Every Saturday I’ll be reaching deep into the archives. Here is what I was writing about this coming week, five long years ago:
Telecom Vendors Suck - Five years later and nothing much has changed, although some smaller players have recognized customer service to be a differentiator in their niche.
A Dilbert Moment - Fooled by a fake desktop. I got the last laugh though.
Being Cautious of Big Brother - Don’t get Dooced, know that your posts have a life of their own.
Wild Make History - Five years ago the Minnesota Wild had their best playoff run of their young franchise. No such luck this year as they bombed out in the first round.
New RSS Sheriff Coming to Town - Announcing new RSS reader, alas I went with Bloglines and then Google Reader instead.
May 3rd, 2008 | Posted in The Past | No Comments
Every Saturday I’ll be reaching deep into the archives. Here is what I was writing about this coming week, five long years ago:
Home Depot Self Check-Out - My local Home Depot adds self-checkout. Now it’s everywhere.
Sawmill Web Analytics - I use Google Analytics now, but five years ago I was liking Sawmill.
Sales Compensation - Thoughts on sales compensation.
Bush vs. Bush - A classic Daily Show bit featuring a debate between President Bush and Governor Bush.
Jedi Master - My first glimpse of the infamous Star Wars kid.
Le Meridien Minneapolis - Review of this new Minneapolis hotel.
MSN Skewed Search Results - Search engines gaming some results?
April 26th, 2008 | Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments
Every Saturday I’ll be reaching deep into the archives. Here is what I was writing about this coming week, five long years ago:
Be Careful with Teaching Hospitals - Do teaching hospitals use anesthesia unnecessarily?
What a Girl Wants - Out to a movie with my 4 year old; now she’s the 9 I mentioned in the post. Uh oh.
This is no Classic - Myst voted as a computer game classic? I don’t think so.
Holiday Birthdays - Low frequency of my son and dad’s birthdays falling on Easter.
WOW - Well five years ago the Wild beat the Avalanche in a 7 game series. This year we lost in 6.
Catfish Noodling - For a long time this article was my top traffic getter, until I wrote about Peter Answers.
OJ Reality Show - It wasn’t an April Fools joke, but fortunately the O.J. Simpson reality show never saw the day of light.
Ozzie Back - Ray Ozzie gets into blogging.
William Gibson Takes a Rest - William Gibson announces taking a break from blogging.
Global Blogging - geoURL enabled blogging.
Thong Thievery - The Smoking Gun comes through again.
April 19th, 2008 | Posted in The Past | No Comments
Every Saturday I’ll be reaching deep into the archives. Here is what I was writing about this coming week, five long years ago:
Adios Caffeine - Wow, it’s been five years since I stopped drinking pots of coffee a day. I still drink a little coffee now and then but mostly it’s decaf to me - and it’s made a huge difference in how much sleep I get now.
Outage - One of the problems of self-hosting your own blog - outages while you are out on business.
Simple Reading Game - A really cool magnetic poetry game where you can use your own word lists - great for helping kids read. Can’t believe my son was in kindergarten when I wrote this. Now he’s in the Boy Scouts!
Deane Goes Offline - Deane Barker shut down his website due to a misunderstanding from another company. Better safe than sorry.
Get a Clue Vendors - A pet peeve of mine - vendors leaving phone messages and not mentioning which company they work for. As if I will be calling them back.
Better than Dominoes - An amazing car ad, maybe on par (but in a different way) with Tiger Woods’ cool commercial where he bounces the ball on his club 50 times before wacking it a couple hundred yards.
April 12th, 2008 | Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments
Every Saturday I’ll be reaching deep into the archives. Here is what I was writing about this coming week, five long years ago:
Executive Adoption - Critical to the success of any internal IT project is Executive Sponsorship. But there is another equally important concept and that is Executive Adoption. I really liked this concept and article but it hasn’t taken off - only 405 search results and I am still number 1 in the Google Search for “executive adoption”
Q1 2003 Zeitgeist - For awhile I posted quarterly traffic numbers and interesting search terms in a Zeitgeist modeled after Google. This was the first one.
How to RTFM - “Manual” is a compendium of stories written by a strong group of writers who (I believe) are all bloggers.
RSS Full Feed - In which I decide that RSS Full Feeds are the way to go. I think everyone knows this now, right?
Fear and Loathing in Chicago - Chicago post-9/11 thoughts.
The Next Attack - I must have had terror on my mind five years ago because this article is pretty in-depth analysis on where they will strike next.
April 5th, 2008 | Posted in The Past | No Comments
Every Saturday I’ll be reaching deep into the archives. Here is what I was writing about this coming week, five long years ago:
A Good Start - Five years ago the Twins opened up against a terrible Detroit Tigers team by winning our first 3 games.
