No Snivelling

Congratulations, Meredith and Peter -- Christopher is amazing.

Labels: baby, baby boy, boy

I spotted some early posts here:
1) kosso's braingarden
2) joey's thisandthat
3) ABC!
4) tuzworld.com
5) Steve Rubel at MicroPersuasion
6) others?

Labels: britney spears, funny videos, george bush, jibjab, media, news, news story, politics, television, what we call the news

Damon just showed me a new Amazon Hack -- from any Amazon.com Product Page, just hit 'tt' on your keyboard, and up pops an 'Add a Tag' box -- cool!

Anyone know of some other hidden javascript hacks for Amazon?

Popup looks like this:

Labels: amazon, amazon.com, hack, tags, tt

I love this photo -- but, why?

I've found myself using the world 'Elegant' more and more -- it's just a fine word.

If you're the owner of www.elegant.com, I'd like to talk :-)

Definitions:

Urban Dictionary - Engineer slang for a very clean or innovative way of solving a problem. i.e. the opposite of a kludge. "While only requiring 20 minutes to code, Bob's automated porn cataloging app was some of the most elegant work his boss has ever seen."

Dictionary.net - Elegant \El"e*gant\, a. [L. elegans, -antis; akin to eligere to pick out, choose, select: cf. F. ['e]l['e]gant. See Elect.]

1. Very choice, and hence, pleasing to good taste; characterized by grace, propriety, and refinement, and the absence of every thing offensive; exciting admiration and approbation by symmetry, completeness, freedom from blemish, and the like; graceful; tasteful and highly attractive; as, elegant manners; elegant style of composition; an elegant speaker; an elegant structure.

A more diligent cultivation of elegant literature. --Prescott.

2. Exercising a nice choice; discriminating beauty or sensitive to beauty; as, elegant taste.

Syn: Tasteful; polished; graceful; refined; comely; handsome; richly ornamental.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Labels: elegant

I'm often asked to explain the difference between different Web 2.0 websites -- I do my best, but until a few minutes ago I wasn't able to properly explain Reddit! Now, I've got that answer, and a whole lot more.

If you're trying to figure out all of the surging Web 2.0 sites such as Digg, Del.icio.us, Technorati, Wikipedia, Flickr, BlueDot and more, check out this Web 2.0 Summary from SEOMoz -- kudos to them on a fantastic sample/summary!

http://www.seomoz.org/article/social-media-marketing-tactics

Labels: bluedot, digg, flickr, seo, seomoz, technorati, web2.0, wikipedia

Another entry in the heavily anticipated "Dave Schappell's Favorite Daily Twitters"

--

Scobleizer What PR people do wrong with their phones: http://tinyurl.com/274vpj 12 minutes ago from web

daveschappell just bought cool new products at www.knockknock.biz - check 'em out! 22 minutes ago from web

dictionary @daveschappell coffee:The best drink ever... glory... http://tinyurl.com/2y7rh2 26 minutes ago from web

daveschappell @dictionary coffee 26 minutes ago from web in reply to dictionary

Scobleizer @ChrisPirillo: you should have Maya's Mom speak at Gnomedex: http://tinyurl.com/23aeqy about 1 hour ago from web in reply to chrispirillo

Scobleizer Jott lets you remember stuff by calling your cell phone and leaving a message. It rocks. about 1 hour ago from web

Scobleizer Got a cell phone? Get Jott! Here's a vid: http://tinyurl.com/2fdc59 about 2 hours ago from web

dictionary @daveschappell jibjab:The position in which a monkey is held while a siberian wolf hound pummels his chin http://tinyurl.com/297tkl about 19 hours ago from web

daveschappell @dictionary jibjab about 19 hours ago from web in reply to dictionary

daveschappell telephone headset hack - http://301url.com/973 about 21 hours ago from web

chrispirillo New REM song debuts on YouTube: http://youtube.com/watch?v=... about 22 hours ago from web

thomashawk This morning's most beautiful sunrise over the San Francisco Bay. http://tinyurl.com/26uvwj 07:21 AM March 16, 2007 from web

Labels: best twitter, favorite twitter, twitter, what is twitter

My buddies at Clearspring just launched a March Madness widget... with all the war and suffering in the world, couldn't we just change the name to march happiness?

I've found that the best way to answer the question "What is Twitter?" is to point folks at Twitters that I've found interesting (I've marked them as 'favorites' on the website version of Twitter by clicking the little 'star' icon).

I've pasted them below to make it easy for those new Twitter users to find some people to 'follow' on Twitter -- give it a try!

