Minor Linux Victory: Getting Amazon MP3 Client To Work in Kubuntu "Hardy Heron" 8.04
Minor Linux Victory: Getting Amazon MP3 Client To Work in Kubuntu "Hardy Heron" 8.04
Hey... Gotta take these victories where I can get 'em, right?
I'd been having problems getting the GDebi package installer to install AmazonMP3's download client for Ubuntu Linux. Doesn't sound like much, but it's the only way you can take advantage of the whole-album discounts that AmazonMP3 offers. Otherwise, you have to buy the tracks individually.
The package has some dependencies, which the software helpfully tells you. However, it leads you to believe that the dependencies would be satisfied by the installation process.
Wrong.
So, I went to the command line using "dpkg -i". Proof-positive that, no, the dependencies weren't installed and,... Read more...
Phil's Blogservations, Today, 1:11pm
The Hobson & Holtz Report - Podcast #462: July 2, 2009
The Hobson & Holtz Report - Podcast #462: July 2, 2009, with guest host Lee Aase of The Mayo Clinic. Read more...
a shel of my former self, Yesterday, 3:16pm
In Defense Of The "Purist"
In Defense Of The "Purist"
I while ago, I was having lunch with my friend "Bart" whose supervisor "James" had left the firm he worked for at the time. Naturally, this meant that Bart had to take on some of his former boss's responsibilities — some considerable shoes to fill.
James was a leader in this company's online communications strategy, not just because of his considerable technical knowledge but, rather, the instincts he developed over a period of time.
During one of the necessary transition meetings, Bart had a meeting with James' former boss.
"The thing is about James was," the boss said. "He was just too much of a purist."
Considering Bart and James were pretty much parallel philosophically, this wasn't such good news for my friend. Bart would leave the firm soon afterward.
Since Bart told me this story, I've been asking myself, "What did James' former boss mean?"
It occurs to me that there are some... Read more...
Phil's Blogservations, Yesterday, 1:12pm
Having A "Message" Is Fine, It's "Messaging" That Sucks
Having A "Message" Is Fine, It's "Messaging" That Sucks
In PR 2.0 circles, it has long been hip to say that there is no place in modern communications for a company with "messages" and that any company with "messages" is somehow lost in the digital weeds. A PR person who says otherwise is derided as a knuckle-dragging troglodyte while the supremely useless you-don't-get-it crowd gleefully jumps in and piles on.
I disagree with the premise that messages are necessarily dead. This was a fallacy that was allowed to progress because the some PR folks were too busy ingratiating themselves with a small set of influencers to think the issues and distinctions through.
If your company doesn't have a "message" — a set of clear ideas that codify how it sees itself, its industry, and the world at large — then why the hell does it even exist, let alone communicate?
Frankly, a distinction needs to be made.... Read more...
Phil's Blogservations, Yesterday, 1:12pm
PR in Fiction: But how does he know?
Although Mark Mills seems to present a credible picture of a British Information Officer working in 1942 Malta, how can the reader tell if it is in fact accurate? Here are a few excerpts from an apparently straightforward explanation of... Read more...
mediations, Yesterday, 3:36am
Vinod Khosla Says Silicon Valley VCs Tried to Save Newspaper Industry In 1996
At the recent SDForum 2009 Visionary Awards, Vinod Khosla, one of Silicon Valley's top VCs, gave an inspiring and very humble speech. Read more...
Silicon Valley Watcher - reporting on the business of technology and media, Jul 1, 8:55pm
Visonary 2009: Jim Clark Was Always Looking For An Exit Strategy . . .
Jim Clark, co-founder of Silicon Graphics and Netscape was one of four winners of the SDForum 2009 Visionary Awards. He spoke about his earlier life and how he was thrown out of school, then trying to get out of Texas, then trying to get out of the navy. It seems his instincts for an exit strategy have served him well as a Silicon Valley entrepreneur... Read more...
Silicon Valley Watcher - reporting on the business of technology and media, Jul 1, 2:38pm
'Bout Damn Time
'Bout Damn Time
Spent the last half of last week talking to financial communications and investor relations experts about the long-overdue admission from the SEC that, ya know, publication on a company Web site can in fact be "disclosure".
