunch of sucky task managers. Hummmmm....
Posted by Martin at 2:00 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
January 17, 2008
Time for reduction of bloatware
Milan Kundera wrote once that there are two ways to define the self. Addition and Subtraction. Every couple months I go into subtraction mode on my PC, getting rid of software I don't use and is clogging up my PC. My laptop has less than 2% free space on a 100gig drive, so it is time. Here are some of the things going away, no longer useful.
Microsoft Works (use office)
Thunderbird (use outlook)
ITunes (hate it)
Rhapsody (ibid)
Bittorrent (moved to server)
SKype
Azeraus
Apple Software Udate
Apple Mobile device support
Client Security Solution (wah?)
uTorrent
GD Bloomberg gadget
HP Customer Participation Program (200mb!)
IRI portal
Java 5 (kept 6)
MS office Communicator
Panatech PC Card Software
Sonic Wall VPN
Sprint Mobile Broadband
Thinkpad presentation center
WinAmp Remote
Posted by Martin at 11:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 6, 2007
Removing software
Laptop complaining about only having 500MB left on 82gig drive. Time to remove stuff I am not using. Removing the following. Anyone see why I should keep any of it?
1. Access Help (never used)
2. Microsoft Business Contact Manager for Outlook 2003 (176mb) never used.
3. blackberry desktop software 4.2. I used to sync initially, but now use wireless. With new 8300 you can just use it as a hard drive and use windows to move media files over, so no need. I have also been getting alot of duplicate forwards and I think it is related to the desktop redirector conflicting with the enterprise server. (54mb)
4. Cloudmark desktop (had two installed) (8.62mb)
5. emusic 50 MP3 offer (never took)
6. Google toolbar for Internet Explorer (i use Firefox)
7. Go to Meeting/ never use
8. PC Doctor 5 for Windows. Never used and when I did, it was basically a UI for the windows system tools. Stupid.
9. Productivity center supplement for Thinkpad (what?)
10. PC Tools Registry Mechanic. Used once, never used again.
11. Rhapsody Player engine. (i hate anything from Real Networks, don't know how this got on there)
Posted by Martin at 2:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 20, 2006
The REAL disk hog
Ok,
I am sometimes a slow study, but I finally got a handle on why my 60gig HD was always so frick'n full. And why I kept having to delete 10MB applications to keep 200MB free on the disk. It was the ThinkPad auto Backup utility. It is set by default at the factory to make a COMPLETE copy of the C:\ drive ON the C:\drive. Basically forcing you into a software RAID configuration. Now I have a back-up utility that grabs my hard drive every night and copies it over my home LAN to my own RAID system. Also Windows is running it's own restart and recovery backup. So here is how the math was working. Base Windows, about 10gig. Windows was creating it's own back-up and using the .Cab files, double the 10 gig = 20gig. Then about 6 gig of other new applications and music, etc. = 26 gig. ThinkAdvantage was copying that whole partition on itself = 26x2= 52 gig. With windows overhead and a system partition, the 60 gig drive only had 52 gig of free space. Therefore my drive was CONSTANTLY full. And full with multiple copies of itself. Then my home back-up software was copying the whole 52mb (with three copies of windows already in there) over to my RAID system. Wow, no wonder the disks fill up so fast.
So what did I do? I deleted the back up to local hard-disk in the ThinkAdvantage back-up configuration. Presto, 26 gig more space. I was thinking to disable their back-up all together since I have one at home, but instead added a back-up to a network drive in the office giving me TWO back-up utilities running on this drive. Never enough. Just started de-frag. Wow, what will I do with all the space!
Posted by Martin at 10:47 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 13, 2006
Removing more software
I should really get a larger hard disk. Or maybe use a desktop instead of only my laptop. But alas maybe having a 40Gig drive is good for me. Forces me to make choices. Here are the cadidates going today:
AdAware Personal SE. 3.4mb Going with the Microsoft anti-spyware stuff. Microsoft isn't as good, but it is smaller.
