Yoted

Top Tip - A Personal CRM System

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 09:39:00 +0000

I'm forever looking for ways to better manage my business activities, but for some reason I fail to apply the same approach to my personal life.

Too many times now I've ended up in long ping-pong exchanges with organisations regarding broadband contracts or car servicing sagas. After the umpteenth phone call I always wish I'd kept notes since the beginning.

Recently I decided enough was enough and I've started using a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool to manage my status as a customer. I've been using the free version of Capsule CRM to keep track of my personal affairs and found it liberating (in a neat-freak type way).

I've now got decent trails of what's been occurring with cars, bills, phone contracts etc. Opening a letter now feels less like opening an old wound.

Google's Broken

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 10:08:00 +0000

I've spent a few jolly afternoons recently discussing the challenges facing startups when it comes to acquiring traffic. Not surprisingly I've spent considerable time analysing MotorMutt's search footprint. Given the fact that MotorMutt is a search engine itself it's no surprise that we're at the beginning of a long journey there.

However, when it comes to some of the other sites I've been talking to, you begin to wonder if Google's quest for quality simply cannot deliver any more. The fundamental issue now is that all businesses are effectively competing for the top three or four results in Google. Ten years ago, when each niche had a few businesses competing for the traffic, it had merit.

Quart in a pint pot

Now, hundreds of websites compete for that same spot. Google can Panda and Penguin all they like, but you can't fit a quart in a pint pot. If there are a dozen or more legitimately good results for a search, Google's results page can't do them justice.

Secondly, we've entered a period where new sites have to rely on supersonic virality to gain any foothold. A site can appear, full of appropriate content, but without the benefit of mega linkage from other sites and over-verbose wordage (even if not required by the consumer) it doesn't stand a chance of appearing anywhere useful in Google.

Quality Products not SEO Queens

One of the sites I've been working with is Luxury Artisan. Set up over a year ago, it's a business that sources top quality leather goods from Italy - often with exclusive distribution rights. It's competing against some well established brands but does it have any less right to appear in search results than others with a larger Google footprint?

Should the business owner obsess with SEO or is it a bridge too far now? If I search for "quality leather briefcase" as a consumer I want to see the best goods available from businesses with good service - not the sites with the greatest longevity, the biggest spend or the cleverest webmasters.

Courtesy of Google

I also spent some time recently with the founder of CarBuzz.co.uk. He's done great work to build his site from zero two years ago. He's played all the SEO games - he's blogged, he's sought out linkage from other sites, he's generated content galore and he's enjoyed a good volume of traffic. Yet I can now sense the frustration that so much of his future hangs on Google's every move - traffic rising and falling as someone in the Googleplex fine tunes parameters based on the findings of some mega complex analysis of two hundred 'signals'.

Consumers find his site useful yet there's no mechanism any more for that to be measured. Visitors don't add him to their 'home page' any more because few people operate their own sites now. Links are now at the behest of journalists and bloggers and rarely from other sites of real niche authority (often forums). A Facebook 'like' is probably more significant now than many of Google's complex algorithms.

Facebook Future?

Maybe this is the basis of the rumours we're hearing of Facebook developing a search engine. They've recently dumped hundreds of thousands of fake user accounts... could we see the 'like' being the basis of crowd-sourced search results as one-vote-per-user becomes a measure of quality? Sure, people will find ways of gaming it but that's always the case. Google are trying it with their +1 mechanism but with Google Plus remaining the domain of committed early adopters and geeks it doesn't represent the populous well.

Facebook has the power to measure the quality of a site based on user experience, not on keywords, headings and spurious links from other sites. Next time you're looking for a plumber would you brave Google or ask a friend for a recommendation? Therein lies the future of search.

Google will only ever be harmed by a hefty-side swipe - not a frontal attack. Fan of Facebook or not, the chances are they may be about to give Google a bloody nose. Now what price is FB trading at...?

