Jeffzilla

My blog runs on the Wordpress platform, which works great. Lately, I’ve been trying to open up as many avenues for posting as possible. I want to make is as easy as I possibly can to publish - including what I’m reading, viewing, notes from my office, from home, from out and about in the city, all the way to remote regions I hope to explore soon. Being able to post from anywhere also ties into this story I read today about a kid who used Twitter via SMS to alert his friends of his arrest.  

Here’s a list of my current and future posting methods:

• Direct wordpress post - done
  • Easy - its the core of the basic wordpress interface.

• Writing/formatting posts offline, for posting when online - done
  • I’m using Qumana for Mac OS X, which offers great integration with my blog categories, posts, formatting etc. I can compose a post offline (such as while flying, etc), format it up, and then just hit the “post now” button when I get an internet connection. It even handles pinging for me.
     
• Posting Photos - Done
  • Another otherwise complex task, made simply by Flickr. I can use the “post to blog” button in flickr to post a selected photo direct to the blog. I went through a few setup steps, and that was it
  • Additionally, I can email Flickr photos using a specially formatted email address, and have Flickr add the photo to my Flickr photostream, and also have it post the photo directly to my blog. Great great for getting a photo up asap, and even better for posting photos “from the field” - IE quick snaps taken with my cameraphone. Action as it happens, baby.

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A friend of mine recently asked me about whether or not she should make a Wikipedia page for her company. Here’s my response…

Choose carefully. Having a corporate wikipedia page can be a mixed blessing. On one hand, its great to have public info out there descibing all the wonderful services your company offers, interesting history about the beginnings, etc etc. However, since wikipedia is community-editable by design and principle, anyone who knows anything (true) about your company can add to it. This includes both positive and negative items. So, by having a “your company” wiki page, you’re opening yourself for “public outing”, etc. Additionally, it’s somewhat against the ethos of Wikipedia to make a page for yourself.

Wikipedia is not meant to be a venue for self promotion, so they shun making articles about yourself or your own commercial ventures. While Wikipedia articles themselves are traditionally very SEO-visible, links within the articles are not. So if you’re trying to boost YourCompany.com’s page rank by having a link from wikipedia, it’s not going to work. Wikipedia links carry a “nofollow” tag, so search crawlers don’t click.

Remember Jed Yachman from Yelp.com we all heard speak at the eTail conference? He had an interesting perspective on Yelp.com’s very own review listing on Yelp.com - embrace the good and bad, be transparent to the community, and they will embrace you. That’s one way to go about it, but not the only way. (check Yelp’s writeup here… http://lburl.com/dlca8 )

I’m NOT saying don’t do it at all. I’m just saying that you should consider all angles and implications before you go for it. Also, check out this article about what to do when your company’s Wikipedia article goes bad. I’d be happy to discuss further anytime.

Cheers

-Jeffrey

Update** Just stumbled upon this faq page on Wikipedia, addressing this exact concern.

A colleague of mine recently got a shiny new white Macbook, and came to me for advice on how to protect it.. here’s what I told her:

Ok, protecting your Macbook.. here are some cool products i know of to keep i

t nice and shiny…

First of all, if you want ultra minimal, but arty and cool scratch protection, Gelaskins makes some cool giant decals for your stuff.. pick out a cool design, and its just a big, removable decal to put on the case of your computer… will keep it from getting scratches, but thats about it.

Moving up, Speck makes these hard plastic snap on cases for the Macbook.. will offer you wrap around scratch protection for the Macbook, and minimal impact protection too.. and it stays on your computer. Doesn’t protect ports etc from dust, etc, though, so you will need another case if you want to throw it in your bag.

Now, onto what I personally use now…. for tossing my computer into my messenger bag for the day, I have this ultra minimal and suedey soft Tucano Second Skin.. its jus

t a sleeve, and is fairly thin, but def protects from bumps, scratches, and dust.

For when I want to just carry the laptop and not inside another bag, I use an Incase Nylon Sleeve.. its about as minimal as you can get for a full featured case with handles, shoulder strap, and accessory pockets.. it even has a little detachable key cord.

So, thats what i use.. I also have AppleCare, which is key….

-Jeffrey