And, I don't Twitter often, but if you'd like to find my Twitter page, it is:
www.twitter.com/daveschappell

--

Scobleizer Good night for real this time. Google kicks ass: http://tinyurl.com/274z6j about 10 hours ago from web

daryn Eyejot: easy & free video mail for all, no install or DL. $ from pro accts, pvt labels & rev shares. comprehensive: APIs,RSS,mobile, + more! about 12 hours ago from twitterrific

daryn @jeffbarr here comes my twitterpitch for eyejot! where does aws fit in :) about 12 hours ago from twitterrific in reply to jeffbarr

Scobleizer Story behind Facebook's new security guy: http://tinyurl.com/293ksq about 12 hours ago from web

jeffbarr TwitterPitching: http://www.jeff-barr.com/?p=954 . about 12 hours ago from web

Scobleizer Checking out @dictionary by @kosso. Kosso, you rock. about 13 hours ago from web

Scobleizer I figured out what to do over on @SilentScoble: favorite item of the day from my link blog. about 13 hours ago from web

Scobleizer Here's the Wall Street Journal article on Twitter: http://tinyurl.com/3bcocq about 14 hours ago from web

Scobleizer Really great beginner's guide to Twitter: http://tinyurl.com/2gchre about 18 hours ago from web

Scobleizer Gnomedex="BlogHim?" http://scobleizer.com/2007/... about 22 hours ago from web

Scobleizer Before Twitter is killed by hype, anyone want to do a "TwitterClub Beach Party?" Half Moon Bay, CA. June 16th. All day. BBQ. Off the grid. about 23 hours ago from web

daveschappell Joke from NYT - 2 muffins baking in an oven. One yells, “Wow, it’s hot in here!” The other muffin replies: “Holy cow! A talking muffin!” ... 09:24 AM March 15, 2007 from web

daveschappell read fred wilson's twitter post - http://rurl.org/41 09:20 AM March 15, 2007 from web

Labels: twitter, twitter besttwitters, what is twitter

My mother-in-law told me about this (my father-in-law is a real life Dilbert)... then I saw this on TechCrunch today...



Find the video on MyToons

Labels: mytoons engineers knack dilbert

More great twitters from the last 25 hours are below. Why are they great Twitters? Basically, because I saw them on my phone and didn't delete them! So that I could check them when I was back at my computer, to follow the links or read more on a full screen.

That begs the question -- is there a list of Twitter Users that others like to follow? If so, email them to me, or post in the comments below. Obviously, you can see some of my favorite Twitter users in the links below, and from yesterday.

And again, my twitter page is here -- Add yourself to my list!

jeffbarr I love S3Fox - https://addons.mozilla.org/... - So easy to upload stuff to Amazon S3, mark it public, and use it in a blog post. about 8 hours ago from web

jeffbarr Mount Rainier from the air: http://www.jeff-barr.com/?p... about 8 hours ago from web

Scobleizer I just saw one of the first killer Windows Vista apps: Electric Rain's Standout (PowerPoint killer): http://www.erain.com/ about 12 hours ago from web

chrispirillo BIG NEWS: Microsoft provides Vista activation bypass - http://tinyurl.com/yp3pv3 !!!! about 13 hours ago from im

Scobleizer Just wrote "what happens after Google loses:" http://tinyurl.com/2279x4 about 14 hours ago from web

Scobleizer Yesterday's ZeFrank is a must watch. And he's not even on it. http://www.zefrank.com/thes... about 14 hours ago from web

Labels: twitter, twitter besttwitters, what is twitter

I'm currently living a bit of an unconventional life. I'm involved with a number of different organizations (for-profit companies, nonprofit organizations, and organizations that aren't formally anything (meetup groups, online communities, etc.) and I actually spend a lot of time working in a city 1,000 miles away from where I live. Needless to say, I haven't had a surplus of tv-watching time lately!

And with all those activities and related stress, I've had a string of amazing days for the last few weeks and months. I've been engaged in really interesting and challenging work with multiple amazing groups of people. In addition, my wife and I have been really busy with life events (significant birthdays, minor surgeries, etc.) and seemingly nonstop travel.

All of that is good, especially because I've been able to avoid the deep lows that we all experience from time to time. I've had some moments where I've been short of sleep and where I know my temper has been too close to the surface, but I've been really happy with my awareness and ability to control it.

But today I was pushed to the limit -- the good news is that the the limit stayed firm. What pushed me there wasn't anything particularly terrible that happened to me personally or that had disastrous consequences. It was just that with one of the organizations I'm involved with I experienced someone pulling what Dr. Paul Farmer, in his book "Mountains Beyond Mountains" refers to as a ninety-nine one hundred. (As an aside, you really should read that book and donate to Partners in Health -- they do amazing work to bring first-rate health services to the poorest individuals in some of the worst environments on Earth)

What is a "ninety-nine one hundred"? Basically, it's when someone quits on a nearly completed job. Nothing bothers me more than that. We all face these trials and it can become pretty fine-grained where you measure one hundred, because at some point you do need to turn off the computer and recharge. I'm not talking about that granularity. What I'm talking about is someone who quit right at ninety-nine and clearly thought about their actions and intentions beforehand. The funny thing is that the organization where it happened will be just fine. They'll work together to do the best they can. I honestly believe that the biggest disappointment will be felt by the 99 -- I think they'll look back a few years from now and wish they had finished the job. Not because of references or anything that impacts their personal (nonprofit / sports / job) career; rather, just because they'll know they dropped the ball at the critical point -- at the point where the pressure got high and they were put to the test. Although they passed that test before, and they'll likely pass it again, I think they'll know that they can't rely on themself at those critical points, when the extra effort that would have been required was really pretty much a rounding error.