CardScan 7.0.04 have the assistant doing that now. 94.5mb
EFax 4.0, 16mb, never used
Posted by Martin at 11:59 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 17, 2006
uninstalling software
- Picasa, photo viewer. It installed with Google desktop toolbar. Never used it. I like the screen saver from Google that automatically grabs photos and makes them the screen saver. I bet it uses some Picasa stuff so I may have to re-install it, but I needed the 35mb. In general I have not found a photo organizing software that I would actually use.
- Palm ActiveSync Bluetooth plugin. Installed to go with my new Treo 700W. Bluetooth can't say connected with the X41 long enough to do a full sync (probably has something to do with my 6456 contacts). So I am using the cable.
- Microsoft ActiveSync 4.0. INstalled for the Treo 700W. this is desktop sync. I have the Treo to try to get syncing working over the air direct to the Exchange 2003 server. Don't need it. And it sucks anyway.
Posted by Martin at 10:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 10, 2006
Removing software
Windows was complaining this morning about not enough space for it's swap drive, so it is time for a little new years cleaning. Removed all the following software:
- PC Doctor for Windows
- Thunderbird (using Outlook)
- Quicktime (part of iTunes and if I ever need it will download it)
- iTunes (horrible program, i use WinAmp)
- PC Help
- Google toolbar for IE (I use FireFox)
- System Migration Assistant 5.0 (wish I had seen that when I bought the computer)
There were three or four others that I removed but forgot to write down. I probably also need to make the C drive partition larger. In three months I will be back at it again after downloading a bunch more stuff.
Posted by Martin at 9:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 30, 2005
Wow i got another patent
Those helpful folks at Patent Awards were nice enough to send me a little reminder that I am the co-inventor of the Digital VCR: Digital remote recorder - Patent 6981050 Hope Loudeye gets some $$ for it!
Posted by Martin at 4:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 6, 2005
Network Magic 2.0 good, but waiting for 3.0
For the last month I have been using Network Magic 2.0 from the Ignition Partners portfolio company Pure Networks. Today my trial expires and I have to decide to buy or not. It is with much regret (since I am investor in the company) that I am not buying this version but am going to wait for the next.
Here is a high level overview of my home LAN.
Cable modem with Comcast going into a
Linksys WRT54GX firewall/router
going into a DLINK gigabit router for the WIRED lan.
1 iMAC connected wireless on 802.11b
1 dual Pentium server with 4TB RAID connected gigabit wired Windows XPpro
1 HP desktop Pentium Windows Home gigabit wired
1 Dell laptop connected 802.11b
1 IBM x40 laptop connected 802.11g
1 MAC mini connected wired gigabit
I installed the Network Magic 2.0 trial on the ibm x40 laptop and the HP desktop.
Here is what I like about the software:
1. Home networking is a pain in the butt. I am the Sys Admin at home as many of you probably are. Network management was designed for sysadmins not humans. There is a HUGE need for software that makes it easier for humans to run small LANS at home. Network Magic 2.0 has made a good whack at this category and is the best I have found.
2. The automatic public sharing of files and folders through a Network Magic proxy server. Why pay for third party hosting for FTP or even web site when there is extra capacity on my home computers in both CPU, memory and bandwidth? Because my ISP changes the IP address all the time and resolving the DNS is a problem. This is all solved by Network Magic's proxy server fixing an IP address and routing it to my home computer even as the ISP monkey's with the IP address. Great feature.
3. Auto discovery of devices worked will on the MS portion of my LAN.
Here is what I don't like and why I am waiting for 3.0
1. The auto install did not recognize my firmware on the Linksys Wifi Router. I got a message "router not recognized". When I went to their site it said the router was supported and gave a firmware version 1.02.06. My router had version 1.01.10. I had to go to the Linksys page, download a firmware upgrade and intall it then re-run the Network Magic wizard. This time it recognized it. Strike #1, my mother won't do a firmware upgrade to use your product! The message was wrong as well. It should have said firmware version not supported and offered to upgrade it for me. I already gave the wizard my admin password for the router. I know this is more programming, but this is the level of integration that will get my mother to use it.