Sneak a peek behind the scenes

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 16 May 2012 13:53:00 +0000

Lurkers need not apply! One of the advantages - and challenges - I had whilst developing PistonHeads was that I'd get instant feedback from the community as to what was good or not so, about developments to the site.

With MotorMutt not being built atop a throng of willing critics I'm missing the useful ideas and input from fellow petrolheads. I've got some fun stuff in the pipeline and it would be great to offer a preview to those willing to help.

If you'd like to take part, please sign up to this Google discussion group: MotorMutt Insiders.

Amazon Dynamo DB Top Tip

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 04 May 2012 07:39:00 +0000

Don't create a 500 unit storage thingummy and not use it. It will cost you almost $13 a day.

I was experimenting last week with DynamoDB and interesting though it was I reverted to SimpleDB which is er... simpler.

Foolishly in my experimentation I had created a table with a provisioned throughput of '500' when in fact '5' would have been more appropriate. Fortunately I did this towards the end of the month as my usual minuscule bill ballooned into something almost as expensive as a train ticket.

Table deleted. Say no more.

Barn Finds

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 17:44:00 +0000

Many of us browse the classifieds looking for the old, the unusual, the hideous and the hilarious. It's a daily habit for many a petrolhead and there are good finds to be had on PistonHeads, Octane, ebay and elsewhere.

There are some good sources of unusual motors that will drip feed good finds to you too. I've been subscribed to BringATrailer for a long time. Today I also started following BarnFinds and the aptly named GermanCarsForSaleBlog.

Are there others I should be following?

Tales of a Lone Developer - Project Management

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 10:37:00 +0000

As a chap working solo, carefully honing and bashing out my wares, I like to frequently review the tools I'm using. It's very easy to get stuck in a rut. For years I used a particular toolset simply because I didn't have time to reevaluate and ultimately that was counterproductive. With the wealth of tools out there now, it's foolhardy not to have a sniff around periodically for something better.

This week I've been looking at my bug/time/task management. For the last couple of years I've been using Unfuddle to track issues. It's a great tool, but since MotorMutt has gained momentum I've found myself rigourously logging everything I find, but not rigourously working through them. The result is a hefty database of issues, many of which I've fixed anyway. It seems my process is breaking down. My workflow is broken.

Using the Chrome Web Store as my 'App Store' I've been looking for a new tool to freshen up my thinking and my approach. There's a lot out there now but a lot of it is geared up towards development teams and is overkill for a solitary bloke banging code out in a darkened attic.

I've looked at Gantter, MicroProject, ProjectManager, AceProject, 5PM Web, Zoho Projects, GroupCamp Project and quite a few others before my brain went into meltdown and I sought solace in alcohol and peanuts.

For now I've settled on Pivotal Tracker. It's pretty lightweight - suitable for billy-no-mate-developers - and forces a different workflow on me which is a good thing once in a while to keep me on my toes. Expect a rush of progress now that I'm tooled up - or another post next week bleating about my toolset...

Thundering SLS at Silverstone

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 12:24:00 +0000

I was at Silverstone a couple of weeks ago, giving the GT3 a long overdue outing and was asked if I minded sharing my garage. Intrigued as to what might turn up, I hadn't quite expected this beast!

SLS at Silverstone from Ted on Vimeo.

Run by Mike Jordan's Eurotech team, it's purely a toy for track days. It made some of the other exotica there seem quite mundane!

Don't talk to me about 'Social Media'

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 09:09:00 +0000

Recently I did some work with a car manufacturer, providing some input into their 'Social Media Strategy'. It's a phrase which raises my hackles as it's a very broad brush term banded around by board level tie wearers to whom it often seems to mean - we must 'do' Facebook and Twitter.

In reality the term describes the massive change in dynamic, whereby big business no longer barges along a one way street unhindered. Now, the street is two way and li'l old ladies will get in the way of the corporate juggernaut. The real challenge is not 'doing social', it's working out how to engage effectively - and politely please - with the people you meet in this new public space.

