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Yes, it’s Easter Monday but don’t let that stop you. Here’s the details. Related posts: NiMUG Meeting: Monday 18th Feb, 7 pm NiMUG Meeting tonight, Monday 15th December NiMUG meeting tonight… iPhone SDK. 6th March 2008
Yes, it’s Easter Monday but don’t let that stop you.
Here’s the details.
#21 was listed separately on Lategaming If I were an advertiser today, I’d be nervous. I’m talking from the point of view of being a producer or seller and that I have a product or service to advertise. There’s probably more choice in the methods of advertising now than there ever has been and to … Continue reading “22/100 If I Were an Advertiser Today”
#21 was listed separately on Lategaming
If I were an advertiser today, I’d be nervous.
I’m talking from the point of view of being a producer or seller and that I have a product or service to advertise. There’s probably more choice in the methods of advertising now than there ever has been and to my mind they are becoming increasingly less effective.
Dead Tree
I’ll tell you right now. Junk mail I receive goes in the recycler. I don’t look at adverts in magazines. I don’t look at billboards for product advice. I do look at billboards for event advice however, like a robot turning up at W5? My kids would love it. A Wedding Fayre? Her indoors will love it. A Tech conference? Yeah, sure, though my expectations will be low.
Zombie Hordes
Unsolicited commercial email, and much of the solicited commercial email just goes straight into the trash. Being spammed with ‘articles’ written by small-time CEOs doesn’t inspire either. If you’re emailing me something, make it content and make it something I want, not something I might be interested in. I’m not interested in offers of free laptops and phones, performance enhancing drugs or business opportunities where I get a commission on vast amounts of money being transferred from one place to another. Figure it out.
Jaded Eyeballs
Does anyone pay attention to commercials on TV? What about adverts on web pages? I don’t even process them these days. The only ads I watch on TV are Apple adverts because I’m a sucker for Apple. I don’t look at or click through on most adverts on web sites. Sponsors links are different however – so make your advertising targetted and relevant and make sure they’re relevant to the web site I’m on.
Conversational Media
Advertising via Blog seems to be just dishonest in some ways. Sure, I might rave about Rickshaw but that’s because I’m using it every day. It’s a product created by me and my friends (my input is solely advisory). But what about companies that give free product to bloggers? Or pay them? Or for journo-bloggers who get paid to write reviews? I think there’s a line to be drawn. If it were me I’d provide product to a group of bloggers and tell them to be honest. Because if you’re not in this to be honest in your business then why even bother. Mr Mulley has a recent post about fakeblogging which is being seized by PR houses who see it as a quick way to generate some buzz. Is this much different to the online viral campaigns being created by movie producers to support their releases (Cloverfield had one)?
Something new and exciting?
It’s not my job to think of new and exciting ways to advertise? Uh, yeah, it is. Ways that would appeal to me? The biggest issue of any business is awareness. The number of people who told Mac-Sys they were so happy to hear about a Mac Service Provider in Northern Ireland but they’d never heard of the company before. And the number who were referred from PC companies was startling as well.
You also have to consider the potential damage that unsubstantiated word of mouth can cause and you have to wonder why people have such negative things to say. That’s why it’s important for a business to engage with bloggers who have an opinion. Not so bloggers can get special treatment but so the company can show that the rumour is false and that the real performance of the company cannot be judged by mutterings from a couple of guys. I have no idea why Andy’s friends told him not to go to Mac-Sys but I would hope that Andy’s experience with us has shown him a little insight into how we work with every customer. As it happened, Apple and Mac-Sys worked together to provide a solution that was palatable to all. Not every situation will play out like that but engaging a company directly should always provide some sort of palatable result. Not everyone may be happy with the results but there’s been a miscommunication if people are badmouthing you – you’ve obviously not communicated the message correctly (or, in many cases, the individual is too angry to listen and in my experience the anger is usually at themselves but directed at others.)
If I were an advertiser I’d not waste money on TV or Radio. If I were hosting an event I’d put the event on billboards. I’d definitely start a blog and do detailed breakdowns of the products and services. I’d provide free samples to bloggers and ask, not bargain with, them to write honest reviews. Engage with bloggers, challenge their assumptions, respond to their blog posts and take on board their criticisms.
