rich phelps › Comments

Guinness is having a darn good try at replicating this kind of customer satisfaction straight from the bottle, and it is employing all the wonders of technology to do so. Its new bottled "draught" beer claims to have the "authentic" Guinness taste. The heart of the system is the "rocket widget." - rich phelps

Google senior vice president Jonathan Rosenberg published a long memo “about the meaning of ‘open’ as it relates to the Internet, Google, and [Google’s] users.” It’s the biggest pile of horseshit I’ve ever seen from Google. - rich phelps

Fonolo lets you skip the phone menus when calling large companies. Connect to the right person with less hassle! - rich phelps

"Start from the ground, look at what’s around us and what we really need." - rich phelps

But in 2010, for the second year running, tens of thousands of overqualified MBAs will emerge with nowhere exciting to go. A very few will land jobs in investment banking, but those who want grand jobs in big companies or consultancies will be disappointed. Increasingly they will go crawling back to their old employers to do pretty much whatever they were doing before for pretty much the same money. - rich phelps

. Finally, remember that traffic sign, “Speed Kills.” In the sixties the watchword was “Tune in, turn on.” Today a better guide might be “Turn off, let go, live a little,” or “Don’t just do something, think.” What’s your hurry? Life (and work) is a journey, not a destination. - rich phelps

Enabling collaborative micro-discussion in and out of the classroom Hotseat, a social networking-powered mobile Web application, creates a collaborative classroom, allowing students to provide near real-time feedback during class and enabling professors to adjust the course content and improve the learning experience. Students can post messages to Hotseat using their Facebook or Twitter accounts, sending text messages, or logging in to the Hotseat Web site. - rich phelps

Who knew? - rich phelps

I bought a copy of Flagpole Sitta after seeing that video a couple years ago. Capitol is being stupid over it. - rich phelps

* the most damning, however, is thinking in yesterdays terms. the very fact that they're still focusing on viruses rather than malware in general shows just how outdated the thinking really is. most of the malware currently attacking pc's these days is NOT viral (either by normal pc definitions, incorrect mac definitions, or formal definitions). furthermore viral malware isn't really the biggest malware problem these days. huge numbers of non-viral malware are the biggest problem facing pc's and the malware gangs have been targeting both pc's and macs for years now. mac users have largely ignored the malware problem, which is probably why what little they know of the problem is generally either wrong or out of date. the malware problem isn't ignoring them, however. they have an opportunity to get ahead of the problem, but if they keep living in the past that opportunity will be squandered. - rich phelps

Facebook proved again this week that they are either the most unethical or clueless internet company in the world. An amazing accomplishment since Facebook is also one of the most promising, and certainly fastest growing, internet companies of all time. Perhaps I’m being hyperbolic (who me?), or maybe they are a little of both, but the fact remains they screw up on important issues almost as if it’s a “best practice” to do so. - rich phelps

Each year millions of visitors stream through the rotunda of the National Archives in Washington, DC, to view the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence. These foundational documents of our democracy are on public display because of the importance of openness in government. Openness promotes accountability by enabling journalists, researchers, government officials, and the public to scrutinize, question, and ultimately improve how government works. But, as with many aspects of Democracy, openness must evolve. The Progress Report on Open Government to the American People describes how the Administration is doing just that. - rich phelps

TeuxDeux is a simple, designy, browser-based to-do app and the first collaboration between studio-mates - rich phelps

My friend Leon's Open letter to ABC. Please share. TO: ABC FROM: Leon Lynn RE: Desecration of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" 12/8/09 Dear ABC, How could you? For years and years I have awaited the network broadcast of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" as the true herald of the holiday season. I brought my kids up with the same tradition -- one which has been made no less special for us by the fact that they happen to be Jewish. Tonight we sat in horror and watched what you have done to the single greatest cartoon ever made. How many minutes did you cut out of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" so you could run more commercials? Gone was Sally's materialistic letter to Santa, which finally sends Charlie screaming from the room when she says she will settle for 10s and 20s. Gone was Schroeder's miraculous multiple renditions of "Jingle Bells" from a toy piano, including the one that sounds distinctly like a church organ. - rich phelps