Facebook and Twitter are the current 'channels', but someone else will redefine them in the coming years and companies will need the same strategy to deal with the new tools. Will Pinterest and Tumblr start visual dialogues...?

What frustrates me as a keyboardologist is that in this incredibly fast moving world, 'Social Media Strategy' is being described in terms of the tools available today. Should a manufacturer have a 'forum', a Facebook 'Page', Twitter Accounts? Don't start with the tools, start with a goal.

Please, stop thinking in terms of current software and start thinking about how best to engage with your customers. As a Land Rover customer, I don't want a visuaofest email once a year and a random letter suggesting my five year old car is suddenly in demand because they're short of stock.

I'd like to engage with a manufacturer based on the information they hold and my real relationship with them. My car is serviced and warrantied via a dealer - I'll certainly engage with you more if I can access what exactly happened to my car at the service. Give me the tools to manage my ownership and I'll engage with you plenty. Become my car manager and I'll talk to you. I wont talk to you if you shout at me via some social media tools and want to be my 'friend'. I'm not your friend, I'm not really a 'fan', I'm a customer.

If I have a problem with my car, I'd like to ask someone with hands on experience at a dealer or manufacturer, not a loud 'experts' on a forum I've never been to before. We all know they'll simply advise me to buy a different model, get it chipped or take it a bloke in a shed in Bracknell.

To talk to me, manufacturers and dealers need to invent some tools that are appropriate. I don't want to be banged on the head with a social hammer flogged to them by a blogging evangelist.

Job Opening

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 22:22:00 +0000

Things are taking shape nicely at MotorMutt. I'm beavering away on the tech side and this week I switched platforms onto the second generation system. This allows me to deliver unique databases to Octane, Evo (launching this week) and to reinstate www.motormutt.com.

Software wise, it's more of a blueprinted V8, compared to the original four pot.

With the tech progressing well it's time to focus on MotorMutt's relationships with dealers and manufacturers and to work on our commercial plans.

To that end, we're looking for a Commerical Director. Full details available here.

MotorMutt launches on Octane Magazine

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 14:22:00 +0000

I've linked up with Dennis Publishing and together we've created a MotorMutt search engine for Octane Magazine.

Octane is focused on performance and classic cars worldwide giving the MotorMutt crawler plenty to chew on. In the process of creating the site, I've found some fantastic cars for sale all over the world. Not surprisingly the USA has plenty to offer, but I've been surprised at the variety of cars available in Holland particularly.

Searching for high end exotica such as Carrera GTs and SLSs reveals a healthy supply of them in mainland Europe and there are some really fascinating older exotics out there too.

Currently the site has around 6,000 cars (almost all performance or classic models) and that number is increasing week by week.

The MotorMutt search engine will be fully accessible from Octane's site later this week, but you can preview it here:

http://octane.motormutt.com

Private ads are available for free too!

MotorMutt.com is nearly off its leash

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 07:40:00 +0000

I've got a new car flavoured website. About time I hear you retort after four years devoid of petrol webness.

The new venture is a used car search engine. Before you exclaim that I lack imagination, please bear with me. You may well have encountered some car sites laying claim to the term "Search Engine", but as I've found they're all a bit 1998. In my view a web site thrusting a form full of drop down lists of make, model and budget doesn't constitute a search engine. Search should mean search, not selection.

Proper, sexy search

I've built a system that will (attempt to) understand more vexing interrogations such as "Manual E46 Coupe" or "Mark 2 escorts". I want easylust Zagato Astons, RS3100s and blagging Jaguars. For less petrolveined types, I'd like to be able to answer queries such as "diesel audi up to £10k", "red mini estates" or "hybrid hatchbacks".

Finding, Not Waiting

Secondly, to get the full inventory of exotica no 'search engine' should be sitting around waiting to be told what's for sale. The world's purveyors of car porn shouldn't have to work out how to do overnight XML uploads to your super aggregating FTP dropbox parsing aggregator. A search engine should search the web and find cars. Crazy huh?