SKy Broadband at home are sufficiently reliable most of the time but when the connection drops, then you know it’s just bad juju on their end. Last night the connection dropped while I was out (in fact it usually drops while I’m out) and it came back some time in the wee small hours. I … Continue reading “ADSL down at home”
SKy Broadband at home are sufficiently reliable most of the time but when the connection drops, then you know it’s just bad juju on their end. Last night the connection dropped while I was out (in fact it usually drops while I’m out) and it came back some time in the wee small hours.
I correct myself: the connection was up, as multiple reboots of the router confirmed and came up at 6300 kbps down, 384 kbps up which is pretty respectable. But the level 3 connection didn’t come up, no IP address was received from their ADSL servers so there was no traffic coming or going. I used a handy password utility on teh internets on my iPhone which takes your serial number and MAC address and provides you with the password for Sky’s broadband network, information they will flat our refuse to give you otherwise. I configured a spare Vigor router and tested. Same again. I went to bed frustrated and not a little pissed off with Sky.
6:30 am this morning everything is working.
I can’t help but think this is demand related. They hit a demand saturation point, run out of IP addresses and just start kicking people off. Very poor.
37Signals are one of those companies that you either love or hate, I guess. I like them a lot, with their cheeky, no-nonsense approach to things. It’s true that a lot of problems come down to doing the right thing so you have to ask – what are the barriers to doing the right thing? … Continue reading “Workplace Experiments”
37Signals are one of those companies that you either love or hate, I guess. I like them a lot, with their cheeky, no-nonsense approach to things. It’s true that a lot of problems come down to doing the right thing so you have to ask – what are the barriers to doing the right thing?
At our company-wide get together last December we decided that 2008 was going to be a year of workplace experiments. Among other things, we discussed how we could make 37signals one of the best places in the world to work, learn, and generally be happy.
They’ve implemented the following so far:
Love them or hate them you have to admit it’s pretty forward thinking. Some people will dislike the environment in a 4 day week and you could follow the pattern recursively until down to a 0-day week and then they’d be happy. You’d be out of business soon after and then they’d be sad. But they’d blame you.
The last two points deal with money and my opinion is that if it can reasonably be counted as a work expense then it probably should be one. For example, woodworking and pilots lessons would not, but driving lessons might, as should cooking, because really, everyone benefits from cooking lessons.
I think that it should be standard practise for a technology company that is established to have some sort of account with O’Reilly or one of the other book vendors so that the staff can get reasonable access to decent materials like these. If there’s an IT conference, let them go. (in comparison, getting just paid leave to go an IT conference is difficult in $BIG_CORP even if you’re paying your own travel and subsistence).
Why not just pay a higher salary?
Well, for a 4 day week, you’ve just got a 20% bonus. And if you provide a higher salary, people will adjust their lifestyle to fill it and still want work to buy books. And then you have to consider the tax implications. It quickly gets to a point where you’re going to pay people more money just for a third of it (or more) to go straight to the government. And no-one likes that.
My interest in this comes more from the work-life balance. I’m more interested in the results from a 4 day week or from the opportunities to be gained from remote working or working from home. In my experience it made me a lot happier. I missed out on being in the office but my team was virtual anyway – we only spoke over the phone or via email/IM.
I find this story to be somewhat chilling and highlights the problem with allowing one country (and their shiftless government) to have too much control over the infrastructure of the Internet. At least if it was any other country you could do something about it. Related posts: Obama and the Peace Prize The Broadband Blueprint … Continue reading “Offshore now.”
I find this story to be somewhat chilling and highlights the problem with allowing one country (and their shiftless government) to have too much control over the infrastructure of the Internet.
At least if it was any other country you could do something about it.
Via TomRaftery’s Social Media: Mike Hughes of Microsoft Ireland who is going to talk about Windows Vista energy conservation features. Cool. Doesn’t Vista require a more powerful PC with a more powerful graphics chipset and more RAM? More honestly, Mike Hughes will be trying to convince you to upgrade from Windows XP because then their … Continue reading “Vista: the OS for the Greens?”