2. Network Magic found all my devices in MSHome domain but did not discover my MACs. I don't know why and I don't want to know why. Network management software that is supposed to mask technical problems for me is supposed to figure things out like how to see MACS on a Windows network. Strike #2, not finding the MACs.
3.. It is not abundantly clear how to make public on the network my shared folders. First the folders have to be shared in windows, Network Magic doesn't offer to share folders that are not already shared in window. Then for the folders that are shared it offers me to "convert" the folder. That is not a very comfortable word. Why convert? Will it now not be usable on Windows? "Convert" is a scary word. Find another one. So I "convert" My Docs on the HP desktop and go to the IBM X40 to do the same and receive a message "folder already exists". Now if you are targeting average home users, they are probably just letting Windows put things where the default is. This means more than one PC will have the same folder name that is to be shared. Network magic should recognize this and cover for it. If I rename the folder on one PC then Windows won't know where to put things, etc. Strike #3, sharing folders is hard.
4. Like many people my main computer is a laptop. Network MAgic 2.0 was obviously designed only for desktops that never leave the LAN they were set up on. When I took my IBM x40 to Boston on a business trip and connected it to the WIFI network in my hotel, Network MAgic gave me a message saying it was "protecting" my files since I was on an "unknown network". Now all my shared folders don't work. I know why they are doing this because they don't have management of the new WIFI hub. But this is not an elegant failure. They should maybe have some lower level of functionality that DOES work on public networks. Strike #4, inelegant failure on public Wifi networks for portable devices.
5. Node versus LAN management. Let me explain. Each copy of Network MAgic only manages the files and folders on that PC. I can't manage Network Magic folders on another PC. This is a problem. It means I have to go to each PC and manage the properties of NM on that PC. Hell, in Windows I can manage PCs using remote terminal. NM gives me a network view of all the resources but doesn't let me manage any but those on my own PC. Strike #5, single node management versus LAN resource managment.
There are a couple of other nits, but those are the big ones. I love the product category. The Pure Networks people are going in the right direction. I am confident that 3.0 will be the version that gets me to whip out my credit card. I am looking forward to it.
Posted by Martin at 2:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 6, 2005
Trumba: not ready for prime time
i have been looking for some time for a simple to use group calendar program. Was quite excited reading the press on: Trumba OneCalendar. Unfortunately they have committed the ultimate STARTUP SIN. They release a product that SUCKS today but promises to be better tomorrow. Basically if you only use Trumba and everyone you know only uses Trumba, it might solve 10% of your calendar issues in it's current form. But who actually lives like that? What I want is SIMPLE guys:
1. keep my main calendar in Outlook as I have always done on my own desktop.
2. Have that automatmagically synced with an on-line calendar so other people can track my schedule.
3. Choose who can update my calendar on-line from whatever client calendar program they are using (should not have to be Outlook or Exchange).
Basically I want the exchange server calendar function I have inside the firewall, but open to all clients (mac, etc.) and mediated by a hosting provider that can translate stuff.
I-cal doesn't work because it doesn't put calendar items into MY calendar on Outlook. It puts them into a separate calendar window in outlook.
Gosh, guys this isn't that hard. Why hasn't someone figured it out?
(Trumba says they will have a calendar sync thingy for Outlook, but it is not ready - I say why launch without it?)
Posted by Martin at 12:31 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
May 10, 2005
The latest in offshoring
You have heard of outsourcing offshore and nearshore, but what about to a ship? Outsourcing off Los Angeles?. It was bound to happen eventually. Some guy is going to rent a huge ship and fill it with the best cheap programmers he can find and park it exactly at the edge of US waters (out of range of H1B visa) but close enough for clients to pop over on the launch for a meeting. Well that solves many of the time issues.