Woof

The new site is called MotorMutt. Yep, it's a searching dog type thing. Maybe that's a bit 1999 too but rather than spend six months drinking coffee with a brand consultancy, I've concentrated on building the damn product. Crack on I say.

So where's it at? Well I've been at it since March and the Mutt's looking pretty well groomed. It'll spill onto the web like an overturned cappucino all too soon, but if you'd like to have a peek then please let me know your email address via my site at www.blatters.com and I'll whizz you an access code. Early adopters, forward thinkers and Mr Nosy welcome.

Please follow the Mutt's progress on Facebook too. I'm hoping he'll have an exciting life.

Amazon Simple Email Service

noreply@blogger.com (Ted) — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 14:10:00 +0000

I've just started experimenting with this. The Amazon tool set is great, but it does sometimes lead you into scripting hell.

The Amazon documentation describes how to verify your email addresses using perl scripts. That took me an hour or so of downloading and updating my perl config to get the damn things to work.

Then I discovered this blog entry:

http://www.alexkorn.com/blog/2011/04/sending-email-aws-php-with-amazonses/

which shows you how to do it via a line of code in the PHP SDK library. So much easier...

Macbook Air Miles

noreply@blogger.com (Ted) — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 09:38:00 +0000

My aged Dell D610 laptop is showing it's age and as I'm doing a bit of to-ing and fro-ing on the train at the moment I thought I'd get myself a new toy. A tidy little Macbook Air fits the bill, so an order was placed last week. I've been monitoring it's progress from China eagerly, but I've been somewhat perplexed about just how well travelled my laptop will be by the time it reaches me!

Gloucester, United Kingdom 06/17/2011 8:00 A.M. Out For Delivery
Castle Donnington, United Kingdom 06/17/2011 5:25 A.M. Departure Scan
Koeln, Germany 06/17/2011 2:50 A.M. Departure Scan
Koeln, Germany 06/16/2011 10:58 P.M. Arrival Scan
Warsaw, Poland 06/16/2011 9:09 P.M. Departure Scan
Almaty, Kazakhstan 06/16/2011 4:37 P.M. Departure Scan
Koeln, Germany 06/16/2011 8:47 A.M. Package data processed by brokerage....
Incheon, Korea, Republic of 06/16/2011 11:27 A.M. Departure Scan
Shanghai, China 06/16/2011 6:51 A.M. Departure Scan
Shanghai, China 06/15/2011 9:41 P.M. Export Scan
Koeln, Germany 06/15/2011 1:21 P.M. Package data processed by brokerage...
Shanghai, China 06/15/2011 5:30 P.M. Arrival Scan
China 06/15/2011 12:58 A.M. Order Processed: Ready for UPS

Loving Lotus Again

noreply@blogger.com (Ted) — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 16:20:00 +0000

Production line changes are afoot

I've just spent a fantastic couple of days as a guest of the Lotus Group. As you're probably aware, Lotus is undergoing a huge regeneration programme. After nearly fifteen years as a loss making British car company (sounds familiar), it's benefiting from a £500m investment from investors.

It's a risky strategy involving the launch of a number of cars over the next few years to produce a more coherent and upmarket range. We were fortunate enough to see the full size models in the design studio and they're very credible. Importantly the interiors really are of the quality you'd expect of cars that will cost many, many tens of thousands. It's no longer a case of doing the best with limited resources - these are proper luxury car interiors.

Lotus's Managing Director Danny Bahar found time to speak to our group and an impressive character he was. He's slick - well presented and articulate despite English not being his first language. He expertly conveyed his vision for the company, taking it upmarket and into the luxury sportscar sector. He was at pains to emphasise that affordable sportscars such as the Elise would still form part of the range but I'm not convinced that price point is going to be a reality given the improvements in quality of product and quality of production that are being targeted.

Spending time with Bahar and his team did give a real sense of the credibility of their plan. The next five years will make or finally break the company but in this day and age there's no cheap way to bring a marque back to life. Expertise from around the world and within the Lotus Group (remember they have hundreds of engineers working on projects for other manufacturers) has been gathered and given new resources and focus like never before.