My friend Leon's Open letter to ABC. Please share. - rich phelps

Apple has approved the Ustream Live Broadcaster application, bringing live streaming video straight from the iPhone to the Ustream Web site and any embedded players posted around the Web - rich phelps

Then with the launch of iPhone 3GS this summer, we submitted and got approved for Qik on the App Store to enable you to capture and then share your experience with your friends on your favorite social networks. - rich phelps

Here's why (and you might want to read my Nichepaper Manifesto for more context): One of the new competencies the news media is going to have manage is opinion arbitrage. In an era of media production devolved to the masses, everyone can finally express their opinion. So publishers will have to learn to, to put it crudely, buy opinion low and sell it high. - rich phelps

Must Read..... - rich phelps

The N.C.A.A. is conducting a wide-ranging investigation into the University of Tennessee’s football recruiting practices, according to interviews with several prospects, their family members and high school administrators. A significant part of the investigation is focused on the use of recruiting hostesses who have become folk heroes on Tennessee Internet message boards for their ability to help lure top recruits. - rich phelps

When the economy is slow and unemployment rates are high, it's easy to think your employees will happily stay put in their current jobs. But that's a dangerous assumption. Research shows that voluntary turnover rates increase as consumer confidence builds. This means, as a manager, you need to figure out ways to retain your top performers, even if your company is still in a slump. - rich phelps

Display Doodle-appointments in your calendar and suggest free slots from your calendar to a Doodle-poll: Most electronic calendars support using Doodle via ICS feed. To connect, you need to subscribe your Doodle feed-URL from your calendar and vice versa. - rich phelps

Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off. Good leadership involves responsibility to the welfare of the group, which means that some people will get angry at your actions and decisions. It’s inevitable, if you’re honorable. Trying to get everyone to like you is a sign of mediocrity: you’ll avoid the tough decisions, you’ll avoid confronting the people who need to be confronted, and you’ll avoid offering differential rewards based on differential performance because some people might get upset. - rich phelps

How do you educate a generation of students eternally distracted by the internet, cellphones and video games? Easy. You enable them by handing out free iPhones — and then integrating the gadget into your curriculum. That’s the idea Abilene Christian University has to refresh classroom learning. Located in Texas, the private university just finished its first year of a pilot program, in which 1,000 freshman students had the choice between a free iPhone or an iPod Touch. The initiative’s goal was to explore how the always-connected iPhone might revolutionize the classroom experience with a dash of digital interactivity. Think web apps to turn in homework, look up campus maps, watch lecture podcasts and check class schedules and grades. For classroom participation, there’s even polling software for Abilene students to digitally raise their hand. - rich phelps

Have you checked your email yet ? - rich phelps

No comment. But some things in life are worse than the second matrix. - Jason Adam Young from iPhone

The startup world is full of people addicted to work. The addiction often carries a heavy toll of lost friendships, broken relationships, bad health, and a dearth of other interests. All that matters is the next high from work. The next deal, the next milestone, the next round of funding. - rich phelps

Quite possibly the best newspaper correction of all time. - rich phelps

"3. Jane Jacobs was wrong. Or at least missed something very important. In Dark Age Ahead, her last book, she pointed to a number of disturbing signs. One was the rise of crappy science. She was quite right about that — as scientists have become more professional they have become more status-oriented and less truth-oriented. She didn’t foresee that the Internet would be an enormously powerful corrective force, as is happening now. Climategate is a (relatively) small example of even bigger force: the rise of the power of sophisticated amateurs/hobbyists. Who, unlike professionals, with jobs and status to protect, have complete freedom. The first big example was printed non-fiction books, as I blogged earlier (which are written with great freedom, usually); but now the Internet provides another great outlet, much faster, cheaper, and more accessible than books, for independent thought. " ---Something to think about for the truth site - rich phelps

Google announced their public DNS server today. I'm using it right now. There's been a bunch of speculation as to why Google is offering this service for free but the reason is pretty simple: they want to speed up people's Google search results. In 2006, Google VP Marissa Mayer told the audience at the Web 2.0 conference that slowing a user's search experience down even a fraction of a second results in fewer searches and less customer satisfaction. - rich phelps

Potential risks of using Google's free DNS service? - rich phelps