Posted by Martin at 12:49 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 12, 2005
Trying out public records search engine Pretrieve
A frequent reader pointed me to his new venture: Free Public Record Search Engine - Pretrieve. Interesting front-end to multiple public databases. Of course, as with every new search engine, the first thing I do is put in my name. Here are some interesting things:
1. I didn't know I had a patent for a "thrust bearing".
2. The political contribution list didn't list all my contributions (probably because I made some through companies, good info to know).
3. The UI is ok, but not optimal. When you type in a name and a state, you still get results of names in other states (that aren't the right person). Also, I would prefer a tab view to the current nested HTML pages view. Not sure I want to click through to each database. Why don't you just show me all the results in tabs with the sources highlighted. With this current view, I still have to pick a database. What if I don't know which database? I want you to do the search work.
4. The front-end you are providing to the public databases needs to be thicker. Needs to provide more navigation help, more smarts. More Google. Just providing a nested tree of html front-ends to specific databases.
Good start though.
Here is how Paul Bunting (founder) describes the site:
Pretrieve is a public record search engine designed to help make finding and researching public record information from free sites on the internet faster and easier for everyone. Pretrieve is a Deep Web search engine, not a web crawler. Our engine is designed to query third party databases on the users' behalf to retrieve specific information related to the business, person, or address they are researching. We're not just a "List of Links" that dumps users off at the front page of a website to let them navigate their way to the information they seek. We execute java script that delivers the user directly to their results. We present our users with a categorized menu of information options and take them to their search results in one click - no more redundant data entry. The best way to experience Pretrieve is to test it yourself. You can use the quick search to see if the business or individual is listed in an online phone directory and start your research, or you can use the "Advanced Search" function and enter more specific information about your subject to get more refined results.
We are still a small technology start up, but we are focused on growing our library of valuable search links as rapidly as financially possible. We feel that free web based public records is a valuable information resource that most researchers and consumers fail to take advantage of because it takes too long or they simply can't find them. We believe that we can help our users make better decisions about the companies and people they choose to do business by helping them make better informed decisions. Our users are a diverse bunch that includes lawyers, journalists, Investigators, mortgage & title companies, real estate professionals, health care companies, and our most recent addition: online daters ! It seems that those tech savvy daters out there prefer "Pretrieving" someone to "Googling" someone because of the depth of information.
Sincerely,
Paul Bunting
President
Pretrieve, LLC
(404) 314-9653
www.pretrieve.com
Posted by Martin at 10:22 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 28, 2005
Removing more crap
Ok,
running low on the C drive, so deleting some stuff:
Microsoft Money 2004 and teh System Package
Azesus (no idea why I have it)
Age of Empires (never play it)
Picture Gear Studio 2.0
Quicken 2003 New User Edition
About a gig free. Mostly free software that came with the PC that I never use.
Posted by Martin at 2:29 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
January 12, 2005
The new year is a time for change
As the year goes along, I tend to add alot of stuff to my computer. New programs, e-mail list services, whatever. For some reason around the new year I always get the urge to purge. Here are some of my latest purges:
Leaving the mailing lists for;
Expedia travel offers (i never took any of them anyway)
Shavlik technologies vulnerability assessment newsletter (invested in a competitor, Lockdown Networks).
VentureWire alert (never anything I don't already know in there).
Ken Rutkowski's Ken Radio tech news. Ken is great, but I have too much news already.
ClearStation's daily portfolio update (I am no longer trading through them nor doing day trading, this is really a day trader platform).
Network World SOHO technology (the reporting has been soooo bad for sooo long I wonder why I didn't ditch it earlier).
SmartHome newsletter (I am just going to let my contractor do this and these guys are X10 bigots anyway).
Northwest Energy Effeciency Alliance list serve (this is an electricity industry insider RFP announcement thing, never got any new information here).
PaidContent.org's daily news brief (as much as I enjoy Rafat's reporting, I am not going to be doing any deals around microcontent in 2005 so I am over it).
RFID Journal newsletter (at one point I thought about doing an RFID deal, but I doubt I will do one in 2005).