Come on in, oh weary, creaky, rusty, seventy-four-year-old regulatory giant, too content for too long with wielding blunt instruments intended to restrain John D. Rockefeller and J.P. Morgan... The water is... Well... The water has been here for almost two decades or nearly a quarter of your lifespan.
It always struck me as funny... Read more...
Phil's Blogservations, Jul 1, 1:12am
Green Tech Investment Rebounds In Latest Quarter - Smaller Deals
Greentech Media reports: Read more...
Silicon Valley Watcher - reporting on the business of technology and media, Jun 30, 6:31pm
Love social media releases or hate ‘em, they work
A global survey of bloggers finds social media releases are gaining greater acceptance. That’s because they meet a genuine need. Read more...
a shel of my former self, Jun 30, 6:27pm
Jajah Co-Founder Leads Launch Of Talenthouse - A Social Network For Artists
Talenthouse launched today, lead by Roman Scharf, the co-founder of Jajah, a succesful free telephony service. Read more...
Silicon Valley Watcher - reporting on the business of technology and media, Jun 30, 5:00pm
Judy Estrin: Silicon Valley Unwilling To Fix Structural Problems Around Innovation, Blame Others
Judy Estrin, one of Silicon Valley's top entrepreneurs, continues to sound warnings that innovation is in danger because of fundamental structural problems. Read more...
Silicon Valley Watcher - reporting on the business of technology and media, Jun 30, 1:12pm
Kay Koplovitz: We Need More Women Entrepreneurs
Kay Koplovitz calls for more women entrepreneurs during her acceptance speech at the SDForum visionary awards. Read more...
Silicon Valley Watcher - reporting on the business of technology and media, Jun 30, 1:12pm
The Vanishing "Hero Inventor"
The Vanishing "Hero Inventor"
It's always fascinated me that people know the names Thomas Edison and Henry Ford, but give blank stares at mention of Robert Noyce and Jack Kilby. The two men invented the integrated circuit "separately together" — Noyce at Fairchild Semiconductor, Kilby at Texas Instruments — and are pretty much responsible for damn near everything you currently enjoy that has an antenna or wire coming out of it.
It's a shame that we don't lionize inventors the way we used to decades ago. However, if pressed, I'll admit that interest in Dean Kamen's work comes... Read more...
Phil's Blogservations, Jun 30, 1:12am
Scobleizer Traffic Plunge - The Real-Time Web Can Be Bad For Your Blog
Robert Scoble has been a tireless evangelist for the real-time web and he has been spending much of his time on Twitter and Friendfeed, and less and less time on his blog Scobleizer. [Please see: Is Twitter (and Friendfeed) Killing Blogging? Scobleizer Hasn't Posted In 12 Days!!!] Read more...
Silicon Valley Watcher - reporting on the business of technology and media, Jun 29, 11:08pm
Socialbrite: Helping Non-Profits Master Social Tools For Social Change
Eight top experts have joined together to launch Socialbrite - an online resource for non-profits searching for consultants and media tools to help them take their message to new audiences. Read more...
Silicon Valley Watcher - reporting on the business of technology and media, Jun 29, 7:22pm
The Pressure Is On When Every Company Is Now A Media Company...
I've been writing on this topic of "every company is now a media company" ever since I visited Dan Scheinman, head of M&A at Cisco Systems in March, 2005. Read more...
Silicon Valley Watcher - reporting on the business of technology and media, Jun 29, 6:47pm
The Hobson & Holtz Report - Podcast #461: June 29, 2009
The Hobson & Holtz Report - Podcast #461: June 29, 2009 (with special guest co-host Steve Crescenzo) Read more...
a shel of my former self, Jun 29, 3:00pm
PR in Fiction: Through a journalist's eyes... (again)
One of the reasons many PRs feel their discipline enjoys a poor reputation is that its public image is largely shaped by their natural foes, journalists. And they are probably right, at least insofar as the practice of PR discussed... Read more...
mediations, Jun 29, 4:14am
Vinod Khosla: How To Succeed In Silicon Valley By Bumbling And Failing...