Via TomRaftery’s Social Media:
Cool.
Doesn’t Vista require a more powerful PC with a more powerful graphics chipset and more RAM?
More honestly, Mike Hughes will be trying to convince you to upgrade from Windows XP because then their processor partners will sell more chips and they’ll start to be able to boast about Vista’s upgrades. Because at this point, Vista is a disaster considering how long it’s been out.
Via the BBC Eight British commandos … were arrested in a bar in the town of Harstad after removing their clothing, making lewd comments to women and urinating on each other. Quality. Related posts: Jonathan Gems on the abolition of the UKFC Future of the Beeb? Holidays in England There Are Women Who Code
Via the BBC
Eight British commandos … were arrested in a bar in the town of Harstad after removing their clothing, making lewd comments to women and urinating on each other.
Quality.
Paul Thurrott Related posts: FSF on iPhone 3G: Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt. Project Canvas FSF: easy targets Money for nothing and chicks for free
So while we Northerners might be shit at blogging (as evidenced by our complete lack of talent at the Irish Blog Awards), we’re pretty much in the top-5 for self-hatred, hatred of neighbours, hatred of foreigners, hatred of animals and hatred of things we don’t even know about. Judging by the young trees that line … Continue reading “What we ARE good at.”
So while we Northerners might be shit at blogging (as evidenced by our complete lack of talent at the Irish Blog Awards), we’re pretty much in the top-5 for self-hatred, hatred of neighbours, hatred of foreigners, hatred of animals and hatred of things we don’t even know about. Judging by the young trees that line our streets, the yobs up here hate plants too. That has to count for something, right?
I guess not. I mean, we’re a country of idiots as it is. We trumpet our great successes as something to be proud of. Our dead shipbuilding industry built the most famous wreck in the world which, of course, sank on the maiden voyage. We express our pride at an Ulster son who spent more time behind the bottle than on the pitch. We have one of the highest incidences of genetic dysfunction in the West due to having a low population who tend not to breed outside of their social groups (and woe betide any taigs and huns who get it on together). And now we’re the racist capital of Europe.
A few years ago, at the tme of the Holy Cross Bomb Blast, one of the commenters on the BBC ‘Have your Say’ section of the web site, made the following poignant remark.
It’s about time we built a high wall around
Northern Ireland and put up a sign saying
“Do not feed the animals”
To be honest I can’t disagree. Walking the streets near my home, it feels like 20 years ago because the people of Ballyholme can’t be bothered picking up after their dogs in the morning. I mean – nothing to me is worse than picking up after my own dog but we do it because we think of the consequences. When using the canteen at work, I notice the number of people who don’t bother cleaning their cups or who have emptied the remnants of their breakfasts and lunches into the sink (and these are meant to be educated people). It surprises me that there are such a number of animals in this country that they cannot even take pride in the areas they have to live and work in.
I’m sick of Northern Ireland. Deeply, viscerally sick of everything this country has made. Of everything this country has become. We inherited this mess from our parents and from their parents and it falls to us to try and make things better.
Which is exactly part of the problem.
I can only live vicariously though the reports of the Irish Blog Awards
I can only live vicariously though the reports of the Irish Blog AwardsNorthern Ireland got shafted” which is somewhat unsurprising. Back when I was going the gaming convention circuit around the Republic of Ireland there was no mission in the Northerners winning a game (other than the crunchy wargames) until we got better known. We’re always going to be outsiders in this kind of market but it’d be an interesting article I’d like to see some of the winners pen.
Maybe someone should dissect it?
Photoblogs do well. As does Irish topical stuff.
The alternative is to create the
in true Nor’n Ireland separatiste fastion. We say No and all that.
I’m kidding 🙂
Congratulations to the winners. The best thing about the Irish Blog Awards is not the rewards for those people who have entertained the people who nominated and voted but rather that we, the ignorant, get to add a few very entertaining blogs to our feed readers. This is where the whole “conversation” thing comes from I guess. It’s not just about comments on a blog but blogs written about other blogs, the viewing and sharing of new designs and new points of view.