That's disappointing.

Try to go for 100. Or... last least four 9's :-)

Labels: 99 100, ninety-nine one hundred, ninetynine onehundred, partners in health, paul farmer, pressure, quitting

I've recently been experimenting with Twitter. When people ask me "What is Twitter?" I try to explain that it's pretty much a group-SMS tool where people continually answer the question "What are you doing right now?". I explain that it's a lot of noise, but I can see a lot of uses for it (families staying in contact without needing phone calls, work teams, sport teams, etc.) in addition to the enjoyment I'm getting out of this month's usage patterns.

If you'd like to try it, add me as a friend: http://twitter.com/daveschappell

Or, add yourself to the friend list of some of the folks linked below (including Presidential candidate John Edwards, who is an active Twitterer!).

I agree that most of it is pretty useless, but it's oddly addicting. I've found that I delete many of the updates in real time, but wish I could mark/flag some that have links for later reading. Instead, I end up going back to the web interface so that I can follow links (when I have fast browser access). And, there's no way to mark 'good twitters' so that the community can promote favorites. Instead, we're left with going back to Digging/Blogging about them. Sort of defeats the purpose of mobile, no?

To assist with some favorite twitters, here's a list from last few days -- you should be able to locate these Twitterers, and join their lists for more!

chrispirillo Women at tech conferences (our truth): http://tinyurl.com/2yd75s about 7 hours ago from im

betsyweber Watching a screencast about tags/tagging from Beth Kanter: http://tinyurl.com/2ldoq2 It's great. Yes, I'm biased as it's made w/Camtasia. about 12 hours ago from web

johnedwards @scobleizer: will fund alternative energy production that will offset the carbon generated from campaign travel. about 17 hours ago from web in reply to Scobleizer

jeffbarr The Start-up Project - Seattle -- RSVP now -- http://tinyurl.com/yskaq3 . about 21 hours ago from web

Scobleizer PodTech's latest doing: National Banana. http://tinyurl.com/yuyofh -- "Airplane" director. about 21 hours ago from web

Labels: twitter besttwitters

This video reminded me of my family gatherings from my formative years...

Labels: st saint patricks day irish drunk drunken drinking fight violent fighting

This graphic which tries to explain the evolution of Blogger to Twitter (from Pete Cashmore at Mashable) reminds me of the Saturday Night Live skit about how Apple keeps introducing smaller and smaller products, faster and faster...

Humorous...

Labels: apple, blogger, ipod guide, mashable, pete cashmore, saturday night live, snl, twitter

For post #200, I thought this video was extremely appropriate:

Labels: dave schappell, funny, funny video, internet attention

Hey Tim -- long time, no blog! How u doin, punk?!? I just found this while surffffin' the crazy interweb and thought to myself, "self, you really should share this phat website with the ultra-cool Tim Gillons." So, that's why I'm doing, Tim Gillons!

How it works is... you tell it how many people you want to have at your party, and then you use the sliders to say how many people you want to get:
a) Tipsy
b) Buzzed
c) Drunk
d) Hammered

It then calculates how many kegs, cups, and how much ice you need.

Of course, it would be perfect if it told you how many Bucklers to bring to the event!

Check it out:

Labels: buckler, kegulator, timgillons

Labels: daveschappell, gum surgery

Last week I posted a list of Websites I Like and Love -- I did it for a reason. I wanted to see how many companies actually monitor the blogosphere to reach out to bloggers who speak favorably (or not so favorably) about their products, services and/or companies.

Not surprising to me at all who reached out -- only two:

1) SnagIt / Techsmith (and super evangelist Betsy Weber)

2) EyeJot (CEO/Founder David Geller responded personally!)

Note that both of these starred near the top of my original list as personal favorites. I think a large reason for that is that I get a true sense that they actually desire customer feedback and know how to encourage their user evangelists.

Companies have a lot to learn from that. At JibJab, we're working to get much better at thanking bloggers for their input, embed players, and the like. It's timely (and "expensive") in the short run, but I think it's one of the best long-term investments that we can make. I can't believe other companies aren't all over this.

Let me know what you think, or if there are great examples of companies doing a great job with this.

Truly outstanding...

Labels: pulp fiction, samuel l jackson