AlwaysOn and anything "new" Red Herring (Never found anything new here and very high signal to noise ratio).
Bose Corporation e-mail (hey guys, I have the headphones, when I need more stuff I will find you).
Classmates.com newsletters (they make it incredibly hard to leave, so I just changed my e-mail address to one i send all the spam to).
Cisco technical support newsletter (i love my AeroNet access point, but have never read the news letter).
comming next... More deleted software and the upside, What I still subscribe to!
Posted by Martin at 8:09 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
December 21, 2004
Uninstalling more software
Uninstalled Optimal Desktop from Desktop Organization: Integrated Web Browser, RSS reader, File Manager : Get anywhere with 3 clicks or less. Never used it, never saw a reason for another UI other than Windows. It ain't broke, no reason to fix it.
and Sidepipe. The media player enhancement. Looks like their site is down too. Maybe they are in the ether with their bits.
the Wild Tangent web viewer. Dammit, that thing is like a bad penny! It just keeps coming back!
VCN Agent from IP Dynamics. A very interesting idea, private run DNS servers to allow virtual private networks with their client code. All encrypted, IP address independent. I like the idea. Didn't really use the software in my business. As an investment, a pretty crowded space to get into at this stage of the game.
Any@web viewer home edition 2.2. The best WIFI network sniffer I have found. But I only had the trial version and didn't feel like paying (not snooping coffee shops enough lately). I can buy whenever I want and I probably will. Ah, what the hell, they have a 2.7 version on their site. Downloading now... Out with the old, in with the new.
Posted by Martin at 8:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 29, 2004
Google goes local
Google Local is now in beta. Cool integration between search results and a map. You get a map with a bunch of letters on it that relates to the results on the left. It is unclear to me how the results are ranked. And it is clear that the results are just culled from regular crawls that their bot does. There is no additional qualification of ranking or information added. I am not sure how useful it is.
If I want a coffee shop there are hundreds in Seattle. I don't just want coffee. I want my friend's favorite one. Or the "best of Seattle latte". Or one near my next meeting with WiFi access and a confortable chair so I can do some e-mail before the meeting. Local search has a long way to go.
Try this: Search for "coffee shops" on local.google.com and do the same search on www.judysbook.com. On Google you get the corporate shops, Starbucks, Tully's, SBC, etc. On Judy's book the first result is Victrola Coffee & Art which I happen to know is a local favorite. Judy's book adds user rankings into the mix to give you much better results. It is a start...
Posted by Martin at 10:58 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 24, 2004
Deleting Viewpoint
Early this morning a window popped up and asked me if I wanted to update the Viewpoint viewer? I had never asked to install anything from Viewpoint. I said no, but it installed a toolbar in my browser anyway. So I go to programs and there are three things from viewpoint. A "Viewpoint Manager", a "Viewpoint media player" and a "viewpoint toolbar". I deleted them all. I guess my spyware needs to be updated...
Posted by Martin at 10:44 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 18, 2004
Removing more software: Feli-X
I had installed the Feli-X browser as a part of reviewing the Optimal Access desktop experience. I didn't get much time with the product, but in part that is because it didn't do much for me. It tries to be a glorified RSS reader, but I already have a bare bones one (newsgator) integrated with Outlook thank you very much. There are some catchy features like automatically creating a tabbed view of all the outbound links from a blog (for example, the "what I read" section from DGC becomes tabs). Not enough compelling features to take up desktop space or my brain bandwidth.
Posted by Martin at 10:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Removing Life Balance
Another application that seemed interesting, but didn't catch my daily use. LifeBalance from Llamagraphics is an eager attempt to show you in graphical form the balance you have in your life between the varying demands of today's life. For example work, family, socializing, politics, community service, spiritual development, etc. The purpose would be two fold. First to see where you are at today, second to plan changes to a different balance. Now the very idea that there is a "perfect balance" over time for the different elements is absurd to me, but I was curious. In my experience, you need to track over quite a long time to get the real balance. There are days and weeks that are dedicated to one portion versus the other. For example today I am flying from Seattle to Phoenix for a lunch meeting then up to SFO for a dinner meeting and more tomorrow then back to Seattle. This is almost exclusively work related. This weekend I have two birthday parties with Finn and one of her friends is coming over for a sleep over Saturday night.
