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Two things Twitter needs to do ASAP

January 19, 2009 in Personal, Tech with 2 Comments

I’ve had two thoughts about Twitter that I need to get out there.

twitter_logo_sFirst, Twitter needs to make money. They can’t continue on venture capital for much longer. People will only throw money at a business opportunity that doesn’t make any money for as long as they can see potential. At some point unfulfilled potential becomes  no potential. If Twitter can’t monetize their service soon they’ll dissolve away into only our memories as many websites have done before.

Second, Twitter needs to overhaul their ridiculous “replies” system. It’s not really a reply at all. Basically, you’re just tweeting something to or about another person that may or may not have anything to do with what that person just tweeted. It doesn’t really allow a person to “reply” to what somebody has said. But the current system does have value and shouldn’t be eliminated. I like the functionality it provides, but it’s not a true reply. What they need to do is create a reply/comment tree setup that both friendfeed and facebook have figured out how to do. This would allow people to actually have more real conversations instead of just the name-dropping or shout outs that happen now. This would make the service much more useful.

Ok, that’s enough ranting for tonight.

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Changed My Comment System…Again!!!

January 17, 2009 in Tech with 3 Comments

It was just over two months ago that I changed my blog’s commenting system from the default WordPress system to Disqus. I had seen quite a few sites that were using Disqus and I really liked the built in interactivity that it has. But I decided to make the switch to IntenseDebate.

The reason was simple. The parent company that owns WordPress, which is what this blog is based on, had acquired IntenseDebate late last year. I guess I should have just used it when I implimented Disqus originally, but I didn’t really think much about it. I imagine that it will at some point become the built-in commenting system, but for now it’s just a plugin on my site.

Human3rror has a post over on his blog listing 13 reasons why he likes IntenseDebate (scroll down to read them).

If you’ve got experience with IntenseDebate please share them in the comments!

I did it…half marathon complete

December 14, 2008 in Tech with 2 Comments

I finished my first long-distance race today. I ran the White Rock Half Marathon in a respectable time of 2:20:47. It was a great experience and I think I’ll do it again someday. The race capped off a stellar year for me: finished my Masters in May, had my first baby in May, turned 30 in November, and ran the half marathon today (Dec 14).

I trained about as well as I could have. I think in my next training I won’t push myself so hard in my pace, but train steady and follow a training calculator verbatim. I ran faster than my suggested times in almost all of my runs. I think that might have slowed me down a little since I was fairly tired at the end. Another thing I’ll do different is to bring my own water bottle to keep with me while I run. The aid stations were great and all, but there were a few times that I really wanted something to drink but the next aid station wasn’t for a while.

The last thing I’ll do differently is I’ll exchange my shoes when my instincts tell me to. I bought an expensive pair back in October and they gave me a terrible blister. I went back to the store to exchange them, but the salesman gave me some pointers on how to prevent it from happening again. I should have just gotten a different pair, because I got a few more blisters during my training and a pretty bad one at the race today.

Other than that, it was a great experience overall. I really feel like I pushed myself to do this and I was able to rise to the challenge. If you’ve never ran a long-distance race I’d encourage you to give it a try.

After all, you have 365 days to train for next year’s White Rock Marathon or Half Marathon.

A Lesson on Communication from the Election

November 5, 2008 in Tech with 0 Comments

Today is the day after the Electuon and it’s typically called the election hangover day. You may be tired of hearing about it along with all the political ads, but I learned an extremely valuable lesson from the whole process that I knew was true before, but saw it come to fruition on a nation-wide scale last night.

That lesson is that in communication delivery trumps content. How I saw it in the election is that by most standards John McCain is far more qualified to be the leader of the USA, but Obama was always called a great communicator. The only message that Obama was putting forward was “change” but didn’t really elaborate on what that meant. McCain had a longer record of service and he has been a proven leader for many years, but the packaging of that message was not nearly as compelling as Obama’s to the majority of people.

For me, that’s a stark reminder to make sure that I have both good content along with great delivery. I know that content matters, but if it’s not delivered in a compelling way it won’t be heard.

New Comment System, powered by Disqus.com

November 4, 2008 in Tech with 5 Comments

[UPDATE: I've switched to IntenseDebate starting 1/17/09)

I've just implemented a new comment system on my blog (it's over at kevinrossen.com for all you facebook readers). It lets you reply to other people's comments, rate others' comments, and much more! I'm pretty excited about the potential it has, so check it out and let me know what you think (at kevinrossen.com, again for you facebookers).

Here's a post that's already generated some comments: http://ping.fm/DJuJp

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