Year: 2013

Why Are Lyrics Sites So Profitable? (And How Bob Dylan Wins)

Last Updated on December 25, 2013 / Technology / 14 minutes of reading

Lyrics searches area a major deal, especially in search advertising. Do a search on Google or Bing for your favorite song with “lyrics” attached and you’ll see a number of results. Companies such as AZLyrics, Sing365, MetroLyrics, SongMeanings, Lyric Freak etc all tend to out rank even artist sites as they compete with each other for the very profitable first or second position. Despite their shady legal status, intense competition, inability to do much in …

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“Can I Handle the Seasons of My Life?”

Last Updated on December 24, 2013 / Family, Religion / 4 minutes of reading

Last night, I had a crisis. On the way to celebrate Christmas with my wife’s family in Spartanburg, SC I realized that I had made a major mistake. I pounded the steering wheel and had an adrenaline-spurred moment of animal rage followed by the inevitable realization that the deed had been done and the only thing left to do was figure out how to fix the situation. My daughters had been with us over the …

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Quantifying Myself in 2014

Last Updated on December 22, 2013 / Technology / 1 minute of reading

I’ve been meaning to get around to doing a Thinking Daily about this. Hopefully, I’ll get to that sooner than later. Hint: I’m a big fan but for reasons you might not guess. More soon (hopefully): We’ve already written about why 2014 is really, finally the year that the “internet of things”—that effort to remotely control every object on earth—becomes visible in our everyday lives. via How the “internet of things” will replace the web …

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I like this Alot

Last Updated on December 22, 2013 / Social Media / 1 minute of reading

Worth your time to go read as it will change the way you interact with other humans (and Alots)… So the next time you are reading along and you see some guy ranting about how he is “alot better at swimming than Michael Phelps,” instead of getting angry, you can be like “You’re right!  Alots are known for their superior swimming capabilities.” via Hyperbole and a Half: The Alot is Better Than You at Everything.

The Problems with Bitcoin

Last Updated on December 19, 2013 / Technology / 1 minute of reading

Good piece that I hits the points that have unsettled me about bitcoin all along… I want Bitcoin to die in a fire: this is a start, but it’s not sufficient. Let me give you a round-up below the cut.Like all currency systems, Bitcoin comes with an implicit political agenda attached. Decisions we take about how to manage money, taxation, and the economy have consequences: by its consequences you may judge a finance system. Our …

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Sprint Buying T-Mobile??

Last Updated on December 13, 2013 / Technology / 1 minute of reading

As a loyal fan of T-Mobile’s no-contract services, I can only respond with “whaaaaa????” Please dear baby divinity no… Sprint, the third biggest wireless carrier in the US, is preparing to buy out its rival T-Mobile, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal. While the deal is a ways off, Sprint is expected to put in its bid in the first half of 2014 and could pay more than $20 billion for its …

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WordPress and the Longevity of Good Software

Last Updated on December 12, 2013 / Technology / 1 minute of reading

The new WordPress 3.8 is definitely beautiful on the admin side. I’m glad to see open source software like WordPress continue to persevere (and thrive) over such a long period on the web (10 years old) given how much publishing on the web has changed and how fads have come and gone. WordPress is, in many ways, the cornerstone of my web presence and I am excited about the update… Today the WordPress core team …

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Not Every American Needs to Learn How to Code

Last Updated on December 10, 2013 / Education, Technology / 2 minutes of reading

Let’s make sure our citizens are literate first and capable of doing basic math before we try to sell the next “American Dream” as being a app maker to our kids. I love coding. I loved when my students were interested in coding as a middle school teacher. However, I made it clear to them that while hard work will get you halfway there, there’s a lot of persistence, skill and luck involved in developing …

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TC;DR

Last Updated on December 6, 2013 / Business, Design, Social Media, Technology / 1 minute of reading

Andy Beaumont on the plague of Pop-Ups 2.0 and the reason why publishers of all sizes are rushing to put them on their sites (hint.. doing analytics wrong): I have tested this design pattern with real people, and a significant portion of them believe that they must do what the box is begging them for in order to close the overlay. These people remember, they’re people, not “conversions”, are signing up to a newsletter they …

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Tom Merritt and the New Economy

Last Updated on December 5, 2013 / Business, Technology / 2 minutes of reading

Tom Merritt is not only an excellent sci-fi author (seriously), but an amazing talent in podcasting and tech punditry. I’ve listened to him from the days of TechTV a decade ago into CNet’s Buzz Out Loud and into his daily show on TWiT called Tech News Today. So, this sucked… After some soul searching, I’ve decided that we do need an in-studio anchor for Tech News Today, and a News Director who can help us …

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Why You’ll Buy a Chromebook Soon

Last Updated on December 2, 2013 / Technology / 1 minute of reading

I can’t say how much I love my Chromebook… nice thought piece on TechCrunch about the Chromebook threat to Microsoft and why it’s more than a browser… This time, the company is targeting Chromebooks, Google’s cheap ChromeOS-based, web-centric laptops. Why is Microsoft worried about Chromebooks? Because it can see the writing on the wall. via Microsoft Should Be Worried About Google’s Chromebooks | TechCrunch.

Gotta say… I want one of those tupperware containers.

Last Updated on December 1, 2013 / Technology / 1 minute of reading

Just when you thought the technology industry couldn’t get any stranger, the latest idea from the retail giant is to offer an audacious delivery-by-drone service. via Amazon unveils delivery by drone: Prime Air. No, seriously | ZDNet.

Why I Will Never Hire Unpaid Interns

Last Updated on December 1, 2013 / Business / 1 minute of reading

Internship has become the new entry level job, and that’s not good for anyone. Companies like the one I’m trying to build with a 100 year outlook would never trade short term savings for such a sham. Do yourself a favor and go read this long but interesting piece that has so many fractals in so many career paths… Fear inhibits innovation. In expensive cities, people live in constant fear. A small wrong move can …

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The Ministry and Drug Gang Economics

Last Updated on December 1, 2013 / Education / 1 minute of reading

I’d argue the same is true for ministers and most any level of professional job given our current economic mega-recession and the tendency of those inside the core to overstay their welcome… The academic job market is structured in many respects like a drug gang, with an expanding mass of outsiders and a shrinking core  of insiders. Interesting piece with nice graphics on the PhD market… via How Academia Resembles a Drug Gang | Alexandre …

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Worlds Colliding

Last Updated on November 26, 2013 / Technology / 2 minutes of reading

I’m a big fan of Pawn Stars. It’s the one “reality show” I can watch (when I’m in a hotel or via the History Channel app on my Nexus 7). So, I was apprehensive about clicking this given I also love Paul Thurrott’s podcast “Windows Weekly” on TWiT and knowing his…um… love for Chromebook since I’ve been listening for over 5 years. Click to read his reaction to the Pawn Stars / Microsoft mashup: So …

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Got a call this morning from my hotel last night…

Last Updated on November 25, 2013 / Technology / 1 minute of reading

Very nice lady explained I had left my iPad in my hotel room when I checked out. I stumbled for a bit because I don’t have an iPad. I asked her to flip it over and see if it says “Nexus.” “Yes, it does!” she said, “what is a Nexus iPad?” We had a nice chat about Android and iOS. Fun tech convo thanks to my carelessness.

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