Vinod Khosla is one of Silicon Valley's most successful VCs. I was at the recent SDForum Visionary Awards where Mr Khosla was one of four winners of the 2009 awards. Read more...
Silicon Valley Watcher - reporting on the business of technology and media, Jun 29, 1:12am
PR in Fiction: First thoughts
Where to start with my Stirling conference paper on PR in fiction? Partly because I am reading The Information Officer by Mark Mills, I am thinking of a chronological sequence, beginning with its narrator, Max Chadwick, the eponymous information officer... Read more...
mediations, Jun 28, 10:32am
Cescenzo, Aase guest co-hosts on FIR this week
Employee communications consultant Steve Crescenzo and Mayo Clinic communicator Lee Aase will handle co-host duties on Monday and Thursday. Read more...
a shel of my former self, Jun 28, 10:01am
Saturday Post: If You Are In The Path Of A Disruptive Technology You Are Toast - Goodbye Newspaper Companies
Last week my Saturday Post was about how Internet based technologies have been used to create applications and services that devalue existing business models. It's a hugely disruptive process. [The Internet Devalues Everything It Touches, Anything That Can Be Digitized] Read more...
Silicon Valley Watcher - reporting on the business of technology and media, Jun 27, 10:25pm
One role for print: making dull messages stand out
Posters, table tent cards and other print collateral can make dull messages jump out at employees. Read more...
a shel of my former self, Jun 27, 4:11pm
How To Behave In An Internet Forum
How To Behave In An Internet Forum
How To Behave On A Forum - video powered by Metacafe
Technorati Tags:
online, forums Read more...
Phil's Blogservations, Jun 27, 1:12am
2009: Hoping For Audacity, Believing We Can Change
2009: Hoping For Audacity, Believing We Can Change
From the Edelman Digital blog:
The first few years of my PR career in Silicon Valley were marked by a singular frustration — most PR professionals did not aspire to be, nor were they particularly expected to be, as driven to innovate in their own field as their clients were in theirs.
"Just get into the Journal," seemed the dictum. "Everything else is secondary."
For a number of reasons so tangential to this story as to be distracting, the advent of social media is what kept me in public relations at a point in 2001 when I asked myself "Is this all that there is?" Years later, I'm glad to see there's a lot more. A hell of a lot more.
For what it's worth, 2009 will be the year when real innovation starts to come back into PR — not in the relatively... Read more...
Phil's Blogservations, Jun 27, 1:12am
SDForum Garden Party Notes: Vinod Khosla is the Anti-Christ; Jim Clark has a size problem; Silicon Valley Trophies - Hot women and large yachts...
The SDForum Visionary Awards are my favorite event of the year because there are tons of great stories and contacts to make. It was good to see BusinessWeek's bureau chief Rob Hof, and also Rebecca Buckman from Forbes, but apart from them, there was very little media there -- which was great for me because it gives me more chance to get exclusive stories, which I did. I'll be publishing... Read more...
Silicon Valley Watcher - reporting on the business of technology and media, Jun 26, 9:34pm
Chips News Roundup: Memory Is A Mess; Chip Startups Are Squeezed
[Matt Grimshaw offers a weekly roundup of news affecting the largest US tech industry.] Read more...
Silicon Valley Watcher - reporting on the business of technology and media, Jun 26, 4:48pm
FIR Live #15: with Gary Vaynerchuk: June 26, 2009
FIR Live #15: June 26, 2009 Read more...
a shel of my former self, Jun 26, 3:41pm
How the approval process needs to change
Before most companies can catch up to the innovators and early adopters in social media, they need to address the basics, starting with the approval process. The required shift: from reactive to proactive. Read more...
a shel of my former self, Jun 26, 3:23pm
I Went To A Garden Party . . .
I had a great time at the SDForum Visionary Awards in Woodside last night. The event is one of the best in SIlicon Valley. I've got video, audio, and great stories coming over the next week. So please check back often. Read more...
