One of the tasks I picked up at LexBlog is managing our email system.  It is an interesting task, although largely uneventful when things are going well.  Luckily they are usually going well. Probably the most unusual aspect of doing this work is dealing with someone who has left the company.  Not the administration of the account,  the back-ups or retention, but the time between that part of the work and their departure.  During this…

Years ago, they started printing phone books. In these books, you could find stores and services. But how do you select which one is right for you? Very quickly, businesses realized that just by being the first entry in a category, they could get more business. This led to bizarre naming conventions that only existed to make the listing appear first. Open any large city Yellow Pages and I guarantee you would find a AAA…

When I started blogging, I was not really writing in my own voice. I was reading other people’s work, people I really enjoyed and I tried to copy them.  The problem is, I am not those people. I don’t have their experience or their writing ability. So my early blogging was stilted.  It would vacillate between encyclopedia dryness and overly jokey.  Doing this for a while, my results were mixed. Sure, I was reaching some…

It was announced today that the stumbling Tumblr is being acquired by Automattic, maker of WordPress.  This deal, which should ensure the existence of Tumblr for a while, will hopefully have an effect on something more important than Tumblr itself, Tumblr-style content. I am going to generalize my definition of the content here: Tumblr-style content is usually short visual based posts that have a minor amount of commentary.  This sort of content thrived for…

Every day can feel like a never ending series of tasks.  When confronted with this unceasing tide of work, the compulsion is to rise up, face it head-on and defeat it.  Knocking down these tasks, labeling them as done and moving onto the next. This approach can grant that much sought after endorphin rush that one needs to move onto the next task.  Its a wonderful system, but it has issues.   I am not saying…

When we deal with our co-workers, we are often looking for way to compliment them. When searching for that perfect word to use, stay clear of the word tedious.  I don’t mean just avoid using it as a way to describe a person, which is something you should never do. Wow, I am impressed with how tedious you are! You should also avoid using it when describing what they do. Kudos to you!  I could…

Some time ago, I started talking with a podcasting network about adding my retro podcast to their lineup. It was not high on my priority list, but I thought it would make for an interesting discussion. The discussions was short and confirmed something that had been rolling around in my mind for a while.  Companies and people create inconvenient systems in order to monetize them by removing levels of inconvenience. You see this all the…