I'm excited for them and I really hope that the next few years will see them release products that will genuinely compete with the likes of Porsche and Ferrari. That teenage dream of a contemporary Esprit is still alive...

Many thanks to Bibs at The Lotus Forums for organising our visit.

PHPStorm

noreply@blogger.com (Ted) — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 20:03:00 +0000

A friend pointed me in the direction of this. For anyone coding in PHP on Linux, this has a much more solid feel to it than Eclipse. It's not open-source, but worth the seventy quid they ask IMO.

And to all those people who told me years ago that I should have switched to PHP... you were right.

Beta Blatters

noreply@blogger.com (Ted) — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 10:15:00 +0000

This year I'll be launching blatters.com - a new (online) hangout for those of us who like a hoon or just to ogle at cars.

I'd love it if some real enthusiasts could join me on the journey and help shape my next petroleum inspired project.

The full reveal will probably be during the summer, but I hope to get some rough previews up within the next couple of months.

Please sign up for an invite to the preview versions at www.blatters.com .

Together I hope we can build something really innovative and exciting.

One Small Step

noreply@blogger.com (Ted) — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 11:49:00 +0000

I'm just finishing off the holding page for my new petro-project. It will provide a means of signing up to the preview site, once that's up and running.

That rather lumpy 'n' bumpy, half finished preview version should be online within the next couple of months, possibly even weeks depending how often I have to leave my desk to go play FIFA11 on Wii...

I'll post up the URL later.

Rapide Cheese

noreply@blogger.com (Ted) — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 15:57:00 +0000

Superb. Marketing agencies are flogging the 'social web' to companies everywhere now in the belief that it's the route to cool. Sadly, dipping the company wick in the web without protection can result in a nasty rash.

This week, Aston Martin's Rapide in this hunk of cheddar on YouTube.

They've even created Twitter profiles for the participants - my favourite being "Weapons specialist and keen harpist" Simon Rapide. Perhaps he just likes Guinness...

Beta Blockers

noreply@blogger.com (Ted) — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 09:20:00 +0000

I've read a lot recently about the merits of releasing early and often (here and here). Whilst it's likely to let bigger glitches through, it's a chance to get feedback before spending too much time on the wrong things. It's a process I'm familiar with as PistonHeads was eight years of incremental testing by the members :-)

I went down the opposite route with Tedvertiser - I tested it like I've never tested software before and I released a largely finished product. As a result it was one of the best pieces of software I've written, but it was too soulless.

So, whilst I have grand plans and dozens of ideas for my-next-thing-dot-com, I think this time round I'll start punting up some pretty crude versions as soon as I've got the basics in place. I suspect a journey shared will be more enlightening.

Service Please

noreply@blogger.com (Ted) — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 23:37:00 +0000

Once a year, to the glass palace I am drawn.
In the hope of good service - a hope forlorn.
My annual mechanical is required right now,
And to the main dealer I must kowtow.

I persist with them in defence,
Of the warranty that I was fenced,
It protects against faults and flaws,
Of those complicated 4x4s.

An industrial estate does await,
Full of glass and shine and people called 'mate'.
I hope for interest, fun and joy,
Knowing full well it'll just annoy.
I find the sign proclaiming Land Rover,
Into the car park and then I pull over.

A courtesy car they have left,
But of unleaded fuel, it is bereft.
I purchase a gallon in mild despair,
And notice the tyres are missing large air.

That day drags by as I await promised news,
A process of waiting some more ensues.
Time ticks by and the day draws to a close,
Nobody has told me, how the mechanical stuff goes.

A new dawn arises.
I hope for pleasant surprises.
I call the man who said he'd call me,
to be informed, a text I should see.
No such message did arrive,
So in my Benz I shall drive.
Off to the dealer, to reclaim what is mine,
Hoping for an experience, of which I cannot whine.

With son in tow, in we go,
The nice man peers up and says hello.
All is in order, just give us your cash.
Here are your keys, off you can dash.