Anyway, why am I ditching the software? First, you have to populate the thing with all your activity. You can't import from Outlook Calendar. Stupid. Second, you have to tag all your activities with metadata so the software can roll up the categories for you. Now my work meetings and time are fairly well tagged, but my spiritual life, book reading, family life, and socializing are not. Doing this once for a snapshot in time, may be an interesting intellectual exercise, but without the long-term view as I mentioned before, I don't think the analysis is useful. The maintenance required for the long-term is too much. So I played around with the sample data, spent about two hours trying to figure out if I could easily integrate this software into my Outlook, then gave up. Not enough benefit for the work. Someone in the throws of the "what am I going to do with my life?" decision with allot of time on their hands might have gotten further. But there are much easier ways to get similar insights without using clunky software. Read Po Bronson's "What am I going to do with my life?" or the "what color is my parachute?" series. See a shrink. Don't bother with this software.
Posted by Martin at 10:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Removing Netscape 7.1
I only installed Netscape 7.1 to test incompatibilities between IE and MT 3.0 comments feature. Since, I have discovered Firefox and fallen in love. No need for the intrusive Netscape. Their incessant branding and co-selling of everything AOL is annoying. Do I want Netscape broadband? NO. Do I want to make Netscape.com my home page? NO. Do I like the miniature "N" chasing the AIM guy? NO. LEAVE ME ALONE! I just want good browser software. I have that with Firefox thank you.
Posted by Martin at 10:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 28, 2004
Eliyon is better than Google for people
In times of extreeme boredom I have been known to Google my own name. Come on admit it, so have you. What you get is pretty disorganized. Now what if a search engine was optimized to find people and organize their lives into search results? That would be: Eliyon People Finder. Great for background searches, sales leads, etc. All of this information is gleaned from public sources by a robot. This kind of service has the potential to really disrupt the high value database business run by Lexus/Nexus and the like.
Posted by Martin at 3:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 7, 2004
Mary Meeker's China Report
Here is the direct link to the pdf file. China_Internet_Report0404.pdf (application/pdf Object)
Posted by Martin at 8:27 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 1, 2004
Uninstalling some more products...
My home desktop was starting to sag badly under the weight of all the crap I have installed, so I went through somewhat of a cleanup process today (in preparation for more no doubt).
I deleted PixPo, a file sharing service. It sets up a server and runs a couple of backround processes. You also have to encourage your friends to install the same software for the system to work. I was going to go through that braindamage, but then decided not to. If I am going to share photos, I want it to leverage some of the existing standard features of Windows (like .NET and messanger and the VPN client) so that it is VERY light weight for other members to join. Like maybe I have to run the server software, but everyone else can participate at some level with just a browser. I had so many servers running that performance was pathetic. Bye Bye PixPo.,
Deleted the Tivo Desktop. It too runs a server and takes up lots of memory. I like its feature set, but I am not currently using it all that much. I just was testing it. In the future, I will set up a dedicated server to run stuff like that. For now though that server is running Linux Suse 9.1 and Tivo only runs on XP..... Bye Bye Tivo desktop.
Deleted FeedDemon. I have decided to standardize on NewsGator inside of Outlook.
Posted by Martin at 10:46 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 22, 2004
Trying out YouPerform software
I just installed a bundle of Outlook client Utilites from You Software called You Perform. They are marketed as lots of stuff that Microsoft left out. I had used a prior version of the software and it slowed down Outlook so much that I had to remove it.