Naming An Accuser - My thoughts on one aspect of the judicial system.
March 29th, 2008 | Posted in The Past | No Comments
Every Saturday I’ll be reaching deep into the archives. Here is what I was writing about this coming week, five long years ago:
Recipe - Baklava - If I do say so myself, the best Baklava Recipe on the internet. Great picture too, in fact it has been used many times over the years on other Baklava recipes I have found. But it’s mine. Do make this if you want to be a dessert hero.
Quote of the Week - I love this quote to describe customers or anyone else similarly demanding.
Book Review - The Counter - Four star review for Kevin Blackwood’s, The Counter.
Beyond the Personal Weblog - A number of links pertaining to using blogs in business.
March 22nd, 2008 | Posted in The Past | 1 Comment
Every Saturday I’ll be reaching deep into the archives. Here is what I was writing about this coming week, five long years ago:
Recipe - John’s Texas Red Chili - I just realize that I didn’t make any chili this winter - shame on me! This is my recipe, hand-crafted and adjusted over the years. I no longer use celery, for example.
Some Sports Stuff - A couple of pretty wacky stories. My favorite is Ricky Davis attempting to shoot at his own basket at the end of the game just so he could get the rebound and the triple double, only to be tackled by an opposing player. Classic.
Some Technical Stuff - Proof that I did occasionally link to technical stories.
Cube Life Letters - Letters from workplace nutjobs.
Listen To Your Users - I never understood why this article wasn’t popular. Reading my post about listening to your users was a good reminder for me today.
Locking Down the Weblog - A good case study on using a blog in the corporate setting is no longer a good example as it has been shut down for public access.
NWA Layoffs - Big layoffs at NWA and I was concerned about my booked travel plans. If I recall, it wasn’t a problem for me.
March 15th, 2008 | Posted in The Past | No Comments
Every Saturday I’ll be reaching deep into the archives. Here is what I was writing about this coming week, five long years ago:
Someone Tell Coleen Rowley To Shut Up - I had a rather strong opinion on whistle blower Coleen Rowley, who was obviously transitioning from legitimate concerned citizen to a political career.
Read Buffett - Warren Buffett’s annual Letter to the Shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. should be required reading for every investor.
The Next Big Thing - One of the topics we had discussed in our investment club was that Virtual Sex was going to be the Next Big Thing. Turns out we were probably a little early, still not there en masse, although I have seen some interesting reports of people making the effort. Lot’s of interesting USB devices out there these days.
Jabberings #3 - A bunch of random stuff that I was thinking about or doing. Interesting that the weather forecast for that weekend five years ago called for 60 degrees and I am looking at 0 degrees today. Ouch.
Book Review - Dice Angel - Four Star review for Brian Rouff’s Dice Angel, the story of a down on his luck Vegas bar owner named Jimmy Delaney who is getting it from all sides from his ex-wife, thieves, crooked business partners and the IRS.
Cost of Groceries - Five years ago I set a family record of $210 for one grocery trip. This year I bested that, spending $290. It would have been over $300 but I had coupons. That’s insane.
March 8th, 2008 | Posted in The Past | No Comments
Every Saturday I’ll be reaching deep into the archives. Here is what I was writing about this coming week, five long years ago:
Using Unique Category Templates in Movable Type - I only switched to Wordpress recently - five years ago I was using Movable Type and over the years I would publish a number of popular articles on optimizing its use, as well as develop some plugins. I haven’t gotten into that yet with Wordpress but I could see doing so. This article describes something that is pretty easy nowadays - using different templates based on category.
Recipe - Coq au Vin - This recipe for Coq au Vin (Chicken with wine) used to be on the front page of Google and gave me a lot of hits. Now that is on the second page, it doesn’t drive as much traffic. But it’s still a great recipe.
Improved RSS 1.0 Template - Here is yet another thing I just don’t worry about much these days- RSS templates. Feedburner rocks. Interesting to note that at this time 5 years ago there was no mention of Bloglines, which I would go on to use for some time, and Google Reader, which is my reader of choice today.
Author Weblogs - I really like this post on the value an author could find in maintaining a blog to extend a readership base and accelerate sales. At the time I was reading William Gibson’s blog - now it’s Scott Adams.
Recipe - Dirty Eggs - This recipe is not for the faint of heart - a simple recipe for fat-laden scrambled eggs based off an old camping recipe.
Upsize Minnesota - Wrote about a new business magazine called Upsize Minnesota whose mission is to help small-business owners build bigger and more profitable companies. It’s a good little magazine and I still read it monthly.
March 1st, 2008 | Posted in The Past | No Comments