Where is my MOT I do request.
What MOT he doth protest?
The one I requested on phone and in here,
There's no MOT and I've a flea in my ear.

We waited an hour in KFC,
Enjoying customer service as it should be.
Upon my return I found my car,
Bonnet popped up, a little ajar.
Why is that, my good man?
I don't know sir, I'll give it a slam.

Into the dusk we did travel,
Me muttering and cursing and starting to unravel.
Another dealer crossed off my list,
Simple tasks failed and items missed.
Please Mr Dealer, how hard can it be
to service my car and give service to me?

Rackspace Cloud

noreply@blogger.com (Ted) — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 08:08:00 +0000

The last few weeks been largely about moving my hosting to the Rackspace cloud. I needed a cost effective home for the few low traffic sites I've got and wanted to get a handle on how cloud solutions might provide that.

I looked at Amazon's Elastic Computing stuff but it seemed so clunky to set up an instance - lots of scripts to run and general jiggery-pokery.

In contrast the Rackspace servers are set up via a very neat admin console from which you select the type of virtual machine you'd like (memory, disk etc, O/S etc). The machine is created and is yours to log on to within about ten seconds. It looks, smells and tastes like a full on server that you can log into remotely via SSH etc.

Rackspace have just launched the same service in the UK (it's been USA only until now) in beta. I'll be trying that local offering too.

Oh NoSQL

noreply@blogger.com (Ted) — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 16:51:00 +0000

A chance conversation with an old friend got me looking at 'NoSQL' databases again recently.

I've been so immersed in MySQL for the last few years that I've neglected to look at the alternatives. I've been experimenting with MongoDB recently and have liked what I've seen. It's dead easy to set up and get started and looks really promising.

It's certainly simpler to set up than MySQL but is obviously nowhere near as mature. There does seem to be a growing interest in it though with some big names using it. Another turning point maybe...

Lovely Logos

noreply@blogger.com (Ted) — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 07:57:00 +0000

I do find logos fascinating. The skill of creating iconic, yet beautifully simple images that also tell you something about a brand is something I greatly admire.

There are few really great logos. Deconstructing or analysing the thousands out there reveal many to be severely lacking. Doing the same with many well known logos also reveals anomolies - many of the great logos give no clue whatsoever as to what they represent, but the power of the brand has overcome the logo's need to explain itself.

What brings me to divulge my passion for such imagery? This week MySpace unveiled their new logo. No doubt a team of 'creatives' were responsible and the cost was probably on a par with a tidy one owner 430 Scuderia. Draw your own conclusions about how iconic it will become...

Easy Fella

noreply@blogger.com (Ted) — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 08:19:00 +0000

Tedvertiser was treated to better Facebook integration last week. The sign up mechanism on Tedvertiser is well tied down to police the use of free email addresses (to eliminate the scammers). Whilst it's effective, there's no doubt it also discourages people from joining - primarily those without easy access to an alternative non-free address.

From today you can now join Tedvertiser using your Facebook account. It allows Tedvertiser to maintain a useful record of where the membership originated (part of our anti-scammer regime) and makes joining as simple as logging into Facebook.

Spiggler now supports Facebook Places

noreply@blogger.com (Ted) — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 08:16:00 +0000

I was hopping between project last week bringing both Spiggler and Tedvertiser up to date with the latest facilities from Facebook.

There's been a bit of a fanfare in the tech press about Facebook 'Places' which is Facebook's response to the geolocation wars being fought out between Foursquare, Gowalla and Twitter. Each of those sites offers the ability to 'check in' to a location or in Twitter's case it's more of a 'tweet from here'.

Now on Facebook you can check in to a location and have it listed in your newsfeed. The advantage of Facebook's solution is that - despite Facebook's dubious reputation on privacy - there's a greater range of privacy options available to you when you do share this information.

Spiggler has been updated to show these check ins from your friends on a map. I'll be watching the development by Facebook to see if we can drag a useful application out of this... iaminthispub.com ... ?