The first one I am trying is contact duplicate removal. I configured it to move dupes to a separate folder. The first problem I had was that in the dialogue to create a new folder to move the dupe contacts in, the default went into the Inbox. There was an error saying "this is not a contact folder". I had to go up under contacts and create a subfolder. Not a big deal, but a rookie mistake. Why let me create a folder that I can't use? So I started the de-dupe process. This locks up Outlook and gives you only a progress bar. I have 5,700 contacts, would be nice to give me an estimate of how long it will take as you can't use outlook while it runs. That is one gripe I have about most Outlook plugins. If they are going to do real work, they lock up Outlook. Would be nice to have a batch mode you could run later. It took YouPerform 27 minutes to move 401 dupes into my other folder. It did a good job of finding EXACT dupes for ALL the fields specified (I specified first name, last name, company, phone and e-mail). Upon review, there are dupes in name only with different company and e-mail (a common thing) and these were not found. What I would really like is a de-dupe function which is smart enough to figure things like this out and suggest to me remediation steps. You Perform version 1.0 doesn't do this. I find it of little use.
Look for reviews of other utilities as I go.
Posted by Martin at 1:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 25, 2004
Plaxo's response
I got this message from the Privacy officer at Plaxo.
Martin,
My name is Stacy Martin and I am the Privacy Officer here at Plaxo responsible for addressing Privacy, Security, and Trust issues pertaining to the usage of Plaxo.
I apologize if there has been any misunderstanding regarding how to discontinue your Plaxo account. According to our records, your account
continues to remain active on our servers. The information is only being used in accordance with your instructions and our Terms of Service. As you have likely not used your account in sometime, nothing has been done though you may have received updates from some of your contacts.
Like many other Internet-based services, Plaxo has a client software component which interacts with your account located within our service (and servers). Removing the software component from your local system does not delete or discontinue the active membership account. This allows members the ability to use the software of different systems without having to delete their membership. I suspect that while you removed the software, your account was apparently not removed from our servers and thus remained active.
Proper instructions for discontinuing your account can be found on our Support site. Simply put, to discontinue your account with Plaxo, you can simply go to the URL: https://www.plaxo.com/delete_account and follow the instructions located on the page.
Nonetheless, if you would like me to remove your account, please let me know and I'll have it taken care of immediately.
I hope this helps. If we can be of further assistance, please let us know.
Thank you,
Stacy Martin
____________________________
Stacy Martin
Plaxo Privacy Officer 'Stay Connected'
privacy@plaxo.com tel: 650-810-1085
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
After doing the delete account function, I received this....
You no longer have any information on Plaxo's servers and you have been permanently signed out of Plaxo Online. If you decide to use Plaxo again in the future, you will need to re-register.
Thank you for trying Plaxo.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well I will see if that is the case. I hope they in fact deleted all my contacts and not just my personal data.
funny that there is not a link to this delete function on the home page. You have to get it from the privacy officer.
Posted by Martin at 1:43 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
The problem with Plaxo
So I was an early adopter of Plaxo. I have over 7,000 contacts and most are out of date. There are lots of duplicates. I was hoping Plaxo would provide some releif. It didn't. It doesn't do anything about duplicates. It is very intrusive and pestering. I started getting so many requests for updates that they felt like spam. Less than 2% of the update requests I sent out were returned. Now it is a typical chicken and the egg problem in that if everyone was a member, the system wouldn't have to send e-mails for updates and your contacts would be kept up to date automatically by the server. But everyone is not a member. After about six months I removed the software from my machine. I thought that was the end of it.
But yesterday I heard some more about the musical chairs at Plaxo with Shaun leaving and noticing that they claim 3M users. I remember from the digital music player stats wars that there was a significant difference between downloads and useage. I bet that is the same with Plaxo. I bet I am counted in the 2M even though I no longer have the software. Then I got to thinking, hey I uploaded all my contacts to their server! What happened to those? Well apparently they are still there. And I bet Plaxo is spamming them. Apparently a friend of mine signed up and looked me up on the Plaxo system and it said I was still there. This is not a very nice thing to do. I wonder what recourse I have to ask them to remove my data from their system? Isn't it my data? What about the 7,000 contacts I gave them? All the privacy information on their site only deals with your own personal information about you, not others that you shared.
