I came across a very good post today about the benefits of RSS that neatly complements what I wrote the other day about understanding RSS from the non-tech view. Marnie Webb at Extension 337 writes about the ten reasons why non-profit organizations should use RSS. Valid indeed, and which I think will apply for any […]
Category: Web/Tech
FT highlights example of blogs for internal communication
Today’s Financial Times has a report on corporate blogging that includes an excellent example of a European company using blogs for internal communication: Some companies, uncomfortable with the openness of public blogs, use them as an internal communications tool. Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, the German investment bank, has set up about 120 internal blogs to promote […]
Guide to tweaking Firefox
If you use Firefox, you might find this guide helpful. Although written in July and a little out of date in some areas (eg, discussing rumoured improvements in Internet Explorer in Windows XP SP2, which was released in August), there’s some good stuff here: keyboard shortcuts, advanced configuration options, performance settings, and links to extensions […]
New computer magazine publishes only online
Could this could be the new model of what the technology press should be doing – publishing only online, not in print? In November, UK publisher Cranberry Publishing Ltd launched Home Computer Magazine as a free magazine designed specifically for online publishing: Unlike some other emagazines you might have seen, this one is not a […]
Music for better decision-making
In its January issue, Wired magazine reports on a new technology that transforms stock market data into music-based sound to communicate meaning: Abstract snippets of clarinet and harpsichord waft from their workstations. But the financial advisers at Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, and Credit Suisse First Boston aren’t listening to Philip Glass. They’re the earliest adopters of […]
Podcasting and vlogging: It’s all about the distribution
Media reports on two rapidly-emerging communication tools – (audio) podcasting and video logging, or vlogging or vblogging: BBC News on podcasting, featuring pioneer Adam Curry: An Apple iPod or other digital music players can hold anything up to 10,000 songs, which is a lot of space to fill. But more and more iPod owners are […]
Copyright myths and creative common(s) sense
A handful of myths have spawned practices, particularly among bloggers and website owners, that turn copyright law on its head, says The Law Library Resource Xchange (LLRX). These myths are rooted in the assumption that everything is up for use online unless proven otherwise, LLRX says, fostering a presumption of entitlement where many people treat […]
Three success measures for podcasting
Wired News: In October, a Google search would have returned fewer than 6,000 results for “podcasting.” Today, that number is 744,000*, and it seems nearly that many podcasts are available. But as with blogs, a sharp divide exists between the relatively small number of good podcasts and the vast number of bad ones, or at […]
Back to Copernic Desktop Search
For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been using the new MSN Toolbar Suite of search tools since it was released. I uninstalled it all today and reinstated Copernic Desktop Search. While I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the MSN suite per se, even though it’s still beta, there were three main things that […]
Copernic gets grade A from Slate
After I posted yesterday about Copernic Desktop Search, I came across a review of five search tools in Slate, covering Ask Jeeves, HotBot, Google Desktop Search, MSN Toolbar Suite and Copernic Desktop Search. When I read the review, my first reaction was: Where’s X1? Blinkx? This doesn’t look like a good comparison. An explanation by […]
The web to play a bigger role in public offerings
The Wall Street Journal reports that communication among investors, Wall Street stock underwriters and issuers are in for major modernization, if plans by the US Securities and Exchange Commission are approved this year. The Journal reports today on proposals by the SEC for enabling greater use of the internet to faciliate the dissemination of information […]
Skweezer and copyright infringement
A lively discussion is bubbling on Jason Calcanis’ blog on the issue of how others use content you have produced where copyright enters into the picture and, in essence, what’s right and what’s not. Here’s how it started as outlined in Jason’s post on 28 December: It’s one thing to take headlines. It’s one thing […]
The Hobson and Holtz Report – Podcast #1: January 3, 2005
Show notes for January 3, 2005 Welcome to our first podcast, a 43–minute conversation recorded live via Skype from Concord, California, USA, and Amsterdam, The Netherlands! Download the file here (MP3, 19.85Mb), or sign up for the RSS feed to get it and future shows automatically. (For this, you’ll need an ipodder, software that lets […]
Six Apart to buy Live Journal
Six Apart, the parent company behind hosted blogging service TypePad and publishing platform Movable Type, is about to acquire Live Journal for an undisclosed amount, reports Business 2.0 writer Om Malik. If the deal goes through later this month, then Six Apart will become one of the largest weblog companies in the world, with nearly […]
Marqui could re-define marketing and PR
I spent a very interesting 30 minutes last night listening to a Geek News Central podcast recorded on Tuesday – an interview with Stephen King, the CEO of Marqui, the company who’s paying $800 a month to certain bloggers to write about their product. When I first wrote about Marqui’s pay-the-bloggers programme last month, I […]
Confirmed: Six Apart acquires Live Journal
As I said in my post yesterday, things are moving fast in the business of blogs. Strong rumours yesterday, confirmation today. In a press release dated today, Six Apart announced that it has acquired Danga Interactive, the owner of Live Journal, for an undisclosed amount of stock and cash. The press release says that, with […]
Skype to introduce voicemail
Skype, the company behind the flourishing internet telephony network, has begun to experiment with a voicemail service, hoping to introduce new paid offerings to capitalize on its success, eWeek reports. The company confirmed on Tuesday that it was testing voicemail, which a spokeswoman said was scheduled to be rolled out in the first half of […]
Corporate governance fuels boom for enterprise software vendors
Business Week reports on the success of enterprise software vendors and their ‘corporate governance programs’ to fix internal accounting problems, which have become hot sellers in a booming new market: […] It’s a growth business in a mature industry: Market researcher Gartner expects spending on corporate-governance software to hit $6.9 billion in ’06, more than […]
Oracle closes PeopleSoft deal
Oracle is closing its PeopleSoft acquisition today, after receiving more than 97 percent of PeopleSoft shares in its tender offer. CNET News reports that Oracle set a deadline of Thursday evening for PeopleSoft investors to tender their shares, and was able to meet the 90 percent threshold to do a fast-track close on the deal […]
New Skype for Windows released
Skype has launched version 1.1 of its internet phone application for Windows: Skype launches v1.1 for Windows and introduces the new Chat feature, allowing Skype users to hold multi-person or forum-style conversations with groups of people. Chat expands the existing one-to-one chatting and other instant message features in previous versions of Skype, and allows groups […]