Silicon Valley Watcher - reporting on the business of technology and media, Jun 26, 3:41am
Traveling Geeks Trip Next Week ... Join Us In London!
I'm looking forward to the Traveling Geeks trip to London. I'm leaving next week and we will spend a few days in London and then Cambridge, meeting with local startups and larger tech companies. Read more...
Silicon Valley Watcher - reporting on the business of technology and media, Jun 25, 8:14pm
AMD: Building Blocks For Building Clouds
I met with Margaret Lewis, she is director of commercial solutions and software at Advanced Micro Devices. She spends a lot of time talking with data center managers about their needs and the transition to cloud computing.
Here are some notes from our conversation:
- AMD is creating microprocessors with many cores because clock-speed alone cannot increase the performance of IT systems. With several cores on a processor, servers can be virtualized and that means applications can be provisioned dynamically, which results in better utilization of IT resources. Read more...
Silicon Valley Watcher - reporting on the business of technology and media, Jun 25, 7:06pm
The Hobson & Holtz Report - Podcast #460: June 25, 2009
The Hobson & Holtz Report - Podcast #460: June 25, 2009 Read more...
a shel of my former self, Jun 25, 3:24pm
Bitten and Smitten: Why Journalism Is Like Falling In Love With The Wrong Person
I was at an event this evening and I met a journalist who was new to the profession. She had been in IT and now was working for a San Francisco newspaper. She asked if I had any words of advice for a new journalist.
I said welcome. But be careful it doesn't get under your skin because if it does, it will become a problem. It'll be very difficult to leave.
In many ways, Â being bitten by journalism is similar to being smitten. It's similar to falling in love with a person -- but the wrong person. Read more...
Silicon Valley Watcher - reporting on the business of technology and media, Jun 25, 12:08am
Human Or Machine - Or How To Get The News Before Techmeme
I'm a big fan of Gabe Rivera's Techmeme. Over the past year or so, Techmeme has managed to improve its results by using humans, in addition to its much vaunted algorithm -based approach. Read more...
Silicon Valley Watcher - reporting on the business of technology and media, Jun 24, 10:52pm
Year One: The Lessons Of The Intel Insider Media Advisory Program
[Today marks the first anniversary of the Intel Insider program, which brought together leaders in new/social media. I am a founding member of Intel Insiders. Ken Kaplan, is one of the key proponents of the Intel Insider program. Intel is a former sponsor of SVW.]
By Ken Kaplan - Intel
Two steps forward and a half step back to see if we’re going in the right direction and bringing forward things that can help us leap into tomorrow. That’s how we’re celebrating the June 24 anniversary of our Intel Insiders social media adviser program. Read more...
Silicon Valley Watcher - reporting on the business of technology and media, Jun 24, 8:49pm
Quick Update
Quick Update
So, I spent some time here:
Met this way-cool guy: Read more...
Phil's Blogservations, Jun 24, 1:12pm
UberCEO Survey: CEOs Of Fortune 100 Snub Social Media - None Blog, Only 2 Twitter
A survey of CEOs of Fortune 100 companies by UberCEO, found that their involvement in social media is almost none existent. No CEOs blog and only two have a Twitter account.
"I didn't expect CEOs to be heavily involved in social media but I was very surprised to see how few there were," said Sharon Barclay, founder of UberCEO, a San Francisco based firm that helps manage the online reputations for senior executives.
Here are some of her findings:
- Only two CEOs have Twitter accounts.
- 13 CEOs have LinkedIn profiles, and of those only three have more than 10 connections.
- 81% of CEOs don’t have a personal Facebook page.
-Three quarters of the CEOs have some kind of Wikipedia entry, but nearly a third of those have limited or outdated information.
- Not one Fortune 100 CEO has a blog.
- Twitter was the least used service by Fortune 100 CEOs, despite being one of the fastest growing social media networks.
- Wikipedia had... Read more...
Silicon Valley Watcher - reporting on the business of technology and media, Jun 24, 4:10am
Silicon Valley Stories: How Scott McNealy Made Room At The Top For Carol Bartz ( . . . Now At Yahoo)
[SDForum visionary awards are later this week. Here is a series SVW is plublishing this week on Silicon Valley stories from previous SDForum awards events.] Read more...
Silicon Valley Watcher - reporting on the business of technology and media, Jun 23, 7:33pm
From Big Blue To Big Brown - IBM Launches Green Services In Smart Sewage And Beyond
IBM came to San Francisco on Tuesday to announce a partnership with the city around several green initiatives and also to launch several broader initiatives that include the development of advanced battery technologies at its Almaden Research Center in San Jose.
I met with Alan Ganek, CTO and VP in IBM's Software Group, and Richard Lechner VP of Energy and Environment at IBM. Mr Lechner is responsible for IBM's green initiatives.
Here are some highlights from our conversation:
- IBM is working with cities such as San Francisco to help them reduce their costs of maintaining infrastructure. For example, in San Francisco IBM technology is being used to monitor more than 1000 miles of sewage pipes. It allows the city to predict where problems will occur and fix pipes proactively. This... Read more...
Silicon Valley Watcher - reporting on the business of technology and media, Jun 23, 3:56pm
SDFroum Visionary Awards - Past And Present - Walt Mossberg And Drugs
Later this week SDForum hosts its 2009 Visionary Awards and it will honor two women business leaders, Judith Estrin and Kay Koplovitz, also Vinod Kohsla and James Clark. Read more...
Silicon Valley Watcher - reporting on the business of technology and media, Jun 23, 1:12pm
NYT Profile On Jolie's Media Management Shows Profession Has A Long Way To Go
NYT Profile On Jolie's Media Management Shows PR Profession Has A Long Way To Go
I'm still not sure whether The New York Times was repulsed or intrigued by the fact that that Angelina Jolie exhibits greater media savvy than the average Hollywood type, taking more than 1,500 words to tell its very literate readership what it already intuitively (or explicitly) knows about celebrity PR.
Where The Old Gray Lady sees a "carefully orchestrated image", I see a very smart woman who has a greater level of media savvy than the average actor or actress. Like Princess Di, Jolie also knows that she can channel interest in her celebrity life to bring attention to the topics and world issues she cares about.
Putting aside for the... Read more...
Phil's Blogservations, Jun 23, 1:12pm
Keeping It Real: PR's Real-Time Web Challenge
The growing influence of the real-time web, where people read more from their real-time streams on Twitter, Facebook, Friendfeed, etc, than visiting a variety of sites to see what's new, brings new challenges for PR. Read more...
Silicon Valley Watcher - reporting on the business of technology and media, Jun 23, 3:38am
Scoble On Tech Blogging's "Failure"
Scoble On Tech Blogging's "Failure"
There's certainly a lot to learn from Robert Scoble's post about the insular, echo-chamber failings of the technology blogging community.
That said, I think that Scoble's problem isn't so much that the glass is half-full or half-empty. I just think his glass has been too small.
I can't help but think that Scoble's frustrations come from the fact that tech blogging's anointed leaders really missed the point in the first place.
Just like the dot-boom of 1999, the loudest voices in tech have allowed the term "technology" has been conflated with "Web stuff". Sell babyclothes? Fine. Sell babyclothes using a social network? Stratospheric valuation estimates abound.
Now, as before, real innovation goes largely ignored by the Web 2.0 crowd. As I told one of the heads... Read more...
Phil's Blogservations, Jun 23, 1:11am
TSA wastes no time responding on its blog to critical news story
Here’s a government agency that truly understands its obligations when it undertakes a blog to engage and inform the public. Read more...
a shel of my former self, Jun 22, 7:49pm
The Hobson & Holtz Report - Podcast #459: June 22, 2009
The Hobson & Holtz Report - Podcast #459: June 22, 2009 Read more...
a shel of my former self, Jun 22, 1:59pm
Support Rick's Sustainable Tourism Ride
Support Rick's Sustainable Tourism Ride
Rick Murray, Edelman Digital's president, is undertaking a 500-mile ride for sustainable tourism in Illinois. He's started a Ning community for participants and interested parties.
More in this vid: Read more...
Phil's Blogservations, Jun 22, 1:12pm