Hummm. I e-mailed the privacy officer. Lets see what they say. I smell a lawsuit.
Posted by Martin at 11:24 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
August 16, 2004
Cool site noting common UI issues
Abandoned Cart is a site dedicated to little annoying things in web User Interfaces that get us all peeved. Well written and thoughtful about how and why certain UI things are stupid. In a "what were they thinking" kind of tone. I recommend having a look for anyone who is thinking about designing a Web UI. Could save ya a lot of time.
Posted by Martin at 1:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 5, 2004
Jaya123, nimble hosted Quicken competitor
Blogs are a great way to find out about new things. Not just searching and reading other people's, but actually publishing your own. I am WAY behind on all the e-mails from readers asking to look at something they are doing. Tonight I had some time, so I took a quick look at reader Al Canton's latest project: JAYA123 - order entry, invoicing on the web.
You may think an old Microsoft guy would be suspicious of the hosted ASP model of selling software. Quite to the contrary. For many applications, it is a superior way to deliver the functionality. Ignition is invested in Entellium which is doing a fast follower to Salesforce.com in the CRM space. Since CRM is used by a mobile workforce (your sales people), it makes all the sense in the world to deliver it through a browser.
Accounting applications also make sense in the browser. Especially for small business. Especially if your application can handle the confusion of local tax policies. Tax and payroll polices across the country are just too complicated for a small business to follow and it makes sense to buy this in a centralized place.
Well lets look at Jaya123. Here is how Al positions the service: "We're just a tiny company trying to compete against Intuit... and believe it or not it's happening. Honestly. We have customers, we're making a few bucks (accent on the word "few")".
I didn't get to spend much time with the application, but it looks like they have done a passable job to deliver basic customer tracking, invoicing and a product catalogue. Take the demo. You get put right into a demo account (User: Demo, password: Demo) and can add/delete, print invoices to your heart's content. You basically tell the application who your customers are, what products you sell, and what kinds of financial transactions you accept. Then you can start invoicing. There are two export interefaces I could find. One for Quicken to output transactions in their QIF format. The second for almost all credit card processing programs (like PC-Authorize, IC-Verify, Transact, etc.) to do your credit card validations. I was looking for the import functions to allow me to upload my customer/product information from what I am now using, but didn't find it. There is actually quite a rich report section with many pre-defined reports. Easy to print shipping labels, employee commission reports, and so on. From here you can also get flat file dumps of your data. The user interface is very basic, nearly flat file oriented. If you think in terms of database tables and like to fill in boxes, you will be happy. If you like lots of polish, radio buttons, drop down boxes, and UI's that look like checks and stuff like that, you will be disappointed. I guess for a small business that simply wants a web based place to store customers and products and generate invoices, Jaya123 will fit the bill.
I am stretching to understand the category of businesses that need only those functions though. If you run a web store, you want integration of your customer billing system with your storefront. If you are a heavilly sales focused organization with lots of different customer contacts, you want a richer customer workflow tracking system. If you are tracking the books of a small business, you need full General Ledger functions with AR/AP/Inventory Control, etc. It also seems to me that the history of accounting applications has been continuing to build levels of abstraction ontop of the database to hide the file structure from the user. Jaya123 definitely takes the other approach, keeping you VERY close to your data structure. Actually in many ways I like that. In the same way I like Windows over the Mac. But I am a geek. I want to twiddle the bits. For me abstraction means taking control away from me. I don't like that. It makes my heart warm to still be able to get a DOS box in the latest version of Windows.
Well, if you are just starting a business and are a bit if a bit-head give Jaya123 a try. It delivers a down and dirty customer invoicing application in a browser just fine. While it is not on their page at this moment, after I e-mail Al, I am sure he will see the logic of offering a 30 day free trial!
Posted by Martin at 7:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack