(Crossposted from www.c4chaos.com)
My previous solution was to use stand-alone word processors, and even Gmail and Google Docs to compose longer blog entries and cut-and-paste them into the blog editor. Most of the time it works because blog editors now support rich-text HTML formats. But not all blog editors render the formatting correctly. Also it's cumbersome to use different web applications, because I had to switch from one browser tab to another just to copy-and-paste my entry.
Enter, Performancing. It's a FireFox plugin that sits neatly at the bottom of your browser (via split window). This means that you can tab to your different blogs and copy-and-paste away. As a bonus, it supports popular blogging API such as Wordpress, Typepad, Blogger, and more so you can automatically publish your post to multiple blogs. Another BIG thing I like about Performancing is that it supports raw HTML editing. This makes it easier for me to add and preview embedded objects like videos and audio players in the blog post.
Perfomancing is still VERY useful for social networking blogs which don't have a blogging API that is supported by Performancing, e.g. MySpace, FaceBook, Vox, and Zaadz. As an example, I composed this blog entry and automatically published it to my Typepad blog. Using Performancing, I can easily crosspost to my Zaadz and Vox blogs by copy-and-pasting. It's perfect for crossposting as well as composing original entries on your other blogs. The editor sits at the bottom of the browser, you can hide/unhide it easily, and you can save multiple “Notes” for later posting on your blogs. And did I mention that it's FREE?
There are a lot of functionality that I haven't covered. So give it a spin and discover them for yourselves. I'm already happy with the features I mentioned above. It's enough to make me improve my blogging mojo.
To sum it up, Performancing is My New Favorite Firefox Add On.
Performancing by Performancing
Performancing is a full-featured blog editor that sits right in your Firefox browser and lets you post to your blog easily. You can drag and drop formatted content, including images, from the page you are browsing and take notes as well as post to your blog.
Congrats - TIME Magazine voted you "Person of the Year"! What's your acceptance speech?
"Um, is thing on? It's on? Oh, cool. Ahem. I'd like to spank the academy...."
(Crossposted from www.c4chaos.com)
Which presidents and political parties were responsible for America's
deadliest wars? To what extent can you blame a president or a political
party for choosing to go to war? This map may hold some answers. It
illustrates the history of American war from 1775 to 2006. War is a
necessary evil. Politics, however, shouldn't be. My Take: This map
is good information but could be very misleading if you read it just by
the number of casualties alone. Although the Democrat and Republican
wars had far more casualties (with Democrat wars being the deadliest),
it doesn't prove that either of those parties are “deadlier” or more
“evil” than the wars during the time of the Founding Fathers. Yes
there are more casualties, but we have to view it in the context of
life conditions and history. For example, as history progressed,
nations get more interconnected and weapons get deadlier, hence the
more number of casualties. How
has the geography of religion evolved over the centuries, and where has
it sparked wars? Our map gives us a brief history of the world's most
well-known religions: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and
Judaism. Selected periods of inter-religious bloodshed are also
highlighted. Want to see 5,000 years of religion in 90 seconds? Ready,
Set, Go!
Check out these awesome visual maps from Maps of War. Here are two of my favorites. Hat tip to Mr. Dallman for the link.
(Crossposted from ~zBlog:~C4Chaos) i made two bucks today. w00t! The Bad News: The U.S. is Bankrupt (er, insolvent). ”The
US is insolvent. There is simply no way for our national bills to be
paid under current levels of taxation and promised benefits. Our
federal deficits alone now total more than 400% of GDP.” Thanks to Integral Options Cafe for this swell news. You won't even see this in the front page of Google News. You have to digg for it. Go figure. Thank goodness for blogs. To Political blogs: You can now pause worrying about that Iraq Report. The Good News: Life is Good.
Uploaded by ~C4Chaos on 19 Aug '05, 10.53pm PDT.
(Crossposted from zBlog:~C4Chaos)
Business 2.0 asked 50 of the brightest minds in business how they do what they do. Check it out. Lots of golden nuggets in there.
Here's a list of my favorite quotes. Also added them to my Zaadz quotes tagged with how to succeed. Something to think about while working on that conscious capitalism thing :)
Sergey Brin
Co-founder, Google
Succeed With Simplicity
“We
are focused on features, not products. We eliminated future products
that would have made the complexity problem worse. We don't want to
have 20 different products that work in 20 different ways. I was
getting lost at our site keeping track of everything. I would rather
have a smaller set of products that have a shared set of features.”
Chris DeWolfe
Co-founder, Myspace
Keep Social Networks Social
“The key is to be true to your community's norms and values. You can't just force yourself on people and try to sell them something they don't want - that's good advice for marketers generally, but particularly on community-driven sites like MySpace. You have to find ways to add value to your members' lives while being consistent with your brand's identity.”
Rachael Ray
Chef, Author, and Entrepreneur
Turn Your Passion Into an Empire
“I've also learned that you can't be all things to all people. Whatever it is that you're successful at, that has to be the No. 1 goal.
Chad Hurley
Co-founder, YouTube
Give Your Startup a Fighting Chance
“As you start building the product, don't assume that you know all the answers. Listen to the community and adapt. We had a lot of our own ideas about how the service would evolve. Coming from PayPal and eBay, we saw YouTube as a powerful way to add video to auctions, but we didn't see anyone using our product that way, so we didn't add features to support it.”
Howard Schultz
Chairman, Starbucks
Dare to Be a Social Entrepreneur
“The
rules of engagement around building a brand have changed significantly
over the past 10 to 15 years. Where companies at one time could spread
their message through traditional marketing, consumers now seek an
enduring emotional connection with the companies they patronize. The
foundation of that connection is the most important characteristic of
building a world-class brand: trust. Trust with your people and trust
with your customers.”
Michael Scott
Regional Manager, Dunder-Mifflin Paper Co.
Avoid a Staff Mutiny (With Chocolate, if Necessary)
“Nowadays I find chocolate and/or chocolate-based snacks to be great motivators. Everyone loves chocolate. If someone has a lot of work to do, put a piece of fudge in a glass container (so they can see it) and let them know that if they accomplish their tasks, they can eat the fudge. You'll definitely get a reaction!”
Andre Agassi
Co-founder, Agassi Graf Development
Stage a Great Second Act
“You have to understand who you are and figure out a way to communicate it. It might be in a different industry, but it's about what pumps the blood through your veins, what makes you excited, what pushes your buttons. And then discovering the best way to communicate that, no matter how big or small; it's what you stand for, what you believe in, and what reflects who you are.”
Kevin Rose
Founder, Digg
Let the Users Run the Show
“Letting users control your site can be terrifying at first. From day one we were asking ourselves, “What is going to be on the front page today?” You have no idea what the system will produce. But stepping back and giving consumers control is what brought more and more people to the site. They have a sense of ownership and discovery at the same time. If you give users the tools to spread and share their interests with others, they will use them to promote what is important to them.”
Stephen Covey
Vice Chairman, FranklinCovey; Author, The 7 habits of Highly Effective People
Strive for Moral Authority
“Most
people define greatness through wealth and popularity and position in
the corner office. But what I call everyday greatness comes from
character and contribution.”
Muhammad Yunus
Founder, Grameen Bank; Winner, 2006 Nobel Peace Prize
Seek Big Rewards in Small Ideas
“Business is about problem-solving, but it does not always have to be about maximizing profit. When I went into business, my interest was to figure out how to solve problems I see in front of me. That's why I looked at the poverty issue. I got involved in lots of things to address it, and one of them was money lending with loans and credits and savings accounts, and in the process I created Grameen Bank. So you can also have social objectives. Ask yourself these questions: Who are you? What kind of world do you want?”
Donald Trump
Chairman, Trump Organization
Obsess About Solutions, Not Problems
“The image of success is important, but even more important is the ability to focus on solutions instead of on problems. That way, you'll never be thinking like a loser, and you probably won't look like one either.”
Reed Hastings
Co-founder and CEO, Netflix
Turn Your Biggest Weakness Into Your Greatest Asset
“Truly brilliant marketing happens when you take something most people think of as a weakness and reposition it so people think of it as a strength.”
Craig Newmark
Founder and Chairman, Craigslist
Trust Your Customers and They'll Love You in Return
“We are a very open, very democratic site, which means we get all sorts of people. We do get some bad guys who are a few fries short of a Happy Meal. So we have to enlist the aid of our community to help us. The lesson implicit in this is that people will help you out and behave in a really good way. If you trust them, they will respond to that trust.”
Fred Wilson
Managing Partner, Union Square Ventures
Build a Blog That Builds Your Business
“I also like to use a sensational headline. Many people read blogs in aggregators, which generally show only the headline. So you have to give people a reason to click through. Blogs need to be real and personal. Reading it should be like hanging out with you. I play music for my readers. I show them videos I like. I tell them what I did over the weekend. And I tell them what is happening in the technology, Internet, and VC markets.”
(Crossposted from www.c4chaos.com)
I'm still figuring out why Starbucks is not yet providing free wi-fi access when virtually all of its competitors already are. For example, Tully's Coffee is already providing free wi-fi to most of its location. Why? As a service to customers:
“It's pretty simple,” Tully's President John Dresel said. “We will not be charging the customer. … This is about our customers. The more we give them, the better and solid the relationship is between our company and our customers.” (via SeattlePi)
So how come Starbucks continues to charge for its wifi access via T-Mobile hotspots? I have not idea. But here are my guesses:
– Starbucks is too focused on its Hear Music facelift.
– Starbucks is profitable already anyway that they don't need to woo more customers with free wi-fi. And besides, it would probably slow down the turnover of customers because some wireless enabled people will stay longer in Starbucks stores without buying more coffee.
– Starbucks is tied down with T-Mobile Hotspot contract.
– Starbucks has too many locations that it would be very expensive to wifi-enable all of them for free.
– Starbucks would rather look good than do good.
So what do you think? You have any better answers? Help me out here.
In the meantime, it's good that we've got tons of coffee shops with free wifi here in Seattle.
WOOT! I think I'll hangout more often at Tully's now…
The session begins…. I'll be posting real-time blog updates on zBlog:~C4Chaos so please check the updates there, or feed from tag = BBS2006. Also check out ~my Flickr stream: tag = BBS2006.
What's the weirdest thing you've ever eaten?
Submitted by Megan.
Well, this is a delicacy where I come from. I've tried it once, I'm never gonna try it again! Below is a photo of the said delicacy. My apologies to the resident vegans :)
balut exposed
Uploaded by Spagheddios on 13 Sep '05, 6.33am PDT.
(Crossposted from zBlog:~C4Chaos)
Old Lady: Bush has dropped the phrase 'stay the course'.
Me: (looks at the old lady and smile)
Old Lady: (looks at me and smiled back) Gee, I wonder why. Damn fool.
Me: (still smiling) You betcha.
Read the news for context.
'Staying the course'? White House takes a detour
Decision made to dump phrase from Bush's talks
